As any fan of Cthulhu knows, the old bait n' switch is a classic and useful trope to play in a game. Basically you give them Mission A to accomplish and then B happens which is far more exciting/horrific/dangerous.

It makes a difference in horror terms too. If you tell the PC's that they are going down to investigate a planet which has ceased all communication and there are no life signs, then they mentally prepare for an Aliens type of scenario and ask for Marines and tac-nukes. Using the same scenario but telling them that they are going to pick up a prisoner then they prepare for a milk run and the horror of the empty planet and questions of what happened are far more terrifying. The horror works because its more of a shock, the Players feel less prepared and the uncertainty and doubt is much greater.

So what are Standard Acolyte missions that the Inquisition can plausibly use the PC's for? Stuff that doesnt require an Inquisitor presence, and that the Acolytes should be able to handle with minimal resources and some independence?

Here are some ideas.

:Escort a nascent psyker from a small population centre to the Black Ships.

:Hunt for a minor Heretic who may have leads to other Cult members.

:Survey a cleansed planet for any remaining Xenos taint, 1 to 100 years after the Guard victory over Orks/genestealers/Hrud etc

:Administer Voight-Kampf tests in a hive or vast Adminstratum complex as a routine screen for non-human infiltrators. (""You're in the desert, you see a tortoise lying on its back, struggling, and you're not helping -- why is that?"")

: Investigate Omens and Signs on behalf of Ordo Malleus- going to remote villages to document rains of blood, 2 headed-calves etc. They might be real, they might be drunk peasants, but the Daemonhunter needs to know.

:Transport a prisoner back to the Inquisition base.

:Liase with Adeptus Mechanicus/Adminstratum/Arbites officials over some new discovery and determine if it warrants an Inquisitors personal attention

Any more?

SJE

Guard a safe house until the current "owner" appears.

An agent who Knew the Secret died recently and now the enemy wants his brain to pull the Secret from it unless the Cell can get the brain to home base.

A high ranking government official has been targeted for assassination by a heretic cult bent of destabilizing the region and the Cell has been assigned as his or her baby sitter untill the cult can be delt with.

A hellish Null Box imprisoning a Daemon is being transported back to the Tricorn Palace on Scintilla, the cell has to make sure it makes it there.

A heretic with sensitive information has converted and repented but the cult he left does not want the information he knows falling into the Inquisitors hands and will stop at nothing to destroy him before he can be transported back to Home Base for proper interrogation.

There is a house full of recently created dead bodies that must be disposed of before the mark returns home.

Twenty some-odd citizens were corrupted by daemon whispers from a psyker's warpcraft gone bad; the cell must round them up and censor them.

Rumors and misinformation must be spread in regaurds to why a popular preacher was killed in order to keep civil unrest from erupting making a bad situation worse.

A citizen saw a bit too much and now must be silenced.

The cell must purg all the friends and family of a recently censored Magos to insure his poison spreads no futher.

The cell must steak out a certain habstack which has had a few disturbing reports as of late and watch for anything suspicious.

The cell is charaged with learning everything and anything they can about a certain fairly boring individual without being found out.

With flamers in hand, the cell must dive down into the depths of a vast records hall to remove all traces of certain dangerous tomes.

The cell must break into an Administratum records hall to destroy a file on an inquisitorial agent.

The cell must spread false rumors throughout a hive retelling an incident that never happened to bury, belittle, undermine, and otherwise discredit true information about a real incident until the lie seems like the truth and the truth seems preposterous.

The Cell must plant a murder weapon or other form of incriminating or discrediting evidence on a high ranking political figure in an attempt to damage his standing and make him easier to attack.

The cell has been targeted by a rival inquisitor who wants nothing more then a full scale Excomunicatus declared on the cell's inquisitor and, to this end, tricks the cell into believing their inquisitor is ordering exceptionally radical and dangerous actions that they could either comply with and be caught thus incriminating their inquisitor or turn their inquisitor in to another.

The cells inquisitor uses them as a patsy for one of his other cells operation, having them dodge authorities, cults, and heretics while the other cell slips in and gets their job done undistracted.

The cell must blackbag witnesses to Bad Things for appropriate censorship.

The cell is charged with extracting a deep cover mole planted deep within a cult.

The cell is charged with Blackbagging a Heretics friends and Family for interrogation and possible control of the heretic.

The cell must clandestinely purchase an house or building to be used as a safe house in future operations.

The cell, of all things, has to paint an encrypted message disguised as graffiti on a certain wall at a certain time to insure another cell is warned of impending danger previously not known of.

Some of those ideas are absolutely excellent guys, and I wouldn't even want to ruin themwith a bait and switch.

The cell must impersonate a key figure and his closest associates to foil an assassination

The cell must assassinate a certain figure notorious for his use of doubles

The cell has to eliminate or confound a cell of a rival inquisitor without direct contact or leaving evidence of their involvement

The cell has to murder an inquisitor, and frame it to look like faction X did it, so they can be moved against.

An Eversor assassin is accidentally released from cryo on board the acolytes' ship. They ahve to escape or find a way to shut him down... or kill him indirectly. Fighting him is obviously suicide.

There's suspicion of demonic worship at a gladiator contest/duelling tournament on Scintilla. The Acolytes must enter one of their number in the contest to find out, but since he or she is taking an enormous, if not suicidal risk, the rest of the cell has to somehow tweak the odds in their contestant's favour (and maybe make some bets along the way)

The cell have all been poisoned. They must discover who, how, and why within X time to have any chance of surviving.

during downtime, the cell must help suppress a riot on the fringes of the underhive. But something about this particular uprising is very, very wrong.

The Acolytes' inquisitor is accused of high treason... the acolytes must clear his name before he's mind-scrubbed. This is especially funny if he is in fact, guilty.

The sector of the city that the acolytes are in must be exterminated. Deathwatch/Grey knight/Adepta Sororitas kill-teams roam the streets, purging every man, woman, child, and family dog in the region. The acolytes must find a way to survive or halt the purge before they too are destroyed.

The Acolytes must investigate suspicious behavior among a chapter of the Emperor's Finest. however the Space Marines, while cordial, are in no hurry to give up the darkest secrets of their chapter to some inquisitorial whelps.

After a job especially well done, the acolytes are congratulated by their own inquisitor's lord. She grants them weapons, training, medals, free blowjobs and pudding... but she wants them to spy on their inquisitor. (additional fun: Their inquisitor in turn wants them to spy on the old bat)

There's a new drug on the streets that corrupts long term users bodies and turns them into killing machines... as if that weren't bad enough, some of the compounds in the drug are chemical secretions unique to corporator hominis- the genestealer...

An acolyte, on his or her own, is cornered by a powerful daemon who threatens to break every bone in their body, **** them, drag their jiggling carcasses downstairs, string them up on some meat hooks and burn out their agony centres while waiting for a bombardment to flatten the building they're in- or perform a seemingly innocent(but obviously not) task in return for great power... can the acolyte find a way to wriggle out of a demonic pact and keep their soul?

Miners on an ice planet thaw out something unstoppable that stalks the corridor's slaughtering the poor workers wholesale. The acolytes have to investigate the station and, when they find something unkillable by their won weapons, they have to use their heads to escape.

The planet has been declared exterminatus. The acolytes have 16 hours to get through the rioting crowds and through the military cordon to safety.(maybe those old, old maintenance tunnels could be of help.... but aren't they haunted?)

There are shapeshifting aliens on board an imperial warship. The acolytes have secured cover as maintenance people etc, and have devices that can confirm if the target is an alien. They have to find and remove key shapeshifters without the aliens becoming aware of what's going on.

Every servitor in the city suddenly goes insane, turning on the civilian populace in an orgy of death and destruction. An unknown transmission that no one seems able to crack is coming from the centre of town... The old hospital.

Why do the prisoners at the local arbites precinct house seem to go into a psychotic, terrified frenzy upon incarceration and have to be killed so often?

The planetary governer's been dead these three years, replaced by a double to keep the populace at rest. Only now the truth is proliferating among the general public. This must be traced back to its source and swiftly remedied.

The acolytes are to rendez-vous with a deathwatch kill-team before entering the ruins of an ancient temple on Dusk. They arrive at the meeting point to find the deathwatch have all been slaughtered to a man without firing a shot, and when they try and radio for help, all they hear is an evil cackle across the comm-net

The acolytes must investigate if there's any precedent in the fluff for the astartes using different bolt weapons to other imperial military forces.

Locque said:

Already did this one, the acolyte made a pact to serve the daemon and sold his soul as well in the bargain in exchange for a pact for his survivial and the power to destroy his ememies his is still learning the up and down sides of his pact. (got 30 CP for making this pact)

However, his daemoinic pact has gotten him through at least one situation in which he would have otherwise not made it.

I'm still working out final details of his pact. Will post what I have so far in the GM's sub forum.

I'm trying to write out a scenario where my players can unknowingly interact with Gregor Eisenhorn, and only find out afterwards.

standard survelienace work of a low ranking criminal (possibley just covering shift work for another team of acolytes) and seeing something they probably shouldnt have or dont want to (sanity test from data slate recordings)

Trouble is my players are so low on sanity points/jaded that they expect the worse everywhere they go

I have trained them well

Locque said:

Perhaps set the story between the first and second books, when Medea comes in for the first time after her fathers death, simply discribe her as a "quick tongued ebony girl". Have them investigating a similer case and just bring him in every five sessions or so. Perhaps the smiting of a cult dedicated to nurgle or slaanesh.

Based on the Star Trek Orginal Series episode "The Drumhead" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708793/ )

Bait: The Inquisitor suspects a fugitive heretic my have fled to a remote outpost (among other possibilities). The facility has recently experienced a breakdown in communication. The Acolytes are sent to investigate and apprehend the fugitive. They find that the communications array has been sabotaged and evidence of corruption, incompetence and heresy!

Tackle: There are no heretics (fugitive or otherwise) here. The outpost has merely experienced mechanical failure due to poor quality materials. The Acolytes have stirred up a hornets nest of accusations, enmity and rivalries that have festered in the isolated community. The staff are railing at each other and accusing each others of any variety of crimes, both imagined and true. Can the acolytes sort out the mess?

Again, I'm trying to pitch Acolyte missions as ones that dont require an Inquisitors presence. (Lets face it, if the Inquisitor doesnt do them the coutesy of showing up, Holy Astartes wouldnt give mere Acolytes the time of day let alone free reign to investigate them)

Some more-

Sent on a research mission, the Acolytes have to assemble lists of all known heretics from assorted Arbites data stores and Scriptoriums. The mountain of parchment they receive is larger than their budgeted quarters.

The Acolytes are tasked with researching the genealogies of assorted Nobles, officials and even pottential Inquisitors-in-training for possible taints, heresies, traitors, gene-tampering and moral danger in their family trees. Dare you tell your own Inquisitor that his long lost Great-great-uncle Matthau was part of the Temple Tendency?

The Acolytes are sent to acquire a Xenos Beast, so their Inquisitor can pose as a great Hunter to the Beast House. The more dangerous and deadly the better.

A Rogue Trader 's ship has to be inspected for possible contraband. Normally that'd be a job for the Navy, but only the Inquisition have the power to over-ride the Traders Charter. Does the Trader bribe you, kill you, or genuinely have nothing to hide?

My players just started up after a hiatus following a huge showdown that brought their first mission to a close. I used the sample missions out of the Inquisitor rule book to come up with a "fast" mission for them to deal with and get home, as something to get them back in the game. It has, of course, turned out to be bigger than they expected, and possibly bigger than they can deal with.

If you grab the Inquisitor living rule book, there are about 20 or so different sample missions that are pretty easily interchangable with DH. You may need to swap out Astartes kill teams with Arbite kill teams and things of that nature, but they are useful none the less.

acolyte can do those missions too

hunt a criminal (heretic, mutants xenos) who manage to escape the jstice of empire (not a too powerfull ones and whit limited ressources)

recon as a preparation for the inquisitor they have to found information about the situation the lanet (hive station ship....) and the peoples invoves

protect an (or many) adept in informaton gathering mission

protection of the inquisitor property (ship house ...)

transport of some special items or document and is protection vs thief , heretics another inquisitor

cover ops recon or info gathering

infiltration of cult (heretic, traitor, dealer, crimanal...) organisation

interception of a spy send by an enemy and counter spy ops

and a good way to use xp in game is the training ops to upgrade a skill (some are appropriate to this like peer where you can spend some time to serve with the appropritae people ( like guard for peer military))

other scenario can be oriented on reaction and not vs action

the acolyte are targetted by enemy ( rivals, heretics, criminals, ...)

someones be kill on the ship they use and they need to inviestigate

they received a very starge message with some indication about a secret meeting where they need to take care about not be seen by he autority and the meesage are adressed to someone else

there inquisitor have vanish and they have no news or orders from him ad they need to find him (he can have prob or just test there capacity)

Locque said:

Might be hard to do, seeing as Dark Heresy takes place many hundreds of years after Eisenhorn. Lord Angevin's crusade had just ended at the begning of the Second Book.

Also

-One of the Inquisitor's other cells has failed to report in after a mission. They Acolytes are assigned to acertain their fate. However, they are given no information about that cell's original mission.

+++++Might be hard to do, seeing as Dark Heresy takes place many hundreds of years after Eisenhorn. Lord Angevin's crusade had just ended at the begning of the Second Book.+++++

People can live a long time in 40k, especially arch-radical Inquisitors riding the ragged edge of total corruption.

That said, you'd have to be hardcore in to the fluff to notice, and a little retcon never hurt anyone anyway.

Dezmond said:

By the same token though, in the Ravenor series the Tyrannic Wars had not begun, but in the Eisenhorn series someone identifies one of the Tyranid bio-forms; something other than a Genestealer, in it. The Immaterium does a great many peculiar things to those who dare to risk its eddies and tides. I really need to reread both of those series again, as they are a must for anyone who wants to see the inspiration for DH .

-=Brother Praetus=-

Another standard mission that could be easily entrusted to Acolytes -

- An great artist has been condemned as a Heretic by an Inquisitorial or Ecclesiarcal Court. As such all his works are now retroactively condemned as heretical. The Acolytes are given a list of 3 artworks on the planet or Hive they are in- one owned by a Noble family, one by a man suspected of criminal connections and the last by a factory worker who knew the artist as a young man. They are given flamers and writs of Authoritas. Possible twists include Ateanism, forgeries, resistance by the owner, demonic possession/warp taint of the artwork or viewer, and Art appreciating rival Inquisitors who want to save some great art.

Here are my ideas for a "bait"

The acolythes are sent to retrieve an object for their =I=. This might be a relict the local authorities got hold of during a short campaign against smugglers ruining xenos material, something from a archeaological dig or some holy/unholy/mastercrafted weapon from a Shrine-/Hive-/Forgeworld. This one adds a little tease: it place a superb weapon in the hands of the acolythes, but are they faithfull enough to leave it untouched (for their master) or will they grab it the moment the REAL danger shows up?

The acolythes bring an object to another (senior) acolythe in the service of his master ... or least someone owning him a favour. The "switch" could be something on the homeworld/location of said subject or the subject itself.... imagine a scribe gone to the wrong side after having studied to much evil tomes and how he will start to send his "guests" after fake threats... only to send them to their deaths by the hand of someone else so no-one will blame him...or find out on him... or tell his forma master...

The acolythes are send on a mission to re-supply some hidden caches..or lay out some new one. Or they simply have to check them to have an updated view on where re-supplies are needed. Of course, some of them are in dangerous terrain.
This also works with secret hideouts . Some-one have to check them once in a while to get sure the security has not been penetrated.

Oh, I forgot one obivous:

Background checks on other (younger) potential acolythes:

I expect the =I= to check, double-check and triple-check the background of every potential acolythe before he get´s introduced to codes, important missions or anything. So, the pc could be send on a mission to gather as many information as descretly as possible about "Imperial Guardsman Martin Wimmer". Since he turned out to be a "NULL" and the =I= actually has him in some cloister on some distant world "for exercises".

What will the acolythes stumble across while they are on "Bare Hope" and try to find out something about his youth? And friends? And relatives?

You know, these ideas are all fantastic....

Just a thought, but does anyone have the energy to put together enough scenarios on this thread to hit 100 in total and then collate them into a d100 table? WildeyedJester did that on the old BL forums for Hive encounters, he and I worked on it together for spaceboard encounters, and darkreign put them together on their site on a random number generator. It occurs to me that eveyone might benefit from being able to randomly generate short standard acolyte missions...

@Lightbringer

You really want to base the "opener" of one of your sessions to the product of a random dice role?

Gregorius21778 said:

Well these are short, one off adventures, so why not? Random scenarios are a neat way to find inspiration, expecially for "blue booking" and character development between more involved adventures...

I've already put the suggestions together in a numbered list, by my count there have been 70 so far with some repetition. We would probably need more than 30 additional scenarios for a 1d100 table.

Some more-

: (One from Eisenhorn) Conduct a planetary audit in advance of an Inquisitors arrival- comparing travels lists, census data, bank accounts against the Inquisitors personal list of heretics and enemies. If they were to learn such an person was leaving the planet before the Inquisitor arrives, what should they do?

: A miracle or unexplained event took place during a great battle in a War world as the Imperial Guard retreated. With the War and all, its taken decades to make its way to the top of the Inquisitors priority list. Now he's assigned you to track down and interview the witnesses to that event- now mostly dead (though not unreachable through an auto-seance), retired or mad. But why wont any of them talk about it?

: Someone is distributing Slaaneshi pornvids. Stop them.

: A rare public event demands that the Inquisitor must make a personal appearence to address a vast crowd to either praise or condemn them for righteousness/heresy. The Acolytes are assigned to co-ordinate security, mingle with the crowd or guard his secret exit from the public venue. Then someone shoots the Inquisitor.

Another one that may or not be suitable for all groups.

: A month or two ago, there was a mass Daemonic incursion witnessed by a whole city. Now the Acolytes are assigned to inspect the "Cleansing Camps" run by the Inquisitorial Storm Troops to see that they are operating at maximum efficiency. Depending on your interpretation of the Imperium, cleansing can either mean mind wipes, lobotomisation as servitors, or simply Auschwitz-style death camps.

: A Rogue Trader has returned from a expedition to the Halo Stars. It is the Acoyltes task to quietly question his crew on what they found out there, beyond the Rim.

SJE

Another few -

An Ork has been captured on a world where Orks are unknown. The Acolytes are sent to interrogate it. Hope they werent planning on using pain to make it talk as it doesnt seem to feel torture.

An ancient Eldar space craft is found crashed. Go pick up anything interesting.

An Eccliasarchial conclave is meeting to determine which beliefs constitute Heresy for this millenia in the Calixis sector. The Inquisition would like 3 certain cults declared heretical - make it happen.

SJE