Greetings, Deathwatch fans!
This week I have a great preview of The Emperor Protects, a trilogy of linked adventures for the Deathwatch RPG. This new, upcoming book presents a campaign for your Kill-team that takes your Space Marines across the Jericho Reach to defeat a major threat to the Achilus Crusade.
I am also very pleased to present a small preview for The Emperor Protects, some information from the Inquisition and the planetary datafax for Aurum, the location for the first adventure in the book. Enjoy this preview for The Emperor Protects!
The Emperor Protects preview (pdf, 680 KB)
The author of The Emperor Protects, Andrea Gausman, has this to say about the exciting climax to the book, The Vigilant Sword:
The last adventure in The Emperor Protects is The Vigilant Sword. Assuming the Kill-team plays through the first two adventures, when they reach this Mission they have collected several pieces of a terrible puzzle. The Vigilant Sword opens with advice for the GM on how to get the players to assemble this picture themselves, so that the Kill-team is first to recognize the threat looming over the Jericho Reach. The kick off of this adventure is one of my favorite parts of The Emperor Protects for two reasons. The first is this opportunity for the players to drive the Mission. As opposed to reacting to external news, they get a chance to be proactive and there are some fun Deathwatch roleplaying encounters associated if they take that initiative.
The second thing I like so much about the beginning of this adventure is that it presents the GM with suggestions on making the Battle-Brothers’ choices in the previous Missions matter. Who they chose to side with in certain conflicts, which Secondary and Tertiary Objectives they pursued, and whether they succeeded or failed in some tasks all could potentially have ramifications in the Vigilant Sword. Seeing the impact of their characters’ decisions was something the players in my own campaign always enjoyed, and I think that Deathwatch players in The Emperor Protects will likewise enjoy seeing their actions have consequences.
The Mission itself sends the Kill-team deep into enemy territory—to the corrupt forge world of Samech. I have always liked the Adeptus Mechanicus (as well as Black Library novels about when they go bad), and Samech captured my imagination from the first time I read about it in the Jericho Reach setting. Intelligence about “the Iron Pit” is understandably scarce, and the Battle-Brothers have to approach the hostile planet with little but speculation to use in their planning.
Within the corrupt forge, they come face to face with all the horrors, cruelty, and chaos-tainted abominations you’d expect to find in such a place. The adventure provides guidance for the GM on how to deal with matters if the Kill-team draws attention to themselves early in the Mission (or does a particularly good job of keeping a low profile). Their degree of subtlety is only one of the decisions the Battle-Brothers have to make on Samech. Some of the tougher ones involve what lesser evils to tolerate (or even cooperate with) to achieve their Objectives. I tried to make several of these encounters as morally ambiguous as possible; hopefully players will take the opportunity to show just where their Battle-Brothers draw the line on some iconic issues.