Ideas needed for a session of Dark Heresy .. MY PLAYERS LOOK AWAY NOW!

[spoilers]

We're in the Underhive of the planet of Lind in the Calixis Sector. The acolytes have overseen a max security prison transfer from one Arbites precinct fortress to the next, by train, through the Underhive, mutant ghetto and a Las Vegas-like party district called Slum City where all kinds of excess and crime take place. They have managed to bring the train in without a single inmate (murderers, rapists, mutants, witches, heretics and the worst sorts of recidivists) escaping,despite several attacks from mutant terrorists.

Now the trick is that the mutant terrorists sought not to spring anyone free from the transport, but instead have INSERTED one of their own which is smuggled into the new precinct fortress. This individual will set all the inmates free from the inside, and a bloodletting orgy will commence.

Now what I would like some ideas for:

- how does the mutant infiltrator set everyone free? (is he a mind controller? electricity controller? Shroud Master?)

- in fact the mutant seek to liberate one leader or special mutant free, the rest is just to sow chaos and confusion ... any ideas for this individual they want to rescue? (a Pale Throng Shroud Master? Archimedes Noxt?)

- any ideas how this should play out? Ofcourse the pcs will find themselves deep inside the dungeon prison levels of the precinct the moment the mutants break free

[/spoilers]

Thanks a lot!

Hello again, Laughing God,

it has been a while...

(...) through the Underhive, mutant ghetto and a Las Vegas-like party district called Slum City where all kinds of excess and crime take place.

By the by: WHO was planing THAT route? And more important: what were the two alternate routes looking like that THIS ONE was chosen? Anyway; I digress.. [EDIT: bad gramma removed]

One mutant to free them all...
Electricity alone might do the trick. There will still be a number of heavily armed & armoured guards. But the idea itself was a nice one. Having the mutant being a psyker sounds good, especially if this facility is not suited/intended to hold psykers. But even with mind control at work, there are still a score of armed Arbitrators vs. largely unarmed prisoners. And hopefully, the architect was not stupid enough to have the weapon´s lockers next to the cells...

Option A: The mutant is possessed
In fact, he is the equivalent of daemonic suicide bomber. His self and soul are already gone, the daemon bound into him has its orders and -must- adhere to them. Only once they are done, it is free to slip back into the warp.

Option B: The mutant is a trojan horse
He swalloed three heretec devices...each a metallic viper, capable to deal with securtiy systems by out-shorting them and with enough power left to shock about three other guards into oblivion...and sneaky enough to get the trick done. They react on energy field and movement, so the mutant will tell the target to hold still while he gobbles them up. I hope your terrorist group is able to pay a high-skill heretic

Option C: The mutant is an Alpha Legion operative, bio-sculpted to look like a mutant. He has all the command override keys, stolen passwords, lockpicks and whatver else he needs. Maybe he has polymorphine and once on board switchs places with a guard.

Option D: As above but in this case the infiltrator is an inquisitorial agent working for another (radical) inquisitor.

Who and why?

• One of the witches is actualy an alpha level psyker: You can do a lot of damage if you set one loose.
• One of the heretics has info the infiltrator's masters want to posess.
• one of the prisoners is another deep cover operative that needs to be brought back after his mission.

Question: how will the players find out the prisonbreak is more than it seems? Ok afterwards they will wonder how all the inmates got loose in one go, but the infiltrator and his "target" will have probably escaped by then. Unless the players happen to be guarding the particualr cell the special guy was in.

If the infiltrator is a powerful psyker he could open a gate through the warp (ala Gate of Infinity) and get weapons and additional fighters inside. This beckons the question why he just doesn't get out that way with the target, so maybe the mutant is NOT the psyker who opens the gate, but a beacon, which the psyker can target from the outside, which in turn kills the infiltrator. The portal doesn't exist long enough for them to escape through it (with having to open the doors and locating their target), but it is enough to get a spec ops (mutant) team with some equipment (Multikey to open doors, weapons for dakka) and some crates with weapons for the inmates in.

@madMAEXX
...or the gate IS stable enough to make the target and the Mutant disappear. The whole "jailbreak" thing would be a distraction then, so that the Aribtrators cannot immediately give chase with an Imperial Psyker (or such).

EDIT: correct some of my bad gramma

@Laughing God:
Do you already have plans for the cells and the Holding facility in General? As we are talking Arbites, I expect completely locked rooms (no bars, no Windows), possibly pict-thefts in the cells and dead sure on the floors). This would mean that you would need a suiting distraction.

Option F: The Mutant is a monstrous telekine
His shackles will be removed with a thought as he breaks them apart, the door will take a Little (or a lot more). The projectiles of the guard will be caught in mid-air. With the right "wyrd power" he might be able to shorten out ALL pict-thefts Prior to that (so that the guards cannot immediate rush to HIS cell to terminate him).

At the same moment (or prior to that) the other terrorists should try an attack from the outside (the more noise, the better).

Option G: Blood for Blood God / the Murder Room
The Mutant is a khorn devotee who has single handedly killed eight people... a ritual to open a door to the "Murder Room" (you do have the matching source book, don´t you?). He bites at his Hands to have blood to smear the door frame of his cell... not all of it, only enough to have it smeared. Hi then just steps through... not to appear on the other side. The Moment the door is opened by the Arbitrators (or anyone else), the first of them will enter the Murder Room, too, while a Bloodletter steps into the real world. Eight combat rounds later, the Mutant Comes out again, having killed the Arbitrator that "followed" him unwittingly, a blade made of brass in his Hand, dripping with the blood of the enemy he had slain. He will then take the keys (keycards) of the Arbitrators to free his target and somebody else while the Bloodletter murders on (staring to fade if he cannot find something to kill within another 8 rounds). He and his target can escape through the murder room, the other prisoners are not so lucky.

Who is the "target" of this prison break? Nobody who is a convicted psyker or witch, otherwise the facility will be unlike to be vurnerable against such "suprises".

A sacrifice!
The person isn´t special in ist own right (aside from ist crimes). The fact that those higher up want him back is that s/he was born under the right stars/stellar constellation to be the proper sacrifice for the ritual to come....a fact kept hidden from the target!. Watch the characters marvel and then reveal the fate of the man in the final.

Mother Kesselborn
I once had the idea of a Mutant witch that was able to brew a stew made of untainted human flesh. The mutants that would eat it would be able to pass for "normal humans" for a number of weeks. Feel free to take her as a key figure of the Pale Throng. Of course, she would not be able to cast -spells-. She knows that one ritual, and that is it.

The Heretek
The Person is not even a Mutant nor in leage with them...the heretek is simply desired by the mutant terrorists as they want a weapon smith to arm their revolution! Perhaps it was him who granted them the "cyber vipers", and now they use the last they have to get him back.

Kali-Maw
She has no mouth in her face, but one near the belly. Feeding her the last three fingers of your left hand will seal a pact with the dark gods. She is a Chosen, she is a high-priestess of evil. she was a figure of worhsip, a dark Apostel, her followers want her back. The Imperium, however, wants to have this abomination burnt at a stake on St. Serias Day.

The Brothers
The big brute that was born with his little twin fused into the back of his shoulder. The Little one is smart as hell and gifted with visions in his dream (so not a true psyker but more of an Oracle) and a true mastermind. The brute he is attached to is just that: a brute. They were spared for public execution so that the populace can be remind which HORRORS the Imperium defends them against.

Surgically implanted EMP device...? Wait for a point when the security hinges on some kind of electronic system, then set it off to create a blackout.

Arms for a prison riot

A riot can be stopped easily if it is put down quickly. At the start, the prisoners lack Access to weaponary. The only weapon in there Hands are likely to be those they took from any guard they were able to overwhelm by surprise. The Arbites might have ensured that no guard in "the dungeon" is armed with a ranged weapon (thereby, only wearing shock mauls) so that in case of a riot, the prisoners do not have Access to ranged weaponary. Instead, each squad of guards might accompanied by a bullpup cyber-Mastiff. These kybernetic beasties are a very effective "weapon" in the close quarters of the cell blocks and a growling metal dog is intimidating for sure.

If you either have an Electro-Mutant or the Cyber-Vipers on the side of the jail breakers, those might be able to haywire said cyber-Mastiffs quickl, taking them out of the Picture for a couple of minutes. Worse so, when "boot up" again, they might either be in Need for another-reboot (giving your tech-inclined characters a Chance to shine by bringing them back into Service) or might be on complete berzerk mode due to the damage to the wired instincts...attacking anybody in range, friend or foe.

Still, your mutants might be hardly pressed to arm themselves. Those who are strong enough might tear some pipes off the walls once in the corridors, depending on how found your are of shackling prisoner a number of them might be Swinging chains (flexible weapons). Arms and legs torn out of sockets make for VERY poor Clubs, Keep that in mind.

BUT...if no ranged weapons are allowed in "the dungeon" and your characters will have entered "the dungeon" just the Moment before it all starts....well...

Thanks y'all! wonderful stuff in here!

and yes Gregorius, it's been awhile, glad to see you back