The Corsairs of Captain Flariel is the newest PDF-only release from Cubicle 7 for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. In the tradition of The Hanhnbrandt Militia and The Warband of Bayl of Many Eyes PDF releases gives GMs (and potentially players) more options and ready-made enemies/NPCs for their players to interact with. In addition to expanded rules for Dark Elves, we have some lore, new equipment, and even a new lore of spells!

Old Weirde’s Incunabulum returns with a story of how the aged professor has collected some information on the Dark Elves of Naggaroth. This is a great little tale that highlights how elves might talk about their distant kin- and how they won’t tell just anyone of their darkest secrets. I love the look into how the people detailed in the release are seen from others within the world. High and Wood elves are not going to talk about the Druchii unless they have to- it’s an embarrassment to their species and seen as a high dishonor.

Next we get Sea Raider Templates to apply to NPCs/enemies. These aren’t exclusive to Dark Elves, many species around the Warhammer world ply the oceans and need specialists. New Templates include: Reaver Captain, Chief Mate, Corsair, Ship’s Crew, Oarsman, Lookout, Beastmaster, and Dark Elf Sorceress. This section also gives us official rules for Sea Dragon Cloaks! After the Templates we have four spells for the brand new Lore of Dark Magic, featuring Arnzipal’s Black Horror and Word of Pain, classic Dark Elf spells. This section is great for GMs who want to differentiate their sea-faring NPCs.

Plug and Play

With these Templates, the author Simon Wileman, gives us a handful of pre-made NPCs to show off how these Templates work. Each NPC also gets a fantastic profile image by Ralph Horsley and Erin Rea, veterans of at least this edition of WFRP. The crew of Raptor’s Talon gives us some nasty antagonists for any adventuring party. Captain Aheth Flariel leads the Raptor’s Talon and counts Sorceress Rakaria Dran among his crew of 41 Dark Elves and 30 galley slave. Beastmaster Corvian Sabeth, the sadistic keeper of hounds also gets a profile, as well as the human slave, Cynwra, from Albion.

Along with character profiles, we get a few adventure hooks, the full rules for Raptor’s Talon, following the rules introduced in Sea of Claws, and details on the crew including their looks, behaviors, and even their battlecry!

The final part of this release are potential encounters. There are three encounters: The Relic Hunters (easy), Games on Deck (medium), and Coastal Raid (hard). With the deep character work for the NPCs described, not all of these encounters are necessarily combat encounters. Although this is a likely outcome, especially when the Druchii begin to try to take captives. Dark Elves rely on slave labor all throughout their society, including working the oars on their ships. Having a campaign begin or take the PCs to the bowels of a ravenship. Forcing the players to come up with a solution to free themselves would make for a challenging and terrifying encounter. Fortunately this section of the PDF gives more details and ideas for GMs to make encounters with Dark Elves more than one-note combats. I especially enjoy the Games on Deck encounter, where Captain Flariel challenges the PCs to a game of sorts instead of full-out attacking.

With the deep character work for the NPCs described, not all of these encounters are necessarily combat encounters

The very last section of the release is a summary of Traits and Talents for the profiles of the NPCs. This is a nice addition, and while it isn’t new, it’s certainly appreciated so the GM doesn’t have to flip between multiple files to get all the needed information.

Overall, while not everyone needs this type of publication, it is incredibly useful for GMs and could even help those that wish to run a Dark Elf campaign! I really like these kinds of releases as they purely add more options and are quick ways to have small focuses on certain species and archetypes from the Warhammer world.

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