[Firstly I hoped to get this down in a few sentences but it over ran, apologies for the length of it]

I'm looking to write a true huge (in scope) soap opera of an adventure to transition from standard DH to Ascension.

This will be set after the Harrlock Trilogy. The PCs will be respected within the Ordos and prime for the next stage. Probably around a few thousand xp short of 15k.

Now we enjoy breaking with DH and playing other characters in the 40k universe. For Xmas we are going to a an Ork themed adventure with everyone playing Ork PCs (based around Into The Storm rules for Orks). Also with the launch of Deathwatch I'm going to suggest the players each have a Deathwatch based PC in case a DH mission requires overwhelming firepower.

Background for this adventure. An incredibly rare xeno artifact/ore/metal/macguffin has been found and two (or more) parties are after it.

• Chaos, they can do bad **** with it
• The Adeptus Mechanicus from Terra, who believe that the macguffin might help reduce the problem with the Golden Throne (reason that there isn't a huge fleet involved is that they are currently following up reports of thousands of macguffin's and as per standard 40k secrecy they are doing it quietly)

DH PCs investigate heresy on a remote Hive World. Investigation grows over several session to soon show that a lot of the Adepta on the planet are compromised.

Soon turns into a full blown insurrection with gates to the warp allowing Chaos to extrude onto the planet. Spires slowly become overun. Players begin to fight a loosing battle. Full PDF mobilises but then entire regiments get corrupted by Chaos. At some point players get a message for help out to the Sector. Battlefleet Calixs arrives along with quite a few Inquisitors. By now the players are running from stronghold to stronghold and they begin to find out about what the Chaos are on the planet for.

They investigate and discover the legend of the macguffin and are ordered to retrieve it to prevent the Forces of Chaos from getting it (by the Inquisitors safe in orbit). They will then be extracted. The planet is now 95% corrupted and the Battlefleet are doing limited evacs of uncorrupted areas in preparation for Exterminous.

PCs get to the macguffin to meet an Adeptus Custodes that is after it for Terra. At that point they get surrounded in the Spire by the forces of Chaos and they lose contact just after broadcasting their position.

Switch to orbit and a Deathwatch kill team (played by the players) who now have the job of extracting everyone from the mess before the planet is destroyed.

In the end hopefully the players have a good time and the PC's succeeded in locating and saving the Adeptus Custodes and get recommended for promotion.

Cue start of the Ascension process. Thoughts?

If you pc are already 15K xp, I think the ascion would fall right into the middle of your epic hive-world-falls-to-chaos campaigne. Which is fine if you plan to keep them from spending until the end of it. Otherwise...well ..you would have to rush some changes, me thinks

All in all, what shall we see? General outline looks good but ...well, general

I have been thinking of a very similar story actually, but the insurrection only affects a single hive and is not started by an artifact. My reason to limit the story to one Hive is to put the option of Exterminatus in the hands of the characters instead of a fleet, and having them make the difficult choice of killing billions to save the planet.

My idea was that the Hive is powered mostly by a huge geo-thermal plant, probably being built on vulcano. The Hive is being corrupted and has been placed on lockdown. There are still countless innocent souls in the Hive, but the dark powers is simply growing to strong and the primary concern has to be to stop it from spreading to the rest of the planet. Soon the characters will realize that the Hive has to be sacreficed to protect the planet, innocents and all, and they will have to find the controls for the geo-thermal plant and set it to overload, cleansing the entire Hive in a blast of fire that can be seen from orbit. In one way it lacks the grandness of a full Exterminatus, but it also places the responsibility on the characters. They can't just call in an order or watch as it happens, the have to push the button themselves.

Btw, do the Custodes ever leave Terra?

Thanks for the comments guys

Honn said:

They have, recently they haven't.

It talks about them being more adept at non full-on combat situations than Space Marines. (e.g. Assassination, Politics, trading). However since the Emperor was placed on the Golden Throne they have not left Terra. However recently the plot line was started that the Golden Throne was failing.

I'm assuming that the Adeptus Mech (who are in the know) and the Custodes would be trying anything to fix it and would be searching for any tech or knowledge that could help; whilst at the same time keeping the reason for the search and the news about the Golden Throne out of the public domain. To keep it quiet they could only have a small resource of people to work with and so potentially the Custodes might be sent out of Terra individually.

Seems suitably epic. I like the part where once the PCs and the Custodes agent get surrounded by the forces of Chaos they switch roles and play the Kill Team that is sent to extract their own characters. Talk about a strong motivating factor! Plus anyone worth sending Astartes to rescue is pretty valuable and probably worthy of a promotion... I like the ideas as outlined.

Just be prepared for your players to throw a few unexpected curves into your story along the way and roll with it.