TEWR Ep 43 - A Tale of Temples, Tombs and Tunnels.

Inside Gilmerton Cove. ( CC BY SA 2.0 )

The Enemy Within Revisited Cast:

Gustav Myrthenbaum the Bounty Hunter (Davy White)
Falco the Apothecary (Michael Morgan)
Hargrin the Troll Slayer (Kevin Bronakoski)
Bran the Amber Wizard (David Crapper)
Rutger Horstmann the Zealot (Chris Taylor)

Journal Entry of Rutger Horstmann - Sommerzeit <17, 2512>

The long-abandoned Sigmarite temple in Wittgendorf was in dire need of attention, the priest having long since slipped from this mortal coil.  We spent several minutes looking about, studying the carved statue of Our Lord Sigmar, reading the story of the temple itself on the carvings on the wall, or carefully studying a book lying open on the altar.  Hargrin and I looked over the finely cast statue with Bran looked over the book.  It contained the Legend of our Lord Sigmar Heldenhammer, which Bran read part of.  As he passed the book around to the others to read (I being well-versed in the Legend, having learned it as a child and reinforced in my brief time in the temple), a piece of parchment was left behind, which Bran read, being fluent in the arcane language in which it was read.  

Bran read aloud the writing, which was a prayer or psalm of Sigmar, one of which I was unfamiliar with.  Suddenly two lanterns that had been lit near the statute flared brightly, and the statute spoke to us!  It stated that the hour was fast approaching, and if we were ready.  We answered in the affirmative (some more so than others), and with that the statute told us that he would give us a sign, and that we should go forth and find the source of chaos that warped his lands.  The power of Sigmar flowed through us, wiping away the exhaustion of the previous days, and I knew that nothing could sway us from our mission given to us by the statue.

Hargrin found a secret switch on the statue, and the dais in which we were standing upon began to slowly descend into the earth below us.  Instead of darkness, we found more lamps, their dim light showing us that we had found a crypt.  Sarcophagi lined the walls, crypts to long-gone priests of Sigmar.  Gnawed bones were strewn about the crypt, and most of the sarcophagi were opened, their contents looted, save one.  The crypt of Sigried von Kesselrink, an honored Templar of Sigmar.  The plaque upon which those words were seemed to glow, but before we could further investigate, we noted a tunnel in which more gnawed bones.  We crawled through the short, narrow, roughly hewn tunnel for a short while when Bran saw figures crawling toward us!  It saw us and scrabbled back, fleeing into the darkness from the light the Amber Wizard created.

We set off in pursuit of the figures, Falco’s small-but-vicious dog Little Gustav running ahead, used to the small, tight quarters.  Bran spoke talk to the figures, who spoke the common tongue and crowed about us not getting any of their food.  It was, at this time that it became apparent that these were villagers.  As we pushed forward, they quickly outpaced us, being much more familiar with the tunnels in which we were crawling through.  Little Gustav was able to get a piece of one of the tomb robbers, as I believed they were, before they fled the tunnels.  Upon further inspection, the tunnel opened up into stairs and a door, with more bones littering the small stone mausoleum that we found ourselves in.  Climbing the stairs, we exited into the light to find ourselves in Morr’s Garden, near the temple proper.  Of the villagers..or tomb robbers, there were no further signs of. Looking over the Garden, I noted that most of the graves had been sacked and were open to the sky.  

We re-entered the mausoleum and travelled back toward the tunnel. We were soon joined by Gustav and Hargrin who happened to take a wrong turn in the tunnels, and had exited the tunnels near to the Shooting Star Inn, much to near to the privy, judging by the smell.  After a brief discussion in the tunnel, we relocated to the Temple’s crypt once more, leaving the tunnels to travel overland back to where we had started our journey into the tunnels.

There was talk amongst Bran and Gustav about the culprit behind the robbing of the graves to perhaps be a necromancer, and Gustav told us of Sigried von Kesselrink, and the heroic tales of von Kesselrink wielding his Dwarven blade to great effect.  Bran stated that he saw the winds of magic about the sarcophagi, and that something within was glowing with magic.  Lending a hand with a vow to return whatever item of power after we have cleared the land of the chaos that plagued it, we opened the sarcophagi and saw the skeleton of a man in a rusted breastplate with a shining longsword upon his breast, lying within the confines of a gem-encrusted leather scabbard.  Hargrin translated the runes upon the blade as “Hope of the Mountains”, and reminded us that Dwarves didn’t give out runed weapons, especially to humans, very often.

It was then that I reached forth my hand, taking the blade so that we could rid the lands of the darkness that plagued it.  In order to protect the remains of the Templar, Bran collapsed the tunnel and we climbed a stairwell into the Temple once more.  Using the key we found in the main Temple, we unlocked the Temple library, which miraculously had been unspoiled by the ravages of time, weather, and hands of man.  Gustav found a historical manuscript describing Wittgendorf and its downfall, the lands turning barren, the peasants beginning to starve, and the terrible storm that raged over Castle Wittgenstein, and the black rain that fell, spelling the lingering end for the dorf.

by Rutger (aka Chris Taylor)