It seems every post I've made in quite a while was LotE related, which is expected considering I'm about halfway through it currently. Being a common campaign to run at least once, I'd like to hear everyones stories, questions, tweaks, mishaps, etc regarding their experience.

To get started my first question is how people dealt with rivals after meeting the witches. What encounters did you throw at your party? what allies and enemies did they make and when?

Its been quite difficult for me to add in the rivals during the Heathen trail so I havent bothered for the first two stops or back at footfall (not even rumors. they were said to be first to return and therefor ridiculed by the locals) their next stop I havent chose which system they'll enter yet because I want to have a plan for a heavy rival encounter when they get there. first Idea I had was finding a conflict between Bastille and Sun Lee with them choosing a side, but I dont know if the two would be in open conflict this early on.

Rival encounters so far: known that Feckward hired mercs to kill them at footfall, saved Fel from Eldar attack leaving in exchange for an owed favor, allied with Charlabelle under quppa Psi starmap to take down and "kill" Scourge attack on both of them, dueled Bastille right after for the right to the starmap (didnt like this result as I think Bastille is least likely to duel when he thought [and did] had the upper hand) No sign of Sun Lee, Gerrit, or Blitz

Let me look at my notes..

*Rustling Papers*

Able Gerrit, of House Arcadius

He doesn't need the sites themselves, as he's triangulating the location with the warp veins in a unique method. I figure he's there to make sure at least one other Rogue Trader makes it to the Dread Pearl, so I left him out of the game save for a couple rumors.

Hadarak Fel

IIRC, I flipped someone out for Fel, because he'd been a rival in a few previous adventures. He jostled with them on the way out from footfall. The players made a point of damaging, altering or destroying the map points after they found them, so as a reward I had it so Fel didn't figure it out in time, and missed the looting of the Pearl. Let me keep him around for other games.

Charlabelle Armelan

The party chose to agree to stay out of each other's way with Charlabelle right at the beginning. She appeared at one location, where they paused to trade supplies and progress-so-far, though they kept their actual notes to themselves. On the Pearl, she lost her guncutter, and the players upheld their alliance by offering her a ride off world and back to her ship.

Jeremiah Blitz

I used him at one point to put pressure on the players, by having them see his vessel warp out shortly after they warped into a system. (The desert world). Other than that and some rumor/interaction I kept him somewhat in reserve because I wanted someone with Cruiser tonnage at the Pearl.

Sun Lee Ma'Kao

They had a tense run in with her over one of the planets - Zayth I believe, but they managed to resolve it without coming to blows. She forced them to promise to aid her against Bastille however. They didn't have a problem with that, as one of the players had Rival (Bastille) from his origin chart.

Generalissimo Djanko Khako

I honestly just forgot about this guy until the Pearl. He died a horrible death there.

Julien Bastille

Making good on their agreement with Sun Lee, and taping their alliance with Charlebelle, the three jumped Bastille over the Dread Pearl. In the end the players ended up boarding and capturing the Colossus, which they promptly 'returned' (sold) to the Navy (in exchange for a decade's service from a Navy-supported Sword). Julian was ransomed back to the Bastille family, and the dynasty packed up for a different sector to rebuild.

Krawkin Feckward

Instigated a mutiny on their ship, tried to have them assassinated, tried to smuggle a melta-bomb onto their ship during a resupply, had a spy in the Navigator's sanctum, and finaly got himself torn to shreds by the Pearl 'natives' he was trying to enslave once everything started going to hell.

Kaptain Greenbeard

I added this guy in because I thought a freebooter would be funny. (he used a proxy to bid) They skirmished with the RTs a couple of times, and ended up fighting with Khako on the Pearl, as both of them landed full sized invasion forces.

So that's what happened with me, back to you.

If you want to get them involved in the Bastille/Sun Lee rivalry, you could have them witness the triggering event. (Destruction of an escort, IIRC) which would give them interesting leverage/stake in the situation.

Depending on what your players are flying, Blitz could be entertaining if he has a much stronger ship. If he arrives just ahead of the players and is holding station when they arrive at the planet, they may be forced to negotiate or hold off until he's finished before swooping in. Alternatively, make it look like he's positioning his ship to bombard the map site (utterly destroying it) forcing the players to negotiate, bribe him to hold off, or hope he somehow failed to destroy it.

I was thinking of witnessing the escort destruction but didnt know what the two captains would say to us after. Bastille would probably be along the lines of "leave or get the same treatment" and dont know what the escort captain would say unless its completely destroyed. Perhaps Bastille would mention the escort following us! good encounter outside Light of Terra.

Might have Gerrit outside dross actively selling the map point to rivals knowing "nobody" can land and get to it.

Update: when explorers resupplied and left Footfall, they first hired some Kroot there to assassinate any rivals who also show up, then when they were heading to jump point Charlabelle returned battered up and let them know it was from Eldar outside warp gate to processional (she just said completely empty system with weak map signal. couldnt reach it before retreating, so neither party knows about the gate yet) they tried to come up with a trade for info or whatever but she let it slip she found no map sites, just one destroyed one (party's doing). She offered to bring them to 'blank system' to double team eldar and get the map but they refused and left her at footfall. They realized they sent her to her death what with the Kroot they hired, but they dont remember/realize she's very Kroot friendly already and probably wont work and may end their weak alliance.

On another note, has anyone played the Sabrine added world? I just learned about it. looks cool but Ill probably save that for another campaign

Is that the Zombie one? If so, yes. It was quite entertaining, but I'd put it later and see out your party if feeling. If your going to leave one out, I'd leave the 'Not-Dune' mission instead of Sabrine though - I think Sabrine will be harder to come up with a new motivation for the explorers to deal with the survivors & zombie crater.

Here's the notes I made at the end of the adventure detailing the end result for the NPC's. They interacted most with Abel Gerret and Eloise Blye (the PC Rogue Trader's cousin and rival), Hardak Fel, Krawkin Feckwad, and Blitz (who they quite grew to like), but everyone got at least a brief encounter. I tried to weave in some sub-plots like Hardak Fel's ship being destroyed by Bastille, but the older RT surviving to claim a new ship and call in some favors to turn the tables on Bastille (nearly destroying Bastille's cruiser with a nuke followed by a surprise visit by some Space Marines). Djanko Scourge spent some time leaving taunting messages at some destroyed beacons, but his bullish and dumb attitude wound up getting him killed by Sun Lee. Charabell was the least developed, so I decided to toss in a surprise war sphere near the end.

Abel Gerret and Eloise Blye – Members of two different Dynasties becoming engaged is something that is always fraught with difficulties and intrigues, in the short term their close alliance has allowed the two of them to prosecute the adventure with a strong stable of skilled individuals and contacts. Their small fleet is actually the least damaged during the events of the hunt for the pearl and in the end they make an excellent +8 profit factor. Rumors persist that they had some sort of deal with the Eldar that turned sour at the Pearl.

Djanko Scourge – Is really most sincerely truly dead. And nobody was terribly upset by it. Another Scourge may take his place though.

Hardak Fel – The wily Rogue Trader is caught off guard when the inactive volcano turns out to be an Eldar castle buried under millenia of detritus. His landers are destroyed by the base turrets, and only the Space Marine contingent with him keeps them safe long enough for Fel and his surviving compatriots to be teleported out to his new flagship. Fel ekes out a little bit of profit and another good story to tell. It is a thing of some note that his returner now permanently includes a single space marine. +1 profit factor to 46.

Fel's attitude towards the PC's is generally favourable due to the wisdom and intelligence they showed during the events surrounding the Pearl and the battle beforehand.

Jeremiah Blitz – Despite being stranded on the planet surface Jeremiah manages to escape with the help of the PC's. He does quite alright. While his profits tend to be of the more short term, the laden landers and his other adventures are more than enough to provide a hefty profit to him and his compatriots. +5 profit factor up to 43.

Jeremiah Blitz's attitude towards the PC's is quite affectionate given their previous alliance and he considers himself to owe them a favour for rescuing him and his companions.

Krawkin Feckward – Being kept away from the pearl costs him quite a bit, but his other endeavours and business savvy mean that Krawkin has managed to keep the bleeding to a minimum. After the events of his travels through the warp storm, abandoned by the humans and chased by the Eldar, Krawkin becomes withdrawn. Sinister rumours begin to circulate about him. -1 profit factor to???

The PC's have earned a Nemesis in Krawkin due to their betrayal of an alliance they forced on him, and he puts out a bounty on the PC's and members of their crew and begins to actively work against them.

Lady Sun Lee – Lady Sun Lee's power armoured personal guard and armsmen take heavy losses in an ill-advised attempt to fight off the Wraithguard, despite this she takes off successfully with landers full of treasure and locals, whom she had convinced she is a god. She eventually trains the unusually healthy and fit Santarches to replace her guard, increasing it's strength to a full 100. Profit Factor +5 bringing it to 60 and making her a major player in the Expanse.

Sun Lee's attitude towards the PC's is somewhat disdainful due to the damage they dealt to her prized ship during the grand melee, and them somewhat hogging the glory by putting together what is been called The Rogue alliance. The PC's will receive a messenger some time in the future bearing a notice that they should “find some way to return to her good graces, or give serious consideration to finding opportunities somewhere other than the expanse.”

Lord Admiral Bastille is out quick, escaping to the Collosus as his Fury Interceptors cover his barge. He might be convinced to leave behind some interceptors to help the party, but it would cost them 100 achievement points (reducing his profit loss by 1).

While he has made some gains during the events of the events of the adventure, especially the loss of both of his escort ships, have cost him more than he's made by a long shot. He is more or less indifferent to the PC's but holds a grudge against Hardak Fell for making him look like a fool. -5 profit factor to 45

Lady Charabelle is well covered by the turrets on her transport and makes for open space. The Warsphere is destroyed in the opening salvo of the Eldar's second ambush, breaking into 3 smaller ships as the central portion and 1 hemisphere is destroyed.

Despite the costs of the mercenaries and the damage to their ship (which she has to pay a portion of) things went well for Lady Charabelle. She still has a long way to go to restoring her dynasty, but she's made a good start. She currently has a mildly favourable attitude towards the PC's as they have not done anything against her and their alliance helped everyone survive. +5 Profit factor to 28.

Vladayam Tocara – Having dropped out early Tocara didn't cost the Kasballica much in the failed endeavour. He returns to Footfall to repair the ship and resume his duties. He gets some minor bad press for not having the stomach to risk it all, but the Kasballica appreciate his level headed caution with their resources.

Vladayam personally holds the PC's in some favour, since they made a good impression at the party and saved his ship from the Eldar, but his long standing relationship with Feckward outweighs what sentiment the cold man holds. It is enough though to prompt him to send a warning about the bounty.

This one's important, especially since almost any player-built and operated ship will have faster warp transits than NPC ships:

Even if they arrive way early at the Pearl, well before anyone else could get there, the NPCs aren't there, the Warpstorm isn't dropping for a while, which means that the Players have to wait ... and the NPCs trickle in over time, all waiting for the Time to arrive, wherein the Warpstorm drops.

It's quite possible that the Eldar show up as well, depending on the PC's dealings with them.

It just might be that the Players can deal with the NPCs as they arrive, either cutting deals or ambushing them and either eliminating them or crippling their ships, and forcing them to repair their ship or withdraw instead of going for the Pearl when the Warpstorm drops.

With a good Navigator, and the right build choices (or by making a deal with the Eldar), the players can predict inbound NPCs and blow them to hell as they translate out of the Warp.

Of course ... the more NPCs they block, the less help they'll have on the Pearl itself, and the more enemies they will make later.

Of course, it's possible that if they're very very lucky, they can get rid of some rival RTs and blame it all on the Eldar.

I, personally, made 2-3 'Fated level' associates for each of the NPC Rogue Traders to represent the people who would normally be the rest of the PCs in the party if they were the focus of the story, instead of your player's dynasty. I didn't do full character sheets or anything, just a paragraph about who they were, and a couple of key skills and talents. I also assume that any Rogue Trader worth their Profit has a highly capable Navigator on board.

I did the exact same thing Quicksilver did.

Each opponent RT had a couple of powerful associates that were not-quite-PC level characters. I cheated a little, re-using some older material, stealing from a book, and re-using them when I had the same class. I also boosted the RT's themselves, twice actually as the campaign progressed.

EG: Lady Charabelle had a Kroot hunter that was the head of her kroot mercs and an Astropath. The Astropath died Scanners style trying to mentally wrestle with the Fateseer on the bug planet.

Bastille has a seneschal that was his gentleman's gentleman and an Arch Militant as his ground general.

Hadarak Fel has a Voidmaster and an Explorator. Now he also has a SM I bashed together by eyeballing it.

Blitz has an Explorator and astropath, copying the brief sheets I used for Fel and Charabelle's companions.

Etc

Update: the group survived dross by convincing Asiri, hers and two other tribes that we were sent by the Sky Father and that the Sky Father is the God Emperor. Let them know we would be back with more people etc, pretty standard.

They then ended up in the Light of Terra's system where they witnessed Bastille blowing up Lee's escort, and decided to ignore it and head straight for the nexus. not long into the travel Bastille followed suit, and a race ensued. (few pilot tests for the two weeks to see who would get there first and by how much) the party ended up with about a two hour window to get to the nexus before Bastille was in contact range.

Upon reaching the nexus they found it covered in plasma burns with a burnt in taunt from another. Half the party was still on their ship and picked up the Terra's signal and the half on the nexus saw it in person. they got the message from the captain just before Bastille turned all his weapons on the ship and held them hostage while he checked the nexus, making sure it wasnt destroyed like all the others (cough by the party cough).

While he was off checking the nexus they decided to sneak off the the Light of Terra, help the captain and hopefully convince him to help destroy bastille. killed a few void walkers, mind probed a kin of iron yet still convinced him to give them escort to the 'Oracle', made the deal with the cap'n Oracle just before Bastille decided it wasnt them who destroyed the nexus and has begun to leave. end of session.

now I'm a bit stuck. Bastille hasnt noticed the light and is taking off, sure, but it'll take him weeks to reach the warp point, yet only hours for the party to get the ship running, at which point Bastille will definitely recognize and claim said ship. So what the hell is he going to do about it? try to take it on himself? obviously battle the party for rights, and if the Light does assist them what kind of stats do you give a grand battlecruiser? assuming not all the gun decks are functional, if any, they'll all be archaeotech I'm sure. I see the Light just taking potshots, albeit heavy duty potshots, on his way out.

on the other hand, if the party decides to aid Bastille in taking over the Light, how would you go about that? Any other possibilities I'm not thinking of?

A grand cruiser or battleship is a great prize, and if I were Bastille, I'd be thinking about how far it would go to repairing the opinion the navy has of him due to his 'sudden departure'. Turning it over to the Navy would garner him a lot of favor. If he's only an hour or so out, it's worth the time it would take to find out if it can be captured and returned.

So I'd have him turn around and move to close in. His expectation is that the ship couldn't possibly be fully crewed and armed and he wants to take it as intact as possible, so he'll move right in for a hit & run to gauge it's resistance level, then move in for a boarding action. He has a barracks and a good contingent of troopers, so he has a good chance to take it without sever crew losses.

If the players attempt to defend the Light, he'll assume they are the ones that supplied a skeleton crew, and may threaten to open fire on the player's ship unless they surrender the Light to him. He would likely offer to return the player's crew to them if they surrender without a fight.

If the Light, which is not in good condition at all, manages to fire its weapons and appear competent, and not allied with the players, He may negotiate splitting the prize money for capturing it with the PCs. GIven his superior forces, he's likely to start the offer at 25% reward. If it does appear allied and competent, he'd likely disengage and start heading for the jump point again. He will, however, go over sensor readings and make sure the Navy knows the PCs found a battleship, and potentially that the Inquisition knows the PCs fought alongside a "Ghost Ship".

The Light of Terra is only from the Angelian crusade, so I doubt it's equipment is Archeotech, but it is probably good or even best quality. The problem is it's being operated by a skeleton crew of incompetents.

Pretty sure the Light's actually a battleship.

If I were the players, I'd lay low, and let Bastille get out of auspex range before starting up the Light, and/or for the Light's orbit to take her around to where she's in the sensor shadow of the planet, and then holding there. Also, when the Light leaves, per the book, it doesn't take her that long to make its jump, so I'm not entirely sure why Bastille would need to take a huge amount longer, he does, after all, have navigators on his ships, and so isn't dependent on calculated jumps like the Light would/should be.

Also, I suspect that the players will be selfish and/or paranoid, and want to leave Bastille in the dark regarding the Light.

It is depressingly easy for paranoid players, or just those who believe in being prepared, to gain control of the Light. For example - all those control conduits that the players are supposed to repair? Yeah, on a blind runthrough, players planted charges to cut them again when they were repairing them, just in case they were betrayed. Oops. Although, I have to say, I thought of doing more or less the exact same thing on my very first readthrough, too.

As for the Light's stats ... IIRC, someone over on darkreign put together a speculative version of what the Light's stats look like when operational.

Of course, the Light's been sitting there near-derelict for a very long time, with negligible maintenance, even by the standards of the Imperium. A proper salvage job is going to take time. All the systems would need to be checked out by trained AdMech personnel - at least, the Gellar field and Warp engine for sure. That'd take a while, especially if something needs to be fixed, plus you're going to need to come up with a prize crew (and Navigator) to take the Light back to somewhere she can be properly stripped of valuables before being sent to shipyards capable of handling her - and, frankly, that means a higher tier Forge World or a major Fleet Base, more likely a Forge World, unless the players are going to deliver the ship to the Navy. And then, it's going to take a long time for the Light to be restored to fully operational status. She'll essentially be a non-factor for years even after being recovered.

As an additional note, I believe it is said somewhere that the Light's gundecks were stripped to make room for additional cargo capacity. She's not combat ready, and would be of little to no use in taking out Bastille at this point, except as a trap, but then they'd still have to deal with his ships after assassinating/ambushing him on the Light.

my biggest thing I think is a writing descrepency saying the Light can warp jump in just one hour after leaving the planets orbit. wouldnt that be way way too close and annihilate everything and everyone within range? easy enough to say it takes longer but that would give the explorers time to ransack the holds as well.

So far the party was smart enough to keep the Light a secret but as soon as Bastille gave the "I'm outa here" they went to work and probably wont think about how much longer it'll take him to be out of range then it'll take them to fix the engines etc. I'm totally on the idea he'll immediately turn around and likely claim it himself if he can or reluctantly ask for aid if need be, but either way I cant seeanything happening in time before that ridiculously soon warp jump, and if they did stop him, they'll get wayyy to much loot for me to come up with in the hold they're running through

You could just lengthen the amount of time before he jumps. Also, the captain's insane - Jumping form a logical location one might actually get somewhere from without causing damage to the ship or planet isn't exactly on his mind.

Quicksilver has it right. If I remember right, he's out for a glorious death, not a safe trip. Translating in an ice field within a gas giant's gravity well would be a fairly sure-fire way to ensure that this trip is his last, which is exactly what he wants.

No navigation and no target also makes him a wonderful ace-in-the-hole for the GM if he makes it out. If you are ever in a situation where something crazy has to happen - particularly a Deus ex Machina the Will of the Emperor, you can have him suddenly translate back in what ever system the PCs are in, ready to bring doom and holy vengeance on the unbelievers. We did this mission two years ago, and I'm still holding on to that card, though I have some plans on where to use it.

it could be fun to actually play out the massive damage he would cause with warping there, lengthen the time just enough to calculate in everyone fleeing to make it to their ship and then some massive piloting through a warp-splosion

Oh dear, the Light of Terra.

My PCs shot the captain, repaired the Light of Terra and returned it to the Imperial Navy in exchange for 10-year-tithe-exception for Dynasty owned planets, a compact for an IN space station to be sent to their new colony, and an orion-class fully outfitted transport. Oh, and also the location of and access to the Jericho-Maw warpgate.

I did however nearly kill everyone a couple of times during that adventure, adding some things like the Promise of Sedition, an AI and a massive daemon incursion - long story... oh I also added an eldar dragon ship later on, anyway...

Overall, LotE needs to be boosted piece-by-piece and "flexibilized" so it doesn't get boring.

Ps.: by the Emperor, Eldar torpedoes are overpowered.

Ps.2: the RT owned the commerce tests... +20, 60ish FP, Peer (IN), Battlefleet background, Renowned Warrant, Book of Imperial Graces, previous favors called-in, etc.. etc...

got like 8 degrees of sucess OVER Admiral Horne (with whom they negotiated directly), even with boosted stats (bad rolls).

apologies if this is just a bump but update from this weeks session: mostly just a grind session, fixed the Lights plasma drives and most of the relays. killed Urgun and half a dozen wargars with a single grenade, sending the rest scattering, with a few coming back to pledge allegience to the strongest around. Convinced the Void walkers they can come on their ship and move to a new world. left off leaving a few mercs in charge of escorting the rest of the Walkers to ship while the party spends a few days healing/letting Bastille get a bit farther/ sending out an astro message.

pretty sure the wargars are going to hit and run a few escort groups while they're gone, but we'll see

When I did the Light the Wargear chief challenged the RT to unarmed combat, and the RT's ego (roleplayed well) wouldn't allow him to refuse. Without his fancy weapons and heavy carapace armor it was almost an even fight.

yeah Urgun was trying to issue a challenge but the party wasnt having any of that. shock and awe seemed more of a guarantee

That was the initial idea with my group, but a comment about "a gutless manling who hides behind his men is no leader!" did the trick. And it's not like he was in much danger of dying even if he lost with an unarmed fight. Really accepting the challenge and winning was the only way to go about it without a loss of face, and loosing face, damaging his reputation, is a pretty hefty blow for a Rogue Trader. Guess your own RT didn't care what his own men thought of him.

I actually quite enjoyed that because it was a way to still challenge the players with things that they would normally wipe the floor with, but without it seeming like an arse pull, the way having every mook and schmuck in the verse running around with plasma guns and bolters to get through the PC's 8+ points of armor would seem.

Hilariously I've discovered that a couple of mooks with auto-guns still have a purpose with my rank 5 players, knocking down 2 of the PC's force fields. It also makes the PC's feel powerful when they mow them down 2-3 at a time with storm bolters or explode their belly buttons out their spines with a power fist.

What ways have you kept the party moving in Lure? If I compare it to Skyrim, you are the only one who can stop Alduin, but the world won't end before you write some letters, mix up a few potions, forge an armory, open every box, build your own mansion(s), have a family, and become the leader of five of the most powerful organizations in Skyrim, maybe even stop the Civil War, if you can be bothered to assist Ulfric or Commander Bailey, er General Tulius. Alduin will patiently wait for you to do as much as you need, and then as much more as you want. In Lure, you have numerous other competitors, and mandatory warp trips that could vary ludicrously in how much time they'll take, and each place also offers numerous side opportunities (you might see the Light of Terra as ENTIRELY a side bit). How do you keep the feeling of urgency for them, when they know that they need to do this, but its uncertain how long itt'll all take, for them or the competition?

Lies. Sophistry and lies. I'll elaborate later when I have more time.

What ways have you kept the party moving in Lure? If I compare it to Skyrim, you are the only one who can stop Alduin, but the world won't end before you write some letters, mix up a few potions, forge an armory, open every box, build your own mansion(s), have a family, and become the leader of five of the most powerful organizations in Skyrim, maybe even stop the Civil War, if you can be bothered to assist Ulfric or Commander Bailey, er General Tulius. Alduin will patiently wait for you to do as much as you need, and then as much more as you want. In Lure, you have numerous other competitors, and mandatory warp trips that could vary ludicrously in how much time they'll take, and each place also offers numerous side opportunities (you might see the Light of Terra as ENTIRELY a side bit). How do you keep the feeling of urgency for them, when they know that they need to do this, but its uncertain how long itt'll all take, for them or the competition?

As the players warp into a system, let them spot one of their competitors leaving the system. Or warping in behind them a little after they arrive.

If they hurry, they can make it to the objective in time to disarm demo that got left behind by a previous competitor. Or the previous competitor didn't quite use enough demo (heresy!). This time, no guarantees about the next.

Let the astropath pick up reports of favorable progress from teh competition or from Rogue Traders they made deals with.

When examining for coordinates, let the examiner pick up a sense of urgency, or desperation.

If they stay somewhere too long, let some Eldar show up to take some potshots and prod them to move faster.

my group definitely took their sweet time moving forward. so long that I had a hard time justifying why the competition would have to take just as long. ended up with some hogwash that warp travel is usually so finicky that it could easily take everyone months to complete the trail. also adding small rumors here and there that some had to make trips back to footfall etc (like the party did) but mostly they ignored the rivals anyway. I just reached part 3 myself and am figuring out what order they all arrived (simplifying it basically to a die roll on each and justifying why after)

so far;

Gerrit was first to arrive. his super augers got his answers real quick, plus he was found earlier selling Dross point to people, and running off when the explorers are spotted leaving the atmosphere

Charlabelle next, who was quite mad at the party for unknowingly hiring her own kroot allies on footfall to kill her. (they hired footfall kroot to kill any competition that come back after. she showed up as they were cruising to warp point and neglected to tell her about the kroot; disregarding their alliance with her yet hoping for the best)

Fel also showed up. not much to report from him, although he owes the party a favor for helping him against eldar first leaving footfall, the party doesnt remember and basically left him with a "may the best man win"

Lee is here too, but has yet to be spoken to. ever. so... yeah

The group was fifth to show, speaking with the others a bit before Bastille arrived. they jammed his communication immediately. the group's allied pirate transport shows up, and Bastille fires upon it and the session ends.

I'll go into the pirate alliance next but first, I'm not sure how to handle the upcoming battle, who should arrive when, what sides, if anyone is going to gun it through the dying storm etc. kind of made it seem that even though everyone had vastly different routes, the route to the Pearl ended up dropping them all within an hour/day/time period