Tales of the Old World 13

<Tales_GM> The year is 2512 on the Imperial Calendar...
<Tales_GM> The rustling of vegetation gets nearer, and faster, your senses snap your attention in the direction of the movement.
<Tales_GM> Before you can register what approaches, the crack of gunpowder rings out; Phillipe holding tight on the reins of his horse as he clears the breach of his pistol with a directed blow of air.
<Tales_GM> "It's me! It's Dietrich! Don't shoot!"
<Tales_GM> As he breaks from the vegetation, the coach driver casts a sharp eye at the Bretonnian, then back at you, and the corpse.
<Afrock> "Short story."
<Afrock> "Bastard tried to stab us."
<Seig> " 'Tried' "
<Far_Foririan> "I got cut."
<Far_Foririan> "And then I put him to sleep."
<Roderick> "I advise against touching him. His affliction could spread to you." Roderick turns back to the others. "A torch here so I can finish my work."
* Shivva_Runna continues robbing the dead.
* Seig sits against the coach washing out his wound before putting a wrapping around it.
<Tales_GM> "The horses... we must find the horses."
* Shivva_Runna dumps what he found into the coach.
* Far_Foririan takes his book and puts it back in his sling bag.
<Tales_GM> Kruger brings an unlit torch to Roderick's side.
* Afrock stores his weapon.
<Seig> "Phillipe! Would you be able to ride after them and see if you can recover them?"
<Tales_GM> "The beasts will be harnessed, monsieur. I alone will be unable to bring them back, even if I find them."
<Tales_GM> Again, the beastly howls pick up from the forest cover ahead.
* Roderick accepts the unlit torch and uses his tinderbox to light it, once prepared his touches and holds the torch to a portion of the mutant's clothing and waits for it to catch fire.
<Tales_GM> Kruger mouths a prayer for the distorted man now cleansed in flame.
<Roderick> Once satisfied it will continue to burn Roderick turns to the others. "We either go as a whole group or several smaller, no one should be alone in the forest in the event that those sounds are more than beasts."
<Tales_GM> "Then we move together," Phillipe nods, loading his pistol with another shot.
<Afrock> "Aye."
<Far_Foririan> "Agreed."
<Tales_GM> "We must take care not to lose sight of young Seig," Dietrich says, clearly worried.
* Roderick nods in agreement and draws his pistol, loading with a shot.
<Tales_GM> The Bretonnian's horse walks past you, in front of the coach, stopping just short of the dead coachman on the road.
<Roderick> "Dietrich, stay with Seig and the carriage. In the even that whatever it is is flushed out and towards the coach, we don't want Seig to face whatever it is alone."
<Seig> "Somebody needs to look after the coach and I wouldn't mind resting this wound."
<Tales_GM> "We will do so," Dietrich nods. "Come, let me help you in."
<Seig> "Its not debilitating I just don't want to risk tearing it, make sure not to make your injuries worse too."
* Seig slowly climbs onto the coach were he can more clearly see the surroundings.
<Tales_GM> Suddenly, Phillipe turns his horse around, and walks it back to the coach, dismounting.
<Tales_GM> "I'm certain I heard something through the woods. With this beast we are sure to be discovered," he says securing the horse's tack to the side of the coach.
* Far_Foririan goes to the coach and takes his staff.
<Tales_GM> "Sigmar protect us." Kruger says, ready to enter the dangerous wood-line.
<Roderick> "Agreed Phillipe." Roderick looks at the others. "Let's go."
* Seig climbs down from the coach and wedges stones under the wheels before returning to his perch.
<Tales_GM> You walk carefully down the turn of the road, past the dead coachman, and enter the woods.
<Tales_GM> As you sneak your way through the thick, overgrown vegetation, you come upon a ghastly scene. An overturned coach lies across an opening having been run off the road. Bodies litter the ground around it, limp and twisted. Two of its horses are desperately trying to struggle free of their harnesses as a creature with a large body and an incredibly small head hacks maniacally at them with
<Tales_GM> an axe.
<Tales_GM> A human with a doglike head is lying screaming next to the coach. Blood pumps from its wounded leg while another abomination with a pointed head tries to bandage it. A fourth mutant, with cloven feet, is feasting on one of the bodies.
<Tales_GM> Searching through the various corpses is a human with scaly skin holding a loaded crossbow.
* Roderick turns  his head slightly and nods to the others, pointing to the abominations.
* Far_Foririan readies his staff.
* Afrock draws his axe.
* Shivva_Runna has his crowbar ready.
* Far_Foririan charges into the human like creature with the loaded crossbow hitting it with is staff in the body.
<Roderick> Kruger begins to cite scripture as he charges the injured mutant and brutally caves in the dog-thing's skull with an overhead smash that bows the flexible staff.
* Shivva_Runna charges in and swings into the Goat Mutant. His crowbar digging into the chest of the creature, knocking it out and causing it to bleed.
* Afrock charges at the lizard mutant, but misses his swing.
<Seig> Phillipe runs up along side the priest and executes the mutant standing near him.
* Roderick moves up and fires his pistol at a mutant, missing and almost hitting Afrock with the lead round.
* Far_Foririan releases his left hand from his staff as he begins to chant his sleep spell, then he hits the creature in the chest causing him to be hit by his sleep spell and then it begins to fall to the ground in a sleepy daze.
<Roderick> In similar fashion Kruger beats the helpless mutant to death in Sigmar's name.
<Tales_GM> The mutant flat on his back, howls a soul-wrenching breath at Far'Foririan with terrifying effect.
* Shivva_Runna charges the other mutant ganged up on by the party members and smashes the creature's knee cap, killing it.
* Afrock runs towards the nearest enemy.
<Seig> Phillipe circling around the cart cleanly takes off the final mutants leg.
* Afrock calms down from his frenzy.
<Afrock> "Well that was quick."
* Roderick holsters his flintlock and offers a quick prayer to Sigmar, thanking him for his protection.
* Far_Foririan begins to step back from the one creature, his nerves getting to him after it howled at him.
<Tales_GM> The corpses littered around the overturned coach are its other coachman, a pair of artisans, an initiate of Sigmar, and a laborer. The coachman still wears his sleeved mail shirt, and his blunderbuss and shot lie next to his body.
<Tales_GM> As you search the corpses you find that they have already been looted. The reptilian-skinned mutant, however, appears to have the share of that loot.
<Roderick> "Spread out and search the site for things usable, afterwards we'll pile the mutants and burn them and then bury the victims. We must move quickly however, we still need to find our horses."
* Far_Foririan gets to looking around and searching, staying away from the scaly creature.
<Tales_GM> "Poor bastards," you hear Phillipe say a few paces out. You notice him kneeling over yet another corpse under a bush. The corpse has two crossbow bolts stuck in its back and wears clothes that identify it as a town dweller, possibly an artisan.
<Tales_GM> "Mon dieu!" he exclaims, turning the body over, then darting his gaze back at the group.
<Afrock> "What's wrong umgie?"
* Far_Foririan looks over to where Phillipe is.
<Tales_GM> "I don't believe it..." he says looking back at the corpse, then up again. At Shivva.
* Afrock also walks over toward Phillipe.
<Shivva_Runna> "We found them like this."
<Roderick> "What did you find Phillipe?"
<Tales_GM> "Come, messieurs... you must see this for yourselves."
* Roderick walks over to where Phillipe stands.
* Afrock looks at the corpse Phillipe is pointing out.
<Tales_GM> As you approach the corpse, you're in for a shock. The dead man looks exactly like Shivva, an eerie doppelganger.
<Afrock> "What?!?!"
<Far_Foririan> "Well this is.... Interesting."
<Tales_GM> A blood-stained piece of parchment is protruding from the corpse's jacket.
<Afrock> "You know anything about this Shivva?"
* Roderick bends down and retrieves the parchment.
<Shivva_Runna> "Me? No. This is a little spooky."
<Afrock> "I agree with that."
<Shivva_Runna> "I don't remember having a brother either."
* Far_Foririan looks over Rodericks shoulder and reads the note.
* Roderick scans the document and raises his eyebrows, glancing at the elf.
* Far_Foririan then looks at Shivva and then at the note, and then at the body.
<Roderick> "Why would a man wearing Shivva's face be carrying this I wonder."
<Afrock> "Well he's probably got some good stuff on him if you wanna loot him."
<Roderick> "Shivva, what was your mother's name?"
<Shivva_Runna> "Emma di Runnavia"
<Tales_GM> In an inside pocket is another, untainted letter.
* Roderick shakes his head and explains the contents of the note. "We will pile the doppleganger with the mutants. Clearly something foul is at work."
* Roderick reads the other letter after the first.
<Roderick> "This could be the answer to you debt Shivva."
<Roderick> "We can decide once we are on the road, we continue as planned."
<Shivva_Runna> "Probably... Let's take his clothes just in case."
* Roderick tucks both letters into his pouch.
<Roderick> "Just make quick and the rest of us can pile the bodies."
* Shivva_Runna takes the doppleganger's clothes and drags the body into the pile.
<Seig> Back at the coach Seig spots a posse of riders coming down the road and points them out to Dietrich.
<Tales_GM> "Our salvation... or an imminent escalation," he says, eyes fixed through the coach window.
<Seig> "Hell they might mostly ignore us and keep going all we can do is wait and see."
<Roderick> Once the bodies are piled the mutants are burned and the others are laid in a shared grave.
<Tales_GM> Suddenly, these riders cut across the vegetation, and out of Seig's view.
<Roderick> While others assist in digging the grave Roderick will inspect the horses.
<Seig> "Huh they turned off sharpish you have any idea if theres anything near here?"
<Tales_GM> The vegetation to your East is disturbed yet again. Heavy rustling, branches breaking. Something is clearly nearing your position with a purpose.
* Far_Foririan looking around to see what is making the noise but is unable to see anything
<Roderick> "Be on guard, something approaches."
<Tales_GM> Breaking into the scene of the ambush, an armored rider pushes forward. Shortly thereafter he is joined by a second, then a third. Before you know it, two more have appeared. As soon as they catch sight of you, they gallop directly towards you.