So in a recent mission, we killed a servant of slaanesh, On him he had a slaanesh medallion. Our assasian is a little new to 40k, so we explained both in game, and out, who slaanesh is, and the risk of carrying such an object and so on. He seems to not care and wishes to tell it (for what I can only see as being a very small amount of throne gelt). What im (as the GM) am trying to figure out, is some reactions a shopkeeper would have upon being offered one. Obviously there is the chance he has no idea what it is, but he might, and if not, what are some consequences of him buying it unknowingly?

For unknowingly taking possession of Heretical items

1. Adeptus Arbites coming and investigating his establishment for possible Heretical objectives and Cult connections.
2. Inquisitor - see part 1
3. Ecclesiarchy coming and burning you as a Heretic and searching for possible records who has visited his establishment and tracking them down as possible Heretics

For reactions the Shopkeeper could do if he knows what the Assassin is selling

1. Playing ignorant and then contacting local Precinct and giving sellers description
2. Contacting local Ecclesiarchy and setting them after seller

Just one thing I would like to point out is that most of the "normal" Imperial citizens might not know anything about Chaos, its symbols or stuff. For many even Adeptus Astartes (aka Space Marines) and Inquisition are boogieman of legends that you use to scare unruly children.

What does the Medallion do anyway? Slowly corrupts people? Possessed by a daemon? Just a fancy necklace? If it really IS a powerful Artifact, have it go unnoticed... until the shopkeeper has started his own little Slaanesh-Cult which'll coincidentally throw a few wrenches into the player's gears.

Gonna be interesting when the PCS beat the cult only to realize "wait that was... crap..."

If the shopkeeper is totally unaware, I guess he would buy it.

But if it is "a really chaos tainted item" I would say there is a 1-out-of-10 Chance (a 9 on a d10) that he "simply feels that something is odd about it, and not i a good way"). In that case


0-2 = He refuses to buy
3-6 = He refuses to buy and recitets the occurance to his Folks (over a beer, telling his wife while home, his Clerks etc)
7 = He refuses to buy, talks about it to friends and talks about it with a priest since the occurance distrubs him deeply
8 = He refuses to buy and goes to some authority (Church; Enforcers; something like that) to repor tthe inccident
9 = He buys it because he wants to own it or wants to sell it for even more Money

I would not see the regular shop owern "buying it and framing them later". This idea is based on the assumption that the Clerk KNOWS what it is while being a "loyal imperial citizen" meaning to build a trap for.

In my opinion, a loyal imperial citizen will treat xenos and/or chaos items as something harmful to his eternal soul. People get BURNED just for owning such (or so he was told), because just having it with you is a grave danger to your purity (or so he was told).

The willingness of an acolyte to treat and truck with such things already sets them apart form the "rank and file" of the Imperial citizens. At least, so I have handled it in my games.

"Loyal imperial citizens" of course means somebody true to the creed, obeying his Superiors "at is is right and proper" and not questioning the divine order of things ("serfs serve, nobles rules, and soldier die for the glory of the Imperium and Him on Terra") . You get me

If we are talking about People like "citizens of Sinophia" or "somebody wretched enough to be a recidivist treat "7" and "8" as "9" in my Little table above.

BUT you Players should ask themselves what thier acolytes think about. Even a Radical Inquisitor only uses "forbidden Tools to help the just cause". This assassine is about to bring a foul, chaos tainted item into circulation just for the sake of something as petty as a short lived, personal gain. In my books, even a Radical Inquisitor is likely to put such an individual to a well deserved death. There is a line between "doing the wrong things for the right reason" and "just doing what the **** you want, to hell with the consequences".

funny! I was sure I wrote **** instead of ****

EDIT: okay...there is an auto-censorship inbuild in the Forum

I cannot write f-u-c-k

Sorry for this "spam post" but I was curious about this Now,

Back2Topic

It's always been my understanding and belief that the common citizen has no clue what chao iconography apart from the eight-point star would look like. In my mind, he would probably get a really bad eeling about it, say no, and then, fearing he jsut saw soemthing and got "the feeling" for a reason, he would discuss it with his priest, who WOULD know what the imagery would be,a nd HE would want to have soem words with your acolytes.

Depends what the medalion looks like really. Bear in mind your average imperial citizen hasn't got a clue what chaos is. (and the inquisition intends to keep it that way) Also: Chaos can be suprising subtle (there is a short story in slaves to darkness about a guy getting possed by a writing desk!)

And Slaanesh items are probably te easiest to sell: usualy made out luxurious materials, fine metals and expensive gems.

(they are not all made out of adepta sorroritas skin) Tzeentch is a bit harder because i iamgine they shift and change constantly.

With Khorne, you are lucky if it's just made of brass and Nurgle- hooo boy I don't think anyone wants to buy nurgle stuff.

The necklace is around 3 and a half inches long, made of a thick gold like material, with a faith purplish tint in the right light. On the back there are faith daemonic writing engraved upon it. The center has a small clear red stone. The edges are sharp enough to draw blood.

Looks nice, if i was a shopkeep from the 41st millenium i'd buy it.

Or even better I'll trade you these 7 green candles made from earwax. each with a symbol of a fly in the middle of 3 circles.

What do you mean, "heresy"? no don't sho-aaargh!

If I was a PC and knew another party member was carrying a Chaos artifact his life expectancy would be shortened considerably due to telling the inquisitor and several bullets to the back of the head when he's not looking. Not necessarily in that order.

But I have to say selling it could be fairly easy, as has been stated the average schmuck has no idea about Chaos. Although to me a Chaos artifact would by its nature give most people the willies due to its unnatural nature.

As a GM I would allow him to sell it and a few sessions later have the party investigate the new cult of leg-humping heretics.

If I was a PC and knew another party member was carrying a Chaos artifact his life expectancy would be shortened considerably due to telling the inquisitor and several bullets to the back of the head when he's not looking. Not necessarily in that order.

Sadly, we don't know it's still in the assassin's possession. When we were still investigating the cult and didn't know what the necklace was, we allowed him to carry it. As soon as we found out it was an emblem of Slaanesh, the Psyker told the assassin in no uncertain terms to get rid of it. The Assassin instead chose to keep it behind the party's back.

But I have to say selling it could be fairly easy, as has been stated the average schmuck has no idea about Chaos. Although to me a Chaos artifact would by its nature give most people the willies due to its unnatural nature.

Ah, good sir, you think like an Imperial! Maybe it would give people the willies, but maybe it would make them feel good, confident...powerfull! It would "speak" to them (not literally, but it might be capable of speach with chaos you never know)

Thats the danger of chaos: some things are obvious (the markings that twist the gut and hurt the eye that sees them.) but other times chaos can beguile and entice.

Take for example this here item: large golden brooch of a winged claw, studded with amethyst and the roman numeral III engraved on it. I have heard that its owners get a feeling of supreme confidence in their abliities and a sense of superiority. Of course over time the chaos amulet's owners become vain arrogant sexual deviants, but you can hardly tell from looking at it, now can you?

So are you intrested? - please sir we dont accept bolt shells as curren- aaaaaaagh!

While i'm on the subject of wether or not an item belongs to chaos;

Commander Farsight's Dawn Sword.

While it's background seems to suggest xenos (unknown but possible Eldar or Necrontyr) technology. My theory is it's a Daemonsword! That whole adding life from creatures killed with the sword to the wielders own lifeforce is very similar to what a daemon weapon could do in slaves to darkness.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Dawn_Blade

Of course i could be wrong about the whole thing. - Any Tau people know more about this?

Realistically I think the assassin would probably be able to sell the medallion quite easily. It being a Slaneesh medallion even if it doesn't possess any actual powers it is probably quite attractive in a strange abstract kind of way. When you take into account the ignorance of the shopkeeper the assassin can probably get quite a good price for it.

The immediate problem will be corruption points: The assassin is trafficking in Chaos artifacts at the expense of a fellow Imperial citizen for nothing other than personal material gain. He is putting the shop keepers soul and life in peril. Considering the relative innocence of the shopkeeper compared to the responsibility of the assassin as an Acolyte I think that would be a fiarly hefty corruption penalty wouldn't be out of order (say d5+1 worth).

The long term problem is that the shopkeeper is not a criminal. He will quite openly be selling this item. If the Acolytes are lucky then a Chaos cultist or debase noble will see the item buy it and that will be the end of it as far the Acolytes are concerned (such malcontents obviously won't report the shopkeeper though may enquire as to where he got it from).

If the Acolytes are unlucky a member of the Ecclesiarchy sees the trinket and recognises it. If they are really unlucky they end up with a witch hunter on their tail.

Basically this action should definitly have consequences. However as GM you should make a decision, if you want a campaign where your open to the Acolytes becoming Radicals or worse then I would go for the slow burn, and allow this as an opening to foster the idea that you can get rich quick in trading heretical artifacts.

If this would derail your campaign and you want to keep the acolytes more or less on the straight and narrow then I would have them involved in a full scale witch hunt with the shopkeeper and his family being executed and only narrowly escape being detected.

In the second option Insanity points on top of the corruption points should be the order of the day.

Incidentally what are the other players doing about this? If they are all rouges or border line heretics then that's cool but if any of them are clerics or Arbites I would have thought they would summarily confiscate the item.

Incidentally the item might not have any strange properties attached to it, in fact in the vast number of cases a symbol of Slaneesh or any other Chaos god won't be anything more than a symbol, a potent symbol but no more. However it does have the potential to act as a foci for evil Chaotic acts, more so if they are particularly dedicated to that particular god.

Incidentally what are the other players doing about this? If they are all rouges or border line heretics then that's cool but if any of them are clerics or Arbites I would have thought they would summarily confiscate the item.

The party is a Psyker, two Guardsmen and the Assassin, the Psyker and one of the two Guardsman being fairly orthodox in their beliefs and one Guardsman being a straight up Puritan zealot. As I mentioned above, the Psyker told the Assassin to get rid of it once he realized what it was, and the Assassin chose to ignore that warning and keep it while the party wasn't looking. As we've mentioned to the Assassin player, there will be serious in-party consequences. In the form of the Psyker and the Guardsman treating the Assassin as a heretic, if the assassin can't come up with a good reason for hanging onto it.

Incidentally what are the other players doing about this? If they are all rouges or border line heretics then that's cool but if any of them are clerics or Arbites I would have thought they would summarily confiscate the item.

The party is a Psyker, two Guardsmen and the Assassin, the Psyker and one of the two Guardsman being fairly orthodox in their beliefs and one Guardsman being a straight up Puritan zealot. As I mentioned above, the Psyker told the Assassin to get rid of it once he realized what it was, and the Assassin chose to ignore that warning and keep it while the party wasn't looking. As we've mentioned to the Assassin player, there will be serious in-party consequences. In the form of the Psyker and the Guardsman treating the Assassin as a heretic, if the assassin can't come up with a good reason for hanging onto it.

I would have said it should be turned into their Inquisitorial superiors, not just blithely gotten rid of. Are they filing (accurate) reports? The Inquisition is going to want to examine artifacts recovered from a den of heretics before they let the acolytes sell them.

Incidentally what are the other players doing about this? If they are all rouges or border line heretics then that's cool but if any of them are clerics or Arbites I would have thought they would summarily confiscate the item.

The party is a Psyker, two Guardsmen and the Assassin, the Psyker and one of the two Guardsman being fairly orthodox in their beliefs and one Guardsman being a straight up Puritan zealot. As I mentioned above, the Psyker told the Assassin to get rid of it once he realized what it was, and the Assassin chose to ignore that warning and keep it while the party wasn't looking. As we've mentioned to the Assassin player, there will be serious in-party consequences. In the form of the Psyker and the Guardsman treating the Assassin as a heretic, if the assassin can't come up with a good reason for hanging onto it.

I would have said it should be turned into their Inquisitorial superiors, not just blithely gotten rid of. Are they filing (accurate) reports? The Inquisition is going to want to examine artifacts recovered from a den of heretics before they let the acolytes sell them.

Characters were about half a year from being able to get in contact with their Inquisitor. The Psyker felt that carrying around an artifact of Chaos for all that time might be a bad idea, and given they were on a planet that was entirely ocean, that essentially existed in the space boondocks, it seemed as good a place as any to make sure the pendant was lost forever.

I like the idea darkforce put forward, of the shopkeep taking the medallion and being slowly corrupted by it, so that the acolytes eventually find themselves having to deal with a new, self-inflicted problem.

Incidentally what are the other players doing about this? If they are all rouges or border line heretics then that's cool but if any of them are clerics or Arbites I would have thought they would summarily confiscate the item.

The party is a Psyker, two Guardsmen and the Assassin, the Psyker and one of the two Guardsman being fairly orthodox in their beliefs and one Guardsman being a straight up Puritan zealot. As I mentioned above, the Psyker told the Assassin to get rid of it once he realized what it was, and the Assassin chose to ignore that warning and keep it while the party wasn't looking. As we've mentioned to the Assassin player, there will be serious in-party consequences. In the form of the Psyker and the Guardsman treating the Assassin as a heretic, if the assassin can't come up with a good reason for hanging onto it.

I would have said it should be turned into their Inquisitorial superiors, not just blithely gotten rid of. Are they filing (accurate) reports? The Inquisition is going to want to examine artifacts recovered from a den of heretics before they let the acolytes sell them.

Characters were about half a year from being able to get in contact with their Inquisitor. The Psyker felt that carrying around an artifact of Chaos for all that time might be a bad idea, and given they were on a planet that was entirely ocean, that essentially existed in the space boondocks, it seemed as good a place as any to make sure the pendant was lost forever.

Given that in the grand scheme of things it is a fairly minor item, explaining the situation to local Arbites or Priest and having them secure it in a safe or vault would probably be the best bet.

Give the assassin corruption in any case. By passing around a chaos-tainted artifact he is doing the work of the Dark Gods, condemning his soul to damnation.

For a few Thrones too!

Yeah, actually I would explain to the character that from his in-universe Space Middle Ages point of view he is seeling his soul for pocket change.