Last night was a spectacular evening of roleplaying...but the end was unexpected and leads to more questions. As always...I turn to my trusty cohorts in the GM threads. I will give the rundown for last night.

The kill team responded to a call for aid from the Howling Griffons 4th company. There were two squads actively hunting down a chaos warband that had gotten behind the front lines on Khazant and was active in the hills of the wartorn continent. They had been hunting down and destroying convoys with such efficiency that it was destabilizing that section of the front. The kill team had worked a bit with the howling griffons in the past and decided to intervene and assist.

The intelligence showed three oddities in the area, and Intel from the howling griffons suggested a mechanized force of at least twenty chaos marines with support from a heavier piece of armor.

The marines linked up with Sgt Apollos of the 2nd Squad 4th company Howling Griffons as well as Sgt Krios of the 9th Squad. Together, they moved out to investigate the ruins of a nearby convoy. The convoy was a mess and the Raven Guard was able to discern that the tracks from the vehicles that attacked them were definitely rhino chassis vehicles, but that one was slightly more depressed into the mud. This indicates a higher weight class than a Rhino. Here, the kill team met up with a combat squad of Flesh Tearers in a rhino that had been requisitioned as a support asset at the mission start. Sgt Hessia was very upset that there was nothing here

From there, the kill team moved on to a nearby area that the librarian detected using Psynicience. Here they discovered 24 Cultists at the end of a ritual. 3 groups of 8 were arrayed around a central altar festooned with the sacrificed ruins of a Howling Griffon. 8 Held Bowls, 8 Held Knives, and 8 Knelt. As the chanting ended, two swift strikes of the blades decapitated the 8 kneeling cultists, the blood was then drained from the skull into the bowls being held by the other cultist at east group. First the heads were thrown towards the alter, which caught fire mid air until the flesh was gone and only the bone remained. Then the cultist with the bowl of fresh blood upended the bowl into their own faces and chests. With a terrible shriek, they were twisted and transformed into 8 Bloodletters of Khorne, who immediately killed the final third cultist that was at each of the spots. This final act of bloodshed sealed the binding and they began running amok.

The marines were more than adequate to put down this threat and a successful tech use test on the sacrificed Howling Griffon revealed a single grainy image of a power armored form in teal or blue delivering a killing blow. The Howling Griffons then stepped in to take the body back for storage in their Rhino so rites could be performed later.

All this intel combined pointed to a series of hills a few hours away that supply routes regularly move through. A large swamp in a valley that would be large enough to support a force of that size. Together the team moved toward the third and final location, a jamming signal in those very same hills where supply convoys were moving.

After six hours of travelling they came upon a bridge near a large burning convoy. There was a small refueling dump located there in the middle of the valley. Sneaking around, the Raven Guard were able to determine that the convoy was ambushed by several heavy weapons. The force flanked around the hills until they found the power signals and discovered a Trio of Obliterators waiting in ambush. This potentially deadly fight was over very quickly as the poor Obliterators could not seem to hit anyone with their weapons. Unfortunately, the fuel depot itself was destroyed in the resulting firefight and the swamps where the enemy might be camped were only about 1000 Meters away at this point.

Pressing on, the Raven Guard Dev and Assualt marine snuck onto a ridge overlooking the camp and discovered that there was in face a Rhino, a Predator Tank, and about 20 Chaos Marines preparing to move out in response to the explosion. There was also an AA Gun, which they knew needed to be knocked out ASAP as the Flesh Tearers had called in a Stormtalon for support.

Sneaking through a series of trip wires and sensors under the cover of darkness, the Devastator got into position and planed charges on the AA gun while the marines were gearing up to move out. Having effectively flanked the enemy force, he set the charge for a minute and began to get up the side of the hill as fast as could be concieved. Having alerted the forces in the kill team, the Flesh Tearers, Kill Team, and Howling Griffons spread out and moved along both the center of the road and up the sides of the two hills of the small valley on either side.

Finally, mere seconds before the AA gun exploded, the Devastator lined up a perfect shot into the rear armor of the predator tank in the valley below rolling FOUR rightous fury results out of five dice. The turret of the tank was blow clear off and the engine began to smoke and catch fire and secondary explosions ripped through the tank. As this was happening the loyal marines struck against the renegades that were spreading out along the hills of the valley and digging in.

With battle joined, the Flesh Tearers began a headlong charge into the midst of the center combat squad of renegades. The kill team pressed the center as well backing up thier charge while being protected by the librarians force shield. On either flank, the 9th and 2nd squads of howling griffons began to engage to renegades as well. Lastly, a Stormtalon descended moments after the AA was out and began to riddle the hillside renegades in hover mode with assault cannon and lascannon shots. 7 Chaos Marines were down in the first two turns of combat...

FInally, a vox transmission came through from the pilot of the Stormtalon...

"Brothers, something is wrong...we are being targeted by the....HISSS STATIC" As suddenly four missiles detonated against the side of the craft. The ship leered to one side before secondary explosions caused it to detonate in fiery ruin. The light illuminated the darkness around them and the players all made successful awareness rolls. The discovered that the fighting along the ridges on either side of them had stopped and all the Howling Griffons were aiming carefully at each of the members of the kill team and flesh tearers. Finally, through time had stopped for a moment, Sergeant Apollos of the 2nd Squad declared sardonically "FOR THE EMPEROR!" and the center of the valley below was riddled with fire from the renegades and Howling Griffons alike...

My poor players faces...they didn't know what to do!

I am out of time...I will finish this tonight so I can actually get to my question!!! I can't help but tell these sorts of tales as they happen. I really need some fun advise on where to go from here.

"FOUR rightous fury results out of five dice."

Just a quick rule clarification there, I assume the dev was using a lascannon. Whether he rolled 1x10 or 4x10, he only gets one RF die. While getting 40+ on a shot is amazing, its still highly improbable that it would be a kill. 40+ 10 pen 10 gets you to 60 of the 65 needed to get to critical. To get to explodes that means he rolled a combined 15 on the 5th die plus the RF die (less mighty shot if he has it).

Yeah I forgot RF against vehicles is more like zealous hatred.

"FOUR rightous fury results out of five dice."

Just a quick rule clarification there, I assume the dev was using a lascannon. Whether he rolled 1x10 or 4x10, he only gets one RF die. While getting 40+ on a shot is amazing, its still highly improbable that it would be a kill. 40+ 10 pen 10 gets you to 60 of the 65 needed to get to critical. To get to explodes that means he rolled a combined 15 on the 5th die plus the RF die (less mighty shot if he has it).

He didn't quite kill it in one go...But he took it to Crit 4 and had four extra d5 rolls on the crit chart. After that it was pretty much crippled and out of the fight. He finished the beast off with a another shot later in the fight. If memory serves he did 46 + 10 Damage plus the Pen value. The final value when it was all said and done was close to 70 damage if you include pen value. Into the Rear armor of a vehicle (Armor 20) That only has a little over 40 structure points...just to clarify...that tank was almost completely destroyed by it outright

Also to clarify - Righteous fury does something different to vehicles. You don't get extra damage. You get rolls on the Crit chart at a d5

Sorry for the delays! on this... so to continue my players tale and get to my question...I'll give the cliff notes version of events! A LOT happened, so I'll just hit to high points. If there are hole in the story it's because I'm skipping over some things for the sake of not trying to write a novel or short story.

Immediately after realizing that the players had inadvertently placed themselves into a kill zone, outnumbered at this point 3-1. The decision was made to attempt to fall back, but a lascannon hit from one of the renegades took out the drivers of the rhino and nearly immobilized it. With the extra protection of the librarians considerably pushed force shield, all this punishment was being soaked for the most part. Until the following round when a volley of krak missiles tore the already wounded flesh tearers apart. The four members of the team were reduced to a lone marine, a one legged and crippled Sergeant Hessia, and another Fleshtearer with only the arm wielding his chainsword. The one that was still up began to grab his Sergeant and get him back to the Rhino, the other lost it and ran into the hills to root out one of the squads to kill with his chainsword as though he had lost all reason. Seeing the plight of their allies, the squad leader flew to their position and began the process of assisting with getting him back to the position. Meanwhile, from behind the renegade forces, the two Raven Guard were doing an excellent job of picking off isolated targets with lascannon and storm bolter fire. It was at this point that the team realized that they simply were not going to be able to escape on foot. Two players declared that they would hold the forces at bay long enough for their brothers to regroup and escape. The Imperial Fist Tactical Marine began working up the hillside towards the 14 Renegades on the ridge line. The Raven Guard Assault Marine began to fly towards the Dozen Renegades that were on the opposite ridge line. On his way flying overhead he dropped a demolition charge into the Chaos Marine Rhino that still had a combat squads worth of enemies in and around it. With a resounding boom, the rhino exploded and the chaos marines around it were caught in the blast, killing or wounding all of them. Making it to the sides of the valley, the two of them declared they would be performing a heroic sacrifice as they unleashed hell into the forces that had betrayed them. The Assault marine finally succumbed to his wounds after grappling Sergeant Apollos of the Howling Griffons, flying as high as possible into the air, and detonating a melta bomb on the renegade. The Tactical marine had been wounded over and over again until finally a Howling Griffon manage to stab deep into his neck. As he was succumbing to his many and fearsome wounds he mustered the strength to drive his astartes combat knife past the gorget of the chaos marine in front of him.

With two comrades dead in a pile of dead traitors and some fortuitous assistance from the librarian and techmarine. The remaining kill team members rallied and attempted to counter attack. Still using the sustained energies of the librarians force shield to protect them from all but the worst of the enemies fury.

Eventually, the Traitors broke off and attempted to move off into the hills. However, the kill team discovered that the body of their fallen brother had disappeared while the Howling Griffons were using the smoke grenades.

Enraged by this, the space wolf began to actively hunt them through the hills, eventually discovering that the trail led to a clearing on the other side of the hills. He saw that a few hundred meters ahead of him, the Rhino that the howling griffons had arrived in was present. It was actively being loaded with the body of their fallen brother. So began a high speed chase through the wartorn wilderness of the world. Eventually, the Black Templar assault marine squad leader had boarded the Rhino and was dueling with the 9th squad sergeant of the Howling Griffons, Sgt Krios.

During the fight, incredulous that his foe was still alive, the Howling Griffon asked "Who ARE you?!?" And after some some choice words about being the living embodiment of the Emperor's Fury...the Black Templar asked..."AND Who then Are You?!?" With a bemused chuckle Sgt Krios replied "I am Alpharius"

Grabbing the form of his fallen brother from inside the rhino, The Squad leader flew out through the open top hatch of the rhino. Having been denied his prize, the pursuit continued for some time. Eventually, in the distance, the kill team noticed the shape of a Thunderhawk Transporter approaching at high speed. With a well placed melta charge, the pursuit was ended with a massive explosion that threw the Alpha legion Sergeant and the other marines of the kill team in nearly every direction. The Transporter was almost on top of them and coming in at top speed as it became clear that it's front hatch was open and they intended to pick up their comrade at speed rather than top and continue to fight. With a burst of speed the Space Wolf Librarian Bjalt'Skular tackled the Alpha legion warrior as he attempted to get in position. I informed the player that he was now directly in the way and this would end with a d10, it would go one of three ways. 9-10: The ship miscalculates and you are both smashed to bits as you are impacted by the speeding Thunderhawk, 3-8 - The ship totally misses and you are left where you are. Lastly on a 1-2 you would BOTH be scooped up in the transport.

Go figure I rolled a One. Both the Space Wolf Librarian AND the Alpha Legion Sgt were scooped up and captured by the ship. Inside, there was the scaled teal and blue power armored forms of a Squad of the Alpha Legion. All they said was "A gift....Submit or Die"

So here is the question...what sort of things would the alpha legion do to a captured librarian? Where would they take such a person? What kind of fun ways would there be to launch a rescue mission?

It's safe to say that if they could convert him he would be a powerful ally. it's also safe to say that this entire mission had a purpose for them to go through the elaborate ruse of disguising themselves as howling griffons so they could set this trap. I know what these reasons are...but my players read here so I can't give any of that away.

One of the coolest things would some sort of mancherian candidate scenario. Phsycho condition him to do something spectacular when he hears the trigger. Not only does he not know about the trigger, he'll swear its the that nothing is wrong with him.

"They let us rescue you"

"you call killing a blood thirster to get out letting us go??"!

Not a bad idea, Alpha legion would be all about that sort of thing. I have been toying with the idea of having the players character only remember some of what happened to him

I reckon a Space Wolf Rune Priest (Librarian) would go down fighting, choose to die (by fighting) or throw himself out of the Thunderhawk and hope for the best (ie. he takes one with him and maybe lands in a watersource, on something soft, or his armor takes the brunt of the hit and his body goes into stasis). What did the Space Wolf actually do?

This is an awesome adventure, just fantastic, I was really impressed. I reckon the Alpha Legion would definitely do something along the lines of the Manchurian Candidate scenario. But that would take time (Space Wolves are notoriously stubborn) so there is definitely scope for a rescue mission.

Do some opposed Willpower tests of the Space Wolf versus the Alpha Legion, one per day before rescue, if the Space Wolf has three failiures the Alpha Legion are successful in making him a sleeper agent. If he is rescued before 3 failures, he's safe.

I like Benu5 idea.

But if you wanted to be really malicious to your PCs if the Space wolf does fail all the willpower saves you could replace his character completely with a Apha Legion Marine. You would have to remove some of his knowledge that the Alpha Legion Marine would not have.

Just Write a updated character sheet for the Space wolf and give it to the PC and explain that after all the torture that his character lost some memories that he sealed away to keep from the Alpha Legion. Thus you have a plot device you could use at any point in the future.

This is assuming that the kill team has not done many missions together.