Well, after owning Edge of Night for almost half a year, I'm finally gearing up to run it! Anyone run it yet and have advice?

It looks like a really fun adventure once the party gets to the masquerade, but I'm having trouble thinking of enough events to keep thing interesting during the runup to getting the invitation. I basically want to think of good "random events" to have happen as they're going about their business in Ubersreik.

The players completed Eye for an Eye, so I'm going to assume that a few weeks have passed and they've been sort of subsisting while they recover from their various critical wounds and insanities. One of the player just changed careers to Coachman and another player is new, so I'm going to start things off by having them sent out of town to dig out the wreckage of a cart (and the coachman, and the horses) with the carrot being both some pay and an offer to the Coachman player that he can work the coach if he can dig it out. I just like the idea of starting off a WFRP adventure with the party digging corpses out of a mud pile. While they're working, a set of bandits who also wants the coach comes by; hijinks ensue. On the way back, I figured the party would run into von Saponatheim.

In town I figured they'd hear a priest of Sigmar haranguing the crowd about the bravery needed to confront Chaos and holding up Aschaffenberg as a shining example (he ate the venison and slept through most of Eye for an Eye, mind you).

Not totally sure yet how I'm going to motivate the party to get going to the masquerade. They're a commoner, a thief-turned-coachman, a priest of Morr, and an Ironbreaker.

I'm in pretty much same boat.

We are finishing Eye for an Eye (done after Gathering Storm) in a couple of weeks. I had some "prelude" encounters in Ubersreik before it started (nominally the PC's are from there) - the High Elven envoy intervied the wood elf party member about the "relics of past" in Gathering Storm, the former ratcatcher now mystic had an encounter with Kurt Groffnung (not a NPC in EoN) an agitator fanatically pro-free state and on the side warning about ratmen in the sewers (some one apparently wants him dead, must be someone who doesn't like his politics, couldn't be imaginary rat people).

Depending on how they feel about Aschaffenberg after Eye for an Eye (or "Mind Your Manor" in my campaign) we'll see, I want a slow simmer in which they get a feel for the factions. I'm increasingly letting them know, and some are good at this, that we are using an "improv, say yes to moving forward" style of play on both sides of table and thus "they need to play into story" as much as be "be lead into it".

I'm thinking I want this to be "referandum" by the heroes on whether they think Ubersreik/the Empire is better for with leaders who are: "honest and at least superficially devote Sigmarite maybe a little light in the brains"; "martially able but maybe a little ruthless"; or "cunning but maybe a little corrupt". There's no right/wrong answer (or at least more right or more wrong), it's just all story and where we go from here and who you are etc. It's not that one is destined to save the empire and one destined to destroy it. Nope, it's heroes that will do that (whichever it turns out to be).

Then of course in the end, it's just all "or would like it to be run by skaven?"

I've just started writing an adventure to run alongside the edge of night. It is the first I've ever done so not going to be fantastic and not finished yet but I sort of know where I'm going to go with it. The Basics are that there are a few mines outside of the town, including a lead mine. About 3 months previous a section of the mine collapsed, exposing a chunk of warpstone, possible a meteor that hit the ground and was burried a long time ago. The lead in the ground had shielded the miners from the warpstones mutating effects, but after the shaft collapsed some of the miners who survived began to mutate. They fled the area.

The warpstone attracted Scaven, this is obviously where the edge of night comes in.

As well as that a powerful dark wizard in Altdorf with spies in the town hears rumors of miners turning up strange stones in a mine and has sent his apprentice to investigate and procure some of the stones if they are, as he suspects, warpstone. The apprentice makes contacts and soon sets up a smuggling network to get the warpstone upriver.

Meanwhile the miners who were exposed to warpstone in the mine and mutated have returned and started raiding the wagons going to and from the mines. They intercepted one of the smugglers taking the stones recently dug up from the mine and recognised them. I ran this as the opening encounter yesterday (most of the story I've only worked on today). A woodsman taking construction materials to a mine was attacked and staggered back to where one of the PCs were. The bandits had a bounty on them and the PC's went to find the camp. After a fight they found the warpstone. Hopefully they will now be interested in the mine, and a few clues from people like the head customs officer about some smuggling going on.

Clues pointing towards scaven:

-an encounter with them at the mine

-beggers the PC's may come across while looking for the smugglers are going missing, taken as slaves

thats about as far as I've got i just need to put it all together with the clues to tracking down the smuggling ring, which should get the PC's enough favor for an invite.

The Idea of the story is to give the players some stuff to do, which will attract the attention of the nobles, while playing the fact that sinister stuff is going on with the ratmen. As I said I've only just run the first part of this but am doing a write up I can post if you want.

That sounds very good, and I think, I would be very grateful for a write-up. I very much like the idea of a warpstone mine, mutated miners, corrupt magicians, smugglers, skaven warpstone-gatherers taking beggers as slaves, involvement with the customs office and all that. But I'd rather see some gold tier connection somwhere that makes the players want or need to go to the masquerade than plainly having them invited. Wouldn't it be nicer, if they had to find a way to attend the ball, because they found out that somethings wrong with it? I'm not sure.

Perhaps it might also be funny to let them think, they did it and are the heroes now. That they are there just for fun, and then they have to realize that in fact they haven't succeeded in stopping the skaven and/or the plotting.

I'm looking forward to reading more of your ideas.

I like the idea of them having to get into the ball, one of my ideas was that an influential merchant was part of the ring of smugglers getting to warpstone out of the city. That could quite well fit in though would have to do a bit of tweaking with the ball at the end and not sure if that part might just get a little too complicated, what with the scaven plots and everything. Still it sounds good and may have to keep that in mind for any other stories

What if the player's expose or confront the warpstone smuggling merchant. He confesses that he's guilty, but he has a problem, because the warpstone that he stored in his cellar or whatever vanished. At this point the players should have some kind of a clue that the warpstone might perhaps be used at the masquerade when Morrslieb is brightly grinning. So in exchange for not handing the merchant out to the empirial jurisdiction (or some other kind of bargain) the merchant provides the players with invitations.

The warpstone the merchant stored was of course stolen by the skaven who found a way into the cellar.

That's just raw brainstorming. I'm not good at these things. I only know that Edge of Night by the book needs to be fixed, and I find your ideas with the lead/warpstone mines very promising and warhammerly .

Hi,

I have actually been running a very similar concept for an overarching campaign to some of these ideas. I posted the rough overview of it in this thread...

Oh yes it also contains spoilers from HoH..

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

I'm also really really bad with computers, so apologies if that link didnt work its my first ever attemtpt at linking!

I do have more information available on the campaign if you are finding it useful. Hope it helps.

Have fun.

Ok so still no finished writing my campaign yet, we've missed the last two weeks because I've had some issues with my job (grrr) and then a player was busy etc. Now I've had time to do most of it so decided to post the concept and first chapter.

So:

3 months ago a passageway in a lead mine a few miles south of Ubersreik collapsed. Several miners were killed though a few made it out. The shaft was closed off. Unbeknownst to the miners, the collapse uncovered a large amount of buried warpstone, the 'radiation' of which had been shielded by the lead vein. Some of the strange stones were sent back to the city, but mysteriously disappeared.

What happened with the warpstone that was taken back to town was that one of the merchants, Gus Kaufman, who had dealings with the mine saw it and believed it could be valuable, not knowing exactly what it was. He took it back to his home. A few days later there was a late night knocking at the door. It opened on an odd stranger. He asked if he could come in and to excuse the lateness of his visit. The man did not reveal who he was, or who had sent him. All he did was make the merchant an offer; he would pay a great deal of money for the mysterious stones, and a great deal more if any more could be acquired and smuggled up to Altdorf. The merchant agreed. Within a week he had managed to get one of the miners to begin digging up warpstone from the closed off shaft and smuggle it back to the town in the ore carts. The merchant also made contact with Captian Kristof, a man who had been a smuggler along the Reik for several years.

Meanwhile, the miners who had escaped when the shaft collapsed had disappeared. Being exposed to the warpstone caused mutations, and knowing what would happen if they were exposed as mutants, they fled. But a couple of months later they re-emerged with a gang of bandits and began to raid carts and travellers along the mining road. One of these raids targeted the ore carts that the warpstone was being smuggled to town in. Recognising the stones the mutant miners/bandits took them back to their camp.

Of course, how can such a large and hitherto unknown stash of warpstone go unnoticed by the scaven?

Set up:
The way I was going to run this was as an investigation as to where the warpstone was going, eventually leading to the mysterious stranger (and possibly more adventures such as Winds of Change).

The first step to get players interested is the bandits raiding along the mining road. I pretty much ran this as a straight combat because I didn't have much of a clue where I was going with this and my friends didn't give me much warning about wanting to play.
Hooks I used: Bounty on the bandits by the city watch, man who had been on his way to the mine delivering construction materials returned injured asking for help.
Essentially the party found the last place the bandits had been and tracked them from there. They then got attacked by the mutants and found the warpstone. I added a few hints about the fact the mutants used to be miners and that the warpstone may have been on a raided cart coming from the mine.

The next 2 parts of the adventure could be played in either order. Essentially the players should have been given clues through out that something is going on in the mine (mutated ex-miners and warpstone). If they don't piece that together they could be asked to check it out or if they are more interested in doing jobs for money the customs house could be looking for people to look into corruption in the ranks and smugglers. Either way eventually the PCs discover the smuggling ring, both from the mine and the boatmen at the docks in Ubersreik. This should give them clues to the merchant and the mysterious stranger.

The mine.
Clues should lead to a miner named Dominik Jung, the man who is mining the warpstone and smuggling it back to town. There is also a scaven encounter.

As the PCs approach the small mining town on the mountainside there is a crowd around a post where a man is being whipped. If they ask why they are told that earlier that morning the shaft that the man was in charge of collapsed, and with the collapse of the shaft 3 months earlier the miners were demanding someone get punished. His name is Bernhard Eisenberg, and if the PCs try to persuade the miners to release him his is very thankful and promises to help them with anything they need (even if they fail to help he's still grateful).
Interesting clues:
3 months ago a shaft collapsed, killing some miners. Others escaped.
The mutant bandits were some of the miners who escaped.
This morning another shaft collapsed, Bernhard was in charge of the safety.
Dominik Jung has lost his mining pick.
Some odd gems were found in the mine a few months ago.
etc.

The next bit is set in the actual mine. In play should be the 'Abandoned mine' location card, though not yet sure how many tokens it should take till the mine begins to collapse (thinking around 8). If asked nicely one of the miners may offer to show the PCs around (Bernhard is happy if they helped him)
The shaft that collapsed earlier that day looks as though it collapsed into another shaft below it (this was a tunnel dug by the scaven to reach the warpstone). Someone may notice that the length of the shaft points out of the mountain towards Ubersreik.
The old shaft that collapsed is a little further into the mine. There is essentially an impassable mound of earth and rubble ahead, except there is a small crawl hole at the bottom (this was dug by Dominik). It's only big enough for one person at a time to go through but there is a large chamber on the other side. (1d) co-ordination check to get through the hole (remember the abandoned mine location card). There is a very small tunnel that is hard to see, where a scaven slaver party who were hunting miners to take away as slaves are watching the PCs.
Clues:
An abandoned miners pick lies near a wall (this is Dominik's lost pick)
A few warpstone fragments
A really good search finds the entrance to a scaven tunnel, if so the scaven leap out immediately and don't get any ambush bonuses.

If the scaven tunnel is not discovered then they will wait until the players start leaving and attack. If Bernhard or another miner is with the party they let the PCs leave first. Then there are screams as the scaven attack. If not, they jump on the last player, leaving all the other players trying to scramble back in through the crawl hole (co-ordination check not to get stuck and of course ever chaos star could cause the mine to collapse.)
The set up I was thinking for the scaven hunting pack was a couple of beastmasters and some clan rats. Instead of a straight fight I was thinking of using the tight space, spreading out the party and the instability of the mine to add difficulties for the players. The fight ends when the scaven are dead or the mine finally begins to collapse (in which case the scaven scream and dash away).
The last act is escaping the mine. Best done with a progress tracker and a series of events. I'm thinking 6 spaces with event on the 3rd and 6th spaces. One counter for each player and a counter for tracking the collapsing mine. Advance the mine collapse counter at the end of each turn and the player's counters each time they pass the appropriate check. If its failed leave the counter where it is and move it one space at the end of the next turn.
Checks:
(1d) co-ordination check to squeeze back out through the crawl hole (If anyone is outside the crawl hole then start them on space 2).
(2d) athletics check to leg it down the shaft.
(2d) athletics check to climb over a fallen pile of rubble or (3d) co-ordination check to squeeze through.
(2d) intelligence check to choose the right path out of the mine
(3d) athletics check to run the last stretch out of the mine as earth and rock comes down around them.

When the mine collapse counter reaches the 6th space the mine collapses. Any players who haven't made it to the 6th space are at risk of being crushed. Roll environmental effects damage, the dice number depending on how many spaces away from the end the players are (5th space 1 challenge die etc.)

Of course, having caused the mine to collapse the PCs are probably not going to be welcome in the mining town much longer, and therefore all social actions now get a penalty, and any chaos stars resulting in the miners deciding to run them out.

Dominik:
If the players decide to question Dominik, having found his pick in the mine, he will deny everything unless given incentive to talk. He doesn't know what it is he has been mining, believing the warpstone to simply be some precious stones. If confronted with the truth he'll confess everything. Despite his prolonged exposure to the warpstone he hasn't actually started showing any signs of mutation (yet).
All he knows is that he was asked to mine the stones by a man named Gus Kaufman, who he believes may be a merchant. He smuggled the stones to town in the mining carts and left the boxes in a warehouse at the docks.
If the PCs follow up on the warehouse they find it empty (the warpstone has already been taken to the boat).

That's the mining chapter. The next chapter set around the customs house and docks is less structured, I just need to finish writing it up.

Sounds really good to me.

I'll have to read my copy of the adventure so I can offer more thoughts.

I've just finished reading the 'Witch's Song' (yes, I'm reading them in the wrong order) and I think that will take quite a lot of work to make the most of.

I look forward to hearing more about what you're doing!

Thank you!

Since Hugeldal is a mining town and near Übersreik, and since there is a nice adventure for Hugeldal, I'm thinking of linking the Edge of Night-mining-variant to HoH.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the "mining complex" in your adventure links to the masquerade.

YOINK!!! *grabs the bag of collective ideas and runs off to his lair, laughing maniacally*

Great stuff.