Ok so last night was the epic finale of the war for Castobel. The Watch commander overseeing the kill team performed a heroic sacrifice that destroyed the primary hive ship over castobel. Now the kill team has the autonomy to go where they feel they should until a new captain can be put in place. Now the team must make the hard choice of which region of the Jericho reach will they go too.

I am going to give them 2-3 systems to go to depending on which salient they choose. My question is this. I have a big list of missions in my head and will also be incorporating plenty of the published materiels into the campaign.

What cool missions have you all sent your kill teams on? Obviously I have read all the GM stuff about mission ideas, but I was wondering what other cool missions you guys have cooked up during your campaigns?

Allow me to spin you a tale of a campaign I put together:

"Planet Ambadura, population currently unknown. As you can see it looks rather lush, vibrant and prosperous. Now you may be wondering why you are here for this, well consider this and then tell me if you are still unsure why you are here.

Approximately 10,000 years ago this planet was colonised by a contingent of units from the Imperial Fists, who left their mark and established a strong grounding. The planet grew into a well defended and managed bastion, a fortress, a garrison. However shortly after the colonisation, the planet simply vanished from this region of space without any warning or trace. An entire world simply ripped from its place in the galaxy. Now, it has returned with no explanation as to how or why. While this is not officially under the mandate of the Ordo Xenos, it was discovered by a Rogue Trader who relayed it to authorities. As the closest major fortification I believe it is our responsibility to assess this before waiting for other parties to arrive. We need to investigate and discover what has happened to this planet and its people and ascertain if it is still habitable and if there are any traces of colonisation. No planet cannot just vanish and reappear without consequence, I want it checked and I want as much info as possible on this."

Basically I invented a world which vanished from the map just before the Horus Heresy. As far as the people of the world knew, there was no heresy, the Emperor is out there in the galaxy striding about and there is no Chaos. They wouldnt know a loyalist from a traitor. It was a shining beacon of how the Imperium should be, free of war and corruption and allowed to develop into a perfect planet. Its technology was actually on par with some of the better forge worlds of the Imperium and hadn't suffered mass tech degredation. The structure was superb and all seemed ideal. That's how it started, if you need more details of how it went then do please ask.

Message sent!

Probably the most memorable one was "Operation Cautery" a.k.a. "And this is why the Inquisition are *******".

It's a 'priority operation, and justifies pulling the team in whether they like it or not.

This is set not in any of the salients but in one of the Iron Collar world near Karlack and the Gate.

I'll recreate the 'briefing letter' as best I remember it:

=][=

Inquisitorial Eyes Only

Dark Magenta Clearance

Operation Cautery

By The Authority of The Immortal God-Emperor Of Mankind,

You and Your Kill-Team are seconded into the direct service of Inquisitor Scorn of the Ordo Hereticus.

This instruction is validated by appended clearance codes from the Master of the Vigil and the Inquisitor of the Chamber.

Operational Instructions

• Operation Cautery is a covert operation to be carried out under direct Inquisitorial Sanction.
• Your kill-teams status is SPECIAL CONDITION from this point.
• No contact is to be made with any Imperial Adeptus, Officio or Ordo outside this vessel
• No formal record or documentation is to be maintained of this operation.
• This message is to be destroyed once briefing is complete
• Telepathic recall blocks are to be emplaced in the conveying astropath once briefing is completed.
• All wargear employed is to be destroyed at mission completion.

Mission Background

• The frontier colony system of Threnody is a newly-established Imperial colony of less than ten million souls.
• The ocean world of Threnody (the name refers to both the star and the main world, Threnody II) is the only permenantly inhabited body in the system, but a small PDF auspex base is maintained on the moon, Tidal.
• Colonisation occured early in the first phase of the Achillus crusade, and the colony is securely behind the "Iron Collar" fortress world network
• The world has been largely settled by demobilized guardsmen and munitorium personnel and refugees from elsewhere in the reach, and first- and second-generation decendents of these individuals.
• The entire population lives on the archipelago named "St' Katherine's Reef", and well over a third of them live in and around the one sizeable city, Kittstown - also seat of the planetary governor (Lord Atreus, also seat of the planetary diocese (Deacon Thaal), also the seat of the planetary Adeptus Mechanicus mission (Magos Arcanthos)
• The planet has recently been raised from Aptus Non tithe grade and formally submitted its first tithe.
• The oceanic biology is considered suitable for agriworld exploitation, and has potential for developing as an "exceptionally promising" source of pharmacopiea by Magos Arcanthos, the leading Magos Biologis on-planet.

Recent History

• St Katherine's reef has a distinct geological structure which led to theories that the islands are what remains of the rim of either a suboceanic volcano or a massive meteroric impact crater.
• In order to assess any long-term risk, Lord Atreus requested an orbital geological survey by the Adeptus Mechanicus
• The Divine Mechanism carried out this survey and copies of the results provided to Lord Atreus and Magos Arcanthos.
• The Divine Mechanism's survey identified a mineral deposit of absolute strategic value.

Analysis

• Psy-active crystals are vital and irreplaceable components in the construction of psy-focus, force weaponry, gellar fields and void technology.
• The deposits of crystal precursors on Threnody outmasses the known deposits in Jericho Reach and Calixis sector combined by a factor of eight.
• The estimated strategic value of this deposit outweighs Threnody's predicted agriworld tithe by over seven thousand five hundred percent.
• The large-scale extraction and processing of these materials is highly toxic and invariably terminal for the planetary ecosphere. Most worlds are reclassified as deathworlds within one decade of extraction commencing. Intensive labour is required and conscripted workforces are the norm.
• Lord Atreus is a decorated guard veteran noted for leadership and concern for his men. Magos Arcanthos and he will swiftly grasp the implications and it is considered likely they will protest the large-scale exploitation of this deposit.
• Any unplanned release of information relating to the likely fate of Threnody is potentially extremely dangerous given that the population contains a conservatively estimated four million former guardsmen and women. The Imperium cannot afford a revolt.

Mission Objectives

• Confirm the destruction of all copies of the Divine Mechanism's survey report
• Terminate with extreme prejudice Lord Atreus
• Terminate with extreme prejudice all individuals in the Lord-Governor's line of sucession (this will necessitate the installation of a temporary off-world Governor-Militant)
• Terminate with extreme prejudice Magos Arcanthos
• Terminate with extreme prejudice any other individuals suspected of knowing the content of the survey report.

Rules Of Engagement

• Whilst the operational area is an Imperial World, this mission is considered Weapons Free at all times.
• The Kill-Team is instructed to use lethal force against any and all witnesses to this operation.
• All cogitator systems which may have recorded Kill-Team operations are to be destroyed or erased.
• No identifiably astartes wargear may be employed in this operation. Scout armour and alternate subcalibre projectile weaponry will be provided prior to deployment.
• It is intended that the assault be blamed on a previously unsuspected Heretic cult operating on Threnody, justifying a crackdown by Inquisitorial Enforcers and the Arbites in advance of processing commencing. Operational doctrine should be selected appropriately.
• Under no circumstances whatsoever can Imperial/Astartes/Inquisitorial involvement in this assassination be proveable.

Probably the most memorable one was "Operation Cautery" a.k.a. "And this is why the Inquisition are *******".

It's a 'priority operation, and justifies pulling the team in whether they like it or not.

This is set not in any of the salients but in one of the Iron Collar world near Karlack and the Gate.

I'll recreate the 'briefing letter' as best I remember it:

=][=

Inquisitorial Eyes Only

Dark Magenta Clearance

Operation Cautery

By The Authority of The Immortal God-Emperor Of Mankind,

You and Your Kill-Team are seconded into the direct service of Inquisitor Scorn of the Ordo Hereticus.

This instruction is validated by appended clearance codes from the Master of the Vigil and the Inquisitor of the Chamber.

Operational Instructions

• Operation Cautery is a covert operation to be carried out under direct Inquisitorial Sanction.
• Your kill-teams status is SPECIAL CONDITION from this point.
• No contact is to be made with any Imperial Adeptus, Officio or Ordo outside this vessel
• No formal record or documentation is to be maintained of this operation.
• This message is to be destroyed once briefing is complete
• Telepathic recall blocks are to be emplaced in the conveying astropath once briefing is completed.
• All wargear employed is to be destroyed at mission completion.

Mission Background

• The frontier colony system of Threnody is a newly-established Imperial colony of less than ten million souls.
• The ocean world of Threnody (the name refers to both the star and the main world, Threnody II) is the only permenantly inhabited body in the system, but a small PDF auspex base is maintained on the moon, Tidal.
• Colonisation occured early in the first phase of the Achillus crusade, and the colony is securely behind the "Iron Collar" fortress world network
• The world has been largely settled by demobilized guardsmen and munitorium personnel and refugees from elsewhere in the reach, and first- and second-generation decendents of these individuals.
• The entire population lives on the archipelago named "St' Katherine's Reef", and well over a third of them live in and around the one sizeable city, Kittstown - also seat of the planetary governor (Lord Atreus, also seat of the planetary diocese (Deacon Thaal), also the seat of the planetary Adeptus Mechanicus mission (Magos Arcanthos)
• The planet has recently been raised from Aptus Non tithe grade and formally submitted its first tithe.
• The oceanic biology is considered suitable for agriworld exploitation, and has potential for developing as an "exceptionally promising" source of pharmacopiea by Magos Arcanthos, the leading Magos Biologis on-planet.

Recent History

• St Katherine's reef has a distinct geological structure which led to theories that the islands are what remains of the rim of either a suboceanic volcano or a massive meteroric impact crater.
• In order to assess any long-term risk, Lord Atreus requested an orbital geological survey by the Adeptus Mechanicus
• The Divine Mechanism carried out this survey and copies of the results provided to Lord Atreus and Magos Arcanthos.
• The Divine Mechanism's survey identified a mineral deposit of absolute strategic value.

Analysis

• Psy-active crystals are vital and irreplaceable components in the construction of psy-focus, force weaponry, gellar fields and void technology.
• The deposits of crystal precursors on Threnody outmasses the known deposits in Jericho Reach and Calixis sector combined by a factor of eight.
• The estimated strategic value of this deposit outweighs Threnody's predicted agriworld tithe by over seven thousand five hundred percent.
• The large-scale extraction and processing of these materials is highly toxic and invariably terminal for the planetary ecosphere. Most worlds are reclassified as deathworlds within one decade of extraction commencing. Intensive labour is required and conscripted workforces are the norm.
• Lord Atreus is a decorated guard veteran noted for leadership and concern for his men. Magos Arcanthos and he will swiftly grasp the implications and it is considered likely they will protest the large-scale exploitation of this deposit.
• Any unplanned release of information relating to the likely fate of Threnody is potentially extremely dangerous given that the population contains a conservatively estimated four million former guardsmen and women. The Imperium cannot afford a revolt.

Mission Objectives

• Confirm the destruction of all copies of the Divine Mechanism's survey report
• Terminate with extreme prejudice Lord Atreus
• Terminate with extreme prejudice all individuals in the Lord-Governor's line of sucession (this will necessitate the installation of a temporary off-world Governor-Militant)
• Terminate with extreme prejudice Magos Arcanthos
• Terminate with extreme prejudice any other individuals suspected of knowing the content of the survey report.

Rules Of Engagement

• Whilst the operational area is an Imperial World, this mission is considered Weapons Free at all times.
• The Kill-Team is instructed to use lethal force against any and all witnesses to this operation.
• All cogitator systems which may have recorded Kill-Team operations are to be destroyed or erased.
• No identifiably astartes wargear may be employed in this operation. Scout armour and alternate subcalibre projectile weaponry will be provided prior to deployment.
• It is intended that the assault be blamed on a previously unsuspected Heretic cult operating on Threnody, justifying a crackdown by Inquisitorial Enforcers and the Arbites in advance of processing commencing. Operational doctrine should be selected appropriately.
• Under no circumstances whatsoever can Imperial/Astartes/Inquisitorial involvement in this assassination be proveable.

Emperor's balls! What a horrible mission!!! I love it!!! Consider it borrowed for sure and thanks for sharing!

Indeed, an interesting and refreshingly different assignment!

... meanwhile, a Dark Heresy group is active on the surface, investigating said cult operations, believing to have found clues for an imminent assassination attempt on the governor's life. Let the Inquisitorial clusterf... commence.

Clandestine operations and false flag terror attacks ... really, this is 40k at its best.

There's an old-ish thread of DW mission ideas here.

. Let the Inquisitorial clusterf... commence.

Reminds me of an Inquisitor Skirmish we had years ago, which essentially (and inevitably) devolved into a messy firefight, with two factions bellowing "surrender in the name of the Inquisition!" at one another - whilst the actual heretics were having a quiet Lho-Stick off in the corner and muttering things like "You know, Severian, I think we'll sit this one out..."

Emperor's balls! What a horrible mission!!! I love it!!! Consider it borrowed for sure and thanks for sharing!

No-one promised that the jobs the Chamber Militant gets asked to do were all going to be nice.

As you might imagine, the Black Templar on the team really didn't like this one. He liked it even less when they got on-planet and found out what the blandly-stated objective #3 entailed...

My favorite adventure was when we had a RT vessel that might have been contaminated with genestealers approaching an jungle paradise world so we were to inspect the ship. Turns out we found a patriarch frozen in the medbay where the other patriarch had placed him. Then the captain showed his traitorous colors and started thawing 300 genestealers in the frozen fruit cargo bay. We had to race to the bridge to get control of the ship before they could crash land it on the planet. With only 3 of us on the team we really had to make every shot count in those narrow hallways.

We kept toggling between "this is easy they can't hurt us" to "and here comes the TPK"

At the bridge, the patriarch chopped the leg off our techmarine on his charge, the librarian popped a smoke over us as we're surrounded by genestealers. The patriarch retreated (and unknown to us was hiding above the door frame for an ambush). The librarian pushed a power and got the rain of blood result which knocked the patriarch down. The devastator used his cyber auspex to locate the patriarch and double tap him with concussion missiles (thank you oath!).

The GM ruled we couldn't vent the entire ship and a magus was trying to use engineering to get control of the ship so we ended up bringing it into the firing arc of the space station and having them blow it up.

That would be a fun mission for sure! The only thing that gets me about some DW missions is that they all seem to be last minute emergency situations. Missions such as "X thing has gone wrong and if it isn't fixed in the next five hours the whole planet will Y" are awesome, but it seems to me I can only give such missions in a system where they already are. I can't give a mission with such a definite timetable and be like...cool travel time is two months...maybe you can pick through the rubble of the hive for teddy bears?

It hasn't been to bad finding reasons to get players to want to go to a system, its just tough because it can never be SUPER urgent.

Trying to give the players a sense of agency means nothing if there is a mission that is CLEARLY a higher priority than the others. I can't wait for sunday, there is going to be such debate in my group about where to go next!

Two months is a bit much - remember that the Deathwatch (as an adjunct to the Inqusition) will have some of the best navigators going, and that there isn't much that can keep up with a Gladius-class rapid strike vessel on full burn.

Whilst travel times for Rogue Traders and navy ships might be two months, a Deathwatch ship can probably make the transit in a week or so. Enough that messages like "the Southern Range Defence Lines have been breached by the Tyranids" are something that you can respond to, but bear in mind that the situation will have been getting steadily worse for ten days or more before you arrive....

Two months is a bit much - remember that the Deathwatch (as an adjunct to the Inqusition) will have some of the best navigators going, and that there isn't much that can keep up with a Gladius-class rapid strike vessel on full burn.

Whilst travel times for Rogue Traders and navy ships might be two months, a Deathwatch ship can probably make the transit in a week or so. Enough that messages like "the Southern Range Defence Lines have been breached by the Tyranids" are something that you can respond to, but bear in mind that the situation will have been getting steadily worse for ten days or more before you arrive....

Even with that being so...astropathic messages can be so messed up sometimes! I think every now and again it would be good to get that kind of distress call and just have the players arrive too late, just straight up too late to anything but try and exact vengeance. Assuming the enemy is even still there!

Random further inspiration, ever considered a good armoured battle?

The KT had been tasked with being the spearhead of an armoured assault and take out major threats to the main company behind which consisted of large numbers of armoured IG units and a single Stormblade super heavy. The overall mission was to attack a critical enemy stronghold on the ground and neutralise it. Due to heavily contested orbit, this would be the only way to get near it. I found a map online (used a battlefield from World of Tanks) and defined where the enemy fortress was based and where they were approaching from. The KT were given:

1 x Land Raider Phobos Pattern

1 x Predator Annihilator Pattern

1 x Predator Destructor Pattern

This was the front of the army. Their job was to identify major threats and take them out, clearing a safe path to the enemy base. On the way they would have to get through multiple Chaos tanks such as Rhinos and Predators but even a few walkers such as Dreadnoughts or even Defilers. Additionally along the way were a few infantry nests, AA batteries. Chaos Hell Talons and minefields. The other issue though was that there were also traitor guardsmen available so not only were there chaos tanks but also a few Leman Russ, Chimera and also Basilisk platforms positioned far off corners of map.

I'd mapped everything out, where it was and given them a copy of the battle map and showed them where all the major features were but not where any of the tanks or enemy positions were. I had a second copy which I kept hidden. As they would drive around I set a fixed rule that their vision/detection range was a fixed number of tiles and revealed enemies as and when they entered that detection range. They were warned to do this quick as once they start, enemy reinforcements would soon close in to defend their citadel.

You could always try something like that, as I tend to find that termie walks through hulks can get a bit samey. Doesn't beat the thrill of riding into battle...plus one of our guys managed to get away with using the old line of "Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!"

I have definitely considered this! I actually have an idea for a hunting / recon mission where the KT goes out in a squadron of Land Speeders and make it rain Xenos bodies. Another thought was a bike mission along the same idea. Track the enemy Warband, engage and destroy. I am envisioning this as hunting a formation of battlesuits or something along those lines.

Remember travel through the warp isn't linear timed. You could have them receive a distress call and then arrive before its ever sent and then [dramatic sound] they end up being the ones who sent it!!!

Or you could have them hear that the adventure wagon is over a year out from a destination so they could go there early and prepare or find a side quest along the way.

Even with that being so...astropathic messages can be so messed up sometimes! I think every now and again it would be good to get that kind of distress call and just have the players arrive too late, just straight up too late to anything but try and exact vengeance. Assuming the enemy is even still there!

Indeed. picking over the wreckage of a battlefield is an interesting mission, especially if the distress call is essentially "the tyranids have done something new and it's killing us" - and the kill team have to figure out what it was.

Picking through a derelict ship destroyed in battle by tyranids. That sounds safe.

And then, on the way back to their parent ship, an engine blows out and sends the 'thawk tumbling end-over-end and rapidly depressurising. Something got aboard.