Season 3: Power Behind the Throne – Recap So Far (Acts I & II of III)

On By theoaxner

Swedish version

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Art by Les Edwards (inset) and Ian Miller (background)

A short(ish) summary of the first two acts (largely added material) of the third season of The Enemy Within: Remixed.

Prologue: Where We Left Off

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The sign of the Hand

After the adventures in Castle Wittgenstein, the adventurers found most of the clues they had pointing to Middenheim: this was where both Marike’s double Esther Lieberung and her mysterious patron the Magister Magistri of the Hand were apparently based, and the Magister seemed to have a major, no doubt evil, scheme going. Esther and Etelka Herzen had been working on a project called “The Work”, apparently to create a shape-shifting homunculus. In the castle they had seen Margrethe von Wittgenstein successfully creating just such a creature.) Gotthard von Wittgenstein, Margrethe’s older brother, also seemed to live in Middenheim and have some, probably unpleasant, plan for the carnival this autumn.

However, there were some other matters to settle first. The adventurers split up; Zima and Dmitri tracked Nanker‘s Chaos warband, who had captured Etelka Herzen, north while the rest of the party sailed south to do some errands they undertook – most importantly, arranging a delivery of food to Wittgendorf – and then visiting Marike’s family in Wissenland, before they too would go north.

The visit to Marike’s family was not only for social reasons; in Castle Wittgenstein, Marike had had some hints about her hitherto completely unknown father. He seemed to be identical to one Samuel Heintz who had served House Wittgenstein, led some sort of cult in their house chapel and was also the father of Esther Lieberung – if this was true, the doubles were half-sisters. What, if anything, did Marike’s family know about this?

Act 1: On the Road

4 July-23 August 2512

Player characters: Aenlinn Sattler, Marike Havenblast, Wernhart Bader, Katharina “Kethe” von Hollinger

NPCs with the party: Said de Labyourteaux (E1-6), Courage

A Family Secret

After the food run to Wittgendorf, the adventurers sailed south, to Nuln and on to Marie’s uncle Ser Warmund von Hollinger‘s estate Havenblast in northwestern Wissenland, where they were received as guests. Marike asked about the past and actually got to know quite a bit: Samuel Heintz was indeed her father and had served as physician at Havenblast, but secretly he had drawn local youths into the Dark Arts, gathering a coven in the woods. After such an episode, ending with several youths  being badly shaken and one young woman drowning, he fled and left Beate von Hollinger, Warmund’s younger sister, pregnant (with Marike) and severely mentally disturbed.

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Marike and her cousin Kethe undertook to find Samuel, if he were alive, and hold him accountable. Before that, however, Kethe had been called upon to go to the village of Kröte and, as her father’s representative, investigate a case of suspected witchcraft. She persuaded Marike and the others to come along.

They solved the mystery in Kröte and freed the innocently accused “witch”; on the way, they also found Samuel’s old cult site in the forest, with several symbols they recognized from the chapel in Wittgenstein, and fought a pig horribly mutated by a piece of warpstone it had devoured.

Detailed recaps:

Altdorf and the Signal Tower

After a brief rest, they sailed north again. Their journey first took them to Altdorf, the capital of the Empire, which they found in a strangely anxious, restless mood. From there they went to the signal tower built on top of Freifrau Dagmar von Wittgenstein‘s old underground observatory, but they found that Nanker’s crew and their prisoner (or ally?) Etelka Herzen had beaten them there and looted the secret library underneath the tower cellars.

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However, Etelka had left a letter to “Esther” urging her to come to Middenheim and help with “The Work”. It turned out to contain a second message in invisible ink, in which she claimed to be a prisoner of the Hand and forced to help them, and asked Marike for help in stopping the Master’s plans.

Back in Altdorf, Said declared that he had to prioritize trading to pay off his debts, and they agreed to dissolve their trading company and share the profits. Said still had a cargo to take north and offered them a ride to Delberz (halfway to Middenheim). He had also obtained a letter from Zima: she and Dmitri had tracked a mysterious stagecoach that apparently led Nanker et consortes to Middenheim.

It turned out that people in Altdorf were looking for Esther Lieberung, and the adventurers hurried to leave.

Detailed recaps:

The Road North

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Mother Addi (Photo source: Les Artisans d’Azure)

They first sailed to Steinbrück to visit Professor Bletzen, but found that she was not home: she had traveled to Middenheim (and taken Renate) to consult with the Chancellor of the university there.

On the way further north, they visited the Chapel of the Sacred Spring and ended up rescuing a Curian priest from Altdorf, one Mother Addi of the Order of St. Sigmar, from an attack by the Righteous Soldiers, a radical Ulrican / Purist terrorist group. Mother Addi asked them to bring a letter to the Ulrican High Shepherd Jarrick Valgeir in Middenheim and promised to help them in the future if it was in her power; they could look for her at the Cathedral in Altdorf.

In Delberz, they disbanded the trading company and separated from Said; the remaining adventurers procured horses and a cart and continued the country road north towards Middenheim. On the way, they met and joined Emmelinde, a young hunter who was about to release her fiancé who was imprisoned. She turned out to have a strangely good hand with wild animals; a couple of wolves who were apparently her “friends” helped chase away a band of straw robbers the adventurers encountered not long after.

Detailed recaps:

A Rough Night at The Three Feathers

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The Gräfin’s retinue arrives at the Three Feathers (Art by J. G. O’Donohue)

One rainy evening they entered The Three Feathers inn, which was having a busy night indeed: Gräfin Marie-Ulrike von Ambosstein was visiting with her entourage. She was on her way to Middenheim for a trial, accused of murdering Baron Otto von Dammenblatz by poison or sorcery. The matter was to be settled by trial by combat, and Aenlinn’s old soldier buddy Bruno Franke turned out to be the Gräfin’s champion.

It was a rough night, to say the least. There was a great uproar and full-on brawl when a drunken and furious merchant, Thomas Goldwasser, came charging in with a few thugs to drag home his escaped wife Hanna and beat her lover, the nobleman Friedrich von Helstein, half to death; however, Aenlinn and Kethe intervened and managed to stop them without bloodshed. Goldwasser and his followers left, but his young wife Hanna stayed with Kethe.

A moment later a tumult arose among some brothers of the Order of the Stranger, who had brought a coffin with them to their room; there briefly seemed to be four monks around and not three! The next morning, the monks were found, apparently dead, in their room and with a headless corpse in the coffin. Wernhart managed to save one of the “monks” and was told that they were smugglers who were hired to bring one “Josef” to safety south of Middenheim. The bounty hunter Ursula Kleipzig had attacked them during the night, beheaded “Josef” and taken his head with her.

During the night, Bruno, the Gräfin’s champion, was also found lifeless with a dagger in her back. Marike and Wernhart managed to save his life – though he’d be far too weak to fight in the duel – and the countess dragooned the adventurers into luring the killer into a trap with Aenlinn, as a new champion, as bait. They did successfully capture the killer, one Dominique Hervaux who had infiltrated the Gräfin’s retinue as the maid Elina. The Gräfin was very pleased and offered them continued service during her time in Middenheim, at least until the trial by combat, in which Aenlinn now agreed in earnest to fight for her.

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Dawn breaks on the Three Feathers (Art from RN&HD)

The day after they left the Three Feathers, the adventurers, the Gräfin’s entourage, Hanna (who traveled with them) and Emmelinde finally arrived at Middenheim. They were let in through the toll gates, but were told that the new laws that had recently come into force (which they’d heard some rumors about along the way already) meant that expensive licenses were required to, for example, practice alchemy. The laws seemed to have aroused a great deal of dissatisfaction.

Detailed recaps:

Act 2: City of the White Wolf

August 23 – September 7, 2512

Player characters: Aenlinn Sattler, Marike Havenblast, Wernhart Bader, Katharina “Kethe” von Hollinger

NPCs with the party: Courage, Emmelinde (E10, 18-20, 24-27), Klaus (19-20, 25-27), Zima (25-27), Dmitri (25-27)

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Middenheim (Art by Jaime Jasso)

Initial endeavours

The Gräfin’s entourage – now including the adventurers – was quartered at the Baumgarten Haus, a house in the Westtor district the Gräfin had borrowed from her cousin the Kurfürstin of Middenheim. The adventurers had a couple of days off before the duel that was to take place on Monday and began to work on their various errands:

  • They found that Zima and Dmitri had taken rooms at The Templar’s Arms inn but then disappeared from there. They also visited the Winhund Haulage Company, whose coach Z & D had tracked from Kemperbad, but its owner Glückstein denied having sent any coaches so far south.
  • They managed to get a short audience with High Shepherd Valgeir to hand over Mother Addi’s letter. The prelate seemed stressed and distracted.
  • Kethe and Wernhart accompanied Hanna to talk to her parents, who had been told she was abducted. The situation was delicate, as they owed their son-in-law Thomas Goldwasser a lot of money. Hanna was allowed to stay under the protection of the adventurers (and of the Gräfin) for now.
  • At the university, they met Professor Bletzen, who invited them as guests to the next meeting of the Noctua Society – a society of scholars with an interest in esoteric sciences – on Tuesday.
  • They sorted out the formalities for Marike’s (outrageously expensive) license for alchemy.
  • They visited the two addresses they had to Esther Lieberung in Middenheim via Etelka Herzen’s letters.
    • The secret address led to a locksmith shop with a rental apartment on top. This was the address that the real Esther had asked Etelka to use; the adventurers have not yet gained access to the apartment.
    • The “official” address led to what was apparently Esther’s residence and surgery. A secret passage under the house led to the basement of a boarded-up neighboring house, where they found Esther’s old laboratory.
    • The second house was thoroughly searched and mostly emptied, but they found a cryptic letter from Gotthard von Wittgenstein that seemed to allude to some sort of agreement between different secret societies. Marike also got a sight that suggested that the artist Gustav Klöcker, who lived in the attic, painted magic or alchemical paintings.
  • This weekend was Geheimnisnacht – the ghost night when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is said to be thinner than usual – and all the adventurers dreamed eerie nightmares.

Detailed recaps:

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Hoffenstrasse XII (Art by Jerome Huguenin)

Trial by combat

On Monday, it was time for the trial by combat between Gräfin Marie-Ulrike von Ambosstein and Baron Eberhard von Dammenblatz, who accused her of being behind his father’s death. Eberhard’s champion turned out to be Aenlinn’s old antagonist Bernadette de Capricorne.

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The champions (Art by Theo Axner)

At the same time, a group of criminals rescued an imprisoned accomplice by blowing him out of the prison cells (it seems that the artist Gustav Klöcker, who was imprisoned for witchcraft, seized the opportunity to escape at the same time), which led to the duel being interrupted several times, but in the end it went through. After a hard and even fight, Aenlinn wounded Bernadette and won the trial by combat. The Gräfin was very pleased and offered the adventurers continued service. They were also introduced to her cousin Fürstin Annika-Elise, the young wife of Kurfurst Boris Todbringer of Middenheim, who had come to see the duel incognito with her ladies-in-waiting and celebrated the victory with them that evening.

Kethe and Wernhart met Emmelinde again; confronted with their suspicions, she admitted that both she and her fiancé Klaus, whom she still has not found, were werewolves. She asked the adventurers for help finding him and / or the bounty hunter who arrested him.

Detailed recaps:

Friends in Need

The night after the trial by combat, the adventurers met a ghost in the city; a man who had just been murdered but couldn’t remember who he was, and asked for help finding his remains so they could be buried. They found his severed hand, which still seemed to have some kind of life in it, and were eventually able to identify the dead man as the bounty hunter Johann Niederwald – who eventually turned out to be the man who arrested Klaus, Emmelinde’s fiancé. His severed hand sprung to “life” and seemed to point to a place beneath the Windhund Company.

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On Tuesday evening, Marike and Wernhart visited the learned Noctua Society with Professor Bletzen. They got to know several scholars and understood that the dissatisfaction and concern about the new laws is great.

  • Two of the judges from the duel, Dean Edel Müller from the Chapel of the Arbiter and Law Lord Karl-Heinz Wasmeier, turned out to be members.
  • Wasmeier was an old friend of University Chancellor Albrecht Helreuther and seemed sympathetic to critics of the laws; apparently he had been outvoted by the other two Law Lords.
  • The party was disrupted for a while by the witch-hunter Adele Ketzenblum paying an unannounced visit, asking some ominously insinuating questions.
  • Marike and Wernhart found a painting by Klöcker depicting the missing alchemist Josef Spitz, who they suspected may have been the headless man on The Three Feathers.

That same evening, Aenlinn met another old enemy: Hans Jinkerst, a cultist of the Seeing Circle. He was surprisingly friendly now, proposing an alliance to attack the underground laboratory of the Hand, free their captured friends and sabotage their experiments. He claimed that Zima and Dmitri had been involved in an earlier attempt with them but were captured. Aenlinn answered evasively that she would think about it, but in the end they decided to make the attempt without the help of the Circle.

A visit to the Merchants’ Guild revealed that Samuel Heintz had apparently made a career as a merchant and councillor in Middenheim under the name Samuel Kepler, and that his son, Councillor Gotthard Kepler, seemed identical to Gotthard von Wittgenstein.

There was some continued trouble between Hanna Kohl-Goldwasser, whom the adventurers rescued from The Three Feathers and persuaded the Gräfin to temporarily take into her service, and her husband Thomas Goldwasser. After some back and forth, Thomas agreed to a quiet divorce, but Hanna’s family still owed him a lot of money. Eventually, the Gräfin would become satisfied enough with the adventurers’ work to agree to lend Hanna’s parents enough money to pay off their debts to Thomas and instead tie them to her.

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The Black Pool in the Great Park

On Wednesday evening, they had dinner with the Jung family, the lady-in-waiting Kirsten and the master-at-arms Ser Elke Wensmann at the Showboat. It was a pleasant event and they heard some gossip about the prince’s family, the carnival, the Dammenblatz family and who has an influence on the prince. Elke behaved a little strangely and surprisingly expressed support for the engineering tax, even though she was also a great admirer of the city’s engineers.

Detailed recaps:

The Laboratory of the Hand

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(Art by Sergey Musin)

The night before Thursday, armed with a map of the sewer system, the adventurers went into the sewers and managed to find their way underneath the Windhund Haulage Company. There they found a two-level basement vault with two laboratories. Downstairs, they found a machine similar to the one in Margrethe von Wittgenstein‘s laboratory, Zima and Klaus in cages, and Dmitri on an operating table where Professor Alkazan – a famous scientist and alchemist who had been missing for some time – was about to start operating on him. Alkazan welcomed Marike (as Esther Lieberung) and her company, told them that “The Work” had recently been completed, and apparently agreed to release Dmitri and Zima.

The mood quickly soured when Marike insisted on taking her friends from there and Alkazan called in a horde of wandering dead. After a fight in the laboratory, the adventurers managed to take down Alkazan and his slaves and free Klaus; Zima and Dmitri, already behaving strangely, fled as soon as Alkazan died and disappeared through a secret passage.

In Alkazan’s bedroom, they found the severed head of Josef Spitz, which to their horror turned out to be “alive”. With the help of the air pump device in the laboratory, the head could speak and offered to tell the adventurers everything they wanted to know if they would free it from its suffering.

Spitz’s head supplied and confirmed a good deal of information, including the fact that the Magister took with them the finished Faceless and sent Etelka Herzen and Gustav Klöcker on a mission outside the city, and that “Zima” and “Dmitri” were in fact copies created in the laboratory . The real Zima and Dmitri had been taken on the same expedition as Etelka. Emmelinde and Klaus undertook to track them down.

The adventurers gathered what they could easily get from the laboratory and rigged an explosive charge with gunpowder they found in a storage room to destroy the rest. They brought with them some elixirs and mixtures and also Alkazan’s journal notes, which were unfortunately written in a foreign script.

They also found and rescued the rest of Johann Niederwald’s body, which had buried the next day and finally let him rest in peace. His ghost appeared one last time, thanked them and asked them to greet his sister and ask her for a gift to them on his behalf.

Detailed recaps:

The Continued Ambosstein / Dammenblatz Affair

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The opera (Art from Rough Nights and Hard Days)

The adventurers’ next assignment for Gräfin Marie-Ulrike was to be part of her and the Kurfürstin’s escort to the opera on Friday night. There were some incidents during the evening, first and foremost:

  • Aenlinn received a “we’re waiting” note from the Seeing Circle with some cursed runes; her suppressed hidden power flared up and she burned the letter with just her mind. Wibeke, one of the guards who had already read the letter, had “gotten ill” and fled; in fact she had started growing gray scales on her face and parts of her body. Kethe managed to hide her from the witch-hunter Matthäus Hübkind and his followers, who were spying on the Gräfin’s people; Wernhart smuggled her to Professor Bletzen, who in turn intended to smuggle her on to the discreet surgeon Hochen.
  • During the intermission, Aenlinn discovered and neutralized a steaming herbal concoction that someone had hidden in a potted plant in the atrium of the stall. Someone trying to drug them?
  • In the second act, a couple of apprentice engineers, who had been thrown out earlier, threw a fake bomb at the unpopular Lord Chancellor Josef Speermann‘s booth, causing a brief panic in the theater until the Kurfürstin managed to calm the audience.
  • After the performance, the witch-hunter Hübkind confronted the Gräfin and the Kurfürstin and wanted to ask questions, but was turned away.

The Countess had more work for the adventurers: she asked them to gather all the compromising material they could find about her enemy Baron Eberhard von Dammenblatz; she wanted to bring him to justice for all his suspected foul play, but needed proof. The adventurers began delving into the matter and found some leads: the baron had several enemies willing to speak out against him, including his disgruntled former fighter Bernadette who wanted to bring him down. She eventually helped dig up some juicy gossip about Herr Eberhard’s father, the late Baron Otto.

Gräfin Marie-Ulrike von Ambosstein (Art by Theo Axner)
Freiherr Eberhard von Dammenblatz (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)

The night before Sunday, a thief broke into the adventurers’ room; apparently looking for their loot from the laboratory. They stopped the burglary but failed to take him alive.

At this time, Aenlinn disappeared for a few days; she left a short note saying that her brother Wenzel was in trouble and that she had to help him. So far she has not been forthcoming about what happened, but the others haven’t pressed her on the point either.

On Sunday night, Marike enjoyed a nice dinner at the Showboat with Dammenblatz’s steward Werner Markheim, who leaked a number of tidbits about his master. However, the evening ended less pleasantly when a coachman and Markheim’s treacherous valet Tilmann tried to kidnap them, but they managed to save themselves.

Meanwhile, Emmelinde had returned and told the others that she and Klaus had tracked down the expedition.

Detailed recaps:

The Expedition to Oberholzbek

The adventurers had a few days off and rode – except for Aenlinn, who was still missing – east with Emmelinde to the mining village Oberholzbek, where the Hand’s expedition seemed to be investigating something in the mine. There they discovered that Zima and Dmitri had been bewitched with the help of Klöcker’s alchemical portraits, but they managed to dispel the effect and free them (although they were left badly drained).

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The sign of the Seeing Circle

They also discovered a large party of beastmen and mutants, carrying the mark of the Seeing Circle, heading to Oberholzbek. While the Hand expedition was down in the mine finding what they were looking for – apparently a bounty of warpstone – the adventurers warned the villagers and snooped through Klöcker’s and Etelka Herzen’s alchemical field laboratory. Among Klöcker’s papers, they found some ominous sketches and notes, a couple of which seemed to allude to the demon Gideon.

The adventurers retreated westwards and ambushed the Hand’s expedition. After an inconclusive fight where the adventurers seemed to be gaining the upper hand, a flock of beastmen appeared, lured there by the noise of battle. The adventurers retreated, leaving the two enemy groups to each other.

On the way back to Middenheim, they were attacked by a group of armed men and women led by Theodor Glückstein, the manager of the Windhund Haulage Company. He wanted back what they had stolen from the laboratory. It was a tough fight; the adventurers were hard pressed at first but eventually repulsed the attack. Glückstein was killed in the fight.

Emmelinde and Klaus did not accompany them back to Middenheim, but said goodbye and returned to their home.

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Other travellers on the road (Art from Power Behind the Throne 4E)

Back in Middenheim, they learned that Professor Bletzen had been imprisoned on suspicion of black magic in connection with a raid on the Noctua Society’s latest meeting, and when the university’s vice chancellor, Dr. Janna Eberhauer, went to Lord Chancellor Speermann to complain, he made unwelcome approaches to her – usually very out of character for him. Aenlinn also came back around this time.

Detailed recaps:

The Kurfürstin’s Grand Masquerade Ball

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The masquerade (Art from Rough Nights & Hard Days)

Finally, it was time for the Kurfürstin Annika-Elise’s grand masquerade ball at Nikse House. At the entrance dance, the adventurers got their first glimpse of Kurfurst Boris Todbringer – the Kurfurst, however, seemed frail and withdrew shortly afterwards.

During a mostly enjoyable evening at the masquerade ball, the adventurers observed and experienced, among other things:

  • The singer Eva Dietrich turned out to have had an affair with Baron Otto von Dammenblatz and to be a former member of the very exclusive “Society” around the Kurfurstin where he spent his last night alive.
  • Marike was charmed by the court minstrel Ranveer Lafari (and vice versa).
  • Ser Elke Wensmann once more behaved strangely when the new taxes came up, and by now more people had started noticing.
  • Not only Hanna but also her husband, Thomas Goldwasser, were at the ball! Both were puzzled as to why they had been invited.
  • Wernhart was called in to discreetly help a young man – apparently one of a group of sex workers – who overdosed on something inappropriate. Councillor Gotthard Kepler seemed to be involved somehow.

At the stroke of eleven, the Kurfürstin announced a general hide-and-seek game and the lights were out throughout the house until midnight. During the game, Marike suffered a vision of the murder of Otto von Dammenblatz.

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Lights out! (Art by Sebastian Kowoll)

The hide-and-seek game was followed by a midnight supper. Hanna Kohl-Goldwasser had disappeared; in the basement, the adventurers found a secret ritual room, reminiscent of Samuel’s cult sites, and rescued Hanna and her husband, whom they found trapped in their respective cells near the hall, drugged and half-conscious.

Gräfin Marie-Ulrike told them she had attended a meeting of the Kurfürstin’s “Society” and had been offered initiation but declined. She hadn’t thought it was anything serious, but after the adventurers’ discoveries she was beginning to wonder.

The Gräfin went to confront her cousin the Fürstin, but they were interrupted by a raving Baron Eberhard von Dammenblatz, who again blamed the Gräfin for his father’s death (apparently he had received new information during the evening). The Fürstin dismissed him and he instead accused her, whereupon he suddenly pulled out a concealed pistol and shot her dead, putting a very definitive end to the ball.

Afterwards, the Gräfin explained that she intended to leave Middenheim the very next day, but offered the adventurers a salary to stay in the city over the carnival and report to her about any political developments.

And thus, we segue into Carnival week and the eponymous third act of Power Behind the Throne…

Detailed recaps:

2 thoughts on “Season 3: Power Behind the Throne – Recap So Far (Acts I & II of III)”

  1. davedow

    I love your take on TEW, it’s fascinating to see and great of you to share all this, I only wish I’d come across your blog before I started running the campaign myself (we’re in the early stages of Death on the Reik now)! Your version of Margarethe’s plans and chiming it with Herzen’s sounds really smart. It must take ages to write all this up, I gave up on documenting our sessions (other than GM notes to self) at the end of Enemy In Shadows.

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    1. theoaxner

      Thanks! Yeah, the documenting is time-consuming and sometimes it’s a chore, but I feel it’s worth it for having it later.

      I started this blog as a kind of pay-it-forward in tribute to other campaign blogs that had inspired me, hoping this might give some inspiration to some other GM down the line. 🙂

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