D&D 5E Campaign Diary: Converting "The Enemy Within" to 5E

[Urriak Uruk]

There is a lot of flexibility in the campaign. I like how easy it is to add interludes like that.

I’ve just finished If Looks Could Kill as a prelude to the Enemy in Shadows. I’m replacing Josef in your current section with Reiko the Bargemaster as the PCs built up quite a good relationship with him.

I’m also slotting in The Oldenhaller Contract into the Altdorf section as the players have quite a bit to do there so it would be good to give some combat meat to that section.. I also really want to run Night at the Opera for them later on in the campaign so want Oldenhaller to be introduced earlier as an NPC.

Regarding your skaven NPC if they survive that far… they could be a rival clan trying to undo their nemesis. It is kindly of ironic that a skaven might need to prove its own existence and not be passed off as a beast man. Could result in some quite existential conversations.

These look like some pretty great additions! I'm probably not going to add much more than the Affair, as I think by Death on the Reik the party will likely to overleveled rather than underleveled... WFRP definitely considers anything supernatural like zombies or goblins as deadlier than just normal humans, which 5E does not, so there will be a weird disparity there when I hit it (essentially, the zombies they face are going to be tougher than normal 5e zombies!)

Yeah the skaven PC is a little odd, as he wants to be a "nice" skaven who got exiled for being kind of an idiot. I think a good plan is that the cultists do there best to kidnap, incapacitate, or otherwise incriminate that PC so that it is very difficult for the Graf to ever see or trust him.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

A little delayed, this will cover sessions 3 and 4. And essentially, 80% of the "Affair of the Hidden Jewel," which I have smooshed in-between the trip of Altdorf and Weissbruck.

Now, why did I do this? Couple of reasons; one, it's a pretty fun adventure that embraces a lot of swashbuckling tropes that you don't actually see much of in typical D&D adventures. And two, I think this is a great opportunity for the party to take on a low-level (but still challenging) adventure. It will give them enough XP before proceeding to Bogenhafen, where they will face the first taste of the suitably challenging daemon threat.

So! They leave Altdorf to head for Bogenhafen. A road warden patrol rides alongside, telling them to watch out for a murderer who killed a noble (one of the two that harassed the party the previous night). The party doesn't arouse suspicion, and the road warden provides a couple of sheets.

These sheets are from "The Affair" so aren't normally within "The Enemy Within." They provide two hooks, one for the head of the infamous "Black Arrow" bandit, the other asking for help for a vague job at the Crossed Lances.

Eventually, the Berebeli parks for the night at the dock of the Crossed Lances. There, the party meets Kellerman (who wants the party to help him get the jewel) and Count Amadeus von Drakensberg, who wants the Black Arrow's head. I won't get too into the weeds as you should read the adventure yourselves (it is within the Enemy Within's Companion), but the party decides to try to do both jobs when they realize the link. Although, they aren't fans of the Count, as he used to be their local lord back when the PCs were level 0 (and is in a way responsible for many of the level 0 PCs deaths).

Of course, that night, Kellerman's helper Lauengram reveals his true colors as a spy for the Black Arrow, and drops a bomb down the chimney in an attempt to kill the PCs before they begin. A PC did succeed in snuffing out the fuse before it went off, and caught sight of Lauengram, but not before he escaped by his horse.

The party then proceeded to pursue, reaching Castle Black Arrow. The party decided to take their chances with the secret entrance, in the hopes that Lauengram was not an agent of the Black Arrow.

He of course is, so the PCs land handily into the ambush laid out for them. Although the PCs valiantly tried a number of gambits, a slew of bad rolls led to Lauengram dropping another bomb down the secret tunnel, causing grievous damage and forcing the PCs into a hasty retreat. A move earth spell covered their escape.

That is where session 3 ended, with the PCs in doubt of what to do next, and planning for a long rest.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Session 4!

At this point, the PCs have leveled to 3.

The PCs have escaped, and try to cover their tracks and hide in the surrounding woods. Because one party member is an autognome (we've re-flavored it to be a dwarf construct), he decided to do the full watch while resting. Unwisely, he just sat in the open... and Lauengram's patrol was thus able to find and surprise the PCs during their rest.

This went better for the party, though it was dicey at first. They were able to kill the entire patrol including Lauengram, and decided against capture as they were still mad about falling into the ambush (and now another ambush!)

The PCs, now fully rested, tried attempt to of entering the castle. This time it was night, and the party were able to scale the first wall, taking out the wandering guards without notice. They continued their search of the castle, correctly guessing upwards was smarter, and went unseen until reaching the two guards outside the Black Arrow's (or Annalisa's) room.

This combat went fairly easily for the PC's; although Annalisa did get off a readied action when they entered her room, her threat was quickly neutralized as the party used some grappling-earth spell (forgetting its name) to make her much easier to deal with. However, with other guards alerted by the noise, if things took much longer the threat would escalate.

With Annalisa getting very hurt, she tried to negotiate, which the PCs smartly did (although they were firm about how much they hate Lauengram's guts). Annalisa was able to piece together with the PCs the idea of something tattooed to her head, and with a quick shave the location of the jewel was revealed.

Now, with Annalisa committing to not pursue the jewel herself (she assumes that the Count has laid a trap, which he has), the PCs plan to return to the Crossed Lances. Based on their actions, I'm guessing they plan to grab the jewel and hand it off to Kellerman, and bail on the Count's bounty... however, Amadeus von Drakensberg has other plans!

 

[Delazar]

Apologies for the necromancy!

@Urriak Uruk

Is this campaign still ongoing? I recently started a WFRP4e game, going through some intro scenarios, to then start TEW. But I'm having big issues with the system, and I'm planning to convert to DnD 5e.

Do you maybe have some conversion notes to share? Or is this done all "on the fly"?