It's Grimvember time! Fear not the "Heralds of Woe"!

Let's end the very first edition of Grimvember with a bang! I've recently ran a fantastic adventures by Hectorius, named "Heralds of Woe".

Right at the start I would like to state, that this particular scenario took me, and my group, almost half a year to finish. Granted we're playing once every two weeks for 3 hours tops, but still - for a single scenario that is quite something, and it wasn't spent on pointless backtracking or some other kind of adventure filler. Far from it, I honestly think that "Heralds of Woe" was one of more interesting and captivating adventures, that I had the pleasure to run.

The scenario's action takes place in Altdorf, altough it can be placed in any of the Empire's bigger cities. We've played it in Nuln (obviously) and it worked like a charm. The heroes are hired by the College of Heralds, an ancient an venerable institution that keeps track of any inheritance claims and cases. It sends out the titular Heralds to ascertain each inheritor's case and then, after collecting all of the evidence, present their common verdict in public. This is a tricky task however, as the majority of society views Heralds in less than positive light, and dosen't really like them. Not only that, many of the claimants are dangerous people, such as crime lords, mercenaries, common thieves and... wizard lords. Yeah, the wizards are the worst, especially those that keep a Fenbeast in their backyard... Fortunately the Heralds' tough and miserable job, can be made a bit easier, thanks to common and unashamed bribery, which is almost a certain thing, during the course of their investigations.

The Fenbeast, however, is not bribable

The College itself is a mysterious institution. The PC's handler, one Crimson Gryphon Rampant (yup, that's his name) hands them out their assignments and offers good pay (and tasty meals in "The Tabbard" Inn, run by friendly Ulric Baumann), but it is pretty clear from his speech, that they are being hired for a short term only. Of course there is a chance for contract renewal, but after the three cases, that they'll need to settle, there is little chance for the heroes to want more! Why is that? Well, apart from all the crap that they'll have to endure from common citizens, the claimants are really, really, shall we say, "unique". There's a common thug, who has a whole bunch of lesser thugs under his command. There's a mercenary knight, with an entire retinue. There are also religious fanatics, and the aforementioned wizard. Wait, make that two wizards! However only one has a status of wizard lord, so it's not that bad, is it? It is inevitable that the PC's will get on some of those peeps bad side, and it's only up to them and their wits to keep their heads in one piece! Antagonising an entire band of sigmarite flagellants? Yeah, not so great a idea, is it?

What I like about the characters in "HoW", is the fact that each of them has an extensive backstory, and really complex motivations for their actions. There are no one-dimensional, boring and predictable people here. They all fell alive, they feel like each of them really has a personal stake in those claims, that the Heralds are investigating. For a short scenario, this is quite a unique thing, and Hectorius really managed to nail his NPC's right. Well done sir. Particualy well written are the two wizards, Schaumer and Schumacher, for whom the author created a unique set of magical items, which can be freely used in any other WFRP game. Now that's what I like to see in a fan-made material - cool, little details like that always work and make the supplement itself much more interesting.

The claims themselves are cool and interesting, altough they're not anything earthshaking... just like they're supoosed to be. When reading this scenario for the first time, I was afraid that some of the cases will involve daemon infested castles, vampire mansions and cultist dens. Instead I've got your typical land claims, with one party interested in grabbing it for either a financial or religious purpose. Particulary interesting was the case of the village of Sigmarshame in Talabecland, rumored to be the place, where Sigmar himself once lived, for a short while. Hectorius knows all too well not to place too much attention on the locations themselves, but on each individual claimant's struggle to grab them for him or herself. There was a very easy way for the author to fall into that trap, but he managed to avoid it and for that I applaud him thoroughly.

Heralds will need to discover each claimant's motivations and legal claims, before making their verdict in public. This means that they'll almost certainly will have to visit the Landes Kommission, with which the College of Heralds has ancient, ongoing rivalry. Inside this institution, the PC's will have to go through many books, ledgers and manuscripts, in order to help their cause and place the final judgement. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - it's mandatory that at least one of the heroes knows how to read and write, otherwise their task will become much, much harder, if not nigh on impossible.

There's only so far that the brute strength will get you, after all

Each case should take no more than a month to complete, but my group finished all three in about three weeks, in game time of course. I didn't really fancied to needlessly prolong each case, but I did not rush any of them either. In fact, I did add a few, shall we say, side quests, but they were connected to the main storyline and gave my players many, new opportunities and angles to advance their cause. In the end, they were successful and managed to finish their task for the College. I was especially proud of them, for not resorting to violence during this scenario. In fact none of them drew their weapons, not even once! I think that's the first WFRP adventure, in which the heroes finished their quest with not a drop of blood on their hands. Oh sure, many people kicked the bucket, before the game has ended, but my players did not killed any of them. Again - kudos to the author for constructing his story in such a way, that it was possible to achieve that, very impressive, feat.

"Heralds of Woe" is a great scenario, perfect for either a one-shot, or as a filler during a long campaign. Hectorius made wonderful job of creating not only an interesting adventure, which makes you want to come back for more, but also to fill it with equally interesting, if not fascinating set of memorable characters. Drachilda Gebauer, the famous "Dragonlady", the decadent Tillman Rohrig, dark and brooding Lupold Baumann and mighty Alaric Schumacher, a mighty Wizard Lord - these are only some of the ensemble cast, presented in "Heralds of Woe", that those who'll play this adventure, will surely never forget, and rightly so, for each of them is unique and fascinating. Even tough that I've run this scenario online, over Roll20, I could hear my players interact with those NPC's with real, genuine interest and curiosity. That's a staple of a well written scenario, no mistake about that.

Give yourselves an early Holiday present, and download this gem of an adventure here, from the Daily Empire blog, which also has many other, cool addons for the classic WFRP. You won't be dissapointed, trust me.

So this concludes this year's Grimvember. I must say that it was really, really fun and I can't wait to return to it, at the beginning of the 2017's november. Until then however, there will be much more stuff for me to show you, and I hope you'll like it. I'll see you all this sunday, with a special surprise.

Yup, you can probably guess what it'll be, can you?

Oh, and whatever you'll do, watch out for Ernst and the Room 212 in the College itself. Trust me, it's for your own good.

Until next time!

Xathrodox86