This will be my first 'original' Deathwatch game, as in, I'm not running it out of a book.

Here's the fluff part I got:

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The Planet of Jamash:

The planet of Jamash lies to the galactic north of Halex Anomaly in the Jericho Reach. The planet was discovered during the Emperor’s Great Crusade. The planet was pristine and welcoming to life, yet devoid of sentient life. Colonization was started immediately and considering the safety of the quadrant, the planet was also elected for many advanced structure to be built, as it would most likely become the capital world of the sector. The Mechanicum built many facilities and even installed refueling and maintenance station for the Titan Legions.

But then the Heresy started. As more and more forces were drawn out of the Reach, chaos and strife broke out over the planet. Forces loyal to the Warmaster infiltrated the rank of the guard stationed on the planet and through deceit and lies, guided their forces in a battle against the Mechanicum… accusing them of Heresy. The battle was brutal and complicated – as force loyal to the Emperor within the Guard and force loyal to the Warmaster within the Mechanicum both tried to change the tide… ultimately the battle went on for long after the Warmaster fell, and only stopped because without fueling from the Imperium, supply ran out.

The damage had been done however. The Mechanicum was broken, all the tech-priest dead or in hidden away in slumber. Most of their facilities had been destroyed or abandoned. The Imperial Guard realizing too late they had traitors in their mist, still tried to purge them, turning against each other. But without the support of the Mechanicum, their ammo ran out, their broken gear could not be repaired and the war on Jamash did not end with the bang, but sputtered away into darkness. The Imperium itself was too busy dealing with its own problem, and Jamash was forgotten.

The once pristine planet was now a war thorn battlefield. Before the war, colonization and industrialization had already done great damage, but the war finished it off. The remaining humans scattered across the land, living off what meager resource they could. They split into tribes and clans, fighting for territory and food. Over time, the reason for the conflict became stories and legend, fire side tales. The Imperium Creed changed or even was forgotten by some clans. The Age of Shadow came over the Reach, but was barely noticed for the tribes of Jamash.

At the onset of the Achilus Crusade, a Rogue Trader by the name of Zudo Edgetsvi was acting as a vanguard for the fleet, his task to re-discover world and flag them for conquest, re-colonization or assault, as the case maybe. He encountered Jamash and could see that the planet had once been a bastion of the Empire, but would now be considered a feudal world – technology and culturally – with the exception of some still working piece of Imperial technology that were considered as relic and magic items.

This world would not only be easy to colonized, but could also be used to recruit soldiers for the crusade - man who were already war hardened. He sent down his Missionary of the Missionarus Galaxia to ferret out which tribe was closest to the Imperium Creed and side with them.

All of a sudden one of the tribe was backed by troops from the Rogue Trader as well as functioning weapons and training on how to properly use and maintain them, it quickly rose and built and empire on the planet, re-learning the Imperial Creed and pledging itself to the God Emperor. Zudo then went on his way, knowing the Crusade wouldn’t be far behind and would have a perfect re-supply point waiting for them.

Zeroth, the Accursed Seer

Zeroth was a Librarian of the Night Lords during the Horus Heresy. Following the fall of the Warmaster and the splitting the Legions into Warband, Zeroth embraced the worship of Tzeentch. His great power of foresight and clairvoyance allowed him to lead many successful raids from the Eye of Terror in the 10,000 years since his betrayal, and successful raids earned him respect and leadership of his own Warband.

Following portents and signs, he guided his warband through the Hadex Anomaly to the planet of Jamash, where his vision told him great weapons lay dormant and those weapons would be of great help in the coming wars with the servants of the corpse-emperor.

Zeroth and his warband landed on Jamash shortly before Zudo came, following his visions, they lay low, approaching the savage tribes of the north, the descended of the traitors that spurred the war, and mercilessly took over. They then used them as man power to try and find the weapon cache… and they did. Hidden within a mountainside, they found one of the Titan’s Legion maintenance installations… with 3 abandoned Titans within. The mountainside was believed to be haunted by the many tribes (in no small part due to the still active security system of the installation).

Zeroth re-established his base of command within the mountains, and set up his Obliterators to work on the Titans… while Zudo was conquering the planet, Zeroth was in hiding. But progress is slow… the Obliterators are not familiar with the working of Titans and the 10,000 years of neglect has not help the factory any.

Zeroth’s plan is pretty simple. Once the Titan are operational, his fleet will come of their hiding spot in the warp and the Titans will be take off the planet. Zeroth brought a Magna-Melta Bomb, which is secured inside the mountain base… once the Titans are off, the planet will be destroyed.

3 Titans brought to the Cellebos Warzone are certain to change the tide of battle and earned Zeroth great glory in the eyes of the Legions and the Chaos Gods.

The Deathwatch

Zeroth’s plans would have more than likely gone off unnoticed and been carried to fruitition without an itch if it’d been for mistake committed by one of the tribal working under the Obliterators. With the mistaken flip of a switch, a communicator array was re-activated and sent out the last call for help of the Mechanicum – 10,000 years late. The power (and the tribal) was quickly terminated… but not before it could reach a Watch Station, which recorded the message. This record eventually found its way to Inquisitor Vils Andarion.

Andarion is wary. Records do not show Mechanicum presence on Jamash (those are long lost to the flow of times), so getting a 10,000 years old message for help from a planet that should not have said faction present is… troubling. He is however, taking this seriously and he intends to go to Jamash and find out if there’s anything to it. He understands the locals are freshly returned to the Imperium, and doesn’t want to have to worry himself with politics with a bunch of freshly converted feudal savage… a show of strength is required. On top of his retinues and some Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, he will bring a Kill-Team with him. Certainly the Emperor’s Angel of Death mere presence will make those feudal men more than willing to cooperate. And if there is indeed something to this message, than a Kill-Team may not be to much firepower.

Zeroth of course, knows of their coming.

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Gameplay Consideration:

Zeroth will be a Master level opponent (Always had a weak spot for Chaos Sorcerer HQ). They'll be plenty of elite opponents I'll have to make templates for (Berzekers, plague marines, Obliterators) and plenty of hordes as well (Feudal/Tribal Cultists).

The story itself will start as political game of 'Escort the Inquisitor'... weirds things will start happening, murders and so forth. The players will have to do some investigating and deals with the feudal. Eventually they'll either find out that there is a chaos presence on the planet or Zeroth will strike. At this point all hell breaks loses and it will be a war between the chaos warband and its cultists and the deathwatch, inquisitional force and the the feudal people of Jamash. The Imperial Force outnumber the Chaos Force, but the Chaos Warband is much larger than the Kill-Team, which greatly even the odds. Also, the Deathwatch came here on 1 ship... Zeroth's Warband count several ship in its fleet, so they have 'space superiority'.

This should all go on over several game sessions, I of course need to hammer out details, interesting plot points, npcs and so forth.

The climax of the story should come with the Kill-Team assaulting the installation as the titans are being brought out. A mad battle between all involved to the rythm of the ticking of the Magna-Melta Bomb's timer going down. While I like to keep a possibility for the players to have a perfect victory (stop the bomb, kill Zeroth, prevent the Titans from falling into Chaos hands), from a story point of view it would be more interesting if they had a partial victory (i.e. Zeroth escapes and/or the titans fall into chaos hands anyway... allowing for a part 2).

Well it looks pretty solid to me so I don't know what to comment on.

working on titans sounds more like the work of dark adeptus rather than obilits who although marines wouldnt know a great deal about titans workings , although the oblits would make good muscle for the bad guy

otherwise a nice background and different from what most face

True, minor enough change I suppose, and it would be more 'fluff appropriate' for agents of the Dark Mechanicum to be involved.

Draft for the First Game:

- Watch Captain Tiberius will summon the Kill-Team to the debriefing room where they will meet Inquisitor Andarion. Andarion will explain the situation at hand as well as raise a couple key points (i.e. Aside from the fact that the message is encoded with 10,000 years old information, how can a message have been sent out of a planet with no resisdent astropath?) that make this situation worrysome. Since the Achilus Crusade is about 1 or 2 month away from making contact with Jamash, he wants to go there first and make sure everything is ready for them... he has no time to request for more man power, and has such has requested a Kill-Team to further beef up his own group and impress the native with the might of the Imperium. Of course, if Andarion's instinct prove correct and there is something afoot on Jamash, than the Kill-Team certainly won't be too much.

Tiberius is a good humored (for a Marine) fellow and almost sees the assignment has a vacantion, considering this Kill-Team has been having narrow escapes with death in their few last mission - going to parade in front of a bunch of feudal isn't exactly life threatening. He is on board with Andarion's inititiave however - better be safe than sorry.

The players/characters will be handed information on Jamash and its people in order to better pick their gear. They will be given 90 Requisition (Which may seem like a lot, but this is going to turn out into a long mission of prolongued engagements) and be allowed to take 1 wargear of Renown Rank 3 (currently RR2). The 'in game' reason for this being that they are the first official contact the people of Jamash will have with the Imperium and they need to look sufficiently mighty as the Angel of Death of the Emperor.

- The trip from Erioch to Jamash will take 11 days. The Kill-Team, Inquisitional Storm Troopers, the Inquisitor and his Retinue will travel aboard 'The Spear of Righteous Fury', a frigate class ship equipped for speed and transport over offensive capability.

The players will have occassion to look over their transports (A Razorback APC, with a build in Servitor who can take over as a gunner or a Driver (BS 36, Drive 40) or even do both at half value) as well as the Chimera (Use same stats as a Rhino, but with 4 more frontal AV, 5 less side AV value, and 2 heavy bolter (one of them represent a multi-laser).

They will also have the occassion to interact with the Inquisitor's Retinue, who see the Space Marine with respect, but not the awe of normal imperial soldiers... allowing them to actually have conversation with them (There is a weapon specialist, an infiltration specialist, a sanctioned psycher and a lore-keeper... I still need to work on their persona and name). The weapon specialist will even challenge the Tactical Marine to a friendly shooting contest in the training halls.

The trip will be a smooth one and once around Jamash's orbit, the Ship Captain will hail down the Greyson Tribe (the one the Rogue Trader picked as allies) and they will begin the process of lowering the gear and man - Jamash has no space port, so they can't just land most of their bigger craft.

- Greyfel Keep, the central keep of the Greyson, is where they are headed and where they will meet the King and his general. All of the greyson are suitably awed by the delegation (and the Kill-Team especially), however, there is an easy to detect under current of fear and mistrust. The king however, shows none of this - he believe his people have been blessed and that he himself share a kinship with the Emperor... an heretical thought the Missionary of the Rogue Trader was willing to overlook, but that the Kill-Team and Andarion may not be so keen on. The King of the Greyson does not - and indeed cannot - grasp the true size of the Imperium and of the task that await his people (Joining the Crusade).

The delegation will be welcomed to a feast and be given al kind of luxury and the best room. The castle itself is pretty massive and well built for the technological level of the people - it is a solid defensive position. The Kill-Team will be given opportunity to explore and talk to the Greysons... depending on how things go, they may even be challenge to a duel or fight by some fool hardy Greyson Warrior... it will be up to the Astartes to decide how merciful they feel like.

At daybreak, Andarion will meet the Kill-Team and inform them that they have picked up a trace of the astropathic signal sent from the planet and that they are going to try and locate it.

- The trip to the signal takes 3 days by transport. The convey of 4 Chimera and the Kill-Team's Razroback will be escorted by several mounted Greyson knights (using Dobors- a canine like beast of burden/mount the people of jamash use in the same way we used horses). On day 3 they will be an ambush.

If the Kill-Team has made a favorable impression with the lesser warrior of the greysons, they will hear them talk warrily about entering the land of the Sakari, a blood thirsty tribe. What more, this particular land is held by a clan that is known for their use of a devastating weapon called 'The Spear of Light' which can kill a man from several hundread yards. If they get the greyson to talk about it further, it shouldn't be to hard to guess that the Spear of Light is a las cannon.

The Kill-Team can of course convince Andario to let them act as vanguard and go first... this will mess up the ambush plan, but will make the entire travel much longer.

The ambush itself is pretty straightforward. Zeroth has told his men to do has much damange possible to the transports and kill as many Greysons has possible, but he doesn't want to stop them from reaching the relay. The convoy will be attacked by a several Hordes of Sakari tribeman, while a heayv weapon team lays hidden 600m away in a gun nest with the las cannon. The ambush will start with the lead Chimera getting blown up by a well aimed shot.

The two gunners have 13 wounds each, 4 armor everywhere and are hidden behind rocks which grant them 8 of cover to the chest and leg area. The Las Cannon itself has a sight that allows it to ignore distance modifier and they will take a full aim action, shooting at BS 55 every other turn. They are shooting the transports as a priority.

Depending on the way the player acts, there is several way this can go down... if they bunker down and fight, they will drives off the Hordes but most likely lost all of their transport. If they try drive away, they will eventually outrange the las cannon, but the greyson will be cut down to the last man. If they try and go for the las cannon... depending on how fast they do it, Greyson and Transport 'casualities' may not be so bad.

- After the ambush, they will reach what used to be an old pumping station. However, close to 10,000 years of decay have taken their tole on the place.

Zeroth has had the communication array move to this place. He then triggered it again, which is the trace signal Andarion picked up. The array itself is a marvel of the dark age of technology that predates even the great crusade... a machine capable of sending signal through the warp without the use for astropath! However, it has been damaged when it was shut down (weither or not it can be repaired is beyond the scope of this game). Zeroth hope that giving this to the Inquisition will satisfy their curiosity and have them leave the planet.

While Zeroth's man have taken great care to cover their track, it is possible to discover that the relay was moved and connected to this place so that it would appear to have fitted there. Also, once the relay is brought back to Greyson Keep (which may be a problem if they are no transports left!), the Lore Keeper of the Inquisitor will know what it is... and than the logic question of 'What is such a wonderful piece of technology doing in a shabby old pumping station doing?'.

Hopefully, the Kill-Team will convince Andarion that something is wrong with the whole thing.

And this should conclude the first game.

Dramatis Personae

Factions:

The Sarkar – Northern Tribe, taken over by Zeroth and turned into worshippers of the ruinous power like their ancestors. They were known as savage warriors and mad men before Zeroth came, things have only gotten worse. The men of the Sarkar tribe are hard. Raiders, killers and murderers, they have been a plight to to the people of Jamash for thousands of years, avoiding any punitive strike against them by mightier foes by retreating to the North and letting their foes over extend themselves.

Their leader is a man of great charisma named Acturus. Zeroth has turned him to his side and the worship of the ruinous power has taken over almost all facet of their culture, from the way they fight to the way they dress. Zeroth hopes the tribe will bolster his warband and help slow down the incoming Imperium incursion.

Profiles:

Sarkar Heretic -
Use the Chaos Heretic Template, with the following changes:
+10 WS, +10BS, +10S (+1 to sword damage as well), +10T, +5A, +3 Wounds (if not used as a Horde).
Special Ability (pick 1):
Doomblast – Some of the cultist have rigged themselves with live explosives, with a maddened prayer to the chaos god, they throw themselves at Kill-Team and detonate themselves. This ability can only be used by a Horde (And only once per given Horde) and deal 1d10 Magnitude to the Horde itself, but also deals [3D10+5 (pen 4, Blast 3, Devastating)] to anybody in combat with it.
Grenade Launcher – Alternatively, some Heretic Horde are equipped with grenade launchers. For every 30 degree of Magnitude, they can replace one Auto-Pistol Shot with a Grenade Attack, using the following profile: 100m, S/-/-; 2D10+2, Pen 0, Clip 6, Blast 4, Reload Full. The grenade launcher damage gets full benefit from the Magnitude damage rule (so a Mag50 Grenade Horde would fire 5 times, 4 Auto-Pistol, 1 Grenade and get +2d10 to all attack, Grenade included).

The Greysons - The clan Zudo backed; they are now the most powerful clan on the planet and are taking over their rivals, consolidating the planet for the arrival of the Achiles Crusade. They have been indoctrinated with the Imperial Creed and have sworn allegiance to the God Emperor and his Sky Warriors. The Greysons are still wary of the Sarkar who used to prey on them in the long nights of winter, and as such are currently conquering other neighbor hooding clans in order to have a lot of body to throw at the Sarkar. Right now their forces sit at Greyfel Keep (where most of the investigation and intrigue of the first half of the game will occur).

Their leader is King Manir Greysons, who has whole heartedly accepted the Imperial Creed and in facts believe he has personally been blessed by the God-Emperor. Always a man thirsty for purpose and greatness, the idea that his blood and clan will one day take to the stars to fight for the god of mankind is exhilarating to him.

His cousin, Elrik Greyson, is the general of the armies and is not as faithful… while he cannot deny the power that Zudo commanded nor the help he brought to them, he doesn’t believe in the ‘god hood’ of this Emperor, and believes that Zudo and his ilks are merely powerful sorcerers… and he doesn’t trust sorcery. He is afraid (rightfully so) of the terrible price his people and planet will have to pay for this help.

Elrik and Manir are the two polarizing forces of the Greyson, both have several followers sharing their vision. While Manir will welcome the Inquisitor with open arms, Elrik will wish to test them – indirectly and with subtlety of course, as he understands that direct confrontation is not in his advantage.

Profiles:

Unless things go terribly wrong, the players shouldn’t fight them and any ‘Greyson vs Bad Guy’ fight I can just handwave or use the Oblivion’s Edge technique of using Hordes. If worse come to worse, I’ll use the same profile as the Sarkar Heretic tho.

Andarion’s Retinue – Vils’ has a few specialists with him in his retinue, which have been around with him for quite a few missions. He has also brought along with him a few squads of Inquisitional Storm Troopers and Chimeras. I’m not going to built up template for them, but suffice to say they are all extremely competent inquisitorial agent. The entry for Andarion himself is in the 'Rites of Battles'.

Weapon Specialist: Krill Targar – Krill is a career soldier who served for the Imperial Forces for several tours before being noticed and drafted by Andarion. He enjoys war, fighting and dealing death. While slightly psychopathic, most people find him easy to get along with because he really likes his job and his enthusiasm is contagious.

Psycher: Calus Nero – the foil to Targar’s enthusiasm, Calus is calm, collected and calculating. He is extremely faithful and spend most of his time in prayer and meditation exercise. He has lost many loved one to the horror of the warp and is terrified of losing himself. He specializes in telepathy with a little bit of clairvoyance.

Recon: Alyssia Lanis – Hailing from a feudal world herself, Alyssia is a master of adaptation, disguise and spying. She knows several language, has extensive training in both the art of camouflage in the field as well as how to pick and learn body language and other cue to fit in pretty much any crowd. She is a tough woman used to survive on her own for week on ends without assistance.

Think Tank: Reynold Irvas – Reynold is an ex-clerk of the Administorium. He is a bit of an idiot savant, usually lost in his own thoughts and going about whatever administrative task Andarion has given him. At first glance it is easy to wonder why he is along for the ride… but the truth is Reynold has a genius level of intellect and an eidetic memory – he is an incredible source of academic and forbidden lore.
Zeroth’s Warband – Still in the work.

Zeroth's Warband - Still in the work.

I realy like this scenario. It almost makes me want to switch from DH to DW.

Nicely done.

My party is:
- Flesh Tearer Assault Marine
- Storm Warden Librarian
- Space Wolf Tactical Marine
- Ultramarine Apothecary

Overview of Game 1:

Game went largely as expected:
- Lots of roleplay in the Watch Station (surprised me, wasn't expecting so much interaction), players confronted their Assault Marine about him never wanted to get medical help (he has the deed of dishonor that gives him a mutated gene seed). The Space Wolf spoke to Iron Priest Harl Greyweaver about making beer on the Watch Station, as he misses it.
- Meeting with Andarion went well. The Kill-Team was respectful and even friendly to the Inquisitor and his retinue, both groups are working well together and Targar and the Space Wolf are even on the path to be friends
- The meeting with the Greysonian was brutal. The Flesh Tearer challenged their champion and manhandled him. He humiliated the Greysonian and really drove the point home that their are servant of the Imperium, not allies... very short version of the 'duel' :

'Do you really think you are ready to fight for the Emperor? Do you really think you are worthy? Who is your best man, I shall test his mettle!'

Both the champion and the fleshtearer stripped down... the champion yelled 'For the Greysons!' and charged... the Flesh Tearer caught the blade with his barehand (taking 1 wound) and said 'It is for the Emperor fool!' and sparta-kicked him 5 meters back, driving him to under 0 wounds (which I judged as unconscious with a few broken ribs).

The Greysonian are largely afraid of the Kill-Team now and prefers to deal with the Inquisitor and his retinue.
- The trip to the Commutator went well, they decided to vanguard ahead on their own and slaughtered the Sakar troops. They found some equipment and tech that the Sakar should not have (weapons provided to them by Zeroth's warband), which raise suspisicion.
- The Commutator is in their custody, being driven back. The Kill-Team is convinced something weird is going on, but right now have no real choise to drive back with the convey to castle Greyfell.

Draft of Game 2:

Coming back to Castle GreyFell:

The convoy will be hit by a pack of Un'gor.

Un'gor are a native species of a giant subterrenean bear like creature. They were warped by the Ruinous Power 10,000 years ago during the great conflict. While they have a distinctive ursine look to them, they have no fur and have rock like shard and spine coming out in bony protrusion at many spot in their body.

They usually live much further north and are considered some of the most dangerous creature on the planet... when a pack of Un'gor move close to your village, you move your village.

This pack has been displaced by Zeroth and crew and is now wandering south. The surviving Greyson will no doubt comment on the fact that Un'gor are never seen this far south.

The Un'gor have burried themselves on the side of the road, the disturbance caused by the burrying is not something a speeding tank convoy is likely to notice (-30 Awareness Test). Un'gor are massive (over 20 feet tall and several tons each) and quite capable of flipping a Chimera or Razorback on its side - assuming they get surprise, that is exactly what they will do.

One Un'gor will deal with the Greyson, another will fight the Inquisitor and his retinue... this will leave 5 of them for the Battle Brothers.

WS52 S60(12) T 43(8) A25 WP35

Move: 4/8/16/32

Wound: 31

Armor: Rocklike-Shards (All 6)

Weapon: Huge claws (1d10 + 14, Pen 3, Razor Sharp)

Trait and Talents: Frenzy (Enters immediatly when under 16 wounds), Swift Attack, Berseker Charge, Furious Charge, Burrower 4

When the battle is over, the Battle-Brothers will have to help pushing the vehicles back on their tracks. Luckily, the Commutator Array won't have been damaged too badly.

The point of this battle is to heighten the dangers of Jamash, has so far the kill-team has no really been challenged.

Castle Greyfell:

Back at homebase, the players will be given a wideberth by the Greysonians. Reynold will examine the device and recognise it as what it is - he will explain how wonderfully rare this machine is and the player's suspicion that something like this had no business being in an old abandonned pumping station makes no sense. This combined with the weaponry found on the Sakar will be Andarion that there is something going on here.

Sadly, aside from doubts and suspicion, he doesn't have much to go on here. Still, he will decide to stay on Jamash and device a course of action. General Elrik will come back from his war on the western front with glorious news of conquests and will be introduced to the Inquisitor and the Kill-Team. (I expect this part to take a while, as my players are really big on roleplay)

Meanwhile, Zeroth's spies will warn him that the Inquisitor has decided to stay. This means more drastic actions are needed.

One of Zeroth's spies in the Greysonian will wait till the dark of night, equipped with a stummer and chamelonine cloak, he will first put a detonation charge in the Apothecary's lab (The greyson apothecary, not the Kill-Team's). With this distraction, he will then go to Andarion's room and strike him with a poisonned blade.

While the assassin is highly trained and well equipped, this is a suicide mission.

Once Andarion is poisoned... it will be discovered that this is a fairly common local poison, and that the compound needed to create the anti-venom is a plant that grows in the northern tundra. Sadly, when the lab went up in flame, it also destroyed their stock.

At this point it should be pretty obvious that this is some kind of trap and that castle greyfell isn't as secure as it first appeared. While Andarion is sick, Targar will take over... he will want the inquisitional storm troopers to stay and protect his master... and he figures that a small, elite group is more likely to be sucessful in entering ennemy terrirtory and get the medicine... even thought the whole thing is probably a trap.

Back out into the Wild:

Zeroth's plan is simple. The Kill-Team will be met in the north by a part of his warband and gunned down like the dogs they are. The Inquisitor will die from the poison. Inquisitional Force will report that an inquisitor was poisoned in Greyfell keep and a mighty Kill-Team never returned from a mission... this will make the Greysonian look like traitors and shift the focus of the Imperium from him to the Greysonian.

This buy him time to finish his project and has the added bonus that the Imperium will most likely destroy what was supposed to be a planet of fresh recruits.2 birds with one stone.

The players will meet Lanis, the recon specialist and their contact out there. She has already located some of the plants, but mention there is heavy hostile activity close to it.

The players will have no choice but to fight their way throught to it... at first, they'll face a few Hordes of Sakar - this should pose little challenge. The Chaos Space Marine will wait for them to be at the plant and flush with confidence after some easy victory before they strike.

The warband will consist of CSM (main book), some Khorne Bersekers (mark of the xeno) and possibly an Obliterator (mark of the xeno). This battle is meant to be difficult and retreat may end up being a wiser choise... weither they can win/grab the plant and flee or if they lose and fail to grab the plant/get captured will greatly change the course of the game.

Not a direct comment on your campaign idea, but have you read the Eisenhorn novels? At one point, Insquisitor Eisenhorn stumbles into a plot by a cultist to restore and use three Chaos Titans left behind by enemy forces. The fight that ensues might give you some ideas of the different power levels you are talking about when Titans get involved in the action.

What's the novel's name? It could be worth checking out. Eisenhorn and Caiphas Cain are both on my reading list tho, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I've only ever read some Horus Heresy book, Rynn's World and Sons of Dorn has far as 40k novels go.

Mechanicum has a lot of Titan action however and little drive the point home more of why they are called 'God Machine' then facing 3 Reavers in a game of Apocalypse (which i have done).

I have the Eisenhorn Omnibus which has all the novels in one book, and I don't have it with me at the moment. From memory, I believe the encounter in question is at the beginning of the last novel. It takes place when Eisenhorn is sent to head up an Inquisitorial "audit" of a world, then discovers an old foe is on-world, and he "suspends" the audit to hunt the foe down. As usual, this gets him in a bunch of hot water with the Inquisition, but ultimately turns out to have been a good decision given the threat he ends up stopping. I'm being a bit vague to avoid spoiling the novel for others. I'll try to find a novel and page reference for you when I go home tonight.

I looked it up. It's the Eisenhorn novel "Hereticus", which is the last one. The Titan stuff happens about 30 or so pages into the novel. The Eisenhorn Omnibus is alot cheaper than buying the novels separately, and I'd really recommend reading them from start to finsih rather than skipping ahead to Hereticus, so you can see how Eisenhorn gets there.

Also, the Eisenhorn novels feature interactions between Inquisition and different branches of the government, including both the Navy/Guard and Space Marines (specifically Death Watch). Note that Eisenhorn is Ordo Xenos, so his specialty is aliens.

So things didn't go quite as expected - which is good, I love it when my player surprise me.

Overview of Game 2:

- They got hit by the Un'gor, but the battle was relatively easy. I guess I don't have a good grasp of how tough Astartes are yet... they did end up spending some fate point, but it was mainly in order to 'look cool' and re-roll attacks. What little damage they took, the Apothecary had no problem fixing. On the plus side, the players enjoyed fighting something else than a Horde.

- At Castle Greyfell, Reynold identified the Commutator and went to work on it with the Tech-Priest the Inquisition force brought. They were introduced to General Elrik... the Flesh Tearer pretty much blew off everyone and went to meditate in his room. The Space Wolf and Ultramarine however went all social and spoke to the General and were eventually invited to the General and King's table for dinner, alongside Andarion and his retinue. They actually went a long way in 'patching up' the Greyson's relationship with the Kill-Team.

At the end of the night, Andarion retired to his quarter and told them that while he knew something was wrong on the planet. He said he would have more order for them tomorow and that they would find out what was afoot.

The players then went on to set up some pretty good defenses on the castle (creative us of the looted 'spear of light' from last game), they were expecting whatever was out there to come and take the commutator. They didn't realize they were guarding the wrong target or that the threat would come from the inside.

Having heard that the Inquisitor did not want to leave, Zeroth triggered his assassins. The plan went pretty much as expected, the assassins blew up the lab and poisoned Andarion, but were all slain - but one - by the Kill-Team.

- This is where things went slightly off track... I was expecting Targar to take command, but the Ultramarine (Who has the Deeds that gives him an Iron Skull - i.e, he was a Sergeant in his Chapter) assumed command instead. This was in character for him, the roleplay was well executed, he has the stats to back it up - so I went with it.

Once Andarion's condition was diagnosticated, he ordered him taken off planet by the same shuttle they came down on, and put in a stasis vault - this essentially nullifed the 'ticking clock' aspect of Andarion being poisoned. He then went to interogate the Assassins, assited by the Storm Warden librarian. They took Andarion's Vox Caster, went in contact with Lanis who was in the field and he told her to scout ahead to find the plant.

The next day, she found the plant, but told them it was heavily guarded by a Sakar clan. The fact that the assassins had blown up the remedy for the poison and were now guarding for the plant that created this remedy was all too convenient... the Kill-Team knew they had been played and knew this was a trap.

- The Kill-Team embarked in their Razroback and headed north, the Ultramarine ordered the Inquisition troops to bolster the castle as well as they could and expect a retaliatory strike. Lanis had reported that the Sakar's encampment was about 30 kilometers from the plant they were guarding... and the Kill-Team decided they would go for the encampment and essentially take it (and all the food, children and women there) hostage and just barter it for the plant... pretty clever.

What they didn't count on was that this is where the Chaos Space Marine were waiting. Still, there plan made them avoid the Sakar, who would have most likely softened him up a little.

The battle was brutal. While the camp is far away and the Razorback quick enough that they could go to the camp and expect a good 10 minutes before the Sakar made it... the Razorback is noisy as hell and the Chaos Space Marine knew they were there.

I put them up against 4 CSM, 2 Khorne Berseker and 1 Plague Marine with a Rocket Launcher. They ended up regretting those fate point they spent earlier to 'look cool' as none of them had any left when the battle ended. The Storm Warden and Flesh Tearer were both saddled with Critical Damage. Their Razorback had lost it's turret (Critical Damage from the Rocket Launcher). Epic trash talking went on during the fight ("Blood for the Blood God! Skull for the aaaarkh!" /librarian stabs the berseker in the throat "Where is your god now, heretic!?"). The librarian got a peril of the warp roll (which to everyone's disapointment, didn't amount to much). But they won.

Noticing the dust cloud being kicked by the Sakar cavalry hurrying to their village and the pityful state they were in, they opted to retreat.

So the aftermath:
- They now know they are Chaos Space Marine on the planet.
- They do not have the plant yet... not as big as deal as expected as Andarion is safe in a stasis field. That being said, now that the bait of the plant has failed, the Sakar will most likely burn it and move their camp.
- Two of them are badly wounded and their transport is heavily damaged.

Now I just have to figure out what will happen next .

Draft:

Licking their wound and further plotting:

Assuming the players will return to Greysons castle to lick their wound and patch their wargear, Zeroth will order the Sarkar to burn and destroy as many of the remedy plant as they can.

His spy will tell him however that Andarion is now off world and the Kill-Team is alive, and as such things are now getting more complicated. Even if Andarion dies and the Kill-Team is destroyed, Zeroth is no position to stop from getting back to Greysons castle and once there, rely the intel that there is Chaos presence on the planet to the Spear of Righteous Fury - who will then relay the intel to the rest of the Imperium.

With warp travel being what it is, this gives him a 2 weeks top before a sizable contingent of reinforcement gets here. He needs to act fast.

Zeroth will send a relatively massive convoy of Chaos Space Marine and Sakar warrior from his hideout in the north to Greysons Castles, the players will have about a week of days to patch themselves up and get ready. Unless they send out some scouts however, they won't learn that the convoy is coming before the Greysons spots them - when they are within 2 days of travel time. Worse still, Zeroth's fleet will enter the system and the Spear of Righteous Fury will communicate that if they stay here, they will be destroyed - they have to depart before the chaos ships get within firing distance.

Lanis who is still up north, will spot the convoy but have to maintain radio silence for fear of being spot. She will however find the base and contact the Kill-Team with the information.

The way I see it, they have two options - stay and fight in the keep or try and get pass the convoy and hit Zeroth in his base while the Greysons fight the Chaos forces. Of course, players being players, they may end up going in a totally different direction, but you can only prepare for so much .

Staying at the Castle:

As soon as the Kill-Team see the Chaos Host come over the horizon, they will realise that this is not a battle they can win (if the players don't just figure it out, I'll toss out some +30 Tactic Roll or +10 Common lore: War rolls) - at best, they can hold on for a bit. The Sakar are outnumbered by the Greysons, but there is a good number of Chaos Space Marine (a few dozens) and they have tanks - a Predator and a Vindicator with a siege shield as well as several Rhino.

This will be a brutal battle, the Vindicator will drive forward and pepper the wall with its cannon, eventually ramming through the door unless it is stopped. If the Vindicator is not stopped, it will impossible for the Greysons to hold the castle and this 'siege' will become a slaughter.

At some points the Kill-Team will have to retreat - how soon depends on how well the battle is going, but even without the Vindicator, the Chaos's Host superior fire power makes an old stone castle a poor defense... however, like all old stone castle, it has a secret passage to guarantee an escape.

Flanking Zeroth:

This decision has to be made early, so that the Kill-Team can leave with their Razorback and go in a wide enough arc so to avoid the Chaos Host. In and out of itself, this will probably require some Drive test, Tech Test and Stealth test to avoid being detected by Vanguard (which consist mainly of Sakari cultist).

Once they are passed thought, it will be smooth sailing... the only thing slowing them down their gnawing concern at having left their allies to fend for themselves (even more so if they keep Radio Contact - without them, Greysons castle will fall in a matter of hours). This will probably result in some self-reflecting roleplaying.

They will eventually reach the mouth of the mountain base, where they will meet resistance from Dark Mechanicum agents and their servitor. Zeroth will be in his base with minimal Chaos Space Marine presence and Mechanicum agent, working furiously to get the Titans capable of at least moving out of the base.

Ending the game:

Because I'm stuck at a crossroad, I can't very well predict what they will do and I don't want to spend to much time working out the siege or even designing the encounter in Zeroth's base (they may not even go there). This game may end a bit earlier than usual, but at least the next one should be more focused. Either way, this session will end with the Kill-Team fleeing the castle, preparing to enter Zeroth's sanctum or dying.

Oi - what happened next? Give us an update please!

/Best

Didn't think anybody was reading those

Guess I'll finish it up later.

makes one wish to be in your game