First update: on the second page

For any of my players, don't read this, if you know/are yuven, don't read.

Hello, I am a GM for a group of 4 players ranging from experienced to new players. I am planing an arc where they will discover that Tzeentch has indirectly manipulated their former Master of Ordenance

their master of ordenance went missing 3 years ago in a patrol within the ship, and they have discovered that someone has accessed the database using his account (it is him obv.) fixing numbers to conceal the fact that weapons, supplies and even soldiers have disapeared for the last 1 1/2 year.

the ambitions of the Master of Ordenance is to: improve the situations of the lower people, hailing from the lower levels of a hive city himself.

although this is his goal he also want to rise to the highest of stations with luxury and wealth etc.

So this is what we have to work with, the ship has recently gained a witch hunter who is supposed to control the population, rooting out any unofficial psykers.

any amount of people, weapons, psykers, servitors etc are available (within reasonable amount)

What I would like to include in some form:

- minor revolution/uprising?
- for the explorers to feel a little threatened in their upper levels

any suggestions?

Pretty basic Tzeetch affair so just go with the stereotype.

Master of ordinance promises change to the now suppressed lower decks because they're being culled.

They agree with the sentiment, but change doesn't come without a price.

He gets a cabal of unchecked psykers to enact a ritual to rip the ship into the warp, and then has his army go after the gellar fields.

All the while a group of tech adepts and priests have sealed the main passages to the lower holds to stem the tide, but now its a hunt in small cramped spaces perfect for ambushes, just like the Master of ordinance planned.

Nice, neat and ruinous but not that subtle which I feel is the hallmark of Tzeentch, why take so long to accomplish this?

but how would that force the rogue traders from not simply trying to either: flush them out, send an army of soldiers down there, or not go down there them self?

Dissent has been spread among the ranks of soldiers due to the loyalty that still exists to the master of ordinance. A few chaplains were corrupted as well. There simply aren't enough soldiers to do it properly, so they have to play it smart.

It was going to be a much more subtle thing, taking over the entire population of the ship from the bottom up until the pcs were the only ones on their own side. However the introduction of the witch hunter has sped up the plan unfortunately.

Playing it slower simply means that they lower decks were suppressed before the witch hunter arrived, now they're essentially slave labor until he's through with them. Being actively mistreated and sometimes killed falsely.

Thanks ThenDoctor, based on your suggestion I have come up with this draft:

Master of ordenance will at some point reveal himself(using a proxy for safety reasons), and using his new powerbase to demand that the population are given a proper education (being able to read basically), which is something he has been teaching for the last years to a selected few. If this is not granted (through the threat of strike/uprising) where the Rogue Trader has to announce to the entire population and broadcast it for several days that they are given school+ other rights (like not being turned into a servitor/executed as soon as they are harmed being unworthy of the medical expence).

the reasoning for this increase in literacy/better life standard is change, a central tenet of Tzeentch, where through the education the teaching of tzeentch will be incorporated. Seeing as this is a central change/chaotic divergence from the true path of knowledge, this could arguably be a minor goal of a servant of Tzeentch, where the famous rogue trader might due to its reputation force other people (their homeworld, rogue trader partner) to consider this change. Thereby spreading the cult of Tzeentch, if they are killed, the ship will still be famous as a ship with a former possibly extint cult

If these things are not granted or they try to kill/stop it, **** em, open a gate to the warp and lower the gellar fields.

Needs more needless complexity. The Master of Ordnance sounds like he'd be more suited towards falling to Slaanesh, so why not enact that plan. Have your lower crew members start to engage in debauched and hedonistic acts, that maybe involve in a little bit of ritual sacrifice or the odd daemonette flitting in and out to kill a few of your crew members, resulting in the majority of the crew (aided by some cultists of Tzeentch) realise what they've been doing is wrong, repent, and try to bring an end to this..

Unfortunately the Witch Hunter will then (as Witch Hunters do) begin burning the guilty, the repentant, and those within a close radius to make sure the taint is erradicated. With both the Slaaneshi and the Inquisition against them, the true cultists of Tzeentch begin preaching the terrified masses that both ways are wrong, and only the strong will have the will to change their fate. Thus during the confusion of the Slaaneshi purge, they begin to implement their true ritual, probably involving Gellar field manipulation as mentioned above.

ooh! needless complexity is so what I am looking for atm, gonna incorporate that part too^^

This plot is amazing. Rogue Trader and his buddies with company charge cards must handle the Chaos Communists.

gdiddy, it sounds interesting at least ^^

anyone else who has an idea? the draft is not finalized and I would appreciate any form of input

The party in the dungeon comes to a place where there's a small hole in the ceiling and a rope coming from it. At the end of the rope is a sign. It doesn't matter if the signs says, "Pull" or "Don't Pull." The party is going to pull that rope. The only thing that remains to be seen is the shenanigans before the rope is pulled.

That said, I'd expect my players to read this thread. It's just human nature. So while I might have said, "The Master of Ordnance," what I'd really have meant is, "Not the Master of Ordnance."

What would I add? As Erathia already pointed out, needless complexity. After all, you chose Tzeentch, so complexity is called for. Humans are such pathetic creatures. The cat will kill the mouse, but that's not the point. The point is all the fun you get to have with the mouse before you get tired of it. And the only reason you kill it is because there's more mice. If this were the last mouse, you'd have to let it go.

And I always give the players an out...or three. If they catch on to things, let them investigate, let them act, give them a chance to pre-empt. It is my experience that players don't mind the train ride if they've been given a chance to take over the train before it gets out of control.

true, I will drop some hints here and there and give them the opportunity to act before "dropping the base"

I just had a thought about the why behind Tzeentch and needlessly super-complicated plans.

In many ways, Tzeentch has very close to perfect foresight within the limits of its knowledge, and has a very large base of knowledge to work with - probably a lot closer to omniscience than everyone else would like. This means that Tzeentch is bored . If one has predicted how things will play out in advance, and have a nigh-perfect record, one may actively want to introduce uncertainty, unpredictable, and unforeseen elements. Tzeentch is trying to introduce the possibility of failure into its plots, because certainty about everything in advance is boring.

For an analogous situation to what I describe, albeit on a lesser scale, I would suggest reading the webcomic El Goonish Shive and the character Pandora Chaos Raven. Be a bit of a archive crawl to find it all, though.

true, but as I also understood it, it is in his nature, that is his embodiment, he will scheme to scheme and it does not matter if his schemes work against his other schemes, because in the end it will be worth it ^^

Khorne never has enough blood, Nurgle never has enough pox, Slaanesh never has enough debauchery, Tzeentch never has enough scheming. It'd be like their weakness if they each weren't so good at doing what they are.

true, but as I also understood it, it is in his nature, that is his embodiment, he will scheme to scheme and it does not matter if his schemes work against his other schemes, because in the end it will be worth it ^^

True, Tzeentch schemes for the sake of scheming - not necessarily the result of the schemes, but as far as we mortals are concerned, and how to approximate the mindset, I think it works.

Khorne never has enough blood, Nurgle never has enough pox, Slaanesh never has enough debauchery, Tzeentch never has enough scheming. It'd be like their weakness if they each weren't so good at doing what they are.

Very true.

Lots of mustache twirling, beard-stroking and just as planned. Plots within plots... within plots. It get so deep that, when the players get to the bottom, they are screwed, but don't even know it.

Lots of mustache twirling, beard-stroking and just as planned. Plots within plots... within plots. It get so deep that, when the players get to the bottom, they are screwed, but don't even know it.

"Get to the bottom"? What is this "bottom" you refer to?

There are always more layers, so much so that even if you think you got the mastermind, they were being played by someone else, even if they didn't know it. Always.

Lots of mustache twirling, beard-stroking and just as planned. Plots within plots... within plots. It get so deep that, when the players get to the bottom, they are screwed, but don't even know it.

"Get to the bottom"? What is this "bottom" you refer to?

There are always more layers, so much so that even if you think you got the mastermind, they were being played by someone else, even if they didn't know it. Always.

Just as planned...

How about a formulaic approach; try creating a flow chart...

The end result of this chart is - Tzeentch wins LOL

I would think if a "thing" like Tzeentch took an active interest in a mortal's life - that mortal is doomed...

Would bad luck and misery dog the unfortunate person whom Tzeentch gave attentions too?! (sort of like the Omen when a statue falls on one guy and kills him seemingly via bad luck)

Tzeentch has a plan, if that plan succeeds then he wins, if that plan fails - he planned for that failure and wins anyway - just in a different manner than originally perceived by others (but always intended by Tzeentch)...

You may get more by focusing a bit down the proverbial ladder of power; look to history and take anyone from dictators to coporations for inspiration as to a more "earthly" agency by which Tzeentch may work - I.E. an agent or proxy rather than the chaos god itself - maybe that agent/proxy's failure is something Tzeentch wants, and the PCs are just the people to do it! ROTFL

Stay Gaming!

good point, I am gonna post my final draft when I finish with it, gonna give your suggestion a try ^^

First update : the plot is in motion, I have told them that there are several warpstorms out and about, so their travel will take 12 days, plenty of time for me to finish with my uprising.

The first clues, they had done a survey of the population, where they discovered that the population was unhappy with the new "sanctioned" rituals(being sacrificed to slanesh is rarely fun for all). Their witch finder also prophesied(with the emperor's tarot) that mystery, merriment and the lord of pentagrams were in the future, allowing them to potentially react sooner.

This unrest is going to increase, rumors of monsters breaching the gellar fields, casualties at night. The witch finder is also going to find several stashed cases of illegal drugs on semi high officers, creating a desire for a good purging, unless they actually give the officers a trial. Fat chance about that.

In the meantime, their dark heresy characters (they have 2 different characters in this campaign, rogue trader and dark heresy level) have been captured by the former master of ordenance who is gonna try to manipulate them into helping him, while subtly teaching them about education, hope for change, tzeentch stuff ofc which results in corruption, moving away from the teachings of the emperor.

When things have started to liven up, the former master of ordenance is going to contact the rogue traders about this plot that he has spent the last 3 years trying to unravel, let them send forces into the underbelly of the ship(a cabal of slanesh psykers try to create a portal within the ship). In the meantime the master of ordenance or his minions go for the broadcasting station and supplies as much of the population as possible with leaflets etc, giving them false information, propaganda, need/desire to learn, they(the population) can do better etc. Final confrontation will result in the master of ordenance dying holding them(the exploreres) off, while they are "streamed live" and his minions mimic the voice of the rogue trader as the population see the rogue trader kill the "hero who just tried to make things better for everyone". All hail Tzeentch.

It would seem as suggested prior; this was Tzeentch's plan all the while; he can just taste all that psychic desire for change and grows fatten by such a healthy larder as this... the real horror should come after the adventure is completed with some sort of realization that the Players did the work of the chaos god - and thusly benefited both Chaos & the Imperium, go figure LMFAO...

Stay Gaming!

Morbid

The only thing that I am worried with now is:

- Am I giving the enough of an opportuinty to respond?
- will it be too impossible to stop? <- it is supposed to be hard, it is a bloddy Tzeentch plot.
-Will my explorers feel violated?

As for whether or not there's enough of a window to respond, that's partly dependent upon the players you have in your group.

Tzeentch himself doesn't care if the plot gets disrupted. He has contingency plots that are dependent upon the first one having been disrupted. And so on. Also, randomness and unpredictability is interesting, and allowed to continue.

Good Tzeentchians figure out a way to win even if they loose - maybe they don't achieve their primary goal, but in the process opened up new opportunities or gained new things for themselves.

Remember, even in failure, they should have a backup so they can still go "Just as planned".

If done right, a Tzeentchian plot should leave your players feeling violated. And very, very paranoid.