The Beribelli arrives in Bogenhafen at the docks. Josef pays the mooring fees and the heroes help unloading the barrels of wine.
Josef then pays the heroes their wagen and explains he must see Herr Ruggebroder to finalise the transaction. He will meet the heroes at the fair. The adventurers enter the sleepy town which, at this moment is bustling with a crowd.
The adventurers take a look at the fair, after first having visited some shops in town. The area is full of people. From dirty beggars to well-dressed artisans, from brightly clothed entertainers to sombre-looking watchmen. Other adventurers, traders of livestock and mercenaries are also visiting. The entire spectrum of Bogenhafen's populace is represented here. There are labourers singing loudly and out-of-tune (having over-indulged themselves at one of the beer tents), babies crying, pedlars hawking their wares, ~ interwoven into the general hubbub
of people enjoying themselves.
The heroes stroll around the fair, looking at the livestock market, the jousting pavilions, the many beertents. Lothar even has a wrestling match with local boxing legend Crusher Baugen that he wins.
The adventurers are drawn by a crowd that gathers along various wagons. A scruffy looking man in once fine clothes gathers the crowd. "Roll up, roll up," he cries, "In just one hour from now you will witness the most original and astounding display of zoological curiosities ever placed on
exhibition in the entire length and breadth of this glorious Empire!
"Doctor Malthusius' Zoocopeia - gathered for your education, entertainment and edification from the far corners of the Known World at incalculable expense! The
unusual! The bizarre! Yes, even the faintly disgusting! You will never see its like again, my friends, not if you live to be a hundred!
"Marvel at a myriad of malformities! Misbegotten things whose very existence defies Nature! You will be amazed and astounded, my friends, I give you my personal guarantee of that!"
Various carts around the show carry cages and are covered with tarpaulins. In one, a small three-legged Goblin, is huddled miserably in a corner, tethered into the cage by a rope attached to an iron collar. While Doctor Malthusius is holding forth to the grinning and rapidly growing crowd, a flea-ridden and rascally looking Dwarf skulks around the cages, preparing for the show and poking the gobbo with a pointed stick.
Intrigued, the heroes buy a ticket to see the show later that evening.
When the Pcs try to find the offices of the lawyers Lock, Stock & Barl they are unable to find it. Going to the printers Shultz & Friedmann they do find some clues. A mysterious figure commanded the prints, his description matches that of Adolphus Kruftsos, the Bounty Hunter that attacked the crew in the previous session.
When they return in the evening to see the Zoöcopeia they hear screams and see panicked festival visitors fleeing the scene. When they arrive the heroes are just in time to notice the three legged goblin escaping down a hole in the wall. Dr. Malthusius is very distraught at the escape of his "most prised exhibit" and asks the heroes if they can capture the Goblin. Otfried & Gotrak are ready to kill it but the Doctor stresses the fact that his exhibit must remain alive. The doctor enlists the aid of Magistrate richter, a town official, who grants the heroes passage to the sewers, on top of that he will pay them 50 gold when they capture the goblin and he'll pay for their stay at one of the local inns.
The heroes enter the stinking sewers underneath the town of Bogenhafen. Thanks to some tracking skills they are able to follow the three legged goblins steps. Rounding a corner in the sewers the heroes are confronted by a large and bubbling slime creature. The monster is quite dangerous but the valiant heroes manage to defeat it, many of them end up in the sewage and are smelling really bad at this point.
As the adventurers go further, they see a large object blocking the effluent channel. Their light disturbs a large rat which is sitting on the object -its beady eyes glare at them, and then it dives into the effluent and swims away. On closer inspection, the obstruction is seen to be the bloody corpse of a Dwarf they encountered previously at Shaffenfest: The drunk, sexually obsessed Bjorni Bjornisson.
The body has been severely mutilated, and shows evidence
of many knife-cuts. One arm is missing, and appears to have been torn or bitten completely off. The chest has been torn or cut open, and the heart is missing.
Travelling deeper into the sewer, the adventurers come upon a door. A second door lies further in the sewers but the goblin track disappear behind this one. A splotch or dark blood is found on the door. Entering the room the adventurers can see that it is a temple of some kind. A large pentacle has been painted on the floor, and a silver candlestick bearing an unlit, black candle is positioned
at each point. A circle of copper, about 3 inches thick and 15ft in diameter, surrounds the pentacle. In the centre of the pentacle is a representation of a beast's head, around which is written "Ordo Septenarlus". The head is partly obscured by a large, dark stain.
Thick, black smoke suddenly begins to issue from the centre of the pentacle. The smoke rapidly coalesces into a human-sized creature with a distorted, bestial head, batlike wings, and terrible claws and fangs - a Guardian Deamon. The Daemon explains in his rumbling voice that it can't let them stay here; it tried to explain this to the three-legged fellow, but he wouldn't listen. So, if they don't leave immediately it will have no choice but to summon assistance from its home plane.
Of course the heroes go for an all out attack, Otfried is badly wounded but in the end the stalwart adventurers manage to banish the daemon back to its home plane.
Searching the room, the heroes find the following:
- The pelvis of the three legged goblin
- A sacrificiar, ritual dagger, of Nehekaran origin.
- The skull of a chaos warrior
- A handkerchief embroidered with the letters FS
- A magically sealed secret door
to be continued in part 2