I'm not super familiar with Old World fluff so help me out a little. What would the fate of chaos cultist, captured by PCs be?

And more specifically, take Eye for an Eye for example. If any of the cultists are captured, what would generally happen? I just don't see Aschaffenburg being keen on getting the Witchhunters involved, wouldn't that bring a certain blemish to his name? I'd imagine that most people who cared about reputation would want to handle stuff like that, in house so to speak. Am I wrong?

donbaloo said:

Here's how I handled the situation after my PCs captured the cook and hauled her back to Ubersreik. Seeing as how Ubersreik is a free-state and not under the direct influence of Altdorf/The Empire, aaannnd since the local Temple of Verena just had a falling out with a visiting Witch Hunter (Edge of Night), who left declaring to return with more Witch Hunters and to "take the matter to the Grand Theoginist himself" or some such guff, the PCs simply handed the cultist over to the local authorities. Since Aschaffenberg's captain of the guard shares a last name with one of Ubersreik's guard captains, I simply made them brothers and had them do their best to keep the matter as quiet as possible (though rumors have already started to circulate). The cook will be tried by the cities court, found guilty of conspiring with the ruinous powers, and will be hung outside the town walls....that is IF the Witch Hunters don't return and cause a ruckus first.

Or, if you're PCs are the cold-blooded type, they could just carry out the executions themselves...perhaps gaining the favor of a certain Chaos God of murder and war in the process (wink wink)?

In general I'd say it's either interrogation/torture, public or otherwise, followed by a swift execution, public or otherwise. If it's just small time authorities, such as the guard of a small town, they'll likely just throw them on the stakes as quickly as they can and be done with it.

I would also like to point out that lord Rickard specifically makes a Big deal about this specifically to make a name for himself - and it works too! At least that is what they write in the Edge of Night.

Then again, Witch Hunters are more or less universally loathed by just about everyone so I imagine that a public torture and or execution is in order. Perhaps by the very hand that foiled the evil chaos cultists to begin with? And who would be better suited to perform the grisly deed than lord Rickard's very own henchmen!!

Burn 'em!

There are various imaginative forms of justice in the Empire - fines, public stocks and humiliation, banishing, "marking" corporal punishment (branding etc) and for capital crimes - beheading, hanging, drawing and quartering but the preferred way of dealing with mutants and cultists is cleansing fire. That said each judge/region's peculiarities can be allowed to prevail if you want something in particular to fit with a story. Given the fact the empire does not cremate the dead, burning is a "severe sanction on soul not just body" (Warpstone 29 addresses this a bit).

Note that torture to extract confessions is widely used (it's a grim and perilous world, social standing and wealth is more important than innocence, nobles having various priveleges such as trial by combat and judicial champions).

Lord Rickard can easily place any blame on the von Bruner's, though in my campaign he tries to avoid them being stigmatized due to them being his in-laws and instead focuses on the fact they were victims because of their track record against Chaos.

Rob

Make sure at least one escapes. I wrung at least a month and a half's worth of material from chasing down one who got away from this scenario.

All good stuff, thanks for the feedback. So in general I'm getting the impression that having chaos cults pop up within your domain or estate even, is not necessrily stigmatizing so long as you either keep it very quiet OR make a very big deal about unflinchingly wiping it out when discovered?

And this would be common practice to take care of ones own problems and not call in the church or the witch hunters to handle the meting out of justice if you can help it?

I think the key thing to bear in mind is that once the Witch Hunters come a knockin' Sigmar himself knows what will happen.....after all innocense proves nothing and blue blood does not quench the flames of the pyre any better than red....

Better to keep those evil black hearted basterds as far away as possible.

bladerunner_35 said:

With regard to the Witch Hunters there could be some that are more fair handed in their pursuit of "The Truth" than others. Most, however, tend to be extremely zealous and will delve as deeply as necessary to find out just where innocence ends and guilt begins, and if the innocent happen to suffer as a result? Well, suffering is good for the soul isn't it?

Like most of the previous posters mentioned, it's either better to hush it up completely or to loudly decry the cult to the authorities. As a GM you may want to consider some of the following points as potential adventure hooks.

By covering it up, the characters run several risks:

• The fact that if the cover up comes to light, they will have hid information from the authorities making them appear guilty through collusion or coercion. Either way, they are going to have to answer some serious questions from some grim visaged folks.
• The fact that if any of the parties involved now have blackmail material on all involved. There would be the mutually assured destruction element by Lord Aschaffenberg and the party, but if one of the servants felt that he or she should be well paid for a continued silence, all it would take is a well-hidden confession ready to be dropped off at the Temple of Sigmar.
• If the cult had branches elsewhere, they now know that someone is onto them. Other cells of the cult itself may pursue the party in an effort to exact vengence, and since the authorities still don't know about them, they can act with greater boldness than they could if they had to keep a low profile.

If they go to the authorities, the run the following risks:

• The enmity of all involved with the forthcoming inquisitorial investigation.
• The possible assumption by the authorities that the party may be involved. Exposure to the effects of Chaos is a sordid and corrupting thing.
• Having their lives put on hold and even scrutinized during the inquisition and resulting trials. Everyone has something to hide, and no one want's a Witch Hunter's gaze to linger too long.

Good luck with that extra cultist!