Hey guys I'm a relatively inexperienced GM and so far have only ran the Shades of Twilight and we're approaching the end of Baron Hopes. Finding pre-written adventures too constrictive I've decided to create my own and I'd like to run it by you all. This all vague as i don't want to plan too much in advance!

The group consists of 5-6 acolytes - 2 arbitrators, 1 scum, 1 Tech Priest and, if the player gets his arse in gear, 1 psyker and an NPC Adept all at rank 6. The scum is a minor son from a noble family controlling the world Cyrus Vulpa, at the end of Baron Hopes I intend for Varaak to tell the scum that his family have requested his presence. The rest of the acolytes will undoubtabely want to go along seeing as they're nosy blighters, if not Varaak will arrange for them to tag along.

When they reach Cyrus Vulpa they find the Scums home destroyed with bodies scattered everywhere, amongst the corpses are a few, that with some investigation, that the acolytes realise are from the Pilgrims of Hayte, PoH. further investigation will reveal that not all of the scums family can be accounted for. Eventually they track the PoH to a Rogue trader that has just left Cyrus and seems to be heading for Scintilla. They reach Scintilla but well after the PoH as their journey through the warp was delayed by storms, a portent perhaps ;-)

On Scintilla they get to use some of the Inquisitions tools and track down a few cells of the PoH in the wastelands whioch eventually leads them to Ambulon as a dark ritual is approaching conclusion, the clock is ticking.... I envision a series of running firefights through and over Ambulon eventually culminating in a battle in the control centre, the crew have been slaughtered, sacrificed and waiting to greet them is a cackling false prophet, Lord Rapture, and a twice-bound (may change) Daemonhost in the body of the scums eldest brother as well as a few cultists. The Lord Prophet is attempting to finish his ritual while the daemonhost and cultists will try to delay the acolytes who have 10 or so rounds to stop the ritual as Ambulon, off-route, plods towards Gunmetal city. If the Acolytes fail Ambulon itself becomes possesed by a very powerful daemon and the acolytes are basically dead as the daemon devours GunMetal citys inhabitants!

Even if they succeed the Prophet spits in their faces and with his dying breath raves about either a new sun rising over Hive Sibellus or the change is coming and all shall tremble (not sure which option yet) and dies in a fit of cackles. As the Acolytes rush back to Hive Sibellus they see what the prophet meant.... if i go for plan A) somehow the PoH, with 'help', have acquired an atomic adn smuggled it close to the tricorn palace which the Acolytes see disappear in an expanding corona of energy, devestating a good chunk of the hive and decapitating the inquisition in the sector.

If I go for plan b) it'll be similar but rather than an atomic it will be a giant version of the matter conversion type bombs used in Baron Hopes but the result will be fairly similar - chaos (not the archenemy kind!).

Varaak will be dead along with many senior Inquisitors, there will be riots on scintilla, cults will strike, martial law will be declared... and in all this the acolytes will try to figure out what happened eventually finding that the Serrated Query, SQ, are behind the activities of the PoH but lost control of them. Eventually information will be found leading the acolytes to the Lathe worlds, the probably source of metal and tech used in the bomb and a confrontation with the Tek-Heretics, converted and corrupted Tech Priests loyal to the Dark Mechanicus.

Realising this is all linked to the Tryant Star they must act quickly and destroy the heresy eating away at the Lathe Worlds before it arrives and the TEk-/Heretics unlock its secrets and open a path to beyond the stars themselves...

As I said this is all nebulous right now but any comments and suggestions would be appreciated. i realise there are quite a few holes, such as why the scums family were targetted, and some of the links are tenuous but they'll be ironed out, hopefully, as the campaign progresses. I just want to give the players something truly epic to sink their teeth into and hopefully see them to Ascension rank.

sorry for any spelling errors, my typing sucks balls!

Additional thoughts

The Scums family are a lost offshoot of the haarlock family. The PoH, under guidance of SQ, went to kidnap them but, after experiencing heavy resistance butchered many members only taking two alive - the eldest brother, Gideon, and younger sister, Alina. Gideon gets turned into a daemonhost after the PoH broke away from the SQ and Alina is being used as a 'key' by the tech heretics on Lathe who have crafted machines based on corrupted lore, given by the SQ, to summon the Tyrant Star.

The SQ realised that the Tyrant star is an inter-stella teleporter capable of teleporting people and things through both space and time though, of course, it's not that simple. the acolytes must prevent the tyrant Star being summoned and opened by the items the SQ have acquirred. I picture a climatic battle against The Faceless One as the Tyrant Sun rises. If the acolytes suceed they have averted a major disaster, perhaps sector ending, and gathered important evidence and information that will speed them on into a heavily modified version of the Damned Cities and Dead Stars adventures.

While it may seem the focus is too much on the Scum the other players will have plenty of opportunities to shine with one Arbitrator hailing from Sinophia, one from Gunmetal City and the Tech-Priest from the Lathe worlds.

Anyway I look forward to your feedback

you seem to have a problem in why you choose the scum's family. It's come across as he is an outcast from a noble family or they have a past that has been hidden away. If he's an outcast from the family being scum, then you have an addtional problem, why would they request his presence?

I have an answer, take an important family member, say the head of the house, the player's father. He recently pasted away, the circumstances of this could be a whole host of things. This would require your player to return home, for the raising of the next house head (family tradition) and the reading of the will, it could be a time that all misdeads and bad blood can and is sorted out (yet again family tradition, with a new head comes a new slate kinda thing)(this does mean that the eldest son (next in line) may have had a hand in doing away with his father, perhaps bored he has fell in with some members of the PoH and is a willing subject.

As for destroying the head of the Inquistion, only on the planet, the main cabal meets on a moon base from what I remember form the Ascension book. So this means that you'll lose lots of acolyte style NPC's with the vast majority of Inquistors out somewhere in the sector. masses of destruction but setting the players on a monumental course that should see them to full inquistoral rank, perhaps have their inquisitor killed in the explosion, making it yet that little bit more personal, removing a powerful ally, and even cutting their contact with the Inquisition until the whole mess is sorted.

You posted "even if they succeed". They should succeed, failure means death, and if you kill them off your not going to get to finish your story. Your players should always succeed, it shouldn't be easy, or handed to them, they should have to work for it, but they should ultimately succeed. I prefer as dying words from the Prophet something like "Know this, the Hive shall be consumed with the fire of a new sun, and from it's ashes we shall rise" obviously with coughs of blood and various other things for his death scene.

You have a lot of prep work ahead of you. I'm in a similar boat, just starting writing my first campaign for a brand new to 40K universe and system group. I don't like pre-written adventures, they always feel artifical.

Remember something that has always helped me plan other adventure "No plan survives contact with the Enemy"

best of luck

Valdek said:

oooh melikee Valdek, After i finish this pre-written adventure i'm gonna sit down with each of the players and discuss their backgrounds as up to now it's been very vague and I want to incldue each of them in the story in someway and not focus on just one character. I may steal your ideas if the palyer's amenable as i want to make sure the player is comfortable. I kinda had an image of some of the Inquisition knowing the scums family were the alst survivors of the Haarlock dynasty and ahd ensconced them on Cyrus Vulpa to protect them. In exchange one of the sons enters the inquisition as an acolyte hence the scums presence in the group.

But your idea is a bit more believable methinks :-)

Valdek said:

Huh didn't know that, they must have changed it since DH. I have Ascension but with my Dissertation looming I didn't want to read another book as I'd be tempted to run a game of that as well. I think Varaak will be killed in the explosion along with a few other inquisitors but not the total decapitation I planned on, it's a bit more realistic as the Inquisition wouldn't leave itself that vulnerable I s'pose.

Valdek said:

Again Valdek you're right on the suceed thing but these players have a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, a bit like Arsenal I s'pose (sorry if you're not a football/soccer fan at all!) and I'm just worried I'd have to resort to some crude Deus Ex Macina to save them, though an inquisitorial strike team, shadowing them would be plausible I s'pose.

Valdek said:

Aye i realise I have quite a lot of work ahead of me but I'm just going to plan a game or two ahead as any further would be just begging the players to do something else, I've read darthanddroids.net ! And I agree on the pre-written adventures... too constrictive and railroady for my tastes!

Cheers for the advice Valdek, it's really appreciated and I'll post the odd update on the groups adventures. good luck with yours and if ya want a wall to bounce ideas off give me a shout :-)

Having run an assortment of homebrews for DH so far, may I suggest the following for your first home brew:

1. Do not go overly apocalyptic for your first arc. Yes, drama is easier when the fight is EPICCCC...but it also means that whatever the results are are equally sector changing. This is your first time really playing with a completely free world with the only railroad being you. If you don't balance it right, it seems like an epic movie, not an rpg, because your busy being apocalyptic the way you want it to, and the players can't afford to miss. On the flip side, if your too open ended, and your players are used to moving along a plot rather than an investigation, Scintilla might be wiped out because they are still feeling out how this works. Better to save the apocalypse for when you and they have solid feel of the level of movie/open-source your comfortable with.

2. Don't strive to work every background into the story as raw connections just for the sake of doing it. Let there be some normal times so that the personal times are well, personal. Your players will surprise with how their players react simply in an open world, without injecting canned emotional/background cues. Once you've got the feel of the character, you can really sculpt something that would be a personal hook, rather than a template.

3. If your going to swing the inquisition proper in while your players are pre-ascension, remember that Inquisitors and other Ascension types are special individuals. Exceptional individuals. Each with his own history, contacts, agendas and responsibilities. And if they're around your acolytes, don't think for a second your in a vacuum If you're going to kill one off or even have him be conveniently blindsided, he better be outmaneveured for real, or else its going to look suspicously like a plot device. Which it is, but that doesn't mean it needs to be slap with a dead fish style narration.

Do remember that the philosophy of the Pilgrims of Hayte is "destroy/kill everything for some reason!", their philosophy doesn't really appeal to anyone who wants to gain in any way whatsoever. in other words, to them money, status, and power are merely possible means to an end (of everything).

A few things that come to light once this is in mind are:

1. Your "blow up the Tricorn" goal certainly fits.
2. This makes "pacts" of the kind Valdek suggested are probably not the "common" way for this cult to work.
3. They probably don't need the Scum's family for anything really. Anyone (or maybe just psykers?) can make a perfectly fine daemonhost.

This leads me to consider that maybe you should replace PoH with the Brotherhood of the horned Darkness because:

1. Someone criticised your "overly dramatic kill everyone scenario" which PoH leads you to.
2. You liked the pact idea suggested by Valdek, and this is exactly what the Brotherhood is about (no really, that is the exact thing that they are about).
3. (Really just repeating no. 2) The Brotherhood is all about gathering power/status/money in the real world, and making pacts with the scum's noble family is what they are all about (all about!)

However, this would require a large overhaul to your original plan and replaces "drama, doom and daemonhosts" with "intrigue and politics and discression" which might not be your prefference (although to me it sounds like a nice place for an Arby from Sinophia to shine).

If you do like this cult-switch, I suggest modelling some NPCs on the ones Gregorius21778 suggested in www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Again cheers for the suggestions guys, this is why i posted my idea here as i can get a bit carried away at times.Salindurthas I'll have a read through the Horned Brotherhood in DotDG, as well as the link you so kindly provided, and let ya know what I think once this weeks dissertation work is finished!

Yet again thank you guys and I'm hoping to start my campaign on friday thoguh I was thinking late last ngiht how to work the tryant Star in so maybe, jsut maybe, i'll have the Tyrant star present at Cyrus Vulpa when the PCs arrive. I really need to at least get the first adventure written up by thursday so I'll post more details as I figure them out.

"Why is the scum family targeted?"
Let´s assume your cult of choice is in league with some daemon. Does not matter what your cult is, does not matter what your daemon is. The thing that matters is that scum familiy (either the one taken away or the an ancestor of direct lineage) has crossed said daemon in some way or another. This opens up the following optons

1)Perhaps there was a deal and the soul of the "taken familiy member" (TFM) was the price. In that case, it would be easier for the Daemon to take over the body. But still, there is need for a ritual. This ritual is the price the cult pays to the daemon for some service of the daemon.

2) Perhaps the deal was crossed or the ancestor (or the TFM) helped to send the daemon back to the warp..for some years (1..10...100... as it is pleasing for your plot!) Now, the daemon wants revenge and that is the reason the TFM was singled out

3) Distraction! The whole thing has NOTHING to do with the family. In fact, the slaughter was performed by a group with nex to now real mission. They weren´t even meant to last any further. In fact, as they came back from there mission, a bomb blowed up their hideout. Or a daeomon was summoned in there abscence, ordered to wait to slaughter all that returned once the last one was in the house (which gives you an excuse to play "haunted hideout" with the pc *giggles*). But do to some unforseen event, one or more of the "fire-and-forget cultists" made it. One the pc can find and put to question. He does not know anything, did not even realized that he/she/it was "put up". That is something the pc have to puzzle out. They longer they take, the more time the villian has for his real plan and the harder it will get for the players

One million different groups...
I know it is tempting to throw in "everytthing but the kitchen sink". Especially after one is thru with DotdG and has read some other stuff. But having three major cults involved (the SQ, the Pilgrims AND the Dark Mechanicus)...well, it is a little much.

On the other hand, the Haarlock Saga does just the same, so here you go. So, the SQ uses the Pilgrims from the Shadows as manipulatedable toys to launch a devastating strike against the Inquisition, giving them access to weapons of the Dark Mechanicus....

Stay away from the Lathes
Or at least, do not have the main plot unfoil there. How about a Demise World (cannot remember the corrcet world) where a fraction of the DM was able to get some root? You could even go as far yank the Scenario idea from the Bronzen Malifect (if you do own Creatures Anathema). My reason behind this: it is hard to hide from enemy if you live in his house. If you live in his garden sheat, it is a little easier to hide things from him...

Gregorius you have some great ideas though i expect no less after reading your contributions on other threads.

Your point about the Lathe worlds is valid and i may change the location, my desire for the epic can be over-riding ;-)

One thought I have had recently is for the Tyrant star to be waning at Cyrus just as the acolytes arrive. This is due to,a s I've thogut about my putline, I realise that there's no real reference to the Tyrant star until the finale which is a bit lazt and sloppy in my eyes. As a player I know I wouldn't be impressed if the DM suddenly dropped something like that on me!

Another poster, Salindurthas, recommended that i should use the Horned brotherhood, HB, and this would tie nicely into the cultists summoning a very powerful daemon to 'posess' Ambulon but there's something about the PoH that appeals to me as both aGgM and player. I s'pose there are enough powerful daemons out there to satisfy me and if the Acolytes suceed then the identity isn't amssively important, especially considering the shitstorm about to sweep over Scintilla...

I'm planning on 'writing' the first adventure this week so I'll post more specifics then but yet again I want to thank everyone for their feedback, it is truly appreciated by this novice GM :-)

last suggestion, Pick your story, you don't have to have so many things happening, Use finese to tell the story, your players are likely to suprise you if you emerse them in the grim dark future of 40K. Start simple, grand plots start out simple, Lord of the rings overall plot is about getting a ring to a volcano, simple but the things that happen on the way make it epic.

For a game to be truely epic you want yor players planning what their doing, talking about the game when they're not there, and going on about it years after. I have some very fond memories of some vampire games, and some very silly moments of other games.

The Tyrant Star is supposed to be random, freakish and unpredicable, if it appears at the end of the story, it should be with questions and very few answers, as your players are first going to have to find out what it is. then find someone that is willing to talk to them about it, i can see many inquistors telling them "you don't have clearance" or something to that effect.

If you don't like the Cults presented, make your own, I have The Burning Soul lead by a charming and charismatic Cleric Damien Emberbridge, but that's all your getting, My players visit this site from time to time.

The Tyrant Star and you

How about forgetting the "Ambul Daemon thing" as the aim of the cultist but to change the goal to "bring about the Tyrant Start". This could althoug lin the Taken-Family-Member into it: Perhaps your Cultists do nee some-one of Haarlock-Blood (due to some bizarre entwinements between Erasmus Haarlock and the Tyrant Start even we GM´s will not understand.. ). [EDIT: the TFM is rellated to him]

If you still do not want to let go of "the Daemon who took over Ambulon"... well, chaos rituals have side effects. Major rituals have major side-effects. And sometime really bad things happen. That is the reaons every dabbler is put to the fire, isn´t it?

Your Warp-Weapon-Attack on the Tricorn would thereby just be one of two pillars in the plan you your cult to bring about DOOM

EDIT-TWO: This way, you could even link your scenarios to the Haarlock Legacy (if you like to)

Good points Gregorious, When my brain's working at full speed i'll have a more cogent response. I've just ran the first game and the players loved it. The characters, all at rank 6, are:-

Raveon D'astarde, Noble Scum.

Luca Gargosi, Sinophian Arbitrator

Trianon, Gunmetal Arbitrator

Ish-Drakkar, Lathe Tech Priest

Their Inquisitor, Varaak, has 'lent' them a guncutter and arranged their transport to Cyrus Vulpa, the home planet of Raveon, so they can attend the funeral and then selection of the new family patriarch though the inquisitor, Varaak, asked Luca, to watch Raveon due to his pro-Ulbrexis attitude at the close of Baron Hopes. They had fun chatting to different passengers of the crew and the warp journey went fluidly. Upon translation into real space however the navigator and astropath went crazy screeching about "... the dark star rising..." and the Rogue trader promptly informed them that he was going re-enter the warp and leave the system ASAP and that they'd better make haste if they didn't want to go with them.

They approached the planet apprehensively, feeling the rise of the Tyrant star in the pit of their stomachs and catching glimpses of it from the cockpit. As they approached the D'astarde mansion, nestled in teh foothills of the agricultural planets mountian range, they spotted smoke rising and the tracer fire from the slaved servitor defences which disabled the Guncutters pilot meaning Ish-drakkar had to take over. None of their codes would work but they quickly disabled the house defences and landed.

Upon entering the mansion they came under fire from several cultists and a rapid firefight ensued with the PCs taking a few injuries but quickly disabling the initial defence. Raveon advised taking a side route to the main hall, where his family is likely to have gathered due to its high security, thereby sidestepping a few ambuashes. Upon entering the main hall they saw a large crowd of cultists, 24, being led by a magus all chanting to a macabre clock made of human bodies, Raveons family, and strange metal as wella s two figures leaving through a secret door..

In a brutal and unforgiving fight 3 of the party took critical damage but managed to destroy the clock in the nick of time, just as the Tyrant star was about to manifest (literally they had one round left!) and Trianon headshotted the Magus and rolled 30+ damage absolutely obliterating him. Surveying the remains of the clock raveon spotted movement, one of his brothers was alive! The brother, almost insane, muttered and screamed about "he betrayed us rav, and, and he took Maddie, he took her. Please save her, save us all" before dying.

The acolytes pursied the two figures, recognising one as a young girl and just as they caught up Raveon recognised the figure dragging his sister as another Sibling, Iago an assassin before they escaped in a shuttle leaving them on a windswept platform and the D'Astarde family in ruins...

The players loved it and can't wait for the next session. Now i need to decide exactly which way to take it! I'm tempted to run a streamlined version of Damned Cities, Varaak ahd told them they were to investigate the situation on sinophia after visiting cyrus Vulpa, while Varaak tasks other teams to track Raveons wayward brother. Would that be too much? should I leave the Haarlock family thing to one side?

BTW i've decided the D'astarde family are an offshoot of the Haarlocks that have been protected by the Inquisition though Raveon of course knows none of this

funkwit81 said:

Give the pc some charts of there memory back as they here certain key phrases. This will make them eager to talk to people and to learn things. Never give them back their full memory of the events between the last adventure and the beginning of TF, so.

They should learn that

• they needed to Travell to Xicarph for Investigation on the Traitor Brother
• that they were to go to Gabrial Chase
• that all of this had something to do with the Spider Bride

What really happend was that they got to Xicarph and visited the Spider Bride. The Spider Brider, however, was paid by the Traitor Brother to catch them. Which she did! The brother handed them over to the Pilgrims (see the dream scene in the adventure) which scanned them together with some further prisoners. After that, they discarded them by giving them to the BeastHouse. But the Beloved had other plans for them. The removal of the cult leader...

To the Spider Bride, this was a job and it is done. She might be amused to see them again but will not tell them...unless they are so foolish to attack her. In this case, she will capture them again and tell them that she did so once but that she does not want to kill them...unless they insist on it.

This way, you take all the confustion of TF and ramped it up by one additional level.

I don't intend on the group seeing the brother until the fight on ambulon where he'll be a daemonhost, his 'reward' for his choice to betray his family. they won't see the little sister until the finale of my campaign when she'll be ensconced in a similar dark machine on an edeptus mechanicus planet that has been exposed to scrapcode, summoning the Tyrant star which is a 'portal' to everywhere and every when if properly harnessed by one of strong mind though it is inimical to human consciouness both twisting and enlarging it...

The group, including Raveon, have decided they need to quickly tidy up on cyrus Vulpa and then head off and during the last game their Inquisitor had told them that they were to investigate some suspicious murders on Sinophia as I had a hunch i was going to run Damned Cities. They're palnning on finding an Astropath and getting a message to Varaak to which they'll get a reply tellnig them to stay put just as the Governor announces a planetary flight curfew without her express permission but it's really a quarantine as she's received her own message from a certain cabal...

Varaaks interregator will arrive within a few days, the fading pof the tyrant star has created strange warp conditions meaning he arrives just as he set off, and use his masters authority to break the quarantine, arrives on planet and reach the acolytes where he'll tell debrief them and dispatch them to Sinophia to investigate the sudden silence from one of varaaks agents, Illik. Illik was the first one killed himself by Skarmen when he was possessed, the 'awakening' and subsequent desperation of the daemon in the miror will co-oncide with the dark ritual on Cyrus Vulpa, the acolytes were literally six seconds from disaster and this sent ripples through the sector waking up Haarlocks various 'toys' ) while he cleans up this mess. If raveon objects and wants to stay on planet he'll get ordered in no uncertain terms to go to Sinophia. Varaaks other cells will investigate the Pilgrims of Hayte and try to track his brother and sisters location.

Damned cities should take us 3-5 6hour session and tehn they'll be either put on the Pilgrims hunt or be sent to The House of Dust and Ash...

i should be barred from these forums after a full day in the library reading up on US Foreign Policy in the Cold War, my ability to spell seems to evaporate... take 2 with increased literacy ;-)

I don't intend on the group seeing the brother until the fight on ambulon where he'll be a daemonhost, his 'reward' for his choice to betray his family. They won't see the little sister until the finale of my campaign when she'll be ensconced in a similar dark machine on an Adeptus Mechanicus planet that has been exposed to scrapcode. Said machine will be summoning the Tyrant star which is a 'portal' to everywhere and every when if properly harnessed by one of strong mind though it is inimical to human consciouness both twisting and 'enlarging' it into something else...

The group, including Raveon, have decided they need to quickly tidy up on Cyrus Vulpa and then head off. During the last game their Inquisitor had told them that they were to investigate some suspicious murders on Sinophia as I had a hunch i was going to run Damned Cities. They're planning on finding an Astropath and getting a message to Varaak to which they'll get a reply telling them to stay put just as the Governor announces a planetary flight curfew but it's really a quarantine as she's received her own message from a certain cabal...

Varaaks interregator, Whorril, will arrive within a few days, the fading of the Tyrant Star has created strange warp conditions meaning he arrives just as he set off, it originally took two weeks for the group to travel from Scintilla to Cyrus Vulpa, and he uses his masters authority to break the quarantine. Whorril will arrive on planet and reach the acolytes where he'll debrief them and dispatch them to Sinophia to investigate the sudden silence from one of Varaaks agents, Illik, just before the Tyrantine Cabal arrive. Unbeknowst to the Acolytes Whorril destroys the ancient D'astarde family manor, burning it to the ground as part of the clandestine war taking part in the sectors Inquistion; the D'astarde family manor hides secrets that Varaak and his faction do not want falling into the wrong hands...

Illik was the first one killed by Skarmen when he was possessed as Sakrmen knew who he was and of course the daemon didn't want an inquisitors acolte poking around. The 'awakening' and subsequent desperation of the daemon in the miror will coincide with the dark ritual on Cyrus Vulpa, the acolytes were literally six seconds from disaster and this sent ripples through the sector waking up Haarlocks various 'toys'. If Raveon objects and wants to stay on planet he'll get ordered in no uncertain terms to go to Sinophia,a fter all he amy object to his familys ancient home being destroyed! In the meantime Varaaks other cells will investigate the Pilgrims of Hayte and try to track his brother and sisters location.

Damned cities should take us 3-5 6 hour session and then they'll be either put on the Pilgrims hunt or be sent to The House of Dust and Ash...