Hi guys,

I've started writing an adventure/campaign that may take place right after the intro adventure from ToA and possibly link to the Stromdorf adventure that is coming up. This is all new to me (WFRP3 is my first PnP RPG and I only GM-ed a few sessions so far) so I suspect I might be doing something very wrong. I'll give you a short description of each chapter with a list of the main activities involved there. I'd really appreciate some tips, critique, notes possible pitfalls and any general suggestions.

The adventure is meant to have encounters with various types of enemies from the Old World, have some espionage action, some diplomacy/bribery/blackmail, a few chases, a zombie invasion, mystic artefacts (two of them actually) and possibly an epic battle that would question the party's moral choices. It's stuff for about 6 to 9 sessions but there's room for inserting some sidetracks later on. Here goes...

NOTE: IF ANYBODY FROM MY PLAY GROUP READS THIS, PLEASE STOP NOW!! YOU'LL RUIN YOUR EXPERIENCE IF YOU READ THIS! THANKS!

In The Wrong Hands - Part One

Chapter 1 - A Noble Quest
Ubersreik - pop. 3500; army: 40b / 500c

A minor noble in Ubersreik (Lord Aschaffenberg trusts the party if you've completed Eye for an Eye) asks the party to pick a small package from a riend of his in Altdorf, and take it to Karak Azgaraz to hand it to the dwarven King there. The contents of the package are extremely dangerous if fallen in the wrong hands. Utmost discretion is essential for the task - no one in Altdorf should know where the party came from, nor the direction in which the party would leave the city with the package. The party are adviced to stay away from main roads, and make any stays in towns quick and eventless. The task is not too urgent but still needs to be taken care of carefully and in timely manner.
Negotiate payment and advance
Get more information about the package
Restock supplies for the journey
Get horses

Chapter 2 - Sum 'Ead Bashin'
Auerswald - pop. 5000; army: 50b / 400c

Traveling north through the mountains in the night before the party reaches Auerswald, they find an Orcish camp. It looks like this war band of over 80 orcs has been prepeared for assault of a small town. Observation and folklore checks reveal that the war band consists of orc boyz from three different clans and the captain's tent is near the edge of camp, guarded by two orcs of different clans. Stealth, guile and wizard's illusions may be used to take out the commander and blame it to the other clans or just create a feud between a few of orcs from different. This should be enough for the whole camp to fall into chaos and effectively disband the remains of the war band.
- Scout the camp
- Make checks and reward with hints about the nature of orcish clans an their fragile alliances
- Find a way to raise tension between the clans enough for them to start a fight amongst themselves
- Leave unnoticed
- May get a night's rest in Auerswald

Chapter 3 - Race to Grunburg
Grunburg - pop. 2400; army: 25b / 100c

On the way north towards Grunburg, the party sees another orcish war band travelling parallel to them, hidden in the trees. The party can count over 200 troops - orc boyz, boar boyz and a few big'uns - all under the same banna! The party can race them to Grunburg in hope of warning the city guards for the approaching invasion. Arriving early reveals that Grusburg is already under siege by a formidable greenskin forces - everything from snotlings and night goblins to black orcs and big'uns. Small squads are scouting the area, eliminating any passing messengers and other misfortuned folk outside of town. The greenskin force is not enough to break into the fortified city but with all roads in and out of town blocked, the people will likely perrish soon after the arrival of the second warband. Any relevant checks or common knowlege may hint the party to try and get help from Fortress Reiksgard.
- Hurry to Grunsburg
- Avoid scouting greenskin squads
- Try saving a persued messenger
- Scout and make rough notes about greenskin forces besieging the town

Chapter 4 - Reiksgard to the Rescue!
Reiksgard - pop. 400; army: 300c

Quickly get to Reiksgard. The party should't let any scouts slow them down. Find a way to speak to the general by either getting an audience with him, sneaking in his halls or learning about his routines through town and meet him while he's out. The general is reluctant to send any forces in help of Grunburg as that would weaken the fortress deffences in a time when they may be the next under siege. If he can't be persuaded in a civilized manner (by charm, guile, intuition, leadership) the party may go on a quick investigation revealing an embarrasing secret about his personal life to blackmail him. Once on their side the party can supply him with all the information about the siege they managed to gather. This will affect the outcome of the battle for Grunsburg.
- Hurry to Reiksgard, avoiding or outrunning greenskin scouting squads
- Get to talk to the general of the Reiksgard army
- Persuade him to lead his forces to Grunburg
- Provide tactical information about the siege and the greenskin forces
- Delays or missing tactical info may eventually lead to the destruction of Grunburg

In The Wrong Hands - Part Two

For the second part I've only included short summaries of the events in each chapter. Will ellaborate on those later.

Chapter 1 - Sent by Lord Who...?
Altdorf

The man they have to get the package from doesn't trust the party and pretends he doesn't know the noble who sent them (may be revealed that he's pretending by an intuition vs guile check). The party must perform some social quest to gain his trust. After getting the package they have to sneak out of the city unnoticed or lose any chaos cultist following them. A few fights may break out if things go wrong - the cultists will do anything to find and get the package's content. It contains a thick and heavy black ring, the size of a plate, with shrap edges and four triangular recesses in its inner rim. If cultists would obtain it during a fight, make it so it drops in the city's underground canals - leading to a short adventure in the underground, a fight with some Skaven and finally retrieving it. If at any point the party is cosidered dead by the cultists, that should help them stay unnoticed for a while. They take the western road through Friedheim and Bogenhaffen, as the way they came form is too dangerous because of the current greenskin activity.

Chapter 2 - BRRAAAINSS!!!
Friederheim

Optional. The town is overrun by zombies - the classic scenario with a twist. Finding/saving NPS's reveals clues about a necromancer causing the plague, killing him destroys the zombies. A lot of room for improvisation for both GM and the party here.

Chapter 3a - Among Friends
Bogenhaffen

The town of Bogenhaffen swarms with Chaos cultists - they gather there for some unknown reason. People live in fear for the last few days and the Witchhunters are nowhere to be seen yet. By talking to regualr townsfolk the party finds out there's an entrance to a crypt that was revelaed after a recent earthquake in the nearby hills. It's suspected that's what draws the cultists to town. When they unknowingly talk to cultists (and fail intuition vs guile) they will be mislead, but the stories of different cultists may not match.

Chapter 3b - Come on in...
Near Bogenhaffen

If the party investigates, they find the crypt entrance semi-revealed under a hill, guarded by mercenaries and cult followers. After defeating them they have several hours before the next patrol comes. The entrance is blocked by a heavy stone door, skratched and slightly chipped from attempts to open it by force. Among the other decoration on the door they can see the shape of the artifact they are carrying from Altdorf. It makes the door dissapear even if it's just revealed close to it. Inside the crypt theres a key puzzle involving several rooms, pedestals, a broken doorway (to be described in details later) and some monster closets. The prize is a disk shaped artifact of Chaos that fits perfectly in the ring they got from Altdorf. If they didn't know it, at this point they're sure the one they got from Altdorf is related to Chaos as well. Chaos cultists awaiting outside. On defeating them, after questioning any survivors it may be revealed that the artefact from the crypt and the one the party already has are great artefacts of chaos that can open large portals to the deamon realms for a limited time. Chaos cults have been trying to get the Altdorf artefact for years, but never knew where the one from the crypt was until the recent revealing of its entrance.

Chapter 4 - WAAAGH!
Grey Mountains, near Karak Azgaraz / Ubersreikd

On their way to Karak Azgaraz (where the artefacts are supposed to be destroyed) the party sees a large WAAAGH! gathering in the grey mountains, marching towards Uberswald. At this point if they are reckless enough they may decide to use the combined artefacts to summon some powerfull deamons and wreck havoc in the greenskin ranks. They may alternatively call the dwarves of Karak Azgaraz to help or find other ways to reduce the greenskins numbers before they reach Ubersreik (this is open to bright ideas from the party). If they fail at all that and the WAAAGH! reaches Ubersreik the GM can use some "divine intervention" just so the town doesn't get burned to the ground (should still be left in very bad shape). Also if the party have succeeded in all the greenskin chapters of part one, forces of Grunsburg and Auerswald are on their way to help Ubersreik - they know the greenskin manace comes from the Grey Mountains and if there's a WAAAGH! Uberswald would be the first town to perish and soon more will follow. If these forces are involved the WAAAGH! can be stopped with just a moderate bloodbath and most of the town to be saved.

Tie up loose ends after the battle - bring the artefacts to the Dwarven King in Karak Azgaraz (or not); deal with some Witchhunters that found out the party has got artifacts of Chaos; report back to Lord Aschaffenberg (if he gave the quest in the first place).

The End.

Thank you for reading this far, all comments are welcome!

Nice one. I am also using events from Eye for an eye in the Thousand Thrones campaign. The players failed to kill the demon and it flew away and instead of letting it return to the chaos plane it will make an appearance later. Two of the cultists also got away and they want revenge. This fits perfectly into Thousand Thrones, so it will become a side plot in the campaign.

Your players couldn't kill the daemon? Ah... mine quickly collected both the book and the picture, required for the ritual, and by dinner time one of them kicked the cult leader in the nuts in a room full of half the cultists from the mansion! Good times....

Iffo said:

When my players first looked at the picture the dwarf got a shock and was awarded a temporary insanity. They both stayed out of the room until the very end when they heard the frame being broken. Then they came and found the frame on the floor and the canvas missing. They had never been in basement, but they noticed the lodge was desserted, only people sleeping. The rest had vanished, so they started looking and eventually found the secret door in the wine cellar. They failed to interrupt the ritual but witnessed the last three rounds of it and the leader fled with the canvas to summon the demon. When they got out they were hurt from previous critical damage and the fight in the basement with the cultists. They were very hurt and decided not to press their luck, but they might have been able to kill it... but it was a great risk to take for them. As they had earlier presented Korgan with his hammer and gone to great lengths to help him, I allowed Korgan to recover and throw himself into the fight so the PCs could flee into the lodge. They managed to save Korgan as well by pulling him inside. But the demon is still out there and two of the cultists were never caught. That will surely come back to haunt them later

...so, sorry to bring this up again, but any thoughts? Am I missing something? Am I doing anything wrong? I am open to criticism on this.

I'd place the package in Grunsburg to involve the players more in that first chapter. I can totally see my players sneaking past or taking the long way around to avoid the greenskin horde, as their main goals is to get to the package and deliver it. Placing the package in Grunsburg makes it relevant to their interests.

If Grunsburg falls they can try finding the package in the wreckage, carried by a survivor or they will have to take it from the victorious green skin horde. Overall, I think they need a stronger incentive to get involved with Grunsburg than "doing the right thing".

The twist is that the package has been moved to Altdorf, due to the incoming greenskin invasion. But the players don't know this at first, so try to help Grunsburg in an effort to help themselves. This also helps prevent the story from being side-tracked if they don't help out Grunsburg. I'd make sure to have some honors bestowed on the characters if the help save Grunsburg though, including collaboration from the Reiksguard or the grateful citizens of Grunsburg. Possibly an additional ally.

One problem I see is that there's a problem in every town. I'd skip the Zombie infestation completely, it's too out of place with the rest of the adventure. Instead I'd make it so that it's just a regular town, with nothing out of the ordinary. The player's might by now be expecting something to happen, and rightfully so given the introduction of the adventure. Instead give them some time to do what the want in the town and rest. Build the tension up by not having anything happen.

Make it relevant by dropping some hints that in the coming towns will be cultists awaiting to ambush them, which will put them on edge. Some of these hints can be relayed by the cultists they avoid in Altdorf, which might comment about others finishing what they failed to do.

I'd also tone down the WAAAAGH! and make it more of a raiding party. After all the characters have been through defeating a WAAAGH! is a bit much. a WAAAGH! isn't the kind of thing you do while you deliver packages, that would be it's own adventure. Plus the characters might have wounds and other things from previous encounters, so go a bit easy on them. I really like how you link up the Grunsburg / Rieksguard bits, and they serve to reward the players if they helped in Grunsburg. Still, a WAAAGH sounds like a bit much, this is the last act, you should be winding down, not ramping it up. The big bang should have come in Bogenhaffen.

Lexicanum, great ideas!! Thanks a lot! I think I'll use everything you said - this makes the whole thing much more dynamic and interesting from the players standpoint. I think I'll get rid of the whole greenskin invasion theme in the second part - too many towns under siege for one adventure. I'll just use the events from the first part as a reason for the party to take the western road back to the Grey Mountains. I want them finding the crypt with the second part of the artefact to be a "wrong place, wrong time" kind of thing.

I was concerned with the zombie infestation part and to lesser extent with the WAAAGH! from the start ... it's just that it's (almost) my first jump into the Old World and I kinda want to do everything at once ... and that's really counter productive.

Anyway, that leaves a spot to add some other big battle or dangerous enemy after they get the second artefact - I really want to give incentive for the players to try the combined artefacts. The stakes must be high and using the artefacts must be the easy way out. A random encounter with some powerful enemies won't do as the party should have time to carefully decide on their approach. I'd imagine my group being split in half for that decision so I want to make it count. Any ideas what could make them want to open a gateway to the daemon realms?

Thanks again!

If you want them to tinker with the powerful chaos artifact and open a realm to a deamonic dimension, then let them keep the artifacts. Make the package they have to deliver something else, and let them keep the chaos

The temptation of using the artifacts will only grow with time. They'll give in eventually. And when they're ready, you'll be ready to make it an experience they won't forget.

With something that big, you don't want to railroad them into it. Just let them play with it, curiosity will be a powerful driving force, and if you shine the spotlight away from it they'll be much more likely to experiment. At least that's what works with my players, if I emphasize things too much they'll get weary and assume there's some trap/trickery involved. Whereas with other parts I don't emphasize they go crazy and try everything out.

Sometimes moderation is the best thing. It's like lingerie, not letting it all hang out can be a powerful way of enticing.

Another good point! Thanks! My only concern is that at least a couple of my players will want to get rid of it as soon as possible. They fear witch hunters a lot and try to keep our chaos-curious grey wizard at check all the time.

One thing I can imagine as an outcome is the dwarfs at Karak Azgaraz refusing to accept the artefacts within their hold. Seeing the party has got both parts, the dwarves are not willing to let the heroes near their hold - not even for destroying the Chaos artefacts. So maybe the adventure may end in a more grim manner - with the heroes still holding the artefacts, being hassled by suspecting witch hunters, and not knowing what to do with their burden.

Then keep the PC's from finding out the true intent of the artefacts, hints here and there, but make them ambiguous or conflicting. The man in Altdorf might say that the artifact is an ancient Dwarf relic (and surely, Dwarves are stalwart defenders against Chaos), another source might claim different. Yet another might claim the amulet contains the way of mixing the various Winds of Magic, and is the key to the hidden knowledge the Elves hold over the Winds.

When you straight up tell them it's a Chaos artifact you'll be forcing the players to make a decision on what to do with it, lest the corrupting influence taint them all. Allow them to figure it out for themselves.

And while they figure it out they'll be chased by all manner of people trying to get to the artefact for its reputed powers. Wizards trying to mix Winds, Dwarves trying to recover lost treasure, Elves convinced it's some jewel of theirs left-behind after the dwarven wars, beastmen lured by its strong magic, greenskins also lured instinctively by the power it emits, vampires who deem themselves the only ones powerful enough to hold such items and keep them away from chaos and chaos cultists who know of its true meaning.

In that mess I'm sure you'll be able to make all manner of adventures for the PC's.

Great stuff! That would become a campaign of its own eventually. There's a lot of room for interesting encounters - both social and combat. I'll post in a few weeks to let you know how did it all work out after a few sessions.

Thanks for the help and the great ideas!