Ive decided to throw a big monkeywrench into my players delusions of gandeur...( ) Just when they got almost everything they wanted for their PCs as far as equipment goes....i have a sudden urgent mission redirect for them to a backward Feudal world where technology = the local swordsmith / armorer shop and tell them that they are NOT allowed to take their shiny guns or tech armors with them planetside as this is a covert operation ( which automatically leaves out the tech-priest character ( its ok with the player as it gives his priest the "in game time" to be trained in a new skill anyway so hes using his psyker instead to get him on par with the other PC's and NPC's levels for the group. But everyone is limited to primative styled weaponry and armors ( I am allowing the bodygloves as long as they are worn under the other clothing...basically anything tech that can be played off as normal clothing/weapon and armors that can be hidden or passed off as magical ( such as the shield amulet etc ). I want to make sure that the players are able to adapt to things and can be well rounded with their characters ( the hiver PC is hating being in the woods so much and the rest of the group is having a hayday with it by pranking him on occasion. At current all they know is that the feudal king of the area they were stealth landed in ( night insertion ) wishes to see them and enlist their help secretly as he suspsects heretical cult activity in his kingdom so they have been sent there to meet with the king and get as much detail as possible about the events to date and then take COVERT actions to uncover and execute all heretical operations they find with extreme prejudice. I know the king will send a small party of his elite guard to assist with the info gathering and fighting when needed but otherwise wont help unless the threat is at his doorstep so to speak....I am however open to possible ideas as to the heretical cult (s ) that might be on planet and their particular goals in mind along with whatever timetables they might be using....Ive gotten several nice ideas in past from all the GM participation we have on the site here ( THE best site for ideas and participation from the gaming community of all the other gamesites i am a member of btw )

I am hoping to give them a nice long tour ( a few months to even a year ) on planet to get them good and used to having to work covertly and without benefits of their high tech weaponry and armors ( Im allowing the shields because they have NO way of rechargning them once the power cells are used up...thats it ) so it does balance...hehehe...it will also teach them how to conserve what they do have and they all get stuck with the good ol culture shock...MUAHAHA...This world is BARELY at the blackpowder / flintlock stages and it is NOT in the Calixis sector but in the outer territories ( nothing but unclassified , frontier type worlds basically...and while the kings area does worship their version of the Emperor the masses at large do not know of the Imperium ( there are missionaries there who have begun the transition into a proper colony for the Imperium but as yet they all agree that culture shock is unwanted as it will set things back due to the superstitious nature of the uneducated masses ( hence the players limitations ). Any ideas would be appreciated by me ( if not loathed by my players...hehehe ) Thanks in advance for any help you all give

A while ago, I ran a mission very similar to the one you're proposing. Well, similar in that I had them do a covert entry into a feudal society. Beyond that, the plot and format were very different. Here are a few things I can say in hindsight, having ran that mission.

-I would strongly caution you against having the story arc that takes place on the feudal world take too long. As fun an idea as it was, and as interesting as everyone found it at first, it got old quickly. Some of the players, particularly those with ranged combat builds, found themselves frustrated by their ineffectuality. The change of pace was cool, but I wouldn't have it take an in-game year. My run lasted three sessions, and everyone, including me, was ready for it to be over by then.

-I had a Tech-Priest in my group, too. Rather than leave him behind, I had him dress in leper's rags. This actually turned out to be a great idea. He was for once, the spy of the group, able to be more or less innocuous and blend into a crowd. The roleplaying opportunities were also hilarious. (He developed a strong attachment to his horse, a black stallion which he took from an enemy.)

-I would also reconsider allowing the non-primitive armor. An armored bodyglove vs a primitive weapon is going to have 6 AP, which means that the PC's are effectively going to be walking around with protection like knights in plate armor. Combined with the fields, which can last for 100 rounds of combat, remember, the PC's are probably going to waltz through most combats unless there's baddies with off-world tech.

The player with the techpriest and i talked about it and he agreed to have that character remain out of game for a bit as it was convinient for his priest to gain a hard to come by skill ( aka simulating the time it takes to learn it ) without it adversely affecting the groups deployability. and while a bodyglove will stop alot of the primative weapons youll find on a feudal world dont forget that it will NOT stop the blunt force trauma of getting hit with one ( only the penetration ) in much the same was a a bulletproof vest stops a bullet from penetrating you but it still hurts like hell and can wind you anyway. I use common sense and realistic rules to govern combat...ALL of my group are prior military as am i so we all understand the dynamics right off of how it actually goes for these things so the armor isnt that much of an issue since a bodyglove wont stop blunt force trauma given by a great hammer hitting you...your gonna likely crack some ribs on that one....bottom line..soft armors prevent penetration up to their value but do nothing to prevent blunt force strikes...only hard armors like carapace etc...can stop blunt force attacks. Also there will be chaos sorcerers ( yes plural ) on planet to have to weed out...so they will be in for several serious fights and a host of smaller ones ( more if they act like dummies....which they do enjoy often ) so there will be plenty of opportunities for them to get hurt or killed even by the tech backwards feudal planet....rockslides during climbing can kill too...the old boulder dropped on your head works well too among other things.....I tend to keep my thinking "outside the box" on how to deal with creative or troublesme PC's...and they seem to love it since it keeps them on their toes and keeps it interesting for them.

Besides...whos to say the chaos cults already on planet havent armed or begun arming their followers and new converts from the local populace with modern armors or even chaos tainted weaponry...more than levelling the fields of battle

Heck, the nice thing about evil cultists setting up on a primitive world is some of the "crap" gear comes well into it's own. When "serious" warriors pack crossbows and a mix of leather and chainmail the cultists' "elite guard" showing up packing their fancy Laslocks are suddenly a very powerful force indeed! Add a few Sorcerers into the mix and perhaps the leader has a Daemonweapon? Or maybe it is only a "basic" monoaxe, but being wielded by a posessed cultist (unbound Daemonhost!).

If you have a Moritat PC in your group then this is their playground!

Well, here's the nurglesque cult which - IMHO - can blend nicely into the feudal setting. Used it in several of my campaigns (both tabletop and role-playing), and so far it proved to be the reasonably sinister and very adept at wiping out the Emperor-loving goody-two-shoes.

Children of the Carrion Grove

Worshippers of the Great Unclean One known as Xulux by mortal men. This particular daemon strives to re-create Grandfather Nurlge's plague-ridden gardens in real space. Not fond of the brutality of open warfare, he prefers a more insidious approach. Each new convert is required to consume a Carrion Grove fruit (fleshy thing roughly the size of an apple, yellow-green in color); once digested, the seed begins to alter its host physiology, slowly transforming him into a Carrion Tree - foul smelling abomination with ichor-dripping tentacles for branches, yellowish bark and bleeding red leaves. Transformation process takes approximately seven weeks and is completely irreversible. For the first week the victim shows no visible signs of corruption, but is compelled to seek out an isolated place with rich soil, where he can take root. By the start of second week victim's flesh began to change, becoming more bark-like with every passing day and sprouting occasional branches, and its mind is degenerating into that of a mindless zombie. By seventh week victim looses last traces of its former humanity, its legs becoming roots, and arms and branches mutating into mentioned-above tentacles. The living trees tend to grow in large clusters of 50-100 trees with shared root systems. As the cult power grows so do the clusters, slowly covering more and more land, until an entire world becomes a one huge garden of Nurgle.

Fully grown living trees produce fresh "fruits", which are then gathered by still-mobile faithful and brought to the unsuspecting faithless. The main advantage of the Carrion Grove fruits (a matter of personal pride for Xulux) is that they don't look particularly nurglesque. Just exotic tropical fruits with strong but not unpleasant mucus smell. Their taste, of course, leaves much to be desired, as it is a mix of pus, rotten meat and decomposing grass, but when someone actually bites the fruit, it's already too late for anything safe taking a bullet to the brain.

Indigenous fauna is also not safe from the powers of Carrion Grove. Once per month living trees bloom, their red flowers' smell luring swarms of insects that feed on their nectar, thus becoming vessels of corruption. Once infected, insects become hyper-aggressive, attacking animals and sentient beings alike, spreading the gift of Xulux to every one creature they bite. Their victims mutate in a different manner from those exposed to the effects of Carrion fruits, becoming not living trees, but rather bark-skinned, leaf-covered manikins, doomed to forever be the Grove guardians.

When Carrion Grove consumes a psyker, he becomes a breed apart from other cultists, not growing into a living tree, but rather becoming a parasitic vine merged with one of the trees. These are known as Gardeners and can send their consciousness via the Carrion Grove root system, manifesting at will in a tree of their choosing. Gardeners' powers are primarily biomancy and telepathy, and pyromancy is abhorrent to them. They can also command all manner of Carrion spawn, from swarms of insects to the largest of living trees.

Nasty! And a very good idea indeed!