I recently ran Baron Hopes, but after seeing the reactions from many of you here I modded it heavily, and made the Serated Query the bad guys again. I figured they wouldn't just let Morirr get away with quitting the fold, or the players get away with what they did in Rejoice for you are True and Shades on Twilight. So they were setting up the players and Morirr to tear each other up. The SQ knows about the blood deal Morirr has, and came up with their own solution, which the party can stumble upon.

More details here: http://johnwsmarvin.blogspot.com/2009/08/rpg-scenario-modding-on-baron-hopes-for.html

Hey, thanks for sharing how you rewrote this! I have been doing some edits on all of PtU, and am still muddling through how I want to adapt Baron Hopes. I really like your idea of making the Broken Chains the pawn of a bigger bad, and having the bigger bad become the main threat.

I am definitely going to use some of your ideas in my own game.

Thanks for sharing those great ideas. Ptu is great book, but I think it suffers from lack of continuity between the adventures while it tries to showcase the different genres possible in a Dark Heresy game. The Serrated Query is so "lightly" involved in all three adventures that the clues to their involvement can easily be missed. I also think that the trillogy really need to end with a "face off" with the Serrated Query so the players feel like they have stuck a blow to the Serrated Query (even if it is only a minor blow). So I will definately use some of your ideas in my own game. I would be very happy if you would send me the "crunchy details". My mail is [email protected] thanks!

I think your mods are excellent John. I'm likely to recommend them. I'm afraid Baron Hopes ended up getting a bit more... muddled than I would have liked. I hope in the fullness of time to, let us say, "set the record straight" and fill in the full scope of the story.

At any rate, I suggest any GM that intends to run PtU should check out John's ideas. I'm especially fond of the "blood-flamethrowers".

Nojo509 said:

What a cool coincidence I'am running Baron hope right now! My players have just met Olion the mutant negotiator and they are preparing themselves for the big assault in Hazael's Cross.

Your mods have piqued my interest, if you would be so kind to send me your "crunchy details" it would be greatly appreciated.

My adress is [email protected]

For what it's worth, here's my crunchy bits. I do a lot of seat of the pants stuff, so if you see holes, make it up.

Goal : Bring a conclusion to the Serrated Query (SQ) adventures in Purge the Unclean.

Customizing for your party. This is customized for my players and how I GM. My players have from four to six points of armor everywhere, they use bolters, flamers and man-stopper ammo. They have good Dodge skills and are very good at using every advantage. To scare them in combat I have to hit them hard and fast, I need to punch through their armor and do real damage the first round.
I like fast, simple combat, so I use many two hit point mooks. Using large numbers helps eat up the player's dodges. Mooks don't last long, but two hit point mooks last almost as long as a standard NPC, as my players dish out big damage.
N is the number of player characters. So 2N is twice that, and so on.

Overview : The Serrated Query, under the sub-sector leadership of Solomon Dark, plan to get the acolytes and Morirr to destroy each other. They know of Morirr's near invulnerability, and assume that the acolytes will do serious damage to the broken chains, but unable to stop Morirr, they will go down. They have cloned Baron Ulbrexis, and are draining the blood from the four year old boy who is the clone. They have added blood injectors to flamers. Once Morirr takes the acolytes down, they will toast him. Thus the acolytes who thwarted SQ operations in the past, and Morirr who abandoned the SQ, will no longer be a problem.
The previous leader of the Arbeits, Stoll Klein, would rather die than go crawling to the Inquisition for help. The SQ obliged his wishes and killed him, leaving Proctor Rotlan with his contacts to the acolyte's Inquisitor in charge. Rotlan only knows that Klein was trying to make contact with an informant and disappeared in the mines. This disappearance is still talked about by the arbeits, so it likely the acolytes will hear about it.

See my blog for more: http://johnwsmarvin.blogspot.com/2009/08/rpg-scenario-modding-on-baron-hopes-for.html

Chako Dharm , a woman with light brown skin, jet black hair worn over the shoulders and bangs hanging down to her eyebrows. Pick a player character who was dragooned into the Inquisition with a criminal past, if you have one. Otherwise, pick the PC with the shadiest background.
Chako had hired the PC for some crime before they joined the Inquisition. After the deal was done, instead of paying up, she turned the player character over to the enforcers and into the clutches of a corrupt judge. The judge sentenced the player character to hard labor on a death world. The last time the player saw Chako was at the spaceport, as the player was being loaded onto a transport. Chako was arm and arm with the Judge. They laughed and waved as the player character was taken away.
The player's inquisitor intercepted the transport and made the player character a deal she couldn't refuse. And so she became an acolyte. Twist this tale to suit your player's back story. If they don't have a back story, just give them one.

Eyes in the Dark
Chako is now working for the Serrated Querry. She has serf clothes over her armor, and she is using a data slate to record the player characters movements for Solomon Dark. As the players go about the early investigations of Baron Hopes, they can get glimpses of her. A challenging Perception Test by the character who was wronged by Chako lets them recognize her.
Eventually, they should capture her. If they just kill her, the only information they get is from the data slate. It lists "two target groups" Target Group Primus is the Acolytes. Target Group Secundus is Morirr and the Broken Chains Leadership.
Chako will not talk unless broken by a total of three Intimidation Tests. Every two failures reminds Chako of how much she fears Solomon Dark, and invalidates one previous successful test. Plus each failure causes one point of damage, ignoring armor and toughness.
If she is broken, she knows she is working for Solomon Dark, the SQ boss for the Golgenna Reaches. She knows of the four year old clone. She has a blood-flamer, and knows what it can do.

Chako Dharm, Serrated Query Operative
WS: 38, BS: 38, S: 40, T: 35, Ag: 40, Int: 40, Per: 43, WP: 45 Fel: 50
Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 13
Skills: Awareness (Per), Barter (Fel), Blather (Fel), Carouse (T) + 10, Chem-Use (Int), Common Lore (Underworld) (Int), Deceive (Fel) + 10, Intimidte (S), Security (Ag), Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int)
Talents: Basic Weapon Training (SP, Flame), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Pistol Training (Las, SP, Flame)
Armor: Xenos Mesh Head: 4, Arms: 4, Body: 4, Legs 4
Weapons: Blood-Flamer (20m; S/-/-; 1d10+4 E; Pen 3; Clip 3; Reload 2Full; Special: Can Harm Morirr); Compact autopistol with man-stopper rounds (15m; S/-/6; 1d10+1 I; Pen 3; Clip 9; Reload Full) mono-knife (3m; 1d5+3 R; Pen 2)
Gear: Serf clothing, 2 autopistol man-stopper clips, 1d10+10 Thrones, data-slate (with Pict records of the acolytes and Morirr), Stummer

However , Chako is not the only spy, and Solomon Dark and friends will show up when the party confronts Morirr. Hazael's Cross is an excellent setting for this climatic battle. However, the four tiers were too much for me to set up using miniatures, so I focused on the bottom two. I set those levels up on the table, and described the other levels for color.

Suggested Timeline for climatic battle.
Round 1 . Morrir comes in with Throgel (and the bomb), Raze, and 2N Mutant Terrorist 2HP Mooks with Man-Stopper Rounds (Pen 3)
Every round thereafter: Add 1d5 Mutant Terrorist Mooks until it's obviously hopeless for the mutants (and they are pretty slow on the uptake, so keep them coming as long as it is fun)
Round X (maybe 3?): After enough time for the acolytes to get the upper hand and stop the bomb from going off, but not enough to wipe the mutants all out.
The Serrated Query show up. Solomon Dark and a 2N SQ kill squad. (see below) The come in on the bottom level
Any psykers will be targeted by two kill squad members using Fatigue Darts and the Floating Void Suit (see below). It should take two or three rounds for the helmet to reach the psyker.
Solomon Dark uses the las cannon until he can't, then he alternates plasma pistols. If the players take cover, he blows away the cover with the lascannon.
The kill squad rotation is: plasma rifle / dart gun / plasma rifle / reload dart gun / rinse and repeat.
Round X+1. Akirvas and N Crimson Woe Raider 2HP Mooks from Shades of Twilight blink in from the webway in very inconvenient (for the acolytes) positions. Akirvas uses his Destructor from point blank range then his swords. The round after Akirvas becomes Heavily Wounded (more than 8 points of damage), the dark eldar return to the webway, never to return to this combat.
Round X+2. Rotland and N Enforcers. They come in on the 3rd tier. If the acolytes are getting wiped out, the Enforcers are also carrying grenades and flamers. If the acolytes have the upper hand, the enforcers focus on a few of the Mooks.
Round X +3. Captain Movern and N Scourges. They also come in on the 3rd tier. The Captain will direct his men to fire on Ulbrexis and to capture one of the player charaters, alive if possible, for his baron. If there is a noble in the group, pick the noble, as the baron has a vendetta against his family. Movern chomps on his stogie and annoys everyone, and is ready to go into battle against the acolytes with the slightest provocation.

BBEG : Solomon Dark : lieutenant to the Faceless One. Quirk: Starts most sentences with “So,”. “So you are the troublemakers.” “So you think you can oppose the Serrated Query?” “So, how do you like las cannons?” “So, give us the psyker’s head and we’ll leave peacefully.” “So I lie?” “So you dare stop us from selling Farcosia?” “So, that book on the space hulk should have been ours!”
Solomon is in a Sentinel Recon Walker: Hulking, Armor: Front16, Hull 14, Rear 12; All Terrain (ignore difficult terrain penalties), Open (Head and Arms exposed at level, Body exposed from above, all exposed from directly overhead, see pic Apoc. 14); Combat Speed: 4/12/25/38/51; Crew 1. Has Big Vox PA. “So...” If he doesn’t move, he Aims.
Heavy: MP Lascannon. Rng: 300m; S/-/-; 5d10+10E; Pen 10; Clip 5; 2Full; Giant Blue-Dot Laser Sight (+10)
Solomon Gem-studded carapace armor (AP 6 all over, Dire Avenger CA 79), WS 50, BS 60, SB 4, TB 4; Wounds 16; Dodge 50; Quick Draw; Ambidextrous
Pistol: 2 Plasma Pistols (uses one while other recharges). Rng 30m; S/-/-; 1d10+6 E; Pen 6; Clip: 10; 4Full; Recharge (weapon can only fire every other round), Overheats (91 or higher roll on table 5-6, Core 129), Blue-Dot laser sight (+10)
SQ Kill Squad : N*2 2HP Mooks, Full Xenos Mesh (AP 4), WS 53, BS 53, Ag 40, SB 4, TB 4; Dodge 50, Quick Draw, Exotic Pistol, Basic Plasma, and Primitive Melee.
Pistol: Widower w/ Fatigue darts. Rng 35m, S/-/-; 1d10+3 R; Pen 4; Clip: 1; Rld: Full; Accurate (+10 w/ aim), Blue-Dot laser sight (+10). Quiet, only a slight hum, and no flash. A hit that does any damage only does 1 damage, but target must pass a Hard (-20) Toughness Test or gain 1 Fatigue Point a round until comatose. (-10 on all skills when Fatigued). 2 extra darts on belt.
Basic: Plasma Gun. Rng 90m; S/2/-; 1d10+6 E; Pen 6; Rld 8Full; Recharge (weapon can only fire every other round), Overheats (91 or higher roll on table 5-6, Core 129), Blue-Dot laser sight (+10)
Melee: Mono Knife. 1d5+4; Pen 4

Combat Event: Give me the head of the Psyker!
What seems like a man in a space suit levitate over to the acolytes. When it gets hit, or just gets close, the helmet comes off. Inside the body is a lot of green tubular growths, wiggling around. The helmet splits in two along a seam in the front. The inside is empty. The neck part isn’t open, but has two big blades ending in monofilament edges that can cut atoms.

The open helmet will then try to dock on the Psyker’s (a player character) head, then close up. That will sever the head, but the helmet will seal up the blood vessels and keep the head alive. It will then levitate away from the other players, carrying the screaming head away!

The helmet has 8 armor and 12 hit points, and has a -10 to hit because of it's size.

Nojo509 said:

'Blood-flamers' might be nice but... personally I prefer dipping the projectiles in the baron's blood by shooting them straight through the body of the baron. It adds some more gothic taste to this, but it's your personal approach.

Thanks Nojo509

I'm going ton yoink some of these mods for sure