Jarrion, Lucretcia, Eleanor and Ezekiel, if you are reading this stop. Because major spoilers.

So im running what started out as the Lure of the Expanse campaign. The players are going towards the endgame of the campaign. A vast sphere in the void created by the Iron Men and Golden Men before the birth of the imperium. (Thus the name Dread Pearl, the world in the original adventure is just the key to gaining access to it.) The sphere is a matrioshka brain constructed around a shard made by the ancients. This shard was created to serve as sort of a safehouse for their knowledge after the war against the necrons went bad.

Then the Iron Men and Golden Men from before the imperium found it and created a giant construct around it. Eventually the Iron Men rebelled and got cast out after a war inside the sphere. Eventually they became the Yu'Vath. Then many years later the Yu'Vath tried to achieve transcendence, to be pure beings living within the warp in the same vein as the Old Ones and Eldar gods had. This failed because the Eldar made the Imperium intevene a few centuries ago during the crusade that founded the Calixis sector.

So now im in the need for ideas for encounters

When the players arrive the orks will be attacking the outside of the sphere and be busy being eaten by nanoswarms and their ships cut in two by the weapons of the sphere.

Meanwhile Eldar will be chasing after the players in an attempt to kill them. As will the rest of the rivals from the Lure of the Expanse.

Lastly there is the spheres own defence systems. Normally it would instantly kill them but by this time the players have deactivated most of the defence systems to gain entry. Still lots of very very weird high tech, warp tech etc will be there and attack them. Constructs of the Yu'Vath will also be attacking alongside the orks.

Lastly what kind of reward should I give my players? It's gotta be epic something like a functioning STC. An idea of what happened to the lost space marine legions etc.

how bout control of the sphere? sounds like it could make one bad ass starbase.

Cornwallis said:

I don't think that's what he has in mind. A get in get out thing is what I feel he is doing, before everything goes boom (it's Orks, what doesn't go boom after they get ahold of it?). Anyhoot, it's possible other ships could have came across the Sphere. Could be archaeotech ships created by the Imperium, now empty waiting to be reclaimed by some wandering explorer (like the PC's). You could give them a few ships to choose from (like 5) with the possibility to acquire two max. Or it could be xeno ships or even ships created by the Iron Men left behind, fully automated but dormant.

Heck, not even with giving them anything they could still scrounge and win big. What weapons is the Sphere using? I'm sure these can be "acquired" or pieces of them acquired for research, netting vast sums of profit. Not to mention dead bodies from the enemy, just pieces of the ship itself, and even the "regular troops" equipment might be archaeotech in nature, worth vast sums individually, and that is only the weapons carried by the "regular troops" in the sphere.

If they capture computer components or even fragments of data from the core, these could be coordinates/information to who knows what. You know that anomaly the AdMech has been studying in quadrant X-12411CK for the pat 100 years? Well, since the Sphere has been there since how ever long you said (over 40,000 years?), they've seen, studied, analyzed, and even harnessed some of that anomaly, and much much much much more. What would the AdMech pay for data like that, or even partial data?

The possibilities here for the PC's to acquire so much $$$ and information is unbelievable. Sounds like an awesome game you have there. Be careful how much you want to give the PC's, because even after the battle I'm sure their name will be famous. Well, maybe. Depends on who all survives right? Dead men/xenos tell no tales. Hehehe.

Helios_Five said:

As a fellow GM, I wouldn't say it's that old. The core could be before the birth of the Imperium, while the outer shell and defenses can be around the time of the actual Iron Men and the Imperium fighting each other, say M25. Still pretty old. Anyhoot, love your story concept and ideas. Might steal some of it.

To assist you in creating missions, side quests, endeavors, however you want to name it, I will list a few I just came up with.

While in Space going to the object, the PC's get a distress call from one of their friendly NPC's ships, asking for assistance. This can be anything from just distracting an Eldar Ship away from them for a few rounds, to sending a boarding party to rescue the NPC and a few select others and fleeing the dying ship.

While exploring the Sphere, they come across/hear a distress call about another RT being pinned down. To help him/her, or leave him/her to their fate?

After fighting through tough security to an area they thought was a bridge, they discover a group of Iron/Golden Men retreating through a portal carrying something/someone. This portal could be a webway, or something similar to a teleporter, or anything else. The PC's don't have time to go after the group that fled, because they have to backtrack and get to the bridge (or where ever you wanted them to go in the first place). What was the group fleeing with and where did they do? Future plots indeed. And maybe this teleporter/webway might be the PC's only way out later?? And it has 10 different preset coordinates programed already. Roll a D 10

The PC's enter a room that has hundreds, maybe thousands, of creatures/xenos/humanoid looking things (and probably even humans) in stasis pods. And some of them have been dissected. They might have time to get some data from the terminals on a few of these species, but not all of them. How did they all get here? No time to ask, for the party must continue on with the mission.

Maybe the Golden Men have foreseen this future event (don't know what they are in your campaign, but since you mentioned Yu'vath like powers, it's possible). Maybe while running down cooridors and getting lost, certain doors open up for them, and/or a few certain Golden Men are hesitant to shoot the PC's. That's because maybe a few of them want the PC's to succeed in their mission and are either subconsciously helping them, or intentionaly helping them (like opening doors for them or stopping security systems that would blast the PC's to atoms). And maybe you can do a cutscene (I loved doing these in my games) or have a PC see one lone Golden Man watching them when the PC's leave/flee the sphere.

Yea, I have some more ideas but they are not forming right now. It's 1 AM where I am at. I will check on this in the morning if you still want some assistance. Happy gaming people.

I must say some awesome feedback I got there, gears are really spinning in my head. Sorry for being a bit slow on the reply. Brace for wall of text.
Feel free to steal any ideas , im happy if I can be of assistance to any other gms out there.

The main thing to gain is probably knowledge of some sort, perhaps even a functioning STC though that might make the players way too rich for any follow up campaigns.

I think im going with that distress call and the RT being pinned down. As the PCs have a few allies in among their rivals, some of which they've grown very fond of. In particular Madam Charlabelle (who is a close ally along with her gargantuan ex astartes bodyguard Master Beard who somehow got kicked out of the Storm Lords as a scout) , the gentleman adventurer Jeremiah Blitz. (Rogue and Trader, the Rogue Trader player has been hitting on him) and they have had some loose affiliations with Lady Sun Lee. Most want the Sphere to themselves but some fight without actual physical confronation, by hindering the others plan nonlethally or economically. It is a good opportunity to have them make an agonising choice about which one to save first.
Perhaps they can save several but at great cost in resources and time.

The webway portal fits good as an escape device as I've been pondering having the PCs use the webway portal on the Key (called Dread Pearl in the original campaign) to get in. (The outer shell needs a fleet to breach but the portal can get them in without as much problems, but with little backup.)

I can definitely see the Golden men collecting creatures and it is suitably creepy and weird for such a place.

One thing in particular might interest the players. Along the path to the Dread Pearl they have been following in the tracks of the lost Rogue Trader Sarvus Trask, the player RTs father. What has happened is that he managed to reach the Dread Pearl but had lost most of his subordinates and allies on the way. Eventually he made a mistake and had his body separated from his mind. Now his mind and soul roams the webway where he has been able to psychically communicate with the players on occasion. He is slightly mad due to the confinement and he was unhinged even before going to the pearl but the experience has also transformed him and made him wise beyond many mortals. He could see things that weren't there even before his entrapment on the sphere. (some of which actually were there, in the Processional he saw the players when they visited the same ship 20 years later. Of course none of the sane members of his party could see them.) Then again perhaps he fits better as a kind of mythological creature, they might be able to save him from his entrapment on the Sphere but not return him to his body. Or he is simply too changed from the experience to return to the dynasty again.

Additionally a (heretech) Adeptus Mechanicus ship that had been previously studied the Sphere, AMGEV Prometheus had one of their former crewmembers hostage when it disappeared near the sphere. It had been sending legions of servitors and slaves to try to breach it but it's defences kept literally eating them. Prometheus crew consisted of servitors and the uploaded mind of one single man that had then been copied to hundreds of techpriests.. (The False men mentioned in one dark heresy source book) It might have been eaten by the sphere or it's crew taken for studying.

One final point worth noting is what they might eventually accomplish, the sphere had the knowledge to enable the Yu'vath to ascend to become beings of the warp. (Though they failed and instead became a fractured completely insane warp god called The Many) and now an Inquisitor travelling with the players wants to use the Sphere to make humanity ascend in the same way. He believes that by directly using the Sphere he might accomplish what the Yu'vath failed in doing.
Unfortunately he might be manipulated by outside events. The Many has pointed out that he is ”Touched by the Crow”.

Perhaps doing something like the Deus Ex games where the players can choose the fate of the expanse or even the calixis sector? The campaign has been quite epic so it is not beyond it's scope even though I also try to focus on the players personal stories as well and the fate of the dynasty.

I like your style. A possible encounter with their lost father, is that he is in one of the stasis tubes, in a separate room away from all the other stasis tubes, linked up to all kinds of warp technology. If a PC has been communicating with the lost father, then the PC feels a pull / nudge to explore this separate room once the discover the large stasis chamber (like, what are the odds of them finding one person, in a place the size of Disney Land). Once he is unhooked from the machines, you can still have his mind be wondering, with only a fraction of himself there helping the PC's out with tidbits on information (like maybe at the end, he gives them a cryptic reply like "Choose wisely my son, for the fate of humanity rests in one and, and the fate of our dynasty in the other"). Or maybe at the end, with warp explosions happening everywhere, he suddenly returns back to himself to assist the PC's in a fight , only to lose his mind again, when the warp anomaly closes and the purplish sparks from his eyes die. You can have him randomly know stuff that he shouldn't too. Like the PC's come upon a locked blast door in the sphere, and thinking they have to find another way around they all turn to leave, except for Trask. He just mumbles something, walks over to the console next to the door, hits a string of buttons and the door opens up. Or he can point the way a few times, like literally, he just points with his finger. Another possible encounter is at the end, with him either knowing which coordinates to punch into the webway to get the PC's back on their ship, or Trask knows how to pilot an archaeotech ship, to be continued. GTG.

Cinematic scenes that can occur are Ork ships ramming themselves into the sphere, and one of the ork ships rams itself into a gun emplacement. Do the Iron Men/Golden Men care about this? Nope. The sphere shoots anyways, totally destroying the gun emplacement, the ork ship, a couple nearby ork ships, and leaves a small crater in the ship due to the ammo stores blowing up also.

PC's see troops from a Rival Dynasty ahead of them (or Orks/Eldar), successfully eliminating a group of Iron Men. Probably is, those troops just wondered into a defensive trap, and all the troops get annihilated in like 5 secs in the corridor. Enough time for the PC's to know that they shouldn't go that way.

Or the PC's get pinned down by some rival dynasty troops / orks in a large open area with a low ceiling. As they are exchanging fire back and forth, after a couple of rounds a partition comes down separating them both groups from each other. And on the other side of the partition the PC's observe veteran / heavy Iron Men / Golden Men troops swarm in and kill all the rival troops. Or you can play out a short cinematic scene if you have a rival RT / Ork Boss Captain there, and as the PC's leave the area to find a way around, they observe him/her/it holding ground / dying / sounded by the Iron Men / Golden Men.

Same thing can happen in space if any of the PC's are on a ship attacking the sphere / or as they flee the sphere. An enemy ship (Ork, Eldar, Rival RT) sees it's chance to attack the PC's from a blind side. As the PC's are wondering what to do, the enemy ship just happens to come across a sector of space where one of the sphere's main guns are trained. And boom goes the enemy ship. This either A) if the PC's are attacking the sphere, they can now blow that gun emplacement up before their ship receives the same fate or B) if they are fleeing, they now know to stay out of sight of that gun emplacement.

The re-continued part….. Trask could also know how to fly an archaeotech gun-shuttle / xeno assault boat, etc. Scene could go like this. "As everyone enters the shuttle to flee the sphere, someone enters the cockpit as everyone else gets in the passenger compartment and buckles in. Once a few people are buckled, someone pips up "So who's flying the ship?" As everyone turns to the cockpit, Trask peeks his head out, and with a crazy look in his eyes he just smiles and waves."

Yea, not sure what your future ideas are with Trask, but figured some scenes with him wouldn't hurt. You can also use these various scenes in way later scenarios/campaigns. For example, say the PC's are using a teleporter, and waiting for the ho ahead to beam aboard an enemy ship. The Techpreist is at the controls when he hits the teleport button / lever, and all everyone hears is the teleporter hum to power up, then and nothing. The Techpreist fiddles with the controls for a few more seconds followed by a string of binary code, which you are pretty sure you heard before when he was mad at you. You look at him, he looks at you, and says the enemy ship has moved out of position / an anomaly has occurred and the teleporter will not activate. Just as he says this, Trask walks over to the controls, hits a few buttons, looks at the Techpreist who's looking at him, and hits the button / pulls the lever. Everyone gets teleported, with short exclamations similar to "OHH MY EMPEROR" being screamed in the mics. And to everyones surprise, they are all intact and on the enemies bridge / right on top of the xeno ruins.

Okay, out of general ideas now. Let me know if you need anything specific or want me to clarify something. And may your PC's endeavors always be fruitful, though they may not always be prosperous.

Your idea for them finding Trask by being psychically pulled to him works well. I have already made it quite clear (as is also clear in the original campaign but never elaborated upon.) that there is some kind of psychic pull that makes them want to posess the dread pearl. Im not entirely decided who made this happen but I imagine it is the Inquisitor who set all this into motion. That or the Witches of Footfall. (Who are controlled by one of the saner parts of the broken hivemind that is The Many.) He was the one who lured Trask to seek the pearl in the first place.
Trask has undergone a limited transcendence. His mind is disconnected from his body but he is still trapped on the sphere. He has been able to reach out through the webway to communicate with others though but only for a short time.
I like the idea with his mind wandering. He was a bit crazy even before.

I was thinking of giving them a ship but as they have already came into posession of their long lost flagship of the dynasty it feels a bit underwhelming no matter how powerful. Not to mention it diminishes their earlier accomplishment.. (Their second ship being Sarvus Trasks old ship that was lost in the Processional along, now renamed The Vintage since newly rebuilt ships keeping names of lost ships is in my campaign considered an ill omen)

The way I have portrayed the sphere is it is insanely advanced. It has nanobots that literally eat other ships or boarders, fractal robots, disassembling walls. Things like the concepts for the X-Com FPS would fit well.

Im thinking there might be separate individual consciousnesses within the sphere with different agendas that download themselves into robot bodies when needed.

Their decisions will likely be important for the future of the imperium but I just cannot figure out what the choices should be. I prefer if their choices limit themselves to the future of the koronus expanse and calixis rather than the whole imperium. (Though I was thinking of a follow up campaign in searching for the two lost space marine legions). They should have large long term consequences but not make the players themselves super powerful. (Of course they will also get rewards but those are separate)

The inquisitor wants to create the hydra, essentially a warp god built up of a human hive mind. This is dangerous and possibly a plot by Tzeentch. If done the right way it might work though.

The Many wants to repair itself but even if this works a revived Yu'Vath empire would not be very nice. They originally attempted to transcend so they could overpower the chaos gods and the oncoming Tyranids they had witnessed in a vision. They brought billions into the processional and forcibly separated their minds from their bodies and made them become part of their hivemind. Then they sent the empty bodies to battle with warp constructs controlling them. To humans this looked genocide and horribl using undead but to the Yu'Vath they were doing them a favor. The souls were after all still alive and now part of a larger, better whole.
Hmm perhaps the players could make someone take control of the Yu'Vath to use them as weapons against the oncoming Tyranids, awakening Necrons and forces of Chaos?

Djanko Scourge is dead, his son Varnmed Scourge wanted to avenge his father and thus allied with The Many but then the players threw him into a hellpit and he ended up swalloved by a demon of The Many so he now acts as The Many's spokesperson with only parts of his old self left.

The Dread Pearl itself is loathe to involve itself in the affairs of mortals. There are some parts of it that are curious however. Like children playing with ants. Perhaps the larger consciousnesses of the Dread Pearl are long since gone and all that is left are the stupid (by it's standards, superhuman by ours) defence systems and maintenance systems?
The defence forces might be able to speak and communicate and to humans appear as an alien race of robots or aliens but to the larger consciousnesses of the Dread Pearl this is just like an immune system. It is an idea at least.

I am not sure what Trasks ultimate goal is. He probably wants to reunite with his body.

Admiral Bastille just wants the Pearl for himself, probably as a weapon. Which wont work at all, the sphere just wont comply.

The Eldar wants to use it to further their own goals, possibly to quicken the birth of the unborn Eldar god; Ynnead. They have been in this game for a long time. They made the players astropath have her soul merge with that of an eldar soul in order to use the soulbond to create a psyker powerful enough to activate a path to the Pearl. (Without her knowledge and before the campaign began. This is only a small faction as most Eldar would consider such a thing a hideous abomination and probably want the Farseer in charge punished severely.)

Feckward wants to backstab the Eldar he has allied with and keep the Pearl for himself.

Blitz? He doesn't think that much, it's a marvellous gem to add to his collection. It's also a really cool thing for picking up guys and girls so that's a pro as well.

Lady Sun Lee is greedy above all else but loves adventure too.

Charlabelle wants to revive her dynasty but she is willing to cooperate with others. In the end she might sacrifice herself for the good of the imperium.

AMGEV Prometheus wants the technology within the Pearl, they might even come to worship it as a manifestation of the machine god.

The tech that could be gleaned could be an enormous treasure. Somehow I want them to make a choice of what path to take. Like in the Deus Ex games but my imagination is lacking here.

Ork ships crashing into the sphere im definitely gonna use, I want it chaotic but also scary. Seeing orks literally devoured by black clouds down a hallway for example.

Im definitely gonna have some gun emplacement blow up an enemy ship as well, possibly saving the explorers vessel in the process.

There are countless npcs with the players as well. The rogue trader Eleanor Trask's mother; Isador Trask (A very demanding, passive aggressive woman), Sarvus Trasks closest friend and lover; Wrath Umbold. (The RT does not know of this but her mother does. Wrath and Isador Trask do not like each other AT ALL) , Asira Stormcaller (Who was Sarvus former Astropath who were driven insane in the processional and left behind on Dross) got killed in a crash and was ressurected by their insane Adeptus Mechanicus Genetor and is seeking a new purpose in life as her psychic abilies has been robbed of her. (She claims her old self is dead.) Theres their crazy, overemotional and enthusiastic Adeptus Mechanicus Genetor; Jeanette Ironfang who keeps wanting to "Improve" everyone on the ship

Then theres the players I haven't mentioned.

The crazy AM Techpriest Ezekiel. (Who is now paranoid about the Eldar, keeps putting up lights everywhere after meeting an Umbra, thinks Orks are gonna pop out of the woodwork and keeps screaming over the voxlink for no reason.)

Their controlling, Stalin inspired seneschal: Jarrion Rautamäki who has created his own security forces called the nightwatch and is essentially controlling most of their ship by now.

The insane Astropath Lucretcia who acts a bit like Max from Sam & Max but in her more lucid moments is a brilliant strategist.

Then theres the one sane woman aboard the ship. The Rogue Trader Eleanor Trask who has been driven into alcoholism by her collegues.

Helios_Five said:

I forget the name of the RT campaign where the players are in the Procession of the Damned, and board an ancient Imperial Battleship (Battlecruiser, something big). The Cpt is old and a little crazy, and all he requests is if the PC's can fix the engines so he can fly the ship into certain oblivion. As a reward the PC's get to choose from a list of exceedingly one of a kind rare items before the ship departs. If you happen to have a copy of that Endeavor/Adventure, you can do something like that, but first tailor the equipment/weapons/armour/guncutter squadron/vehicle/bionic/tech device to what the PC's truly desire. Meaning, ask the PC's what exceedingly rare item they would like to find, and make something like that, but make it better. Adding a few extra rare items wouldn't hurt either.

For example, say the Astropath wants a Force Staff. Give him one, but make it an ancient Rune Staff, with also an integrated Forcefield. And then also give him a tech device/Psyker charm that can give him a +2 Psy Rating to Astral Telepathy only, and an Archeotech Hellpistol (Just made this up while looking at the Archeotech Laspistol. Stats: Pistol, 105m, RoF S/4/10, Dm 1d10+5E, Pen 8, Clip 80, Accurate and Reliable). These are just examples, you can create whatever you and your players desire.

Helios_Five said:

Maybe they learn of a return of the Yu'Vath forces that were trapped in a warp pocket dimension waiting to strike (or certain Necron tomb worlds, a small Tyranid Hive Fleet, or other exceedingly dangerous threat) through the devices mechanisms / data / warp induced vision(s) / video screen / etc, and are able to stop this new threat from emerging. How do they stop this threat? Maybe they can tell the device to warp there in T minus 6 hours to engage said threat, while rigging a bomb to / overloading the reactor. Or maybe they are able to go back in time one time and return, via a certain device/contraption in the sphere, to stop said threat. Or maybe there is a certain weapon/virus the PC's can acquire to combat this threat. Or maybe all they need to do is warn the proper person/group/xeno to prepare for this threat by showing them the data they acquired from the sphere. Or ……. actually, I'm all out of Or's, sorry.

Does anyone else know of this coming threat? Only some powerful Farseers, Inquisitor Tarot Card readers, etc, so pretty much everyone else is oblivious to what the PC's accomplished, besides a select few. Obviously the rewards would be coming later, besides the immediate ones the PC's recover/steal/acquire from the sphere. Like maybe the Farseers giving the PC's some of there technology way down the road (weapons, equipment, space ship components, or even a space ship), and/or the Inquisition (certain factions/individuals, not the whole) giving them information to lost worlds ready to be plundered, resources that increase profit, access to archeotect ship components, etc. Heck, these could almost be immediate, like say since their ship/crew was almost destroyed you decide to fast forward a year. And in that time frame the Inquisition and/or the Eldar meet with the PC's, thank them for actions, and reward them. This can be as detailed an encounter as you want it to be.

Other than my few ideas that I just mentioned (and jumbled all into two paragraphs…. sorry), I think you have a great story and game Helios_Five. You have a diverse group of NPC's to assists the PC's, an awesome group of PC's it seems, and an in-depth plot. Congrats to you on a well deserved awesome game.

Helios_Five said:

Arnstinium said:

That's actually a really good idea. I like your style Arnstinium, and am definitely going to steal it.

Feel free to. I would just advise using either Roboute Guilliman or a Primarch from a world in the Segmentum Obscurus to be the one who leaves the holo-recording.