I might have let things go too far in my greed, you see...

We picked up an NPC some time back, who's been helpful so far, but I'm leery of powerful AND helpful NPC's, they have a habit of becoming powerful enemies sooner or later. So I'm thinking of choosing "Sooner" and have been idly thinking of ways of getting rid of them, after I rather foolishly let them entrench themselves on my ship with a little private workshop (to be fair, they had cool stuff and I figured it'd be easier to get them to make me copies, than to steal it...). But as they increase in power, and collect more and more volatile objects for their work, I'm growing concerned that taking them on board might eventually cost me much more than their value (like, if someone comes to kill them). I already have enough enemies of my own, trying to lay my ship to waste, I don't need someone else's joining the 'fun'.

I don't want to vent the deck's atmosphere in to space suddenly, or pilot a starship in to a star (though those aren't of the table as of yet), but I'm fairly certain asking him to leave, or trying to use traditional methods of force, will cause a lot of collateral damage to me and my ship. Not to mention that he might have trapped the hell out of his workshop.

So I need to begin making long term plans, and I think best when stealing other's ideas (kidding), and was wondering how other Rogue Traders have handled similar problems of unwanted and dangerous people on your ship?

Go with the classic, if you're doing it right you take a night or five to be champagne millionaires whenever you get back from a successful venture. So bring him along, drink him under the table and then tell him what a great surprise you've got for him because he's done so much good work for you, then lead him to a prepared private space in another room or whatever and resolve the matter. Either kill him in a really over the top way to show your other cronies what a king **** you are or just have him beaten up and maybe cut his tongue out before sending him to the pressment center.

The latter more or less ensures he'll come back with some sort of grand revenge in several years but c'mon that's more fun anyway so I say go with it.

Lock the door, station guards around the compartment, and vent the air.

Throw the body out a voidlock.

While in the warp.

Explain more about this NPC please, all I can think is that they are an exploratory or tech minded inquisitor...

Lock the door, station guards around the compartment, and vent the air.

Throw the body out a voidlock.

While in the warp.

No, no, see, then he'll come back as a daemon, or possessed by one. Not a good plan.

What sort of fellow is the one outstaying their welcome?

Provide an opportunity for them to leave the ship - invite them with on an expedition planetside, for example. Accidents (like a few dozen snipers landed in advance) can happen - if they use a different vehicle, plant a bomb. Invite/request them to organize an archeotech excavation - when they've gone planetside, nuke their location from orbit. Alternatively, offer them a secret planetary facility or research station - one larger and more secure than some space on your ship; destroy it if you want to, or, hold to a deal to keep them supplied.

Find a deathworld/necron tomb - invite them down with you, but neglect to mention the hazardous nature of the jaunt. When trouble happens, leave them behind as you flee back to your ship.

If he's an AdMech type, venting the atmosphere will likely just annoy him, as lots of those buggers have The Flesh is Weak, heavy augmentations, etc. such that atmospheric conditions aren't really relevant.

Find some way to make them think leaving is their idea, if you want to remain on good terms with them.

There is no problem that cannot be resolved by telling the resident ork boy he's hiding all the tastiest squigs, then locking the door for ten minutes.

Seriously, though, if you want him gone at all costs, just randomly mobstab him with power or chain weapons.

The nonviolent option is offering him a planetside, state of the art research lab or something, which could increase your own profit factor in the long term. If he declines what, for most people, is the deal of a lifetime , odds are he's a spy, heretic or plotpoint. Terminate him with full auto fire when he turns to leave.

Where is his workshop on the ship? If it's near the outer hull, arrange for it to be jettisoned with him inside. Then use it for target practice for the ship's gunners (probably won't be hit by one of the main guns, but even the point defence turrets should be enough to seriously wreck his day). If you do that in the right spot (like, in fairly low orbit over a gas giant, or way the hell out in the outer reaches of a system, beyond the usual jump zones), then the evidence will never be found.

If it's buried further in the hull, look at the power requirements. Then have an "accidental" breach of one of the plasma conduits providing power to that area. Sure, there's going to be serious damage to the workshop, and maybe the surrounding compartments, but if it's thorough enough, the only thing human that'll survive that sort of plasma bath is going to be wearing terminator armour (in which case, you have a whole other problem).

I like that you mentioned not venting him into space, and so far people have either suggested that OR venting him into the Warp, which technically is different from what you said.

Just to be clear, the goal is NOT to murder this person, correct?

I like that you mentioned not venting him into space, and so far people have either suggested that OR venting him into the Warp, which technically is different from what you said.

Just to be clear, the goal is NOT to murder this person, correct?

What a terrible waste of biomass! He should be turned into servitor or fertilizer! You wont jettison perfectly good food, will you?

Well he's an astropath who may be working for the Inquisition, or may be a huge heretic (or both). I decided at the time that it was safer and more profitable not to ask questions. Also he'd just collected all his research data on to a slate and encrypted it, so again I decided to go the route of least resistance and give him a home. It's cost me a few crew for his experiments (not an issue, of course), but the daemon he has trapped now could be a big problem later on (to be fair, he saved a couple of us from it too, though I still needed to burn a Fate to get through the encounter). He has some knowledge of xenos and archeotech, and is a pretty powerful psyker going by what we've witnessed him do on a couple occasions... All of which could be a problem in all manner of dangerous things laying around his lab, not to mention any traps he may have put in place (or crew he brainwashed).

The more I think about it, unless he's an Inquisitor, and even then it could be iffy, he's going to get everyone on my ship branded Hereticus Abomini and hunted down.

So I'm thinking I might try the more peaceful route of dropping him off in one of the system's I've discovered, and playing the part of the friendly merchant, while I strip the system bare of profitable resources... Ooo, maybe I'll do something really classical, and send him as a as a messenger with a note that reads "kill the guy who brought you this note". I know I'm definitely going to have to invest in some anti-psyker tools though, even if we stay on friendly terms, just to be prudent.

Here are some methods that might get rid of powerfull inquisitorial astropaths...

1. Poison. If not, use more poison.

2. Selling your ship with him on it and buy yourself a new one.

3. Culexus assassins (might be hard to get)

4. Other Inquisitors (preferably Monodominant ordo Hereticus)

5. Asking him nicely to leave (nobody in the grimdark of 40k ever asks nicely- it just might work!)

6. There is NO method number six!

7. Fire and lots of it!

8. Convert to chaos, take the ship into warpspace, drop Geller field. (slight chance of things not working out quite well)

9. Rad and or virus grenades.

10. Find a Jokaero and have it build one of their special force fields around the lab, so nothing can get out.

If he has a Daemon "trapped", he's a heretic. Loyalist inquisitors and psykers send them back to the warp, they don't put them into items (unless they're on the very very doorstep of turning to chaos).

Anything that gives him time to think, anything he can see coming in the immediate future, has the potential to fail here. I would recommend ditching anything in the slightest circumspect, then politely asking the inquisition to "randomly search" your ship. It will escalate, and he'll likely get away, but he won't blame you .

You're a Rogue Trader... with all the power of a dynasty behind you. All you need to do is to create a need for him to be somewhere else.

Get the Seneschal to secretly invest in interesting but heretical xenophilious projects somewhere other than on your ship. Ideally you should be an ultra silent partner that no-one knows about and the projects should be completely unrelated to you or your other enterprises. Then just start doing really, really boring work. Something so dull that the terrifying warp jumps you occasionally make become a bit of a lark.

The Astropath should leave of his own accord and remain on good terms with you. As an added bonus you can continue to keep tabs on him.

If he's a powerful psyker, there is a distinct possibility that he has divinatory and/or telepathic powers that could warn him if you intend hostile action. Therefore, when figuring out how to get him off the ship, ensure that everyone involved is protected by psychic blockers.

Politely inform him that the presence of the daemon is a concern for the safety of the ship and everyone onboard. Offer to establish and support a more secure research facility off the ship, on a planet or station, if he wants to keep the daemon handy. Inform him, again, politely, that you have concerns about the safety of his lab space should the ship be attacked.

Also - Consult your own psykers/astropaths - get them to make divinatory readings, read the Tarot, etc, on whether or not the entity that has identified themselves to you as your passenger is or may become a threat, if their research is or may become a threat, and whether or not their research will draw undesirable attention to you/your ship/your dynasty. Word the questions carefully, and give them in writing - request the answers in writing as well. Analyze the hell out of them, checking carefully for loopholes. Have these checks done regularly.

I like how your solution to "I have to many enemies" is to attack someone who is a great benefit to you right now, against your many enemies.

Get yourself psychically warded, perhaps even get an elite unit of stormtrooper-equivalent troops and equip them all with null-field generators, then just march in there and laugh at him while you pour hundreds of high powered energy rounds into his face.

Well mundane enemies I can handle. Psykers and daemons are a bit trickier because the standby methods of the Rogue Trader (wits, and your starship) aren't as useful when your enemy can read minds, or wants to eat your soul.

I'm toying with the idea of making the long trip back to the Lathes in the hopes of picking up a Null Rod... and I'm also thinking my new friend won't want to sail back to the middle of Imperial Space, and the ship's destination isn't worth starting a fight over, so that'd be excellent incentive for him to set up shop somewhere on a planet.

I like how your solution to "I have to many enemies" is to attack someone who is a great benefit to you right now, against your many enemies.

He'd make a great inquisitor.

The other option is to just use your fabulous wealth to hire a high level untouchable and then pay the untouchable to hang around the astropath exclusively. Never speaking, just reading a book or something near the astropath.

The astropath will become suddenly blind and while he might suspect something he won't be able to pinpoint what is going on and if asked you can just say you took on a few thousand new crew recently.

Anything that gives him time to think, anything he can see coming in the immediate future, has the potential to fail here. I would recommend ditching anything in the slightest circumspect, then politely asking the inquisition to "randomly search" your ship. It will escalate, and he'll likely get away, but he won't blame you .

I think this is the greatest suggestion. Hide your incredibly heretical programs, then send the Ordo Hereticus after this clearly corrupted Astropath and let the good times fly.

It is exactly like unleashing a plague of snakes in order to eat a frog infestation, but problems for another day are ones you don't have to deal with right now!

Anything that gives him time to think, anything he can see coming in the immediate future, has the potential to fail here. I would recommend ditching anything in the slightest circumspect, then politely asking the inquisition to "randomly search" your ship. It will escalate, and he'll likely get away, but he won't blame you .

I think this is the greatest suggestion. Hide your incredibly heretical programs, then send the Ordo Hereticus after this clearly corrupted Astropath and let the good times fly.

It is exactly like unleashing a plague of snakes in order to eat a frog infestation, but problems for another day are ones you don't have to deal with right now!

Seneschal: "Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat."

Explorator: "But then we're stuck with gorillas!"

Seneschal: "That's the beautiful part! When wintertime rolls around they simply freeze to death!"

Anything that gives him time to think, anything he can see coming in the immediate future, has the potential to fail here. I would recommend ditching anything in the slightest circumspect, then politely asking the inquisition to "randomly search" your ship. It will escalate, and he'll likely get away, but he won't blame you .

I think this is the greatest suggestion. Hide your incredibly heretical programs, then send the Ordo Hereticus after this clearly corrupted Astropath and let the good times fly.

It is exactly like unleashing a plague of snakes in order to eat a frog infestation, but problems for another day are ones you don't have to deal with right now!

Seneschal: "Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat."

Explorator: "But then we're stuck with gorillas!"

Seneschal: "That's the beautiful part! When wintertime rolls around they simply freeze to death!"

Leaving all this frozen gorilla meat around is how we get ants you know.

I hear that frogs can take care of that though.

It's the circle of life!

But seriously, there's got to be an easier way to get a crazy person off your ship. Can you not make contact with other people who are similarly minded as the passenger? Foist him on them! He'll be more free to continue whatever it is he's doing and they may actually owe you a favour for bringing them together. Get something mundane out of it, like some money.

Then you tip off the Inquisition/Imperial Navy/Bounty Hunters about their location and profit that way too. (Optional)

He'll leave of his own accord. Hell, if you don't antagonize him, he may even spare you when his plans come to fruition.

There's also the Office Space / Japanese sarariman approach. Don't fire him, just continue to humiliate and denigrate him until he leaves on his own. But that can easily turn badly for you.

Well, after all this, while I have a few workable plans for removing them, I think I'm actually going to try the peaceful route.

Set them up with a lab somewhere in a new system, one even more remote than the place we found them (we're already there, so it'd be convenient-ish too). There's people, a habitable planet, and tech and stuff for him to keep himself busy with while I'm making the half a year journey to Port Wander.

And when I come back I'll have a Null Rod stuffed in my belt, just for insurance (-30 and +30 aren't a lot, but it's enough).

If this is an Inquisitor, keep in mind that merely acting suspicious is enough "justification" to be raided and have horrible things happen to you. A Null Rod or an Untouchable will certainly give you bonuses, but even if an Astropath can't see an Untouchable, they can read an Auspex or have a Servo-Skull to tell them that someone else is in the room.