I really enjoy you putting this here and as I am building up to running Lure it has given me some ideas and so I have to say thank you for that as well. Keep up the good work and I hope your crew doesn't make a person almost dying on each mission a standard thing, lol

I don't think they intend to burn a fate point per game, but so far I haven't pulled any punches on them in personal encounters (whereas I need to get much more ruthless in void battles). I spent a lot of years GMing Shadowrun and World of Darkness campaigns, so the theme was always pretty gritty. My preferred style fits in verywell with the 40K setting, but I sometimes get a little gung-ho on the lethality level...

Our group has a 'stickler for details' GM and an 'OTT power level' GM and me, the 'gritty killer' GM... they're big boys and well used to it, they often make up 2 characters at a time, just to have a backup ready to roll at the drop of a die =)

Thankfully only a week between sessions for a change. We picked up with Remington, Lucius & Kaeliss getting Rail back on board the Medusa via the ships' Teleportarium and getting him into medbay. Their Navigator, Quintus had searched the mutants that attacked them at the Eldar star-map and found a few items of apparently Imperial manufacture, including a damaged fragment of data-crystal (how I introduced the renegade Mechanicus side quest).

They deciphered the message on the crystal, but opted not to follow up with either the gun-masters or the elder tacticians on the Zaythian landship. Instead, they focused on negotiating for as much tech data and/or macro-weapons as they could secure, in exchange for supplying advanced flyers, servitors & schematics for servitor-conversion apparatus. In the end they reached a deal with the elder tacticians that both parties were satisfied with.

At this point, they had been 4 months out of Footfall and decided to return there to refit and resupply (and consolidate some of their business leads). The voyage back took almost 6 weeks and they experienced a few unpleasant moments during it. Several warpstorms were encountered, causing both ship damage and phychological/spiritual wounds to the crew. There was also a brief incursion of minor Daemons, which the PCs handled personally. However, they eventually made it back to port and gave their crew time to blow off some steam.

The group had some time to take stock of their ventures. They sold some of the knowledge of warp routes they had discovered, passed word to the Mechanicus overlords of the Lathes about the renegades in their midst, won contracts to supply new Zayth-pattern Macro Batteries etc. I totted up the achievement points they had earned so far, measured against how much resources they needed to get this far, and awarded them profit factor based on the difference.

This allowed them to make some purchases in addition to the basic resupply, including a new arm for Rail and several other augmetic enhancements for both Remington & Lucius. Kaeliss spent his time researching the vessels of their rivals from the foretelling... to decide which one he would like to claim in glorious battle! All in all, they spent about a month in port and are now eager to return to the hunt for the dread pearl.

Good to see more accounts of how people have handled "Lure". I played through it myself last year, fun and loot was had.

I started this session with the PCs making final preparations to leave Footfall and resume their search. Just before their departure, I threw a bit of a teaser at them... They received an encrypted astropathic message from one of the most senior Magos of the Lathes forge worlds in the Calixis Sector. The message started by commending the party for their uncovering of renegade tech-priests trying to cut deals for Zaythian land-ship technology.

It went on to make the explorers a most generous offer. The Adeptus Mechanicus would bestow the PCs with a Secutor-Class Monitor Cruiser, including all basic essential components, in exchange for the hulk of the "Shard of Dawn" and its remaining intact components (both the Holo-field projector and the Solar Sails were somehow undamaged, despite the Eldar vessel being hulked). Obviously, the party would be responsible for outfitting the ship with any supplemental components or upgrades at their own expense.

This kicked off several real-time hours of myself and the players scouring all the available books and weighing up the pros and cons of a multitude of different weapon and component configurations. Eventually, the players came up with the idea of offering the Medusa in addition (hoping that the religious significance of a Reliquary of Mars would add to the perceived value) and pushing the Mechanicum for an even bigger ship... I believe they settled on a Mars-Class battlecruiser!!

They realised that these sort of negotioations could not be handled via Astropath, so have determined to make their way to the Lathes at the earliest opportunity and discuss the matter in-person. Personally, I'm inclined to play along with their audaciousness in some form or another, and use it as the basis of some major adventure hooks... the price for any vessel of that nature would almost certainly include sworn services or tasks undertaken on behalf of the masters of the Lathes.

After the parties extended stay on Footfall, I decided that this would have allowed certain of their competitors to catch up (or maybe even pass) the PCs in their hunt for the location of the Dread Pearl. They set out from Footfall, making for the world of Dross to take a Star-map reading there. However, when they arrived on the edges of the system their augurs immediately detected a large ship in low orbit over Dross... the Lunar Class Cruiser Colossus, flagship of Admiral Bastille VII.

When they were about 40 VUs from the planet, they were hailed by the Admiral in person and told they would be fired upon if they came any closer - that his Navigator was already planet-side taking a reading and that he would be bombarding the Eldar temple from orbit once the work was complete - so the PCs were wasting their time sticking around. There were some further words exchanged, mostly for the sake of bravado, since even this crew knew that their ship would have no chance against such an opponent.

All the while, the PCs were scanning with their augurs for other ships - they remembered that Admiral Bastille always traveled with a Frigate escort, " Aberrant ". Finally, at about 25 or 30 VUs from the planet (and the Colossus) they picked up a silent-running vessel about 12 VUs away. At this point they knew there was little to gain in the current situation and opted to return to the system translation point and make way to their next reading location. However, as they started to come about, the Aberrant made it's move, surging towards them and unleashing a salvo of macro-cannon and lance fire.

Unfortunately for the frigate, only the lance was on target, which was absorbed by the Medusas' void shields. The PCs immediately manouvered into a firing position and blasted chunks out of the enemy craft. The Colossus was finally leaving orbit over Dross, but the party knew that they would have another 2-3 strategic turns before it was in firing range. As it turned out, they had reduced the Aberrant to a charred, drifting hulk by the end of the next strategic turn and, with some final vox abuse to Admiral Bastille, they made their warp transit and escaped the system.

From the Dross system, the Medusa made an immediate jump to a nearby system which was home to a nameless star and an orbiting Gas Giant. In the minds of those PCs who had participated in the foretelling, there was an image of a wraithbone temple floating in the void. They duly detected the temple and proceeded to make the void-walk with Quintus the navigator, who performed the reading without any hitch.

As written in the adventure, they then discovered the hulk of the Light of Terra drifting through the system and pounced on the chance to explore (and reclaim, they hoped) such an ancient vessel. They opted to transfer onto the Light via their guncutter, blasting their way into one of the shuttle bays. Quickly they encountered a small group of void-walkers, who hailed them and asked them if they were 'of this world or another'. Several of the party shouted answers at once... none of which coincided!

The 'natives' fled before them but the PCs came across a larger group a little further on. Remington hailed them and said they wished to speak to the leader of their tribe. Eventually Palik the Blind was carried before them by a great retinue of his people and they all relocated to a sealed, pressurised chamber where they could parley face to face. Palik explained his peoples' existence in their world and gave background on the other tribes and the geography of the ship, from the Oracle to the Blazing God.

The players quickly surmised the likely history of the ship and it's inhabitants and figured that a visit to the Oracle was their best option. They made their way, with the help of a few guides provided by Palik. It was a long, tiring trek (especially for Rail, or 'fatty' as he became known). They were ambushed at one point by a group of a dozen Wargars, but a few blasts from their stormbolters and plasma weapons terrified the ambushers into submission.

The party finally approached the Oracle, in what they clearly recognized as the Bridge command throne. Per the description of the mummified husk, they assumed the figure seated in the throne was long dead, and were almost ready to open fire when the figure opened its' eyes and spoke (thankfully, they restrained themselves). Captain Roth made his plea to them for aid, which Lucius, Remington and Rail all agreed to provide. Once he made mention of access to the hidden holds, Kaeliss was also more than willing to assist.

The explorers immediately sent a vox to the Medusa to ferry over a company of armsmen, with the intention of securing the entire ship while they got the power and cogitator back online. Over the course of a few hours however, they lost half the armsmen to Wargar & Pale Son ambushes. At this point, they instructed the remainder to fall back to the bridge and secure the captain.

With the help of Palik's guides, they made their way to the Enginarium, 'the Blazing God' in a few hours (once again, 'fatty' Rail struggled to keep up). The entrance was watched over by a small gathering of the Kin of Iron. I presumed that Lucius (who did recognize the Kin as a devolved cult of the machine) would simply dazzle them with some techo-babble or a gratuitous display of augmetics, but for some reason he chose to use brute force when Remingtons' attempt at diplomacy failed. Needless to say, they easily overpowered and chased off the Kin and also the guides, who would not serve anyone who attacked the Kin.

They made the necessary repairs to the plasma generator and returned full power to the engines, Lucius braving the irradiated chamber to complete the work. They spent several more hours finding and repairing the damaged plasma conduits to restore power to the bridge and made their way back to the 'Oracle'. He confirmed that their task was close to completed, it merely remained to re-enable the cogitator core and once more awaken the ships machine spirit.

With their armsmen still guarding the bridge from the restless natives, the explorers ventured into the watery blackness of the drowned holds to find the cogitator chamber. Due to the high combat capabilities of my group, I opted not to use the mutant profiles of the pale sons, but instead introduced a nest of horrific, lamprey-like giant worms (think the bug-fight from Peter Jacksons' King Kong). I used the profile for the Osedex from Creatures Anathema and just made them aquatic instead. They are very dangerous, particularly in numbers and both Remington and Rail suffered grievous wounds in the fighting.

In the end, however, the party fought their way through to the chamber and defeated the nest mother of the monsters. After a few hours of rituals of awakening, Lucius succeded in bringing the machine spirit to awareness once more! His first communication was to determine if the machine spirit could control the vessel independent of the insane captain and if it could unlock the treasure holds... unfortunately for the PCs, the spirit revealed that it was slaved to the will of the captain on his throne.

They wearily returned to the bridge to try to persuade Roth to return the Light to Imperial space - they still had hopes of claiming the salvage rights on the vessel! The insane revenant would have none of it however, screeching at them to take their prizes and flee. They could see countdown runes flashing on the bridge, indicating an imminent warp jump. Lucius was urging the others to simply kill the mad captain and claim the ship, but the rest of the PCs were wary of the repercussions of such action (wisely, I had already determined that Roth had implemented a 'dead mans' protocol' to detonate the ships plasma and warp engines should he be slain).

Seeing no hope of recovering the mighty craft, they opted to cut their losses, claim their rewards and return to the Medusa . Amongst the several crates of essentially worthless rubbish, Rail managed to find a box of 100 Retribution Bolt shells, Kaeliss located the 'Hand of Retribution' energy blade (which he gave to Remington since it wasn't his style) and Lucius hit the jackpot with the Skitarii Cyber Weapon. Remington recovered no acheotech, but he did locate the Lights' ship logs, which will likely sell for a handsome profit in due course.

Back on the Medusa, Quintus was already working on the warp transit to the next stop, Vaprious, for the final reading. That should be this weekends session...

The transit to the Vaporius system was quick and uneventful. The team spent a few days orbiting and scanning the planet to pinpoint the location of the Eldar structure, as well as the other major features of the world. They had detected no sign of any of their rivals either on the surface or in the void nearby. They took a small party down to the planet in their gun-cutter and landed a few kilometers from the site of the temple, in a sheltered valley, leaving them with a 3 hour hike across the sandblown mountainside to reach the wraithbone ruin.

The gusting sandstorm limited both vision and hearing, so they were caught by surprise when, while passing through a rocky ravine, what appeared to be a boulder suddenly sprouted appendages and swung at Lucius' head! Fortunately for the tech-priest, the monster was more tough then accurate. It took the whole group about half a minute to reduce the creature to rubble with their power & chain weapons and, during that time, it did not manage to inflict any injury on any of them. They were much more wary of boulders for the rest of their hike, however...

They reached the temple without any further incident and let Quintus commence his psy-reading while the 4 PCs covered him with their stormbolters. Their paranoia was well founded, which they discovered when the first snipers' round hit Rail in the head, shattering the healm of his power armour and almost putting him down. Before they could even react, a second shot struck Kaeliss, another headshot, though this time Remington had managed to catch the barest flicker of movement on a crag some 160m away and called out the location to the party.

Kaeliss was the first to act, blasting the target area with full auto fire. Unfortunately for him, the sniper was well entrenched with only his head and one arm not behind cover of solid rock. Kaeliss' volley pulverized quite a bit of that rock, but never came close to hitting their assailant. Rail followed up with a hail of bolt shells in the same direction and managed to walk his fire up the rock face... and straight into the snipers' helm visor, pulping his arm, shoulder & head.

In the aftermath, Lucius was able to apply field dressings to the injuries while Quintus managed to complete his reading. They made their way warliy back to the gun-cutter and got airborne as swiftly as possible. Before returning to the Medusa , they flew over the snipers' crag to get a better look... and recognized the unmistakeable crimson mesh bodyglove of an Eldar Pathfinder.

They sped back to their vessel wondering how he came to be there at the same time as they arrived. On their return journey, they clearly saw one of the glass cities of Vaporius in the near distance, but determined that now was not the time to investigate, when they finally had the location of the dread pearl in their grasp. They immediately set Quintus to his Nav-charts, to plot a course to their prize, while Lucius supervised the medical attention on Rail & Remington (still badly injured from their exploits on the Light of Terra ) in the medicae station. Kaeliss went for a snack...

Suddenly the alert klaxons were blaring throughout the ship... a slow-moving Dauntless-class Light Cruiser had translated from the warp only 30 VUs away and was advancing towards the planet. They quickly identified the ship as baron Djanko Scourges' vessel, the Hammer of Truth . Since they had what they came for, they opted to use their speed advantage and flee the system rather than take on the larger ship (this kind of surprised me, I really thought they would take Scourge on).

They easily removed themselves to a safe distance and began preparations for a warp transit to the location of the dread pearl itself, when they suddenly came under intense plasma battery fire from a previously undetected craft, an Eldar frigate! (I used the Shard of Dawn stat-block). The xenos ship had been running silent until it was lined up to the rear flank of the Medusa and caught her badly with a barrage of plasma hits, starting a fire aboard the explorers vessel. The PCs were quick to react however... Remington took charge of the fire fighting crews while Rail executed an exceptional adjustment to speed and bearing, essentially making a U-turn and bringing them prow on to the Xenos warship.

Obviously such an extreme manouver made the task of gunnery that much harder. This, combined with the deceitful use of foul xenos holo-fields meant that Kaeliss chances of landing a telling blow on the enemy was low. However, Lucius managed to gain a lock on the target for their Sunsear Las batteries at least, to increase their chances slightly. Kaeliss made his calculations, relayed adjustments to the gun decks and gave the order to fire... and absolutely tore the Eldar ship to pieces! (his adjusted BS chances were around the 20% and 35% range for their 2 weapons and he made rolls of 09 and 05 respectively). Their salvo tore through the enemy vessels hull structure and left her crippled and burning.

The Medusa swiftly followed up with another salvo for good measure, to completely hulk their would-be ambushers. They then made good their escape, before the Hammer of Truth even got into firing range. They are finally making the warp transit to their ultimate goal, the dread pearl and all its' treasures & perils!

Should have another session running later tonight... The party finally have the location of the Dread Pearl. It lies to the stellar southwest of the Heathen Stars, halfway towards the Rifts of Hecaton - roughly 30 days of warp travel from their current location orbiting Vaporius. They have some structural damage to their ship and the morale of the crew has also taken a bit of a battering, so they will have to decide whether they want to R&R before taking on the journey or risk the voyage with the damage to keep ahead of their rivals... and it will be risky, the warp in that region is wild and unpredictable! During tonights' session the explorers should get a firmer idea of what has befallen some of their rivals and what some others have been up to... and they're unlikely to be too pleased about everything they discover!

The session started with the Medusa translating into the Warp on the edge of the Vaporius system, with a course plotted for the Dread Pearl itself. Due to exceptional rolls on behalf of their navigator, the typically 30-day voyage was only going to take 8 days of travel. A safe, uneventful journey was rolled on the Warp encounters table as well. Three or four days into the warp and the command crew received a message from their Astropath, Yerevan, informing them of an urgent message received from their factor on Footfall.

When they had gathered in their briefing room, the Astropath informed them that their holdings and retainers on Footfall had been attacked by soldiers in the livery of the Bastille Dynasty and their assets there were destroyed or taken... including the hulk of the Eldar ship Shard of Dawn - which had been their bargaining chip with the Mechanicum of the Lathes to acquire a new ship. Needless to say, the explorers were furious, but also realised that there was little they could do about it now and that their efforts were best spent finding the Dread Pearl before Admiral Bastille, or anyone else for that matter. Remington instructed Yerevan to send word to all of their factors and agents, to catalogue as many assets and business interests of the Bastille dynasty as could be identified. I suspect the war with the good Admiral may run for quite some time.

Several days later the PCs were once again called to the briefing room, this time by Quintus the Navigator. He informed the team that they were fast approaching a ship which appeared to be simply drifting unpowered on the currents of the Warp. As they closed on the vessel, more details became clear... it was an Imperium design, a Lunar Class Cruiser. Finally the Medusa drew close enough to identify the craft, the Ordained Destiny , Jeremiah Blitz' prized ship! They quickly surmised that. judging by the huge lamprey-like warp beasts burrowing through the hull plates, the ships' Geller field was disabled - condemning the Destiny and all aboard her to a horrific fate.

The immediate thought of Remington was, 'let's leave her to rot and find the Dread Pearl, happy that another rival is out of the running'. The immediate thoughts of Rail, Lucius and Kaeliss (or Kaeliss Daemonbane, the Wormslayer, Scourge of the Eldar... as he has taken to calling himself) was 'Cool!! A Cruiser just sitting there for the taking - all we need to do is teleport over to her, flick the Geller Field switch back on, maybe mop up a few random Daemons and that's the job done!'. Being a profit-sharing democracy, the wants of the many out-voted the 'I've got a very bad feeling about this' of the one and they made preparations... Focused Augury on the Ordained Destiny to determine the location of the Geller Fields generatorium and control console and also to gauge the extent of the damage to her.

Background - I threw this little side endeavour into the mix to highlight the sort of perils that travel through the warp can bring... and to introduce the players to a new faction and some new antagonists. The story is that Jeremiah Blitz, being a man of somewhat flexible morals, was contacted by servants of Karrad Vall to negotiate alliance - Vall would gain access to Imperial space while Jeremiah would have a new source for proscribed goods. However, even as roguish as Blitz was, when he met his would-be allies, he realised what true corruption was and balked at the deal. The negotiators were prepared for this however and had plans in place to disable the ships' Geller Field and allow the ship to be overrun by denizens of the warp, devouring most of the crew and possessing key personnel, including Blitz himself and his personal bodyguard. NOTE: I used the profiles of the two Black Crusade characters published on the site for the negotiators.

This is where the explorers came in. They teleported from the Medusa close to the enginarium of the Ordained Destiny , power-armoured and armed for bear (Kaeliss even had an armsman tagging along to carry his Stormbolter while he toted his Las Cannon... he called him 'caddy') and accompanied by a cadre of 10 battle servitors. Within minutes of their arrival, they were ambushed by a swarn of daemons, Bloodletters of Khorne! There was a frantic battle, as much against the loathsome aura and countenance of the daemons as their physical assault. Fortunately, only Rail briefly succumbed to his fears and fainted, though only for a few moments. They eventually carved through several waves of the monsters and fought their way to the Geller Field generatorium, with one Charon-pattern servitor still accompanying them ('Gunny Charlie' as he was affectionately known) as well as another combat servitor and 'caddy'. Only Remington had been seriously injured in the exchanges, but at least he was able to continue.

In the generatorium itself, the servants of Vall had left one last guardian, a Charnel Daemon. Wisely they sent the combat servitor through the broken doorway first... and saw it get rent asunder! The beast rushed into the midst of the party, his very appearance enough to make Remington flee temporarily. However, this group of explorers are well skilled and equipped for close quarter combat and managed to dispatch the Daemon before it could kill anyone. At last Lucius was able to get to work re-enabling the Geller Field, while the rest of the party guarded the doorway. Finally, after several hours of ritual and communing with the machine spirit, the shield was activated once more, instantly repelling the warp beasts burrowing at the hull and preventing further incursion... and then the vox crackled to life '<insane cackling> this is your captain speaking, my thanks for your valiant efforts to repair my ship, you may take your leave now <insane cackling>'.

The PCs responded, suggesting that the ship was theirs by right of salvage, since it had been drifting and lost and their efforts had purged it of daemonkind. The voice on the other end, undoubtedly that of Jeremiah Blitz, simply said 'we shall see, I will await you on the bridge'. The explorers returned to the Medusa by way of their teleportarium and reloaded, all except Remington, who was critically wounded and not fit to fight again. They called up a squad of armsmen also and, along with Gunny Charlie the three explorers, Rail, Lucius & Kaeliss teleported back to the Destiny , right onto the bridge.Awaiting them there were Blitz in his command throne, his remaining companion/bodyguard, packing a Crux Beam Gun and a robed female, with a strange metal framework riveted into her flesh, crackling with energy (this was Kastala the Scarred). Finally, a huge figure, clad in archaic and ornate crimson power armour stepped through a doorway from the strategium onto the bridge proper... Babaroth the World Eater.

A brutal battle ensued, where both Lucius and Kaeliss, the hardiest of the explorers were more severely injured than they had been in many, many months. Eventually, with no small thanks to Gunny Charlie and the squad of armsmen, both Blitz and his bodyguard lay dead, Babaroth was sorely wounded and Kastala began to fear that these dogs of the emperor would never die! I had outfitted the chaos minions with some additional traits and gear over the basic profile, including the gateway sorcery power... which she now used to extricate herself and Babaroth from the fight... leaving the PCs as masters of the Ordained Destiny! The only causalty of the battle from explorers side was their faithful servitor, Gunny Charlie, dissolved by the hideous purple energy beams of the Xenos weapon.

Once they got a prize crew onboard and began running diagnostics, they realized the extant of the damage done to the vessel, all of the external or outside facing components were damaged or destroyed - augurs, retro-thrusters, the ornate gild-work on the hull and all of the weapon placements were non-functioning, but drive systems, life-sustainers etc were operational. They had just won themselves a Lunar Class Cruiser. Once course had been plotted, their 'fleet' set off once more for the Dread Pearl...

The last session commenced with the Medusa translating out of the warp on the outskirts of the stellar system of the Dread Pearl. Ahead of them they could see a roiling warp-storm and the barest augur traces of a star orbited by a lone planet. They made their way in-system from the translation point, approaching the storm, when the first competitor arrived - The Nihontu plus it's last remaining escort. The party had previously established a cordial relationship with Lady Sun-Lee, so were confident an alliance could be formed. After some deliberation among themselves, they decided not to risk running directly to the planet, through the remnants of the storm, but to offer alliance with the Lady and lay in wait for their mutual enemy, Admiral Bastille.

Sun-Lee was agreeable to this as she despises the Admiral but was aware that he outgunned her in a straight fight. However, the next ship to arrive was the Fel Hand - remember, in the early days of the campaign, before the foretelling had even taken place, the PCs had defeated Hadarak Fel in ship to ship combat, but had chosen to leave him with his Frigate and merely exact tribute in the form of other assets and holdings. The Medusa hailed Fels' vessel, with an offer of alliance against Bastille. Fel was not interested however, merely replying "my business lies on the planet below, not with you or the Admiral".

In the minds of the party, this made Fel an enemy (no neutrals in their thinking) so they determined to eliminate him as the opportunity arose. Now was not that time though, as their Augur officer announced the translation of a Lunar Class cruiser at the edge of the system... the Colossus ! The partys' first action was to send their recently captured prize, the Ordained Destiny , to the far side of the planet. Then they came about sharply in the Medusa , to face their foe. As they did so, yet another ship exited the warp, Djanko Scourges' Hammer of Truth . The explorers weren't sure whose side, if any, he would take, but they assumed he was an enemy.

The admiral wasted no time with pleasantries, powering straight for the Nihontu and unleashing a full broadside. The Hammer of Truth followed suit, making it clear that he was an opponent as well. From here, the battle raged for the rest of our session... a Light Cruiser and a pair of raiders against a Cruiser plus Light Cruiser. The Colossus only managed to catch the Medusa with a full salvo once over the course of the battle, but that was enough to reduce her to crippled... the first time the party had ever been in such a situation. However, in the end, the superior manouverability of the Medusa and Sun-Lees' escort raider and the PCs vastly superior skill scores won the day.

The Colossus sustained multiple critical hits, with many components disabled, before the Nihontu finally got in a position to finish it with a barrage from her plasma batteries. The resulting explosion when the Cruisers' plasma drive was ruptured was almost as dangerous as macro-cannon fire. Lady Sun-Lee did vox the explorers to remind them that the Colossus was equipped with a teleportarium however, so it was very likely that the Admiral had fled to the surface of the planet prior to his ships' destruction. Once Baron Djanko saw the expanding fireball of his erstwhile ally, he voxed his surrender and tried to slink away, but his slow ship could not hope to escape the party and their allies. They commanded him to power down and surrender his vessel, which he reluctantly did. At least there was some prize to be claimed, even if it was split between the party and Sun-Lee.

Their first action with this new prize, with the blessing of the Lady, was to use it to attack the Fel Hand . Based on his profile and description, I determined that Baron Djanko had probably not been a 'loved' commander, so once the PCs locked up his most loyal senior officers, the rest of the crew were happy enough to follow battle-proven leaders who kept the rum rations flowing! With a combination of 'Flank Speed' & 'Adjust Speed' extended actions, they party managed to squeeze 13 VUs of movement out of the Speed 5 Hammer and close with the Fel Hand to lead a boarding action before the frigate could even move. The boarding action itself was a one sided rout and Hadaraks' crew surrendered after one strategic turn. Remington immediately voxed to Hadarak Fel, on the planet below, to make him aware that his ship was theirs.

They informed him that he would have to pay to ever leave this world and that his first installment would be to find and kill Admiral Bastille (the party had actually assumed that Fel was allied with Bastille and that they would be together, though this was not the case).

Next session should see the explorers finally set foot on the Dread Pearl itself, at long last...

This was a pretty long session, which started with the party securing their ships in orbit. To ease some of their concerns, they received word from Lady Sun Lee that Baron Djanko Scourge had agreed to ransom his vessel back from his captors. The Baron would remain hostage on the Nihontu until both the PCs and Sun Lee received astropathic confirmation of transfer of assets (amounted to about 15 PF to each dynasty (before tithes, of course), which I thought was reasonable for a fully outfitted Light Cruiser). In return, the explorers would release the Hammer of Truth and it would leave the system immediately. This left the explorers with the Medusa and the Ordained Destiny fully under their control and their own armsmen holding the bridge of the Fel Hand .

Finally, they were ready to claim their due from the Dread Pearl. They shuttled down to the surface of the planet with as every spare lander and/or cutter, bringing 300 ratings for lifting and hauling plus 200 armsmen for guard duty, with the crew chief, Mr Ibsen whipping them all into line (the party took an immediate liking to this character (Kaeliss even going so far as to say 'there's a promotion in this for you'... like he says to caddy, every session). They landed their expedition on a wide, sandy beach on a relatively large island in the equatorial belt. They immediately set about securing their LZ and exploring the vicinity. It did not take very long before they discovered gemstones just lying on the ground, so they set a sizable portion of their work teams to scouring the beach, the forest fringe and the shallows for more.

While this menial work was going on, the PCs ventured inland, eventually discovering scattered wraithbone statues and structures. In time they found the great astromantic chart-sculpture, which they recognized, but could not decipher. Instead they took a multitude of pict-grabs and transmitted these back to their navigator Quintus, on the Medusa . Not far from this structure, they came upon a carved wraithbone archway, inset with many runes and gems. Between the group, there was enough knowledge of Xenos lore to surmise that this was in fact a portal to the so-called webway, the heretical warp conduits used by the Eldar. They snooped around the archway for a while, trying to find a way to activate it, but without success. During this time they spotted a specimen of local wildlife shadowing them, a Gyrinx, though none of the PCs managed to befriend the creature. Lastly, they found a temple garden of sorts, filled with Xenos statuary...

Over the course of the exploring, they picked up small hints that they were not alone on this world... a distant sail, signs of a long abandoned campfire etc. This made them wary, and they had platoons of armsmen on watches throughout their first night on the beach. Shortly before dawn the next morning, they were woken by their sentries to be told that a group of people, presumably natives, were approaching along the strand. A tense conversation followed, with the party managing to both intimidate the Santarchs as well as ridicule their belief system. There was no outright hostility, but the Santarch delegation left quickly, with no working relationship established. The explorers also had some brief vox conversations with Lady Sun Lee, to more clearly define their respective spheres of influence and cement their alliance.

It was shortly after this, while the PCs were contemplating taking their guncutter and hunting down Hadarak Fel and/or Admiral Bastille that things started to go very wrong... a roiling storm started to build in the skies above, stained an ugly purple by the warp fissures beginning to form. Lightning arched down from this storm throughout the islands, seeming to gather amongst the wraithbone ruins. A humming could be heard, almost felt infact, as if a gargantuan generator was building up power beneath their feet. Their work crews and guards were getting antsy to say the least, then they saw a flash, at the astromantic structure they had investigated the previous day. Out of the light, a figure stepped, Farseer Serennon, wreathed in crackling witchfire.

He psychically boomed out his mental warning and gracefully drifted on the storm gales to the pedestal a few hundred meters from the beach LZ. Now the lightning was arching down from the clouds directly onto the Farseer,.. and from him out into the expedition! Instantly one of their landers had an engine nacelle blasted apart and the cockpit of the PCs' guncutter was ignited in a hideous inferno, swiftly gutting the whole interior. The party instructed their crewmen to gather themselves and the gems & artifacts they had collected and run for the remaining shuttles. Their scouts also saw the Santarch delegation running back towards their camp, pursued by menacing figures that looked like statues come to life. The explorers turned their attention on the Eldar warlock first however.

Since all of the PCs were armed with either basic or heavy weapons, a range of 200m was not particularly problematic, so they didn't make too much effort to close the distance, just opened fire. This also meant that Serennon could not use any of his combat psi-powers (too far away). I did equip him with an Eldar force shield though, which prolonged the battle a little and let several wraithguard get involved. I must say, the party did NOT like the look of the wraith-cannons or their effect on crewmen and natives! However, they all managed to avoid getting hit by the hideous weapons and continued to focus fire on the Farseer and, eventually, their weight of fire overloaded his force-shield and blasted him off the pedestal.

The wraithguard went berserk at this point, firing at random, while the storm overhead became ever more violent. The party made good their escape, making sure to snag the downed Eldar on the way. They also noticed the archway glowing on the distant hillside and small figures running through it and disappearing (more Santarchs, they assumed). They received a final urgent vox from Sun Lee, urging them to save as many of the natives as they could, so Lucius had himself teleported from the climbing shuttle directly to the ship and took control of the teleportarium himself. I informed him that he had at most 10 minutes before the warp-storm would force the Medusa out of teleport range and explained the modifers as listed in the adventure. I also determined that the very maximum numbers that could be handled by the device was 40 at a time (at a -10 modifier per 20 people transported) and it would take at least 1 minute to prep each use (though taking 5 mins would give a bonus). Lucius opted to back himself and his prodigious tech-use... 10 uses, grabbing the full 40 every time. With only one fate point reroll, he made all 10 tests and saved 400 of the Santarchs!

Finally all of the surviving crew made it through the gathering storm, both Rail and Remington making good piloting rolls and the plundering of the Dread Pearl was at an end - for another few thousand years at least. The party still claimed the bridge of the Fel Hand , but had not found Hadarak Fel and therefore did not have the command baton to take full control of ship systems. While they were trying to decide how to proceed, they were hailed by the Nihontu ... and addressed by Fel himself. He had negotiated for extraction with Sun Lee (who had no quarrel with him) and wanted his ship returned to him. There was some vox banter back and forward, Fel claiming the PCs were no more than pirates and the party stating that they were just acting in the interests of their own security.

Eventually however they determined that there was little to gain from holding onto a ship they could not take anywhere, so agreed to return control back to Fel. Sun Lee and the Nihontu stood sentinel over the exchange, ensuring that neither side tried to make a fight of it and the Fel Hand left orbit and translated into the warp. Lady Sun Lee bid the party farewell and mentioned that she was dropping a contingent of the rescued Santarchs on Quppa Psi 12, in an effort to establish a colony, should the refugees on the Medusa wish to join them. However, the first stop for the explorers and their ships would be a world where the knew they could repair, acquire weapon and void shield components for the Ordained Destiny , and hopefully a crew aswell. All they need to do is persuade enough of the population that a better life exists for them in the stars than on their war-torn, polluted planet... Zayth!

I think another session or two is likely, before the Sabras Dynasty returns to Port Wander and Imperial Space in triumph.

Our last session was a matter of character leveling, book-keeping and repair work. The party travelled the relatively short distance to Zayth, with the crippled Medusa and the blind, skeleton-crewed Ordained Destiny . They were hoping to recruit crew from Zayth, to convince the populace of one of the land-ships that life in the void would be better than on their war blasted planet. Unfortunately, the folk of the first walking city they dealt with preferred to take their chances in their native environment.

The PCs were at least able to purchase a void-shield array and a macro-cannon broadside installation from the Zaythians, as well as best quality turbo upgrade for both of their broadsides. They also managed substantial repairs to the Medusa , returning her to full combat readiness, for the next stage of their voyage. They are considering making for the breaking yards next, to acquire an augur array for the cruiser before taking on the long voyage back to Footfall.

Much discussion took place regarding what other weapon components to mount on the Ordained Destiny ... launch bays seem a certainty, if they can get their hands on them, but the prow slot is causing much discussion - ranging from a plasma battery to torpedo tubes to a nova cannon! Again, availability may be the deciding factor in this - though they do intend to travel to the Lathes for some personal 'upgrades', so it could be a good place to bargain for the finest in starship ordnance.

I have a few encounters and incidents in the pipeline for the party, but I'm wondering what further endeavours GMs threw at their explorers after they had completed Lure of the Expanse??

Knight of Dark Renown said:

Pardon the shameless self-promotion... if you want to see what I did to my PC's after LotE, check out the "Chronicles of House Liatris" thread on the main RT forum. Sessions 1 - 16 were LotE, so you can ignore those. In fact, that reminds me I need to do another couple of updates...

Cheers,

- V.

Thanks for the link VdG, good read!

During the climactic battle on the Dread Pearl, my PCs put down Farseer Serennon and made sure to secure his body on leaving... They sorta forgot about him during last weeks' book-keeping session, but, seeing as he had some fate points available, he may in fact still live, in some form of Eldar SusAn state. I'm thinking that a rescue/recovery attempt by his Corsair brethren is very likely, while the party are en-route to the breaking yards...

A further little surprise will be revealed to the explorers when they finally get around to reviewing the pict-grab footage from their shuttles - among the crush of refugees trying to flee through the webway arch during the destruction of the Dread Pearl, they may spot some that are plainly not Santarchs, though they are wearing similar, naval-styled garb...

Our most recent session started with the PCs continued struggles to find crew for the Ordained Destiny on Zayth. it seems that the folks of the land-ships were not keen to swap for the questionable luxury of starship crew berths and the ever-present threat of the void. While pursuing this undertaking, the Auspex officer on the Medusa raised an alert... he had noticed a brief blip on the sensors at the fringe of the system, but had lost it again. The party got a bit jittery at this point, knowing that the Ordained Destiny was in no way battle ready and the Medusa still had quite a bit of damage to be repaired.

Within a couple of hours, their unwelcome visitor was revealed... as the Memory of Lament , an Eldar cruiser of fearsome reputation, slipped out of silent running aft of the explorers vessels! They were immediately hailed by the Eldar captain, Culaethin Baharrudor, who insisted they hand over the 'remains' of Farseer Serennon or be fired upon. Now, I'll admit, I expected the party to reply something along the lines of 'come and get him you scum-sucking Xenos vermin!' but I was surprised (and somewhat disappointed) when they simply agreed and granted the Eldar leave to land a shuttle on the Medusa to remove the body.

This all went smoothly, and the alien craft departed shortly afterwards, leaving the PCs to plot their next move. They opted to make for the Breaking Yards, to see what components and/or crew could be sourced from there. Their journey was very quick and fairly uneventful. Once at the yards, they were able to conduct further repairs, returning the Medusa to full structural integrity and close to the same on the 'Destiny . Once again, they had no luck in recruiting crew, but they did get lucky in sourcing a Lathe-pattern launch bay, with two squadrons of Fury Interceptors as well as a deep-void Augur array, meaning the Ordained Destiny was no longer blind.

While at the breaking yards they bumped into a few old acquaintances... Madame Charlabelle, returning from Vaporius with a hold full of the unique waters of that planet, as well as Sarvus Trask, which led to another brief discussion about whether or not to attack him (in the end they figured it wasn't worth risking access to the Yards for the sake of petty vengeance). Finally, at long last, the explorers translated into the warp for the voyage back to Footfall. The Journey took a month of ship time and there were some tribulations en-route, but other than a little morale damage, they arrived unscathed. Their battles, explorations and repairs had all been time-consuming and, combined with the temporal distortion effects of their many warp journeys, this meant that over five years had passed on Footfall since their last departure!

Their old factor had died and many of their holdings had been destroyed or stolen by the Bastille dynasty, but they still had contacts and allies on the station and were at long last able to recruit full crew for both of their ships and even get in a little shopping (finally enjoying the benefits of their 55 PF). It was at this stage, while compiling their journey logs, that an ensign spotted the face of Admiral Bastille VII escaping the destruction on the Dread Pearl through the webway arch. A little research by Quintus the Navigator into the picts they captured of the astro-chart built into one of the wraithbone structures revealed that the archway seemed to lead to a planet deep in the Calixis Sector... a planet interdicted by the Holy Inquisition!

It was with great pleasure that Remington composed an astropathic message, addressed to Brother Sergeant Aggammor of the Deathwatch (who the PCs had once aided), notifying him that the Rogue Trader Admiral Bastille VII had broken the embargo on a quarantined planet within Imperial Space. The party are hopeful that this will remove the Admiral from the Koronus expanse permanently.

Before returning to the expanse to pursue further opportunities for profit, the explorers are travelling to the Mechanicus forge-worlds of the Lathes, deep in the Calixis Sector. Once there, they hope to finish fitting out the Ordained Destiny with the finest of components and also have some personal augmentations done (Lucius hopes to be fitted with a Machinator Array, Kaeliss is seeking the Lostok Gland implant and Remingotn is hoping to purchase a personal force shield, among other items on the party's shopping list). Who knows what wonders and dangers they may encounter, even within the borders of the Imperium...

We had a fun session last weekend, which allowed me to achieve two objectives: Give the PCs a 'shakedown cruise' on the Ordained Destiny and seed my campaign with hooks for later exploration and/or endeavors in a section of space removed from, but inextricably linked to, the Koronus Expanse. We started with the party setting off from footfall on board their new flagship, with the Medusa running escort. The Navigators plotted a synchronous journey along the well established warp route through the Maw, allowing for a few real-space translations for recalibration against the astronomican.

On the second of these scheduled stops, in Zone 15, their vox officer reported a distress call, coming from the Celestia , a Carrack class transport out of Tranch in the Calixis Sector. The message stated that an Imperial convoy was under heavy attack from a greenskin raiding fleet near the outer edge of the Maw, on the fringes of the warp storm itself. The Celestia called out for any God-Emperor fearing men to come to their aid.

At first the explorers were very wary of a trap of some kind. It seemed odd to them that a convoy of Imperial vessels would be in that location, with no known planets or bodies of interest in the area (known to the PCs, at any rate). However, after a thorough auspex scan, they were able to confirm 10 Imperial registered vessels, including a Naval frigate and a squadron of three Cobra class destroyers. The other Imperial craft were a mixed bag of various different transport ships.

Marauding through these ships were eleven xenos vessels, Orks! Half a dozen attack ships, a Kroozer plus a handful of much smaller ships, unusually fast and agile for ork craft... As the party closed on the battle, they were hailed by captain Vursahti of the Blade of Rubycon , the Naval frigate, welcoming their timely arrival and requesting if they could turn their guns on the Kroozer, which the team were more than happy to do!

At this stage, the Ordained Destiny was still a work in progress... it had turbo-upgraded Macro-cannon broadsides Port and Starboard, but only 1 launch bay installed, which only contained a pair of fighter squadrons so far. The prow still had a Starbreaker lance mounted, with the PCs hoping to upgrade this to something more spectacular at the Lathes. Despite this slightly sub-optimal armament, the power of broadsides in conjunction with well skilled PCs, making best use of extended actions and complimentary bridge/targeting components, quickly became apparent.

The battle was a lengthy one, about 6 or 7 strategic turns, but the explorers made good use of salvo fire to inflict huge damage on the Ork Kroozer (they were consistently landing all 6 potential hits from the cannons), scoring frequent crits and avoiding much in the way of return fire. This battle was the first one we've run that involved Torpedoes and Small Craft, so it was quite a learning curve on both sides. The fact that the PCs were limited to Fury Interceptors made it a little easier, but they quickly appreciated the defensive value of squadrons on CVP, successfully thwarting torpedoes, bombers and assault craft!

The only moment of concern for the players during the whole battle was their first encounter with those small, agile xenos ships - brute ram ships. They were focusing their fire on the Kroozer and an attack ship that had managed to engage in a boarding action and didn't pay much attention to the tiny vessel closing in on their exposed flank. When it smashed into them and did 26 damage after armour, they suddenly paid attention!

The next strategic turn or two were spent manouvering to keep out of the ram ships' forward arc, and getting their broadsides lined up on it. Needless to say, once they had it in their sights, they blew the holy crap out of it - causing a warp drive explosion in fact, which also eliminated the attack ship. By this time the Kroozer had it's sensors knocked out and was wandering blindly into the void and the rest of the Ork flotilla were destroyed or dispersed.

The captains of the Celestia and the Blade of Rubycon both voxed their thanks, with the Naval captain also suggesting that it might be best if no word of this battle or the convoy in general should be spread around the taverns of Port Wander. The explorers briefly tried to suggest that silence needed to be bought, but Captain Vursahti countered that a Naval interdiction squadron and a quarantine order would do the job just as well. The party decided that they could ensure their crews' discretion and that no further action was necessary.

So, at long last they should be arriving at Port Wander in our next session and from there voyaging on the mighty Lathe forge worlds... and who knows what they might find there.

Last weekends' session turned out to be very interesting indeed! The explorers' vessels made it safely through the Maw to Port Wander, where they spent about a month repairing and recruiting after the battle against the Ork raiders. Then, at long last, they set off into the Calixis Sector, making for the trio of forge worlds know as the Lathes. Due to good navigation, the baseline sixty day journey was completed in only six weeks, but this still meant a significant number of warp anomalies. storms, visitations and nightmares. The net effect of the voyage was a few extra insanity and corruption points across the board and a minor hit to crew morale.

Unfortunately for Kaeliss, the few extra corruption points were enough to tip him over the 30 mark and he failed to resist the malignancy - Grotesque - as well as failing one of his attribute tests, so he picked up a palsy as well. While his original Necrophage mutation was essentially hidden, unless he was a very sloppy eater, his corruption was now starting to show through visibly. This made his comrades very wary and Rail, being particularly pious, decided to escalate the matter to the highest levels.

As they finally broke orbit in the Lathe system, Rail instructed their astropath to send a message to the nearest Inquisitorial facility, to report his fellow shareholder as a mutant. In the normal course of things, I would assume that the big 'I' wouldn't concern themselves with a lone mutant - after all, the galaxy is full of such degenerates - however, a mutant on the command crew of a lunar class cruiser would be a different matter. I've yet to make a solid decision on how to play this out... at the moment I'm leaning towards having two rival Inquisitors pick up the message, a puritan and a radical, which could likely draw the party into an internal shadow war between factions of the Holy Ordos... I'm open to suggestions!

Kaeliss realizes now that hiding his afflictions is harder and harder (even wearing his Delphis Power Armour every waking hour), so he's hoping that if an Inquisitor shows up looking to 'question' him, he can convince them of both his loyalty and his usefulness. At this point, the session turned into a shopping extravaganza, with the PCs acquiring upgrades both personal and shipborne. Lucius had a Machinator Array and a Mechadendrite affixed, Kaeliss underwent the Lostok augmentation procedure to become a Gland Warrior and both Rail and Remington had various cybernetics installed, mostly of the 'extra armour' variety.

The party also completed their ship repairs and contracted for the final components to be manufactured and installed (over the next six months)... a second Lathe Launch Bay, along with a full complement of Small Craft - 4 squadrons of Fury Interceptors, 2 squadrons each of Starhawk Bombers and Shark Attack Boats - and the piece de resistance, a Nova Cannon for the prow! These are being constructed by a noted Magos Ordinatus, Heleon of Hadd, who has offered the explorers the hospitality of his Spire-Manse for the duration of the works.

The PCs have discovered that one of the explorator fleets based out of the Lathes are in the process of upgrading and among their 'surplus stock' is the Fist of Lathe , a superbly well equipped Chalice class Battlecruiser. The asking price for this craft is somewhat beyond the current resources of the Sabras dynasty, however. The team are hoping they may be able to unearth some opportunities for profit or favours owed from the scions of the Lathes while they are waiting for their ships' fit-out...

So, the latest session brought the current arc of the campaign to an end. The PCs had spent the first 2 months of their ships' 6 month fitting-out period getting their various augmentations and shopping for high tech gear throughout the Lathes. They finally got around to attending the Manufactory-Fortress of Magos Ordinatus Heleon, where the Ordained Destiny was being worked on. The Magos arranged a grand banquet in honour of his guests/customers on their arrival. Remington and Rail opted to attend in their dress finery (with concealed armour beneath, of course) while Lucius and Kaeliss both felt that Power Armour and impressive weaponry was as close to 'finery' as they possessed.

Heleons' spire was a hugely impressive edifice, with astounding defences, and veritable hordes of servitors, junior tech-adepts and Skitarii tech-guard swarming throughout the complex. The party were led to the banquet hall through the magos' museum collection, an extensive array of fragments of both Xenos & Archeo- tech items. Finally they reached a vaulted stateroom, furnished with a huge banquet table carved from a single slab of basalt.

At the head of the table was Magos Heleon, a surprisingly human looking individual, slim, with very few obvious augmetics... not even any mechadendrites!! His bodyguard, on the other hand, was a very typical senior member of the Mechanicus, a hulking cyborg called Secutor Revaxis. There was also an honour guard of Skitarii and even a quartet of dormant combat servitors. The meal was attended by a host of the Magos' most senior underlings, the individuals responsible for production and fitting of the various components being added to their ship.

The meal was punctuated with much small-talk regarding the recent explorations of the party. The Magos seemed to be particularly interested in their adventures on the planet Zayth and recalled that there had been a relatively recent purge of a cell of junior tech-priests identified by a Rogue Trader dynasty as seeking archeotech knowledge (of Zaythi land-ships) for their own gain... At this point, I think Remington started to get a little edgy. Heleon went on to say that no mastermind of this cell had ever been discovered, but such a ringleader would certainly be out for REVENGE!!!

... at this point all hell broke loose. The explorers finally realized that they were in the middle of a very nasty trap and responded in the only way they could, attacked! The 4 PCs (2 of them not even in full combat gear) had arrayed against them 2 powerful tech-priests, 4 combat servitors plus a horde of hellgun wielding troops. Between Remingtons' Inferno pistol and a krak grenade from Lucius, they managed to disable Secutor Revaxis before he could even attack, which was a very wise move. Kaeliss immediately moved to attack Heleon with his Loi-Pattern Power Axe, but found the Magos a hard target indeed.

Unfortunately, the tech-guard elements, while individually weak, had a substantial weight of fire, which injured Remington and Rail right from the start. Then the servitors entered the fray and things got very bad very quick! Two of the machines could not engage their primary weapon systems due to friendly targets being in their fields of fire, but one wielding a Power-Fist made straight for Lucius... and hit for max 40 damage!!! Lucius ignited from a power field overload and was completely immolated. The phrase 'burning' a fate point was never so appropriate!

The 4th servitor had a clear shot at the lightly armoured Rail, with an Echon-Pattern Assault Stubber! Rail stood up surprisingly well to the first 6 or 7 bullets, but by the time damage had been rolled for all 10, his head had literally been pulped! Rail had sworn after the last fate point he'd burned that this would be his last 'life', so the character died instantly, with no help of saving.

Remington managed to badly damage the Power-Fist Servitor and Kaeliss had severely injured the power-field protected Magos, but it was looking particularly grim for the PCs, when suddenly the doors and windows of the hall exploded inwards, with over 100 black-clad figured flooding into the room and subduing all of the combatants. A tall figure, wearing a greatcoat and a wide-brimmed hat swept in... "which of you is Rail Cobalt?". When Remington gestured towards the mess of blood, skull and brain all over the floor and table, the figure frowned slightly... "I am Inquisitor Vownus Kaede, of the Emperors' Holy Ordos, I am seeking one called Kaeliss, does he still live?"

Kaeliss stepped forward, identifying himself... and then broke in to a rant, claiming that the Magos had tried to murder them and that he claimed all of the belongings of the Magos and his retinue by right of battle. Kaede seemed somewhat bemused by his bravado at first, but when Kaeliss refused to stand down and be taken into custody, he ordered a platoon of his troops to open fire! (He was curious to see if Rails' accusations about this mutants' resilience had any merit). After a hail of hellgun and boltgun fire - which I did roll damage for - barely even scratched Kaeliss, the Inquisitor decided to investigate the abilities of this freak further.

Kaeliss, in a brief moment of clarity, opted to go along quietly this time, though still insisted that the weapons and shield devices should be his by right! Remington was also taken for 'questioning' and a medic among the Inquisitorial retinue discovered that, almost unbelievably, the charred lump of metal that was Lucius still had a pulse... or current, or something.

And that was where we finished the session... from here, I will ask my players what kind of game they'd like to play... if they want a more 'open-war' style, I can work them into the Jericho Reach and the Achilus Crusade through Inquisition influence. Similarly, the same power could draw them into an intrigue/assassination Dark Heresy game, or they can return to the Koronus Expanse as Rogue Traders... and do some Privateer work on behalf of Kaede while they're there! What happens to Kaeliss specifically, I still haven't decided yet though

What a great campaign. You've given me several ideas to integrate into my own group. Looking forward to more posts!

Glad you enjoyed the read, it was great fun to play through.

Kaeliss has been taken somewhere deep and dark by Inquisitor Kaede... he may re-appear, but not as a PC. His player has made a new character, another ArchMilitant, but very different style, an Imperium Loyalist from Cadia, disciplined, focused on ranged combat - kinda special forces sniper feel. Rails' player is still contemplating what to play, with a Psyker or Navigator high on the list so far.

The consensus from the group was to return to the expanse and take on a bit of a privateer role, so I'll have to get to work on the next campaign arch over the next couple of months.

I will of course post whatever happens next!

One question, with the arrival of the Inquistor, what happened to the Magos who had attacked the party in the first place?

I haven't yet picked up the campaign again, but I suspect that Magos Ordinatus Heleon will continue in service to the Mechanicus... as a Servo-skull!

The player who had been running Rail has made up a Rogue-Trader and Remington's player is begging me to allow him to retire the master of the Sabras dynasty and introduce an Astartes (Librarian most likely) at the same XP value as the rest of the group... so when we do resume, it will likely be with an almost brand new cast.

Well it's been a while since I posted, though I have resumed my campaign with a few short endeavours and encounters. The current shareholders/command crew of the Sabras Dynasty are:

Remington Sabras - Rogue Trader, Bearer of the Sabras Warrant and Captain of the Ordained Destiny

The False Man, Tyrion Sabras - Vat-Bred 'nephew' of Remington, Rogue Trader and Captain of the Medusa

Explorator Lucius - Tech-Priest and Chief Enginseer of the Ordained Destiny

'Cadian' - Archmilitant, Chief of Security and Gunnery Officer of the Ordained Destiny

Stark - Void Master, Squadron Commander and Helmsman of the Ordained Destiny

Since the great Lathes betrayal, the fortunes of the Sabras dynasty have been turbulent to say the least. Kaeliss was taken by the Inquisition, never to be seen again. Remington suffered interrogation & Purification for over a year at the hands of Inquisitor Kaede, before being released to once again take up the reigns of his families trade empire. In that period, much of the dynasty's wealth had been lost, either due to contracts cancelled for fear of Inquisitorial association, or simply neglect as no other family members were prepared or capable of taking control of the far flung Sabras investments.

Fortunately, once back in the command throne of his ship, a very lucrative offer fell into Remington's lap. The council of Arch-Magi of the Lathes wished to launch a grand expedition, to investigate, and possibly take control of, one of the great landships of Zayth which had so intrigued their own renegade brethren. To do this, they required the services of the Ordained Destiny to guide and escort their explorator fleet. This grand undertaking would take up to 2 years and generate a fortune for the Dynasty, with the potential of lucrative exclusive access to Zaythi tech.

Contracts were signed, pacts & oaths sworn and plans made. The Ordained Destiny and Medusa had to return to Port Wander urgently, to prepare for the long voyage. Their rendezvous with the Mechanicus fleet was in 6 months time. During this time they fell afoul the Saynay Clan of Dusk, aiding a Naval squadron in destroying a trio of Clan ships and having to destroy a powerful Daemon, summoned by Saynay Sorcerers to claim revenge on the explorers.

At the appointed time, the ships of the Mechanicum arrived at Port Wander and the combined fleet set forth into the Maw. Almost from the very start of the voyage, the omens were bad. The traverse of the Maw was punctuated by hit and run attacks by Eldar vessels, doing little significant damage but bombarding the fleet with Cryptic messages about the evil they were bringing into the Expanse. They completed the journey to Footfall, where they stopped briefly to restock and recruit. The Magos Archaeologis in the expedition requested a detour (paid, of course) to the Egarian Dominion to review a joint venture Arcaeological Dig on Egaria Omega.

The Explorers agreed and plotted the course. The warp transition was stormy and took longer than anticipated, but they arrived safely, bar one of the smaller Mechanicus support ships which had been lost to the Warpstorms. However, once the remainder of the fleet had completed it's translation back to realspace, they immediately detected multiple ship signatures in the area… an entire battle-gorup of Eldar vessels! There were 9 Nightshade Frigates, plus two larger ships, a Craftworld Dragon Ship and their old Nemesis, the Memory of Lament . A message was broadcast from the Memory, saying that what the Mechanicum bore was a danger to the whole region and must be destroyed. The Explorers at this stage were demanding explanations from their Mechanicum allies… but it was too late for words!

A monumental battle ensued and, as usual, the Ordained Destiny and Medusa more than held their own. However, they were heavily outnumbered by the Eldar warships. In the end, 7 of the 11 Eldar ships were destroyed, 5 of the remaining 6 Mechanicus ships were hulked - including the Mass Conveyor which appeared to be the Xenos' primary target - and the Ordained Destiny was crippled. The Memory of Lament was damaged but still largley functional, however, once the Mass Conveyor exploded, it and the other remaining Eldar craft broke off their attack.

The Explorers were hailed by the Xenos, who explained that some among the Tech Cult had been intending to test out a Yu'Vath artifact in the Expanse, which was being transported in the mass Conveyor. The Eldar were convinced that this object would have caused cataclysmic Warpstorms and Daemonic incursions throughout the reqion if used and acted to prevent this coming to pass. With a cessation to hostilities, the explorers craft and the sole surviving Mechanicus ship, a light cruiser called the Eternal Praetorian , limped back to Footfall to undertake lengthy repairs.

That is the campaign up to date, so I next time we play, I will give the party a few options, including perhaps getting involved in the Lucin's Breath conflict between Aspyce Chorda and Calligos Winterscale, a possible return to the Egarian Dominion to dabble in the cold-trade, an alliance with the Armengarde Dynasty against House Maechenko or answering a call for aid from the remote world of Damaris (the Frozen Reaches)… also, they may see the return of some Inquisitorial meddling and an old enemy, thought lost!

The last session was primarily book-keeping and laying some groundwork for the next arc of the campaign. The explorers commenced the lengthy process of refitting and re-crewing their ships in Footfall… too badly battered to even risk the voyage to Port Wander. There was much arguement over the best prospective source for replenishing crew, but in the end Remington dug deep on an acquisition test and managed to lure enough voidmen from the crews of various other Merchant-men and less illustrious (or well armed) Rogue Traders to restore the Ordained Destiny to full compliment.

Meanwhile, the Sabras Dynasty lines of credit were sufficient to restore both Dynatsy ships to basic running order, though the Hull Integrity of the Destiny was still far below safe levels when the funding dried up, temporarily at least. While the party were beached in Footfall, waiting for an influx of thrones from the Dynasty holdings to complete repairs, an old acquaintance showed up. Somehow, the explorers found Inquisitor Vownus Kaede gazing out one of the view ports on the bridge of the Ordained Destiny , with none of the other junior bridge crew or armsmen apparently even aware of his presence!

Lucius and Remington were understandably a little nervous to see the Inquisitor at first, but it transpired that he had sought them out to request their assisitance and offer some of his own. Kaede wished to travel through the Expanse in the Ordained Destiny to sample the worlds, artifacts and enemies of the region which might someday threaten the Imperium. Also, on occasion he might require the explorers to make slight detours to follow up leads. There were also some vague references to rivalries and complications the Inquisitor had become embroiled in back in the Calixis Sector which he wished to remove himself from.

In return, Kaede would use his own influence to deflect as much Inquisitorial interest as possible from the business dealings of the Sabras Dynasty and the explorers and their crew specifically. He would also make them aware of particular opportunites for profit that coincided with his own agenda (eg last known locations of wanted pirates/renegades with significant bouties on their heads; rumours of locations of Xenos ruins/tech caches - he offered the party assurances that he would turn a blind eye to what he regarded as 'low level' heresies, cold trade in inert curios and the like).

The crew were willing to come to an agreement with the Inquisitor and were wary of turning him down. To cement their new arrangement, Kaede asked the explorers to assist him in infiltrating the stronghold of the Narco-Tribes in Footfall. He had traced a spate of Daemonic incidents throughout the Calixis sector back to warp-tainted drugs shipped from the Expanse and wanted to identify and eliminate the warp-traffickers operating among the narco-peddlers of Footfall. In the aftermath, there could be an opportunity for the party to claim saleable narcotics, drug money, or even take over the entire production and distribution operations once the Narco-tribe leadership was destroyed.

Since they explorers were tied to Footfall for several months to come while they waited for repairs to be completed, they were happy to participate in the undertaking. After much arguement over the best approach, a combined strike-team of the explorers plus Kaede and three of his own retainers managed to Teleport into an unshielded section of the Narco-Spire and begin their search for the Daemonic influence among the drug gangs…

This is where the last session finished, so our next night should be plenty of action right from the start!

I greatly enjoyed reading about your campaign and I will try to run lure of the expanse myself starting this summer.

Looking forward to your next post.