I'm almost done reading the core book, just finishing up the Calixis Chapter with the intention of starting a game this coming Sunday. In my group I have two Players willing to give it a try, neither have any knowledge of the game or the universe. My own knowledge of the Unverse/setting is not much better - the core book, Eisenhorn trilogy and the first three books of Gaunt's Ghosts.

After giving the Players a quick rundown of the setting one Player expressed an interest in a Mindwipe Guardsman and the other expressed an interest in Feral Assassin from post-apocalyptic world forgotten by the Imperium and possibly over run by Chaos. The characters will both be starting characters with the suggested 400 xp.

So with two martial inclined characters I'll focus on stories with action instead of problem solving for the most part.

The two chose to serve an Inquisitor of the Ordo Mallues. Which is cool and I can run with this but I am worried but what to come up with for encounters/missions...

What I have come up with so far:

- Inquisitor Gonsov , has served the God Emperor for 300 yrs wiley and crafty more of a scholar than soldier. Who has recently returned to the moons of Saturn to do research. An unflattering nickname has surface: Gonesoft as a result of him "researching" in the "safety" of the libraries.

- Interrogator Cortez , apprenticed to Gonsov. In his 30's a natural leader and more a take charge and get things done type of guy. More martially inclined than scholar. Some say that he should have been made Inquisitor by now but Gonsov is holding him back. This is the character that the Players will be interacting with on a more regular basis.

- The Erinnyes , is a ship that has all the capabilities of a rapid response ship used by the Grey Knights. It is owned by Captain Wolfe (a Rogue Trader). Small, extemely fast and warp capable. The ship has been used as a courier, tranport for munitions (Captain Wolfe is an arms dealer as well as a mercenary captain) and as a base of operations for his mercenary team and military advisors. The truth is that the ship is a front for Inquistor Gonsov and his agents. Some of the ships's mercs are Inquistor agents and a kill team of Grey Knights.

- Winter , is the ship's navigator. Void born white hair, porcelain skinned, eyes the colour of glacial ice. Probably from a renegade house.

- Severine , is a psyker and the Mind wiped character's handler. Noble born from an Imperial world who lost all her status when her powers developed latently.

- Hel , is a pyromancer. She was born on a hive world. She ran when her powers developed, hid in the under-hives, joined a gang and was eventually tracked down and by a witch hunter and put on a Black Ship.

- Silon , is the tech priest that the characters will have the most interaction with.

- Bertram , will be the Adept the characters will have interaction with. Sophisiticated, raised in a Schola Progenium on an Imperal world

- Fox, he is the "Scum" of the group, con-man/fixer/information gatherer, the type of guy you hate to love and love to hate. He's from a hive world and he will be an Untouchable.

- I'm thinking that the team will be part of team of additional guards men and assassins. The characters will pose as mercenaries/freelancers while hunting demons or those in league with demons.

- Khorne will probably be one of the major influence of the game. One of his disciples was behind the mass slaughter and suicide that devestated the population of the planet where the Feral Assassin character came from. Maybe the same disciple or one carrying similar markings encountered the Mindwipe Guardsman.

- The start of the campaign will have the characters meet on a Planet that the Erinnes awaits. Probably a paradise planet where the mercs are on a little R&R. each Player will be arriving from a mission they have just completed or pulled away from. There has been a rash of murder suicides on the planet, Inquisitor Gonsov believes that the Players may prove to be helpful as the markings that have been found carved on the killers are similar if not the same from the Player character's past.

- There is a rougue psyker who has discovered the writings of the Disciple of Khorne and is spreading death either directly by manipulating the citizens of the planet...

So yeah this the idea I'm running with any thoughts or ideas/suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Darckchild

Hi Dark Child,

a world "overrun by Chaos" is hardly a good recruiting ground for new cell members. But hey, I am not the Inquisitor in questions

Which adventures to run?
You could open up with darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/threats/scenarios/829-dark-heresy-adventure-bunker-ds506 from DarkReign40K. It involves chaos and less investigation and more fighting. It is rather short, but could make a good opener.

DR40K even provides a rather nice re-write of the FFG freebee "Shattered Hopes" (see support section on this site). The write up can be found here
darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/gm-tips/tips-for-scenarios/380-plot-notes-for-shattered-hope I would change the rewrite a little further as it comes to the A-Stone (just giving it a Fear 2 trait with warpshock), but with this rewrite the scenario can be quiet enjoyable. And it is still action-dungeoncrawl, not Investigation.

Furthermore, Idle heresy www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/2008-contests/idyll-heresies.pdf and Scriveners Star www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/2008-contests/Scrivner%27s%20Star.pdf could fit your bill.

I'd hold off on actual full on daemons for a session or two as they can be quite tough so maybe let them fight a few chaos cultists. The two books I'd advise you to get are Disciples of the Dark Gods and Creatures Anathema. Both have some great sections on Chaos cults in the Calixis sector as well as other interesting groups. Disciples of the Dark Gods details a group called the Pilgrims of Hayte who follow chaos and wish to bring about destruction having been created first on Malfi in an uprising. It also details rules for Dybuks, their like easier to make weaker versions of Daemon hosts. Disciples of the Dark Gods includes rules for Sorcery as well which will no doubt come in handy.

Another nice group for a very different game to mix things up but keep the focus on Chaos is the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness, think the illuminati or a networking group where the members serve a Daemon Known as the Horned Darkness (possibly a Greater Daemon/Daemon Prince or Minor Deity with the last two the most likely). It would likely lead to a more social game but plenty of action can be thrown in, I used them at Ascension level once and the players had PDF attacking them and Enforcers breaking in the door of their location looking for drug dealers.

Creatures Anathema has some very good stuff with regard to Khorne Daemons including Flesh Hounds of Khorne and Juggernauts of Khorne!

With regard to the rogue trader I have some thoughts you might like to consider, was he roped into service by the Inquisitor after some transgression by himself or a member of his dynasty and must work off an hundred years penitence for example? Is he just more interested with running around helping the inquisitor and his staff because they are friends or saved him/a loved one from a sacrificial blade? Perhaps he is a former acolyte of the Inquisitors who received a Warrant of Trade for services rendered but the Inquisitor had a few springs attached. The point to keep in mind is rogue traders are very powerful individuals once the leave the Imperium and running around playing merchant in the Imperium often leads to other rogue traders laughing at him and talking behind his back (which he may not care about at all). A chartist captain could do the same job in your game but the Rogue Trader is certainly a lot cooler and does leave the option of letting the players tag along with him for a bit into the Koronus Expanse on a special mission where even as a possibly minor rogue trader his powers increase vastly beyond the imperiums borders where he is the emissary of the God Emperor!

If you do decide to pick up Disciples of the Dark Gods have a look at the scenario at the back House of Dust and Ash, it's a great scenario to run and is the prologue to the Haarlock Trilogy, so if you run it and the players like it possibly consider having a look at those too! Tweak them to suit your campaign and players of course!

Gregorius21778 said:

Well the Player really like the idea of Mad Max/Borderlands type of world. She also wanted the world to have been one of those planets that gets forgotten due to size of the Imperium or due to a Warp Storm.

I figured that the planet might have had a artifact or lost manuscript of Khorne. The planets population tore itself to pieces with a handful survivors trying to survive on an almost virtualy dead world.

Maybe the survivors were rescued by a Ship's Captain or maybe the Inquisitor Gonsov was sent to invstigate the planet once the warp storm ended

Gregorius21778 said:

I will certainly check these out, thanks

Gaius said:

Thanks, I won't be throwing any daemons right off the bat. Is the possible Pysker antagonist outlined in my original post beyond a beginers level game? My thought was to have the Players get caught up in the investigation of the sudden activity of murder/suicides related to a cult or psyker serving Khorne.

Gaius said:

Great suggestions, and I will make them my next reads! I have always been fascinated with Warhammer 40k and when I learned that there was an actual role-playing game based on it, I went and bought all the books (my current library includes all published material to date) and a few of the novels such as the ones written by Dan Abnett and a few others. My only problem is the lack of time to read them all.

While I am not new to role-playing games but having said that I am adjusting to Dark Heresy and the role-playing setting for Warhammer 40k. I was totally lost as to how to approach this setting. The rule book is a great primer, but what really helped me get my head into it were the books that I have read by Dan Abnett so far (Eisenhorn and the first three books of Gaunt's Ghosts - currently just starting the fourth book)

I will certainly look into the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness and the creatures from the Creatures Anathema.

Gaius said:

I like your suggestion of him being a former acolyte which help explain the ship he currently has and the Kill Team of Grey Knights on board. His ship is ideal for courrier work and he is getting ito being an arms dealer/merc company. The Grey Knight kill team are broken up and hold various positions in the merc company but are pulled for special duty when the Inquisitor need his kill team of Adeptus Astartes .

Gaius said:

This I will certainly look into.

Darck Child said:

It really depends on how powerful he is, if he's the big bad behind a short series of adventures a chaos sorceror with a goon or two can be quite challenging. Do keep in mind with regard to the serving Khorne bit that Khorne hates Sorcerors so perhaps he might be more be trying to win Khorne's favour and is ignorant of this fact and is really more of a dabbler in this whole area still? Perhaps they aren't so much a physical threat themselves but as well as having a few handy little tricks they've learned from these ancient writtings they also have material resources at their disposal? Maybe they are an archeologist who recently went to a dig on some backward world from before the Angevin Crusade came into the Calixis Sector (also known as the Calyx Expanse back then or The Dread Calyx). This scholar takes the material back home to research discretely, too impatient to wait for proper Imperial authorities to check everything he smuggles them back. The source of this malefic knowledge need not be human either, the Yu'vath were a Xenos race who had lots of crazy warp tech and sorcerous powers. Perhaps string out his encounters with the player characters a little once he is identified as corrupter, when they show up to the University where he works have them confronted by a mercenaries or a chaos cult or if you decide to get the Brotherhood involved mercenaries working unwittingly for a Chaos Cult (perhaps they want to save him or his research for their own devious reasons?). Maybe the players get the writtings but he gets away before they find out his knew gifts? Later when they encounter him again he has become truely corrupt and far more powerful having allied himself with a cult and learned how to summon daemons or create Dybuk? Leaving him as the one that got away could make it more engaging for the players. Come to think of it with a minor change to the House of Dust and Ash if you like the look of it upon examination they could find a clue later that he has gone to an auction, once there they'd have to rub shoulders with some very powerful people and don't let them know you're running something from a book. Maybe they handle things discretely and plan to just sit out the rest of the auction quietly... and thats when the book really takes off!

Grey Knights much like any other space marines are very powerful and putting them beside mere acolytes if you brought them into play could make the players feel very weak so be careful about putting them in. Another thing to consider is that they are relatively rare even for Astrates, it would seem odd to me that they'd be masquerading as part of a rogue traders crew but it's your game, I would however suggest that the Inquisitor be an Inquisitor Lord as anyone having the pull to requisition even a squad permanently is incredibly well connected. There aren't many regular Astrates running around the Calyxis Sector you see aside from a small number of Deathwatch (these guys work for the Ordos Xenos and are drawn from many different space marine chapters) and the Storm Wardens, when Dark Heresy was originally made they left no Astrates chapters in the Calyxis Sector so that there was no cavalry coming to the rescue, to make the players actions mean that much more. The Storm Wardens were added into the background later and though located near the Calyxis sector and mostly deal with problems outside it to the point that few know of their existance. On the other hand with the Daemon Hunters book coming out I could see great potential to let the players do some investigation until they come accross something truely terrifying... then as the players run from the very big very scary daemon or whatever you take out two pre made character sheets with two Grey Knights and tell the players they'll be playing the reinforcements. It could be interesting to shake things up a bit. Grey knights have had a lot of weird stuff added to their lore with the new table top Codex thanks to Matthew Ward so I'd have to say them spending their free time helping out an inquisitors rogue trader friend is less weird than them going off killing sisters of battle for their pure blood... sounds like they're ten minutes away from being Xanthites... oh wait one of them is wielding a daemon sword... so they're already there you say *cries in terror*

Gaius said:

Right, forgot about that. No Psyker then.

Gaius said:

This is a great suggestion, and I like the archaeological idea. Yes, much better idea. Thanks.

If I made it carvings on a wall, tablet, book or someting like a monolith... If I went something like the monolith (from 2001: Space Odyssey) but instead of bring full of "stars" it could be full of Chaos... Maybe those that gaze into it become agents of Khorne... Well it is something to play with...

Gaius said:

The Erinnyes and crew is the Inquisitors secret mobile base and rapid response to daemon threats. The fact that Inquisitor Gonsov is currently "researching" things at the Library on the home base on one of Saturn's moons and he has pro-actively sent a kill team of Grey Knights will be a foreshadowing of things to come.

If that makes any sense...

Have you thought about letting your players run more than one character? I'm normally not a fan of multiple PCs per player, but with only two players and a combat-oriented campaign, you may want to consider it. Total Party Kills could easily result from a single lucky shot, or even a one failed Fear test.

At low levels, daemons will be pretty much out of the question, so a daemon-summoning cult will be your most likely adversary. Gaius' suggestion of the Cult of the Horned Darkness is a good one; also check out the Pilgrims of Hayte from Desciples of the Dark Gods : lots of weak goons to blow away at low levels as you build up to daemonic confrontations.

You may also want to consider being a little more free with equipment hand-outs from the boss. Blessed Amunition in particular would help offset your party's low numbers.

Hi Dark child.

All that I have to add is that I would strongly encourage them to start with decent willpower, and even go so far as to allow them to shift a good stat into it or just plain give them a boost (+10%?) under the circumstances (i.e. Ordo Malleus and only two characters). Assassins and Guardsmen are notorious in this system for wetting their pants when making willpower tests, and it is not a cheap stat to advance for either class, especially the Guardsman (1st increase = 500xp!).

You could gift them Resitance: (Fear), but personally I would keep that as an elective for later when they've soiled their pants a few times.

Given that there are only two of them it won't be much fun if they both scream like 'girls' and run away every encounter.

A daemon prince can work as a great evil mastermind, their plans can be long and convuluted or simple on brutal depending on what they want to achieve and their own whimsical mood. Also I find daemon princes can have a bit more of a face, Khorne is really more this abstract ball of angry rage that lives in the warp. The Daemon Prince Chaamoneth who the players find cults worshiping them as a conduit to their deity can take on a more personal approach, remember a slight and howl in frustration at your players activities thwarting their best layed schemes as well as taunting them. They need never manifest themselves personal instead using cults and daemonic servants to fight those darn pesky servants of the corpse emperror!

A named daemon can work quite well too if you tack on a bit of extra background, if you are thinking very long term the Herald of Khorne stats in the Ascension book are nice example of a powerful non daemon prince daemon.

Maybe in our ancient culture this particular daemon was summoned by a foolish sorcerror one day attempting to bind it to his will but the Daemon cast him down and took his skull for his dark masters throne, reaping a hundred and one skulls before telling the cowering survivors that his lord demanded tribute for their offense, he desired only blood and skulls they could pay it from themselves or from their enemies. So the civilisation sought these things sacrificing them to their evil overlord in turn for a respite from the slaughter. This continued for centuries molding the culture as they attacked their neighbours (maybe take inspiration from militant cultures like the Mongols or Romans or the Spartans or Ancient Japanese or Vikings) however one year the winter was long, no summer came one winter slid into the next the snow piling up around their cities and farms... with no foes to claim tribute from they turned on each other... That they took each others lives until the last survivor froze to death need not be recorded in the histories of the culture as that was their end, but maybe the dig site had lots of headless remains.

Or maybe the daemon was bound to this monolith by an angry sorceror king after the daemon had tricked him. The daemon used it's powers to bring the civilisation into civil war urging them ever onwards into combat. It could be inspiring the scholar to figure a way how to release it while driving others nearby to harm each other and protect the scholar, all the better to help it rebuild it's power

A mature Psyker or daemons would be a nasty thing to inflict on level 1 acolytes, but they should be able to handle a fairly weak Psyker (say Psy Rating 2 or so) and you could further tame them by making the little pest a budding Sorcerer (+2 power thresholds and manifesting powers is a full action as they "cast the spell"). Toss in some cultists and perhaps a few semi-innocent dupes (like the would-be Sorcerer's unknowing family who try to protect Junior from those scary strangers!).

One fun trick I have found works well is if you have a big glaring hole in your group and want a few staple skills covered, build an Elite Package that is tied in to service to their particular Inquisitor that reflects a few skills and talents that he considers to be "vital to service to me and the Throne" and grant your players access to the package as soon as they are recruited. Inquiry, Scrutiny, a few lore skills that cover their duties to the Inquisition as well as their "mercenary Rogue Trader troops" cover-role plus whatever else you deem important for the team to know. If there are talents or skills you want them to eventually pick up but not "right away" you can always slap on an extra prerequisite to the item in question (as pertains to the Elite Package) such as WP40, Level 4 or whatever you think is appropriate. This way the scholarly ways of your Inquisitor and the more agressive ways of his Interrogator can be reflected in the acolytes that serve them. For example, I would expect the acolytes serving Inquisitor Kaede would have a very different skill set than a cell of acolytes serving Inquisitor Reikhus.

I would probably make an alternate starting package for the chaos-world survivor assassin with an eye towards adding Jaded, Dark Soul, a suitable Forbidden Lore skill based on what happened on the planet and probably a handful of insanity and corruption points.

Seems like a pretty cool setup overall, but I am not sure anyone is going to fall for the 2.8m implant and ward-riddled "supermen" masquerading as common (or even very uncommon) mercenaries though. Consider putting a pair of barracks and lighter bay in the RT ship and then either mounting drop-pods or an ancient archeotech teleportarium on board the ship. The first barracks are for Honest-to-Throne troopers kitted out like mercenary or RT House troops. The second (possibly hidden) barracks is where the Grey Knights lurk and train. I would probably include an Appothecarion in the ship too, for when the inevitable "random annoying bad stuff" happens. Mortally wounded Astartes definately require "special" medical care that a closet full of bandages and morphine just won't cover. Grey Knights would likewise be upset to serve on a ship without a chappel devoted to the Emperor onboard.

Here's an idea for compensating for having only two PCs: put them in charge of a small Kill Team. The Inquisition makes regular use of mindwiped troops; the Guardsman PC could be one that was just promoted to Sgt. (and thus no longer undergoing regular mindwipes) and placed in command of a small unit of Kill Team troopers (as per the entry in the Adversaries section of the Rulebook). The Feral Assassin could be a specialist attached to the unit, kind of like a CIA spook attached to a Special Forces unit. You could either start each mission with a set number of (identical, faceless) troopers, or randomize it- say, 2d5? That would give your players some extra firepower (and meatshields) when they need it most- at low levels.

Adeptus-B said:

I'm not a fan of having Players play more than one character at a time either. But your right the mechanics seem to pretty unforgiving - until I become more adapt with the mechanics I'll favour story over rules for now and introduce rules slowly when necessary.

Fortunately for me I have two really stroung Players at the table: Nadine and Andy. When we sat down for character creation this past Sunday things changed slightly.

Nadine is playing the Feral Assassin who also turns out to be an Untouchable. The planet cut off from the Imperium by a warp storm became tainted by Chaos that caused the population to slaughter itself before committing suicide. The handful of survivors trying to live on a dead world when the Inquisition showed up to investigate what had happened to the planet. Repatriation of the living back into to the Imperium was allowed after careful scrutiny by the Inquisition. That planet is now quaratined.

Andy is playing a Mind wiped Assassin. He is known simply as "XXIII". Andy doesn't know but his character was on board a ship in warp when something similar happened to the crew and passangers. His willpower allowed him to resist for a while. The Inquisition "saved" him with an exorcism but left him as a candidte for being mind wiped

Adeptus-B said:

The cult angle will be the way I'll go eventually, but I think I'll go with an alien/lost/daemon device that when in the presence of the warp turns an individual into an intrument of death and will kill till the point of being unable to continue when at the point this individual will take their own life if possible. While losing themselves to the device they will carve blasphemies into themselves. Anyone that stares into the eyes of the corrupted risk beng corrupted themselves if not killed.

No daemons for now...

Adeptus-B said:

They have their starting equipment and the opportunity to get more along the way. Where does one find Blessed Amunition in the books?

QUOTE efidm=487488]
Hi Dark child.

All that I have to add is that I would strongly encourage them to start with decent willpower, and even go so far as to allow them to shift a good stat into it or just plain give them a boost (+10%?) under the circumstances (i.e. Ordo Malleus and only two characters). Assassins and Guardsmen are notorious in this system for wetting their pants when making willpower tests, and it is not a cheap stat to advance for either class, especially the Guardsman (1st increase = 500xp!).

You could gift them Resitance: (Fear), but personally I would keep that as an elective for later when they've soiled their pants a few times.

Given that there are only two of them it won't be much fun if they both scream like 'girls' and run away every encounter.

Duly noted

I think to start it off easy with blasphemies carved into the killers and work up to horrors later on.

Nadine's character in the first game failed a fear check while investigating the where the murders on the new planet started and fled the scene pretty quickly.

Gaius said:

Thanks Galius, this is extremely helpful and I will certainly look at ways of incorporating this with my own ideas

Darck Child said:

The Inquisitors Handbook page 190 for the blessed ammunition but these are extremely expensive at fifty thrones each. Given the specialised nature and small size of the group maybe consider giving the players a choice one clip of blessed ammunition or one sanctified sword/axe/frying pan/etc. You could inform them that if they take the ammo then if they want it replaced they'll have to account for it if they want it replaced. This is only of any great use against Daemons but it really does take the edge off them very well. One thing I've done in games is after a certain number of games have the Inquisitor give the individual characters gifts, for example the metallican gunslinger got a Mauler bolt pistol with three clips and the cleric got a good quality chainsword. These don't always have to be combat pieces of gear, once I had a game where the noble born cleric wanted for nothing because of his vast amounts of spare cash and I wasn't going to give him a suit of power armour so he got a reliquary containing the fingerbone of a minor saint which meant he rerolled the first 96-100 roll in the session.

ZillaPrime said:

ZillaPrime said:

I think the trigger for the device on this new planet will be when a Psyker uses or loses control of their talents/abilities

ZillaPrime said:

I like this and I might use it f the Player direct the story that way and want this type of option when their characters get to higher levels.

ZillaPrime said:

An excellent suggestion. Unfortunately the characters are already made but I'll keep this in mind for future characters. Question: Are there guidelines for doing this in any of the books or just common sense?

ZillaPrime said:

Thanks for the compliment. I was a little nervous going down this path with so little knowledge of the 40K universe.

I got the impression that the Space Marines are normal people that have been built up to human limits. I didn't think they were that tall. Good to know.

Also thanks for some details on the Grey Knights

Gaius said:

Thank you, again

Gaius said:

The fingure bone of the Saint is a nice touch.

Actually being a rogue trader ship Drop Pods not so much a problem if the Dynasty and Rogue Trader are of a Militant bent. Teleportariums are extremely rare being a piece of archeotech but Rogue Traders do like their shiny things. Players in rogue trader games usually love to try get one as soon as they can... which can take a while but a Rogue Trader Flagship of a Dynasty having one, not unheard of.

As for the Grey Knights Masquerading as people who are working for the Rogue Trader... well Space Marines are sometimes seconded to a Rogue Traders Fleet. Rogue Trader Tyrel Cathek had I think four companies of space marines from the Stone Lions Chapter (thats 400 space marines). Grey Knights being assigned to them wouldn't happen in my opinion, maybe they might hitch a ride at some point if their super fast awesome ships are... Anyway point is most people don't know what a Grey Knight is. They could just not point out that they are all walking around with really weird gear.

I had an idea or two on possible alternate space marines to have working for the Rogue Trader *cough*. Both of course have links to the Ordo Malleus

First is the Exorcists, these guys are weird they get their recruits possesed by Daemons and then after twelve hours the daemon is cast out, they kill any of the survivors that are too physically or psychologically well messed up. They're not quite as good as Grey Knights with the lack of all of them being psychic or as fancy gear but they get the job done... the only weird thing is apparently they are invisible to weaker daemons, not that this is a problem for their line of work!

The second would definitely mean the Inquisitor walks certain darker paths. The Relictors picked up a habit of keeping Daemon weapons and letting their most "pure" champions wield them from a Xanthite Inquisitor (fight fire with fire type guys or lets use sorcery to blow this stuff up... either way it works, for a while atleast). They were sent on a penitent crusade once this was discovered and their shiny toys were taken off them... they went off and took out a group of Inquisitorial Force to get at a Chaos Artifact. After that they got declared Excommunication Traitorous but they still work with some Radical Inquisitors from time to time! If these guys are used then the parties Inquisitor is either a follower of Xanthite, Oblationist or just not too picky leanings and willing to turn a blind eye. Xanthite and Oblationists are both talked about in the Radicals Handbook as well as other Radical Inquisitorial Factions (which means most of the Factions!).

Adeptus-B said:

I will include this idea in future missions where the Players will have to remove the problem with a small Kil Team.

Thanks

Gaius said:

I think I'll stick with the Grey Knights for now... However your two ideas may take form as part of an entourage in a rival Inquisitor .

So more ideas that I'm playing with...

The artifact "monolith" belong to space faring culture/cult that honoured their dead. Maybe something along the lines of the Aztecs for inspiration. At the centre of great funeral mounds where the dead were laid to rest stood a black monolith to gather the souls and send them on their journey. Over time this ritual/practice attracted daemons serving Khorne, maybe even a daemon prince. Slowly the powers of Chaos corrupted the ritual from honouring the dead to sacrificing the living as well. When the culture/cult killed all that they could they then turned around and sacrificed themselves to Chaos.

These monoliths wait on dead "civilized" worlds" or carried on ships lost in the void. The "stone" that these monoliths are sensitive to the warp. Whether this allows dark powers to influence a population or posses a populace... I'm still working on that. My thought is when in the presence of warp energies (storm, psyker, what have you) it corrupts the living into being agents of Khorne. Those that gaze at the monolith or into the eyes of those who have feel the need to end life. Weak willed individual go on murder sprees before taking their own life, while stonger willed individuals are able to plan for genocide (yes, Dan Abnett's Necropolis is a source of inspiration).

Salvare - is Nadine's character's home world. A Hive world dedicated to supporting ship construction. The Adaptus Mechanicus had their own hive/island/continent on this world. There are ruins from a lost civiliaztion on Salvare. Salvare served as Imperial Navy Port and Dockyards. Contact with this planet was severed from the Imperium by a warp storm. The storm destroyed the facilities in orbit but the planet was left mostly unharmed by the storm effects initially. Mutations were the worse effects the storm had on it's population till someone got to close to the long dormant monolith. Then the planet's population tore itself apart.

Andy's character was a passanger onboard a ship that picked up survivors and their cargo from another ship that was crippled and dying. Some of those survivors were part of an Inquisitor's retinue and their cargo was a monolith. The dying ship was transporting objects for study from Salvare to the Inquisition. Both ships have been officially declared lost along with all personal, passangers, and cargo.

Which brings me to where the current story starts: Nadine's character has been repatriated back into the Imperium and has spent the last five years at an Imperial Assassins Academy. Andy's character has been XXIII for the last three years as a Mind Wiped Assissin. Both have been tiverted from previous assignments to meet on the planet Scana.

Scana is a pleasure would built on the ruins of a lost civilztion. There are two suns giving this planet's system light and life, just like Salvare had. Also like Salvare this planet is ideal waypoint for ships. The orbital facility is a large spaceport and docking facilities. The planet has been turned into a recreational world catering to space travellers, R&R for Imperial troups and personal. There is a hive that is linked to spaceport by an orbital elevator. The rest of the planet population are spread in small cities to resorts scattered across the planet catering to different themes. Near the Hive in a resort town on a small island are some "haunted" ruins. Currently exploring these ruins is a team of archeolgists. Since the archeolgists arrival there have been several cases where an local individuals has gone on a killing spree before being killed by PDF/security or committing suicide. There has been a pattering emerging that starts with the first case being near the haunted ruins and then moving more or less in a straight line to the Hive.

Captain Cortez and his "merc company" were on R&R when news of the killing/murder sprees after the third spree happened. Each spree happened after a full moon. Cortez's real reason for being on the planet was tracking down leads of Cult leader that had caused a civil war and then fled into space with a possible daemon host. Cortez was an senior acolyte when investigating Salvare and one of the Interrogators that passed judgement on the missing crew of the survivors from the two lost ships. He requested that both Nadine's character and Andy's character be sent here to investigate this to sate his curiousity. This will not be an offcial investigation as the planetary authorities have already requested the aid of the Inquisition and to which the Inquisition has sent Witch Hunter Inquisitor Xerxes. Cortez delayed his investigation long enough for either his speacialists arrive or until the Inquisitor does. The emperor blessed him and his team has arrived first.

The Players have been assigned to a team to investigate covertly into this matter. Severine has been placed in charge of the team which includes her ward XXIII (Andy's character), Shadow (Nadine's character), Bertram and Fox.

So far in game the Players have been introduced to the setting, this planet, and current NPCs/support characters. Nadine tried to investigate the haunted island but failed a Fear check when she saw a placard/poster with pictures of the ruins daring visitors to spend a night in the haunted ruins. She was released into Fox's custody from the "hospital". Andy's character was researching information on the ruins which triggered a flash back of something that happened on board the ship he was on. The team got back together and that's where we end that first session.