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The book consists of 3 adventures, those being "The Price of Hubris" (where the Kill-Team get sent to the feral planet of Aurum in order to try to win over the native warrior peoples to join the Imperium, whilst also finding out what secrets they hoped to keep from the Imperial outsiders), "A Stony Sleep" (the Kill-Team are sent to the fortress world of Karlack, lynchpin of the Crusade's might, in order to hunt down a missing Inquisitor and discover who took him and why), and "The Vigilant Sword" (where the Kill-Team are sent on a mission deep behind enemy lines in order to stop a sinister alliance from forming that could result in the destruction of the Crusade). Whilst these all contain some combat (in differing amounts), none of the missions has full-on combat as it's central point. "Hubris" is about negotiations and persuasion, "Sleep" is based around investigation, and "Sword" is a stealthy sabotage mission.
All of these adventures are connected by a conspiracy created by Chaos renegades, working along with members of the Alpha Legion, who plan to cripple the crusade into the Jericho Reach by using heretek and sorcerous rituals to divert the Warp Gate, therefore allowing the Chaos forces to use it instead.
The first two adventures seem separate, but provide several hints to the objective of the forces laid against you, with the final third mission providing the grande finale that brings together the hints and evidence from the previous missions into the unveiling of the ultimate plan.
I must admit though, whilst each of the different adventures, and even the overall campaign, are good (by that, I mean "better than the average pre-written campaign"), it's pretty easy to miss the pieces the connect the adventures together, for GMs and players both, with my players only grasping some of the overarching plot by themselves, mostly because some parts of the overall campaign that would highlight how all the events are linked (like the discovery of markings found in multiple places) are easy to skip if the players never end up going there, or are too busy fighting the enemy to notice it. Therefore, I'd suggest that either the GM increases the number of links to be spotted, so as to increase the chance of the players noticing them, or following the advice in the sidebars and using the adventures separately, with the overarching plot only being partially used.
"The Price Of Hubris", the first adventure, places the characters as diplomatic envoys sent to the warrior culture of the planer of Aurum, at the behest of the Rogue Trader in charge of negotiations with these natives. The natives seem to be willing to engage in limited relations with the Imperium, but are wary (and rightly so) that the Imperium, if Aurum joined it, would simply exploit the large numbers of natural resources, as well as the fertile ground ripe for using as an agri-world, of the planet, turning the natives into farmers, or conscripting them into the Crusade. As a warrior culture, they respect strength at arms, might, and martial honour, hence why the Deathwatch are being called in. Not only this, but the Crusade also wants them to investigate the slaying of Imperial subjects on the planet, with the evidence pointing towards a hidden xenos force. The Deathwatch therefore have to search out the xenos, ensure that the natives of Aurum are not in collusion with the xenos, as well as ensuring that peaceful relations with the natives continue, with the ultimate goal of persuading them to join the Imperium.
This story was good because it allowed the Killteam to do something other than shoot things in the face. I mean, they get to do that anyway, as a hidden Genestealer infestation is discovered (the natives were hiding it in quarantine in an abandoned town so as to not appear weak to the Imperium), but it allowed them to flex their social muscles, something they don't often get the chance to do. It really shows how the game does allow for scenarios that aren't strictly combat, and that can't be expressed enough, as it means that, with a bit of work, many people that don't usually like hack'n'slash combat games could come to enjoy Deathwatch.
It also covers pretty much any option the players chose to take, from whether or not they abide by the rules that non-natives aren't allowed out of the capital city, to befriending the natives, to carrying out the ritual of adulthood that all natives carry out, to show that the Imperium is capable of warriors to be respected even by the native population. It gives tonnes of options that go from investigation, to social interaction, to plain shooting things, which allows for a lot more flexibility to run it in a way that fits how your group does things, which is something not many adventures cater for.
The overall story isn't bad, though easy to predict. After discovering that there are Genestealers afoot (it is possible to spot this in the first hour or so, given that one or two traders are selling stunning quality knives... who's blades happen to be made of Genestealer claws), they find that the taint is being held in a single town (after either breaking the rules on leaving the city, or proving they can be trusted) and then kill the Genestealers. It also appears as though the Genestealers were planted here deliberately, and not by the Tyranids, after pods with restraints are found deep in one of the mines near the capital. Once the 'Nids are killed, the natives treat them to a feast, at which the Broodlord (who had been hidden all along, not in the quarantined town) emerges, along with several more Genestealers, and attack the gathering, with the Deathwatch the only real thing that can hold them off. That makes it sound cliche and boring, which isn't true, but that is the basic jist of the story. Overall, this is probably the scenario I most enjoyed running, and the one my players enjoyed most, from the collection.
The second adventure follows a request by the Inquisition to look into the disappearance of one of their number on the planet Karlack, one of the main fortress worlds surrounding the Warp Gate. As events transpire, it emerges that he was hunting down a xenos worshiping cult/Cold Trade ring, and his last known location was a xenos site he was investigating. It ends up transpiring that the cult is being manipulated by the Alpha Legion, trying to stir up rebellion and dissent whilst using the cult's wish to discover more about their deities to investigate the xenos sites on the planet. Everything then points to a xenos ruin under the ocean, which turns out to be a Necron tomb. With the discovery of a potential ancient xenos invasion of the planet (this is before Necrons are known in the setting, so no links are made with the Necron threat, and only units like Tomb Spyders appear in the adventure), the Deathwatch have to destroy the tomb, sealing it forever and protecting the iron curtain that surrounds the Warp Gate.
This adventure was... less good, in my opinion. It seemed fairly chaotic, with too many lines of possible investigation, but not enough information for each one, and with the Inquisitor being incapacitated almost as soon as the group arrive on the planet, it's left to the players, with very little direction, to figure out what's going on. Personally, half of the adventure seemed, to me, to be pandering to the fans that wanted "OMGNECRONTOMB!!!", and given I generally find the Necrons to be a boring rip-off of the Terminator and the Tomb Kings from Warhammer Fantasy, I don't really get the attraction many others likely will with the adventure. Given my players generally don't know much about the backstory enough to know all about the Necrons and C'tan, it was also mostly wasted on them too, which is a shame. The actual info the the planet itself is really well written and interesting, especially that the population resent the Imperium, and their planetary leader, for essentially destroying the planet they had previously, providing a grim look at what the Imperium does to planets and natives. It's just sad that it's stapled to Necron fan-service.
The final adventure, "The Vigilant Sword", is good, as it provides a stealthy drop-pod assault behind enemy lines, onto a heretek forge world, in order to ultimately prevent the destruction of the Crusade via the usurping of the Warp Gate. One of the best bits of this adventure is that, due to the linked nature of the campaign, it provides a table for how the characters' various actions throughout the previous two adventures will impact upon the situation that the Crusade, and the players, find once they arrive in Chaos space. Since I love having the players actions provide concrete consequences that can, potentially, either kick them in the arse or make it a hell of a lot easier on themselves, having this plotted out ahead of time is great, and something I've not seen in pre-written adventures previously.
Once managing to get themselves dropped onto the planet, they find out the last parts of the "evil" plan, that the Chaos forces planned to use minerals that were found on Aurum (and on other planets in the Reach) to build a starship that is capable of slipping through the Imperial ring around the Warp Gate undetected, and therefore getting them close enough to carry out the sorcery required to disrupt the Gate and cripple the Crusade.
There are several ways provided to the characters to carry out their mission and prevent this from occurring, which includes meeting up with and organising the Imperial Cult resistance on the planet, and managing to either just fight their way to victory, using stealth and subtlety to turn the various factions on the planet against each other, or just sabotaging the whole place and causing enough of a distraction that they are able to get through. Eventually, they come to the final epic battle, where they fight off the assorted forces of Chaos, from Dark Mechanicum to Chaos Marines, and defeat the Chaos Sorcerer behind the entire conspiracy, essentially destroying the complex in the process with the sheer amount of warp energy released by his demise.
Due to the various ways you can pull off this mission, as well as the interesting setting information on what a Dark Mechanicum world would be like, from the forges to the menials that toil there, this is solidly the second best adventure in the book. Depending on how your group do it, it can be a straight up combat-fest (which, in my opinion, would be dull as hell), or with a more tactful approach it can be a great example of the strategic and stealthy applications of force that the Deathwatch are renown for.
In conclusion, this is a great campaign book, but it could have been better in places. I didn't like the second adventure, it wasn't the most well written adventure I've seen, and having the Necrons involved just felt like shoe-horning a Tomb into the story for the sake of it, when it could have been done better another way. The other two adventures are brilliant though, not just by being great examples of the some of the various other tasks the Deathwatch are there to do, but because the setting info, and the general layout of the adventures, are some of the better ones I've seen out there.
If you are looking for a book with decent, free-form adventures, information and details that expand the setting of the Jericho Reach, or even just examples on how you can construct your own adventures without ending up resorting to lots of combat, you could do a lot worse than "The Emperor Protects".
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