Dark Frontier.pdf

AN INTRODUCTORY

ROGUE TRADER ADVENTURE

Credits

Lead Developer

Ross Watson

Managing RPG Developer

Michael Hurley

Dark Frontier Written by

Owen Barnes with additional writing by Sam Stewart

Publisher

Christian T. Petersen

G a m e s W o r k s h o p

Editing

Leigh Anne Reger

Graphic Design

Kevin Childress

Licensing Manager

Owen Rees

Thanks to all staff of the GW Design Studio—your work is

an inspiration.

Cover Art

Imaginary Friends Studio

Licensing & Acquired Rights Manager

Erik Mogensen

Interior Art

Matt Bradbury, Colin MacNeil, Karl Richardson

Intellectual Property Manager

Alan Merrett

Art Direction

Zoe Robinson

Head of Legal & Licensing

Andy Jones

Production Manager

Gabe Laulunen

Special Thanks to Our Playtesters

“All Records Expunged” Sean Schoonmaker with Cliff Drozda,

Nate Grover, Andrew McDonnell, Eric Ullman, “No Guts, No

Glory” Sean Connor with Mathieu Booth, Karl Lloyd, Stephen

Pitson, Benn Williams with Kat Glass, Chris Lancaster, Matt

Ricicki, Rebecca Williams

FANTASY

FLIGHT

GAMES

Fantasy Flight Games

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Roseville, MN 55113

USA

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Dark

Frontier

R u n n i n g t h e A d v e n t u R e

You do not need a copy of r o g u e t r a d e r to play this

adventure. It can be run using the characters and rules

presented in the F o r s a k e n B o u n t y booklet (available

for download from the Fantasy Flight website). However

if you do possess a copy of the r o g u e t r a d e r rulebook,

guidelines have been presented to allow the GM to

expand on certain encounters and challenges—adding

such things as space battles and alternative enemies.

“You think man is the only race to dabble in the darkness of the

warp? No my friend, there are creatures far older and evil than us

out there among the cold stars—aliens whose worship of the warp

makes humanity seem as naughty children screaming at the sky.”

–Interrogator Milos Helacania, Lost to the Warp 673M40

OVERVIEw

B o u n t y . After facing off against malign inluence of

the Psycharus Worm, the Explorers ind themselves

in possession of both the Emperor’s Bounty and the fell Halo

Device that led to its demise. Unfortunately for them, their

actions have had more far reaching consequences than they

could imagine, and in defeating the thralls of the Worm,

they have stirred up dark forces and ancient alien powers. In

this adventure, the Explorers will learn of the true power of

the Worm and catch a terrifying glimpse into the legacy of

its creators. Their vessel and crew will be subverted by the

power of a terrible xenos race known as the Yu’vath—an evil

thought by most to have been long since extinguished from

the galaxy—and they will be drawn into an ancient trap from

which they must ind a way to escape or become lost forever.

This scenario picks up where F o r s a k e n B o u n t y left off with

the Explorers in possession of both the Emperor’s Bounty and the

Halo Device known as the Psycharus Worm. After stripping

the ship and deciding what to do with the Worm—keep it,

discard it or destroy it—they make a transition into the warp

leaving the battleield behind. At this point things begin to go

wrong for them; it seems that whatever powers they quelled

aboard the Bounty have infected their own vessel and taken

possession of their ship’s systems. Out of control, their vessel is

cast into the deep storms of the Maw and swept far off course.

When the Explorers inally still the horrors that rage across

their ship and return to real space, they ind that the Worm

has taken them somewhere far inside the Ragged Worlds to

a remote system where an ancient alien space station hangs

in the void in place of a star. This solar fortress was created

long ago by the dark and alien Yu’vath and seems to have

complete mastery over the system and a gravity shadow strong

T his adventure follows the events detailed in F o r s a k e n

W h e R e i s t h e W o R m ?

At the conclusion of F o r s a k e n B o u n t y the Explorers

will be in possession of the Psycharus Worm, though

it will seemingly be inert. The Worm is linked to the

warp, and able to phase in and out of real space, so

attempts to destroy it, discard it, or lock it away will

fail as it creeps about (though never when the PCs are

observing it) and attempts to stay on their ship. If the

Explorers do choose to discard or destroy it, then it

will simply vanish (the GM can lead them to believe

they have been successful) and hide within their vessel

until the time is right. The GM can take advantage to

this to heighten the PCs’ anxiety by having it strangely

move across a table when they look away, or having a

crewman discover it in a vent decks away from where

they left it. For more details on the Psycharus Worm

and Halo Artefacts, see page 17 in F o r s a k e n B o u n t y .

As it has done countless times before, your ship once again

prepares to pierce the fabric of the immaterium and plunge into

the warp. Like a sickness rising from the pit of your stomach you

feel the warp engines roar to life a dozen decks below your feet

and the charge in the ship’s stale air as the Geller Field’s empyreal

web envelops the vessel. The ship’s structure shudders and groans

as the transition begins and then…

Something is wrong. All of a sudden the bridge is plunged

into shadow and the ship seems to buck under the weight of some

unseen force—the very deck underfoot rippling and bending. All

around you servitors cease their mindless tasks and throw their

heads back screaming out of ruined mouths. You are struck by the

unshakable feeling that something terrible has just happened.

Although the ship’s Gellar Field is active at this point,

the ship is wholly within the warp and the proximity allows

the Worm to regain its power despite the Field’s interference

(incidentally, this is what also happened aboard the Emperor’s

Bounty ). The Worm has infected their vessel with a Yu’vath

Dark-Energy Construct known as a Warp Maggot which has

begun to attack the ship’s machine spirit. This means that the

Explorers will lose control of their ship’s helm and systems

and servitors all across the ship will go berserk as they are

tortured by the presence of the Maggot writhing around

inside their sensory links and power feeds.

The Explorers may attempt to use their Gellar Field to

disrupt the Worm’s control. Unfortunately, while they are

in the warp, the Gellar Field will have no affect on the

Worm’s powers.

enough to hold orbiting planetary bodies, snare ships crossing

the Koronus Passage, and worst of all, create some kind of

powerful warp-lock preventing their escape. In addition to the

brooding presence of the Yu’vath Fortress, the Explorers will

also discover that they are not alone; others have been drawn

here and are equally eager to escape. Using their cunning and

skill, the Explorers must unite these marooned travellers and

lead an assault against the Yu’vath Fortress to break the warp-

lock and escape back into the void.

PART ONE:

A DEADlY TRANsITION

The adventure begins when the Explorers are preparing to

make a transition into the warp, at which time the Worm will

become active once more. When exactly this happens is up

to the GM. If the adventure follows directly after F o r s a k e n

B o u n t y , then this can be at the point that the Explorers are

preparing to leave the Battleground after stripping much of

the Bounty . Alternately, any amount of time could go by with

the Explorers pursuing other opportunities and adventures,

unaware that the Worm slumbers within their ship until

at some point, when making a transition into the warp (a

common occurrence for Rogue Traders), it stirs to life. If this

adventure is used directly after F o r s a k e n B o u n t y and is

being played using the r o g u e t r a d e r Core Rulebook, the

GM should allow the PCs to spend experience gained from

that adventure and to acquire new items (it can be imagined

that they are salvaged from the Bounty ) before pressing on.

As the Explorers’ ship begins its transition, read or

paraphrase the following:

d e s c e n t i n t o d A R k n e s s

At this point, the Explorers will probably be screaming to ind

out what is going on and why their ship is failing all around

them. Finding out that their ship has been attacked by a Warp

Maggot (since few people will even know what a Warp Maggot

is) is not going to happen straight away—if at all. Instead, the

GM should have them treat the symptoms of the problem and

show off their leadership skills by putting out some ‘spot ires’

caused by rampaging servitors and the Maggot’s assault on the

machine spirit. These can include:

Warp Engine Overload:

The Explorers must direct

power relays away from the warp engine as its energy

ield luctuates. This task can be performed over the vox,

requires a Hard (–20) Fellowship Test (although for

the Rogue Trader or Void-Master, the Test is Challenging

(+0) instead), while personally aiding the Enginseers

requires a Challenging (+0) Tech-use Test .

Hull Breech:

• A section of the ship is open to the warp

and must be sealed swiftly. This can be done over the

vox, but requires Dificult (–10) Intimidate or Charm

Test to convince the crew to sacriice those trapped in

the compartments. It can be done linking with the core

cogitator, requiring a Challenging (+0) Tech-use Test .

Finally, Explorers near the decompressing section can

personally seal the pressure doors using an Ordinary

(+10) Strength Test .

•

The atmosphere

within the ship is failing (see page 18 of F o r s a k e n

B o u n t y for running out of air). This can be ixed in the

same way as a Hull Breech above, however the increased

dificulty modiies all Tests by –10.

Failing any of these Tests should not be fatal for the Player

Characters, but the GM can go to lengths to describe the rising

body count to the rest of the crew and the brutal damage their

ship is suffering. The Explorers may also jump to the conclusion

(rightly so) that the Worm is behind the chaos, and try to ind

it. A thorough search will locate it attached to servitor where

it released the Maggot into the machine spirit. By this stage,

the Maggot will have completed its subversion of the machine

spirit and disappear (perhaps to return later) and control of

their ship will return. At this time (several hours in game time)

their ship will abruptly drop back into real space—heralding

the beginning of more pressing problems…

Catastrophic Life-Support Failure:

Probing the darkness with your ship’s sensors, you slowly

assemble a picture of the near void around your vessel. At irst

you think you must be in deep space—such is the emptiness that

presses down upon your hull. However after a few moments you

begin to detect the presence of what must be a remote solar system

containing little more than fragments of cold dead rock and a

ring of gutted space hulks. At the centre of the system—beyond

the rocks and ring of debris—a tiny black star burns and lickers

against the darker void beyond.

At this point, the Worm will also vanish from wherever it

linked into the ship’s machine spirit, and will not be seen again

on the ship. The Worm used the Sovereign Venture to ind its way

back to this ancient alien fortress—which had been its goal

even when it took over the Emperor’s Bounty . Now that it has

arrived, it cares little for what happens to the Explorers.

PART TwO:

UPON A DARk NOwhERE

While they were ighting the Maggot and the effects of its

rampage, the Worm has guided their vessel into the waiting

web of a Yu’vath trap—a region of warp space altered to snare

the unwary and draw them toward an ancient alien fortress.

As soon as they return to real space and take their bearings—

scanning the near void to ind out where they are—read or

paraphrase the following:

W A R p - l o c k e d

The dark star is in fact a Yu’vath Fortress—an alien artefact

of unimaginable power forged long ago by a twisted and

corrupt xenos race. Equal in size to a medium-sized world,

it hangs in the void like a black sun, arcing with power and

blotting out the stars behind it. Across its surface, hundreds

of small islands form a matrix of power relays and energy

webs—their true purpose unknown. What is apparent is that

the Fortress emits a tremendous gravity ield across the near

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