An Ubersreik Quartet

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surroundings.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik continues the series begun with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and continued with Ubersreik Adventures II: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. The four scenarios within its pages take the Player Characters around the edges of the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik, and then back to city itself, all the whilst involving themselves in the doings of the duchy’s nobility and thus skirting some of the machinations playing out in the region. In the process they will be employed to check on the attitudes of the staff at a hunting lodge whose ownership has been changed one from one noble to another, protect a village from marauding Orcs and Goblins as the inhabitants mumble about who gets to rule the village, uncover infection and ambition in a mining still suffering from a lingering sickness, and get caught up in the love affairs of the young nobility of Ubersreik.

In addition, the four scenarios in the anthology are connected and together form a sequence intended to be played in order as presented. The connections are most obviously familial in nature, taking the Player Characters from one noble relation to another and in the process encountering various members of the noble families feuding for control of the Grand Duchy. The other connections are obviously secret and link some of the nobles that the Player Characters will meet, but definitely not all, to the Ruinous Powers, some of which may come to light, some of which may not, and often when it does, the noble families want to kept it a secret lest it spoil their claim to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik! Each of the four scenario includes advice on how to run under different circumstances, but ideally, they should be run one after another in sequence. However, the scenarios are not where the anthology begins.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik opens ‘A Tragic Tale Of Upheaval’. This charts the causes and machinations that have thrown Ubersreik into turmoil, unseated the ruling von Jungfreud family, and left both its future and its future governance up in the air. This collates information from both the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set and The Enemy Within campaign, so it does include background about both, even spoilers, so the reader be warned. The article covers the years 2509 to 2513 IC and beyond with the default period being the Occupation as detailed in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, in each era—each era lasting a year or two—giving what is publicly known as well as what is going on behind the scenes, suggestions as what sort of adventures can be run, some scenario hooks, and rumours. Included too are lists of adventures from the differing periods and which sourcebooks they come from. There are descriptions of the various claimants to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik too. All together, this provides a grand overview of the setting to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Station, so that the Game Master can create her own content.

The first of the four scenarios in the anthology is ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg, recently married into the von Bruner family, has come into possession of Grunewald Lodge, which was previously owned by Andreas von Bruner, a young scion who was subject to some unsavoury rumours. He has the Player Characters hired to surreptitiously check on the lodge staff. Once they arrive at the Grunewold Lodge, the Player Characters discover a mixture of surly and disaffected staff, only begrudgingly willing to accept the change in circumstances, and unwilling to discuss whatever happened to Andreas von Bruner. Although they do not know it, the Player Characters are up against a deadline, but the manor house is relatively small and the staff numbers low so the investigation is far from insurmountable. Ideally, they should be able to uncover some, if not all, of what has been going on at the manor house before the climax of the scenario.

Unfortunately, there is an error in the scenario. One of the NPCs gets nervous when the Player Characters lift a carpet in particular room to look for a trapdoor, but the room does not actually have a carpet or a trapdoor, or indeed anything built into the room that connects to the secret activities taking place at the hunting lodge. The Game Master will need to adjust as necessary. Nevertheless, the scenario is an entertaining manor horror mystery, playable in a single session or two. What though is really interesting about ‘An Eye For An Eye’ is that it is an adaptation to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition. In particular, it is an adaption of the scenario that first introduced Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition in its core boxed set in 2009. Hopefully, this will not be the only such adaptation as there some excellent adventures waiting to be given similar treatment.

‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is intended to be run directly after the events of ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg asks the Player Characters to travel to Ubersreik to deliver a letter to his wife, Ludmilla, but also stop off at the village of Geissbach where he believes there is a doctor who can attend to the wounded at the hunting lodge. A typical Reikland village, the Player Characters have the chance to alter its fate not once but twice. First, by influencing the politics of village, quietly split between the old ways of tradition and the new ways of supporting the recently built coaching inn and its support of a coach and trade route between Ubersreik and Bögenhafen. Second, by coming to its defence when it is threatened by marauding Orcs and Goblins. Bookended by an initial encounter with such creatures at the start and then rollocking fight up and down what the Greenskins is the ideal version of a Human siege tower at the finish, ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is a good mix of roleplaying and combat. The effect on the politics in the village is nicely underplayed so that the players and their characters may not necessarily be aware of it.

‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ starts nasty and gets nastier. It is intended to be played after ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ with the Player Characters arriving in Ubersreik and successfully delivering the letter to Ludmilla Aschaffenberg. She asks them to deliver another message, this time to her cousin, Agnetha von Bruner, in the mining town of Hugeldal in the foothills of the Grey Mountains. Baroness von Bruner has recently been ill and Lady Ludmilla wants to send a message of support. The horror starts on the road when the Player Characters encounter the tail end of a very deadly bandit attack on a group of priests of Shallya. Renowned for the healing blessings, what kind of bastard would attack priests of Shallya? When they come to their rescue and aid, the Shallyans will also explain that they have been exiled from Hugeldal. Given how high the regard in which the priests of Shallya are held, who would exile them from any town, let alone Hugeldal?

One issue with ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is that Player Characters may already have visited the town in ‘Ash in the Wind’ from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, so ideally the Game Master should have run several scenarios between the two. When she does run it, what the Player Characters will discover in Hugeldal is a depressed mining town which has lost many of its inhabitants to ghoulpox and most of the survivors have been marked buy it. They are all resentful for the failure of the priests of Shallya to treat the disease, but praise Doktor Vorsatz who was able to find a cure. Careful investigation will reveal that there is more going on than anyone other than the Player Characters might suspect, but who or what is behind the ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is revealed in a quite gloriously revolting climax.

The anthology comes to a close with ‘Mirror of Desire’, which returns the Player Characters to the city of Ubersreik and embroils them in the courtship of Esmerelda Fenstermacher by three young nobles. Ludmilla Aschaffenberg again asks for their help, this time to let the course of young love run its course, whilst fathers of two of the suitors want help in untangling their sons from the situation. Both are daunting tasks and neither potential patron is going to be happy if the Player Characters favour one over the other. This is Cyrano de Bergerac, but done Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style, with eminently unsuitable suitors on all sides. The scenario is open ended as to how the Player Characters go about their tasks and similarly, there is scope for the Game Master to add her own content as well. Similarly, the scenario has the potential to be fairly open-ended if the Player Characters allow it to run to its conclusion. This leaves them with at least the one loose end to tidy up, and hopefully, it is one that the authors might return to, though there is nothing to stop the Game Master from writing her own sequel. If there is anything missing from the scenario it is an illustration of young Esmerelda Fenstermacher, so the Game Master may want to supply one herself. Overall, ‘Mirror of Desire’ is little clichéd in places given that it is a love story, but it is a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay love story after all, and its gets suitably grim and perilous.

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is a great looking book. The artwork is excellent and the maps are more than decent. However, it does need another edit and there are sections of text missing. Since this is a book for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, there numerous of puns such as ‘A Town Called Malaise’, but calling a pair of minor NPCs ‘Herman Vorst’ and ‘Osk Hessel’ is probably in questionable taste.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik nicely embroils the Player Characters in the web of connections between the claimants to Grand Duchy, revealing their humanity and occasionally, their inhumanity in the process. These connections give the quartet a neatly underplayed narrative that pushes the Player Characters’ involvement towards the climax of the Ubersreik plot. That though, it is yet to come. In the meantime, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is an entertaining quartet of scenarios with a good mix of combat, investigation, and roleplaying.