So i created a (somewhat) secretive criminal seneshal to join my players retinue. A long range plot I want to work out is he either works for or actually is a pirate captain to a fleet of ork freebooters, using the RT to get back to his ship/treasure/fleet and stage a mutiny, thus adding a ship to his fleet as well, unless the RT can stop it, finds out ahead of time, or wishes/ is convinced to join.

solid enough but could use some suggestions:

1. can a human be powerful enough to lead orks as stated?

2. what kind of ship would he be heading toward (thinking star galleon, flagship cruiser, or kroozer…)

3. how can this be forshadowed without giving it away? (chose penal world, they dont know its homeworld, but bringing them there and hopefully 'press ganging' some old crewmates for the mutiny)

4. how can i suggest them to join or anything related?

any answers, suggestions or general comments will be greatly appreciated. any questions for me on story/plot can be answered as well.

I don't know enough to explain all your points but the big problem will be explaining why orks are following a human. While it is not unheard of for a few orks to follow humans the idea of a ship full of orks following one human would be hard to sell. Normally orks will follow a non ork if they stand to gain something like weapons. To justify why a ship full of orks would follow a human he would have to have something very enticing.

Swop the orks out for some non chaos human pirates and I'd say your good to go.

Orks measure leadership in who is the biggest and strongest and most able to rip a challengers head off. For this human to be the Orks leader he's going to need to be something like an Astartes in size and strength with no morals and a very loud voice. Then its possible he would be able to intimidate Orks into following him but even then…..they would have to be pretty desperate circumstances.

I think you could pull it off if the character has disguised himself as an ork in some way. Perhaps a large mechanical ork suit built from modified terminator armour. Or perhaps a heavy dose of Polymorphine? Alternatively perhaps there is an ork kaptain, but your character is his human advisor. From there he could manipulate the ork crew into achieving his goals under the guise of the kaptain's orders.

I think Quidam has it (with his second point, the first one sounds like more of a comedy plot ). Make him the Lieutenant to a bigger Ork Warlord. Darth Vader to his Emperor. Relied on for his brains, and devilish cunning rather than brawn, and seen as (almost) indispensable to the Orks' operations so commanding a lot of power and grudging respect.

The big Ork guy could be in the background, commanding an even bigger portion of the fleet somewhere else. You wouldn't have to actually have him in the adventure. Your boy could still be the main villain your PCs face (and then you always have his boss for a sequel later if you choose).

Plynkes said:

I think Quidam has it (with his second point, the first one sounds like more of a comedy plot ).

I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling explorers!

I figured the same for the human leader idea. Although i like the lieutenant idea (and may go with that) I was thinking more him captaining a human controlled ship while leading other ork ships, and probably more human ships as well.

before i side-tracked them with a book campaign, they were trying their hand at bounty hunting. One such bounty being an 'ork' pirate lord nobody has ever seen without dying or being enslaved, hence my story idea. Now if ork ships are more likely to follow a human flagship than an ork crew following a human captain, i might still be in business.

Blood Axes and Yellow Suns are mercenary clans, they'll fight for anyone who pays them enough and doesn't look weak enough to be looted.

I'm going to just stick with regular human pirates with a small fleet of ork mercenaries.

Next big question on my mind is what sort of ship should the prize be? I figure the Seneschal is going to lead them to a certain system (after picking up a bunch of his old crew at the penal world) where an abandonned ship lay dormant in orbit around some sort of planet. The ship either being the pirates old flagship, or a treasure ship, or whatever else may be suggested; with a planned ambush right around the time of discovery/mutiny

Question being, what ship should be in orbit? ideas I'm keeping in mind are a) pirate lord's ship. b) my group is small craft oriented so launch bays would be nice to be included. c) The crew coming from a penal colony, means they must have surrendered or were crippled at one point. thought about maybe after navy ship left, a salvager might have shown up for the ship and was ambushed as well, who knows. d) my crew is already flying a light cruiser, and I dont know how unfair it would be for them to gain another large ship so early, or if thats even a big deal.

Ships I have in mind:

Repulsive class grand cruiser with launch bays, since most fall into chaos, or heretical hands

Chalice class Battlecruiser with launch bays, since many failed in their early years, missing one could easily fall to vicious hands, launch bays also

Star Galleon with cargo launch bay AND 2-4 launch bays, huge treasure hauler with plenty of defensive small craft.

possibly a flagship without launch bays, then have the salvager ship have the bays, along with space dock port, or what have you for a double prize.

again any questions, comments, concerns, criticism or ideas of your own are greatly appreciated

Cornwallis said:

also reconsidering they're flying a light-cruiser to start with, maybe just a transport outfitted with a landing bay as to not give them a second large ship. Then again a pirate lord wouldn't really be flying a transport. Possibly its just a treasure ship… good thing I've got plenty of time to hammer out the details.

Your light cruiser idea with hanger bays ( and maybe torpedoes) is a great idea for the pirate lord. Maybe utilizing surprise attacks with his bombers and interceptors when he is hiding behind a moon or asteroid belt, would be your best bet. Ensure the pirate's ship has a high speed and maneuverability, because he needs to be able to flee from battle quickly (but don't cheat like me . I houseruled (but only used it with Eldar craft so far) that a ship in combat may flee if it ends its turn 10 VU's away from any opposing ships/attack craft. Reason for this is simple. I have a Dauntless Class Light Cruise equipped with Prow Torpedo tubes, and Port and Starboard Hanger Bays…… what is my range then for enemy ships to flee? 60 VU's because that's the range of my torpedoes? Figured I would use the KISS method here. 10 VU's standard across the void. Celestial phenomena discretion is advised.

Nameless2all said:

thing is, the explorers are the ones in the light cruiser and the pirate captain is onboard as well. I was either leading them towards the captains empty ship or an empty treasure ship, stage a mutiny and/or ambush, have the explorers have the choice to join him, and have the pirate escape with half the crew in either (his) ship or quite possibly even the explorers ship, leaving them stuck with the abandoned one.

Cornwallis said:

1. this is tricky but not impossible, my choice for doing it "An ork fleet had defeated all of men on a mighty ship except the captain when the utterly mad weirdboy Gotzgit got a vision by Gork or Mork (or the squigjuice, hard to tell really) and was told by the voices in his head that the human captain was blessed and should be the captain. Choosing not to disobey the gods he exploded the warlords head and told the orks that the human was in command now, a few exploded heads later the new chain of command was established."

2. If pirates, small raider fleet, if orks, anything suitably orky.

3. Exotic Weapon Training (anything orky and still very useful), some teef for trading when they meet a small (unrelated to the other orks) group of orks.

4. It's Rougetrader, gold and infamy of course.