I've got a bit of a conundrum and was hopping some of you folks could help me out with some brainstorming. What I have is a Scum from my DH game who is a scion of the Haarlock line who skipped out on is cell while the getting was good. He's being smuggled out and away from the Imperium with the help of the Amaranthine Syndicate to latter fulfill part of the Slought's twisted plans.

Either way, while I was sitting down with another player and helping her settle on a character concept and get it made for RT, she decided that it would be incredible amounts of fun if the Scum cashed in on is blood and went after the Haarlock Warrant with her Seneschal playing playing the King Maker and turning the spineless gutter-scum into a proper and feared Rogue Trader worthy of the name Haarlock. I had to agree with her, that sounds like a hell of a lot of fun and opens up some interesting inter-party rp opportunities. Unfortunately, this raises a few problems, well one big one. I really want them to be in control of a ship if not from the beginning then from very early on. However, i don't want to just hand the Scum the Haarlock Warrant as such is a monumentus occasion in that characters life and shouldn't be glossed over. So, with that in mind, a few questions:

If the Scum is the horse the PC's will be hitching their wagon to, how would I be able to reasonably give them a ship under their control before the Scum finds a way to get the Haarlock Warrant?

And in what ways would a scion of the thought to be dead Haarlock line actually get the Warrant?

Thanks in advance for any input, advice, ideas, or opinions you might have tat can help jog my brain into the right gear.

If the Scum is the horse the PC's will be hitching their wagon to, how would I be able to reasonably give them a ship under their control before the Scum finds a way to get the Haarlock Warrant?

Good question. I guess we'd have to know more about the party. The primary contact you mentioned was the Amaranthine Syndicate, so perhaps he might be paired with one of their captains, taking over the ship when the latter dies, perhaps while trying to escape the syndicate's influence. The most common ship received thusly would be a transport, although you could also grant some better stuff - that would likely fit better with the economic situation ("what economy?") of the scum-scion who probably couldn't justify much of a profit factor.

And in what ways would a scion of the thought to be dead Haarlock line actually get the Warrant?

By physically securing it from the family line's flagship lying derelict in some space hulk at the centre of a warpstorm beyond the dangers of the Space Region Of A Thousand Dangers, to be found only on the Map Of Nifty Plot Locations, of course. Why are you asking?

Either way, while I was sitting down with another player and helping her settle on a character concept and get it made for RT, she decided that it would be incredible amounts of fun if the Scum cashed in on is blood and went after the Haarlock Warrant with her Seneschal playing playing the King Maker and turning the spineless gutter-scum into a proper and feared Rogue Trader worthy of the name Haarlock.

Don't forget to use an appropriate

1)As the Harlock line is very old. It's likely they intermarried with other RT lines. Have the player inheriit a lesser warrant. That way getting the Harlock warrant and all it's monies and extras can be the climax of the campaign or a polt line.

2)As far as getting a ship. They could get access to a merchant ship via the =][=. Ship are impounded or salvaged all the time. The players could get a ship that way. You could give them a charter to travel the sector. Or a lesser charter, but if they need to go some where special give them a one time grant. (IE the Guard need these lasguns delivered to planet X here is the paper work for it.)

I can see an Inquisitor being very interested in the Harlocks and wanting his own pawn. In my game the RT is being groomed as pawn/backup Scion in case the =][= needs a Harlock to take the warrant.

2)As far as getting a ship. They could get access to a merchant ship via the =][=. Ship are impounded or salvaged all the time. The players could get a ship that way. You could give them a charter to travel the sector. Or a lesser charter, but if they need to go some where special give them a one time grant. (IE the Guard need these lasguns delivered to planet X here is the paper work for it.)

Er... Graver's scion isn't backed by the Inquisition but by the Amaranthine Syndicate.

Cifer said:

That would be my advice as well.

Always go with the Space Regions Of A Thousand Dangers, and always let it be found on the Map Of Nifty Plot Locations.

I think securing the services of a navigator would be a much bigger problem than getting hold of a ship. So start with having the party salvage, buy, deal, rent etc a ship. Then work to recruit a crew for it. This could make up the first chapter of the campaign. Then they can travel around in the local parts of their system, using the well known traderoutes that does not require navigators, but only a decent map. Travel will be slow, so they will be practically bound to a few systems. I seem to remember that the trip from Malfi to Scintilla takes around 800 terran days while travelling in this mode, that should give a decent guideline.

So second chapter of the campaign would be to recruit a navigator, by for example making sure a navigator house is set in debt to you. Here the GM and the players needs to be creative. For example: arrange the kidnapping of a navigator, double cross the kidnappers, kill them and free the navigator. Or find a navigator house that is already in a sort of trouble that the party can solve. Or there might be a long forgotten xenos artifact that could be traded... well, you know this part.

Third chapter of the campaign will be to gain hold of the charter. I really like Cifers suggestion. I would also like to suggest the necessity of having the trade charter and the characters right to it verified by someone in the adeptus administratum. Maybe someone really high up. Maybe someone on Terra... and it will take some serious influences (that of course needs to be gained by doing smart, illegal and/or horribly dangerous things) to even get an audience.

And a good story needs an end boss. Maybe the usurper and archenemy that falsely claims to have the right to the haarlock heritage and that has opposed the characters every step since chapter one? At the critical point of the legacy hearing he marches in, robes willowing, evil goatee bristling and challenges the ex-scum to a duel to the death. And no true Haarlock could ever deny such a challenge. The only way to settle this is of course in trial by combat, using km-long spaceships, with holy Terra as the witness. And as the usurpers unholy (no doubt demonridden and loaded with unfair xeno tech) ship detonate into a ball of plasma the Sun rises over the horizon of Terra, it's first rays glittering of the Emperors Palace, heralding the new dawn of the true Haarlocks.

Thanks all for the advice and ideas so far! With the amount of support that the physical warrant lying in a Space Region Of A Thousand Dangers, to be found only on the Map Of Nifty Plot Locations has, I reckon I'm honor bound to go that rout, even if I like it anyway. There is one thing about it which I could use some additional help with, though. Seeing as how Erasmus wouldn't have just left that thing lying about, having said thing found lying about is sure to be the centerpiece and bait of another infamous Haarlock Deathtrap. I could use some help coming up with good madly ingenious yet impractical deathtrap that the physical warrant could be the bait for -I'm not so good with those. I was thinking that maybe it could be on the homeworld of the Children of the Kingdom but that's about as far as my thinking on that aspect has gotten. Any ideas?

As for the ship, I think I'll be taking Cifer's idea and running with it, though I hadn't thought about the Navigator complication. Thanks for bringing that up, Mellon!

After hammering plans out with the players involved, here's the rough idea we and I have.

They'll start aboard a Syndicate ship plying a small rout doing "corpse runs" to a near-by cemetery world with some corpses being dropped off elsewhere (as per the Syndicates instructions). The noble outcast King-Maker Seneschal and Spy-Master of the ship has the captain wrapped around his finger, but with the Syndicate ultimately calling the shots and with him being bound to such a small trade rout which mostly consists of ferrying dead bodies about, all he's managed to do is secure himself as the power behind a very very small and weak throne. Then along comes a special passenger that they are to keep safe and low key for a bit. The Spy-Master, being what he is, is too curious to let this one slip by and after many long months of winning the man's trust (with the help of some subtle use of Delude) the Spy-Master learns the man is a scion of the lost and accursed Haarlock line. It's around the time that he learns this that the ship is attacked by some force which will some how (boarding actions?) kill the current captain off.

With the captain dead and out of the picture, the Spy-Master suddenly finds a golden opportunity tossed at his feat to finally become the power behind something great (he doesn't want to be the power himself as said powers seem to be terrible bullet and poison magnets... far better to be the one directing and controlling the power). He convinces the Scum passenger to accept his birth-right and take over the ship (with the Spy-Master, of course, helping out and leading him by the nose where needed). Their first major undertaking would be insuring the crew accepts the change in commander followed by finding a way to repair the sip and replenish the crew where needed.

Their second concern would be getting out and away from the ships rightful owners, the Syndicate, which would lead them, slowly, to Port Wander and away from the Hazaroth subsector to buy themselves some time, getting by on lies, bluster, and forged documents. Matching up with their second concern would also be finding where the Haarlock Warrant is and, of course, they catch rumors and odd void tails on where it could lie, far out in the Kronus Expanse. Getting it will not only get them out and away from the Syndicate as well as the Inquisitor forces that are hunting the Scum, but also bring them one step closer to being free of their respective plights (one being a fugitive good for nothing gutter scum who's future looks incredibly bleak and the other being an out-cast noble who wants a hell of a lot more then he was able to get otherwise... the other players will still need to find their character's places in this dynamic). However, in order to strike out into the expanse, they are going to need a Navigator (thank you, Mellon, for that one!) before they even think of blockade running or sneaking out of Imperial Space pirate style -they'd be fools to try to sail the Maw without one.

Once out in the Expanse, they'll start following the rumors, finding leads, dead ends, lies, misinformation, etc, all the while getting used to the Endeavor system as they try to stay afloat and get their profit factor above the crippling 5 or so that they'll be starting with. Eventually, they'll land the right lead and fall into (or hopefully remember lessons learned in House of Dust and Ash) another suppervillan-esq Haarlock Deathtrap (which I could use some help coming up with). Assuming they get the Warrant out of said Deathtrap, they'll now have to make it official and prove the gutter-scum's lineage (a tough prospect considering said scum doesn't even know who his parents were...) and the "magic painting" that identified him is either burnt to a cinder or encased in tones of cooling magma now. They'll probably have to locate genetic material or a profile from a Haarlock that is irrefutably authentic (most likely samples lying in a genetorium somewhere), get said sample, then get the mechanicus to compare the scum's profile to that of the Haarlock sample to prove his lineage.

After his lineage is proven, they'll still have to get the support of fairly powerful and influential folks in the Calixis sector such as the Lord Sector, and the predominant powers there-in, for a good bit of high brow hob-nobbing and intrigue and to keep the Administratum from dragging it's feet and taking two to three hundred years to declare the scion as The Haarlock. All this, of course, would have to happen while Inquisitors close in and assassins seeking the death of the Haarlock scion pop out of the wood work for extra fun.

As for a big-bad, it's already set up. In my universe, Erasmus is still very much alive and active within the Calixis sector -he's just been operating under a different identity for the past century but he's still very much into killing off is entire bloodline, completely wiping it from the stars. They'll have him to contend with so epic will definitely enter the equation at the latter stages of this particular chronicle, though probably not as epic as a duel to the death above the Imperial Palace, but still epic.

Thank you everyone who chimed in and helped me hammer the basic premise of this plot out. Still, if anyone can help with the Deathtrap aspect, I would be even more appreciative... for what ever that's worth since, unfortunately, the powers that be still haven't implemented a way to pay ones rent with appreciation and thanks as of yet.

Excellent masterplot there. I envy you and your players this upcoming story :-) I would love to help with the Haarlock traps, but I'm just about to start GMing that campaign, so I don't know much about his modus operandi yet. I will however leave you with an idea that a guardsman in my player group made up in horrid response to the Interrogator that tried to sooth the acolytes fears:

Interrogator: "Don't you worry, the Mechanicus have reterraformed the planet since the stealer infection happened."
Guardsman: "Oh no! Terraformed-mechanomorphed-genestealers! We are going to diiiiie!"

That concept sounds supervillainous enough to me.

As for a big-bad, it's already set up. In my universe, Erasmus is still very much alive and active within the Calixis sector -he's just been operating under a different identity for the past century but he's still very much into killing off is entire bloodline, completely wiping it from the stars. They'll have him to contend with so epic will definitely enter the equation at the latter stages of this particular chronicle, though probably not as epic as a duel to the death above the Imperial Palace, but still epic.

Between Erasmus, the Slaugth and the Inquisition, I'd say you have enough Big Bads for quite a while.

Have you thought about whether and how the Scum could appease the Big -=][=-? Lord Sector's approval or not, he won't be accepted as heir of the warrant while he's on the run from them...

Cifer said:

I haven't put much thought into that aspect, though as things currently stand, those who want him want to, first and fore-most, ask him a few pointed questions with a few pointed things and then use him as evidence of a comrades corruption before exterminating him for the same corruption. However, due to the fact that in his corruption, he bears proof that a Lord Inquisitor of the Conclave has been corrupted by xenos, the cabal of Inquisitors that are hunting him are trying to keep things on the down-low least the Lord Inquisitor catches wind of his existence and gets to him before they or their agents do. However, they won't make an overt move against him nor will they involve any faction who can get word back to the Lord Inquisitor in their hunts, so there is a possibility of him getting the Warrant while being hunted by them. The Big =][= in my game is most definitly not a unified anything and they are barely able to keep up appearances of being such.

The Slought are a major wild-card as once the scum breaks free of the Syndicate, they will want to get their tendrils back on him. They, above all, want to make sure he lives long enough for the things they planted in him to mature and their long cultivated plans of xenos madness come to fruition.

Of course, Erasmus will just be one big nasty problem to heap on top of all the other problems he's got to deal with, never mind the Bloodsworn that are also hunting him down for the murder of a nobles daughter, but they are the absolute least of is concerns given the other players on the field.

Exactly ow they will deal with all of this, I have no idea -that's for the players to figure out. However, that's why I will be placing the authentication of the Scum as a Haarlock for last. No matter how that part plays out when and if all of this comes to a head, it will be suitably nail bitingly epic, even if he can't quite pull it all off in the end. Of course, and like all plots I lay out, if they can just find a way to play the various sides in this, they just might pull it off, but it's sure as hell isn't going to be easy. That would just cheapen the awesomeness of getting the Haarlock Warrant if they do manage to pull it off in the end despite the forces allayed against them.

Oohh! Supervillain death-traps! I love this game!

Let's assume that Erasmus set it up to guard the Warrant, rather than merely use it as bait to wipe out another member of his line. That means the final piece is likely to be a stasis-vault of some description (possibly one protecting the Warrant itself, inside a larger one activated if the systems detect something wrong (hopefully trapping intruders until Erasmus returns... if he ever does)).
The step immediately outside that is likely to be something that is elegant, creative, and nigh-impossible to survive- say, a plasma bath, or a teleportarium designed to beam them maybe 1 mile into the air. I'd say go with a teleportarium, with a number of plasma weapons mounted in gargoyles around the room ready to slag anything that isn't caught by the teleport (and possibly the teleportarium as well).
To get into that room, maybe borrow a trick from Cube and have a number of mono-wire rigged to suddenly come taught and slice anyone trying to pass into little tiny pieces.
Added to that, a gauntlet of the standards: pit traps, wandering predators, poison gas spewing from wall vents, plus a number of large, locked doors, and maybe a few automated/servitor turrets.

Of course, given that it's set up as a guard system until the day Erasmus decides he wants the Warrant back, there's undoubtedly going to be ways to disarm the system (preferably 1 component at a time, so it isn't too easy). I'd use a mix of code panels, hidden switches and gene-readers, plus maybe the odd physical key (scattered/stashed in Some Other Perilous Location, of course).

Another fun trick is to set some of the traps on a timer, so if they think they've disarmed it but actually failed, they'll walk into the worst possible location for them to be when it goes off. I'd certainly set the stasis-vault up like that: a gene-reader to open the vault and reveal the stasis-box containing the warrant itself, and if a certain hidden switch isn't pressed within 30 seconds of entering the room, the outer vault activates and freezes them in place until Erasmus/the next bunch of suckers with a Haarlock scion arrives...

Alasseo said:

I like how your brain works :-) Don't forget the previous would be heroes who went to the vault and failed horribly, painfully and miserably. They might still be trapped in the outer statis field...

And a word of warning to the GM. It is no fun at all to have a character instakilled following just one failed skillcheck.

Alasseo said:

I'd just like to say that Cube is the ultimate inspiration movie for supervillian deathtraps. It's as ingenious as it is deadly.

Alasseo, the Stasis Field trap is a thing of beauty! Thank you for that! I will definitly be using it for the centerpiece of the trap and the main "theme" of the entire thing as well. The rest will still need a bit of work, but this helps a lot. I'm thinking of having the stasis field fluctuate, shutting down frequently while something (perhaps some of those Children of their Kingdom just to keep a theme up and going with the traps) comes in to clean up their now surprised victims. This is wonderful as it not only has the potential to clue the players into one part of the trap in an odd a spooky way (seeing motionless explorers standing about a massive chamber unmoving, bloody drag marks on the floors heading to massive gates or portholes in the walls, etc) but can be a trap that, even if they fail at, still have a chance as they'll be released from the stasis in time to see their doom flooding into the chamber to claim them if they can't fight it off and what-not.

This also has got me thinking along a few other lines for the over-all trap. I'm thinking about having the body of Erasmus' wife here as a part of the trap or possibly just enshrined in a stasis field her self, maybe left in a position to watch the Haarlock's who come for the warrant dying at her feet or some such, something that would make Erasmus feel like his wife is getting revenge for her death. Perhaps she or her body (in some sick way) could have a larger hand in the trap, but northing's come to mind as of yet.

Likewise, when you mentioned the stasis field, I started thinking about the time manipulation that is mentioned to be a theme in the Haarlock stories in the back of Dust and Ash. Having this be a tomb of sorts for his wife as well as a trap, time manipulation devices inside, and guardian creatures who kill all who came got me to thinking about the Hyperion books with it's Time Tomb guarded by the Shrike and it's thorn tree of souls. I'm thinking something like that might fit quite nicely but I still have everything outside the stasis field to think about. Some nice ideas were mentioned, but they rely too much of simple dice roles. I guess beggars shouldn't be choosers, but what I'm really struggling with is some good build-up for the main trap that doesn't rely on dice rolls but on player decision.

If Erasmus might want to get his warrant back, he might have left himself some clues (in case he got hit in the head between now and then, or shot in the head, or Emperor only knows what else can happen to an Explorers head out there...) to make sure he could remember what he needs to do to get the warrant. This is what I need to figure out (as well as some build up and minor traps leading in theme as well as scale to the stasis filed patrolled by something) . What clues would he have left himself that the PC's could happen across which would give them ideas as to how to go about solving the problem of getting through the Tomb (or even knowing it's dangerous) to the warrant without dying?

Though, again, thanks for the replies so far; they are great!

Oh, and I reckon i need to re-watch the Cube and maybe some of the sequels. Though the most I remember from that movie (beyond it's wonderful look at social dynamics) is the answer to the trap is in prime numbers. I know I can't use that for this trap as my group of players are math retards (not like I'm any kind of number genius either, just saying we as a group are in the same boat) and math problems will either fly over their heads or just frustrate them and it would be back to dice rolling to solve the problem. That's something I'd like to avoid.

Graver said:

I'd advise not watching the sequels to Cube, they suck... Badly. The first movie was brilliant. The second movie had some interesting ideas: a "Cube" designed like a tesseract, so navigating through it wasn't just a matter of location in space, but also in time, and some of the traps actually exploited this time dilation where one room might speed up time so fast that once you enter it you age several decades in mere seconds (and of course die in the process).

A very tzeentchian concept that could be put to use in DH, but in general the second movie just had interesting ideas but pretty poor execution (and pretty shoddy acting too).

The third movie's biggest flaw is the fact that they don't focus on the characters trapped in the cube, but have chosen to focus on characters outside of it as well. It sort of ruined that good surreal feeling established in the first movie of the characters being trapped in the cube, by actually revealing that there is an outside world.

So, as for ideas and inspiration for traps, I guess all of them are worth watching. But it's only the first movie that's really good...

If Erasmus might want to get his warrant back, he might have left himself some clues (in case he got hit in the head between now and then, or shot in the head, or Emperor only knows what else can happen to an Explorers head out there...) to make sure he could remember what he needs to do to get the warrant. This is what I need to figure out (as well as some build up and minor traps leading in theme as well as scale to the stasis filed patrolled by something) . What clues would he have left himself that the PC's could happen across which would give them ideas as to how to go about solving the problem of getting through the Tomb (or even knowing it's dangerous) to the warrant without dying?

While we're already getting "inspired" by other sources, try Planescape: Torment. It repeatedly employs the theme of clues that you left for yourself.