I'm a veteran GM (8+ years non-stop), but new to Dark Heresy 2nd Ed and have a moderate understanding of the Warhammer 40k Lore. I have started running a weekly group with another Gm, who has much less experience than me, and so I decided to leave the pre-made adventures we have for when he is in charge.
Since I'm not super familiar with the system or universe I'm doing something I've never done before: I will post my ideas for this weeks campaign, and ask for feedback. What's believable, what needs work, what encounter seems overpowered? Please don't pull punches, I need all the help I can get.
PC's are at about 2200 xp average.

Our Pc's just completed Dark Pursuits, and I want to get them out of the Hive setting for a bit. I was thinking about having them head to an Agri-World or Frontier world at the request of the Stormwarden space marine chapter. Basically, they sent a guy out at the Governors request to combat some big bad (some minor Orc Freeboota or something) and while the problems with the big bad have disappeared, so has Brother whathisface. No one has seen or heard from him, and the spot of the final battle has been scoured, but there are no signs of his dead body. The Stormwardens believe there is a cult at work who somehow managed to kidnap their brother, and they would like Inquisitor Araleen (the Pc's boss) to investigate and see if she can't track down the wayward space marine.

Being an inquisitor, she's a bit tied up at the moment, but her acolytes should be done about now. She she pulls them off Desoleum and send them to the agri-world.

First problem, getting their weapons by the security at the one void port. If they go in with full authority, it's going to make the rest of the session much more difficult.
What would be a reasonable check to bribe a guard? Or hide their weapons in a shipment of machine parts to the world?

Down on the world, it turns out it really is a Chaos cult. Specifically Nurgle. the cult is trying to forcibly convert the space marine into a plague marine through brainwashing, but it's taking longer than hoped.

My main problem right now is getting it to the point where the pc's get onto the world, and find the cult. It's easier if they go in guns blazing (the Nurglites can send a hit team), but if they don't do that I'm up a creek. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Sounds like the Stormwardens and your Inquisitor have a pretty close relationship, good plot bait for future sessions!

Smuggling weapons and the like onto the world could well be a problem, if your group opts to go in quiet instead of waving a badge and shouting for a huge manhunt for a missing Astartes. What reasons do the Astartes have for a cult being involved, given that they've just fended off some Orks?

Regarding your actual questions:

Let the bribe be handled with either a Charm, Decieve or Intimidate check and roleplay. Generally it's only a good thing if a Bounty Hunter shows up to get rid of some Criminal Element right? Right.

For tracking down the cult: Do you have a psyker? Everything is easier and 10 times more fun with a Psyker. The group may well want to visit the battle-site themselves, let them pick up some minor details but nothing too specific. "A ground vehicle of some manner arrived, it left trackmarks". They may look into what sort of ground vehicle has tracks, well it just so happens that X vehicle does and it's a specific pattern, all the others have wheels. Only one guild in the Town offers these vehicles for its services, the Guild of *****. They'll have to infiltrate the Guild Offices and track down all records of said vehicles recently dispatched and returned, along with addresses and contact details for every driver. One of these will eventually lead to your Cult and their Kidnapped Marine.

Its a bit strange for a marine chapter to only send one marine to deal with a situation. Marines tend to work in small squads not as individuals. I would say either say it was a squad of 5 and one went to place explosives or some other objective that got him by himself while the others held off the enemy and he never came back or say it was a Deathwatch marine sent to assassinate the ork leader and so was alone and equipped with stealth gear. The second one is easier to explain why he was alone and his gear would have made it easier to be overwhelmed and captured by cultists.

How have they been getting around with their weapons in the hive city? If they've been managing there it should be far easier on an agriworld or frontier world, especially one that has been having ork problems. Unless your group has some really heavy firepower or really sketchy gear (alien tech or something) or the world you are creating has some local laws or customs forbidding fire arms (unusual for the imperium) I would say it shouldn't be much of an issue. Frontier worlds are pretty much described like Mos Eisley, lots of people are armed. If they are mostly armed with pistols and melee weapons I would say no one would even notice, if they are packing simple but obvious weapons like shotguns, autoguns etc I'd say lower the subtlety a bit, if packing technologically advanced weapons like plasma lower it some more, if they are carrying around heavy weapons or slightly sketchier weapons like sniper rifles or flamers lower subtlety and maybe have someone stop and question them. Also on agriworlds and frontier worlds they probably wouldn't even need to land at the port if they didn't want to. Have a shuttle drop them off in a field. Many backwater worlds don't have the ability to track all incoming flights planet wide.
To address your direct question, appropriate tests could include things like deceive tests if they have a cover story as to why they need weapons or to disguise themselves, to bribe I would say a scrutiny test to figure out a appropriate person to bribe (don't want to offer a bribe to a good cop) then an influence test possibly with some modifiers depending how well off people are on this particular world, if they just try to hide weapons on themselves it could be sleight of hand versus security's awareness with modifiers depending on what they are trying to hide or they could use stealth to try to bypass the security checkpoint entirely.

Why does the marine chapter suspect a cult? Answer that and you have your first clue for the party to follow up on. Was it a pile of dead cultists, previous cult activity/disappearances of military personnel that points to a conspiracy, signs of a warp anomaly like statues weeping blood etc.? Cyclosius had some good suggestions. I would suggest that for a marine to be captured by a cult either a powerful sorcerer or a daemon should probably have been involved so if the party has a psyker he might pick something up from psyniscience that could be useful. Perhaps other cult activity is known on the planet so the hope is in investigating that other activity the marine will turn up. So think about what clues might have been left behind from cultists trying to take a marine captive and think about what else the cult has been up to on this planet. Also consider what the cult's resources are and how big they are. If you have Enemies Within the creating cults section could help inspire you on some of this. Getting these things figured out will help you come up with appropriate clues and leads for the party to find.

A marine manipulated to fall to nurgle wouldn't instantly be a plague marine. Plague marines are fully devoted to nurgle and have received his greatest gifts. Takes time, devotion and impressing your chosen god to become a cult marine. Despite half the marines falling to Chaos during the Horus Heresy marines are still technically meant to be pretty hard to turn to chaos considering their significant mental conditioning, so was the cult overly ambitious in thinking they could turn a marine quickly, do they have an exceptionally effective method for doing so or have they had him awhile already and he's proving resistant even for a marine? Other than trying to convert him by mind control some other possible objectives for the cult could be using the marine as a really terrifying host for a daemon or as a sacrifice to summon a daemon. Do you plan on having the marine actually fall and be part of the final confrontation?

For the record, my group just loves their grenade launchers. Like, a little too much. Think twitch from the all guard party.

Sounds like the Stormwardens and your Inquisitor have a pretty close relationship, good plot bait for future sessions!

Smuggling weapons and the like onto the world could well be a problem, if your group opts to go in quiet instead of waving a badge and shouting for a huge manhunt for a missing Astartes. What reasons do the Astartes have for a cult being involved, given that they've just fended off some Orks?

Regarding your actual questions:

Let the bribe be handled with either a Charm, Decieve or Intimidate check and roleplay. Generally it's only a good thing if a Bounty Hunter shows up to get rid of some Criminal Element right? Right.

For tracking down the cult: Do you have a psyker? Everything is easier and 10 times more fun with a Psyker. The group may well want to visit the battle-site themselves, let them pick up some minor details but nothing too specific. "A ground vehicle of some manner arrived, it left trackmarks". They may look into what sort of ground vehicle has tracks, well it just so happens that X vehicle does and it's a specific pattern, all the others have wheels. Only one guild in the Town offers these vehicles for its services, the Guild of *****. They'll have to infiltrate the Guild Offices and track down all records of said vehicles recently dispatched and returned, along with addresses and contact details for every driver. One of these will eventually lead to your Cult and their Kidnapped Marine.

Yeah, that was the idea. I was figuring the Inquisitor would be an old Pal of a Chaplain or such. I haven't fleshed her out much, but she seems to be Ordo Malleus so far.
I think that's the demon one, right?
Yes we have a psyker, but, ummm...
Tolfan (My Character): *knocks on false wall, which is followed by a shotgun blast that misses him from the other side. The wall falls down. I shoot the kid with the shot gun.* "Lay down your arms, or face the Emporer's Justice.

*Other 2 kids in the room shoot at me with pistols. Both connect, but neither gets through my armor. Or even close. 2 more shots from my teammates and I, they are dead.*

Psyker: "Did you have to kill them? They're kids! are you at all ashamed?"

Tolfan: "Why would I be?"

Flashback ends.

Yeah, he doesn't really get the 40k universe. And for the record, I did tell the next group I was an Arbites. And while their lasguns flashed harmlessly across my feet and arm, I told him they never listen. It was actually some pretty great RP come to think of it.

Its a bit strange for a marine chapter to only send one marine to deal with a situation. Marines tend to work in small squads not as individuals. I would say either say it was a squad of 5 and one went to place explosives or some other objective that got him by himself while the others held off the enemy and he never came back or say it was a Deathwatch marine sent to assassinate the ork leader and so was alone and equipped with stealth gear. The second one is easier to explain why he was alone and his gear would have made it easier to be overwhelmed and captured by cultists.

How have they been getting around with their weapons in the hive city? If they've been managing there it should be far easier on an agriworld or frontier world, especially one that has been having ork problems. Unless your group has some really heavy firepower or really sketchy gear (alien tech or something) or the world you are creating has some local laws or customs forbidding fire arms (unusual for the imperium) I would say it shouldn't be much of an issue. Frontier worlds are pretty much described like Mos Eisley, lots of people are armed. If they are mostly armed with pistols and melee weapons I would say no one would even notice, if they are packing simple but obvious weapons like shotguns, autoguns etc I'd say lower the subtlety a bit, if packing technologically advanced weapons like plasma lower it some more, if they are carrying around heavy weapons or slightly sketchier weapons like sniper rifles or flamers lower subtlety and maybe have someone stop and question them. Also on agriworlds and frontier worlds they probably wouldn't even need to land at the port if they didn't want to. Have a shuttle drop them off in a field. Many backwater worlds don't have the ability to track all incoming flights planet wide.
To address your direct question, appropriate tests could include things like deceive tests if they have a cover story as to why they need weapons or to disguise themselves, to bribe I would say a scrutiny test to figure out a appropriate person to bribe (don't want to offer a bribe to a good cop) then an influence test possibly with some modifiers depending how well off people are on this particular world, if they just try to hide weapons on themselves it could be sleight of hand versus security's awareness with modifiers depending on what they are trying to hide or they could use stealth to try to bypass the security checkpoint entirely.

Why does the marine chapter suspect a cult? Answer that and you have your first clue for the party to follow up on. Was it a pile of dead cultists, previous cult activity/disappearances of military personnel that points to a conspiracy, signs of a warp anomaly like statues weeping blood etc.? Cyclosius had some good suggestions. I would suggest that for a marine to be captured by a cult either a powerful sorcerer or a daemon should probably have been involved so if the party has a psyker he might pick something up from psyniscience that could be useful. Perhaps other cult activity is known on the planet so the hope is in investigating that other activity the marine will turn up. So think about what clues might have been left behind from cultists trying to take a marine captive and think about what else the cult has been up to on this planet. Also consider what the cult's resources are and how big they are. If you have Enemies Within the creating cults section could help inspire you on some of this. Getting these things figured out will help you come up with appropriate clues and leads for the party to find.

A marine manipulated to fall to nurgle wouldn't instantly be a plague marine. Plague marines are fully devoted to nurgle and have received his greatest gifts. Takes time, devotion and impressing your chosen god to become a cult marine. Despite half the marines falling to Chaos during the Horus Heresy marines are still technically meant to be pretty hard to turn to chaos considering their significant mental conditioning, so was the cult overly ambitious in thinking they could turn a marine quickly, do they have an exceptionally effective method for doing so or have they had him awhile already and he's proving resistant even for a marine? Other than trying to convert him by mind control some other possible objectives for the cult could be using the marine as a really terrifying host for a daemon or as a sacrifice to summon a daemon. Do you plan on having the marine actually fall and be part of the final confrontation?

Thanks for that, these are the things I need to know to keep it authentic. I'm thinking that the Marine goes missing trying to push a new hole for the PDF while the other Marines hold back a couple of groups of Nobz and a Weirdboy.

Afterwards, as the PDF cleanses the field with flamers, the other Marines went to retrieve what they assumed would be the body of their brother, having lost vox contact. They find the last known location of him is covered in frost, and one of his pauldrons on the ground. They conclude it is some kind of psychic element, possibly jumping to the conclusion of a cult without any real evidence.
Cut to 4 Astartes being pulled off the planet for cracking a few too many heads, a tad to literally to find their comrade. Now the Pc's come into the picture.
I wanted to avoid the trope of sacrifice the guy to the demon or to bring the demon into the world ect, so I was thinking brainwashing and general corruption, but I might also use the Nurgle cult as a cover for a Tzeench cult that is trying to dissect the Astartes to better understand the general workings of the Astartes pshyiology.
Oh, yeah, the idea was that the cult bit off way more than they can chew. They are keeping the Marine captive, but haven't done much beyond that because it's so difficult to get them to change anything.

Its a bit strange for a marine chapter to only send one marine to deal with a situation. Marines tend to work in small squads not as individuals. I would say either say it was a squad of 5 and one went to place explosives or some other objective that got him by himself while the others held off the enemy and he never came back or say it was a Deathwatch marine sent to assassinate the ork leader and so was alone and equipped with stealth gear. The second one is easier to explain why he was alone and his gear would have made it easier to be overwhelmed and captured by cultists.

How have they been getting around with their weapons in the hive city? If they've been managing there it should be far easier on an agriworld or frontier world, especially one that has been having ork problems. Unless your group has some really heavy firepower or really sketchy gear (alien tech or something) or the world you are creating has some local laws or customs forbidding fire arms (unusual for the imperium) I would say it shouldn't be much of an issue. Frontier worlds are pretty much described like Mos Eisley, lots of people are armed. If they are mostly armed with pistols and melee weapons I would say no one would even notice, if they are packing simple but obvious weapons like shotguns, autoguns etc I'd say lower the subtlety a bit, if packing technologically advanced weapons like plasma lower it some more, if they are carrying around heavy weapons or slightly sketchier weapons like sniper rifles or flamers lower subtlety and maybe have someone stop and question them. Also on agriworlds and frontier worlds they probably wouldn't even need to land at the port if they didn't want to. Have a shuttle drop them off in a field. Many backwater worlds don't have the ability to track all incoming flights planet wide.

To address your direct question, appropriate tests could include things like deceive tests if they have a cover story as to why they need weapons or to disguise themselves, to bribe I would say a scrutiny test to figure out a appropriate person to bribe (don't want to offer a bribe to a good cop) then an influence test possibly with some modifiers depending how well off people are on this particular world, if they just try to hide weapons on themselves it could be sleight of hand versus security's awareness with modifiers depending on what they are trying to hide or they could use stealth to try to bypass the security checkpoint entirely.

Why does the marine chapter suspect a cult? Answer that and you have your first clue for the party to follow up on. Was it a pile of dead cultists, previous cult activity/disappearances of military personnel that points to a conspiracy, signs of a warp anomaly like statues weeping blood etc.? Cyclosius had some good suggestions. I would suggest that for a marine to be captured by a cult either a powerful sorcerer or a daemon should probably have been involved so if the party has a psyker he might pick something up from psyniscience that could be useful. Perhaps other cult activity is known on the planet so the hope is in investigating that other activity the marine will turn up. So think about what clues might have been left behind from cultists trying to take a marine captive and think about what else the cult has been up to on this planet. Also consider what the cult's resources are and how big they are. If you have Enemies Within the creating cults section could help inspire you on some of this. Getting these things figured out will help you come up with appropriate clues and leads for the party to find.

A marine manipulated to fall to nurgle wouldn't instantly be a plague marine. Plague marines are fully devoted to nurgle and have received his greatest gifts. Takes time, devotion and impressing your chosen god to become a cult marine. Despite half the marines falling to Chaos during the Horus Heresy marines are still technically meant to be pretty hard to turn to chaos considering their significant mental conditioning, so was the cult overly ambitious in thinking they could turn a marine quickly, do they have an exceptionally effective method for doing so or have they had him awhile already and he's proving resistant even for a marine? Other than trying to convert him by mind control some other possible objectives for the cult could be using the marine as a really terrifying host for a daemon or as a sacrifice to summon a daemon. Do you plan on having the marine actually fall and be part of the final confrontation?

There's a Black Library book called 'Brothers of the Snake' (or something like that), in it a chapter of Marines (The Iron Snakes) will send out a single marine to deal with any requests or pleas for help. It's a Movie Marine thing with a lone Astartes taking out a dozen Dark Eldar Warriors so it may skew the balance a little however. Point is, there's a precedent for it. However, I would have to agree. Being corrupted by Nurgle does not a Plague Marine make. Ritually sacrificing and tainting the Astartes is sure to gain you a boon from ol' Papa however.

If your Psyker doesn't quite 'get' 40k, try to explain it to them out of session. Don't explode their brain with Lore, but make sure that they understand that their powers essentially come from Hell, and when they cast a Psychic power they're attempting to bring a bit of Hell into reality, and sometimes a Daemon from Hell also comes out. That's why nobody likes you and everyone wants to put you on a pyre!

he does get the whole "you have no rights, everything is heresy" bit. It's just funny to watch him struggle with the concept when my Arbites is going around gunning people down willy-nilly.

okay, so they're not actually making a plague marine, but they may still be trying. We know you cant, but they may not.

I have the enemy within book, and am looking into making a cult. But what infrastructure should I expect on a large agriworld in the imperium? Specifically in the largest city?

I saw mention of guilds, but like is the ad mech bopping around, or is it whoever happens to have a wrench?

also, finding the list of enemies very lacking, anywhere else for me to look?

Tried to quote but just made a long mess so I'll just address things in order.

Hmm, a party with a bunch of grenade launchers would definitely draw attention. So yeah if they go through the official planetary port security might hassle them if they are openly carrying grenade launchers. Some options are disguise themselves as a commisar and some veteran guardsmen so grenade launchers seem less suspicious, disassemble them and store them away putting them back together when away from the city or getting dropped off in a field outside the city. Even with bribing officials they should still lose subtlety and possibly draw the cult's attention as random people in the street are likely to take notice and gossip/run for their lives.

Ordo malleus is the daemon/warp related ordo. Don't let that limit you however. The ordo of your inquisitor is really only a rough guideline of their preferred target or what they perceive as the biggest threat to mankind. It won't stop them from dealing with other threats they encounter. Sometimes what you thought was a daemon worshiping cult turns out to be an alien worshiping cult but regardless or ordo they need to be purged. The first ed campaign I was in we were ordo xenos but most of the threats we encountered were daemonic or cult related. We actually worked alongside some eldar briefly to stop chaos.

In relation to the psyker you should point out to him in character that the attempted murder of an arbitrator/inquisition agent is both illegal and heretical regardless of if the perpetrator was aware of your identity and that death by shotgun is the one of the quickest and least painful punishments available for such a crime. Its fine for a character to cherish life even in this setting so I think continuing to roleplay out the disagreements is probably fine

The stuff for the orks and how the marine went missing sounds good. Maybe put some other clue left behind that the marines wouldn't have recognized but that knowledge characters in the party could. For example maybe a symbol used by a religion on the planet from before the imperium took over or one that was used by a noble family hundreds of years ago but either they no longer exist or they changed their family crest. Basically a clue that can point the team in the right direction that the marines wouldn't have had the investigative skills to recognize. Without more info on your party makeup I can't make more specific suggestions.

On the sacrifice trope, fair enough. Have the cult led by a particularly powerful sorcerer and it works fine. I didn't mean to suggest it's impossible to turn a marine through mind control it will just be tough and he wouldn't technically be a plague marine. Plague marine is the deep end of the nurgle pool while if the cult successfully turns him he'll only be dipping his toe into the shallow end. Actually nurgle followers would probably be interested in marine physiology, why they are so resistant to disease and radiation, and how to get around that resistance, how they are so resistant to pain etc. If you have a tzeentch cult in there as well keep in mind that tzeentch and nurgle are diametrically opposed and so the two cults would likely not be knowingly working together. A tzeentch cult might be manipulating the other cult without the other culs's knowledge of course but might be simpler to stick with just one for now.

Cyclocius, sounds like that chapter is an odd case. This setting is full of exceptions to rules so yeah I'm sure chapters do it, its just not standard procedure. The Stormwardens, if I remember correctly, are pretty codex adherent chapter though so are more likely to do things by the book.

In terms of agriworld, like everything in the imperium it can vary immensely. Check out the Seeds of Heresy adventure pdf for the description of Novabella or check the back of Enemies Within for the named agriworld in there (forgotten the name). Basically it is as advanced as you think it needs to be for the story you're trying to tell. Some agriworlds all the work is done by serfs working with basic tools and their bare hands and the crops get delivered to the space port by horse and cart, others the crops are harvested by giant titan sized machines with significant automation. Most are probably somewhere in between but leaning closer to the primitive side of things. If I were to make a generic agriworld I would probably make it a hodgepodge of roughly late 19th century up through mid 20th century tech but with the occasional spaceship flying overhead and a spaceport to get goods on and off world. So paved roads in the city and in some other places, automobiles but they are kind of rudimentary, very simple farming equipment like tractors but no fully automated anything, sp weapons are pretty common but not much more advanced etc. Sprinkle in a little more advanced imperial tech if dealing with the really rich or the adeptas.
Whatever you decide keep in mind that if the ork problem has been particularly big the planets infrastructure likely has seen better days.
The ad mech may or may not have a presence. Depends on the tech level of the planet. There may be none if a tractor is the most advanced piece of tech on the planet. Their may be a handful near the spaceport to help service visiting ships or the maintain sensor equipment, or to work with the nobles'/government's more advanced stuff. If the planet uses giant harvesters or servitors their presence would probably be extensive.
However the reference to guilds likely wasn't referring to the ad mech or any adepta. Think things like merchant guilds, mercenary guilds, tech guilds that the ad mech contracts out simple work to like automobile repair etc. On Novabella the collecting, storage and transfer of the crop tithe is handled by an agricultural guild that ensures everything is up to standard and the amounts are right and deals with all the logistics. On Desoleum much of the power in the hive is centered on major trade houses. If your agriworld also processes the food it produces perhaps there are manufacturing guilds that control those factories. Hope that clears that up some.

Are you looking for any enemies in particular or just looking to peruse some other options? Either way Only War and its expansions might have something useful. Any enemies from pretty much any of the 40k game lines could work although the older the game the more work you'll have to do to convert them over since things have changed quite a bit over the years. Better than trying to build something from scratch though.

The Primary City of an Agri world would likely have everything it needs to continue operation, assuming no major setbacks happen (large scale mechanical failure, invasion, uprising etc). I'd imagine certain Guilds (Businesses) would run the actual farms, maybe have an onsite bottom-of-the-rung Tech Priest who slaps some Oil on the Vehicles twice a day and fills the irrigation with the same oil if they get rusty and then wonders why everyone hates him for ruining the crops. Everything on the planet would likely be directed to the purpose of the planet, its produce. Let that influence your direction a bit as you imagine just what it is this planet produces.

As an example, in my Sector I use for my campaign, there's an Agriworld that's a frozen ice-ball full of Not-Yeti's. The flesh of these Yeti's is hardy, doesn't wear out and is used by Officers of the Sectors Imperial Guard for protection. The Agri-Worlds population comprises of Hunting Parties who venture out into the Tundra and hunt down Not-Yeti's, skin them in the storms and snow and haul the carcass back to outposts where it's refined and shipped offworld.

And yes, the enemy variation is rather lackluster. FFG have gone a similar route to the BC tomes and only made specific enemy entries, rather than generic abstractions. It has its strengths for creating flavourful enemies, but it can be rather annoying if you just want a generic pdf trooper instead of a Bonded Oathsworn Trooper.

Let us know how the session goes.

We didn't even get to most of the prepared stuff. The payer was caught trying to buy spook (5 DoF on his request ion test) and embarrassed the whole party. Out of game, everyone was late and I had to do the set up m3 times. Also, the mechboy learned a valuable lesson about checking your chirgeons refrences. He hired a guy who he knew was on the run from local law enforcement, and even said "I'm not going to ask why." And that's how he ended up rolling a fear test upon discovering a mark of slaanesh under his skin.

Also, I hate autocorrect and phone sized screens.

Oh man oh man.
So they get sent to the planet, right? they look around, find the clues I put there about it being a Nurgle cult. Mind you, their subtly is already at 29 at this point. So they go flashing their badge at the workers and then head to a nearby Ad Mech outpost to get records of all of a certain type of flyer on the planet. They proceed to try and force their way into the records (the Ad Mech is hiding their own shady dealings) and that goes about as well as expected. Subtly drops to 25.
They head back into town, go into the Ad Admin building, and start asking for the proper forms to see all registered personal flying transports. It'll be a couple hours, there is a bar across the street.
Cool, they all head out, except the Sororita, who is puking in the car after a bout of detox (out doing stuff with her dad on father's day).
No one plants up outside, and their subtly has dropped to 22 at this point. They sit down, get ready to have a drink, when the bartender cries out, before being silenced by one of the Adeptus Administratum who is drinking away his lot in life. With a cleaver. Everyone in the bar stands up, skin sloughing off as they draw clubs and cleavers and advance on the party. to their credit, the party doesn't immediately shoot the cultists, but sets up to do so.
That's when the cultists outside, wielding flamethrowers, arrive. Breaking the windows and kicking in the door, they proceed to douse the area, catching about half the party. By the next round, 2 of the six members are down, and all but three of the melee cultists have been killed. One of the characters who caught fire, an outcast, draws on the cultists with his chain axe and proceeds to go to town. He then fails the check for toughness 1, falls to the ground as pus filled with flesh eating bacteria gets all over him, and burns a fate point.
Then the psykers uses his control to put out the fire, but not before he himself takes damage, and goes down. Another fate point burned. That was fun.

Grats on wiping your party I guess?

The lesson here is to never let the enemy dictate the terms of engagement. In other words:

It's okay to run.

Nah, they lived. They actually took control of the situation after 2 guys went down. But they've been really overt in their play style, which is fine, but they were not prepared for getting ambushed in a supposedly friendly area. Which seems at the core of dark heresy. Also, they'd been kind of full of themselves after the premade from the book, in which they killed a demon without losing a single team member. Turned out the other gm ran it wrong. I wasn't looking to wipe them, just get them back in the proper mindset for the game. I.E. This is dangerous, and you're replaceable. Be smart.

After killing the last flamer cultist, they were escorted to the Arbites fortress. There they rested for a day, before all hell broke loose. A full blown rebellion was taking place, and they had to armor up before being dropped into the local university, which Arbites investigation had uncovered was the source of a large power drain, and was heavily defended. Getting to the basement, they wiped out some suicide bombers (one got his bomb off, but it only hit 1 guy, who lived since he had a beastly 10 soak for a 1000xp character) before finally stumbling across the testing lab with a naked Adeptus Astartes. The marine started crying out for his battle brothers, as an unknown and unseen psyker erected a shield behind the group, cutting off their escape, and released the marine.
First round goes as follows

Grenade launcher to the face with max damage

Marine charges, which the tank type character dodges.
single shot that accidentally hits friendly in the back

Full auto, max hits

Spontaneous combustion (accidentally rolls pretty high on perils of the warp, causing demons to whisper to everyone, but the attack still succeeds)

full auto, 4 hits

chainsword to the marines face.

Marine dies when his turn comes up due to fire.

It was actually kinda underwhelming according to my players XD

Nah, they lived. They actually took control of the situation after 2 guys went down. But they've been really overt in their play style, which is fine, but they were not prepared for getting ambushed in a supposedly friendly area. Which seems at the core of dark heresy. Also, they'd been kind of full of themselves after the premade from the book, in which they killed a demon without losing a single team member. Turned out the other gm ran it wrong. I wasn't looking to wipe them, just get them back in the proper mindset for the game. I.E. This is dangerous, and you're replaceable. Be smart.

After killing the last flamer cultist, they were escorted to the Arbites fortress. There they rested for a day, before all hell broke loose. A full blown rebellion was taking place, and they had to armor up before being dropped into the local university, which Arbites investigation had uncovered was the source of a large power drain, and was heavily defended. Getting to the basement, they wiped out some suicide bombers (one got his bomb off, but it only hit 1 guy, who lived since he had a beastly 10 soak for a 1000xp character) before finally stumbling across the testing lab with a naked Adeptus Astartes. The marine started crying out for his battle brothers, as an unknown and unseen psyker erected a shield behind the group, cutting off their escape, and released the marine.

First round goes as follows

Grenade launcher to the face with max damage

Marine charges, which the tank type character dodges.

single shot that accidentally hits friendly in the back

Full auto, max hits

Spontaneous combustion (accidentally rolls pretty high on perils of the warp, causing demons to whisper to everyone, but the attack still succeeds)

full auto, 4 hits

chainsword to the marines face.

Marine dies when his turn comes up due to fire.

It was actually kinda underwhelming according to my players XD

This is the risk when throwing one lone scary enemy at a group. If the players can reasonably damage the enemy then a string of good rolls on the players' part and/or a string of bad rolls on your part and the fight ends up being anticlimactic as the big bad just pops up and is immediately gunned down. Sounds like the marine could have used some cultist buddies. Some of the toughest fights my group has had in 2nd ed were similar to your fight in the bar. We've been ambushed several times by large groups of cultists with basic auto weapons and axes and gotten pretty bloodied up.

Don't be afraid to have him scream "I FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME! IT IS A GOOD PAIN!" and pop out a minor daemon in those cases. If your players can handle a marine, they can handle that, but it should prolong the fight a bit and give them a nice little "oh crap" moment.

Don't be afraid to have him scream "I FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING ME! IT IS A GOOD PAIN!" and pop out a minor daemon in those cases. If your players can handle a marine, they can handle that, but it should prolong the fight a bit and give them a nice little "oh crap" moment.

It helped that it was like midnight when the fight started, and I wanted to go home. Haha