A cunning plan (or possibly hackneyed cliche) which occurred to me for my Rogue Trader game is the use of rumourmongering; side events and reportage amongst the inhabitants of Footfall, Port Wander and other such outposts in the Expanse. During the e-mails we tend to use when dealing with downtime between Endeavours and the characters' individual scheming a mix of foreshadowing of future developments, hooks for future exploration/exploitation, further developments of past incidents and irrelevancies that serve mostly to remind players that theirs is not the only Rogue Trader Dynasty in the expanse are sent out along with the specific information. I thought that others might want to use some of these and/or contribute their own for the edification of others.
Obviously, if the crew of the Blessed Eventide happen to be reading, please don't continue, as most of these are stored for future use.
The Grand Fleet of the Chorda Dynasty, or at least a significant proportion of it, is at anchor around the fortified void estate
Excision of Mercy
. Prominent by size alone will be the mass conveyor
Galactic Promises
, though the true power is held in the cruiser Flagship
Implacable Flame.
Lady Aspyce Chorda is known to be occupied with mustering resources for some manner of grand adventure.
The merchant raider Cerberus , Flagship of the (eventual) Grand Fleet of Trask, makes port following a jaunt to the Heathen Stars about a week after your arrival. Rogue Trader Sarvus Trask and his hangers on will then proceed to spend their time alternating between sticking their noses in everything and throwing their weight around.
The festival of the Sanguinallia takes place this week, less observed in this part of the Imperium but still a major part of several sects of the Imperial Cult. By tradition adherents wear a red devotional badge, most often enamel in the shape of a single drop of blood, to commemorate the Lord of Angels. Of course, on Footfall the main concern is that this is one of the main holy days of the Astral Knives assassin cult who seek to wash away sin with the blood of impure victims on this day, which causes a significant spike in the number of deaths by blade experienced at this time.
The crippled Munitorium transport In Amber Clad has limped in-system, laden with supplies and personnel bound for the Margin Crusade but having come a cropper during transit. Its captain and command officers dead and the Navigator having apparently made transition with his last breath the surviving crew are understandably a bit on edge.
Word carried by Astropathic transmission of the Valcetti Dynasty’s bloody run-ins with Rak’Gol marauders in Winterscale’s Realm, and the first credible report of these savage Xenos possessing a battleship-scale vessel, will set jaws a flutter.
A vessel, identifiably a transport of human origin, broadcasting itself as a merchant ship belonging to the Stryxis Xenos-breed, has been seen entering the system. Ships and lighters flit constantly back and forth from it as the unscrupulous rush to trade with these odd creatures.
Jaws were set aflutter of events in orbit around Solace Encarmine, where a small fleet of Eldar raiders identifying themselves as the Children of Thorns defeated the system defence squadrons and demanded a full tenth of the population be bound over to them as slaves, or else their leader would be forced to begin ground action. The Twilight Swords were denied their prize by the arrival of another group of Eldar, a powerful force tentatively identified as the Crow Spirits, who engaged their fellows in battle, apparently driving them off with heavy casualties whilst sustaining minimal damage. The second fleet then departed without contacting Solace Encarmine, leaving its relieved residents to pick up the pieces.
The feared Ork Kaptain and Warlord Morgaash Kulgraz is known to have departed the Undred-Undred Teef aboard his “battlekroozer” Da Wurldbreaka and a powerful escort, shadowed every lightyear by the Imperial Navy scout sloop Dutiful Vanguard . So far it has held an erratic by determined course for the Alenic Depths.
A vessel bearing the heraldry of the White Consuls Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes was seen to dock with a supply ship in the Rubycon II system before entering the Warp bound for the Koronus Passage.
An unknown Warsphere of the Kroot xenos breed was sighted in the Charnel Stars region by a House Ma’kao vessel. Unresponsive to hails, it instead retreated when approached. Contact with known Kroot mercenaries has provided no insight.
With both of their houses scrambling to recoup losses, Lord Captain Hadarak Fel and Baron Djanko Scourge have met on Footfall , apparently seeking alliance in an endeavour that would see both their houses return to prominence.
Ships of the House of Saul bearing supplies for the Breaking Yards at SR-651 were accosted by the vessels of Elsbeth Castella, the “Dread Captain of the Foundling Worlds”. The ships were boarded and various items of cargo removed with no casualties reported, Lord Captain Castella reportedly apologising for the inconvenience and engaged a few amongst passengers in conversations before departing.
The Godwinne Dynasty reports the final vanquishing of the Ork pirates plaguing the Ragged Worlds, their shipyards around TN-827 having been reduced to smashed rock and splintered metal and the skull of their “Kommodore” placed in the Dynasty’s trophy room. Riding high on this victory the Godwinne Dynasty has moved to claim total dominion over Burnscour and the exploitation of its beast and toxin trades (though, wisely, not attempting colonisation of the planet itself).
The tramp trader Sweet Somethings under a Captain Kage braved the Somnium system to pick up a survivor of a ship crashed there. The Astropath-Seer Titus Khan claims to have spent five months on the maddening surface of Somnium VIII whilst the other survivors of the Red Wolf succumbed in a matter of weeks. He attributes his survival to the Grace of the Emperor.
Seeking resupply and repair, the Thulian Explorator ship Verification of Glory put in to port in the system SO-119, trailwise of Ntharis. They reported a full forge colony and attendant yards and ships bearing the Machina Opus symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Tech-Priests who they met there seemed strange and unbalanced, with hostility soon blossoming and turning to open combat. The Verification of Glory quit the system under heavy fire, Magos Explorator Decas decrying the system’s inhabitants as mind-rusted lunatics.
Duke Milo de Varen of Gunmetal City has arrived on Footfall, departing Scintilla after an infamous duel left him distinctly unwelcome. Misunderstanding (perhaps intentionally) the customs of duelling in Hive Sibellus, the celebrated gunrake put a premature end to an Esquire of the Lucid Court by putting a plasma blast through the man’s chest before he could fully draw his sword.
Riots broke out on Footfall after members of the Crusade of the Red Redemption raising violent objections to the staging of ‘Tis A Pity She Wore Crimson (an adaptation of book 19 of the Rainbow Hepburn sequence) were met by members of the Cult of the Emperor Revenant, objecting to the Redemptionist’s objection (and possibly existence).
The Annihilator , flagship of House Amardi, has volleyed against the Shard Reapers of the Cinerus Maleficum. Naj Amardi has undertaken before the statue of Saint Vidicus the Vitrian to cleanse Magath IX of the Enoulian, as a prelude to the eventual purification of the entire Koronus Expanse of Xenos taint.
The tramp trader Kiss My Aft under Captain Lorcus reports stopping over at Rittameron on their regular supply run only to find the feudal world in a state of full scale war. The world’s many kings are marching either for or against the newly emerged Red Priest, who has united the nations of the eastern equatorial spar.