Hello everyone,

I have been a GM for some time and around a year ago started beeing a GM for a Dark Heresy too. It worked out pretty well now.

While I played some other Pen & Paper with this group before, they never played a WH40k game before and only one has much knowledge about the lore. While this meant, that there was first some explaining to do, they were really interested and to this point it was always good, that I could surprise them. Now I have worked up just such a surprise, however, because it was quite some work to pull it off, I wanted to take in some advises on if and how to finish this part of the campaign.

The actual situation: The Team, during a mission near the border of the calixis-sector encountered among other things some Stryxis, who stranded there. They hoped for the new arrival to get them off the planet. They used simple material to disguise themselve as more of big puppies instead of vile aliens and used a child-like talk to fool the team. It did work and the group smuggeled them of world on the trade ship, which their Inquisitor uses as a base. I made it pretty hard, but the group managed it.

Now the Stryxis are hiding on the ship trying to make contact with their kind. They believe to have manipulated the ship in the direction of a fairly well armed caravan. In truth, the whole smuggling failed and the Inquisition was aware of them (of course), but wanted them to lure them to the others. The Inquisitor by the way is puritan, has got his hands on some Imperial ships and want to kill the aliens.

The point is: The Stryxis are usually descriped to be at the very least ruthless in the extreme, if not malevolent. And I wanted to show that somehow, so the players curse themselves for helping them. This should include the Stryxis using and possibly trying to kill their saviors for their own gain. The plan to this point involves the Stryxis using the group by either poisoning a player (which usually has the problem of said player beeing unavailable/limits him) or threatening them in other ways to help them loot the ship, just before they get off. Now, no matter if the players find a way out of this or try to help them, this buisness should get interrupted by the Inquisition engaging the Stryxis caravan.

The question would be: Is this problematic? Are there other (better) ways the aliens could mess with the group?

Thank you in advance

PS: The group has no problem with getting thrown in the grim darkness of 40k and suffering for their more idealistic views, in fact they have told me that it always was/is one of the most enjoyable parts.

Hello everyone,

(...) I wanted to take in some advises on if and how to finish this part of the campaign.

(...)

Now the Stryxis are hiding on the ship trying to make contact with their kind. They believe to have manipulated the ship in the direction of a fairly well armed caravan. In truth, the whole smuggling failed and the Inquisition was aware of them (of course), but wanted them to lure them to the others. The Inquisitor by the way is puritan, has got his hands on some Imperial ships and want to kill the aliens.

The point is: The Stryxis are usually descriped to be at the very least ruthless in the extreme, if not malevolent. And I wanted to show that somehow, so the players curse themselves for helping them. This should include the Stryxis using and possibly trying to kill their saviors for their own gain. The plan to this point involves the Stryxis using the group by either poisoning a player (which usually has the problem of said player beeing unavailable/limits him) or threatening them in other ways to help them loot the ship, just before they get off. Now, no matter if the players find a way out of this or try to help them, this buisness should get interrupted by the Inquisition engaging the Stryxis caravan.

The question would be: Is this problematic? Are there other (better) ways the aliens could mess with the group?

Thank you in advance

Sadly, I see a lot of problems. As a 40k voidship has a crew of thousands, simply plundering one is next to impossible for a small group of aliens (you don´t have HUNDREDS of them on board, do you?). And, it does not make sense to do drug (or harm) the PC -before- the ship is in contact with the "well armed caravan". After all, till the Stryxis are in within reach of their "pick-me-up-crew", they will NEED these (friendly) PC, as they are their only support in an otherwise hostile surrounding (xenos who smuggled themselves upon an imperial voidship should fear for their lifes).

So, how to drive your point home? I could see the Stryx trying to kidnap the characters when they are about to transfer them back to the caravan. After all, the Stryx (according to RT) trade vat-grown clone-slaves-constructs, the genes of the PC could be considered useful and/or valuable.

The question here is: what was the plan here? How where the Stryxis meant to be transfered back to "their own"?

Hello everyone,

(...) I wanted to take in some advises on if and how to finish this part of the campaign.

(...)

Now the Stryxis are hiding on the ship trying to make contact with their kind. They believe to have manipulated the ship in the direction of a fairly well armed caravan. In truth, the whole smuggling failed and the Inquisition was aware of them (of course), but wanted them to lure them to the others. The Inquisitor by the way is puritan, has got his hands on some Imperial ships and want to kill the aliens.

The point is: The Stryxis are usually descriped to be at the very least ruthless in the extreme, if not malevolent. And I wanted to show that somehow, so the players curse themselves for helping them. This should include the Stryxis using and possibly trying to kill their saviors for their own gain. The plan to this point involves the Stryxis using the group by either poisoning a player (which usually has the problem of said player beeing unavailable/limits him) or threatening them in other ways to help them loot the ship, just before they get off. Now, no matter if the players find a way out of this or try to help them, this buisness should get interrupted by the Inquisition engaging the Stryxis caravan.

The question would be: Is this problematic? Are there other (better) ways the aliens could mess with the group?

Thank you in advance

Sadly, I see a lot of problems. As a 40k voidship has a crew of thousands, simply plundering one is next to impossible for a small group of aliens (you don´t have HUNDREDS of them on board, do you?). And, it does not make sense to do drug (or harm) the PC -before- the ship is in contact with the "well armed caravan". After all, till the Stryxis are in within reach of their "pick-me-up-crew", they will NEED these (friendly) PC, as they are their only support in an otherwise hostile surrounding (xenos who smuggled themselves upon an imperial voidship should fear for their lifes).

So, how to drive your point home? I could see the Stryx trying to kidnap the characters when they are about to transfer them back to the caravan. After all, the Stryx (according to RT) trade vat-grown clone-slaves-constructs, the genes of the PC could be considered useful and/or valuable.

The question here is: what was the plan here? How where the Stryxis meant to be transfered back to "their own"?

First and foremost, thank you.

Now: The Stryx still expect the Inquisition to run into a trap, believing their caravan would quickly start entering the ship with their slave-armies. They want to ensure essentially, that all the valuable stuff gets unharmed. There are only around 20 of them on the ship. They essentially want to force the group to bring them to a safe point in the ship, where they can just wait until the entire human crew is slaughtered/enslaved. After all, it is a trading ship, they expect it to be extremly easy. Those ships, while still impossible to take over guerilla actions, are no fighting vehicles after all, even if the Inquisition installed some extra weapons. So any dedicated boarding assault usually picks them apart, which is what the Stryx are hoping for. Also, Stryx are stated to be extremly techonological advanced, and while I dont know if they possess teleportation (I think not), they could just simply use escape pods or sent similar devices to the ship.

To give some numbers: It is a trade ship on the side of the Inquisition, while the Stryx, outside of their own machines, use Kroot and human mercinaries. They mainly have trading ships, while the mercinaries are the equivalent of three light cruisers. The Inquisitor himself wants to bring out the big guns and had around four cruisers laying in ambush as well as one heavy cruiser joining later (it has already been established, that the Imperial Navy is his best contact).

Now, if everything fails, I did made backup plans. Of course, I could just not include that episode, another example would be in the groups past. They had in the mission, where they picked up the aliens, been working against a Tzeentch cult. The cult did find out about the aliens. They had a Chaos Space Marine, but after the Acolythes outnumbered him using local forces, he pissed of. And it would be very "Tzeentch"-like to strike a pact with the aliens to for example use a teleporter beacon through them, teleport some marines, deamons or similar on board and try to steal the inquisitors stuff or destroy everything. This was essentially my back-up-plan should the group handle the Stryx to fast. After all, even with an army of armsmen at their side, fighting Space Marines in their element would be a challenge for the acolythe. Just like the Stryx scenario, once they realize that their reinforcments are not coming, develop in a game of cat and mouse as well as a time trial, trying to take them down, before they do damage.

So, the "ruse" the Stryx try t keep up towards the PC is "just keep us hidden on the ship, we will be extracted by our own people from it without any harm to anybody" . The plan is that "one our ships are here, they enter this trading ship, we take what we deem valuable and retreat after we are done with pillaging". What you need is: something that makes the Stryx unboard betray the character while the operation begins.

# # #
The characters could be asked to bring the Stryx close to a hangar (or loading bay), and try to overwhelm them as the attack begins. The problem is: I guess that the Stryx are unarmed and thereby no problem to armed acolythes. The real problem would be the chase that sets in when the first enter boats hit the hangar.

That is all I can think of.

So, the "ruse" the Stryx try t keep up towards the PC is "just keep us hidden on the ship, we will be extracted by our own people from it without any harm to anybody" . The plan is that "one our ships are here, they enter this trading ship, we take what we deem valuable and retreat after we are done with pillaging". What you need is: something that makes the Stryx unboard betray the character while the operation begins.

# # #

The characters could be asked to bring the Stryx close to a hangar (or loading bay), and try to overwhelm them as the attack begins. The problem is: I guess that the Stryx are unarmed and thereby no problem to armed acolythes. The real problem would be the chase that sets in when the first enter boats hit the hangar.

That is all I can think of.

Okay, thank you. seems fitting. Considering the weaponary, it shouldnt be a big problem. They did have some weaponary, although they sold some to get the acolythes to help them. Also, its a trade ship full of inquisitorial goons. Shouldnt be to hard for them to steal something. What are your thoughts about foreign reeinforcements?