So, yesterday we ran Shades on Twilight through my group, costing my rank 5/6 acolytes about three fate points (yeah, I put the difficulty up a notch, also the PCs had way too many fun with explosives for their own good), but that is beyond the subject here.

As it turns out, my players took a liking to Vogel, the friendly acolyte ghost, and while they were making preparations for the Dark Eldar assault they decided they wanted to have the spook along for the ride. Since the book mentions the possiblity of him possessing a PC to escape in their body, I had him saying that if he found a vessel it would be possible for him to continue his service to the Inquisition.

Then everyone looked to Adorjin's body. Yes, the group had recovered the Daemonhunter's body from the frozen area to deliver it to give her a proper burial. After some IC and OOC discussion, along with successful Forbidden Lore (Warp) and Medicae tests, it was decided that Vogel possessing Adorjin's body was within the realm of possibility.

Logic was, she died from having her soul seared away by the psychic death-cry of the Daemon; the freezing ice had effectively put her body in biological stasis, and once unfrosted she would provide pretty much an ideal empty vessel for the ghost. Yes, I know about water expansion and what it does to a freezing body, but figured this made for a better story, also: "magic ice".

"But... She's my master...My friend... This is a desecration! The very thought... Heresy!" said Vogel when the idea was mentioned to him.

"Look, there's no soul there anymore, and you're too useful to be lost." replied our PC Inquisitor.

"But, it's heresy!"

"I am an Inquisitor, and through my Emperor-given authority I am sanctioning this act. Do so now if you do not desire to be lost to the void."

So there.

The PCs were rescued by their own ship after escaping the Twilight. Vogel/Adorjin is comatose for the time being (and a Psyniscience test revealed he was successfuly inside). There is an agent from the Ordo Adrantis aboard the ship who might discover what they did, but for the time being nothing's happened.

Thus, I ask of you. What interesting repercussions are likely from this?

Well that is an interesting development...

Just a question/idea, as Adorjin has already died (ie. heart stoped), wouldn't that mean her body would slowly degrade over time, forcing the group to find a new, living host for Vogel? Could be interesting to say the least... especially if this then needs to become a regular thing to keep his 'alive'.

Also Vogel himself admits that he shouldn't be entirely trusted, due to the length of time he has spent onboard the Twilight. Perhaps this 'Heresy' is just enought to finally tip him over the edge into Insanity... Nothing worse than being trapped on a ship with a deranged psyker, unless of course that psyker can posses people... If you went down this path you could have him escape (Being a spirit I'm sure he'd manage that), and become a reoccuring villan for the group, or some other form of hinderance maybe?

...Thats all I can think of for now, hope they help.

A ghost bound to the dead flesh of an Inquisitor?

The adventure mentions that Vogel is quite insane. He just conceals it well. I see this going two ways in terms of what he'll want. 1) He'll wish for his soul to be commanded to the Emperor in a proper fashion so that he can escape his unnatural state of existence and take his well earned rest. 2) He realises that his host body will only sustain him for so long and does not wish to pass on into oblivion. He'll seek out new host bodies, possibly taking the full plunge into outright damnation rather than "mere" radicalism. The group has the same choice to make, of course. In either case a great disrespect has been paid to poor Inquisitor Adorjin. She had he soul annihilated, the reward for her service to the Emperor being utter oblivion, and now people are desecrating her memory by involving her body in warpcraft. I imagine that more than a few people would be quite angry if they discovered this.

Wow! What an opportunity.

As Snidesworth said this is the perfect hook to see if the pcs will dabble in radicalism. They have taken one small step (quite large step actually) along the path but see how far they will go to cover up their transgressions.

Personally I would keep Vogel around, make him seem an indispensible part of the team. Make the pcs like him. No-one finds out intially. Vogel displays some quirks as he gets used to living again but no malevolence or harmful insanity.

Then things start to happen on the way to their next mission (or later in the campaign). Lights flicker and temperatures begin dropping randomly. Warp whispers can be heard in the corridors. Grisly visions torment the pcs in their sleep. Time acts strangely. The body of Adorjin begins to burn up/break down. Vogel surmise that the possession of Adorjin corpse needs to be strenghtened through bonds and wards (Like binding a daemonhost though Vogel wont mention this)

If they try and kill him at this point he escapes, having gained a taste for life again or to continue Adorjins work. Vogel will try and find the knowledge needed himself, eventually coming after the pcs to eliminate them due to their knowledge of his true nature. If they agree to help Vogel become permanent they need to find a tome detailing such forbidden rituals. At this point they could run up against any chaos cult that uses bound daemons (pilgrims of Hayte spring to mind), another radical inqiusitor or the Night Cult. Maybe they reason with these groups rather than simply destroying them, maybe offer the knowledge through a dark pact with a daemon. Play up that the enemies of the Emperor arent all raging monsters and possibly they have some good ideas and not all forbidden knowledge is deadly. If you cant see a way to put these groups in, maybe Vogel knows of a repositary of dangerous tomes his master could not destroy that might have the information in.

Come after them with a real freaking hardline puritan =I= once they have the knowledge. A monster who happily opens fire on civilians, rules through fear and oppression, executes his minions when they fail him. Play up the injustice of the Imperium, its facelessness and cruelty. Have them question what they beleive in and give them the option of giving Vogel up to the Authorities. If they continue down the radical path, they escape or dispatch the puritan, then conduct the ritual and Vogel is bonded to Adorjin (or whichever body he is in by this point if you use the body jumping idea

At the end let them think they have gotten away with it. Save the consequences of radicalism for later

Yeah, the actual "body horror" aspect of the Vogerjin will result in a not quite dead, not quite living fac-simile of life. Alright at first, but there will be subtle signs of something wrong, like hir not breathing or blinking when not focussing on it, strange results from medicae scanners, complete insensivity to pain and attracting warp-phenomena.

Way I see things, Vogel has two driving forces: Service to the Inquisition and a keen survival instinct. These two have been brought into conflict from his heretical act and I see plenty of self-hatred coming from this state. He might compensate by trying too hard to be of use, maybe even becoming possessive of the PC Inquisitor. I want these ill-effects to be gradual, as a sudden explosion of self-destruction (and a rationalization that the PCs are the ones truly guilty) would be frustrating for the players, who decided to do this with full knowledge of the crime. Also, the more time we give this situation to unfurl, the greater the relationship of the characters with him, leading to a more interesting roleplay when the defecation truly hits the ventilation.

I really liked the idea of pursuing forbidden rituals normally used to bind Daemonhosts to control the possession side-effects that will be creeping in, thus forcing the Inquisitor and retinue to see things from the other side and to make a moral choice.

They had enough exposition to the extreme puritan aspects of the Inquisition and the Imperium in other chapters of the adventure, which, I reckon, plays a part in their radical inclinations, though the group is somewhat split in that. The Inquisitor PC herself is somewhat benevolent, while one of the other PCs destroyed an entire world (by accident, but he rationalized it was the right thing to do later), so yeah, intra-party conflict there. At least they agree that they desire the best for the Imperium, and we all know where good intentions take us...

Speaking of which, they are being really careful about letting anyone know of what happened (thus far only the PCs and Vogel know). They're considering their options; so far it's either to do a facial surgery to Adorjin (thus adding Iconoclasty to their crimes) or to find a less significant person for Vogel to possess.

Yeah, they're not thinking of burning the thing and forgetting their lapse. The Radical's Handbook can't arrive soon enough.

Congratulations Zearoth - your group has come up with a scenario that never occurred to me. In my defense, Brother Agamorr would never have allowed such a blasphemy to occur in his presence - I presume he was either not in your version, or the Inquisitor ordered him to stand down?

At any rate - your pc Inquisitor is definitely and forever more a radical after this little "incident" - regardless of whether or not he believes himself to be, he is. Other than that, I concur with everybody else on the thread - Daemonhost is the way to go.

I look forward to hearing how it turns out.

p.s. My version of Vogel had a Willpower of 78 in life. He was a Scholar Obscurus (Rank 7) Psyker with a Psy Rating 5 - he was a Master of Telepathy. Cheers.

Yeah, I didn't feature Brother Agamorr, the group has their own Astartes PC who's growing more pragmatic as time goes. He did lift objections to what was done, but is sworm both to secrecy and to serve the Inquisitor; if the information leaks I bet he'll be the culprit.

But again, in the official scenario the group believes Agamorr is dead at the point when my PCs did their little heresy, he only shows up again in the climatic fight. Thinking of it, it'd be kind of amusing if they did so and meet up with the Astartes when escaping.

"Is that Inquisitor Adorjin?"

"Oh... Yes, she's... Comatose."

"You have done well, the Ordo Malleus shall praise you for this."

"Sh-... That's great, just great!"

Cue hijinks.

Anyway, I don't think they would have gone such a bold route if one of the PCs wasn't an Inquisitor.

That's an absolutely terrifying statline for Vogel, and now that you've mentioned it I have no recourse but to use it. Verily I am innocent, but a pawn of fate!

Will update this thread in about two weeks when we play again, stay tuned.

I haven't read Shades on Twilight but from what I have read of each of the responses it sounds like there could be some very interesting changes in the way people think

Zearoth Kilrathle said:

How is it posible that your group have a Astartes PC?

Kinai.

Kinai said:

There are several fan supplements of variable quality. Some can be found here among other places. The Tyranus Conclave is the one we are using. As for IC reasons, one of the PCs was defined as an Interrogator since the beginning of the game, and had him as an aide, since she's not much of a fighter (and despite 20+ sessions, becoming an Inquisitor et al, has never killed someone in combat).

This is usually followed by "Wait, is that balanced?". Scenario-wise, the ruleset we are using has so far produced a character who's a bit under Brother Agamorr when it comes down to stats with the equivalent to a Best quality Power Armour, which, as far as I am concerned is high enough "fidelity" to the source material. Compared to other characters, I must admit it was most unbalanced in the beginning, when they were facing goons with small arms and his unnatural toughness meant he was impermeable.

But now that everyone is rank 5/6 and we have an Inquisitor in the group, this is much less of an issue. It's usually regarded that our scum with his explosive expertise, silent feet and quiet rifle is the deadlier of the two. The cases now involve a lot more footwork and decision making (and the Astartes himself operates as a tactical/security advisor in the investigation phase, so he's not excluded), sometimes the entire resolution is handled by sending a bunch of stormtroopers/local Arbites instead of the PCs going at it themselves.

That's not to say there isn't a "3rd Level Fighter" thingie going on with him, but that's not as significant as it used to be. He's the best fighter in the group, but each of the PCs has their own niche anyway.

Cue Purge the Unclean itself. The Astartes is usually the vanguard in these situations, so the Warp Beasts swarmed him in that first encounter, and it so happened that one rolled a righteous fury (combined with the Warp Quality of the claws) dropping most of his wounds. Which made me think that those play-test reports about Brother Agamorr being made mince-meat of were on to something (and that's why he has that much armour in the finished version); later on, when charging Akrivas (the Eldar Homunculi at the climax of the scenario) he was forced to burn his last Fate point to avoid death due to power blade stabbing. In several ways his own nature is a liability, as he's expected to be the bravest and is always getting into trouble for it.

We actually played last Sunday and had some fun with Vogerjin, but this post is long enough already, so I'll put in a play report or something later in the next 24 hours or so.

"Did you just see that?"

"What?"

"That Line."

"No, what line?"

"The one you just crossed HERETIC!"

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor pulls out his bolt pistol and starts blasting away.

You have such a great opportunity here I'm speachless. My group so far has danced around the line when nobody was looking but never taken a flying leap over it like your group.

"This is the Radical Express, please leave your purity seals with security."

So, Vogel. The group figured out that keeping him in Adurjin's body was a bad, bad, wrong idea that would get them into trouble faster than they could recite the litany of constriction, specially after noticing how distressful the fellow was in his mentor's body. After discussing the possibility with Vogel, Trix Castella (our Inquisitor) arranged with the local enforcers to receive a minor criminal in good health to be possessed. Our favorite warp-ghost then proceeded to obliterate the sod's soul and take over.

Adurjin was then given to the Ordo Malleus agent on the ship. The delay was justified by stating they were trying to make sure there was no taint from the Twilight, which was met by protest by him, since he was an authority on the subject and should have been called immediately to do so. His suspicions were further validated by the fact they lost the Liber Demonica (it was thrown down into a shaft along with Akirvas and a lot of explosives) and decided to keep the Luminous, but hey, they recovered the body of an Imperial Saint and Daemonhunter! More importantly, however, the Ordo Malleus agent left to escort Adurjin's body to a conclave, leaving the group without his close scrutiny.

They let Vogel rest and adapt during a few days aboard their ship while they investigated an attempt to kill the group which turned out to be part of the plans for a revolution in Reth by the military forces just returned from the Trench Civil War. At a certain point they managed to capture one of the officers and discover most of their plans.

"Summon Vogel, I want him to re-write this man's memory and sabotage the revolution." Trix ordered.

And so he did, with perfection.

Later on, after dismantling the operation, the group found strange glyphs in the officer's bedchamber, icons that seemed to draw on warp energy. They just dismissed this as part of his heresy; not suspecting that Vogel had involuntarily implanted some of his own forbidden knowledge in the mind of the man.

The group did notice, however, that Vogel is displaying initial signs of necrosis in his extremities. It would appear that they will need to keep refreshing bodies to keep him in a functional state. The ever helpful acolyte suggested that there were rites appropriate for binding spirits into flesh, and the use of such would assure his continued service without such distractions; besides seeking such, his only request is that he be allowed to choose a body he felt comfortable with before having such bindings in place. The group agreed that this plan was the best course of action, as the regular request for prisoners would eventually register in someone's radar.

The only way the group would be more Radical is if they got rocket-powered skates or captured an Eldar seer's soulstone and were using it as an advisor. Try to guess which of these they pulled off.

When judgement comes for your group it shall be magnificent. I'm looking forward to hearing of their continued misadventures.

I suppose it's too much to hope for that it was the rocket-skates?

Still, I love this story, I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. Sadly, my party will never engage in such antics, at least not for a long-long time. There's a Red Redemption cleric keeping them WAY too honest. I can see how an Astartes would work in a high-level group, especially with an actual inquisitor in the group. I assume he's Deathwatch?

Heheh, thinking of it, my party was kept in check during the first season of our game by the hardline Arbiter. After the character was retired they quickly went in this downwards spiral of heresy and damnation, so believe in the Emperor and your group may still be touched by madness Aureus.

The marine is not Deathwatch. His story is somewhat complicated, but the gist of it is that his ship was lost during warp-travel, he lost his memory of the events during this warp-storm, said ship was later found by pirates who took the badly wounded Ulric (that's our man) to be sold as a slave to some pirate king or decadent noble. Then those pirates were raided by a mercenary detachment serving Battlefleet Calixis, who rescued Ulric and figured they could use a big and strong guy like him (and he likewise figured he had a debt to them). One beautiful starlit day they were hired by the Inquisition, Inquisitor took one good look at Ulric and said "This one will be the Interrogator's bodyguard." and they've been together ever since.

When it came out that he was actually an Adeptus Astartes there was at least one squadmate sorely disappointed they weren't all big and awkward like that in Molossos (the made up planet he claimed to be from).

Actually, since we won't be playing until sometime in August, I might make an Actual Play thread here to organize my notes. Since we're talking about sessions that were over a year ago it'll be just the high-lights, because I'll be damned if I can remember the details of anything else.

Actually my session with them last night has already rekindled my hopes, as the Redmeptionist has started drinking. O_o

Right in the middle of the investigation, he started pulling on a hip flask of whiskey... and stated that he was doubling his self-flaggelation in penance going forward (down 2 wounds every day). Not a huge thing, but a consistent and habitual violation of the Redemptionist doctrine is a start.

Then the real shocker came; after questioning an Ateanist, who had been in possession of the Eris Transform, he concluded that she was a victim rather than a heretic, and asked the Psyker to just wipe her mind of the corrupting knowledge (though she had not yet completed a work that was anything but 'disturbing'), rather than execute her. He's starting to see and understand the "grey space" and it's driving him to drink... it's fantastic!