Ok, so here's the situation. My inquisitor and her acolytes have been sent into Tau space to infiltrate the Tau underworld (criminals, revolutionaries, etc) and encourage a rebellion while they wait for the crusade forces to arrive. Well, they'll meet up with the existing underground, join them and generally go about their mission. However, two of the npc acolytes are engaged, and when the crusade forces arrive want to squeeze in their wedding before the revolution begins.

Well, the inquisitor will go to marry them, but as would be expected of a 40k wedding, it will be crashed, by an Imperial kill team. See the High Inquisitor of the crusade sent my inquisitor behind enemy lines presumably to get her out of his hair. However, seeing her as a threat to the crusade's ongoing progress, while she's gone, he excommunicates her, and sends a kill team to assassinate her and her acolytes.

The question I have, is what form of kill team should I have attack the wedding? Should it be Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, Sisters of Battles (he is a Hereticus inquisitor), a nice squad of space marines, or just straight Imperial Guardsmen a la Guant's Ghosts. It should be noted however, that my players are around 5th rank, and have proven rather battlecapable in the past, having killed a rogue space wolf, several big Tyranids, and some nasty mutants to book. What do you guys think?

The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad? They are well known for their wedding massacres ;-)

Beyond that, it all really depends on what you want. However, from the kill teams listed, the Storm Troopers seem the most likely. If this is in Tau space, getting the SoB's there and have them preform the hit might be problematic, marines would definitly be the over-kill option and IG might not be as reliable as Storm Troopers (but might be more avialeable). So, for what you listed, go with either a special forces type of IG Squad or send in the Strom Troopers. However, I'd use this as an excuse to introduce a temple assassin (Evesor) and have some real horror-show fun.

However, if you do go with the IG choice, they, perhaps, could have a snake theme just for funsies ;-)

Mos likely they will want to have deniability as there is the risk the target will survive or info will get back other people who might object. (Other wise why not just have them executed.) This pretty much excludes storm troopers, and sisters. I use on of these:

1)A group of former feral worlders hopped up on ghostfire extract with training in various SP, and las weapons. These poor souls know nothing to the degree they can't even reveal what planet they came from. (They know only what they call it in their obcure native language.)

2)A Squad of gun, and combat servitors.

3)A death cult (astral knives, or moriat for example) arm them with compact hellguns, needlers, expanding swords, hallucinogen & flash grenades, the photo contact, and nose plugs.

PS- Personally I'd stat 2 sets of enemies one it the PCs aren't wearing heavy, and carrying in weapons, and another if they are.

If you like to include references in your games and you like Tarantino's movies, I think Graver's idea rocks. You can include either as Death Cult or Gang members drafted from whatever Hiveworld for the Crusade or as High Inquisitor's acolytes.

Oh yea you totally have to go the kill bill route here! Take the bounty hunter from the core book tweak it a bit and have a squad of them all armed different with various skills.

Wish my players were getting married now lol.

lol, the kill bill route is a possability, I actually lace in references all the time. In fact the base of operations their leaving was in a section of hive monitored by a man named Vic with an affinity for the word "dude". The only problem with the deadly vipers is that was was going to use this chance for the Inquisitor to freak out halfway through the battle, and overexert her powers killing enemies in an otherwise losing battle. I figured numbers might be a must for such a battle. I mean I suppose I could still use a death cult but I'll admit I'm rather ignorant on them.

For example, I'm not really sure what Graver meant when he said "I'd use this as an excuse to introduce a temple assassin (Evesor) and have some real horror-show fun." I mean obviously I'd research it before hand as I have a couple sessions before the wedding, but, maybe I'd do good to force myself to use the death cults, that way I learn for futur reference.

Nobody remembered over-liberal usage of Vore Weapons from Creatures Anathema by ex-Officio Sabatorum Operatives? O:-) I think that there aren´t many flamers on the wdding party, not even 40k Imperial one so it could be intresting.

I think 5 competent enemies will be more than enough (re deadly viper squad). If you set the players up for a decent ambush you should have two men down even before the acolytes get to roll for initiative (accurate, aim, no dodge, toxic). If the assassins then hide among the general guests you can require some pretty nasty Awareness (or maybe even Scrutiny, as in Who looks less panicked?) checks (taken as a full round action of course) for the PCs to even see someone to target. This, together with the lack of weapons usually carried at a wedding, would mean that five enemies can last for a long while, and the inquisitor can "solve" the situation by using his twinlinked heavyflamer, Holocaust psy-power or combatdrugged melee servitors to just slaughter everyone. Make sure to play the Kill Bill soundtrack when you roll your first attacks.

This is btw such a good idea!

Mellon said:

Thank you. You have a good point. I forgot the fact that the assassins would be striking first. There won't be many guests, maybe a few but mostly a small, rushed wedding given the imminent revolution. Hmm, yeah, I think you guys are right, a Death Cult would probably be the best idea. I did have some pretty good times with Eshin Skaven enemies before, some Temple Assassins would probably be fun too. Any suggestions on that front?

*starts loading up the Lexicanum*

Temple assassins would be horrible horrible enemies. Their equipment, genemodifications and training are completely insane compared to what an acolyte has got. For examples of gear: Bodymorphing drugs, xenoblades that warp in and out of reality, A sniperrifle that kan take out a Battletank, Volatile unstable concoctions of chemicals that is only kept in check by the metabolism of the assassin - so that when he dies he explodes like a plasma cannon, etc. One of the sorts of assassins are kept in stasis freeze, programmed with mission data by telepathy and only thawed up once they are in the right zone and their minders have gotten away, just because they are too dangerous to have in awake states around non-targets. Another sort are expected to be able to spend weeks on eager overwatch waiting for his target to appear (no sleeping or going to the loo). I wouldn't expect anything less than a Total Party Kill if a proper temple assassin was assigned to attacking them. Read up a bit on the fluff about them and you will see what I mean.

If you want a large crowd of civilians, then have the weding during one of the large "sunday masses". Maybe even have multiple weddings, so you can have dozens of grooms/brides/versionsthereof in beatiful clothing running around hysterically. In times of panic people tends to drift towards religious things.

Mellon said:

It's a date.

Mellon said:

They're actually undercover in Tau space, so large sunday masses probably aren't an option. Also, only two npc acolytes are getting married, so it'll be a small, rushed ceremony a la the one in Independence Day.

Actually the only guests that would likely be there are the rest of the acolytes, another inquisitor who is undercover there, his acolytes, and possibly some people from the Tau underground they have befriended.

Milova said:

Please forward my condoleances to your characters, and my heartfelt excuses to your players.

Honestly, you have to tell me how it works out. I'm sitting here all filled up with evil giggles *happy grin*

I most certainly will. For the moment I'm considering a Vindicare with a pair of Callidus assassins. I would throw in an Eversor except that teamwork doesn't seem to be their strongpoint. Actually for that matter, would different temples work together at all? It seems to me that they might also be very...proud of their techniques.

Also, even though I'm liking the temple assassin concept, according to the Lexicanum, don't the High Lords of Terra have to approve assassination orders. This would be problematic for two reasons. 1st wouldn't that require a looooooong time for the order to travel all the way back to Terra and the assassin to travel to the point? 2nd I was kind of getting at that my Inquisitor is being wrongfully targeted by an overly vindictive commander, wouldn't the approval of the order make her a heretic throughout the Imperium?

Please believe me when I say that Temple assassins are either massive overkill or you'd cheapen their status. Sending more than one temple assassin... well, if the PCs ever manage to roll initiative, you're doing it wrong.

Milova said:

Per the reforms put in place after the Wars of Vindication in M36, a majority vote from the High Lords of Terra is required to authorise the deployment of a Temple Assassin.

Milova said:

The order would be sent by Astropathic message, so it would take time, yes. It'd probably take more time for the High Lords to get around to debating it, though. Deployment is less problematic - there are Assassinorum Temples scattered all across the Imperium in highly-classified locations (it's too dangerous to put them all on Terra, especially as the presence of Culexus Assassins on Terra interferes with the Astronomicon). When the order to deploy comes through, the nearest Temple to the objective will be the one that responds.

Milova said:

He'd need some very powerful friends in order to get a Temple Assassin to eliminate the Inquisitor. As in, sufficiently powerful friends to convince at least 7 High Lords of Terra. The number of people with that kind of political power is probably less than a hundred.

Milova said:

They do sometimes, but it s considered a situation of grave emergency when they actually send in a unit of Temple Assassins (hence why in the table-top battle game, a unit of assassins is only described in the large scale apocalypse rules and not in the normal game).

Also, remember that an assassin is ONLY sent out if one or several of the high lords of terra have issued the order, so the PC's in this case must have taken some seriously wrong turns if an assassin is to show up.

Also, ONE assassin should be quite enough. They are one man armies after all. If you send several and the acolytes win, then you're doing something wrong in representing said assassins. These guys can slaughter entire military units on their own, so a few acolytes shouldn't even make them break a sweat, and those acoytes will have to muster all their skills and a good bit of luck if they hope to survive the encounter.

In fact, most of the time they wouldn't even know there actually was an assassin in the area until they're dead...

I'm not sure, but I would think each temple acts on it's own accord, so it would be very extremely rare that they combined forces. It is certainly not impossible, since 40k is all about upping the ante and going way over the top again and again... But I don't honestly think that anyone would consider a group of acolytes a worthy target for such an undertaking, not unless they are indeed a major threat to peace and order for all of the Imperium. A group of assassins from the same temple sometimes works together. This might be to take out a gone rogue imperial fleet commander whose armada is threatening several dozens of worlds, or to assassinate every member of abaddons war council. Once again this is in no way appropriate force to be used on a group of acolytes.

An attack on the wedding by a single Vindicare assassin would look something like this, I've tried to stay true to the fluff and imagining what stats might be appropriate. Imagine things like BS 60, Agi 60, Skills and talents like a 14 000 xp guardsman/marksman + a 14 000 xp assassin (just wait for ascension). Archaeotech combat cognigator with multiple input sources. A RIFLE that compares to a needle rifle like a hunting rifle compares to a bow that I built in my grandpas garden when I was 12 years old. Imagine something like the .50 cal sniper rifle the USA army uses today, but evolved. So a shot would be at: BS 60, Talent Marksman (no reduction for extreme range), Aim half action +10%, accurate +10%, chool archaeotech aiming device that gives at least as much bonus as a red dot sight +10%. So 90% to hit, and a few fatepoints for stupid rolling. Fury of the Emperor and Accurate extra damge seals the deal.

Surprise round: The brides head explodes in a ball of brains and blood.

Round 1: The acolytes roll for initiative. Assassin beat them and the grooms head explodes in a ball of brains and blood. Acolytes jump for cover, but have to guess what side of walls to hug since they have no idea where the shots are coming from.

Round 2: The head explodes of one wedding guest that guessed wrong. The acolytes makes awareness tests to find out where the shots are coming from. The Vindicare is on a rooftop, in a well build camoflaged nest, a kilometer away looking at the acolytes through an archaeotech scope. He has rolled a 35 for his Concealment +20 check (he rolled 78 first, but used a fatepoint to reroll since a good cover is important), so with his natural agi of 60, +20 from the cover he built, +20 from his Stealthsuit (as chameleoline), +30 from the distance = he easily caps out bonuses, so has to compare a rolled 35 to 140. That means 9 rates of success. Lets say, just for sports, that the Best Man manages an unlikely heroic Awareness roll, so from now on he may use his dodge and he can tell the other acolytes what wall to hug. Those that still have their actions remaining in the round go to that wall.

Round 3: The head explodes of one acolyte that had a better initiative than the best man, but worse than the vindicare. All the still living acolytes are now in proper cover. The Best Man have readied his boltgun and formulated a plan.

Round 4: The Vindicare is annoyed at the welltrained and observant acolytes that forces him to spend his rare ammunition and reloads his gun with a Turbo Penetrator round, while watching his targets through the walls using multispectral vision and cleverly placed cameras linked to the combat cognigator in his spymask. One acolyte readies and throws a blind grenade to cover the main exit, he imagines this is a clever way to create a diversion to let the Best Man flank the sniper. He moves to the rear door of the building.

Round 5: The vindicare shoots the acolyte that threw the blind grenade. His turbo penetrator round goes through the meter thick wall of armacrete as easy if it was the rear armor of a battle tank (wich is what he usually shoots with this sort of ammo). The now slightly lonely Best Man forces through the rear door and out into the street and starts to plan for his 6 rounds dash to get into range for using his boltgun.

Round 6: The vindicare remote detonates the plasma bomb in the aircar that he parked earlier today to cover the blind spot at the back door. No acolytes left.

Round 7: The assassin grumbles about getting all the boring jobs, moves out of his sniping position and reports to his temple.

A vindicator does not need help to take out a handful of acolytes.

A Callidus might just use her bodymorphing drugs to look like a Tau and walk in the door and leave a bag full of explosives, or simply fill the room with her soulwrenching xeno-crystal-flamer that strips minds from brains.
One of the lesser known temples (can't remember the name right now) might just poison the knife that the cake will be cut with, and 4 hours later everyone is dead.
An Eversor assassin could do the job of a nasty hidden maiming threat that kills off all the acolytes one by one. Leaves a strategic live witness now and then to spread stuttered incomprehensible tales of the terror that came from the dark. It would be like Alien 1, but worse.

If you want a challenge and a fight, the temple assassins is just not quite what you are looking for. Their roles can be filled by a less horrible and less overpowered enemy that has a similar modus operandi. Have a normal acolyte type assassin with a good sniper rifle (one that maims rather than kills) hide on a roof only 550m away (still several rounds running to get within bolter range). Maybe trap up the rear door with a couple of frag grenades, rather than a plasma bomb. Let the cover be enough to stop bullets. Let blind grenades work.

If you want your characters to burn a permanent fatepoint each and be out for vengeance, a temple assassin works. As for requesting the use of a temple assassin, a couple of well placed exaggerations from a person with a big account of trust among the Lords of Terra could probably do it in a few days or so by using priority telepath access. A bonus is that the acolytes would be known as (now probably dead) dangerous enemies to the Imperium, it is very unlikely that they could prove they had been wrongfully accused. The Lords of Terra doesn't like being corrected, and they really lack a good system for handing complaints of unfairness made by would-be-dead traitors :-)

Mellon said:

Or spike all the toast drinks with some Ars Imperialis Mortua. Everyone toasts and drinks insa-kill poison simultaneously = assassin wins.

Mellon said:

Yeah...so maybe not temple assassins. I kind of don't want them labeled enemies of the entire Imperium, but I shall keep it in mind. Otherwise, yes, I want the situation to seem hopeless for them for when their inquisitor flips out and kills the enemy/ies. (She's not going to be in too good a condition afterward anyway).

So if I don't use temple assassins, I could still go with less god-like death cult assassins. Possibly going with the suggested Kill Bill theme. If not, I also think a five man squad of Death Watch would be fun. However, the High Inquisitor giving the execution order is Hereticus so, that's not likely to happen. Wouldn't he send a squad of Battle Nuns?

Wouldn't he send a squad of Battle Nuns?

Not if he's in any way radically inclined. Should the Sororitas ever find out more about the hit, that's not going to go down well with them.

Round 4: The Vindicare is annoyed at the welltrained and observant acolytes that forces him to spend his rare ammunition and reloads his gun with a Turbo Penetrator round, while watching his targets through the walls using multispectral vision and cleverly placed cameras linked to the combat cognigator in his spymask. One acolyte readies and throws a blind grenade to cover the main exit, he imagines this is a clever way to create a diversion to let the Best Man flank the sniper. He moves to the rear door of the building.

Tssk, reloading... that's called Fire Selector (and a Vindicare is among the ones I would grant one to with the standard triple clip rule).

An ordo hereticus inq would have to call in favours etc in order to get help from a Deathwatch team. It could help that this mission is inside Tau space, an it is to take out Tau supporters. That and an offer of standing in debt might be enough to sell the idea to an ordo xenos inq. I can imagine the confusion that the players would feel when a black and silver pod hits the ground just outside the improvised wedding chapel.

Have the marines state that they are coming for the acolytes to watch the players confusion turn into panic. Something like: "Inquisitor [name] surrender yourself and your troops now and your deaths will be quick and full of the Emperors grace". Add "By order of inquisitor [name] of the ordo xenos" If you want to reveal some more info. Then have them move in on the building while keeping supressive fire up and leisurely and decoratively killing any Tau that stands nearby. This should give a good feeling of doom, will probably take out or at least seriously hurt one or two of the acolytes each round and will give the inquisitor plenty of ability to shine and make herself some reputation. Mind you, a squad of death watch marines are a serious problem for a group of acolytes, even when they have melta/plasma/heavy weapons that can actually do damage enough to hurt a marine. But if you give them some cover to hide behind they should mostly survive until the inquisitor saves the day. Just don't fall for the temptation to make the inquisitor fight using the rules, just cinematic it and roll some hidden dice if you feel the need.

I always found the metal storm ammunition to be great fun to cause destruction and damage with (relatively) little risk for insta kills. Have the marines bolter shots do airburst explosions over the acolytes heads as they hide behind cover. Shrapnel, smoke and confusion everywhere! An additional method to add to the madness is to give the players very limited time to think of an action for their acolytes.

@ Cipher: Oh, of course you are right. He would have one of those. I did however envision a cutscene like this: A gloved hand opens a pocket and pulls out a small mahogany box, inscribed with the aquila of course. A litany of loading is muttered as the seal is broken. Inside lies gleaming a 25 cm long cartridge, all in polished steel, resting on red velvet. As the litany of loading changes to the litany of arming, the ring around the base of the warhead is turned forth and back in a complicated pattern until the arming code is entered properly and a high pitched whining signals that the Omnissiahs Grace have been aquired. The bolt is pulled back and the cartridge inserted. As the bolt slams back home the last word of the litany of destruction is whispered.

I'd personally ditch using Adeptus Astartes or Adepta Sororitas for the simple reason that those are the only two options that can really backfire on the Inquisitor sending them. Both are utterly devoted organizations with a long history of taking matters in their own hands and killing everyone and their cat on of a hat. Besides, "No hell hath a fury like...", well you get the idea. Inquisitor wouldn't risk getting caught playing Space Marines or Nuns with Guns for fool...

However, Imperium is rife with death cults and every inquisitor has access to the Storm Troopers both of which are trained for special operations, armed to the teeth and used to being given kill orders with little or no explaining. I'd personally go for a 5 to 10 man Inquisitorial Strom Trooper squad with a sniper covering the other troopers who'd come in with frag grenades and blind grenades first and hellguns blazing. Besides, operating outside Imperial space they might go "sterile" with fatigues that have no symbols or insignia whatsoever. Keeps the Acolytes guessing who they are fighting.

Besides, operating outside Imperial space they might go "sterile" with fatigues that have no symbols or insignia whatsoever. Keeps the Acolytes guessing who they are fighting.

Not for long, though. After all, these blast points are too accurate for simple Tau auxiliaries. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise!

(yay, a setting where one can say that without snickering...)

I'm glad everyone is having so much fun with this. Maybe there should be 40K weddings more often. At any rate, for my purposes I think I'm going to go with the Inquisitor (who made a move for power becoming Inquisitor-Commandant over the Crusade) calling in a favor for a Death Watch squad. I rather like the picture that mellon painted. It is precicely the sort of atmosphere I was going for. I want to relay some information, and give the players a good sense of doom before the Inquisitor saves the day. (Ever since they killed a rogue Space Wolf Scout they've been cocky.)

Though I fully intend for the Inquisitor to brain-death the entire squad through, as Mellon said, cinematic means, I have a question out of curiosity. So the Death Watch come in fast, on pods behind Tau lines, eliminate their target, but what would their next course of action be? I suppose since they are serving as precursors of sorts for the re-enforcement fleet for the crusade, they'd be likely to hole up, and use gorilla tactics until the rest of the Crusade forces arrive.

Milova said:

I've never thought of deathwatch marines in hiding. But I imagine they could if they wanted. Their armors are pretty selfsustaining for at least a couple of weeks, maybe more if they can bring a few supplies along. They are supposed to be well trained in all sorts of tactics as well, and used to operate wihtout support. Since they are pretty hardy they could hide by submerging themselves in a sewer or the vincinity of a plasma reactor or somewhere else that Tau are less likely to go look for them and would be hard pressed to bomb them out of if they were found. I think they could do a good job out of it. Unless they are blasted by an inquisitor of course.