When the rest of the group is distracted, Pauladean has a crisis of conscious, and looks over the weapons left by the slain group, wondering if any of them are better than her simple mortuary sword...

Scrutinize (40%) = 35

(Playing catch up!)

Resolve (for stress) 40 + 10%: 51

Wren's brows furrow at the horrific scene before them, getting a general look around the area, trying to see if any of his books smarts could help him figure out just what went down here...

Warfare test (since I don't think anyone's passed it yet?) 50: 2

Stress: 2

Wren, you notice that Maximilians Vorberg convoy that was carrying is bride token for Franz was attacked from both side of the road and the attacks avoided a melee. Pauladean, there is nothing among the corpses that would improve your weaponry - not to mention, since these are Maximilian's men, it might be considered rude to loot the bodies right in front of him.

VORBERG

The first sight of Vorberg is striking. Rounding the top of a wooded hill, you look down on a village nestled amongst fields and surrounded by a timber palisade. Behind it, the local mountain, the "Horned Monk", is a particularly large hill. After sighting the village, the caravan quickly comes out of the woods and starts crossing the fields. Strangely, you notice that the fields are empty. It's harvest season and lowborns should be working as long as possible - it's only dusk - by now they should be packing up and leaving - but the fields are clear. How odd.

You arrive at the gates and a watchman asks to identify yourselves, and when Andre does so, the watchmen explain "Thank the God-Emperor! Maximilian made it though!" The gates quickly open to let everyone into the village. It is shut very quickly behind you all. The coach is quickly surrounded by scared villagers.

WE HAVE A PROBLEM

Horst Angeberin, the village innkeeper, quickly approaches you all. "My lord, we..have a problem." he says to Maximilian, nervously. "As you requested, the bride token shipment left in the morning...two days earlier under the command of Heinrich and his son, Dieter. For a whole day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary once it left. THIS morning, however, when the lowborn when out to the fields to work..well..they discovered the mutilated bodies of Heinrich and Dieter..tied up in the fields where the scarecrows normally stand. No one saw anything, my Lord."

Maximilian takes a quiet moment to absorb this news. "Where is my son?"

"Here, Father." he says, approaching the crowd. Maximilian turns to you all, introducing him. "This is my son, Waldmann." Waldmann is a handsome man of about twenty six. Handsome is putting it nicely. He is more pretty than handsome, if you know what I mean. 

"Come." Maximilian says, "Horst. Show us the bodies."

You walk over to the fields and see the two corpses tied up against scarecrows. Dieter was only ten years old. They are both riddled with the same arrows you saw earlier this day at the other caravan site.

Everyone make a (Standard -/+0%) Resolve Test. Remember your Peril penalties, if any. The scene and the bodies are quite gruesome. If you critically succeed, you gain a Fortune Point for the pool. On a failure, you suffer 2d10+2 Peril and 6 Corruption. If you Critically Fail, you suffer the same and are Incapacitated!

Pauladean's Resolve Test (44%): 50

Peril: 13

Resolve (52): 43

Dara merely grunts at the sight of the bodies.

Resolve (40): 42

Wrinm grits his teeth and forces himself to study the scene.

With a heavy heart, you all help Andre and Waldmann take the bodies down from the scarecrows' roosts. Nighttime has now approached, and Maximilian talks to Mrs. Treumann about the terrible news that her husband and son are dead.

THE COWARDLY ORX

Horst and Maximilian eventually come up to you all and Horst offers you room at his Inn, the Cowardly Orx (Orc in this game is spelled "Orx".) for free - on Maximilian's tab. Drink and a hot meal will be made available once you settle in, also free. In the morn, Maximilian wants to make plans for an investigation.

You are free to roam the village, hang out in the pub at the Inn, or do anything else you'd like to do. 

The lowborn of the village tonight are constantly talking and muttering about the attack, which has put everyone on edge. Mutants are a serious deal. Vorberg is a fairly ordinary village inside the palisade, but it has four significant buildings alongside the usual cottages, workshops, gardens, and a well. 

THE COWARDLY ORX: The Inn is home to Horst, his wife Liselotte, and their employee Klaus. It has rooms and a pub downstairs.

SHRINE OF THE GOD-EMPEROR: The shrine to the God-Emperor is where Heinrich's widow, Enid, and the Pastor, Wilhelm, are currently pray and seeking solace.

THE STEIGER HOUSE: This is where Maximilian lives with Helena and Bibi.

LABORERS' QUARTERS: All lowborn laborers keep to the Laborers' Quarters, a more run down area of the village. 

Werston heads to the inn for a nap and a little pampering. He's had a hard day. After an hour and a half for a nap, he moves to the common room to nurse a warm cup of mulled wine and and sleepily waits for a meal.

Dara performs her ritual flagellation (having abstained on the journey so not to horrify her fellow travelers) in her room, and then heads down for an ale that she nurses at a table alone.

Resolve: 66

Being piss poor herself, Pauladean will make her way to the laborers’ quarters, to be amongst those of her class. Perhaps she can learn more about the scourge that is scaring the town right now, as well as more info about Maximilian and his family, as something seems certainly fishy about them. 

Upon the sight of the bodies, Wren doesn't even flinch. With the things he has seen and done, this was nothing. It was a sad scene nonetheless, but it wasn't something he couldn't stomach, and wouldn't be something that affected him in any real way.

Wren would immediately head to his room when given the chance, deciding he could go to dinner later as he wanted to note down everything that had happened that day (and on the adventure so far), then study a bit. 

Werston/Dara: At the common room in the Cowardly Orx, the wine is good, and the food is warm. It's a somewhat busy night in the Inn, and a few men are talking to the owner Horst and his wife, Liselotte.

"Bandits, probably." one of the men tell Horst. "Trying to snatch what they can and scare us into giving up more. It won't work - we've survived worse. Much worse."

The conversation continues, with lots of hearsay and nervous speculation.

Pauladean: Flimsy structure erected as dormitories for the lowborn laborers are set up against the side of the palisade, away from the center of the village. Plenty of lowborn are around gambling, talking, and drinking on small tables and around rows of cots.

You overhear men and women talking, "They're saying it's bandits but that's nonsense. No bandit does that to a little boy. Poor Dieter.."

The evening winds on.

And this point, if you've accrued any CORRUPTION points, go ahead and make another ORDER/CHAOS d10 test. Remember, if you roll equal to or lower than your current Corruption, you gain a rank of CHAOS, otherwise you gain a rank in ORDER.

Corruption (3): 8

Pauladean's Corruption (6): 1

Feeling quite corrupted, Pauladean decides to head back to the Cowardly Orx and grab as much food as she can (hey, it's free!), and brings it back to share with her fellow lowborn in the dormitories, especially the children.  After spending time to get to know the friendly citizens, she'll finally make her way back to the Orx, head straight to her room, take a nice long warm bath, and rapidly go to sleep in the comfortable bed (an enormous luxury for someone who is homeless, like herself).

THE NEXT MORNING

Andre, Maximilian's chief of security, summons you all to the Steiger House. You are led through the ground floor where Helena, Bibi, Maximilian's sister Beatte, and Waldmann are sitting around a large table.

Once you are all inside, Maximilian wastes no time.

"As you know," he says, "The rumors some of you have most likely heard from the lowborn about this being a bandit attack are false. We are positive the attack on the bride token caravan were from Mutants. Last night, Waldmann was able to return to the wreckage of the caravan and track the killers back as far as the Old Hill Road - the Mutants are most likely camping in a cave under the summit of the Horned Monk - the mountain, where they would be in a strong defensive position since that road is the only approach a large group could take."

"I have a proposal. I don't know why the Orx have come back and not sure why they haven't directly attacked like before. It could be that they are playing with the village, terrorizing them, or it could be that there aren't as many and so they are attacking as the opportunity arise. Either way, it is important to find out as much about them as possible: how many they number, who is leading them, and so on. My son Waldmann is an expert in navigating the forest - he will lead you all on a reconnaissance of the camp Waldmann knows a secret way up the Horned Monk that's accessible by a small group and will bring you up behind the a ridge, giving you a view of the cave where the Orx are expected to be."

"Because the approach is around the side of the hill, the entire sortie should take but a day. Once you have come back with the information, we can collectively decide what to do. What say you?"

"Well, given my less than hale and hearty performance, I fail to see how I could reasonably be expected to take on a horde of ferocious mutants, let alone a marauding force of Orx. Still, cousin, you know how I feel about family ties. If this would make things better, I suppose it might just as well be me who takes on this duty... Ah, assuming, of course, that I can have the support of the rest of you fine persons?"

Corruption(4): 4

Wren had been waiting to try a new spell from his arcenal and it seems as if this would be a perfect time to go about it. "Very well. You have my support Wrinm."

Corruption(2):9

Asa will also agree to go along, since this is what she's here for.

"Sure, why not," Dara grunts with a nod.