Rogue Trader - Traitor's Nexus, RPG, Rogue Trader RPG

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EXPANDED ADVENTURES FOR
LURE OF THE EXPANSE
® ®
™
Credits
Lead Developer
Sam Stewart
FFG Lead Game Designer
Corey Konieczka
Written and Developed by
Andy Hoare and Owen Barnes
FFG Lead Game Producer
Michael Hurley
Editing
Alex Davy
Publisher
Christian T. Petersen
Graphic Design
Bryan Schomburg and Kevin Childress
Special Thanks
“Dispensing Orbital Justice” Jordan Goldfarb with David
Rosenberg, Emily Aiken, Rachel Fisher, Kristine Beskin,
and Caitlyn “Cashew” Klein. “You Bid Babies?!” Jordan
“Milly” Millward with Keri Harthoorn, Kyle Harthoorn-
Burton, Kieren Smith, and Julia Smith. “Forged in Death”
Aric Weider with Dawn Wildfong, Chris Doyscher, Janna
Imergoot, Jeremy D. Bullock, Amber J. Colby, and Kathryn
Shannon. “The Crew of
Our Father’s Mercy
” William Thrasher
with Sarah Allen and Chelsea L. Oliver.
Cover Art
Ramon Contini
Interior Art
Matt Bradbury, Ramon Contini, Aaron Panagos
Art Direction
Zoë Robinson
Production Manager
Gabe Laulunen
G
a m e s
W
o r k s h o p
Licensing Manager
Owen Rees
Head of Licensing
Paul Lyons
Head of Intellectual Property
Alan Merrett
FANTASY
FLIGHT
GAMES
Fantasy Flight Games
1975 West County Road B2
Roseville, MN 55113
USA
Copyright © Game Workshop Limited 2010. Games Workshop, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer 40,000 Role Play, Rogue Trader,
Sabrine, the foregoing marks’ respective logos, Rogue Trader, and all associated marks, logos, places, names, creatures, races and race
insignia/devices/logos/symbols, vehicles, locations, weapons, units and unit insignia, characters, products and illustrations from the
Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Rogue Trader game setting are either ®, ™, and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2010, variably
registered in the UK and other countries around the world. This edition published under license to Fantasy Flight Publishing Inc. All
rights reserved to their respective owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Product Code: RTP7
For more information about the Rogue Trader line, free downloads, answers
to rule queries, or just to pass on greetings, visit us online at
www.FantasyFlightGames.com
2
Planet of
Mutineers
“Better to cross the Emperor than turn on your Lord-Captain.”
–Ancient void-farer’s saying
Trail, where the Explorers gather the last piece of the
coordinates leading them to the Dread Pearl’s location.
However, the planet Sabrine is a dangerous place, and it is not
just its mutinous inhabitants that seek to block the Explorers’
efforts. Quite apart from the mutineers and their treacherous
ruler, the Explorers must face lethal swamps, mire-zombies,
vengeful competitors and last but not least, the capricious
Eldar, who go to almost any lengths to ensure that the
Explorers never reach the Sabrine Nexus.
majority of the world’s surface. Only the rims of the ancient
craters stand above of the swamps, forming dry refuges.
The mirelands of Sabrine teem with animal and plant life.
Although not as dangerous as a true death world, Sabrine
certainly has its share of perils, many of which lurk within
the mirelands in the crater bowls. Furthermore, the mirelands
cradled within the larger impact craters are almost entirely
isolated from the lands about. The resulting microclimates
evolved highly specialized lora and fauna, quite separate from
the life forms in other craters. Thus, an expedition might land
in the depths of a crater and catalogue a portion of its biomass,
only to discover its indings entirely different to those of an
expedition visiting the mirelands of another crater.
THE SAbRiNE GAzETTEER
Sabrine’s star is listed in the archives of the Navigator Houses,
but—at least as far records indicate—has never been visited.
The closest any known expedition has approached to the
system was when, two centuries ago, Explorator Fleet Pythus
conducted a sweep of a cluster a mere two light-years distant,
and briely turned its instruments upon the star. Nothing
remarkable was noted, and the leet departed. No Imperial
forces have visited since.
T
h e
C
u r s e
o f
s
a b r i n e
As a by-product of the isolation of Sabrine’s mirelands,
some of the craters are host to many bizarre (but naturally
quarantined) bacteriological hazards. Many of these are
highly virulent lesh-eating strains, yet there is one, contained
within the largest of Sabrine’s craters, which has the effect of
“reanimating” its hosts. It appears that this strain reproduces
within a host, taking control of the host’s body and driving it
to seek out others to infect. Whether or not the host is truly
dead, or retains some semblance of awareness is unknown,
and too horrible to ponder. However, the body is reduced to
a decaying, stinking mass as ‘extraneous’ parts slowly rot and
fall away, and eventually the host decomposes completely.
G
e o G r a p h y
Sabrine’s surface is covered with impact craters—the planet
is near a large asteroid belt. The vast majority of these craters
are vast looded, overgrown pools and swamps covering the
u
s i n G
s
a b r i n e
: p
l a n e T
o f
M
u T i n e e r s
This web supplement is intended to be used with the
adventure book
L
u r e
o f
t h e
e
x p a n s e
. In the second part
of
L
u r e
o f
t h e
e
x p a n s e
, the Explorers are presented with
an opportunity to visit ive different worlds, each with
a Nexus Point they must decipher, and a side-adventure
they can participate in. Sabrine is a sixth world.
This supplement is structured in the same way as
each of the other ive worlds found in
L
u r e
o f
t h e
e
x p a n s e
, and does require
L
u r e
o f
t h e
e
x p a n s e
in
order to be used. On Sabrine the Explorers ind a
Nexus Point to repair and gain one more clue to the
Dread Pearl’s location, and have the chance to confront
the remnants of a mutinous Imperial Guard regiment.
Due to the modular nature of the second part of
L
u r e
o f
t h e
e
x p a n s e
, this adventure may be inserted
at any point during the second part.
T
h e
s
a n C T u a r y
Unknown to the Imperium, a small human population exists
on Sabrine. This population clings to existence along the rocky
crater rims, but has also established many mireland settlements,
built on mighty stilts, to farm the swamps for foodstuffs.
These humans are Imperial Guard mutineers. The regiment,
the 37th Kommitzar (raised on the penal world Kommitzar
in the Calixis Sector), was originally an asset gifted to one of
Calligos Winterscale’s expeditions. Far from port, the regiment
took control of its troop transport vessel, evaded the remaining
ships in the expedition, and made for the nearest system.
There they found Sabrine. There they crash-landed their
transport in the swamps of one of the largest craters,
recovering what equipment they could before
the vessel sunk into the muck. Although the
skeletal frame of the vessel’s upper deck is
3
T
he Planet of Mutineers is the inal leg of the Heathen
still visible in the swamps, it is infested with mire-zombies and
everything aboard has corroded to complete worthlessness.
Though many of the penal troopers died within days of
making planetfall, consumed by lesh-eating bacteria or falling
prey to the horriic “Curse of Sabrine,” enough survived to
establish a settlement, “the Sanctuary.”
The Sanctuary clings precariously to the rim of the
largest of Sabrine’s craters, looking out across the seething
mirelands below. Its construction is crude; the Kommitzar
troopers had little in the way of resources when they made
planetfall and had to rely on what materials they could wrest
from the mirelands. The Sanctuary’s buildings are built
from the twisted boughs of mireland trees, bound roughly
together with the thick vines that snake across the swamps.
The Sanctuary is home to around six thousand inhabitants:
two thousand original mutineers and their subsequent
offspring. Another thousand or so live amongst the stilt-
steads of the mirelands.
The Sanctuary is a rough and ready place, its buildings
having been constructed in a haphazard manner as the
settlement grew. Many cling to the sides of the crater rim,
while others are perched on the upper lip. Each is connected
to the next by narrow walkways of rotting wood. The people
of the Sanctuary, being mutinous penal troopers or their
descendants, are equally crude and unsophisticated. Only
the occasional weapon, uniform shred, insignia, or tool of
Imperial manufacture mark them out as anything other than
savage feral-worlders.
granted him the ability to cow the weak-minded. Without the
jewel, the despotic rule of King Kommitzar would have been
overthrown many years ago.
incursions
Over the years, the population of the Sanctuary, and
especially the farmers of the stilt-steads, have suffered greatly
from the Curse of Sabrine. Every so often, a farmer or sentry
goes missing, only to reappear several days later hideously
transformed into a walking corpse intent on spreading the
contagion to its erstwhile fellows. The farmers maintain a
constant vigil against these creatures, and their incursions are
the reason that King Kommitzar’s court resides on the highest
structure in the Sanctuary.
Occasionally, one penetrates the settlement and
pandemonium ensues. The people form an ad hoc militia,
tasked with the arduous mission of hunting down and slaying
the walking dead. However, with each incursion the weapon
stores dwindle, and there will soon come a time when no
functional ranged weapons remain.
T
h e
e
x p e d i T e e s
When the mutineers struck out against their oppressors, one
small group managed to avoid the slaughter, throwing in their
lot with King Kommitzar because it was their only chance to
survive. These turncoats were a group of battle-psykers assigned
King Kommitzar
The individual who rules the Sanctuary, and by extension
the whole planet, styles himself as the “King Kommitzar,”
and dominates his mutinous population with a mixture of
negligent indifference and totalitarian oppression. Formally
known as Sergeant Major Quas, this man instigated the
mutiny, slaughtering most of the crew of the 37th’s troop
transport, and dominating the rest at gunpoint.
King Kommitzar rules the Sanctuary from his court, which
occupies a wide wooden platform at the settlement’s peak.
Beneath awnings made of woven mire-vines, the King and his
concubines lounge, nibbling upon the fruits of the mirelands
farmed by his subjects and sipping distilled homebrew rotgut.
The king and his harem imagine this existence to be the very
height of nobility, as none have ever experienced anything
other than a prison cell or the Sanctuary. King Kommitzar is
perfectly content to maintain his indolent existence, but every
now and then some seemingly trivial matter angers him, and
then his people quail before his savage ire. During such periods,
the King is wont to make entirely illogical pronouncements,
often detrimental to the lives and safety of his subjects.
It is not only the force of the King’s personality and his
formidable martial prowess that have kept him in power for
so long, though certainly it is a very foolish underling who
dares question his word. Around the King’s neck is a glittering
jewel. The jewel is in fact a part of the Sabrine Nexus, ripped
from its structure by King Kommitzar when he discovered
the nexus soon after the mutineers’ planetfall. The jewel has
granted the King a degree of latent psychic power, which has
4
to support the regiment on the battleield, and they carved a
unique niche in what passes as the society of Sabrine.
The Expeditees maintain a watch for those aflicted by
the Curse of Sabrine, and to beseech them to turn back
when they launch an incursion. Incredibly, the aflicted do
sometimes heed the words of the Expeditees, possibly due to
their psychic abilities.
Although the Expeditees represent perhaps the only chance
the people of Sabrine have of outlasting the exhaustion of their
weapon stocks and keeping the Curse at bay, they may also
prove its ultimate downfall. Though the original Expeditees
are sanctioned pyskers, many of their offspring are psykers and
none of them are sanctioned. Each is a time-bomb, a potential
conduit through which the raw and unfettered power of the
warp and the daemon could emerge. Then, the Sanctuary will
surely fall, with or without the Curse of Sabrine.
C
o n T r a C T i n G
T h e
C
u r s e
The vile disease known as the curse can affect anyone
that spends prolonged time in the swamp, or is struck
by a mire-zombie in melee. If this occurs, the subject
must make a
Challenging (+0) Toughness Test
modiied by the following factors:
–10 if the zombie deals damage.
+10 if the character is taking detox medications.
+30 if wearing fully enclosed armour or environmental
protection such as a void suit.
+20 if the character has the Machine Trait.
If this test is failed, they will begin to feel sick within
1d5 hours suffering a –10 to Toughness. After a day
of this sickness they must test again (with the above
penalty to their roll). If this second test is failed, the
curse will begin to take hold, and they have 2d10 +
their TB in hours before they succumb. The only thing
that can save them now is intensive detox medicae
attention (such as on their vessel). This can only be
performed with a full suite of medicae equipment, and
requires a
Hard (–20) Medicae Test
.
Finally, if someone suffering from the curse actually
dies, their body will immediately quit its ight to stave
off the disease and they will rise up as a mire-zombie
within 1d10 minutes.
THE SAbRiNE NEXUS
The last Nexus Point at which the Explorers’ Navigator must
take a reading of the star chart is to be found on the surface
of the uncharted world of Sabrine. In fact, it is at the centre of
the world’s largest crater, upon a small mound amidst the very
swamp that spawned the Curse of Sabrine. If the Explorers
take the reading, they must brave the mirelands and all their
perils, risking lesh-eating viruses and ravenous zombies!
Locating the Sabrine nexus is not dificult, as it is in a cleared
section of the swamp, but reaching it is more so. The Explorers
have to locate a safe landing site amidst the mirelands, requiring
a
Hard (–20) Search Test
. If they pass the test, they discover a
small mound only three kilometres from the nexus, which should
just be able to support the weight of the Explorers’ lander. If
the test is failed, the Explorers have to land on the crater’s rim
and trek ifty kilometres through the zombie-haunted mirelands.
Because it makes very little use of artiicial power sources and is
constructed of natural materials, the Sanctuary is not detectable
from orbit unless any augur scan succeeds with ive degrees of
success. If this occurs and the Explorers decide to investigate irst,
proceed to the events described in the Sabrine Adventure, and
leave the reading of the Nexus Point until later.
she approaches the nearest Explorer, and if not stopped, attacks!
This likely shakes up the Explorers. If they take the time to
investigate the body, they see the extremities are in an advanced
state of decay, though the body’s core was still mostly intact and
‘alive.’ A
Very Hard (–30) Medicae Test
and an auspex detects
the presence of the bacteria that causes the Curse.
When they reach the Nexus and the Navigator begins his
reading, he quickly realises there is a problem. The Nexus
does not respond to his psychic probing. Meanwhile, the
Explorers become increasingly aware of low, moaning sounds
emanating from the swamps all about. More mire-zombies are
closing in on the Nexus, although none attack just yet. Have
the Navigator make a
Challenging (+0) Psynescience Test.
Success reveals the Nexus has been deiled in some manner,
while one or more Degrees of Success reveals that a part of
it has been removed, a component about the size of a small
pendent has evidently been roughly pried from the structure
of the nexus. Without it, the reading cannot take place. At this
point, proceed to the Sabrine adventure presented below.
Proiles for the Mire-Zombies are found at the back fo this
supplement.
C
r o s s i n G
T h e
M
i r e l a n d s
Wherever they land, the Explorers need to cross the teeming
swamps of Sabrine. This is a dangerous undertaking, and the
PCs would be well advised to suit up in the hardiest hazard
suits they have access to. No matter how far the Explorers
must travel through the mirelands, they should only have to
make one Test to see if they contract the Curse from their
environment. However, the GM should emphasize how
putrid and noxious the environment is, and even have their
auspexes and sensors detect myriad microbial lifeforms. See
Contracting the Curse.
If the Explorers cross the mirelands without incident, then
have them attacked by a single mire-zombie as they close on the
nexus. The Explorers come across a recently “turned” woman,
who stumbles towards them out of the swamp. It takes a
Dificult
(–10) Scrutiny Test
to reveal something is wrong about this
person, and she does not respond to questions or queries. Instead
THE SAbRiNE ADVENTURE
In this adventure, the Explorers are assailed by putrid mire-
zombies—the unfortunate victims of the Curse of Sabrine.
Just as the odds seem insurmountable, an odd individual
intervenes, and the vile creatures are driven off.
Nothing, however, is what it seems on the cursed
world of Sabrine:
5
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Rogue Trader - Traitor's Nexus, RPG, Rogue Trader RPG

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