If your name is Scorch (Ewan), Omega (Brunner), Fenix (Zharzz) or Jonathan S. (Felicia), stay the hell out of this thread on penalty of falling rocks!

So...

My players are about to steal a Claymore-Class Corvette, a Frigate ship that has been retrofitted into a transport ship hauling cargo, currently in voiddock at Port Wander.

What should I fill it's holds with to piss them off? During their inspection of the ship, posing as Inquisitorial agents, it appeared to be an incredibly average ship with some glaring security flaws. For all they have been told, the ship pretty much just hauls cargo around Sector Calixis, over well-established warp routes. There appeared to be nothing iffy going on, and the ship was in long-term voiddock on Port Wander awaiting cargo to be hauled somewhere else.

But they never actually checked, and I've told them before that I'm not going to ask them to do Scrutiny checks every time someone lies to them, because it's up to them to make those decisions if they are suspicious, and if I keep asking them, it just gives it away. And they didn't even try, from what I remember.

So anything is possible, really. Maybe the captain has been hiding something, maybe they aren't waiting in voiddock for new cargo at all, although I'm more considering that as they try to storm the ship, the ship is in the middle of filling up it's holds.

But with what? I'm thinking Ghostfire Pollen, because it's dangerous and would make the entire sector command hate them, because even a small ship completely loaded with the stuff is immensely valuable. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I'd handle such an immense wealth, so I'm hesitant to give it to them, especially when it wasn't part of their plans.

Suggestions, ideas? Another option is to simply fill it up with space-cow manure, but I think that'd be a bit slapstick for my tastes.

Have you thought about Xothic Bloodlocust? Nasty, big, people-exsanguinating, biosphere-destroying frakker from DH Creatures Anathema? With Arbites about to shake down the ship, as smuggling their seed-hives and queens is illegal? They could be sold, used as bioweapons on various scales, upgraded by hereteks. Also, some of them could escape and swarm parts of ship, if you feel particulary evil.

300 genestealers. We had an adventure like that was awesome.

Well, they are heretics and Port Wander rings a bell in regards to a certain module, so, if you really want to complicate things for them, massively, give them a hold full of loyal, imperial pilgrims from the outer reaches, who are expecting to be headed to a shrine world instead of their destination

Well, they are heretics and Port Wander rings a bell in regards to a certain module, so, if you really want to complicate things for them, massively, give them a hold full of loyal, imperial pilgrims from the outer reaches, who are expecting to be headed to a shrine world instead of their destination

Actually, we're not running the module. They ended up there after hijacking the Chains of Judgement following their escape. My idea was that they'd just quickly repair it there and then be on their way, but instead they decided that they were in such a hurry that they were going to try to get a bunch of press-ganged pirates and hijack another ship and go live the pirate life.

Oh, it's almost painful how much easier it would've been for them if they had just repaired the Chains of Judgement. Now they're saddling themselves with a decidingly average ship that isn't going to end up being half as demon-free as they wish.

+ add some Adepta Sororitas who's accompany the pilgrims...

You could have the ship be entirely empty, controlled only by the machine spirit, who, on first encounter, believes the player characters to be "Dave"...

Ghostfire is interesting, but I can't see it:

1. Ghostfire comes from Iocanthos. If the ship has it on board and is docked at Port Wander, it brought it there rather than picking it up there.
2. If it was intending to run the passage to footfall, that'd be known and fairly obvious in the paperwork. It's easy enough to fake where in the expanse you're going but you can't sneak into the passage very easily - that's the whole point of Port Wander.
3. No-one would voluntarily stay docked at what is ultimately a navy base with a hold full of massively illegal combat drugs any longer than they had to. Those holds would have been emptied in record time.

If anything, it'd be more likely to be sat still receiving goods arriving from the expanse - which opens up all sorts of possibilities for illegal shennanigans in the form of cold trade artefacts. Styrxis Biotech weapons. Yu'Vath Halo Devices. A live, armed Rak'Gol for the Beast House gladiatorial pits. The sky is the limit (and even then, only because the ship's not atmosphere-capable).

If I wanted extreme trouble for the players, I'd point out that any Cold Trade ship with bona fide paperwork is probably either an Amarathine Syndicate or Beast House pawn or someone working for a Rogue Trader dynasty, as they both have more than enough leverage to arrange such things.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a well-connected chartist captain who's expecting or hiding a hold full of illegal xenotech, has well-armed underworld contacts and beleives he has just had an unscheduled "inspection" by representatives of the Most Holy Ordos Of The God-Emperor's Inquisition.

What would you do?

This has the possibility for amusement on an epic scale (if mostly for the GM):

1. Cold trade brokers try to have them murdered before they can launch their assault (albeit without their knowing why without following this up).
2. The assassination attempt attracts the attention of actual agents of the Ordo Xenos, who wonder who the newcomers are, mistakenly assuming they represent rivals to the smugglers
3. Actually launching their assault leads to a localised gang-war breaking out in the dockyards as whatever resources they have hit the Syndicate's security forces unexpectedly and the Arbites, tipped off by the Inquisition, turn it into a massive three-sided fight.
4. Making off with the ship - assuming they get clear and jump into the warp before any of the Passage Watch Squadron warships can cut them off - earns the ship a black-list notice as 'stolen by pirates', which will be sent to the main subsector naval base at 88 Tanstar and reach the Calixis sector before they do, if they intend to head that way, as well as being relayed to any Navy patrols in the Expanse.

I don't see why it wouldn't come to Port Wander from Iocanthos to be restocked for transportation elsewhere - it's a small ship, and there's at least two major crusades that are in good positions relative to Port Wander.

That being said, some of the major ideas are good, but a bit too late to insert, due to reasons. They are masquerading as the Inquisition, and this has given them assets that would've shown, for example, if the ship was owned or in the direct (at least official) employ of a Rogue Trader (or similar).

The localised war is already happening, due to other reasons - notably, the group's only non-Imperial, a rogue psyker for Q'Sal (Zharzz) decided to attack a warehouse, kill a small score of stormtroopers, murder a high-ranking Commissar inside said warehouse, whilst also causing about five different Perils of the Warp, one of them resulting in a blood rain, another in the section falling apart completely, and a third that ripped all of them apart. And he did this alone.

The others, with another psyker (an ex-Flight Lieutenant), Ewan, felt this (well, Ewan did) and they will likely use Zharzz misadventure as a diversion.

And they have absolutely no problem with the ship being blacklisted, I already assumed it would be. There are other things in play that will nudge the party towards fleeing to the 13th Station of Passage, which will be their first (as a group) foray into the Screaming Vortex.

However, it is true that Port Wander's position makes it a good opportunity to involve the Expanse somehow, as the ship may very well be waiting for goods coming from the Expanse. I'm not feeling the major plot devices though (Halo Devices, etc), and giving them Stryxis Biotech-Weapons seems like.. a questionable idea at best. I love the idea of a live Rak'Gol, but at the same time, we're talking about a whole transport ship, here.

Any ideas for more common, more mundane things that might be heading out of the Expanse?

1: Genestealers

2: one lictor

3: 64 million pieces of glass each indivualy wrapped in red paper

4: xeno or archeo tech

5: boxes of experimental earth

6: hunderds of containers sealed with warning sigils. All are empty. (Trust me, it'll mess with their heads!)

7: a crygonenicaly frozen Eversor assassin

8; a stasis chest containging the Mona Lisa (It's canon!)

9: a stasis chest containging an inquisitor

10: a stasis chest containging a giant hand in a yellow ceramite gauntlet

11: a stasis chest containging a daemon weapon

12: the emperor on a golden throne (it's just a huge statue but don't tell them that yet.)

13: Canibal tribes of degenerate shipbuilder descendants hiding on abnadoned decks

14: a Daemon

15: a Night lords space marine

16: a hold full of Groxx

17: 666 containers full of erotic pictures of Slaanesh

18: Nurgling infestation

19: 108 combat servitors

20: a pink Cadilac customised with pre-unification area weapon systhems

21: a piece of, possably, necron xenotech labeled "do not activate befor doomsday."

22: a stasis chest with inside of it a wooden box engraved with the message "Runefang of Solland"

23: ten Rhino's and two landraiders unpainted and bearing no chapter markings.

24: as 23, but in traitor legion colors

25: as 23 but now bearing grey knights colors

26: lots of mysterious adeptus mechanicus machines

27: a bunch of pilgrims

28: a regiment of human soldiers, claiming to be imperial army- not guard.

29: a hundred ogryns

30 all of the above! ok, ok just kidding, it's actualy a bunch of ratlings and tons and tons of foodstuffs.

If you wanted to fill a ship with things to annoy them, have you considered a large number of sadistic clowns all like It? That would be nice and demented...jokes aside though.

What about a number of wild beasts for hunting? The concept that on board is a large lion-like creature (or some other 40k beast) capable of tearing a marine in half with its teeth destined to be transported elsewhere for rich game hunters to pursue for sport and glory. Unfortunately due to the players raiding, the crew have not had sufficient time to secure their cargo properly and now its loose on the ship somewhere.

If a ship was carrying smuggled goods for a dynasty it probably wouldn't be on their books formally, but instead under (theoretically) private ownership.

Heading out of the expanse...

1. Well... it needn't be only a single Rak'Gol. The Beast House puts on spectacular shows.
2. Exotic foodstuffs
3. Other things - maybe Vaporius waters? I think that stuff has sort-of-mind-control-properties
4. Generic treasure - gold, gems, precious metals
5. Wraithbone and/or other eldar artefacts (some poor sod just finished "lure of the Expanse")
6. Human Archaeotech - zaythi macrocannon auto-loaders are nice military hardware which is valuable but doesn't actually translate into firepower if you don't also have the guns to load with them.
7. Minerals or raw materials. There are high-grade enriched promethium sources in the expanse. Hyper-flamable liquids are always good for a laugh around firefights and unstable psykers.
8. Pilgrims

There's also no reason why the ship couldn't be carrying more than one item. Particularly if it's smuggling something small, dangerous and valuable. 75% of the ship may be filled with promethium (various grades), 5% sold out as transport bunks to pilgrims/travelers, 19% Livestock, and 1% Orks in failed stasis pods that have emitted spores so snotlings are crawling through the ships wiring already.

Also, I'd definitely go with Promethium is some amount, nothing worries players like a red 50gal drum that looks designed to explode at some point. It's also useful enough they can trade it in the vortex if they're successful at saving it, or, if they suck at the adventure, exploding it can destroy components you don't want them to have to start with. (oh look, a pirate with no macrocannons)

There's also no reason why the ship couldn't be carrying more than one item. Particularly if it's smuggling something small, dangerous and valuable. 75% of the ship may be filled with promethium (various grades), 5% sold out as transport bunks to pilgrims/travelers, 19% Livestock, and 1% Orks in failed stasis pods that have emitted spores so snotlings are crawling through the ships wiring already.

Also, I'd definitely go with Promethium is some amount, nothing worries players like a red 50gal drum that looks designed to explode at some point. It's also useful enough they can trade it in the vortex if they're successful at saving it, or, if they suck at the adventure, exploding it can destroy components you don't want them to have to start with. (oh look, a pirate with no macrocannons)

Deckhand: Sir! please sir, why are all the lower crew quarters half filled with liquid promethium?

RT: Quiet you!