An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.


Still no luck finding Bardin’s daughter, sad to say. It’s depressing, really. Time was, a goblin couldn’t sneeze within the bounds of the Old World without me hearing about it – if I were interested in greenskin nasal discharges, leastways – but nowadays it’s getting harder and harder to lay my hands on solid information. Getting old, that’s the problem. Spying’s a young man’s game.

Recent events don’t exactly help. World’s gone mad, and that’s trouble for those of us who pride ourselves on having a bit of sanity left.

So what do I actually know? Well, I’ve had word from Barak Varr that a Hedda Bardinsdottir took ship – as captain, no less – on the nautilus Grungni’s Whisper about a year back. Nothing since, not about the Whisper, nor anyone aboard. Mind you, that’s about standard for a nautilus. Sneaky little submersibles. I like ‘em. I tell you, if we had even one patrolling the waters of the Reik, this Rotblood bother of ours would be much less of a bother. Nothing says ‘get off my land’ better than a torpedo right in the supply barge.

But I digress. Might be that this disappearance is where the tale ends, but my twitching nose says otherwise. This don’t feel like an accidental disappearance, but something deliberate. The Whisper doesn’t want to be found, and likely neither does young Hedda.

I suppose I’m left with no other choice but to see if her mother has any ideas. Not something I do lightly. ‘Overprotective’ doesn’t begin to do dwarf lasses justice. You know how you never see their womenfolk in the battle line? That ain’t because they can’t fight. It’s because every dwarf knows that when you march to war, you leave your sharpest axes behind to defend your home, like Valaya tells you. If you’ve not heard that before, happen you’ll want to think on why that might be.

If the thought of charging a dwarf shield wall chills the blood, spare a thought for those who sneak into what they think is an abandoned hold when the menfolk are away. I’d sooner corner a dragon in its lair than chance the fury of a dwarf maid defending her clan’s beardlings and her ancestor’s tombs, so you can see why I’m wary of troubling Grelda Thrangsdottir about private family matters.

Still, I owe it to Bardin to try. Let’s hope I don’t regret it.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

Well, if the icy wind and brooding skies weren’t enough of a clue, Mondstille’s upon us, and the end of the year close behind. Of course, some say the end of the world’s looming as well, but they always do around this time. Something about being forced to spend more time with their families, I reckon. Never understood it myself.

We’ve had a sizeable pack of wolves take up residence on the mountainside south of the keep. I tell you, I’ve heard a lot and seen more, but their howls still send a shiver along my spine. Right nasty bunch these wolves are too, with a scar-faced leader who looks like he’s got a nasty bit of cleverness hiding in his noggin. One of Ulric’s own, I shouldn’t imagine. If ever there was a god who liked reminding everyone that he’s the big cheese, it’s Ulric, and he probably reckons we’ve been getting a bit uppity of late.

After the lurking lupines (as distinct to lupins, which are no bother to anyone, really) ate that messenger boy … poor lad … our old Kruber decided to resurrect an old Mondstille tradition. He’s been hunting ‘em down, skinning ‘em and nailing their pelts to fence, beam and signpost to warn off the survivors, and to let old Ulric know that we’re not about to let his furry children take liberties around Taal’s Horn Keep, thank you very much.

Never seen Kruber so happy, if I’m honest. I think it’s something to do with the fact that, for once, he’s not engaged in a life or death struggle with something unbelievably ghastly. It’s just man versus nature, and man’s bloody to the elbows. Then again, I’d be a bit cheerier myself if Kruber hadn’t taken to wearing the spare pelts and living out in the wilds. Worse, he keeps giving the wolf meat to Bardin, and we all remember ‘Stewed Fox Surprise’ well enough to know how that’s going to play out.

Still, I think the end’s in sight. Scar-Face is about the only wolf left now, and Kerillian’s insisted on joining the hunt to – and I quote – ‘put the lumbering brute out of his misery once and for all’.

I don’t think she means Kruber, but I’ve learned it’s best not to make assumptions where our elf is concerned. I might ask Sienna to tag along, just for safety.

My name is Alina, and I am a Visual Special Effects (VFX) artist at Fatshark.

I have been working at Fatshark for just over a year, and I help create the VFX for Warhammer: Vermintide 2.

What is VFX? It is all of the explosions, sparks, fire, gas clouds... I could go on forever.

When I am not working, I like to cuddle with my dog 'Buffy' and play DnD and video games. Some of my current favorite games are Hollow Knight, Hades, and Psychonauts.

Today I want to talk about the VFX I created for our newest career: the Outcast Engineer. If you don't know about the new career for Bardin Goreksson, I suggest you read more about it here.

Before my job started with the VFX, we began talking about the idea that it could be interesting to have a ranged only career, and the new weapons and gameplay mechanics we might use for this career. Now we know that the Outcast Engineer is not a fully ranged career, but that is where we started.

The concept was an Engineer who essentially made his own weapons. One of the challenges for me was in differentiating the engineer weapons from the Skaven ones. The key was having just enough sparks to hint at a weapon built with cogs and machinations without confusing the player with the haphazardly constructed Skaven weapons.

To create the perfect effects, I have researched how bullets travel through the air by watching videos, gifs, and any interesting bullet trail images I could find. Some of my favorite resources for this were slow-motion videos of bullets shot from various weapons. Another element I was interested in for this career were sparks, mainly from the friction of gears and metal on metal.

One of the effects I was focusing on was the bullet trail for the Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk II), as it is the star of Bardin's new career. Something I found particularly challenging about making this effect come to life was the fact that while it has the physics or the general idea of a bullet-weapon, the weapon itself is steam-operated rather than dependent on gunpowder. In other words, the bullet trail needed to show that air is pushing the bullet as it is fired and leaves the barrel. This was important because it is not a gunpowder weapon or an electrical weapon that e.g. could create a beam. This took a lot of experimentation and continuously looking back to the reference material of how air moves around a fired bullet. If the trail was too shiny there was a risk of it looking far too sci-fi for Vermintide 2.

Another fun effect I got to work on was the Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk II)'s venting mechanism that happens when the ability bar is fully charged. We had to create a way of telling players that it was time to stop cranking. Here we thought more in-depth about the functionality of the weapon and how it would work in battle. It had to clearly show that the weapon was ready to be used again, fit with the Outcast Engineer's theme, and ensure that it helps with the pacing of using, recharging, and resting the MK II. There were several options we considered: would it overheat? A cog stuck in the mechanism? Pressure building?

We agreed that the steam-operated weapons’ pressure builds up and will need to be released in some way.

I looked into different items that produce steam in daily life. Some things I studied were teapots, irons, steam cleaners, and humidifiers. Sadly, those items are not steam-operated, but they helped me to better grasp how the effect would look when the steam vents more aggressively, how fast it would be, how far it reaches, and at what point it would dissipate into the air.



We eventually went for the concept of the pressure from the steam being too great and requiring venting. The overheating/venting mechanism also appears when a player has cranked for too long. Build up too much pressure in a machine, and it will eventually not be able to build any more pressure. This helped us create a mechanism where we force a break and limit how much a player can crank and, ultimately, for how long Bardin can use the gun.

Working on this career was so exciting and engaging, I hope you all have a lot of fun playing it as it was for me taking part in creating it.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

Well, the nights are drawing in, and the days are sure as stone getting colder. Why, I’ve had to send some of the lads down the mountain to gather more timber for the watchfires to save them icing right to the ground. Much to my surprise, Saltzpyre went with ‘em. Then again, I suppose if anyone has an eye for good kindling, it’s a witch hunter.

Puts me in mind of a time from my mercenary days, back over in Bluchendorf. Coldest winter on record. Priest froze to his pulpit, and if there was an hour’s worth of light in the sky before the storms closed in, you were doing well. On top of that, we started getting reports of ghastly spirits on the road, attacking those few travellers who dared brave the weather. No laughing matter, because food was running short and the village was reliant on caravans from outside.

Luckily for them, me and some of the lads were up for a bit of ghost hunting. Not gladly, mind. I know plenty of folk think otherworldly spirits are just stuff and nonsense, but when you see the state of Sylvania you look at things a bit different. Some of the stories came complete with reports of bodies drained of blood and left hanging in the trees – one survivor even came raving a tale about the ‘Old Baron of Bluchendorf’ and his terrible, bloody fangs. So it seemed we had the choice of starving to death or becoming something else’s lunch.

So me and Schepke, we took a group of folks went looking for whatever it was causing the mischief. Unfortunately, between the blizzard, the trees and what I can only describe as a really bloody poor sense of direction, we wandered in circles for six days, never once catching sight of our quarry.

Pretty soon we were all jumpy and foul-tempered, and that only got worse when young Hans froze to death. Couple of the lads wanted to eat him – not like something else wasn’t gonna, I guess – but that sort of thing’s never sat well with me, so I gave ‘em a clout to knock some sense back into their heads.

Then, on the seventh day, we woke shivering and starving to find ourselves surrounded by what, at first, seemed to be the same ghastly apparitions we’d been seeking. And so they were, sort of. You see, our mystery assailants were nothing more than a bunch of deserters, dressed in pale rags coated with glowing shellfish juices to really sell the idea. The so-called ‘Old Baron’ was the exception. Dressed up in what he probably thought was the spitting image of a Sylvanian Count, though what self-respecting bloodsucker hangs about in a Hochland forest in a velvet suit – complete with flowing cape – I’ve no idea. Snags something terrible, it does. And did.

Seems this lot had come marching down out of Ostland, where they’d played this particular game to great effect on the Wolfenburg-Levudaldorf road. If folk think there’s a bunch of cut-throats on the prowl, well they send out the militia, don’t they? But if they think there’s something supernatural at work, they’re a bit less keen to take action, ain’t they? All that ‘blood-drained corpses’ bit was just another way to sell the myth, though I don’t imagine it mattered to the corpses themselves.

Anyway, we’d come out looking for ghosts, and found a bunch of aspirational ne’er do wells. Not normally a problem – though I didn’t have my magic sword in those days, we were still a capable bunch. When warm. And fed.

As it was, we were lucky to get away. Plenty of us didn’t. The rest crawled back into Bluchendorf half-dead, and smarting for revenge. Happily, by the time I could hold a sword, a company of Hochlander huntsmen had arrived in the village. During the next lull in the storm, we went back out mob-handed with murder in our hearts.

Only … we never found the deserters. Or rather, we did, but not quite how we wanted. As night fell, we found a whole mess of blood-drained bodies, hanging from the trees. Horrid little upside-down forest beneath the forest, the branches hung heavy with flesh too cold to rot. Our ‘ghosts’ done unto by unknown hands as they’d been doing unto others themselves.

The so-called ‘Old Baron’ was with them. Right at the heart of the carnage, in fact, hanging from the branches of a twisted old yew, throat ripped open and that ridiculous cloak gone. Had a scrap of paper in his breast pocket, and on it a message written in a beautiful copperplate hand. I can still see it, clear as day.

‘There are enough horrors in this world, without pretenders.’

I don’t know why I looked behind me at that moment, but I did. And there she was, standing framed against the trees, the Baron’s cloak wrapped tight about white dress, and a mocking finger pressed to bloody lips, urging me to silence. And then she was gone, leaving me croaking for help. No one else had caught a glimpse, or so they said.

Felt her eyes on me all the way back to Bluchendorf, I did.

I wonder how Saltzpyre’s getting on?

Patch 4.0.1 & 4.0.2 are live which fix mostly crashes. For players who experienced a higher ping than usual since 3.4 are encouraged to try out the Steam BETA app as Valve have pushed some changes there which may alleviate the issue - do feedback if this helped (or not) so we can adjust accordingly going forward.

• Fixed a crash when Kruber's handgun appears in a chest/inventory/the athanor.

• Fixed a crash when finishing a game with some mutators activated.
  
• Fixed an instance of the UI not showing which players are inside the bridge of shadows when hot-joining.
  
• Fixed a crash when someone applies illusion on a melee item that is equipped in ranged slot (Grail Knight, Slayer).
  
• Fixed a UI crash that happened when the game restarted while a popup was open.
  
• Fixed a crash when leaving game as Twitch darkness mutator is being turned on.
  
• Fixed a crash that can happen during host migration or quitting the game while level is loading.
  
• Fixed various unspecified crashes.

Last time we had a bit of a natter, you were asking me about the refurbishment of this here keep, I believe?

How do you feel about it now it’s bedding in, by the way? I reckon it’s practical to put the armoury and the forge next to one another. Although now I come to think of it, maybe storing black powder bombs next to open flames wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. Still, it’ll be a night to remember, if nothing else. And it’s not like any of us are clumsy old sods, is it?

Well, it’s not like all of us are clumsy old sods, anyway. Maybe we ought to lock that bomb cabinet up? And keep the key well hidden.

Anyhow, about the closed-off sections of the keep. That’s a bit of a necessity, I’m afraid. My mate Rosalinde – who as I’m sure you’ll recall, what with you all taking eager notes and trying to second guess my motivations, is a Light Wizard specialising in architecture – prefers to complete these little projects of hers stage by stage. Likes to keep everything in her head so as to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving out the odd buttress here or there.

It’s not perfect: her memory has limits, and there are holes everywhere. Those warning signs aren’t just for show. I’ve got a couple of my lads lending a hand as well, just to be sure. Personally, I reckon that’s just good sense when you’re as far up a mountain as we are. No sense us helping out the Pactsworn with a bit of shoddy stonework over a sheer drop, now is there?

As to what Rosalinde’s working on? Well, that’s secret, for now.

Oh, don’t look at me like that. What’s life without one or two surprises, eh? And this’ll be the good kind of surprise, not the ‘Kerillian’s been putting funny herbs in the ale barrels’ kind of surprise. I’m all for new experiences, but seeing through time and space ain’t one of them. Had a splitting headache for days after, but I got off light.

Three days, someone thought they were a sheep, didn’t they? We’ll say no more about it.

Welcome to Season 4 for Winds of Magic on PC. Together with Winds of Magic Season 4 we are also bringing some fixes to Vermintide 2 on PC. Full patch notes can be found below.


The new Season for Winds of Magic is now live. The leaderboards have been reset, and new portrait frames can be unlocked by clearing Weave 40, 80, 120 and 160. Good luck!

If you finish a quick play Weave you will also be rewarded with a new portrait frame. The Weaves have of course been reshuffled in a new order.

• Fixed various unspecified crashes.
  
• Fixed a sound issue on jumping/landing with the Masterwork Pistol and Kerillian's Spear & Shield.
  
• Fixed engineer Bombardment challenge being rewarded randomly to players.
  
• Fixed all players in the lobby gaining progress towards "Where's the Kaboom?" Engineer challenge when the Engineer killed enemies with bombs.
  
• Fixed players not reciving essence from quickplay.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that can happen when grabbed by a Packmaster.
  
• Fixed a Weaves exploit where players could force a despawn of enemies.
  
• Moved the mission timer to the TAB screen.
  
• Fixed a crash related to upgrading the Coghammer.
  
• Fixed a crash related to using the Coghammer in the Athanor.

Taal’s Horn Keep has recently seen a bit of a change. Seems we have to once more turn to Lohner to get the full story… Or parts of it.

So, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve made a few changes around the keep.

Why? Well, leaving aside the fact that variety’s the spice of life, this place was never meant for long-term habitation (that’s ‘living’ to you and me, Kruber), let alone being any kind of military outpost … which the way things are going, we’ll end up being sooner rather than later. And then there’s the fact that Olesya keeps taking up ever more room, Catrinne needs more space to store her works of art. It’s getting a mite crowded.

Then there’s this other business Saltzpyre keeps muttering about. Might need some extra space for that and all. ​And ​ there’s my stockroom to consider. The pumpkin collection. It all takes up space, you know.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes.

I had a bit of a chat with an old mate of mine, name of Rosalinde. She’s an architect by trade, with a side-line in Light Magic, which is very handy when it comes to moving masses of stone very quickly. Something about stone remembering when it was part of the hills, or something. It’s all above my head, if I’m honest, but I’m sure she knows what she’s about.

Best bit is, Rosalinde owes me the odd favour. So we’ve had a conflab and she’s done a bit of rearranging. Clever lass. Came up with all kinds of space-saving suggestions, and I took the liberty of getting the first wave organised while you were last out indulging in a bit of the old ‘derring do’.

Had to veto a couple of ideas along the way, of course. She wanted an entire room just for stray cats. I warned her off that one. You invite stray cats in here, I said, and Bardin’ll put them in a stew. Or Saltzpyre will give ‘em a terminal fright by practising his smile on ‘em. So … No cats. Probably for the best. And the jury’s still out on the roof garden – I’ll have to think about that. As to the rest, maybe I’ll tell you about it next time.

Welcome to patch 3.4.2 on PC.

This update brings you some fixes to issues that were introduced in patch 3.4 as well as some additional tweaks.

• Bots should now step out of the line of fire when Outcast Engineer readies his Crank Gun.
  
• Bots should now drop Grimoires if instructed to.
  
• It should once again be possible to pass off an incendiary bomb with 'E'.
  
• When using console HUD and swapping between KBM and controller, weapon prompts should no longer be visible.
  
• Tweaked the size of the ability bar fill texture a bit for the gamepad HUD.
  
• Fix the "spark" VFX getting stuck in view if swapping weapon from the Crank Gun whilst cranking it.
  
• Bardin's wonderful beard should no longer freak out at sub 30 FPS.
  
• Fixed for Weaves with multiple objectives not activating next objective once the first one is completed.
  
• Fixed a softlock on Weave 7.
  
• "Stout Heart, Steady Aim" challenge can now be completed if Bardin uses the Alt-Fire to fulfill the criteria.
  
• Masterwork Pistol reload is now finished when the magazine is inserted into the weapon, and the animation will also scale properly with buffs.
  
• Sound when inspecting the Masterwork Pistol now stops when you abort inspection.
  
• Slayer Bardin's pose with the Coghammer now more... characteristic.
  
• Fixed an issue where Kerillian's notched arrows could wig out when jumping about.
  
• Fixed Outcast Engineer gloves in 1st person not matching the correct colours shown for the skin in inventory screen.
  
• Fixed Outcast Engineer portrait frames disappearing after obtaining them and reloading the game.
  
• Fixed double "player is joining the game" message in chat.
  
• Various misc. crash fixes.

Heroes,

We've put live a hotfix to resolve the issues listed below:

• Fixed 2 of the most common crashes
  
• Fixed an issue where the Outcast Engineer would be wearing the wrong helmet on the hero selection screen if the DLC was not owned
  
• Fixed the 'Fundemental Force' Okri's Challenge being completed for host when completed by client
  
• Fixed Packmasters doing a 180 spin when hooking clients
  
• Added subtitles for the Outcast Engineer's introductory trailer
  
• Fixed an issue where pressure stacks would be lost when the ability bar reached maximum with the 'Experimental Steam Capacitors' talent