Black Heart

The Tassenburg Chain Gang

An Adventure by Ben Dell.
Original Character Sketches by Steven Mann.
Stripped of their belongings and chained as criminals, the Adventurers must
struggle to uncover the dark forces at work in a forced labour camp built in the
ruins of Tassenburg, a town destroyed in the Storm of Chaos.
2523 Imperial Calendar; Early Spring, 15th Jardrung I think.
These are the last testaments of Pieter Pfulburg of Staumludt, being of faltering mind and body. I have been
here weeks, perhaps months. I can no longer tell. I am beyond tired, I feel taut, as if all that ties me to this
shell of a body now is skin of the thinnest vellum. My stomach, though devoid of contents for days, now rebels
at even the thin, grey, watery gruel that we have been served today, and the acidic smelling vomit I bring forth
has created tidemarks in the grime that covers my skin. My hands are cold, cut and blistered from clawing
and pulling at the freezing rubble that surrounds us, my fist curled like an insensible lump of rock around
this stick of charcoal as I scratch out the last rational thoughts I am likely to have in a world that reason has
abandoned.
And why do I spend what little energy I have thus, in such fruitless endeavour? Certainly not to give myself
hope, for it has fled this place for Morrs realm; I imagine I will follow it soon enough, it is the only promise
of release from this place I can now entertain. I suppose I hid this scrap of papyrus and the charcoal stick I
found amongst the ruins out of some need to protect the only vestige of civilisation I have seen in weeks, to
protect them from the warders of this place. Not that they would have any care for such things, except in
taking pleasure in removing them for me. Then it occurred to me, what did I hide them for if not to write
with? So, here I sit in the cold, straining my eyes in the near darkness of Mannsliebs light to write this.
I try to recall my life before Tassenburg, but the memories fade and peel like weathered paint, and I cannot
escape the cold present. I know I was once a Merchants Clerk, but I cannot see that life anymore in my
mind. And I admit I took a few items from the chests that were bought to my warehouse; a few pins here, a
pinch of spice there nothing big, but when the coffers came up thirty Karls short, it was I that took the fall,
but not I that took the coins. Such is how I came to be in wretched Tassenburg, the cankerous black present
that fills my mind. But it matters not how I came to be here. Nothing matters any longer except the short
respites from our toil in the rubble, and avoiding the occasional beating from the guards before they force us
back, back to searching for the Black Heart. May Sigmar curse the name Tassenburg. I know I do.
I grow weak but know there will be precious little sleep. If you read this, may Shallyas Mercy be with you,
for she has surely abandoned me

Adventure Summary
Let Justice Be Done.

If only it were that simple

In this adventure the characters find

themselves in Staumludt, a small town in
Ostland crammed with refugees from the
Storm of Chaos. They are hauled in by the
Watch on trumped up charges and taken to the
Captain of the Watch. He explains that he
believes there is a conspiracy between his men
and the local Magistrate to arrest and sentence
as many innocent people as possible to hard
labour, clearing the ruins of nearby
Tassenburg, a town that was destroyed during
the recent Chaos incursions. He wants the
Adventurers to go undercover, be imprisoned,
and investigate whats really going on at the
Tassenburg labour camp. Do they have the
nerve to submit themselves to Imperial
justice, expose the conspiracy and free the
wrongly imprisoned?

The Adventurers will soon discover that the

hard labour camp is run by a group of
Slaaneshi Cultists who force the prisoners to
search the ruins of Tassenburg for shards of
warpstone so they can reform an artefact
known as the Black Heart. Time is short, the
Cult nearly have all the pieces and plan to
slaughter the prisoners to power their foul
ritual to reform the Black Heart. But other eyes
also seek the powerful warpstones, a Skaven
Warband intend to raid the camp and kill all
they find, whether guard or prisoner. It will be
up to the Adventurers to match wits against a
spy hidden amongst the prisoners, survive pit
fights staged by the guards, plan a breakout,
save the prisoners and prevent either the Cult
or the Skaven from using the power of the
warpstone. No-one said it would be easy

Getting Started
Themes
Black Heart has a number of themes the
Games Master should try to bear in mind when
running, which influence its style.
The Sky is Falling In
The Adventure begins no more than a few
months since the end of the Chaos incursion
that nearly broke the Empire. Whilst the
southern regions of the Empire celebrate the
victory and see little change in their day-to-day
lives, northern regions continue to suffer.
The people of Ostland, though strong and
hardy, were hit perhaps worst of all. They see
the devastation around them and believe that
the End Times truly did come with Archaon.
Towns and farmsteads were sacked, many died
and thousands more refugees teem the streets
of those places that survived. Flagellants,
fanatics and hollow-eyed survivors wander the
wilderness. Harsh winter weathers; burnt crop
fields, contaminated water supplies and bandit
gangs mean even basic foods are in short
supply. In some places corpses can be found
unburied months later and only the cold winter
has prevented the rampant spread of disease.
More on the full extent of the horrors facing
Ostland after Archaons invasion can be found
in the Sigmars Heirs Sourcebook.
The Rule of Fear
For the Black Heart Adventure it is especially
important to emphasise the horror following
the Storm of Chaos to the Adventurers. It gives
them a sense of the fear that permeates the area
and helps explain how the citizens of
Staumludt would tolerate a regime where
people who are different (read: poor or
refugees) are sent to what is effectively a death
camp for little or no crime.
The populace accepts rule, even rule based on
fear, because it provides a sense of security
that the madness of the past year has gone. The
Chaos Cult has made good use of this fear to
instil compliance in the citizenry of Staumludt.
Linear or Freeform?
Black Heart is a mixture of both linear and
freeform game elements.
The first half of the Adventure is by necessity
quite linear in form the Adventurers are
sentenced to hard labour and are force-marched
to the camp in Tassenburg with certain
encounters along the way.
Once the Adventurers reach Tassenburg, the
adventure really opens up and the characters
are free to investigate, question, plot, rabblerouse, toady and scrap as they please.

An Adventurers Life For Me

Black Heart is designed for Adventurers in
their second or early third careers. This is
usually just about the time that most
Adventurers are becoming self-assured in their
abilities and maybe even a little bit cocky.
By this point your average Adventurer will
have their armour, a favourite weapon or two,
some interesting items like poisons or potions
and a few different tactics that they have found
successful.
This adventure takes all that away, throws them
in the clink and encourages the character and
the player alike to fall back on their skills,
adaptability and their ingenuity to deal with the
situation.
Be aware though this can be a stressful
situation for a player, with all their hard won
trappings suddenly removed from them. As a
Games Master you have to present this to them
in the right way or risk having sulky players
(and lets face it, if theyre not having fun they
wont want to play).
It usually works best if you leave the final
decision with them (and assure them that their
items will be returned) it gives them the
responsibility, as they are putting aside their
trappings to go undercover, and stops it being
seen as a punishment from an unfair GM.

The Real You

Another theme important to the adventure is
doing things to survive, at any cost. The
Adventurers will be made to come out of the
comfort zones in which they have been
operating they will not have their armour or
weapons, they will not have a comfy Inn room
or even boring but nutritious trail rations.
They will have to face serious hunger and
deprivation (and the consequences of such,
like stat reduction) and make decisions on
whether to collaborate with their captors
simply to ease their plight, or hold their
resolve and suffer the consequences.
Will they suffer to ease the plight of others or
just look after number one? Will their faith
strengthen and see them through, or crumble in
the face of so much despair? Will the highborn
cope with being cast into abject poverty?
This Adventure, beyond the intrigue and
excitement of the story itself, should be a great
opportunity for the players to really examine
their characters personality. Such moments
can be great fun as well as leading to character
development in directions not previously
considered.

Heres Grit in Your Eye

Finally, Black Heart makes full use of
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplays gritty style.
You wont find a lot of showy fantasy in the
adventure; no armies of Orcs, no lost treasure
hordes, no grand balls, no wizards and knights.
This adventure concentrates the action on
mans own meanness.

All Ostland is under martial law but

Staumludt is even more draconian than most
places, simply failing to assist the watch
carries a penalty of mutilation usually
putting out an eye or severing a hand. It
works though, crime is almost non-existent
and Staumludt is doing so well its helping to
rebuild the surrounding area.

Yes; there are mutants, a Cult Magi, a magical

artefact and even a warband of Skaven, but
most of the conflict and tension will occur with
the Camp Guards, who despite being Cultists
of Slaanesh, are mean spirited, petty sadists
and bullies with no agenda for world
domination of their own. The satisfaction at
finally confronting a bully guard whos given
you the lash everyday for a week should be far
sweeter than hacking down dozens of Orcs.

GM Note: this rumour is important because

your players need to realise that they cant just
pick a fight with the local watch and expect to
get away with it aim for hard but fair, as
the GM you are looking to instil a bit of
trepidation at the harshness of the punishment,
and maybe even some respect that although the
town is tough its helping bring civilisation
back to the area.

Keep in mind the grit, dirt and human

motivations and you wont go far wrong.

Prior to the Adventure

As Part of a Campaign
Linking Black Heart to part of an ongoing
campaign is quite crucial, the Players should
be comfortable with their characters and trust
their GM its not one to try on a fresh group
of Adventurers.
With all the devastation around Ostland and its
proximity to large portions of the Northern
Empire and even Kislev, there are plenty of
reasons for Adventurers to be somewhere
nearby to Staumludt (particularly as it can be
almost anywhere you like).
The adventure will work well if it seamlessly
joins onto the rest of your campaign and one
easy way to do this is to start preparing your
Adventurers a session or two before you
intend to start Black Heart with a mixture of
rumours and foreshadowing, a few ideas for
both are below.
Rumours
The following rumours can be picked up with
Average (-0%) Gossip tests, anywhere in
Ostland.
Staumludt is a small town in Ostland, its a
miracle it survived the Chaos Incursion
and its population has nearly doubled due
to refugees.
GM Note: In itself there is nothing unusual
about this rumour but if youve been
emphasising the destruction all around in
Ostland, then the prospect of a town that has
survived relatively unscathed will have some
kind of effect on your players.

The Town Elders are looking for ways to

deal with the massive influx of people and
are paying good money for wagon guards
to help the refugees settle anew.
GM Note: this is a complete red herring but
its the sort of thing that your players will
probably pick up on as a cue for their next
adventure. Alternatively if your Adventurers
are driven by motivations other than money
substitute a rumour that a hated enemy or
dangerous creature is causing trouble in
Staumludt. In short, lie to your players to get
them to the town.
At Staumludt
Once the Characters get to Staumludt there are
a couple more rumours floating about, again an
Average (-0%) Gossip test will be enough to
stumble on these in most circumstances.
Old Karl the Rat Catcher lost his mind and
committed suicide the other day; they
found him gibbering last week that dozens
of rats the size of men were skulking in the
shadows just out of sight, looking for
something. He wasnt the same after that.
They found him yesterday hanging from
the rafters in Sigmars temple on
Drussenstrasse, they just couldnt figure
out how he got up there
GM Note: The Skaven Warband have already
infiltrated Staumlaudt and, having spied on the
cultists are now on their way to Tassenburg to
get the warpstone shards. The Rat Catcher, as
the only witness to their passing, was bumped
off. Obviously most players and many
characters will instantly think Skaven when
they hear this rumour which is fine because
it will throw them right of the scent until much
later in the Adventure.

Magistrate Berkhopf is hard but fair, he

punishes the wicked when they are bought
before him but when hes not in court hes
always out helping people, why the Judge
gave my brother five whole crowns when his
daughter went missing, just sos he wouldnt
have to worry about the family starving while
they were out looking for her course they
still havent found her, probably robbed and
murdered by those refugee scum, cant trust
em at all
GM Note: This rumour brings the Magistrate
into focus as a major character in Staumludt
and it also shows the casual way that refugees
from the war are treated as guilty of crimes
because of their status. This is an attitude not
uncommon across the Empire since the war,
but the Cult has worked especially hard to
create that air of mistrust in Staumludt.
Its Staumludts worst kept secret that Watch
Captain Adelmann hates Magistrate Berkhopf.
See, the Captain was bought in by the town
council from Wolfenburg as some big hero,
back before the war, cept hardly none of the
watchmen ever took to him. The last straw was
when Magistrate Berkopf quelled the refugee
riots almost single handed and took charge of
most of the Watch too, they been following his
instructions ever since. Its making old
Adelmann hopping mad.
GM Note: Introducing this rumour gives a bit
of background to the offer made by the Watch
Captain to the Adventurers and brings in all
sorts of questions about Adelmanns
motivations for enlisting the Aventurers help.
Is something really going on or is Adelmann
insanely jealous and concocting some sort of
scheme to get back at Berkhopf using the
characters?
Foreshadowing
A couple of simple foreshadowing devices are
given below.
Foreshadowing
This is a technique used in games to show a
quick glimpse early on of what can be expected
later in the story, its not difficult to achieve and
can add to the suspense and drama of a game.
If the technique works well Players may begin
to watch for recurring motifs and elements of
the story.

In Staumludt (or somewhere nearby), a crazed

flagellant wanders along the street, whipping
himself. He is covered in dust and the
characters can see the flesh on his back is in
tatters. He is slurringly shouting Wicked
Tongue. Black heart. Over and over. He
ignores his surroundings but if anyone touches
him he falls to the floor screaming. Unless he is
somehow incapacitated he will not stop
screaming.
GM Note: This crazed man has escaped from
the Tassenburg labour camp but his mind is so
broken by the experience of it that all he can
do is relive the horror of the beatings and the
sick acts he saw there should the PCs
attempt hypnosis or some other method of
mind massaging to get information from the
crazy man they can get scattered images, give
them a few clues about the camp but dont
give away the game just yet.
The characters see lines of chained prisoners
being force-marched wherever they happen to
be (this effect can be reused a couple of times,
such as seeing a line of prisoners on the
horizon as they travel and another being
marched out of Staumludt as they enter.
GM Note: This is a very simple, very obvious
foreshadowing which can even be combined
with the victimisation technique below.
Another slightly subtler foreshadowing would
be the use of victimisation and abuse of power;
when they are at the labour camp the
characters will experience this first hand but a
good foreshadow might be that they keep
seeing this victimisation prior to the adventure.
E.g. an Inn Keeper beating his serving boy,
Watchmen beating a drunkard, a town official
humiliating his underling etc.
GM Note: Whether the Adventurers ignore
such callousness or intervene might very well
influence their decisions later in the
Adventure. The Old World is a cruel place and
the characters cant possibly hope to right all
wrongs, but where do they draw the line? At
what point do the characters stand up for the
downtrodden? If they leave a serving boy to be
beaten senseless by his master, whats the
difference when they see beatings in the prison
camp?
Its a good way to introduce some moral
dilemma without belabouring the point to your
players. Either way it is possible to build up a
sense of trepidation amongst your troupe at the
casual cruelty that surrounds them.

Staumludt: A Town in Crisis

Town History
The Fur Trade
Staumludt grew from a small village to the
dizzying heights of a small town, thanks to the
trade provided by Merchants on their way to
Wolfenburg who always used the town as a
stopping point to re-supply, compare and
exchange goods, set prices and even buy wares
prior to reaching their final destinations. In
particular Staumludt saw a lot of trade in furs,
hides and pelts from both local trappers in the
Forest of Shadows and more exotic fare from
as far north as Kislev. This naturally led to the
set-up of the Tanners Alley Market, dedicated
to the buying and selling of hides and furs.
Religion & Politics
The residents of Staumlaudt, like much of
Ostland, are staunch Sigmarites in a land
where all the surrounding territories primarily
support Ulric or Taal. However, by quirk of
history the impoverished, heirless and ailing
Lord of the village that would become
Staumludt, Sir Stephen Staum, gave his
holdings directly to the Sigmarite Church to
prevent his Middenland born Ulrican nephews
from inheriting the lands.
At the time, this was a major political move
and the repercussions were felt across Ostland,
Middenland and beyond. To protect the Cults
interests and, more importantly, to anger and
insult the Ulricans; Sigmarite Lector Matteus
Ludt ordered the fortification of the fledgling
town renaming it The Sigmarite Township
of Staum and Ludt now only ever known as
Staumludt.
Centuries passed and the Sigmarite Churchs
interest in the little town waned as long as they
paid their taxes (having established a civil
council to run the town in the absence of a
Lector), while the original reason for the
fortifications faded from memory. The walls
however held strong and had it not been for
this petty piece of politicking centuries
previously, it is doubtful that Staumludt would
have survived the Storm of Chaos.
The Storm Comes
During the war, the town of Staumludt held
little strategic significance except as a fortified
station for Imperial messengers and scouts to
collect fresh horses. Although they did have to
repel several attacks from splinter warbands of
the Slaaneshi army, the reward of razing the
town was not worth the effort of destroying it
for the bulk of the rampaging Chaos forces.
After the Storm
Since the end of the war, few if any Merchants
pass by Staumludt any longer and many
businesses that relied on the passing trade have

totally collapsed. However, Staumludt as a

whole found new purpose at the end of the war
as a refuge for the many displaced in that part
of Ostland. Seen as the last bastion of
humanity in a region where almost every farm
and village was burned to the ground, the
surviving refugees have flocked to Staumludt.
Led by a Sigmarite Friar by the name of
Michaelidis, the town gave them welcome and
succour at least at first.
Enthusiasm for helping the refugees and
survivors of the war has quickly worn thin
amongst the populace of Staumludt (helped by
the unrest spread by the Slaaneshi Cult
worming its way into the community). The
refugees have gone from being seen as
neighbours in need to feckless beggars, thieves
and a general drain on the good citizens of
Staumludt.

Gazetteer of the Sigmarite Township

of Staum and Ludt
Size: Small Town
Ruler: Officially it is Lector Dietmar Ewald
(formerly of Wolfenburg), although the town is
effectively governed by a Town Council in the
Lectors (generations continued) absence. The
council has two posts for the highest ranking
Sigmarite priests in the town, a seat for the
local Magistrate and two seats to local
Burghers who are elected tri-annually.
Population: 430 plus 280 refugees
Wealth: 2 (little affluence)
Source: Trade in Furs and Hides and as a
stopping point for Merchants.
Garrison/Militia: 12 x B (Average Troops), 30
x C (Poor Troops).
Notes: In the quiet forests surrounding
Staumludt a small speckled grey mushroom has
been recently found with a cap that grows into
two horn-like protrusions; the fungus has been
dubbed Devils Cap due to its horned shape.
No-one knows where it came from or how long
its been growing there; but it is certainly not
indigenous to the area.
It seems Devils Cap has unusual properties
when dried, crumbled and smoked it
heightens awareness of surroundings while at
the same time numbing the skin (the game
effects are identical to Crimson Shade, listed in
the WFRP rule book).
Whilst few people yet know of the fungus it is
only a matter of time before its discovery
becomes more wide spread.

Of course, it is entirely true that there are

criminals amongst the refugees; thugs and
pickpockets survived the war in larger
numbers than honest men simply because they
were quicker to run away.
But in the manner of self-fulfilling prophecies,
some of the refugees in Staumludt have begun
to resent the way in which the townsfolk view
them, gangs of angry men, opportunists and
the downright desperate turn to stealing and
worse to get by (once again spurred on by the
plotting cultists).
The Situation Worsens
A few unscrupulous businesses have begun to
exploit this underclass of refugees, promising
to help them back onto their feet but delivering
only long hours of hard work for nothing
except the right to live in a hugely
overcrowded room with just enough food to
survive. However when the alternative is
frostbite and starvation, even exploitation is
preferable.
Surprisingly the Cultists were not the first to
think of benefiting from the misery of others in
this way (although they have taken the sadism
involved in it to a new level), just more proof
that even the Servants of Darkness cannot
compete with the sheer meanness of spirit
mankind can show towards his fellows.
Tensions
Staumludt was a powder keg throughout the
winter of 2522, with violence between the
refugees and the townsfolk barely kept in
check. The spark that would ignite the real
fires of hatred between the two groups fell on
the 22nd of Ulriczeit when Friar Michaelidis
was found murdered and each side blamed the
other (in reality the Cult murdered the
troublesome priest and fanned the fires of
hatred on both sides).
In the violence that followed, twelve people
were killed before the Watch re-established
order under the charismatic direction of the
local Judge, Magistrate Berkhopf. Well
respected in the community, he made great
show of punishing the worst offenders on both
sides and sentenced them to work together for
the good of all the community, clearing the
nearby town of Tassenburg. This sentence
created the forced-labour camp at Tassenburg.
Since that time the punishment for any crime,
no matter how serious or petty seems to be to
be sent to Tassenburg, though none are yet to
return.
It is a poorly kept secret that the Magistrates
popularity and sway with the officers of the
Watch has annoyed the Captain of the Watch
Heinrich Adelmann, who was an out of town
career Watchman bought in by the town

shortly before the Storm of Chaos. Most

townsfolk think it is simply a case of bitter
schnaffenbrot that the Magistrate is braver,
wiser and more popular than he is.
A Righteous Man
Magistrate Berkhopf was a hero to most
townsfolk and even many of the refugees, for
his hard but fair attitude. Of course they dont
know he is the Magus of a Slaaneshi Cult and
that he wanted forced labourers at Tassenburg
not to clear and rebuild the town, but to bring
more death and destruction on the area in the
name of his dark lord.
Local History
Adventurers can get a potted history of
Staumludt with either a Hard (- 20%)
Academic Knowledge (History), or Gossip test,
as appropriate.
Tanners Alley Market
Before the war, Tanners Alley Market was a
thriving bazaar filled with trappers, haggling
merchants, tanners, taxidermists, furriers and
herdsmen as well as more traditional peddlers
like piemen and charcoal burners.
Since the end of the war and the collapse of
many of the businesses supporting the market,
the area is now packed with refugees and the
unemployed. Tanners Alley is now effectively
a labour market, anyone offering work can
now find dozens of men, women and children
willing to take on any job for the prospect of
little more than one meal a day, and even then
competition can be fierce.
Of course, where there is misery and
desperation there are also those who feed off it,
meaning the area is now home to several
gangs, many of whom run stables of whores
who can change hands like property between
the various gangs. Prices run from the cost of
your average horse for young and virginal
flesh of either sex, to less than a weeks stay at
an inn for those whove changed owners
more than a couple of times. In any case, the
prostitutes will likely be threatened, beaten and
raped before ever seeing a customer purely as
a matter of course so that they will not offer
any resistance to the gangs that own them.
Some gangs in Tanners Alley work for the
Slaaneshi Cult that has infiltrated the town, but
not as many as you might think. The Pelts, a
gang of Kislevite refugees (read; thugs looking
for an area to exploit) are one of those who
have regular dealings with the Slaanesh Cult,
albeit without overtly knowing what the girls
and boys they provide are being used for.

Handout: Staumludt Flyer

Attention All Ye Citezens of

Ostland
On the 23rd of Vorgeheim, in the the year of
almighty Sigmar 2522, Elector Count Valmir von
Raukov, Grand Prince of Ostland, Margrave of
the Northern March, Hammer of the East did
declare a state of emergency and martial law
upon the Grand Principality of Ostland.
Such said martial law doth suspend the liberties
of freedom and right to trial hitherto enjoyed by
the subjects of Ostland.

Brigands, ye be warned.

Scene 1: An Offer You Cant Refuse

The Pinch
However youve chosen to lure your
Adventurers to Staumludt, and whatever
rumours and events youve already established
about the town, you should give the party no
longer than a day to get settled in Staumludt.
The first real event of the Black Heart
adventure is when the Watch take in the
Characters for questioning. The Watch dont
need any excuse to take someone to the Watch
House and with Characters prone to getting
themselves into trouble, perhaps its best if the
Watch strike before there is a genuine
excuse/crime!
If, however you want the Party to be involved
in some minor illegal activity at the time the
Watch corner them then there is an example
lead-in you can use below

The Devils Own

Overview
The Adventurers are in the process of being
hired by a scrawny looking herbalist (Claus
Dekmar) to deliver a package of herbs to a
wealthy customer when, just as they take
possession of the package the Watch spring a
trap, en-masse, leaving the PCs nowhere to
run.
The Watch arrest the herbalist on suspicion of
witchcraft and/or smuggling and charge the
Adventurers with abetting his crimes. As they
really havent done anything wrong the
characters should be encouraged not to fight
back.
Plot Significance
In reality, Claus has been supplying Magistrate
Berkhopf and the Cult with concoctions of
Devils Horn (see sidebar above) for their own
foul uses. Last week, Claus attempted to
blackmail Berkhopf over his use of the drug in
an attempt to drive up the price. This backfired
and the Magistrate has decided its time Claus
took a little trip to Tassenburg. The Characters,
as outsiders who wont be missed, are just the
icing on the cake.
Even if you dont use this encounter, the
Characters will meet Claus later, on the march
to Tassenburg.
Location
Claus will initially approach the Adventurers
in a tavern called the Magnus Arms but will
insist the deal is done in the cobbled yard at
the back of the tavern. The courtyard is about
15 yds square and is crowded with mouldy,
rotting, empty beer kegs (the local coopers
went out of business during the War). The yard
is surrounded by an eight foot high stone wall
topped with tar and broken glass. There is one

door from the Inn into the yard and a set of

wooden double gates large enough for a cart to
make its deliveries at the back.

Magnus Arms
Back Door
Debris
* Adventurers
* Claus Dekmar, Herbalist

Rear Gates

The Deal Goes South

Allow the Players plenty of time to conduct
their negotiations, Claus is cocky but not very
bright and will probably agree to a good price
if they flatter him.
If asked about the contents of the package he
claims its a monthly delivery of a medicinal
compound that relieves his clients fits. If
pushed on why this medicine needs an armed
guard he reluctantly admits it can be used as a
recreational drug and is thus a target for some
of the local gangs (throughout the encounter he
makes no mention of Berkhopf, merely the
address it must be taken to).
When the negotiations are winding down and
Claus is passing the Characters the package,
both the door and the gates are flung open and
about a dozen Watchmen appear. As they
enter, the Watch Sergeant will shout out:
Hold! Local Watch! Stay where you are!
You are bound over by Ostland Martial
Law in the name of Elector Count Von
Raukov! If you resist we will kill you where
you stand. Drop your weapons! Now!
Watch Sergeant Hartlip (see his NPC profile
below) is a Slaaneshi Cultist and one who
enjoys his day job immensely, even more since
the declaration of Martial Law. He will pay no
heed to any Commanding Nobles, Sly
Schemers or Intimidating Mages he has
orders from his Cult Magus to take these
people alive as fodder for the Tassenburg
Camp, but there would be no repercussions if
he did kill any troublemakers. Hes
untouchable, and he knows it.

Sergeant Hartlip
Staumludt Watch Sergeant
and Slaaneshi Cultist
Careers: Sergeant, ExWatchman
Race: Human
Main Profile
WS BS S
T
49 47 51 48
Secondary Profile
A
W SB TB
2
18
5
4

AG
39

INT
37

WP
31

FEL
36

M
4

MG
0

IP
0

FP
0

Skills: Academic Knowledge (Law & Tactics), Dodge

Blow +10, Follow Trail, Gossip +10, Intimidate +10,
Perception +10, Search, Command
Talents: Savvy, Disarm, Strike Mighty Blow, Strike to
Stun, Menacing.
Armour: Helmet (AP 3), Leather Armour (AP 1)
Weapons: Sword, Billy Club, Crossbow
Trappings: 20 Crossbow Quarrels, Set of Manacles

The Herbalist Claus Dekmar will try to run,

until he is threatened with violence, at which
point he gives up and kneels on the floor with
his arms over his head, waiting to be
manacled. Hopefully your Characters will
likewise surrender peacefully, but if not
The Watchmen
Four of the Watchmen are armed with nets,
two with a brace of vicious dogs each and the
rest are armed with Crossbows. All of them
have Leather Armour (AP1 all Locations),
Billy Clubs, Short Swords and a set of
Manacles (use the Guards NPC profile which
is included later on).
Four of the Watchmen appear at the door from
the Inn, and the others at the courtyards back
gate.
If the Adventurers look like they are getting
the upper hand in a fight (possible but not
likely if you use the nets and dogs to good
effect), then reinforcements arrive in the shape
of Militiamen (anywhere up to twenty) armed
with a mix of Halberds and Swords and
Shields, all wearing Medium Chainmail
Armour (AP 2), at this point the Adventurers
should be given another opportunity to
surrender.

The Wall
If any bright spark gets the idea of going over
the wall to escape, they will have to deal with
the following;
Over the Wall
Jumping the wall is a full turn action that
requires a Hard (-20%) Agility test, which
can be modified to Challenging (-10%) if
the character uses the rotting barrels to get
a boost.
Roll Fails: The Adventurer doesnt make it
to the wall top as the barrel has broken or
they have slipped on the rotting debris and
injured themselves in some way; they take
D10 damage to a random location.
0 Degrees of Success: The Adventurer
makes the jump but lands heavily on the
tarred glass at the top of the wall and takes
D10 Wounds, ignoring all armour as the
glass grinds into any soft points on their
body.
1 Degree of Success: The Adventurer lands
better but still takes D10 / 2 Wounds
ignoring armour, from the glass.
2 Degrees of Success or Higher: The
Adventurer clears the top of the wall
without being caught on the glass.
Attempting to climb the wall is slower but
safer, a Challenging (-10%) Scale Sheer
Tassenburg
Surface roll gets the character to the other
side of the wall without injury but it takes
two full actions.

Locked Up
Regardless of what hook you use to bait the
trap, and what the Adventurers try, they
should eventually be caught by the Watch; it is
after all the crux of the Black Heart adventure.
Once they are caught, the Adventurers are
manacled, and led to the Watch House where
they are processed, a practice that means
their possessions are removed and stored for
safe-keeping in a strong-box (in fact the
Watchmen divvy up the spoils at the end of
each month). Particularly cruel Games
Masters may wish to have the Characters fully
stripped, manacled to a wall while they are
drenched with buckets of ice-cold water,
scrubbed with hard brushes and given itchy,
lice-ridden rags to wear, not their own clothes.

The Full Monty

The full process treatment is designed to
dehumanise and intimidate new prisoners.
Whilst the treatments themselves are
uncomfortable and humiliating, its the
combined menace they try to instil that has
the in-game effect.
Characters who have not run afoul of the
law before must make a Challenging (-10%)
opposed Willpower test with the Watchmen
or be intimidated by the rough treatment they
receive. If they fail, they automatically take
an additional -10% to any Willpower rolls
against the Watchmen for the next 24 hours,
at which point they can test again (with the
additional -10%). If they fail the penalty
remains, if they pass they are no longer
intimidated by the Watchmen.
Characters that have had brushes with the
rough arm of the law before take the initial
Willpower test at Average difficulty (-0%).
Lice-Ridden Rags
These particularly odious clothes give -5% to
all Agility tests due to the constant itching.
Additionally, once every day the Character
must make an Average (-0%) Toughness test
or the Lice bites become infected giving
the Character Kruts Disease (see the WFRP
rulebook, P.136 for full details).

The Staumludt Watch House

The Watch House is a squat, ugly building of
newish but dirty brick, in contrast to the
white plaster faade of the local Courthouse,
which sits just next door.
Thick metal bars block what few small
windows are visible and a faded pennant of
the Ostland / Von Raukov heraldry hangs
tattered in the breeze.
A large wrought iron brazier stands on top of
the Watch House roof alongside a large
tarnished bronze bell, to be used in case of
emergency for the town the citizens who
survived the Storm of Chaos are well aware
of the sound and meaning of hearing the bell,
which has been dubbed Old Nell.
During the Processing the Adventurers will
be split up and derided if they ask for legal
representation, but unless they are violent they
wont be beaten.
Once the processing is finished, Sergeant
Hartlip will sling them all, still manacled, into
a single cramped cell. As he is locking them
up, a tall imposing Watchman approaches the
group.

Read the following piece to the Players.

Sergeant Hartlip! growls the tall
Watchman, I intend to review the case of
everyone being held. Bring them too me in
my office, one cell at a time!
Without bothering to turn to his superior,
Hartlip sneers You dont need to bother
with that Heinrich, they already been
processed.
Growing visibly red, the tall mans eyes
narrow. He yells Atten-tion!
Hartlip slowly turns and adopts a slouch
that is slightly more upright.
The tall man moves up close to Hartlip and
drops his voice, as Hartlip is still standing
right next to your cell, you can clearly
hear whats said.
You stand to attention when I speak to
you Hartlip or Ill dock your pay, and you
call me Heinrich again and Ill crack your
head against this wall like an over-ripe
apple. You understand me?
Yes, Captain Adelmann.
Louder.
YES, CAPTAIN ADELMANN.
Thats better. Now, start with this lot
here, he jerks his thumb at your cell
Then report to Old Nell, you just
volunteered for a double shift.
Yes. Captain. Adelmann. Hartlip
responds through clenched teeth.
With that, Adelmann turns and walks
away. Hartlip rounds on you with a
murderous look in his eye as he draws his
club and unlocks the cell door.
You heard the man, he hisses, licking
his lips now get moving scum, before I
introduce my Billy to your kneecaps!

Adelmanns Offer
Sargeant Hartlip conducts the Adventurers to
Captain Adelmanns office, giving them looks
that could kill all the way. He knocks on the
door and enters, rolling his eyes as he pulls off
a perfect salute with a ram-rod stiff back. He
presents the Adventurers as the first lot, Sir.
before stumping out of the room and up to the
roof to man Old Nell.
Captain Adelmanns office is sparse and with
little comforts, he sits behind a heavy wooden
desk covered in papers. Without looking up
from his papers he begins speaking.

So, abetting a smuggler and contraband

peddler, resisting arrest and assaulting
Officers of the Watch and all on your
first day in town. Not a good start, hmm?
He looks up from the papers hes studying
and continues Under Martial Law we
could take you out back and hang you here
and now, or perhaps just take your right
arms at the elbow that should stop you
causing trouble again.
But Im going to do you the biggest
favour in your life. Why? Because youre
going to do one for me. I know who you
are, or at least Ive heard enough about
you to guess you are the people I need.
Captain Adelmann licks his lips, and for
the first time you get the feeling that hes
not as in control of the situation as he
wants to appear.
You might have noticed from Hartlips
reaction, that most of my men dont have a
lot of respect for me. Its because I was
bought in to run the town Watch from
outside, they always felt like it should be a
local in charge But, theres something
else going on as well.
The towns ruling council has decreed
that even though there is a state of
Marshall Law across Ostland, that
Staumludt will attempt to carry out the due
process of law, wherever possible which
means all crimes come before the local
Magistrate, a detestable man by the name
of Berkopf, who also just happens to be on
the council.
Adelmann sighs, I know it sounds like a
laudable ideaand it is but Berkopf is
up to something, Sigmar damn his hide!
Hes using this situation for his personal
gain somehow, and hes bought the loyalty
of most of my men too. Which is why I have
to go through the pretence of reviewing
every prisoners case, just to be able to
talk to you.
Adelmann visibly slumps It sounds crazy,
I know. Like some personal grudge against
a man whos done nothing wrong. But,
over the last few months since the end of
the war, every crime that has been brought
in front of the Magistrate has resulted in
the same sentence murderers, thieves,
drunken brawlers and even debtors, all of
them sentenced to work clearing the ruins
of a. neighbouring town, Tassenburg. No
hangings, no mutilation, not even any fines
or time in the stocks.

Every single person bought in front of the

Magistrate has been sent to Tassenburg, and
not one has yet returned. Whats worse is, my
men seem to be taking orders from Berkopf
to round up even more people. Where petty
offences would once have been dealt with by
the Officer in the street, like simply keeping
the peace between two arguing neighbours,
now both are dragged in here, taken to
Berkopf in the morning and sent to
Tassenburg. Ive yet to see a single person
acquitted either.
The refugees have it worst of all; indigency
is now a crime punishable by indefinite hard
labour. Law abiding People who came to us
for help, many of them from Tassenburg, are
being turned into criminals. These are
supposedly the people we are clearing
Tassenburg for!
Verena knows this is not justice; its
certainly not the Rule of Law or even martial
law Its more like Berkhopfs own private
slave market. I know hes up to something in
Tassenburg, every ounce of my experience as
a Watchman tells me that, I just cant find
out what it is
Which is where you come in, I cant change
the fact that youll be sent to Tassenburg,
youre in the system now, but you can choose
to go there for the greater good. Youll need
to maintain a low profile, maybe use some
sort of cover, find out whats going on at
Tassenburg and get proof of whatever it is
that Berkopf is up to. Time is short Im
afraid, if youre in here too long the
Watchmen working for Berkopf will get
suspicious. Well, will you help?

So Many Questions So Little Time

Undoubtedly, the Adventurers will have a
number of questions before they agree to help,
so theres a list of Adelmanns responses to the
most likely ones below.
Try to keep the answer session brief, Captain
Adelmann is very conscious about how long
the Adventurers stay in the room, have him do
something to indicate his hurry every couple of
questions and if you think that the questioning
is going nowhere have a Watchman bang on
the door and announce the arrival of the next
group from the cells.
Q. Why should we help?
Because its the right thing to do. And if you
do find anything that incriminates Berkopf
Ill make sure you are completely exonerated
of all crimes. Ill also make sure your
possessions arent divided up amongst the
Watchmen as they will undoubtedly do when
you are sent to Tassenburg.

Q. What if we refuse to help?

I cant force you to, but I guarantee Berkopf
will still send you to Tassenburg just the
same. Its possible you might be able to strike
a deal with him if you sell me out, but
Magistrate Berkopf is not only the Judge for
this whole District, but holds the influencing
vote on the ruling council for Staumludt, he
effectively runs this town. I doubt he got
where he is today without breaking a deal or
two.
Q. How can you help us?
I cant do too much, Im afraid. I can make
your possessions disappear from the Strong
Room and bring them to a copse next to the
mile marker outside Tassenburg. If you can
get out of the Labour Camp Ill meet you one
night with them and you can tall me what
youve found. Ill give you a week once you
get to the camp to find out whats going on
and plan your escape. I wont be able to stay
long, so if you miss that opportunity Ill just
bury your items at that point and hope you
can get to them later.
Q. What can you tell us about the Camp at
Tassenburg?
Only what Ive heard, the camp is based on
the North side of the town,, that section was
almost completely demolished by some sort
of huge explosion during the Chaos
Incursion.

Q. What exactly do you want us to do?

Ive already explained; keep a low profile
amongst the prisoners, when you get to the
labour camp find out what it is that
Erkenbraund is doing with all these people and
why Magistrate Berkhopf is sentencing them all
to work there, break out and give me enough
dirt to bring down Berkhopf. If you help me
nail Berkhopf Ill clear your names, if you
dont find anything then I cant help you and if
you escape the camp youll be considered
outlaws. Simple enough, huh?
Q. How do you expect us to break out?
Im afraid youre on your own with that. But
from what Ive heard of you, you stand a better
chance than most. Youll have one week to
figure out how to get out of there and find out
whats going on, assuming you want your
possessions back and your names cleared.
Q. Can you help us smuggle in
weapons/items?
No, its too risky.
Adelmann should be played as open, honest,
tough but fair, slightly desperate and with a
deep hatred of the Magistrate.
Once all the questions are out of the way, if it
hasnt already been covered, Adelmann
explains where and when he will meet the
Adventurers when they break out, he then
summons a Watchman to take them back to
their cell.
Captain Heinrich
Adelmann

Q. What can you tell us about the Guards at

Tassenburg?
There are maybe thirty guards there, about
half a dozen are Watchmen, the rest are
civic-minded volunteers, which translates
as Berkopfs cronies. The camp is run by
Faustus Erkenbraund, a wealthy
Tassenberger. He used to teach at the
University in Nuln apparently, some sort of
physician, though Ive never heard of him
having any patients. He petitioned the
Council with plans about the rebuilding of
Tassenburg shortly before Berkopf started
sentencing people to work there and so
became the Commandant of the camp. What
a lucky co-incidence for him
Q. How long does it take to get to
Tassenburg?
By horse, you can travel the distance in
two days, or a day and a half if you flog it
to death. Unfortunately youll be walking
there, so it will take nearly a week.

Staumludt Watch Captain

Careers: Captain, ExSergeant, Ex-Watchman
Race: Human
Main Profile
WS BS S
T
55 47 49 58
Secondary Profile
A
W SB TB
3
20
4
5

AG
52

INT
48

WP
54

FEL
57

M
4

MG
0

IP
0

FP
0

Skills: Academic Knowledge (Law & Tactics), Dodge

Blow +10, Follow Trail, Gossip +10, Intimidate +10,
Perception +10, Search, Command +10, Ride,
Read/Write,
Talents: Savvy, Disarm, Strike Mighty Blow, Strike to
Stun, Menacing, Wrestling,
Trappings: Breast Plate (AP 3), Helmet (AP 3),
Leather Armour (AP 1), Sword, Billy Club, WatchHouse.

Scene 2: Lock-Up
Overview

Dinnertime

This short scene revolves around the

Adventurers whilst they stay overnight in the
Watch House Prison, before they go to Court
the next morning.

When all the prisoners are back in their cells,

they get a meal, of sorts. A wooden cup of
thin, watery gruel that tastes foul.
Characters who study their meal too intently
must make a Perception roll to identify some
of the contents of the gruel. If they succeed
(and they may not want to in this case) they
identify flakes of human skin (like scabs or
bad dandruff) and phlegm and have a sneaking
suspicion there may be traces of other bodily
fluids in there as well.

Adelmanns Interviews
Over the course of the next two hours, Captain
Adelmann interviews all the other prisoners in
the Watch House Prison. The Adventurers
watch them being taken in and out, one cell at
a time (about four to six prisoners in each cell).

Characters that refuse to eat the gruel count

this as their first day without food (see the
Undernourishment and Starvation side bar,
below).

The Watch House Cells

In the Staumludt Watch House cellar are the
holding cells, where the Watch keep their
prisoners until the Court has dealt with them,
usually only until the next day.

Adelmanns Note
After all the wooden cups have been counted
back in, something unexpected happens, read
the next section out to the Player closest to the
cell bars;
Captain Adelmann comes storming into the
prison area, before you can react he
shouts, You took it didnt you!

The walls are solid stone, slick with damp,

and without windows. The only light comes
from two storm lanterns suspended near the
entrance; a heavy bound oak door with a
small barred window. There are six cells
(each big enough to hold four to six people),
arranged three either side of a central
walkway (the Adventurers are put in one on
the left, closest to the exit) and the stone floor
is strewn with straw that looks like it hasnt
been changed in months.

It had to be you, you lowlife piece of

scum! Wheres my coin pouch? as he
grabs hold of your shirt in both hands and
shakes you back and forward. There is the
sudden clink of coins hitting the stone floor
and as everyone looks at the noise a small
pouch appears to have fallen from your
shirt.

Each cell contains a tin bucket to be used as

a toilet and two wooden benches just big
enough for a person to lie on that are

A. Bench
B.
A.
B. Bucket
Cell 3
C. Cell 6
C. Cell Door
A. Bench.
A.
A.

B.

B.

A.
Cell 5

Cell 2

C.

C.

A.

W
A
A.
B.
L.
K
Cell 1
C.
W.
(Adventurers) A
A.
Y

A.
B.

A.

Other Characters may make a Challenging (10%) Perception roll to see the sleight of hand
drop made by Adelmann. If they get two
degrees of success or more, they also spot
Adelmann slip a small strip of paper inside the
shirt of the grabbed character.
At this point the whole prison block erupts
into shouting and the two bemused guards
rush forward to their Captains side.
Sah! Well take this piece of snot outside for
you now and cut his thieving hands off for
you!

C. Cell 4
A.

Lantern *
Reinforced Door
* Lantern

The Character Adelmann grabs cannot avoid

the move as it is so unexpected, they can
however resist the shaking with opposed
Strength rolls, at least two degrees of success
are necessary to pull free.

Ill deal with him myself Corporal! Now get

this lot under control! Adelmann yells at his
underling as he suddenly slams a fist forward
at you.

If the Character is still held firmly in

Adelmanns grip, then the Character is
considered to be Stunned for the purpose of the
attack (the character cannot Dodge and
Adelmanns attack is at +20%). If the character
escaped Adelmanns clutch then the attack is
resolved as normal.

prisoners appear hurt or ill and will just laugh.

If the Adventurers refuse to shut up he will
urinate on them from the walkway between the
cells and if this does not work, he will leave
and return a few minutes later with a bucket of
human excrement which he throws at the
offending person.

Regardless of the outcome of the punch,

Adelmann picks up his pouch, spits on the
Character and stalks out of the room, leaving
the remaining Watchmen screaming for quiet.

A Good Nights Sleep?

If the Players havent figured out that

Adelmann has just created that distraction to
slip them something, a successful Average (-0)
Intelligence test will clue them in.
When the Adventurers decide to examine the
note they find the following handout;

Just found
out that
Berkhopf has
a Spy
amongst the
Prisoners
During the Night
Lights Out
After the commotion has settled, the
Adventurers have about ten minutes before
the Watchmen douse the two lanterns that
provide the dim lighting in the cells and leave.
Once the lights have been put out, the only
light in the room is a faint glimmer from
underneath the oak door. This light is enough
to see outlines of people within about 3 yards.
Anything complex that relies on sight alone
(i.e. examining the faces of prisoners in other
cells) requires a Very Hard (-30%) Perception
test to undertake normally. Any actions that
can be conducted by touch and hearing but are
easier to perform with sight, require a
Challenging (-10%) Perception Test to
undertake normally (such as pick a lock).
Guards
During the night one Watchman sits on the
other side of the heavy oak door that lead into
the holding cells area and drinks grog until he
falls asleep. He will not enter the room unless
the Prisoners make too much noise and wake
him (GM Call). If he does have to enter he will
not approach the cells. He doesnt care if the

Now they are not being watched there are a

number of things the Adventurers may now
want to do.
Some of the most common are below
Tooling Up
If the Characters want to see what is in their
cell that they might be able to utilise as a tool
or weapon, they dont have a lot of options.
The Bucket this thin metal bucket can be
bent with a successful Challenging (-10%)
Strength test, and if worked on and weakened
long enough a small section can be ripped free,
creating a sharp pointed instrument or shiv (a
basic knife that can be concealed that counts as
an improvised weapon).
The Benches the wood of the benches can be
pulled off with a Hard (-20%) Strength test,
this is not quiet or easy to conceal and if the
Watchmen discover the character has
vandalised the bench, they will get a beating.
Bench planks count as an improvised weapon.
Quieter to get and more easily concealed are
the small nails used in the benches
construction. With a Challenging (-10%)
Perception test, the Character can identify a
nail they might be able to loosen. Without any
sort of tool this will take D10 / 2 hours work.
If the character has a tool of some description
(like another nail) the nail can be prised out
quietly within an hour. Up to four nails can be
removed without the benches collapsing.
Nails make a small and ineffective weapon but
can be used as lock picks or other tools.
The Straw This has no discernable value as a
weapon or tool, except possibly as some form
of kindling, however, players being an
inventive lot, dont write it off totally.
Bribing the Guard
Some Adventurers may want to bribe the
guard as a way of smuggling in items, the
Watchman on duty is pretty corrupt (far more
than the players realise), and so in itself its not
a problem to bribe him. The difficulty arises in
that the Adventurers have little to offer the
guard, and that he will not approach the cell to
negotiate in case he gets grabbed.
Charm and Haggle tests involving the guard
are Average (-0%) Difficulty.

Talking the Night Away

There is a good chance that talking to anyone
who is not in the cell next to the Adventurers
own one will arouse the anger of the
Watchman on guard, and it will certainly be
overheard by everyone else in the cells.
Most of the Prisoners in the cell next to the
Adventurers just want to be alone with their
misery and try to sleep. A successful
Challenging (-10%) Charm or Intimidate Test
might encourage them to speak (in which case
choose an NPC from those listed on the
March, for the Adventurers to badger).
Claus Dekmar (if the Adventurers have
actually met him) is at the other end of the
hall, and is not inclined to talk to the
Adventurers even if they do call to him.
The only person in the next-door cell
interested in talking is a young boy named
Hans, a street urchin who is rightly scared of
what will happen.
Hans knows nothing of the Tassenburg Camp,
but any Adventurer who chooses to show
interest in him will find they have a firm friend
for the rest of the Adventure. They will also
see that other people ignore and talk openly
around him, which could make him valuable in
tracing the real spy.
Hans has the following pieces of information
about his fellow inmates, some of which may
be of use to the characters. To keep Hans on
track and remember to keep his voice low is a
Challenging (-10%) Gossip Test to learn each
piece of information below.
Hans Information
1.

I heard ole Mrs. Haggerty say she

tried bribing the Watchman who came
to shut her whore house, he took the
money and then burned down her
house anyway. She reckons he was
paid off by one of those Kislevite
gangs that hang around the Tanners
Alley Market.

Hans - Street Urchin and Pick Pocket

Careers: Thief
Main Profile
WS BS
S
T
AG INT WP FEL
35
32
24
29
45
27
30
28
Secondary Profile
A
W
SB TB
M
MG
IP
FP
1
9
2
2
4
0
0
0
Skills: Scale Sheer Surface, Concealment, Perception,
Sleight of Hand, Search, Silent Move.
Talents: Alley Cat, Flee.
Trappings: None
Escape
The Adventurers may want to try various
tricks to escape, either completely (in which
case, you should definitely foil their attempts)
or perhaps just enough to get out of their
Manacles or cell so they can better prepare for
the journey to Tassenburg.
If the Adventurers try to escape from their
Manacles, see the rules presented below.
Even if they cant escape their Manacles, the
Adventurers should be encouraged to
investigate their limits whilst wearing them
(again, see below for the benefits of this).
If they are trying to escape their cell so they
can prowl the Watch House they will need to
wait until everyone appears to be asleep, at
least three hours. The locks on the cell doors
are Good Quality, meaning it is a Hard (-20%)
roll to try and pick the lock. Dont forget
additional penalties such as the darkness and
any Manacles still worn at that time.
Even once the lock on the door has been
picked, the Characters will need to open the
cell door and move about the room without
waking the other prisoners, a Hard (-20%)
Silent Move test each turn.

2.

One of the men in the cell next to

mine has a knife; I saw it under his
shirt.

Additionally there is a 50% chance that the

Spy (Kastor Gundred, see the section on the
March to Tassenburg, below) has spotted and
recognised any characters leaving the cell.

3.

Sergeant Hartlip was talking about

the boss being pleased with the haul
of Devils Cap they got today in a raid
on the Magnus Arms. Guess he meant
the Captain

The reinforced door at the edge of the room

will also need to be defeated if the Adventurers
want to leave the holding cells, the lock on this
door is Best Quality and is therefore a Very
Hard (-30%) Pick Lock test.

4.

One of the women was bought in

with a bag over her head, she was
talking about the Magistrate but the
Watchman punched her and told her to
shut up, she aint said nothin since.

Unofficial New Rules: All Chained UpUsing Manacles and Shackles

In Black Heart, the Adventurers spend much of the time chained up. Whilst this is an inconvenience, it doesnt stop
them from taking actions; here are some suggested rules for dealing with manacles and leg shackles.
Wearing
Wearing manacles or shackles gives a 20% penalty to any rolls involving the use of hands or feet in an individual
and co-ordinated way (i.e. there is no penalty for bludgeoning someone with both hands, but there is for throwing a
punch with just one hand, similarly there is no penalty for jumping straight up, but there is one for running).
Typically this penalty will apply to most Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Agility and some Strength tests. Additionally
Leg Shackles reduce the Movement characteristic by half.
Often Manacles and Leg Shackles are linked together, further reducing the degree of movement available to the
Character, the cumulative penalty (applied to any co-ordinated hand, feet or full body actions) is -30%.
Becoming Accustomed to Manacles & Shackles
Every day that a character wears chains he can experiment with the limits of motion they allow in an effort to reduce
the difficulty they cause. If the character has spent at least one hour testing the limits of their chains that day, they
may make a Challenging (-10%) Agility test (dont forget the chains own penalty, or any other cumulative effects).
If they succeed the chains penalty is halved (leaving -10% for Manacles or Shackles, or -15% when wearing both
chains linked). Failing the test inflicts 1 Wound, ignoring armour and Toughness Bonus as the cuffs cut into the
wrists or ankles. Each new set of Shackles or Manacles requires a new roll as the Character experiments with the
new limits of their chains. Characters can only gain the benefit of halving the penalty once per set of chains.
Lock Picking Cuffs
The Manacles and Shackles used by Staumludt Town Watch are of Good Quality, meaning tests to pick the locks are
Hard (-20%) on top of any additional modifiers. Each cuff will need a separate Pick Lock roll, and although the
Manacles penalty will not apply once one wrist has been freed, for Shackles both ankles must be free to remove the
penalty.
Characters who have lock picked their chains, or used a key to unlock them may pretend they are still
manacled/shackled with a Sleight of Hand test opposed against the Perception test of anyone who happens to be
looking.
Escapology
Manacles and Shackles are made to fit one size, so characters with smaller wrists/hands or ankles/feet may have a
chance to slide out. The Character must succeed at a Very Hard (-30%) Agility Test (remember the additional
penalty for wearing chains), for each wrist/ankle they wish to free. Characters whose Weight is 125lb or less (for
humans) or who rolled 01-12 on the Weight Background Chart during character creation (see WFRP, P. 24), get
+10% to the roll.
Breaking Chains
This usually involves breaking the chain between the cuffs, rather than removing the cuffs altogether. The character
needs a tool, weapon or other method (such as the Gold Magic Spell Curse of Rust) to actually break the chain.
They must then succeed in a Very Hard (-30%) Strength test to free themselves. The GM may assign a bonus or
penalty to this roll depending on the tool used and the exact manner in which the Character attempts to break the
chain.
Using Chains as Weapons
Manacles that are being worn add +10% to Grappling Attacks as they can be used to apply additional pressure,
particularly to the throat.
Manacles or Shackles that are not being worn count as Improvised Weapons (Damage SB-4), and linked Manacles
and Shackles do Damage SB -2 due to the added weight. If a character has the Specialist Weapon (Flail) Talent the
damage is increased to SB (linked sets of chains also gain the Impact and Tiring Qualities). If one manacle cuff is
still attached to the Character the chains cannot be dropped or disarmed.
Unattached chains may be used as Thrown Improvised Weapons. If a character has the Specialist Weapon
(Entangling) Talent the chains gain the Entangling quality when thrown. There are no extra benefits for throwing
linked sets of chains as the additional weight counteracts any advantage that would have been gained in throwing
them.
Being Chained to Other People
Chain-gangs of two or more people have a further restriction on movement, each half action taken that turn by a
person chained to you is a cumulative -10% to any tests you make. Characters that make a successful Command Test
can ignore these penalties as they co-ordinate with the efforts of those around them.

Scene 3: A Day In Court

The Court House

Statue of Verena

Rollout
The next morning the prisoners are woken
early and slopped out by four Watchmen;
which involves one prisoner from each cell
being let out into the walkway between the
cells and emptying the buckets into a gully in
the centre of the room which flows into a tiny
cess drain, from which an awful smell
emanates.
Characters who worked free a section of the tin
bucket must succeed in an Average (-0%)
Sleight of Hand test to hide the damage.

Defence

Antechamber Door
Magistrates
Podium
Clerk
Prosecution
Defendant

Bailiff *

* Bailiff
Prisoners Pen

Courtroom
Door

Finally, all the prisoners are bought out from

the cells and made to stand in two rows facing
each other.
One guard instructs the Prisoners to count off,
starting with the Adventurers. The second
guard walks down the middle of the two rows
looking at the Manacles and the third guard
does a quick cell inspection. The fourth guard
stays at the entrance to the Holding Cells in
case of problems.
Characters who removed their Manacles
during the night will need to make an opposed
Sleight of Hand test against the Watchmans
Perception roll to avoid being spotted.
Characters who took apart the bench need to
make a Very Hard (-30%) Disguise test to hide
the fact that a big bit of wood is missing from
the bench!
Transfer to the Court
Once rollout is complete the prisoners are
marched out of the Holding Cells and across
the road to the Court House. In case the
Adventurers get any ideas, as well as the four
guards accompanying them, there are two
Watchmen with Crossbows on the Watch
House roof and two Court Bailiffs waiting at
the Court House.
The Court Room
The court room is a large wood panelled room
with sawdust spread over the floors. At the
back of the room is the public gallery, which is
now unused due to Ostland being under
martial law. In the centre of the room the
prisoners are herded into a large holding pen
with bars. Just in front of this is the
defendants box and to either side the desks for
Counsel, both defence and prosecution. At the
very front of the court is a tall podium where
the Magistrate sits in front of a large statue of
Verena, which is accessed via a raised
gangway from the Magistrates antechamber.
A second smaller podium for the Courts Clerk
sits off to one side. The Court Bailiffs stand to
either side of the Prisoners Pen.

Public Gallery
Dont ForgetGuilty Until Proven Innocent
The foundation of all Imperial Law is guilty
until proven innocent. Of course when the court
is acting with the power of martial law, there
may not be any requirement to even attempt to
prove innocence.
For more on Imperial law and conducting a
trial, see the Sigmars Heirs Supplement.

The Court Is In Session

After the prisoners have been standing in the
pen in the centre of the court for about ten
minutes, the Clerk enters and takes his seat.
Hear ye, pray silence for his Lawfulness,
Magistrate Keripadese Berkhopf. The Bailiffs
call in unison as the door to the Magistrates
antechamber opens.
Out steps a tall, frail and pinch faced looking
man wearing black robes and a soft hat with
red and white piping. He moves slowly and
deliberately towards his podium pausing only
to incline his head towards the statue of
Verena.
When he is finally seated, he coughs lightly
before saying in a strong powerful voice This
court is appointed by the ruling council of
Staumludt to adjudicate in matters of martial
law. Bring forth the first of the guilty.
To keep an element of uncertainty among the
players during the day at court, they are
actually the first Defendants to be bought
forward.

The Charge
The Bailiff to your right steps forward and
begins to read from a scroll of paper, as
the second Bailiff ushers you all out of the
Prisoners Pen and towards the
Defendants Dock.
Milud, the first case bought to you today
is the Grand Principality of Ostland Vs
these orrible brigands ye see here, for the
heinous crimes of smuggling of illegal
contraband, abetting a known seditionist,
resisting arrest and assaulting officers of
the Town Watch
Thank you Bailiff, replies Magistrate
Berkhopf Lets hear the case for the
Prosecution.

Did you recover from them a package

containing a drug of the dried Devils Cap
fungus?
I did.
Did you declare yourself as members of
the watch and order their compliance?
I did.
Did they resist your lawful request and
seek to do bodily harm upon your
officers?
They did, indeed sah.
Thank you Sergeant, that is all. Milud,
the prosecution case rests.

The Case for the Prosecution

The Case for the Defence

First to present is the Prosecutor, a weasely

looking man in a black cloak.

The Adventurers will undoubtedly wish to

interject at some point during their defence,
make sure they shout long and hard before
anyone takes a blind bit of notice of them!

Your Honour, the guilt of the Defendants

is writ clear upon their faces and is
supported by clear and simple facts. I do
not intend to take up much of the courts
time in presenting such an open and shut
case.
The defendants were apprehended during
a raid by the local watch on a known
distributor of contraband and seditionist, a
herbalist by the name of Claus Dekmar.
They were at that time in possession of a
drug I believe is known as Devils Cap.
They did resist the lawful arrest of those
officers there present and did do bodily
assault upon those said officers.
The Prosecution will call only one
witness your Lawfulness, bring forth
Sergeant Hartlip of the Staumludt Town
Watch.
Hartlip strides forward, his uniform
looking impeccable (in stark contrast to
last night).
Sergeant Hartlip, you are here to present
testimony in this trial by law and are
bound by oaths to the gods to tell the truth,
do you understand?
I do.
Are these vagabonds you see in the dock
today the same that you apprehended
yesterday in the raid on Dekmar?
They are.

Berkhopf nods slowly as he digests the

Prosecutors points.
Very well, Defence Counsel?
The Defence stands and says Milud, the
Defence wishes to offer no evidence in this
case.
Really? enquires the Magistrate.
Your Honour, given the number of cases
to be dealt with today the Defence felt it
was prudent to focus his attentions on
those cases were there was some doubt as
to the guilt of the Defendants.
Very well, then I pronounce the
Defendants guilty of all charges levelled at
them and must pass sentence.
If the Adventurers have made no attempt to
object to all this (perhaps theyve settled
themselves with doing the job Adelmann asked
them to do and dont want to blow cover) then
jump straight to the sentencing, however most
players should be shouting all sorts of
objections by this point.

Objection, Your Honour!

Below are a number of objections which the
Adventurers might well raise to the Magistrate
and his responses.

If any of your Adventurers have the Academic

Knowledge (Law) skill you can have them
make all sorts of rolls at this point to add
weight to their arguments, however they wont
have any effect on the outcome.
When the torture has gone on long enough, or
the Players think up something you cant
answer, skip to the sentencing
Its our right to have a defence!
Actually its your right to have an
opportunity for defence, that opportunity
has been given. Perhaps if you had offered
the defence counsel recompense for
spending time on your case he might have
been a little more helpful. Still, never
mind.
I want to defend myself!
(Sighs), very well, but make it quick so
we can get to the sentencing

I call for a mistrial!

Request denied.
There was no cross-examination of Sergeant
Hartlip, I call him as a witness!
Defence Counsel should have stated their
intention to cross-examine at the time; I
will not recall a witness unless there is
significant new evidence, which there is
not. Request denied.

Your Honour, if we could talk about this

privately, Im sure we could come to a
mutually beneficial arrangement.
OR
Your Honour, I want to make a deal, I have
information of a conspiracy, can we talk
privately?
The nerve of it! Trying to bribe a
Magistrate of Ostland. I will not stand for
such contempt of court. Bailiff, add that to
the list of charges against these villains.
This farce ends now!

Sentencing
Magistrate Berkhopf, bangs his gavel and
pronounces the verdict and sentence upon the
Adventurers.
I pronounce the Defendants guilty of all
charges levelled against them and sentence
them to hard labour in the camp at
Tassenburg, where they will work for the
good of the community that their foul
criminal acts have hurt, there to work until
they have been judged to be rehabilitated.
Bailiff take them below and from there
prepare them for immediate transfer to the
place of their incarceration.
As you are led from the docks, down to a
holding pen away from the court room
Berkhopf bangs the gavel and says,
Bailiff, I think Ill retire for a quick
brandy before I hear the next case.

But he lied!
Perjuring the good name of a Sergeant of
the Watch now is it? Bailiff, add that to the
list of charges.
I call my first witness!
Im afraid there are no witnesses listed
on the defences summary submitted, it
would be unfair to the prosecution to allow
you to spring a surprise witness. You
should have thought of all this before
I am so-and-so of such-and-such and there
will be consequences for the way Ive been
treated!
If you are who you claim to be then you
should know better than to consort with
such villainous sorts. As a courtesy I shall
make enquiries as to the veracity of your
claim but in the meantime any verdict and
the punishment will stand.

Court Holding Area

Once the Adventurers are here, they have to
waste most of the day as the other prisoners
are sentenced to hard labour for their various
crimes.
The one advantage of being first in the large
cell is that for the first time, the characters can
observe individuals amongst the prisoners as
they enter and maybe even chat to them
without interference from the guards (see the
list of NPCs in the section on the March to
Tassenburg, below for details of the other
prisoners).
Sergeant Hartlip
Not long after the Adventurers are put in the
court cell, Sergeant Hartlip makes an
appearance, and threatens the characters,
telling them theyre his now as for some
reason he has taken a disliking to them (not
that, as a Slaaneshi cultist he particularly needs
a reason, just an opportunity).

Magistrate Keripadese
Berkhopf
Staumludt Town Magistrate and District
Judge, Member of the Staumludt District
Council and Cult Magus of the Black
Hearts Brotherhood Slaaneshi Cult
Main Profile
WS BS S
T
55 39 42 60
Secondary Profile
A
W SB TB
2
18
4
6

AG
45

INT
58

WP
40

FEL
68

M
4

MG
2

IP
2

FP
0

Careers: Slaanesh Cult Magus, ExStudent, Ex-Politician, Ex-Slaaneshi Cult

Acolyte.
Race: Human / Mutant

Skills: Academic Knowledge (Law +20 / Heraldry +10 / Daemonology +20), Gossip +20, Charm +20, Consume Alcohol
+20, Heal, Search, Perception +10, Read/Write +20, Speak Language (Classical +20 / Reikspiel +20 / Bretonnian),
Blather, Command, Common Knowledge (Empire +10), Evaluate +20, Haggle, Performer (Actor +20 / Dance),
Channelling +10, Intimidate +10, Magical Sense +10, Speak Arcane Language (Daemonic +10 / Magick), Disguise
Talents: Etiquette, Linguistics, Savvy, Suave, Super Numerate, Dealmaker, Schemer, Master Orator, Public Speaking,
Aethyric Attunement, Dark Magic, Inured to Chaos, Keen Senses, Petty Magic (Chaos), Streetwise, Dark Lore
(Slaanesh), Resistance to Poison, Strike to Stun, Frightening, Natural Weapons.
Mutations & Rewards: Illusion of Normality, Piercing Tongue (4yds, SB Dam, Precise), Poisonous Bite (Tongue, must
succeed on Toughness test or lose 1D10/2 W), Evil Eye (Willpower test or -10% to all tests), Face of a Keeper of Secrets
(Natural Weapons / Frightening), Curious Eruptions (Breast, Milk grants Sadist/Masochist gift to those who drink, if take
or give a Wound +10% to Strength, Toughness and Willpower for 1D10 Turns). See Tome of Corruption for full details.
Trappings: Best Quality Court Clothes, Best Quality Ritual Vestments, Best Quality Clothes, Best Quality Sword, Best
Quality Dagger, Slaaneshi Religious Symbol, Cult.
Description
Magistrate Berkhopf appears to be a tall, lean, pinch faced man, but this faade conceals the true hideous nature of his
degeneration. When he chooses to drop this mask he is awful to behold, a head of a daemonic Keeper of Secrets sits atop
his body with eyes that glower undiluted malice and a long, lascivious tongue that drips a sweet ichor caresses his body
with a will of its own. To finish the picture a row of five plump breasts run down the side of his body.
History
Berkhopf gained the position of Magistrate through his own talents but was relegated to the role of travelling judge
thanks to the annoyingly good health of Staumludts ancient Magistrate, Scholler. Increasingly impatient with the old
man, during a trip to nearby Tassenburg, Berkhopf was bemoaning his fate over a glass of brandy to anyone who would
listen, when he was approached by a stranger who promised all his dreams could come true. Intrigued and drunk,
Berkhopf agreed to go with the stranger; where he was introduced to a realm of sensual delight known as the Brotherhood
of the Black Heart. Encouraged by tales that the Brothers would help him gain what was rightfully his if he joined their
inner circle he willingly stepped into darkness, his initiation was to torture Scholler to death leaving no marks.
Berkhopf was the first recruit from outside Tassenburg and the Brothers used him to open up a new virgin field for their
corrupting influence in Staumludt. Over time, Berkhopfs mutations grew, thankfully concealed by powerful magics. It
was seen as a sign of favour by the Dark Prince and Berkopfs respect amongst the Cult grew.
When the Storm of Chaos hit the Empire, the Brothers were well aware of the goal of Archaon, Berkhopf and a few
others urged that they should throw off their cover and revel in the slaughter as their Dark Prince would wish, but the
decadent Cult Magus had other ideas and ordered the cult to conduct a ritual so that the Chaos Armies would pass by and
leave the cult to their petty vices. Berkhopf refused to participate and throwing off his disguise of normalcy stalked the
countryside indulging in every perverse fantasy he could conceive.
The Ritual of the Brothers backfired and caused the idol they worshipped, an icon made with a heart of darkest
Warpstone known as the Blackheart, to explode, killing most of the Cultists and destroying the towns meagre defences in
one go. Hearing of the destruction of Tassenburg and realising Slaanesh had punished those who tried to resist his will,
Berkhopf moved to gather the remnants of the Cult under his leadership, but by the time he had secured this, Archaons
forces had been broken and so there was no sense to playing his hand too soon. Convinced that Slaanesh wanted more
from them than just small scale decadence and perversion Berkhopf dreamt of a plan to reform the Black Heart, bind a
Daemon to it and use its power to turn the ruined town of Tassenburg into a portal allowing his master to send forth
legions of daemons to turn the whole of Ostland into a realm of pleasure and pain, a daemons playground.

Aside: Brothers of the Black Heart

Brothers, we were punished by the Serpent to whom
we pledge our souls. We were nearly destroyed
because we were weak of faith and niggard of deed.

icon of their unholy lord, anointing the Black

Heart regularly with blood and other bodily
fluids that it might grow in power.

But we were misled. He, who should have led us to

the endless gardens of the flesh promised by the
Pleasure Lord, instead led us to hide and neglect the
Serpents will. He took from us our treasure, our
Black Heart. He has paid for that misdeed, oh yes;
he has been consumed to feed the twitching lust of
our Dark Lord, and from that dark convulsive abyss
I have seen the way!

From the next forty years the Cult grew slowly

in both numbers and audaciousness, though
never daring to betray its presence to the
outside world. Then came Magistrate
Berkhopf.

No longer shall we hide, no longer shall we deny

ourselves any pleasure, we shall remake the world in
the Serpents image and glory in the touch of His
children.
Brothers, we shall remake the Black Heart!
- Magistrate Berkhopf, Cult Magus

History
Beginnings
The Brothers of the Black Heart have
worshipped Slaanesh for nearly fifty years.
They were founded in the back room of a
Tassenburg Burghers Gentlemans Club
named Obertos. Like many Slaanesh cults it
grew from orgies held by the bored and
curious into something darker and more
savage.
For the first few years the Brothers had no
name for their club, just a wild raw passion for
indulgence and perversion and the first
fumblings of worship to the Dark Prince. It
was this that the Brothers believe drew the
Stranger to them.
One night Obertos was penetrated by a
stranger, no-one knows how they entered, noone can remember whether it was male or
female for it seemed to be both or neither. The
Stranger presented the club with a gift, a statue
about two feet tall, the most beautiful and
terrifying thing they had ever seen, twisting
and sensual wrapped around a pulsating dark
green heart. The Stranger entrusted it to them
saying that it would lead them to the Serpent,
The Dark Lord of Pleasure and Pain.
The Black Heart filled the minds of all present
with an animal lust that could not be slaked
and even the Stranger joined their ecstatic
embrace.
When morning came the Stranger was gone
and more than half the fledgling cult was
found dead, locked in ecstatic rictus, some
having died by their own hand.
The Brothers are Born
The survivors took up the name of Brothers of
the Black Heart and worshipped the idol as an

Berkhopfs Rise
It was clear from the moment he was recruited
that Keripadise Berkhopf was something
special; he spread the Cults membership
further than ever before and was blessed by
Slaanesh with marks of favour.
Quickly, Berkhopf became a power to be
reckoned with amongst the Cult and it was
clear that there would soon be some sort of
clash between the Cult Magus and Berkhopf. It
never came because the whole cult felt the call
of Archaons war host as it marched on the
Empire.
The Storm of Chaos
The Cult Magus, desperate to maintain the
status quo where all pleasure and vice flowed
through him, forbade the Cult from joining
Archaons crusade. He claimed that the Lord
of Pleasure wanted nothing more from them
than to protect the Black Heart and explore
their every whim, and so he devised a Ritual
that would use the power of the Black Heart to
divert the forces of Chaos to leave Tassenburg
alone.
Berkhopf and his supporters argued that
Slaanesh wanted them to bring his ecstatic
embrace to everyone in the Empire and would
not participate in the Ritual.
The ritual backfired, the Black Heart was too
powerful for the Magus to contain and the
magical energy ripped through the Cultists and
Obertos and fully a third of Tassenburg,
destroying everything in its wake and leaving
the town open to the marauding chaos army.
Berkhopfs Plan
Taking the failure of the ritual and the loss of
the Black Heart and so many of their brethren
as a sign of Slaaneshs displeasure, Berkhopf
has convinced the remains of the cult that they
need to serve their dark master more actively
and has began a plan to bring the nearby town
of Staumludt under his heel, whilst
simultaneously using slave labour to find the
warpstone shards of the Black Heart. When the
cult have enough pieces they will slaughter the
slaves in an orgy of violence to power the
ritual to reform the Black Heart, but this time
Berkhopf intends to leave the Black Heart as a
portal to the Realm of Chaos.

Organisation

Motives and Goals

The Brothers of the Black Heart have over the

year developed a number of Tiers of
Ascension and moving higher into the circles
of the cult was a way to control the cult
members ambitions.

The primary motives of the Brothers have

always been to sample as many experiences as
possible and to tend the idol known as the
Black Heart. They had little or no interest in
political or violent subversion.

Since the destruction wrought in Tassenburg,

Berkhopf has disbanded the Tiers of
Ascension, claiming pleasure should know no
limits. Now there is simply Berkhopf as the
Cult Magus, a select few Acolytes
(approximately twelve) and the rest of the Cult
(no more than thirty men and women).

Recent events have changed these motivations

slightly, thanks to Berkhopf. Sampling
experiences is still high on the menu, but
furthering the work of the Dark Prince comes
first, in particular using the Black Heart in
Tassenburg as a portal from the Realms of
Chaos. Obviously to do this, the Black Heart
must be reformed.

Recruiting
Before the influence of Magistrate Berkhopf,
the cult was quite conservative in their
recruiting, spending years indoctrinating
potential recruits, and even then the selection
tended to be limited to friends and family of
those cultists who were already members.
Since Berkhopf has entered the Brothers fold,
recruiting has been far more aggressive and the
group doubled in size in less than five years.
The disaster at Tassenburg thinned the Cults
numbers somewhat but they have already
begun recruiting again.

Symbol
Although the Brothers use all sorts of images
associated with Slaanesh in their rituals, each
cult members vestments will have a crude,
stylized Black Heart sewn onto it, on the left
hand breast.
Since the destruction in Tassenburg and
Berkhopfs new vision of the role of the Cult,
many of the acolytes who supported Berkhopf
(now his trusted lieutenants) have taken to
showing the Black Heart shattered until such
time as their plans to reform it have come to
fruition.

Ceremonies
Orgiastic rituals celebrating Slaanesh are the
mainstay for the cult but one of Berkhopfs
own versions of these rituals involves giving
the victim drugs (his current favourite being
Devils Cap) and alternately tantalising and
scaring them, all the while licking the fevered
sweat from their bodies with his whip like
tongue. Finally he convinces them that the
only way to escape their nightmare is to kill
themselves, most often with a razor, whilst
repeating the word Slaanesh. When confused,
terrified and despairing, they finally do kill
themselves, the cult rush in to rip their body
apart and feast on the blood.
Since becoming Magus of the Cult, Berkhopf
has made changes so that each ritual begins by
his followers suckling at his Slaanesh granted
teats. This sweet lactation fires up all those
who taste it into a frenzied ecstasy where
giving or receiving pain is the greatest bliss.

The Black Heart

The Black Heart is a statue about two feet tall
depicting an androgynous figure of striking beauty
entwined around a heart of dark green, almost black,
pulsating warpstone. If stared at long enough the
figure appears to writhe around the heart in ecstasy.
Academic Knowledge: Daemonology
Powers: The Black Heart, when reformed, is
effectively a tiny Monolith so grants +1D10 to any
Spell Casting roll within 100ft. For every 10 victims
sacrificed to the Black Heart add +1 to the casting
roll, this bonus must be used on the next spell cast and
does not effect the dice roll in terms of Tzeentchs
Curse.
Side Effects: Any attempt to use magic within the
vicinity that fails automatically results in a
Catastrophic Chaos Manifestation.

A Crude Shattered Black Heart Symbol

History: No-one knows where the Black Heart came

from originally, but the Brothers believe that the
Stranger who bought it to them was a Daemonhost of
Slaanesh who carried it from Slaanesh himself out of
the Eye of Chaos and through the Chaos Wastes to
them.

Scene 4: The March to Tassenburg

The Chain Gang
By the early afternoon, Magistrate Berkhopf
has sentenced every prisoner presented by the
Watch, without exception, to hard labour at
Tassenburg. At the same time preparations
begin for their transfer to the labour camp (see
below).
Guess Who?... The Suspects
At about this time the Adventurers should be
starting to investigate in earnest. They need
clues to the nature of Tassenburg, and
Magistrate Berkhopf and just as importantly,
need to identify (and perhaps interrogate) the
spy in their midsts before he blows their
cover.
On the chain gang are twenty other prisoners,
who are shown below. The entries show the
NPCs name, concept, what crime they have
been convicted of, and any important
information or skills they might have. The
table also indicates whether the NPC has a full
profile or if not, which NPC archetype is most
suitable (see WFRP, P. 233).

3.) Nikolas Schon: Charcoal Burner Refugee and

Psychotic axe murderer
NPC Profile: Bandit
Convicted Of: Indigence, Resisting Arrest
Roleplaying Notes: Nikolas maintains he is an innocent
refugee but in reality he butchered his wife and has a
slipping grip on reality, which an in depth conversation
will reveal. When he inevitably slips into psychotic
frenzy he could make a useful distraction, fall guy or
shock troop!.
Relevant Information: When Nikolas relives the horrors
that drove him insane (usually when he sleeps) he
babbles about the beast with the wicked tongue that
made him do horrible things. Berkhopf encountered
Nikolas in his hideous true form on his rampage through
the countryside during the Storm of Chaos and broke his
mind just to watch the unspeakable deeds he would do
to his own wife. Though the words may still not mean
anything yet, Players may remember the foreshadowing
early in the Adventure of the crazy man shouting
Wicked Tongue, Black Heart!
4.) Ma Haggerty: Madame Brothel Keeper
NPC Profile: Proprietor

1.) Hans: Street Urchin / Pickpocket

Convicted Of: Facilitation of Immoral Earnings

NPC Profile: See above.

Roleplaying Notes: Ma may come across as very

maternal at first but to run a brothel and resist the gangs
for nearly twenty years means she can be very tough
when she wants. She has however taken a shine to Hans
and anyone who treats him well will have her grudging
respect.

Convicted Of: Petty Theft, Indigence

Roleplaying Notes: See above
Relevant Information: See above
2.) Olga Ublingen: Street Whore with a Ruined
Face
NPC Profile: Beggar
Convicted Of: Prostitution
Roleplaying Notes: Olgas recently wrecked face
was cut and beaten one night as she serviced the
Magistrate and a few of his cronies. She survived
their sick tastes only because she escaped when
they were interrupted and left in a hurry after
another cultist told Berkhopf about Dekmars
demands for supplying the Devils Cap. Olga tried
to go into hiding but the Watch under Berkopfs
command tracked her down and she was bought to
the cells with a bag over her head (Hans mentioned
her earlier).
Relevant Information: Olga doesnt want to think
about what happened but if forced to
remember/hypnotised she can recall strange
symbols and some of what those who abused her
were saying to each other (including hearing the
name Black Heart). This should be enough for the
Adventurers to get some pretty big pieces of the
puzzle, about Berkhopf, the cult and the reasons for
their own arrest, so make em work for it! If theyve
earned Olgas trust, Adventurers who need a break
in finding the Spy, can be tipped off that Kastor was
one of the men who abused Olga that night.

Relevant Information: As Hans indicated earlier Mas

business was burned down by the Watch due to bribes
from The Pelts, a gang of Kislevite refugee thugs who
wanted to control Mas stable. She also knows that the
Pelts have been making young boys and girls
disappear and selling them to someone who controls
members of the Watch (but Ma hasnt yet made the
connection with Berkhopf though).
5.) Aria Lilylight, Refugee,
Halfling Bakers Daughter
(Professional Thief)
NPC Profile: Pickpocket
Convicted Of: Trespass
Roleplaying Notes: Aria is a
professional thief and expert contortionist; she was
discovered breaking into a warehouse in Tanners Alley
and managed to convince everyone she was just a poor
Halfling refugee whod stumbled into the wrong place.
Relevant Information: Aria has no information relevant
to Black Heart but as she is a cheeky thief and
accomplished escapologist her skills might prove very
useful to the Adventurers. She will try to escape at the
first opportunity, whether she succeeds should depend
on how much the Adventurers need her skills
(remembering they will still need to escape from
Tassenburg itself later).

6.) Claus Dekmar: Herbalist and Drug Dealer

NPC Profile: Proprietor
Convicted Of: Sedition, Guild Offence - Supply of
Contraband
Roleplaying Notes: Claus will do his best to avoid
the Adventurers, fearing retribution for getting them
arrested (assuming you used that section). Claus is
still bewildered and depressed by how his perfect
scheme to get a higher price for the Devils Cap he
supplies failed so spectacularly.
Relevant Information: Although good at what he
does, Claus is rather dumb and despite having
regular contact with an agent of the Cult has no real
useful information and hasnt made the connection
to Berkhopf or the Watch. There may be ways
smart Adventurers can utilise Claus talents, and
(more from habit than intention) he begins to collect
any herbs encountered on the March to Tassenburg.
7.) Jacov Gismar: Strung Out Weird Root
Pusher
NPC Profile: Footpad
Convicted Of: Handling Stolen Goods
Roleplaying Notes: Jacov is not the spy, just a shifty
little weirdroot pusher, with his own habit to feed.
He makes a good decoy though and if he thought he
could he would sell out the Adventurers for a few
extra privileges from the guards, so theyll have to
watch what they say around him. Jacov has
smuggled in a small shiv (knife) and small pouch of
Weirdroot Flakes (use Mandrake Root stats).
Relevant Information: Jacov has no interest in
swapping stories with the Adventurers and will
likely try to intimidate, hurt or steal from them.

8.) Volker: Refugee Thug

9.) Oswin Herdack: Refugee Coopers

Apprentice
NPC Profile: Gambler
Convicted Of: Affray
Roleplaying Notes: To Oswin, the war was the best
thing to happen; it freed him from his dull
apprenticeship and gave the justification to act as he
pleased. Since then he has played the angry young man
shtick at every chance, using it as an excuse to do as he
pleases. Oswin was slowly being seduced by two of the
Brothers Accolytes but Berkhopf decided the boys
unpredictable nature was too much of a liability and so
made him useful in another way, as a labourer and
eventual sacrifice for the greater good of the cult.
Relevant Information: Oswin was expecting to be bailed
out, as he has been before, by his allies and is
somewhat surprised they let him be sentenced, but he
hasnt yet given up hope they will save him. As hope
slowly fades he will go from smug to bitter and will spill
the beans to anyone who wants to know (he doesnt
know much other than that his friends are well
connected and know how to throw wild parties).
10.) Stefan Walbrecht: Down-on-His-Luck
Tanner
NPC Profile: Proprietor
Convicted Of: Unpaid Debting
Roleplaying Notes: Stefan is one of lifes losers; nothing
has ever gone his way or ever come easy. An average
tanner with little business sense, he got into debt at the
start of the Storm of Chaos and has now lost everything.
Despite this he has an air of quiet optimism about him.
Relevant Information: Stefans premises bordered a
lock-up used by the Cult for their rituals, after hearing
all kinds of strangeness, Stefan did his civic duty and
went to report what hed heard to the local Watch who
had an Acolyte promptly buy up his debt markers and
take him to court for non-payment. Just proof that no
good deed goes unpunished.

NPC Profile: Footpad

Convicted Of: Menace, Extortion, Assault
Roleplaying Notes: The huge slab of meat known
only as Volker is a bit of an enigma, he rarely
speaks other than to growl menacingly. He is
certainly not afraid of the guards but follows their
orders.
Relevant Information: The truth is that Volker is a
trusted Henchman to a crime lord known as
Quintus. Quintus as the biggest underworld
connection in town was approached by the
Brotherhood of the Black Heart to help them. When
he did some digging and uncovered their true
affiliations he told them to go to hell, so they
kidnapped him and took him to Tassenburg. Volker
and the other loyal henchmen realised that Quintas
had been taken by the Watch and so Volker agreed
to get arrested to track Quintus down. Adventurers
who win Volkers trust (which wont be easy) may
be told the truth.

11.) Leupold Petschmann: Ex-Soldier &

Deserter
NPC Profile: Sell-Sword
Convicted Of: Brigandage
Roleplaying Notes: Leupolds unit fought the Slaaneshi
warhost who sacked Zundap (see Sigmars Heirs, P.76)
and in the face of an overwhelming enemy and a
betrayal of their own defences, Leupold ran. Disgraced,
an outlaw, Leupold took to the only life available to him
an took what he had to, to survive. And then he joined
up with some others in the same situation and they
started taking more than what they needed to survive,
and people were hurt. Finally, Leupolds gang were shot
down by a Road Warden and a posse and he was taken
to Staumludt to face justice. Considering he should have
been hanged, Leupold considers he is lucky. He may not
feel the same way by the time he reaches Tassenburg.
Relevant Information: Leupold will do anything to
survive, but he also hates Slaaneshis, could be useful.

12.) Margrit Grubchen: Drunken Woman

Refugee
NPC Profile: Proprietor
Convicted Of: Assault with a Weapon, Damage to
Property, Drunk and Disorderly, indigence
Roleplaying Notes: Margrit is a Haus Frau who lost
everything during the war and now just lives to drink.
She is so full of rage it doesnt take much to set her off,
particularly if shes forced to remain sober.
Relevant Information: Margrit is a random element who
has no fear of consequences, dumb Players will catch
the full brunt of this whilst clever ones will direct the
fury to benefit themselves.
13.) Laurentius Olbrecht: Son of Important
Burgher
NPC Profile: Rake
Convicted Of: Conspiracy to Murder
Roleplaying Notes: Laurentius plotted with his Sister to
kill his own Father to get at his money. He is quite
foppish, spoilt and horrified by the thought of hard
labour so he will likely become an informant if he thinks
it will benefit him.
Relevant Information: See Leonoras entry below.
14.) Leonora Olbrecht: Daughter of
Important Burgher
NPC Profile: Rake
Convicted Of: Conspiracy to Murder
Roleplaying Notes: Leonora is tougher than her brother
and the driving force behind the plot to kill their father,
she did it less for the money and more because of the
awful things he made her do.
Relevant Information: Leonoras father is one of the two
Burghers on the ruling council; hes also a member of
the Brotherhood, a club for gentlemen of taste who can
help each other achieve their ambitions. In Leonoras
fathers case it can also engender an unhealthy lust for
ones own daughter. Leonora knows of Daddys Club
and was actually taken there once. Pushed in the right
direction she could probably point out several cultists
(like some of the Guards) but at present she is too busy
being prickly in a misguided attempt to appear tough.

16.) Anya Hildigar: Peddler / Match Girl

NPC Profile: Beggar

Convicted Of: Arson

Roleplaying Notes: Anya was framed for a crime

(torching a Shrine of Shallya) that was actually carried
out by one of the Slaaneshi Cultists. Sentenced for
something she is innocent of Anya feels she no longer
has anything left to lose, making her a tougher customer
than she looks. Anya has managed to smuggle in a small
bundle of matches.
Relevant Information: Any character looking for an
apprentice could do a lot worse than Anya, plus those
matches might also be very useful.
17.) Eomund der Einarm: Maimed Trapper
NPC Profile: Bandit
Convicted Of: Unlicensed Begging
Roleplaying Notes: Eomund, or One Arm as hes
imaginatively known, is missing one arm at the elbow
and two fingers from the other hand, which he lost
fighting Beastmen. Eomund is an experienced and
grizzled Trapper bought low, just waiting to find some
self-respect again.
Relevant Information: A good ally, but not much good
in a fight. Eomund has other uses though, he can help
fill bellies by catching small creatures (assuming the
guards dont see) or teach other aspects of wilderness
survival and stealth.
18.) Ruben Prokop: Warehouse Bondsman and
Coin Clipper
NPC Profile: Gambler
Convicted Of: Defacing the Emperors Property, Fraud
Roleplaying Notes: Ruben is a slick and street-smart
schemer who made a good living, skimming from the
top of anything that passed by his warehouse. Ruben
thinks he can grift his way through anything.
Relevant Information: A minor criminal who could get
himself and anyone too near him into a lot of trouble
when he tries dealing with people who have no intention
of playing by the rules.
19.) Andreas Von Dummkopf: Mad Zealot

15.) Yenka Gozwinus: Scullery Maid

NPC Profile: Beggar
Convicted Of: Petty Theft
Roleplaying Notes: Yenka stole silverware from her
houses Mistress in revenge for the Master ending their
six-month affair. Yenka is now heart-broken and utterly
miserable but still childishly nave.
Relevant Information: Yenka is a drain, she will latch on
to a strong male figure to protect her simper and make
stupid demands until she drives them away. If it looks
like someone is not interested in her she will make up
lies and tell them whatever she thinks they want to hear.

NPC Profile: Footpad

Convicted Of: Indigence, Inciting Violence
Roleplaying Notes: One of the many whose minds were
broken by the savagery of the Storm of Chaos. Andreas
is totally mad, but with a total devotion to Sigmar that
can be infectiously hope inspiring.
Relevant Information: Picked upon more than most,
Andreas will never believe Sigmar has abandoned him
and so struggles to do whats right no matter the cost.
He is an extreme of the moral compass, if your players
take the moral high road, he shows the dangers of being
a martyr, or if theyre too self obsessed hell show them
that hope is more important than a full belly. Andreas
also makes a good platform for any random drivel /
cryptic clues you may want to throw at the players.

Kastor Gundred
The Real Spy

Spy and Acolyte for the

Brotherhood of the Black
Heart
(Posing as a Refugee
Scribe)

Whilst there are some compelling suspects for

the spy in the rest of the group, the real spy for
Berkhopf is Kastor Gundred
Kastor is of average build with sandy hair;
much of his skin is a network of small
pockmarks or scars. He comes across as
friendly, intelligent, but easily scared. His true
demeanour when unmasked is disturbingly
impassive; in fact he only smiles when
inflicting pain.
History of a Psychopath
Kastor was the idealistic Court-Clerk to
Magistrate Berkhopf, until he mutated; his skin
ripping as barbed-thorns pushed through his
flesh. The Magistrate found him sobbing in a
corner of his house the following day.
Berkhopf embraced him in ecstatic joy as he
felt the barbs tear his skin and that day he
taught Kastor the love and joy that could be his
if only hed embrace the darkness in his soul.
Although Kastor learned to control and retract
his gift after a few weeks so was able to
return to society, his soul was already lost to
chaos by then and hes been the Magistrates
loyal Acolyte ever since.
Mission Possible?
Its Kastors mission to watch the prisoners
during the march and report any
troublemakers, latent wytches or other
problems to the Chief Warden when they
arrive. Luckily for the Adventurers, none of
the guards on the forced march know Kastor is
a spy, so he is effectively alone.

Careers: Spy, Ex-Scribe,

Ex-Slaanesh Cult Acolyte
Race: Human / Mutant
Main Profile
WS BS S
T
42 46 45 45
Secondary Profile
A
W SB TB
2
14
4
4

AG
42

INT
50

WP
51

FEL
47

M
4

MG
1

IP
0

FP
0

Skills: Academic Knowledge (Law / Daemonology),

Common Knowledge (Empire +20), Gossip +20,
Perception, Read/Write +10, Secret Language (Guild
/ Thief), Speak Language (Breton +10 / Classical+10
/ Reikspiel +20 / Tilean), Trade (Clligrapher),
Channelling, Charm +10, Consume Alcohol,
Performer (Acting +10), Disguise +10, Evaluate,
Gamble, Intimidate, Magical Sense, Speak Arcane
Language (Daemonic), Concealment, Lip Reading,
Pick
Lock, Shadowing, Sleight of Hand, Silent Move,
The other
Prepare Poison
Talents: Linguistics, Aethyric Attunement,
Dealmaker, Dark Magic, Etiquette, Inured to Chaos,
Keen Senses, Petty Magic (Chaos), Streetwise, Suave,
Flee, Schemer.
Mutations: Thorn Skin (Retractable) See Tome of
Corruption, P. 52
Trappings: Rags, small vial of Heartkill (See WFRP
for description).

To Catch a Spy
The Adventurers should be encouraged to find the Spy in their midsts (and hopefully interrogate and dispose of
him before he can warn anyone), before he finds them.
Im Watching You!
Whilst much of the Adventurers information should come from roleplaying the interactions between themselves
and the other prisoners, the Adventurers can nominate one prisoner each day to watch closely.
To observe a prisoner without looking suspicious yourself requires a successful Shadowing Test, the difficulty
depends on whether just one character is watching the Prisoner (Very Hard, -30%; it tends to be a bit suspect one
person staring at you all day), or whether the whole Adventuring group is taking turns watching them (Challenging
-10%, for a group use the Agility of the Character with the lowest stat to make the roll). Any Adventurer who
spends the day shadowing a suspect can take no other major actions that day (other than reacting to situations
presented by the GM).
Ideally thie Adventurers should makeup their own minds about a suspect but if you want to make it a bit easier for
your players, if they successfully Shadow someone, they can The
makeTassenburg
a Hard (-20%)
Intelligence Test to determine
Secret
whether the NPC is Suspicious (though not necessarily the Spy) or Innocent.
Adventurers who are very good might be able
Watching the Watchers
to
Kastor is also looking for trouble makers and Adventurers tend to be quite suspicious. To keep things simple
Kastor has a base 20% chance of making one of the Adventurers as Spies each day, this roll can be modified by
how (in)conspicuous they have been that day. See below for Kastors response to discovering a threat.

Preparations for the Journey

Travelling Arrangements

It is standard procedure for a special detail of

Town Watch Guards to force march any new
prisoners to Tassenburg, a week long journey
through a small winding road in the Forest of
Shadows.

Whilst travelling, the prisoners are instructed

to move in two lines, with guards to the front,
rear and outsides of the columns.

Once at Tassenburg the new guards will

relieve a party of Watchman who will return to
Staumludt.
Provisions
The guards pack several large bags for the
prisoners to carry, these contain rations and
luxuries for the guards at Tassenburg, very
little space is devoted to food or other
provisions for the prisoners. These packs are
quite weighty and dont make the journey any
easier for those who have to carry them and are
in fact sometimes used as a punishment by the
guards.
The packs will be spread between the prisoners
on a fairly even basis unless the guards are
trying to make an example of someone they
dont really want to kill anyone during the
journey. But, seeing as Sergeant Hartlip has a
dislike of the Adventurers they may experience
a slightly greater share of the burden
Trapping: Chain Gang Backpack
Characters forced to carry one of these heavy
packs must make a Strength, Toughness and
Agility test every hour of Marching. The
tests start as Very Easy and increase in
difficulty one step every hour. Each failed
test results in 1 automatic Wound, due to a
combination of fatigue, muscle strain and
trips.
Characters who take a Critical Hit from
damage incurred in this way collapse from
exhaustion (automatically receiving the
following Critical Effect; 10% chance of
dying each turn until Medical Attention is
received). Wounds incurred in this way heal
at the normal rate.
Seven hours rest (with no strenuous activity)
can completely reset the difficulties of the
tests back to Very Easy. If the character
cannot rest that long then the test difficulty
decreases one step every hour they do rest.
The common march timetable is to march
Seven hours, rest one hour and march
another seven hours. Resting overnight for
the remaining nine hours assuming the
characters are lucky enough that nothing
disturbs that rest.

Each prisoner will have a set of Manacles and

Shackles attached to them and they will be
chained in pairs throughout the march but not
whilst in camp (see above for details of how
the chains restrict movement). The best way to
handle this is probably to have each Player
chained to an NPC during the marching hours.
The Guards
There are eight Watchmen (use the Town
Guards NPC profile in WFRP, p. 235) on the
march to Tassenburg. All of the guards on the
march are at least nominally inducted into the
Brotherhood of the Black Heart and as well as
Sergeant Hartlip, two of the other guards are
noteworthy in their sadism towards the
prisoners.

Wiegel-the Weasel Sly Watchman and

Slaaneshi Cultist.
Careers: Interrogator, Ex-Watchman
Main Profile
WS BS
S
T
AG INT WP FEL
31
31
43
41
30
38
38
30
Secondary Profile
A
W
SB TB
M
MG
IP
FP
1
12
4
4
4
0
0
0
Skills: Academic Know (Law), Dodge Blow, Follow Trail,
Gossip, Intimidate +10, Perception +10, Search, Charm,
Heal, Torture
Talents: Coolheaded, Disarm, Street Fighting, Strike Mighty
Blow, Strike to Stun, Menacing, Specialist Weapon (Flail),
Wrestling.
Trappings: Leather Armour (1AP), Helmet (3AP), Short
Sword, Billy Club, Cat O Nine Tails, Crossbow and 10 bolts.

Berthold-The-Beast Vicious Watchman and

Slaaneshi Cultist
Careers: Watchman, Ex-Thug
Main Profile
WS BS
S
T
AG INT WP FEL
49
28
55
49
30
25
29
28
Secondary Profile
A
W
SB TB
M
MG
IP
FP
2
15
5
3
4
0
0
0
Skills: Consume Alcohol, Dodge Blow, Gossip,
Intimidate, Ride,
Talents: Quick Draw, Disarm, Menacing, Street Fighting,
Strike Mighty Blow, Strike to Injure, Strike to Stun,
Wrestling, Very Strong,
Trappings: : Leather Armour and Mail Shirt (1AP & 2AP),
Helmet (3AP), Short Sword, Billy Club, Knuckle Duster,
Crossbow and 10 bolts

Weasels and Beasts, Oh My

Wiegel and Berthold are partners on the Watch
and have always been as crooked as they
come, so joining the Slaaneshi cult was not a
huge step for them. They may be chaos cultists
but are basically just small minded, petty
bullies out for kicks but made even more
#
sadistic by joining the cult. Finally turning
on these petty bullies should be more
1
enjoyable for the Adventurers than
2
slaughtering dozens of cultists.
Of course while the Adventurers need to
maintain their cover they will have to let the
sadistic pair play their twisted games and
can expect beatings, lashings, staged pitfights, begging for food etc.
The Weasel is a sly, scheming man who
delights in devising degrading and sadistic
punishments for prisoners and is rightly
feared because of the lash that he carries
(and is very willing to use). He has a rather
annoying high pitched whine to his voice
and a nasal laugh. Though not particularly
intelligent himself he enjoys pretending to
be so.
The Beast on the other hand has no airs
about him; he likes to hurt people and
doesnt need any kind of pretence to enjoy
it. He is stupider and thicker set than his
friend but much more directly sadistic, and
quite likely to beat a man to death if left
unchecked.

Chain Gang Express to

Tassenburg
The columns of chained, dejected prisoners
carrying their loads head out of their cells in
the early afternoon, bound for Tassenburg.
Mechanics of Marching
A seven day forced march doesnt sound too
interesting and might be the sort of thing your
players are looking to skip through dont let
them, theres plenty for them to be getting on
with, from learning how to minimise the effects
of their chains and quizzing their fellow prisoners
and forming alliances and oppositions, to seeking
out the spy and taking every tactical advantage
they can in preparation for Tassenburg. Not
forgetting that the journey itself is an arduous
challenge with many perils.
To stop the march dragging on in mile after mile
of description, we break it up into sections. The
journey should take a week to complete, and each
day is split into two 7 hour walking periods, with
an hours rest in between and a nighttime rest
period. Each period can be presented as a fairly
short scene for the Adventurers (approximately
twenty in all). Roll or pick from the list of sample
encounters below.

There are approximately 20 time periods

during the March to Tassenburg, there are
therefore twenty encounter ideas presented
below. Of course, some of the ideas will run
over more than one session while others may
be combined quite happily.

Encounter
Beastman Ambush
Bareknuckle Brawls

Trapping Food

Finding Herbs

Begging For Food

Beatings

Murder

Mudslide

Ruben Tries to Broker a Deal

10

Margrits Violent Side

11

A Bad Luck Charm

12

Confrontation with Jacov

13

Aria Tries to Escape

14

When Mutant Wolves Attack

15

Bandit Trap

16

Ghost Village

17

Wiegels Trials

18

Eyes in the Dark

19

Heres Nickolas!

20

Kastor Revealed

Beastman Ambush
Suitable for any point in the journey either day
or night, this encounter focuses on an attack by
one of the many Beastmen herds roaming the
Forest of Shadows since the end of the Storm
of Chaos. The party is beset by a score of
Beastmen (see WFRP Bestiary for details).
The Beastmen are after an easy meal, if it
becomes too difficult for them then they will
withdraw, for now.
Its a straight forward combat; however the
characters will have some additional problems
to cope with, such as the chains and packs they
have to wear, being chained to their neighbour
and their lack of any real weapons. Suddenly a
straight forward fight becomes far trickier.

Bare-knuckle Brawl
One drunken night Sergeant Hartlip and the
boys decide to bet on which of the prisoners
would be the best pugilist. They then round up
their pick of their choices and stage the fights.

Chains are removed in the interests of sport,

and those reluctant to fight are beat with billy
clubs until they agree or fall unconscious, but
the winners get extra rations the next day!
While some of the Adventurers will
undoubtedly find favour as fighters, the others
will effectively be left with very little in the
way of guards, a perfect opportunity for
sneakiness (there are a number of other
encounters that would combine well with the
distraction caused by all the best fighters and
the guards being distracted!)
If they are a success with the guards, these
bouts may well take place over a few nights
with challenges getting harder for those who
prove they can handle themselves (facing off
against two or more people, or even a
wounded bear).

Trapping Food
Eomund the one armed trapper approaches one
of the Adventurers with an idea; during the
nights whilst theyve been in their makeshift
camps, Eomund has seen rabbits and other
small forest creatures pass nearby whilst
everyone was asleep. If they could be snared it
would be a good source of food and a great
boost to morale.
Eomund has a plan to make a snare from fibre
strands of the short rope belt the Adventurer
has on his rags, and to skin anything caught
with a flint shard he found in the dust and
finally smuggle the meat into the embers of the
fire late at night when the guards are asleep or
earlier if they are distracted or not looking.
Not only is that an extremely audacious plan,
its very tricky for a man with only one hand to
achieve; Eomund will talk the Adventurer(s)
through the steps of snaring and skinning in
exchange for some of the meat (in game terms,
Eomund can add a +10% bonus to any rolls
related to trapping or other survival skills).

Finding Herbs
From the journeys start Claus Dekmar the
Herbalist has been collecting whatever herbs
he can find by the side of the road (almost
causing the line to fall, and barely avoiding the
notice of the guards) and at the sites where
they have stopped. By the time they are half
way to Tassenburg he has collected quite a few
samples and may be able to make some sort of
herbal concoction. If the adventurers have
befriended Claus they could benefit from the
brew. Roll 1D10 to determine what Claus
could concoct;
1-2: Contact/Blade Poison (use stats for
WFRP, P.
3-4: Ingestion Poison (use stats for Heartkill,
WFRP P. )

5-6: Hallucinogenic (use stats for

P.

, WFRP

7-8: Performance Enhancer (use stats for

Gretas Boon, WFRP, P.
9-10: Healing Poultice (see WFRP, P.

Begging For Food

Out for some fun at the expense of
degrading the Prisoners, Wiegel the
Weasel is serving up food to the
prisoners, as at the Watch House, the food
the prisoners receive is quite disgusting
(not gruel this time as it would be too
heavy to carry and too time consuming to
make, instead they get one hunk of bread
each per day, that is at least two weeks
old, mouldy and that has a fair content of
weevils).
To make an unappetising meal even worse
Wiegel is making every prisoner who wants to
eat beg at his feet, and as time goes on the
grovelling must be more inventive or Wiegel
will find other ways to degrade the person
(licking his boots, acting like a pig etc). After
each prisoner has begged, Wiegel laughs his
horrid nasal titter and holds his hand out, at
which Berthold (silently smirking throughout
all this) will pull out a hunk of bread from a
bag, spit on it and throw it at the prisoners
feet. Its not hard to spot that the Beast is
fingering his knuckledusters, just waiting for
an excuse to beat on someone.
Prisoners that refuse to play the little game
simply receive a smirk from Wiegel Not
hungry, heh? (As prisoners get only one meal
a day remember to keep track of who isnt
eating for starvation purposes (see below).

Beatings
Pretty much all the guards are sadists who will
have no compunction administering
correction at the slightest provocation; so
when in doubt throw in a minor beating. Any
reason will do; talking loudly, stepping out of
line, looking at the guards funny etc, just one
or two hits a day should be enough to really
make your players want to tear into these guys.
Wiegel (and his cat-o-nines), Berthold (and his
fists) and Hartlip (and his billy club) are
undoubtedly the worst offenders.
The guards always make an example of one
person early on in the trip, to show that
resisting corrections will be severely
punished. The first time someone fights back
or tries to intervene in someone elses defence
the Guards will grind that person into the
ground, with no mercy. Its actually a very
effective technique for instilling fear and cooperation. Ideally use an NPC to demonstrate

Starvation and Deprivation Induced Fatigue

Throughout the rest of the Adventure you will need to
keep track of what the Characters are eating. Because
when you are walking for 14 hours a day on one (not very
hearty) meal, it doesnt take too many missed meals before
this starts to impact on your health.
A character can go a day without food with no problems,
but on the second day they must pass an Easy (+20%)
Toughness test or lose 10% from their Toughness.
The third day they must make a Routine (+10%)
Toughness test or lose 10% Toughness.
On the fourth day they must make an Average Toughness
test or lose 10% from Toughness and 10% from
Strength, if food is available and they choose not to eat
then they must also make an Average Willpower test to
resist eating.
Each day afterward increases the difficulty of the roll to
resist the effects of starvation (and to resist eating, if
appropriate) by one level.
Characters regain lost stats at +10% a day if they eat a
little, or +20% a day if they get full meals (not likely in
this scenario). However, 20% of the overall stat loss for
each stat is permanent (i.e. if you lost 20% from
Toughness and 10% from Strength before eating, then you
would lose 4% from your permanent Toughness and 2%
from your permanent Strength due to the degradation your
body sustained as it basically tried to consume itself.
Combined with a couple of poor rolls, its this permanent
loss that might worry Players enough to test their
characters moral resolve and have them seek food no
matter the consequences.
the principle in the first instance, perhaps one
of the men (Oswin the cocky Coopers
Apprentice is a good choice) objects to a
guards lasciviousness towards one of the
females and is soundly thrashed for his
troubles. If the players dont take the hint, they
can be the second warning.

Murder
One of the prisoners is found murdered, adding
a whodunit twist to the mix and perhaps a
new sense of urgency to the efforts to find the
Spy. Exactly who is killed, by whom and why
is left for you to decide but there are a couple
of likely options
Firstly, Kastor Gundred (the Spy) might kill
Olga Ublingen (the prostitute with the ruined
face) because she has been talking to the
Adventurers about her experience at the hands
of Magistrate Berkhopf and may have (or may
have been about to) mentioned Kastors part in
that, thus blowing his cover. This can be a
great way of drawing Kastor out into the open
and he could either poison her food or kill her
with his thorns (should he be able to get her
alone). Kastor could also kill the little street
urchin Hans if necessary, again if he feared
Hans had seen or heard something that could
blow Kastors cover.

The second obvious option is for the resident

psycho Nikolas Schon to go mad and strangle
someone during the night (again unfortunately
its likely to be one of the women who get done
in, you look like my wifeI killed my
wife).
Either way its a nice one to up the tension.

Mudslide
During a torrential rainstorm (a common
occurrence in Ostland), the road the Chain
Gang are on crosses the side of a hill in the
middle of the forest when the ground
underfoot starts to slide away. Suddenly the
whole world is travelling down hill, fast.
Every person in the group must make five
Challenging (-10%) Agility tests (even if they
fail the first one) to determine if they make it
across to solid ground or if not, where they
slipped and how far they went down. Matters
are made more difficult by the fact that the
prisoners are chained in pairs.
The first test to be failed causes a slip (and
forces the person on the other end of the chain
to take a Hard 20% Agility Test to stay on
their feet).
If the partner succeeds in keeping their balance
they can make a Challenging Strength test to
get the other person back on their feet, if they
fail all they can do is try to keep their own
balance again until next turn (i.e. both attempt
their next Challenging Agility rolls).
If a pair of chained characters make enough
rolls not to fall but not enough to make any
progress for the full five turns then they are
stuck, but will eventually be rescued by the
guards.
If both parties fail their Agility rolls then they
slither down the hillside, they can attempt to
stop themselves usually by impacting into a
rock or tree, with the next Agility roll or
choose to take the ride to the bottom. If only
one character makes the test, they must make a
Challenging Strength test or be dragged down
again by the other person. The next Agility test
is to right oneself again.
Whenever the characters stop sliding (even if
they then start again) take a hit, Wounds
caused are D10 + 1 for every failed Agility test
since their last success.
Characters who take the ride to the bottom of
the mudslide take a D10 +5 Wound hit.
They must then spend the next hour wading
out of the mud.
Any Character who fails a test gets muddy,
anyone who fails three or more gets plastered
from head to foot.

It takes at least two hours to re-gather the

Chain Gang (giving plenty of opportunity for
further shenanigans) and by the time it is done
the guards are in a foul mood.

Ruben Tries to Broker a Deal

Smarmy Coin Clipper Rubin believes he can
broker an amicable arrangement with the
guards and uses one or more Adventurer (most
likely without telling them) as some kind of
leverage (i.e. as a threat against reprisals from
the guards, as someone who knows the
location of buried treasure or who can provide
some sort of service) in the brokering of his
deal.
Not only is Sergeant Hartlip uninterested in the
offer but also he decides to pick on Ruben and
the character. Depending on the deal Ruben
tries Hartlip may string him along for awhile
drawing out promises, lies and hopefully
roping in the Adventurer, before turning nasty.

Margrits Violent Side

The drunken Haus Frau Margrit is slowly
drying out on the march and is not a pleasant
person to be around. Whenever the lines form
up, there is a subtle but visible attempt by
everyone to avoid being chained to her, guess
what, one of your Adventurers just got lucky!
Margrit will give them the day from hell, and
if it were not bad enough the guards wind her
up on purpose. As well as shouting, spitting,
clawing and biting whoever is next to her
whenever they do something she doesnt like,
at one point for no discernable reason shell try
to land a nice right hook on their head.

A Bad Luck Charm

Stefan Walbrecht is down on his luck, whats
worse is, he brings down those of whoever
hes around. When one of the Adventurers is
chained to Stefan he acts as their personal Bad
Luck Charm.
For any two rolls during the period when they
are chained, the GM may force the Player to
re-roll a test and take the worse of the two
results.
As a consolation prize, Stefan is unfailingly
optimistic about their futureisnt that nice.

becomes aggressive about all the talking the

Adventurers are doing with their fellow
prisoners.
Its also possible the confrontation could arise
because the Adventurers decide to take hi knife
off him (either because they dont trust him not
to use it, or they want it), or they incorrectly
identify him as the Spy.

Aria Tries to Escape

The little halfling is a good thief and an expert
at escapaology, and she is just waiting for the
guards to be distracted long enough for her to
be able to escape.
Players with a larcenous background notice
she keeps testing her chains on a Challenging
(-10%) Perception Test. Other characters may
notice she leaves little drawings in the dirt
whenever they stop with a Hard (-20%)
Perception test (those with the Skill Secret
Signs (Thief) makethe test as Challenging (10%) and can read that they are signs to help
her find her way when she escapes.
Should the Adventurers confront her about
her past, or her upcoming attempt to escape,
she resists at first but finally admits it.
Convincing her to stay with the group until
Tassenburg is harder and requires the truth (or
a very compelling lie involving an opportunity
to acquire wealth) and a successful Charm test
with at least one degree of success.

When Mutant Wolves Attack

The Forest of Shadows has always been home
to some large aggressive wolf packs; the
endless expanse of dimly lit trees with only the
occasional clearing for grazing animals is
prime territory. However, this year the wolves,
like everyone else had a hard winter as all the
livestock and people fled or were butchered
and eaten by the Chaos hordes.
All of this left the wolves with only one place
to find meat, stripping it from the corruption
riddled bodies of those Chaos mutants who
were killed in the desperate battles that took
place throughout the forest. Eating mutant
meat has had an effect on this particular wolf
pack and as well as making them larger and
more aggressive, its also given them their own
set of mutations (see below).

Confrontation With Jacov

Jacov the weirdroot pusher is armed, paranoid
and unfailingly prickly to deal with. He always
looks for the angles that will best suit him and
actively tries to put everyone else down. There
will undoubtedly come a time when the
Adventurers will have a confrontation with the
nasty little chap.
Perhaps he is bullying some of the less
assertive NPcs into giving him their food or he

Mutant Wolf
Main Profile
WS BS
S
T
AG INT WP FEL
35
0
40
40
30
15
19
0
Secondary Profile
A
W
SB TB
M
MG
IP
FP
3
10
4
4
6
0
0
0
Skills: Concealment, Silent Move, Perception +10
Talents: Keen Senses, Natural Weapons,
Mutations: Skinless, Second Head.

Bandit Trap
Forest bandits attack, they are not interested in
butchering everyone, but neither do they care
about the prisoners (the last thing they want is
more mouths to feed). They are after the heavy
packs of food and luxuries that the prisoners
have been made to carry and will target the
people carrying them, if the Prisoners drop the
bags they will be allowed to escape but they
can expect one hell of a beating from the
Guards.
The trap is sprung when a tree falls onto the
path in front of the column and several bandits
swing down from the trees. The bandits use the
Bandit NPC profile in WFRP.

Ghost Village
The Chain Gang stops to rest for the night in
an abandoned hamlet, the skeletons of its
inhabitants, brutally killed during the Storm of
Chaos still hang from the creaking trees. The
guards think nothing of stopping in such a
foreboding place but many of the prisoners
whisper of the place being cursed.
In truth, the place is cursed, the hamlet was
one of those that Berkhopf in his hideous true
form descended upon and killed and tortured
and revelled in the beautiful freedom of it all.
During the night, everyone dreams of the sick
acts, the foul deeds and the sheer butchery that
took place here, seeing Berkhopfs true form
over and over, laughing at them and even
feeling the sick pleasure who took and a
measure of the pain and suffering he inflicted.
Everyone gains an insanity point from this
terrible experience (with the exception of the
Cultists). Nikolas Schon and and mad Andreas
as the two least stable minds are particularly
effected by the experience, and Schon, who
encountered Berkhopf before may well go on
an attempted killing spree during the night.
Wiegels Trials
During one rest period, Wiegel the Weasel
spends a long time expounding the virtues of
the old justice system, in particular, trial by
ordeal.
He concludes by deciding to hold court and
re-try some of the prisoners.
Ordeals might include being branded without
screaming, holding a red-hot rock in your hand
for as long as it takes to repeat a devotional
prayer to Sigmar, holding a sword above your
head, point down using only your teeth whilst
walking backwards in a circle saying the
widdershins nursery rhyme or any other
manner of madness.
Rather than devise individual tests Ill leave
this to your own twisted imaginings but suffice

to say they should be potentially painful and

involve testing at least one characteristic under
trying circumstances. The sword in the mouth
thing for example might test Strength to hold
the sword, Agility to walk backwards and
balance the swords weight, and Intelligence to
remember the words of the rhyme whilst
distracted. Failure of any part might result in
some pretty horrific mouth and face injuries.
Participation in Wiegels court is not exactly
optional but should characters actually succeed
without getting hurt he sulks and claims that
trial by ordeal is a stupid practice and that trial
by law is much better, after all the prisoners
were all rightly found guilty.

Eyes In the Dark

This should be the Adventurers first contact
with the Skaven in this scenario. Have the
Players make random Perception tests as they
are marching, success indicates they see a
small hunched figure (or more than one)
shadowing them.
Higher degrees of success indicate the
characters get more clues as to the nature of
the watchers.

Heres Nickolas!
If he hasnt already gone loopy and tried to kill
people anyway, the Adventurers can attempt to
set Nickolas of into a murderous rage by
whispering strange things to him, this is a Hard
(20%) Charm test, or a Challenging (10%)
Blather Test. Characters with Ventriloquism
can reduce the difficulty of the test by one
level.
The exact effects will depend on what the
Adventurers do to him, they could want him to
attack the guards (probably resulting in
Nickolas death and possibly that of the
guard), or attack one of the prisoners resulting
in most of the guards trying to separate the
two, etc.

Kastor Revealed
This is a special encounter that should be
saved in case the Adventurers fail to identify
the spy any other way, the night before they
reach Tassenburg, whilst the guards are getting
drunk. The Adventurers see Kastor briefly
allow his thorns to emerge from his skin before
pulling them back in. He also slips free of his
chains and begins to sneak in the direction of
Tassenburg. The PCs have this one last
chance to get him and stop him reporting them
to the Camp Commandant (which is just where
he was heading), that is something they do
NOT want to happen.

Scene 5: Tassenburg, A Town in Ruins

Journeys End
As the Chain Gang reaches the end of its
journey the Adventurers troubles are only just
beginning.

Tassenburg History
Until ninety years ago, Tassenburg was a small
village; its growth to a small town in such a
short space of time was due to its use by
nearby farms and villages as the local cattle
market and abattoir.
This growth was mostly due to one man,
Frederich Tasse, an accomplished businessman
whose went from a Pie Man selling
miscellaneous meat products from a tray, to
butchers store owner, to abattoir owner, to
cattle market auctioneer, to employer of over a
quarter of the towns populace and finally to
Burgomaster. In the thirty years since his death
the town has grown rapidly as farmers and
livestock owners from an ever-increasing
radius make their way to Tassenburg to buy
and sell cattle and other livestock.
Tassenburg Defences
No settlement of any size can ever be without
some defences in Ostland, it being on the
forefront of the northern Imperial borders.
However, Tassenburg being less than a
hundred years old as a large had never had to
withstand any serious attacks and certainly
never the ravages of a concerted Chaos Horde.
Therefore when the Storm of Chaos struck,
they were woefully under prepared.
The Rot in Tassenburg
Such rapid expansion and influx of people to
the burgeoning area was bound to create
discontent and bring all manner of
undesirables to exploit the niche opening there.
It was under these conditions that the
Brotherhodd of the Black Heart first formed,
from bored burghers and tradesmen, from
merchants and racketeers, all of whom came to
Tassenburg wanting more, and when they
found that the new town could not stop them
wanting they turned to increasingly darker
desires to fill the void (see above for the full
details on the Brotherhood).
The Storm Comes
By the time the forces of Chaos were in the
ares of Tassenburg, the Magus of the Black
Heart Brothers, being scared for what he had
achieved and still always the wanting of more
decided to use the power of the Black Heart to
have the Chaos army by-pass the town without
even giving it a thought. But Slaanesh did not
look kindly upon the endeavour to deny his
children more the playthings of Tassenburg
and the ritual failed in such spectacular style

that it blew up most of the North East quarter

of the town.
After The Storm
When the walls of the town were so
completely breached, the defenders had no
chance and the Chaos army rolled through
Tassenburg like a tidal wave, crushing and
devouring everything. Finally fires roared
through the town laying waste to almost
everything else.
Luckily about half of the townsfolk managed
to escape whilst the defenders held on for
precious extra minutes before they succumbed.
It is these Tassenburg residents that form the
bulk of the refugees currently choking the
streets of Staumludt.
When the Chaos army finally moved on, the
area was a charred and smoking wasteland of
burnt out buildings and rubble ringed by a
semi circle of wall.
Not much has changed since the arrival of the
labour camp prisoners because the truth is that
Berkhopf and the Brotherhood of the Black
Heart have no intention of rebuilding the town
and the prisoners held there are being used to
sift through the rubble for shards of the
destroyed Black Heart.

Gazetteer of the Ostland Township of

Tassenburg
Size: Small Town
Ruler: A Burgomaster in the name of Elector
Count Von Raukov
Population: 350 (now only 70-ish prisoners)
Wealth: 2 (little affluence)
Source: Cattle and Livestock Markets.
Garrison/Militia: 10 x B (Average Troops), 400
x C (Poor Troops).
Notes:
Tassenburgs largest church is dedicated to Rhya
in her aspect of the calm and nurturing side of
nature, an important concept for the town. The
church is known as the Horntempel due to the
large horns attached to one outside wall. Until its
destruction, Tassenburg would hold an annual
festival known as the Horns-Gala, in which a bull
was sacrificed and its horns would replace those
of the previous year upon the wall. Locals would
compete to find the bull with the largest horns,
believing that it would bring them good favour in
the coming year if their bull were chosen. In
years of plenty, the horns were plated in brass or
bronze for added good fortune.

The Tassenburg Labour Camp

North East Corner of Tassenburg

Showing area of the Labour Camp
and surrounding environs

Burnt Ruins

Gallows Corner

Stores
Prisoners
Area

Town Wall
Stores

Wooden
Pallisade

The Camp

Tool
Store
Commandant
Rooms

The Pit
(was Horntempel)

Watchtower

Camp Gates
Watchtower

Booty
Guard
Armoury House
Explosion Ruins

Location
When Berkhopf fand the Brotherhod first
began to search the rubble for signs of the
Black Heart, Berkhopf had always believed
that the raw matter of the idol was
indestructible, he was wrong.
But just as they began to believe that the idol
was lost forever, they discovered a single shard
of the wyrdstone heart of the idol. Guessing
that there must be more scattered all over the
area that was destroyed by the explosion, the
cult set to work on the plan to have prisoners
and criminals dig the shards out for them.
They set up the Camp that was to house the
forced labourers on the very Northern edge of
the area of the town devastated by the
explosion. Of course, Chaos cultists being
what they are, the provisions for the workforce
were never going to be more than assigning an
area to the prisoners and ensuring there was no
way for them to escape.
Layout and Security
The camp has been slightly improved on over
time, but only for the comfort of the guards
and to introduce slightly more robust security
measures (which happened once the corrupted
Staumludt Town Watch became involved).
The camp has a few basic features, detailed
below.

Camp Layout
The Camp sits on the Northern side of the
section of rubble and ruins in which the Black
Heart exploded.
Security
The camp is tucked into the main town wall
which protects it fairly well from that side and
provides good viewing positions for the guards
to watch both inside and outside the camp. The
rest of the camp is surrounded by an eight foot
wooden palisade wall constructed by the
prisoners themselves. There is only one gate
into the camp, which leads directly into the
ruined sections the prisoners search daily.
In addition two simple raised platforms have
been errected at the gates for guards to keep
watch at.
Prisoners Area
The guards purposefully picked a building
(formerly the Cattle Auctioning Shed) with no
roof and not a lot wall left standing either,
prisoners have very little privacy or warmth. It
does still contain a sluice and sewer
connection that smart Adventurers may be able
to discover.
Gallows Corner
Used by the townfolk of Tassenburg to hang
criminals, the Guards now use it to display the
corpses of the losers from the Pit Fights.

Stores
A section of small dwellings that have been
converted to be used as stores, they contain the
camps food and water supply, lamp oil,
blankets etc. The tool store is right by the gates
to ensure prisoners sign any tools in and out
properly.
Commandants Rooms and Booty Store
Taking over the remains of a large house,
Commandant Erkenbraund has his personal
quarters, his office and his lab all in this
building, and in a small annex is stored all the
items found by the Prisoners, including the
wyrdstone shards, in their own locked chest,
everything except the pieces of the Black Heart
is waiting to be divvied up amongst the
Guards. The Commandants quarters are also
home to cells used for solitary confinement
(usually only used for housing the mutants
who will fight in the pits).
Guard House and Armoury
In a similarly large house next to the
Commandants, the rest of the guards have
their somewhat cramped but comfortable
quarters and behind it their armoury, which is
where all the weapons they dont carry are
stored.
The Pit
The shattered remains of the Horntempel are
now used as an assembly point for the camp, in
the centre of the floor is a large, deep hole
filled with muddy water and debris from the
collapsed roof, they call this the Pit and it is
where the guards stage pit fights to the death
between any prisoner who has mutated due to
contact with the warpstone or any other
troublemakers.

NPCs at Tassenburg Camp

Whilst the NPCs that the Adventurers have
been travelling with form the bulk of the
personalities in the Camp, there are a few
exceptions that they will meet.

Commandant Erkenbraund
Faustus Erkenbraund loved his work; he was a
studying physician in the University of Nuln,
in fact he loved it a little too much. It is a wellknown but overlooked secret that physicians
and anatomists snatch corpses from the
graveyards to practice upon and learn from and
Faustus was no exception.
Except that he was the exceptionrumours
began to circulate that he had been seen
through the windows of his lab at night, laying
with the bodies he used and engaging in
unwholesome practices with them. Finally
rumours spread that screams and whimpers
were coming from his lab.

Unable to take any more the University Dean

quietly hired some Adventurer types and paid
them well to keep an eye on Faustus but their
mouths firmly shut. They discovered that some
of his cadavers were not exactly cadavers; at
least not when they started out on his table,
and that once he had made them cadavers he
did indeed enjoy unwholesome practices with
them.
Fearing a scandal, the Dean sent Faustus away
on an open ended unpaid sabbatical and
warned him that if he were ever heard of again
the Witch Hunters would be informed of
Faustus research.
After years of moving about and not finding
anyone with whom he could confide his deepseated desires he finally came to Tassenburg
and fell in love with a man named Keripadese
Berkhopf, a man who did not judge him for his
predilections. Yes, Faustus had finally come
home and even followed his trusted
Keripadese against the wishes of the previous
Cult Magus, which is the only reason Faustus
is still alive at all.

Faustus Erkenbraund
Camp Commandant, Slaaneshi
Acolyte and Doctor of
Anatomy
Careers: Cult Acolyte, ExStudent, Ex-Physician

Main Profile
WS BS
S
T
AG INT WP FEL
36
48
35
45
43
62
43
39
Secondary Profile
A
W
SB TB
M
MG
IP
FP
1
12
3
4
4
0
0
0
Skills: Academic Knowledge (Science +20 / Daemonology),
Heal +10, Gossip, Perception +10, Prepare Poison,
Read/Write +10, Speak Language (Classical +10), Trade
(Apothecary), Torture, Charm +10, Channelling, Evaluate,
Inimidate, Magical Sense, Read/Write, Speak Arcane
Language (Daemonic)
Talents: Resistance to Disease, Strike to Stun, Surgery,
Aethyric Attunement, Dark Magic, Etiquette, Inured to
Chaos, Keen Senses Petty Magic (Chaos).
Mutations: Blood Substitution Maggots
Trappings: Good Quality clothes, Scalpels and instruments,
Pistol and shot, Cadavers, Labour Camp

Other Camp Personalities

Store-master Sergeant Segemund

Psychology of a Forced Labour Camp

Segemund is a rotund and sweaty man who can

appear very personable when he wants to, but he has
as black a soul as any of the other cultists as the
numerous children hes abused and killed would attest
if they were able.

Forced Labour Camps are all about

exploitation, they are built with the express
purpose of taking every conceivable thing from
the people forced to work there in pursuit of the
camps specific goal. Health, dignity, safety,
individuality are all mined away from the
prisoners to achieve a particular goal. When its
a camp run by Chaos Cultists this process is
just a little bit faster

Segemund is in charge of the Camps kitchen and

foodstore, the tool store and armoury. If you want
something, whether you are a guard or a prisoner he
will probably get it for you, for the cost of a favour,
which might seem a good deal until you hear what he
want you to do in return
Segemund uses the Proprietor NPC template.
Austen Gilbrecht
Austen was an Accountant in Staumludt who was
legitimately caught for killing his wifes lover. A
usually soft spoken man with superb organisational
skills he has found a niche for himself at the
Tassenburg camp as a collaborator with the guards.
He understands what they are doing at the camp,
probably better than most and has an idea how twisted
his captors are but he doesnt see how resisting them
and being crushed as a result would do anyone any
good so he continues to quietly do the administrative
tasks hes assigned. He usually works directly to the
Camp Commandant or Sergeant Segesmund and as a
result the guards leave him alone, and even take
instruction from him as he sometimes delivers
messages on their behalf, definitely a useful man in
any attempt to disrupt the camp activities.
Not an evil man, but one anxious to protect his
position, if the Adventurers can persuade Austen they
can put a stop to the evils in Tassenburg he would
help them. Austen uses the Proprietor NPC template.
Quintus
Quintus was one of the top players in the Underworld
of Staumludt. He was approached by Cultists of the
Brotherhood to help procure certain things, like
drugs and young flesh, but after doing some checking
and discovering the nature of the Brotherhood, he told
them to go to hell. They promptly kidnapped him,
took him to Tassenburg and tried to install a puppet
boss to Quintus old organisation.
A few of Quintus most trusted henchmen have been
trying to find him and Volker is actually amongst the
new prisoners. When Volker finds Quintus, if the
Adventurers have proved themselves trustworthy to
Volker, hell recommend them to Quintus. Quintus,
having organised some of the other prisoners, has
already started to excavate the collapsed sewer tunnel
under the Prisoner area. However, unless the
Adventurers can help them step it up a gear (by
acquiring tools etc) then there is no way it will be
finished in time to help the Adventurers meet
Adelmann.

Input Vs Output
The idea is to put as little in as is needed to
sustain a high output. So, its cheaper to get
more prisoners to march to the camp, carrying
supplies for the guards than it is to feed the
prisoners you already have and keep them
healthy you give them just enough food that
they can last until you have enough new
prisoners that it doesnt matter if some of the
old ones die.
However, an occasional treat conditional on
good working, can increase productivity for
next to no additional input, like double rations
to anyone who finds a warpstone shard, this
can also work in reverse, that anyone who finds
nothing, eats nothing.
The same apples to medical treatment for
wounds, it may be cost effective to do some
small amount of treatment but dont waste time
or resources on anyone seriously hurt.
Divide & Conquer
The prisoners always seriously outnumber the
guards, enough so that if they attacked enmasse they would undoubtedly win (the
casualties might be pretty horrendous but sheer
weight of numbers would win out). The reason
they dont is that the guards operate by singling
out and punishing anyone who tries to organise
the prisoners and they reward those who betray
their fellows.
Additionally, any rewards are aimed at
individuals not groups. Doesnt matter if
twenty people slogged all day digging in the
dirt to find your trinket, only the one who
brings it to you is rewarded, this encourages
competition and a lack of team work.
Finally, fear is what makes a labour camp run,
fear of the guards, fear of the consequences of
failing, fear that your fellow prisoners will sell
you out for an extra ration or the chance to stay
alive just one more day.

Camp Life

Digging in the Ruins

From the moment the Chain Gang arrives the

rules of the game change, the shackles and
chains linking the prisoners are removed
(though they keep their manacles) and they can
move around with greater freedom. Assuming
the Chain Gang arrives at Tassenburg on time,
they now have seven days until they meet with
Captain Adelmann

Random Encounters

Numbers
The camp is home to thirty Guards, these are a
mix of Watchmen and Volunteers (read:
Cultists), divided into three watches; Morning,
Afternoon and Night. There are around ninety
Prisoners, including those who have mutated
who are kept purely for the pit.
Routine

During the day much of the Adventurers time

will be spent searching through the ruins for
Wyrdstone.
Wyrdstone, Booty or Nothing?
The guards at Tassenburg have a saying, you
find nothing, you eat nothing. Each day the
characters search the ruins they have to try to
come up with the goods.
For every hour spent searching the rubble roll
against the following table, but see below for full
details;
01-10% = You find a sliver of Warpstone, make
an Average Toughness test or gain a mutation.

The Camps daily routine is as follows

11-50% = You find some form of treasured item,

roll on the Booty table to see what.

05.00 Night Guards changed, new guards

rouse Prisoners and send them to the Pit for
morning inspiratioal from the Commandant
followed by duties assigned by Sergeant
Hartlip, Sergeant Segemund or the
Accountant Austen Gilbrecht.

51-90% = You find nothing this hour

06.00 Prisoners collect tools (where

necessary), which are counted out, then
proceed to assigned duty.

91-99% = Special Event, see below.

Special Events
1.

Lashworm Attack Adventurer has

stumbled within range of this mindless
creature, hidden in the rock crevices, the
Lashworm attacks with surprise, resolve
the hit (BS 33, S 10). After that the
character can attempt to dig it out but may
prefer to just avoid the area. See Tome of
Corruption, P.118.

2.

Chaos Spawn Attack a foul spawn of

chaos lurks within the ruins of
Tassenburg, the rumour amongst the
guards is that it is all that remains of the
previous Cult Magus. In reality, there are
multiple Chaos Spawn and the Adventurer
has just encountered one. Use the sample
Spawn generated in the Tome of
Corruption, P.59

3.

Slip, Trip or Fall The Character takes a

tumble in the rubble, roll against Average
Agility or twist an ankle (-1Move, -1
Wound for the rest of the day).

4.

Rockslide / Cave-In The Character is in

the vicinity of a rockslide, roll against
Hard (-20%) Agility test or the character
becomes trapped for D10 hours before
someone finds and digs them out.

5.

Skaven Encounter The Character

encounters a Skaven who is also searching
the ruins. Roll D10, Odds the Skaven flees,
Evens the Skaven attacks.

13.00 Guards Change, Prisoners stay at

posts but allowed half hour break.
20.00 Prisoners returned to camp to eat,
tools counted back in, and prisoners allowed
one hours free time.
21.00 Prisoners must be in their block,
breaking this rule punishable by flogging.
Night guards come back on duty.

Food, Glorious Food

The Adventurers may well be looking
forward to some food when they get to the
camp to break the starvation tests.
Unfortunately, the food in Tassenburg is
worse than that on the road.
Every day the characters have one meal of
gruel, the same thin unwholesome mixture,
filled with bits youd rather not think about,
they were served in Staumludt Watch House.
The truth about the gruel is that its a special
concoction designed to subtly rob those
eating it of their desire to resist, ultimately
making them more compliant prisoners.
Gross Gruel
Each time they eat a bowl of gruel the
characters lose a single point of permanent
Willpower as it slowly robs them of their
fire.

Booty
When Adventurers roll to indicate theyve
found some Booty, roll below to determine
what theyve found.
#

Booty

Silverware 2D10 Karls worth of

silver candlesticks, cutlery etc.

Tools and Weapons found a tool or

weapon worth D10 Karls.

Jewellery and Trinkets found worth

2D10 karls

Book found on random Academic

Knowledge subject.

Bronze fittings from house, worth

D10/2 Karls.

Patch of Fungus, Roll a D10.

Characters with appropriate Herbalism
skills can modify the results by +/-2.
1-2 Poisonous to eat
3-4 Poisonous to touch
5-6 Edible
7-8 Devils Cap
9-10 Can be crushed to Create a
Healing Poultice

Armour scrap worth D10 karls (3AP to

one location)

Coin Pouch of D10 Karls

Broken Firearm (can be fixed on a

successful Trade: Gunsmith roll)

10

Set of Trade random Trade Tools.

know Kastor was a Spy so they wont

investigate too hard, as long as it doesnt
appear suspicious on the surface). All
Erkenbraund can do is take their word that it
was an accident.
Kastor is alive but hasnt made any of the
Adventurers
The next best thing is that neither side was
very good at finding the other, and Kastor
reports to Erkenbraund (though one or to other
Chain Gang members might disappear the
Adventurers are safe) before heading back to
Staumludt. Of course thats just trusting to
luck that he didnt spot them.
Kastor Died in Suspicious Circumstances
Kastor was killed but it didnt look like an
accident, still its not a total right off, it might
have been blamed on Nickolas Schon or one of
the other prisoners, in which case they will be
taken away and will admit to whatever
Erkenbraund wants, whilst under torture. If no
plausible suspect is given, then all the new
prisoners will be watched closely for signs that
they might have been spies themselves (use the
same rules that Kastor was using to spot the
Adventurers).
Kastor was killed and the Adventurers are
suspects, or Kastor survived and informed
about the Adventurers
Not a good situation be in. Erkenbraund will at
least throw them in the pit to fight the mutants
and f they survive, devise tortures that will
keep them in agony all week long. Unless
some of the Adventurers escaped detection
your party are effectively dead or at the very
least out of commission for the rest of the
Adventure.

Hiding Warpstone and Booty

The Magistrate is Coming

The guards expect prisoners to hide booty

from them so they are searched fairly
thoroughly on their return.

The Camp Commandant, Erkenbraund has sent

a messenger to the Magistrate to say that he
believes they have found almost all the shards.
So Berkhopf is being carried on his way up to
the Camp on his ornate litter, he will arrive the
afternoon that the Adventurers are due to
break out to meet Adelmann (and their
equipment).

Attempts to smuggle something past require a

Sleight of Hand test with a difficulty based on
the size of the object

A Week at the Camp

What about Kastor?
Commandant Erkenbraund was expecting
Kastor to arrive at the Camp with the
prisoners, so depending on what happened to
Kastor during the journey there may be some
difficult times ahead.
Kastor Died in an Accident
This is possibly the best position the
Adventurers can be in, somehow Kastor has
been killed and it has been written off by the
guards as an accident (remember they dont

The following night the Cultists are planning

to conduct their ritual to slaughter all the
prisoners and reform the Black Heart, doesnt
leave long for the Adventurers to plan if they
want to save the day!
If the Adventurers are making attempts to
listen to or keep tabs on the guards then they
can attempt a Hard (-20%) Perception
(listening) test (or a Challenging Lip Reading
test) to overhear the guards discussing all this.
If your Adventurers are not actively listening
to the guards, it may be down to a worried

Austen Gilbrecht to tell them what he has

overheard shortly after Magistrate Berkhopf
has arrived.
Evening Entertainment
This being a Slaaneshi camp, many of the
cultists like to indulge their sick fetishes when
off duty and many do so with unwilling
participants drawn from the prisoner
populations, pretty young men and women are
particularly favoured.
Erkenbraund has set a rule that no-one useful
is to be damaged such that they cant work,
its one of the few rules which result in the
guards being punished (not with pain, as that
would almost be a reward!?). Of course that
rule leaves a lot of room for interpretation and
for the sake of all our sanities I dont intend to
delve too far into what goes on in that aspect
of the camp. Suffice to say that Tassenburg
will leave deep psychological scars on many of
the prisoners who survive it.
The Pit Fights
Every couple of nights the off duty guards hold
a pit fight in which any prisoner who has
developed mutations from contact with the
weirdstone is thrown to fight to the death. Any
prisoners that Erkenbraund considers to be too
troublesome will also be tossed in here to fight
for the amusement of all.
This is a spectacle that always clears the camp
of off duty guards and even a few of the on
duty ones will slope over there for awhile (the
trouble with Slaaneshi Cultists is that you
teach them to do whatever they feel like which
doesnt make for great discipline, although
those who came from the Town Watch are
slightly better). Obviously this is a great
chance to be sneaky.
Any Adventurer deemed to be troublesome
might be tossed in here to fight it out with a
mutant; similarly anyone that did particularly
well in the bare knuckle brawls on the journey
could well be forced to compete. Should they
be successful they will be treated as prized
fighters, given double rations and not expected
to work during the day, in fact they have
(almost) a free run of the camp. However, they
will ultimately be expected to fight the Pit
King (a Chaos Ogre found wandering
Tassenburg that the Cultists have been treating
as a pet, see Tome of Corruption, P122 for
stats).
The Pit
The pit is full of muddy water and other debris
which provide the inventive Pit Fighter with at
least some weapons, most of which qualify as
Improvised Weapons of some description.

Drowning
Attempting to drown someone in the muddy
water is one unusual way to win. Firstly, the
attacker has to successfully grapple their
opponent as usual and then win on opposed
Strength rolls as usual, however, instead of
inflicting normal unarmed damage the Damage
is D10 + the number of turns they have been
held underwater.

The Skaven Warband

With the players having briefly encountered
Skaven on at least one occasion it should not
come as much of a surprise that the sly ratmen
are up to something in the area.
Anyone with Common Knowledge (Skaven)
or significant experience fighting them knows
that they prize Warpstone very highly which
might give a clue as to their intention.
In truth the Skaven Warband were part of the
force that besieged the Middenheim Undercity
during the Storm of Chaos and since the giant
explosion that devastated the tunnels there,
many scouting parties have been dispatched
looking for Warpstone to help rebuild the
Skaven technologies and magicks lost during
the siege. This particular group have travelled
further than most because they have so far
been unsuccessful in finding any and dare not
return without some.
The Skaven Warpstone Scouting Party
The thirty strong warband is led by a veteran
Storm Rat named Chi Quell and this is his first
command, being recently promoted due to the
death of his Commander.
Chi Quell s warband contains;

Chi Quell Use the Skaven template in

WFRP and add the Brute and Chief Careers.

10 Storm Rats Use the Skaven template

and add the Brute Career.

3 Gutter Runners Use the Skaven

template and add the Sneak Career.

16 Clan Rats Use the Skaven template.

Skaven activity should increase closer to the

end of the week that the Adventurers have
been there. It is clear that the Skaven intend to
attack in force at the most opportune time.
Characters with Academic Knowledge
(Strategy / Tactics) can make a Chalenging (10%) test to determine the most likely time for
the Skaven to attack. Perhaps unsurprisingly it
will be night time on the night when the Cult
are preparing for their ritual as their forces will
be stretched thinnest and the Warpstone will
be laid out in readiness for the ritual.

Break Out Plans

The Adventurers will need to plan and
implement an escape to meet Adelmann to
collect their weapons and get their pardons;
after all there is certainly enough evidence
against Berkhopf.
Of course, events have moved on somewhat
since the Adventurers were first railroaded into
becoming Adelmanns spies and to leave the
remaining prisoners, or even the Warpstone for
the Cult or the Skaven to fulfil their dastardly
plans would be callous and a phenomenally
bad idea (if the Cultist ritual works, a long shot
but the Adventurers dont know that,
Tassenburg will become a gateway through
which the daemons of Slaanesh can be born
into the real world as Possessed Daemonhosts
into the sacrificed bodies of the prisoners).
Such a force could deal the final blow to a
region already nearly crippled by war.
All of this means that they are looking to break
out to meet Adelmann to warn him and collect
weapons and then possibly to break back in
again to steal the Warpstone shards and stage a
mass breakout before people start getting
sacrificed!
As your Players could have a dozen different
ideas about how to go about all this, all Ill do
is present a couple of possible options in case
they need a prompt.
The Sewer System
Quintus has already begun removing the rubble
and shoring up the sewer line that leads from
the Prisoners area but its a long process by
hand, especially when there are only a few
hours each night. If the Players can organise a
rota of prisoners and manage to fool the guards
about the numbers heading out to search the
ruins so that work can continue all day or can
smuggle in tools then the process might just be
finished in time. It would be possible, but not
easy to slip out the rest of the prisoners one at
a time through the tunnel, but its very risky and
a steady flow of rfugees away from the town
could be very easily spotted by the guards
unless their attention was focussed elsewhere
for a very long time.
Over or Through the Palisade
Particularly acrobatic characters may be able to
make it over the palisade and then sneak
through the ruins to meet Adelmann, but its
doubtful the whole party could do it, and its
certainly not possible for a mass escape.
There are however, several blind spots from the
guards regular watch points that could be
exploited over time to create a section of
palisade that is weak enough to remove a post
and slip through. Though again, its not hugely
suitable for a mass breakout.

Adelmann is Waiting
As long as the Adventurers escape at the right
time, Adelmann is waiting for them with their
equipment. He listens incredulously as they explain
what is happening and he agrees to help in any way.
If nothing else, he has two horses (one for riding,
one for the pack containing the Adventurers gear
that can be used to raise the alarm and get the
Warpstone to a safer place as soon as possible)
Mass Breakout
In fact, the only way to get all those prisoners
out will likely be to organise a rush of the
guards, tool shed and armoury all at once, with
the armed Adventurers leading the way and
then storming the gates.
If the Adventurers and/or Aria the Halfling
can pick as many manacles as possible before
hand this frees the prisoners and gives them an
instant weapon.
Of course, their best chance of succeeding is
right when the Skaven attack (or if they choose
to go sooner, so should the Skaven) and the
guards attentions will be turned to more
aggressive foes.
This will also be a great chance for the
Characters to get their revenge for all those
things they have had to suffer at the hands of
the guards and for what they have seen done to
others. No matter how desperate the rush to
escape, let them have their moment with at
least one of the bullies.
Thats not forgetting the need to steal the
Warpstone and get away from two sets of foes
who both want them back.
Wont be easy Best of luck!

Outcomes
So, once its all over where are you? And
whats next?
Depending on how well the Adventurers did,
they may have killed all the bad guys, be
holding a bag of Warpstone, considerably
richer (if they raided the booty stash),
pardoned and heroes to boot!
More likely is that they will be running from
two powerful enemies with a property that is
so rare that people will kill to get their hands
on it. They may also have split up, some
Adventurers protecting the escaped prisoners
and some going on ahead, or in a different
direction with the Warpstone.
What about the rest of the Cult, even if
Berkhopf and the others are dead, the
Brotherhood of the Black Heart still has
members out there. Well, Im afraid you are on
your own with that little lot!

Rewards
GMs should be encouraged to be generous
with their rewards for Black Heart; your
players have taken a lot of abuse and may have
been quite frustrated at times. Show them you
noticed and give big bonuses for their grace
under fire.
Incidentally, Adventurers can now take Bone
Picker or Pit Fighter as legitimate Career Exits
for 100XP.
Other rewards might include the chance to
recruit some of the prisoners from Tassenburg,
they are all deeply indebted to the Adventurers
and there are people from all walks of life from
criminals and bandits to make your own gang,
to soldiers for mercenary companies and
broken minded zealots to accompany wannabe
Witchhunters.
Thats it! Hope you enjoy the Adventure and
have fun playing it.
Ben.

By Lines
Ben Dell Ben works in an office somewhere
quite dull and loves his wife and new baby
daughter very much. He also managed to
work in a number of personal references in
the game including his daughters name and
personality (Aria can escape from anything!)
and two references to his home town
(Hornchurch).
Steve Mann Steven is currently studying for
his BA Illustration at Hereford college of
arts, if you like Steves art in this adventure
why not visit his My Space site for further
info at myspace.com/stevmann