So, my group is gearing up to play this adventure. It's the one in the GM's guide. Have any of you run this adventure before, and do you have any advice for prep? I'm a bit worried how running those endeavors away from the Svard system. I haven't found anything on this specific adventure on the forums, so I'm wondering if anyone has previous experiences that would help here.

What do you mean by running encounter away from the Svard system? The impression I got from reading the kit was that the explorers had the option to leave the system to set up trade routes etc. Or they could handle such through astropathic messages, but it's slow and tedious to hammer out complex trade agreements via back and forth messages. I ended up playing through the adventure with a PC and we didn't bother leaving the system, going for a highly aggressive approach to the enemies we encountered. So just before the final battle our flagship was pretty beaten up. The GM threw us a bone with records of a lost Inquisition ship with two atomics on board (check Into The Storm for ship additions). They made killing the Whisperer possible without us getting killed in the process. I should point out that the final battle is very tough and it may well be worth the explorers time to make a "tactical withdrawal" and run it as a war. If they've made a point of getting Svard's system ships refuelled and repaired, the fight would become easier I imagine.

What I mean is that it seems quite possible for the PCs to simply leave Svard entirely to set up trade routes and perhaps purchase luxury items for the Crystal Council. I'm concerned that such long trips away from Svard might lead to some out-of-character detachment from the proceedings and some in-universe collapses of Svard's defenses while the PCs are far away negotiating for supplies.

Also, from reading the adventure it already looks like the "war" option is the best way to go. My group has a very powerful ship, but even they aren't going to be able to finish that last naval battle in one go.

numb3rc said:

The last battle is really one i dont quite understand myself.

The beginning if the adventure starts with the explorers supposedly cowed into submission by the Imperial Navy Cruiser. But in the final battle this cruiser even might just go after the PCs, although the Whisperer itself is deadly enough.

Judging from other adventures and the rulebooks, i have the impresssion of frigates being the norm or standard for which adventures are normally written. So alot of the fight load has to go towards the system ships maybe?

I've already decided to cut the Imperial Cruiser. It eclipses the story as only a giant Imperial Cruiser can. I feel that getting Svard's system fleet sailing again should be vital in the final battle. The Hand of Redemption does not seem well planned. I'm still not sure why Keel is supposed to turn against the PCs. I can understand that he might try to run off with his brother over saving the system, but why would he linger after that to try and kill some Rogue Trader he's never met before? It's confusing, to say the least.

Whisperer ate his brain.

Whispers on the Storm is pretty typical Fantasy Flight Games fare- an incredible setting with a mediocre plot set in it. The individual elements are all great, but as with every other FFG adventure a GM will usually just end up using them as building blocks for home-brewed advantures rather than simply running it as written.

The two biggest problems, as people have noted, are The Whisperer and the Hand of Redemption. The Hand of Redemption overshadows the PCs, but the Whisperer is too powerful, especially with the Void Wasp support, to be defeated without Keel's aid.

My method of handling this was a follows...

Remove the initial encounter with the Hand of Redemption and have the PCs discover the existence of Svard by researching their Dynasty's archives. Have them travel to Svard by themselves. Then have them discover that not only is The Whisperer active in the system, but prior to the abandoment the Rogue Trader's forbears had been conducting all kinds of illicit Xeno research there. The Whisperer is only one example of forbidden tech that was being researched here, and the facilities used for this research were the reason it was brought here.

Then have them encounter The Whisperer. Not the encounter in the adventure, but seeking out the source of the malign influence and finding it deep in the storm. Let them flee with a damaged ship and a very good idea of how powerful The Whisperer is.

State the repairs on the ship will require that they go to Port Wander to recover fully. Then, whilst there, they encounter Captain Keel. He's heard (from encountering trade ships involved in Endeavors the PCs have started running that involve Svard) that they have re-opened contact with the system and intends to make a fly-by on his next patrol into the Expanse.

The PCs should, if they dig for information, be able to get hints that the Ordo Xenos have requested he does this, and that there may even be a cell of Throne Agents on the Hand of Redemption itself.

The PCs are thus faced with a dilemma- if the Ordo Xenos finds out what their Dynasty was doing in Svard, it's going to be bad. But The Whisperer is just too powerful to be defeated without, say, the assistance of an Imperial Navy Cruiser...

And so instead of an ally that will overshadow them the entire game, the PCs are presented with two enemies, one of which they need the assistance of to defeat the other. Cue plotting and hijinks.

numb3rc said:

Were I to run it, I would leave things in effective limbo while the PCs are away. Svard has been slowly grinding down to oblivion for years, a few more months isn't necessarily going to decide its fate. And those routes could be key to its salvation.

I'd forgotten about the notion that Keel might turn on the PCs. It seems...odd. There's no real need for him to do so so I would ignore it.

The fight against the Whisperer and Void Wasps is doable, but the PCs would need the Hand of Redemption and a bunch of system ships to even the odds. Tantavalist's take is pretty interesting though!

I just looked over the whisperer stats a bit more. And the system ships as well.

IF everything hits, the first macrobattery downs the shields, but the second needs to roll above average for damage to even do more than scratch the whisperer; for damage a combined roll of 21 is needed, the average is 16,5 though. Going purely with the rules they are effectively limited to hunting void wasps.

Keel turning on the PCs might really be explained by mind control. But it makes a hard fight even harder.

But Tantavalist's ideas are pretty nice.