Solo Black Powder and Brimstone: The Enemy Within - Episode 10

--/-- 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 10: The investigation proper leads to a simply smashing time. 

--/-- Background music "Defiled Temple" and "Pagan Woods" from Tabletop Audio

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Transcript

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This podcast is rated F filthy! Ha! Filthy! Ha ha ha. Now that I know some of the sewer walkways might tilt tip me in. You go first, I direct Gottry. There's a movement in his beard that might have been a grin. We're all set to go. The rope's bit of a problem. Might get in the way of drawing my blade. But the single jack in my hand is a strong comfort in times of need. Can't be too far along from here, I hear Gautry say. And I recall what's brought us to this point. I must have been low on blood. Whatever the leech gave me seemed to have worked well. I woke up a little later than usual. Probably because members of the clan moving around the caravans. More than that, I was ready to wake as I usually am. Get up, slide my clothes back on. I should have rifled Max and Purse for at least the price of new clothes. I've got blood all down one side and down my leggings. Still, ready to face the new day. The sight of Selida still asleep in a crouched up pose in a nook makes my blood run like fire. But Granny's off in another nook. Those black eyes watching me. As I'm closing the caravan door quietly, Granny Carls should be in Weisbruck next. I give it no more thought. Since I'm here outside the Shaffenvest, I decide to walk across outside the city to the tanneries to pick up my mail and leather coat. Not a pleasant trip. Every so often I pass up a pole that's been repurposed as a gibbet. Sometimes there's a notice on it saying what the crime is. Another, there may not be so much as a notice. More a collection of things that might once have been human. And I get to within easy smell of the tanneries. There's a final poll. Heretic, the notice says. In large letters. I study what's left of the face. Nope, it's not Bhadarad. Right. I collect the mail. Look at the oiled leather. Nice. Say to Bhadrad, if it works as well as I think it will, I'll be back with a bonus five crowns. His face moves in a way that for him might be a smile. With a male coat on, I don't feel even a breath of wind. Today is going to be another stinking hot day. Still, I've got the rest of the morning to get myself a rope, something that might be useful for busting down doors, and Gotry. Ignorant of the city ways as I am. From there I trace my weary way back. A little closer to the gardens of Moor this time. It's actually less haunted by burnings and gibbetings. But there's an uneasy air about the place, even still. Cutting across to the east gate puts me in handy mind of the cross pikes. I just have to turn hard left, walk along inside the wall. Yeah, it's just a couple of blocks. This is it, the cross pikes. A nod to the door, call as you like, and wander in. Seems to me I can kill two or three birds with one stone. Get a sup and a drink. Get a rope. Get a heavy hammer. I've been thinking about. Maybe get a different entrance to the sewers from here as well. We'll see how we go. Welcome dear listener to another pellet cleanser episode, this one being episode 10 in my Black Powder and Brimstone and Solo Borg. Attempt to follow the plot as best I may of the enemy within. In case the disclaimer at the front of the show did not warn you, this is not a PG show. Chaos, depravity, and unspeakable vileness stalk the roads and cities of the now decayed empire. I believe we may be halfway, perhaps not quite that, through Arc One, Enemy and Shadows. Todd is now hooked firmly back into the main plot, thanks to the officers of the Inquisitor Heinstork. He has managed to secure some decent armor and the services of Gotri the Dwarf, who proved very handy in his first foray into the sewers. And since thanks to the good offices of Salida, his romantic interest, he has made his introductions to Bauman, a crime lord, based out of the crossed pikes. He has decided to avail himself of this contact to see if he can go in better prepared. If crossing beside the Moor Grave plots, I had mixed feelings about working for the Inquisition. I have more mixed feelings now. Grateful to be alive, glad to be wearing some good armor. Not sure I should be exactly teaming up with Salida's people. It feels like heresy. Demon worship, maybe. There was something very unpleasant behind Granny Elvira's eyes. I think back to the agitator on the old dwarf docks screaming, The stained hand guides the once mighty lord. I think about Salida sleeping by Granny's fire. I think about Joseph in the alley. First things first. Sigmar puts his servants where they're needed with tools to hand. Time to ask for that single jack. It seems I'm moderately welcome. So over a mid-morning meal, I ask the twins about a hammer. Bowman wanders over. While he's thinking about that request, I ask him more about the Steinhager outfit. He explains. Franz Steinhager runs the outfit now. Father died a couple of years back. Franz has expensive tastes. Brother named Heinrich. Said to be shut out of the business. Franz is in with an expensive crowd. Kind of a merchant prince type. But the Steinhager office, not much known. Nothing sinister or anything. Then he says, Gerard, the doorkeeper. He's been there longer than France has been alive. Knows where everything is buried. Literally, possibly. I agree that the Steinager office needs a bit of care. I need someone to weasel info out of France and steal incriminating documents. But I can't pay them. With a nice hefty single jack and a coil of rope beside me, I push my luck. I say. You say river trade, warehousing. Or take a look out there if you don't mind scratching me some directions. Once we have a quick look down below. I don't suppose there's a cellar here that steps down to the sewer? I grin to take the offense out of it. Bowman almost smiles. Funny you should ask, he says. Then he says. That has a price, I'll think about it. Then sell us down through the kitchen. It's been a nice, easy rest here at the crosspikes. Not really my crowd, but then what is my crowd these days? Midday. Gautry arrives. I prime him with table beer and table beer only. He's got his axe and that chisel. And instrument, which I guess is a theodolite. Gotri has the lantern from last time. Or he's got an identical one from the kitchen. Not sure. Either way, cellar steps going down. A maintenance tunnel connecting to the main sewer. The smell hits us as we get closer. Somewhere ahead. The temple. Gotri leading with the light. I lose my bearings pretty much straight away, but Gotri tells me. We're looping, kind of, towards the river. Then he stops. This is it, he says. Well, I can't see anything. But he points to a spot on the wall. So the single jack does its work. Apparently it was bolted somehow or other on the other side. This side covered over with slime. Didn't fool Gotry. Inside? It's been stripped. Stripped to the bones. Everything. I can kind of guess where the pentacle was, but I swear that's been chiseled off the mortar on the floor itself. The basic architecture is the same. Godfrey sweeps the lantern around. He guesses several people. You think? I say sarcastically. Feels like we can still sense the presence of the demon where it sank into the floor. We kind of avoid it. Godry moves around the walls, tapping. Then he looks carefully at the wall. Holds that lantern at an angle where it'll pick out any fine detail. In a very faint relief. There's what might have been a saint's outline. Gautry stops at it. Taps once, twice, a different sound. Here, he says. Kind of grudging respect. Old work. Predates the other door. Can't tell what the saintly figure might have been. I shrug, and I begin smashing the wall with a single jack. It's old stonework, but I've been swinging heavy weapons my entire adult life. It comes apart, just bolted from the other side, like a sensible door. It's a secret tunnel, if ever I saw one. May or may not connect to the sewer. Doesn't smell quite as bad. Can't exactly see how big it gets, but I guess it's big enough that a couple of hefty blocks could carry away that cabinet. A little bit of room to swing this viander then. Well, let's see what's at the other end.