Greetings, brethern,

!WARNING! HEAVY SPOILERS FOR "REJOICE!"

my "group A" just finished "Rejoice!" and seemed to be fine with it (despite me having to "resurrect" Theodosian and our psyker losing an arm in the final fight).

I plan to use "Rejoice!" as a filler for my "group B" before the last part of of Haarlock Legacy. Since they are going to be Rank 5 or 6 by that time and one of my players is pretty found of genestealers (and the idea of battling them!) I am actually toying with the idea to turn the story into that of a genestealer cult so far.

My ideas/changes so far:
The hook will not be about missng daughters, the Strophes or Harmony meters but that of nobles behaving strange, disappearing for month from view just to reapper (pregnancy; carrieing out the baby in a hall oc the "Choir", getting back; babies introduce through an orphange like a schola) The pc are set on the mission. After "Kidnapping" a minor noble for seriousinterrogation (part of the mission, "Open up with a bang") the pc will find out that he had contact with the "Joyous Choir" and that his "holy genes" haven been corrupted. They will (perhaps) find out that this corruption is xenos gene taint and not chaos taint (or perhaps not, depending on the roles they make. One of them WILL have studend medicine by that. I know this player!)

After that, they will do some leg-work about the choir and come up with the plan to either infiltrate as nobles or to steal in. While doing their leggwork, they raise the attention of a third, independet party (Vorlin Orday) who was investigating for a noble (strophes) whom now got killed in a duel. He thereby intends to sell his results.

At the meeting, an ambush occurs (a lot of lowly gangers .. and one strange guy standing in the crowd..a powerfull psyker...later identified as "Theodosian")

In short: there will be no Farcosia, no Harmoniemeters, no strophes

Theodosian will be a powerfull cult magos who will work psychics.
The Soiree is still important if the pc want to "sneak in", otherwise the will have to do some legwork about the cult (which HQ seems to be the Alabaster Court).
Their will be no argue between Theo and Caros Shoal, the pc will need to break into rooms and search for clues, shadow Theodosian (or get some flight records later) or kidnapp Caros Shoal.
Instead of handing Farcosia around, their will be fully developed Genestealer present in the court in a hidden room! (Special counsolling).

Instead of lab in a temple, their will be a patriach in an Schola Like Orphanage (like the one in "Ravenour" where Patience Kys hailed from) and a final battle while the pc have to rally arbites and PDF in a hurry.


Any ideas / perceived flaws?

Thank you!



I will not place this cult on Scintilla but a world farther away and some other macropols.

This is actually what I did with my group. I started out with them playing a new organization called Calixis Sector Customs Enforcement. They found a strange container of an unknown drug, and traced it back to Scintilla Prime. The drugs were given to the ships crew by "Chord" Luntz, which he stole from the Joyous Choir. The item was too hot so he gave it to his ship captain friend to sell. I pretty much ran Rejoice as it was listed up until the departure to Ambulon. Instead of Theodosia as the enforcer I had Siprit Daeen as a 3rd generation genestealer hybrid. The overall plot was the Farcosia was a distilled amount of genestealer 'genes' that was being given to psyers who could potentially birth Genestealer Magus's. After destroying the Alabaster Court, the characters were going to follow down to a downhive run-down industrial area which I was going to use to convert Escape from Innsmuth. Thought it might be fun.

Salcor

[LOTS OF SPOILERS!!!!!!]

I'd make a few changes to fit the Genestealer idea myself while keeping more of the

Theodosia is a combat nut - to me he fits best as a hybrid assassin. THis way you have the hooded mystery man still - replace his bionic skills with genestealer features that make him just as deadly - spare arms, hyptnotic vision, telepathic control of cultists, abnormal strength and agility, lethal hand weapons (claws). The guy who is in charge of the cult (whose name escapes me, Brother someone or other) fits better as the psyker/magus, although that changes the dynamic behind the pair somewhat. Replace any reference to the Serrated query with the actual genestealer cult.

Set the adventure up as a new patriarch sifting a previously seeded world prior to a tyranid attack - the harmony meters can stay and be some kind of bioscanner picking out those people in the general populace carrying genestealer genes, hence those meters still have a purpose and you still have the reasons for the cult to be looking around and attracting new recruits - to build the cult.

Farcosia in the original book is part people, part biotoxins etc - so change it slightly to be a tyranid weapon - it promotes and reactivates lethal genestealer genes in those already infected building the cult, it can be addictive or mind altering for control and pressure of the noble classes to support the cult and/or a straight slow toxin killing those who oppose the cult or being another control method 'here is the antidote, take it and live, cease and die!' - you might even keep the psychic trip out element for the final encounter as I'll describe below

This way you can even keep Strophes in a much more tragic way - introduce him as an ally early for some other adventure, make him a friend of not just their inquisitor, but also the PCs - the absent family member goes missing because she carries the gene, the PCs work this out and then must surely realise they have to test and possibly condemn their friend or make a moral dilemma decision.....the missing person can be found later on Ambulon...

The under chapel lab on Ambulon can become a warp twisted genestealer lair behind a chapel mask, with a patriarch and something summoning the tyranid fleet, perhaps a mockery of the Astronomican with farcosia addicts and or genestealer infected people/farcosia treated gene carriers being hooked into a tyranid species that projects the signal and warps the cellar around it to create the unpleasant effects.