I've been pondering the Haarlock legacy (Dark Heresy trilogy 'epic' adventure) and the more I ponder, the more I think it'd be terrific fun to shove a Deathwatch killteam through them to see what happens.

In many cases the quality of the foes can be seriously enhanced (hordes of nobles/guards, Elite-quality sorcerors, many psycheneuein, hordes of Children of the Kingdom) by only a few tweaks here and there. The social dynamics involved are, in some respects, almost comical for the Astartes but, in many respects, they are also viable ones *if* the killteam is given the correct information from the outset.

They also seem to allow dynamic mission-forming 'on the go' as they're far from Watch Fortresses.

Because of the unique power of the Astartes, it could be a rather exciting way to bundle a killteam towards the Jericho Reach setting.

Take, for example, this as a brief overview of a tweaked adventure-compilation.

- Summons of aid to an Inquisitor beseiged on Sinophia during late stage of "Damned Cities". If his acolytes hit the beginnings of the adventure, call for Astartes aide in defusing a daemon and sorceror-inspired insurrection might not be out of the picture. It'd also be a relatively quickfire entrypoint for the Astartes. Getting them to deploy to the city and safely tackle the Arbites would be quite an interesting 'concept exercise' for a new team and good to ease them into forward planning.

- After uncovering the shenanigans and importance of events on Sinophia, they might be then directed to Solomon where they play through "The House of Dust and Ash". A simple excuse here could be that the Astartes are inserted at the last-minute on the expectation that something seriously sinister is about to befall the auction, so the arrival of Astartes *should* downplay it all. It shouldn't be terribly tough for Astartes as they might figure a break-out scenario rather easily. Having them with access to much of the defensive/security measures could be entertaining and rewarding too.

- On 'victory' from the House of Dust and Ash, they are beset by a sorcerous rapscallion in the guise of, say, a high-level Primaris Psyker who stasis-bubbles the team and engineers their capture and transport to the Red Cages on Quaddis. Playing from there opens up a whole world of hilarity, mainly because everyone in Xicarph is pretty much a valid target of wrath/persuasion in equal measure. Getting an invite to the revel in the Darkness probably isn't a problem either. Stopping everything is one thing, piecing together the, err, pieces might be something else entirely. Again: dynamic planning for the killteam as the whole thing is pretty messed up. Also they don't get their normal requisition for 'choice of support'.

- Eventually, if victorious (or otherwise) on Quaddis, they're whisked off again and coopted as "the" team to be assigned to penetrate the Ice Station Mara and find/destroy the Blind Tesseract. Travelling in the paths of Haarlock might not be as interesting for them, but who knows, it could be.

If there's a Storm Warden amongst the Killteam, they might well be a Scion of Haarlock...

Anyway, as a thought, I think it has a lot of potential for displaying the 'problem solving qualities' of the Astartes/killteams whilst offering a rather exotic and off-beat set of scenarios to pile them all through.

Would anyone care to shoot holes in this diabolical thought process?

I like it, I would just make sure your players are playing actual marines instead of Angry Marines . Even normal marines aren't going to take capture lightly, and things will degenerate into a red sludge if they don't keep their righteous fury in check.

The thought of marines cut off behind enemy lines and without adequate restock is very, very awesome.

Remember, Marines take heresy very poorly, and believe in the superhumanity as much as everyone else does, they may not worry about their own safety as much as Acolytes would. Where the apprentices of an Inquisitor might bristle at the heresy and find a way to bring it down without it falling on their heads, Marines will likely open their Vox-casters to maximum, intone a might "PURGE THE HERETIC", and put a bolt round into the offender, not caring that there are guards and civilians crowding the room as witnesses.

If they're in a room full of witnesses I don't think they'd hesitate to kill if needed, and theoretically purge those witnesses should it prove neccesary. Now if they're outgunned, they may think twice before just opening up- they don't throw their lives away without carefully considering it.

If these are Deathwatch marines you have a little more leeway in behavior, IMHO. One of the traits that they're often chosen for is a willingness to work with things that might otherwise be unthinkable to other marines- such as Black Templars working side by side with librarians, or a whole kill team cooperating with Eldar on a given mission. Depending on the variety of heretical behavior, some in the KT may tolerate it if they can the ends justifying the means. The book indicates they're often seen as puritanical, and that they 'dont involve themselves' with the conflict between inquisitors, they'll be asked to work for both, and asked to do things that both sides of the debate feel are appropraite. Sometimes those things may be...unconventional.

Instead of putting the Deathwatch directly into the Haarlock legacy, I am planning on expanding the haarlock legacy a little bit. the players will make both acolyte as well as deathwatch marines. The acolytes will start investigations. I am planning on combinding maggots in the meat with Final sanction. Instead of Tyranids, the enemy will be a Slaugth Intendant Recusant and its force begins an uprising ont he planet. The acolytes will go to ground, and the Deathwatch marines will be sent into defeat the Slaugth. As the Haarlock legacy goes, the DH characters will investigate the legacy, and the Deathwatch will investigate how the Slaugth are tied into the Haarlock legacy.

salcor

Ooooooh, cool, sort of a "The manure is about to hit the blessed rotary occilator, techpriest, what do we do?"

"Call the brute squad"

<Imperial Guardman acolyte turns to Black Templar DW> Oh holy warrior of the Emperor you are the brute squad." I think it would be a great way to lead the characters back to each other. My goal would be to have Dead Stars be an acension level event, with the players choosing which characters they want to hit mara. Seems like having some DW marines with them would be a good idea. The funny thing is what happens when they have to decide whether to allow Haarlock to come back. The acolytes will know all the evils that Haarlock with bring back with him. The Deathwatch characters will know the horrors of the Slaugth and may be willing to do anything to stop them. Could lead to an interesting situation.

Another interesting way to use the Marines in House of Dust and Ashes, is instead of covertly sending a team of acolytes into the auction, perhaps the inquisitor himself goes with an honor guard of Deathwatch marines....sometimes it is good to just flaunt who you are.

Salcor