All of you grew up listening to stories of the Great War Against Chaos. The tale of Magnus the Pious and his victory over the armies of Chaos is well known. While there have been wars and threats in the 200 years since, there has been nothing on that scale. Until now. This year the Chaos Lord Archaon invaded the Empire with five mighty armies. They swept down from the Chaos Wastes, ranks filled with mutant warriors, nightmarish monsters, and power-mad sorcerers. Flagellants and other prophets of doom declared these the End Times. And as these armies pillaged and burned their way through the northern provinces of the Empire, it was easy to believe.
You’ve heard endless stories over the past few months. They say that Sigmar once again walked the earth. They say an army of wolves attacked the Kislevian city of Erengrad. They say the dead rose from their graves to defend the Empire. They say a mighty victory was won at Middenheim. They say a plague has choked the streets of Talabheim with bloated corpses.
You can only believe what is in front of your eyes. You are in the town of Untergard in the Drakwald Forest. A nine-day battle took place here, as Beastmen tried to force their way across the town’s great bridge. They were rebuffed but the price was high. The town is in ruins and its remaining citizens struggle to survive. The Imperial army has long since moved on from Untergard, leaving behind only its dead. You’ve heard tell of more battles up north but the war here seems over. Or so you hope. You have been in Untergard for several days, as rainstorms of utmost savagery lashed the Drakwald. You find two things when you awaken: the rainstorm has broken and there is a commotion in the nearby Ackerplatz...
There are - or were - three inns in the town of Unterwald:
The Sign of the White Wolf, the
The Graf's Lament and
The Bawdy Goblin. Unfortunately the
White Wolf was in the destroyed Eastern half of the town and now exists only as rubble and the charred skeleton of house timbers. Whatever ale or wine it contained was seized by the foul creatures of Chaos during the battle and the innkeeper and his family also travelled down their gullets.
The Graf's Lament is structurally intact but the owner, Ludwig Bremmer, one of the richest men in town had fled the town with his wife and daughters the morning after the attack began, risking the road south. No one knows whether he made it to safety or not or if the Bremmers lie mouldering in a ditch but it is known he absconded with much of his finest stock and what was left has long since run out. Captain Schiller requisitioned the building as a makeshift hospital during the battle and the once stately inn still reeks of blood and worse fluids.
That leaves the
The Bawdy Goblin on the Ackerplatz, owned by Stefan Hauser, a huge man rumoured to be a retired Carrobourg Greatsword. Hauser died on the sixth day of battle (having killed many of the foes facing him) and his son Karl has kept the inn running. An awkward, lanky young man no one would ever mistake Karl for a warrior but having some place that feels normal has kept morale up, even if the ale has grown more watered by the day and the famed spiced sausages of Middenland grown stuffed with sawdust.
Cramped as it is
The Bawdy Goblin has also become a refuge for those unlucky to have been caught in Untergard when the storm hit. For one reason or another five such strangers have been here for more than two weeks.
From inside the inn you can hear raised voices coming in through the windows. They sound like they are coming from the Ackerplatz, the town square of Untegard...
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:07, Mon 22 Mar 2021.