Kage2020 said:

Eh?

The formatting on the posts above mine... that's all. It's kind of funkily amusing. Maybe it's just Chrome, though...

Kage

I will give you an answer based on what I know about archeology; If you find bones that are intact and has not disintegrated after 5000 years, then you will find artefacts there too. It takes perfect conditions of balanced temperature, air moisture, etc. to keep bones preserved. And that is basically the same for metals, leather, wood, etc. When it comes to plastic it depends. If you are talking about biodegradable plastics, it would be gone. But I dont think the Imperium is using "green" technology. Theoretically it is possible that electronic circuits could work, but it is very unlikely. Mainly because background radiation will break down electronics over time. The more complicated and smaller the circuits (the imperium uses very extreme nano-scale circuitry) the more sensitive it is to radiation, heat, static electricity etc. You can think of it as a stone wall being hit by the water from a garden hose. It might not have an effect in one year, 5 years, 10 years, 100 years. But over 5000 years it certainly will show on the wall where the water has been hit. It will have been eroded and weakened.

However, it is obvious the Imperium has access to fantastic technology. For example stasis fields that seems to be able to completely arrest the flow of time, making that which inside the stasis field impervious to ravages of time (in all forms). I however see flaw in this, since the circuitry or whatever it is that generate the field is itself not protected (I assume since it is not stopped in time). However, it does not matter much. It is all an deus ex machina for allowing things to survive extreme amounts of time.

Luddite said:

Actually all of this is pretty much "happening in the shadows, without players knowing". Frankly speaking, its pretty much 'work in progress', I make stuff up as the players stumbles on. Actually you just gave me few good plot ideas :-) (And I haven't thought these questions before, thank you for bringing this up)

And to answer to your question:

Q. How do they interact and so forth?

A. The way I see it, is that Inquisitors are independent powers in the universe. They must inform their whereabouts to their superiors every now and then, mostly twice a year. Other than that, not much communicating between Inquisitors. But there are exceptions in the rare cases when they are friends or they own favors to each others. Knowledge is power, but Inquisitor in dept to you is solid gold. :-)

In this case, the Inquisitors happened to meet by chance in the ballroom dance -thingy at some planetary governors inaugural. (not sure is this the right word for it..) The Inquisitor "B" casually asked the "A" if he happened to have team ready for him to borrow for some weeks. It would be just little off-system trip to rebellous planet. Small "in-and-out-before anyone-noticing" type of mission. He has his own team ready, but his techpriest were incapasitated last mission. He could ask directly for Mechanicus for help, but he doesn't trust them that much. He wants a tech-adept from the Inquisitorial ranks, from a fellow Inquisitor, if he have to.

He gave just too little or too much information about this mission to wake Inquisitor "A"'s interest so he promised to help him. There happened to be one team ready near here, just fresh out of "Acolyte School for Extraordnery People Who Know How To Do Things Well But Want To Learn To Do Those Things Even Better". (Players first mission. ..Actually one of the players had managed to reach to level 2, he was the teamleader for the player-team).

Inquisitor "B" thought about this for a while and decided to go for it. Those acolytes are fersh out of training, so they don't know anything yet.. So there are small change for players to find anything they are not supposed to know... He didn't know that there was one little more experienced on board (one of the techpriests) and he got the mission to spy this other group.

Inquisitor "A" told that this would be the first real mission for this team, it'll be good experience for them. And the Inquisitor "B" would be in small dept for the "A". Details were discussed and they drank little more booze to seal the deal.

Player who agreed to spy the other team was promised money and power and a step up in the hierarchy if he managed to do this.

Anyhow, it's pretty open (yet) what is inside those canisters and what the inquisitor want to do with them. Is he a radical or something else? When they report this mission, does the Inquisitor "B" find out and if he does, what happens? Does he confront the players and tell them that this was partly a bogus mission to flush the Inquisitor "A" out in the open and partly to secure these canisters to safety. Does the "B" try to recruit players on his side, against the "A"? Or does the "A" order them to capture the canisters for him and at the same time he tells players that the "B" is a radical, trying to use the canisters for his own evil plots.

I try to give the players a few large directions for them to choose and keep smaller directions available if they decide against all that I have planned (this would be the most likely direction they take. If I plan this, they to that etc... :-) ) Are they blindly loyal for their Inquisitor, do they betray him at the first chance or do they keep their own eyes open and find out what is happening around them...

Thank you Luddite yet again, you gave me a direction for this campaign to evolve *grins*

i simply can not imagine a future that could be described without the words blaek, dark and desolate...

moekel said:

Bleak Inquisitor "A" loaned his dark team of acolytes to the desolated Inquisitor "B"

Is that better? =)