Hi, i need your help to work out the background of my brand new contact. i`m not that familiar with the w40k universe so i really appreciate your creative and competent help.

Here are the details:

My Acolyte: Assassin (Sin Eater/Oblationist/Imperator mortis/Feral world)

My cell: Our GM created an Inquisitor on his own. She is "from the oath", Oblationist and i follow her with a lot of devotion. We play mostly theofficial adventures (Just finished tattered fates/Harlock).

The Contact i just "bought" is in game terms: an indivudual, trusted, expert skill (inquiery), reduces availiabilty by two steps, cost by 10%, any items. it`s mighty, i know, but i thougt it`s time to get the nasty stuff appropiate for my rank ;-)

So what i need is:

1. What kind of person could offer these advatages? a merchant perhaps? a rogue trader?

2. Any ideas how this contact could be established? so how did my acolyte meet him?

3. Maybe connection to the oblationists? In what way is he related to the radicals? does he know with whom he makes business?

4. I thought about "upgrading" the contact from individual to group. mainly because all the advantages would be more reasonable/realistic if they were offered by more than a single person.

5. Possible disadvantages for my acolythe? like: the one who asks for so many favours, things to buy will raise attention from other individuals/groups. favours the contact could claim from my acolyte.

6. ......

okay, i hope you can help me out and await impatiently for your answers ;-)

arkenfels said:

Your contact, as described, is an expert in acquiring items. These items are cheaper and more readily available than they would be otherwise. This implies criminal or black market trade. Such an individual could be a fence for an underworld organization, but in order to be useful as a contact, they would need to be able to work on more than a single world. This would make that individual a very powerful fence. It could also easily be a corrupt member of the Adeptus Arbites who sells off confiscated goods from raids.

Your character is from a Feral World, which would limit the amount of time (before becoming an acolyte) they were exposed to organizations that could provide such an individual. This means unless you met the character 'in game' at some point, these options leave the realm of plausibility.

Here is what I reccomend considering that - an alien trader, merchant, or outcast.

You would have met and somehow helped this alien, maybe even by accident, on your homeworld (aliens would certainly be more likely to frequent a feral world than more established imperial worlds). This would have happened before you joined the Inquisition. In return, this alien helped you out, providing you with gear or training that helped you to become an effective assassin. Though you knew this to be wrong, you did it anyway, believing you would better be able to serve your Clan and the God-Emperor with what you gained (Oblationist tie-in, if I am remembering oblationist correctly).

You were later marked and picked up by the Inquisition, and lost all contact with this alien - until recently. You received a coded message, written in your native runes, asking you to meet. For whatever reason, this alien has decided you are worth maintaining contact with, though you likely do not know why. You are given an advanced xenotech communication device which can contact this alien for assistance, even across great distances.

The benefits of this contact are obvious - ask for items you need and ye shall receive. The risks are also obvious - the alien's motives for contacting you are unknown, and should you be found out, you risk any number of punishments. Do you risk contacting this alien to acquire what you may need to serve the Emperor? Do you risk telling your Inquisitor about this alien, knowing that she shares your outlook? Or do you hold this secret all the way to the grave?

What cobrausn said sounds good to me. Here my own ideas.

1. While reading your post, my first idea was also some sort of underworld boss. Maybe he could be a chartist captain smuggling contraband throughout a certain sub-sector. Maybe even a captain of the Amaranthine Syndicate…

2. As your acolyte is an Assassin, maybe he once worked for this contact or performed a contract kill for him. Or the other way around, maybe the Assassin was once caught by this contact while trying to assassinate him or infiltrate his organization.

3. Maybe not at all. The Oblationists are a very Inquisition-centric organization in my opinion and thus any external would not fit that well. Maybe though he somehow shares their attitude and is only an underworld smuggler, because he wants to unearth the organization thereby (even more so if it is the Amaranthine Syndicate and he knows who is behind the syndicate).

4. Sure, maybe it is part of a/the syndicate (i.e. more people). Though I personally like it more if a certain NPC is the contact as it breathes more life into such a contact than having a sort of generic group of rogues. You could also have him as the main contact so to speak and others as his contacts. These contacts help you as they are ordered by the original contact.

5. Absolutely. Maybe the contact wants another contract kill performed by the acolyte assassin, maybe even of an important person (up to an Inquisitor). Maybe he sort of blackmails him. The association to an underworld boss or smuggler could draw in the attention of the Adeptus Arbites, the Imperial Navy or a more puritanical Inquistor. Even more so if you use the Amaranthine Syndicate as the contact organization. The Ordo Xenos could suddenly take a strong interest in these dealings…

Wow, your ideas are well thought and very helpful. First I was surprised by the idea of an alien contact. but the more i think about it, the more i like it. My background is very detailed and i roleplayed becoming an assassin and getting in to contact with the Inquisition, so especially your ideas of how i met this alien has to be adapted.

The other point is, that my acolythe is, like i said, very devotive, so on one hand he would not (and so far he never did) betray his "mistress". on the other hand he could keep this contact as a secret, in order to keep the problem away from her...as an oblationist i would say he has no problem with an alien contact: he is allowed to to such stuff, but would never allow another person "not from the oath" to do so.

ok, ok, an alien. now i have to talk to my gm. hope he likes the idea as well. i will discuss it with him and post my/our ideas later....

again thanks a lot for your input!