The curse of the crimson pirate, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
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Fan Material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : The Curse of the Crimson Pirate
THE CURSE
OF THE
CRIMSON PIRATE
Written by Simon Crowe
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Fan Material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : The Curse of the Crimson Pirate
P
LOT
S
UMMARY
Buildings:
Around 40, mostly houses with a
few shops and an inn. A few farm buildings are
scatted around. Half the buildings in the village
are run down with broken roofs, rotting wood
and other signs of being poorly maintained.
Easily notable in the village is a two-story
mansion, larger than any other building in
Halpstadt, though it is also in similarly bad
shape. This is owned by the Stotter brothers
who own a lot of the land and buildings in and
around the village.
Religion:
There is a shrine to Sigmar in the
centre of the village but no temples or priests.
Government:
No-one is formally in charge of
Halpstadt, the village has no Mayor or leader.
Any matters of law are settled by travelling
judges or priests.
Healing:
Frida, one of the elder women in the
village is willing to offer healing to travellers for
a few coins (treat this as Int 35 with Heal
(+10%), and access to Healing Poultices for 1
silver)
The people of Halpstadt live in fear. A few
weeks ago the ghost of Valamir the Crimson, an
evil pirate burned in the village many years ago,
returned and began haunting the lands around
the village. However when the PCs investigate
they will find that the haunting never really took
place, it was all a trick designed by the local
landlords to keep the villagers from investigating
a slaver band operating in the area.
GM’
S
I
NTRODUCTION
The following adventure is designed to be fitted
in to most campaigns, of any level of PC. The
adventure is set in the village of Halpstadt which
for the purpose of this write up is located in the
Empire not far from Altdorf. However it is simple
for the GM to set the adventure in villages
elsewhere in the Empire and the wider Old
World with a few simple changes to place
names.
A
RRIVAL
The style of the adventure is gothic horror. The
sun shines weakly in the clouded sky, at night
Morrslieb grins down at the PCs. Villagers
huddle in their homes scared of ghostly
happenings. In the forests strange sounds echo
through the trees. The GM is encouraged to add
as much gothic detail as he can to enhance the
dark mood of the adventure.
Halpstadt is very quiet as the PCs enter. A few
locals are around, but most seem to be moving
rapidly to their homes, glancing around fearfully.
A few pause as they catch sight of the PCs, but
then hurry on after a second. The village seems
fairly run down. Quite a few of the buildings are
in various states of disrepair, and one small
home appears to have collapsed completely.
Many of those that are in better shape also
have planks of wood nailed over the windows.
Most have symbols scratched or painted on
their doors.
Generally PCs will be travelling by road. The
PCs enter Halpstadt in the evening, making is
impractical to travel any further or be forced to
travel through the night. The adventure
therefore begins when the PCs decide to stay in
the village.
An easy (+20%) Common Knowledge (Empire
or Religion) can be made. Those that pass
identify the symbols as Sigmarite marks, which
are painted on doors to ward off evil.
Halpstadt
At this point, if the PCs try talking to the
villagers anyone they approach quickly
disappears into their home and shuts the door.
Attempts at talk are quickly rebutted.
Population:
Approx 150
Location:
A few days north-East of Altdorf.
Surrounding area:
Halpstadt sits in the
Drakwald, close to Altdorf.. Around the village
the few fields give way to the forest. To the
north the land becomes more hilly and rocky.
Trades:
Most of Halpstadt has little to offer an
adventurer. There is no blacksmith or general
trader. The few shops all are used to sell food to
the other villagers. A few fields grow crops and
hold livestock, and men fish from nearby
streams. The only place to drink and stay in the
village is the inn, The Burning Man.
The PCs will be looking for somewhere to stay,
and will easily come across the village inn at the
centre of the village. Lights shine from frosted
windows but it sounds fairly quiet inside. A sign
above the doorway creaks in the wind, the
image upon it of a man being burned at the
stake. Beneath this image, in peeling paint, are
the words ‘The Burning Man’.
Upon opening the door all talk and movement
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Fan Material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : The Curse of the Crimson Pirate
inside the inn cease. If the PCs enter the few men
inside appear to be frozen, staring at the doorway
with fear on their faces. Then they seem relieved,
and go back to hushed conversations or their
drinks. A tall, gaunt looking man nods at the PCs
from behind the bar.
+10%, to a maximum of 2 drinks per villager (too
many more than that just gets them drunk).
Once a test has been passed the villager
questioned will down his pint slam it on the table
and announce in a despairing voice. “The
Crimson Pirate has returned, and he’s here to
take our souls!”
T
HE
B
URNING
M
AN
I
NN
Once this announcement is made it is though a
flood gate has been opened and all the other inn
patrons become willing to talk, and most of them
want to make sure what they know is heard.
Therefore once the PCs ask the villager who
made the announcement for more information the
others will all join in with various comments. In
addition should the PCs mention the Crimson
Pirate to any other villagers they will immediately
have a comment on the subject, even the
previously quiet Heinrich.
The Burning Man is run by Heinrich Kohl and his
wife Rosemary and is also staffed by their 13
year old son Hans. Heinrich is a tall, thin man
who mans the bar whilst the plumper Rosemary
cooks in the kitchen and sots out the rooms
above. Hans helps out his mother and also tends
to horses and the stables around back. The Inn is
named after the famous burning of the pirate
Valamir the Crimson in the village (though
Heinrich initially will not reveal this if asked).
The inn has a common room which can be slept
in for 4p per night per person, and two small,
currently empty, private rooms which can each fit
one person for 5s for the night. Lodging is of
average quality. If the PCs need horses stabled
then this will cost 2p per horse, and Heinrich will
despatch his son Hans. The Burning Man mostly
sells local ale for 2p per pint but also has a
handful of wines and spirits for 2s per bottle. A
tasty rabbit pie is on offer for dinner for 3p
breakfast of bread and cheese is 1p. If any
cooking is to be done Heinrich will shout to
Rosemary in the kitchen.
The trouble for the PCs is that whilst every man in
the villager has a grasp of the very basics of what
is happening and how it relates to events that
happened many years ago they do not know all
the facts and are all taken with adding wild
exaggerations and embellishments to the tale. As
no villagers were alive when the events in
question happened none are in full possession of
the facts. All villagers know the following (which is
true):
“Seventy years ago a dreaded pirate known as
Valamir the Crimson sailed up river with his
murderous crew and found himself deep in the
heart of the Empire. He came across Halpstadt
and terrorised us! When the witch hunters caught
and burned him he cursed our village, claiming he
would return to claim our souls for his evil god.
Now his ghost has been seen stalking the fields.
Two of our folk have disappeared already and
now we all live in fear.”
Currently few people in the village like to be out
late so the inn is fairly empty. Heinrich will
therefore be as accommodating as he can to the
PCs if only to get some pennies off them.
If asked about why the bar is empty, or where the
people look so afraid Heinrich will clam up and
mutter that he ‘ain’t seen nothing’. Others have
seen things, but not him. He will gesture to the
inn’s current patrons as though the PCs should
ask them.
In addition most villagers will know a few other
facts, which they will tell the PCs if they ask.
The ghost was first seen two weeks ago, and
since then has been spotted most nights.
It only appears at night, and currently has not
been seen in the villager itself only the
surrounding fields and hills.
T
HE
R
UMOURS
The inn patrons, all local villagers, are initially
unwilling to discuss what they have seen. They
will try and change the subject very quickly to the
horrible weather they’re having or other such
small talk. A hard (-20%) fellowship test is
required. Each level of charm or gossip (use the
highest) that a character holds adds +10%. Each
drink that a PC buys for a particular villager adds
The two villagers missing are Cedrid, a
woodcutter and Orwin Steiner, a farmer. Both
went missing last week.
Most people are now too scared to be out their
homes after dark.
One of the patrons in the inn, and a number of
other people round the village will have actually
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Fan Material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : The Curse of the Crimson Pirate
seen the ghost (at a distance). They will describe
it along the following lines:
“The pirate’s been sent by Sigmar to punish us
for our sins! Woe is Halpstadt. Woe is us that
have angered the gods so.”
“Terrifying it was to look at! It seemed to shimmer
with a dark red aura as it stalked through the
field. Bigger than a normal man, it swung a
vicious cutlass through the air. When it turned its
head to look at me its eyes burned with fire. I
could not stand to be in its evil presence and fled,
not looking back. I’ve never seen anything so
frightening.”
Of course should the PCs ask if any of the
rumour mongers were alive at the time they will
say no, but they heard it from their cousin’s
friend’s father who was around then. If ask if
anyone in the village was actually alive one NPC
will mention Old Jeb Baer.
J
EB
B
AER’S
T
ALE
However in addition to the facts each villager has
a number of other thoughts on the matter. Some
are true, some are embellishments to make the
story sound for more frightening and some are
just wild figments of the villagers’ imaginations.
Select these from the list below as appropriate (or
make up some wild rumours of your own).
Any villager can point out in which house the
Baer family live. Mathias Baer, a poultry farmer,
lives with his old father Jeb and young daughter
Herwig. Mathias lives in fear of the nights now
Valamir’s ghost has been seen. He believes the
ghost will come for his family, since his father is
the only one still alive at the time of the pirate’s
burning.When the PCs knock they will hear
movement inside the house through the boarded
up windows. After a few seconds will come a
muffled cry of “Who’s there?” After the PCs
persuade a frightened Mathias that they are not
ghostly pirates they will hear the sound of heavy
bars being moved from behind the door. A
nervous looking man will open the door and usher
the PCs quickly in, before quickly slamming the
door and throwing the bars back down.
“Valamir and his crew hid out in an old mine,
somewhere north of here. That’s where they hid
their treasure. I reckon someone’s disturbed the
mine, and that’s why the Crimson Pirate walks
the lands again.”
“His crew used to capture villagers and use them
in blasphemous rituals for a dark god! He took
‘em into the hills but you could still hear the
screams from the village.”
“He had knives instead of fingers. Cut up a man
as soon as look at him.”
The Baers live in a small two room house. In the
main room old Jeb Baer sits in a rocking chair,
young Herwig playing with a doll at his feet. Jeb
will take little persuading to relate his story.
Mathias looks nervous throughout, as though
talking about Valamir will attract the pirate’s
attention. Hedwig meanwhile is rapt and wide
eyed.
“When a murderous thug joined Valamir’s crew
he would eat one of their eyeballs. Gave him
magical powers.”
“Valamir was known as the Scourge of the Sea of
Claws. It was there that he used to terrorise
traders. He would attack ships just for the joy of
killing.”
“Seventy years ago, it was, when the dread pirate
Valamir the Crimson, Scourge of the Sea of
Claws, sailed up river with his crew into the
Empire. Escaping pursuing witch hunters they
came upon our quiet village. They terrorised us
for a month, stealing away men, women and
children and taking them up into the hills. Sold his
soul to a dark god, they say, and the prisoners
were used in horrifying rituals. We hid in our
homes and hoped the pirates wouldn’t claim us.
“The Crimson Pirate he was called, ‘cause fresh
red blood constantly dripped from his jaws.”
“He filed his teeth to points and would bite into a
man and taste his blood. All in the name of an evil
god.”
“His dark god gave him evil powers. He could
stare at a man and make his blood boil. He could
command swarms of rats to attack and devour
men.”
Finally the witch hunters caught up with him and
dragged Valamir and his crew into the square.
The crew were hung on makeshift gibbets but
Valamir was tied to a stake. I was but a boy then
but I still remember the wicked grin on his face as
the men piled wood beneath him. As the fire
started he laughed loud and roared a curse at the
“When the witch hunters caught him and burned
him the smoke turned crimson, and those
watching were filled with horrible visions of
murder and death. It’s said a few of them went
mad after watching that.”
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Fan Material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay : The Curse of the Crimson Pirate
crowd, that he would return to claim us.
to say her husband chased a runaway pig into
the woods five days ago and was never seen
again.
And now he is back.”
If asked for any further details, old Jeb will try and
recollect anything that may be useful. He will
recall the following:
Once the PCs have exhausted any other leads
they should try and find the mine where Valamir
and his pirates were based. If the PCs are not
picking up on this lead make sure gossiping
villagers mention the mine and their theory that
the mine must have been disturbed and Valamir’s
ghost is angry.
“The pirates hid out in an old silver mine, to the
north, north-east of here. It was there that they
took back those they captured, used them in
terrifying rituals. Sometimes you could hear the
screams at night. It also where they kept their
treasure, a great fortune they brought with them.
Many years after Valamir was burned, when I
was a teenager, a few of the villagers went to the
mine in search of the treasure. None of them
returned.”
T
HE
M
INE
The PCs can get directions to the mine from Jeb
or any other villager. A successful routine (+10%)
Follow Trail or Outdoor Survival test means the
journey takes 30 minutes. Failure means the
journey takes an additional D10 x 5 minutes. If
the PCs have decided to try and find the mine
without any directions then it takes them D5
hours.
Jeb has nothing more to say to the PCs that
could be useful. He will deny most of the villagers’
wilder tales, such as Valamir having daggers for
fingers, commanding swarms of rats or constantly
dripping blood. Still he will make sure the PCs
realise that the pirate was still an intently evil man
who found enjoyment in murder, rape and pillage.
The entrance to the mine is in the side of a cliff
face, in a quiet clearing in a forested area of the
hills. Once the entrance was boarded up, but now
the planks have rotted away. Rails, on which
once a mine cart would have moved, run out the
entrance rusted and overgrown. No noise comes
from the entrance other than the occasional drip
of water. Peering inside, all the PCs can see is
darkness.
When they leave the Baer home they can hear
the sound of a heavy bar securing the door
behind them.
O
THER
L
EADS
The PCs may wish to search the areas where the
pirate was seen. These areas are in the fields
and forest edge to the north and east of
Halpstadt. Have them make search or follow trail
rolls, but there is nothing to find. The ghost leaves
no footprints or any other trace. If you wish to
delay the PCs have them find tracks a few days
old leading in and out of the woods which they
can follow for five minutes before reaching a
small clearing of chopped trees. This is simply an
area used for chopping up firewood, nothing
supernatural.
If the PCs decide to check the clearing for any
tracks a straightforward (+10%) follow trail test is
required. If successful tracks can be found in the
mud, human footprints a few days old entering
into the mine, though none come out the
entrance. Attempts to follow the footprints back
are unsuccessful after a minute of following, the
trail lost on an area of rocky ground. The
footprints belong to Ferdinand Viermann, who
belongs to a group of local slavers. He heard that
treasure was to be found in the mine and sought
it out. Using his quick wits he managed to make it
deep into the mine, but not all the way to the
treasure.
The PCs may inquire further about the missing
villagers, Cedrid and Orwin. Cedrid was a
woodcutter with no family who lived in a small
shack on the edge of the forest. He often
wandered into the woods, but has not returned for
over a week which is unusual for him. A search of
his shack reveals nothing except for a mattress,
an axe and a few eating utensils.
See the illustration on the following page for the
mine layout. The following paragraphs refer to the
lettered areas on the mine.
GMs Notes:
Deep into the mine is where Valamir
performed vile rituals to Khaine, god of murder.
The tunnel network became seeped in evil magic,
and this still lingers today. The PCs will hear faint
screams and whispering, have flashes of horrific
images of death and see shadowy figures out of
Orwin Steiner was married to the now distraught
Elsa Steiner. She weeps and begs for the PCs to
find her husband. She offers no clues other than
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