Gaming Life: Warhammer World – Session 2 – Investigating the Manor Staff

In our second session of Warhammer World, the heroes have just made it to the safety of the Grunewald Lodge’s walls and as the howling beastmen rage outside, they are ushered into the main building and, after a quick bath, meet with the current master of the house, Lord Aschaffenberg.

A big burly man, he quietly reveals to the heroes that he suspects the staff is up to no good and wants them to pose as hired help and find out what is really going on. He needs solid proof though, as they were all hired by his new wife and he doesn’t want to offend her, nor does he want any sort of public scandal.

After their briefing, they turn in (it’s late and they’re exhausted). While two turn in, the soldier hooks up with one of the servants and the High Elf performer sneaks out. He’s briefly interrogated by the Steward of the house as he reaches the front door, but talks his way out of it and emerges onto the lawn to investigate some strange movement he saw from his window. 

Out there, he is ambushed by a smaller beastman that has slipped into the compound. In the brief struggle, the performer is stabbed badly, but manages to cut down the beastman and by the time the guards are alerted and arrive, the creature is dead.

The night was not over though, as the soldiers had many questions for the performer, out in the darkness alone so late at night and keep him up through most of the night, they sought to find out just what he was up to.

The next day, the group visits the performer in the hospice, where a strangely smelling doctor is tended (badly) to the wounded, with a blind Sigmarite nurse following behind him, fixing the bandages. Other soldiers and servants remain here, victims of a beastman raid a couple weeks ago that almost overran the lodge. Speaking with them, they seem drugged and out of it. The blacksmith is here too, a dwarf who appears raving mad.

The nurse takes a liking to the merchant (a fellow Sigmarite) and proceeds to list off how each of the servants and staff here are lazy, corrupt and heathens, but in particular, the kennel master is dangerous. She also tells him that she found something important and hid it in plain sight, but won’t tell him what it is.

The heroes move out to the lodge grounds and check out the forge, finding an empty Dwarven case for a warhammer, then in the garden, they find a large patch of an herb that can be used to drug people.

Moving on to the guardhouse, they speak with the Captain of the guard and his men. They all seem strangely tired and drugged as well. They’re not terribly friendly and become offended when it’s suggested they aren’t doing their job in protecting the lodge.

Finally, they visit the kennels and find its master there feeding raw meat to a trio of massive hounds. He isn’t very friendly and they soon learn that he is a fervent Ulrician and hates the Sigmarites who have moved into the lodge (the master and the nurse). They have noticed servant Ulrician symbols throughout the lodge’s older paintings and furnishings.

Having seen most of the grounds, they decide to head back into the manor for further talks with the doctor.

This session was heavily investigative, as opposed to the last session which was almost entirely focused on combat. I like that kind of dynamic, where we can focus in for a time. It’s a nice mix.

The props used in running this adventure are many, and special thanks to those who originally created them (though I can’t find their names unfortunately). The clue cards (in pink) provide the major clues that they find through their investigations (so that they can reference them from previous sessions) and the image cards for the NPCs for the staff of the lodge (there’s about 20+ NPCs, so important to differentiate them).