Solo Black Powder and Brimstone: The Enemy Within - Episode 2

--/-- Welcome to a Black Powder and Brimstone Solo attempt at The Enemy Within. BPnP, by Benjamin Tobitt, is a 3rd-party creation of the Mork Borg family of RPG rules. 

--/-- Mature content warning: content refers both to the original WFRP campaign and to the more hellish world of BPnP. Listener discretion is advised.

--/-- Episode 2: Tod Weiss receives the duty of finding out more about this dead doppelganger and its papers. Arriving in Altdorf, he makes an impression, and sees an Emperor.

--/-- Background music "A Royal Visit" "Ravaged Lands" and "The Madding Crowd" from Tabletop Audio

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

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This podcast is rated F the filthy! Ha! Filthy! It seems I may be wrong. It could be that my porridge remains shit free. It's a roadbottom sergeant. And it's true. Even so, there's an uneasy, tense atmosphere. I can see how it might look. I stand up, and my sword speaks volumes. This time I have the good sense to keep my full mouth shut. Finally, when this Sergeant Fluster asks me a direct question, I simply say, The noble lady Issaul is down yonder, waiting for an explanation. I or you owe it to her to tell her what has happened here. That puts the idea into the sergeant's head that it might be a good idea to leave me alive to explain to a noble lady all is well. Funny thing though, when explanations are done, the coachmen, who accept back their lantern as though it were a great relic, advise me to take the chain shirt of their dead colleague up yonder. Whether by your permission to the sergeant, I seem to have covered off the niceties. So I swagger back to the corpse and complete the very unpleasant business of taking a male shirt of an uncooperative corpse. The upshot of all the palaveras. The sergeant Fluster and his troop will accept the help, quote unquote. In other words, have volunteered us menfolk to write the other carriage while they catch all of the horses of the two carriages that are to be found. Once we go through the busy labor, working up a sweat on that carriage. And they've all inspected the dead mutants and heard my account. It's just a matter of dragging the stiffening bodies into the overturned coach, now upright, and using that as a makeshift transport. Apparently, we're all going to the Seven Spokes Inn. There, statements can be taken. That sounds a lot better than a roadside lynching, so good. Their troopers all have that unscrupulous air about them. I stay close as I can to the other passengers. I don't want my services compelled. I need to remain a free agent for the time. My way of playing for time, I simply say, I'll save my statement for the swearing. Welcome to episode two of my palate cleanser. Using the black powder and brimstone rules to follow the plot as best I can of the enemy within. In case the disclaimer at the front of the show did not warn you that this is not a PG show. Chaos, depravity, and unspeakable vileness stalk the roads and cities of the now decayed empire. Road wardens forces to themselves should they choose to be. And offer the chance to roll a DR twelve on prison. Immediately spending yet another devil's luck token. He rolls a natural twenty. A much better reception. And so all he's got to do is try to do as little and say as less as he possibly can. The module makes quite a big deal of the entire company now moving to the seven spokes in. But as far as I can tell, and remember, this is a module whose information is buried all over the place. The only purpose of it is to have everyone give us one statement and the chance to buy healing from the sergeant's sister. Since the sergeant seems to have a bit of a complex about her sister, I'm going to assume that he specifically mentions how proud he is of her during the journey and how protective he is of her. And so at the seventh spokes in her advice because one affidavit consults Dr. Vlastina without offering to seduce her. She advises him to boil that Jainama before trying to wear it. And judges him four crowns for healing. That is not a bad deal at all. Healing of any sort is rare in this day and age of the implies for the daughter gladly pays that four crowns. Since all he needs is a decent meal, a drink, and a place in the common room. A silver shilling, which is relatively little, and the great scheme offers 94 gold crowns. Paying the ends of the laundry woman a couple of pennies to throw the chain into a mixture of hot water and lines easier to the chain. And while that's a boiling, Todd pays the same laundry woman a couple more pennies to clean the blood off his shirt and stitch it up. His clothes are the classic flamboyant Zweihander clothes. Although, if he is going to wear that chain armor, he might want to rethink that in future. It may be a little rusty here and there, but Todd now has the opportunity to, should he choose, move to medium armor. It would slow his already limited agility even more. But it might be well worth it. Medium armor permits a D4 to be rolled against damage. And as we've seen, Todd is almost always going to be the last to swing in combat. There is a reason within the logic of the module that Todd discovered a corpse with his own likeness. And following up that thread, it seems very likely that the sergeant will ask him, Todd, to carry the papers of the dead man. And try to see what he can find out about it. Let us have that in the background, as Todd now moves to the next scene, Altdorf itself. I confirm this using Solo Borg and get a definitely yes. And further I check with Solo Borg about any random travel events between the Seven Spokes and Altdorf. And the only thing I roll is Discovery, which seems to me to relate to the papers. Let's let Todd take up the story. This world is in such a state that, no matter who I asked last night, no one, not even the sergeant nor his doctor sister, had any definite information as to whether Otdorf has yet fallen to the Puritans. As it turns out, it has not. As we reach the grid square, the king's place, as it's called here, the carriage rolls past dozens, not just a few, but dozens of agitators, each shouting a different new philosophy. Prophets indeed, screaming that the Puritans will cleanse the world. Here and there, more legal pronunciations are screamed. This burger has been found guilty of treason and is hanging in the square. Those that attempt to rescue him will be judged guilty as he. Such and such a madam has been found guilty of consulting with witches and will be burned later at such and such a place. In other words, Altdorf is exactly what I could have expected. But, although I gave my reason in the end as seeking service as a road warden, it seems that thanks to the papers on the body whose face was a double of mine, that Sergeant Pluster pressed upon me whether I wanted it or not. I'm to find an advocate. One ideally familiar with the legal doings of Null. As at last I alight in the stinking heat of the late afternoon, the extra baggage of the chain armor rolled under my arm makes me careless. A jostle. I know what that means. Yes. A dab has taken my purse. Swinging around, I let fly with the chain armor. It's a good shot and a leap to claim my prize before anyone can confiscate the gold as evidence. Jamming my spyhander down upright next to the lad, I ask him. Any last words. At this point, in the arrival at Old Dwarf scene, the module stipulates two things that have to happen. Well, three, really, including the last scene that we'll get to next episode. And offers an option of pockets. That makes a lot of sense, after all. Todd is carrying a fat purse full of gold. He's fortunate enough to roll a dirty 19, as he rolls a 20, on his agility, to bring down the wretch before he can hand off the money to what would no doubt be a very organized gang. And he rolls another good roll, a 17, on his strength, which brings it to 19, to bound across and pin the pickpocket before his cleanup crowd can intervene. Putting those two moves together, I feel justified in saying that he gets all of his gold back. And, for what it's worth, makes a favorable impression on anyone who deplores extreme violence. Waiting as Briggs, he hands over the gold, tame as you please. No doubt his Fagan will give him a switching, if he's lucky, for mopping the handoff so badly, or for the slow running. Either way, I still have gold. And it seems I've made an impression. I could have just cut him asunder, but bringing him down and resolving things without bloodshed seems to have been the right thing to do. While the touts and shills are screaming at me, this inn or that body house or this tavern are all a man can need. signaling me. The lead poker looking me full in the face, fiddle with his ear with his left finger in a peculiar way. Well, since the lady doctor stitched my skin, and the laundry stitched my clothes, I have no fear of a conversation. Like any good Svaihander, I sweep back my fine head of hair and stand tall. They begin making their way over to me. There's a major interruption of trumpets. Some kind of huge procession. Those trumpet notes. An Imperial parade. And according to the members of the crowd next to me, what I'm looking at, mounted on this big ebony stallion, proud as the devil, is the Emperor himself. Eventually, the soldiers step by, marching on. And the parade appears to be over. I look about for those two fellows who are trying to speak to me, but I can't see them anymore. We must have been separated in the crowd. Then a voice from not far behind me. What's the White Death doing in Altdorf?