GM Blog: Episode 2 (Patreon)

Episode 2 was a toughie for me. It was a draining week with a burst pipe causing lots of household damage and related nonsense, so my concentration frequently lapsed and things did not unfold exactly as I hoped, especially given the random pops and echoes in our sound. But, fun was had, and the story progressed, for all I look back and wish I'd done some things differently.

Learn, destress, and move on, eh?

Concerns aside, let's get to discussing the changes I made to the Campaign As Written (CAW - an acronym that amuses me given my work for Rookery Publications). In Episode 2, we made our way through Enemy in Shadows, pages 26-37. For this episode, the changes to the CAW have grown more pronounced.

Let's do the bullet point thing!

• Pflaster's Roadwarden Patrol were largely skipped. Although we did a clumsy flashback to the conversation the party had with Pflaster (the party had previously met him before and nicknamed him Pfister for reasons) to confirm if they staged Gerhardt's death, the encounter with the Roadwardens was mostly skipped for brevity. The same can be said for the stop at the Seven Spokes. I did consider drawing attention to the Great Hospice because I placed the Emperor's sister there in one of the Archives and wanted to reference that for later, but figured I'd leave that until another time.

• The Mutant Edict, and its enormous impact on the capital, was introduced earlier. The reasons for doing this were manifold. In short, I'm establishing early that the Emperor is doing some very weird shit, and that he does not have the support of either the Prime Estates or the Cult of Sigmar, the latter of which is in a very difficult theological place and is panicking at several levels. But not as much as it should be. That will be investigated, to some degree, in Luitpold's Tales of Altdorf aside.

• Something Rotten in Altdorf. I changed how the influence of the Greater Daemon manifests in Altdorf ('change' and Tzeentch? Never!). A Feathered Lord is in the capital and is the prime mover of the events in the campaign, but it's somewhat different to the Gtr Daemon presented in Empire in Ruins. So, coincidences have been dialled up instead and the prophecy the daemon is seeding is everywhere as it manipulates sensitives. Change is still somewhat in the air, magic is still wonky, and Sixth Sense still does not work in Altdorf, but everything else has... well... changed a bit.

• A Change of Character. I'm only going to roll for A Change of Character once. It will happen at the start of Episode 3.

• Arriving in Altdorf. This section was handled largely CAW. In our run-through, Birdie was on the receiving end of the Stop, Thief! event and Yume saw through to the truth of the False Emperor. The Prince Hergard von Tasseninck option was significantly expanded and moved to the end of the episode, where the influence of the Purple Hand was again hinted at.

• The Purple Hand. This was also handled close to as scripted. The Purple Hand cultists made contact using their scratch-ear gesture, were frustrated when Kastor/Gerhardt did not respond correctly, and were then summoned by Adolphus Kuftsos who made the correct gesture in a neighbouring doorway. The cultists, believing Adolphus to be Kastor Lieberung's agent, hurried into that building where Adolphus made contact and posed as a fellow cultist.

• Adolphus Kuftsos. My Adolphus is in the employ of Emmanuelle Nacht, the Imperial Herald currently tasked by the Emperor to handle the Ubersreik problems (for more on that, check the WFRP: Starter Set). This is an option suggested on page 39 of Enemy in Shadows. Emmanuelle Nacht is hunting the Purple Hand as she believes, correctly, that they are responsible for the assassination of her father, an ambassador to the Cathay. One of the reasons she was sent to Uberseik was to get her out of Altdorf.

• Manic Street Preacher. This event was largely handled as the CAW, but was embellished a little to ground the Greater Daemon's plans firmly into the PC's minds. In particular, it was important that Father Luitpold believed the prophecies and thought they were momentous and 'real', which seemed to land. This sets up Luitpold being summoned later by the Order of the Cleansing Flame, and makes it more likely he will spread the Greater Daemon's lies. We'll find out how well that worked in Luitpold's Tales of Altdorf.

• An Old Friend. Josef Quartjin's arrival was moved to slightly later in the string of events. Further, Josef made it clear that he would not be leaving Altdorf for two days, giving the PCs time to wander the capital and resolve some personal business. Given the Inheritance hook leading the PCs to Bögenhafen had been successful, there was no need to put pressure on the group to move swiftly. 

• The Boatman Inn. This location was completely changed for two primary reasons: 1) The Man in Black and Hooray for Henry added nothing to the plot of significance given how easily they could have been avoided by Gerhardt. There is no need for dodgy references to real-world Bullingdon Club members, largely because Gerhardt was a member of the in-game Empire version of that, the League of Karl-Franz, and I plan to use parts of that as a part of Gerhardt's Tales of Altdorf. That's also where we'll be using a curtailed version of the Bolts in the Dark when the cultist approach Gerhart again after he leaves a brothel with Lukas.

• The von Ostlands. The von Ostland estate (readers of Spires of Altdorf may already know that family) was added to embellish the Prince Hergard plotline and also introduce the prevalence of Purple Hand influence in city. Jacob von Ostland, a Purple Hand member and Sigmarian Heresy believer, has used his influence to push Hergard towards a somewhat heretical mission to find the Hammer of Sigmar in the Grey Mountains. Once the Crown Prince left, he set about removing all his son's household staff in order to replace them with members of his Purple Hand cell and their entourages. The hints concerning that came at the end when Jacob gave the identifying signal to Gerhardt.

• The Order of the Cleansing Flame. Another addition, this time deployed at the end of the episode to set up the Tales of Altdorf (in this case, Luitpold's episode). It also removed Luitpold from a position of influence over Gerhardt, meaning the young noble would be much freer to conduct his own business.

That should do for that summary!

I'll have the first of the Tales of Altdorf up soon - I've filmed two so far and both are about 3 hours long. I'll likely post Gerhardt's initially, followed by Elrick's then Yume's, then Luitpold's, Allamennowyth's, and finally Birdies' Because hers is... well. You'll see.

If you have any comments or questions about this list of changes, or feel I missed some important stuff from episode 2, post here on Patreon, where the PCs can't see, or in the #all-access-lawhammer channel in LAWhammer, where, again, the PCs can't see!

No spoilers for the party!