The Dark Frontier (sessions #4-7)

So, having finished our first sojourn into Rogue Trader, with no small success the question was "What next?".

The players had focused quite alot on the Halo device and especially keeping it away from the Lord-Captain so it seemed natural to follow that up. Therefore I took advantage of the downloadable scenarios on the Fantasy Flight Games site and decided to run the follow up adventure Dark Frontier.

The Emperor's Bounty was made fit for travel and sent back to Port Wander for refit with a skeleton crew consisting of 50/50 Majestic labour clan-kin crew/Emperor's Bounty survivors.  The remaining survivors of the Bounty were assimilated into the Majestic Labour's crew.

When visiting his father Darien is surprised to find the Halo device there, even after he'd organised to have it sent into a star.  At first he thinks it could be a second one but there's no doubt, somehow it has found it's way back on board, and the captain is jealously guarding it.

After the Bounty leaves the Labour attempts to translate to the Warp but something goes horribly wrong. The ship is ripped through the Warp, the hull rends and buckles and the vessel careers way off course.  When they eventually come to rest in real space again Theata places them somewhere in the Ragged Worlds.

They soon learn that their drives are locked and that they are trapped in the system.  However investigations soon identify the only stellar body is an artificial "dark star" orbitted by a single moon and a debris field of previous victims.

Darien & Co are sent to the moon to make contact with the apparently human inhabitants and are able to negotiate with their leader, while the Captain sends the ship's Confessor, Brother Namahs, to open a dialogue with the religious sect that is resident in the debris field.

The Explorers' negotiations reveal that in exchange for passage off the moon for those who want it the settlement are willing to offer up the weapon they have prepared to break the dark sun's hold on the Labour.  They have the warhead of a Vortex Torpeado, but no reliable way to get it to the Xeno world's surface.  Darien agrees to help but upon return to the Majestic labour he discovers that things haven't progressed so well with the religious zealots of the other community. Brother Namahs believes that a potential opportunity resides with the captain of a merchant vessel which is also locked here, and is currently allied with the religious "Brotherhood". Darien is dispatched again to try to negotiate with her.

The captain's name is Lynara Cobolt and she comes across as a pious servant of the Emperor. She offers to help with the plans to escape and to act as a liason with the Brotherhood but what she asks in return is membership in the Rogue Trader Dynasty, Darien immediately assumes this means marriage...

The next session of play began with our "heroes" in a conference room aboard the Majestic Labour updating the Lord-Captain with details of recent events.  A new player character, Enginseer Mord, was introduced as the ship's chief Tech Priest, Magos Ectris, had delegated him to attend in his place (something the captain considered a major snub). The Captain seemed inclined to make Captain Cobolt his "next" wife and requested that she be brought onboard. The meeting was then interrupted by a delegation from House X'an Tai (the Navigator house that Theata belongs to) summoning the Carto-Artificer to his presence of his uncle, the ship's Warp Guide.

The Chief Navigator seems exceedingly frustrated, to the point of appearing somewhat manic, at the prospect of being Warp locked for much longer. He charges Theata with getting them out of there with all due haste.

Cobolt arrived with a small (armed) delegation, a discussion ensued in the hold where she'd landed which revealed the presence of Xenos on board - which in turn lead to to Captain Baccahrus telling her what he thought of her prudish, ignorant ways, and her leaving in haste.

The players then tried to alleviate matters but attempts at negotiation seemed to be stonewalled.

It is about then that Chief Bosun Tanda comes up with a plan - they will stage a fake coup on board the Majestic Labour - using doctored audio files and a staged battle against twists, mutants and bilge scum "recruited" by the Twist Catcher, Dungoof. Erronius will contact Capt. Cobolt and explain that he, and some loyal followers, are over throwing the Xenos-loving Captain but that they need her assistance. The staged battle will take place once she arrives on board with reinforcements, a bunch of badly armed muties etc will be killed for effect, meanwhile Theata will "gain command" of the bridge.

The players decide to take the plan to the Captain (and Klyto) and manage to sell it to them. All goes as planned, Tanda and Erronius fighting alongside Capt. Cobolt in one of the cargo holds as a swarm of twists are essentially executed (having been trapped in the hold by Enginseer Mord). The message soon comes through that the bridge is theirs and the Lord-Captain is dead - Erronius drops to one knee and asks for Lynara Cobolt's hand in marriage - she accepts.

The following session was the execution of the plan.  Darien piloted the Labour's Guncutter to the surface of the dark sun, accompanied by Theata, Vyn, Mord, Lomar (another new player character) and some ratings and servitors to manage the Vortex warhead. Meanwhile the Majestioc Labour and Cobolt's ship; The Penance of Iocanthos, will engage the alien "Void Wasps" that attack any ships that approach the xenos world.

Thanks largely to Darien's piloting skills they get down to the alien world's surface and disembark, heading to a very visable "node tower" - the theory being that if they cn knockl one of the nodes out the field holding the ships will be broken).

On the way they had to pass through a maze decorated with xeno pictograms and warp infused hieroglyphs.  The starnge sigils and symbols overwhelemed Darien, basically leaving him a  gibbering wreck for the remains of the game (poor guy failed every WP roll he had to make.  The Trauma meant that he could have acted but teh player was absent that day so for expediency I just had him panic & fret and act as a distraction and further complication to the others)

The tower was guarded by a series of formidable xeno constructs - the last of which resulted in an epic battle that almost killed both Mord & Theata. Bo'sun Tanda had a plan to distract it by placing herself in harm's way - which worked - too well. Vyn dies trying to save her friends.

It appears that the Halo device found it's way to the planet's surface and was the cause of the problems, finding it's way to the "altar" in teh central chamber of the tower. Mord sets the Vortex Warhead to detonate and they get out of there as quickly as they can.

We then jump to a few days after the misson to the "Alien world". Mord & Theata are out of the infirmary and Darien has spent most of the time under heavy sedation.

The Lord-Captain summons Darien, Theta and Mord for "brunch" as he wants to brief them before the arrival of Captain Cobolt from the Penance of Iocanthos.

He explains the events that transpired while they were on their expidition:

The battle lasted for just over four hours

The Void Wasps were persistant and quite deadly, they hit the Penance of Iocanthos a LOT but weren't so successful against the Majestic Labour.  The captain decided to raise the alien "ghost field" rather than it's void shields - making it much harder to hit but leaving it exposed to damage if shots connected. Essentially the Xenos craft were skilled but didn't hit very hard. Some were damaged but none of the alien ships were lost until the Vortex warhead blew up the tower. The Majestic Labour ended up firing four salvos of torpeados leaving it's magazine depleted by half. The Penance did not fare as well. While it's armour resisted the majority of damage the sheer number of hits it suffered meant that critical hits kept penetrating. First it's crew compartments were holed then it lost sensors (having to fire blind for the rest of the conflict as the tech-priests tried and consistantly failed to get them back on line.). Essentially unable to move or see the Wasps hit it again and again...thrusters were damaged, then it's Munitorium caught fire. The fire teams summoned by the Captain soon lost control of the blaze, causing a chain reaction which blew the stores (and a large section of ship), the fire spreading on to the ship's impressive Temple Shrine. Still the fire teams couldn't subdue the flames and they wrencked the shrine, then went on to damage one of the Cargo holds before spreading to the second (and final) hold. Mercifully it was at this point that the Void Wasps were destroyed so no further damage was sustained. Captain Cobolt had to take the emergency measure of venting the 2nd Hold to the Void to save it - at the cost of those souls still working within. Once the battle was concluded and the dead counted the losses suffered on board caused a mutiny to break out against the Captain.....which she eventually subdued....leaving the Penance in a precarious position....

During the mutiny Lynara contacted the Majesic Labour to beseech Darien for aid (as she had helped him previously) but got the Captain instead - destroying the ruse about his death. She has since cut communications until requesting a meeting later that day.

Through it all Darien seems dazed, befuddled, amnesiac and somewhat obsessed with a data slate, upon which he is attempting to draw and replicate the xeno pictograms that decorated the alien world.  

Mord discovers that Tanda's body is currently being kept "on ice" and he and Darien go to pay their respects. Theata returns to the cartography chambers to continue work to determine a safe warp route to and from this system.

Lynara arrives to be met by the command crew, Theata & Mord. Darien is late and has to be escorted to the meeting by the ascerbic Ms Scythia, Klyto's apprentice/assistant.. Lynara has arrived without entourage and seems somewhat humbled since their last dealings with her. The Lord-Captain takes everyone off to a reception room to discuss matters. Captain Cobolt still wants to join the dynasty (the suggestion being that she's quite prepared to lay aside her piety for profit) and Darien's father considers the Penance, albeit damaged, to still be a worthwhile prize. So they agree that Darien and Lynara will still be wed. A message arrives that a ship has translated from the Warp into near space and so Darien, Theata and Mord head to the bridge to investigate while the two Captains continue their discussions.

The Majestic Labour's augur array is a standard transport system so it can't get detail on the new ship that now rests near the other side of the Xeno world but they are able to identify that it is an Astartes Gladius class Frigate - a Space Marine multi-role ship.... It doesn't hail them, launches no shuttle craft, in fact it just appears to sit there... A tense waiting game ensues. Darien, Theata and the Lord-Captain are all keen to not "wake the carnosaur" - especially considering the xeno crew and technology on the ship. Lynara returns to the Penance to do the same. Darien splits his time either on watch on the bridge or in the ship's observation dome, still making his notes and drawings. After about 14 hours the Astartes ship jumps into the Warp again, disappearing as quickly as it arrived....

Mord is summoned by Magos Ectris, the senior tech-priest on the vessel, who asks for copies of all recording and research he has made relating to the Xeno constructs. Mord hands them over and asks the tech priest for advice - he wants to find a way that he can remove the "weakness" of his human emotions as the death of Vyn is distressing him greatly. The Magos is encouraged to hear this and says that he will give Mord some papres containing methods he can study involving procedures and tech-rituals he might use to exorcise such weaknesses.

Darien and the Captain discuss what to do next and agree that this system could hold potential profit - a tech-priest explorator mission to the xeno world, potential "cold trade" in alien artefacts, salvaging the vessel debris and setting up a small but longer term colony on the moon.  However the Penance needs repair, and the Lord-Captain wants to solidify the alliance so that they hold proper title on the ship. Therefore they agree that while the Majestic Labour remains in system to oversee the opening of "trade channels", Darien and a had picked staff will board the Penance and acompany her back to dock for repairs.  In this way they hope to:

• Restore morale on the ship - or at least prevent another mutiny
• Protect their new "investment"
• Take back the colonists and brotherhood members who want to return to Imperial space
• Arrange and conduct the wedding of Darien & Lynara

Baccahrus snr. dispatches Mord to oversee the emergency repairs to the Penance - a task that he conducts to such success that all the damaged systems are brought back online - leaving only the hull damage to be remedied.

Further preparations are made (these & repairs taking about two weeks in all) and a "delegation" selected:

• Darien
• Theata
• Mord 
• Lomar (sent by the Lord-Captain as his eyes & ears)
• Ms Scythia (sent by Klyto)
• Sister Litilia (a novice sister, selcted by Brother Namahs at the behest of Darien, considering the "pious" nature of the crew and Brotherhood)
• An Astropath (so Darien has a "reliable" means to contact the Majestic if needs be)
• A staff of sundry servants, maids, pages, clerks and assistants.

...all ready for session #7....