I am a relatively new GM and have read through most of the GM section of the dark heresy forums and I have realised that quite a few of you are pure genius with new quest ideas. I have a few ideas floating around, one of a heretek with a mutation/warp energy gun, and a little less ambitious idea of a kidnapping of an inquisitor's favoured acolyte, son or an influential political contact. the heretek is something i plan on using later, but for now i would appreciate some help with ideas for the kidnapping.

I plan on using a hive world and some mid level gangers who are a bit in over their heads, for example a larger gang demanding the hostage or some corrupt enforcers breathing down their necks. maybe even some mutants come be involved leading onto the heretek campaign arc.

i appreciate any ideas anyone can offer.

thanks in advance!!!

First of all, if you "kidnappers" are a gang only of mediocre potential, the target I would suggest would be a non-combat acolyth of said Inquisitor. For the target, I would suspect a Scholar of sorts, perhaps one that is known to study certain things not everyone is permitted to know. As far as I remember the fluff, it is mentioned that some Eldar bodies are brought from warfields to Universities for study. So perhaps, he is a Xeno-Biologist. Of course, these are special and tight lipped people.

What you still have to decide is why this Scholar (let´s call him Armen Glockworth ) was captured. I would suggest that it does not have anything to do with him working for the =I= (which isn´t even known) but due to his knowledge. If your Heretek is into "strange guns", he might want Scholar Glockworth to share some of his insight about non-human biologie with him

Next thing is "why this mediocre gang?" . You want them to be "in over there heads", so they have either been forced or been tricked. First options always leaves the question "if the forcing group is that powerfull, why don´t they do it on there own?". So let´s stay within the "tricked" department. Your major heretic willfully left them in the dark since he sees them as "disposable in the long term". He made them believe that they are in for a ransom, there part was to abduct the Scholar, bring him to a prepard "safe house" and wait there till negotiations are over and everyone get´s his slice.

But things start to happen in other ways: they did not know that Armen was Xeno-Biologist and they did not know that abducting him would make so many people searching for them (perhapbs not only the Enforcers, but also the Arbites being after them? Or some other "Special Police" of the imperial governeur?). And after the arrival in the safe house, another henchmen of the Heretek showed up...together with a torture servo skull. "Yes, you haven´t been told. If you are not fine with how my boss run things, simply tell me. I will leave and you can try to get a ransom for this one here on your own. Our you just shut up and wait for further instruction, like it was planned. So, what´s your decision? Trouble & money or just trouble and no money?"

Hope you find this helpfull

That's the exact reason why i posted my rough ideas on here Gregorius21778. I needed a bit of help with some of the finer details and motivations of the characters. I really like the xeno-biologist idea because i wanted the heretek to be a bit obsessed with anything xenos anyway.

That was very helpful. Anything else anyone can add will be a nice bonus

How convoluted do you want this to get?

If you don't mind getting ridiculously convoluted plots, then possibly have the kidnapping be a feint, designed to distract the Inquisitor and/or his acolytes as to the true plot (which neatly explains why someone would choose a gang without the resources to do it properly), or, for even more convoluted meta- as a distraction from the distraction (ie: they are supposed to realise that the kidnapping is a distraction, and have a rough idea of what the real plot is (say, a raid to steal samples of xenobiological materials/materiel), but not realise that the theft was a distraction designed to get the Inquisition et al looking at threats already within the city/hive/planet/whatever, while the real real plot is to smuggle in something essential from offworld.

Another nice subversion could be that the theft of materials is just a sideline, the real plan is to have the kidnapping gang slaughtered by the rescuing forces as part of some diabolical ritual (yes, this is more of a 'chaos heresy' type plot hook, but it could conceivably be used as a xenophile one if the heretek's artifact/weapon of DOOM is powered/ controlled by particular psychic signatures (such as you might get from a mass slaughter). An eldar superweapon from around the time of the Fall might be ideal for this).

Another possibility for the "in over their heads"-gang: They are incompetent and got "lucky". By overhearing some colleagues at the local bad-guy-hangout they heard about this bookreading guy (Armen Glockworth) that was going to be kidnapped and traded for lots of money. They also heard about where he was going to be kept, or how he was to be transported. So they figured they'd ****** him and demand their own ransom for him. "It's just a scholar, how hard can it be?" They pulled the heist off and now they are in the deepest **** they've ever seen with the inquision looking for them (through the PCs), the original kidnappers looking for them and the Heretek looking for them. Their original buyer, a local fence that specialises in trading kidnapped young nobles back to their rich parents after failed slumming trips to the underhive, have backed out once he got word of the major heat. Fortunately the inquisitors henchmen get to them first (or the gang gets wind of the acolytes and contact them), and the gang will be desperate to trade the whereabouts of mr Glockworth for safe passage to another sector of the hive. As a precaution they have let a few core members of the gang bring mr Glockworth to a safe and unnkown location, so that the gangers handling the negotiations will not be tortured to reveal anything. Setups with locations and secret signs like in an oldfashioned cold-war-spy-movie.

Let the acolytes trade and barter with whatever they may and/or just do some old fashioned research, but preferrably quick before any of the other factions finds out where mr Glockworth is held. Let the PCs make and break a few alliances, shake up the local underworld and finally have a grand shootout wile trying to keep the poor adept out of the line of fire. Later the inquisitor might send them back in to look into exactly who it was that fixed up those very effective and slightly out of place implants that one of the involved gangs was equipped with...

Sorry malador888 but I read the premise and though of something evil. Not what you requested but can be added to the existing ideas.

The Senior Acolyte (Xeno-expert or any other job) is working with the local Arbites to track down the bad guys (the Arbites called the Inquisition in). Unknown to the Arbites the Inquisitor sent the party along with the Senior Acolyte to be the investigative force on the ground (the Arbites are under suspicion after all). So players are being directed by the Senior Acolyte to investigate interesting leads and under orders to maintain their cover by the Inquisitor.

It may makes things interesting if at this point the Senior Acolyte suspects that someone in the Arbites is a heretic and may want the device for themselves.

Senior Acolyte gets kidnapped by bad guys. As said by others they think he is a special expert in xeno devices.

Arbites go ballistic and start searching high and low for the kidnapped expert. The PCs as well armed strangers in the area come under direct suspicion.

PC are stuck in the middle. They have to:-

• Rescue their boss
• Get the device off the gang
• Stay clear of the Arbites
• Investigate the Arbites (if possible) for any heretics
• Maintain their cover

Just a quick few thoughts to add to the good ones already said.