What could be a proper loot my players could find after cleansing a scavvies’ nest?
I know an archeotech item is the right answer but at the moment I don’t want them to stumble into this kind of items (neither working nor broken) for in their next adventure they’ll find an archeotech gun they should use as a present for a hive notable in oder to gain his trust.
And spamming archeotech just feels so wrong.

Yet there seems to be almost nothing worthy on a scavvy or in their nest: poor quality weapons and armors, little money, no gear whatsoever. I set a small reward on their leader’s head (should my players remember to report back to the arbites) but I wanted the party to go back to the higher hive with a tangible «souvenir» (maybe something a scum or techpriest could use).

As for the setting, the scavvies’ nest is in an ancient arbites’ Underhive fort that was overrun by the Underhive denizens centuries or millennia ago (no one remembers): the arbites never managed to take it back and then forgot about it.

What are your suggestions?

Arbites gear, still waiting in ancient lockers that the scavies never learned (or cared) to open.

Cyber mastif: could be a nice pet for the Tech-Priest

a hiver tied up for a future meal; not a prize, but a possible contact or ally.

Old Arbites badges/uniforms: the Scum would have fun with a real badge (if ancient and possibly no longer valid,like people check the date of Arbites' ID anyway)

Perhaps some old info on a data-slate, other mysteries for the cell to discover/help wiht thier Crime boss friend they are trying to befriend (location of a suspected wepaon cache, or smuggling passage)

Braddoc already gave some very good ideas (Kudos, Braddoc!)

What could be in a "nest" of scavengers? What could they have looted? What would make a good trophy?

Bones of a saint
Graverobbers and Scavengers are pretty alike. If they have somehow managed to plunder the grave of a clery (with heavy casualties!) that was later proclaimed a saint or if they stumbled about a relic shrine lost during a hivequake...well, it could by in their belongings. Perhaps as the mockery of a trophy.

A broken Servo-Skull
The scavvies either shot it down themselves or ...well, scavenged it. They inteded to trade it, but a Tech-Priest could be able to repair it. How about a Medi-Skull or an Illuminator or something more semi-useless? Perhaps a Loud Hailer?

Gregorius21778 said:

Yeah- good ideas yourself: I was about to propose a servo-skull m'self!

The easiest options are the best ones indeed!
Thank you Braddoc and Gregorious for giving me the hints I looked for!

Berengario said:

How about narcotics- cheap, nasty, made-from-fungus versions of the drugs from the Handbook ? In addition to having potential monetary value and/or combat effects, this could possibly set up the party's follow-up mission. The Inquisition would certainly have a vested interest in stampling out a new source of "Spook", neccesitating a trip into the dark depths of the Underhive to track down the patch of mushrooms the Scaavies made it from- possibly found growing on the long-dead remains of a rogue psyker hermit. -And Emperor knows what effect nibbling on those 'shrooms has had on the local vermin (Psi-roaches? Mind-spiders? Or maybe this would be a good time to trot out some Skaven miniatures...).

Adeptus-B said:

Good idea but I’m trying to keep the drugs to a minimum, with very scanty availability, much higher prices and improved drawbacks.

I really like the idea of the Skaven in space though! I’ve always thought their concept is funny. Do you know if there are conversions, rules or custom-made stats for them?

Berengario said:

There are various rules for "Space Skaven" in the tabletop game all over the internet, but I can't find any specifically for DH . If you are going for "true" Skaven, I suppose the stats from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay would translate more-or-less straight across. If you want the Skaven figures to represent mutated hive rats, though, I would tone the stats way down- a Skaven is more than a match for a normal human, and I would portray mutated rats as individually weak, but dangerous in large numbers (and after the PCs easily dispatch a few individual "verminoids", have it slowly dawn on them just how many ratmen there are lurking in the Underhive...). In fact, this might make for an appropriate scenario to use the Horde Rules from Deathwatch : let the PCs blow away a small army of verminoids and, as their egos are soaring and they are trading tough-guy movie lines, casually ask how their ammunition is holding up as the second wave comes into view...

Adeptus-B said:

Intrigued by this post, I've searched the Internet looking for some informations about the Space Skaven: so I found out that some time ago (before official material appeared showing they're two completely different races) quite a few were speculating that the mysterious Hrud could be the Space Skaven.

Nonetheless, I found out that, in the time when both races seemed to be the same, a fan (too bad he's anonymous) made a conversion that used to be hosted on Dark Reign: the Hrud on this document are the Space Skaven indeed and only need a minimum of customization to meet my needs and tastes.

The link on Dark Reign isn't working anymore but the pdf - "The Hrud" - can be found on the net with a search.

I have yet to try Deathwatch's Horde Rules but I really like the idea of the group being overwhelmed by an endless pack of ratmen and being forced to reatreat...

Berengario said:

Lucky you; I know 99% of the time, my PC are not the one to retreat and ends up in TPK.....

Is that "scavvies" like the quasi-mutant things from Necromunda? If so, you could go with one of the special weapons the Scalies used to get - one of the spear-throwers or (annoyingly I've forgotten the other one - some kind of huge scrap gun I think).

Skulls also make good souvenirs.

Braddoc said:

99%?! Jeez, how many parties have you gone through...?

Adeptus-B said:

Not much actually; Sure they never retreats, but the **** dice always swing thier way; and they come out on top.

I never got any luck with Epic battles or 'I'll put enough mooks they'll be bound to retreat' moments

Warhammer Fantasy: I was doing the 2nd Ed campaing, stating in Middenheim; it went well, they reach the big deamon being invoked...and killed it with 2 hits, backed by Ulric's Fury as well.

DH: I put the team agaisnt a 15 meters tall deamon who wears knights as armour...since it was some sort of big ass demaon, I gave my players a regiment of Preatorian Guard to help, but instead they simply do the ol' Line infantry walk and stand with the Preatorians. Long Story short, everyone and their mother in the party had that Talent which reduces called shot by -10, so instead of trying to pierce the armour, they called-shot-to-the-eyes the demaon back to the Warp, so the battle lasted..what 3-4 rounds of full auto-called shot...and then I sorta stopped the campaign there, mostly because nothing I could put against them was going to last long, what with the **** called shot with combat shotgun/autogun routine sucked out the fun and challenge of everything.

'Course now, I started my campaign with another angle, a different approach. The players are more or less knowing of W40K (one never played in that 'verse, short of 1 Rogue Trader session I did the week before, the other knows the 'big lines' of the universe, but that's it, the rest know their way around) so I tried to put a little more angle on the setting/surroundings, making tense situations rather than big ass monsters they got to kill. Frankly, it's all right now, since they are actually less the gun-ho type and more the sneaky sort; yet again that is simply then being focused on the mission at hand rather than racking up kills.

Braddoc said:

Called shots are for single shot only. So by allowing full auto with it, you are really boosting their power.

I'm also not sure if I would allow a called shot to the eyes. Sure, the daemon at the end of the Illumination was vulnerable to eye shots, but that was a special case. But even if I did allow the eye shots, I would be consistent with the Skae-Thing, meaning it gets a -10 on top of the called shot penalty (with the talent, it would still be a -20 shot).

And as we are talking about daemons here, I don't see a shot to the eye doing anything more to the daemon than if you hit it elsewhere.

Sticking closer to the RAW should make things more of a challenge for your players.

That was my first campaign in DH and my first campaign ever; so I skipped a few things I admit; and it was mostly them who decided to go call shot to the eyes to evade the AP value of 5 the Deamon had (of course he had higher T bonus but..) And I didn't put additionnalt negatives to the shot,a s the Deamon was 15 meter tall, his eyes were still bigger than a human's head at any rate.

But yeah- I learned my lesson; next time i won't put nice talents and skills at everyone's reach (like last campaign) And well- I put more light on setting/ambiance now than big bad monsters