TOPIC: Warlock! The Enemy Within

WARLOCK! The Enemy Within

Discussion thread for campaign starting Thursday 04/01/2024.

Players signed up: Tom, Ted, Ellie, Rhodsey (one space open for fifth player).

Warlock! is a streamlined reinterpretation of the Warhammer Fantasy rules. Your skills will be determined by a randomly generated career path (roll 4 careers, pick the one you like best), and you will generally be rolling d20 + skill to determine success (20+). Your career also determines which skills you can improve via character progression.

You will most likely be a human, but there are optional career paths for dwarves, elves and halflings, if that tickles your pickle.

Combat is perilous and critical hits can kill you outright if you are low on stamina. Anything short of a (non fatal) critical hit will heal quickly, but recovering from more grievous injuries will take time. Magic is available to very few careers, and gaining a new spell is a big deal. Using magic recklessly risks spells being miscast, which can have permanent consequences.

A digital version of the rules can be perused on SCRIBD if you search for Warlock! Traitor's Edition (v1.1), or you can pick up your own PDF copy on Drivethru for approx £10, but TBH you probably dont need to - the rules are pretty breezy.

Looking forward to kicking this off in the New Year!

Commenting so I see the replies. Should be interesting. Obv will let the randomness figure character out which is of course the best way.

just a heads up will definitely be there week 1 but there's a chance I might not be around weeks 2 and/or 3 because of work. Not confirmed yet.

No worries, thanks for the advance notice!

Rules Overview!

Most skill tests require you to roll 1d20+skill level. You need to meet/beat target number 20 to succeed.

Stamina = 2d6+12. Stamina is your HP. Once stamina is depleted, you are at the mercy of the Critical Hit table. You do not want me rolling on the Critical Hit table.

Luck = 1d6+7. You can roll 1d20+luck to mitigate some damage/consequences. Whenever you roll Luck, regardless of the outcome, your Luck value is permanently reduced by 1 point.

Pluck = 20-luck. This is an optional rule from Compendium 2 I will be using. You roll 1d20+pluck to resist fear, terror and madness.

Melee combat is an opposed skill roll (ie: small blade, large blade, etc...). Whoever initiated the attack gets +5 to their roll. Whoever rolls highest deals damage, so you can take damage during an attack you initiated if you roll poorly.

Ranged attack is an opposed skill roll (weapon skill vs dodge).

If you roll 3x times higher than your opponent, you land a Mighty Strike that does double damage.

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 1, 04/01/2024

The PCs;
Adeline, halfling gong farmer (Ellie)
Calvin, human entertainer (Joe)
Fritz, human gambler (Ted)
Gustaf, human bounty hunter (Steve)
Stammig, dwarf inventor (Tom)

The PCs are travelling to the town of Biskerstaf when their coach breaks a wheel, forcing the passengers to continue afoot. Hours pass and dusk settles over the forest. It is unwise to be out after dark, as hungry wolves are the least dangerous denizens that might be watching from the treeline. Finally, the weary travellers spy the welcoming light of a coaching inn ahead.

The common room is occupied by the passengers of a second coach, also bound for Biskerstaf. The coachmen are deep in their cups, but lucid enough to convey the Lady Isolde has paid good silver for privacy. There may be room to ride on the roof of the coach, but anyone who wants a seat inside will have to persuade Her Ladyship to relent.

Calvin relishes the challenge and sets to schmoozing the impressionable young noblewoman with his lusty fiddling. Lady Isolde is transfixed, but her bodyguard Marie gives Calvin the stink-eye. During the performance, Fritz breaks into the noblewoman's room and steals some jewellery from her luggage. To avoid notice, he jumps from a second story window and hides in the stable. When the theft is discovered, Lady Isolde accuses her maid Janna of having sticky fingers.

Gustaf spends his evening brooding in a dark corner of the inn. Stammig matches the coachmen pint for pint, until they both pass out. Adeline earns some walking-around money by mucking out the stables.

The night passes uneventfully. It is approaching noon before the hungover coachmen are ready to depart. Calvin rides with Lady Isolde and her retinue. The rest of the PCs climb onto the roof with the luggage, except for Adeline who clings to the underside of the coach to avoid paying her fare.

After several hours on the road, the skies darken and it begins to rain heavily. The coachmen speed up, hoping to outrun the storm. The road ahead is blocked by an overturned coach, and several hooded figures pick over the wreckage. Vile mutants! The driver loses control and crashes the coach into the flooded ditch. The coach flips over, spilling dazed passengers (and Her Ladyship's luggage) across the muddy road. The horses break loose of their halters and flee into the forest.

Gustaf takes cover behind the overturned coach and takes potshots with his crossbow. Calvin and Marie spill out of the coach to fend off the marauders. Adeline and Fritz take cover in the flooded ditch as the battle rages around them. Stammig runs into the trees to confront a mutant with a grotesquely swollen head. After three mutants are slain, the rest retreat into the underbrush.

TBC

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 2, 11/01/2024 (part 1)

(No Tom this week, hence Stammig's absence from the write-up.)

Rain continues to fall over the Forest of Helmsby. In the aftermath of the muddy scuffle with the mutant highwaymen, the PCs begin looting the dead. Fritz claims a blunderbuss from the driver's bench of the overturned carriage. Gustaf looks inside and is surprised to find a corpse bearing an uncanny resemblance to Calvin! Were it not for the dead man's scraggly beard, the two could be twins! Gustaf searches the doppleganger and finds a bundle of documents identifying the dead man as Kastor Lieberung, the sole beneficiary of a large inheritance awaiting him in Biskerstaf! Too bad he's too dead to claim it. But wait....

Gustaf calls Calvin conspire to steal the dead man's identity and estate. Unbeknownst to the conspirators, Fritz overhears everything, but holds his tongue, for now. Adeline hears nothing, save for the thunder of approaching horses. Hurriedly, Calvin snatches the blunderbuss from Fritz, points it at the dead man's head and pulls the trigger. Blood, brains and skull fragments plaster the inside of the carriage, rendering the corpse unidentifiable.

Moment's later, a patrol of mounted Road Wardens gallop into view. They had been tracking a gang of murderous mutants, and now find their work done for them. The Road Wardens secure the crash site and take statements from the survivors. Lady Isolde's version of events paints the PCs in a heroic light, particularly Calvin who (in her mind at least) fought off the mutants single-handedly. Marie glowers at the scrawny minstrel. Happy to be done with their hunt, the Road Wardens offer to escort Her Ladyship and her retinue (including the PCs) the rest of the way to Biskerstaf.

Two days later, the PCs reach Biskerstaf, arriving on the first day of the Festival of Harvest Thanks. The streets are thronged with revellers and visitors from across the Kingdom. Lady Isolde takes her leave. She is staying with her uncle Friedrich Magirius, and encourages Calvin to visit her before he leaves town. She is certain her uncle will want to reward the man who selflessly hurled himself into danger to protect her from harm. As Marie looks away, Lady Isolde leans in to give Calvin a quick peck on the cheek.

The PCs find lodgings and freshen up after their long journey. Adeline and Fritz go shopping, while Calvin and Gustaf make a beeline for the offices of Lock, Stock & Barrel, solicitors to the late Kastor Lieberung.