(Being a series of quick game notes trying to account for the events of many sessions of playing through The Enemy Within using the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1e rules.)

Session 49

Power Behind the Throne

• Wilhelm [Wizard] – I 65
• Gottlieb [Assassin] – I 63
• Larry [Mercenary] – I 58
• Othmar [Spy] – I 56
• Brother Nate [Cleric] – I54
• Wilfried [Forger] – I 53

Brunhilde Klaglich is nigh impossible to interrogate as the potion she consumed renders her incredibly drunk and immune to pain and generally any considerations of personal safety.

But in her lair some essential keys to the issues at hand were found. First the young girl smuggled into the city by the beastmen turns out to indeed be Reiner Ehrlich’s niece Reya who puts on quite the show of indignity and a whole series of demands that she be taken to her uncle and the constabulary and the graff and the… a sleep spell from Wilhelm settled things as they prepare to carry her from the lair to Herr Ehrlich’s house.

But also (in addition to a bit of treasure), they found love letters between “The Big Bad Wolf” (who appears to be the Ar-Ulric based on handwriting and… well… tone) and “Em” (almost certainly Emmanuelle Schlagen, the Graff’s paramour and Lady-at-Court.

Rushing Reya back to Reiner Ehrlich, his manner changed immediately. A transformation overtook the nervous and anxious man and suddenly a self-assured law lord took his place. He immediately announced (to everyone’s surprise) that it was Hoflich who both proposed the new taxes and who was blackmailing him with his niece. But Hofflich is a creature of habit, and of course he would be found at the College of Music attending the second night of the “Ring of the Nibble Unger Lied”.

Rushing to the grounds on the last night of the Carnival proved difficult, with various roads packed with people getting ready for the Blackpool Illuminations, one road blocked by performing bears, and all manner of celebratory annoyances. Arriving at the College of Music just before the opera let out, they discovered by shaking down other coach drivers that Hoflich had boarded his coach a few minutes before their arrival and was heading to the palace.

Turning around and heading back towards the palace (which they had skirted on their way to the College of Music), the group managed to get to the palace about 20 minutes after Hoflich. With Ehrlich & Larry’s authority they quickly entered the Inner Palace grounds where a Knight Panther informs them that Joachim Hoflich went to see the Graf just a few minutes previously. Leaving Reya with the duty officer of the Knights Panther, they rush to the Graf’s chambers.

Pulling open the doors they are confronted with Graf-to-Graf combat! Two identical Grafs are locked in combat, with one strangling the other from behind with a length of cord!

Most of the group stood slack-jawed for a round by the surprise of not only seeing the Graf out of bed, but locked in mortal combat with himself. Wilfried jumped in to interpose himself between the Grafs while others rushed in to attempt to subdue either party until Wilhelm’s magics stole the mind of the winning Graf, turning him into a gibbering idiot who was then beaten unconscious and transformed into a bizarre doppelganger!

With the Graf’s life saved, a call went out for all the Graf’s advisors and friends to meet in the Trophy Room / Art Gallery outside his chambers and Knights Panther are sent to search Hoflich’s apartments.

Once the MiddenMarshals are on site and have been satisfied by the stories of the group – they then join the search of Hoflich’s apartmetns. Within his apartments they found the body of Joachim Hoflich, dead for a month or two and left in a waxed sack within a large chest. Also found in the trunk are two pieces of paper written in Hoflich’s hand…

The first appears to be a diagram of the “web of influence” of those who have a say in the Graf’s decisions. The second is the address of Glaglich’s lair.

But a third paper is also found behind the chest, not in Joachim’s handwriting, but Wilfried immediately determines to be Wasmeier’s (the third Law Lord and the one that was supposedly against the tax all along)… It instructs the Hoflich doppelganger to copy the web of influence diagram in its own handwriting and to leave it with Hoflich’s body and to destroy the original afterwards.

And sure enough, in the crowd of those assembled in the wake of the Graf’s near-assassination, Law Lord Karl-Heinz Wasmeier is nowhere to be found.

In Wasmeier’s apartments they find a window open, a small vial that once held magical liquid, and the dusty ashes of what might have been a magical scroll.

Under the Graf’s orders, the group headed straight to Wasmeier’s townhouse to see if he was still there and hadn’t fled the city entirely. As the group and a few Knights Panther surrounded the house, Gottlieb broke in through a second story window. Working his way down through the house and running into (and running through) one of the servants, he was in the process of opening the front door when the side of the carriage-house exploded into the street – releasing a battle wagon lead by four warhorses!

As the battle wagon rolled down the street (over several Knights Panther), Wasmeier caught sight of Othmar in the group and yelled out “So this is your game, is it Lieberung? Base betrayal of your Magister Magistri!?!?” But Othmar jumped upon the wagon shouting that he was trying to escape with Wasmeier and assuring him of his lyoalty to the Purple Hand… and then cutting off Wasmeier’s hand!

Between Larry, Gottlieb, and the mighty ogre mercenary, the cart was soon forced to a halt and the battle was ended.