Hunt for the Dread Pearl

Characters:

Lady Arabella March (Nathan): Rogue Trader, heir to the March dynasty’s brunch-based empire, and Lord (Lady?)-Captain of the Excallibrunch, her sword-class frigate

Cyrus (Caolan): Explorator, First officer, and instrument of the Omnissiah’s will throughout the Koronus Expanse

Pierre (Solon): Seneschal and intelligence officer – totally not a French spy

Penelopy (Michael): Well-endowed Arch-Militant and all around wielder of large guns

Rex (Phil): Astropath Transcendent and generally crazy blind psychic dude

Malakai (Rachel et al.): Missionary of the Emperor’s divine will and destroyer of heretics

Michelle (Lilia): Twin to Penelopy; Identical where it matters

Note: The Lexicanum and WH40k Wiki are great resources for learning about the 40k universe; I've glossed over quite a bit and made no effort to explain several of unusual elements in the story, so if anything seems unusual, check it out at one of the above.

Our adventure starts with the players’ arrival at Footfall, an ancient space station located at the far end of the Maw, the massive warp passage between the Calixis sector and the Koronus Expanse. The explorers have been lured here by rumors of the “Foretelling”, an event whereby the location of a fabled treasure will be revealed to all those privileged enough to be in attendance. Not much other information is forthcoming, but in the 41^st Millennium, you take your chances wherever you can get them.

As the docking clamps slam into place across the ship, Arabella and her retinue are marching towards the bridge’s main airlock. As the armored airlock portal swings open, a gust of stale damp air assaults the explorers’ senses. They enter onto the Footfall Longshore, an enormous vaulted space, its roughhewn stone walls worn smooth by uncounted ages. Everywhere they look the area is crowded with all sorts of individuals: voidfarers, servitors, merchants, and even xenos.

The Forsaken Bounty pt 2

Having driven off the worm-possessed Navigator by shooting out a vista-panel and plunging the bridge into hard vacuum, the explorers now frantically search the corridors for another way to gain control of the Emperor’s Bounty, all while fighting off ever-growing mobs of Warp-animated corpses. In one particularly dark and out-of-the-way corridor, the party glimpses another figure moving toward them slowly at the end of the hallway. The Arch-militant raises her gun in preparation to destroy yet another wave of those Emperor-damned Warp-puppets. Just as she has her sights set on the silhouette’s center of mass, however, they hear the figure call out to them. The Rogue Trader commands the militant to stand down and beckons the stranger to approach.

The stranger, now identifiable as a man clothed in filthy rags. Begging the explorers not to shoot, he identifies himself as Erart, and he informs the party that he knows of a safe place to hide from the monsters in the ship. The Rogue Trader is initially quite wary of the stranger, but after some persuading from the rest of the party he acquiesces, realizing there’s really nothing else to do except keep killing corpses. Erart leads the party down a series of small dark corridors, deep into the bowels of the ship. As the explorers enter the series of chambers the refugees have claimed as their safe haven, their senses are assaulted by the sounds and smells of the area. The cries of the sick and dying echo through the cavernous chambers, and the smell is reminiscent of the sewage pools of an overpopulated hiveworld. Overall, it seems the refugees are almost worse off than their compatriots left on the bridge.

History of the Academy Part 3: Our Hero's Story

The following is taken from the Academy's student files. The Academy does not take terribly strict records on its students movements, to the following consists of Monk Yuri's entire permanent record.

Editor's Note: Those analyzing Yuri's past should be aware of the structure of the Academy, as it will be relevant to the records. The Academy sits with its back to the mountains, and its front surrounded by four semi-circles, each enveloping the last. These four semi-circles are self-contained biodomes, and each represent one of the four tenants of the monk training. New students begin in the outermost ring and move inward as they progress in their training. Starting from the outside, the four rings are the Desert of the Body, the Forest of the Mind, the Swamp of Spirit, and the Pit of Judgement.

The first two rings are self-explanatory. The Swamp of Spirit uses the hybrid nature of a swamp (where the forest meets the ocean) to teach the students about their place in the world, and help them understand nature, other living beings, and the energy that flows through all things. The Pit of Judgement is a giant hole in the ground, and only students who have made it to the innermost ring (and either passed through or failed and were sent home) know what lies within. The "Judgement" moniker is a clever double-meaning. The Pit is used to teach the monk proper judgement and morality in a dark, desolate environment. It also serves as the proving ground for the monk, where the Academy can judge whether or not the student is prepared to become a full Monk.

MONK YURI

Born on a farm not far from Academy. His parents were both Academy graduates. He joined the Academy at age 15, the traditional starting age.

Salvaging the Emperor's Bounty

“Forsaken Bounty”

                                                               

Characters used were premades and have been discarded/remade in subsequent sections, so I’m just going to refer to them by profession name. Also, Spoiler Warning for The Forsaken Bounty premade adventure available online.

Rogue Trader (Leader) – Ari (Later Nathan)

Arch-Militant (Big Guns) – Michael

Seneschal (Information Specialist) – Caolan

Void Master (Pilot) – Solon

Missionary (Burn the Heretic!) – Rachel

The “Forsaken Bounty” jumps right into the action with the party arriving outside a debris field containing the vessel known as The Emperor’s Bounty, to which the party has secured salvage rights. The seneschal scanned the debris field and was rewarded with the signature of a nearly-dead plasma drive, hopefully still attached to the Bounty. The Rogue Trader ordered the ship to move as close as possible and then commanded the gunnery crews to fire upon all debris between his ship and the Bounty. His Seneschal protested the seemingly needless use of violence, but his protests stopped when he realized a path was now clear for them to fly between the two vessels. They piled into the guncutter (a small inter-ship craft), threw a redshirt into the spare seat, and flew over to the Bounty. Within minutes the pilot found a void lock and the crew had entered. Upon entering, they found the air breathable, if rather stale; it was certainly no garden planet. Most of the power was out; the lighting was dim and none of the terminals functioned. Everyone immediately set about securing the immediate area, and that was when they started finding the bodies.

Rogue Trader is my new favorite system

So, first, the bad news; Because I have such a back-log of adventure built up that I need to write posts about, I'm just going to abandon most of them because the intimidation of the massive workload was preventing me from writing anything. So if you wanted to hear anything about Echofall, best speak up, or it shall remain unknown and forgotten (alternately, write your own post if you were there).

The good news is that I finally got to start up a Rogue Trader game, which is super awesome and definitely the best RPG system I've ever used. The core mechanic - while unusual for a D&D player - is very intuitive once understood, and character creation lends itself to the creation of deep backstories in less time than a new D&D player spends picking feats (which is actually an absurdly long time, for anyone who's tried that). Read on for information and backstory about the 40k universe, which most of my players would definitely benefit from reading.

History of the Monk Academy Part II

The following is from, "A Modern History of the Academy," written by historian and Architecture Professor, Monk Aldori. It's prefix reads, "True history, history that is made separate from myth and legend, is based on evidence and multiple firsthand accounts. The following is true history."

It is important to understand, before we look at the Academy's history, that the Academy lies within the borders of Krainue, a mighty modern nation. When the Academy was founded by refugees, who may or may not have been called by the mythical Zogdreib, those who could not or would not enroll in the Academy spread out to found the nation of Krainue.

The history of the Academy is long and complicated, but the most important events center around the Two Wars, sometimes known collectively as the Di-War, because the second took place so soon after the first. The First War established the Academy as a major power within Krainue, and the Second War established the Academy as an independent nation within the borders of Krainue.

The History of the Monk Academy Part I: Guardians of the Deep

The following account was taken from, "The History of the World," written by the renowned historian, Monk Niama. The prefix reads, "Every culture will tell its own story of how it came to be. This is our story. Make of it what you will."

All children are taught the story of the world's creation. The Creator came down from on high and breathed life into our barren world. Forests grew, animals were born, and the first of the cultured races began their nomadic journeys across the land. But not all children know of the war.

Long ago, deep in the half-forgotten past, there was a great war. The forces of good and evil clashed and broke the world beneath them. The very elements were brought to bear against each other. The world was in danger of being torn apart.

The Creator, keeper of all things, came down to our world, for the first time since the Beginning, to stop the conflict that was destroying his creation. However, the sheer force of the destruction being brought to bear awakened powers from the Deep, powers older than the world itself. The Creator was able to defeat these powers, and lock them away, but at a terrible price.