Hey everyone. I am the GM for a group that is just starting a DH game, and for this first campaign I am planning on mainly using the published adventures. The problem is, that while I want to run the missions from Purge the Unclean and then, depending on what rank the PCs end up, go into House of Dust and Ash and then the Harlock legacy missions, what I don't want is to have it look like I'm setting them up to do battle with the Serrated Query like in PtU and then randomly run off in a completely different direction, that is the Harlock Legacy.

So my question is, does anyone have any good ideas for how to tie the two together, or at least transition smoothly?

If you are adamant that you want to keep the SQ link strong throughout all the adventures I would:

• Look to increase their involvement in SoT and BH. RFYAT is fine as is mostly as the revelation at the end is that the SQ are actually the big bad guys, just try and mod the Ambulon/Seer connection as it is weak.
• If you moving from BH to HoDaA you can easily have SQ agents attending the auction, they can even meet the Acolytes on the ship over, how you play this out is up to you. In my campaign I emphasised the logicians and their agents attempted to assassinate the team by placing a Sinophina boreworm in their chamber whilst they slept (very James Bond). The Acolytes had their suspicions who had done it but couldn't immediately pin it on anyone.
• The Pilggrim's of Hayte could be substituted in TF for the SQ. It is they who have tasked the Beast House with kidnapping the acolytes and it is they who seek to capture the power of the Widower. However this isn't such an easy fit as the SQ aren't so much into sorcery etc.
• Can't think of anything for Damned Cities...sorry!
• SQ could be another faction racing to get to the Blind Tesseract in Dead Stars.

I personally abandoned the SQ link as I thought it was poorly explored in the PTU trilogy.

The Serrated Query are interested in anything that can make them a profit. The Gilded Widow has a reputation in certain circles for prophetic statements which could be *very* valuable to clients. As for Damned Cities, the Query could be one of those off-world organisations that are trading with the Undertow and nobility on the sly. They'll want to protect their investments...

I ended up doing pretty much the same thing in my campaign. I ended up changing the motivation of the Serrated Query from just being out for profit- ultimately they want to advance technological progress and use it to control the sector. So they overlap a bit w/ the Logicians, but who cares, my players don't get to read Disciples of the Dark Gods.

I added in some adventures between Purge the Unclean and House of Dust and Ash where they found out more info on the SQ and learned that its leaders have become obsessed w/ acquiring Haarlock info and artifacts. They think they can use them to control the Tyrant Star, and they already managed to partially call it to the world of one of their enemies. Then have the acolytes hear about the Haarlock auction, and you're all set. I'm not using Tattered Fates, so the SQ become one of the main factions to deal w/; and a more interesting one then some raving cult loonies.

One further connection: all the weird runes and tech that alters the space of certain locations in PtU can be traced back to discoveries made by Haarlock now exploited by the SQ.

[sPOIL-O-RAMA AHEAD!!!!!]

Hi there,

in my opnionon, you can easly bring in the SQ in exchange for the Slaught.

House of Dust & Ash
Turn Master Nonsuch into an Agent of the SQ. Keep the stats, but explain them with kybernetics and Nonsuch being a "Null". Remove all Slaught-Hints from the modul. They are actually (as already suggested) after the Widow and any other elements of the Haarlock Legacy for their own ends (profit; power). Make them bit for (and steal!). The grey Psalter. They wanted it since they believed it was charts...but after a while they will gain the true knowledge which will lead to their involement in Dead Stars.

Tattered Fates
It wasn´t the Pilgrims who kidnapped them. Play it as a trap of the SQ who sold the players to the BH. This makes the "help" from the "Beloved one" to be so much more acceptable!

Damned Cities
The "Iron Eye Syndicate" is mentioned in the rumors. Establish it, but as a front for the SQ. They use the "slave buy" operations as a cover as the SQ is really after clues of the Haarlock Legacy. But instead of focussing on the Shards, they are after ANYTHING Haarlock and are concentrating on the Clockwork Court. They even deployed deep agents among the guards the stuff to charge for "Haarlock Traces" in the official documents. In fact, the 13th unmentioned mirror shard is with the IES. They could start searching for the mirror as well..but will do so by shadowing spreading word that they want to buy shards (through a middle men which belongs to the undertow. The middle men sells to the IES). Make sure that this "interested buyer" turn up AFTER the pc start their work (not related..but it might help to ensure that the pc will notice that the SQ is in fact not the final solution to the murders)

Dead Stars
Remove the Slaught and the AS alltogether. Or just remove the Slaught and keep the AS..but without their "masters", simply out for making money (the AS is not on 100% full duty to the Slaught, I supposed) with the SQ as their employee. The team will be mixed with the AS captain and some bodyguard and operative strike teams and a "cell leader" from the SQ (you could use a cyborg again or change to a transgenetic blashemy).

Awsome, thanks guys. I like the idea of substituting SQ for PoH in Tattered, maybe it'll turn out that the Beloved is actually the Faceless Master (or claims to be the faceless master). I'm also thinking of having the Spectre 17 cell in Damned be SQ agents instead of Inquisition agents, depending on how things went in Tattered they could be thinking that their best bet for finding the legacy is to tail the PCs. As for Dead Stars, I don't actually have the book yet so I don't know (Have it on special order tho, should be arriving soon)

SQ agents would be a good fit as the cell in Damned Cities, however Dead Stars focuses on the PC's racing against 3 factions to reach Haarlock- The Amaranthine Syndicate (a front for the Slaughth), the cult from Tattered Fates, and a rival inquisitor. If you take out Spectre cell 17, I'd put in some foreshadowing that there are rival inquisition elements interested in Haarlock.

Of course, you could change one of the above factions for the SQ, or add them as a fourth faction in the race for Haarlock knowledge.

SPOILER ALERT BELOW!

.. !

.. the interesting thing that ties them together is prophecy and divination. The Serrated Query is a cat's paw for Eloeholth, some dread Chaos sorceror from ancient times and probably the tutor of Magnus the Red. He has his organization kill off psykers so they cannot divine his plans, whatever they are. The whole Haarlock return is heavily prophecied and predicted in the rantings of madmen. Maybe Eloeholth wants to eliminate certain key psykers so that they cannot move to stop Haarlock from returning, using the Legacy as a diversion for his own unfathomable plans which take several millennia to come into fruitition ....

I would definately NOT remove the Pilgrims of Hayte from the mix if you are running the Harlock Legacy since they really are wrapped up quite tightly in the weave of the plot. It will be a HUGE amout of work on your part and makes a surprisingly large number of holes in the plot that will need fixing. Now on the other hand, adding the SQ into the mix as yet another competing faction plotting, scheming and acting against all the other rivals will only add to the potential mayhem of your story. The Pilgrims want the Harlock stuff because they can use it to summon appocalyptic events virtually at will... The Query want the Harlock stuff because of the obvious political and social manipulation power it represents.... Certainly not a problem to incorporate them both. Add in the Slaught, Logicians, Crowfather cult, the Cold Trade, rival Inquisition factions and whatever other spices you wish to add to the gumbo pot of your plot and you will have a grim, dark, desperate, paranoid and (hopefully) painfully-heroic story of epic proportions. Season to taste. Serves 12-15 people or about 6 gamers.

Lol I only have 3 (regular) players at this time unfortunately. A Tech Priest, an Adept, and an Arbitrator, in case you care. We also have a guardsman and a psyker but they haven't managed to make any of our sessions yet...

As I mentioned elsewhere, I threw the whole shebang into the mix with minimal problems. I suppose I tend to ignore inconsistencies in plot, trading on mystery (and figuring stuff out by the next session). In essence, I used the broadest possible strokes to establish my ground rules:

a) The Serrated Query is the active arm of the fragments of the destroyed Adranti Empire. It seeks to drive back the Imperium in the sector so that the wards keeping Komus and the infectious reality it represents (my own Tyrant Star interpretation) can be re-established. Obviously its aims go beyond profit. It's base isa hidden Dyson Sphere where the sleeping Eloeholth dwells. Did I mention that he's actually Sensei?

b) Haarlock is the vessel which the Komus force will ride into our reality to finally plunge this section of space into nothingness.

c) The Slaught are generally decadent brain feasters. However some, such as Master Nonsuch, are motivated by the desire to understand and become like the invasive Komus reality. Hence the interest in the House Of Dust And Ash.

The PC's are in the middle of all this, dragged this way and that. It's worked really well for me so far. Keep things broad. Always give yourself time to think. All should be well!