Well the title says it all really.

Our DH group look like they might be heading back onto the Haarlock trail, and the only one left is Dead Stars. However the group have ascended since the last adventure (and done alot more besides) so it lookslike i'll be running the final chapter with around 9 players all sitting around the 15,000exp mark.

I'm just looking for some general suggestions from other GM's as to ways of boosting the scenario to keep it challenging whilst still keeping it sensible and atmospheric.

Thanks

Surak

Oh sweet Emporer...

9 players and all of them well equipped and skilled. First, you as a GM have a dauting challenge. Let me see what strikes my mind...

[sudden incursions of Mara Strain Psycheneuin]
I think your group might very well be able to handle three of them. At least as long there is "fodder" that can be slaughtere instead of them! But since they will be very well equipped, I think they will handle them

[The legions of the cold dead]
Literally. Throw legions of them against them. Think about the horde rules of DW, perhaps

[Dybugs at large]
As they meet with Ghast Priestkiller, have more Dybugs ready. You could even go so far as having a larger Dybug crawling in the shadow of the ceiling, stalking the pc and ambushing them. In the middle of them.

[better equiped enemies]
Give the mercs in the employ of the Syndicate better armour and better weapons. Guard Flakk and HE-Lasers / man-stopper rounds for everyone. Some might even get special weapons like flamers or bolters.

The Pilgrims are hard to reason to be "better equiped", so give them some FREAKS in their ranks. Look at the DotG for inspirations. Both the "pain psyker device" found there as well as the "special mutants" found within the Chapter of the "Pale Throng" might be helpful.

[Traps!]
Ensure that the Mercs of the Amaranthine left some traps behind.. or the Inq-Team did!

In short..do your worst! I fear what ever you will be able to throw at them, they will tackle it. Even the Slaught Destructor might be no match for THIS group.

The Slaugth are a real challenge, just throw in more and it should up to par...or unbeateble

The Slaugth Vassal Construct from the encounter on Scintilla. Involve them in a Shoggothy/At the Mountains of Madness style, wherein as they navigate deeper into the ice station, they find that some of the people who got there first have landed/deposited some more spectacular things. Instead of giant blind penguins running from shoggoths, have zombies fleeing from Vassal Constructs

Similarly, the Slaugth Invaders that also appear during the Blasted City encounter, have one of them depart the Ice Station just as the acolytes emerge.

It was narrowly that my acolytes escaped teamkill in the Pilgrims encounter (in fairness immediately after this encounter, the astropath bit the bullet) and the confrontation with the Slaugth. They were rank 7s and had the support of a few others too (including Inq Herrod and chums).

Remember to play up the requisition aspect of their game, they can get *almost anything* they need. No the uber stuff, but everyone can have a rosarius...

As others have said, increase the quality of the opposition too. Very unsafe, push the atmosphere!

Good idea, Xisor

...but do you really know of any ZOMBIES who are smart enough (or FAST enough) to run from something?

I'm in almost the same situation. I have a group of eight rank 8 characters.

Here's what I did:

1. I added the Logicians. Since Octavia Nile survived House of Dust and Ash and got away with the Greyskin Psalter it only made sense. I sent in 4 Ashen Tear Assassins, 2 Golephs (from the Radical's Handbook) a Murder Familiar (from Edge of Darkness) and a veteran agent similar to Theodosia from Rejoice for You Are True.

2. Master Nonesuch got away from HoDaA alive as well so I added him. I threw in two more Slaugth Infiltrators and four Flesh Parasite bodyguards. I gave Miss Book's Mercenaries Armageddon Pattern Autoguns (from Inquisitor's Handbook) with manstoppers. For more powerful PCs I'd maybe add a couple of Vassal Constructs (Ascension) to the group complete with Necrotic Beam weapons and maybe even a coating similar in effect to the Slaugth Shroud Cloak.

3. During the Frozen Dead encounter, I increased the number of zombies considerably and sent them in waves.

4. I've added a few extra encounters, basically puzzles and traps. Not necessarily deadly encounters, just events that set the tone and lower the group's morale.

5. Have the Psychneuein focus their attacks on one target at a time, use their ability to Phase and never let them get into close combat range. By far my most lethal encounters have been with the Psychneuein.

The adventure has been pretty successful so far, my only regret is not added more people to Inq. Herrod's team. If you're definitely planning on having Herrod betray your PCs I'd highly recommend adding at least 3 more to his group (if not more.) When Herrod made his move, my PCs crushed his Acolytes. Herrod escaped but it was by far the least satisfying event of the game for me.

Ferau said:

Hi Ferau,

mind sharing the encounters you prepared? I did some as well a while ago (the topic must still be somewhere here) but I would really like to see what other have brewed up. Even if you just write up & post the generel encounter/scene descriptions I would be very grateful

I remembered that I had developed some additional encounters for DS. This one combined with the idea of Xisor for this Slaught construct might give them a suitable welcome...

A welcome to hell (Surface Level Encounter / Landing Pads)
If the pc give the landing pads a quick search, they will find the remains of a grisly scene.

In the artificial canyon just between the landing pads, you discover that the ground is covered with the frozen remains of about twenty bodies and red with frozen blood.

[Those who want to check the place must pass a disturbing Fear test].

It is obvious that about a dozen bodies where captives, only wearing thick but worn clothing and were cuffed or bound at hands and feet. The other ones wear different red ropes over environsuits, some of them with strange masks made of metal and hide. All the corpses of the captives form a semi-circle, while the others are more scattered about. The place is a mess and nearly all of the corpses where literally slaughtered.

A routine(+20) check for Search or Perception (sight based) reveals that all of the captives where killed with blades and chain weapons, showing no signs of resistence or combat while the others look like they were killed by tooth and claw and obviously struggled. It is although clear that a battle ensured here, with marks of laser fire, conventional projectiles and other weapons strewn over the area, but already frozen over again. No weapons, equipment or valuables can be found on any body besides the things mentioned.

Two levels of success reveal strange marks carved in the now frozen necks of the captives and some distinctive round “stabbing wound” on some of the other corpses, either in the head, neck or upper torso.

A routine(+20) check for Scholastic Lore (Occult) identifies the runes as such that are used in rituals of summoning and invocation, while one level of success reveal that those marked are an offering to the Ruinous Powers.

Three levels reveal that this was not a summoning ritual but a ritual offering to receive the blessing of those who shall not be named.

A pc with the Psyniscience skill will recognize that the barrier to the warp is thin here. Very thin. A hard(-20) test reveals that a strong warp incursion occurred here weeks ago. One level of success reveals that one or more warp predators entered real space. Three levels give the feeling of something still moving beyond the surface of reality and impose a frightening Fear test upon the Psyker.

A challenging (or routine, if the runes where found) check for “Forbidden Lore (Cults)” identifies all of this as the work of the Pilgrims of Hayte.

GM-Notes: Upon arrival, Ghast Priestkiller (or perhaps the Beloved One) decided to give an offering to the dark gods to receive their blessing for their undertaking. For this case, the Pilgrims had brought victims with them.

As the sacrifice was delivered, it attracted a Psycheneuein and allowed it to enter realspace. Carnage ensued and the Pilgrims suffered their first losses before even setting a foot into the lower levels. As the Syndicate arrived later, they checked the scene but Miss Book decided that the incident was “insignificant to our task”. If the GM likes, he can make “the Beloved” one of the Pilgrims casualties (if the he survived TF). If the pc talked to Samiel and the Psycheneuein became a topic, they might be able see the signs.

Anyway, the Veil is thin enough here that any use of a major psychic power will rip it open a new (1d5 points of corruption for everyone) and a Psycheneuein will attack. A psyker who used Psyniscience will be able to foretell the first part if he passes an ordinary Forbidden Lore (Warp or Psyker) test and the second part as well if the Psyker sensed this presence behind the veil.

This would be a good moment to make the Slaught Harvesting Construct coming in over the walls.

Thank you all for your input.

I'm going to add the Logicians in as Nile had been GIVEN the Greyskin Psalter by the Acolytes after they escaped Dust and Ash as they wanted the Eldar Pistol that she had managed to get out with, and they thought the book was harmless.

Nonesuch is undeniably dead in are campaign as the entire cell took him apart in one round inside the House, but they have also upset the Shale Cult on no less than 4 occassions now, so I think there is room from them at the party.

As one of the group is a psyker i feel large numbers of Psykeneuin coming into play seeing as he is constantly sustaining Prenatural awareness - he learnt the hard way that ambushes really hurt and it just a little paranoid.

All in all i'm going to have to quite a bit of work on this one (not un-surprisingly) but anything that I do cook up I shall post back in this thread for general consumption.

Please feel free to keep brain-storming ideas into the mix.

Surak

I have been up-gunning the Haarlock legacy missions for my ascended group as well, in my case the group is near the conclusion of book 2 (7 players, rank 7-9).

The nice thing about this is it gives you a pretty free hand to make the story more of the epic scale that the Haarlock storyline really deserves. For "major baddies" make sure to buff them up (realistically) so that they are threatening and at least somewhat durable when confronted with those persistant Throne Agents, and give them a few elite minions/bodyguards or a crapload of minions to hide behind while they work their "diabolical sceme".

For the lowly scum and trash types of encounters I pretty much leave them as pothetic and lame as originally presented, but increase their numbers.... Sure, they are still no real threat, but dealing with them will be time consuming... Then a time-sensitive element to the scene. Essentially the clock replaces the "underhive scum" as the opponent for the scene. This is also a chance to a little comic relief or blow off some steam from a high tension mission if needed, not to mention a chance for you to burn off some of that pesky ordinance the players will otherwise throw at your "big bad" later on. If the trash are meant to be a threat in their own right then make them a Horde (or several!) using the rules in Deathwatch.

Make some potential fight scenes easy from a physical challenge standpoint (by leaving it unmodified), but add a diplomatic or political consequence for opting to fight... "Sure, we could kill those guys without hardly trying, but look closer... See the strangely shaped pin that they all have on their cloaks? Those guys are on some sort of covert task for the Bishop." In this case the encounter becomes more about decisions and consequences, plus it gives the more social or sneaky characters a chance to shine.

Be sure to upgrade the gear and resources that important foes have at their disposal, then be sure to have them use tactics and teamwork when the story calls for it. I also consider adding a few new skills, talents and stat advances to an existing template... BAM! Dangerous new foe that is still realistic (for the 40K setting at least). If three of your players' characters are routinely stomping around in Power Armour then it is reasonable that a well informed foe will do what they can to replace their old autoguns with boltguns, grenade launchers, perhaps something heavy and nasty if they can get their hands on it? Replace the head cultist's axe with a poweraxe, eviscerator or something like that.

I generally try to avoid piling on too much from any one source when I beef-up a chalenge so that I (hopefully) avoid making the encounter cheesy and contrived. Mix it up with a nice blend of stat advances, talents, skill upgrades, gear, cybernetics, psychic/maelific powers and minions as appropriate to your story. If the original material has a seminal fight with 4 deadly foes instead of simply making the same 4 NPCs into "gods of warfare" stop when you reach the "startlingly deadly" level and add a few more to their numbers.

In the case of my group, two of the characters are good enough with guns to neuter flies or other gratuitous acts of improbability with no real concern for missing. "Called shot, 18th vertebra, I will not be able to use an aim action since I will be jumping out of the back of the Valkyrie and sliding down a rope gripped between my legs. Range is 400m and we are in a blizzard. I need an 85 or less...." One is enough of a tank to literally walk through hails of gunfire (TB8 Techpriest in best quality PA, machine trait, lots of implants). Some have a tendency to do insane amounts of damage when it becomes necessary.... The idea is not to take any of this away from them, but rather to plan for it. Having a vulgarly obvious "big bad" doing the villain's soliloquy on a raised platform with no head armour and no "special defences" when your players have a sniper on their team is going to be a lame encounter.... Make if fun, challenging and most of all make it cool!

I also like making the occasional scene more about skills and brains than raw brutality... The heretic Cardinal has an effectively limitless mob of fanatical peasants that are swarming towards the team's location, trying to put a stop to the "apostate assassins" that were described over the cathedral's loudhailers. As long as they can keep the fearless angry mob from overrunning their position how many they kill is unimportant... The key to victory is if they can bypass the strange new security measures that have been installed and make it inside before the fel-ritual taking place inside is concluded. Or perhaps the team's Cleric/Sister can pull some "miracle of oratory" out of their hat, turning the righteous zeal of the mob to their own cause? In this case perhaps the schemes of the heretic Cardinal come to an abrupt end when shredded and torn to tiny quivering gobbets of meat and gore by the bare hands of 2,000 enraged citizens...

For Dead Stars in particular, the Tesseract is a perfect opportunity to pull whatever bizarre scenes you can think of out of your bag of tricks. Bizzare time-bending journeys of dire portent just SCREAMS "Eldar required here" to me... Harlequins, anyone? A Thousand Sons sorcerer would also be perfectly appropriate for a soul-chilling sequence in the un-place. You could also throw in a mind-bending encounter with a character's mysterious ancestor, or perhaps descendant?! If one of the characters is rank 8 and plans on ascending to Heirophant or Crusader due to a substantial increase in personal faith and piety then maybe their travels through time/space/fate/nothingness includes a moment where they are part of a massive crowd witnessing a momentous sermon by Sebastian Thor, Saint Drusis on the eve of a great victory or something similarly awesome? (This is awesome enough to warrant a personalized transition package IMO.)

THanks for the input Zilla

Well one session in and already the warp-sharks are circling.

The group have managed to get through the surface levels with some success, having found the corpse of the Heron mask dead on the landing fields, and having learnt of Miss Books exsistance thanks to takeing all 5 of her merc's that were on gate duty alive (after they had shot there lander down of course).

they have also found a Tau Orca drop-ship crashed into a Hydra flak-tank within the compond so are expecting at least 1 more faction.

more updates as we go.

Surak

Well we wrapped up ded stars last night, and the scenario really doesn't deal with rank 10 characters very well.

It was all going well in the Ice Station, with the tension suitable high and a few characters in the group running for there lives. However once things got into the tesseract it all started to fall down.

(Spoilers following)

the flashback in haarlocks fleet went OK, a little disappointment that they couldn't effect anything but otherwise got the job done.

The second flashback on Scintilia also worked ok, but I possibly missed an opportunity here to re-introduce Ms Book

the third flash-back on Sinophia was very much an anti-climax and they pasted the former ally and the stalkers with little fuss

And then we have the 'Dramatic Ending' on Dusk.

In short this proved to be a complete anti-climax and left some of the players feeling more than a little cheated.

I'll right a more detailed feedback later but right now i'm trying to work out how to deal with Haarlock loose in the sector with regards to our on-going plot.

Surak

The obvious thing I can spot from this update is you did not write any of your own "add-on" material for inside the Tesseract. In my oppinion this is VITAL to making Dead Stars more epic and personal to the characters. Take the sample scenes in the book as idea seeds and then grow some of your own crop to make the trees into your needed Haarlock forrest.

The real annoying thing for me is my group lost our Adept/Sage player due to RL issues (bull economy continues to be bull...), and this particular character just happened to be our Haarlock Scion as well as the team's egghead. So much for that storyline.... Oh well, depending on how Dead Stars goes maybe she will go off to become a brand-new Rogue Trader or something in cool NPC-land? DS is looking to be a bit off for my group for now, since we have two pending missions in the works... Giving me more time to try coming up with cool stuff for the big Haarlock finale. Both my players and their characters deserve a cool end to the Haarlock story arc and I am hoping to provide it.

Surak said:

so what didn't they like about it? That they allowed Haarlock to return and he just passed them by, winked and was gone?

To answer a few of the points

Zilla -

I did start writing some of my own encounters for the tesseract, but the players in there usual style managed to short-circuit the pre-mission build-up I was planning on using as a buffer to give me time to write it and basically fast-forwarded to Mara giving me very little time to prep anything. I also had a similar problem with the Scion disappearing from the group part way through the campaign.

Laughing God -

The problem the group had was they had constructed a very elaborate ambush to try and capture Haarlock as he returned. But it was all based on the assumption that he would be in a corporal form on Dusk. It started to look very much like "the GM has heard your plans and decided to make the last half hour of planning pointless".

I always go out of may way to avoid rail-roading a story down the path id preffer if the characters don't follow that route (hence not forcing a delay before they hit Mara) but I think in this case it has come back and bitten me as it made the last part of Dead Stars fairly underwhelming due to the short time I had to throw it together (**** work keeps getting in the way)

More thoughts as I have them.

Surak

Surak said:

That´s bloody brilliant thinking! In this case I would have ignored the adventure as it was written and given them a corporeal Haarlock. Sure it may cause some havoc down the road if they capture an insanely powerful deamon-Harlock-thingy but such creative thinking should be rewarded.

And when he inevitably escape they must hunt him down again!

Storhamster

In hind sight I problably should have gone that route, but it was getting on for 11pm after a good few hours play AND after a full work day - suffice to say i dropped the ball a little.

I'm now trying to work out what to do with a Haarlock on the loose in the sector, any thoughts?

Hi Surak,

the thing is: is he REALLY on the lose?

At the end of the game we have a Haarlock Ghost stepping through a dimension-door... and the info that Haarlock is free again.
But we do not have the information that he already is inside of the Calixis Sector or in which form or if his ghost-battle-cruiser (wittnessed at the beginning of DS) is at his disposal,...

In short, FFG provided us an anti-climax. Its "PUFF" and all is gone and no lose strings.


Back2Topic & to your question:
In order to restraint oneself form completly durning the setting upside down (I bet that there will be not much of futur reference to Haarlock in further products since his existence is totally alternative) I would style him as a very powerfull but local threat.

How THIS should lead to all the foreshadows wittnessed in the Cataphract..is beyound me! It even is beyound me how this should be achieved WITHOUT turning the setting upside down. Anywy...

The ghost pirat:
His aim was to undue the events of the death of his wife and daughter. If this would be done "time-wise", the whole sector would not have developed as it was. Thereby, I would suggest he was not able to do so (which was driving him mad, anyhow) but he was able to ****** the souls of the two, using the Tyrant Star. The official records will now include the Siting of the Tryrant star doing said battle... which only the pc know to be "alternate history".

Wife and Daughter died, but Haarlock managed to "safe" there souls and to bind them into clockwork dolls similiar to the guilded widow, but less restrained.

He has his ship back, but now materialized. He has powers beyound what one man should be able to command. Thereby, he disappears at appears with his ship where he bloody wishes and starts to eck out a small empire of his own.
The Imperium will of course act against this.

This would (in theory) enable your pc to find many a battle against his minions.

Surak said:

Well, some-one over at http://www.darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/ had some ideas. He dominates the front page at the moment. Perhaps you want to have a look (if some-one else sweeps him away, I think you will find his entries under "Threats").

thanks for the ideas gregorius,

I'm planning on saving Haarlock as a new long-term threat when they finally clear up the mess I dumped on them at the start of DH two years ago. I'm probably going to go with the 'Man-with-powers-from-beyond' view, taking a little inspiration from Flying Dutchman stories and legends (showing up when he likes and then promptly vanishing again for example)

I've also decided to have him be a little more morally grey rather than out right evil to try and keep the players guessing.

Surak

Hi Surak,

how about him (after capturing the souls of his loved... or failed in any attempt of bringing them back) having decided "to put an end to the wars", simply going about business with a "surrender or leave. Or pay the consquences". He might start to view the petty wars of the guilds and houses and the imperium as a whole as senseless misery imposed on humanity by the view who want to grasp more and more.

He could thereby turn himself into a force of "liberation", freeing colonies from Imperial overlordship (or those of guilds and noble houses and) and backing them up as long as they themself swear to support him and any under his banner with supplies and to stay out of any business of war or conquest.

He would thereby be a force of instabilization and could gather himself a decentralized armada ready to take up battle under his banner.
Of course, he would be a madman bringing about the same kind of grief, his "war to end all wars" would be nothing but another atrocity in the name of holding back an atrocity. Alas, it would take him some time to gain momentum. This would be the time the pc could put to use to stop him.

Cunning that he is, he might first not try to liberate anything but instead strike at "key objectives" of Imperial (or Guild or House) control of a given Sub-Sector. Attacking Imperial Installations along the Hazeroth-Abyss would perhaps be suiting. Perhpas even destroying assets elsewhere. Perhaps where an Orc invasion takes place. Thereby, the Imperium would be to troubled to keep things together to respond to him "liberating" some colony worlds which are of lesser interest as long other forces have to be kept from the core of the sector.

In the aftermath, this would make sense to the "Slaught or Haarlock"-Scenario which DS has woven. If Haarlock is free, he takes control of the Hazeroth Abyss and drives back or Annihaltes the Slaught whom hail from there. If he would have been kept from Returning, nobody would have paid to much attention to the Abyss and the Slaught would have had time for there machinations to come to fruit...whatever this would have meant!

Surak said:

Good idea! I've always liked this approach .. maybe Haarlock is not so bad after all, the force holding the Slaugth at bay for example ..

Hi all,

fantastic ideas, I think I'll be using the 'Saviour of the Abyss' and 'Stop the Slaught' ideas as a start and seeing where we end up.

Have a good New Year (if thats your thing)

Surak