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View Full Version : Deathwatch RPG (Warhammer 40k) Adventure Idea, looking for advice



PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-10, 08:14 PM
I guess it's not accurate to say that I'm *starting* a campaign - we currently have a group around Rank 4, and our GM is retiring from Game Mastering to play a Tactical Marine so I volunteered to pick up the slack. I'd appreciate any comments/concerns you guys have with the adventure idea I'm posting.

A squad of Dark Angels have recovered one of their holy relics from the Jericho Reach. They were in the process of taking it back to their chapter when they suddenly dropped out of contact. The Dark Angels are mustering a force to recover the artifact and find their missing brethren, but that will take time they may not have. They have grudgingly asked the Deathwatch to investigate the disappearance until they are able to get there.

The Kill-Team is dispatched to investigate the disappearance. Finding the ship (Fury and Zeal) is a relatively simple task, as it has not moved far from its last known position. It is obvious that the ship has been attacked - great rents are torn in the hull and the ship's power appears to be offline. Searching the ship turns up no trace of the relic, only dead Dark Angels. The Kill-Team eventually encounters a single mortally wounded Dark Angel, half-crazed by his wounds, who mistakenly attacks the Kill-Team, believing they are the foes who slew his brothers. Convincing him to come to his senses is a relatively simple task - he is, after all, a Space Marine. He can tell the Kill-Team that he and his brothers were attacked by Chaos Space Marines and hordes of heretics. He can also tell them that they may be able to track the Chaos ship's progress by using data acquired from the bridge.

Once the Kill-Team acquires this data, it is fairly simple to plot the ship's course - either with the Space Marine's own expertise or by transmitting the data to Watch Fortress Erioch. The ship was bound for the planet Nune. The Kill-Team is ordered to pursue the heretics and recover the artifact - reinforcements are on their way.

Arriving at the planet Nune, the Kill-Team find no sign of the Chaos ship - there is, however, a Space Hulk orbiting the world where no Space Hulk should be. It ought to be fairly obvious to the players where the heretics are holed up. Boarding the ship is straightforward, but as soon as they are aboard the Space Hulk's engines activate, and with a great rumble and shudder the ship is plunged into the Warp. The players are trapped, with no way of knowing where they are going.

Exploring the ship, the Kill-Team is able to spot a number of heretics congregating in a certain area of the vessel. The heretics are preparing to sacrifice three prisoners to one of the Dark Gods (a successful Forbidden Lore: Chaos check reveals the god as Tzeentch) - an Inquisitor, a Tech-Priest, and a Dark Angel Librarian. (Note: I think most players would act swiftly to save the prisoners. In case they're reluctant, the PC's could be spotted by wandering Chaos Space Marines and drawn into combat). Once the prisoners have been saved, they introduce themselves to the Kill-Team: the Librarian Cadmus, the Tech-Priest Tirus Borg, and the Inquisitor Edmund Warrick, adding their thanks for the timely rescue. All were aboard the Fury and Zeal and taken prisoner by the heretics. All are grateful for their deliverance, and will do what they can to assist the Kill-Team in their mission. But after their rescue, things begin to go wrong for the Kill-Team. Carefully laid plans burn to ashes as enemy forces seem to predict the Kill-Team's every move. Ambushes occur with disheartening regularity. The Kill-Team's fortified positions are overrun with ease. The only logical explanation is a traitor in their midst. It would seem that one or all of their new 'allies' are not what they seem to be....

Kaun
2011-08-10, 10:38 PM
Hang on has this all happend or is it going to happen?

Tough_Tonka
2011-08-10, 10:49 PM
Unless you've already had other plans, I suggest making the Librarian the traitor. He should either be a secret disciple of chaos or a sorcerer in disguise. First off he's the least likely to be expected, unless you know lore behind the dark angels and if so good for them, and when or if he's found out he's the most able to defend himself.

Also its easy to explain how he's communicating with the cultist. Even if you go for the disguised sorcerer all the enemy would need to do is hold the 3 men in separate cells and considering how they're working for this plan seems oddly appropriate.

PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-10, 10:54 PM
Kaun - this is an adventure idea I had. I'm not going to be running it for another month at least.

Tough Tonka - I don't want to say who the traitor is in case one of my group members finds this thread, but I think it will come as a real shock.

Tough_Tonka
2011-08-10, 11:02 PM
Also here's some general ideas to throw (false) suspicion on the 3 allies.

The librarian should have and use some non standard psychic powers. Maybe some that seem oddly heretical. You might model some of his powers after some of the chaos psychic attacks from the chaos codex or something. For example he could have a power that creates a psychic whip that can more enemies around (lash of submission). This librarian obviously knows some psychic powers known by few marines. The question is how he learned them?

Note: If he's the actual traitor the powers should probably stronger and useful for taking on the PCs.

Have the the tech priest insist on communing with the machine spirit of the space hulk whenever it sees an appropriate terminal. Afterwards he gives advice and directions that cause more problems than good. If you can time this next to ambushes then all the better. The tech priest could just be having trouble interfacing with the space hulk, he could be mislead by the cultist messing with the terminals or worse....

Similarly the Inquisitor should also give advice and suggestions on were to go that causes problems and ambushes. His reasonings should be hazy. He just has a gut feeling or he swears he remembers mapping this section when he was captured by the cultist. He could be manipulated by cultist psykers, in league with the cultist or just unlucky.

Tough_Tonka
2011-08-10, 11:06 PM
Kaun - this is an adventure idea I had. I'm not going to be running it for another month at least.

Tough Tonka - I don't want to say who the traitor is in case one of my group members finds this thread, but I think it will come as a real shock.

Sorry I know how annoying it can be to have the players read ideas I submit on forums. I hope my other post is more helpful as it has reasons to give blame or false blame on the characters.

While I'm on the subject of my last post. I forgot to mention that you should make sure that each of them has something suspicious.

PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-11, 12:33 AM
Thanks for the input, Tough Tonka! If you'd really like to know who the traitor is, you can PM me and I'll tell you, I just don't want to throw that up where anyone can see it.

Kesnit
2011-08-11, 07:32 AM
You have a lot of detail about what the Kill Team will do. I've never played Deathwatch, so maybe it is easier to direct the players than in other RPGs, but it seems a lot of your plot is based on the players doing what you want them to do/think they will do.

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 08:26 AM
Yeah, you've got an oddly optimistic set of players - my group would have opened up by hosing down the cultists, Chaos Marines, and prisoners with a hail of full-auto bolter/heavy bolter/storm bolter fire, on the grounds that they're better off dead than sacrificed to a demon. And that would be perfectly in-character for a Deathwatch team, they can do stuff like that and get away with it.

king.com
2011-08-11, 09:27 AM
Yeah, you've got an oddly optimistic set of players - my group would have opened up by hosing down the cultists, Chaos Marines, and prisoners with a hail of full-auto bolter/heavy bolter/storm bolter fire, on the grounds that they're better off dead than sacrificed to a demon. And that would be perfectly in-character for a Deathwatch team, they can do stuff like that and get away with it.

Yea, thats any kind of party I would be involved in. We're not murdering them, we're offering their souls to be tested by the Emperor.

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 11:07 AM
So to be more constructive, don't ever build an adventure of "A happens, then B happens, then C happens". At best, plan it as a decision tree..."A happens, then depending on players, GOTO B1 or B2 or B3, then depending on players, GOTO C1a, C1b, C1c, C2a, C2b, C2c, C3a, C3b, or C3c..." Fail to do their, and you either have to railroad your players, start improvising like crazy (something it's better to do from the start rather than in the middle) or see your adventure crumble to shreds (often happens anyways).

Looking over your plan, I can see it collapsing at the following points:
-The wounded, crazed Dark Angel: What if they defend themselves with lethal force, rather than try to talk him down? The game is lethal enough that one round of return fire from the average Kill-Team will shred a Marine at full health, let alone an injured one.
-At Nune: They have no idea there is a time limit on their mission, what if they hole up and wait for reinforcements that they know are coming? Space Hulks are scary things, you DO NOT go into one unprepared (and preferably in Terminator Armor).
-The Hulk: Figure out now why everyone onboard doesn't die instantly when the hulk goes into the warp, since it has no Gellar Field.
-Rescuing the Prisoners: As mentioned, it's entirely in-character for a Kill-Team to just open fire indiscriminately. If your traitor is killed (unless you fudge dice for him), your entire plot ends right here (unless you change the traitor).



But after their rescue, things begin to go wrong for the Kill-Team. Carefully laid plans burn to ashes as enemy forces seem to predict the Kill-Team's every move. Ambushes occur with disheartening regularity. The Kill-Team's fortified positions are overrun with ease. The only logical explanation is a traitor in their midst. It would seem that one or all of their new 'allies' are not what they seem to be....
This...is a mess. You've one one squad with some rescuees in the middle of a hostile Space Hulk; for starters, they'd be fools to let anyone out of their sight, making it hard for the traitor to communicate with his allies unless he has telepathy (which rules out the Tech-Priest immediately, and could rule out the Inquisitor if the party has a Librarian and uses Psyniscience to scan him for psychic emanations). If they just fortify up in the room where they found people and refuse to go anywhere, there's no ambushes, and if they keep moving, no fortifications..and with Space Marines, they're likely to die rather than retreat, so anything that overruns their fortifications will kill them. What motivation do they have for exploring the Hulk rather than kicking back in a safe room? What if one of the players is a Librarian and has the Mind Reading telepathy power?

PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-11, 04:35 PM
Great comments, guys! You've given me plenty to think about. One thing I'd like to point out (and I probably should have made this clear to begin with) is that under our old GM the Kill-Team explored an Orc Space Hulk before without Terminator armour (although they admittedly had reinforcements), so I doubt they'd think twice about exploring this one. I want to teach them to fear Space Hulks.


-The wounded, crazed Dark Angel: What if they defend themselves with lethal force, rather than try to talk him down? The game is lethal enough that one round of return fire from the average Kill-Team will shred a Marine at full health, let alone an injured one.

Even if the Kill-Team manages to *kill* him, that doesn't mean he has to die immediately. He could easily live long enough to deliver his message. If that doesn't work out for some reason (say, one of the Kill-Team gets enthusiastic about how he rips the guy's head off) then I could add more NPC's to the ship, or else maybe have an automated message play from the Dark Angel's armor at death (or gene-seed harvest) something to the effect of 'If you are hearing this, then I have died without completing my duty. I beseech you in the name of the Holy Emperor to carry this message to my brother Astartes...." followed by a retcon where the Dark Angel knows the Chaos ship went to Nune.


-At Nune: They have no idea there is a time limit on their mission, what if they hole up and wait for reinforcements that they know are coming? Space Hulks are scary things, you DO NOT go into one unprepared (and preferably in Terminator Armor).

Awesome, gives me some NPC's to kill. The triggering event for the Hulk's departure is the boarding Space Marines, it will wait as long as it needs to. And as far as Terminator Armor goes, we're currently running The Emperor Protects as Rank 4 so they might well have some by the time this adventure gets into gear.


-The Hulk: Figure out now why everyone onboard doesn't die instantly when the hulk goes into the warp, since it has no Gellar Field.

This confuses me. Aren't Space Hulks notorious both for being infested with baddies and dropping in and out of the Warp? How do the baddies survive the Warp travel?


-Rescuing the Prisoners: As mentioned, it's entirely in-character for a Kill-Team to just open fire indiscriminately. If your traitor is killed (unless you fudge dice for him), your entire plot ends right here (unless you change the traitor).

My Kill-Team has a habit of trying to minimize innocent casualties. If they did go in guns blazing, I would probably mention to them that killing 3 important individuals without attempting to save them first (or at the very least, harvesting the fallen Librarian's gene-seed) would probably cause them to lose some Renown. If they did kill the prisoners outright anyway...well, this is a Chaos vessel. Strange things happen even without the Warp right outside.



But after their rescue, things begin to go wrong for the Kill-Team. Carefully laid plans burn to ashes as enemy forces seem to predict the Kill-Team's every move. Ambushes occur with disheartening regularity. The Kill-Team's fortified positions are overrun with ease. The only logical explanation is a traitor in their midst. It would seem that one or all of their new 'allies' are not what they seem to be....
This...is a mess. You've one one squad with some rescuees in the middle of a hostile Space Hulk; for starters, they'd be fools to let anyone out of their sight, making it hard for the traitor to communicate with his allies unless he has telepathy (which rules out the Tech-Priest immediately, and could rule out the Inquisitor if the party has a Librarian and uses Psyniscience to scan him for psychic emanations). If they just fortify up in the room where they found people and refuse to go anywhere, there's no ambushes, and if they keep moving, no fortifications..and with Space Marines, they're likely to die rather than retreat, so anything that overruns their fortifications will kill them. What motivation do they have for exploring the Hulk rather than kicking back in a safe room? What if one of the players is a Librarian and has the Mind Reading telepathy power?

Since they're in the Warp, I was thinking about making Psyniscience tests nearly impossible. I don't believe our Librarian has Mind Reading, but if he did I would rule that (again, being in the Warp), the Warp corrupts what he's hearing to be either unintelligible or else completely evil (example: the Inquisitor thinks "I like daisies", the Librarian hears "MAIM! KILL! BURN!"). As far as ruling out the Tech-Priest, he could maybe have an implant that lets him transmit vox communications silently to other parts of the ship.

As for retreating, there's a precedent set by our old GM. If the Kill-Team notices that for every enemy they kill, three more pop up, it's usually time to leave. It's a cheap trick, but it's effective. And their motivation for exploring the ship is that they have to locate the Dark Angels relic.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope I've addressed the majority of your concerns!

Sarone
2011-08-11, 05:05 PM
Seems cheesy, since we're dealing with the Imperium, but it's not too bad. I guess ole GW retconned the whole "Dark Angels do not work with the Inquisition or any one else".

Deadmeat.GW
2011-08-11, 05:12 PM
Not really...they just put in qualifiers...

If at all possible they do not work with any Inquisitors, abhumans, etc...

If you ABSOLUTELY have to you can but even then you are likely to shoot them if they do something you do not like.

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 06:09 PM
Great comments, guys! You've given me plenty to think about. One thing I'd like to point out (and I probably should have made this clear to begin with) is that under our old GM the Kill-Team explored an Orc Space Hulk before without Terminator armour (although they admittedly had reinforcements), so I doubt they'd think twice about exploring this one. I want to teach them to fear Space Hulks.



Even if the Kill-Team manages to *kill* him, that doesn't mean he has to die immediately. He could easily live long enough to deliver his message. If that doesn't work out for some reason (say, one of the Kill-Team gets enthusiastic about how he rips the guy's head off) then I could add more NPC's to the ship, or else maybe have an automated message play from the Dark Angel's armor at death (or gene-seed harvest) something to the effect of 'If you are hearing this, then I have died without completing my duty. I beseech you in the name of the Holy Emperor to carry this message to my brother Astartes...." followed by a retcon where the Dark Angel knows the Chaos ship went to Nune.



Awesome, gives me some NPC's to kill. The triggering event for the Hulk's departure is the boarding Space Marines, it will wait as long as it needs to. And as far as Terminator Armor goes, we're currently running The Emperor Protects as Rank 4 so they might well have some by the time this adventure gets into gear.



This confuses me. Aren't Space Hulks notorious both for being infested with baddies and dropping in and out of the Warp? How do the baddies survive the Warp travel?



My Kill-Team has a habit of trying to minimize innocent casualties. If they did go in guns blazing, I would probably mention to them that killing 3 important individuals without attempting to save them first (or at the very least, harvesting the fallen Librarian's gene-seed) would probably cause them to lose some Renown. If they did kill the prisoners outright anyway...well, this is a Chaos vessel. Strange things happen even without the Warp right outside.



Since they're in the Warp, I was thinking about making Psyniscience tests nearly impossible. I don't believe our Librarian has Mind Reading, but if he did I would rule that (again, being in the Warp), the Warp corrupts what he's hearing to be either unintelligible or else completely evil (example: the Inquisitor thinks "I like daisies", the Librarian hears "MAIM! KILL! BURN!"). As far as ruling out the Tech-Priest, he could maybe have an implant that lets him transmit vox communications silently to other parts of the ship.

As for retreating, there's a precedent set by our old GM. If the Kill-Team notices that for every enemy they kill, three more pop up, it's usually time to leave. It's a cheap trick, but it's effective. And their motivation for exploring the ship is that they have to locate the Dark Angels relic.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope I've addressed the majority of your concerns!

You're thinking about alternatives, which is good and all I was really driving for. It's like the old maxim - 'no campaign survives contact with the players'.



This confuses me. Aren't Space Hulks notorious both for being infested with baddies and dropping in and out of the Warp? How do the baddies survive the Warp travel?

Depends on the baddies. Chaos baddies...well, that's obvious. Genestealers tend to hibernate, and demons don't usually bother Tyranids anyways. Orks rig their own Gellar fields on hulks, and if the fields fail, they cheerfully enjoy some nice combat training (yeah, this is Ork perspective towards demon attacks, it relieves the boredom of long space voyages).



Since they're in the Warp, I was thinking about making Psyniscience tests nearly impossible. I don't believe our Librarian has Mind Reading, but if he did I would rule that (again, being in the Warp), the Warp corrupts what he's hearing to be either unintelligible or else completely evil (example: the Inquisitor thinks "I like daisies", the Librarian hears "MAIM! KILL! BURN!"). As far as ruling out the Tech-Priest, he could maybe have an implant that lets him transmit vox communications silently to other parts of the ship.

Honestly, if it's in the Warp, using any psychic powers at all should be both a huge power increase (like, free Push at effective Psi 10) and near-instant death (automatic Perils test). Of course, that also nerfs the Librarian into uselessness, so you have to be careful. If he doesn't have Mind reading, you're good though.

PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-11, 08:18 PM
Thanks for the advice guys! I can't wait to run this adventure with my group!

Hawkfrost000
2011-08-11, 10:16 PM
Just a note on Gellar Fields:

they simply protect the ship from being attacked by demons, chaos forces usually welcome the oportunity to commune and forge pacts with these creatures and so would have no Gellar Fields.

not having a Gellar Field does not instantly destroy the ship, simply causes you to waste ammo defending it.

other than that it looks great! mind if i steel some ideas?

DM

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 10:20 PM
Just a note on Gellar Fields:

they simply protect the ship from being attacked by demons, chaos forces usually welcome the oportunity to commune and forge pacts with these creatures and so would have no Gellar Fields.

not having a Gellar Field does not instantly destroy the ship, simply causes you to waste ammo defending it.

other than that it looks great! mind if i steel some ideas?

DM

Well yeah, no one's said a Gellar Field is necessary to keep the ship intact, only to keep everyone onboard alive. When a demon can materialize inside your power armor if it wants, it's generally a good idea to keep that Field active no matter how much ammo you have.

Hawkfrost000
2011-08-11, 10:25 PM
Well yeah, no one's said a Gellar Field is necessary to keep the ship intact, only to keep everyone onboard alive. When a demon can materialize inside your power armor if it wants, it's generally a good idea to keep that Field active no matter how much ammo you have.

how can it materialize inside your PA?

the "materialization" process is the transition of a demon from the warp to the physical universe. a demon in the warp is already "there" and although it can probably travel very fast i doubt it can shrink down enough to pass through an exhaust port or something.

if changing physical size were a problem then you would have stories of crews and ships changing size, Gellar Field or no.

DM

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 10:38 PM
how can it materialize inside your PA?

the "materialization" process is the transition of a demon from the warp to the physical universe. a demon in the warp is already "there" and although it can probably travel very fast i doubt it can shrink down enough to pass through an exhaust port or something.

if changing physical size were a problem then you would have stories of crews and ships changing size, Gellar Field or no.

DM

No, materialization is the process of the demon forming a physical body - they don't have embodied forms in the warp unless they create one, being pure thought/emotion otherwise. Demons don't conduct boarding actions on a ship whose Gellar fields collapse, they just appear all over the ship and start eating people. The fluff is full of references to them appearing out nowhere, I dunno what changing physical size has to do with anything when they don't have a physical body until they manifest.

Hawkfrost000
2011-08-11, 10:54 PM
then how is Draigo still alive?

The Glyphstone
2011-08-11, 11:02 PM
then how is Draigo still alive?

Because A) GW is inconsistent, or B) Draigo is simply that hardcore. Your pick.

Though from the little I can find about Draigo online (I don't have the GK 5th 'Dex), it sounds like Draigo is technically a warp entity himself at this point due to his curse, and manifests in much the same way a demon does (or technically, like the Lost And The Damned used to). It's logical that demons can't manifest inside each other, so if he 'counts as' a warp denizen, they'd have to get inside his armor the normal way. And fail, cause he's hardcore.

Hawkfrost000
2011-08-12, 12:35 AM
B. It's logical that demons can't manifest inside each other.

why? if they can manifest inside other things, why not each other?

Kaun
2011-08-12, 12:56 AM
then how is Draigo still alive?

I heard that GW had a 46hr meeting during the writing of the fluff for Draigo on whether or not they could get away with him having a Cyborg T-Rex as a mount.

Apparently it nearly got through but after Andy Chambers went a week with out being able to look at himself in the mirror he changed his vote to no and they had to re-write that section of the codex 6 weeks before release.

king.com
2011-08-12, 04:25 AM
I heard that GW had a 46hr meeting during the writing of the fluff for Draigo on whether or not they could get away with him having a Cyborg T-Rex as a mount.

Apparently it nearly got through but after Andy Chambers went a week with out being able to look at himself in the mirror he changed his vote to no and they had to re-write that section of the codex 6 weeks before release.

I think the more appropriate response to ever arguing about 40K beyond "its nuts" is..."lol GW consistancy".

The Glyphstone
2011-08-12, 07:43 AM
why? if they can manifest inside other things, why not each other?

The Warp is another dimension; its beings and its environment have their own laws, that don't interact with ours properly. If the Warp only ever dealt with itself, everything would be consistent and no one would be hurt.

Or, because they're warp entities. They do stuff like that.

PrinceOfMadness
2011-08-12, 02:17 PM
Darius - feel free!

I find I like the idea of Daemons cropping up everywhere. Will keep the Kill-Team on their toes. I was going to make one of their objectives to bring the ship out of the Warp so they can escape - stopping the daemons could be another big reason to bring the ship out!

The Glyphstone
2011-08-12, 05:17 PM
Darius - feel free!

I find I like the idea of Daemons cropping up everywhere. Will keep the Kill-Team on their toes. I was going to make one of their objectives to bring the ship out of the Warp so they can escape - stopping the daemons could be another big reason to bring the ship out!

I'd suggest, instead, that you make the objective locating a ship with an intact Gellar Field and powering it up, giving them a safe refuge from nonstop demon spawns. Remember that a Space Hulk isn't one ship, it's dozens or hundreds of ships mashed together along with asteroids and space debris and who knows what else. The only way to control a Hulk's course or warp travel is by Chaos magic or bringing your own Warp engine to strap on, but sometimes individual ships within the Hulk's pass are still partly functional despite being fuse-melded into the rock. Orks, or anyone who's not Chaos, tend to just hop onboard while it's in realspace, and get off next time it enters realspace, however long that takes.

It'd facilitate the ambush scenarios, and give your traitor a ready-made thing to sabotage for later on in the game.

Atlis O'Maly
2012-11-09, 03:09 PM
i think all of the below advise was good but i have amother twist that i think you would like:
i call this kind of charactor a giuld;
a member of the origanal group is the traitor and this charictor is the gm's this dose 2 things
1 is luls the pcs into a false confidence
2 this make killing he a moral dilema:
2a killing him sais the emiroror is forever my god-king
2b sideing with him sais i value my comrads
2c in capasitating his but leaveing him alive sais i value my commrads but not as much as the emmpire

there are other out cumes to but these are the mager ones


all of the advice from the others should also be taken in as much as the false actutions and susprct objects gose while keeping your guy spotles to a t

The Glyphstone
2012-11-09, 04:15 PM
Great Modthulhu: Thread necromancy is HERESY!