Hey there. I recently started a Campaign among a group of friends and the plan was to become bounty hunters in the Koronus Expanse and to set up their own little empire away from the prying eyes of the Imperium. It seemed to be starting alright, they did a few bounties and captured a pirate base in an asteroid field......... but then I thought I'd mix it up a bit with an exciting warp shenanigan -

In one of their lifts a new floor button appeared between two levels, which led to a room which was functionally identical to one of their midshipman's quarters (but shouldn't be able to exist there between two levels).

At first they enjoyed experimenting with the room, finding out that it ran off the ship's life support only when the lift was open on that floor etc. etc.

This experimentation led them to find that if they mined through the wall of the room, they were mining into solid adamantium and their auspexes showed that the adamantium extended for 18 metres around the room, beyond which their sensors couldn't make sense of the readings

Naturally they decided to capitalise on this source of metal.

The decision was: Mine as much adamantium as they can, out to 15 metres to be safe, and then sell it.

After selling it, they then decided to mine to the 18 metre mark to 'see what there is'.

Cutting it short this opened a warp Portal, causing everyone in the room to disappear and whenever the room was sealed, screaming could be heard from the other side.

To explain - With the lift doors open, it looks like normal room and you can watch your friend walk in there fine. If the lift doors shut, anyone in there disappears and their screams are added to the cacophony. Whilst in the room (with the door open), you can see a small hole where they attempted to mine beyond the 18m boundary, the hole was covered with pink shimmering liquid.

The Navigator identified this as a Warp Portal problem and so it completely freaked out my players to the point of them dismantling the lift and installing a staircase in its stead. (In hindsight, as a GM, I should have left it there but I didn't because I thought they were avoiding the problem of a warp portal instead of dealing with it)

The lift (and the button) were gone BUT the screaming remained and slowly began growing louder -- affecting the crew's morale and psychological health.

They attempted to sound-proof the area and seal it off (forcing crew to avoid the area entirely) but that failed to prevent the spread of screaming and problems.

In the end the RT decided to confront the problem head on and (with the Lift Doors held open) went to investigate.

Again, cutting a long story short --- after communicating by throwing messages into the portal, he found out that the room was a plaything belonging to a Slanneshi Daemon.

Their next attempt at resolution was bringing in a bunch of priests, who told them that they knew **** all about dealing with the mythical horrors of the warp and then left as quickly as possible. (again, I should have let that work but fluffily it wouldn't really).

In the end, the RT having seen no other option - believing himself damned by the shadowy arm of the Inquisition for having such heresy on board the ship or damned by the malefic presence of the Daemon itself - decided to take the 'if you can't beat em, join em' approach.

Inevitably this has led to rampant hedonism and firefly-esque reaving that I know is completely unsustainable. This type of play will lead to boredom or infighting and the Campaign will end horribly and leave a bad taste in everyone's mouths.

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Is this salvageable?

(Note, I don't think I can run a Black Crusade game... I find Chaos rather one-dimensional and struggle to convey their ideas and politics)

What can I do to avoid this in the future?

(I don't want to stop doing cool things but I don't want to rock the boat like this again)

What would you have done?

(If you had dropped this room on your players, how would you have managed it?)

1) Is this salvageable: Yes - I find a lot of problems can be solved by having an open discussion with your players. Talk to them and see if they're interested in having a Black Crusade style game, and if so move into that. If they want a way back, then say you have a way back but be clear that this is a major tipping point for their lives. They can embrace Chaos or try to go back to the Imperium.

2) What can I do to avoid this in the future?: Lots of stuff - I actually like your scenario, and other than not having a clear "how can they unscrew this situation" in mind, I think it was a good idea, led to some fun adventures, but that's all there is.

3) What would you have done? Give them a Salvation Scenario - So, if they DON'T want to go Chaos, here's the plan. Inquisitor Irmgard Merlette has been tracking this daemon for decades, as it has been dooming several notable Imperial ships and planets, and she thinks she has a way to save them. She has identified the planet of origin for the daemon, and needs your crew to take her there in order to find the true name of the daemon before it ascended.

Success involves navigating to the world, going to its shattered population, perhaps braving the mutated population while the Inquisitor finds the true name, and then summoning it forth and holding it off either through combat or a roleplayed social combat held half-in-the-warp where they have to find their way out lest they be banished.

Rewards will be an Inquisitor's thanks, and the salvation of their souls. They might gain some corruption, but they will have also helped demolish an evil daemon forever which is nothing to be sneezed at.

Here's the plan. Inquisitor Irmgard Merlette has been tracking this daemon for decades, as it has been dooming several notable Imperial ships and planets, and she thinks she has a way to save them. She has identified the planet of origin for the daemon, and needs your crew to take her there in order to find the true name of the daemon before it ascended.

Success involves navigating to the world, going to its shattered population, perhaps braving the mutated population while the Inquisitor finds the true name, and then summoning it forth and holding it off either through combat or a roleplayed social combat held half-in-the-warp where they have to find their way out lest they be banished.

Rewards will be an Inquisitor's thanks, and the salvation of their souls. They might gain some corruption, but they will have also helped demolish an evil daemon forever which is nothing to be sneezed at.

Thank you, I chose to basically go down this route.

Only my Rogue Trader resisted the Inquisition's arrival and chose suicide by Inquisition - Red Hunters storming in via Boarding Torpedo.

The other players in my group underwent limited mind-wipes and accepted the Inquisitor's offer.

They've now travelled to the world and have begun to search through a derelict hive city and the Albino mutants have become quite an unexpected danger to them.

I'm glad it helped! I hope the player of your Rogue Trader was okay with this and got to roll up a new character. It is amazing how many problems can be solved in an in-character group via tactical elimination of the Rogue Trader and keeping him alive in name only!

Yes, we all had an OOC discussion about the direction we wanted the Campaign to take. The RT player was the only one who believed his character was irredeemable.

On a funny side note, he decided to roll up a very interesting Explorator (dropped off by the Inquisitior) with an intelligence bonus of 16 (he loves to break character generation).