I've asked this question in other forums, but I we won't be able to continue our campaing for a while and that's given me a lot of time to think about what I'm going to do next.

I am going to put my players in a very difficult situation. I'm going to transcribe my notes here if your curious as to how this situation came about. If your not curious, skip to the end.

1.)Players arrive at Watch Fortress Erioch, before they are even fully initiated they are pulled out and thrown into a ship. They are told that a inquisitor has called in a favor and has a desperate mission that needs to be undertaken IMMEDIATELY and they are the only Astartes available. When they are equipped I let them take weapons up to the distinguished level because they're never going to spend requisition again in this campaign.

2.) Players are transported to to a world called the Mire (I took this section of the campaign from two Black Crusade spaltbooks). There mission is to (Supposedly) retrieve a Chaos artifact known as the Axe of Khorne. Unfortunately, this world is overrun by chaos and is a major Death Guard recruiting world.

3.) There ship is shot down and they are stranded on the planet. Over the course of several sessions they learn that there are Khornate berserkers active on the planet and they are working with the Death Guard to retrieve the axe. They liberate a massive mobile sand-crawler that acts as the planets main city from Nurgle. They make contact with a imperial resistance movement on the planet that is being patronized by a mysterious inquisitor. And finally they repel an assault on the crawler lead by the Death Guard Company master. Finally, a contingent of Night Lords is hired to kill them and is repelled. They actually convince one of them to betray his fellows and work for them. All this happens as they are traveling across the world to get to the axe.

That's the campaign so far, here's what comes next.

4.) They have no chance of liberating the excavation site in a head to head battle. Over the course of the campaign they've killed 21 chaos space marines, they're are sixty left on world. So the traitor Night Lord (named Romulus), makes a plan. His war-band doesn't know that he's turned traitor. If he sends up a distress call they might come get him, in their stolen thunder-hawk. The players can then use the thunder-hawk to spearhead the assault the excavation site.

-This is what as a dm I call a "fixed point in time." They're is no way the players can be victorious without this thunder-hawk, they're are simply to many Chaos marines left.-

5.) After a massive battle, that should last a session or three. The players fight the Khornate chapter master, the Night Lord chapter master, the remaining Death Guard, and a horde of Plauge ridden zombie slaves that they've been using as workers the PCs should liberate the site. At this point they realize they've been given faulty info. The Axe of Khorne is not an axe, it is the name of a massive pre-heresy Lunar class light Cruiser that the chaos marines have been trying to recover from the planets surface.

6.) Here's what happens next. The Deathwatch track the PCs down and demand to know why they've deserted from their posts and stolen so much valuable equipment. No matter what the players do (FIXED POINT IN TIME) they are called heretics and have to flee from back into the ship.

7.) The Axe of Khorne is a total wreck, and has been rotting beneath the earth for 10,000 years, but it is still whole. The chaos marines have welded the Night Lords raiding ship to it so they can pull it into orbit where they can complete their work repairing it. A navigator they have with them (They saved him from their previous ship.) Can pilot the Night Lords ship and tow the Axe of Khorne with them into space and eventually the warp. They also discover that the Night Lords have been collecting pure gene-seed from the fallen traitor legends. Meanwhile the players are going to go into the Axe to turn on several parts of the ship so they can actually survive re-entry. There they find that 1. the ship crashed because it was overrun by orcs. 2. The is a population of human survivors who have been trapped on the ship since they crashed. They are descended from the ships slaves and now have a whole culture developed around killing and eating orcs. This section will also take a while to resolve. Eventually, they re-enter real-space near the navigators home world. His clan then puts them under their protection, after all, its not everyday a light Cruiser falls into your lap. They are then contacted by the inquisitor who put them in this situation.

T.L.D.R

Players are falsely accused of being deserter and traitors by the deathwatch. What really happened is that a Radical Inquisitor has manipulated them into their situation, which is currently ostracized from the imperium and in possession of a massive battle ship and thousands of Gene seeds. He did this, because he's become tired of going through official channels to rally military power, so he wants to own a space marine chapter, loyal to him, to carry out his designs. He gives the players a choice, work with him and create a new chapter under false identities. Or become exiles and fight to clear their names.

What do you think? If you were one of my players how would your react?

Sounds delightful.

Effectively though the players are supposed to grin and bare it. Whatever happens and whatever anyone else thinks, an Inquisitor IS for all intent and purpose, the voice of the God Emperor of Mankind. No marine can really refuse to follow an order from an Inquisitor without good call to do so. Space Marine Chapter Masters are not even exempt however a marine is able to resist somewhat and force things like this through official channels as a delay tactic. This is the technical reasoning behind it yet in practice it seldom gets enacted because it often causes friction and resentment. Most will then usually make it as a formal request and they just happen to agree since it is often in mutual interests for them to play ball.

However, with that in mind if they are at ANY point told to recover a Chaos Artifact then this is a guaranteed sign of a radical inquisitor. No puritan would even think of retrieving it and would have it destroyed and therefore the players would be able to kick up quite a fuss and I would find that exceptionally distasteful enough to consider refusing to follow orders and getting another inquisitor or their own boss involved.

All in all, sounds fun.

Sorta like how the grey Knights got formed during the heresy. Fought against chaos, inducted into a clandestine chpater loyal to one man.

Hell I'd join up! Maybe with the one condition I got to name the chapter/ pick the heraldry/color sheme

And after all if the inqisitor proves to become to radical for his own good, you can still atempt to assassinate him later.

Sorta like how the grey Knights got formed during the heresy. Fought against chaos, inducted into a clandestine chpater loyal to one man.

Hell I'd join up! Maybe with the one condition I got to name the chapter/ pick the heraldry/color sheme

And after all if the inqisitor proves to become to radical for his own good, you can still atempt to assassinate him later.

Hell ya that's the idea! Build your own chapter, pick whatever Geneseed you want to stick in you initiates, train them the way you like, then chose you own mission that has the potential to change the future of an entire sector.

Delightful idea, but the players need to be on board with it. The planned Chapter, while surely won't be short of blackjack and hookers, will still be renegade. Most of my players are staunch loyalists, they'd murder the Inquisitor in a heartbeat if it turns out he double-crossed them. Also, don't underestimate the weight of their respective Chapters - a First Founding guy or a Storm Warden (whose Chapter is heavily involved in the Achilus Crusade with their Chapter Master leading the Astartes contingent) could probably wriggle himself out of this trap. Again, if your players like the idea of going rogue, this will be an awesome storyline, but somehow gauge their willingness first.

Delightful idea, but the players need to be on board with it. The planned Chapter, while surely won't be short of blackjack and hookers,

Bender Marines!

Bender Marines!

"Bite My Shiny Metal A**" is actually a very cool warcry

Bender Marines!

"Bite My Shiny Metal A**" is actually a very cool warcry

Correction, "bite my shiny ceramite/plasteel arse" however that lacks punch

Bender Marines!

"Bite My Shiny Metal A**" is actually a very cool warcry

.

Correction, "bite my shiny ceramite/plasteel arse" however that lacks punch

Eh, if the Iron Warriors are permitted to shout "Iron Without" clad in ceramite, I can call the armoured cover of my backside whatever I like

Bender Marines!

"Bite My Shiny Metal A**" is actually a very cool warcry

.

Correction, "bite my shiny ceramite/plasteel arse" however that lacks punch

Eh, if the Iron Warriors are permitted to shout "Iron Without" clad in ceramite, I can call the armoured cover of my backside whatever I like

Welcome to the FFG forums, where arguments over the correct phrasing of biting a space marines backside with heresy involved are not just the norm, they are encouraged!

Back on topic though, if you are forcing them to do radical things then your players may revolt early and wreck the place or give their lives rather than give in to chaos temptations.

Sounds delightful.

Effectively though the players are supposed to grin and bare it. Whatever happens and whatever anyone else thinks, an Inquisitor IS for all intent and purpose, the voice of the God Emperor of Mankind. No marine can really refuse to follow an order from an Inquisitor without good call to do so. Space Marine Chapter Masters are not even exempt however a marine is able to resist somewhat and force things like this through official channels as a delay tactic. This is the technical reasoning behind it yet in practice it seldom gets enacted because it often causes friction and resentment. Most will then usually make it as a formal request and they just happen to agree since it is often in mutual interests for them to play ball.

However, with that in mind if they are at ANY point told to recover a Chaos Artifact then this is a guaranteed sign of a radical inquisitor. No puritan would even think of retrieving it and would have it destroyed and therefore the players would be able to kick up quite a fuss and I would find that exceptionally distasteful enough to consider refusing to follow orders and getting another inquisitor or their own boss involved.

All in all, sounds fun.

To be fair, in order to (safely) destroy or otherwise neutralize a Chaos Artifact, it generally must first be retrieved and relocated to a secure location to work on. And even once (safely) destroyed, you don't want to leave bits of it lying around unsecured. You want to stick remains in a securely warded vault that is well guarded, just in case.

Although, it also depends on how the mission is presented to them - "retrieve this artifact" is one thing, "retrieve this chaos artifact" is another, and "steal and keep this dangerous artifact away from these chaos-worshippers" is yet another. There are certainly lots of ways it could be described, but characterizing it as keeping something from falling into the hands of a dangerous/powerful chaos-worshipper who could use then use the artifact against the Imperium or getting it away from someone before he can do so (whether or not that's actually true ) would be a reasonably valid objective, and less likely to raise red flags.

Besides, all the players will (presumably) need to do in order to prove their innocence to the Deathwatch is voluntarily request/submit to telepathic examination/interrogation by one or more suitably talented Deathwatch Librarian(s), or sufficiently trusted psykers of the Inquisition. Telepathy can do wonders for determining whether or not someone is lying.

What do you think? If you were one of my players how would your react?

It's a cool plot. Whether players will accept it is another story. My own reaction would depend heavily on the personality of the character I'm playing. If I believed they could be tempted into seizing power or genuinely believe in the Inquisitor's cause, then I might go along with it. But most loyalist astartes are heavily conditioned to act in a particular way, and that includes shooting traitors. Which a radical inquisitor may very well appear to be.