Sounds like an interesting campaign. I liked the The Legend of Karag Elgramazaul, nice touch. Are you thinking of doing write-ups of your game sessions?

Thanks Glorian. Let me know how it goes.

I would like to see the Master of Shadow's organisation detailed, to the extent that it could be used outside the campaign even.

Any word on when Part 2 will be released?

Challenge accepted. I just emailed you one one-sheet.

Thanks Doc for giving this piece a home at The Daily Empire. And all the credit for Doc for the original idea of creating a Beast of Bögen in the first place for his Master of Shadows campaign. Looking forward to the final part of the campaign, by the way. And thanks to ragnar63 and Emirikol for their comments and help as well.

My vote also goes to C.L. Werner and his Witch Hunter stories. Also, I liked the Warrior Priest by Darius Hinks better than most other Black Library books I've read. Very warhammery mood at times. http://www.blacklibrary.com/Warhammer/Warrior-Priest.html

A long and rambling post follows. You have been warned. Here are some suggestions. Most, if not all, of the required items are quite common so looking for them won’t probably be too exciting. I would have the Witch Hunter receive orders from the Order to acquire the items, but not share their significance with his friends. Then, while he tries to gather all the items covertly or doesn’t share with the other PCs why he is looking for them, the other PCs are left wondering what is going on. Concerning the ritual. To start the initiation rite, some members of the Order come for the Witch Hunter-to-be suddenly and without warning. Without explaining themselves they whisk the character away to a small, hidden shrine or temple of Sigmar where the initiation begins. The other PCs are left wondering what is going on, where he disappeared and who took him. As you write, the initiation starts with: The silver knife will be blessed and then used to cut the novice's side, so that blood flows. They then apply a poultice to the wound, which is in fact a potent drug, which might affect the mind of the novice and might drive them quite mad/melancholic. I would probably have this drug affect the character so that he sees and hears a strange figure (hooded, wrapped in shadows, blurry etc.) talking to him during the ritual. The figure knows secret things about him and seems to be able to read his mind, and it seems no-one else is able to see him. The character might very well think he is going crazy. What is this figure then? Could be just a hallucination, or a mental image of his fears and dreams, or the first step in his journey towards darkness and insanity. (I would even use this figure much later – have the PC see it or hear it here and there, after he has killed alleged heretics etc.) The initiation could then continue with a taking of an oath. A senior member of the Order has the PC swear an oath of loyalty. You could probably use the keys for this. After the oath the PC will be left in the shrine/temple for one day and one night. The day is reserved for meditation and quiet contemplation, and the night is spent in feverish prayers to Sigmar and self-flagellation with the crop of leather and birch. The second day is for the PC to prove his martial prowess. First, wearing only the white robes, he must fight one of his brothers, then several, until finally he will face the most senior of the Witch Hunters present. This is not a battle for first blood, or a brawl. The whole situation is very ritualistic and rife with symbolism, starting from their attires, weapons, holy symbols and so forth. As the battles start the opposing Witch Hunter, or the most senior, reads passages from Sigmarite scriptures and the characters actions in battle must reflect these Sigmarite teaching as well as Sigmarite fighting doctrine. Every parry and riposte is of religious significance. The further the process goes the more it becomes about Witch Hunters and their specific tasks as opposed to general Sigmarite doctrine. The character must prove his mental toughness, dedication, devotion to Sigmar, the Empire and the Order, as well as his incorruptible character. Once the fight against the most senior Witch Hunter is over, the tired and possibly wounded PC must face the boar in a barehanded battle for life and death. For his reward he will take white and black tusks (you can include some symbolism about right/wrong, justice/injustice, pure/unpure, the twin-tails of the comet here). The bandages and smelling salts are used after the fights. The third day will test the characters ability to perform his duties when it comes to detecting heretics and the Enemy Within. First he is tested in the temple by his brothers who ask him question after question about mutants, heretics, Sigmarite beliefs etc. Then he is allowed to equip himself and they will go to an outside location. Here he will face the final stage of the initiation and his first task as a Witch Hunter. This final task will be to judge a mutant or an alleged heretic – and his friends. When the PC was whisked away, the other PCs were left there wondering what happened. Soon after they notice a strange figure (the mutant/heretic) sneaking around and grapping something left behind the Witch Hunter character or his captors (this could be the key to his house). The other PCs then use the three days in their own adventure tracking down the mutant and trying to find out where their friend was taken. You can cut between scenes with the Witch Hunter and the others to keep things rolling and everyone involved. You could even have the Witch Hunter’s tests reflected in the other PCs’ scenes (for example, while he is proving his loyalty to the Order, the other PCs are betrayed by someone at the same time etc.). The search leads the PCs to a warehouse or some other such location where they are about to confront the mutant. It is then that the Witch Hunters reveal themselves and the Initiate must judge the mutant (using the black and white tusks for guilty/not guilty) and this is also a way for the Order to see if his friends can be trusted. The coarse rope can be used with the mutant. If you make the mutant’s story touching or morally ambiguous, and then have the other PCs debate what to do with it while the Witch Hunters are listening in, it could make for a very interesting scene as the Initiate must prove that his friends can be trusted.

You might want to take a look at Call of Cthulhu material on Deep Ones, and, of course, HPL's The Shadow Over Innsmouth for some inspiration. And "warhammerizing" Dagon and Mother Hydra could give you daemons that are a bit different from your typical Chaos Daemons. This probably will not help you with any clans, except maybe have some Fimir come in different human-fimir hybrids.

Introduce them to their Doomings, if you haven't done so already. Next time a character barely dodges a deathblow have the miss trigger a short flashback to the PC's Dooming ("This is not how I'm supposed to die!"). Or you could just have a PC see a Priest of Morr reading a Dooming to a child and have that trigger the flashback. The flashback takes the PC in question back to his/her childhood to the moment just before he/she receives the Dooming. You could have the other players play the Priest of Morr, a friend or sibling receiving their Dooming at the same time, parents etc. Then use the table fromTome of Salvation to determine the Dooming for the PC and then to all the other PCs as well. Then cut back to the present moment.

The Templars of Sigmar (Witch Hunters) have probably created safe methods of destroying such artefacts as have the Wizards. The problem with taking such items to a temple or to the Witch Hunters is that any person carrying such things could be quite suspect in their eyes and would probably need to undergo some sort of rites of cleansing (which could be a good scenario). I wrote one short and simple method of destruction in this fan supplement: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29503787/WFRP%20Article%20-%20Forbidden%20Blades.pdf You could make the whole thing into a scenario itself. The characters are looking for a way to dump such items and several different parties learn of their intentions - priests of Sigmar or Witch Hunters, Wizards, Cultists etc. All these parties approach the PCs and volunteer to deal with their problem. The PCs then have to decide who to trust. I would also tempt the PCs with the dilemma if, instead of destroying the items, it is okay to use the weapons of the enemy against itself - to fight fire with fire - and risk possible corruption.

korknadel, what you say is true. That's why I used it in a situation that where is wasn't a typical case of disarming trap, it was a group effort, and none of the characters involved had any particular skills for that sort of thing.

Nisses, there are actually a couple of cool things you could do with the tower. If the scene takes place in the dark and you can darken the room where you play, you can have another player hold up a candle to give some little illumination to the thief player while he is trying to pull the blocks in the dark. If you have an hourglass you can also put a time limit on the operation. Just remember to test the tower yourself first, so that the task won't be too easy or too difficult.

I have taken the basic premise from the GUMSHOE system that ensures that in investigative scenarios the players are never deprived of the crucial clues they need to move the story forward. With one-off scenarios I sometimes use the question character creation system used in Dread the Game to complement the normal character creation and to make sure the characters are on the same page regarding some things. From Dread I also once took the use of Jenga - the players had to draw a certain amount of blocks without topling the tower to disarm a complex trap.

2nd edition sourcebook The WFRP Companion features an article on Sartosa, "city of pirates". Also, it has an article called Life and Death on the Reik that has some info on pirates in the Empire.

Aido, have you considered Malal by any chance? Lauri Maijala's Cult of the Possessed features a Malal worshipping Witch Hunter. You can find it here: http://dailyempire.guildredemund.net/DOWNLOADS/Cult_of_the_Possessed.pdf

Sigmarite Witch Hunters are considered the only official witch hunters as they are sanctioned by the cult of Sigmar. But there are other, renegade, Witch Hunters as well. According to Tome of Corruption: "there are Witch Hunters in service to Ulric, Myrmidia, and even Taal. Though potent, they lack the training and funding the Templars of Sigmar enjoy and are rarely regarded as authentic or even approved hunters." Although I would say that in Middenheim any and all Ulrican Witch Hunters are regarded as more sactioned than Sigmarite hunters. Here are some sources on Witch Hunters: The Witch Hunter’s Handbook and the Mathias Thulmann omnibus by C.L. Werner are priceless sources of information on Witch Hunters. The Handbook might be a tricky one to find though. Witch Hunters are also featured in several 2nd edition books. The career description can be found in the Core Rulebook as well as in Career Compendium (with a couple adventure seeds). A few paragraphs on them can be found in Sigmar’s Heirs (p. 31). Tome of Corruption Chapter IX: Defenders of the Empire (p.123) takes a bit more detailed look at Witch Hunters. It describes their history and tactics and gives a few ideas on adventures revolving around them. It also describes Renegade Witch Hunters, meaning Witch Hunters who are not Templars of Sigmar. A new career, Cloaked Brother, is also featured. These shady characters are a splinter group of the Templars of Sigmar who focus on gathering information and spying. I believe Realms of Sorcery has more extensive information on the Witch Hunters as well. The adventure Ashes of Middenheim features Ordo Fidelis, a secret society of Witch Hunters working within the cult of Sigmar. The Thousand Thrones campaign has two Witch Hunter NPCs in very minor roles. For pictures, you should check out Warhammer Online's concept art if you haven't done so already. Might not have pictures of Ulricans, but it is a good source of pictures nonetheless. And definately check out this amazing site: http://whchronicles.wordpress.com/ for further Witch Hunter inspiration.

Forges of Nuln (p.46) says the luxury liner Emperor Wilhelm sails from Altdorf to Nuln in approximately five days, travelling night and day.

Great job, Doc! I find the Cult of the Possessed a very inspiring piece of work and whilel reading it I found myself thinking of several interesting ways to incorporate it in my current campaign. Also, the PDF looks great. I have always been intrigued by Mordheim and that is another reason I found this such an interesting read. Like Emirikol stated above, the Cult of the Possessed really serves well as an alternative to the Purple Hands and Red Crowns players are used to, and as a little known renegade god it can really throw of more experienced players as well. I can easily see it used to make the players (especially Witch Hunters, Priests, and Wizards) ponder such questions as Is the enemy of my enemy really my friend? or Is it okay to fight fire with fire, to turn the weapons of the enemy against itself? etc. I am already thinking about having my players make a stop at a Shallyan hospice where patients whisper of strange things lurking in their minds shadow...

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

Doc, I think this deserves a thread of its own, so it won't go unnoticed by people who don't visit this particular thread.

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.

@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

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

Discussing the Skaven and the Skaven conspiracy with Ralzar and Emirikol in this thread inspired me to try and make a prop regarding the subject. My goal was to make a more tactile prop as an alternative for the usual printed hand-outs. It turned out okay, so I thought I’d share it with you guys. Imagine it being nailed to a tree or a post in a small village where such fancy things as pamphlets are not available. You can see it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29503787/Skaven%20001.JPG