The wolf within.pdf

The Wolf Within

Written by: Dawn Lewis

Artwork by: Steven Lewis

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∞ Contents ∞

Page 3

Introduction and Synopsis

While on their way to Middenheim the PCs rest over night at a small village called

Waldheim, but a quiet night is broken by the fear fuelled anger of a hunting party.

Page 4

A Warm Welcome

Page 4

A Rude Awakening

Page 5

Late Night Hunting

Page 6

Kill the She-Wolf

Page 6

Who to Heal?

Page 7

Fight or Flight

Page 8

Mix of Tracks

Page 8

Minotaurs Den

Page 9

Friend in Need

Page 10

Not Again

Page 11

Finding the Witch

Page 13

The Witches House

Page 14

Stop the Madness

Page 14

Here to Help

Page 16

One Possible Ending

Page 16

A Tail of Two Endings

Page 16

Trial by Fire

Page 18

In Defence of the Farm

Page 18

Inconsolable

Page 20

Carnage

Page 20

The Battle

Page 21

The Conclusion

Page 22

The Non Player Characters

Here are the profiles for the major human non-player characters with in the

adventure, feel free to photocopy the details and cut them out for ease of reference.

Page 23

Children of Ulric

Here are the profiles for the family of the Children of Ulric; again they have been

arranged so they can be cut out for ease of reference throughout the adventure.

Page 24

The Hunting Party

Here are the profiles for the other members of the parties hunting posy.

Page 25

Map of the Farm

To aid any fighting in the final scenes of the adventure, here is a map of the farm of

the Children of Ulric.

Page 26

Thanks, acknowledgements and dedications.

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And Finally

Introduction

or they can return to their room and go back to sleep

leaving the villagers to deal with the situation themselves.

If the PCs are not feeling very heroic and choose to go

back to sleep they will be rudely awoken within the hour

by the young girl begging for help to rescue her brethren.

If the heroic PCs decide to help the villagers in their quest

to rid the area of the nuisance wolf pack they will be put

with a small number of villagers and sent out into the

forest to search for and follow any wolf tracks.

This adventure is designed for characters in their first or

second career, and has been written in a descriptive style

that would allow a first time GM to get a feel of the

Warhammer world without having to do too much

additional work themselves. Having said that, an

experienced GM should be able to alter the adventure

without too much effort so that it presents more of a

challenge to advanced characters.

The adventure is set in the aftermath of the Storm of

Chaos and can be played during any journey to or from

Middenheim; the village involved is an inconspicuous one

and so can be placed at a suitable point along the journey.

Again, with a little work, the timing and setting can be

altered to suit a GMs needs.

While the PCs are on the trail of the wolves, they are

stopped dead in their tracks by a Minotaur charging out of

the forest. Before the PCs are able to decide whether to

run or fight a pack of wolves leap from the shadows and

attack the Minotaur drawing it away from the group.

Again the PCs are offered a choice; ignore the encounter

and continuing following the trail they were on, or follow

the fight deeper into the forest. Following the fight can

reveal a number of things, firstly that the wolves are

actually werewolves and in fact the legendary Children of

Ulric; secondly it is the Minotaur who has been taking the

villagers livestock and depleting the wildlife in the forest,

not the wolves.

The plot revolves around the youngest daughter of a

farming family who live outside the village. The family

are Children of Ulric, but the youngest girl showed none

of the werewolf signs that her brother and sister had as

babies, so her parents decided to leave her where the

villagers would find her in the hope that she could be

raised as a normal child. As anticipated, the baby girl was

discovered by the village woodsman and taken to the

village where a farming family adopted her and raised her

as one of their own; calling her Ulrica as she was found

with a pendant of Ulric round her neck. Unfortunately, 11

years on, her werewolf abilities start to manifest.

Dilemma! Do the PCs believe the story about “good

werewolves” or butcher all and burn their home to the

ground? Or do they aid the family in their hour of need?

Maybe upon discovering the truth they kill the Minotaur

but then will they be too late to stop the villagers from

making a dreadful mistake by killing the Children of

Ulric?

Synopsis

The adventure starts with the PCs arriving at the village of

Waldheim close to dusk on a night when Mannsleib is full.

They are able to find lodgings at the Felinfach Inn, which

is the only establishment in the village still open at such a

time of night. The Inn is busy and the PCs are able to

discover that the villagers believe there is a pack of wolves

in the area that keep taking their livestock. At this point it

is worth noting, however, that Waldheim is quite a

superstitious little village and the villagers’ attitudes

towards the PCs will reflect this. Although the Innkeeper,

Jorn, is welcoming and chatty to all, other villagers will

view any PCs who openly uses magic or who is dressed

oddly with suspicion. On the other hand, they will warmly

welcome any warriors or nobles, treating them with a good

deal of honour and respect after the events of the previous

months with the chaos incursion.

A Note from the Author

I have tried to cover a number of possible outcomes

depending on how the PCs react to the knowledge that

Ulrica and her blood family are werewolves. However, if

your players decide on a course of action that I have not

foreseen and not written for, there should be enough

material for you to slightly adjust one of the endings given

to suit the actions of the PCs. I hope you have fun playing

this adventure and welcome any feedback anyone wishes

to give me; I can be contacted on mogwy@talktalk.net .

During the night the PCs are woken by half the village

gathering in the street outside the Inn. The young adopted

girl has gone missing and some of the villagers have found

wolf prints within the village boundaries so believe that

the wolves have taken her.

The PCs have a choice; they can either join the rescue

mission to find the girl and kill the terrorising wolf pack,

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A Warm Welcome

neck, which can be identified as a symbol of Ulric with a

successful Intelligence Test , the difficulty of this test can

be modified by the GM depending on the PCs skills.

The PCs arrive in the village of Waldheim just before dusk

and are able to find lodgings at the Felinfach Inn, the only

place in the village still open so close to dark. The

Felinfach is run by a burley, red-faced man who looks to

be in his late forties. He will warmly welcome the PCs,

introducing himself as Jorn Reinchert, the Innkeeper. The

PCs will be shown to their room so they can store their

equipment away and Jorn will encourage them to join the

locals in the bar for some food and friendly conversation.

As the evening draws on the Inn will start to empty and

finally Jorn will lock up for the night sending the PCs to

their rented room if they have not already retired.

A Rude Awakening

The bar of the Felinfach is busy this evening, with many

locals enjoying the warmth of the fire and a good chat.

The PCs can make Easy +20 Gossip Tests to find out

what they are talking about. For each successful Gossip

Test roll once on the following table to see what rumour is

picked up, the truth of each rumour is given in parenthesis;

Just after midnight the PCs are disturbed by a raucous

outside the Inn, if they decide not to investigate they can

ignore the noise and go back to sleep (go to ‘ Not Again!’ )

If the PCs investigate the disturbance and step outside the

Inn they will nearly walk into the back of Jorn who is

engaged in a heated conversation with a balding middle

aged man. A quick look around shows that half the village

are gathered in the street listening to the exchange.

Roll

Rumour

Jorn :

“Don’t be absurd Casimir, tell everyone to go

back to their beds, Ulrica has probably found a

small dark hole to hide from her nightmares

again”.

1 Livestock has been going missing since the Chaos

Incursion. (True)

2 A pack of wolves has been terrorising the village

taking livestock at will. (False)

3 A pack of wolves has been seen prowling around

the forest in these parts. (True)

4 Meinholf Schaffer, the woodsman, believes

there’s something evil in the woods surrounding

the village. (True)

5 The youngest Mengle girl, Ulrica, has been

suffering dreadful nightmares for over a year now.

(True)

6 Father Reiner believes the young Mengle girl is

cursed and will bring misfortune to the village.

(False)

7 It is 12 years to the night since Meinholf brought

Ulrica back from the forest. (True)

8 The same thing happened to the village Kuseler,

first the livestock started disappearing; and then

one day everyone in the village vanished. (False)

9 Jorn Reinchert fought shoulder to shoulder with

the Graf at the Siege of Middenheim. (False)

10 There’s a strange, reclusive family that farm the

land about 3 miles out of the village, but they

never seem to have problems with livestock being

taken. (True)

Casimir : “I tell you there are wolf prints inside the

village. The beasts have taken her!”

Jorn :

“They’re probably just the prints of Meinolf’s

dog. After all, how are wolves going to have

got Ulrica out the village?”

Casimir : “They’re wolf prints Jorn! Now I ask you

again, will you help track the beasts and rid the

village of them once and for all?”

Jorn :

“No!”

Jorn turns to the gathered crowd and speaks with a loud

clear voice;

“And I suggest the rest of you go back home

and forget this silly idea of a hunt.”

Casimir : “My daughter is missing and I’m going to get

her back with or without your help!

Who’s with me?”

A cheer of ‘ Aye ’ ripples across the crowd.

Jorn :

“Wait ‘til morning; if Ulrica isn’t back by then

I’ll help you look for her, we’ll have a better

chance of following a trail in the light of day”.

Allow the PCs to interact comfortably with the villagers;

they can even partake in a game of chance with Jorn if

they wish. Introduce the PCs to Ulrica as she serves them

any food or ale ordered. She is a well-built young girl but

her developing figure shows a beauty in the making. She

has quite a plain face with long dark hair, but when she

smiles her dark eyes sparkle. A Routine +10 Perception

Test will reveal a silver wolf’s head pendant around her

Casimir : “Go back to bed Jorn! We’ll find Ulrica and

destroy the beasts without you help!”

Casimir turns to the crowd and shouts “Lets go!”

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Jorn shakes his head, turns and walks back into the Inn

past the PCs.

Perception Test will allow any PC with the Follow Trail

Skill to identify the path that the wolf took into the forest,

once inside the trees regular successful Challenging -10

Perception Tests are required to remain on the trail

because only a small amount of the moons light manages

to filter down to the forest floor, the torches therefore

provide the main light with which to follow the creatures

trail.

If the PCs decide to join the villagers on the hunt proceed

to ‘Late Night Hunting’ .

Should the PCs decide to leave the villagers to their hunt

and head back into the Inn, they will get no explanation of

the events outside for Jorn, who will head straight to his

private quarters. Any PC who looks back outside will see

the last of the crowd heading towards the village gates.

The PC’s can return to their room at this point and go back

to sleep if this happens then go to ‘ Not Again!’

Hugo Hofsetter is a lot more unsettled in the forest than

the rest of the villagers; use his fear and overly heightened

senses to unsettle the group with sudden comments like;

“What was that?” and “Did you hear that?”

Late Night Hunting

As the group moves deeper into the forest you can use

some or all of the following encounters to further unsettle

the would-be hunters.

The PCs find everyone gathered at the village gates with

Ulrica’s father coordinating the hunt.

Forest Encounters

Casimir :

“We will split into small groups and pick up

the wolves trail outside the village. Each

group needs an archer with them, then, if

you find the wolves den and don’t think you

can take them out alone, send up a lit arrow

as a signal and we’ll all make our way to

you. Not only will we be able to save my

daughter, we’ll also destroy the beasts who

keep taking our livestock. If everyone is

ready, let’s light the torches and get on with

the hunt!”

1 The leaves of the undergrowth around the group

rustle as if they are being tracked themselves.

2 A wolf howls in the distance and as it does a cold

wind blows through the trees parting the leaves

briefly to allow Mannsleib’s light to briefly

illuminate their path.

3 As the leading character (this can be one of the

PCs or a NPC depending on how the group has

formed along the trail) glances up ahead to see a

pair of eyes reflecting in the torch-light, it is only a

deer, but allow the PCs to believe it may be

something worse before it darts off into the

undergrowth, spooked by their presence.

4 An owl, disturbed by the PCs walking past,

swoops from the branch of a tree, squawking as it

fly’s over top of the party so low that they can feel

the air movement from the beat of its wings.

For a simple farmer, Casimir has a lot of respect from the

villagers and apart from a couple of questions of

clarification everyone quickly splits into small groups,

each with at least one archer and a number of torches.

Steadily the groups leave the village and make their way

towards the edge of the forest, heads down looking for

tracks to follow.

The PCs have ended up in a group with four other men,

two archers who have introduced themselves as brothers

Hagar and Hugo Hofstetter, who look to be in their late

twenties. And two older men, who look to be mid to late

forties, Erhl Naubhof, who is carrying a poor quality

sword and Deitlef Reiss who has a large, old, woodsman’s

axe slung over his shoulder.

Deitlef Reiss can be used to enhance the tension of the

group. Being the oldest of the villagers and an ex-

woodsman, he will talk of all the local folk tales of the

forest, of men walking like beasts and beasts like men. Of

ungodly screams echoing out over the tree tops and of

dark rituals performed by witches when the moon was full.

A successful Average Fellowship Test will allow any one

of the PCs to take charge of their small hunting party

(adjust to Routine +10 if the character has the Command

skill). However, if none the PCs are so inclined, Deitlef

Reiss will assume the roll of group leader.

Deitlef: Some folks say there’s still an old hag living

in the depths of this forest preying on anyone who

strays from the road. They say the witch makes

gruesome trophies of her victims, drinking from their

skulls and turning their flayed skin into her bedding.

Mannsleib is full so a Routine +10 Perception Test will

allow the group to pick up a wolf trail close to the edge of

the forest. There are many tracks around the village and

the other hunting parties have all disappeared into the

forest heading in different directions. An Average

Suddenly, through the restless noise of the night time

forest, a heavy clatter of hooves can be heard coming

through the undergrowth towards the party. In the fringe

of the torchlight something quickly crosses the path then a

massive creature bursts through the trees onto the track

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