House of Dust and Ash spoiler

Who did you make the scion? How did it work out? The way I see it there are three options

A bad guy (one of the many villains of the piece)
A relative innocent
A PC

By far a PC...

I did it in my game and now the by now deranged psyker thinks he has a shot at the Haarlock fortune and warrant.
The other acolytes have been endangered several times because of his lineage.

It als prevents the easy, oh just waste the NPC solution, bring in the ethics..

I kind of agree but does it make sense? The whole point is for Erasmus to lure in any potential familial rivals. The PC's are there because they have been told to.

I figure the Inquisition is aware to some degree the importance of scions of Harlock. They are trying figure out the shape of the Harlock's plan. They could send in an important person who was the heir, but why not use a half forgotten in line of family? Someone who's loss is no big deal. Who will do as he/she is told. A far better tool than the rich and connected heirs.

I suppose that would explain why Silas Mar has requested the use of someone else's acolytes. He has found out that one of them is a distant heir and decided to make best use of them.

It didn't make sense to be any of our PC's when we played it.. so my GM picked the Beast House rep.

Worked great. It answered the question of how we knew the xenos would show up for him to hunt; he was pretty much the only person there alone, and he was a tough survivalist who knew how to hide from a house hunting him.

I would have to say that either a PC or a campain villian would make for the best routes to take. If it was a PC keep the group guessing and when it is found that the lucky bugger was able to hurt some things relating to Haarlock keep it a mystery why. Or if it is one of the Big Villians of the campain then it would give the players even more reason to hunt this guy down. At least if they know anything about the history of the sector or Haarlock.

If you pick a PC as a scion of Haarlock doesn't that alter the climax of Tattered Fates? Especially if at the stage the PC know their legacy?

I've only read Tattered Fates cover to cover once so if someone could comment?

I've got a PC "primed" to be the scion but don't want to make the end of Tattered Fates to easy to solve...

Well, as a disclaimer, I've never read the adventure, I only know the few threads I've poked around in mentioning a scion for a Widow or something. But, since I do want to incorporate some of the Haarlock lineage problems into my game, I've already decided to put it as my group's Psyker for other things. But I cannot wait to play it, then be able to read it to find out what it really details in this scenario, other than Tattered Fates.

Allow me to introduce the dreaded "depends-on " answer:

WARNING! SPOILERHEAVY!

Assuming to go with the "enough blood to kill the person" variant, a pc will make fun

a) if you players are up to moral dilemma AND mature enough to handle "team kill"
or
b) your group is powerfull/clever enough to find a/the other way out AND keep other figures from killing you*

*In my book, npc like slaught overseer Nonsuch or the bloodsworn could notice the portray as well and in turn go after the scion
Nonsuch is a a danger on it self, while the bloodsworn and the "real rougetrade" could easily imagined to team up in order to get out alive


If you doubt on that and think your pc will fair better (and enjoy the scenario more!) if they hunting rather the hunted, you better look out for a scion among the npc. In that case, some-one "combative" like the "real rogue trader" or one of the bloodsworn. (the "undisclosed partie" could be a henchmen loyal to Erasmus Harlock .. sending the bloodsworn there only as a cover to let the "one who is the scion" get killed! Of course, the other one will not know (a be considered a colleteral) but will stick to this team mate.

You could even introduce another rogue trade with a loyal retinue to be the target... if your players are into hunting, after all!

If you and your players like moral dilemma... make the poor "wannabe roguetrader" the scion. Make him perhaps knowing about it, but not bragging about it since he has SOME sense left. The pc can now decided to go "the easy way" (since taking him down is not a problem in it´s own right) and the "True way" (being a good and pure person.. you could award a faith point for that!). Of course, you should then give them a really hard time about clueing out who he is..

Three different approaches tailored for three differente "tastes".

So I don't have Tattered Fates but I do like making a PC a scion. What problems does that bring?

numb3rc said:

Players killing other players, for one...

numb3rc said:

But you stated you do not have TatteredFates ? The adventure discussed here is House of Dust and Ash which is included in Disciples of the Dark Gods .

"Not having Tattered Fates" is not a problem at all. What ever you decision is about the scion, the impact on "Tattered Fates" should be rather minor.

I don't see any problems here at all

Gregorius points out another possible issue - the already high difficulty of the scenario.

But both points can be more or less of an issue depending on the sort of group that you run games for. If players are able to abstain from meta-gaming, then having the PCs possibly turn against each other isn't a deal-breaker. And if other enemies are going to go after the PCs, just keep in mind the players capabilities and remember that not all of the enemy NPC priorities are to escape as quickly as possible... and they have to figure out who the scion is, too!

Thanks for the answer. The thing was, I was planning to pick up Tattered Fates down the line for my PCs once they are of high enough rank but before that I do plan to make one of them the scion. Just a long-term thing.

Gregorius21778 said:

Hell some of my acolytes would go: "A cup of blood? Compared the the eyes and hands and feet we've given up for other **** that's nothing. Let me tap a vein right quick, I've operated a few pints down plenty of times before."

DocIII said:

Now that sounds good in theory but since the trap is meant to kill the scion and not simply take a blood donation from them it probably will take all their blood (there was a thread on that subject). Hey, maybe they could burn a fate point and get hermetic infusion instead.

Though in the spirit of things, I say they'd have to die.

Gregorius21778 said:

My group took the filling of the cup to be the relevant thing and logically discussed how much blood it would take to actually fill a cup and didn't necessarily mean that they had to die in order to supply enough blood for the mug. The character would was picked (randomly I might add) probably would have been the hardest to take down had they turned on him. i simply added pressure: Nonesuch appeared, the Bounty Hunters recognised the portrait and put two and two together and just turned the screws on the players until the mug was filled.

Lots of fun. having one of the players as a scion pulls them then deeper into the Harlock Legacy - some may well want to gain the Warrant and become Rogue Traders themselves, but it gives them a reason to be where they are rather than a random kidnapping that has no relevance to their lives other than a forced side quest or 3.

I'm getting ready to run a new campaign starting afresh and the whole idea will probably revolve around the Pilgrims of Hayte and the Harlock Bloodline as the central thread. I'll pick a player to be the Scion (maybe randomly again) and enjoy the horrors that will abound as they try to salvage something from their new found legacy. They, the scion, will probably be hand-picked by the Inquistor for that simple fact. Powerful psykers have foretold the return of the traveller and gave the names of several possible hosts, one of whihc was the players. Thsi they don't know.....yet.

Ima noob Gm with 2 noob players, but I've read the campaign, and I would say a character that got killed way back in the cygnam marytr. This would force the alcolytes to have to escape through the crypt. This is probaly the best point to use the key thingy. I've also toyed with the thought of running a campaign based around the history of the astartes pauldron. But my characters would have no chance of surviving the Cygnan Martyr in their current state so that's a long ways off for me.

@Farax

This reminds me of some old joke. A group of (insert some baddies, in our case: nazies) hijack an Ocean Liner. They take everyone hostage and round them up in the center amusement area. The leader pulls out a pistol and shoots a random person. Then he annonces "I will repeat to do so until Mr. Abrahm Scotts will be handed to me or hands himself to me!". Some-one starts to laugh out manically. The leader shouts at him and asks him if he is Mr. Scotts. The man says "No, but I know who !" "Tell me!" At this point, the man keeps laughing hysterically while pointing at the guy the leader shot first....

I've got some internal hard and fast rules. It's not the GM's job to kill PC's that the PC's job. If they screw up then they will be facing overwhelming odds and they will die and or lose fate points.

Now the Scion has to die or gets to the stage that they are seriously ill with blood loss. The adventure is nasty enough so I want the party to have either of the two routes to safety. I was thinking put in some sort of opportunity for the Scion to be kept alive if the blood draining route is taken.

Either advanced healing, blood replacement, stasis.

Any advice on how to inject this into the scenario without making it obvious? I was thinking they discover an ancient, dusty medical facility in an old room whilst exploring earlier on and then they can try to rush the Scoin to it whilst defending themselves against all the mayhem going on still...

A medical facility suiting to tread a victim of severe blood loss would raise my eyebrow if found in a morgue.

But the general idea is a good one. How about incorporating an item ("made by unknown hands") into the auction that is appraised as "famed to grant the wearer good health and a long life"?

This device (created by any xenos species of your liking) is in fact boosting the wearers health by arcane means. A victim of sever blood loss could be kept "stable" by it (while being on the constant brink of passing out). The description ("good health and long life") would be vague enough that a player would not jump at it right from the start. Especially if introduce with more then a dozen other objects (see Nojos list in the main forum).

Gregorius21778 said:

That sounds like a halo device.

I used a PC... it was the best choice since one of them is a mind cleansed. IT has been the best set up and of course they only get a short lived victory. TF happens right after the discovery that the PC is the scion.

I'm waiting to see if the PC tries to take advantage of this new discovery.