Review: Enemy in Shadows

Here it is: the beginning of the “Director’s Cut” of The Enemy Within, the cornerstone of Cubicle 7’s Fourth Edition of WFRP. I’ve been fascinated to read this since it was released several years ago!

The original version of this was written (in 1986-7) by Jim Bambra, Graeme Davis and Phil Gallagher. This version has been created by Graeme Davis (Phil Gallagher also pops up briefly in the Enemy in Shadows Companion to offer a few memories of the original), and a significant portion of my review will be considering how much has changed (and if it’s for the better).

(Read my Introduction to The Enemy Within campaign for more information on the campaign and my experience of it.)

WARNING: We are going full spoilers here. If you don’t want the greatest ever RPG campaign spoiled, stop reading now!

The book opens with the familiar frame for the campaign: the sinister Chaos cult of Purple Hand seeks to promote the Sigmarian Heresy (the belief that Sigmar never became a god) to set the cults of Sigmar and Ulric against each other. Meanwhile a bounty hunter has discovered the identity of a middle-ranking Purple Hand member, Kastor Lieberung, and seeks to entrap him in the town of Bogenhafen with the promise of a fake inheritance. There is then a very welcome discussion about running the campaign. The major deficiency here is that the book provides inadequate information about the direction of the campaign, meaning that GMs wishing to alter elements of this adventure cannot know (without reading the whole campaign) what elements might provide important later. This flaw has been much discussed in other reviews (and elsewhere online) and so was unsurprising to me. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find a discussion of the campaign’s themes: Chaos, human frailty, a choice of evils, grim fantasy, intelligent enemies and of course humour, to leaven the grimness. It’s only two-and-a-half pages but I really appreciated this. Then without further ado we are on to the first section of the adventure, “The Enemy Within”.

A fabulous image of the Purple Hand. Copyright Cubicle 7

Mistaken Identity

(Picky point: my understanding was that the first episode of the original campaign was called The Enemy Within, and within that – after the information on the Empire, herbs and so on – contained an adventure called “Mistaken Identity”, which is the first part of the campaign proper. I’m a bit confused why the Director’s Cut chooses to call the first section of the adventure after the name of the campaign, which feels needlessly confusing to me.)

This first segment follows the 1st Edition Mistaken Identity beat-for-beat. The PCs start not far from the Coach & Horses coaching inn and have to contend with drunken coachmen and the inhabitants of the coach they wish to take¹, including the excellent gambler Descartes. Once they leave the coaching inn the following day there’s an unpleasant encounter with a bunch of humorously horrible mutants picking over the bodies of their previous victims – and shock horror, one of the slain (Kastor Lieberung, no less) is the spitting image of the PCs, and has in his possession a deed promising fabulous riches if he presents himself a law firm in Bogenhafen. There’s a tempting potential swindle here! Continuing to Altdorf the PCs encounter old friend Josef Quartjin, who promises them passage to Bogenhafen, and in the Boatman Inn they tangle with drunken nobles and the tough Max Ernst. Making a swift exit from Altdorf, Josef’s barge takes them to the small settlement of Weissbruck where they suffer a carefully-planned assault by the bounty hunter Adolphus Kuftsos and his goons. 

There are some changes here. Oddly, the original hook for this version is just that the PCs are seeking employment in Altdorf, rather than specifically having seen Prince Tasseninck’s famous call for “Bold Adventurers” – instead, that notice can be found in one of the inns. In Altdorf, the PCs witness a parade by the Emperor (actually a double, given the real Emperor is ill) within moments of disembarking from their coach; brilliantly, there are lots of indications that Altdorf is being subtly influenced by Tzeentch, such as a tendency to impatience, people changing their shopping habits frequently, and dogs being on edge. And the Bounty Hunter, Adolphus Kuftsos, need not die in Weissbruck; he has actually set a trap at the (fake) law firm in Bogenhafen and if he survived the barge attack he will trap the PCs there, only to get murdered by Gideon. The changes are basically fairly minor and broadly for the good, although the timing of the Emperor’s parade is rather ridiculous (it literally happens as the PCs step off their coach!)

Emperor Karl-Franz (or is it?) Copyright Cubicle 7

Reading through the adventure I’m struck by two things.

Firstly, that the level of detail is just incredible at times. The Coach & Horses is given a fantastic map, room-by-room descriptions, and personalities and profiles for its key staff. The fellow travellers are given good detail (more than in the original, I think), and tips on roleplaying them. The same goes for the various characters in the Boatman Inn in Altdorf. This is really great stuff, and reminds me that this is one of the things I really appreciate about the best of WFRP adventures: it really helps the world to feel real, and gives the GM the tools to really describe it in detail. It has to be said that there are slip-ups here. There’s no map for Josef Quartjin’s barge, the Beribeli, which is pretty inexcusable given that its the likely location of an attack², as well as the PCs’ home for several days. Similarly, there’s no map given for the mutant ambush, which is a shame (though less crucial).

Secondly, I’d forgotten just how on-rails this adventure is! The PCs are unavoidably travelling to Altdorf (which I guess is fair enough), but they have to take a coach (in spite of that being an unrealistic luxury for most starting characters). The adventure relies on the PCs deciding to impersonate Kastor Lieberung and pursue the fortune, even though it is likely to be obvious to most players that this must be too good to be true. Entering Altdorf they have to accompany Josef to the Boatman, and the adventure then railroads the PCs into promptly leaving the capital en route to Bogenhafen. I think this incarnation does a little more to try and address the characters going ‘off the rails’ (some of which was originally present too). So there are numerous roads pointing to Bogenhafen: as well as the lure of the inheritance, it is Josef’s destination (and he’ll provide paying work along with a friendly face) and it just so happens to be where Prince Tasseninck has departed for, leaving Altdorf just ahead of the PCs’ arrival. And the PCs are hurried out of Altdorf by the threat of the young nobles’ murder being pinned on them. But it has to be said that from Altdorf the PCs could go in any direction. I’m not sure it was all that wise to have the second section of the opening adventure take place in the largest city of the Empire, which can hardly do it justice, and feels like a hostage to fortune compared to being set in a more isolated location.

But if you can get past the rail-roady nature of the adventure, there is a lot to like about it. It introduces a lot of themes of WFRP (in general) and The Enemy Within (specifically) such as the corruption of the ruling classes, the fact that law enforcement are not necessarily to be trusted, and the existence of mutants and the fact that they are not just monsters. We’re introduced to both road and river travel (both of which will be repeated in greater depth later in the campaign) and the sequence is pleasingly down-to-earth, with the main threat coming from decidedly human opponents. We’re also introduced to the peril of combat – seriously, if the PCs aren’t careful then Adolphus’ attack on the barge could be deadly. So railroading aside, it’s not a bad start to Enemy in Shadows at all.

Shadows Over Bogenhafen

The second (and significantly longer) part of Enemy in Shadows is even more familiar to me. The PCs arrive in Bogenhafen to discover the inheritance was a ruse; they attend the Schaffenfest and descend into the sewers on the trail of a mutant goblin, only to uncover a sinister temple and ferocious guardian daemon. This prompts them to embark on a series of freeform investigations, culminating in them (hopefully) thwarting a dreadful ritual which threatens the whole town.

All the familiar components from the original verison are here and they’re all fantastic. Gideon – the daemon masterminding the whole dreadful scheme- is as entertaining a villain as ever. His patsy Teugan – a powerful merchant who struck a deal with Gideon 7 years ago, at the cost of his soul – is marvelously Faustian. And the entire plot concept is fantastic – I absolutely love that the sinister cultists of the town are almost all ignorant of the Tzeentchian nature of the Ordo Septinarius – believing it to be simply some impressive-sounding mumbo-jumbo to impress the lower ranks of the cult into banding together to strengthen the town’s merchantile opportunities. And Teugan’s motivations themselves are brilliant – he’s not evil for the sake of it, he’s simply trying to save his own skin.

A perfectly normal child

Gideon looking completely non-sinister

Meanwhile in keeping with other Fourth Edition adventures, the various minor NPCs have plenty of character, such as the flamboyant Doctor Malthusius (the keeper of the mutant goblin), the wrestler (who fakes exhaustion to encourage people to challenge him), and the good-natured but naive cult member Magirius. The artwork (some reproduced here) is consistently fantastic as well – although I confess that the new maps are inferior to the originals in my opinion.

This version has an early addition, where instead of finding that the offices of the lawyer’s Lock, Stock and Barl don’t exist, the PCs instead discover a front office created by the bounty hunter Adolphus Kuftsos from Mistaken Identity. If Kuftsos still lives, he actually traps them inside, only to be torn apart by Gideon in the hearing of the characters, a rather nice touch. Otherwise my memory can detect few changes from the original version, except that if the PCs fail to stop the climactic ritual then instead of Tzeentch manifesting above the doomed town, a Lord of Change does instead, which I found a bit disappointing (although perhaps more in keeping with Warhammer lore).

In any case, the adventure basically conforms to the quality I recall. The Schaffenfest is absolutely excellent, with a very sensible rationale (it’s a massive event because on the final day traders can sell livestock tax-free, a concession from Lord von Sapontheim to try to increase trade overall) and bags of character: lots of optional encounters and stalls which really give a flavour of 17th century town life (with next to no supernatural elements to be found). Once again I’m surprised by how easy it is for the adventure to be derailed if the PCs simply opt not to take the contract to hunt down the escaped goblin (which means they’ll never discover the conspiracy), but I suppose the ridiculous reward on offer (10 GC total!) is there to motivate them.

The Schaffenfest, three-legged Goblin included. Copyright Cubicle 7

I was never an enormous fan of the sewer trek in pursuit of the goblin – there’s a reasonable amount of detail given, which is nice, but its not all that exciting. Oddly enough, as written it is extremely easy for the PCs to miss the corpse of Gottri Gurnissen (the dwarf drunk, killed by the daemon hidden down here), but then again its not actually necessary for the adventure. There’s also a characterful but hilariously cut-sceney interlude in the basement of the Crossed Pikes, the local underworld hub – as in the original adventure the PCs unavoidably fall into a pit trap and are unavoidably captured so that the Fun Crime Boss can recite his monologue at them. Not great, and it should be rewritten to be much more freeform. 

Anyway once the PCs have found the hidden temple and its Guardian Daemon (and possibly slain it) the best part of the adventure begins: the freeform investigation. An impressive number of avenues are open to the PCs, from the Town Council (where the PCs may go fruitlessly seeking their reward), to the Steinhager Offices (which the PCs can deduce are above the hidden temple), the Watch Barracks (a natural target for the PCs, and potentially a source of helpful information given that Gideon mimicked the Watch Captain in order to infect the original quest giver), the library at the Temple of Verena and more. The Crossed Pikes interlude in the sewers proves its worth since underworld-inclined PCs can connect with the local Ranaldians there. All have useful information and potentially interesting interactions, although this being WFRP there is also the potential for flubbed rolls leading to avenues closed off. (A wonderful touch is that religious-minded PCs can even pray for guidance, potentially receiving a helpful but rather cryptic message in response – and the book provides a sample message for every single major deity!)

The Town Council is also where the PCs can potentially get an audience with Johannes Teugan, leading to various intimations that he is a vampire, which I was very critical of when re-reading the original adventure. I’m heartened to see that there’s a Grognard Box here that suggests that the GM could just skip all this stuff if he thinks it’ll derail the adventure, and which sheds light on the authorial intent here. 

Shadows Over Bogenhafen uses a tried-and-true method for investigations: the PCs can find out plenty of stuff on there own, but there’s a handy NPC waiting to spill the beans at the eleventh hour regardless. Ideally, Magirius’ last-minute change of heart serves simply to fill in a few blanks; if the PCs have utterly failed in their investigations, it instead provides them with a solution more-or-less on a platter. Its fair to level criticism here, but I think Shadows does this pretty well, particularly when compared to the comparable adventures³. Firstly, Magirius contacts the PCs three times. The first time is to give the Teugan-approved cover story for the Ordo Septinarius: basically, that it is the Warhammer equivalent of the Freemasons (i.e. doing good but with some occult trappings to impress the lower ranks). It’s only on the second occasion that he spills the means (having discovered a human sacrifice is necessary – not something he wants to be a part of). The first encounter is crucial, because it means that Magirius is an established NPC, not simply a random person wheeled on from nowhere to explain the plot. And the third time he contacts the PCs, he never actually meets them since Gideon kills him before they arrive, so the scene serves three purposes: it provides the PCs with the final information they need to actually find the villains; a good murder of a familiar NPC heightens the drama; and it heightens the tension, since the PCs are now wanted by the Watch, thus adding more pressure to the final hours of the adventure.

In any case, the PCs arrive at the denouement on Warehouse 13, where the final dreadful ritual is prepared. As in the original adventure, the ritual is actually incredibly easy to disrupt – killing any participant, destroying (or stealing) crucial elements, or even just frightening off some of the junior members will all stop it, and preventing the human sacrifice will also present serious problem for Teugan. When it comes to the climactic conflict I’ve no way of easily judging the difficulty: it basically a couple of spellcasters and potentially a few henchmen, and its very hard to tell how spellcasters will fare. (Annoyingly, Gideon’s profile doesn’t actually list any skills, meaning he doesn’t have Arcane Language Magick – is he supposed to just roll against Intelligence for casting?)

The climactic confrontation. Copyright Cubicle 7

The “PCs fail” ending is still suitably apocalyptic – and to be fair, possibly more entertaining than the far more likely success ending. Naturally, success means that they are likely still on the run from the law!

Appendices

Enemy in Shadows benefits from a full Guide to Bogenhafen in its larger appendix. This is the same format as the Guide to Ubersreik in the Starter Set and is similarly fantastic (though not as extensive): 28 pages of information on how the town works, its history and its major areas, plus detail on the Duchy of Saponatheim to which is belongs, and a few Chaos cults thrown in. The additional information on areas in Bogenhafen is just incredible, with plenty of hooks for small adventures or sidetracks from the main adventure. It’s a shame that Enemy in Shadows is both time-limited and likely to conclude with the PCs as fugitives, since there is plenty of material here for running adventures in Bogenhafen for several sessions more.

The book also provides the familiar Imperial Calendar (from The Enemy Within sourcebook), but alongside it there is a fascinating excerpt from ‘The Book of Days’ by Finrier of Saphery concerning the arrival of the Old Ones. That much is known, but what I discovered for the very first time is that the Warhammer World is the fourth planet in a solar system of 10 planets, divided into the five “Children of Asuryan” (Charyb, Deiamol, Tigris, the unnamed Warhammer world, and Verdra) and the five “Councilors of Asuryan” (Lokratia, Isharna, Loekia, Voelia and Obscuria). Amazing stuff!

Conclusion

I have two bars on which to judge Enemy in Shadows. Firstly, how is the adventure as presented; secondly, how is it in comparison with the original versions of Mistaken Identity and Shadows Over Bogenhafen. In the first I think its a triumph. There are some issues to be sure – the first section is very on-rails, and even in the Bogenhafen portion there are still a few “cut-scenes”, but in general this remains one of my very favourite WFRP adventures. The sense of place is palpable, whether that’s a coaching house, a dockside tavern, a sheep festival or the streets of a market town. The adventure does a fantastic job of grounding the world in reality – there’s a clear class divide present; the criminal element is reasonably presented; law and order is a major issue. NPCs are concerned about very human issues such as greed, self-preservation or simply having a good time. Supernatural elements are downplayed through the adventure (indeed there’s really only the mutants and Gideon). The main plot – if the players can uncover it – is marvellous, a story of greed, fear and deceit, with the Ordo Septinarius probably the best Chaos cult in the history of WFRP since its members have a very clear motivation to belong to it. Once the adventure reaches Bogenhafen there is tons of player freedom, for wandering the Schaffenfest, to which tunnel to take in the sewers, to how to handle the investigation. I can’t praise the open investigative section enough – the huge amount of avenues considered, almost all offering some helpful clue to the sinister plot, is simply brilliant.

In the second issue, I feel like Enemy in Shadows doesn’t change a huge amount for its original incarnation. There are some welcome notes, like the GM not being commanded to ensure the Bounty Hunter dies in the confrontation and the fleshing out of the end of the false inheritance trail in Bogenhafen, but by and large things seem much the same. The main additions are the expanded Guide to Bogenhafen, which is absolutely wonderful, and the Grognard Boxes. These are certainly fun to read, but I’m uncertain how valuable they’d be for running the adventure with players who’d experienced its earlier incarnation. I guess it’s always nice having options though! I think the only real loss from the original version of Shadows Over Bogenhafen is the brooding and sometimes horrifying artwork by Wil Rees⁴. I love the new art too (see the examples above), but the originals live in my memory as some of the pieces that really solidified the feel of the Warhammer world in those early days of WFRP.

At the end of the day then, my opinion is that Enemy in Shadows provides some relatively small improvements to an adventure which was already one of the greatest adventures every published for WFRP. If you don’t own it you should, and my tentative opinion is that this is the best version to own.

Buy Enemy in Shadows from DriveThruRPG – currently on sale! This is an affiliate link so I receive a small payment for purchases made using it. 

For alternative opinions on Enemy in Shadows see Gideon’s review on Awesome Lies, and Theo Axner’s review on The Enemy Within Remixed. (I deliberately didn’t re-read these before doing my review to try to avoid simply replicating their excellent work!)

1. I’m sad to say that this version still lacks a credible explanation why impoverished starting PCs would be taking an expensive form of transport; in fact it’s even worse than the original, wherein at least you can argue that they need to make it Altdorf quickly to sign onto the Prince’s expedition. ↩︎
2. The map is in the Enemy in Shadows Companion, but you shouldn’t have to buy that to get it! ↩︎
3. I have a particular scorn for the equivalent sequence in the 2e adventure A Brutal Finish, which does this especially poorly ↩︎
4. Check out Gideon’s excellent review of this book for comparisons of the new art to that from the original version ↩︎