So, last night I ran my weekly game. While traveling through the warp, the crew rolled Visitation for special occurences. I told the Arch-Militant that while he was maintaining his gear in his private quarters, he suddenly became aware of a presence and turned and saw the ghostly apparitions of men and women he had known on his homeworld, a jungle death world, who had all died years ago.

The character panicked, drew his pair of master crafted gelt guns and started firing wildly at the apparitions, screaming about how they were all dead. Well, this reaction wasn't wholly surprising, but it was unexpected. I secretly rolled damage, got a relatively high amount, and adding it to the gelt gun's Pen I ruled that he had managed to burn several very minor punctures in the bulkhead, and fraying a major power conduit in the process.

The Tech-Priest's (Explorator PC) detected the power disruption while overseeing the ship's systems and decided to investigate personally. He became quite irate at seeing the damage, and realizing the likely cause he stormed into the Arch-Militant's cabin. Still extremely shook up at what he had seen, the Arch-Militant reacted... badly, and drew his guns on the Tech-Priest as he entered. Tech-Priest decided to beat a hasty retreat, and believing the Arch-Militant had gone mad, he contacted the ship's First Lieutenant (Voidmaster PC) after accessing the door controls and locking the Arch-Militant in.

The First Lieutenant shows up, finds out what happened from the Tech-Priest, and then gets let in to the Arch-Militant's cabin, where in a rather good session of roleplayed dialogue, the Arch-Militant explains he saw "something" and then freaked out, thinking the things he saw were dangerous, and the First Lieutenant told him he should stay in his cabin for now, and he would talk to the Lord-Captain (Rogue Trader PC), explaining that he'd have to recommend some kind of disciplinary measures for what had happened.

Fearing for the Arch-Militant's sanity, he went to speak to the ship's Chaplain first, and this is where things get complicated. See, the Arch-Militant is a Renegade, technically. He worships the Emperor but rejects the Ecclesiarchy (Enemy: Ecclesiarchy) and so he had originally fled the Calixis Sector for Port Wander after being branded a heretic, where he was hired by the Rogue Trader, who was more interested in his combat abilities than the state of his soul. The ship's Chaplain KNOWS this, but he hasn't done anything about it because he's the Lord-Captain's servant, the Lord-Captain has his Warrant of Trade and they're way out in the deep darkness of the Koronus Expanse.

But now, faced with this little development, the Chaplain pushes his luck and urges the First Lieutenant to convince the Lord-Captain of the need for the Arch-Militant to convert and recant his heresy. Having been told all this by the First Lieutenant, the Rogue Trader is now a little stuck because while he is a pious man, he's also a very pragmatic man, and values the Arch-Militant's trust above protecting the Ecclesiarchy's spiritual authority.

The Arch-Militant's player seemed a bit bummed about the way this session played out, and while most of this was the result of other player's actions, I felt like I might have made a mistake in how I handled this. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Judging by Catholic history there are basic ways for Arch to deal with this:

1)Tell them to shove it. Generally this is only a good option if you are king (or the RT) or the king (or the RT) doesn't like the church.

2)Say all the right words, and donate some money then in a few months go back to doing what you were doing before.

3)Actually "see the light" and toe the party line.

4)Find an equally authoritative rival who is willing to protect you.

In the case of #4 I can easily see that there is a fair chance that there is another cleric of equal or greater religious authority on board. Sure this cleric doesn't have the same ship board rank, but in the Ecclesiarchy things are really complex. So you could have ordained Friar who as head of his order is effective a bishop... Or in a more complex way has more authority/right in this area. (For example a Catholic priest, bishop, or even the Pope should not proclaim the Gospel if a deacon is present.) In the 40k setting I could see the clerics arguing for months who had the right to minister to the wayward soul....

Hows about….

A member of the somewhat more important crew, who happens to be very God Emperor conscious, happens to overhear or is present at some of this happenings. Feeling this is his/her change to prove himself to the Lord Captain, he raises some rabble from the ships less happy regions and himself and ‘ suitable number of violent crew members here ’ followers march towards the Arch-Militants quarters, determined to convert (or kill) them. For the good of the ship of course.

This could be a rival of the Arch-Militants looking for a change to replace them, or simply a crewmember who’s somewhat unhinged. Could even be a manipulation of the crew by a longer term GM created enemy/Chaos spawn. (Any dark pacts been made?)

Either way, the Arch-Militant will have the chance to redeem themselves, by dealing with this incident in a way that doesn’t involve showing how ‘insane’ they are.

no mistakes,

you've handled the session perfectly and now there's for the players a great time for working on the charachters and how they interacts toghether on the confined ship room!

maybe the chaplain want to force the arch-militant in an ordeal for redeem his soul (but not die in the way), he can suggest some methods, but the final word must be of the Lord-Captain himself.

on the other hand the Lord-Captain want to preserve the life of his Magister Milites, but can't dishonor the chaplain choosing something too simple (or Painful) for burning the heresy out of those soul

in the middle maybe the First Liutenent must mediate the things in the ship's interest trying to save honour, soul and mate!

the interactions are limitless and I feel you must leave your players free to choose roleplaying a lot without too much ruling from you, try only not to kill a good charachter, or to reduce too much the risk of being killed!