Enemy Within: What if the Lieberung inheritance is real?

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Tribe of One
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:08 pm

Thought I'd throw this one out to solicit ideas.

I'm running The Enemy Within for the first time, using WFRP 2E. The group rolled characters entirely randomly, and ended up with a distinctly martial and mercenary bent: a Marine, a Pit Fighter, two Hunters and a fire-eating Entertainer. For laughs, I went with the (inordinately intelligent) Pit Fighter as the Lieberung doppelganger.

Curiosity and the mysteries of hidden chaos cults have proven to be rather useless as motivating factors (even after I gave the Entertainer the Read/Write skill for free just to avoid wasting all the written handouts), as the group has largely chased a paycheck along the path of least resistance. Which is great, just requires some tweaks.

The biggest change I've made is to have the Lieberung inheritance be a real thing, rather than (only) a ploy by the bounty hunter. When they arrived in Bogenhafen and visited the offices of Locke, Stock and Barl (halfling barristers) they learned that "Kastor" was the heir to an abandoned townhouse in Bogenhafen (more than 100 GC past due on property taxes, of course) as well as unspecified properties in Ubersreik, which were in a sort of legal limbo due to the recent removal of the Graf and ensuing reordering of the local nobility.

The house in Bogenhafen turned out to be great fun (I used a modified version of the free Death House scenario for the recent reissue of Castle Ravenloft for D&D, mashed up with WFRP's The Haunting Horror). Sadly, the group had to leave it behind as they hastily left town in one of Johannes Teugen's riverboats (the few surviving members of the town council deciding it was better for the party to be long gone before the witch-hunters arrived to question anyone about the very-public disruption of Teugen's ritual and slaughter of most of the Ordo.)

The group is currently en route to Altdorf and eventually to Nuln to follow up on both Teugen's correspondence and a letter they took off the bounty hunter who tried to kill them. However, they've mentioned a detour to Ubersreik first to check on the rest of the inheritance.

This opens up some interesting possibilities with the 3E and 4E adventures set there -- I'd like to run the 3E scenario Eye for an Eye if they try to court favor with Rickard Aschaffenberg to help them untangle the Lieberung inheritance, for example.

I'm still mulling what exactly the inheritance could be. I'd like to avoid land/property again, as that could incentivize a much longer stay. So, stuff, but not just money or investments. I've been asking myself, what would the Purple Hand be interested in? As I move into Death on the Reik, I want to keep up the cult's harassment of the Lieberung twin, so it needs to be something important enough that they're willing to keep up the pressure (and put up with some casualties). Any important artifacts or macguffins from later in the campaign that might work well? A lost Runefang? :lol: A small but vicious (and aged) dog?
Knight of the Lady
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:04 am

I'd favor an heirloom of some sort.

For something magical its pretty up straight.

For a twist it could be heavily symbolized with religious iconography which the Purple Hand can use to create more tensions in the Empire. Or even a gift from the Dwarfs which could come into play later on.
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Totsuzenheni Yukimi
Posts: 344
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:38 pm

Some sort of guild (or other type of organisation) membership perhaps? It could come with benefits and obligations, which could be dependent on the member being in the organisation's jurisdiction. It could also be useful for the PCs and the GM later in the campaign. Perhaps there are members of a (certain) cult within the guild (which might be how the Purple Hand knew about the inheritance). Perhaps some members of the organisation are unhappy with this new member, whereas other members are only too pleased. Perhaps membership of this organistion gives the member the right to practice a certain trade and to apprentice with another member (for a time, for a fee), which could be a good way of providing a career exit straight away or later in the campaign. I would consider giving the PCs the choice as to whether or not they accept this membership, with possible and different consequences depending on whether they do or don't.
Tribe of One
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:08 pm

Knight of the Lady wrote: Wed Sep 23, 2020 3:45 am I'd favor an heirloom of some sort.

For something magical its pretty up straight.

For a twist it could be heavily symbolized with religious iconography which the Purple Hand can use to create more tensions in the Empire. Or even a gift from the Dwarfs which could come into play later on.
Ooo, I like this. Some sort of religious relic tied to the Sigmarian heresy that could stoke tensions between the cults. I'll have to give that some thought and maybe read ahead a bit -- haven't looked at Power Behind the Throne in any detail yet.
leonpoi
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:05 am

How did this go in the end? The real inheritance is something I am working through also and I love these ideas
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