The Death on the Reik box set (1987) continues the Enemy Within campaign. A letter found in Bogenhafen leads the players to wider travel through the Empire (on their own river boat!) as they seek to further reveal the forces of Chaos secretly at work in the land.

The Reikland is presented as a waterborne sandbox, with several seemingly discreet adventures  loosely connected by the underlying interests of Chaos. There’s a goblin-infested mine, an expedition into a Chaos-blasted wasteland, a kidnapping to foil and an abandoned observatory to explore. The largest section is devoted to Castle Wittgenstein, which is a terrible place to visit. I can’t stress enough how much I like the idea of a party traveling around in their own boat.

The castle and its town are well detailed and, like the rest of the box set, there is no firm course the plot has to take. The action is driven by player choice. The campaign materials are written to support the GM in figuring out the consequences. It feels like a very open and sophisticated design for 1987.

That sense of humor is still around – my favorite joke is at the expense of the polearms essay in Unearthed Arcana – and it is joined by some sly lampooning of pop culture – for instance, when a demonette of Slaneesh appears atop an evil altar, she does so in such acrobatic fashion it is impossible to no think of Gozer from Ghostbusters. It is also hard to not read a strong political commentary into the events of Castle Wittgenstein, where the peasants are miserable, suffering beggars and the nobility are literal monsters. It is a slight disappointment that the action seems to build to a Frankenstein parody, but thankfully that is a false climax.

Martin McKenna is the artist on duty for the interiors and he does a good job of conveying the soul-crushing atmosphere. He doesn’t deliver on the promise of Ian Miller’s cover art, though, which depicts Castle Wittgenstein. But honestly, delivering on Ian Miller’s promises is really something only Ian Miller can do.