citizenX.pdf

CITIZEN X

WFRP adventure by

Johan Pool

GM’s information.

This is an adventure for a starting party. It is not necessary for the characters to be in their next career.

Within the empire between major cities and towns there is a maze of tracks. These tracks are only

usable within the summer. In autumn and winter the most of these tracks are far to muddy to use them and

travelling (and commerce) comes to a nearby halt. The major part of mountain passes is blocked by snow. These

can mountain passes can only be used during spring and summer time again. To make travelling easier and safer

the emperor decided that these tracks should be upgraded to proper roads. Or at least, something that looks like

it.

In most cases this means that the track is widened so that coaches can pass each other, bridges are built

when a river or stream is too wild or too broad to be crossed easily and slopes are made less steep. Within a

twenty-mile radius of a larger city then the road itself will be hardened with stones, so that travelling at the end

of the year is still possible.

The emperor does all this just to make travelling a little more easily for the coaches. Besides that, the

commerce can still continue in winter, which means more taxes (thus income!) for the empire. Another main

reason, though never said aloud, is that the armies of the empire can travel more quickly through the empire to

fight once more the hordes of chaos.

To make the roads more secure, there are extra houses with stables built along the road. These houses

have just one purpose; provide shelter for the extra roadwardens.

The track that now is being upgraded starts at Nuln and goes through Grissenwald, connecting with the

main route between Grunberg and Parravon (Axe bite pass). At the moment the builders are at a location just

north of Nuln. In this area a lot of work has to be done. There is one small finger from the Grey mountains to be

crossed, along with the small rivers that are there and to make things more difficult, this road is within the 20-

mile zone and has to be hardened with rocks.

In one of these hills from the Grey mountains is a secret cave. This cave is used by a cult that worships

the horned rat. The cult is called “the fourteenth member”. More information on the fourteenth member can be

found below.

The cult is afraid that with the works of the road that their shrine will be discovered. They will do

anything to keep it well hidden. At first the cult started a lobby to change the plans for the route of the road. One

of the cult member had a job in the town hall at a reasonable high position. He started to bribe or blackmail his

colleagues to achieve his goal, but as soon as the emperor found out that there was something in Nuln that was

interfering with his plans he send in a couple of investigators. A couple of days after that a few witch-hunters

rode in to Nuln to take care of the problem. To end the story: The cult lost a member. Lucky for the cult, he died

before he could tell the witch-hunters where his friends were. But little did the witch-hunters or the emperor

knew; they only had found a marionet, a puppet on a string. There is a cultmember left with a lot more power.

And the cultmember doesn’t realise this. The “leader” of the cult is in real life a normal man, hard working and

respected in the comunity he lives in. Little does he and the rest know that his alter ego is a sadistic maniac that

couldn’t care less for another man’s life!

The cult of “The fourteenth member”

As is known in the Old World, the council of thirteen, the lords of decay, rules the Skaven society.

The members of the cult wish that humankind itself can live together with the Skaven and then rule the

empire. To do so they must enter the council as a member. They have figured out for themselves that none of the

present lords will step down from its place and thus making room for a new member. To solve this problem, the

cult decided that the council of thirteen should be fourteen in the future.

As is not widely known in the empire, the Skaven have built many tunnels through the empire, even

made a few liars within a couple of miles of cities and towns. One of their liars is near Nuln.

The Skaven now use the cult to stay hidden for the humans that live in Nuln and it’s surrounding

villages. The cultmembers go out to steal items and kidnap people, all for the skavens. Only the real important

things will be taken care of by the Skaven itself (like the assassination of a high ranked cultmember, who thinks

he can tell orders to a Grey seer).

In reality, the Skaven use the cult as they see fit. No way that the council of thirteen can change into

fourteen. Only the horned rat himself can make such a change in Skaven society. It was because of the horned rat

self that there is a council of thirteen right now!

The Skaven need slaves in their liar. The cult will provide for these. If the Skaven need an item for an

experiment or a source of information then the cult will provide this too. The Skaven can get anything they need,

without needing to leave their liar. There is no way that humankind can suspect that there is a skavenliar near

Nuln, because they never have seen one Skaven! And if they do they won’t live long enough to tell it to

another….

In return for the services that the cult does for the skavens, the Skaven give meals with warpstone dust

to the cult. And after a “holy” meal they all come into contact with the horned rat (well, that is what the

cultmembers think).

But most of the time the Skaven make sure that the cults’ secret shrine inside the Grey mountains is not

discovered.

Because of the usage of the warpstone dust some cultmembers have develop some hideous mutations. If

a cultmember can no longer hide his or her mutation, most of the time the cult will put up an act of a murder or

kidnapping. In reality the member disappears underground, acting as a guard in the shrine, if it can still fight, or

in most of the cases as a slave for the skaven!

The cult of the fourteenth member has roughly 50 members. The cult is led by a man who shall be the

fourteenth member (see bottom of text). With meetings of the cult the cultmember call him their lord of decay.

Then there are fourteen fanatical members who do the stealing and the kidnapping. In their normal live they

have a low profile. Nobody will miss them if things get wrong or when they get caught.

The rest of the cult is more supportive then that they will do any real action. Some members will

provide food, weapons or some equipment for the skavens; others will try to find a book in the library for the

cult. Some of these people have important jobs in society. If they get caught and there is found out that the

person is a cultmember, things get really painful!

The cultmembers theirselves will tell nobody about their cult if they are caught, if they can help it. At

that moment they are only thieves, robbers or kidnappers. The cultmembers have all swearn an oath of absolute

secrecy. A cultmember will bite his own tongue off before he will start to talk about his cult! The cult has no

distinguished characteristic, like a tattoo, so no one will recognize a cult member just by looking at him or her.

The only thing cultmembers can recognize each other with is a secret sign. With the left hand they make the

“rats’head”. Thumb (wand), indicator and pink (the horns) are stretched out, while the middle- and ringfinger

(teeth) are curled up a bit into the palm.

In some occasions the cult uses passwords hidden in sentences, but it is not right to call this a proper

secret cult language. The phrases “excuse me sir, do you have room for the night for teen of my friends?” or “It

is my brothers’ fourteenth birthday today” isn’t enough for such a thing.

Then there is the leader of the cult. His name is Maximus ‘rabbit-teeth” Kopferslager. In normal life he

is a coppersmith / copperworker. Max is a well respected merchant in Grissenwald.

During his birth something went wrong....Though he doesn’t know it, he was born as a twin, but

unfortunatly his brother Karl and his mother died during birth. His brother was touched by Chaos and was

destend to become a demon prince. But even Chaos can have things wrong and so the baby died, just a couple of

minutes old.

But Chaos is powerful, and one of the gods decided that things still could be altered and that Karl could

still become a demon prince, be it in a little more time then that was first expected. The spririt of his brother took

possesion of Max’s body and stayed dorment untill Max came into contact with Chaos for the first time. It was

during his first “holy meal” with the skavens. Max his brother awakend and took over his body. Now everytime

Max comes into contact with warpstone he turns into Karl.

Every time Max eats food with warpstone Karl becomes stronger and meaner, downside for Karl is that

he became hooked on warpstone; he needs more and more, consuming large quantities to still his hunger and to

let his chaos powers grow. The skavens noticed this and with a little help from the skavens Karl became leader

of the cult. Now the cult has a very strong and mean leader and the skavens have a leader who is their pawn.

In Nuln the people nicknamed Max rabbit-teeth since he has two large teeth in his upper jaw. These

teeth came suddenly a couple of years ago. But since he was still growing when this happened nobody took real

notice of it. In reality this is his first mutation.

Max is called “rat-teeth” by the people who dislike him. And if they only knew how right they were.....

Building a road.

Along the track that is being upgraded there is a large camp where the people that work on the road

sleep and eat. The camp itself is divided in an open and in a closed area. In the open area the normal workers

live, in the closed area the prisoners that work on the road.

Every day a bunch of traders will visit the camp to do some trading. People can buy everything that is

available in Nuln, except that everything in the consumer guide (chapter 7 WFRP) is two steps down in

availability. So common will be scarce and so on. If a trader has got not the requested item, the item can be

ordered. Next time the trader will visit the camp he will have the item. The price will be up then with 5%, with a

minimum of two goldcrowns.

In the camp there is a small hospital. Lightly wounded persons are treated there. For the severe wounded there is

a cart with a horse standing by to transport the injured to Nuln.

Main tasks of a roadworker.

A normal day of a roadworker will look like this: Get up at six, report yourself and the team you are in

at seven at the workplace. After that it’s hard labor until twelve. Then they’ll have a half an hour to eat their

lunch. Then it’s back to work until six o’clock.

Then it is time to go back to the camp where a bunch of halflings has cooked diner. Most of the time it

is soup with bread. Two times a week it will be something with meat. Then it’s mostly a stew. That’s easier to

make in large quantities. When the halflings give away the dinner they will also give the breakfast and lunch for

the next day. So if you turn up late for dinner, there is a chance that there is no bread left for the next morning!

The workers are sleeping in large tents, which can hold up to 8 persons. The workers sleep with 10 men in them

(1 team) Every person has his own bed (with straw) and a chest for personal belongings.

Every Bezahltag it’s payday. If a PC has worked a full week he will receive in total 1¾ GC. In reality a

PC will earn a ½GC a day but there is some money been hold in for the food and drinking and the rental on the

tents.

Main tasks of a scout.

A normal day of a scout looks like this: get up at six, report at seven, at seven o’clock the tasks of that

day will be distributed among the scouts in that shift. The scouts work in their own teams, called patrols.

The food is a bit better; hot meals are served between 5 o’clock and 8 o’clock in the evening. The scouts can

have a cold meal whenever they want.

The scouts sleep in tents that can fit 6 persons. In these tents are proper beds and every scout has a

locker with lock for personal belonging. There even is a special tent with tubs, for a bit of washing or to clean

the clothing.

The horses and saddles of the scouts are being looked after by stableboys. Because of this there could be

a chance that the saddle belt is loose the next morning and the scout will fall of his horse together with saddle.

If the patrol have worked during the night then they have to report back for their next task at midday.

The scouts will earn ½GC a day. But there will be no cut back for food and drinking. So at the end of

the week they will receive 3½GC. If they still live at the end of the month the scout will receive an extra 5GC,

just to keep him/her happy and loyal.

But life is harder for a scout in it’s own way, there are no ways to take extra food with them if they are assigned

for a job that takes them a few days away from the camp. The scouts must then hunt, fish or find food and water.

Epilogue.

The PC’s will be working on the road. Each of them with their own reason. Maybe one of them works

there since Grissenwald, the other may have joined in Nuln. Maybe one of them is there as a prisoner, though

maybe falsely accused!

The PC’s have during working hours no weapons or armour! These items would only hinder during

work. At the most they have some leather clothing and/or a dagger for slicing bread. If they have to fight then

they can use their tools for this, picks and shovels, (with the normal –20 to Ws). The prisoners can use their fists

or use the chains they wear for blocking and strangling. (also Ws –20).

If the PC is a member of a chain-gang, then it is impossible for him/her to carry any weapon. Not even a

dagger, for obvious reasons…

In the first few days it’s normal working for everybody. Sometimes one has to make an I check to avoid

falling debris. If they get hit they will receive S2 damage.

At six it’s back to camp. The prisoners will be separated from the normal workers. The prisoner’s camp will be

surrounded by a dirt wall with palisades on it. There can be no contact between a normal worker and a prisoner.

Then again, who wants to be seen talking with a prisoner?

The party is been made.

After two hours of

working, on the fifth day,

suddenly 8 goblins appear out of

the bushes that are standing next

to the road. Three of them will

shoot the guardsman of the

prisoner. The five other goblins

will charge towards the workers.

The archers will throw down

their bows and start charging

too.

At the moment of the

attack the group with normal

workers is divided into two

groups (each five). The PC’s

will be divided over these two

groups. The Goblins will attack

the group on the left-hand side

of the road; this one is closer to

the bushes. It’s up to the GM

which group stands there.

The prisoners are just

pushing a cart with waterbarrels

up the road, some twenty meters

away from the attack. As soon

as their guard is killed three

prisoners will flee into the woods. When the cart is only being held by four or less prisoners the cart will start to

roll back again. The prisoners that are still holding the cart have a 50% chance that he is hit (run over!) by the

cart for S4 damage.

After four to five rounds of fighting a patrol of scouts will arrive on horse. Armed with spears they will

charge the goblins and drive them of back into the woods.

After an hour after the fight, every one is back at work again, a leader will turn up. He will give the

prisoners a pardon. The prisoners are free civilians again. He explains that with helping defending the works he

is proofed of their innocence. Besides that, the punishment the prisoners took was nearly ended.

He then asks the group if they want to work as scouts. There have been a little too many raids the last

couple of days. He promises a better payment and offers the use of horses and better equipment. The remaining

workers and former prisoners will refuse to take the job. But the PC’s will take it. Of course, finally a chance for

a bit of adventuring! And get a better payment too….

As a scout they get the next things to use while they are on duty:

Horse and saddle

M Ws Bs S

W I

Dex Ld Int Cl WP Fel

33 -

30 0/1 -

10 10 10 10 -

Sleeved mailcoat (1AP on all locations)

Helmet (1AP on head)

Shield (1 AP)

Bow (S24, L48, E250, ES3), quiver with 15 arrows (can be refilled in camp)

Sword

Spear (I +10, To Hit +10, D +3, Py -)

Special rules on spears: These stats apply only when charging at full speed . If the PC’s does not

charge, or is in the second round of combat, then he can use the but end of the spear with the same effects of a

hand weapon.

Charging while on horse back with a hand weapon does not only gives the normal +10 to to hit , but also a S+2

bonus because of the speed.

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