*** spoiler warning ***

Does anybody have an idea what the residue of an inter-orbital lighter thrust scorching under "The Shooting Range" in the Dark Pursuits adventure in the Core Rule book on page 427 should hint at? I always imagined the area of Three Stakes Rest at being completely enclosed by hive walls. Is there an opening? Is it possible to land a shuttle in a secluded area of Desoleum? And how to use this information in the adventure?

And another question about the Three Stakes' Rest: Do you think there should be any natural light source in this area or is it pitch black outside of the Manufactorum?

It hints that the smugglers frequent Port Gyre (that is the name, right?). The soot gathering on their boots, and being tracked around wherever they go. Basically it could help point the party to the local star port to continue their investigation.

As far as lighting I'm generally for the idea of failing lights, with it being pretty dark.

Question 1 : That's a really good question. It's probably a mistake. RPG material is rife with mistakes and plot holes. You just have to work around them as a GM.

Question 2 : The underhive of any hive is generally very packed down with machinery. You can design three stakes rest however you want. Where the sandbags are represents the machine gun nest. The blast marks were where they were having fun with firearms. The catwalks were roughly as described.

I built some stuff for the front door and the office too.

Here is my version of three stakes rest. I had to get a bit creative.

http://imgur.com/4hbDjDW

What do you use to create those images?

@KommissarK: Ah, so you think the residue was brought in on shoes and is not from a shuttle actually landing there. That makes more sense! Thank you.

@fog1234: Thank you for the nice map. I was wondering why they put in a map of the screaming wheel but not of the smugglers hideout (where the plot is more likely to erupt into violence, in my opinion).

@KommissarK

I mostly use roll20 and the available assets on there. There is more stuff associated with that map. I built entrances and exits. This was stuff I did when I was just getting going I also made the upstairs office with the gun servitor and the escape tunnels. I really went all out on three stakes rest. It took me ages. My more recent stuff can be found here.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/174358-oath-unspoken-dark-heresy/

@eltom13

I couldn't tell you how fantasy flight selects the maps they are going to put in their books. What really annoys me is that I often have to take the map from the book, and then rotate it because they enjoy putting it at some bizarre angle, then fill all the corners that they've cut off to make the map look weathered. I think that they don't quite get how GM's use their products or they play test with only very narrative GM's. I'm a very battlemap focused GM. I like my grids. Dark Heresy First edition used to feature a lot more black and white maps.

@fog1234: Thanks again for the additional material

I also made the upstairs office with the gun servitor and the escape tunnels.

I imagined the office (and sleeping places of the hired lasguns) to be somewhere outside the manufactorum, but maybe it makes more sense to put it in the upper levels of the decrepit factory.

That brings me to another (somehow related) thing, where I have difficulties wrapping my mind around: How exactly are habblocks, habcells, habways, etc. are supposed to look? I'm no native speaker and I don't know what exactly is meant by these words. Is it just skyscrapers, highways, and rooms? How high is the ceiling of an average Desoleum hive level anyways? Do habblocks have windows? Does every block in the main hive have its own Sanctionary Bondsman?

I guess no two hives are alike and maybe even most levels of Desoleum are completely different, but I would nevertheless appreciate some rough description of how these things could look like.

Hive Desoleum is a standard Imperial hive city. They don't really have a template, but here are some ideas.

Hive cities look like this.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/7/75/Luetin-Hive-Map.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130304154453

If you want a real life example look at kowloon walled city.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--6NMsn5LS--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/18l4fx5thqlopjpg.jpg

The details of the insides are really up to your imagination. Just think industrial. Are there windows ? Not really outside the upper levels. habblocks are like tenements or housing projects. habcells are just rooms. habways are hallways.

It's not really like skyscrapers. It's what is called an 'Arcology'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology

Thank you very much for the explanation and the interesting links. I always imagined that one level of a hive is more or less an open area with a domed ceiling and some kind of houses sprawled about. In this sense a hive would just be a few hundred ever smaller "normal" cities stacked on top of each other only connected with some kind of lifts

Does this mean that all this cool space-gothic architecture is not prevalent inside a hive? So no free standing huge cathedral under a domed open plaza?

Also there have to be some kind of streets at least within one level of the hive, because if not what use would a Hectin autocarriage or motorbike be of?

On the two images above it just looks like stacked halls/rooms without any streets ...

edit:

By the way, I meant windows in the walls of the houses inside the "hive domes", not windows in the hive walls, although on the cover of "Forgotten Gods" it really looks like there would be a lot of windows at the outside of Desoleums walls.

It really depends on how you develop your hive Desoleum. There are large chambers inside the the hive and they do tend toward a gothic style. It's just that it isn't a domed city except maybe near the top. Domed cities exist in 40k. Near the spire of the hive things are actually pretty nice. There are open areas, parks, and good enforcement of laws. Then you get to the middle hive. This is where most of the industry occurs. People live like sardines, but there are open areas. You then get into the underhive. The underhive sucks. It's for the poorest of the poor. It's got radiation and gas issues. Things are really cramped. Chambers are in constant danger of collapse.

Xicarph, Quaddis - http://www.twilightpeaks.net/blogs/media/blogs/DH/Xicarph.png?mtime=1350331344

I have a follow-up question due to my not native speaking English. In Dark Pursuits at least two times a "gantry" is mentioned. Once when entering the Screaming Wheel cantina, which is accessible from a "less-than-sturdy gantry" and a second time in the description of Three Stakes' Rest, which is connected through "collapsing gantries". But what exactly is meant by a gantry here? From the entries of several different online dictionaries I could deduce something ranging from "portal", over "framework", to "bridge" ...

So is a "collapsing gantry" something like a draw-bridge or more like a broke down portal? Is the Screaming Wheel separated from the habways by some kind of chasm. Is a "less-than-sturdy gantry" something which could collapse on your head or break down under your feet? Sorry for my confusion. I hope someone can help me out.

It's just a 'catwalk'.

Thanks for the clarification!

Something like this:

http://www.workingatheightltd.com/images/rhcolumnspandeck.jpg

Thank you very much!