I'm going with a simple "go there, pick this up and bring it back" FEDEX mission, which ofcause goes horribly wrong, for the first game session.

The acolytes are asked to go question a suspect in a Xeno smuggling ring, but when on planit a war breaks out between two factions one apposed to the taxation that is being imposed on the world and cauing a famin that has killed millions. the acolyites are seen as imperial servants and are in the wrong area when the war brakes out well within rebel territory.

The Administratum report that six schools in Hive level 6 have reported 66 more births in the orphan scholas than statistically expected. It could be just a pregnancy pact or an especially effective bit of fertility propaganda. Check it out just in case.

A dispute has arisen between the Administratum and an Imperial Governor who is claiming his planetary tithe level is far in excess of whats been expected- The Inquisition had been called in to arbitrate and judge between the two claims and no Inquisitor wants to spend their time pouring through piles of stats and inspecting warehouses and production factories, so your team has been given an official rubber stamp to make the decision.

SJE

The characters are sent to oversee a camp for the “processing” of civilian refugees from the Tranch warzones. Many of these people have minor mutations and are being purged. This should be very depressing. While on patrol through the camp the characters are approached by a prisoner who identifies herself as an agent for her inquisitor. The characters now have to keep the agent fit enough to work (and thus away from the purgation turbines) while they plan how to break the agent out. This could require them to smuggle her food, medicines, get her reassigned to less dangerous work or better quarters. Then finally they have to find a way to get her out of the camps.

The acolytes are assigned to tag along with the black-ships while they purge a small agri-world. This would start off with the characters busting down doors and have storm troopers shooting parents as they clutch their screaming children, plenty of horror scenes like this. Be sure to have the acolytes have to kill at least one teenager because the black ship adept with a psy-scanner indicates they’re too dangerous to live. Part way through the mission the characters stumble on some daemons or super-powerful psyker.

~ All the vox-casters in {insert city here} intercept and broadcast a curious but unknown signal at exactly the same time once a day over a three day period. It has been months since the occurence with no repeat and no discernible trouble. This report has only now come to the attention of the Inquisitor, though it appears to be a false alarm... better have someone look into that.

~ Strange lights have been observed on the horizon out beyond the range of fishing trawlers and the locals fisherman have reported dull glows in the water when they return at night. There are also new unexplainable sounds and an unexpected decline in normal catch. Determine what is going on.

~ After the recent trading stop of a Rogue Trader, a certain arms factory is churning out nearly three times the storm bolters and at an incredibly higher quality than previous example. Investigate

~ The acolytes have been charged with "kicking the tires" on a few small shuttles to add to the eqipment roster of the inquisitors cells in this region. (A) Something on one of the flights goes wrong. (B) They discover that there are some blackmarket/xenos items available © By pure chance they stumble upon a known heretic or rival cell looking to add to thier own arsenal

For the first mission I've thought about the following:

The Acolytes are all green, they are contacted and given their first job, it consists of an information gathering mission focused on removing and retrieving information from an Administratum building. The mission is centered in the home world of one (preferably most) of the Acolytes.

The task is simple enough: find specific data, copy it then purge it from the Administratum database. They are given identifier keys they can use to summon/identify the encrypted information. However, they're not give a means to decrypt the information. If skilled enough in cryptography they'll find out part of the information is about one (or more) of the Acolytes (take your pick which).

They have to find where the data is being stored and in what means (physical, digital, both). Then once they've figured this out they'll have to create a plan to safely destroy said data and bring their Inquisitor a copy of this data. There will be various avenues available to them: social engineering (befriending/seducing a bored adept of the administratum), hacking into the information systems (if a tech-adept is skilled enough), sabotage (physical destruction of the data), infiltration or hiring someone else to do the job for them. Or any other means the PCs can come up to get the data and destroy all records of it.

The Inquisitor also makes sure they understand they are on their own if things go wrong. They won't have an inquisitorial rosette or any other means of linking themselves to the Inquisition. They are also dealing with faithful servants of the Emperor, the Administratum isn't suspected of heresy or taint, killing them wouldn't exactly be nice. However, they have a task to complete and there's no better way to serve the Emperor than to give your life for him.

Why doesn't the Inquisitor do this himself? Deleting the data through official channels would draw attention to the data being deleted and a paper trail would most definitely be left behind (even if it's encrypted at the highest of levels) leading back to the Inquisitor. This is after all the Administratum we're talking about. They probably ask for purge requests forms to be filled in triplicate, it's much simpler (for the Inquisitor) to have the Acolytes do it.

It's a tough mission, but one the Inquisitor is sure they can solve, but they're on their own.

Behind the scenes, the Inquisitor has already tasked another group of potential Acolytes to do the same mission. These potential acolytes will provide the main opposition to the PC. The Inquisitor is a firm believer that competition is a good thing, and he'll favor the group that finishes first and lavish them with gifts. At the end, both groups of acolytes will be introduced to one another (if the casualties aren't too high) and the winner will get to pick their next mission: an investigative mission and a more action packed adventure.

If the NPC's win, have them choose the mission that the PC's are least interested in. Most of all play them as their opposite: if the players want the high-action follow-up adventure, have the NPC's pick the other more investigative mission. Establish a rivalry between the two groups and have the NPC's comment on the PC's being too dull/stupid to handle an investigation, along with patronizing comments about which side of a bolter shoots bullets. If the players want the investigative mission, the NPC's will make comments about them being cowards or mock their martial prowess.

This should create quite a bit of internal conflict which you can exploit later on when the groups might have to work together or against eachother. You might even have the other group of acolytes fall under the taint of chaos/xenos to further fuel conflict throughout the campaign. The enemy truly is all around you.

Would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this!

Some more (and getting back to the initial concept of low-risk, low-responsibility milk runs that can plausibly assigned to Acolytes without Inquisitorial authority and probably make up 90% of their missions. )

: Escort an Xenos corpse from a Guard position to Inquisitorial HQ.

: Attend every service conducted by a new Imperial cult and take notes on the creed and clergy being espoused

: Population stats for Malfi and Tranch for the last 1,000 years are needed. They are somewhere in the Administratum records- find them.

: As above (researching Admin stats) but do it covertly since no one should know of Inquisitorial interest in these facts.

: Re-interview survivors of the Mara Landings (for the 20th time in 14 years) to see if they remember anything more or have changed their story.

: Collect monthly discipline records from the Fleet Commissariat.

: Arrest the relatives of a minor heretic to encourage him to talk/co-operate.

SJE

---The acolytes are dispatched to Hive Gloriana, on Solomon. A ranking interrogator of their master's is cloistered in an abandoned building with a few million thrones worth of cogitators and a small coterie of mind-scrubbed Adepts.. . He has tapped wirelessly into the judicial records of the great Administratum courthouse a few miles away, and has been tasked with a few months of thankless data-analysis the thrust of which is classified as far as the acolytes are concerned. He is a fussy, irritating, and unforgiving taskmaster with a variety of unwholesome habits and infuriating requests. The acolytes have been assigned to provide security/support (coffee and doughnuts) for the interminable stakeout operation. There is no real threat to the Interrogator, and the only obvious enemy is boredom. The only onus is on the acolytes to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, this is Dark Heresy: first impressions can be deceiving and trouble is not hard to find...

---The Inquisitor has purchased a small starship under an assumed identity. The acolytes are dispatched to investigate his new aquisition and its eccentric captain, crew it, and sail it safely to an abandoned ore-refinery in the Lathes. Unfortunately, the inquisitor may have gotten more than he bargained for, and the acolytes are about to pay the price...Think "The Money Pit" in space. The acolytes end up in a race against time as the ship reveals itself to be a worthless wreck which -comically- falls down around them. It's captain proves to be an incompetent shyster of epic proportions. All this would be bad enough, but halfway through the journey the acolytes run into some "old freinds," in deep space...

---An infamous, almost legendary Malfian seducer and confidence-man -the Baron Hillsdale Tintaretto-- is at large on Scintilla. His exploits, (some of which include: selling a hive-spire on Tranch to a group of eager off-world investors, distributing land grants for real estate on the planet Phyrr to the ruling elite of Acreage, Claiming to be the Deposed Prince of Malfi and bilking rich old hive-wenches out of their vast fortunes as far away as the Scarus Sector, and (legend has it) stealing the pocket-Chron and pinky-ring of Lord Sector Governor Marius Hax himself) have never attracted anything but the amused interest of the Inquisition before, but all that has changed. In the course of is latest and greatest scam, Tintaretto has claimed membership in His Majesty's Holy Inquisition! The Inquisition finds this...Upsetting. The acolytes have been dispatched to disposed of this incourageable villain before he besmirches the sinister reputation of the Ordos Calixis with his buffoonery. Now, all that remains is for the acolytes to find the Baron and kill him, or at least avoid being the latest marks in the Baron's con-of-the-millenium, that is to say, presuming the Baron is actually lying at all...

(I noticed an overwhelming grim-darkness permeating some of the earlier (brilliant) examples in this thread. I thought I'd lighten the mood with three slightly more light-hearted milk-runs for the your acolytes to blast their way through until the surprise twist )

Some more "Generica":

The group is ordered to shadow and observate a middle class citizen "deemed heretic". They are not told what his crimes are to keep them from making assumption. The =I= wants a fresh investigation. In addition, there is no "standing contact" to the =I=. The pc have some funds, some equipment, a "haven" and a meeting point where they will be contactet after 2 month (this is long time surveillance)

While they follow & observe him they find out that he is guilty of some minor crimes but not "big deal heretical" (drug abuse, study of information unauthorized by imperial authorities, visiting bloodpits showing unlicensed xenos.. pic something the pc´s ordo does NOT care about!). Then comes the day where THE REAL THING crosses the path of said Joe Accused... and Joe Accused dies/vanishes.

Now, the group has a new situation, limited funds, un-matching equipment & authorities and no contact to go to till another month...

Locque said:

Already pulling it off