First: our group is made up of a grey wizard/charlatan, commoner/charlatan and priest of ranald

Our upcoming schedule is as follows:

There's Something About Marie (by sami)

Ashes of Middenheim (I've run the series before and this is the only scenario I liked)

The pig, Witch, and her Lover (no idea if this scenario will be long enough for one night as it was the free rpg game scenario)

There's No Such Things as Skaven (sami has good info in his other post)

We've completed:

TGS, Worse than the Disease, Dog Eat Dog World, Karl's & Scents, Rough Night at the Three Feathers, With a little help from my friends.

Any advice is appreciated.

jh

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Regarding Marie I think you have a very promising party composition. You can use your Grey Wizard to further reveal the Daemonologist's background if you want. He could have even heard whispers of the fate of Kohlenfeuer's master and lover. And I'm sure the priest of Ranald and the commoner/charlatan can find plenty of like-minded people in the village with some interesting offers.

With three players you could consider dropping one of the key events in chapter three, The Madame's Dilemma perhaps. It does not directly affect the events in the finale, so it can be easily dropped.

I'm sure some trackers could be used in the final chapter.

You intend to follow Marie with Ashes. I believe it is easy to bridge those two together. You could even change the warpstone dust to something else that will then take your players to Middenheim. Marie can even have some contact with the Ordo Fidelis.

Of course, you could always contact FFG and volunteer to playtest their Daemonette rules from Lure of Power

I've not played any of those though been thinking about SoMarie as the "river travel" adventure for my heroes as they travel back up the Reik from Fauligmere. I so wish the Slaanesh box was out to use with that of course, not that it's critical the power be Slaanesh (the descriptions of the daemonette's attacks are delicious though) just as it's not critical the macguffin be warpstone (I've been pondering making it "wine of dreams" or some other less obvious instrument of Chaos, though problem is the key "Handout 1" requires that something of warpstone's "absolute danger and known evil" be mentioned).

I would make the halfing's dogs into Tilean Warhounds (cf's Otto Gantz's hounds in Eye for an Eye) for some continuity and remind heroes these are impressive creatures.

Don't know if you keep witch hunters as being from different sects etc. per earlier editions or go with 3rd that appears to make the formal ones Sigmarites, Marie may need to be revised a bit, I'm thinking of making her a Veranan Investigator (the naughty librarian look, don't know if those commercials run where you are).

I have wondered where the music in "I have a bad feeling about this" is supposed to come from.

Overall, it does seem to work pretty well as Act 1 (encounter on docks), Act 2 (arrive in town etc.), Act 3 (climax), the multiple fights in Act 3 being a funky set of progress tracks.

-- Actually, if they are on the merchant barge entry point, he can be a wine merchant and if they ask about "wine of dreams" he can look at them askance and they may get some information out of him indicating it's suspicious trade.

@valvorik: The One-eyed Jacob's is a reference to the tv-show Twin Peaks and the sentence there is always music in the air is another reference to that show. I meant it only as a way to convey a feeling of uneasiness and hint at Slaaneshi presence. If you need a source for the music, you can have the corrupting influence of the jade statue create a twisted echo of the music played earlier.

Your idea about the wine of dreams is a good one, and I love the idea of Marie as a naughty librarian

Hi Emirikol!

I did whole Ashes - just like you - and my only concern would be if your team is strong enough for that one - especially for the episode with minotaur. You got only three PC's, all rather rouge types than fighters, I don't think they would stand a chance against minotaur and afterwards with temple .

As a short episode before Ashes go for Drakwald adventure from WFRP 2ed main rulebook. The Simarite's holy relic - Sigmar's Icon is rather important element of Ashes, I think too important to just "give it" to the PCs using some plot tricks. Let them find it by themselves, it will make your players happy

Thanks for the tips everyone. I was planning on making the Wine of Dreams make an appearance. I'm leaning towards it being a natural product, but something that is commonly associated with chaos. For example: since it comes from the "plant" in the book, that could very easily take us outside of the "everything comes from chaos" realm and could move towards it being a conspiracy that these "plants" keep showing up by making their way over the Grey Mtns from the Athel Loren!!!

jh

Athel Loren can be a complex place with a dark side, one hostile even to the Asrai. Still, the book it clearly is a Ruinous Power's followers making use of it, not to say it is that power's creation etc.

I thought in the book it was weak that chaos would send an army just for the destruction of the plant, or as the villagers say "the attacked us, and got slaughtered 'just because they're Chaos." Evidently to the author, 'Chaos' means 'stupid-suicidal.' You killed our plant thus we'll get really organized in a hurry, summon daemons, and then mindlessly throw ourselves on your pikes without reallly doing much of anything else. I thought that part was very, very lame. It was a reason to have a battle, yes, but a lame one. It sounds more like what I would slap together as a gm.

I keep wanting to put together a scenario where the PCs discover one of those monasteries and then track the plant's origin to the Athel Loren : source: far-thinking, conniving wood elves and dire forest spirits that can throw the unpleasing D&Dism that Wood Elves are friends of everyone, but with a bad reputation. In my campaign, wood elves do steal babies, murder the unwelcome in their forests, and destabilize theempire to keep men out of their business.

Perhaps when life is less fragile, i'll get this done.

jh

We just added a new player to the mix. He's playing a Servant (the pre-gen from LF7) for this upcoming session.

Here are some notes I've made to 'Marie:

1. I've got to look up the village location
2. I made a sketch map of the town
3. I'll use d6's idea about Grey wiz knowing more about background of the Daemonologist (everybody knows 'that' story!)
4. Wolfhound stats from EfaE (thanks Valvorik)
5. Marie is a Myrmidian by the text. Seems ok, but Verena might be interesting too.
6. Leftovers from Dog Eat Dog World work well for the halfling..could be anyone from there.
7. I've got to read up on Slaanesh
8. Daemonette stats: Beguile ability (as Vampire) otherwise combatant with pleasure ability (will drive men mad! or each round increase stress)
9. The pink fire will cause a temporary mutation (I think I like the idea of a temporary, like insanity..to keep the players on the edge)
10. It would be neat to have a picture of hte statue
11. I'm using 4 acts instead of 3 most likely
12. Wine of dreams could work in "A few good men" section..thanks Valvorik
13. I'll make the chase on p.3 five rounds
14. p.5: signs of faith calendar usage
15. p.7: events take place before storm of chaos, so I will just note "trade has shifted elsewhere and the town has fallen on hard times."
16. p8. Pedlar sells "Ranald trinkets" which should give my initate of ranald something to worry about.
17. p.10. I may make Horst a "family member" of rattenkrantz who was 'given the job' as part of his deal not to take the Brothel right away
18. p.11 - it is crucial that the PCs find out that Marie has "purchased stuff like herbs and trinkets"
19. p.12. I may have rattenkrantz drunkenly stumble towards all of this stuff
20. Daemonologist actions will take 1 turn to summon. On round 2, all the dialogue occurs. The PCs will no doubt shoot arrows and crap, but I'll have them burn up in the pink fire and/or turn into sexual tentacles.

We'll see how it plays out

jh

Sounds good Jay. Let me know how it went.

Just briefly, a few words why I wrote Marié as a Myrmidian instead of a Sigmarite or Verenian Witch Hunter. I wanted her to be a strong, independent woman and I think Myrmidia portrays this better than Verena who can be seen as a more passive goddess. This way Marié has motivation to help out the girls of the brothel and see them stand up for themselves. Her being a Myrmidian serves this purpose better.

Marié is as driven and fanatic as any Sigmarite Witch Hunter and this is reflected in her relation to the Daemonette. If Chaos and Daemons are fueled by (or reflections of) human emotions and desires then you can see Sssil’ky-Synnn is just a reflection of Marié's own fanatisicm and, perhaps, ultimately bringer of her own destruction. I guess the Grey Wizard might have heard whispers of such blasphemous theories, so if you really want to mess with his mind then you can have Marié and Sssil’ky-Synnn share some physical attributes, use same expressions etc.

The scenario went well. The opposing plots of the player characters make for my favorite types of games.

On a related note: it went as expected, but I had Rattenkrantz come down drunkenly chasing after Marie during the finale. I had the daemonette 'display her power' by readily chopping his head off with a pincer.

None of the PCs volunteered to go fight her at that point and quickly went towards the summoning circle.

The Charlatan (ex commoner) dove through the pink flames gaining TWO temporary mutations (rubbyr limbs and scary eyes) while he tried to destroy the statue (two tries..I had him use a basic unarmed attack that needed at least two successes).

As he lie there rubbery limbed, the witch hunter came to finish him off, but I had him resort to normal, with nothing but scars on his eyes only evident when he looks down.

The party is still in possession of Ranald's Apotheosis painting from "Worse than disease", but I'm having them head back to Altdorf instead of Marienburg for the next adventure: SPIRES OF ALTDORF. I'm ditching the thought of running Ashes of Middenheim b/c I don't want to deal with that.

Spires has always been one of my favorite scenarios and should tie in well with No such Things as Skaven semi-simultaneously.

jh

Thanks for update, planning on running this myself and going through it accordingly, looking at your notes above as I do.

Re the Wine of Dreams book SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN"T READ IT!

I interpret the big build up attack as being part of a larger game such as tricky Ruinous Powers use - several key characters who are threats to the chaos cults etc are killed, it's specifically noted that the witch hunter's replacement won't be as effective as he was - the whole point of attack was to kill the witch hunter really, it was a trap. He ended up not getting drawn into the first version of it, the mass attack was a back up plan. The ruinous power doesn't care at all about loss of followers, it's taking out a foe and possibly over time corrupting the book's hero. That's the gambit.

I suppose. The discoordinated masses are sacrifices to Khorne

jh

I really like that group buildup...

We've got a servant in the party now as well. Should be interesting for Spires of Altdorf, especially with all the talking that's going on.

jh

Sexual tentacles! Sounds a bit Japanese for me unless we are mentioning something else? On a serious note where does one find all of these old adventures

Jay has compiled a comprehensive list of adventures with links. You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/3rqm8pk

Our group started playing EfaE tonight. It's going smoother than it did when I ran it last year for the old group. They spent most of this session talking to people in the hospice and outdoors. I'm moving the basement to the roof btw. Group has had 4 sessions in a row with cultists and the theme has gotten a little stale.

I added two house rules:
1. We're done with party sheets. We never used them anyway.
2. No more "socketing" talents. They're always on. Exhaustables' recharge at rally and end of encounter (or story interaction). I think this was the one thing about this game that I hadn't been able to point to earlier, that interfered with the fluidity of roleplaying and made it feel like MtG card shuffling. Now that "socketing" is gone it feels a lot more like a fluid roleplaying game.

Our significant house rules we've been using (beyond my giant book):
1. Career change occurs at 10 advances (9 for reiklander). Keep the card. No complicated mechanic. Costs are otherwise the same.
2. Since we do so much out of encounter stuff, GREEN dice can grant a fatigue/stress instead of timeout.
3. Defenses have a recharge of 1 which means they can be used every round, but only against one opponent per round.

Will finish EfaE next session and likely move on to a short scenario.

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