Blood on the Road

Onwards

After a moderately heavy slumber, the party awakens early to have breakfast and get the coach loaded. The landlord is unhappy with the fuss they created the previous night with the Bretonnian and his other guests, and encourages them to be on their way. 

Artur and Fritz help the other passengers settle, reassuring the noblewoman Lady Isolde as they get ready for the day’s travel. There is no sign of the Bretonnian … “good riddance” declares Fritz. 

Nor – more alarmingly – of the coachmen. After some delay and insistence of Lady Isolde, Artur and Fritz head to the drivers’ room, where they find Gunnar and Hultz sprawled across their beds, still in uniform and reeking of ale. While the coachmen re-line their stomachs with a hearty breakfast, Lady Isolde and her party become more irritated at the delay. 

It’s clear the coachmen are in no state to drive, so Artur takes the reins when they are eventually ready to leave. By the time they set off, it is mid-morning and the rain is starting to fall, just as the landlord had predicted. The party – travelling atop the roof – drag the tarpaulin over them to keep as dry as possible while the coachmen nestly among the baggage. 

They reach the Five Brothers Lodge some time in the early afternoon and turn onto the Altdorf-Middenheim Road. It’s clear that there is much ground to make up, and a real risk of being stuck on the road by the time night falls. Artur steps up the pace, handling the coach well in the conditions and soon they are making good progress towards the next inn. 

Missing, Presumed Mutated

A couple of hours later they round a bend in the road. A short distance away in the middle of the road a man is squatting over a pair of bodies – a girl in a red dress and a bearded man. The horses stop in their tracks, whinnying with panic. 

The figure spins round, and with alarming speed runs towards the coach. The horses pull free of their straps, bolting into the woods as the party members try to hang onto the coach as it is rocked by their abrupt escape. Falken is tossed out in front of the coach as the man charges into closer view. 

As he bears down on the coach, his tattered rotting flesh flaps in the wind, and ichorous slobber drips out of his mouth and pores. Siggy recognises him as Rolf Hurtsis, one of a group of Five Hills gang members who disappeared a few months before. 

He unravels his sling and lets loose a pellet that whistles past the mutant as it lunges into Falken, knocking him to the ground. Artur lashes out ineffectually with his dagger while Fritz tries to land a punch. Grabbing the leather reins, Falken lassos the mutant, pulling him prone to the ground as Artur plunges a dagger into him to end the fight. 

Chaotic Assault

• Reassure the noblewoman
• Recover the girl and man’s bodies who turns out to be the Bretonnian, and redistribute the weapons
• More mutants are detected, and the party take a defensive stance
• Marie takes on a mutant in the woods
• Fritz taunts the mutants to show themselves
• The mutants have surrounded the coach
• Fritz slashes Goat Legs
• Gunnar blasts the blunderbuss, killing Goat Legs
• Marie emerges from the wood with Pointed Head’s pointed head
• A crossbow bolt whistles past Artur and twangs into the coach wood 
• Hultz blasts Pin Head with his blunderbuss
• Falken lays low in the bang of the gun
• Thorny Scales retreats through the woods as his comrades are fallen
• Fritz follows Thorny Scales, taunting him to return and face him
• Thorny Scales turns back and raises his crossbow, impaling Fritz with a bolt
• Fritz lashes out with the Bretonnian’s sword and slashes Thorny Scales down

Regroup

The party recover the horses and gather the bodies to the coach, including the artisan family described by the landlord of the Coach and Horses, a Sigmarite priest and a Four Seasons coachman

Siggy deals with recovering and distributing assets from the corpses. 

Falken is dealing with another corpse that he turns over, and is taken aback to see the spitting image of Artur Stolz. A quick search yields a couple of bloody sheets of official-looking papers. 

He hollers out to his trusted friend Fritz and they consider what secret Artur holds, and what mystery they are starting to get caught up in. 

Salvage