Diversity Hires, part 11: River Cruise

We last saw the team boarding a river boat in the hope of making it to Ruhrhoff before the vampires.

The journey was for the most part uneventful. We passed a town consisting mostly of wineries, but inexplicably weren't able to stop. We also saw a chaos troll on the side of the river, but given that it was a mutant with only one leg it seemed unnecessarily cruel to go attacking it, and we left it hopping along. We also saw a tree with several corpses hanging from it, but decided we didn't want to get involved with whatever that was.

We did stop to deal with some mutants who had some bandits tied up and were taking them to make them touch a warpstone. Burlok had ambitions to become an outlaw chief, a profession that naturally required some outlaws to be the chief of. Accordingly we rescued the bandits from the mutants and took them with us on the boat, a process that involved Armando leaping dramatically off the boat, firing his pistols as he went, in a spectacularly display that may even have included successfully shooting someone as well as looking cool.

Eventually we ran out of river and had to continue on foot. We were very glad to find the village of Kietchdorf, which had an inn that served beer, and decided to stop off for a drink. Burlok sent his outlaws to the general store to buy a weapon for them to share. On discovering the village was afflicted by plague, Frida donned her leather doctoring outfit and went out to investigate. Having observed that the landlord and other inn dwellers seemed unaffected by the plague, she recommended to the afflicted that they should stop drinking water and drink beer instead. And also rub themselves with raw onions. Because medicine.

In the inn, we learned about a missing teenager who was wearing a family ring. It appeared he was most likely in Ruhrhoff, and we made a note to look out for him when we got there. We also paid a visit to the well, so Gildiril could check it for magic. It wasn't, but on a hunch we decided to keep watch at night and see if anything happened.

Something did indeed happen. We caught the culprit, who continued to deny having done anything despite the fact we literally saw him pouring something into the well. Frida finally got to use her manacles, but he didn't seem to mind being tortured. Eventually he was persuaded to talk by more ethical means, and we learned that it was indeed a plot by Nurgle cultists to try to convert the villagers to the ruinous powers.

Frida prescribed more beer for everyone and we continued on our way.

The town of Ruhrhoff was something of a disappointment, having been ruined at some point. We made our way to Schoenstrasse and found the house we were looking for. It was similarly a ruin, and we headed straight for the cellar. The cellar was appalling, covered in blood and bits of dried flesh, with an outline showing where the necklace had once been. Frida left immediately, feeling a little unwell. Naturally this was the moment when the cultists showed up.

Will Burlok's outlaws stay with him after having to fight Nurgle cultists? Will the team catch up with the vampires, the cult, or whoever has kidnapped/stolen who/what at this point? Find out next time on Diversity Hires!