So I didn't like EfaE so decided to write a similar story with a fair few alternatives, less NPC's the manage, different chaos god and so forth. My current group composition is:
Dwarf gambler, High Elf thief, Human Mercenary, Human Initiate of Sigmar, with an Apprentice Wizard if the Grey Order joining next session. Overall the group has a nice balance, with a theme of being sneaky, shadow wizard, a theif and a gambler that have both trained stealth, ambush and skulduggery (how fun for me). They've all got a fair amount of RPing experience, I have less so but still a little, yet as a group they have a very gamist attitude apart from one of maybe two they like to discover the objective quickly, go in all gung ho and get the job done. The kind of group that would rock up to the manor in EfaE and openly start interrogating people. As such I have decided to create a bit of an Epic Quest to get them almost entirely out of social situations and large numbers of interactable NPC's.
The Campaign Idea
So at this point the first 4 members after one session have made good friends with an arms/armour dealer in Bogenhafen, decided to help another merchant recover stolen goods, come across a bandit gang whose leader has a pretty reward on his head, defeated the bandits and have the leader severely wounded shortly before an interrogation session begins.
The introduction of the wizard is as follows; he recieves a letter from the head of his order, informing him of a rogue wizard that has gone mad in search of power to destroy the world. There are 8 scrolls, one for each colour of magic hidden across the Empire, the scrolls of cataclysm (I've just bought the new Storm of Magic book for WFB, it's the main source of inspiration for this campaign). He has two in his possession and a third is locked safely in possession of the grey order. The head of the order has used his power and influence to find a party up to the task of helping this apprentice wizard, a suitably sneaky and skilled party of adventurers currently on the road to Ubersreik. The nature of the quest at this point remains annonymous, 3 of them can be persuaded by gold and the initiate could be persuaded by some clever use of the words "divine, purpose, gods".
To try and tie things in this bandit leader is working for the rogue wizard, and during the interrogation he gives away several important pieces information about the plot, how many depends on the effective of the groups persuasion. This will lead them (hopefully) to the imperial library in altdorf to an ancient tome (I'm a big fan of props and I have the limited edition 8th WFB rulebook which looks fantastic). The head of the grey order provides the apprentice with a code to find clues as to the location of each scroll, perhaps a series of numbers representing page, line, word or something like that.
When they reach the various location in order to get the scroll they must pass a trial which is suited to the order of magic the scroll belongs. Life is a test of will and character, Metal a test of strength and so on. Each test is convieniently suited to each member of the group. For every trial that is failed the rogue wizard is assumed to have recovered them.
Once the trials have been completed (or not) they must go and confront the rogue wizard himself to recover the remaining scrolls, now for every trial they failed the wizard is slightly more powerful, making the encounter more difficult.
TWIST/SPOILER
Here's the fun bit, towards the end of the encounter the head of the order (I will find his name somewhere) shows up and gives a long speech about using pawns, ultimate power and how long that cursed Balthazar Gelt has been supreme patriarch and so on and so forth. This will close the campaign, in our group we all play tabletop as well as RP so we'll be having a big campaign including others using the new storm of magic expansion based around the traitor head of the grey order trying to take over the world. The next campaign can then pick up 6 or 12 months after, the characters fate as prisoners of the megalomaniacal wizard being decided by the result of the campaign itself.
That was very very long but for anyone that read it all, opinions? comments? criticisms? All appreciated.