(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 73

Something Rotten in Kislev

• Larry [Templar] – I 68
• Nate [Cleric 3] – I 64
• Gottlieb [Templar] – I 63
• Wilfried [Templar] – I 63
• Scargetter [Assassin] – I 60

With the return of Larry’s mercenaries (well, most of them, and one has a peg leg now) and Golthog, it is time to head back to Bolgasgrad in a brutal and punishing campaign to reconquer the rebel city in mid-winter.

The march alone is expected to cost at least 10% of the forces being sent – but it is important to strike while the defenses of Bolgasgrad are down and before they have a chance to find new allies or create more undead to defend the city and replace their lost garrisons.

The march is indeed brutal – the cold winds and dry snow sweeping away all landmarks and making even the roads difficult to find for the military force. A massive blizzard early in the march almost turns them back, but they bivouac in the snow and hit their 10% loss in the two days they are forced to wait out the storm.

And then the screaming began. A small force of beastmen running straight at them and then looking terrified when they spot the army in the snow, breaking off in all directions except for a few truly terrified ones who just keep trying to run straight through the Kislevite forces.

But it is what is pursuing them that brings the army to a stop. Another force is in pursuit – a number of orcs are in the lead, but among them are many ice trolls and three massive chaos giants – one a full 17 feet tall with the head of a great raven.

Using a vial of the dragon’s blood collected from Creetox, Nathander summons up a zone of steadfastness – rendering all those within 12 yards of him immune to the fear caused by such a massive chaos beast running amok and also granting them three times their normal number of attacks as well as magical defenses against damage.

As the two smaller giants work their way through the Kislevites, our heroes engage the largest along with six ice trolls. They quickly see that in addition to healing at an impressive rate, any devastating attack to the trolls’ abdomens results in an explosive blast of troll stomach ichor which not only damages weapons, but even felled a Knight of the White Wolf who killed the troll and wasn’t far enough away to avoid the acidic goo.

As most of the group takes care of the trolls (leaving the orcs to the footsoldiers), Larry quickly discovers that a 17 foot tall giant is tough enough that even his great strength wielding the dwarven sword Barakul can barely be noticed by this monster. As beastmen and soldiers are swept away by the massive swinging of the great clubs of the three giants, the party finds itself unable to take down the mighty giant until Nathander allows the zone of steadfastness to drop and steps up to fight the giant with the power of Morr – again his Hands of Dust prove incredibly effective against monsters with high toughness and armour.

Combined with the damage done by the rest of the group, as the giant slams his great beak down to eviscerate Nathander, he finds himself consumed by the god of the dead, reduced to dust like a bad dream. With that victory, the tide of battle is firmly shifted in favor of the Kislevite forces

Like a bad omen, the trail of the giants and their kin leads back towards Bolgasgrad. And they find the city completely sacked. The walls are breached, every building burned to the stones, and the undead defenders reduced down to skeletal remains. The trail of the army that did this leads north towards Praag. Fearing the loss of the cursed city again to the forces of chaos, the party heads north while the Tsar’s forces retreat back to the capital.

Foortunately, the chaos army’s tracks cross the Lynsk not far north of Bolgasgrad (near the ruined garrison of Zvelky). Praag has not seen any major musterings of chaos forces. As soon as the weather breaks, they return to the capital.

While waiting for their next assignment (or the final arrival of spring so they can travel back to the Empire), Larry convinces Bogdanov to bring in healers and doctors to attempt to chemically reverse his rampant egotism. Unfortunately their treatments achieve nothing – fortunately this also means there are no negative side effects either. Several doctors press that he consider trepanation as a sure-fire cure, but Larry has no interest in a new hole in his head.