Hi all

*warning spoiler*

I have a villian in my campaign, the arch conspirator who intends to bring ruin and horror to the sector. Hes the star forger breifly descibed in Purge the Unclean. Indescribabley old and capable of plotting for millenia he has slowly assumed the wealth of house krin and the resources of several other major houses. He plans to use and rebuild the adranti star empire with forbidden warp technology. Crossing into a new dimension of warp space forever, it is unfortunate that his ascendance will probably result in a tear in reality that will swallow the enitire sector. oh well....cant make an omlette and all that

so whats your big bad?

Heinreich Kryptmann is a very old, poor man who runs a mech-workshop in the lower hive. He also fronts a business that abducts and kills children, turning them into cherubim-assassins and deals in heretek robotics and bionics. His maniacal tendencies have come about as a result of a xenos neural chip he installed into his own forebrain, containing forbidden knowledge which has driven him a bit mad. he was recently apprehended by my PC's and is in the custody of the local arbites. He recently went insane, raving nonsensically in a manson-esque manner during an interview, and gouged his own eyes out with his thumbs.

To come: when his execution is scheduled, he'll be saved from the gallows by a heretek raid, shortly after, servitors in certain areas of the city will begin killing key figures, others will be revealed to be Janus Similacra, etc. When my Pc's track him down again, the frail, eyeless old man will have augmented his body with forbidden xenos bionics,, and will attempt to integrate them into the pulse of his cult, the Church Of The New Flesh. He'll also have recovered his sanity, to a degree, and will now be lucid, and calm. not to mention have freakish agility, adamantium talons, a shock-beam, and the ability to walk on walls etc. (The idea is my PC's, if they're clever and diplomatic, can storm his HQ with a shedload of allies, or if they're stupid bullies, they can raid it themselves. If they come alone, he'll leap around the cathedral, like fighting a demented bionoic spider man, if they bring help, he'll be more like a chaos obliterator- though much easier. I can't wait for my pc's to take him on and surprise me with their ingenuity again)

My main villian has yet to be seen. Hieronymous Rosenberg was, in an age past, an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor. The PC's Inquisitor, Arcturus Rhynn, was once an acolyte of his. While details are sketchy (I make this stuff up during the game sessions) Rhynn tossed his old master off the side of Hive Sibellus, with Rosenberg screaming heretical dogma all the way down. Rhynn does not like to discuss the matter.

Unbeknownst to Rhynn, but beknownst to us, Rosenberg survived, and raised a daughter in secret. She rose to the rank of Inquisitor herself. You can see her in Dark Heresy. She's Iolanthe Rathbone, an Isstivanian. Those were her acolytes in Purge the Unclean, and her Prime Acolyte, Eisengrimm, has dogged the PCs forever now. Someone within Rhynn's organization is leaking info to Eisengrimm, and I think it's Marcellus Ong, the heaviy cybered fellow who once remarked that he'd served Rhynn's master "faithfully."

Rathbone's ultimate goal is the destruction of Rhynn, and his acolytes, but first, there's this " Talisman of Vaul " thingie she wants to get her hands on. The PCs are tracking it down, and every lead they get will be funnelled to Eisengrimm and his dark mistress.

I'll provide more detail after I've made more up...

Nick ,aka Lajos Epsilon 473 , - do not read below this line! **** but it's hard to keep your players in line some times.

I don't have a big bad per se, but rather the finale will certainly include at least two prominent figures. One is their Inquisitor, who they have yet to meet; and the other will most likely be Inquisitor Glavius Wroth who is being hunted by Noctular, and whose acolytes are, in turn, hunting Noctular and his acolytes. I wanted to avoid the typical Inquisitor vs. Inquisitor so I've tried to mix things up a bit. There are too many details to record them all here.

To summarise: Wroth is a monodominant who, for years, has run one of the terrifying Black Ships. Without spoiling anything, something went very wrong inside his head and he has now abandoned his ship, cut all contact with the Adeptus Terra, and is trying desperately to find enough virus bombs to cleanse the entire Tephaine system of human life.

My players have no idea about any of this since they've only just started. There will be no big reveal , no explaination from their Inquisitor or handler, the acolytes will have to put the pieces of the puzzle together themselves. They will be used as tools by their benefactor, and until they can prove themselves trustworthy they will not receive any more information than they need in order to accomplish their assignments. So far, they've been thrust into the belly of a hive world to find a very strange servo skull that was stolen from Wroth's ship.

Tsathoggua, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch and Herald of the Tyrant Star.

He/She/It lays dormant, trapped inside an ancient Xenos prison which is hidden deep in the cavernous guts of a mystery planet within the Calixis Sector.

Tsathoggua reaches out to mortals by prophetic dreams and portents, turning them into voluntary or even involuntary followers.

These unfortunate denizens perform rituals and cause catastrophic events across the sector, all creating a domino effect of sorts which will gradually loosen the bonds of their master.

If he is eventually freed from his prison, he will unlock the dimensional gate and bring forth the Tyrant Star (He is the Key, He is the Gate).

My PC's are slowly trying to track down a rogue Tech-Priest <name with-held just in case my players are lurking about> who is fully engrossed in Xeno tek. He has quite a following of techies who have seen the power of the salvaged tech and even though no-one knows the source they are beginning to awaken something ancient in their excavations.....something metallic with glowing green eyes=

I thought about running a game where to groups Inquisitor WAS the big bad although the PC's wouldn't know it until the end. But I desided against it.

However In a recent game one of the PC's (my ex-GF that left) was kidnapped by a Chaos marine sorcerer called Venus the Immoral (sp?) and sent though a vortex to the Clonelord so that he can experiment on a partial psychic blank.

Thats right folks, I didn't want to sod about with this one so I've used Fabius Bile as MY big bad.

Along this path the group will end up doing things that are wrong now just so they can do something right in the end.

Guest appearances will be made in the form of the Legion of the Damned and from Ahriman and the 1000 sons.

Loyalties will be divided and hopefully, if it all goes to plan, they will realise that the Imperium is actually a really **** place to live.

EPIC STORY FTW!

The story I've come up with relies on the group being able to roleplay better than they can role dice. If they want to leave it to the throw of a dice then they will end up with a very high casualty rate.

Well, for my group, it's their Lord Inquisitor Flight, whom has been under the sway of Chaos for quite a while now. He's a closet radical. I re-did the Daemon from the Main Rule Book adventure (Name is slipping at the current moment) to my own specifications, and he currently has sway over him, and a large, deep Noble house named House Rowan. I could say they have two big bad guys, one being the Lord Inquisitor, the other being the lead of the radicalist house, Lionheart Rowan.

It's a bit tragic though. The group ended up getting some information that they did not realize what it was (it was saying that Flight was pretty much a dirty heretic) and did not read through it. They ended up passing the information along to their old Inquisitor, and Flight. Flight asked them who were the other's whom seen the information, and he ended up killing their ol' Inquisitor Austring, who was about to expose Flight, and thus, they are way set-back in the Campaign, with no idea of what's going on.

Although, I'm thinking of tying the Serrated Query to House Rowan somehow, and drop a few leads into the Lord Inquisitor's direction.

OH! That reminds me. Although, Flight and Lionheart are the two BIG baddies, there are 4 lesser baddies that continue to plague the Acolytes.

#1. Tech-Priest "Hammer". He is a Magos Errant whom has dwelled quite deep into Xeno technology. He's quite off the wall, and quite the fighter due to his augmentations (Has not been seen yet). He was pulled into Flight's group by Hammer simply seeking refuge, and word caught Flight's ear. Definitely the strongest, I'm keeping this guy 'till later.

#2. Sergeant Kane "Power" Nodd. This guy is a pyromaniac. He sets things on fire, and loves to just watch the flames dance. He hasn't been seen, but, he's been around, the group has never noticed a big 6'7" tall guy with promethium tanks on his back... Definitely the weakest, I'm trying to get this guy off'd in order to really continue the *Main* story, but, it does not seem to be working.

#3. Raven. This is the super marksman mercenary that Flight has hired. He's been in once, and that was just to take a super-long range shot at the guys, which ended up nearly removing the Psyker from the group (Whom ended up being a dirty heretic either way).

#4. The Mandrake. This Dark Eldar is "owned" by Flight, due to heretic technology being implanted in his head, basically making him controlled by the F man. He's also appeared once, to attempt to steal the Luminious Reproach and the Grimgoire of True Names. He almost got it, but, Agamorr had a few words. He's still alive, probably much to the surprise of these guys. The Mandrake is also quite the fast fellow.

VarniusEisen said:

that is along the lines fo what i was doing, the Inq is a radical ordos xeno who is trying to make arco-x. (she has expiermented on dark Eldar, Orks, and she wants to use Genestealers), she has also unearthed rumor about necrons though she has no idea what they are. The PC's run around tracking xenos goodies and I am trying to send them to a space hulk to trap a genestealer so she can play with it. My problem is the PC's seem to be a bunch of heretics who wouldn't balk that much at whatever the Inq tells them to do. My cure for that is to have them caught by another Inq and turn them against their first.

basically though whatever is more a pain in the butt there inquisitor or the horrors they help unleash on the sector.

I am running my players through the official adventures (they have completed all the freebies and are working on the Purge trilogy) which is buying me time to complete my own adventure. The big bad is Kostus Grimm (I submitted his first incarnation over at Dark Reign), a Redemptionist zealot now leading a crusade to burn and purge ... well, everyone. Seems he and some friends purged a blood cult (good work!) and took an crimson chainsword etched in brass (bad idea!) as a reward; too bad said sword has its own agenda. Tentatively titled "Parallel Lines of Crimson" the Acolytes have to some how handled a very successful Redemptionist movement lead by Kostus Grimm who is purging all the sin he sees and building a mound of skulls (which he marks as "Redeemed") because that is what the God-Emperor tells him. I finally have a copy of DotDG to add to the info from the IH and polish up the details.

Nothing like the old religious types committing atrocities in the name of their god while the Ruinous Powers laugh!

-Cynr

My current plan for a 'big bad' is an Inquisitor by the name of Xanthis Bane. He's not exactly what you'd expect from a bad guy. He's convinced he's doing the rigth thing and has been angered by the intervention of the party into what he sees as his plan to redeem the Calixis sector and usher in a bright new future. He's tall, handsome, charasmatic which is nicely at odds with Inquisitor Artemis Hoth who the party are working for. I'm looking for the point at which the party start wondering whether they are on the right side in this thing. Both Inquisitors will appear to be in the right and the party will have to decide which Inquisitor they want to side with as the implications could be far reaching.

The plan is to have the party battle it out with a few hired thugs while they investigate what's going on until they figure out that, in fact, there is no external menace to the planet. Instead it's a battle between two different ideologies of the Inquisition. So really the 'big bad' of my campaign actualy turns out to be another 'good' guy.

Kahadras

I've got two baddies in my campaign right now. The first is a 2nd group of acolytes serving another Inquisitor. The player's Inquisitor and the rival's Inquisitor have arranged a trial by fire, sending both groups of acolytes on the same mission (retrieve a book of daemonic lore from an order of monks) knowing that the two groups will come into conflict. What neither group of acolytes and only one inquisitor knows is that the order of monks has been absorbed into an existing tech-heresy, and it is the hope of one of the Inquisitors that the competing acolytes will force the heretics into the open, or at least set back their long-term plans for a few years. The plan is to end the game after 3 sessions, but if we turn it into a long term campaign the network of hereteks and the mysterius figure at it's head will be the primary villain.

So far Ive had four major foes that the players tend to recall.

Tasra-Bo, a heretek/wayward Tech-Priest who studies the Warp as a means to power technology and to wrest control of the imperium from psykers.

Kar Dath, a Psyker who returns to his home to exact revenge upon the noble house the not only replaced him but forgot him when he was turned over to the black ships. Sort of a Psyker in the Iron Mask deal.

Pink, while not an epic villain he was a roguish pit fighter specializing in swords/rapiers and the leader of a booster gang who was also a cult leader of a Slaneesh cell.

Red Eyes, a mercenary assassin who is actually a Dark Eldar.

The villain for my current game is Inquisitor Frederica Bernkastel. Bernkastel was an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor for a long time, who, while initially of puritain leanings, Inquisitor Bernkastel came to doubt her beleifs as she grew older. Eventually joining the ranks of the Xanthites. She secretly began gathering knowledge of the warp rather than destroying it. Determined to turn the power of Chaos against itself, she practiced dark magic, parlayed with daemons and other activites that skirt the line between radical and renegade. Finally, she crossed that line when she made a pact with a powerful daemon prince. In her hubris, Inquisitor Bernkastel thought she could cheat the daemon, she thought wrong. In a desperate, last ditch effort to forstall her own damnation, she prolonged her life by using an ancient forbidden ceremony to transplant her soul into the body of a young girl and went into hiding. The Inquisition, beleives that Bernkastel has been dead for 20 years. This has given her plenty of time to research the Tyrant Star's mysteries. Inquisitor Bernkastel can feel the clock ticking, she knows time is short. She has settled on a twisted interpretation of the Hereticus Tenebrae as a portent of the Emperor's return. She is convinced that, if the herald events come to pass, the Emperor will return and lead mankind into the next phase of evolution, ascendance to the warp and transcendance of the flesh. This, she beleives, will be her salvation.

The truth, of course, is far more sinister.

So far, I've got two "big bads" in the works. The first is a Chartist captain turned heretic and pirate by the name of Evard Teague. Can you guess who he's based on?

The second I'm still brainstorming and trying to figure out how to stat. I haven't come up with a name yet, just a concept -- The Ressurected . Imagine what would happen if someone died and instead of passing through the warp into the afterlife/oblivion the soul just returned to the body with complete knowledge of how the universe actually works. Of course this guy's completely bonkers but in a very cagey and nihilistic way. To him everything that the Imperium of Man is built around, worships, and is willing to kill and die for is only so much garbage and while he can never verbalize what he seen in the naked warp - he needs to show people how their beliefs are flawed and values worthless. Ultimately his goal isn't so much to destroy the Imperium as it is to have the Imperium destroy itself.

Yes, I got the idea from the Joker in The Dark Knight .

How I was thinking of stating him was as a manipulator. He came out of the warp with "the scales ripped from his eyes". In other words, he's an incredibly powerful telepath/empath with the ability to manipulate/suggest both socially and psychically to cause mass panic/destruction.

I'm going to go with Fabius Bile. Nothing says I love you like a Gm pulling out a ten millenia old mad sceinist/psychotic super soldier and then proceed to beat the acolytes to tiny bity chunks. With mad cacklng in the background.

Ok not really. Though i am partial to space marines.

Alpherus- aspiring champion in the Alpha legion (Not the primarch, but the Alpha legion were all bloody nuts even before they turned and they all named themselves Alpherus.) who is sowing discord and destruction on Scintilla. The Alpha legion are almost as good at guerilla warfare as the Night Lords, and the Alpha legion cultivate massive cults to act as canon fodder and a distraction. What Alpherus is doing is attempting to fulfill the Tyrant star prophecy, utilizing sacrifices in the name of the dark gods to bring it about. Now he operates low key, so the inquisition isn't aware of teh threat. A new cult springs up, but no one sees its leader. Cue acolytes to investigate. As they get deeper into the mystery things get succesively more disturbing until they find out what is really driving the cult. Now they call it in, but by the time they do its already too late. They need to delay the final ritual long enough for the cavalry to arrive. Even if the ritual doesn't bring forth the Tyrant Star, something is most definately coming through, and it will not be pleasent in the least. Course Alpherus is going to take a han in the defence. I honestly don't know if the acolytes will be able to take him, but I'm not going to make him play hard ball, more toy with them until they either do some serious damage or the cavalry arrives to save the day.