So pretty much my first time GMing, so I decided I was going to run Purge the Unclean and then start making stuff up. but then, looking at the first adventure, I found it links to Illumination, so I thought hey, I'll run that first. so we did the our first sesion, everything turned out fine, we had fun, yadda yadda. but from reading the adventure (I read it all before hand, not after the first session) I though wow, the skae thing seems like it's a complete monster and I doubt a party of mostly first time roleplayers are going to be able to pick up on either way of killing it, so I thought getting another palyer would probably help this out a lot.

so one of my players tells me that his friend is interested, which made me a happy camper, later that week, he told me said friend worked on friday, which is our DH night, which made me a sad panda. when we left off they were still at port suffering (slow 1st session) so at first I thought ok, he wants to be a tech priest, well we'll just say the adeptus mechanicus sent him in a different ship and he'll just show up a few hours after they do. only now, he wont be able to actually be there for a while and the book did say flying directly to stern hope would be very dangerous, so I didnt want to have him drop in there, especially because he'd probably miss out on a bunch of the "eyes/blind" hints. so from there I thought, ok, I'll just make a side mission in port suffering and just delay the main quest until he could play. this is where my problem began.

my pcs decided to go looking for a bar to get some information such as local rumors and what not. Well things happened, a fight broke out, they killed 2 people and made a scene. I actually intended on the fight though, and made it so that the 2 people that started the fight part of a gang from port suffering. this was my bridge to the sidequest/mission. the gang didn't like it's people being killed all that much, so they plant a bomb in the truck the acolytes are supose to take, which is set off by random port guy starting the truck up for them, which led to it being blown up. Make sure that I could head everything in the right direction to get it started, Aristarchus almost instantly calls it out as an assassination attempt or something, and rushes the acolytes to the police station place where the PCs go if they turn the alley mugging into a shooting, and sets up an investigation, and thus I had my side quest. so far they have used security videos and questioning to find out who planted the bomb and proceeding to locate and capture him for interrogation.

so pretty much they're going to find out that this guy is part of a gang called the "heirs of suffering" and was told to kill the acolytes because they killed 2 of the gang members.

what they still don't know is that the gang knows about what the inquisition is doing (but more importantly to the gang, which vehicle they were going to be using) because one of the enforcers is a member, and is keeping a close watch on everything they're doing and trying to keep the gang a secret. what the name "heirs of suffering" means, is that the gang is more or less a "secret" warband much like the ones on the planet, only who's goal is to take over port suffering by acting in secret, and taking it from within the port itself, seeing as it is the most heavily rienforced outpost on the planet, and thus being able to control the ghost fire pollen tithe.

It was a lot of making things up off the top of my head, and a bit rushed, and now I can't think of where to go with it, and I'm worried it's going to end up being longer that the main quest. so pretty much, can anyone help me out here?

First off. Welcome to the insanity that is gming.

Second. Don't Panic. I don't have the nice big round letters to make you feel better but bear with me for a moment for the reference.

Third. If your players don't know any of the details yet as to the nature of the gang, then your problem's pretty much solved. Don't go too far into it, and lead the group back on track by having the npc being interrogated swear that it was a mistake he was hired to kill someone else and screwed up. Conversely if the tech-priest shows up in the next session have Aristarchus(not sure if I got the spelling right) tell the acolytes its time to start the mission we've dallied here too long. Or some such speech. Effectively he's loosing his touch with reality already, this kind of just foreshadows some of the "fun times" that lay ahead for the Acolytes. Another possibility have what some of the acolytes learn from the interrogation lead them back on track to Stern Hope, someone there hired him to kill a specific group coming into port suffering, no names, no questions.

Hope some of this helps. And let us know how the final fight goes. None of my group survived, but they managed to thwart the Skae thing.

I go along with Zarkovian_R , but would take a little different approach:

Stay with your "the heirs are a gang / they planted the bomb for revenge" thing. But do not make an enforcer a "member" and forget about that "conspiracy to take over port suffering" thing.

After all, you want it to be a side quest to be over quickly. So, make it a "on-the-site-thing", an not a full blown adventure in it self.

If they grab the guy who planted the bomb to soon... let Aristarchus demand that the pc shall cleanse the whole gang "to be sure". Demanding a report after every step and every occurance while he remains in the enforcer station or the =I= compound.

So you can send them around, perhabs to a "hide out" of the gang outside of port suffering (tunnels from port Suffering to the outside? From a warehouse? Perhapbs the gangs steals and smuggels goods from the ware houses this way?). Allow them to go into the hideout and "clean up".

If your "missing player" shows up, you can always shorten it by making Aristachus calliing a "major cleaning" with the help of the enforcers / garrison forces of port suffering joining the fray (and putting it to a quick and bloody end).

>^.^< Welcome to gm'ing on the fly.

Some of the best side plots can help new players with the main storyline. If you are worried about your players missing some of the clues in this mission (namely the part about eyes/blinding) then here is a perfect place to give your acolytes a nice little push. This is my suggestion for that:

Have your acolytes track down the fellow who planted the bomb in their transport and 'question' him as they see fit. The fellow is most likely a nobody and should break easily (or not!.. depends on how hard you want this to be and how much time you need to burn). Have him inform the acolytes that he recieved instructions from the gang boss to plant the bomb as revenge for the deaths of the gang members the day the acolytes killed them. Being cowed (and fearing for his own hide like a good little scum) have him bargin with the acolytes for his life if he takes them to the gang hideout in the old ruins not far out of town.

They can bring along anyone they wish, it won't help them. When they get there have them find that not only are all the gang members dead... but have been dead for some time. Depending on your acolytes ages and maturity you can get quite horrific with your descriptions, but make sure to note that every single body has had its eyes pecked out. Your surviving gang member can act out his horror according to his personality (but... but but..I... I was just here the other day! I spoke with >insert boss' name<!) If the acolytes feel the need to look around have them come across the gang boss in the center of the ruins. The body looks as if it has crawled through the dirt to this location then clawed its own eyes out in terror. If you really want, you can have it look as if the boss tried to scrible something on the stone in his own blood... something that looks vaguely like a bird? You could start to enforce the image that Aristarchus isn't acting 100% right by having him brush off the event and push the acolytes back on track. Their ride back to the port is haunted by echoing cries of the crows.

Hopefully your tech priest has shown up at this point, and the other acolytes can fill him in on the strange events.

Boy, I know that feeling. GMing on-the-fly can be fun, but it can also be frustrating.

Someone once wrote, in a gaming supplement somewhere, that when the action starts to bog down, you should follow the advice of Raymond Chandler and "have a guy kick down the door." Feel free to throw in a third party who has some stake in the plans of the antagonists or whom the Acolytes have pissed off. Or, you could even throw in someone interested in one of the Acolyte's shiny gear; it's not like they walk around in t-shirts that read "Inquisition: Do Not Taunt, Poke, or Otherwise Antagonize." A third party might have some information about the plot that could allow you to develop it in directions that might not be obvious otherwise.

Shadowkat said:

A really nice one! Instead of a "drawing in own blood", hey could have broke an aquilla in way that would make it look like the side view of just one bird of prey (asking the pc to check for perception in order to get the image).