It is monstrously shocking to say that I have never run a Warhammer campaign.
You see, I love Warhammer.
When I was ten I came across the first Dawn of War game on the now defunct gametap. I was instantly hooked on its outlandish and grimdark setting. “Orks with guns? Dark Space Gods? A whole army of 10 foot tall Knights Templar with goddamn chainsaw swords? Sign me up!” It wasn’t long before I was playing any video game I could get my hands on, buying books, reading wikis and even discovering the timeless fantasy flight roleplaying games. I also very quickly learned of Warhammer Fantasy through the Trollslayer series, and fell in love.
Even so, I never did run or play any of those roleplaying games, my fellow middle schoolers weren’t quite interested (yet). Even once I actually stepped into the hobby around fifteen they always remained on the sidelines. I’ve played in couple abortive Warhammer games, and while immensely funny and enjoyable, the longest was a five session Only War game that started to go so badly that our GM pretended his Mother told him he couldn’t play RPGs anymore to get out of it!
So, finding myself with nothing to run, I decided to finally take the leap and run a Warhammer Fantasy campaign.
Welcome to the Jewel of the Wasteland! Marienburg, the Sinking City!
Marienburg is the greatest city of the Old World, a trading port at the mouth of the River Reik and home to some 200,000 people. Home to merchants, cuthroats, immigrants and adventurers from places as near as the Empire and as far flung as Cathay and Ind. You can buy anything in its markets, and you can find a buyer for any good, no matter how illicit. It is this tumultuous republic that our heroes have found themselves in, and it is in this Jewel that they will find their destinies. The reach of The Great Enemy is long, and only through blood and sweat that it can be held back.
The ascension of the new Emperor, Karl Franz, only 19 years old, is causing tremors throughout the Empire. A Secessionist rebellion has broken out in the southern part of the Reikland. And the other Electors watch with interest as the young Emperor prepares his first campaign. Meanwhile, the new Imperial government has dispatched a new Diplomatic Mission to replace the previous Emperor’s Mission to Marienburg. The swampy land on which Marienburg is situated, The Wasteland, used to be an Imperial Province, but has slipped out of the imperial grip and into independence, making it a hotbed of intrigue. Two of our heroes are members of this unfortunate Mission, and what was supposed to be the start of two enterprising careers is about to instead be the beginning of a descent into the dark world of conspiracy and heresy.
Our Brave Heroes:
(All Resemblance to those living, dead, fictional, historical and multi-dimensional is purely coincidental)
Claudemer le Brionnac
An obviously noble knight from Bretonnia. Claudemer woke up in The Wasteland with pox scars and little memory of his previous adventures. Nevertheless, he knows that he must travel to The Sinking City and retrive the bones of a fallen Bretonnian hero from the clutches of the great leprous and disease-ridden “Dragon”.
He carries his arms and precious poetry book with him, and is accompanied by his squire Tancred, who annoys him greatly. And Merovich Le Chapeau, a fellow Bretonnian knight, who is a trusted advisor.
Nobody else in the party even knows Tancred or Merovich are there.
Felix Trygveson
Felix is the son of a logger and a midwife from the logging town of Beeckerhoven. Joined the Imperial River Wardens to so he could travel and get a good wage doing it. He is a big man, dependable, loyal, skilled and principled. Real sergeant material. The circumstances that led him to desert the River Wardens and run off to Marienburg are rather exceptional, and Felix is unusually jumpy for man of his strength and bravery.
Felix keeps not one, but two, knive hidden in his boots, thinks that Manaan is better than Sigmar, and worries for his fiancee back in Altdorf who he hasn’t heard from since his desertion.
Nicodemus von Grimminhagen
Nicodemus was hired onto the Diplomatic Mission at the last minute. The younger son of a minor Middenland noble family, he prefers not to talk about home or how he came to be in the employ of the Civil Service despite is utter lack of qualifications, experience, or even literacy!
A polite, fashionable and handsome fellow, never without his rapier and a joke to crack. He sees his new life in Marienburg as a chance to start fresh, and he remains the most optimistic member of the group.
His old nanny, Clarice, followed him to Marienburg. A fact for which he simultaneously extremely grateful and immensely embarrassed.
Odwin Hagen
Odwin is a young graduate of the Imperial College, earning his Baccalaureate in Literature and a Certificate of Civil Service. A sullen but charming fellow, he thought that this Mission to Marienburg would be the first step in a long and prestigious career, but greater forces than his own ambition have conspired to embroil him in matters far blacker than the cutthroat politics of Marienburg.
Odwin is a member of the Hagen family of Bogenhafen, and the family is hoping that his placement in Marienburg will help create stronger ties with the senior branch of the family, the Haagens of Marienburg. Little do they know that Odwin is a radical Imperial Patriot! And wants nothing more than for Marienburg to re-enter the Imperial fold.
With introductions out of the way, The first campaign diary will be posted soon! And you will see how these unlikely protagonists came together and made their way to Marienburg, the Jewel of the Wastland!
Expect campaign diaries to be released weekly! With some catch-up to get you fine readers up to speed!
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