Does anyone write any fan fiction for WFRP? If so, where can I read some? Thanks.
Fan fiction
The Man in the Silk Hat
The alleyways of Nuln stank even in the winter. The warm steam from the sewers hung low to the ground and did not stir in the still, frigid air. Always when the nights were frozen and the air was stagnant and crackling with frost, his mind went back. Back to the days before these, back to when he could still be redeemed.
Long ago he had been a normal man, just a man. He had worked a normal job at the docks, he had a wife, and he had a child on the way. He paid the rent for his modest Wohnunghaus and he paid his taxes. Then some noble had bought the building where he lived and he and his wife were tossed into the streets in the dead of Ulriczeit. It was the coldest winter he could remember in his long life. She got the wet lung before he could find them some place warm. She died in the street, begging Shallya to save their child while he wept and called her name over and over.
His life had become a blur after that, a whirlwind of low places and dark faces. He had given his soul away back then because he no longer recognized or needed it. The blood on his hands from that day til this could stain the Reik crimson.
Frederic lit a cigar, perhaps his only vice these days, and recalled the details of the meeting. A man calling himself "Gaston" had used the and called a meeting. He had brought the required fee, and had fidgeted nervously as he detailed the target and the manner in which it should be disposed. That led him here, waiting like a dark ghost for the man in the silk hat to pass.
As promised, his target rounded the corner carrying a small leather case. The man moved quickly down the silent street, his soft leather boots crunching the frozen snow and stirring the reeking mist from the sewers. Frederic slowed his breathing and slipped from the dark alley, careful to avoid the splashes of light from the street lamps, and shadowed his victim. The man in the silk hat stopped in front of a warehouse and fumbled with the lock. He opened the door, momentarily spilling light into the street as Frederic silently closed the distance.
Frederic crept up onto the roof. The locked gable posed no obstacle, and within moments he was sliding silently along the rafters. Below him the man in the silk hat opened the case and reached inside. A soft knock came from the front door. Frederic melted into the shadows. He was a professional and reacting to changes was his forte.
The man in the silk hat quickly opened the door and allowed his portly guest to enter. This was an unexpected arrival, and Frederic silently crouched in the shadows as he waited to watch the scene play itself out. The portly man sat at the table as the man in the silk hat resumed his foray into the leather case. In a few moments he removed a sizable number of gold Karls and set them before his guest. He sat and pulled a book and quill from his coat and began preparing his writing tools.
"Thank you for meeting me here Alfred," said the man in the silk hat. "There is much we must discuss before dawn. It seems our friend has moved up his schedule. He has already filed the paper work for the take-over. My agent spotted him yesterday at the Scriptorium, along with his cronies, bribing the officials to push the paperwork through."
The portly man grunted as he listened to the story, but his eyes never left the stack of Karls before him. The man in the silk hat noticed, but continued anyway. "I want you to file a counter as soon as the Scriptorium opens and block the acquisition."
The guest finally spoke, "Why do you care? I mean, you're getting a fair price for the property. You own half of the Faulestadt and the largest foundry in the Industrielplatz. What do you care if some tenement is leveled for a theatre?"
The man in the silk hat sighed, "You're right I suppose, but I promised Greta, Shallya keep her, that I wouldn't sell it. We met there, you see. Besides, where would those people go?"
"That's your own fault," scoffed the guest, "you haven't raised the rent in that rat hole in a decade." The man in the silk hat looked at him imploringly and the portly man sighed in resignation. "Very well, have it your way. What company is the old goat operating under these days? I need to make sure I file the counter properly."
The man in the silk hat ruffled though papers in the case again and pulled out a ledger. He fumbled with his spectacles for a moment then perused the document, looking down his nose through the low hanging glasses, "It looks like he filed this one under 'Gaston and Sons'. We have to stop him. I won't let him do this to me again like he did with the alehouse in the Universitat and the Wohnunghaus in the Handelbezirk down by the docks."
In the rafters something stirred. A small cloud of dust billowed and settled gently to the floor. The portly man looked up into the darkness of the rafters, grumbled something about rats, and went back to scratching his quill on the papers that he would submit at first light.
Once again in the cold, Frederic paused to peer though the dirty window at the pair in the warehouse. He grimaced as he thought of how this man would never know how close he had come to death nor how his simple sentimental nature had bought him his life. Frederic hurried though the frozen streets, silent as a death. He had a new target. Perhaps he could not be redeemed, but he could be avenged. The mist from the sewers finally settled to the ground. It was the witching hour and the night had just gotten a little colder.
Thanks, two thumbs up!