Coffee, Code, and Chronicles

Niklos Kaunitz was born under the sign of Mummet the Fool in 2497 IC. Raised by an artistic father that traded in calligraphy for social and official business, Niklos was expected to carry on his father's trade. While he was naturally gifted with a brush and ink, he was bored with “learning his letters." Niklos instead found trading his physical talents as muscle earned far better coin, to one that didn't have a lot of expenses living under another's roof. When the roof was no longer available, Niklos's coin didn't go as far. He still could earn with his fists. Niklos's follow through in a fight was earning him a reputation. You owed Niklos in a card game and couldn't pay, pray he pulled his punches and left you with coin for a drink to numb pain. Niklos ran a few games in Übersreik before the Institute crossed his path. He was about to petition “the Guild" for more tables for games and cement his position as a racketeer. Yet Niklos soon found hims...

The cosmopolitan city-state of Marienburg, capital of the “Wasteland," is home to scores of respectable taverns, clubs, and restaurants, catering to an ever growing merchant class calling the largest port of the River Reik home. Serving the lower classes in the districts of Marienburg are hundreds of watering holes, dives, dens, and snugs. One such Kneipe  is the Brickskeller, or in the common tongue, Brick Cellar. Here the criminal boss Pit van Kars, a priest of Ranald, the patron deity of all rogues, and his gang, all acolytes to be sure, runs his city wide operations. As a priest, if part-time, he evangelizes to all that seek meaning to their behaviors and absolution for the actions on the streets and canals of Marienburg. Herr van Kars influence is far reaching, as far north as Almshoven and very likely with cult contacts deep in the Empire itself. His operation is without boundaries in endeavor or entrepreneurship. Herr van Kars is known to employ the finest forgers in Marien...

 Niklos Kaunitz Tales and the Game Mechanics The Tail and The Bridge is a narrative crafted from the events of a recent game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, fourth edition (WFRP4e). Niklos Kaunitz is my player-character, PC for short. The in-game narrative around Niklos is much more than just this first tale. We've been playing for more than a year. WFRP is built around a fantasy, pseudo-Germanic, 15th-16th century world populated by Elves, Dwarves, Men, Halflings, Magic, Gods, and a menagerie  beasts and humanoids. The game is almost as old as Dungeons and Dragons, but its world is largely a singular narrative cf.  D&D's multiverse. The game is billed as A Grim World of Perilous Adventure . It's not low fantasy nor is it high fantasy. It is "mud and blood" to borrow a phrase from my favorite WFRP "actual play" podcast of the same name . WFRP's character mechanics are built on "careers." It is the stand out difference from many other Rol...

A Niklos Kaunitz Tale Intrigue was something Niklos was use to. Gangs practiced it. Bosses practiced it. The streets of Marienburg were full of it being practiced. But the intrigue of “The Institute" was something else altogether. This was Guild and Noble intrigue. The kind of Intrigue Niklos was use to was much simpler with often more brutal ends. Already the members of this Institute had left him charged with a lead lined box of wyrdstone for a couple of weeks. Two weeks longer than he wanted the charge once the contents were no longer speculation. On his part or his “friends" part.  Niklos's “friends." In the last month, what was simply four citizens of the Empire thrown into a common lot has become service to intrigue in service of more power, with or without wyrdstone or sorcery or the touch of gods, good or ruinous. Niklos's shoulder and elbow were finally healed after a lightning strike, clearly of sorcerous origin, at “the arcane  Turm ." The Institu...