The Prophet of Grunwald - Prelude - Welcome to the Red Orc

In our opening, you all came to be in the town of Grunwald on the shores of the River Talabec.

Grunwald is a fairly wealthy town of 250 souls that benefits from being along the border with Kislev as well as near the intersection of three Imperial provinces. This means authority is often a little fluid, making for easier trade (and smuggling). Like most towns in the area, Grunwald currently has something of a deficit of adult men, as 25 or so were conscripted into the Empire army as part of the war effort.



You arrived in town for various reasons and with various agendas:
  • Siegfried arrived as part of setting up an operation to smuggle weapons gathered in Grunwald, to sell them in Erengrad (a large city in Kislev). He met his local contact Gerda (the brains of the operation) and her lowlife partner Thomel. He saw that a small warehouse was set up to gather the goods and installed himself at The Red Orc Inn.
  • Berend arrived following a religious vision of a stag consumed by pestilence and a snake slithering into a burning town. Upon arrival, Barend saw young fools desecrating a shrine and went to the Red Orc, where the Innkeeper Emmanuelle maintains a shrine to Taal.
  • Olessia arrived at the behest of her Ice Witch teacher. She is to protect the Kislevite population in the town (and represent the interests of the the Ice Witch sisterhood). She was greeted with trepidation by the seamstress Lilia and with a bit more warmth by the apothecary Marina Ryabov and her husband Vyacheslav. Thankful to have someone there to protect fellow Kislevites, they put Olessia up at the Red Orc.
  • Yuric arrived from Erengrad to represent the interests of the Kislevite side of Gerda's smuggling scheme. His trip was uneventful until the entire crew of his ferry across the Talabec was slaughtered by some unseen force. The Grunwald Riverwardens put him in the Red Orc.
  • Ploog has lived in Grunwald for sometime, coming to town after his cousin Hoibur Ironhammer set up as the blacksmith. Ploog serves as the town jailer, and comes to the Red Orc to drink.
In the last week or so, Grunwald has been in the grip of some sort of rising religious fervor. A riverboat called The Hammer came into port, carrying with it a group of preachers led by a Father Thomas.

Calling their message the "Voice of Sigmar," Thomas and his followers preach that the current order is corrupt and has fallen far from the vision of their god (Sigmar, the deified founder of the Empire). Thomas's company includes flagellants and other apparent zealots.

Town-members have lined up to enter the riverboat and hear the Voice, and acts of extremism seem to be taking hold. Followers of the Voice were responsible for the shrine desecration and they seem to have built a makeshift stockade in the town square.

That night, a crowd of these zealots gather in front of the Red Orc with torches and chant "Bring Out the Sinners!"

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