Hey everyone,

I thought I'd fish around and see the types of NPC Inquisitors other GMs were using in their games. I'm mainly interested in seeing the types of power levels people have in mind for their Inquisitors, be it combat or pysker monsters or diplomatic powerhouses! Maybe post their name, affiliations, power level and any other side notes. I also had a question in regards to one of mine that I was hoping someone could answer!

Castrian Velkrov - Faction Undetermined - My idea for Castrian is that he has a strong background with the Imperial Navy, and likely served a long time with them before starting along the path of an Inquisitor. As it stands I'm thinking of having him with three to four ships under his command that he orders around to here and there (he likely also has a hidden ship somewhere for those just-in-case-i-need-a-deathstrike-missle) times. I was also considering having him be part of the Night Cult or something equally naughty. My question with Castrian is whether or not you guys think that's a little too out of the range of an Inquisitor and more suited to an Inquisitor Lord...or just silly!

Undecided - My second game will likely involve a significantly less powerful Inquisitor. While Castrian can impose his will via the might of a small fleet, game number two's Inquisitor will be a lot more lowkey. I've not decided whether he'll be the hang at the office and just make random phone calls type of guy, or whether he'd be on the planet as well. Either way, I'm thinking of a much different style then the original.

I'll post an update once I have more information. Game 1 is already a few sessions in while Game 2 hasn't started yet.

Hope to see some other examples!

Well, since my party have a nasty habit of backstabbing and party wipeing my players are in their 3rd campaing, every time under a diffrent Inquisitor

In the 1st campaign they served under Lord Inquisitor Sirius Kémanoss of the Ordo Xenos. As a 236 year old cleric he was VERY puritan and a dominating figure in the Amalathians faction. Due to his holy background he hated the AdMech with every cell of his body, only trusting a single magos (Because he was quite... strage - Imagine Professor Tournesol from Tintin in a magos version). Because of this, the group was often send out to investigate hereteks and tech-heresy, namely the Logicians. Kémanoss was always seen in his blood-red Power Armor with a pure, white robe covering the majority of it. The acolytes rarely saw his face as it was covered by the hood of the robe.

Of course he had quite an amount of both power and resources (Lord Inquisitors tend to have so), granting the players whatever equipment they needed, only limited by what their ranks (You don't hand a plasmagun over to a Guradsman conscript or Arbites trooper). He was almost always onbord his Battleship named His Holy Might.

Most of the time however they served under his interrogater, Interrogator-Captain Howerd. As a former captain of the Imperial Navy he often very formally dressed, in a black version of his old uniform. He had control of his own cruiser, The Redeemer , from which he made a lot shady business without his inquisitor knowing it. Secretly a member of the Xenos Hybris and very facinated by xenos, Eldar in particular. Kémanoss knew of course nothing of this until Howerd already was promoted a full Inquisitor himself. That lucky bastard!

In the 2nd campaign they served under Inquisitor Astrid Skane of the Ordo Hereticus (from the corebook). They didn't knew this, as they never made it through the "initiation-missions". She didn't trust them enough to understand the Recongregator Creed just yet, so they served under a Legate Investigator Cullen O'Hara.

As a former investigator in the Arbites he was Skane's cheif-of-operation in the Scintillan Underhive Cullen knew what he was doing. He had quite a lot of acolytes around him and working undercover in the underhive, all of them had in common that i gave them a 1930s feel, wearing shirts, ties, butterflies and suspenders. Cullen himself always wore a long, dark blue coat with a matching hat, a Stub Revolver and LHO-sticks (Think: Christian Bale in Public Enemies ). They players never quite figured him out, as he often changed his mood quickly, from very serious to laughing, telling jokes and not seeming like the last screw-up was that big a deal.

The 3rd and lates inquisitor my players served is a former Adepta Sororitas named Lady Sigrid. I haven't specified her that much just yet, bit she is either a Xanthite or Oblationist - most likely the latter. She too has quite a ship, where her personal quarters is a part of the huge cathedral she has build in it. Because of her radical nature, she doesn't really have any fellow sisters around her, instead relying heavily on Black Priests.

Those are all pretty well thought out. I'm jealous now so I'll have to hurry up and flesh out those Inquisitors!

The Inquisitor I've been using is a Scum type. He's a former pirate kingpin who continues to run a protection racket for smugglers. As a result, most of the black market depends on his "services" which places his fingers in many underground pies. This gives him huge inroads to the underworld on most of the planets of the region. In general, he turns a blind eye to criminal activity (obviously), but rather uses these organizations as a honeypot to entrap the real bad guys.

Outside of a few other Inquisitors and his Acolytes, nobody knows about his identity within the Imperium. By all accounts, he's one of the most wanted men in the region. In the pirate world, he's known as Nimble Jack. Within the Inquisition, he simply signs his orders as "the Button". It's unknown how many Acolytes serve under him, as he tends to have them operate as cells. It wasn't until the PCs became very trusted that he met with them face to face, and longer still until he revealed his identity.

I'm glad I made this thread. These are some very interesting Inquisitors. More more!

My group serves Inquisitor Astrid Skane from the core rulebook. From time to time the acolytes meet face to face and she even hosted them for a social meal once (a fun session!). On some cases they work with one of her Interrogators, but it has proven far more common for them to recieve encrypted orders via astropathic communication whenever the team and their Inquisitor are not in the same place (Being an Inquisitor is a busy job). The encryption is VERY thick, but the team's Prime has a "demi-Rosette" with all the current cyphers loaded in it as well as identifying information on the correct bearer of the seal... and the security minded "If the bearer of this seal is not my servant as identified in the included file detain them immediately under maximum security measures and contact my office IMMEDIATELY via the enclosed channels." The Prime sometimes gets called in for private meetings, so her facetime with the Inquisitor is obviously higher.

Of course some of the team are perhaps a few months away from being promoted (Three of them just made rank 8 two weeks ago) so the relationship with their Inquisitor is likely to change and evolve in interesting ways. Possibly even a newly minted junior Inquisitor!

Awful lot of naval resources tied up by some of your Inquisitors.... A BATTLESHIP?! And the Interrogator has a CRUISER?! WTF! Some aspiring Inquisitor would likely denounce this pair for flagrant abuse of power and conspiracy to deny the Battlefleet Calixis of a substantial portion of it's fighting strength, thus weakening the Imperium.

Inq Marius Augustus Ordo hereticus

As an inquisitor he's a very approachable man who doesn't make a point of flexing his power unless absolutely necessary and prefers a very much hands-on approach to things if needed, be it explaining things personally to acolytes in private what he expects of a mission he sends them on, to leading a crusade. Being he is relatively genial and fair, they've not gone out of their way to dig very far into his past and rarely bothered to consider much about where he stands as they have a very clear understanding of his relationship with them. Marius doesn't have a lot of acolytes he trusts, those he trusts implicitly he expects the same in return, having suffered a major loss of (NPC) acolytes on scouting missions, he's now down to just a bare handful and desperately needing more to fill out the duty roster. What he lacks in manpower in terms of acolytes he makes up for in spades with human resources in other areas and extraordinarily well connected to the Imperial Guard, Adepta Sororitas, Lord Caiden, Navis houses and the Imperial Navy... he also has the attention of a certain representative of the High Lords of Terra sent out to 'audit' the sector after a few things went amiss. She's already secretly killed Lord Hax and instituted something the equivalent of martial law until she's finished her audit and purge of the sectors undesirable, unprofitable and just plain bad producers.

At the moment he's a man on the spot under massive duress to provide results and perform, the acolyes duties have become worse, the attrition rates going through the roof and every loss secretly cuts him slightly more to the bone with each passing. Marius is a creator, his methods are unorthodox in terms of making men out of meat but rarely cruel, if he tests someone on a mission outside their normal scope of operations, its usually so they become better rounded in their outlooks, personality, skills and methods. When he loses one of his creations its seen as a loss of potential in humanity, the (PC) acolytes have figured out early on that he is of a Polypsykana bent and running a breeding program of them somewhere. It will be a desperate battle of cunning between him and the auditor to see if he can keep those hidden from her, but already senses that she's cottoned on to his projects on the side and she's keeping his acolytes busy elsewhere, knowing full well how attached he is to his long term allies... and how quickly she can have them or anyone else snuffed out like a candle with her fearsome resources.

There's a thundercloud on the horizon heralded by that auditor, it stands to kill billions and he's damned if he does, thrice damned and dead if he doesn't...

ZillaPrime said:

I know it's a bit over the top, but that was done on purpose. When you have served the great =I= for just about 2 centuries you collect a few... "gifts" and it's only fair that your 2nd-in-command gets his share. When your 2nd-in-command then suddenly becomes a full blown inquisitor himself, he too receive a "gift" from his former master. Or at least, that was my thought.

I suppose I didn't think of it that way, Zilla. Now I'm sad and an unsure. :/

I have been using Inquisitor Tyburn Graves (briefly mentioned in the War of the Rhozes). He is a high powered arbiter who actually carries around an MP Lascannon. It may seem weird but nothing gets the fear and respect of your acolytes like carrying around that type of weapon strapped to your back

Our party serves under Inquisitor Gavinius Tregeagalus, a rather upfront member of the Ordo Hereticus. He was once a feudal knight in the service of a baron on Zillamn's Domain but was inducted by Inquisitor Zarkov of the Ordo Xenos, who saw promise in his actions on the planet and recruited him. Tregeagalus took to this newfound galaxy with enthusiasm, learning everything and anything he could in the fight against aliens, while being a staunch fighter and leader. These qualities, when shown and developed in his battles (mostly concerning tech-heretics and xenos traders) earned him several commendations from the Mechanicus and Deathwatch, culminating in them granting him an astartes-pattern Thunderhammer upon his commission as a fully-fledged Inquisitor some time in his fourth decade of service.

Tregeagalus graciously accepted his gifts and accolades, but swore to his master that he would depart the Ordo Xenos and join the ranks of Hereticus, as he saw his duty as less to smite the alien, and more those who brought its taint back to the Imperium. He dedicated the next fifty years of his life hunting down a large heretek network of xenos smugglers, culminating in a joint strike upon a fortress on Hesh led by himself and his old master Zarkov. This fight cost Tregeagalus both of his arms and most of his sanity, and he now loves nothing more than to bring frustration and ruin to the Adeptus Mechanicus, and is always willing to get in a cheap shot if he can. Biologically-speaking, Tregegalus is approaching 150 years old, but looks in his early fifties, still imposing and strong but with an obvious greying to his monkish hair.

As Tregegaalus was captured by a rival inquisitor, the party got to know another Inquisitor (one of his allies and a member of the same cabal) quite well. Inquisitor Annaliis Navarro was once an assassin 'taken' by an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus named Helena Navarro, to slay daemons and those involved in their summonings. When her master and most of her cells and contacts were killed in one fell swoop, Annaliis survived by sheer coincidence, and through a series of cosmetic reconstructions, body modifications, and shady dealings, simply took on the identity of her late Inquisitor and resumed hunting.

Navarro is first and foremost trained and bred into an optimised killer. She has a set of targetting arrays built into her bionic eye, her hair is cut short enough to the point of almost being bald, and she has both a psy-jammer and a chem-gland implanted in her body somewhere. She carries a pair of personalised, thrice-blessed bolt pistols and a heavily-modified Creed-9 autogun, and though not especially trained in melee she has a lathe-forged Longsabre. No one has ever seen her dressed in anything other than a black armoured bodyglove, though occasionally she will throw a long robe (of identical black colour) over the top if the situation deems it necessary to not walk around in little more than strapped weapons.

Though they are evidently different personalities, both Inquisitors share similar ideologies, which is probably what led them to be allies within a cabal where everyone is interested entirely in themself. Both inquisitors, though not of an exceptionally radical nature themselves, consider themselves "moderate" enough to let slip "the little things" if it allows them an advantage to catching their prime targets. Tregeagalus, for example, has on one occasion left a minor tech-heretic in charge of Solomon (in fact, he appointed her) in the wake of a purge of its leaders, because, as he put it "She's the best person left to run the planet." Navarro overlooks the dealings of her ship's Captain so long as he keeps ferrying her and her acolytes tirelessly throughout the sector, and has used his ship to facilitate her own dealings on occasion, such as the shipments of Ghostfire petals she must regularly consume to gland combat drugs into her system.

In short, both inquisitors are perfectly okay with bending or even outright breaking the rules when push comes to shove and it gets them their goals, but neither would be willing to summon a daemonhost or practice sorcery. At least, not since they've needed to yet...

Neither Tregeagalus nor Navarro have their own personal transports, though Navarro has been leading the party around by virtue of a 'requisitioned' Rogue Trader vessel The Hyperion , for some time. The vessel is commanded by the exceedngly arrogant and self-centered Lord Captain Aphesius Odette, whom she has on a leash through a combination of blackmail and what appears to be 'a healthy working relationship'. As his use is coming to an end, Aphesius has plans of petitioning Lord Sector Hax for compensation due to "resources expended in ensuring the safety of the sector" once their current 'situation' is over and done with.

Goodwin said:

Don't sweat it. In the Eisenhorn trilogy, two inquisitors have their own warships. Commodus Voke possesses an "...ancient porcupine of a warship." and Massimo Ricci has a "...stately steeple of a cruiser..." so its not impossible that an inquisitor could have a battlegroup all their own.

My own players are in the employ of Inquisitor Lucretia Andervore.

She is one of the many Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos in the distant Selveria Sector, where they are practically drowing in alien threats comapred to many Sectors. Andervore is a bit on the Radical side, with many friendly contacts with the more amiable Xenos races in the Sector, (not that the players know this at all).

Right now she and her various acolytes are being drawn into an investigation on the strange xeno-tech of the long extinct Ezilmalim that has suddenly been showing up in the hands of Rebels, Recidivists, and Heretics all throughout the Sector, with no explanation as to why.

She and her senior cadre will also be showing up in my Rogue Trader game, where she has run afowl of the dreaded Vesh Gell, (a race of perverted gas giant dwellers) in the Sandillion Gloom region of the Halo Stars.

I decided to do something a little different. My group is working for an individual who calls himself a "facilitator" he works for Lord Inquisitor Xerbe in the Calixis sector. Basically this facilitator called Icario Muracin organises cells of operatives that work for Xerbe. These cells are used by Xerbe to further his own ideas of keeping the balance between the various factions in the Inquisition. They operate without any real connection to the Inquisition as none of the cells can call themselves throne agents. In fact the unit even has to pay for it own gear and weapons!

The unit operates from a waste management station that orbits Scintilla and actually is a holding place for dangerous individuals. Icario has three squads of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers along with other support staff including a high level Tech priest who handles technology and quartermaster duties.
I really enjoyed making the character Icario; he wears a black pinstriped suit with matching pinstriped gloves. They know that he must be cyberneticly enhanced as they have seen him typing on a cogitator at very high speeds. He has a matching set of revolver duelling las pistols, essentially they are customised Khayer - Addin Duelling las pistols, these have three rounds each as they actually have a revolving cylinder that holds three las batteries as rods. So yeah I gave a very well suited man revolver las pistols: D I thought well if the duelling pistol charge packs are only good for one shot then having a cylinder to move to a new one makes sense. He has a wonderful caustic wit as he moves from compliment to back handed admonishment in the same breath. It took me a while to get his accent right ((I am Irish and he has a Spanish accent kind of Antonio Banderas)). Well he has become most famous for a certain saying “ah time for left foot right foot".

This evolved out of a very funny incident. The team contact Icario who is back on the station, they catch him in the middle of a questioning of a prisoner. They see Icario talking off screen as he starts "okay let’s do it this way * takes out his pistol* how bout we play left foot right foot" the person being "Questioned" responds in a frightened tone "what you want me to decide which foot you want to shoot?!" Icario gives a soft laugh smiling " Oh no no, not at all, the game goes like this, LEFT foot" he shoots the man's left foot off " RIGHT foot" he shoots his other foot off, after a few seconds of screaming from the man the screaming does down and Icario turns to the screen " Oh hi guys, what’s up?" totally as if nothing happened.
It literally sent a shiver of "Let’s not get on his bad side" down their collective spines: D ahhhhhh good times.

I use Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Globus Vaarak as my groups lord and master. In addition to the features presented in the Dark Heresy rulebook the group has so far known Globus Vaarak as silent, brooding schemer-behind-the-scenes who is perhaps the most ruthless and dedicated man they've ever met.

His personal aide-de-camp and nurse, Sister Superior Celest, whom the acolytes meet more often than Globus Vaarak himself once described the man as someone who "Is quite convinced that Imperium is in the brink of destruction. You see, he has evolved to the point where he has to to believe it in order to function. He knows that in this game the most dedicated always wins and in order to *be* the most dedicated one he has to believe that Our Holy Emperors plan is failing and his personal sacrifices are, in fact, not only needed but actually the ones that make difference between the manifest destiny of Mankind and the utter destruction of the Imperium."

Depending on the person the attitudes of the acolytes seem to range from pure love and adoration of the man through indifference to mortal fear.

Ive been using Astrid Skane from the core rulebook ( though she very seldom appears ). The PCs have been dealing with her interrogator Lady Severine Castella a actual nobleborn who disdains her own class' issue and penchant for heresy and debauchery and has no place for it...she has the natural talent for intimidation and does favor the use of the neural whip and a mono enhanced grox whip to further that ability...lol great at instilling fear loyalty and honesty...hehehe. also good for a interrogation prop

Drustos VII (Void Born Imp Psy) serves under Inquisitor Vownus Kaede (from the rulebook), and I've met him exactly once (and I can't even remember that very well). Immediately after meeting him I was rendered unconscious (stupid dart guns...) and found myself on Ambulon with a cryo-tomb in the room. Sealed onto the cryo was a note that said "open me". After doing some investigative work on the cryo (hmmm...what does that screen say? Well at least whatever is in there is still alive...thank the Emperor my Inq left me with all my gear....) 14 days later I opened the cryo and inside found an Astropath. (Oh goodie...can this get any worse?). I babysat that guy for 6 years (yep...it can...and did...) when I finally got called up for duty. Meanwhile, I'm quite sure Kaede is sitting there somewhere rubbing his palms together saying JUST. AS. PLANNED.

In an extreme showing of Author's Fiat, I needed to create a special Ordo that could realistically be involved in any sort of investigation - Daemonic, Heretical or Xenos-Based. To that end I created the Ordo Spectatoris, a special group of Inquisitors made up of Inquisitors from all three Ordos. Their specific role is to watch other Inquisitors, and investigate their methods and whatnot. The Ordo Hereticus hates them because they feel it's their job to do that, but they have no real choice. The other thing to note is that we don't set our games in the Calixis Sector. Rather they are set in the Aquila Sector, a Sector created by me including 100+ planets with background and so on. It's also in the Ultima Segmentum, giving me more freedom with the types of bad guys we can fight. Additionally, the Aquila Sector has been the setting for all our 40K campaigns and games since 2004-ish, so it has quite a well developed history.

Anyway, the Acolytes in our campaign all work for a man named Inquisitor Quintus Dyne of the Ordo Spectatoris. Dyne was once a member of the Ordo Xenos before being elevated to the Spectatoris. He is an Istvaanian, but has Thorian leanings. All the Acolytes that came to work for him usually undergo tasks for him before they even realise that they've been recruited, often routing out Heresy or uncovering plots for the Inquisitor that the Dyne has already known about, but decided to test his new recruits on first before formally introducing them to the Inquisition. Those that fail never knew they were working for the Inquisition. Those that succeed soon find themselves inducted within his collection of Acolytes. Dyne is a psyker, with quite a large dominating frame. He does not wear huge Power Armour or anything, but can be quite intimidating, especially with the way he has two different coloured eyes.

Dyne's direct superior is the head of the Ordo Spectatoris within the Aquila Sector, High Lord Inquisitor Ashsish Khallid. A highly orthodox Monodominant who once belonged to the Ordo Hereticus, Khallid and Dyne often do not see eye to eye on a lot of things. Khallid is many centuries old, and one of the most senior Inquisitors within several sectors. He is alarmingly tall, and is made even taller by the gold Power Armour he seems to wear everywhere. Very few dare cross him, and he holds a lot of influence within all brances of the Inquisition.

I have other Inquisitor's developed, not necessarily for Dark Heresy, but ones that are part of this group, such as Inquisitor Percivus Yule, a former Ordo Malleus Inquisitor who is Khallid's favourite subordinate. Inquisitrix Keira Jade, a paranoid Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor who usually does things only to serve herself. Inquisitrix Ariana Masters, another Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor who has strong ties with the Imperial Guard. Inquisitrix Claudia Descartes, a Noble-Born woman who later became part of the Ordo Xenos and will eventually become Dyne's chief rival in the Sector. And finally Inquisitor Lord Cassius Seiko, a Malleus Inquisitor who is one of the more militaristic Inquisitors within the Sector, and is one of the first to go to war with any significant Chaos thread.

BYE

CAUTION: SPOILERS TO ROGUE TRADER CAMPAING: GHOSTS OF THE PAST!!!

Tylran and Zaphakiel, don't read this!

In our DH game the Inquisitor was called Dermour.

He was highly mysterios, the PC:s never met him, he only conveyed their missions to them via an Imperial Navy officer (who was in fact Interrogator), wirlst they were onboard Dermour's personal Dauntless class light cruiser Fury .

If we would have finished the game, the PC:s would have got to know that Dermour was 482 years old highly radical Polypsycana Inquisitor of Ordo Hereticus, who was allied with at least Eldars and another mysterios person (a Sensei). What was physically remaining Dermour himself was living inside a huge vat tank filled with green liquid, as he had received considerable damage from an encounter with his former adversary. Almost no-one knew of his condition, save his three Interrogators and the Magos Technicus who had placed him there. He only communicated to the outside world via MIU controlled servoskulls, which carried his letters. On the other hand, he knew almost everything what happened onboard Fury , as he was integrated to it's Cogitator Array.

He was the "grand old man" amongst the Inquisitors of the sector of our campaing, Sector Oxhibilis, and had his had in almost everything happening in the Sector. He wasn't the Lord Inquisitor only because his want of secresy, and because he wasn't liked by more puritan Inquisitors (which didn't know about his deeds, but were suspisious).

If the Campaing hadn't ended, Dermour would have sacrificed Fury and himself to allow the PC:s to travel to a deamon world, where hopefully they would have listened to the Sensei and prevented a deamon from conquering the whole Sector Oxhibilis. Yes, it was quite a Xanatos Gambit, but this is grimdark, you know..

But, as the campaing ended before the conclusion, the Sector is mostly screwed.. And our RT campaing happens 15 years after the DH campaing, the Explorers are going to have fun surviving it.. Ah, good times.

The first Inquisitor I chose to use was Ivixia Danica.

Now the Inquisitor who's replaced her is the following:

Inquisitor Ixion Osolo, Faction: Obolationist, (Hive World Scum)

His history is rather obscure, particularly in regards that he's not once had any acolytes. The only times he has been seen in Imperial history is back in 566.M41 and 617.M17, both situations involving members of a cult known by "Followers of the shifting flame". Items known to be heretical in nature have been reported missing soon after the last sighting.

One of the last times he was seen was on the planet Rahq, passing himself off as a gunslinger. Hanging from his side is a sword who's description fits that of a blade last seen from a Cultist leader.

To those who know him, he's been proven to be a psyker of potential Delta grade. With his powers being those of Biomancy with some skill in the art of Telekenesis.

True to most Radicals, he knows the game too well and has proven his purity in more than one test. However, his weakeness like most Radicals is that of curiosity.

SPOILERS FOR MY CAMPAIGN!!!

My PC's work for Lord Inquisitor Victor Loxley. Outwardly, he is relatively unremarkable. He is decent looking, and prefers to dress in simple, but expensive, clothing. On paper a member of Ordo Hereticus, Loxley is actually a member of the (to my knowledge) unnamed Ordo responsible for investigating the ranks of the Inquisition.

Loxley has intimate ties to the Mechanicus. Born on a forge world, he is a member of the Machine Cult, though he is not an ordained member of the priesthood. At some point in his past, he was gifted with a potentia coil and several other mechanicus implants by the Mechanicus, who have more influence over the Lord Inquisitor than anyone suspects.

Much of Loxley's power is tied to the Mechanicus. His unique background afforded them an opportunity to exert influence they did not hesitate to take, and with their backing, Loxley was able to establish an excellent record for himself. Though he longs to rise higher, many are suspicious of his ties to the Machine cult.

Loxley maintains a personal stronghold on the Forge World Belacane. In the fortress, he is protected by an large staff of personal bodyguards equipped with Witch-lances and power-armor. He rarely leaves Belacane. Instead, he has several Interrogators whom he relies upon to conduct his affairs off-world. In addition, he employs a prodigal number of astropaths to coordinate the movement of his operatives across the sector. Though he is not an overtly powerful physical combatant, his mechanicus implants do make him more potent than he appears.

The PC's work under Interrogator Ishida Nova, a psyker who inherited the cell after their previous Interrogator was executed for incompetence. Ishida Nova has use of a cruiser which masquerades as a luxury passenger liner for nobles in order to mask their movements.

I've used a few.

In my first Dark Heresy mini-campaign newly recruited acolytes were taking orders from Inquisitor Quin Drax, an elderly peer of Ordo Hereticus. They had rarely met him, usually taking orders through one Interrogator Kardin. The acolytes were sent to collect psykers from a criminal in Hive Vaxanide. Drax was going insane and wanted to turn them into mind cleansed, armoured "psyvitors" as a weapon against heresy - not that the acolytes knew this. Kardin sabotaged their efforts but they still managed to retrieve two, who disappeared into a laboratory with tech-adepts loyal to Drax. Kardin sabotaged those and the game ended messily with (most of) the acolytes still breathing.

In my longer DH campaign, Inquisitor Maquith of Ordo Hereticus was in charge. A 400+ year old veteran and almost Inquisitor Lord-like in influence with his own private cruiser "In His Glorious Wrath" and many stormtroopers. Decrepit with some artificial organs and always seated in a chair, looked ancient with a shock of grey hair. Was using juvenat but it's become far less effective at his age. He nearly went into the Ordo Malleus and has a keen interest in fighting chaos cults. Extremely knowledgeable and very security concious. The acolytes had to be led through a maze of defended tunnels to reach his private briefing room near his quarters. Which were psy-dampened, shielded and reached through airlocks. The atmosphere inside both the briefing room and his quarters was perfectly adjusted to help Maquith's battered lungs. If he absolutely has to leave the security of his ship, it will be in a custom sealed armoured suit with full life support built in.

Maquith goes nowhere without his bodyguard and assistant Alzon. Subtly augmented (glands, enhanced strength and reflexes). Incredibly fast, paranoid and wary. Possibly from Hive Volg originally. Tall with black irises and black hair slicked back into a ponytail. He usually wears loose, long clothing that won't hamper drawing weapons rapidly or martial arts. Prefers relatively light, concealable but lethal weapons such as power blades and stub autos (usually loaded with sanctified ammunition). If necessary, he can make use out of most known weapons.

In play, Maquith sent the party to Canopus to investigate reports of chaos cult activity while he brought his cruiser to investigate other matters. He gave them expense accounts to set up a base of operations and get equipment along with local contacts and their original (decent) gear. They were left to their own devices to investigate and punish heresy.