Alright, so this weekend I am holding a one-shot game on elysean troopers on a jungle/frontier world being dropped in a village that has refused to respond to imperial hails and order for evacuation (volcanic eruption nearby, heavy rain wherever no ash is falling, rivers flooding, barrages breaking, etc... all hell is coming loose on that area). I'd like your feedback and ideas on the premisses/game I am building.

They will be dropped from the back of an Arvus Lighter (the ash would fry a valk's turbines) and gravchute to the surface amidst flaming debris.

Their primary objective is to find out what has happened to the local priest and custodian.

Once they get to the surface, they will find the population out of their houses, sitting in the open, slowly being covered in ash. They will be unresponsive unless one of them is killed (at which point the others will, in dozens, convene over the corpse and stare at it silently). The skyline is a think mist of gray & red, due to the volcanic eruptions & the heavy rain interfering with it.

The should be able to account that only a portion of the villagers are there, in the open, and the rest is entirely missing.

They can find n follow tracks (hard test) of the rest of the population who gathered at a hidden temple in the ruins, resembling a large aztec pyramid.

They will find the population cordoning-off the temple, in a human chain of people holding each others' hands.

These fellas are "awaken" and will become aggressive if attacked, I will use mob rules as they will attack in dozens with their bare hands.

At the top of the pyramid, they will find the priest with its chest tore-open. The town's custodian yet no where to be seen.

Also at the top of the pyramid, they will find a passage (coverege in the priest's blood) that takes them into it, and far into the underground. There will be something inscribed there, but they should only be able to read it with some hard forbidden lore skills they may not have (or by capturing one of the mob and torturing him into reading it for them). Alternatively, a psyker can feel a strong defensive ward in the passage.

If they cross it, a warp-arc of energy will surge from the altar where the priest was sacrifice and hittin a nearby mountain, which will erupt into a new volcano. Lava will slowly begin to creep down the mountain in the direction of the village/temple.

At this point, no more contact can be had with HQ, strong vox-interference. Some tech-use tests or use of an auspex can identify the source of the interference - something inside the temple. Their only viable extraction point is the central square of the village as the jungle and habs cover all the rest.

Once inside the temple, I've run a bit out of ideas.

I know if will be a mase of narrow passages and moving shadows (that they dont know to be tzeentch's demons - this theater of war was on orks all along until now). And that there will be an artifact at the middle of the last room a demon heart or something - the custodian could be the final boss, or he could be a captive waiting to be sacrificed by crazy cultists.

Stealing some plot elements from Steve Parker's "Mercy Run" book (on IG) [[[ SPOILER ALERT ]]], the medicae officer could be on a secret mission to capture and extract the custodian's bone-marrow in order to safe the Planetary Gorvernor's life (distant family member). The moral conflict would be tremendous, as the custodian is a loyalist unwilling to die for this, and no anaestesia can be used in the procedure. But I think that this would bear too heavily on the players perhaps.

IDEAS PLEASE!

I want to have the players have a chill in their spines.

I don't care if some comrades or even players are killed horribly, this is a one-shot after all.

How about instead of a demon heart its a cracked stone statue protruding from the wall of the temple's in chamber that seems to always be looking at you and require a willpower test to not be slightly intimidated by this ancient sculpture. The sculpture appears to be a man, but something is off about it, its eyes are over sized, the arms are elongated with stretched fingers and the legs are actually jointed like a dog's, but from its stance it would be impossible to tell (perception test to maybe find it a little odd). The custodian is in the center of the room about 20 m from the statue tied to the floor. In the sides of the room are elegant recesses carved into the wall that looked to be places of prayer. Don't have the statue do anything except stare until the players get the custodian off the floor and start carrying him out of the room. That is when the shadows awaken a shadow climbs up from the floor locking them in with the statue. Out of the recesses more shadows shoot along the edging between the stone work in a strange pattern towards the statue and it begins to move with bone crunching cracks the statue begins to break itself free of the wall and step down on to the floor and move towards the party with a loping gate. This would preserve the dilemma of killing the custodian for the bone marrow and suspense as they are all getting out home free and the last second the awaken a terrifying beast.

Their orders will be to bring the custodian back alive, at all costs.
The custodian will know what they will do to him once he is back in imperial hands and will do everything to avoid being captured (once he is liberated from the temple).

There could be a Warp-influenced maze, or perhaps it leads into a room that could not possibly fit inside the pyramid - after all, Chaos doesn't have to follow the laws of physics...

Be vague. Your players imagination will do more to set a chill in their spine than anything you can come up with.

As the party descends into the chamber have them make awareness rolls to notice a feeling of being watched. If there is a psyker then have them use Psyniscience to feel that there is a presence just around the corner, then there is no corner. Make things just a little off, take away what makes the players feel safe. Have at one point a window like space in one of the walls, if a player looks through it describe the entrance of the temple at a 90 degree angle as if the wall was the floor and that they can hear some one talking, just as he sees some Imperial Boots and legs start down the steps a shadow moves in front and he realizes he is staring at a wall and no time has passed at all (take the player aside to tell him this, and let the other players know that he stops and stares at the wall for a few minutes) simple little things like this can add tension. Tension in turn make people think of the worst possible thing, this in turn creeps people out.

Make some Awareness rolls in secret and tell them that they get a vague feeling of being watched/hearing something breathing around them/experiencing other vaguely creepy and/or Warpy stuff if the rolls succeed.

If they go to sleep at some point and one of them has Light Sleeper, roll Awareness and (if it succeeds) tell the player in question (and only that player) that they thought they heard something and there may be something near.

Other ideas:

Impossible corners (three 90 degree turns to the right in a row, for example), impossibly large rooms (bigger than the temple), hallucinations, players/comrades at the rear of the group suddenly disappearing without a sound, doors that open into bottomless pits, doors that lead back into rooms they've previously visited, corridors that lead into the same room they left, rooms below ground that are open to the sky, stairs that you can walk up for hours and still never end up more than a few dozen steps from the bottom (a la the staircase in Mario 64), doors that open to the outside of the temple at odd angles to the ground, doors that aren't doors, doors that don't open to the same place twice, and otherwise impossible architecture like something out of a M.C. Escher painting.

Above all, though, be vague. Let your players' imagination do the work.

Game is about to start, let's see how it goes.

How did it go?

Elysian 27th "Holy Divers" , 3rd Company, 2nd Platoon, 13rd squad

Sargent & Vox Specialist

Heavy Gunner (bolter) & loader

Weapon Specialist (plasma) & comrade

Medic & medicae auxiliae

Only diffference from default Elysian drop troops from the book is a change from Combat Shotguns to Lascarbines.

Primary Objective: retrieve Town Custodian at all costs.

Secondary Objective: rescue local ecclesiarchy personnel.

Situation: region suffering with torrential rainfall and a volcanic activity, barrages aren't expected to hold much further and the town region will be completely flooded in less than a week. Town has refused to evacuate and all contact has been cut. Possibly due to volcanic pyroclastic clouds electro-magnetic, interference with vox systems is to be expected. The region has been suffering with tribal ork incursions, but this shouldn't be cause for concern as they are few and primitive. Town estimated population ~5000. Regiments currently assigned to the region lack the mobility to both reach the town and make safe return. It's possbile that the town may have secceded from Imperial rule or else fallen to ork attacks, covert insertion recommended. Utilize respirators at all times.

After a briefing, they went to the quartermaster for acquiring some Krak grenades (got only 1), special bolter ammo (failed, they received stubber rounds instead), explosives (2kg of fyceline) and recon data (they failed to acquire a local guide, but managed to get sat-images of the region in a strange box with an "I" on it), 2 preysense googles.

They proceeded to make their covert drop aprox 1-2km above the town outskirts (jungle), heavy rain mixed with volcanic dust covering their approach entirely.

Sergeant, vox specialist injured when landing, they spent they gravchute charge slightly before "ideal" due to steep angle of attack and thick foliage. Heavy weapon/supplies crate also fell outside the expected radius. While the medicae tended to the wounded squadmates, the weapon specialist and heavy gunner teams actived the crate locator's and retrieved it. They noticed that the jungle was eerily quiet and no animals were spotted or seen. Their clocks marked midday, but the thick clouds above left the world as dark as a night with a full-moon - but red.

Approaching the town, they didn't see movement or lights. The guardtowers on the border of the jungle were empty, the town had no energy. They proceeded through alleys and narrow alleys to find the Administratum/chapel buildings in the center of the town, stopping briefly when they identified the first imperial citizen: an old woman staring fixedly at them through a hab's window. They tried to make contact but the woman didn't respond. They entered the hab and examined the woman, that's when they noticed she wasn't looking at them, but at the house across the street. The medicae observed her lungs were severely impaired by the volcanic dust but otherwise he couldn't explain her catatonic state.

The troopers proceeded to investigate the 2-story hab on the other side of the street. Divided into 2 groups, one went to the basement, the other to the upper floor.

Basement: slightly flooded, they found a man sitting in one corner holding a large aquilla in this arms. Upon investigation they found the man was dead due to the foul gases coming from the acidic water in the basement. Apparently he had laid there for about 2 days until his lungs stopped working, his lower body with 2nd degree burns from laying under the acidic water. At this point they found they were being observed by a kid by the stairs, when they turned she run away, and they didn't give chase as not to get separated.

Upper floor: the second team found a woman hanging, the woman had clearly committed suicide and not been executed. They saw the kid running through the street towards the city center but didn't give chase either. From their vantage point, they saw scores of citizens all looking from windows or balconies, all towards the city center.

After a brief status report, they proceed to the city center. On their way they found a half-track but lacking the skills to use it properly and with the intent to act as stealthy as possible, decided not to use it.

The little-daylight available fading fast around them. The underslug lamps on ther lascarbines turned on but having little effect under the heavy black rain.

At the city center, in a large open area with the Chapel on one side and the Administratum building on the other (of which only the sillouette could be seen), they saw hundreds if not thousands of the town's folk standing in the rain, all looking torwards the Administratum building, they were in a catatonic state similar to the old woman they found before. Most of these people were covered in volcanic ash-mud. Some of them had their feets completely covered in the same mud from standing for too long in the same place. After investigating and testing the people for aggression (some where thrown down in the ground to see if they'd react, but these would only get up again and continue staring at the same place), through the mob they proceeded to the Administratum building as a fast as they could - not wanting to risk lingering there for too long, even ignoring the closer Chapel. They found the building's door spread open, forced inward, inviting yet oppresive simultaneously.

As the night fell and the rain stopped, a thin fog came with it to accompany the ever constant ash-fall.

Just outside the building, they found tracks from scores of human steps which were clearly draging things somewhere behind or beyond the building. Inside, not a single soul was found, las shots marked the walls regularly, and in the lower levels, broken doors were found with barricades behind them, in rooms filled with aquillas, religious books and spilled provisions. In the upper floor, in the Custodian's room, they found documents inciting seccession from nearby towns, an empty vault and most importantly: a half-burnt letter from the Planetary Governor himself - the small bits that could be read said something about "family", "sickness", "shame" and pleas for mercy.

In the night time, they crossed the mob still outside, unmoving, and went to the chapel. There they saw a similar situation to the one in the Administratum building: it was abnormally filled with aquillas, religious books and most importantly spilled provisions. Barricading the doors, they camped there with 2 guards always on duty by the heavy bolter mounted in the upper floor's window. They called in Command and the Colonel back at the base compromised with investigating the Custodian's relationship with the Planetary Governor and informed them that up-river, the rain worsened and he estimed about 4 days before comms would be cut and 5 days before the region would be completely flooded.

Morning came and with the last guard shift, a couple dozen citizens appeared outside the main door. They didn't react to hails however, even when the guardsmen opened the main door and pointed lasguns at them. Then they noticed a small children by the multitude of people, the same that had watched them examine the body the previous day. With a quick prayer, mustering all her willpower, the Weapon Specialist rush into the mob and dragged that children back into the chappel. No one moved. No one moved except the child, which immediately began to scream and scrap and bite the specialist when they crossed the door passage. The child released itself and ran through the mob, and through the open area outside. The sergeant ordered the specialist (their best marksman) to shoot the little heretic's legs, yet among the crowd this proved too much and two citizens where shot instead. They fell as rocks, hit by the searing las-shots, an immediately tens of citizens outside paced slowly towards the bodies and just stood there, silently staring at the victims of the stray shots. The chappel mob instantly fixed their mindless gaze at the specialist, but didn't move forward still. Her will broken by the opressive atmosphere, she ran into the chappel and their gaze seemed to follow her, even when she dropped out of sight. The gunner then dragged one of the mob inside, but the new bystander didn't react as the child had earlier.

In time, they moved out of the chappel, pushing dozens of people but not hurting them any further. Focused on following the tracks they'd found the previous day by the administratum building, it took them awhile - in part due to the ash-fall, which worsened by the hour - to notice that they were being followed from afar by the chappel mob.

There was a road behind that administratum building, it led to the city outskirts and north - straight out of the town and into the jungle. soon they realised that all along the stunned citizens were in fact gazing at a distant mountain or at least in the direction of it, and not into the city center itself. Marks of things that were dragged lain all along the path they followed. And soon, they were marching as fast as they could as to open a distance between them and the following mob and they followed the tracks into the jungle...

To be continued.