First off the obligatory get the hell out to the people involved with the Captain of Monte Christo, you know who you are.
With that over with. Greetings fellow servants of Him on Terra. A few week ago i finished the strangest endeavor that i have ever had the pleasure to GM, Orkish death racing in the forty first millennium.
While you ponder how the hell that came about ill give some back story. The group comprises of the following people.
Vibius Meshalismos, a disgraced Scintillan nobleman who ended up on the wrong end of an inquisitorial rosette and ended up spending the better part of two decades on an inquisitorial blackship. After a narrow escape he was press ganged by pirates and ended up spending a further 7 years working himself up the ranks of the pirates before being granted his own vesel. (The captain was worried that he would lead a mutiny against him and so decided to get rid of him the easiest way he could, give him an offer he couldn't refuse). He is now searching for the means he will need to return to the Imperium under an assumed name to get vengeance on those who wronged him.
Alexis Marcella, a schismatic techpriest whose studies lead her far beyond the safe boundaries of Mechanicus dogma, and after a few run-ins with the priestly authorities she decided that discretion was the better part of valor and fled the Lathes on an explorator ship bound for the expanse. She has since become a disciple of Parcelcius Thule and is hellbent on finding any trace of the legendary explorer, and now in her search she has discovered one major clue, Magos Vathek. Actually she is a member of the Logician cult and is using Meshalismos as a way to gain power in the cult.
Jorke Von Würrden, a navigator of great skill, and secretly an agent of his house, with the solemn mission to hunt down and destroy the minions of Ember Nostromo, and if possible the head witch herself. He was the navigator of the previous owner of the current vessel, he was given a choice when the ship was boarded, keep your current position and privileges and serve Meshalismos instead, or die and we ask your nearest inferior.
Henri Le Chetalier, a (former) General of the Imperial Guard and commander of the armed forces of captain Meshalismos. He is on extremely thin ice with the imperial guard, since the only reason he and his regiment have not been declared traitors and deserters is due to the most minor of technicalities. His last posting was officially to the Margin Crusade, a cover for the far distant Jericho Crusade. Being fed up with the insanity of Ebongrave he decided to take his regiment back through the warp gate, using his deployment orders to the Margin crusade to decieve a navy captain to take him to Port Wander. He now plans to gather as many loyalists that he can to his banner and launch the actual Margin Crusade
Marcus Dupant, a former smuggler and petty criminal, however when the local crime syndicates and the local arbites thought that he had gotten a bit too big for his boots and felt the noose tighten he decided to flee, signing up for service on the first vessel headed off the planet he could find, it happened to be a pirate vessel, the very same pirate vessel that would later pick up Meshalismos after his escape from the inquisition. He is a fanatic, absolutely convinced that the emperor made him the best pilot in the Imperium, and he is willing to prove it, it is this conviction that leads into our story.
While i was reading the Ork chapter in the Koronus Bestiary i came across a very interesting blurb, the Shipbreaker run. When i read that blurb the character Marcus Dupant immediately came to mind, so i decided to expand the event and make it a really big yearly event for ALL speed freaks in the Koronus expanse, so this is what i came up with.
Every year, 29 days after the Feast of the Emperors Ascension the warlord of Undred Undred Teef calls the Shipbreeaker’s run. A massive race through the most dangerous asteroid belt in the koronus expanse and everyone is invited. To draw in contestants from the furthest reaches of the expanse Morgash offers choice items from his holds up as a prize. In the past the great prize for winning has been great pieces of infinity circuits, archeotech dating back from the darkest reaches of humanity's past, daemon weapons of awesome power and things even stranger.
The contestants meet in the system designated Chi 17097g by the Mechanicus, or as it is known to the Orks, Lotsa Break Skull. To prevent all out pandemonium in the system once the contestants have gathered, Morgash violently enforces his rules. They are 1. no ship to ship combat, 2. no killing the other contestants off the field. killing each other on the field is however highly encouraged. These rules are called the Worldbreaker’s truce, named after Morgash's flagship. Anyone who breaks this truce, will find themselves on the receiving end of the Worldbreaker’s many guns.
The race consists of 3 races on three courses over three days, and the first one over the finish line on the third day, the other two races only exist to cull the worst of the racers from the participants in preparation for the final race.
I had the players be some of the last contestants to arrive to the event, so i could describe the sheer absurdity of the sight in the skies above Lotsa Break Skull. With Chaos pirates, Eldar of all kinds, Orks, Stryxis, Kroot, Humans, Imperial and not all present and not trying to kill each other being a testament to the sheer power of Morgash’s flagship.
As Orkish tradition dictated the contestants should set up camp on the surface on Lotsa Break Skull around Morgash’s fortress on the planet. (mostly an excuse by me to have them interact with the other contestants before the race).
The group had decided to use a modified Calixis pattern Fury Interceptor as their racing vessel, and equipped it with an MIU, shield generator and various modifications to increase its maneuverability. I did however house rule that the enormous energy drain from the shield generator would drain most of the thrust from the engines and disable the weapons when in use, so as to prevent them from just keeping their 80 field rating all the time.
During the prep for the first race the group ran into Jeremiah Blitz (their favorite from our Lure of the Expanse game) and would later save his life by shooting down the dark eldar racer who was out dog fighting him.
The first race took the place in the outer reaches of the shipbreakers field. Their path lead them through and around asteroids and at two points right past an orkish kill kroozer. To earn bragging points they actually attacked the Kroozers and with a lucky jink roll they managed to pull off the stunt mostly unskaved. Because of a bad start and a few good rolls on part of the npc’s they only managed to end the race as nr 14. After the race Blitz invited the players over for dinner to thank them for saving his gilded butt, and offered them an alliance in the race (as in don’t try to kill each other may the best racer win).
The second race took the players through a space hulk and pushed their maneuvering abilities to the absolute limit. It was here where the players got creative, they reprogrammed the machine spirits on their rockets to turn them into proximity mines. (The explorator was aboard so i decided that it was possible though hard). When they approached the end of the hulk, a kilometre long sprint out of the hulk they were clever enough to fire their lascannons into the opening. (They thought that the exit was covered with glass, it wasn’t but it was clever of them to check). During the sprint they discovered that it was only Blitz in front of them (giving them the chance to double cross him) but they decided that having a Rogue trader as a friend was better than having him as a foe.
The final race once again took them to the deepest reaches of the Shipbreakers field, forcing them straight into Void Kraken territory, and right past a stranded Rak’gol fleet. During the race they had multiple dogfights, against both a Dark Eldar Archon, Drexus Scar riding a Helldrake and an Ork Warboss using a vessel with a striking resemblance to a bullet. Through guile and skill they managed to evade and defeat each of the other contestants, (the Ork managed to fumble a maneuver roll and imbedded his vessel in an asteroid) until it was only them and Blitz remaining. During the final stretch they pulled out all the stops, fate points were spent left and right, the engine was pushed for everything it got and more and all non-speed related systems were disabled to get more power to the engine (for instance sensors, weapons, shields and life support). With the players doing all they could to win they still needed good rolls. So over 3 rolls they managed to rack up 2 more degrees of success than Blitz, and so in the final seconds of the race they managed to pass Blitz and ****** the victory away from him.
Blitz choose not to hold a grudge and warned the Void master that he would claim the title from him next year, a challenge that the void master happily accepted. With the race over it was time to show them the prize they had won. I had decided on a best quality Manufactorum loaded with stc data. A search of the data revealed that it is filled with patterns for guard materiel, seems like the ship this component was attached to was headed for some place with great need of guard equipment…. Curious.
After the prize was given out the contestants returned to their ships, wanting to get away before the Worldbreaker’s truce ends, however the players were delayed, by Morgash himself. One of his messengers demanded that they dine with him, realizing they didn’t really have a choice they accepted. They were lead to Morgash’s fortress and found that it was actually pretty nice, Morgash has apparently gotten a taste for the imperial style of interior decorating. During dinner he told them many things, among them that he could sense that Meshalismos had great potential as a source of conflict and therefore should endeavour to grow strong. Another thing he told them was that he was gathering his WAAAAAGH and that he would be ready in 10 years, he asked that the players please warn the imperial navy as it would be boring if they weren’t ready for him when he came smashing through the maw. To make it even more creepy he told them this in perfect Low Gothic.
With dinner over and the prize loaded onboard their vessel the decided to get the hell out like the rest of their fellows, however one final obstacle lay between them and success, Ember Nostromo. While they had been dining she had moved her fleet into position around their vessel and when they arrived onboard she gave her ultimatum, hand over the prize or be destroyed. It never came to that however, as they remembered one thing, this place was still under the Worldbreaker’s truce, so a quick vox message over to Morgash resulted in the Worldbreaker being summoned defend them, Morgash frowns upon people abusing his hospitality.
So the players quickly became trapped between 2 great fleets clashing over the skies of Lotsa Break Skull. They wisely decided to go silent running and disappear in the asteroid belt, and watch the carnage unfold from a safe distance. The fleet battle ended with a titanic duel between the two flagships, with the Monarch of Whispers throwing broadside after broadside into the prow of the Worldbreaker, and the Worldbreaker thundering on anyway. Morgash ordered his ship to ram the Monarch and board it. They ended up tearing a good half of the port side of the Monarch off when the fallen navigator decided that a close range battle with the worldbreaker was one she couldn’t win and decided against common sense to jump to warp while the jaws of the worldbreaker was still firmly attached to her ship. Her ship ended up taking horrific damage but she managed to escape. With the fleet battle over the players decided that they had had enough of the system and left, with their prize and a significant boost to profit factor from the sheer bragging rights of having not only survived, but won Shipbreakers run.
This was probably one of the most fun endeavours that i have ever run, has anyone else here used that little blurb in the speed freak sidebar for anything?