So I am planning on putting the Acolytes on a mission to Tranch to deal with some Xenos Heresy involving some of the PDF there. I have no problem inventing all the info needed for this, at least in thumbnail form, but i would like to know if there is already information out there on the names and dispositions of the Hives on Tranch before I go run roughshod over canon. I am guessing there is something in the IH on Tranch, but as I do not have that yet i was hoping for a little brotherly help from my friendly gaming community gurus.

help a GM out....heh heh, or bail me out if you will. ;D

no...seriously, bail me out man T_T

Although I can't really help you out much I can certainly see the problem you're facing. It's very hard for gamemasters in Dark Heresy to find comperhensive information about any given world within the Calixis sector, because the writers of Dark Heresy and its supplements have chosen to spread out little tidbits of information about different worlds throughout the books.

Something that could solve this would perhaps be a wiki of some kind, where every tidbit of information about worlds, people, places, aliens, weapons, corporations etc. etc. have been assembled in a more structured way. So if you want to find every official bit of information written about the planet Kulth for example, then you just type in Kulth in the search-box and then yu'll be presented with a rough description along with quotes from every text in the source books that have mentioned Kulth so far.

Would be quite handy in contrast with having to rummage through every book in searh of a little black box with text that you could swear you've read something about this or that before, dont you agree?

Well,

In the IH is an Elite Advance called Tranch War Veteran and the DothDG has info on a Mutant/Rogue Psyker Cult called the Pale Throng that did a lot of war on Tranch some time ago.

Tranch:

Minor Hive World ruled by a group of people called the Oligarchs
They rule like tyrants (nothing new in the Imperium)
So a (mutant) rebelion started in the lower hives and the Oligarchs called in the Imperial Guard
After long and vicious fighting the Pale Throng Overlords were killed and the battle was won.
Tranch Born mutants tend to be Wild Talents or even Unsanctioned Psykers like Wyrdling or Hellspawn (see table 12-3 DH Core, page 334 & 335)
The Pale Throng are not Warp/Chaos worshippers but more mutant freedom fighters with very little morality.

GrtZ,

Santiago...

neevermind... beaten to it.

Thanks for the information, and Aethel, its the thought that counts mate.

So in the DH book it is listed as having an ongoing civil war. Is this the same, or is someone else stirred up?

Santiago said:

Damien said:

The mutant uprising by the Pale Throng is indeed the civil war being fought on Tranch. Technically, the administartum have recorded the war as being over and Tranch as being pacified. Citizens are being forced back onto the planet and into the hives but, as any guardsmen who gets sent to that hell-hole (as they are still regularly cycled out seeing as how it has a bad tendency to break them body, mind, and soul) and survives the continual terroristic bombings, the nightmare twists in the soot warrens, the terrible pale witch-things that get into your mind, and whole spires which are still arcades of death ruled by the blasphemous horrors born for slaughter and blood, the planet's about as pacified as dusk is purified. Oh, and I believe it's still under martial law as there is no ruling body any longer seeing as how the Imperium executed the Oligarchs for gross incompetence (kind of ironic that).

The Tranch "underhive" is called the Soot Warrens, in reference to the hive's furnace industry. I don't recall seeing a name given to the hive city itself.

Also, to revise Santiago's otherwise excellent summery slightly...

The Pale Throng rose up. The Oligarchs deployed enforcers into the Soot Warrens only to be overrun and the Throng invaded the mid-hive levels. Seizing the moment, several Chaos cults in the upper hive levels rose up. The Oligarchs, fearing for their own lives, redeployed their forces to protect the upper-most hive levels, abandoning the mid-hive. As the Throng invaded the mid-hive, the population there also turned against the Oligarchs, turning it into a three way war. Anarchy reigned. The Lord Sector deployed the Imperial Guard to secure the planet, put down the various rebellions an replace the Oligarchs.

Whoa...0_o...that's all pretty intense. Hmm, so let me lay this idea on you guys and see what you think.

I didn't know about the mutant uprising when I postualted this, but i was looking at sending the Acolytes into the Hive on Tranch to look into the possible heretical situation involving an IG company on Tranch. I had planned on an almost Apocalypse Now sort of situation where the Acolytes are to go in, escorted by a detached squad of Tranch War Veterans, locate the lost company and ascertain their situation. The Lord Marshall has become concerned about this bunch because the Captain was one of his troublesome officers who was more interested in his men than he was doing what had to be done. The last thing he wants is a full IG company to go over to the rebels and he cannot spare another full company to go into a free fire zone to go looking for them. He has his Regimental Commissar contact his superiors who contact the Ordo Hereticus, and the Ordo tasks the Acolytes Inquisitor with the investigation. My team is skilled in sneaking, investigating and shooting so I figured they would be fairly well suited to the operation.

The players will have to deal with Mid-Hive dissenters, Pale Throng terrorists and possibly a Witch, Underhive Gangers, that sort of thing. And of course then you have the actual IG Company that has indeed been turned, but not by the Pale Throng. I was interested in using the Dark Eldar, so using the data from Dark Reign i developed a small detachment from a Kabal that I have yet to name. The underlying situation the Acolytes will uncover and have the opportunity to thwart, is that the DE decided to use the Tranch Civil War to cover them taking slaves to slake their thirst. This Kabal has chosen to work in war zones where the fog of war and the noise of battle would cover their activities without them having to become to heavily involved. Turn a group of soldiers by addicting them to a combat drug, or by addicting them to other pleasures and pains, and have them do most of the dirty work until they are uncovered and they can leave the dupes high and dry as the Xenos move on to their next mark with their holds full of slaves for Cormoragh.

So, comments, questions, criticisms?

Comments:

First of all, the "Apocalypse NOW" feeling seems really appriciated. The Hive is a warzone mostly.

Advise on the IG:
Use the "captain cares more about his men then about the job" and the "hooked up on strange combat drug". But do not let the IG in question -know- that they purchase from DarkEldar. The DE-Technology is advanced enough and they are (as a society) enough into stealth and guile that they could succeed as passing themselves as heavly cloaked humans on the street. Yep, they are odd. But who is not in this hell-hole?
So, my take would be that the company purchased combat drugs "from this strange group that approached us a couple of month ago" and the trade is "Slaves for Drugs". The IG are fine with that, since to them these people in their hive section a rebellious scum as well, ambushing them and stealing good for them. Hack, some of them are even cannibals and betraying the god emporer, turning to ruinous powers and cults!
(Please take note that the IG still think of themself the good guys... being heretical in thinking that they know better then their superiors how things should be run around here!)

Advise on the DE:
Play them down, at first. The didn not got noticed throughout all the hell going on. They are perceived as sinister figures, having dealings with the IG (view of the people) or as some strange drug dealer, propably hereteks (view of the IG). Center the first stage of play on the IG company. Hand out XP rewards like "end time" and simply ask your players if they "want to play the catch of the drug dealers. For some extra XP". This might be the view of the PC, after all! If they find some of them or ambush them... reveal as much or as less of the real thing as you like...hand have your pc start the second part of your adventure.

Advise on groups and people:
Make the "imperial" people desperate and ill-responding to imperial authorities. Resentfull from war, abuse by the oligarchs and only more war. If it comes to them, no-one is on there side. They see it day by day.

Mutant raids are got for "spicing it up". Make them brutal, nihilistic and a total "us-or-them" thing. Hinder communication by giving them little skill in Low Gothic...and the pc little help about "hive cant".

Perhaps there are is even some milita going around... underground fighting force...even placing raids against the IG as a "response" to some raids against black markets, pillagers and stuff.

IIRC, the war on Tranch is officially over (it doesn't present a current threat to the sub-sector) but insurrection is widespread. The previous citizenry have been forcibly moved to the Soot Warrens (the survivors) Underhive, whilst the Hives have been repopulated. The Soot Warrens have the original underhivers, mutants, some Pale Throng, and the displaced citenzenry fighting it out whilst the IG slowly cleanses the place. The main Hives have degenerated into vicious guerilla war (from civil war and insurrection), partly in revenge and partly for supplies to survive. It's pretty brutal, but the Imperium is slowly gaining the upper hand and can expect to end martial law in twenty or thirty years with a return to normalcy.

IIRC, the Pale Throng leadership wasn't killed. They turned on each other in some kind of internal power struggle and so the rebellion fell apart for internal reasons. (Stupid mutants can't do anything right.)

It's important to note their ideology, which is more specifically pro-psyker than it is pro-mutant. And **** do they have powerful psykers,

bogi_khaosa said:

Both of it. There was an "Operation Bellepheron" (see DotdG p. 56). One part of the Leadership (the "Shroud Council") was assasinated, the other part soon start to tear each other appart in in-fights for power and leadership. All-in-All, the end of the Pale Throng started with the mysterious "Operation Bellepheron".

@Gregorius

Thanks for that. Some of it I kinda take for granted, but the bonus XP part is a nice twist. Yes, indeed, I have always been a fan of hiding the main antagonist until the last reel, or the sequel.

Everyone

Your information is most welcomed. I am making up an IG Light Infantry Regiment to have all the data I could need. In the process I am going to make up some new career paths to add some flavor for the Guardsmen in my life. Until later true believers.