Episode 42: "Something Knocking" Report
General Summary
The Enemy Within: Death on the Reik
Episode 42 - “Something’s Knocking”
2/20/25 Post-Game Notes
Day 114 - Konistag, 32 Brauzeit, 2512 IC
The crew departs early in the morning from Kemperbad, after stopping off to Orem the Armorer for Kris’s “creature of the night” chainmail upgrade. As they make preparations to head upriver, Kris points out very few ports or seaside villages between Deudorf and Arthdorf, so they purchase food and fresh water to stock in the Wrecking Ball. Godabert theorizes that the barren stretch may be due to the ominous presence of Castle Wittgenstein and its environs; folk legends about familial curses go back generations around there.
- Early in the afternoon, the Crew comes across an abandoned river patrol boat listing by the east bank of the Reik. Looks damaged and mossy, as if it had been partially submerged at some point. Seems to be caught on rocks or foliage.
- As they get closer they noticed spatters of blood or oil on the deck. Crew’s curiosity exceeds their caution, and the four of them pile into the rowboat to investigate.
- No sign of any passengers, but God snatches up the captain’s logbook from the cabin.
- Early in the afternoon, the Crew comes across an abandoned river patrol boat listing by the east bank of the Reik. Looks damaged and mossy, as if it had been partially submerged at some point. Seems to be caught on rocks or foliage.
- As they get closer they noticed spatters of blood or oil on the deck. Crew’s curiosity exceeds their caution, and the four of them pile into the rowboat to investigate.
- No sign of any passengers, but God snatches up the captain’s logbook from the cabin.
- The boat lurches suddenly, and the Crew decide to cheese it back to their own boat.
- After God and Kris get on the rowboat, the reason for the lurching becomes apparent. An enormous bog octopus had been using the boat as bait and it tosses the damaged boat, along with Beau and Karl, aside. Beau manages to nimbly land in the rowboat, but Karl plunges into the river and starts thrashing about as massive tentacles make their way from shore to the boat and its occupants.
- There is a desperate battle aboard the rowboat but, luckily for the Crew, the creature’s slow swipes are ably dodged. Godabert, in an unprecedented show of agility, strength, and wherewithal, grabs a drowning Karl by the arm and tunic and lifts him overhead, crashing down safely into the boat. He then puts an arrow into the eye of the swampy beast (which actually just seems to piss it off).
- Beau plays whac-a-mole with the tentacles that had been hampering the rowboat, smashing them into sludge. Kris puts his stong back into it, and (after one false start in which he whirls the boat back towards the shore and imminent death) rows the boat alongside the Wrecking Ball.
- The Crew clambers over the gunwales, decides to abandon the rowboat, and they sail away from the octopus (almost) none the worse for wear.
- The logbook is stained with blood and water, and most of the entries are illegible, but a recent one reads: ‘Knocking was heard again last night. We spoke with a travelling trader today who claimed that she and her family often hear it, too. She insisted that the noises were made by the spirits of the drowned. She said that there might be ways to talk to these spirits using Morrite rituals or contraptions, but hasn’t the skill to do so herself. I pray to Morr that he take these unquiet dead before I ever have to speak with them!’
That night, at a small tavern outside of Deudorf, The Owl’s Swoll, the clientele seem less interested in hearing about the octopus than they do talking about the river spirits and the horrible Wittgensteins.
- ‘It’s a bad river for disappearances. We find the boats drifting or caught up, but nobody on board — just blood and robbed holds. Sometimes even stoves and furniture are gone. A wedding boat full of nobles vanished last year — a whole minor house just gone! Strigany, too, and probably more than we know about, since they’re none-too fond of us. You find the occasional mutilated body we can link to a particular boat, but mostly people just disappear. Been going on six, maybe seven years and no sign of the culprits. You’d think it was ghosts!’
- ‘Have you heard it, too? The knocking on your hull below the water? It’s drowned children, you know? Trying to find their mothers. Poor little mites. Light a candle for them.’
- ‘You ever see glowing lights in the water, not on it, deep down in it, you steer clear, right? Ghosts they are, river ghosts. Get too close and they’ll pull you down with them!’
- ‘Lots of ghosts in the river. Drownings, accidents, murders. Then there’s the Janni Verdtfang and the Naiads. Won’t come aboard though, not unless you invite them. Just stay out of the water. Wouldn’t even trust rowboats. That’s where they’ll get you.’
- ‘Oh, ghosts can get aboard, even if you don’t invite them. Can’t get you though, you’ll just hear slow footsteps and creaking boards. Sometimes you’ll see wet footprints on the decks. You have to invite them aboard if you want to talk to them, so they say.’
- ‘Wittgendorf is an unhealthy place. All the villagers are simple, but ‘that’s what happens when too many relatives get married.’ It used to be a thriving little town, but no one goes there now.’
- ‘Castle Wittgenstein has an evil reputation. No one has gone near the place for years. Village mothers use the name of the place to frighten their children to sleep, though. “‘Behave, or the castle folk will come for you!”’
- ‘Castle Wittgenstein is a ruin. No one has lived there for years. No one comes, and no one goes.’
Day 115 - Angestag, 33 Brauzeit, 2512 IC
The Crew heads upriver out of Deudorf. In the early afternoon, they pass under the ominous walls of Castle Wittgenstein. The sky is unnaturally dark and Morrslieb, despite not being visible in the night sky for several days, glows a menacing shade of green overhead. As the Crew passes beneath the castle’s gloomy towers, they are hailed by a passing vessel. Its crew warn to keep to the east bank, and direct their attention to something floating in the water.
- They poke at the floating corpse revealing that it was once a person, but now partly resembles a fish, with pinking suckers erupting out of peeling grey, blubbery skin.
- Beau vomits overboard.
- One of the passing merchant boats howls a warning: ‘It’s another wretch from the castle! Who knows what diseases it has? And now you might have them, too!’
- The Crew debate investigating the castle further… and maybe doing something about this so-called curse. Additional warnings from the distant vessel give them pause: ‘Them von Wittgensteins are lords and ladies, so do as they please! Folk say the castle is cursed, and the family along with it, and a plague will take anyone who goes near!’
- They opt out of investigating (choosing caution for, maybe, only the third time ever?) and continue upriver.
Night falls, and they’re still one to two hours from the nearest town. Crew opts to continue sailing cautiously at night rather than tie up alongside the river.
- Karl notices it first – a knocking or tapping that seems to emanate from the lower deck.
- Soon everyone hears it… a distinct tapping or knocking on the hull.
- Beau and God take a lantern down below to investigate. The knocking is all around them, rapping on the outside of the hull from below the water line. God perceives waves of shyish peeking in between planks of the hull.
- Above deck, Kris and Karl note faint lights – dozens of them – below the surface of the water.
- God and Beau rejoin them topside, and God notes more clouds of shyish hugging the water.
- The knocking increases to an almost intolerable level. God asks, what he assumes are spirits, “ are you trying to communicate with us?”
- The knocking ceases for a beat, followed by one resounding knock. “One knock for yes,” whispers Kris.
- Remembering his Morrite teachings, memory jogged by the river patrol logbook, God guides Beau to create a Morr Dial on the deck of the boat. Beau inscribes the letters; God turns over a drinking horn, and a conversation commences…
- M…A…Y…W…E…C…O…M…E…A…B…O…A…R…D
- Um, nope. No way.
- W…E…N…E…E…D…H…E…L…P
- Can we just have a conversation like this?
- W…E…C…A…N…S…P…E…A…K…A…B…O…A…R…D
- The Crew isn’t having it, and votes down any invitation to river ghosts to come onto their boat. The knocking recommences and a plank is heard to begin prying loose below deck. Kris puts his boatbuilding skills to the test and patches it before too much water enters the hold. Thinking they may not have a safer option, God formally invites one ghost to come and talk.
- T…H…A…N…K…Y…O…U
- Above deck, the numerous lights manifest into a myriad of ghosts - Strigany traders, halfling merchants, river patrol wardens - and one, a young woman in a beautiful flowing dress, glowing a deep aquamarine tinged with silver, looking like a bride, drifts onto the deck. She is Klara von Halgau.
- She explains that all of them are victims of a ruthless band of murderers and sadists – pirates who capture travelers and sacrifice them to some nameless evil on their magically hidden island.
- Another ghost, one who looks more sinister, swirling thick and oily, blackly brown against the night, with the occasional rainbow flash of oil on water, identifies himself as Shade. He promises revenge on these pirates as soon as the dark magic is lifted. But to see the island, they will have to grant members of the Crew “deadsight.”
- The Crew agrees. Help them see the island (supposedly just north of the Lorlay, near Stirgau), and they’ll free the ghosts from their curse.
- One by one, Klara or Shade touch the eyeballs of the Crew. God feels the suppressed demonic visions that were “gifted” to him following his study of the Clocktower vanish like a forgotten dream.
They reach Arthdorf in the late evening, gaining entry and a meal despite the late hour. At a table near the hearth, they are surprised to run into their old pals Yevgeni Dostal, Dieter Desch, and Mixo Fuchs.
Interlude:
“I knew we would meet again, Chegan! Have watery beer with us and tell of adventures!” Yevgeni kicks out both of his feet at once, sending a pair of chairs skidding towards the Crew.
“I didn’t expect it, to be honest.” Mixo shrugs. “And now, I’m a little nervous.”
Dieter is the last one to speak. “I agree with Yevgeni, actually.” He raises a finger to the barmaid to request more libations. “Somehow I knew we’d be together again. So… what have you all been up to?”
* * *
Rewards Granted
XP
- 10 for recovering the Stirgau river patrol logbook (All)
- 10 for saving Karl from becoming octopus food (God)
- 10 for releasing the rowboat from the tentacles by smashing, and smashing some more (Beau)
- 10 for getting the Crew out of danger (Kris)
- 10 for socializing and getting lots of folks in Deudorf talking about the ghosts (All)
- 10 for crafting and running the Morr Dial (God and Beau)
- 15 for agreeing to help the ghosts (All)
- 15 for accepting Deadsight (All)
- 25 for a tight sesh
- Godabert: 95
- Beau: 95
- Karl: 75
- Kris: 85
Loot
- Kris’s upgraded black-enameled chainmail
- Week’s worth of provisions - food & water - for the boat
- Log book from river patrol boat, home port of Stirgau
- Minus loot: they abandoned their rowboat
- “Deadsight” (lasts until river ghosts are released from the mortal plane)
Character(s) interacted with
Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged:
- Deudorf, the Owl’s Swoll tavern
- Wittgendorf and Castle Wittgenstein (environs)
- Klara von Halgau and Shade, vengeful river ghosts
- Arthdorf, the Coal’s Miner’s Otter Bar & Grill
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