I'm currently developing the next mission my players will be sent on, after completing the mission they are just now starting.

The basic plot is as follows:

A cell of the notorious Chaos cult, The Pilgrims of Hayte, has sprung up on the planet Canopus, an almost textbook Imperial World. The Pilgrims have conducted a series of terrorist attacks, focused mainly on disrupting the planet's food production. The Ordo Malleus has dispatched an Inquisitor from Scintilla- a three month trip- to take charge of the investigation. However, the PC Acolytes are already on nearby Palinurus Rhys, so their own Inquisitor orders them to Canopus to try to root out the cult cell before it can multiply like a cancer- which it surely will in less than three months. The Inquisitor en route has a reputation for brutality, razing whole districts to kill a few heretics, and, since this is the homeworld of one of the PCs, the stakes are high. Complicating matters is the fact that, a few weeks after the PCs arrive, a Redemptionist Crusade, having heard of the terrorist attacks, descends on Canopus to root out the enemies of the Emperor. Their efforts complicate the PCs investigation as they execute suspects before they can be interrogated and burn valuable clues. Things build to an apocalyptic conclusion as food riots become increasingly common and the citizenry- believing that The End is truly Nigh, begin to throw in with the fanatical Redemptionists or embrace the horror and join the Pilgrims of Hayte, and an Inquisition strike cruiser draws ever nearer...

So far so good. The problem is that I want this to be a long mission, partly for campaign pacing purposes (after a fairly long initial mission, the party have been on a series of episodic one- and two-day missions), partly to throw a bone to our Adept character (his player has expressed that he feels unproductive in the party, so I want a long mission on his home planet, where the other PCs will be forced to rely on the Adept's "home court advantage"), and partly to build up an appropriate "apocalyptic" atmosphere. The problem is that I'm a fairly linear thinker: I have most of the major incidents plotted out, but if played straight through they would only take up about a week of campaign time- not long enough for the Redemptionists to arrive, much less build up a sense of impending doom.

So, what I'm asking for are suggestions for mini-episodes within this framework that will allow me to stretch out the investigation for at least a month or two of campaign time. For the record, the party will probably be late fourth or early fifth level when this mission begins.

Any takers...?

Hi Adeptus-B,

first, a question on my side: anythinig special about the world itself? You mention food production, and that this will get sabotaged to the point of food riots. To me, this indicates that it is either not an agri world OR that you plan some big sabotage
Mind sketching out your general plot? It is always easier to contribute to the whole picture if one knows the picture.

@The Redemptionists will be late
How about them already being there? If the world is large enough, it would be plausbile that a handful of members are there. As the first attacks of the Pilgrims hit home, they raise there banners and are likely to get more and more followers as more and more of the dreadful attacks occur.

@The Pilgrims gain momentum
It is somehow always assume that chaos get followers easy. Where are these taken from? It is not like a group is normally eager to join the side of those destroying there homes, ****** there childern and spoiling there very food. How do they manage it? Is there and underclass already abused by the imperial cult? What apocalytic event is around the corner (or brought about by the pilgrims) that the citziens are likley to say "aaah.. smoke it!"
In my opinion, you already do have a strong motivator: the Redemptionist let loose If I am going to get slaugthered anyway, I might as well as try the other side in an afford to survive.

Back to your original question:

[iconoclast]
In one of the major cities/settlements, statues of saints are defaced at night and propaganda ("this is all a lie" / "this won´t save you" / "you are cattle") is smeared on the walls of churches, chapels and cathedrals. The Red Redemption is already on the case... like the mob they are. There method of dealing with the situation is guarding sacral sites, going round from door to door asking for alibies and going about lynching those they deem guilty.

This already has lead to tension since they had killed a groub of youngsters (whom simply had stolen themselves away for a night in the fields out of town with their girlfriends). As the two days later the defacing continued, it was not only the families of the teenagers crying about murder of innocent.

The situation:
The local enforcers are not to eager to go toe-to-toe with the present mob of Redemptionists (which are about twice there number... lets say 50 redemptionists and 30 enforcers in the district in question) but they manage to capture a group of 5 of them. Those who initiated the lynching of the youngsters. In addition, the enforcers installed a curfew. In order to prevent things from boiling over, the chief enforcer allowed the redemptionists to still guard sacral sites AND to uphold a small solemn vigil infront of the enforcer station (where their comrades are held). The enforcers aren´t happy about this. The chief is neither, but feared an open batttle if he would not give this much to the Redemptionists.

The captured redemptionists are put on trial (the trial willb begin about two days after the pc arrive. The judge was busy with other things first). As long as it seems that they will get "scotts free", the Redemtionists will keep things under the hood and stay to flaming retorics. If the judge is to find them guilty, this group might raise hell.

The nerves off the enforcers are on edge. They are "besieged" by the Redemptionist, still try to put an end to the machinations of the Pilgrims (but they do not know this name nor does it much lock like chaos right now), some of them feel anger about the lynching and have to keep unrest from boiling up.

The citizens are divided. The most of them are a quiet mass who just keep there heads down in hope that it will not be them, muttering "not my business" or "we need to wait for the trial", a minority is sickend by the lynching and but are not decided enough to do anything. They just feel helpless and grow more and more frustrated. Some of them muttering that "indeed, we are cattle".

The judge knows that this will be tricky. He is cunning and sees his job not only in giving justice but in maintaining civil order. Normally, he would not think twice to sentence the Pilgrims, but the enforcers will not get any reinforcemnts from other districts quick. And calling out to the PDF would worsen the moral of the whole city..

The local preacher was enraged by the defacing and started to preach hate and revenge. Now, he keeps preaching these against "those blasphemous iconoclast hidng in the parish". And earns the quiet scorn of some of this flok for the lynching.

The task of the pc is not only to find the culprit and put and end to this, they need to deal with the whole situation one way or another. No matter if the culprit is captured, the situation has to be solved.

the REAL pilgrims are still in the area as the pc arrive. They are to much of rabid beasts to lay it low. They are among the beggars and homeless. There leader is "blind Antone". Antone is really blind, but he was granted senses of the warp. (Unnatural Sense: 50 meters) and the ability to see in the hearts of people. Thereby, he is an able recruiter for the Pilgrims. Blind Atone only knows about the false priest (a roaming monk) who bestowed the Epiphany on him. Of course, he cannot describe his face. Even under torture. But if the asked around in the Almshouses, they might get an anwser. But this is tricky, if done after Antone is put to judgement. After all, who will admit to have had any dealings with a worshipper of chaos?. (Please take note: there will be no big fight scene at the end of this. Blind Antone will try to flee if approached by a pc intending to capture him. As soon as someone is within 50m, he knows what this man is up to.
The deed: is done with mundane colour (brown, for fences) a lot of shops have in store. Blind Antone broke into a shop over a week ago and stole some of it. He always leave the rest of the colour behind, so not to be catched. But he has some of it still under his nails and some sprinkles on his cloth. It does not stick out among all the other filth, so one had to check him closely for this.

How to deal with the situation: If the pc do not interfer, the judge will either rule that the youngsters were indeed guilty (if the pc do not discover the truth in time) or give pardon to the Redemptionists, but insist on the them to circle through the streets, castigating themselves and begging the Emperor for forgiveness. In addition, they will have to pay "blood money" (50 thrones each) for the killing of the boys to the family. Nothing they would frown apon and cloth to scotts-free. In this case, the seed for the Pilgrims will grow.

If the pc will reassure the judge that they will support the enforcers and keeping the Redemptionists down, the judge will find the Redemptonists guilty and will sentence them to 10 years in a stone quarry (for manslaughter, not murder) with the option to get pardoned after 5 years by the preacher. The leader of the Redeptionists will grow mad about this. If the pc do not persuade him to accept the judgement (Hard to begin with; getting easier by one step for each of the following: having found the real culprit in time; having the local preacher on there side) they will try to free there brothers. If the pc gain three success, the Redemptionist will stay down and will have no bad blood. If less succes are achieved, a pc with Common Lore (Imperial Creed) can suggest a ordeal by battle to the Redemptionist (+10 if the pc is a local. It is an old custom seldom in use here, but it can be used). In that case, it will be a battle between one of the pc and a mean eviscerator wielding redemptionist on a market square. to the bloody death). Otherwise, the Redemptionists will take there time to talk themselves into a rage and then march toward the enforcer station. Demanding there brothers "or else..". In this case, it is a whole-scale-battle. Anyway, unless the pc talk the Redemptionists down, it will worsen the relationsship with all Redemptionists on this world (the word spreads).

The pc can of course side with the Redemptionists. This will smoothen things over in the futur with them (they are more likely to listen to them or to be "directed" by them) but will only strengthen the resentment in this parish.

Getting the preacher is something difficult. He believes there is nothing wrong about the deeds of the Redemptionists. It need an ordinary(+10) test of Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed) and a opposed test (Willpower vs. the pc Charisma (or substitut skill) to win him over. If he is one over, he can be brought to preach forgiveness among brothers and penance, and that the Emperor gives and takes all and that all is in his hand. If he does so, the seed of the Pilgrims will not grow in this parish.

To notice the current in the parish, perhaps an extended test for Scrutiny (perhaps one each encounter/investigation within the parish) to notice what is going on. And what to do against it. 10 success could be it.

I hope this helps!

I would buy some time with a False Prophet.

As per the modus operandi of the Pilgrims, the Prophet sets up the cult and then let it run wild as they slip away to begin his or her work somewhere else. The actual momentum of the uprising becomes a force unto itself, centered around the nihilistic chaos worship of the Pilgrim ideology, needing little in the way of supervision.

So, the PCs arrive quickly and are truly the only ones with a chance to catch the False Prophet before he escapes, and the capture of the Prophet would be a significant feather in the cap of their Inquisitor and a nice boost to their own status as well. Something about striking at the cause, rather then the symptoms. Since neither the Redemption or the uprising itself are in full swing, it gives the opportunity for a lot of James Bond action with a mix of investigation and cloak and dagger combat. And always in the background is the knowledge that the clock is ticking and the flames are rising.

I would very much consider such a side adventure optional. Capturing the False Prophet might grant them some insights into dealing with the cult, but its doubtful they can get him to talk (in the event they actually take him alive) in time, or that he even knows anything useful about the holocaust he's ignited. Capturing the Prophet could be considered a great "bonus" objective and not one that should even be guaranteed to happen...

However, the capture of the Prophet won't stop the Pilgrims once they are set in motion, so the rest of your plot line can still unwind as you wish it. Just push the time table back a little bit. Hell, as the players battle the Prophet have him taunt them about the coming Apocalypse and how they are powerless to stop it for additional for shadowing.

Alternatively, the False Prophet might have chosen to stay in control of the uprising. This would mean he has some sinister goal or purpose on the planet powerful enough to make him take such a risk...

First of all a question, are the Acolytes undercover on the planet or with 'full’ inquisitorial backup/authority?

Anyway, I would prepare some mini-episodes, where certain power groups have to be dealt with in one way or the other, focussing thereby on interactions that could further make the Adept (with his knowledge skills) feel more productive.

So, you already have the Redemptionists and the Enforcers, and could furthermore include some kind of communal/local leader who has some authority in regard to the working class citizenry, a rather mundane agitator and rabble-rouser who leads the unhappy citizenry on demonstrations (so far rather peaceful though), the planetary/local Adeptus Arbites (Provost) that gets drawn into it due to the massed insurgency and due to the terrorist attacks endangering the local Adepta and the planetary security/stability as a whole (and thereby its tithe production), the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor or some kind of his vanguard (rivalling Acolytes or even Throne Agent(s)) preparing his arrival and putting out feelers, the local Ecclesiarchy in form of a deacon (or preacher) that could maybe influence the Redemptionists (for the good or the bad) and even a PDF captain and his soldiers (+light tanks) drawing near and cordoning off parts of the city.

If the players like it more combat orientated you could always change any ‘peaceful’ interaction with a certain faction to a shootout due to a misunderstanding or the appearance of a third ‘hostile’ faction during the interaction or an (suicide) attack by the Pilgrims (or even their Dybuks..).

Gregorius21778 said:

first, a question on my side: anythinig special about the world itself? You mention food production, and that this will get sabotaged to the point of food riots. To me, this indicates that it is either not an agri world OR that you plan some big sabotage
Mind sketching out your general plot? It is always easier to contribute to the whole picture if one knows the picture.

Canopus is not an Agriworld. The map of the Calaxic Sector calls it a Hive World, but there is no symbol for a generic Imperial World, so I'm asuming that the Hive World subsumes Imperial Worlds, too. Since it is not on a major Warp route, I'm thinking that it would have to be fairly self-suficient, a fact that contributes to the population's belief in their Superior Origins (as per the Imperial World background from the core rulebook)- and that smug sense of contintment is exactly what enrages the Pilgrims of Hayte; hence, the destruction of Canopus would be a proud accomplishment.

-And, yes, the Pilgrim's False Prophet does have an ulterior motive to targeting Canopus, but I don't want to reveal too many specifics, in case one of my players stumbles upon this thread...

The Redemptionists could already be there, I suppose, but I kind of like the idea of the "Oh crap..." moment when the PCs realize that things just got a whole lot more complicated...

Luthor Harkon said:

The latter. I've already established that the Josian Reach is kind of the "rust belt" of the Calaxis Sector (a prominant manufacturing hub in the early days of the settlement of the Sector, but with the explosive growth along the Rimward edge it is becoming obsolete) and thus is underresourced by the Sector government on Scintilla. Hence, the only Inquisitorial presence on the planet is a lone field office bureaucrat who can liase with the planetary government, but is useless in the field (I'm kind of basing him on Rowan Atkinson's character in Never Say Never Again: sort of a comedy relief doofus who finds this all "terribly exciting!"). So, the "full Inquisitorial back-up" will be pretty minimal. -And the local Arbites are none too thrilled about having to awnser to off-worlders, despite the fact that they are mostly pencil-pushers who just verify the Imperial Tithe, and have no experience with a situation like this.

Adeptus-B said:

Adeptus-B said:

Sounds more like the Administratum if you ask me. If the Arbites train for (or have experience in) anything, then for a situation like this (i.e. counter-insurgency).

Gregorius21778 said:

Arbites as pencil pushers who have no experience with putting down a riot or rebellion?

I'm picturing Canopus as a pretty docile world- not a typical (by 40k standards) gritty, violent hell-hole. I'm thinking riots would be a very rare occurance, and rebellion totally unheard of. Hence, the upcoming events will be all the more shocking to the planetary population. Previously, the small local Arbites precinct dealt mainly with auditing financial records to ensure an accurate collection of the Imperial Tithe. They are totally unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude...

Adeptus-B said:

Gregorius21778 said:

Arbites as pencil pushers who have no experience with putting down a riot or rebellion?

I'm picturing Canopus as a pretty docile world- not a typical (by 40k standards) gritty, violent hell-hole. I'm thinking riots would be a very rare occurance, and rebellion totally unheard of. Hence, the upcoming events will be all the more shocking to the planetary population. Previously, the small local Arbites precinct dealt mainly with auditing financial records to ensure an accurate collection of the Imperial Tithe. They are totally unprepared to deal with a disaster of this magnitude...

The Arbites aren´t a local force. The are one the Adepta. It might be true that on a given world they haven´t yet any big things to do, but every one of them is trained for such a thing. They might not fare well do to getting soft by lack of real threats, but depicting them as pencil pushers is (in my view) simply wrong.

EDIT: I could imagine, however, that due to the peacefulness of this planet there size has been drastically reduce over the years (in need of men to fight uprise on other, more unruly worlds). If you change them from "incompetent and numerous" to "a few good man...but simply to few" you have the effect you want (not much impact on things going on).

What Gregorius said.

Normally the Arbites are even shifted regularly through the different precincts, so they are not stationed too long on the same planet and are never stationed on their home world. Undermanned is okay and maybe even having more ‘reluctant’ Arbites (sounds like an oxymoron…) around as it is known to be a peaceful planet and thus hardliners are less common here (the Arbites on the planet Sinophia are also sent there for certain (not so glorious) reasons and became a sort of a mirror (pun intended…) to the locality).

I'm skeptical that an FBI branch office in Wyoming or Ohio or Tenessee are identical in every way to ones in California or Florida or New York, but whatever...

Getting back to my original question- I'm looking for episodes that emerge organically from the basic plot outlined above. Something like:

• MUTANT UPRISING- The mutant population, held for slave labor in work camps on the outskirts of the cities, use the chaos caused by the terrorist attacks to stage a revolt.
• PROFITEER- A greedy merchant tries to exploit the food shortages by hording the remaining supplies of food, causing riots to flare up in districts as yet uneffected by the terrorist attacks.
• SUSPISIOUS PRIEST- When investigating an attack on an outlying temple, the party notices that the presiding priest is acting very nervous, as if he has inside information about the Pilgrims, but it turns out that he is just worried that the Inquisition will discover that he has been skimming from the donations for years.

-Stuff like that. I want to put togeather a sizable list of episodes, so I can drop them in as the situation calls for.

Adeptus-B said:

I don't think anyone suggested that; the point being made was that the Arbites are, if anything, the ideal people to have at your side when fending off planetary rebellion - it is, afterall, one of the things they exist to deal with.

However, every planet's needs will be different, and the resources of the Imperium, vast as they are, can only stretch so far. Many worlds have smaller Arbites presences than they perhaps should, and some worlds have none at all, overseen only by a patrolling precinct-ship that may take months or years to complete its route and visit each world along that path.

Individual worlds will have different Arbites presences, certainly; the point of contention wasn't that, so much as the presentation of the Arbitrators themselves. Auditing tithe records is a job for one of the millions of divisions, offices or departments of the Administratum, not the Adeptus Arbites, and being an Arbitrator isn't really a desk job.

Can we please stop talking about the Arbites and get back to my original question? Does anyone have any suggestions for adding episodes to my plot?

Idea: Bombs and supplies
Requierements: A number of PDF military basis without any psykers at there hand

Since the "civil unrests" started, a number of PDF military bases has been bombed (number of your choosing, see below). As far as the PDF were able to reconstruct themselves, the main weapons supply has been blown up. While the explosions are not erradicating the whole stations, it takes away the weapons supplies and harms the moral of the PDF to no small degree. The PDF commander does not know what to do. Non of these were missile strikes or mortar attacks, as all the surviving PDF clearly explain. His own demolitionist experts tell him that in all cases, it was a bomb planted inside of the weapons locker. And as it seems,the attacker move a long a certain line from one basis to the next.

What is going on?
A sorcerer of the Pilgrims has the power to transport himself from a nearby place (not more then 1km away) into the weapons storage (see RH p.170 for a similiar sorcery). He first "augurs" the spot form afar, to be able to open a portal lasting a couple of minutes. Then, he enter through the portal with a bomb and a small group of men/mutants (fuel bomb or a bomb made from fertilizer chemicals) and then leaves thru the portal with his flunkies and some boxes of supplies (a crate of weapons or ammo). Then, they travell with a stolen truck to the next location. Perhaps meeting with other cells in-between to hand over some weapons and supplies.

In order to pull this off, he needs human sacrifices (which he kidnapps from nearby villages), a spot not more then a kilometer away from the PDF base in question (a piece of wood, an empty building). The begins with auguring the place and then starts the ritual (which involves hours of chanting and the sacrifices).

How can the pc find out?
Questioning the survivours will lead to tales of spooky events throughout the base before (minor thinks like milk turning sour, bad dreams, chills, snuffing candles etc; a side effect of the augury spells). Investigation of the surounding villages will rewill kidnapping in the same time. Good rolls on Inquiry will give them spottings about the same (ex-)military truck (not belonging to the base; if this is checked). If spots buildings near the military bases (all are stations in rather clear fields for military reason... but there are always some buildings and/or spots around them) are searched, the remainders of the ritual might be found.

The pc can counter this by either waiting inside the weapons storage (the whole time) or by checking the surrounding spots and buildings. There should be a time limit involved (after all, the pilgrim cell will be finished at some spot). If the pc wait inside, the pilgrims will start the bomb and retreat through the portal. The pc can either try to defuse the bomb or follow them through the portal themselves (corruption points!). Perhaps one of them suicide-bombs himself and inflicts lots of damage to the pc (if this is an option, there should have been a case in one of the already exploded stations there were guards inside the storage area..to no avail).

The better way, of course, would be to check the surrounding, find the ritual and interrupt it.

Well, one simple way of 'adding time' is simply work with more descriptive travel time. 40K might be a sci-fi setting but it's actually more medieval for the average citizen. For instance, if the character have to travel to another city on the same planet, have it take days instead of hours. Don't let them use a quickie city-hopper shuttle thing but have them use a road convoy, or a long train ride, a few-day-long boat ride, a lengthy transit onboard an air ship and such.

You can use this travel time far little mini adventures of ambush and intrigue or you can just use the time in your description of the travel. 'After three day of travel onboard the trans-continental-basin express, you arrive at...).

I frequently add sequences like this to my sessions when characters are traveling planet-side. It adds a nice realistic flavour I think in the spirit of the 'low-tech' nature of the civilian Imperium. They need to travel somewhere by ground vehicle over rough terrain? No prob, traveling over untrodden ground by any means is slow so a few 100km trip can easily take a day or two, while on a highway you'd be able to it in a few hours.

Same goes for research, if your adept wants to spend some time researching things, great, have him spend time on it. Instead of saying, you spend a day going through notes and study, say; you spend a week meticulously pouring over mountains of parchments, dataslates, micro-files and storage cristals, compiling and filtering data, making notes and charts, cross-checking and double checking... For the other characters you can give them this opportunity to spend some game-time on upgrading that fav weapon of his, finally attaching and calibrating that red dot sight, or spend a few days training hand-to-hand combat, or wooing that pretty seamstress over at the neighbouring manufactorium... And in case they don't immediatly have an idea to use the time, just shortly describe their few days of lounging around and slipping in to routine while the adepts slave away on their cogitators or the Tehcpriest is mounting and calibrating that lascannon on the desert buggy. Even if the research action only takes a dice-roll or two, you can easily stretch out the action itself over a few days, even a week without losing pace.

Really use that mediaval mindset to your advantage, where the average citizen has no access to transport and take easily take two days traveling over a distance of 40km...

They have a rusty and centuries-old cargo-8? Great, a few hundred of km's in a few days.

They need to find something in the planet's capital library? No prob, here, have a week.

They arrived early on a planet and have to wait for their target to arrive? Fine, find a hideout, work out the plan, and wait a few weeks.

They want to shadow their target to find out the daily routine? No prob, follow him for a week or two without describing each and every day.

The party's a bit tech savvy and wants to upgrade their gear by themselves? Now you've got the time to do it properly as the transit time in the warp will take a month and a half...

The players just added some extra skills but have no real in-game-session excuse to train realistically? Fine, use the weeks of waiting and traveling to your descriptive advantage.

Okay, to elaborate a little on what I already mentioned:

communal/local leader – The PCs might hear about him (Inquiry) being some sort of ‘village elder’, ‘clan leader’ ‘union head’ or simply respected citizen who has influence on the mundane citizenry and workers of the district. He could tell the PCs of the recent developments in the city/district and the local players and perhaps even help him with a city guide or even some sort of muscle.
Before he is of help he maybe wants the off-worlders (i.e. PCs) to help him rescuing his daughter (or any other person) from the clutches of the PoH or the more mundane insurgents, or to help him getting rid of the Redemptionists camping in his dooryard and subjecting the citizens/workers to a daily strip-search.

agitator and rabble-rouser – While on the streets, the PCs might encounter the (rather peaceful) demonstrators and/or insurgents throwing rocks (maybe even a fire bomb) on a trade house or enforcer station. They might also take note of some agitator and soapbox orator sort of leading (and inflaming) the mob. Maybe the PCs can ally with him, simply kill him (openly or hidden) or shadow him for a while. He could ask for and offer similar things as the above mentioned ‘local leader’. Maybe the Pcs even suspect him of being in league with the PoH and maybe he even is (with or without knowledge)…

planetary/local Adeptus Arbites – The arbitrators might already be on the streets with suppression shield and shock maul and trying to quell the insurgency without too much bloodshed. Understaffed and maybe even badly led, the Arbites desperately try to clear important arteria lanes, protect buildings of the local adepta, and have street battles with the demonstrators and maybe even the Redemptionists they try to keep in check. The overworked Provost in a nearby precincts guardhouse might join forces with the PCs if persuaded one way or the others, want them to run errands for him or help out at critical locations maybe even in a sort of bounty hunt for the head of the insurgents (alive most probably).

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor or some vanguard – Let the Inquisitor arrive with full force (even though I would keep the numbers relatively small – thus not with dozens of inquisitorial Storm-Troopers) or his Interrogator /Acolytes /Throne Agents as a vanguard. Maybe the later option is better, as a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor with full authority would skip the balance of power too much. So let a shadowy Interrogator or a handful of specialized Acolytes (3-5) appear asking questions in a similar way to the PCs but maybe with a more ‘fist in your face’-attitude and/or ‘scorched earth’ policy. Most things might undermine the plans of the PCs like killing the agitator they allied with, whipping up the Redmptionists the PCs just soothed or even negotiated a truth with and forcing the Arbites to act more heavy handed.
Collaborating or reasoning with him/them should be very difficult and maybe they even deceive them in one way or the other (like pretending to collaborate).

local Ecclesiarchy – The local Ecclesiarchy could be anything from being sinfully passive, reluctant and somehow even in fear of the Redepmtionists to being quite proactive in supporting the Redemptionists (openly or not) and even having the odd duo of Sororitas Battle-Sister around to enforce certain things or at least to protect the Ministorum ground and cathedral (by shooting bolt rounds into any demonstrators nearing the cathedral for about a hundred meters…). The PCs might try to convince the local deacon/preacher in charge to try to calm down the Redemptionists and/or insurgents in one way or the other or even to support him with a Battle-Sister or two (that last option would most probably only work (if at all) if one of the PCs is a high ranking cleric or Battle-Sister herself).

planetary defence force – The PDF might arrive in force to cordon off the revolting district or even to fight down the insurgency together with the Arbites. What kind of PDF it is, depends heavily on the planet and its rulers. I would feature them as kind of similar (if less professional) as the Imperial Guard with Chimera and Hellhound tanks, flak armoured and Lasgun armed soldiers and unfitting camo fatigues. They are not used to or trained in urban conflicts, let alone counter-insurgencies. The mundane soldier is uncooperative with a shoot-first-ask-question-later-attitude. The leading captain is out of his depth and not very cooperative either; he simply obeys orders. He might cooperate, if it somehow helps him being able to obey the orders he got or if it helps him and his men one way or the other. He does not want to risk his men without strong reason and wants no bloodshed either. If the PCs can somehow convince him of some extreme danger at hand (e.g. mutants running amok in the streets butchering Arbites left and right), he might act, but with force (they are the hammer, not the scalpel) and with no sense for possible collateral damage.

The Eve of Carnage

While the pc go about there investigations, they receive an urgent demand for aid: some hours ago, a slave rivolt started in the city of Eve, a large community near the capital which is sporting the planets largest Carnivora.

But the reason for the pc to show up is not that the forma gladiators are now free. It is not that they run amok and literally turn the streets red with blood. Even the fact that they opend the cages of the saurian beasts is not the real point. Daemons appeared. The populace is in panic and the PDF might break soon. This must be dealt with NOW.

What is going on?
Through a a follower of the false prophet whom disguised himself as a lay clergy preaching to the gladiators, the foul cult of the pilgrims seeded into the gladiator cellblocks. With a little help from the outside, they started a prison revolt an overwhelmed the guards. Lots of blood was spilled as unarmed gladiators throwed themselves against armed guards, 10 of them dieing just to allow one of them to get his hands around the throat of the guards. And there were plenty of guards. Once armed, the frenzied mob freed the saurian beasts (who mostly killed each other on the spot or feasted on those freeing them) and then poured into the city. Not to hide, but to slaugther. Some of them with a roared praise to the blood god.

Quickly, enough crimson devotion was brought to allow daemons of the King of Skulls to enter realspace to join the fray. Actually, the city of Eve sinks into panic, PDF units break and disperse in dispair and the roads are blocked by the cars of those trying to flee. Fires burn and the city seems all but lost.

What are the pc to do?
Helping with organicing the evacuation (getting on spot; using Logic or similiar skills to get things in order and command to make the troops and civilians act on what is said) while boosting the moral of the PDF ("Members of the Inquisition are here!") is a good start. Banishing the Charnel Daemon (or Blood Letters!) (p.350 DH core rules) might be helpful as well.

Additionaly, it might be unwise to allow the citizens of Eve to flee. Why they can not be left for the Daemons to slaugther them (this would strengthen them), they need to be direct somewhere else. Somewhere were Confessors and Clergyman can... see after the damage done to the soul. And are able to deal with those who might have seen to much...

You mentioned wanting to include your adept abit more, so you could have some wrangling with the local administratum officials:

They have backup stores of food available on the planet but cant/wont distribute them, something like the trucks being ambushed or communications not getting through or not being followed with a corrupted adept at the station. Or possibly higher-up officials wont authorise it without some favours or some such, possibly running some errands could help them out.
This could take the form of anything really, from mundane stuff (taking care of a gambling debt or working through administratum red tape) or some other scenarios related to the cultist activity (again, removing a possibly corrupt adept, or smoking one out of a group), or even taking over some of the responsibilities of handling the crises.