Guards? Guards! -- Altdorf City Watch

As you step into the dimly lit great room of the watch barracks, you just manage to catch the last of the gossip flying back and forth between the dirt-caked men who lounge around on chairs that probably haven't been cleaned since they were dumped here. A clamor of rough voices washes over you,

"Bet they don't last more than a month, Percy saw them on the way in and said they looked like they had a bath no more than a week ago"

"I miss the old Lieutenant, yeah he was crooked as my nan's back, but at least he was happy enough for everyone to get their own"

"How do you think this one bites it? Shived with a rusty knife? Eaten by a mutant? Drowned in the river is always a solid bet"

"Nah I reckon something but more exotic, maybe shot in the head during a duel with a former flame"

"SILENCE", one of the sergeants standing toward the front of the Hall finally shouts out, before turning to you with a sheepish grin, "Sorry [SIR?/MAAM?], the lads have gotten a little rowdy without any real command for the past few months, you want to introduce yourself?"

Clearing your throat, you give a brief overview of your history

You are a:
Former Soldier: You were born the sixth child of a poor peasant family, with no hope of ever seeing land of your own. As soon as you could you joined the Army of the Riekland, and served there for more than a decade, fighting against greenskins, beastmen, and occasional Brettonion border raids. It all went wrong when you were tasked with leading your men to rescue a fool noble who had decided to go hunting deep within greenskin infested forests. You and he were the only survivors, and as "thanks" you received a commission to the city Watch:

• Pros:
  • Military Connections: Typically the Watch makes do with whatever surplus military supplies they can get, and shoves them into the hands of whoever is desperate enough to join. You could change that.
  • Reikland's Pride: Reikland prides itself on having the strongest army in the Empire, and prizes its soldiers and heroes. High natural reputation and trust with Altdorf's peasants and burghers.
  • Accomplished Warrior: Your decades in the army have honed you into a fine warrior, and accomplished leader. Bonus on rolls involving combat and leadership.
• Cons:
  • Peasant Background: You come from a small farming village, and you never received much education before enlisting. You can't read and will struggle with any knowledge-based checks.
  • Newcomer: You have recently arrived in Altdorf and have little knowledge of the city or its residents. You are also painfully naive about the types of scams and thieves common to the area.
  • Caring: You were known to genuinely care about the fate of the men under your command and tried your best to see them kept safe and rewarded. In the city of Altdorf there is no question this will be used against you.

Wastrel Noble: Growing up as the child of a prominent Riekland noble you never wanted for anything. You were dressed in the finest clothes, had servants to attend to your every need, and had access to whatever games and entertainment you desired. Over time, this excess turned to drink, carousing, and ended in disaster when you managed to drunkenly seduce a distant relative of the Unfähiger dynasty while pretending Bretonnian Knight. When you were discovered the next morning still in bed with her, disowning you was all your father could do to try and prevent you from being killed in a duel of honor. Still, some old connections were pulled, and a commission in the Watch was quickly secured:

• Pros
  • Noble: You may no longer be your father's heir, but you are still a noble. The doors of judges, priests, and other nobles will be open to you in a way that would be impossible for anyone without your status
  • Smooth Talker: You may never have learned stewardship, logistics, fencing, or any of the myriad other skills your father paid for but your years of partying and debauchery made you a deft hand at getting into and out of awkward social situations. Advantage on any diplomacy or social roles
  • Well Educated: Unlike most of the Empire's citizens you received a formal education. You are literate and know the basic history of the Empire, its cults, and surrounding polities.
• Cons:
  • Wastrel Noble: You have never had any real interest in having a job, and this is just a stopover until you can wiggle your way out of your current situation. Less free actions to pursue goals than other background choices.
  • Weak Survival Skills: Why train when you'll always have guards to keep you safe? Well, that's what you always said when you had guards. Now that you don't, and you are on your own, you're rethinking your stance.
  • Powerful Enemies: Just because your father disowned you doesn't mean that the slate is wiped clean. They may not be able to get at you through official means but expect some bumps in the night.

Watchman: You come from the masses of partial citizens that make up the majority of Altdorf's residents, without much education, luck, or chance of success. Somehow you managed to secure a posting within the city watch, and over time clawed your way up to senior patrolman, and eventually watch sergeant. You've scrimped and saved, done too many favors that you know will come back to haunt you and just barely managed to stay ahead of your debts and secure this role:

• Pros:
  • Institutional Loyalty: Your fellow watchmen know what a momentous feat it was to claw your way up to this position, and offer equal respect and fear for the cunning and brutality you must have employed. Higher initial morale, and bonuses on any social checks involving members of the watch
  • Secret Keeper: You've had to get your hands plenty dirty to get where you are, and in the process your eyes have been opened to the naked corruption of the City. You know who's crooked and who's not, who's palms can be greased by a penny and who will demand a crown, and where a mountain of corpses are buried.
  • Gossipmonger: You have a wide range of friends, informants, and contacts throughout the city. 3/4 times you will be able to find a contact to pass information, find you a rare resource, or find the location of someone. On the other hand, these relationships go both ways, and people will call in these favors
• Cons:
  • Crooked Copper: You have sold your soul many, many times to keep your position and advance in the watch. You've maintained a careful balance of favors and relationships so far, but they will come calling now that you are a Lieutenant
  • Flat Broke: You come from no money, and you've spent every single bent copper you've ever touched to get this role. Even that wasn't enough, and in the end you had to borrow far too much from some characters you know are not to be crossed. You need to start repaying your debts as soon as possible unless you want to end up face-down in the river
  • Ignorant: You are from the slums of Altdorf and received no formal education. You can't read or write and have little knowledge of academic subjects, or the world outside of the city.

Burgher: Your family has taken advantage of the reunification of the Empire, and has slowly grown a widespread network spanning its many rivers. Now, however, you are rapidly running into the limits of a young merchant house. Every time you try to challenge a major merchant, you find your efforts stymied through the guilds, through the Watch, through a noble claiming your goods as contraband. You, a younger sibling of the current house heir are an experiment in expanding the family's influence into the legal field

• Pros
  • Well Financed: Your family is heavily invested in ensuring your success in your new role. You will receive an allowance from your family to pursue your personal goals, with the chance to receive a larger investment if you prove the value of your role. Access to your family's riverine trade networks will aid in securing access to rare equipment and items.
  • Merchant Training: Merchants have to be some of the best-educated commoners in the Empire: you were taught your sums, to read and write, and have a basic understanding of other languages: Bretoniaon, Tilean, and Kislevarinin.
  • Mercenary Contacts: Merchants are used to hiring mercenaries and adventurers to protect them and solve their problems. You will have a 3/4 chance to find common mercenaries to solve problems for you, without leaning on your Watch command
• Cons
  • Familial Obligations: Your commission was explicitly purchased to boost your family's position within the guild system. Expect to turn a blind eye to some smuggling, and requests to put pressure on your family's rivals.
  • Familial Rivals: Of course, your family's rivals will be watching your progress warily, and you can expect sabotage or worse if you show even a hint of success within your role.
  • No Martial Training: No merchant of the Empire is truly helpless, the risk of bandits, mutants, and monsters is simply too high. However, few are particularly skilled in arms, and you are no exception. You will have to rely heavily on your men to protect you, as you have a disadvantage in combat

With your introduction out of the way, and your new patrolmen still looking dubiously at you, the mood in the filth-caked great hall grows rowdier. The same sergeant that introduced you tries to tamp down on the rampant betting on your demise by cuffing heads and shouting insults so specific and vulgar that they make even you blush.

Turning back to you he says, "They might not seem like much, but I assure you they are significantly worse than you would imagine. We have people on the take of the Hooks, the Fish, and at least three outlawed cults. You'll have your work cut out for you with trying to shape these louts into something even vaguely competent"

Frowning, you consider his words, and the wary respect that all the watchmen seem to have for him. Whatever arrangements he has, or blackmail he knows, you suspect he will not be eager to part with or disrupt.

This is a make-or-break opportunity for you. All of your remaining funds and connections were tied up in acquiring this commission -- and as you quickly realized when negotiating with representatives of the Commander of the Watch -- you are now a small fish in a very big pond. Your attempts to get a commission in a good neighborhood immediately fell flat. Grand Market? Controlled by a relative of the Prince. Turmgarten? They laughed in your face when you suggested it. Even a relatively innocuous district like Flottenliegplatz was priced far outside of your means.

In the end, it came down to a choice between three of Altdorf's worst neighborhoods, each of which you never would have imagined being your commission within the City Watch.

Ogasse: The only option available to you on the prosperous and powerful South Bank of the city, this formerly prosperous neighborhood has descended into crime and squalor. Partially at least, this fall was hastened by the neglect the Watch has shown the area. Every time someone suggests an improvement for the area, the required funds are inevitably spent on Ogasse's much more prosperous and influential neighbors. Still however, there are plenty of law-abiding citizens, particularly TIlean immigrants, who have made their homes here, and if the crime is dealt with the area could rapidly improve

• Neighbors: Krankenfeld (Home of a temple of Shayalla, South Gate), Sudkuste (Wealthy district on the river)
• Pros:
  • Prominent: It's just a fact that the rich and powerful of the city pay far more attention to the goings on of what they consider the "proper city" or the South Bank than they do anywhere else in the city. It will be easier to gain reputation and fame here
  • Safe and Stable: No part of Altdorf is free of crime, but the South Bank is safer than most parts. You're unlikely to be mugged during the day, and the gangs have a relatively light footprint in the area.
  • Rich: Compared to the rest of the areas you are offered, Ogasse is by far the wealthiest up front, meaning a strong influx of shillings right up front for you and your soldiers
• Cons
  • Prominent: Because of the South Bank's prominence, every political striver in the Watch is also stationed here. It will be harder to advance, and many of these other lieutenants and captains will be more than willing to call in favors to break the knees of a potential competitor
  • Testy Mercenaries: As benefits the Tilean district of the city, this is the city's preeminent recruitment ground for mercenaries. Recently, with the brewing conflict with Parrovon, more mercenaries are funneling in causing problems
  • The Old Faith: Garden Hill is one of the few remaining holy sites for adherents of the Old Faith, and a stable population of adherents lives nearby and visits it's standing stones. The local Sigmarites have proscribed these practices, and religious based conflict is frequent

Riekerbahn: Once this neighborhood was the financial heart of the city, with nearly every riverine shipment using its docks to transport goods. Over time, as the rest of the East Side slowly slid into neglect and poverty, merchants slowly shifted to using newer docks on the North and South Bank. Now, this neighborhood is almost completely controlled by the Fish, and the number one source of contraband entering the city. What residents do remain live in rundown tenements, barely scraping by

• Neighbors: Isle of Eels, SchlectLaden (Best neighborhood in Eastend!)
• Pros:
  • Low Oversight: The Watch has basically no presence in the Docks and any semblance of order you can provide will be regarded as an accomplishment. For the more shady Watch lieutenants, there are plenty of opportunities to establish them as a singular source of authority
  • Docks are Docks: Currently, the area's docks are primarily used for smuggling contraband, but as the city grows the city's merchants are constantly in search of more, and cheaper dock space. If you could somehow clean them up, a tremendous amount of money could be made by providing security
  • Easy Recruitment: The slums of Riekerbahn are filled with the most wretched, desperate dregs of humanity. In other words the only people willing to sign up for the Watch.
• Cons:
  • DANGER: the East End is the most dangerous district in the city, and Riekerbahn is dangerous even by those standards. The Fish control the area, so don't hold out much hope for Watch reinforcements
  • Apathy: The councils of Altdorf have mostly given up on the district, and view any further investment as wasted crowns. Expect extreme difficulty securing any assistance from the Watch.
  • Hostile Population: Every watch officer ever posted here has had to be outrageously corrupt to find some way of coexisting with the gangs, and at this point, the people of the district trust the Fish more than they trust the watch. Long uphill slog to make the district trust you.

TOTENINSEL: The Watch only maintains a token representation on this island of the dead, ceding almost all authority to the Cult of Morr's Black Templars. Few come here voluntarily, scuttling on and off the island to attend a funeral or provide for the needs of the Morrite temple. Crime here is sparse, but as the site of the Watches body dump and burn site, you may have some influence and knowledge of the whole city

• Neighbors: Fishmarkt and Grandmarkt
• Pros
  • North Bank: The primary reason to take this posting is simply that it's the only commission on the up-and-coming North Back you could afford. The university, main markets, Colleges of Magic, and economic Heart of the city are all nearby, and you may be able to spread your influence there more easily
  • Body Bank: The Altdorf City Watch finds a distressing number of bodies every week, and almost all of them end up here. You will quickly gain connections with other Watch officers across the city and may be the first to notice a city-wide trend based on the intake of bodies
  • Morrite Influence: The Morrites may not be the most powerful cult, but everyone does respect them. Who after all wants to see their recently deceased loved one come back as the thrall of a foul necromancer? Being so close to their centers of power m may grant you influence and insight few have.
• Cons:
  • Isle of the Dead: Simply put, there are very few living residents of the island, and accordingly few opportunities for an entrepreneurial officer to make much money.
  • Reputational Risk: No one wants to think of death, and by association, no one wants to think of those who deal with the dead. You will find it much harder to build a solid reputation with this posting.
  • Necromancers: Trying to raise the island's dead is the very first thing that every wanna-be necromancer does when they get their hands on an artifact of Nagash. None make it very far with the Black Templars on hand but they have a bad tendency of killing the guards on duty before they're stopped. Hard to keep guards for long, and hard to recruit as well

Notes
I got suckered into buying the Warhammer fantasy Humble Bundle, and quickly got the itch to do some roleplaying in its universe. Unfortunately, I'm running a long-running ttrpg campaign, and don't want to blow it up, so here I am writing a quest for the first time.

My biggest goal is to try out a new quest mechanic focused on squad management and soldier progression -- aka Xcom — which I feel quests are uniquely suited to versus traditional TTRPGS. You will try to keep control over your district, advance your soldiers, and work to unlock new equipment, support, and training. Of course, it's Warhammer, so expect the world to fight back hard at any hint of progress. Want to buy new equipment? How much do you trust your quartermaster to handle large chunks of money? Want to stop merchants from being harassed? The gangs are powerful and more than willing to hit back. Get too successful? Someone will resent you moving past them and try to ruin you.

SV, can you resist the inevitable tides of corruption and chaos?

Good Luck!


Minutia:
This quest will be set during the realm of Dieter the IV, as so much of that mad man's reign focuses on events within the city, and rising tensions with Nuln. However! Do not expect events to necessarily progress as expected, as your actions in Altdorf will have a wide-ranging impact on the many events of the era. In addition, I'll be following GWs own approach to cannon: try my best to follow along, and then invent some ridiculous special case for when I inevitably contradict myself!

Please vote in plan format for:
- Gender
- Name
- Background
- Watch Location

I owe a great deal to Boney and Toaoars Quests, and all of the other Warhammer fantasy media I have consumed over the years.

Character Sheet:
Wounds 10/12




Finances:

Squad Tracker:
SEE LINKED GOOGLE SHEET

This squad tracker is designed to play much of the role the squad management screens in XCOM do, showing you exactly what training your soldiers have, as well as what relevant abilities and equipment they have access to. Of course, right now you have little idea of any of this, which is why almost all these fields are marked blank with a ???. As you take actions to learn your squads better, these will be filled in by me to the best of my ability, but if anything seems missing or wrong please let me know and I will fix it.

A quick rundown of the various skills:
- WS: Weapon Skill, or ability in melee combat.
- BS: Ballistic Skill, or ability to shoot a bow or gun.
- S: Strength
- T: Toughness, or how able they are to shrug off wounds
- W: Wounds, normally one for most humans
- I: Initative, or how fast and nimble they are.
- A: Attacks, or how often they can attack in a round.
- LD: Leadership or how brave they are.