Ok so I've been writing an adventure to run for my group when I go back to uni, and I'm looking for some crits and comments on what I have so far...

- The Acolytes are tasked with finding one of the inquisitors informants who has not reported in for some time. They are given a name and a photo reference to help identify him.

- They travel to the world, and the settlement he was based in. Its small and surrounded by thick forest.

- They can ask around and a few people of note (shop keepers, bar keepers, waitresses) will recognise his face and point him towards his house. Some might recall him meeting with some "out of towners" ie people they didn't recognise.

- There won't be anyone at his house.

- Going to the arbites and asking permission in an official capacity will gain them a good ally in a young arbites officer who has been investigating the "out of towners". And he'll help them get a search warrent for the house. If they break in they'll get arrested (hopefully they'll go quietly lol) and will meet the same arbites officer but he will be more suspicious of them and be harder to win over.

- The house will be relatively normal, nothing strange, until the reach the locked study. Inside they will find papers strewn everywhere, photos that the arbites officer will recognise as the people he is investigating...apparently the inquisitors agent had been investigating them too. There is also a map of the local area with some ruins marked on it. I am debating some home security for this point to add a little excitment...perhaps a servitor guard or gun drone...but I'm definately going to have some journel notes suggesting he went to the ruins to further his investigations

- They can try and get a small squad of arbites to come to the ruins with them...if they made good friend with the young arbites officer he will accompany them whatever, if not then he won't.

- The ruins bit starts with a fight outside, basic mooks and lieutenant guarding te entrance...then they travel through an underground complex...a few fights scaling up from humans to mutants to complete abominations, before arriving in a large antechamber just in time to witness the completion of a ritual being cast by no other than the inquisitors informant! (I want him to become a bit of a recurring enemy possibly)

- The ritual will summon some minor demons, I'm thinking flamers of tzeench...one or two should be enough...there will also be some basic cannon fodder too. The bad guy will hang around, possibly until he gets wounded then he'll escape somehow cursing the acolytes and their inquisitor.

- Hopefully everyone can survive that at rank 1 lol! And they'll report back to the inquisitor who as puritan will be shocked that one of his oldest friends has turned.

So thats all I have, its pretty rough and probably needs some filling in...so crits and comments please!

Is there anything particularly special or important about the temple other then being a "temple of doom" to inact such vile rituals? Is the informant aligned to a specific dark god or is he a free agent who takes his blessings where he gets them (and the curses that come with them). I'd say flesh-out the significane of the temple/forest leading to it, especially if he's going to be a recurring enemy. Maybe he's just using it to flex his new found powers in sorcerys and is merely "experimenting" with a few rituals here and there. Maybe he was trying to make contact with a specific daemon and your acolytes come along and throw the spell off summoning daemon mooks instead of the one he wanted.

hmmm, yeah that was definately a detail that I need to work out...I think he will be allied to tzeench cos I like him and nurgle best As to his ultimate goal I'm going with he'd be pretty new to it, having only gone missing pretty recently (a few months?) so he was probably trying to summon some minions and thats it, but now that he's been discovered he's going to be increasing his research...the temple itself is at the moment a mystery to me, I want to have things get more and more "chaos-ey" the further the acolytes go in, until signs of tzeench start showing up like eyes in the wall, strange unearthly fire lighting their path etc

I was thinking of getting the acolytes to research the "out of towners" (cult) a bit more, perhaps from markings (tatoos) in the photos. So they'd find out their name, and that they've been here before, perhaps that could lead to a bit more info about the ruins...an old hide out maybe?

Why did the informant turn on his Inquisitor and begin delving in demonism? Was he corrupted by something he learned or saw while pursuing these strangers? Is he being controlled by something? Has someone in his family fallen ill and he believes this is the only way to save them? Is he dying and desperate? This is the single most important detail you'll need to decide upon if he is going to become a recurring villain - as it will color all future interactions with him.

If he is really an old friend of the Inquisitor, make certain to use that throughout their future encounters ... he may send messages asking about the man; send psychic messages simply to talk and attempt to retain their relationship (perhaps his one true regret is losing that friendship); spare the PCs once, making it clear he is only doing so because of their relation to the Inquisitor and he will not do so twice; even possibly passing on information concerning other cultists and heretics (which happen to be in his way - or occasionally to mislead ... though the information should be good 80% of the time, so as to make it too attractive to simply ignore).

As you no doubt realize - big villains need big stories.

This sounds like a good starting point for a long campaign.

Why DID the Inquisitor's informant turn heretic? No doubt there are clues in the various documents in their abode. The acolytes will have plenty of leads to follow up on after the Inquisitor has looked all that over. Maybe the leader of the cult managed to turn the informant to Chaos somehow? Maybe there are influential local officials who are cult members, but they weren't present at the ritual? Just who brought the cult to the planet in the first place? What sort of contraband has the cult been smuggling onto the planet? What if this is just a new branch of a long-existing Chaos cult, and the more senior branches of it seek retribution for their efforts and planning being laid to waste?

Why arbites if enforcers will due the trick?
You describe the spot you start playing as "small village" and the case as "missing persons". So why not "down grade" the Arbitrator to a local enforcer? Arbites do not care for "mere missing person" and enforcers are more likely to have personel around in a small village. Otherwise, you do not need to change the figur... unless you expected him to walk around with a bolter weapon (which I would not advice... they players will feel "out gunned").

Why did the informant broke the contact?
Since he is a long term inquisition contact, he would have known (or at least guessed) that breaking contact would lead into an investigation sooner or later. So why did he draw this attention to him? Was he first abducted and later converted? If not, why did he left all of his notes that lead to the ruins? The haste of unforseen events? If so..which ones?
Or did he planned this to happen? That men of the inquisition would come for him and find the clues left behind? If so, for what reason? A trap? If it is a trap, his minions and henchmen will be prepared well and things might play out a little different. Or does the Heretic wants the acolythes for something? Sacrifice? Did he hoped a psyker/priest would be sent along (like he is old friend the INquisitor was known to be used to?). Does he have special needs for such a person? For a sacrifice? Or just parts like blood? Or an left eye?
If it is a well prepared trap... what chances do the pc have to escape? The incompetence of henchmen come into mind, here.

Where are his henchmen from?
You mention humans, then mutants and then abominations. All cultist that changed recently?

People of Note in the Village (start of investigation)
In addition to those already noted, you should not forget the perish priest. In a small community, the priest is a good source for information about his flock. Even is the one in question was not a regular church goer, the priest might know a lot of rumours...or will at least know the house, as well

Idea for the ruins
How about the ruins of a monestary of the imperial cult? One that got destroyed in a civil uprising a century ago? The uprising was religious, as on particulur facett of the cult turned against the other. The "loser" was later declared heretic in history and forgotten.
As a twist, this "civil uprising" could have been a successfull plot of a Tzeentch Cult to turn the people against one another. Which could unfold later in your campaign, as a side note.

Idea for "home security"
A gun servitor would lay waste to the house while battling. Twin-Autoguns make a lot of holes in a lot of furniture. I would thinkg about a combat servitor with shock mauls instead. A bladed servitor would work as well... if you keep yourself from installing chain weapons (to much of a mess!).
A guardian servo skull (IH, if you own) could be fine idea as well. Perhaps with a needle pistole? You do not have to fill them with poison. But on the other hand...why not?
Motion detectors could be installed (if know pet is owned!), tipping of the "guardian" (what ever it might be) and/or simply raising alarm at the local enforcer station (if this kind of attention is appreciated).

Ok so I definately need to work out this missing persons history....so lets do that here!

Firstly the acolytes inquisitor himself...

Inquisitor (Alek) Sturmheist is a beast of a man, an ex imperial guard commander he was promoted to Inquisitorial status after several decades of faithful service to the Ordo Hereticus. He is a puritan inquisitor beliving there is no way to defeat chaos but through stregth of arms and sheer will, to this end he is a very capable (almost legendary) in martial combat, though he has no psychic powers to speak of many have claimed they trust his gut instinct almost as much as they trust in the emperor. He cares for those under his command, even if you have never met the man he will do all he can to protect a faithful servant of the emperor.

Back before he became an inquisitor, he made good friends with Serif and Jorn Goodkind, formally members of the administratum they were very capable investigators and served their inquisitor well. When Sturmheist made inquisitor he requested the Goodkind brothers be part of his retinue, the two were, and always had been inseperable they were both smart but together there was not a problem they couldn't solve. When Jorn was killed in the field by a deamonic ritual (sucked into a warp portal) Serif was mortified, it took him years to even remotely get over the grief but eventually he seemed to recover and requested he be allowed to continue his role within the inquisition.

Secretly the man was still grieving, wishing with all his heart he could find a way to get his brother back, soon he began to hear whispers, sleep stopped coming easily, then the dreams...thousands of eyes, glowing with a fearful unearthly light gazing down at him, and a voice like thunder announcing "We can help you, we can help you".

He began researching forbidden knowledge, realising this might be the one way to restore his brother to life, before long he had found and contacted a cult of tzeench. Claiming that he had some leads to follow he set out for the world they were on and once there he made contact with a small cell of cultists, part of a larger cult. After going through their initiation and showing a particular flair for sorcery he was accepted...then began his research to restore his brother...

***

Ok so with this backstory I'm probably going to have to change whats in the study a little bit, and rely a bit more on a journal for directing the acolytes to the ruins. But does this sound plausable? He wants his brother back, and has turned to chaos (specifically tzeench) to help him, and he stopped writing to his inquisitor because he became more and more engrossed in learning dark magic until he completely forgot everything else. The acolytes will arrive in time to interrupt the casting of the ritual that was supposed to return his brother...what kind of thing would you suggest for the final boss fight?

1 flamer of tzeench, 4 cultist mooks, and a mutant or leader of some variety? Encounters are what I struggle at really I don't know how much rank 1 acolytes can take, I think I'll have 5 players.

EDIT: In regards to the question of Arbites...I always think of them as police of all levels, but yeah this would be like local community arbites office, so full of lowly enforcers or whatever : )

Well, first thinks first

The way you pointed out (he grow single-minded about his studies and totally forgot about anyhting else) is valid explanation for things being the way they are.
In my opinion, this would mean that the study of the occult and the tainted has ruined his mind. He was a ultra-intelligent investigator. But know, his mind is so consumed by the dark and twisted things that he "forgets" about very simple things... like that he would be missed after a while or that some-one looking for him will find his notes. This makes for a villian that might be powerfull while confronted (a skilled magician), but easy to track and to trap since he lost any kind of sense for anything but his goal and his immidiate surroundings. "Mad scientist", if you like the archetype.

Advise: With a figure like this, play out the change and how chaos corrupted him. If the acolythes get there mission briefing, stretch the fact that the missing person was an excellent investigator and a brilliant mind. How thoughtfull and mindfull he was about anything. Then, in the village, the people ask might describe him as "a bit off" and "diffuse" or "absent minded". This might tip your troupe off. Which isn´t a bad thing.
In his home, make clear that the inhabitant didn´t cared for much things. The rooms hasn´t been aired or cleaned (please might take this as a nudge to nurgle by mistake), some electric device has not been turned off (radio, perhaps? The pc will thereby hear voices as they enter the home). Perhaps he had a small pet (an aquarium; a lizard in a terratium? something completly helpless) that died because he forgot to feed it.

The end fight:
Which figures make up your group? A team of a feral psyker, an imperial arbitator, an hive assasine and a guardsman can take a little more then...let´s say an imperial adept, a void born scum, a psyker and a hive born guardsmen.

You should not use more then one flamer of tzeentch in the first adventure. After all, your pc will have had a run in with

• human guardians (which they might have "neutralized" without a fight)
• some mutants and mutant abominations (which they probably will have had a fight with..unless you plan good scene options!)
• and THEN your "big final"

If you have 5 players which have a bit of combat gear, it should be okay to drop 12 low level opponents on them. Cult Fanatics, Cult iniates, mutants. You do have CA and the mook rules therein, right? Just make sure they do not have any good armour/ good weaponary. For the "final fight at the ritual", no armour and just pistols and knives should be fine. This allows to

• stage a big fight, so your pc might feel threatend at first (hack! Go up to 18 mooks! Fate points are there for a reason!)
• make for a reasonable cover for your main antagonist (the corrupted investigator) to disappear

If it turns out that you had been very rough on them (they had to burn fate points) then can always claimed that they "treated in rightous glory as they decided to keep fighting against the odds" so you can grant fate points (to restore those burnt)

Advise:
Do not make the the Flamer appear at first. What they tried there, it was most surly not the summoning of flamer. Was it? So, make 15 of the 18 mooks attack...while successfull easy awareness will point out that three of them (a magus and two fanatics) are still in place, chanting. If they achieve 15 success on check for forbidden lore (assisting each other), the Flamer will appear. If this is achieved, the fanatics will cut each other tongues out with the magus still chanting. The blood will spray out of there mouthes, more then normal. It will pool between them and some of the blood will be burning.. and out of the rising flames the daemon will appear (3 turns after the ritual is complete. Killing the fanatics or the cult leader NOW will won´t help anymore).

Talking about the cult:

• what is this cult up to? both in terms of "things they are doing right now" and "what do his members want?"
• where are his members from? from which way of life and from which settlement/ship/planet/whatever
• why are they helping your "main villian"? What was there plot BEFORE they met him?
• who is the leader? Or was he replaced by your main villian?

Part of the final battle will depend upon the surroundings ... rank I players aren't bad if they're creative ... the main issues are AP/Toughness, as the pcs won't have much to overcome even a 4AP/2 Tb combo; (total damage reduction 6) additionally, if you use psykic powers - which I fully encourage - make certain you only choose minor powers and those which won't take out the entire party. (you want them to win, after all, and Fearful Aura with a decent overbleed will take out a party in nothing flat)

However, if the ruins are unstable and there are things one can drop on the enemy - by knocking over unstable supports, for example - then you can feel free to make it a little more powerful. This does assume a certain creativity and reliability on part of your players, however. If you want it to be a particularly dramatic and memorable fight, skip the mutants and mooks approach for the final battle, throw them against something they have no chance of defeating and see what they come up with. Perhaps the ritual didn't totally fail ... it was disrupted, yes, but not before the barrier into the warp was broken allowing - without the rituals to summon his brother performed - something else to step through ... in this case, a Charnal Daemon.

Such an entity is so far beyond the pcs it is laughable, but they needn't fight it straight on; instead you place useful tools about the chamber ... the forementioned teatering support, cultish icons of binding, the parchment with the daemon summoning ritual inscribed, (though, of course, anyone daring to read it would gain serious corruption ... but perhaps destroying the parchment while the demon is still in the ruins will send it back ... the sorcerer could tell the pcs this ... as doubtless he doesn't want to die either. [of course, he escapes while they are trying to handle the deamon]) the sacrificial dagger which will temporarily work as an icon to protect the wielder against the beasts physical attacks and fear, etc.

On the "ritual didn't totally fail" angle, you could actually have it succeed, but the brother the sorcerer brings back is not the one he remembers ... years in the warp have changed him and now he is a powerful warp entity. After tossing something out to keep the pcs busy, (summong some minor demons, perhaps) the thing drags his brother to safety via a warp tunnel and now the players have two skilled people to deal with. Of course, the informant is horrified at what his brother has become and their relationship - which was once a partnership - is now closer to a master/servant scenario with the recovered brother in charge and his sibbling secretly attempting to discover a means by which to banish the taint and regain the brother he once knew. (the warp brother may well know of his sibblings efforts but find them amusing) Now the informant is playing a dangerous and difficult balancing act where he needs the aid of the Inquisition, but dare not risk losing his brother again, even as he delves into greater and greater forbidden knowledge.

A varient of that might be to have the brother return, but because the ritual was disrupted things did not go as planned and the brother is forced into the body of his sibbling, transforming the informant into a form of demonhost which shares its consciousness near equally between both inhabbitants. Like most demons, the warp brother is wicked and seeks the corruption and downfall of man, while the traitor attempts to curtail the worst of those urges while searching for a means to undo what has been done. (both in the case of the "possession" and the horrible warp taint that has transformed his sibbling) As a demonhost the traitor is now a terribly frightening enemy capable of challenging the players for some time, but the split control means he must learn how to use his powers and so cannot achieve the pinacle of his potential immediately. (plus, the more successful the traitor brother is, the longer it will take for this to occur ... which means it is in the best interest of the pcs to help him out)

At any rate, some ideas.

Thanks for these suggestions guys, its a lot easier to be creative with someone to bounce ideas off of...which makes being a GM a bit tricky lol...just for future reference I have the Core book, CA and IH books, but currently do not have access to the IH.

My group will consist of atleast a Guardsman, assassin and tech-priest, the other two haven't rolled characters yet, so at the moment they're combat heavy I guess.

So outside the ruins they will fight some "Cult fanatic" (Core book p.337) mooks, these guys are there to be cut down and confirm the acolytes are in the right place...I'll lower their wounds cos of their high toughness so they should go down easily.

Fight 1: 10 Cult Fanatic mooks.

Inside the ruins they get to do a little exploration, I don't want it to be too linear so I'm thinking some make shift barracks and store areas, and prison areas for sacrifices, perhaps some are still alive? They meet some "Cult Initiates" (Core book p.337) they get to be inside cos they're a bit smarter lol.

Fight 2: 4 Cult Initiates.

I'm thinking before the actual ritual chamber there should be an antechamber, smaller, but filled with signs of tzeench (demonic growths, eyes, flames, runes etc), here they'll fight the abomination (Core book p.342), I'll get rid of his stub revolver, and possibly change his axe to something less damaging.

Fight 3: 1 Mutant Abomination.

When they enter the chamber they'll be be attacked by plenty of mooks, simple 1 hit 1 kill folks, who's goal it is to hold off the acolytes until the ritual is finished. Whatever happens something will go wrong with the ritual tearing a gaping hole in reality tenticles will reach out and grab those cultists too near and the flamer will pop out, the bad guy will exclaim that this wasn't supposed to happen and flee through some other tunnel, leaving the acolytes to deal with things...

Fight 4: 12 mooks, 1 flamer of tzeench.

I have a feeling my players will shoot the chanting guys first hoping to disrupt the ritual lol so I can just blame it all on them : P

Talking combat...

1) The fanatics outside
I would suggest to use the "colourfull mooks" rule from CA. So, they will be done after the second solid hit. Which is quiet alright, if all you want them to be there is

- confirmation for your players
- being there because there have to be some guardians
- some first-stage challenge

In addition, make sure that they roam about in small groups "on patrol"... small enough that your "sneaky combat guys" (the assasine & others who wind up in this categorie) have a chance to dispatch the "patrol" quick and quietly (and thereby feels good about his figure). The other could guard entrances to the ruins. If you use the "old monastry" idea, entrances could come in the way of a gate (guarded) and one more breaches in the (ruined) walls (perhaps guarded). Do not give them vox or similiar. They are not military but cult mooks. There way of raising an alarm is shouting out loud.

If they dispatch the patrol, they will have some time. Your group might use it to come into good attack position on the rest of the lot. Perhaps climbing up some walls. Ask for climb checks. If they fail, they do not FALL but some stones get lose and makes noise.

2) The initiates & the abomination (ante chamber)
Be prepared for your pc to have snatched some robes of the fanatics in order to have surprise on them. But thinkg about your abomination. Where did it come from? How did they brought it there? Where did they hide it? If you do not want to keep the axe (why not?) simply give it a club.

(Captives/Sacrifices)
If the ritual is going, the sacrifices might already be used up. Perhaps some iniates are already working to "dispose the bodies". Otherwise, perhaps there IS a final sacrifice left. Can the pc calm her down or will her(his?) screams and pleas for help raise attention?

So far the investigation in the town is pretty linear - arrive, ask questions, get pointed towards the house. The players may feel that they are being led by the nose here. Add a few red herrings or other potential sites that can give them some clues. One possibility is that the clues in his study aren't enough in themselves to lead them to the ruins. A few ideas:

Black Market: the acolytes are told that he was seen visiting the dodgy part of town. If they manage to get some of the local scum to talk, they find out that the Informant was buying stuff. You can throw in some proscribed items that might be used for the ritual, but don't be too obvious (the really heretical stuff probably wouldn't be available in a small town black market, probably legal but hard to get legitimately stuff). The most important clue is that he was buying illegal stimulants - the kind that keep you up for days. Someone with Chem Use or Scholastic Lore Chymistry may know that prolonged use of those drugs leads to obsessive behaviour, paranoia, monomania...

Truck Rental: The Informant needed to acquire vehicles to travel to the ruins. Whether he got them legally or not, someone must know about it. If the ruins are isolated then he would probably have used cross-coutry vehicles. Alternatively he may have hired mounts. With this information the acolytes can surmise that he was planning on leaving town, roughly how far he would have travelled (how much fuel he had) and roughly how many people accompanied him.

Red Herring: The PCs learn that he had some dealings with a loan shark. They may assume that the informant fled him, or that the loan shark killed him because he couldn't pay up. However if they investigater further they learn that he was making his payments on time and seemed good for the cash. This leaves the question: why did he need so much money? (Answer: he needed it to fund his research).

Thanks for those investigation ideas mac, I especially like those sources of info...it got me thinking they could either do it all legally by going to the local enforcers and making friends with the guy investigating the cult, or they could do things illegally and work alongside a gang who maybe want rid of the cult because they've been moving in on their "business".

Your point about the investigation being linear is valid and something I will have to rectify : )

I have lots of broad ideas, just need to start filling in some details now!