Warlock! The Enemy Within (Traitor's Edition)

[mikeawmids1]

I am running The Enemy Within campaign for WFRP, converted to Warlock! by Greg Saunders. I have changed a few names to fit the setting, but the main plot points of the campaign should remain consistent with the source material.

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 1, 04/01/2024

The PCs;
Adeline, halfling gong farmer (Ellie)
Calvin, human entertainer (Joe)
Fritz, human gambler (Ted)
Gustaf, human bounty hunter (Steve)
Stammig, dwarf inventor (Tom)

The PCs are travelling to the town of Biskerstaf when their coach breaks a wheel, forcing the passengers to continue afoot. Hours pass and dusk settles over the forest. It is unwise to be out after dark, as hungry wolves are the least dangerous denizens that might be watching from the treeline. Finally, the weary travellers spy the welcoming light of a coaching inn ahead.

The common room is occupied by the passengers of a second coach, also bound for Biskerstaf. The coachmen are deep in their cups, but lucid enough to convey the Lady Isolde has paid good silver for privacy. There may be room to ride on the roof of the coach, but anyone who wants a seat inside will have to persuade Her Ladyship to relent.

Calvin relishes the challenge and sets to schmoozing the impressionable young noblewoman with his lusty fiddling. Lady Isolde is transfixed, but her bodyguard Marie gives Calvin the stink-eye. During the performance, Fritz breaks into the noblewoman's room and steals some jewellery from her luggage. To avoid notice, he jumps from a second story window and hides in the stable. When the theft is discovered, Lady Isolde accuses her maid Janna of having sticky fingers.

Gustaf spends his evening brooding in a dark corner of the inn. Stammig matches the coachmen pint for pint, until they both pass out. Adeline earns some walking-around money by mucking out the stables.

The night passes uneventfully. It is approaching noon before the hungover coachmen are ready to depart. Calvin rides with Lady Isolde and her retinue. The rest of the PCs climb onto the roof with the luggage, except for Adeline who clings to the underside of the coach to avoid paying her fare.

After several hours on the road, the skies darken and it begins to rain heavily. The coachmen speed up, hoping to outrun the storm. The road ahead is blocked by an overturned coach, and several hooded figures pick over the wreckage. Vile mutants! The driver loses control and crashes the coach into the flooded ditch. The coach flips over, spilling dazed passengers (and Her Ladyship's luggage) across the muddy road. The horses break loose of their halters and flee into the forest.

Gustaf takes cover behind the overturned coach and takes potshots with his crossbow. Calvin and Marie spill out of the coach to fend off the marauders. Adeline and Fritz take cover in the flooded ditch as the battle rages around them. Stammig runs into the trees to confront a mutant with a grotesquely swollen head. After three mutants are slain, the rest retreat into the underbrush.

TBC

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 2, 11/01/2024 (part 1)

(No Tom this week, hence Stammig's absence from the write-up.)

Rain continues to fall over the Forest of Helmsby. In the aftermath of the muddy scuffle with the mutant highwaymen, the PCs begin looting the dead. Fritz claims a blunderbuss from the driver's bench of the overturned carriage. Gustaf looks inside and is surprised to find a corpse bearing an uncanny resemblance to Calvin! Were it not for the dead man's scraggly beard, the two could be twins! Gustaf searches the doppleganger and finds a bundle of documents identifying the dead man as Kastor Lieberung, the sole beneficiary of a large inheritance awaiting him in Biskerstaf! Too bad he's too dead to claim it. But wait....

Gustaf calls Calvin conspire to steal the dead man's identity and estate. Unbeknownst to the conspirators, Fritz overhears everything, but holds his tongue, for now. Adeline hears nothing, save for the thunder of approaching horses. Hurriedly, Calvin snatches the blunderbuss from Fritz, points it at the dead man's head and pulls the trigger. Blood, brains and skull fragments plaster the inside of the carriage, rendering the corpse unidentifiable.

Moment's later, a patrol of mounted Road Wardens gallop into view. They had been tracking a gang of murderous mutants, and now find their work done for them. The Road Wardens secure the crash site and take statements from the survivors. Lady Isolde's version of events paints the PCs in a heroic light, particularly Calvin who (in her mind at least) fought off the mutants single-handedly. Marie glowers at the scrawny minstrel. Happy to be done with their hunt, the Road Wardens offer to escort Her Ladyship and her retinue (including the PCs) the rest of the way to Biskerstaf.

Two days later, the PCs reach Biskerstaf, arriving on the first day of the Festival of Harvest Thanks. The streets are thronged with revellers and visitors from across the Kingdom. Lady Isolde takes her leave. She is staying with her uncle Friedrich Magirius, and encourages Calvin to visit her before he leaves town. She is certain her uncle will want to reward the man who selflessly hurled himself into danger to protect her from harm. As Marie looks away, Lady Isolde leans in to give Calvin a quick peck on the cheek.

The PCs find lodgings and freshen up after their long journey. Adeline and Fritz go shopping, while Calvin and Gustaf make a beeline for the offices of Lock, Stock & Barrel, solicitors to the late Kastor Lieberung.

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 2, 11/01/2024 (part 2)

The offices of Lock, Stock & Barrel are in a dingy backstreet far from the carnival atmosphere of the town centre. The surrounding buildings look abandoned, fit only for rats and solicitors. Calvin and Gustaf go in and present their stolen documents to a nervous looking clerk. Calvin identifies himself as Kastor Lieberung. The clerk asks them to wait, while he leaves to fetch one of the partners. Time passes, but the clerk does not return. Gustaf tries the door and finds they are locked inside.

A voice from the street orders Kastor Lieberung, Magister Impedimentae of the Cult of the Tenebrous Heart to surrender himself to the King's justice! For once in his life, Calvin is lost for words. Gustaf attempts to break down the back door. Suddenly, screams rend the air, as the men outside are set upon by some unseen assailant. Gustaf succeeds in breaking down the back door, charging into the two thugs lurking in the alley. Knocking the two thugs on their asses, Calvin and Gustaf flee from the scene of the slaughter, and (via a roundabout, circuitous route) make their way back to the boarding house.

Meanwhile, Adeline and Fritz enjoy an uneventful shopping trip. Adeline buys a new cloak and fancy hat. Fritz purchases a shortbow and some light armour. Adeline bumps into her cousin Josef, bargemaster of the Berebeli. He offers Adeline a job, should she ever tire of shoveling other people's poop.

As he is buffered by the crowd, Fritz feels nimble fingers reaching into his pants! A halfling pickpocket has made off with his coin pouch! The grinning thief slips between the bars of a sewer grating. Fritz is too big to follow, but Adeline gives chase! She tustles with the thief and the coin pouch splits open, spilling copper and silver pieces into the filth. The halfling rogue abandons the loot and flees deeper into the sewers. A moment later, Adeline hears a terrifying, drawn-out shriek. Leaving the coins, she quickly exits the dark tunnel and returns to Fritz.

Back at the boarding house, Fritz realises his lucky rock is missing! The thief must have taken it! Fritz really wants that rock back! The PCs resign themselves to explore to the sewers of Biskerstaf.

(... and if you think that was heavy-handed, you should see how this part of the adventure is written in the book.)

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 2, 11/01/2024 (part 3)

Darkness has settled over Biskerstaf, but the Festival of Harvest Thanks continues on late into the night. Forgoing the celebrations, the PCs instead descend into the foul, foetid sewer tunnels beneath the town, in search of Fritz's lucky rock.

It is dark, dank and disgusting. Adeline feels right at home! They soon come across a body bobbing face down in the turgid sludge. It is too big to be the halfling thief, and when Adeline rolls the body over, she reveals the corpse of a human male with his rib cage violently splayed open. All of his internal organs are missing, and what's left of his face (it looks like the rats found him first) is frozen in a rictus of horror. Fritz shakes his head solemnly as he cuts the man's silver wedding band from a bloated finger. Oh dear. Very sad. Anyway....

Following the trail of the halfling thief leads the PCs to a collapsed wall looking into a bricked up and forgotten basement. A sinister octagon has been chalked onto the floor, illuminated by black candles planted at each of the eight points. The skull of a horned beast sits in the centre of the octagon, surrounded by the words ORDO SEPTINARIUS. A trail of fresh blood leads from the octagon to the mutilated body of the halfling thief, now slumped lifelessly over a wooden chest on the far side of the chamber.

This whole setup looks both grim and perilous. How badly does Fritz want his rock back anyway? Badly enough to send Adeline in to grab it for him. She tries not to disturb the octagon, but accidentally knocks over a candle. Oops. Immediately, black smoke spews from the bestial skull, taking the form of a horrifying guardian daemon! Gustaf shrieks and loses Pluck.

The daemon lunges for Adeline, barbed claws tearing at her armour. Its long purple tongue lashes at her like a whip. Fritz loads his blunderbuss and blasts off one of the creature's long, spindly arms - two more sprout in its place!

Ultimately, the PCs overcome the daemon, but not without cost to themselves. Fritz recovers his lucky rock! The chest contains standard cult paraphernalia (hooded robes, sacrificial daggers, etc...), and a secret compartment hiding a mysterious scroll, that nobody reads. A silk handerchief lies at the bottom of the chest, monogrammed with the initials F.M. Calvin recalls that Lady Isolde is staying with her uncle Friedrich Magirius. Now that is interesting....

TBC

(Next session is scheduled for Thursday 18/01/2024.)

 

[GuyBoy]

Loving this. I’m currently playing in the awesome Enemy Within campaign ( using WFRP rules) and this is bringing back great memories of the early part of the story.

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 3, 18/01/2024 (part 1)

Gustaf recognises the dead halfling is Biggy Smallz, a notorious thief with a sizeable bounty on his head. He chucks the corpse in his trusty corpse sack and hauls it to the Watch building. One wall is plastered with Wanted posters, and Gustaf is alarmed to see charcoal sketches of himself and Kalvin labelled Persons of Interest.

Rather than expend time and energy playing hide-and-seek with Johnny Law, the two men hand themselves in for questioning. They are interrogated by Captain Reiner Goertin regarding the bloodbath outside the office of the faux solicitor. Eyewitnesses clocked Kalvin and Gustaf fleeing the scene. Kalvin comes clean about stealing the identity of the late Kastor Lieberung to unlawfully claim his bogus inheritance. Captain Goertin is not wild about identity theft and fines Kalvin 2 gold, but he lacks the evidence to stitch them up for murder. He cuts them loose, with a stern warning not to leave town.

Kalvin and Gustaf decide to pay a social call on Lady Isolde. They have reason to believe her uncle Friedrich may be involved with the Ordo Septinarius (whatever that is). Isolde is delighted to see Kalvin and insists he take her to the festival. Gustaf and Marie follow at a discrete distance. A wrestling ring has been set out in the market square, where a loud-mouthed hawker offers a pouch of silver to anyone who can go three rounds with reigning champion Crusher Braugen. Isolde loudly volunteers Kalvin to fight. Shoved forward by the crowd, Kalvin reluctantly enters the ring. Crusher Braugen floats like a rock and hits like a truck. Kalvin lands a lucky blow that knocks out four of Crusher's teeth, but that just makes the champion mad. Someone in the crowd passes Crusher a steel chair and he proceeds to beat Kalvin halfway to death with it. Gustaf readies the corpse sack. Finally, the bell signals that three minutes are up, and Crusher Braugen celebrates another victorious bout. Gustaf scrapes up what's left of Kalvin and carries him back to Lady Isolde's townhouse to recuperate.

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 3, 18/01/2024 (part 2)

Meanwhile, Stammig seeks out the workshop of his old rival Yoric Limeral. Limeral stole several of Stammig's early designs and made bank, so now Stammig wants revenge! Limeral is planning to unveil his latest invention on the third day of the festival, and Stammig is determined to sabotage the presentation.

In the small hours of the morning, Adeline, Fritz and Stammig break into Limeral's workshop. The invention is revealed to be a complex metal engine that transforms steam power into kinetic force. Stammig studies the machine and identifies a design flaw that will cause a dangerous amount of pressure to build up during use. There is a very real chance the machine will explode when activated!

Just then, Limeral bursts into the workshop brandishing a blunderbuss in defence of his intellectual property! Fritz taps into the power of his lucky rock (actually a small chunk of latent warpstone 'awoken' by exposure to magical residue in the sewer temple) and casts the Night spell. The workshop is engulfed in blinding magical darkness. Limeral stumbles and knocks himself out cold on a workbench. The PCs slip out the back door and return to their lodgings.

Fritz later discovers that his use of the nightstone was not without cost. He wakes the next morning to discover a scaly rash all over his body, and his tongue is now forked like a serpent. He has also developed an unsavoury craving for live food.

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 3, 18/01/2024 (part 3)

Meanwhile, Kalvin wakes up in a plush guest bedroom of the Magirius household. His wounds have been treated, but his entire body is bruised as a wormy apple. Lady Isolde dozes in a chair at his bedside. Kalvin wants to poke around the house and uncover Uncle Friedrich's involvement with the Ordo Septinarius. He crossses the room without disturbing Isolde and reaches for the door. On the other side, someone clears their throat. Marie is standing guard in the hallway. Defeated, Kalvin returns to bed and rouses Isolde.

Kalvin is invited to breakfast with Isolde and her dear Uncle Friedrich. Over a plate of butterbrezel and scrambled eggs, Kalvin asks Friedrich Magirius about the Ordo Septinarius. Magirius seems surprised that Kalvin knows that name, and explains it is a private group of merchants and prominent civil servants working together to improve the prosperity of Biskerstaf.

"That's strange," says Kalvin, sipping his coffee, "Because we have evidence that the Ordo Septinarius is involved in all manner of occult f*ckery."

Gustaf presents the monogrammed handkerchief the party found in the sewers. Magirius is flustered by the outlandish accusations being levied over his breakfast table. He suggests Kalvin is suffering a concussion from his recent injuries and should return to bed. Magirius apologies to his neice and excuses himself. Isolde is furious with Kalvin for upsetting her uncle and flounces off to sulk. Kalvin and Gustaf see themselves out. They tail Magirius to his office at the Guild of Merchants, but do not follow him inside.

 

[mikeawmids1]

The Enemy Within (Warlock!)
Session 3, 18/01/2024 (part 4)

The PCs return to the festival to watch Yoric Limeral's presentation - from a safe distance, of course. Limeral's head is bandaged and he seems particularly out of sorts as he bullies his beleaguered assistants. A crowd gathers to watch the grand unveiling his steam engine to the world - unaware of the imminent peril they are facing in the presence of the malfunctioning machine.

A smiling father lifts a young boy onto his shoulders for a better view over the heads of the gathered onlookers.

"Pater, can we get plum dumplings after this?" the boy asks hopefully.

"Of course we can," his father replies, "It is your birthday after all! "

Stammig says nothing.

A pair of young lovers stop on their way to the park to watch the presentation. The young man carries a picnic hamper and a bright-eyed young woman clings to his other arm.

"Come along Hugo!" she cries, pulling on his arm, "If you dally any longer, all the shady spots will be taken."

"One moment Elsebeth!" her handsome paramour laughs, "I just want to see what all the fuss is about."

Stammig says nothing.

A group of students from Biskerstaf University cluster close to the stage, animatedly debating the technical nuances of Limeral's new invention.

"Just imagine the advances this device could bring about," one student says excitedly, "This machine could spark a true industrial revolution! The lives of many people across the Kingdom could be greatly enriched by harnessing the power of steam!"

Still, Stammig says nothing.

Adeline clears her throat. A cold lump is forming in her stomach. She looks at the group of people gathered around the stage, straining to hear Limeral's spiel over the increasingly loud and worrisome whistle rising from the juddering engine.

"It's not too late to do something," she urges the stony-eyed dwarf, "I know you think Limeral has to suffer for how he wronged you, but those people have done nothing wrong. Is your vengeance worth their lives?"

Stammig says nothing.

Several of Limeral's assistants have realised something is wrong, and begin backing away from the machine. The entire stage is shaking now, as the trapped pressure builds within the metal belly of the engine. Limeral rushes toward the device, frantically seeking some way to avert the looming catastrophe. He burns his hands on the scalding metal. He is too late.

The steam engine explodes, killing Limeral instantaneously and blasting shards of jagged, super-heated metal into the crowd, tearing flesh and bone like a hot knife through streichzart. Many of the onlookers are killed instantly, others are horribly maimed. A father mourns his son, who will never see another birthday. The contents of a picnic basket litter the bloodstained ground.

Stammig turns away from the scene of carnage his callous inaction has wrought, satisfied that his revenge is complete. Adeline feels sick to her stomach. How can Stammig bear this bloody stain on his conscience?

The Watch converge to cordon off the scene of the accident. White shrouds cover the bodies of the dead, while the injured wail for those they have lost. The Festival of Harvest Thanks is over.

 

[GuyBoy]

Superb. The Warhammer Old World is like The Wire or True Detective (series 1) made fantasy.