(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 71

Something Rotten in Kislev

• Larry [Mercenary Captain] – I 68
• Othmar [Assassin] – I 66
• Nate [Templar] – I 64
• Gottlieb [Templar] – I 63
• Wilfried [Templar] – I 63
• Scargetter [Assassin] – I 60

Sulring Durgul greets the group while the dragon (who seems to respond to Creetox) demands to be allowed to roast them to a crisp and/or eat them (in no particular order it seems).

Sitting down for tea, Sulring keeps her cool (and keeps the dragon from burning or eating anyone) while commenting on the damage to her office in a slightly chiding tone.

Together the Knights Panther and Sulring hash out their differences. Over the millennia, Sulring has played a hand in the decline and fall of the Elves of Old, and has only recently found much interest in the younger race of men – while they lack the culture and sophistication of the High Elves, they present a certain energy and arrogance that Durgul finds appealing.

Durgul’s interplay with the Ancient Allies is an alliance of necessity – only the fell powers seem to have any control over the taint of chaos that affects so many who work in dark magics. Sulring has been shifting bodies using the Lustrian totem every time his current body started to show the taint of chaos – but the taint seems to carry over in its way and each body succumbs to mutation more quickly than the last.

Thus the agreement to work with Zuvassin the Undoer – a chaos god dedicated to undoing the work of the other fell powers. The deal required coming to Bolgasgrad and assisting the cult of the Ancient Allies and teaching them the magics required to raise and maintain an army of the dead to keep the forces of Chaos at bay. While here their primary personal work has been working with Radici researching a true cure to taint and mutation while also fiddling around with improving the Undeath Plague to make it more controllable and perhaps even a form of immortality that is easily and cheaply available.

And now with both Radici and the Totem destroyed, Durgul is pretty much stuck here working with Zuvassin as his last hope to eliminate the taint of chaos from both himself and Creetox. Which, he explains, pretty much ties him to only being able to work with options that allow for the continued dominance (or at least acceptance) of the cult of the Ancient Allies in Bolgasgrad.

And that’s the sticking point. No matter what options the Knights Panther present, they can’t come to a compromise that works.

The closest they come is an offer to join the cult of the Ancient Allies and with the death of most of the Chokin family and the heads of the cult, re-open the city to other cults and the Tsar. This keeps the city defended against the forces of Chaos and also keeps Sulring in compliance with his contract with Zuvassin and Necoho. But the Death Oath required to join the cult is a major problem for most of the party, and more importantly Nathander is unwilling to swear allegiance to any more gods, let alone renegade chaos gods.

Sulring offers chiding advice that of all people Nathander should understand that what the gods want and what the people who serve them is rarely actually in alignment… and that it is easy to “interpret” their wishes as best suits you.

And finally, it devolved into a test of arms, lead by Larry. As the fight begins, Creetox opens his mouth to incinerate as many of these intruders as he could, but Wilfried finally gets to wield the family heirloom of the von Enum family for its true purpose – to slay dragons. And did it ever. In a pair of mighty blows, the dragonslaying blade decapitated the surprised midget chaos dragon.

As Creetox fell to the blade, Sulring immediately teleported out of the fight, taking Larry with him into a pitch dark space. With finely honed skill from years of fighting, Larry managed to force his way out of the tomb/jail cell before Sulring could lock the door behind him and they continued to fight in the hall in front of the cells.
Seeing and hearing the fighting in the distance, the rest of the group rushed to intervene again. Gottlieb firing and discarding his crossbows as they approach the battle. Sulring seems to be surrounded by a magical shield that blocks most blows, but practically explodes in a shower of fire and sparks when damaged. As the Knights Panther rejoin the fight Sulring once again reaches out and this time teleports away with Wilfried in an explosion of fire.

Not knowing where he teleported this time, the party found itself broken up into several directions, hunting for this ancient necromancer and their missing companion. In the confusion and disarray, Nathander climbs up to the upper level again and heads to the garden with arson on his mind.

Meanwhile, in the marshes along the banks of the South Lynsk, Sulring lifts Wilfried into the air with fiery hot fingers burning through his jaw, throat, and blood. Tossing Wilfried’s body aside, Durgul prepares another spell and then teleports back to the fight where fighting continues for another few rounds before his shields begin to deplete and he teleports away again – this time unable to grab Larry and take him to whatever dark place…

In Radici’s garden above, Nathander lights everything on fire except for the few plants are are impervious to said which he starts by crushing and mangling with his crow staff. With his knowledge of plants and their lore, he manages to avoid inhaling many of the worst of the burning plants and only finds himself slightly intoxicated by the foul black smoke rising from the garden beds.

Which seems to be enough to summon Durgul as his last samples of both the plant that causes the Undeath Plague and his most precious potential cure for chaos mutations burn under the angry eyes of Morr.

A blast of fire announces his arrival and he reaches out and grabs Nathander by the face and begins to burn through his armour – but Nathander proves once again that the touch of death is his and his alone as he drops the staff and strikes back with his bare hands – each blow dealing massive damage ignoring Sulring’s toughness and magical shield and reducing the foul necromancer to dust thousands of years after he should have been there naturally.