Hey all, I trying to come up w/ some ideas for our next game and wondered if you had any ideas.

My group recently finished the last adventure in Purge the Unclean and they all (even the mutant hating cleric) ended up really liking the Baron. So when ordered to kill him by their Inquisitor, they balked and tried to convince him that having the Baron in power would give them more leverage in the world. The Tech Priest wants to reestablish relations between the Mechanicus and the mining world, and having the Baron in power could help them both. The cleric is growing increasingly disgusted w/ decadent nobles throughout the system (the group has clashed w/ them in earlier adventures). The taciturn psychic doesn't care too much about the Baron, but is interested in studying him to discover why he was the only one who could hurt the head demon-dealing cultist.

Now I know I could simply say "No, he must die! Grim barbaric universe..." but they made a few decent social rolls to sway their inquisitor, and I'd like to not squash their enthusiasm to try and enact planetary change. Their Inquisitor is a Hereticus psychic who is willing to bend a few rules and believes in a psychic dominated future for mankind (though the players only have inklings of this). Any idea how to spin an adventure out of the situation? The serfs in the region are fanatically loyal to the Baron and he'll ultimately try to retake the throne. Maybe they could help him somehow? Infiltrate the queen's court? To be honest, I've been running pre-made adventures with only minor tweaks, so my adventure making skills are rusty. The situation seems to have potential.... What would you do in my shoes?

Thanks for any replies in advance, let me know if you have any questions.

Well,

first of all, it must look like the Inquisitor (or the Inquisition) would have nothing to do with it. So what ever you do, it would be lengthy "under cover" mission.

Second, there are two approaches that come to my mind:

• Raising a revolt with the pro Mutant Baron Hopes as re-emerged leading figure
• Duing something to remove the actual Baron and allow Baron Hope to show up after the act (to fill the gap, so to speak)

The first would be real problem. I think it is ration to believe that the actual government and other nobles would side against the revolt...simply since it is a revolt and peasents should not be allowed to uproot those who rule by divine birth right! Since (in my books) this mean "fighting the whole planet with the chance of IG involvment ("Mutant rebellion!!!") I won´t follow this line any further.

The Second option is to remove the actual ruler first, make sure direct heirs can not claim the title..and then, all out of sudden, reveal Baron Hope. If you have access to the OLD Warhammer Fantasy books, I would suggest reading "Renegade Crowns" since it has a good chapter about revolution & intrigue in a small medivial society.

Options one have to remove the actual Baron is

• find or fabricate evidence against him and his familiy (so no heir can pledge for the title)
• Bring about "unforunate events" that exterminate him and his familiy
  - hunting accidents
  - feuds/duels with neighboring nobles
  - sickness (slow poisening)
• set up an ambush and disguise it a the deed of some very courages and capable robbers
  - possibly setting up a band of robers yourself.. only to betray them to Baron Hopes
  so he can return with the message of "I will root them out" and do the deed

All in all, this options is more about "turning over a barony and allow things to proceed" then "toppling a planetary regime". The later is a little big a scope.

Gregorius21778 said:

I disagree about toppling a regime being too big. My acolytes have already participated in three different regime changes on two different planets and are trying to tangentially effect a a regime change on a third world.

Granted they merely triggered the first regime change by pissing off a couple of factions is a brewing civil war then wiping out the primary Imperial Authority on the planet by inadvertantly unleashing a hugely powerful Daemonhost, but hey they were involved.

On the second world they were actively involved in investigating and partially plotting a triple coup (which included using taking charge of his execution for treason as a cover for rescuing the ousted planetary governor and setting him up as a legendary bandit king, assassinating a rogue general and the prior legendary bandit king, and participating in a con to save the majority of the planet's mutant population from a Holy Purge by the church [while making the purging crusade appear to be a mighty victory]) of which they still have no idea of the long term implications of what they helped to happen.

The third time around they're on Acreage in the middle of the civil war there, doing something completely unrelated, but happened to stumble across the Adminstratum cock-up that caused the war in the first place and the Adept involved's play to make himself look good. (The background of the war and the adminstratum background is in the background for Maggots in the Meat , and by far more interesting than the actual Maggots adventure.) The economic insustainability of affairs offended the merchant noble in the acolyte cell, so he sent off an astropathic message to a high ranking Administratum Auditor he met in a previous adventure, reporting the whole thing and its negative economic implications. The outcome of this message may well result in the forcible cessation of the civil war as Administratum representatives have just arrived in orbit aboard the Imperial Naval Frigate Dauntless Hunter.

The point being that acolytes being involved in (whether only to a minor degree or right in the middle of it) planetary regime change is well withing the scope of the game. It can be fun too.

[Oh and can't forget the assassination mission on another world where the acolyte involved was told that the Imperial Governor of the planet would be acceptable collateral damage. Fortunately killing him didn't come up, but it could have]

...and I am sure, all this happend before tea time

No time for tea, too busy running for their lives.

Besides, to quote You:

Gregorius21778 said:

And isn't letting the characters get in way over their heads involved in planetary power struggles, much, much cooler than saying "oh, it's beyond the scope of the game"?

If it works for you, it undoubtly is.

But I said "at times". Mind you, old boy, "at times"

If it works for you, it undoubtly is.

But I said "at times". Mind you, old boy, "at times"

FurtiveNoises said:

The baron is ultimately doomed. He may be regarded a saint by the locals, successors to the throne may incorporate some or all of his ideas (even with Inquisitorial backing) but his person was declared a heretic by the Inquisition. The Inquisition absolutely makes no mistakes. Its authority is at stake here. The story about this heretic leading a mutant rebellion has been spread in the imperium. It is for all purposes the truth. Any cop-out will either discredit his legacy or challenge Inquisitorial verdict. And he's definitely intelligent enough to understand that. So I disagree that he will ultimately want the throne, he had greater ideals than that. I think his best bet is to see to someone sharing his true ideals being instated and then vanish again. He may even return if things go wrong. He just can't stay. Politics *are* unfair in this regard, sometimes persons have to sacrifice their ambition in order to keep damage off their political legacy.

Now if your players (or even their Inquisitor, perhaps with an Istvaanist bend?) are trying to help him to the throne, you can play that out any way you want. (Though I would find it cruel to convince him that he has a shot at the throne where he has not.) Coup, rebellion, anything. Just keep in mind the final result. The name Ulbrexis can't be purged of the stain of heresy, he just can't be officially venerated. If leading a rebellion, he will be the bad guy to the Imperium. A coup would soon be returned and in a official position he'll be assassinated for this issue to be resolved. Then he can be a martyr and precursor to some, a heretic to others.