Warning. Spoilers for the Enemy Within campaign.
I have written a lot about The Enemy Within in this blog. For the first-edition campaign this information was largely consolidated in my unofficial companion to The Enemy Within. However, fourth-edition GMs face a greater challenge piecing together the various posts and documents. So, to provide a more accessible and convenient guide for them, I have listed some tips and links below.
GENERAL
1. The Enemy Within is a very long campaign. I discuss its duration in detail in this post, but all five parts may take very roughly 200 hours to play. It requires a substantial commitment of time. Many groups never reach its conclusion.
2. Often GMs are tempted to add introductory adventures, interludes and tangents to the campaign, but this is in my opinion mostly inadvisable. The campaign already has a suitable introduction and is long and complex. Adding too many embellishments slows and extends the campaign to its detriment. It can also create a mismatch between the experience levels of adventurers and the challenge of the scenarios. There is already enough in the published adventures to keep a party very busy for a very long time.
3. It is advisable to read ahead. The GM can then anticipate some problems in connecting the different adventures and plots. (See this post for some suggestions in this regard.) Unfortunately, the campaign lacks a synopsis. I hope to write one at some point, but in the interim the ‘Plot’ sections of my reviews serve a similar purpose. Links to the reviews are included in the following sections.
4. It is important for at least one character to have the Read/Write talent. There are many important written documents in the campaign, and an inability to read them can be problematic.
5. Much of my companion for the first-edition campaign is still relevant to the new version. The sections below discuss specifically where it might be useful.
ENEMY IN SHADOWS
6. I have produced a GM’s guide to this adventure, which can be downloaded from this post. As far as the fourth edition is concerned, this replaces the content in my unofficial companion. Many GMs find the flowchart on p6 especially useful.
7. Although it is nowhere stated in the adventure, events should start on 24 Jahrdrung 2512, if dates in the handouts and elsewhere in the campaign are to be correct.
8. The encounters with Magirius (pp94-96 & 100) are critical to the adventure.
9. A map and description of Johannes Teugen’s house can be found here.
10. An important issue for Enemy in Shadows is preparing for the transition to Death on the Reik. The main clue is intended to be Handout 10 in Enemy in Shadows (pp100-101, also mentioned on p9 of Death on the Reik). This can be reinforced by Heironymous Blitzen (p140 in Death on the Reik). Unfortunately it is easy to miss the connection.
11. See my review for further tips and ideas on running the adventure.
DEATH ON THE REIK
12. I have not yet produced a set of fourth-edition GM’s aids for Death on the Reik. However, the fourth-edition adventure differs very little from the first-edition one, and so the content in my original companion is usable with very little modification.
13. As noted above (point 10), GMs should pay attention to the players’ motivation for pursuing Etelka Herzen.
14. The regional map lacks a scale. I suggest GMs apply a scale where approximately 7mm or a quarter of an inch on the map equals 10 miles, or use the distances and times presented in my companion to the original Enemy Within.
15. The scale on the map of the caverns beneath Castle Wittgenstein (p87) should be doubled. For a more detailed discussion of the maps, including some revised versions, see this post.
16. See my review for more tips.
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
17. Again, I have not written GM’s aids specificially for the fourth edition adventure, but the material for the first-edition version in my companion can still be used. (Note that Gotthard Wallenstein was known as Gotthard Goebbels in the first-edition adventure.)
18. See also my review for tips on running the adventure.
19. The Enemy Within: Remixed blog discusses some interesting, though complex, ways to improve the structure of the adventure. They are presented in three posts, which can be read here, here and here.
THE HORNED RAT
20. Since this adventure is entirely new, my companion for the first-edition campaign contains little of relevance, though some of the supplementary material on pp169-173 might still be of use.
21. I have produced a set of flowcharts to assist GMs with the investigations in this adventure.
22. My review contains some tips for GMs.
EMPIRE IN RUINS
23. Again, Empire in Ruins is a new adventure for the fourth-edition campaign, so my unofficial companion is of limited use in running it.
24. My review discusses some of my thoughts on the adventure.
25. I have, however, previously drawn up some alternative ideas for the finale. They are written for the first-edition campaign, but should also be usable with the fourth-edition campaign.
For a complete list of my Enemy Within posts see this link.
Title art used without permission. No challenge intended to the rights holders.
AWESOME LIES 
For those interested to expand EiR, it is easy to adapat the first chapter of EaW after THR, which I plan to do in my game and introduce Helmut Todbringer. Wasmaier plot can be expanded as per EaW. Personally I plan to bring back the original Karak in place of caves of chaos that smells for me too much DnD and final battle with Baron Heinrich.
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I wanted to say thanks for all your work. As a new WFRP GM (that hadn’t played any Role Playing games for 20 odd years) I found the updated GameMasters Tips for Enemy in Shadows invaluable.
Wanted to thank you for your efforts.
The FlowChart of Events is worth its weight in Gold. It removed a lot of the stress when dealing with all the random timelines that my players created.
Haven’t checked out the rest of your campaign info yet but I will be doing so shortly!
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You’re welcome! I appreciate the comment. I would like to continue with the fourth-edition GM guides in future, though it’s likely to be quite some time before I get to them, if at all.
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I try to net a bit all episodes of that campaign, to give them more unity. I’ll present them in the four acts of the Elizabethan tragedy. This is a personal rough, highly inspired by the very interesting exchanges and contributions of this excellent blog. Thank you all, and especially Gideon.
ACT ONE – The Imperial Campaign
The Empire appears to be a prosperous land, but corruption lurks in the corners, where few venture to look. The four most important characters to play are the semi-human herbalist Harbull Pedipoil, the human witch apprentice Wanda Weltschmerz, the human boatman Johann Dassbüt and the human thief Kristen Krank. This first act leads the players to believe that there is no fantasy in this role-playing game – or that it is purely legendary – before the gradual appearance of the repulsive manifestations of Chaos gives it its character as a horror and fright role-playing game.
The players are young Talabeclanders, who no doubt worship Ulric and Sigmar with equal devotion, and believe Taal to be the main deity of the pantheon. They should therefore have no preconceptions about the cultic conflict, although they may acquire some during the game.
Ode 1 – Luisa pleure de se voir si laide en son miroir (Curse)
This very short introductory scenario can be kept as is, except for the following:
a) Bakersdorf is a community in Talabecland, not far from Volgen, towards the Northern Barren Hills.
b) Luisa is not an NPC, but the PJ who takes the place of the ready-made character Wanda Weltschmerz.
c) The hermit is not a hermit: he is the sorcerer Hieronymus Blitzen, whom the neophyte adventurers will look for in Delbrez.
d) What happens to Hans Witters? What role can he play later?
Ode 2 – Une histoire de fesses & The case of the hidden jewel
These two scenarios are combined, the first part, “Une histoire de fesses”, leads the adventurers to discover that the Black Arrow is a woman, before they have to capture it in “The Case of the Hidden Jewel”:
a) The prince of thieves is the Black Arrow, a follower of Ranald. No one knows anything about the Black Arrow, let alone that she would be a woman.
b) The handsome Darald is Rolf Hurtis, whom the adventurers will meet again in ‘Mistaken Identity’.
c) The merchant is Josef Quartjin, whom the adventurers will meet again in ‘Mistaken Identity’. The meeting can be enhanced with ‘A trader in Trouble’ from Guilty Party.
d) Count Loeskhan is Count von Drakensberg.
e) Nitouche’s name is imperialized as Holle Herzentho. Master Anthrax becomes Meister Karfunkel.
f) Rumours of Mistaken Identity can be used from this ode onwards.
g) There is a rumour that the Emperor has decided to restrict the witchcraft license to students of the Colleges of Altdorf. [Reason: the Emperor is afraid that magical means could be used to guess the poor state of his family.]
Ode 3 – Des bébés, en veux-tu en voilà (Conspiracy!)
This scenario can be kept mostly unedited. It gives the adventurers a taste of horror as they discover for the first time a mutant…, of harmless age:
a) Recruitment posters for Crown Prince Hergard von Tasseninck are shown at the beginning of the adventure. His expedition is aimed at the World-Edge Mountains (not the Grey Mountains). [The reason for this is that he is on a quest for Ghal Maraz].
b) Adventurers must be encouraged to join Hergard. The adventure takes place on the way to Altdorf.
c) Guilty Party’s “Suspicious Look” happens during this journey.
d) An imperial news item is published: the Emperor’s request to the diets of the imperial circles to pass a law reserving the licence to practice witchcraft to students of the Colleges of Altdorf. An imperial decree restricts acceptance to the colleges of Altdorf: only those personally covered by imperial letters patent may study there. A major investigation into the morality of the sorcerers at the colleges is also called.
Ode 4 – Mistaken Identity
This scenario can be played just following the previous one. It confronts the adventurers, for the first time, with belligerent mutants. All the previous scenarios were extremely low fantasy, with purely human plots, allowing a gradual build-up of horror towards Mistaken Identity. The mutant attack at the beginning of the scenario should hurt and shock players who are unfamiliar with the universe. Especially if they are not told, as Theo Axner does, that they are playing Warhammer.
a) The political situation is that the crown prince of Reikland, and heir-designate to the imperial dignity, is still the son of the emperor: Luitpold. Wolfgang will have to wait his turn.
b) Another change: Kastor Lieberung’s certificate of identity is signed by Gotthard Gobbels.
c) Ernst Heidlemann’s book contains information about Gideon; I don’t know yet which one, but it is unlikely that the adventurers have access to it at this stage.
d) Imperial news: the Diet of the Reikland votes for the privilege of the Altdorf colleges. The other diets stall…
Ode 5 – Shadows over Bögenhafen
This scenario can also be played as it is following the previous one. It confronts the adventurers, for the first time, with a Chaos cult and even with dæmons.
On introductionary scenarii:
Tristan LHOMME’s “Luisa pleure de se voir si laide en son miroir” [“Luisa weeps to see how ugly she looks in her mirror”] in Casus Belli #78, December 1993
which is available translated in English by Morten Krog under the title of Curse here: https://web.archive.org/web/20051114193537/http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=209
Pierre LEJOYEUX’s “Une histoire de fesses” [“A Daliaunce”] in Casus Belli #65, September 1991 can be translated by Google’s artificial intelligence from here: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https://wjrf.bimondiens.com/content/scenarios/histoire-fesses-95.html
Tristan LHOMME’s “Des bébés en veux-tu en voilà” [“Babies… Thou want some? We’ve got some!”] in Casus Belli #69, May 1992
which is available translated in English under the title of Conspiracy! here: https://web.archive.org/web/20051114032035/http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=162
Later acts will follows, in a next post.
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ACT II – Death on the Reik
When the Skavens learn of the Wittgenstein’s research, their great plan is realized… Is it to replace important figures of the Empire with Doppelgänger?
Ode 1 – Death on the Reik
This scenario can also be played as a continuation of the previous one..
a) The rumours of tension between Ostland and Talabecland concern not the death of the Crown Prince of Ostland, but his capture for ransom on his return from the Mountains of the End of the World by the Grand Duke of Talabecland for a previous offence. [inspiration: Richard Lionheart returning from the Crusades].
b) Hieronymus Blitzen sends the player Wanda Weltschmerz to the university college in Nuln to get her licence in witchcraft. More importantly, he recommends the adventurers to Maria Glockenspiel, the great witch of the University College, in order to get more information about Etelka Herzen.
c) Maria Glockenspiel agrees to give information about Etelka Herzen – and to give her licence to Wanda Weltschmerz. However, she asks the adventurers – and strongly urges Wanda Weltschmerz – to do a service for her for the magnate Albrecht Oldenhaller.
Ode 2 – The Oldenhaller Contract
This scenario can be played from the scene of the meeting with Albrecht Oldenhaller. It can be simplified.
a) Albrecht Oldenhaller was in business with Teugen, and can offer the adventurers some insight into the events at Bögenhafen.
b) For what is the gem acquired by Albrecht Oldenhaller intended?
Ode 3 – Rough Night at the Three Feathers, Up the Reik, Kemperbad & Hard Day at the Trial
These three scenarios are linked together as the adventurers make their way to Kemperbad. For the first time, the adventurers join an aristocratic retinue.
a) Countess Maria-Ulrike, releasing the adventurers after the Kemperbad ordeal, bids the adventurers farewell and invites them to meet her in Nuln, when they find the time, to receive their payment.
Ode 4 – The Barren Hills
The adventure can be played about how it is written
a) The grimoires of Etelka Herzen and Ernst Heidlemann tell us more about the dæmons, and especially about Gideon. What is it? Etelka Herzen has preserved some of Teugen’s epistles, which also give us an insight into the past events in Bögenhafen.
Ode 5 – The Wittgenstein Horror
This scenario follow the logic of Death on the Reik.
a) The Wittgenstein library tells us more about the dæmons, and even about Gideon. What is it?
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ACT III – The power behind the throne
It seems to the adventurers that they will succeed in defeating the machinations that have been revealed to them and that seem to be crystallising in Middenheim.
Ode 1 – A Night at the Opera
The adventure should be playable as is… The adventurers return to Nuln to collect the pay they were promised.
a) Research at Nuln University College reveals more about the dæmons, and in particular about Gideon. What?
b) Countess Maria-Ulrike is to travel to Middenheim. There she can introduce the adventurers to the Eternal Knight.
c) The news and rumours that can be heard in the Opera House concern the wizarding privilege of Altdorf: Nuln is opposed to its being put on the agenda of the Wissenland Circle. The diets of the Talabecland and Middenland circles rejected the privilege outright. In fact: only the Reikland circle voted for the privilege, but Ubersreik refuses to close its Empire College of Illusionists.
Ode 2 – Carrion on the Reik
This scenario can be played as is, except that it starts in Nuln, following the previous ode.
a) Jan Todbringer, aka Yori, if he survived the ambush, gives the players a letter to Ar-Ulric. It is not essential that Jan Todbringer survive the assault on him by Ulric’s sons. Whether he dies or survives will have consequences in the later acts of the campaign.
Ode 3 – The Grapes of Wrath
This scenario can be played as is…
a) The adventurers who are able to deal with Ulrike and Bertha Jung will be invited by Kristen Jung, their sister, to talk about their achievement.
Ode 4 – The Power Behind the Throne, With a little help of my friends, the Pie eyed Piper, The Ritual and The Missing Convenant.
This adventure requires a major overhaul… :
a) As a result of the previous events, the adventurers may have, if events have gone as well as they can, the opportunity to meet the Eternal Knight, Kristen Jung and Ar-Ulric. They are potentially on the trail of Gotthard von Wittgenstein, Herr Scharlach and Etelka Herzen’s sponsor. Eventually they were able to compare the handwriting of Gotthard von Wittgenstein and Gotthard Göbbels.
THE PURPLE HAND
g) Three ordines of the Purple Hand, novitiæ, impedimentæ and terribilis are also present in Middenheim (see Middenheim, the city of the White Wolf). Two knights of the Reiksguard came from Altdorf, to the Purple Hand’s lair in Hoffen Straße, captured all those they found and executed them as Chaos cultists (as indicated by ‘Carrion Up the Reik’: these two knights are probably, in James Wallis’ mind, Karl Hoche and Anders Holger, who arrived in Middenheim after the events in The Mark of Heresy).
h) The copies of Kastor Lieberung’s letters that The Power Behind the Throne expects to be found at Wasmeier’s house will be found in Hoffen Straße, in the rest of the building.
i) The cult of the Purple Hand is only defeated, not eradicated from Middenheim, the following ode will lead the adventurers to investigate it. It was the elimination of the cultists by Karl Hoche and Anders Holger that destabilised the Purple Hand cult in Middenheim, not the failure of the Red Crown cultist Karl-Heiz Wasmeier…
THE JADE SCEPTRE
j) The countess consort Annika-Elise Nikse, still alive. The Graf is not depressed by his widowhood but, on the contrary, by the sadness of his marriage and the dysfunctions of his marriage. The court ladies are in Annika-Elise’s service. She is in bad terms with the bastards and sons of her husband’s first bed. This is well explained by Theo Axner in the commentary to ‘I Smell a Rat’.
k) The infertility of the union between Graf and Gravin consort obviously weighs on Boris, but also on Annika-Elise, who knows by certitude she is fertile (because in parties, things sometime happens). While Boris sinks into his depression, Annika-Elise escapes through her orgies. She has taken over the leadership of the Jade Sceptre (when a cult counts the ruler of a territory among its followers, the ruler usually becomes its leader). Gotthard Gobbels is her favourite at court and her second in command of the cult.
l) The Pie Eyed Piper plot, which is a ‘race against time’ during the carnival, is not so much a plot by the Jade Sceptre as a trap set against it – or, more precisely, against Gotthard Gobbels – by the cult of the Yellow Croc. Thanks to the book sent to him by his sister, Gotthard Gobbels was able to propose to Annika-Elise Nikse a date of real celebration during the carnival: the moment when a distorting meteorite will eclipse Mannslieb, a perfectly dark night during the carnival.
m) The plot of the Pie eyed Piper can be played out in much the same way as indicated in Middenheim, the city of the white wolf. Through their orgiastic rape, the children kidnapped and sequestered in Gotthard Göbbels’ warehouse in Brotkopfs are to become hosts for Slaanesh’s demons and to indulge the unholy vices of the Jade Sceptre’s followers. The warehouse in Brotkopfs is the house of the Ritual. If Annika-Elise is captured in the warehouse and reported to the authorities, the shocked Graf will have her walled up, execute those involved in the affair [Tower of Nesles style] and sink further into his lethargic, depressed and disillusioned state.
n) The cult of the Yellow Fang actually intends to take advantage of this moment of little death to kidnap Gotthard Gobbels, take him to the sewers, sequester him and extract as much information as possible about the upcoming distorting meteorite passages. The scenario of the ritual can be played afterwards. Skretth is the creator of the Doppelgänger. Evidence of this creation can be found in his lair: secret instructions given to the Doppelgänger by Skretth, preparing the next move against his Red Crown allies. Old exchanges between Skretth and Brunhilde Klaglish about the need to obtain a Doppelgänger. How do you make a Doppelgänger, anyway?
o) The underground part of ‘The Absent Host’ will be used for the part about Gotthard Gobbels being saved by the players.
p) The link between these plots is set out in a little scenario: With a little help from my friends. Carbonetti and the Pied Piper are followers of the Yellow Croc who are in business with the Red Crown and the Jade Sceptre. In his lair, Carbonetti holds not only Siggy, but also the gnome Addic and Reya hostage. It is in Carbonetti’s lair that Snikkit will hand over Reya, and it is there that Klaglish will go to get her.
Ode 5 – Purrsecution, Ordo impedimentæ, The Great Defecator, Ordo Terribilis Resurgens, The Cover-up, Mysterious Thefts, Assassinations and Elements of Controversy
These adventures – which correspond to the first third of the Horned Rat – can certainly be played out more or less as they are…
a) Rumours say that Hals von Tasseninck has decided to pay the ransom for Crown Prince Hegard. Hegard is staying in Talabheim until he reaches Wolfenburg. The rumours also say that Hergard did not manage to find what he was looking for – which the rumour does not say [he was looking for Ghal Maraz] – but that he was able to discover elements that would encourage him to mount a next expedition soon.
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A small pause: there is something that doesn’t match at all with the idea of a plan B: why would Höflich directly threaten Ehrlich? There need to have an intermediation… Power Behind the Throne judges important that Ehrlich would be able to link that threat to Höflich, certainly, but it should come from Ehrlich’s own inductions, rather than from an open threat from Höflich.
Klaglich might fit that intermediation. She might had threatened Ehrlich under one of her pseudonymous, and had been seen with Höflich later (but the most probable presumption would, then, be that she also threaten Höflich)… Also, because of their secret deliberations, Ehrlich would undoubtedly be able to give confidence to Höflich and to Wasmeier…, which would in turn threaten to expose both of them to Ehrlich’s understanding. Not a well thought threat.
Except if the plot is more warped: Klaglich might -under one of her pseudonymous- threaten Ehrlich, not only to support taxes (and the Altdorf’s privilege on magic), but to make sure that the law lords would together support them. Höflich would also support it, anyway. Wasmeier would oppose it, anyway.
Klaglich, might let Ehrlich understand that she acts in the name of Göbbels -who is able to hear how law lords advise the graf. Power Behind the Throne states that Wasmeier initially thought to have Göbbels as a scapegoat…
Höflich would only sort of “denounce” himself to Ehrlich if the back up plan is roughed, through a too obvious evidence -such as through a proof of having Reya still alive, with a message bearing Höflich’s arms- because it is now needed, according to Wasmeier’s plan, to target suspicions toward Höflich (and because Göbbels might be imprisoned anyway at this steps of the plot).
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