Greetings, brethern.

My group of players are running through a "maintenance level" (I hope I use the correct word!) inside of hive Sibillus (a gap-filler between Edge of Darkness and "Gateway 17" from DarkReign).

While they are running around, I am running around of encounters/obstacles.

About the maintenance level
Imagine a level inbetween to hive section (Coscarla and a ManufactorumDistrict above Coscarla, to be precise). A level with a height of aprox. 50m, devided into 5 furhter "sublevels".
Each sublevel is filled with tunnels, pipes and chambers, through them, beneath them, atop of them and along there walls runs a huge array of pipes, canals, pipes, ventilation shafts, pipes, waste shutes, pipes and even more pipes. Some of them going down to Coscarla, most of them running right through Coscarla and even deeper. They transport industrial fumes, polluted water, waste, hotsteam, coolance. Some of it even slightly radioactive. Most of them in bad condisscion and leaking fluid or hissing of gas/steam.

Inside the level, a gang of mutant hides out. Using the labyrinth as "retreat" area after small, unorganzied raids. They were later hired by a NarcoSyndicate to keep others out of this area and allow there men and a certain NarcoGang (Chord Luntz men) in. A secured meeting point for the Syndicate and LUntz to exchange money for drugs. Before the Syndicate installed the kitchen in...well, you might now or will now

My problem:
While my players run around (and had there encounters with all mentioned groups), I am running out of encounters for there way back! Mostly since I do not want to overpopulate this area with critters to the point of sheer sillyness! What I really would like to have would be more "obstacles" (not involing any fighting, just a problem to be overcome... or to be surpassed by walking another way... spending more time in sublevel which makes it more likely for a group of purchasing mutants to catch up!)

What I used/ will use so far...
- a run in with "canalmaw lizzards" (similiar to the good old "crocks in the sewers")
- an attack of poisenous and overaggressive beetles swirling down from the ceiling
- an nest of bat-like creatures to keep them from going up a "shaft"
- a loose gangway over a tank filled with very sick goo (need to jump)
- a shaft covered in slimy fungus (the risk of losing grip and falling waaay down)
- the GloomHaunt [CA]
- the vapour rats (from "EdgeOfDarkness")
- an area filled with poisenous fumes from a leaking pipe (obivous)
- a sink filled with monoxide (not obvious. Be quick to rescue you and your team mates!)

The "further mutant attacks" are safed for when they need to much time. Coming in in waves. 8 / 16 / 24 /[EXTINCT]

You could have them need to go through and old unused pipe to get past a wall, and in the pipe its 100% dark..a hole in the floor that takes them to a different floor if they don't have any light to see the hole. etc.

Have them need to move/stack bodies of mutants to get to a different passage/weigh down one side of a fulcrom to lift them up to a doorway.

Have random pipes burst during fights creating flak and random damage.

On the way out have guards/tech-priests coming in to repair the damage that has been reported etc.

Maintnance levels would be a good place for Hereteks, Reclaimator scum and cultists to go looking for the parts and equipment they need to support their nefarious enterprises. As for enviromental hazards, radiation zones and ruptured steam pipes are good examples.

@Thaddius

The "black pipe" is a nice idea, but my pc had enough sense to equip themselves with some light sources. Anyway, making a whole area pitchblack and force some perceipton checks on them "or fall" is a good idea!
The "box puzzle" sound nice as well. Perhaps I come up with something after reading "walk through" for some old style pc adventures

@Warpghost
Hereteks are a good idea, but my recent playing-out-of-things already established that the mutants kept everyone else out on behalf of the Narco Syndicate (only dodging the very very infrequent repair crews for not wanting to draw in a full scale raid on them).

Thanks to the both of you!

Weekly Purgings!

A large detachment of combat servitors are released into the maintenance tunnels on their weekly purging of the vermin that can build up there. Can the PC's elude them and their cleansing flames?

Japanese Hair Demon!

The characters spot a pale white dirty little girl in a precarious place of imminent danger. She carries a rag doll by the leg dragging it behind her and is dressed in a dirty shapeless dress of indeterminate color with long stingy black air falling down to obscure her face. She reaches her hand out to the PCs silently pleading for their help while she tries to shuffle to them. What would they do? Will they help her, ignore her, or send copious amounts of ammunition at her with rolling eyes and a comment that the whole Japanese hair ghost is so over done? Oh, and did I mention se's just an ordinarily lost girl from the manufactoruim district above? How she got into such a predicament and lived, only the Emperor can say but she really won't make it back home without some help...

Even More Purgings!

The section of tunnels the players have chosen is suddenly overwhelmed with vermin and mutants running heal to elbow towards the PC's. Of course, they will run right by the PC's unless blocked with a healthy dose of auto-fire, but even that might not stop tem for long. And further down the tunnel, a heat begins to rise until the PC's see the massive wall of flame racing down the tunnel tat the critters were running from. They better get their move on as well.

A Church? Here?

The PC's stumble into a large cylindrical chamber where most of the pipes converge and amongst them, an impromptu temple seems to have been erected. The only problem is all the saintly statues (recycled like most everything in Sebillus) as well as the Emperor himself has been defaced. Weird rotting worm infested meat has been draped from their forms and below the Emperor, scratched into the wall is title: "The Emperor Worm." Tucked away amongst the refuse here is also a sheaf of papers written in a crude and debase form of low gothic that speaks of the Emperor Worm born from the Starry Emperor and the Mother Worm. Other then that, the "temple" seems to be deserted...

Spoon!

The PC's stumble into a large junction in the tunnels which is littered with mountain upon mountain of old antique spoons. They have been affixed to the walls wit industrial epoxy, they hang from pipes by delicate almost invisible wires. In the center of the junction hidden amongst the spoons is the desiccated and half eaten corps of their owner. Woven throughout the spoon collection are innumerable thin almost invisible trip-wires tied to various crude booby-traps. The spoon collector had sought to protect his most precious collection at all costs, but, unfortunately, had woven his traps so well that even he couldn't escape them once he effectively painted himself into a corner with them.

Free Loot!

A beautiful shrine sits in an alcove. It's centerpiece is a pic of a beautiful young woman who looks to be of noble birth. All around the pic are fresh(!) flowers, silvered antique jewelry and a crystal flask of high quality Amsec half drunk. The mutants who live here and the heretic who seek refuge ere have all left the shrine untouched. Even the vermin haven't chosen to nibble on the flowers and the leaking pipes have chosen not to deface the pic. Will the PC's be as considerate (or smart) as the rest of those in this weird between world?

How about:

- A small group of cannibalistic ratlings
- An Adeptes Mechanicus pipe cleansing device (a tunnelshrubber/burner)
- A strange old sealed Data-Crypt
- An old smugglers den just before arbitrators come and arrest the smugglers
- Genestealer (if you realy dislike your pc's)

GrtZ,

Santiago

1. The PC's walk past a 3 man team wearing orange overalls, scrubbing at the walls, wiping away a stain of blood, while another packs a skeleton into a waste bag, they warn the PCs to watch their step and head for the surface ASAP. On the way back, the PC's find 3 skeletons, scraps of orange overalls and a whole lotta blood everywhere.
2. A hand reaches out of the shadows, grabbing a PCs ankle, demanding to know if the PCs are aware of their imminent doom. A Psyker may notice she is a latent, weak psyker.
3. A pipe bursts, leaking promethium into the passageway, a wire sparks, setting the corridor alight, a klaxon sounds and a water sprikler system kicks into life, drenching the corridor and the PCs, putting the fire out. The Klaxon stops, but the sprinkler system doesn't.
4. The PCs pass 2 figures, a man and a woman, the woman is headless, having had it eaten by one of the bat things from CA. The man clings to her corpse, rocking it gently, crooning to it, singing softly and rearranging her clothing to look more presentable. If he notices the PC's, he'll ask them:

   "Pretty isn't she? Did you hear that dear? They think you look beautiful".

5. A section of wall explodes into the corridor and a meintenance servitor bursts through, it's hammer arm thumping at anything in it's path. It crosses the corridor, blowing out the other wall. It might return at a later date, it might hit a PC, it might hit an enemy...It's up to you

All I can think of atm

the Haarlock Legacy I, Tattered Fates has some good idears in the "Red Cages" section

Tetragon Tanebrae said:

Thanks for the advice.

I own that one. Besides the "collapsed gangway" and the "rotating bridge", it´s all a little to much "fight a creature" and a little to less "obstacle". I already had a lot of critters in there, and I do not want to "over do" it. ..but one thing (see "@Church/Free Loot")

@Spoon & Smuggles den
Good ideas, I will mix them up, having them stumble about what look a "lair" of someone, but without any since of the occupant. Some traps build up to "protect it". The occupants, however, will have been long dead/lost (eventually killed by the mutants who guard the level)

@Pipe cleansing device
Yab, that will be good reason to "throw them off a given way", so they simply do not just walk the way back they came ^^

@The Purgings
Will reduce the "battle servitors" to "pest control sevitors" (downgraded flamer/toxin sprayer, "grabber" for picking off carcass.. back container for compressing/transporting carcass)

@The Church/Free Loot
Will combine the two and an idea from "Tattered Fates / Red Cages". A little heretical shrine, something "nice to grab"... and a very sinister consequence... the "background" of the shrine will be that SOME of the mutant DO hail "dark forces" and uses this shrine for monthly sacrifices in order to receive blessings from "the DeFaced". Whoe on him who steals the Knife of DeFacial (stolen Mono-Knife used for sacrifical face-flaying & following murder).

Obstacle: a ventilation shaft that needs to be crossed vertically with these huge revolving horizontal scoops intersected ... kind of like that scene in the movie Daylight with Silvester Stallone

Or else: servitor cleaning crews, big machines with brooms and hoses and scrubbers that wipe filth from tunnels and will not have the programming to distinguish acolytes from filth.

A long section of partially collapsed corridor flooded to waist depth with low-grade promethium from a nearby storage tank, one spark and the whole thing could go up in flames, the footing is uneven and may trip up an uncautious acolyte.

The PCs have to get through or lose a few hours finding a detour, can they get past without getting cooked or covered in volatile fuel?

What's your business here?

The PCs have to explain themselves to/avoid being shot by, an Arbites/Magistratum team hunting a dangerous criminal/heretic/beastie. Maybe you could have them meet the criminal/heretic/beastie later, too.

I can't... reach!

Have them help out, or not, a guy who's trying to shut off a particular valve that's attached to a pipe that's flooding his settlement. He's injured, the valve is high up on a wall. There's never a ladder around when you need one!

How about:

Maintenance Level Spooks

The tween levels between sectors of the Hive have often become home to those who have lost everything. Sometimes, the collective misery of these unfortunates manifests as a psychic presence - a form that croons and creeps at the corner of the acolytes' vision, can be heard weeping in the distance, throws shadows down side tunnels or rushes across an intersection ahead. The claustrophobic accessways can only make this feeling of being watched worse. To really creep out the PCs, then start leaving little messages or clues from these psychic intruders from time to time. A scratched message across a vault door, strange hanging objects (a little like the rather amazing spoons idea), a handprint formed out of goo in the middle of the floor, rattling ceiling panels or neatly arranged animal corpses in a recess.

The overall idea would be to unnerve the characters rather than provide combat options. It may be that the PCs can 'solve' this problem by putting these psychic whispers to sleep by fulfilling some meaningless task?

How the Mighty have Fallen

Subsidence has caused a partial cave-in ahead. From the level above, a mausoleum of one of the Hives former nobility has broken into this level, and spilled its contents into the tunnel. PCs must pick their way over shattered funerary statues and shattered sarcophagi. It may be possible to climb up into the mausoleum above, although if they do, then they will have to deal with the automated defences left behind by those entombed here.

Toxic Soup

Metal steps lead down into some kind of vat chamber, where riveted metal cube cisterns are intersected by narrow catwalks with a metal rail at waist height on one side. The walls are covered in stains, nearly up to the ceiling, where there are pipes that open into the room, above the tanks. The interior of these 'tanks' is filled with a fitfull looking bubbling ochre gruel, that gives off pungent fumes. PCs must make T checks (at +20% initially) to stay clear headed. Failure will result in a slump towards one of the tanks. Covering mouth (using a respirator device etc...) will either improve the check or negate the need entirely. About half way across, sirens sound, and the alarmed PCs will see the doors begin to close painfully slowly behind and in front. At the same time, a viscous gurgling is heard from the pipes overhead, and caustic yellow liquid begins to drizzle out of the nearest pipes.

The PCs will now need to hurry towards the door in front, taking care to avoid either toppling into the soup below, or getting splattered by poisonous gloop from overhead.