WHFRP - Jolanda Reinhardt Adventure Introduction

Jolanda Reinhardt Adventure Introduction You are heading home after an unsuccessful expedition in the Erzot Hills. Organised by an unknown patron you and five others were hunting for a tomb believed to date back to a time before the Empire, which may even have belonged to one of Sigmar’s forebears. Led by a man named Alfus Lichtor, your party spent weeks searching the Hills miles from civilisation, following maps and information only Lichtor had access to. After dozens of fruitless searches Lichtor declared the expedition to be over – clearly in the thousands of years since the Unberogen Tribe had lived in the area the landscape had changed to such a degree that the clues and trails he was attempting to follow had been obliterated. Disgruntled and weary after spending so much time living in the inhospitable wilds of the Drakwald Forest the party dis-bands with nothing to show for its labours. The measly 2 Gold Crowns a day wages will hardly pay for the passage home and it looks likely that it will be a lean winter in the Reinhardt household this year; the last three tomb-hunts have all lead to nothing and the summer warmth is already waning to autumn by the time you leave the forest and find yourself in Delberz, over one hundred and twenty miles from home. The six of you share one last meal, sitting in virtual silence as each ponders the time they have wasted the fruitless search. Alfus grudgingly arranges passage by coach for you to Altdorf, saying you must make your own way from there. Alfus will return to Nuln, and the others all hail from Talabecland – you can’t say that you will especially miss their company and resign yourself to the lonely journey back to Heilgen, wondering if your husband will return before the first snows. In Delberz you find that the rickety Ratchett Lines Coach waiting for you also has other passengers – an aloof noble lady with a servant and bodyguard, and a skinny academic with his nose in a book of herb-lore. Even though the coach is big enough for six people, the various accessories and accoutrements of the lady take up a good deal of room and the coach is quite crowded. The lady is young but very haughty and arrogant, commenting frequently on the “riff-raff” she has been forced to associate with on this voyage. She treats her serving maid in an appalling manner and as a result the girl is very timid and downtrodden. The bodyguard, an unusually tall and muscular woman, maintains a taciturn silence and glares at people without smiling while the lady prattles on about the slovenliness of the masses. Since the academic is so absorbed in his book it looks to be a tedious trip back to Altdorf… At the end of the first day’s travel the coach reaches the Coach and Horses (see hand-out 1). A high wall surrounds the Inn, which serves as protection from the wilds when the sun goes down. As the coach draws closer one of the coachman blows a horn and the gates open. Just as the coachman is about to steer the horses into the gate another coach leaves the inn. You see the insignia of the Four Seasons on the door, a rival to the Ratchett Lines Company. No sooner has the coach turned into the road than the driver whips the horses up to a gallop and heads off along the road. The coachmen enter the gates and you see the two-story timber-framed Inn before you. The courtyard of the Inn is bustling with activity. The sickly-sweet smell of fresh manure hangs in the air and a couple of grooms can be seen outside the stables busily rubbing down a team of four horses. From the In itself comes the delicious smell of cooking and the sound of merry laughter.