My players have spontaneously decided to go Space Hulk hunting because I dangled a little bit from their Dynasty's history in front of them - specifically, Lord-Captain Sun Lee Ma'Kao has already raided the Space Hulk, and found a single signet ring from my players Dynasty. The ring worn by the current Lord-Captains father and predecessor, who disappeared onboard said Space Hulk when it jumped into the warp, taking a significant chunk of the Dynasty fleet with them.

I intend this to be high risk, high reward - and they have already brokered an alliance with Sun Lee and Charlabelle Armelan to hunt the hulk down. This brings them a respectable force; including the Ma'Kao fleet (a Light Cruiser, two raiders and a frigate, including two regiments of troops), the Grace of Sopha (Armelans Carrack, with another regiment) and their own frigate and a raider with some troops of their own.

I have quite a few ideas already, especially since the last known position of the Space Hulk was near 'Undred 'Undred Teef, where Sun Lee was forced to retreat when faced with significant Ork forces, but I want to throw the scenario out there to see if anyone here can add some insidious ideas of their own, seeing as I have ample time to prepare for this.

Go wild - rival Rogue Traders, scheming Stryxis merchants looking for a profitable trade, Chaos forces looking for the same Hulk - no restrictions. Especially where it concerns the Hulk's denizens - its big enough to accomodate more than just one type by far. I'd be very thankful for successful endeavours in that direction as well. What was the most awesome space hulk experience you had?

And one thing I'm especially curious about - how does one try and track a Space Hulk, unless one has a navigator able to do so through the warp?

The novel "The Emperor's Finest" has Commissar Ciaphas Cain attached to a joint Mechanicus/Astartes mission of the Reclaimers chapter in their efforts to track down a space hulk centuries after the fact. Because Hulks drift along currents, and may spend centuries in realspace, the Mechanicus uses some advanced tech in conjunction with a navigator to identify the likeliest currents then drift, while tracking the most likely course through both the warp and realspace. They catch up fairly quickly, due to the Hulk having made several long realspace drops.

Orks are unfortunate-if they make it aboard, they are likely to trash most things that would be worth salvaging, reducing them to scrap before rebuilding them as Ork tech. In addition to classic genestealers and Chaos forces, Hrud infestations are likely. And keep in mind that many Space Hulks are large enough to house multiple enclaves of nasty stowaways-only an Ork infestation is likely to grow large enough on its own to take control of a Space Hulk.

I would say find the Deathwatch book for generating a space hulk and make something fun and dangerous from that.

It's Ark of Lost Souls.

I made some space hulk vermin for 'random encounters' in my Deathwatch campaign; check out the link in my signature below.

Do they have any ideas on some things they might hope to find? The prior Rogue Trader was there, as well as his ship, its crew, and whatever other vessels accompanied it, now gone. One might assume that the hulls of said ships have been merged with the Hulk, while the crews might've died horribly, gone raving insane, or whatever. Lady Sun Lee has the ring, which leads me to believe that the prior RT is dead, and she looted him, or he somehow lost it, and is only maybe dead. Finding any of these people or their vessels, might be nice, but might not be worth launching a raid, certainly not for the other two Rogue Traders. So, on a good day, what are they hoping to get out of this venture? It's more than business, but there's still business in it. I don't know if there is other important swag, or ship components, they want to salvage? Were some of Father's maps, or or nuggets of future ventures, aboard, rather than with the main body of the dynasty? See if any crew survived, like Umbolt's crew, in the Processional? Whatever monsters are lurking there, have some ideas of cool things the party can try to take with them, be they from father's fleet, or even other flotsam the Space Hulk has nabbed, over the eons it might've drifted. You know of a few ships in it, but how many others might comprise it, and where are they from?

Of course, some Genestealers, Orks, or possessed Servitors, and maybe some deranged survivors, could also round out the population of the Hulk, maybe even some daemons, if you really want to, but maybe not.

I've got the Emperor's Finest now, and Ark of Lost Souls. Thanks for that already folks! Hruds and those Space Hulk vermin are a cool idea, too! I think I'll use the rad spiders only to lead them towards 'NECRONS!', given their colouring...

As for what they know: Sun Lee has not found the old RT, or any remains she has been able to clearly identify. When the hulk jumped back then, the RT was onboard as well as part of his old command crew - I only named one of those; a relative of a present-day PC-turned-NPC who I may or may not use to spring some unexpected chaos when she goes looking for him. Thus, the players have no idea whether anyone still survived - or how.

They have, of course, Sun Lees reports and their own dynasty records, but I haven't elaborated on it in complete detail. The hulk is sizeable, including several (some very old) independant hulls including a gigantic mass conveyor. Their interests are roughly as follows:

1. Salvaging remainders of the lost dynasty ships. They brokered a "First Dibs" right for those with the other two traders, with some concessions - eg, having to pay off the other two.

2. Profit, in terms of valuable cargo and high chances of Archeotech, possibly new hulls

3. Glory and fame. They found a taste for that.

4. Solidifying their alliance with House Ma'Kao, and indebting Armelan to their own Dynasty.

5. Getting yet another grudging recognition from the Navy for dealing with the Hulk (they're collecting navy favours, really)

6. Find out if Dad's still alive.

Sun Lee is there for glory and treasure first and foremost, while Armelan actually only accepted with the caveat of some further dealings with my players dynasty - she's trying to cut out a slice of profit from them and Ma'Kao to stabilise her house. The hulk is a means to an end, hopefully but not necessarily profitable.

Realistically speaking, salvaging hulls will be a difficult prospect in the middle of ork territory, so most riches will probably be whatever they can haul into their cargo holds, for which I have numerous ideas. I also expect them to try and salvage any possible cogitator store they come across (they are super-diligent about this, all the time), especially augur and navigation logs, or any surviving navigator records - which gives me opportunity to drop in a ton of plot hooks for future endeavours.

I'm also tempted to add some sort of xenos spaceship to the hulk.

And one thing I'm especially curious about - how does one try and track a Space Hulk, unless one has a navigator able to do so through the warp?

It's likely that the passage of a space hulk produces a great deal of warp turbulence. Hence, your players might be able to triangulate its trajectory based on reports of navigational difficulties. Its warp 'proximity' could even trigger outbursts of psychic phenomena on populated worlds, giving them a way to gage its approximate location relative to realspace.