They say that where D&D has adventure, WFRP has comedy and tragedy. So far, most of the scenarios reviewed have been heavy on the former. The Eye of Sigmar by Dan Cole looks at the latter.
The tragedy in this case is in the form of Herman, a passionate Witch Hunter with a terrible secret: he can see the Winds of Magic due to a mutation in his right eye. The adventure promises that the PCs will come to know his shameful secret and as such, hold the fate of the man in their hands. Unfortunately, actually evincing this drama from the text is somewhat problematic.
The PCs come across Herman and his friends on any road you might imagine. Herman's friends are basically a PC group by any other name - a bunch of psychos well into their third careers. There's a priest of Sigmar, complete with hammer and shaved head, a crazed Flagellant with a stutter and very scar-crossed Judicial Champion. The Witch Hunter genially suggests the PCs travel with his group to the nearby temple of Sigmar, in return for which they will get a note from the priest outlining the gratefulness of the Sigmarite church.
If they chat along the way, the PCs may notice that the Witch Hunter is carrying some big books and that the Judicial Champion works for money more than faith. Although neither of these are particularly unusual, Mr Cole seems to think they will prompt curiosity at least, and are major clues to uncovering the Witch Hunter's secret. Eventually, the temple is reached and the Witch Hunter generally acts like a jerk, giving everyone else orders and treating the NPCs like children.
At one point, he seems highly cognisant of what is inside the temple (a Bray Shaman with some magic ready) and goes inside to deal with the big bad himself. Not only is this exceedingly annoying pet-NPC behaviour, but again, Cole thinks it is a strong hint that Herman can see through walls. The possibility of him seeing through a window is not discussed.
Apparently, all of these pointers are supposed to inspire the PCs to, that night, steal Herman's diary and read it, and thus stumble onto the entry where he confesses his terrible curse. Apart from being a kill-stealer, he has done nothing to justify this, and any game where the GM has to go out of his way to mention THE SPOOKY BOOKS to get the PCs to nick them is not one that will be dripping with subtlety. Which means that any chance of drama over having to decide what to do with the knowledge will evaporate.
What follows is a potentially interesting scene where the PCs realise that they can't fight all four of the NPCs and trying to decide who they can turn to their own side, and how. Thanks to the detailed character notes at the start, this could produce some good roleplaying. However, it is so wildly unlikely that the PCs will ever discover the secret under any kind of standard behaviour (let alone care about it that much, since they have no reason to like the character in question) that this scene will either never happen in a game or be farcical when it does.
In short, Herman and his curse are interesting but the adventure presented provides no real means, motive or opportunity to find out about it, or care about it. Which leaves its short 13 pages rather pointless and empty. Comedy is absent; tragedy is in short supply; wise readers will look elsewhere.
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