Chapter XII: Through the Drakwald
The Goblins also dug a pit in front of their position and covered it with brush. As Father Dietrich knelt down next to a corpse, he fell into the pit and was impaled on the sharpened stakes below. The Priest is mortally wounded. The PCs may try to rescue him, but it is too late.
Amongst the carnage the PCs can discover the following: • All the corpses are adults, with nine men and six women. Although bloody and torn, the clothing of two of the men and two of the woman was once of excellent quality. One of the wagons has an emblem painted on it. It looks like a set of scales, with scrollwork underneath that says “Delberz”. A successful Common Knowledge (the Empire) Test reveals that this is a common symbol for Merchant’s Guilds. Delberz is a trading hub to the west, on the River Delb. Most of the travellers died of arrow wounds. Crude, black- fletched arrows stud the corpses. A successful Challenging (–10%) Common Knowledge (the Empire) Test identifies them as Goblin arrows. The Drakwald is said to be home to several tribes of greenskins. A successful Search Test turns up one dented but useable shield and a quiver with 10 crossbow bolts. Otherwise, all the corpses and wagons have been stripped of valuables. a g rIm r emInder When the characters are done searching the ambush site, have them notice the following: • • •
Several wooden stakes pierce through Father Dietrich and blood slowly fills the bottom of the pit. Miraculously, he still lives. He looks up at you at and salutes you with a bloody fist. “I die with a relic of Blessed Sigmar clenched in my hand. For that at least, I can be thankful. But do not leave this holy icon in this wretched place. Take it from here and deliver it to the Temple of Sigmar in Middenheim. Swear to me that you will do this!”
If the PCs agree, he sighs, says, “Praise the Heldenhammer,” and expires. If the PCs don’t agree, he dies begging them to swear the oath. In either case, the relic can be recovered from the pit without too much difficulty. Should the PCs try to otherwise loot the Priest’s body, Granny Moescher intervenes. “Show some respect for the dead!” she shouts. The labourers then fill in the pit, making it into a grave for the slain Priest. T he r elIC Father Dietrich’s relic is a small icon, about four inches square, encased in gold and iron. It is obviously ancient but its true value is not immediately apparent. The relic is a portrait of Sigmar himself, painted by a Dwarf artist right after Heldenhammer’s great victory against the Goblinoid hordes. Father Dietrich found it amongst the ruins of the Temple of Sigmar in Untergard when he first arrived there, and recognized its age and importance. The icon has a cash value of about 100 gc , based on its antiquity and the amount of gold it contains. An art collector, or a devoted follower of Sigmar, would be prepared to pay many times that amount. Should the Temple of Sigmar becomes aware of the icon’s existence, they will stop at nothing to acquire it. f ull C IrCle After finding the ambush site, the PCs may be worried about a Goblin attack. Let them make whatever arrangements they wish. You may even want to play upon their fears, by having them make several Perception Tests or making meaningless die rolls while consulting the adventure. In reality, however, the Goblins moved on and are not near the main road any longer. When the road is clear and the bodies taken care of, the caravan is at last able to move on. By the evening you make it to Immelscheld, another town that was sacked during the Storm of Chaos. Captain Schiller has the caravan make camp outside the ruins and sets guards as usual. Everyone seems relieved the caravan did not meet the fate of the travellers from Delberz. Captain Schiller sends some men into Immelscheld to look for supplies. The PCs have a couple of hours before the climax of the adventure begins, so if there’s anything they want to do amongst the ruins they have a bit of time. Immelscheld is in the same shape as Grimminhagen before it. It’s been sacked and survivors scrabble amongst the ruins.
The main road is well used but the other fork in the crossroads is a narrow track that is wild and overgrown. A raven is perched upon a faded sign that points up the road. Granny Moescher nods at the bird, and then stops dead in her tracks. She reads the sign several times, and begins to speak, as much to herself as anyone else. “Fahndorf… My family came from there.” She looks to the ground and shakes her head. “My father died there.”
If the characters press her for information she will say the following:
“Graf Sternhauer’s soldiers killed him. He was a good man. He was an innocent man. All he did was hide some food from the Bailiff. He didn’t want us to starve in the wintertime. They burned him to make an example for the rest of the village. Damn nobles. As if this life wasn’t hard enough without their boot heels upon our throats.” PCs who put two and two together may realize that this makes Granny over 100 years old! If asked when this all happened and how old she is, Granny is evasive. “I stopped counting years ago,” she says. d IeTrICh ’ s f aTe
As the labourers pull the corpses to the side of the road, Father Dietrich blesses each one. Without warning, you hear the Priest shout out in alarm and then he disappears from view. You heard a loud thump and a cry of pain.
The labourers, it turns out, picked a spot near a large fallen log to lay out the corpses. It was from here that the Goblins launched their attack. A successful Perception Test reveals many small holes in the ground behind the log, made by the arrows the Goblin archers stuck there in preparation for the ambush.
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