One of my players has recently asked about acquiring power armour since I have said they would have to travel to a forge world to have a decent chance at getting it i have also suggested they could do the adeptus mechanicus some favours to help them get the armour. At the moment the groups profit factor is 31, after they finish the Into the maw adventure and plunder the righteous path it should be about 34 at the minimum but will actually be 38 since the points they have accrued on the way will put them 400 points over the required amount. If he tried to acquire the power armour normally he will have to test as if it was 18 since i have ruled he should get a best quality suit if he is going for it at all.

So what ideas do you guys have? What could they do to get the AdMech to give them some power armour, I've been toying around with the idea of an STC, obviously that would get them many more rewards and probably make the AdMech very good allies, depending on it's contents (maybe the infamous, or famous, depends on how you look at it Iron Men). Some may see making an adventure like this a bit pointless and over the top but its the sort of thing that could get them in trouble or give them powerful allies.

On a side note another player keeps asking me about the possibility of owning a titan, i keep waving him away saying he would not be able to legally get hold of the crew for it or even the titan itself, any thoughts on that, would it be possible if he found an STC for the Mechanicus?

Any thoughts on a fun endeavour to gain the favour of the Mechanicus and get a suit of power armour out of the deal, what could i give the other player as he doesnt want power armour that much and what class of endeavour would you recommend and the achievement points needed for this?

An STC? A completely working one?

That's big. Really big. You're talking about the PC's finding what is, more or less, the AdMech's Holy Grail. Were they to hand it over, I would lean towards,

"Titan? No problem! Anything else? New starship while we're at it?"

I would suggest, unless you want to re-distribute the balance of power on a galactic level, you instead offer up a broken STC of some fairly insignificant STC printouts. Either of these would be more than sufficient to get the player his power armor.

In regards to loot for the other player, check out the Forge World section of the IH for some cool stuff. Two appropriate things that come to mind are either a personal shield, or cybernetic surgery of some kind.

I was thinking about that stuff in the Inquisitors handbook, The amulet of warding would seem a bit powerful in my opinion especially combined with armour, and cybernetic implants would go well with the baleful eye he already has, ill have to ask him about that. He does seem to have a love of battle servitors however.

Im pretty sure i want to so something involving an STC maybe partially intact, or possibly intact like the one in the Gaunt's ghost book 'First and Only', a corrupted iron man producing machine would be interesting. Basically i want ideas, no matter how crazy or convoluted, the long winded the better, for a large scale endeavour to emerge in the searching for an STC and essentially winning the undying loyalty of the Mechanicus, i quite like the mechanicus, much more than the imperium itself and would like story arcs to develop involving them. So any ideas involving STC's are welcome.

Also by STC printouts do you mean hard copies of some of the data stored in the ruined hard drive of the STC, and if it was broken how much of it would be of use to the Mechanicus?

malador888 said:

An STC printout could be anything from a recipe for industrial solvent, a schematic for a type of monoblade or a diesel engine. Anything from the most mundane sounding to the outrageously high-tech ( like plasma reactors ). A full, intact STC is the Holy Grail. What AdMech has been scrounging through the millennia are bits and pieces of STC tech scattered throughout the Galaxy. Even an incomplete schematic can help them fill the giant puzzle they have been trying to do for the past 10K+ years. So, yes, even a broken piece could be very valuable.

To give an example of the relative worth of a complete STC, the first Gaunt's Ghosts novel mentions a Guardsman who found an intact fragment of an STC that taught the Ad Mech how to make a sharper kind of combat knife. He's now the Governor of his own planet.

All of the posts are great but i need to know how you guys would handle running an adventure to find an STC.

I'm planning a grand endeavour, chasing up rumours, travelling to death worlds fighting through jungles to find some minor treasure or a destroyed STC, fighting other rogue traders to defend their new found property or steal it from them, bribe officials and try to get access to old records containing potential information on old colonies that had STC's.

Basically its going to amount to an endeavour to gain the favour of the Mechanicus in a big way, maybe the item it produces may be seen as heretical by some and not by others, it may cause a schism in the Mechanicus and lead to an all out war, something no one wants.

The Titan might be a out, but don't forget the old Imperial Knights from epic 40k. These are what amount to mini-titans/dreds used by the highborn to duel and hunt dangerous game. Size is probably closer to 1/4 the size of a Warhound titan if not smaller.

malador888 said:

It sounds like a great campaign. I'm not sure why you need help, you seem to have a lot of great ideas, its just a matter of piecing them together using the endeavor section.

That being said, here's another idea:

There could be a STC, somewhere in the Koronus expanse, that was discovered by a race of primitive sentient beings long ago. Over time, they utilized it to advance their technology to the point where, though artificially inflated, it is very advanced.

Here's another one:

For whatever reason, the party that finds the STC, or those that the PC's hand it over to, decide not to use it for the benefit of the Imperium, instead hoarding it, and decides to launch a campaign to overthrow the Adeptus Terra.

Here's one last thought:

If you want the campaign to focus on the Mechanicus, it might be worthwhile to offer the PC's at some point the option of converting to the Credo. From what I understand of the AdMech, they have a hard time being real buddies with anyone not part of their faith...

Fritzel Von Dungeon said:

In almost all cases, yes, but an STC? I think the AdMech would literally offer anything it was in their power to give.

If you want the campaign to focus on the Mechanicus, it might be worthwhile to offer the PC's at some point the option of converting to the Credo. From what I understand of the AdMech, they have a hard time being real buddies with anyone not part of their faith...

They have a hard time being real buddies with anyone , but those of their faith don't particularly care.
However, the offer to convert and the following "Um... how do I phrase that? Well, I'm honoured, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a better toaster" might be interesting to play out.

Just a few stray thoughts about an endeavour that could have power armor as reward.

Find a long lost/isolated forge world.

Lead/protect an admech expedition to the forgeworld and help recover memory cores/data crystals/STC fragments etc.

Find traces of survivors

Find out why the world is nearly deserted and track down survivors.

The survivors still worship the omnissiah, but during 8000 years of isolation the rituals have changed . . . are they still true believers or have they degenerated to heretics ?? Please investigate, cleanse and purify as neccesary !

Additional fun can be provided by automated orbital defences, gun servitors, rogue/old/lonely machine spririts, hereteks and whatever spawns when hydroponic gardens aren't maintained properly.

Anyone with (archeo)tech and machine skills would be right at home here.

Don't forget that best quality power armor isn't something even the admech has lying around in old storerooms.

It will have to be made specially for the RT by a team of expert admech amourers and craftsmen, perhaps with the help af a techmarine... getting his help could mean a whole new adventure !

I have the ideas its just a matter of fleshing out the basic storyline, i plan to send them to at least a few worlds that are duds, death worlds, tomb worlds or worlds where it has been broken beyond repair, maybe even a world where as someone suggested local life has found how to use it and has been advanced significantly and worships the STC like the Mechanicus would worship the Omnissiah

Im thinking of definately scaling it down to some data fragments containing some information, but what could they contain?

Gaunts Ghost's mentioned a guardsmen who found a design for a sharper better knife which got him a planet of his own.

What could my players find that would be worthwhile to the Mechanicus, a way of making more efficient hives, a lighter flexible form of flak? Anyone got an interesting things worthwhile for them?

Well if up to me the might find a part of a schmatic for a more reliable auto quill.

If you're looking for something of 'special' worth to AdMech (beyond just new tech), how about an improved oil/grease formula? Something that allows them to make a better 'sanctified oil' for their rites. That would seem to be of special, and 'personal', interest to the Admech.