Rogue Trader Games 2&3
Cut for length!
First up, a quick note. I reduced the armour value of the Ork ships in the core rule book by 2. I was glad I did this as these beasts are *very* tough. Without this change, I'm not sure how far the crew of the Nex would have got. I don't know if this was something covered in the errata, but if you're going to use the ships, you might want to consider this.
We started off the game with a quick retcon as Jordan joined us. We demoted the NPC Arch Militant to Militant Secondus, as he wanted to play that role.
The last game ended with the crew of the Nex fleeing the fanatical Inquisitor Irredek of the Ordo Xenos, convinced that the crew have been tainted by their service aboard the reclaimed alien ship of the Nex. They fled further into the Heathen Stars (look it up in your copy of the book!). The stopped for resupply at Edge-Edge, the most Northerly and Westerly imperial station in the region. While docked there, a second ship arrived; The Destrier, captained by Toros Umbolt.
The core book lists two NPCs by the name of Umbolt, Toros and Wrath, but doesn't make clear the relationship between the two. I decided that they are twin brothers, with Wrath being the oldest, sharing a writ between them.
Toros met with Solarius (Adrian's character, our Explorator and Rogue Trader) aboard the station and they discussed the finer points of being a Lord Captain. It was a great scene which was a lot of fun to play through. A huge banquet table in front of a gothic window, looking out across alien stars. Two elderly men, recounting their lives and experiences. It really caught the gravitas of the setting.
As detailed in the setting, Toros was after reclaiming the system he found many years ago, but has since been unable to rediscover. Having spent his fortune on numerous attempts to re-find the system, and it's wealth of archeotech, he was getting desperate, running out of money, and getting old. His brother, Wrath, now devoted to the Imperial Cult, was no longer interested in part-funding these expeditions.
So the two Lord Captains struck a deal - the Nex was to accompany and protect The Destrier to rediscover the lost system, in exchange for 60% of the plunder and no grandstanding! Toros was convinced this time he'd find the system as his previous attempts had been thwarted by warp storms that had recently cleared.
Toros was aware of the Inquisition's hunt for the Nex;
"Either what they say about you is true, Brother Captain, and you are just the sort of heretic I need. And if what they say is false, then you're a heretic for contradicting the Inquisition, and we're right back where we started."
His source, who passed on the information about the storms having parted, also mentioned an alien presence in the system - something not there on Toros' original survey.
Before they left, Lecretia (Becky's character), the Nex's navigator, made a careful study of the route and her own appraisal of the journey, not trusting Sigmund Modaire - The Destrier's navigator. She new his family by reputation and that they were held in higher standing than hers, but through tradition rather than merit.
During the final phases of preparation, Dominique, the Militant Secondus, reported her plan to Anarette (Jordan's character). She had planted the Nex's murder servitors on board The Destrier and hacked the commands so Anarette could activate them and decapitate The Destrier if they turned on the Nex. Jordan decided not to tell Adrian about this, so Anarette kept this secret weapon hidden from her Lord Captain.
The Destrier led the way out of the system and into the warp, as the two ships began the three month journey to the lost system.
During the warp journey, the Nex kept with tradition and experienced heavy haunting by warp ghosts, unnerving the crew. Things took a turn for the worse as large numbers of the crew started dying. Fortunately, the crew reclamation facility was able to recover the bodies as servitors, but this didn't help ship morale.
Anarette ordered her staff to look into the deaths, which turned up the answer pretty quickly - the food stocks loaded aboard during the stay at Edge-Edge were poisoned! Suspicion and rumour ran rampant as rationing and heavy security took over - the poisoned food jettisoned into the warp, along with crew morale.
This led to an amusing scene where Toros communicated with Solarius, asking if everything was okay and why the Nex has just jettisoned half her food supplies.
"Details do not concern me, Brother Captain. I'm sure my staff have a very good reason for their actions."
*out of game* "Yeah - like going space-crazy!"
The journey and the investigation continued, turning up a tracking beacon bearing the mark of the Inquisition. Agents of the Ordo Xenos aboard Edge-Edge must have received word and poisoned the supplies! The beacon was cast into the most turbulent part of the warp they passed.
The translation back to real space went smoothly, and the two ships arrived outside the lost (Raakata) system. The Destier had better scanning equipment, so began relaying information to the Nex - her scanners being jammed by the numerous satellites littering space, all broadcasting strange languages and incomprehensible binary, in a constant chatter.
There were four unidentifiable ships in orbit around Raakata One - their destination. Upon scanning each other, two of the ships broke off and headed deeper into the system to confront the Nex and The Destrier, while one flew towards Raakata Two (an airless frozen rock, stretched to look like a hour glass due to strange minerals in it's planetary ring). The last, largest ship - twice the size of the Nex held it's orbit.
As the ships headed towards each other, taking days in real time, the unidentified alien ships accelerated to speeds in excess of 3G, something a human crew could not handle. They also refused to return contact - and armed their cannons!
The Destrier held back, trusting the Nex to handle the threat - that was what they were being paid for, after all. This led to an angry Vox-Cast between the two ship's Arch Militants. Jedein, The Destrier's Arch Militant, cut off communication with the Nex, denying them of their valuable scanning information. He didn't want Anarette's foul outbursts to be heard by his Lord Captain. Another great RP scene.
Battle commenced as the Nex engaged what Anarette dubbed "Little Sister One and Two". Constant attempts to board the Nex were made, but none of them were successful, unable to land due to the large number of turrets dotting her hull. By contrast, Anarette, sick of being stuck on the bridge, led a boarding attempt of her own, confirming the identity of the foe - Orks! She destroyed the engines on LS1, escaping as Solarius took out their Void Shields with a direct hit.
The battle continued against LS2, with LS1 drifting off through space. LS2 constantly kept trying to avoid the Nex's guns, unsuccessfully. Lecretia inspired the crew to greater degrees of competency.
The battle ended with both the Ork vessels drifting through space, heavily damaged, compared to the minor damage suffered by the Nex. The Nex moved in to finish off LS2, but it managed to escape. As it did so, The Destrier's Explorators captured one of the broadcasting satellites for further study.
The two ships moved deeper into the system, with Toros confirming his ship's support for the coming engagement against the larger vessel in orbit around their destination. This annoyed Anarette no end!
As it turned out, battle was not necessary, as the larger ship identified itself as The Slow Roast, an Ork mega-ship, and sent a luxury ship to pick up the captain for parley. Once again The Destrier held back; Toros bowing to the superior experience dealing with Xenos that Solarius supposedly had. Adrian decided to not have his character let on, bluffing his experience dealing with Orks and first contact situations. As Solarius prepared, Anarette equipped three squads of troops to support the Lord Captain and bring him back alive.
Solarius had other plans and visited the other Explorators on board the Nex, nestled away in their lab, preparing for the trip to the surface of Raakata One and the search for archeotech. He got his fellow Martians to fit him with a nuclear bomb, linked to his heart. If it stopped; boom! Being 40K, this was entirely inelegant, giving Solarius a huge hunch-back and necessitating a third, bionic, leg to support the weight. It also had the side effect of turbo-charging his potentia-coil with the nuclear energy, giving him a mega twitch and the hyper-activity of a spider monkey on Mountain Dew!
Lecretia, meanwhile, was spooked by a conversation she had with the NPC Astropath Transcendent, Gaylors. Gaylors explained that he sensed a great deal of psychic energy coming from the large Ork ship, something he didn't sense from the smaller vessels they fought previously. Lecretia considered the possibility that these Orks had made some sort of deal with the ruinous powers, and gained a corruption point for her impure thoughts!
The crew boarded the luxury shuttle, figuring out it was an old imperial model, and questioned the Orkish pilots as it rumbled towards The Slow Roast.
It turns out there are two clans of Orks fighting in the Raakata system - the Blood Axes and the Snakebites. The two clans were in peace talks over Raakata one, when the Nex and The Destrier arrived. The Snakebites left the talks wanting to fight the new aliens, while the second Blood Axe ship headed to the Orkish outpost on Raakata Two, which they called "Blue Goo" due to the distorting rings, for reinforcements.
Both clans were fighting each other and the feral humans on Raakata One (which they called "Dust Ball"), battling for the valuable archeotech.
Lord Captain Solarius and Lecretia met with Captain Dek Plus-One-Tooth, and Warboss Bampy No-Teeth and got the rest of the story. It turns out that fifteen years ago, and imperial vessel called Darklight traded with them, giving the Blood Axe's all their imperial weapons, tanks and supplies, as well as telling them they were welcome to the system as the Imperium no longer had any functioning holdings there.
The mystery of the extreme amounts of psychic energy was also solved - these Blood Axe Orks had an exceptional number of Weird Boyz amongst their ranks.
(What the players didn't find out is that the boyz also followed their copies of The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and suffered not the witch to live. These constant witch hunts led to the passing on of the "background psychic genes", rather than the explosive manifestations of the Weird Boyz.)
The Warboss agreed to vacate Dust Ball, as what he really wanted was to chase down the Snakebites, but confided in Solarius that he was little more than a figure-head in his old age and that his grandson, Captain Plus-One-Tooth was really calling the shots. In any case they would be leaving Orks on the surface as they didn't have the resources to bring them all back up to the ship - it had been over a decade and the Blood Axes on the surface had their own towns and settlements.
The NPC seneschal traded with the Orks for unopened imperial rations (good for well over fifty years!) and the unpopular las weapons, as Solarius recounted the details to Toros and had the bomb removed from his back.
As the three ships floated in orbit around Dust Ball, Anarette got a communication from Dominique; there was a small shuttle slinking away from The Destrier and broadcasting on a coded channel!
It turned out to be Noblite Sigmund Modaire - The Destrier's navigator. He was welcomed aboard by armed guard, as he desperately told his story to Anarette. She called an immediate ship's council.
At the council meeting Sigmund retold his story. He believes that Toros has been corrupted by the unmentionable gods of Chaos, and lived aboard The Destrier in constant fear of his discovery being discovered. He also feared The Destrier's Choir had been similarly tainted. He fled the ship the moment he felt he was not being watched and sought sanctuary aboard the Nex.
The council felt he was telling the truth, but could not authenticate his claims without either the Nex's navigator or astropath transcendent meeting Lord Captain Toros Umbolt in person. Both Gaylors and Lecretia were terrified at the prospect!
A decision was made to send his shuttle down to the surface of Dust Ball and claim ignorance, while arranging for a meeting between the two captains, that could be witnessed by Gaylors and Lecretia.
Will the Orks really withdraw from Dust Ball?
Is The Destrier captained by a corrupt man?
What secrets await on the surface of Raakata One?
Hopefully my players are looking forward to the next game to find out!
First up, a quick note. I reduced the armour value of the Ork ships in the core rule book by 2. I was glad I did this as these beasts are *very* tough. Without this change, I'm not sure how far the crew of the Nex would have got. I don't know if this was something covered in the errata, but if you're going to use the ships, you might want to consider this.
We started off the game with a quick retcon as Jordan joined us. We demoted the NPC Arch Militant to Militant Secondus, as he wanted to play that role.
The last game ended with the crew of the Nex fleeing the fanatical Inquisitor Irredek of the Ordo Xenos, convinced that the crew have been tainted by their service aboard the reclaimed alien ship of the Nex. They fled further into the Heathen Stars (look it up in your copy of the book!). The stopped for resupply at Edge-Edge, the most Northerly and Westerly imperial station in the region. While docked there, a second ship arrived; The Destrier, captained by Toros Umbolt.
The core book lists two NPCs by the name of Umbolt, Toros and Wrath, but doesn't make clear the relationship between the two. I decided that they are twin brothers, with Wrath being the oldest, sharing a writ between them.
Toros met with Solarius (Adrian's character, our Explorator and Rogue Trader) aboard the station and they discussed the finer points of being a Lord Captain. It was a great scene which was a lot of fun to play through. A huge banquet table in front of a gothic window, looking out across alien stars. Two elderly men, recounting their lives and experiences. It really caught the gravitas of the setting.
As detailed in the setting, Toros was after reclaiming the system he found many years ago, but has since been unable to rediscover. Having spent his fortune on numerous attempts to re-find the system, and it's wealth of archeotech, he was getting desperate, running out of money, and getting old. His brother, Wrath, now devoted to the Imperial Cult, was no longer interested in part-funding these expeditions.
So the two Lord Captains struck a deal - the Nex was to accompany and protect The Destrier to rediscover the lost system, in exchange for 60% of the plunder and no grandstanding! Toros was convinced this time he'd find the system as his previous attempts had been thwarted by warp storms that had recently cleared.
Toros was aware of the Inquisition's hunt for the Nex;
"Either what they say about you is true, Brother Captain, and you are just the sort of heretic I need. And if what they say is false, then you're a heretic for contradicting the Inquisition, and we're right back where we started."
His source, who passed on the information about the storms having parted, also mentioned an alien presence in the system - something not there on Toros' original survey.
Before they left, Lecretia (Becky's character), the Nex's navigator, made a careful study of the route and her own appraisal of the journey, not trusting Sigmund Modaire - The Destrier's navigator. She new his family by reputation and that they were held in higher standing than hers, but through tradition rather than merit.
During the final phases of preparation, Dominique, the Militant Secondus, reported her plan to Anarette (Jordan's character). She had planted the Nex's murder servitors on board The Destrier and hacked the commands so Anarette could activate them and decapitate The Destrier if they turned on the Nex. Jordan decided not to tell Adrian about this, so Anarette kept this secret weapon hidden from her Lord Captain.
The Destrier led the way out of the system and into the warp, as the two ships began the three month journey to the lost system.
During the warp journey, the Nex kept with tradition and experienced heavy haunting by warp ghosts, unnerving the crew. Things took a turn for the worse as large numbers of the crew started dying. Fortunately, the crew reclamation facility was able to recover the bodies as servitors, but this didn't help ship morale.
Anarette ordered her staff to look into the deaths, which turned up the answer pretty quickly - the food stocks loaded aboard during the stay at Edge-Edge were poisoned! Suspicion and rumour ran rampant as rationing and heavy security took over - the poisoned food jettisoned into the warp, along with crew morale.
This led to an amusing scene where Toros communicated with Solarius, asking if everything was okay and why the Nex has just jettisoned half her food supplies.
"Details do not concern me, Brother Captain. I'm sure my staff have a very good reason for their actions."
*out of game* "Yeah - like going space-crazy!"
The journey and the investigation continued, turning up a tracking beacon bearing the mark of the Inquisition. Agents of the Ordo Xenos aboard Edge-Edge must have received word and poisoned the supplies! The beacon was cast into the most turbulent part of the warp they passed.
The translation back to real space went smoothly, and the two ships arrived outside the lost (Raakata) system. The Destier had better scanning equipment, so began relaying information to the Nex - her scanners being jammed by the numerous satellites littering space, all broadcasting strange languages and incomprehensible binary, in a constant chatter.
There were four unidentifiable ships in orbit around Raakata One - their destination. Upon scanning each other, two of the ships broke off and headed deeper into the system to confront the Nex and The Destrier, while one flew towards Raakata Two (an airless frozen rock, stretched to look like a hour glass due to strange minerals in it's planetary ring). The last, largest ship - twice the size of the Nex held it's orbit.
As the ships headed towards each other, taking days in real time, the unidentified alien ships accelerated to speeds in excess of 3G, something a human crew could not handle. They also refused to return contact - and armed their cannons!
The Destrier held back, trusting the Nex to handle the threat - that was what they were being paid for, after all. This led to an angry Vox-Cast between the two ship's Arch Militants. Jedein, The Destrier's Arch Militant, cut off communication with the Nex, denying them of their valuable scanning information. He didn't want Anarette's foul outbursts to be heard by his Lord Captain. Another great RP scene.
Battle commenced as the Nex engaged what Anarette dubbed "Little Sister One and Two". Constant attempts to board the Nex were made, but none of them were successful, unable to land due to the large number of turrets dotting her hull. By contrast, Anarette, sick of being stuck on the bridge, led a boarding attempt of her own, confirming the identity of the foe - Orks! She destroyed the engines on LS1, escaping as Solarius took out their Void Shields with a direct hit.
The battle continued against LS2, with LS1 drifting off through space. LS2 constantly kept trying to avoid the Nex's guns, unsuccessfully. Lecretia inspired the crew to greater degrees of competency.
The battle ended with both the Ork vessels drifting through space, heavily damaged, compared to the minor damage suffered by the Nex. The Nex moved in to finish off LS2, but it managed to escape. As it did so, The Destrier's Explorators captured one of the broadcasting satellites for further study.
The two ships moved deeper into the system, with Toros confirming his ship's support for the coming engagement against the larger vessel in orbit around their destination. This annoyed Anarette no end!
As it turned out, battle was not necessary, as the larger ship identified itself as The Slow Roast, an Ork mega-ship, and sent a luxury ship to pick up the captain for parley. Once again The Destrier held back; Toros bowing to the superior experience dealing with Xenos that Solarius supposedly had. Adrian decided to not have his character let on, bluffing his experience dealing with Orks and first contact situations. As Solarius prepared, Anarette equipped three squads of troops to support the Lord Captain and bring him back alive.
Solarius had other plans and visited the other Explorators on board the Nex, nestled away in their lab, preparing for the trip to the surface of Raakata One and the search for archeotech. He got his fellow Martians to fit him with a nuclear bomb, linked to his heart. If it stopped; boom! Being 40K, this was entirely inelegant, giving Solarius a huge hunch-back and necessitating a third, bionic, leg to support the weight. It also had the side effect of turbo-charging his potentia-coil with the nuclear energy, giving him a mega twitch and the hyper-activity of a spider monkey on Mountain Dew!
Lecretia, meanwhile, was spooked by a conversation she had with the NPC Astropath Transcendent, Gaylors. Gaylors explained that he sensed a great deal of psychic energy coming from the large Ork ship, something he didn't sense from the smaller vessels they fought previously. Lecretia considered the possibility that these Orks had made some sort of deal with the ruinous powers, and gained a corruption point for her impure thoughts!
The crew boarded the luxury shuttle, figuring out it was an old imperial model, and questioned the Orkish pilots as it rumbled towards The Slow Roast.
It turns out there are two clans of Orks fighting in the Raakata system - the Blood Axes and the Snakebites. The two clans were in peace talks over Raakata one, when the Nex and The Destrier arrived. The Snakebites left the talks wanting to fight the new aliens, while the second Blood Axe ship headed to the Orkish outpost on Raakata Two, which they called "Blue Goo" due to the distorting rings, for reinforcements.
Both clans were fighting each other and the feral humans on Raakata One (which they called "Dust Ball"), battling for the valuable archeotech.
Lord Captain Solarius and Lecretia met with Captain Dek Plus-One-Tooth, and Warboss Bampy No-Teeth and got the rest of the story. It turns out that fifteen years ago, and imperial vessel called Darklight traded with them, giving the Blood Axe's all their imperial weapons, tanks and supplies, as well as telling them they were welcome to the system as the Imperium no longer had any functioning holdings there.
The mystery of the extreme amounts of psychic energy was also solved - these Blood Axe Orks had an exceptional number of Weird Boyz amongst their ranks.
(What the players didn't find out is that the boyz also followed their copies of The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and suffered not the witch to live. These constant witch hunts led to the passing on of the "background psychic genes", rather than the explosive manifestations of the Weird Boyz.)
The Warboss agreed to vacate Dust Ball, as what he really wanted was to chase down the Snakebites, but confided in Solarius that he was little more than a figure-head in his old age and that his grandson, Captain Plus-One-Tooth was really calling the shots. In any case they would be leaving Orks on the surface as they didn't have the resources to bring them all back up to the ship - it had been over a decade and the Blood Axes on the surface had their own towns and settlements.
The NPC seneschal traded with the Orks for unopened imperial rations (good for well over fifty years!) and the unpopular las weapons, as Solarius recounted the details to Toros and had the bomb removed from his back.
As the three ships floated in orbit around Dust Ball, Anarette got a communication from Dominique; there was a small shuttle slinking away from The Destrier and broadcasting on a coded channel!
It turned out to be Noblite Sigmund Modaire - The Destrier's navigator. He was welcomed aboard by armed guard, as he desperately told his story to Anarette. She called an immediate ship's council.
At the council meeting Sigmund retold his story. He believes that Toros has been corrupted by the unmentionable gods of Chaos, and lived aboard The Destrier in constant fear of his discovery being discovered. He also feared The Destrier's Choir had been similarly tainted. He fled the ship the moment he felt he was not being watched and sought sanctuary aboard the Nex.
The council felt he was telling the truth, but could not authenticate his claims without either the Nex's navigator or astropath transcendent meeting Lord Captain Toros Umbolt in person. Both Gaylors and Lecretia were terrified at the prospect!
A decision was made to send his shuttle down to the surface of Dust Ball and claim ignorance, while arranging for a meeting between the two captains, that could be witnessed by Gaylors and Lecretia.
Will the Orks really withdraw from Dust Ball?
Is The Destrier captained by a corrupt man?
What secrets await on the surface of Raakata One?
Hopefully my players are looking forward to the next game to find out!