So I'm just about to start writing up the next mission for the PC's, thier last mission was one of blood soaked violence and semi warfare with demons and heretics all around but now I want to change the flow.

Thier Inquisitor is calling them back from Iocanthos to Scintilla where he will not reveal to them to begin with that he is investigating the presence of a Xenos Conspiracy, the problem is that there is political intrigue in the background and with the exception of one or to direct missions from the Inquisitor the PC's will be left to thier own devises to find out just what is going on in the hive tower.

The end of this mission will be the final battle against the Xenos and a clean up investigation/battles.

Does anyone have any ideas for politcal intrigue surrounding a Xenos conspiracy, I'm either going to use Dark Eldar, Tau or Necrons as the bad guys ... probably not necrons unless someone can give me a really good idea.

Thanks

To me your concept suggests a few xenos ideas. First the eldar could definately be involved in one of two ways. Maybe a noble house on scintilla has established a colony on an eldar world and an eldar farseer sees that while the colonists will disrupt the future of his craftworld that outright killing them would launch his craftworld into a war with the imperium that would weaken both races against the forces of chaos. So the farseer decides to send an envoy to negotiate for the removal of the colonist. Here is the interesting twist, the inquistors acolytes will actually be investigating an anti-xenos cult (perhaps the Red Redemption) that has stated that it will attempt to assassinate the envoy. During the investigation the acolytes find out that the cult is being manipulated by istavanians who are trying to start a war with this craftworld to empower their agenda in the Calixis sector.

The other option I see is genestealers. There is a very good fan created produce on Darkreign40K that is specifically targeted to genestealer cults, with generation one through four cultist, and an early version of the genestealer. When I was running my game I was running my group through Rejoice for you are True and I changed the cult and the drug. The cult was a group connected to a genestealer cult that was spreading this new wonderful narcotic. The problem was the narcotic was a distilled form of the genesteal's blood that did two things. First overtime it would turn users in to brood brother/sisters, and second it brought out psionic abilities to mark potential mates that would bare a cult magus or a primarch. And it leads itself to a very good escape from innsmuth type adventure...Which someone posted an adventure retelling about a similar situation.

Just my 2 cents.

Salcor

cool, thx - really good idea with the eldar there, anyone else

I probably wouldn't use the Dark Eldar, Necron or Tau for your conspiracy. There are the Slaugth; a.k.a. the worms that walk. There could be a Xenos cult tied to the (supposedly) extinct Yu'Vath or Andranti... Or, better still, the acolytes eventually track down the leaders of the conspiracy, only to find some ancient tomb-like chamber with the desiccated husks of a strange; perhaps unknown, xenos species that have been long dead in interface cocoons connected to a some diabolic and blasphemous machine. Possibly dead since long before the first days of the Angevin Crusade. Use something like the Goleph from Radical's Handbook as a base for the active defenses.

-=Brother Praetus=-

So here is the basic Campaign overveiw:

A the noble Lanerov house on Scintilla has been using rogue Dark Eldar to assassinate its key rivals as it vies for power and ultimately seeks to dominate the lucrative imports trade in vital supplies for the hive. Inquisitor Vorlane has summoned you here to help him in your investigations; he tells you simply that you are investigating some minor houses for trade in Xenos Artifacts. The Truth is so much deeper.

The Dark Eldar hide in a forbidden and long disused section of the Scintilla Spires, every day they head out to kill and to destroy for their lord. The real reason they are hear though is because there is an elder delegation coming to the planet to warn of an impending attack by an ancient Xenos enemy.
Not only do the Dark Eldar wish to kill the Eldar but the information is leaked to the outside and a radical anti-Xenos cult called the Red Retribution has sent letters to the Inquisition laying down their plan to kill the Xenos.

Vorlane is actually a long lost relative of the Lanerov House.

Though the Lanerov’s use the Dark Eldar for their own end they know nothing of the Eldar and neither do the Dark Eldar know of the impending doom. And neither is the inquisition currently aware of the Dark Eldar.

Vorlane is interested in finding out why the murders have occurred and believe that they are linked to the human cult whom the inquisition would normally encourage but in this case they must fight secretly.

I like the suggestion of the genestealers - or it could possibly be Both Genestealers & Eldar... The Eldar could be manipulating the local Governor to help stop a Genestealer Cult outbreak infesting his PDF - doesn't matter if they are there to help or hinder = they're still all Xenos!

The thing about conspiracies the should be multi leveled. To quote the Barron Harkonan, "Plans, within plans, with plans."

The Dune series was a huge inspiration for 40k and has a wealth of ideas of conspiricies all through the book. I recommend any onyone thinking of political and religious scheming should read it.

I would direct you to one of the Ciaphas Cain novels featuring an Imperial World with Tau sympathisers and presence.

IIRC it is "For the Emperor"

V.

Salcor said:

Do you have a direct link? Sounds interesting!

The Laughing God said:

Right here:

www.darkreign40k.com/docman/threats/genestealer-cults/download.html

Thanks for the link. Yummy!