Hi, I’m looking to the good people of this forum for a little help in re-designing a chapter of the original The Enemy Within WFRP campaign for a play by post group I GM.

In the original 1^st Edition campaign the action is confined within the borders of the Empire until the end of the Power Behind The Throne chapter when the PCs are sent out to Kislev on behalf of a Baron (mainly so the changes in the Empire wrought by an impending civil war can be presented in more dramatic fashion on their return.) Something Rotten in Kislev takes the party to the frozen tundra of Kislev and then back again, where they return to the Empire to find it on the verge of open civil war.

I would like to replace the Kislev section of the campaign with something a little more exotic but I am having trouble coming up with the finer details of a couple of ideas I had. I would like to involve some (preferably all) of the following in my new chapter:

The Karak Kadrin dwarfhold

Lizardmen

Araby

Tomb Kings of Khemri

I was thinking of somehow linking an alliance between Araby and the Lizardmen against the Tomb Kings undead army and some trade negotiations with the dwarves that threatens the safety of the (until now) impregnable Slayers Keep. But how?

I was thinking that the Arabian leaders being somehow made aware of an impending invasion by the undead forces and striking up an alliance with the Lizardmen that inhabit the deep caves of the mountains, or somehow they are dealing direct with those of Lustria? By doing so they are unwittingly allowing the Lizardmen a foothold on the Old World that will lead to their destruction unless they can find another way to stop the undead hordes that are amassing in the Dead Lands. But I need some mechanism by which the players can get involved and prevent both the Lizardmen and undead from ‘winning’. Some ancient item that either side needs to achieve their aims perhaps? If the PCs can find it and destroy it or steal it maybe?

Any input would be welcome.

First thing that comes to my mind is that you may not want to make this too epic. TEW is quite long as it is, so a long sideplot may distract the original one. Also having not one but two major realms at the brink of war and having the PCs to save them both may feel unrealistic or repetitive.

That being said, Kislev was really an odd book in the series, so writing something new is a good idea. First of all I'd suggest that you skip any dwarf adventures as sidequests to Empire in Flames, it would fit very well into it and hopefully make the main plot more open. Right now the last book is a very strictly tunneled quest with little options for the players.

I'd probably focus more on just Araby vs. the undead. Maybe the undead have some knowledge about the state of Empire that the PCs don't. Maybe they have a huge mobilization of armies because they're anticipating the upcoming chaos in Empire and Araby is just in the way. In the end PCs could delay the invasion of Empire for now but learn critical information on a plot to assassinate Elector Counts e.g. and have to quickly return to warn Graf Boris (only to find out of course that they're too late). This would give more motivation to unify Empire again, so that it will stand against the inevitable undead invasion.

Another way to go forward is to what reasons would Graf Boris have to send the PCs to Araby. Do they need to escort a noble there? Do they need to retrieve an item? Are they sold as slaves, because they found out too much about the politics of Middenheim (may ruin any reasons for them to try to help Empire in the future though)? Maybe they're "awarded" some land and a title in Araby for their good work in Middenheim (another way to get them out of the city because they know too much).

Off the top of my hat I can't think of a nice way to implement lizardmen into all of this. Personally I'd rather not introduce too many different factions to the plot.

Actually, I've been working on this and kinda went for one of the other options….

It is foretold that the end of the Old World will be at the hands of the most ancient civilisation and the world will fall to its knees at their might and wisdom. An ancient slumbering father awaits the return of its children, awakening to take control once more of its myriad followers. Older even than the fallen Tomb Kings of Khemri. Wiser and more powerful than the defenders of Ulthan. The ancient Slann, the Great Old Ones, the fathers of Time itself will rise to re-make the world in their image. Nobody can stand in their way and none shall escape the sinister Slann.

Araby envoy is under the thrall of Lizardmen, seeking to find the tomb of the great Slann sorcerer who is able to fully harness the power of the warpstone pathways that link all places and times.

The envoy has been poisoned by an exotic Lustrian toxin that makes him extremely open to suggestion and also requires a daily antidote or else he will die a painful and lingering death as his body is taken over by a type of fungus.

There are a number of envoys that have been sent to the Empire, Bretonia, Tilea, Estalia and a number of dwarven holds each apparently negotiating trade deals but who are in reality searching for signs of the great slumbering Slann wizard.

The envoy's retinue includes a number of genuine Arabian merchants and their slaves and guards as well as a lizardman 'handler' who will advise the envoy. They will be dressed head to toe in thick robes and will not speak directly to anyone but their puppet human. This will be explained away, telling the other humans/dwarves that he is a mystic eunuch and forbidden from talking to the infidels.

The Araby leader (sultan? Zakhan?) is being coerced into sending out these envoys as his family are being held prisoner by lizardmen who have secretly taken over the court and who’s influence is behind the whole of Arabian foreign policy at the moment. Secret cults of lizard worshiping fantatics are the real power behind the nation and their new found desire to expand their trade to the whole of the Old World. The Araby leader willingly (for the sake of his family at least) goes along with this and will protect the plot as much as he can.

**

The party will be sent to Araby as a part of the Empire's delegation, along with a couple of powerful merchants. They will travel to the coast and sail back on one of the Arabian ships. The journey should be relatively quiet other than some disagreements and cultural clashes with the Arabian crew. The lizardman will be on the ship, but will hardly ever leave his cabin. The envoy will tell the party he is a seer and requires solitude in order for his mystic powers to work.

**

Climax will be fight on a 'floating garden of bab-elon' style pyramid on floating island. With the slann locked in battle with some daemon in stasis while the party battle with his guards and or pygmies or skaven?

how did the lizardmen get in touch with the arabyeans? and why is there a sleeping slaan mage priest in araby? The lizardmen are almost exclusively centered in south americ, er, lustria I mean, and the arabyians being a desert people don't really have the fleets to go stake a claim in their territory to steal their gold. The players simply getting to araby isn't a very easy task either, they have to go through friendly bretonnia, through the border princes, estalia and/or tilia to get all the way down to araby, which is all the way across the atlantic, er the great ocean. To put the scale into perspective. war hammer is based on a brittish game, which made britton into albion, the paradise lush and rich land of the giants; america is home to the dark elves (elfs;) south america is where the lizardmen live; france is bretonnia; estalia is spain; tilea is italy; araby is almost all of africa with the parts on the east beaing undead; the empire is pretty much the entirety of old school germany. Everything east of german is horrible wasteland. ya got yer chaos dwarf strongholds, ogre kingdom …. kingdoms, china, india, and japan, er I mean cathay, ind, and nippon; north of german you got chaos wastes and warpstone craters everywhere; skaven live under the entire old world pretty much; orcs and goblins are everywhere; beastmen are everywhere with dark, spooky forests; the wood elves live inside a forest in france so why they included them and not also bretonnia I don't know; dwarfs live in the moutains where they are constantly under attack from (lizardment in first edition warhammer,) greenskins and skaven. The high elves live on atlantis.

The PC's would pretty much have to walk or ride a horse from germany to africa and make it back to german in time to save the empire from collapsing upon itself. kislev was right next door, in northeast germany in later editions, so a brief sojourn there didn't seem all that epic. going to araby and dealing with lizardmen is a massive endevour and I agree that it would detract from the 25 - 50 sessions the pc's are going to be in the enemy within campaign. Araby couldn't really march to war against the empire without conquering several allied countries, destroying the alliances, or going the other route and getting mummies, vampires, orcs and goblins, chaos dwarfs, and maybe the ogre kingdoms to all work together nicely. The empire has way more than enough to deal with in the constant harassment from chaos to the north, chaos beastment inside it's boundaries, skaven under it's cities, orcs and goblins in the mountains, and cultists being possibly anyone you can think of.

You want someone to be researching some warpstone doomsday device, Skaven love warpstone and they're everywhere. Chaos sorcerers know about Chaos sorcereryous stuff, that might be some of it. Need a distraction? orcs and goblin or beastmen attack, BAM! the warpstone crater in Mordheim explodes and mutates nearby … everything, maybe even leaving some kind of clandestine warp gate, BAM! want exotic? Bretonnia, everyone knows the french have great manners …; albion home of the Giants; Kislev, everyone loves people who sound like russians but dont live in russia, the Tunnels below generic empire city 1423249 erupt with skaven and the kill, poison, disease, or enslave anything they can get there hands on, great way to make the PC's skavenslaves btw, work em till they die of starvation, then feed em to the rats.

There's alot of stuff happening inside the empire which is where the campaign ends or progresses anyway, thats a big shift from the enemy within to lustria or araby. I wouldn't personally do it, but if you want to, awesome.