I recently began running a weekly session of Dark Heresy 2nd edition. My group and I decided to record it for a bit of fun. This is my first time GMing DH but I have however GMed other stuff such as A Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings and Shadowrun for the last eight years.
So far there are four players. Nico (Vladimir Molotov), Gary (Romulus Draco), Chris (Kellur) and Ed (Ed joins us in the second session with Jannur). If anyone wishes to join, follow me on twitter @Hakkason1 and PM me or leave a post. Additionally, if you have any thoughts on my interpretation of the setting/rules - I'm looking for feedback and tips.
The links to the recording will be in subsequent posts. They will all be around 2 hours long. Before the first session began, the group were given the following primer:
The Tyrantine Cabal
You are acolytes of the Tyrantine Cabal. One of the most powerful organisations in the Inquisition. Tyrantines are based in the Bastion Serpentis, a bleak fortress of age-polished black stone. The Bastion is a well-kept secret of the inquisition and is located on one of Scintilla's moons, Lachesis. As such, your order has close ties to the Tricorn. The Tricorn is the Inquisitorial palace and seat of the Inquisition in the Calixis Sector. The leader of your cabal is Lord Inquisitor Anton Zerbe. He is known for being even-handed, baleful and implacable. The cabal's member also include several other powerful inquisitors. The Tyrantine Cabal focuses its attentions on the Hereticus Tenebrae. This heresy of shadows concerns the appearances of the Tyrant Star, Komus, and its effect on a planet's population. The Lord Inquisitor believes that the chaos caused by Komus could bring about the downfall of the Calixis sector, and perhaps the entire Imperium.
Malfi
Malfi is a border Hive World of the Calixis Sector, it has the second largest population in Calixis. It takes ships roughly 800 days to travel between Scintilla and Malfi. It has been scrutinised by the Inquisition for some time, as it is seen as a hotbed for heresy. Its population recently reached 23 billion, these citizens are spread across the surface of the hive world in 23 separate, gargantuan, hives. They are named for the order in which they were built, the high gothic is, in order, Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, all the way up to Vicesimus Tertius. Each hive is home to 1 billion people and self-administrated by the Adeptus Adminstratum up to a point. That point is the Eminence Glydys Matriarch. Her home is Primus, where the myriad of noble families vie for her attentions.
Malfi is home to the Masqued. A debauched and implacable cult that has spread to other systems. There is an alarming amount of Malfian nobility involved in the movement, who see it as the logical continuation of their machiavellian lifestyle. The members are known for wearing vile masks that ape those worn by Malfian high society members. It has proved difficult to infiltrate the cult, those reports that do come back indicate that the cultists have no interest in the destruction of the Imperium, their rites being self-enclosed and orgiastic. The conversion rate of inquisitorial acolytes to the Masqued, some years after their contact with the cult, is disconcerting. Some inquisitors dismiss this cult as relatively harmless, others believe that if it ever became motivated it could prove calamitous for the Imperium.
Your Mission
It is the year 812.M41. Your Inquisitor is Lord Inquisitor Anton Zerbe, whose terrifying golden mask you have yet to avert your gaze from. You have been to the Bastion Serpentis once before, upon recruitment. You have spent the last three months living on Scintilla, awaiting your first assignment from the Tyrantine Cabal. Now, as you walk through the high halls of black stone, you feel sustained by the might of righteous persecution you will use to strike at the foes of the Imperium.
As you enter the Justus Congretorium, a sea of acolytes twist in their seats to stare at you. Each one assesses you, judges you and summarises you. Gradually, their attention returns to the empty podium. You take your seat and contribute your share to the laden silence.
You are amongst the last to arrive and the briefing soon begins. A personal aide to to the Lord Inquisitor enters the room and walks unhurriedly to stand behind the austere podium. You recognise him as your recruiter. His name is Acolyte Vox, he is tall and pale, part of his skull, including his left eye, looks to have been burnt away by some manner of energy weapon.
Over the next thirty minutes he describes what he says will be the largest mobilisation of inquisitorial forces that the Tyrantine Cabal has ever enacted. You, along with the hundred other neophytes and acolytes in the room, are being sent to Malfi. You will root out and purge the population of any traces of the Hereticus Tenebrae. Portents of the Tyrant Star's arrival have been seen and confirmed on Malfi. It is impossible to predict Komus's arrival, but the Lord Inquisitor intends that his Tyrantines will be present when it does.
You will be the first wave of an Inquisitorial effort to maintain the stability of Malfi by defending against what is sure to be a rise in heretical anomalies. Vox assures you that if you fail, the Tyrantine Cabal fails, and it does not. For if it did, the Calixis sector would be brought to its knees by the forces of chaos.
Your task is to infiltrate Malfi and lay the ground work for the second wave of Inquisitorial squads that the Cabal is amassing. You will identify heretical groups without drawing attention to yourself, and be sure of your evidence. For when the second wave arrives it will not be a quiet arrival. It will be a bloody statement of intent that the Tyrantine Cabal will not stand idly by as heresy grows unchecked in the second largest hive world of the Calixis sector. You will have less than a month to complete your task, before the second wave arrives.
He tells you that there is a district inquisitorial office on the planet, they have not been informed of your arrival and should not be contacted upon arrival. The Cabal acts alone in this. You would do well to avoid the district inquisitor's attention.
Vox now reads out names in groups of 3 to 5 and then tells them which vessel to report to, and which hive they will be investigating. You are named in the last group along with two other acolytes, you will be investigating the capital - Primus. You and your companions board the shuttle and return to Scintilla, there you charter passage to Malfi by way of the cargo hulk Magnus. The journey to the border world takes 740 days. You arrive early in the year 214.M41, though your travel through the Immaterium felt like it took only a few months. Looking through a viewing hatch, you stare down upon the super-continental Hives that sprawl over Malfi's surface. Light sears the dark-side of the planet, it blazes with industry, and flickers with heresy.
Edited by Hakkason