R A I D H I T L E R’ S P E R S O N A L A R M O U R E D E X P R E S S !

A MODIPHIUS
P U B L I CAT I O N

® IS SUE
N O. 5

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ACHTUNG! CTHULHU CREATED BY CHRIS BIRCH
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Nathan Dowdell
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e Christopher Webb, Mark Whittington,
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Modiphius Entertainment Ltd.
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London SW6 4QP, United Kingdom
info@modiphius.com | www.modiphius.net
Modiphius Entertainment
Product Number: MUH052306
ISBN: 978-1-80281-030-1
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 Contents

Assault on the
Führer Train

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Introduction: All Aboard!.............................. 4
Act One: Approach........................................ 8
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Scene 1: A Visitor From Berlin..........................8

Scene 2: A Walk in the Forest......................... 11
Scene 3: Checkpoint Christian........................ 12
Scene 4: Arming up........................................... 14
Scene 5: A Leap of Faith.................................. 14
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Act Two: Assault on the Führer Train........16

Scene 1: All Aboard........................................... 16
Scene 2: Guard Quarters.................................. 18
Scene 3: Kitchen Compartment ................... 20
Scene 4: Communications Carriage............. 22
Scene 5: Guest Quarters................................. 25
Scene 6: The War Room ................................ 27
Scene 7: Führer’s Private Apartments ........ 29
Appendix A: Adversaries & Antagonists... 32
Appendix B: Handouts................................ 39
Appendix C: Pregenerated Characters....42
 Introduction
Introduction  All Aboard!
All Aboard!
Welcome!
WHAT IS ACHTUNG! CTHULHU?
Achtung! Cthulhu is a setting for Lovecraftian roleplaying
during World War II, which allows players to discover
the truth behind the malign influence of the Mythos on
the Nazi war machine and beyond, as conflict engulfs the
globe during 1939-1945.
In this pulp-influenced world of brave Allied heroes and
dauntless two-fisted adventure, players will take on the
roles of Allied servicemen and women, secret agents,
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members of the resistance or even hapless civilians
caught up in the wider conflict. All stand firm against
the twisted might of the Nazi occult: the Cult of the
Black Sun, who wield foul magic and summon captive
horrors in their bid unleash Yog-Sothoth and Nachtwölfe,
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their nominal allies and rivals who place their trust in
Atlantean technology, weird science and strange wonder
weapons to prevail.
Players will experience a world where dread secrets
and powerful artefacts lie forgotten in ancient ruins,
abandoned sites and forgotten cities, and peer deep into
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dusty tomes and manuscripts seeking to understand
eldritch knowledge that was never meant for the sight
of mortals. They’ll arm themselves with experimental
technology and deadly weapons and learn to wield
powerful magical spells or harness potent psychic powers
to fight against this uncanny threat.
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They’ll also encounter exotic native races like the
Deep Ones, undersea worshippers of the dreaming god
Cthulhu, or the strange Mi-Go, fungoid-insectoid beings
from the furthest corners of the solar system who have
come to Earth for an unknown purpose. Towering over
them all are the monsters, entities and gods of the
Mythos themselves, who seek to take advantage of the
chaos of the second world war to extend their dominion
over the minds of men.
Will your heroes prevail against all odds, or will they, like
so many others before, fall to the malign influence of the
Mythos? That is your story to tell…
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WHAT IS THE 2D20 SYSTEM?
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During your game, your actions and their consequences
affect the storyline uniquely. The instant a villain pulls
the trigger, what happens when your hero tries to dive
for cover behind the nearest sofa? Does the hail of
bullets hit them full on taking them down or do they
narrowly miss, spraying the nearby wall instead? When
a character is in jeopardy and the outcome is in doubt,
it’s the dice that decide.
The player pulls out a pair of twenty-sided die and rolls
them to see what happens. A twelve and a fifteen means
the hero will feel those slugs penetrating his flesh, his
body twitching under the impact. If they rolled a three
and a ten; the bullets might be stopped by the sofa’s metal
frame or whistle by his cheek, failing to find their prey.
Roleplaying games use rules in order to shape or resolve
the drama of a story. Achtung! Cthulhu utilizes the 2d20
System (2d20 shorthand for “two twenty-sided dice”). The
dice reign where the gamemaster does not, dictating if the
shooter hits their mark, and the fallout and consequences
of what follows.
The 2d20 system also has some unique characteristics
which aren’t present in other roleplaying games. Rules
for Stress let you know how much physical and mental
punishment your character can take. Rules for Momentum
allow your character to push home any advantage, using
that successful dive into cover to come up all guns blazing,
or make their escape through a handily discovered back
door. The gamemaster can use Threat to make a Nazi
patrol materialise out of the ether, suddenly blocking the
hero’s escape route and sparking a further encounter (an
event that is invoked as a Complication).
All of these rules and mechanics, help set the scenes, add
suspense, and shape the thrilling storylines that characters
from the Achtung! Cthulhu universe experience during
their daring escapades.

The 2d20 System is also here to lend a helping hand to
players taking their first steps on that road, as they create
a unique hero or heroine to fight in the Secret War.
Focuses, personal truths, talents and other mechanical
values come together to flesh out each character’s
personality — while skills and attributes define their
virtues, as well as their weaknesses. The 2d20 System does
all of this in an easy-to-learn, quick-to-play manner and
throughout this book, you’ll find plenty of examples to
help walk you through the mechanics in engaging ways.
Buckle up, pack your trustiest revolver and prepare for
action, it’s going to be some ride!
OVERVIEW
This adventure forms the prologue to the Forest of Fear
Campaign book, the first major campaign for Modiphius’
Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 system and is designed to give
players and GMs an introduction to the main storyline.
It features some of the characters and villains who will
go on to become major agents, as well as introducing
information, background, and themes that will be the
focus of the main campaign. It can also be played as a
simple standalone one-off adventure for those who wish
to recreate the actions of brave resistance fighters who
that liberated Nazi-occupied Europe.
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played an important role in assisting the Allied invasion
The raid takes place in early November 1944. After the
triumph of D-Day in June 1944, the Allies have made slow
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but steady progress across Europe and are now closing
in on the borders of fortress Germany. With the Russians
pushing from the east, and the Americans and British
from the west, the stranglehold on Germany is tightening.
Desperate, Hitler conceives a great counter offensive
against the western Allies. Operation Watch on the Rhine
aims to split the Allied forces and drive them back towards
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the deep water port of Antwerp, leaving the beleaguered
Germans free to turn and face the might of the Red Army.
Running Führer Train as a Standalone Adventure
The raid on the Führer Express is not really intended as
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a standard adventure, instead it is written as an action-
orientated thrill ride to whet players’ appetites for the
main Forest of Fear campaign, as well as introducing
them to some of the themes and key players within it. It
a bit of a Kobayashi Maru scenario and is not intended
to be winnable as such, but instead to provide an
aperitif for the main RPG campaign to come, ending
with the resistance heroes being captured with their
hopes in tatters.
However, with a little ingenuity and creativity it could
readily be adapted or improvised to slot into an
existing campaign, by removing the resistance agents
and changing the location, and some of the plots and
intelligence the players will discover. If you want to
Introduction  All Aboard!
In Achtung! Cthulhu’s Secret War, the Battle of the
Bulge (as history will know it), also contains a top-secret
component. In a quiet sector of the Ardennes, concealed
within the ancient ruins of an Elder Thing under
city, a brilliant Nazi scientist, Franz Amsel, has been
preparing a secret factory. There he has manufactured
vast quantities of experimental shoggoth tanks and a
new breed of battlefield shock trooper, the shoggoth
shocksoldat. Amsel, codenamed the Blackbird, has drawn
on both Black Sun and Nachtwölfe resources, temporarily
uniting the bitter rivals, and intends to launch Operation
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Brute Strength, an armoured assault within the main
offensive which will send the US troops in the Southern
sector reeling.
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With secrecy paramount and the date of Watch on the
Rhine rapidly approaching, devious Black Sun commander
‘Sweet’ Liesel Böhm has decided to disrupt local resistance
forces by laying a trap to capture resistance leader Marta
Archambaud.
Unbeknownst to Archambaud, her bother Phillipe
was captured and conditioned by Black Sun sorcery,
and carefully doctored intelligence has been put in
his possession. This suggests a very important person,
possibly even the Führer himself, will be arriving on
an armoured train to inspect a top-secret facility in
the forest. Böhm knows this information will prove
irresistible to Archambaud, who will see a chance to
strike off the head of the Nazi snake and possibly end the
war at a single stroke.
With only a few hours before the Führersonderzug—
the Führer train—is set to arrive, the resistance has
little time to prepare. Little do they know, they are
on a suicide mission and what awaits them inside the
armoured train is not glory, but capture and quite
possibly a hideous death.
adapt or alter the adventure for your own campaign,
the main work will be adjusting the scene in the final
carriage at (p30) the finale, where you might consider
introducing one of your own Nemesis level adversaries
who have baited a carefully laid trap to ensnare your
existing agents. How they escape and what they
do from there on in, we leave to your own fiendish
devising, but never underestimate your players, they
will find a way!
To learn more about the overall Forest of Fear
campaign, including the development of the Elder
City, the Crimson Monks and the Slumbering Horror
Chartotharkis which underpin it, download the FREE
Secret War Operations PDF where the entire historical
storyline is detailed from Modiphius.net!
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 COMBAT: AGENTS
Introduction  All Aboard!
AND ENCOUNTERS
Rather than strictly define exactly what enemy forces
are deployed where, the compositions supplied here are
recommendations: a single light encounter in the forest to
warm your players up, plus a skeleton crew left aboard the
train by ‘Sweet’ Liesel as bait for your agents to put to the
sword, as they are drawn ever deeper into her trap. As the
GM, you can feed in additional units and reinforcements
like those in the Adversaries section on p32 as you see fit,
tuning as the adventure as you go along.
This more free-form setup is deliberate: some groups will
enjoy stealthily sneaking their way on board, silently
dispatching guards, exploring the luxurious surroundings
and strange technology while searching for clues and
marshalling their resources for a decisive strike upon the
Führer himself. This will be especially true for lightly
armed resistance groups made up of the pre-generated
agents provided on p38.
Other, more experienced groups, might enjoy a more
gung-ho, confrontational approach, blasting their way
through, as waves of stronger and stronger enemies are
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hurled against them, in a succession of lethal firefights and
deadly seat-of-your-pants encounters.
Most groups will probably enjoy something in between
these extremes and this approach allows you as the GM
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a degree of flexibility. If your players are particularly
cautious or have been particularly hard hit, dial down
the combat and maybe even consider giving them
additional resistance members as NPC agents to act as
reinforcements. If they love nothing better than going
toe-to-toe with the elite Black Sun and Nachtwölfe forces,
arm them up, pull the pin and let them have it!
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Skill Tests & Difficulty
The skill tests and difficulty tests combinations are
suggestions only and not set in stone. Adjust the
combinations and difficulty according to developing
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events, circumstances, personal preferences and your
best judgment.
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HISTORICAL NOTES —
THE REAL STEEL BEHEMOTH
This scenario is in part based on the real Führersonderzug,
Hitler’s personal armoured train. This steel beast and its
ilk transported the Führer and the Nazi High Command
around Europe during the early years of the war (many
senior Nazis seen the Führersonderzug demanded their
own armoured train and it became something of a status
symbol among the Nazi elite).
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Naturally, many adaptations have been made to make
this playable as a game scenario, with a lot of the action
compressed into a smaller space to make for a more
playable adventure. The real Führersonderzug which
was named America (and later Brandenburg after the
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US entered the war) was a monstrous 16-carriage steel
behemoth with a staff of over 200, a hefty garrison and
multiple AA guns, making it far too challenging a target
for assault by even the most determined and heavily
armed resistance cell.
As a result, while the real Führersonderzug served as an
inspiration for this adventure, much has been simplified or
amplified to make it work as a gaming setting: there are
fewer carriages, not so many staff and Nachtwölfe and the
Black Sun have combined their technical and sorcerous
might to create a nightmare railway engine and its train of
carriages which little resemble the real historical example
(something we can all be thankful for).
Most of all, it’s meant to be fun for everyone, players
and GM alike (a wise aim to keep in mind in any form
of gaming). If your players know anything about the
second world war, they’ll know that no such raid ever
existed (although the Allies had vague plans for one with
Operation Foxley) and that Hitler wasn’t assassinated
on an armoured train, but died in the ruins of Berlin in
April 1945. From the off this mission may be doomed, but
my earnest hope is that you and they have a great time
playing it nonetheless.
— John Houlihan
November 2021

Gamemaster’s Briefing
It is 6am on the 13th of November 1944 and the
adventure opens at the abandoned Dubois farmhouse,
two miles outside the village of Arduette in the Ardennes.
This is a well-known resistance meeting point, away from
the prying eyes of the Nazis, informers and other, less
savoury characters who inhabit the woodland.
The resistance, led by Marta Archambaud, are
meeting at this secluded rendezvous to discuss recent
developments in the local situation. Gathered around
the table are several local resistance members, smoking
cigarettes, drinking pastis, all grumbling about the usual
subjects. What are the Germans up to? When will the
Allies liberate them? Who has the best ice wine this year?
Why are all the other resistance groups so hopeless?
It is a familiar refrain, the resistance love nothing more
than a good gripe before the meeting is called to order.
Marta, codenamed Adestra, is lucky to be here at all.
She has narrowly avoided capture and assassination
for the third time in as many months, after the new Nazi
commander ‘Sweet’ Liesel Böhm put a significant bounty
on her head.
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Although the forest, which borders France, Belgium, and
Germany, was part of a key offensive in World War I, ever
since the German armies rolled across Europe in 1939-
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1940 it has become a sleepy, forgotten sector. Away from
the garrisons in the main towns, the only notable activity
has been from German archaeological expeditions who
have been investigating ancient sites within the forest
“related to their glorious Aryan heritage”. Largely these
have been confined to long forgotten ancient ruins, of
little interest to the locals, and they have been content to
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let these expeditions proceed undisturbed.
However, ever since the Nazis completed a subterranean
train line leading to the Chateau du Gisoire, about a
year ago, Nazi activity in the forest has stepped up
considerably. Armoured columns sweep through the
forest roads at all hours, and there are reports of forced
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labourers being shipped to a secret facility somewhere
near the Chateau. Since D-Day, conventional German
activity in the forest has increased exponentially. The
German forces in the area have been kicked out of
their sleepy complacency by Böhm: pressure has
been exerted, patrols stepped up, security around the
archaeological sites tightened and it’s been difficult to get
anywhere near German installations.
Introduction  All Aboard!
The Nazi forces of the occult have also made an
appearance. Black Sun Troopers and their sinister
commanders have been spotted. There have been
reports of strange unwholesome creatures stalking the
forest. Strange technology powered by eerie blue lights
has also been observed amongst the facilities patrolled
by Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves.
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Now there are dawn raids on different villages, suspected
resistance members and even ordinary villagers have
been spirited away, never to be seen again. In the last
month or so these activities have reached fever pitch, but
the lightly armed resistance are ill equipped to launch a
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major offensive to discover more. Clearly something is up
as the Allies close in, but what? And what should they do
about it?
Suddenly the door opens and in bursts Phillipe
Archambaud, Marta’s younger brother, with an
apologetic sentry trailing close behind him. Marta
gasps and rushes to embrace her sibling, who has been
missing for a week and was presumed taken in one of
the recent raids.
Although Marta and the other resistance members
don’t know it, Phillipe has been broken and turned by
a combination of Black Sun sorcery and Norn mind
manipulation. He has become an unwitting catspaw,
programmed to lure Marta and her fellow resistance
members into a trap prepared by the Nazi commander.
The Nazi’s aim is that Marta won’t be able to interfere
with the upcoming Operation Brute Strength, a secret
offensive within the main Ardennes battle plan to
unleash shoggoth tanks, shoggoth shocksoldat, and
a wave of other captive horrors during Operation
Watch on the Rhine, the last great German counter
offensive which will result in the forthcoming Battle of
the Bulge.
For the moment though, Philippe, unaware that he is
being used, is excited and enthusiastic. Not only by his
daring escape, but at the vital intelligence he believes
he has discovered that represents a major opportunity
for them to strike a significant blow against their hated
Nazi oppressors. This will allow him to fulfil his long-
held dream to become a resistance hero, by raiding an
armoured train and killing the Führer himself!