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WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

by Jody Macgregor

“For a life to be well-spent, it must by necessity be long. As long as you can make it.”

— Da Venzio

Worse Than the Disease is a scenario for adventurers in

their second careers. It is set in one of the Empire’s

cities; any one will do. It centres on a daring act of

burglary committed by the PCs and therefore requires

certain Character types, preferably those of a larcenous

persuasion. If your party consists of law-abiding types

there are a set of pre-generated Characters at the end of

this article that you can use to run the scenario as a

one-off.

both by this job she has been given and the Characters

once she meets them. Although she will offer them the

full amount the cult has given her to hire them

(whatever you consider appropriate), she will not

haggle or spend any time she does not absolutely need

to in their contemptible presence. They remind her of

what she has left behind, and she dislikes that.

Main Profile

WS BS S T Ag Int WP Fel

40% 31% 34% 36% 36% 38% 55% 35%

Secondary Profile

A W SB TB M Mag IP FP

1 16 3 3 4 1 0 0

Skills: Academic Knowledge (History, Theology),

Animal Care, Channelling, Charm, Common

Knowledge (Bretonnia, the Empire), Gossip

+10%, Haggle, Heal +10%, Magical Sense,

Perception, Read/Write, Ride, Search, Sleight

of Hand, Speak Arcane Language (Magick),

Speak Language (Breton, Classical,

Reikspiel), Trade (Seamstress)

Talents: Coolheaded, Dealmaker, Flee!, Hardy, Master

Orator, Petty Magic (Divine), Public

Speaking, Resistance to Disease, Strike to

Stun, Very Strong, Warrior Born

The Set-Up

His Most High Imperial Justice Ignatius Sundler has

recently acquired a work of art that is the talk of the

town. This controversial painting, Ranald’s Apotheosis ,

by da Venzio, depicts an event from legend in which

Ranald tricks Shallya into granting him divinity. As

well as being valuable to collectors, the painting is held

in high regard by the cult of Ranald, who would like to

acquire this holy relic for themselves. The cult of

Shallya hold the painting in less regard, and there are

some who would even take the desperate measure of

paying to have the blasphemy destroyed, so long as

that destruction brought no harm to others.

How you bring your group into this scenario is up to

you and should be chosen to best suit your Players.

They could be hired by a Priest of Shallya, given the

job by a Ranaldian, or simply hear about the valuable

painting’s arrival and make their own plans if they are

of the right disposition. See below for two suitable

adventure patrons.

Perry Herzlos

Career: Crime Lord (ex-Cat Burglar, ex-Thief)

Race: Human

Perry Herzlos is the leader of the Herzlos gang, an

organisation run to strict Ranaldian principles. They

steal without killing, resort to violence only when

absolutely necessary, and use a small portion of their

profits to fund a shrine club in one of the city’s poorest

areas. These rules don’t appeal to many criminals, who

prefer to break heads while breaking the law, and

numbers are low. Perry is looking to expand his

operation, and to that end is bringing in new blood,

once they prove themselves by doing this one little job.

Mother-Healer Grietkin Beck

Career: Priest (ex-Initiate, ex-Camp Follower)

Race: Human

Mother-Healer Grietkin Beck is a severe woman whose

gruffness and seeming lack of compassion are at odds

with her role as a Priestess of the Goddess of Mercy.

She has seen too many people end up in her care

through their own carelessness, and grown hard

because of it. She is a pious woman who will stop at

nothing to aid the injured and afflicted who visit her

hospice, but she doesn’t believe that means she has to

be their friends. Her usual bedside manner is a mix of

world-weariness and contempt.

Prospective gang members will be invited to his office,

which is hidden behind a grog house. He sits at his

desk idly playing with a variety of locks, casually

picking then locking them as he talks. Professional

thieves will find his display of skill intimidating. He

explains the situation and offers them membership in

the Herzlos gang, if they can abide by the rules. He

won’t pay them for the painting, but will provide a

fence for any other items they find in the townhouse.

He can also provide a variety of thieves’ tools if

required, and if your party is missing a particular skill

Perry can suggest an accomplice (use one of the sample

PCs from the appendix).

Grietkin came to the service of Shallya after a hard

youth as a battlefield corpse-looter and “soldier’s

friend”. Because of this chequered past, her superiors

believe she will be perfect for making contact with a

group of underworld characters who can obtain

Ranald’s Apotheosis for them. Grietkin is unimpressed

Perry plans to donate Ranald’s Apotheosis to the

Temple of Ranald in Marienburg, where Father Hans

von Kleptor believes that a resemblance between him

and the depiction of Ranald in the portrait will prove

his claim to be the God’s son. However, since no one

in the cult has seen the painting, no one knows if there

is any actual resemblance between von Kleptor and da

Venzio’s supposedly divinely inspired portrait.

(Scholar) “Justice Sundler has been making some

questionable judgments of late. He let off that

charlatan selling fake medicine with a slap on the

wrist, when the fellow clearly deserved a good

whipping.”

(Soldier) “He may be High and Mighty Imperial

Justice now, but I served under him when he was

Sergeant Sundler of the Fifth Halberdiers. He was a

terror, too, mean as a cut snake and only half as

pretty.”

Main Profile

WS BS S T Ag Int WP Fel

51% 46% 45% 46% 64% 53% 50% 61%

Secondary Profile

A W SB TB M Mag IP FP

2 16 4 4 4 0 0 0

Skills: Charm, Command, Common Knowledge (the

Empire), Concealment, Dodge Blow,

Evaluate, Gossip, Haggle, Intimidate, Pick

Lock +10%, Perception, Scale Sheer Surface,

Search, Secret Language (Thieves’ Tongue),

Secret Signs (Thief), Silent Move, Sleight of

Hand, Speak Language (Reikspiel)

Talents: Alley Cat, Ambidextrous, Dealmaker,

Lightning Reflexes, Menacing, Public

Speaking, Resistance to Poison, Sixth Sense,

Specialist Weapon Group (Crossbow), Street

Fighting, Streetwise, Trapfinder

(Socialite) “I don’t know when he became such an art

lover. Only paintings he used to own were of himself.

Sundler was an ordinary soldier before they retired

him into this cushy position. He’s never shown much

taste before, I mean look at that tacky townhouse he

lives in. Looks like something a commoner who got

lucky at the gambling table would buy. Why, I bet even

his butler is coated in gold.”

(Criminal) “Sundler has been taking extra safety

precautions lately, he’s hired some Tileans to guard his

house at all times.”

(Servant) “He’s a mean master, that judge. When I

served there he used to treat us awful-like, he’d beat us

and rant at us all hours of the day and night.”

Preparation

Background

Before the burglary begins, canny PCs will probably

want to do some research on their target through

reconnaissance, alehouse gossip, or any contacts they

may have. A bitter ex-servant named Gerda who was

fired for slovenliness by the strict Sundler will be

happy to draw a rough map of the judge’s townhouse

for a fee of 5 gc if they can track her down by asking

around. If they do pay her fee, hand them the maps of

the ground floor and first floor to make copies

themselves, but only give them ten seconds to do so.

Whatever hasty scribbles they come up with represent

Gerda’s incomplete knowledge of the building.

Judge Sundler is secretly a worshipper of Nurgle.

Years ago, while desperately searching for a cure to the

disease that ravaged his body, he met a member of the

Covenant of the Crimson Plague posing as a medicine-

seller. This cultist, who calls himself “Doktor K”,

procured a cure for Sundler’s disease that takes the

form of a creature of Nurgle, which now lives in the

basement under Sundler’s townhouse. Frequent contact

with the disgusting creature stops the fatal sores from

spreading over the judge’s body, but he pays a high

price.

One of the PCs could also gain admittance during the

day to investigate the location with a successful

Disguise Test by pretending to be a messenger or

tradesman (“Terrible case of Tilean termites in the

house next door, do you mind if I have a quick check

of your walls?”), although they will not be allowed into

the basement or allowed to disturb Sundler, who is

upstairs in the library at the time.

Doktor K convinced Sundler to buy the unflattering

painting of Shallya as part of a plot to discredit and

publicly embarrass her cult in the city. Agents of the

Covenant of the Crimson Plague are planning to reveal

a string of scandals that will shame the Shallyans and

cause their noble patronage to dry up so that they will

not be able to afford to care for the city’s inhabitants

when the plague that is gestating inside the cure under

Sundler’s house, fed by his own diseased body, is

finally released.

With successful Gossip Tests they will be able to find

out some of the following titbits of information.

— The Townhouse —

Sundler lives in one of the wealthier areas of town.

Watch patrols are frequent and there usually aren’t

many people hanging around on the streets after dark,

which is the only time a stealthy entry is possible. On

the night the robbery occurs, however, the House of

von Trimsberg are throwing a noisy party down the

road and although Sundler declined his invitation and

is home tonight, it will cover some of the noises made

by clumsy PCs—there’s no luck like thieves’ luck they

say. Because of the noise, use Concealment Tests in

preference to Silent Move Tests when you have a

choice between the two. Inside the house, thick walls

will muffle most of the noise of the party, but sudden

bursts of fireworks or blasts of music should occur at

appropriate moments, either to cover up noises or to

startle the PCs.

cure” is doing as if it were a living creature, a pet of

some kind. “Is the cure growing up big and strong?”

“Have you been taking good care of the cure?”

Doktor K also advises Sundler to purchase the

Apotheosis in one letter, saying that “when the people

are shown how blind and foolish their Goddess of

Mercy is, what they will stoop to when they try to

destroy it, we will be one step closer to our goal.”

Anyone with Academic Knowledge (Daemonology)

will know that the odd triangular seal K uses is a mark

of Nurgle.

The Guards

The doors of the townhouse are guarded, but it is

possible to sneak in through either of two open upstairs

windows. There is a tree overhanging the linen room

window, and the master bedroom has an open window

as well. Climbing the tree does not require a Test,

although an Agility Test will be needed to jump from

the branch through the window (if someone fails by

10% or less they can still grab hold of the ledge and,

with a successful Strength Test, haul themselves

inside). Climbing the wall to get to the bedroom

window requires two Scale Sheer Surface Tests.

Falling will attract the guard and require a

Concealment Test to hide from him.

Esposito’s Escorts are a Tilean mercenary company

who hire themselves out as bodyguards. Each member

has a stylised tattoo of a Harpy on their cheeks, which

marks them as citizens of Tobaro to anyone with the

Common Knowledge (Tilea) Skill. The Escorts have

fallen on hard times, and would prefer to be waging

proper war rather than guarding Imperials, but their

numbers were thinned by the Storm of Chaos and they

need to raise money to return home and increase their

numbers (Esposito refuses to hire foreigners). Although

they are skilled combatants, their hearts are not in their

work, and they can be bribed by a quick-witted burglar

into looking the other way. If attacked they will not

fight to the death, running after they lose half their

Wounds.

Sundler has hired five of them. Two guard the front

doors, one patrols the grounds, one guards the servants’

entrance, and one patrols the upstairs corridor.

However, you should feel free to use them whenever

you need to add some tension to your game. These

guards aren’t automatons, and to be honest they aren’t

very good guards. They will leave their posts, go for a

smoke or a slash, and investigate noises that may not

have been real. Have one stomp towards the PCs

whenever it would add to the mood.

First Floor

A single guard patrols the hallway on this floor,

walking from the stairwell to the far end, pausing and

returning. Several times during the night he will visit

the toilet and also duck into the bathroom, open a

window and have a smoke. The hall is lit with torches,

but there are deep enough pools of shadow to hide in at

the stairwell and the corner next to the bathroom door.

Library

Around a reading table are shelves of books. Most are

legal tomes, although there is a large section on

military history and a few books on other topics as

well. Not one of the books is about art. A Search Test

reveals that a copy of Doktor Brauer’s Book of Fable

and Fancy Volume I conceals a switch that opens a

secret room. This room contains a set of dark green

robes hanging from a hook, and a shelf of proscribed

books about Chaos. There is also a box that anyone

with Pick Lock can open (don’t bother testing unless

they are in a rush, simply assume they will open it

eventually). It contains correspondence between Judge

Sundler and someone who signs his letters Doktor K.

The letters make it plain that Doktor K visits the judge

whenever he is in town, and contain several polite

enquiries about how well “the cure I gave you” is

working. Oddly, some of them also mention how “the

Main Profile

WS BS S T Ag Int WP Fel

3 6% 27% 31% 30% 43% 29% 30% 35%

Secondary Profile

A W SB TB M Mag IP FP

1 11 3 3 4 0 0 0

Skills: Blather, Common Knowledge (the Empire,

Tilea), Dodge Blow, Drive, Gamble, Gossip

+10%, Perception, Secret Language (Battle

Tongue), Speak Language (Tilean, Reikspiel)

Talents: Coolheaded, Disarm, Marksman, Rapid

Reload, Sharpshooter

Armour: Medium Armour (Full Leather Armour, Mail

Shirt, and Mail Coif)

Armour Points: Head 3, Arms 1, Body 3, Legs 1

Weapons: Crossbow, Sword, Shield

Trapping: 20 Bolts, Long Cloak, Fancy Hat

The Guards

Esposito’s Escorts are a Tilean mercenary company

who hire themselves out as bodyguards. Each of the

members has a stylised tattoo of a Harpy on their

cheeks, which marks them as citizens of Tobaro to

anyone with the Common Knowledge (Tilea) Skill.

The Escorts have fallen on hard times, and would

prefer to be waging proper war rather than guarding

Imperials, but their numbers were thinned by the

Storm of Chaos and they need to raise money to

return home and increase their numbers (Esposito

refuses to hire foreigners). Although they are skilled

combatants, their hearts are not in their work, and

they can be bribed by a quick-witted burglar into

looking the other way. If attacked they will not fight

to the death, running after they lose half their

Wounds.

Sundler has hired five of them. Two guard the front

doors, one patrols the grounds, one guards the

servants’ entrance, and one patrols the upstairs

corridor. However, you should feel free to use them

whenever you need to add some tension to your

game. These guards aren’t automatons, and to be

honest they aren’t very good guards. They will leave

their posts, go for a smoke or a slash, and investigate

noises that may not have been real. Have one stomp

towards the PCs whenever it would add to the mood.

Main Profile

WS BS S T Ag Int WP Fel

36% 27% 31% 30% 43% 29% 30% 35%

Secondary Profile

A W SB TB M Mag IP FP

1 11 3 3 4 0 0 0

Skills: Blather, Common Knowledge (the Empire,

Tilea), Dodge Blow, Drive, Gamble, Gossip

+10%, Perception, Secret Language (Battle

Tongue), Speak Language (Tilean,

Reikspiel)

Talents: Coolheaded, Disarm, Marksman, Rapid

Reload, Sharpshooter

Armour: Medium Armour (Full Leather Armour,

Mail Shirt, and Mail Coif)

Armour Points: Head 3, Arms 1, Body 3, Legs 1

Linen Closet

“It weren’t your fault, Frieda. You weren’t to know the

master’s so particular about not having anybody but

him in the basement. He shouldn’t ought to have hit

you so hard, but now you’ll now not to do it again,

won’t you? The master has his funny ways, you’ll soon

get used to them.”

This room contains piles of sheets (that conveniently

muffle the landing of anyone who enters by leaping

through the window from the tree outside) and several

full buckets of night-soil, which is to say, excrement.

The atrocious smell keeps away the moths. When all of

the buckets are full they are emptied out the window,

which is perhaps why the tree grows so well.

Indoor Courtyard

Master Bedroom

This extravagance is a tiled area with rows of Tilean-

style columns surrounding a pool of clear water. The

water’s appearance is not to be trusted, however.

Anyone immersed in or drinking from the water must

pass a Toughness Test or contract the Green Pox (see

WFRP 136).

This bedroom can be entered by the open window, with

two Scale Sheer Surface Tests, or from the corridor. No

one is in the room, which contains a lavish canopy bed

(all those years campaigning gave Ignatius a taste for a

soft bed), a cupboard, chest of drawers and a foot

locker. The foot locker (which is locked) contains a

pouch of 42 gc 5 s —walking-around money. The

clothing in the cupboard contains some valuable items

that would be almost impossible to smuggle out of the

building given their size (the judge is a big man). The

chest of drawers contains jewellery worth 50 gc and a

Search Test will turn up a gold ring that has fallen

underneath the bed worth 20 gc .

Parlour

A room for entertaining guests, the parlour contains a

grand piano, a small table with a chess set on it (the

pieces are made of ivory and the set is worth 50 gc ),

and a drawer containing several bottles of alcohol

(Brettonian brandy: 13 s , Miraglianese red wine: 10 s ,

Kislevite vodka: 1 s ), and a box of Araby cigars worth

10 gc .

Guest Bedroom

A door leads from here to the hallway.

The guest bedroom contains a bed, some simple

furnishings and no valuables whatsoever.

Dining Room

Ka-ching!

The values given for items are the full price. A

typical fence will give half of this value if you’re

lucky. Haggle Tests can improve the price, as

usual.

There is a long table with seating for eight in the dining

room. On the table is a silver candelabrum worth 10 gc .

There are no cutlery or settings on the table, and it does

not look like it has been used tonight. Doors lead to the

kitchen and courtyard.

Basement

Ground Floor

Armoury

Kitchen

Ignatius keeps a variety of weapons from his soldiering

days as well as some collectable items locked in a

display cabinet. A Normal Pick Lock Test will open

the cabinet, but those in a hurry can smash the glass

instead. Inside is a longsword with the maker’s mark of

Magnin (Best Craftsmanship), a plate helmet and

breastplate made by Fellhammer (Best Craftsmanship),

and a Hochland long rifle. On the rack is a halberd

from Nuln, two Reikland rapiers, and an axe and shield

from Tilea. A set of full mail armour stands on a

dummy, and like the armour in the cabinet, it is

designed with the larger gentleman in mind.

The kitchen contains a stove, water basin, various pots

and pans hanging from the ceiling, and a well-stocked

pantry. In a draw is a silver cutlery set worth 15 gc .

Doors lead outside, to the dining room, and to the

servants’ quarters. The sound of sobbing can be heard

coming from the servants’ quarters.

Servants’ Quarters

These two rooms are very bare, containing only two

beds each and small drawers for the servants’

possessions (which are worthless). The male servants’

room is at the back. The occupants are asleep, so the

Silent Move Test to pass safely through this room is

Very Easy (+30%). Anyone in this room, the kitchen,

or the stairwell, can overhear quiet sobbing coming

from the women’s quarters next door. Listening at the

wall (Very Easy Perception Test) reveals one of the

maids comforting another.

Storage Room

Barrels of wine take up most of this room, except for a

gap in the middle housing the Apotheosis , mounted on

a display easel. The painting depicts Ranald kneeling

before Shallya. She weeps into a golden cup that she

holds forth for Ranald to drink from. He is shown with

sores and plague marks prominent on his skin, but

behind his back, his fingers are crossed in the

Ranaldian way, indicating that he is pulling a scam. A

successful Academic Knowledge (Art) Test reveals

that this is no forgery, da Venzio’s signature is

authentic.

Main Profile

WS BS S T Ag Int WP Fel

67% 55% 55% 52% 49% 47% 58% 53%

Secondary Profile

A W SB TB M Mag IP FP

3 18 5 5 4 0 0 0

Skills: Academic Knowledge (History, Law,

Strategy/Tactics), Animal Care, Blather,

Charm, Command, Common Knowledge

(Dwarfs, the Empire +10%, Tilea), Dodge

Blow, Evaluate, Gossip +10%, Haggle,

Intimidate, Perception, Performer (Actor),

Read/Write, Ride, Secret Language (Battle

Tongue), Speak Language (Reikspiel, Tilean)

Talents: Ambidextrous, Coolheaded, Disarm,

Lightning Parry, Master Orator, Menacing,

Public Speaking, Schemer, Specialist Weapon

Group (Fencing, Flail, Parrying, Two-handed),

Street Fighting, Streetwise, Strike Mighty

Blow, Strike to Injure, Strike to Stun

The only practical way to remove it is to cut it out of

the frame and roll it up. Strange noises can be heard

coming from the next room. It sounds like a chorus of

voices all moaning in alternating agony and pleasure,

and is unsettling to say the least.

The Cure’s Room

The cure squats in this room, stretching up to touch the

ceiling. It’s an amorphous blob of greenish flesh

covered in mouths filled with rotting teeth. Justice

Ignatius is in the room, bare-chested with several

visible sores, taking care of the cure. He strokes it, pets

it, and kisses its many mouths evoking sighs and

groans from them. As he does so the sores slowly

pucker closed and heal. Viewing this requires a Cool

Test, those who fail gain d10 Insanity Points while

those who pass gain only one. Even a glimpse through

the keyhole requires a Test.

The Cure

The cure began as a fist-sized green ball created by

Doctor K and given to Sundler when he thought all was

lost. All Sundler had to do was kiss and massage the

Cure for several minutes every day and he would be

assured of an end to his suffering. Sundler was

sceptical, but desperate. And it worked. Although the

plague marks periodically return, he suffers none of the

other effects and he has lived years he thought he’d

never had.

The judge is so busy with his ministrations that he will

not immediately notice if he is no longer alone.

High Imperial Justice Ignatius Sundler

Career: Politician (ex-Judicial Champion, ex-Captain,

ex-Sergeant, ex-Soldier)

Race: Human

Over that time the cure grew as it fed off the disease it

absorbed. Now it is an oval ten-feet long and five-feet

high, covered in mewling mouths. It continues to grow.

Unknown to Sundler the Cure will eventually become

mobile, growing insectile legs and bursting out of his

basement to wander the streets vomiting plague. Until

that day, Sundler serves the Covenant, owing them his

life. When he thinks twice about the things they ask

him to do, all they need to do is remind him of the

monstrosity in his basement and how the Witch

Hunters would react if they ever found it.

While Sundler is administering to the Cure he is in a

mild hypnagogic state. For a few moments after he

notices the presence of intruders he will be disoriented,

asking who they are and what is going on. If he is

broken out of this state by being attacked he will

angrily attack them. If they leave him an opening he

will run past them into the armoury and grab one of the

weapons to defend himself, calling for his idiotic

guards as he does so. Two guards arrive on the third

round, and one every round thereafter (up to the

maximum of five, unless some have been detained by

the PCs already).

If attacked, the Cure screams but cannot defend itself.

However, blows have little effect on it. If pierced, the

green skin reveals only ooze beneath, and reseals

quickly. Only fire can harm it, and if burned it squeals

horrendously but cannot escape.

If he is gently questioned while in his confused state,

the PCs can get answers to their questions. The Cure

groans and mutters behind Sundler while he talks, a

disturbing choral counterpoint. Sundler absent-

mindedly pets the thing, staring vacantly and drooling

slightly. He can explain in simple terms what the Cure

is and where he got it from, who the Covenant are and

that it was them who wanted him to procure the

painting.

The Climax

Worse Than the Disease has been left open-ended so

that you can tailor it to your own ends. It may reach a

conclusion as simple as ‘The PCs get the painting,

ignore the disgusting sight in the cure’s room, and

scarper.’ Zealous Chaos-haters may well attack Sundler

on sight, then burn down the townhouse and flee.

Cautious PCs may wish to turn the situation over to the

authorities, though they will have to be clever to

explain how they came to be sneaking around to

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