First off: if you're playing in a campaign in Darmstadt, stop reading.

My players have behaved very well in the last adventure, satisfying the wishes of their inquisitor to the fullest, so they got handed a new mission with a LOT of power and responsibility: take control of a light cruiser and determine if the population of a planetary system that has recently resurfaced after a millennia-long warp storm is fit to be incorporated into the empire or if it has to be quarantined. The Tech-Level is comparable to the middle ages. This are the facts the players know.

My plan is to have them encounter a society that is spread over a single, big continent, with about a hundred different power-groups, some heretical(but not chaos-following, just fallen from the imperial creed, following strange gods or totems) but mostly fit for integration. The sole exception is a city-state that is described by the others as run by an evil council of oracles that control mind and soul of the population.

The plan is to have the city-state being under the influence of enslavers. When the threat first became apparent millenia ago, an inquisitor sealed the whole system with a warp storm, so the enslavers never got reinforcements. Afterwards the inquisitor waged a war against the enslavers, largely successful, only the one city-state escaped his wrath, mostly due to the fact that the industry of the planet was shattered by this war and most of the population killed. The planet slowly rebuilt to a level of blackpowder weapons. The other states fear the city-state and appeases it with human sacrifices, sometimes this city-state wages wars without provocation, generally the other nations just try to stay out of it's way because apparently everyone who enters the city-states borders falls to their evil ways. But since the warp storm ceased, the enslavers pull in more and more enslavers, making them always stronger. Unbeknownst to the population the enslavers have used this reinforcements to established warp-gates in the other states.

The players have to figure out what the enslavers are and how to deal with them.

If they use the light cruiser to wipe out the city-state, the enslavers will re-emerge in other states, carefully obscuring their presence until it is too late. If they try a ground assault, their forces will succumb to the masses the enslavers control. Infiltration will be almost impossible since the enslavers know everything that happens on their turf, taking over those that dare to cross their border.

The inquisitor that last sealed the system in the warp storm was buried in a crypt, this crypt has been lost but the players can learn clues to it's location from the other states. In the crypt they will find detailed informations about the enslavers and arcane devices to help combat them(maybe even the inquisitor in a stasis field?).

That's my idea so far, haven't done much more. Any comments?

Yorik said:

I think the "Enslaver Enclave on a forlorn world" is a good idea, but this "Inquisitor sealed it with a warp storm" gives me more then a pause.

Beside the "how did he managed THAT", the fact that he is able to do so would make him (in my opinion) more a threat to the Imperium then the Enslaver Enclave itself.

Besides that, why didn´t he Virus-bombed the world instead of summoning a warp storm? This whole thing is alike to driving off the burglars from the streets with a pride of untamed lions released with nobody in control of them...


My advise : cut this part out.


Another potential problem comes from the player having a light military cruiser under their command. What keeps them from simply bombing the oracle city from high-above. Preliminary? If everyone else on the world is talking about "bad mojo" going on in THIS CITY, why not erradicating it?

My advise: Do not take a Light Cruiser. Perhaps there was non available. Give them a troop transporter with the equivalent of an infantry regiment. No or next to non air jets. If the pc march on the city, they will see their forces turned against them.

Mind-Control: What will keep the Enslavers from taking over the pc? "Nothing" is a valid answer, but be sure to take this into account. Perhaps your pc will want to burn some fate not to get controlled

I should have mentioned this:

The Inquisitor(Bob for now) was investigation a (C'tan/Necron/Old ones/dunno) tomb on the world when he started to notice the enslavers. He then used the devices in the tomb to seal the system, hoping to later deactivate the storm, which he never managed to do. If he had just nova-bombed the world, the tomb would have been destroyed too. This is a set-up for the meta-campaign, and should be of little consequence since the tomb is now without power(hence the end of the warp-storm).

I am fully aware that my players will most likely use their light cruiser to wipe Badmojoistan from the planet, which would be unfortunate for them. As long as it exists, they can learn from it, determine what the threat is exactly, maybe unite the other states against Badmojoistan. If they nuke it the enslavers in the other towns will lay low, undetected, growing stronger until they have enough power to take over the light cruiser. Why else would i give them this powerful ship?

I imagine that the enslavers have a limited range with their powers, the range grows the more aggregate at the same place. i dunno if that's in the fluff like that, but it gives the players a fighting chance.

And well, if they are so stupid as to venture into Badmojoistan or too close to the enslavers: burn fatepoints

EDIT: Since they aren't inquisitors yet, they can't very well command exterminatus. if they have to request this(or other kinds of reinforcements) someone more qualified will take over the job, which would be a failure. So i HAVE to give them enough troops and firepower so they feel they have a fighting chance.

Yorik said:

This is all well and good, but why would they stick around long enough for the enslavers to respond? If the rest of the world is fit for intergration, wouldn't they just nuke the one city and then radio back to the empire that this planet is good to go? Do they have any other reason to stay after taking care of the obvious threat?

Steve-O said:

Well, i guess they want to find out what caused the warp-storm(since the locals will tell them that an inquisitor made it happen somehow), and determining if the planet is corruption-free will take a lot of time. They have 6 months to determine if the planet is ready for reintegration. I am also thinking about throwing a light feral ork infestation at them along with a rogue trader poking his nose around, looking for a business opportunity.

Hi Yorik,

okay, I got your set-up now

Looooong term investigation:
Since they are actually into investigating the state of affairs of a whole world, I would advise to come up with an "Investigation Chart" just like the one we all grew familiar with from other publications. With the difference that this time it is measured in weeks. I would allow each of them roles to allocate success, perhaps even handing out boni for having corresponding lore skills and/or usefull talents.

No matter what, they will get "base info" you need them to have (the "plot hook"). For every level of success, give them some "handy" information that will be of use later on (that the "Cabal of the Oracle" is rumoured/known to have established agents in X other cities, that xyz is in union with them etc.)

This way, the might even come up with potential allies you might hand them as "side quests"

Side Quests:
Since they will fly around in a gun-cutter or something similiar, you could at some social elements by allowing them to fly from court to court to rally other military forces under their banner. Which will be a problem since the other powergroups will be reluctant to confront the "bad citiy"

Talking "the bad city":
Do you already have a name for it? My suggestion " Mora Brey " which will be "Home of the Oracle" in the native tongue. The followers will be " Sirith Brey " (Sworn of the Oracle) and the headhonchos (the possessed leaders) will go by the title of "Alchan Brey" (Voice of the Oracle).

The tomb and the city:
Did you already have an idea where this tomb is? Perhaps it is near the city. If the Enslavers managed to overcome the tomb-guardians by sheer numbers, the Sirith Brey could have gained hold of some advanced weapon. Think "Stargate".

Fighting in build-up areas:
No matter what, the military forces on the disposal of the pc will outgun, outnumber AND outclass whatever the Enslavers have at hand. If it would be otherwise, the warp-presence would be very obvious to a psyker. And the ship will have psykers on board.

My advice: Allow them some round of "we take the city", coming up with some key locations and some battle scenes they can commandeer rather then fight themselves (our both, if they wish so). Since they will have SOME guncutters, they will but them into good use. This will make the crew of the guncutters the prime targets.
So, as soon at the march of glory reaches the center, make the guncutters who are in for "close air support" strafe-run their own comrades and make them CRASH to the ground. This way, this resources are gone and getting reinforcements to the ground will be much-much harder.
The same time, units approaching the "central of the cities" start to fight among themselves and root. The pc will first and foremost have to coordinate a retreat and re-unite the demoralized troops

A perfect storm:
Want to go real harsh on the pc? Perhaps unique atmospheric conditions hinder vox communications. How about even a guncutters communications system being reduced to 5km reach? No commincation with the Cruiser onless a guncutter leaves the planet behind (see above).

Purge the Mutant:
If the warp storm was due to some artefact on this world, it will have been close enough to influence the planet (me thinks). In that case, you will have a higher number of mutations. Nothing that would demand a purge of the whole worlds, but the pc might feel tempted to spread there own resources thin will ordering the purge.

Fighting in Build-up areas, too:
...and if there are mutants, the Alchan Brey might have some squads of giant mutant shocktroops you can throw at pc.

Mind control you say...?
Keep this information away from the pc. The natives will talk about all sorts of evil witchraft, but only allow give the mind-control info away if the pc achieve good success on there initial footwork. This way, they cannot prepare and "Fighting in build-up areas" will be a nice surprise for them... if they really go in storming the citiy.

"but hey are intedend to investigate the city"
I still see one flaw in the approach: you need the players to know that they have to. This can be achieved by giving them the info that this other Inquisitors ("a leader of sky-men, just like you") is stil held captive in the city (which is unlikely...but the rumour might persist)... on the other hand, your Inquisitor could have a tech-priest ("a steel man") in his retinue. THIS one could still be alive and in the hands of the Alchan Brey (the legend of a huge battle ended with the the sky-men beaten and the steele men loosing all of his limbs. But him not dieing. So he was dragged into the catacombs of the Alchan-Brey)

Your orginal outline suggests the players have a say in wha happens to this world, they could just deem that after a short time that it needs quarantining until a cap ship with authorisation to purge the planet arrives. This would still be a success by the mandate you have laid out. Just from reading it, it seems that your players have very little hope of actually dealing with the problem, if none of them get mind controlled it'll be a miracle, but if the enslavers can control a whole cities population what chance do your players really have? If the enslavers know everything that is going on within their borders, then they should stop at nothing to control the players to report back that the world should be brough back into the Imperium as soon as possible (this would add to the population and more people to control). It seems a bit lose/lose, if they destroy the city from orbit they fail, if they attempt a ground assult they fail, if they get anywhere near the city they get controlled and therefore fail.

You maybe better off having them investigate the source of the warpstorm first, as Inquisitoral records would show that an Inquisitor was there before it started, it may even state what he was looking into, not that you need to pass that on to the players.

A rogue trader is a cool idea, if anything he maybe more help than your players can handle, as for an ork infestion, they report that orks are present and almost impossible to get rid of, take Armeggedon for example, then it would almost be certain that the Inquisition would quarantine the world with looking at removing the ork presence first probably via Deathwatch or IG assualt on the planet and if that didn't work it would get virus bombed, as it is currently not an Imperial world that is of a major concern.

If it is going to be some kind of "tomb"...use ruins instead and if it has to be a warp storm it'd be linked to the Old Ones....Necrons don't mess with the warp it is their bane.

Also what stopped the enslavers from taking over the whole planet?...I mean they are all clumped together in one large landmass. Soooo mind control the entire world...wait for more people to come look around....mind control... rinse and repeat?

I was really afraid going into this adventure, fearing it would be impossible to write, but all your feedback is helping me quiet a lot, mostly by pointing out weaknesses in my premise. This led to this re-write:

From the description of the enslavers in the Creatures Anathema it seems that enslavers have to be in 3s to open the warpgates, which in turn then attracts more enslavers to the gates. Then they can pass through the gate and manifest. It also says that their minds are pretty alien, far removed from the way humans think. Apparently they also have a limit to the amount of people they can control, which comes in handy, and i guess they can only start the enslaving process on sight(at least when they have allready some slaves under control, but range is limited to a kilometre even when completely distraction-free).

So when enslavers first arrive at a world you basically have 2 options: Get rid of them early, or destroy the planet as more and more come to this world. After reading about the enslavers on wh40k.lexicanum.com i now have an idea that would make the basic concept still playable.

First of: apparently the enslavers were a huge enslaver plague back when the c'tan were rulers of the galaxy, wiping out all live in the galaxy. So why not have a Laboratory of the Old Ones™ on the planet that Inquisitor Bob found? He then released some enslavers onto the planet by accident. This triggered a containment protocol that started the warp-storm, trapping the enslavers to the planet and hindering other enslavers to help in the fight. The inquisitor dedicated all his life to the fight against the enslavers, but ultimate victory was denied, mainly because the enslavers made the laboratory their fortress. The population of the planet learned to recognise psykers, rooting them out wherever they found them, so the enslavers could not establish new gates. Sometimes the enslavers would start to conquer other countries but this would time and time be repelled by the other states, but as the enslavers were always able to retreat to the lab(which is a few square kilometres big, with lots of structures crumbled to ruins), able to regrow their human slave population. This assumes that enslavers have limitations in regards to range and amount of people they can control.

So, now the warp storm ends. The enslavers are able to get reinforcements, more and more of them flock to the system and go through the gate in the lab, more and more enslavers appear and thus they can start to push back the people that mount the huge wall around their territory, built millenia ago to keep them in(think wall of china). Now the players arrive. They can't take out the lab from orbit due to it's force-field(or something more exotic?) and a ground assault would be unwise since the enslavers are on their hometurf + can take over those venturing in. At least, progress would be very slow, due to the limited ressources. If they deem the entire planet unfit for reintergation i will play up the fact that the population greets them as saviours, foretold in prophesy, send by the god-emperor. Then they tell them that Inquisitor Bob had found a way to rid the world of the enslavers, but was denied to do so because of the warp storm(according to ancient prophesy). They say he found a device, left behind by the old ones, that would harness the power of the warp itself to wipe the enslavers out. So they have to search for millenia old clues to find the device, organize the states to set away rivalries and grudges of the past to field an effective defense(since most states that aren't right next to the wall don't belive in the enslaver-threat or condemn the empire for abbandoning them in the past or have other problems like small feral ork infestations) while the players wait for imperial reinforcements(which trickle in over a few months time, as the gears of the administratum munitorum are turning very slowly).

A device that could be used to combat the enslavers would be a price well sought after by the empire, the lab of the ancients even more so. This should provide enough motivation for the players.

It would also provide the group with some interesting choices:

- How much can psykers be tolerated given the risks they pose? (2 of the players are psykers, one is deeply mistrusted by all)

- Will they use heretics and mutants to swell their ranks?

- What about the orks? Will they (try) to use them in the fight?

- Is it okay to use ancient xenos devices?

I guess if they successfully use the device it will alert the necrons, wich i plan to use later in the campaign at ascencion level. I can even throw in some eldar, forseeing that this will happen and trying to stop the players from activating the device, pressing them to wipe out the planet instead. And if they fail to find the device and get overrun i can still send in the inquisitor with Exterminatus, although he won't be happy about this.

Hopefully this has closed any gaps in plot and playability, but as i'm sure it hasn't, would you all please be so kind as to point them out to me? it would be much appreciated

I am going to my grandmothers 80th birthday this weekend, i'm back on sunday.

cya

Firstly your pykers, they will bear the imperial brand somewhere about there person, this is there sanction brand, normally it's the aquilla on the forehead, so clearly they work for the Empourer. If any of the locals doubt that, then they are players, better equipped and better skilled than your average joe, so let them crack some skulls if that's what it takes, perhaps you could have a more tolerant villager tell teh mnot to leave their pyker friends alone anywhere.

Second that's up to your players but they better be able to explain when asked.

Orks are a bad idea. Although Orks live to fight, they don't generally take sides and a small infestion would quickly turn into a large one. Orks reproduce via spores, one ork can breed atleast 10 in one sporing. Meaning that you would then need to cleanse the planet afterwards anyway, so why would your players simply not virus bomb it, the tomb will still be there as virus bombs just consume living matter. Feral Beasts, Mountain Men, perhaps even revolutionaries would be much better.

Ancient Xenos device, cool go for it, it's not like the players will get to keep it, the Adeptus Mechanius will want it to "study", yet again the players will not only have to find it but figure out how the **** thing works.

You may already know this Yorik but enslavers can be bloody nasty mate!

in the first, and so far only, game of Deathwatch i've played most of the group were possessed and my Librarian ended up having to administer the 'Emperors mercy' to them in a very brutal combat that left me very wounded and I only barely finished the mission (I think the GM went easy after seeing the Emperors finest fall so easily). all it takes a few failed Wilpower rolls and the game's up.

Good luck though mate :-)

Just read your recent post Yorik and it sounds pretty tight. Just be wary of how even one Enslaver can royally screw even a powerful group! Especially if they have Psykers with 'em!