Hey I've played some sessions with my party now and I'm getting close to finishing Purge the Unclean. Previously the Acolytes have been used as expendable information gatherers that has gotten mixed up with some very dangerous stuff and are slowly earning their Inquisitor's trust. However I thought it would be cool to actually reward my players by having some sort of initiation seremony to show that they have progressed and are more trusted now. I originally thought to give them Rosettes, but after reading about them in IH I've decided to use Symbols of Question (or whatever they're called) instead and give them the official (but secret) title of Acolytes.

I've also been somewhat inspired by the templar tradition and the accusations of their heresies - particulary the spitting on the cross, sodomy etc. to "test" the will and loyalty to the order. This is likely to confuse and make the acolytes uncertain - should they stand for their faith or their loyalty to the Inquisitor? My point here will be that once you've joined the Inquisition you are outside imperial society and above the law, even that of the God-Emperor himself, although that is forbidden lore: Inquisison.

Their Inqusitor (Globus Vaarak) is not really a radical (closer to purist), but neither is he some gung-ho ex-arbitrator judge dredd type that cannot see the wisdom in allowing small heresies so that the big dangerous ones can be stomped out, or killing some innocents to conceal truths about the Emperor which can be deemed heretical.

So any advice in how to go about this? I'm not sure if I should do this as an interlude between missions, or as part of some minor mission. I'm also considering involving others from the Tyrantine Cabal, and to put it in a way so that the acolytes don't make choise that will cause them to lose their characters (unless the choise is obviously stupid, such as attacking an Inqusitor)

More later. Ideas welcome.

Friend of the Dork said:

Thereby, by your own words, I accuse you of being a blashpemour and a radical of worst kind. An utter heretic! Shall you be purged from the eyes of our loving, unfailling god-emporer because HIS will, might and rule is absolute from the begining to the end and in-between!

(...but if your =I= is radical and you want to play it that way..feel free! ...after all, what I wrote here is what happend to the knight templar as well )

The test need not be a yes/no, initiation/execution kind of test. The true value of an intense test could simply be to gage the acolytes reaction and interpretation of the test. Take the example like the splitting of the cross you mentioned.

An acolyte is gathered before a circle of Inquisitors and presented with a finely produced, gilt edged copy of the Imperial Creed (or other suitably holy book) and a hand flamer. They are then told that they must prove their loyalty to the Inquisition by burning the book. The Inquisitors have already decided the acolyte is worthy of joining, but just how the acolyte reacts to this test is the important part.

If the acolyte throws down the book and torches it without question it marks him as the type of Inquisitor that will charge headlong towards their goals regardless of consequence. It may also mark them as a potential radical.

If the acolyte turns the flamer on himself and announces that he would rather die then sacrifice a single page of the God-Emperor's holy Creed, he may be marked as an Inquisitor that truly knows the value of what the Inquisition seeks to protect.

If the acolyte opens the book and bothers to see if it is truly a copy of The Creed or a book of heretical lore cunningly bound into the Creed's cover, he has been marked as a thorough investigator, one who may not act quickly, but who will act with absolute certainty due to the knowledge gained in intense investigation.

If the acolyte turns the flamer on the assembled Inquisitors and declares, "By the authority granted me by the Inquisitorial Rosette, I hereby apprehend you in the name of His most holy Inquisition. Any resistance will be met with incineration," well, the acolyte may just have the makings of a Lord Inquisitor.

To continue and clarify, I want the players to be somewhat confused, paranoid and shocked of this ritual, open their eyes to the inconsistencies and hipocracy if the =][=, and give them a sense of improving in rank in a way more meaningful than "you get 10 more gelt per month and some new skills".

From the main book I saw a small quote from "The Acolyte's Oath" - is there somewhere I can read the whole thing? It would be nice to have the players actually know what their characters are sworn to do, and how as it can influence them later.

Gregorius: The book itself says something of the kind, without specifying defiance of the emperor. But I'd not be suprised if not even puritanical inquisitors beleived the emperor not to be a god or a dead one.

Attila: I love the burning book example - "yoink!"

The last reaction will probably not happen though as the team does not have the Rosette or even any sign of Imperial Authority. They will not even have their weapons. Refusal to do this out of love for the Emperor is a proper replacement though - in any case the acolyte's action will be judged by 4 different Inqusiitors, some radical, some puritanical and some fairly neutral.

In case you're interested, or even if not, here is an extract of what happened:

The PCs were first tested by sending people to abduct them. The Arbitrator was attacked by thugs with bolas on his way to buying Amasec, the Scum was drugged by a hot chick in a tavern, the guardsman was attacked while asleep in his home, the Assassin was hired to kill someone and attacked by another assassin, and the Navy Psyker was ordered to show up by some unidentified ship that has docked on his space station and drugged.

The Arbitrator and assassin managed to evade/overcome the attackers, while the rest was successfully abducted.

They were all transported to Bastion Serpentis, a stronghold belonging to the Tyrantine Cabal near Scintilla. Here they met their Inquisitor, Globus Varaak, and those that managed to bring their weapons had to deliver them and was dressed in ceremonial robes.

In the main hall they were recieved by no less than 4 Inquisitors of the Tyrantine cabal, including it's leader. There were also 2 other cells of acolytes, belonging to Soldevan (the same group they encountered in Shades on Twilight) and one sorry lot belonging to Lady Olianthe Rathbone. They were all ordered to step forward for the initiation ceremony. One by one they had to spit on a golrious copy of the Imperial Creed, as well as deny the Emperors' divinity no less than 3 times. (Ifvorgot the burning part but what the heck). As each one either did so or refused, they were taken away, to keep em guessing what was right or not.

Everyone in the group but the Guardsman refused to do the vile act, and each of them was later questioned about why they refused a direct order from their Inquisitor in a small room with all the Inquisitors present. No matter their action, they were intensily questioned and scrutinized, having toi explain why they did what they did. This made almost all of them unsure of themselves and their actions. The Guardsman was the only one without doubt that obeying an Inquisitor was a good idea, except one being declared Excommunicatis Traitoris.

The others mostly were made to understand their error and that loyalty to the Inquisision was paramount, and that even blashpemous acts could be justified, all in the service of the Emperor. Their individual reactions were very amusing, and everyone but the Scum obeyed when they understood what they were supposed to do. The Scum however not only failed to explain himself satisfactorily, but also managed to reveal that he held his own life more dearly than his duty to the Emperor and the Inquisition. He was then given a bolt pistol and ordered to shoot himself. The weapons contained blanks, but not knowing it the Scum not only refused the order, he tried to talk his way out of it, even trying to empty the weapon and sleight of handing the aummunition (which he wiould have identified as fake if he had ever handled a bolt gun). The end result was that he was taken away in shame and failed the test, but he was still allowed to live because of his previous service to the Inquisition. Still he is the only acolyte in the group that failed and didn't receieve the Symbol of Question the others got, and thus is now considered of inferior rank.

A few other acolytes in the other cells also failed, even those that obeyed (they did so for the wrong reasons).

All in all a pretty tense scenario, and although I spent too much time on the abduction part (should have dropped it altogether) it was a nice interlude before playing Baron Hopes and got the players thinking, introduced several major Inquisition characters, gave the PCs a sense of accomplishment (and failure, lol), and tought them importance of loyalty in the Inquisision and the personal relationship between an acolyte and his inquisitor, which is similar to the feudal ties between knights and their liege lord.

I'm glad to game went well. Does the Scum have plans to catch up with the other Acolytes in terms of inquisitorial rank?

Attila-IV said:

So far he's just harbouring spite, and tries to make the Arbitrator look bad. He executed a prisoner when the Arb. forgot himself and mentioned Ulbrexis by name in Baron Hopes. He'll probably try to get more credit later, but then again he's scum he's used to being on the bottom ladder.

Personally I'm more the type of GM where their Boss tells them they are to do a task in deep cover. Then drops them off in the under hive with no id, money, or equipment. Or has someone down their transport.... Then he waits to see if they follow orders to the best they can or if they scream for help and break cover.

Dalnor Surloc said:

That sounds like an Inquisitor that won't get much results. I could see this as some starting test, but for Acolytes that has done a good job before it it seems overly wasteful.

I suppose such a group would simply try to surive first, and then try to do the job as they probably can't return withoit at least having tried.