so ive been running a deathwatch campaign for about 3 months now, and im looking for some opinions on the rest of the campaign

heres the basics of the kill team

Rank 5 apothecary - blood angels successor

Rank 3 tac marine - blood angel

Rank 3 Grey knight librarian ( theres a reason for him )

Rank 4 sangunary guard( assault marine ) - blood angel

Rank 3 tec marine - kia ( being replaced by an inquisitor )

2 new players - devastator & tech marine

some background on the campaign

the kill team has been through a few space hulks, broken an ork WAAARGH with the help of some raven guard, and destroyed a kornate cult ( in the process meeting an important NPC ) all the while they have been hounded by a chaos marine warband ( 3-5 chaos marines ) that i put together from the Black crusade rulebooks. the head cultist was recently killed by the chaos warband and in arriving late to the scene the kill team got to see the true nature of this warband. they are in fact marines from the Sons Of Malice ( hence the grey knight - who better to deal these arch - traitors )

heres the kicker - the year is now 999 M41, and the kill team finds themselves on Baal..... with nids already on planet, blood angels rushing back and the 13th black crusade approaching fast.... and of course the Sons of Malice warband will not be idle.... this is just their turf after all, anarchy and terror

i also have a lovely korne bloodthirster ready to throw at the team ( it possessed and manifested through that interesting NPC's father ) which just so happens to be the Grey knights named foe (they rolled the same names for the emperors sake )

so.... opinions? ideas? criticism?

That... looks like a really good place to start the third act of a move or series. Things have been heating up, the villain is now in play, and everything looks terrible for everyone.

Pretty sure there are a bunch of orks active in the Baal area too, so the Deathwatch can still be doing the Xenus-hunting part of their job... until everything falls into the Warp anyway

I am not really sure how the Grey Knight fits in. Is he part of the regular Deathwatch team? Or just on loan? I cannot see how thie character, who is already part of a different Ordos be seconded to the Deathwatch. I can almost see the GK there to help with a specific threat but only after the threat was discovered. They would not be Deathwatch. Unless there is something in the DW books I have yet to see showing GK's as a viable chapter to use.

Grey Knights are chosen and bred to fight things of the Warp. They are also a military arm of the Ordo Hereticus similar to the DW is for Ordo Xenos. The difference is they are a specific Chapter bred for the a purpose. Also very few people even know the GK's exist, Chapter Masters, Maybe the Ordos and that's about it. So having one running around with a DW squad would not fit at all. To even see one is to know your existence is no more.

It is your game you do as you please. I on the other hand like to keep things close to the background of the universe we are playing in. So Sm's don't have families and kids and GK's are not even figments of SM imaginations.

I am not really sure how the Grey Knight fits in. Is he part of the regular Deathwatch team? Or just on loan? I cannot see how thie character, who is already part of a different Ordos be seconded to the Deathwatch. I can almost see the GK there to help with a specific threat but only after the threat was discovered. They would not be Deathwatch. Unless there is something in the DW books I have yet to see showing GK's as a viable chapter to use.

Grey Knights are chosen and bred to fight things of the Warp. They are also a military arm of the Ordo Hereticus similar to the DW is for Ordo Xenos. The difference is they are a specific Chapter bred for the a purpose. Also very few people even know the GK's exist, Chapter Masters, Maybe the Ordos and that's about it. So having one running around with a DW squad would not fit at all. To even see one is to know your existence is no more.

It is your game you do as you please. I on the other hand like to keep things close to the background of the universe we are playing in. So Sm's don't have families and kids and GK's are not even figments of SM imaginations.

let me be clear....... the Sons of malice are devotes to the lost chaos god of anarchy... Malal/Malice. They hate loyalist marines and other forces of chaos equally. the grey knight has been bought in by the watch captain to deal with them ( he replaced the kia assault marine and librarian )

the rest of kill team dont know who/what the GK is

as to the family issue, the NPC they met was just a bounty hunter. she is the daughter of my old Dark Heresy character who had a nasty pact with Korne and ended up opening a gateway for the bloodthirster before being consumed by it.

If any of the kill team survive Baal they will be mind wiped, but for now the watch captain wants the GK there to find out just what the sons of malice want with the kill team

hope that clears that up for you

Fury: Grey Knights are not the Chamber Militant for the Ordo Hereticus. They are the Chamber Militant for the Ordo Malleus.

The Ordo Hereticus uses the Adepta Sororitas, and therefore probably has the largest, most widespread Chamber Militant of all- if the least badass.

Don't get me wrong, I won't say that Sororitas don't have balls of steel- they do. They're just not Grey Knights or veteran Astartes.

Also, the Space Wolves know exactly who the Grey Knights are- at least, any Space Wolf who was a Space Wolf during or immediately after the first Armageddon war.

The thing about the Inquisition is that occasionally the Ordos work together. A DW killteam, while annihilating a Cold Trade cell, might discover that their quarry are actually cultists. They report this to the Inquisition, specifically the Ordo Malleus, but as the agents who discovered the cultist cell, they may be asked to continue pursuing the matter by their Watch Captain. If it turns out that this cell is associated with a broader network of cultists, backed by a faction of the Word Bearers known to favour daemonic summonings, with clear evidence of a major ritual to take place (a la the summoning of Ulkair in DoW2, for example), then the Ordo Malleus may (in an unusual example of cooperation- perhaps they are busy elsewhere) send a liason to join the Killteam. The Watch Commander would be aware of the mind scrubbing of all involved, as he fulfills a role similar to a Chapter Master, and would probably be cleared for knowledge of the Grey Knights, but might well consider it worth it to ensure the threat is contained.

Some threats simply require a flexible response package. Combined arms ftw,

As long as the Grey Knight isn't inducted into the Kill Team then the situation is unusual but not rediculous.

At the end of the day if an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor has predicted that this Kill Team will face increasing threats from Chaos then there is no reason why a Grey Knight shouldn't be assigned to work with them. After all if any marine Chapter can keep a secret it wil lbe the Deathwatch.

I think it is an absolutely outstanding set up and with some breaks in the lore aside - which you can easily justify given that this is your campaign (run it however you want) - you should have a great ending. I wouldn't worry about justifying the Grey Knight since the Kill Team will be mind wiped.

It sounds action packed with a deep story that stretches across multiple gaming platforms (Dark Heresy, Deathwatch) and it is clear you have given it a lot of thought.

So, what is next then... You have Tyranids (so many options for side missions, hell you could turn the tide of the war!). Orks, but that might be played out for your group. The real kicker finale should be the daemon and the Sons of Malice. I would save them until the end and not use them prematurely. Keep building that up until it cannot be contained any longer. Then give your players what they want - retribution or a death fitting of the servants of teh God Emperor.

Rock and roll.