Ahmeen’s Past

(Side Quest)

Ahmeen’s Past - in a comet-shell

  • In this side quest warbands try and solve who is blackmailing Ahmeen the Araby Merchant, into serving the Scorpion Cult with drugs for their rituals.

  • The side quest objectives to Ahmeen’s Past are extortion letters found in scenarios. The letters are light carried items. 

  • Once 2 objectives are gained a player can make a recognition check to see if they can identify who the blackmailer is. For each additional objective a warband secures (without loosing the ones they have) you can make another recognition check.

  • The first warband to make a successful check discovers the blackmailer and completes the side quest.

  • In addition to a Loyalty Point, the victorious warband can choose between relieving Ahmeen from his burden or extorting the merchant themselves.

Ahmeen’s Past (Side Quest)

Ahmeen the Araby merchant did not arrive in Mordheim willingly. The Scorpion Cult, which originated in Araby, had threatened the lives of his relatives if he did not deliver invaluable supplies to the cult in Mordheim to help them with their rituals. Ahmeen carried an identification message with him to the high priestess of the cult in Mordheim which included a drawn picture of Ahmeen to confirm him as the courier.

  But the Scorpion Cult did not stop there. Ahmeen is now being blackmailed to continually supply the cult with drugs (primarily Mad Cap Mushrooms). They threaten to reveal the identification message to the camps of Mordheim which seems to implicate Ahmeen as a scorpion cultist. A sure death sentence. Ahmeen would be forever in the debt of anyone that could help him retrieve the message.

  Warbands which collect an objective to this side quest have obtained an extortion letter to Ahmeen and thus become aware of the merchant’s plight. Each objective is a light carried item that must be held onto until the end of the side quest. If placed into a storage container the objective takes the place of one piece of stored equipment. It turns out that the extortion letters are all written on paper ripped from the back of a single ad poster. The owner of the poster is a miserly scorpion cultist (“Never waste paper! It’s expensive!”) who couldn’t imagine these scraps could be used to uncover the cultist plot. As warbands collect multiple extortion letters they have the chance to guess who is behind Ahmeen’s extortion by piecing together the original poster. Objectives can be collected either from scenarios or stealing them for other warbands.

  Once players have collected at least 2 objectives they can make a Blackmail Recognition Check during Post Battle Sequence #2 (earn settlement rewards). Each time the warband gains a new extortion letter, without loosing those they already have, they can make another check. The first warband to successfully make this roll completes the side quest. They identify who the blackmailer is, arrests them, and retrieves the identification message being used against Ahmeen. Should a warband loose any extortion letters they possess, they cannot make another recognition roll until they collect more objectives than they had when making the previous blackmail recognition check.

Blackmail Recognition Check

Number of Objectives

2

6+

Target Number

3

5+

4

5

4+

3+

automatic success

6

7

2+

Reward

The victorious warband earns 1 Loyalty Point to a settlement of their choice for discovering a Scorpion Cultist hiding amongst them. Additionally the warband can choose what to do with Ahmeen’s Letter from the following two options:

1. Return the message to Ahmeen. Forever grateful, Ahmeen assists you as he knows best. Your warband gains the use of Ahmeen’s Trade: for the rest of the campaign you can add +2 to one search roll for rare items each post battle sequence. The bonus can be added after rolling. This bonus will stack with the Streetwise skill if used in conjunction with a hero who has the skill. Also your warband can reduce the purchase price of a single item, similar to the Haggle skill. The difference being that Ahmeen’s mastery of bargaining reduces the price by 3D6 Gold Crowns (minimum 1 GC) and can be used not only for weapons, armour or miscellaneous equipment, but for anything purchased with gold from new recruits and Hired Swords* to Ambush Points.

2. Blackmail Ahmeen. You choose to continue extorting the merchant. Each post battle sequence Ahmeen reluctantly supplies you with 2 doses of any drug of your choice (Crimson Shade, Healing Herbs, Mandrake Root, or Mad Cap Mushrooms), or 1 dose of any two drugs. You must possess Ahmeen’s Identification Message in either a storage container or transported as a light carried item in every game. Should you lose the message, Ahmeen will stop paying you unless you can get it back. Any warband newly obtaining the identification message can also choose between returning it to, or blackmailing Ahmeen.

*Ahmeen’s Trade can be used to reduce an Hired Sword upkeep cost too! If you are playing with the Mordheim Mercenary Market rules Ahmeen’s price reduction is made after a successful bid on a mercenary.