My players have recently found themselves on a pleasure planet, bereft of money and living among the common laborers near the docks and warehouse district. I hate to ask for adventure ideas, but the medication I've been on lately has left me rather lacking for inspiration, so I could really use some thoughts on appropriate adventures for such a setting. The planet itself has a strong Slaanesh influence, with sexual, artistic, and colonary inspired evils .. .basically anything revolving around pleasure and excess.

Blanking as i am, I could really use some ideas and inspiration for adventures involving characters struggling to make a place for themselves in local - criminal if nothing else- society. It should be noted that the PCs have not yet caught the attention of an Inquisitor, so any adventures they engage in are going to be in the barely to notremotely legal nature.

Thanks.

Hallo Jack,
get well soon!

This adventure of yours screams for «Fantasy Island»!

Take the series concept and simply adapt it to the setting: there’s a place on this planet where everything you wish comes true. People - mostly rich people, of course - go there willingly to live their custom-tailored holiday: what they do not know is that by going there and living their dream they **** themselves, for they are victims of a dark ritual that binds them to Slaanesh.
You could portray the returning vacationers as inattentive people who appear very different than they were before they went to the island: but the other people think they are absent-minded because they are still thinking to their wonderful holiday.

As a hook, it could be your players are offered a job as ship-boys on a «Love Boat»-like cruiser: here they get the first clues about the (secretive?) Fantasy Island; as an alternative, on the ship they stumble into the inquisitor who recruits them and sends them investigate.

Here are a few ideas, I hope at least some of them are interesting enough.

- A cult devouted to pleasure where the commoners hungers for a taste of the elite's privileges

- A Xeno-cult devouted to sadistic rituals and other hideous practices with contact with the Dark Eldar who themselves may take a hand in many of the guests

- A fanatical, and possibly heretical, cult has decreed the pleasure planet to be an abomination before the Emperor and has set up a terrorist group to chastiase (spelling?) the degenerates of the world

- A Xeno cult that offers access to unspeakable sexual services, but also kidnaps people to turn over to their alien masters' design and place them under alien influences

- A traditional Slaanesh cult for the jaded nobles (but rather predictable perhaps so maybe not so interesting)

- A wealthy man who has escaped to the planet due to holding property of a Halo Device which has started his transformation, and seeks to slip below the Imperial radar

- A cult for forbidden pleasure using strange servitors for sexual purposes and even captive, or willing, aliens

- A Genestealer cult is growing among the sex workers of the planet and with the lustful vices visited there its growth is fast, and could easily turn explosive

Jack of Tears said:

Thanks for the kind wishes guys, unfortunately "getting well" isn't really an option so until they come up with a better medication for my problems - or at least something with more acceptable side effects - I'm just going to need to get used to trying to think through a fog.

At any rate, Gregorius, the party isn't mind wiped in any sense of the word - they started their careers as criminals incarcerated on a Death Planet, (for various "crimes", depending on your point of view) and were press ganged into a Penal Platoon. Their first adventures had them being used as soldiers and scouts in large military engagements and after their successes - against great odds - they caught the attention of someone (unbeknownst to them, however) and were moved to a Penitence Ship to, supposedly, live out the rest of their sentences. Of course, little did they know that the ship was being used by an Inquisitor to test and recruit criminals into doing jobs for the =][=. During their first mission, (a test mission they are sent on by the Bishop in charge of the ship) while they are planetside, dealing with a mutant outbreak/heretical cult in a mining town, a ship drops out of Warp and destroys their Penitence vessel - effectively trapping them on the planet with no resources, no identification, and no money. (who it is that destroyed the ship becomes very complex and political on a level the PCs won't have any real opportunity to explore until they get their feet back under them and are ultimately snatched up by the Interrogator working on planet; posing as a decadent scion of some high family, with fingers in the local criminal underworld)

So, currently, they are dressed in sackcloth garments with only one decent outfit between the lot of them, avoiding the police and living in the warehouse and shipping district of a decent sized coastal pleasure city. Without official ID they can't get legal jobs - even if anyone would hire them the way they look - and so are forced to look for less than legal employment from the local criminal groups.

Currently the party consists of an ex-Arbiter, (who was forced to take the blame for a superior's mistake and so lost his position before being imprissoned), an Assassin, (who horribly botched his first assignment and so took the fall), and a Guardsman. (who refused carry out a kill order during a riot) Not this week, but hopefully the session after, they will be joined by a Scum. (whose series of very bad gambles and a tendency to carry his schemes just a little too far, have left him in need of finding someone to watch his back ... and, if he has anything to say about it, help him with his next get rich quick scheme)

The influences of Slaanesh have been festering in the planet for a long time, but for the most party they are hidden by the people who often don't realize they are being corrupted even as they perform acts no sane person would engage in. There is almost no part of the society which is not being influenced in some way - even the local AdMechs and Astropaths have been sucked in through gradual temptation.

Which is not to say every single person on the planet is corrupt - merely that most of the power groups are corrupted at some level and those who spend any great length of time on the planet are bound to start feeling those temptations pull at them.

The Coastal City (Icarus) they are in has something of a Vegas nightlife feel to it, with casinos and clubs in various grades of sophistication; live performances and theatres; and a strong social network, (complete with the various dangerous and petty rivalries perpetuated by the decadent elite) between the many wealthy home owners.

I have a sense of the place itself ... it's when I try to weave something out of it all to create interesting adventures for people in the PCs positions that I start running into a brick wall. (particularly frustrating because, before I had to get on these medications, I never had trouble pulling stories out of thin air, even.)

So, if any of that gives people ideas ... please feel free to offer them up.

Again, my thanks.

Hi!

I once wanted to use something like this base on Quaddis, but I guess one pleasure world is as good as any other.

[Pleasure Estate]
The pc are hired to break a summer estate of a noble. Inside the estate, so they
have been told, is a certain piece of art they are to steal. A statue depicting a beautiful naked women, her hands put behind the back of her head while striking a seductive pose.

This can either be the “get rich quick” theme of the local scum (the player that is going to be introduced) or they are hired by a local crime lord who does not want to waste his own men in the attempt. Or those criminals are pawns of the Inquisitor you have in mind to be the pc´s master in the future.

The house and the statue:
Since the estate is a “summer estate” or “pleasure estate”, it is not occupied by the owning noble at all times. There is, however, a core staff which takes care of the estate (a “master of servants”, less then 5 people of household staff, some guards and the concubines who live in the estate.

Security: Besides the guards patrolling the premises their will be some guard animals in the surrounding woodland. As soon as nobody is expected to be out on the grounds, the guards can switch them from “docile” to “aggressive” with a remote switch in the house.

The house itself will have good security. Doors will be secured with ward-accessors, windows will have very sturdy “sun blinds” and some of the rooms (which are not to be frequented in the absence of nobles) will have the equivalent to motion sensors and perhaps some guard servitors or attack servoskulls.

The secret of the house:
The mentioned statue is an application of the “Eris Transform” (see DotdG; p.135), but this one has a further special quality to it. As more and more attention was given to it by the noble who bought it (and slowly became more and more insane by watching and adoring it), he unwittingly summoned a daemon-creature into existence.
This creature is summoned as soon as somebody adoringly caresses the statue (which anyone seeing the statue & not knowing about its nature will do if s/he loses an opposed test (pc´s Willpower vs. Daemons Charm skill). The Daemon will not appear in an unnatural flash of light or cloud of perfume, but will seem to simply enter the room through a door. Looking just like the beautiful lady the stature depictures. It is time for a test for Daemonic mastery (DotdG p. 114-115; take into account that the pc is likely to know nothing or next to nothing about this creature (which will give a penalty to the mastery test). Anyway, the summoning pc will gain 1d5+1 points of corruption for summoning it, willingly or not.

How strong or powerfull the daemon is, is up to you. I do not know what your party is able to handle. I would advise either soming based on a Daemonette (DH. p. 351; adding a Fellowship of 45 and Charm+10), a modified form of the Fiend of Ratpure (DotdG p.136; adding a Fellowship of 45 and the Charm+10 skill and looking more like a beautiful women) or a Daemenhost with a grade of bounding of your choosing (and the already repeated Fellowship & Charm skills).
No matter what the actual stats are, I would suggest that it suffers Malediction (DotdG, p.118) if the statue is damaged or destroyed (AP: 14 to 16)…and of course, it will Frenzy!

I hope it helps & you own a copy of DotdG. But I am sure you do. One good thing about our shared gamer-addictions is that one can be almost sure that all the relevant books are owned by about 2/3 of the community

I hope it helps you. If this isn´t going to help you to penetrate the fog but you like the general idea, I could try to go into a little more detail,
but this will take some time. How urgent is it? When will your next sessions start?

Greeting: Gregorius

This is a good foundation to work from, thanks. Mostly I'm just needing the initial ideas, once the spark is lit I should be fine from there - so don't feel you have to write out an entire adventure step for step. (though I appreciate the offer to flush it out more)

I run one session tonight and then I have two weeks before the next, so plenty of time to flush out ideas people leave me.

I like the concept of being able to switch guarde animals on and off, it makes for a different sort of security system to mess with the PCs with.

Jack of Tears said:

Gregorius21778 said:

A very important part of any 40k game. I've been rereading Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" omnibus recently, which is filled with marvelous creatures and technomagical concoctions of a most singular design. The series - along with his Planet of Adventure - books, makes for some wonderful inspiration for any game which dares to challenge the mundane.

Jack of Tears said:

While we are talking about, would you mind posting a short summary of what happend during the sessions? Just a few sentences. The input would be helpful to me since I still plan to warp the core idea into something I can throw my pc into. They will of course go in from a different angle, but having info about how your pc approach the matter will help me to prepare for possible approaches of my players.

A view short sentences would do the trick for me, so to speak

I'd love to, but they didn't even make it to the adventure - got stuck up on negotiating some trade and went in an entirely separate direction. So, once I'm able to swing them around to hit the adventure I'll let you know how it goes.

If you are just looking for a quick way to get the PCs some money so they can get off planet, there is the old chestnut of being hired by a wealthy nobleman to spy on/assassinate/steal from a rival...

Adeptus-B said:

I appreciate the suggestion, but - no - I'm most certainly not just trying to get them off planet. I want the process of them creating a new life for themselves and gaining the attentions of the Interrogator to be a major step in their character development, so I'm looking at a campaign length process here. That said, they will be engaging in spying, assassinations and theft as part of that process, I have no doubts.

One I've used with the players on Sibellus hive on Scintilla, but could work on a pleasure world:

Find an appropriate skill, such as Gambling or Scholastic Lore - Tactica Imperialis (Regicide anyone?) that one of your group is skilled in. If they don't have that, this may not work... but you could always let them try, and be generous as much as you want to.

In my game it was the SLore, wherein the group found a group of Regicide (read as: Chess) players who were part of a club (The Tactical Studies Group), but were really a front for a Slaaneshian cult. Good players could get an invite (in my game this included a 500 throne cash payment, but you may wish to make it lower or have someone in the group take a shine to the PCs and offer to pay their way) to the main club where a "fantastic treasure" awaits them. Remember that good in DH really comes down to can the player roll better than their opponent, who may not have any real skill anyway.

After they get the invite to go to try their chance at the 'treasure' which turns out to be 10 matches of Regicide played simutaneously by their opponent at the same time. Their Opponent is a woman... naked. Every 5 'turns' in the game they must take a shot of some drink, which the woman is also drinking. They must outlast the woman both by drinking and beating her on the game. What they find out at the end is the prize isn't a money prize... it's the orgy with the woman for the rest of the evening. God help the poor PC who is actually playing a female character!

Well... I did say there was a prize involved. It just didn't turn out to be the one they expected. Of course, even they win, and get to the orgy, then there will be others involved, who will take note of the PCs... which in turn will lead to something else.

Frankly: Sod Slaanesh. It's too obvious.

Go for a natural disaster, akin to fairly recent ones in Japan and Thailand.

Undersea earthquake causes tsunami. Then hit them with that, put them in a survival situation against the environment, rather than 'bad guys'. Have them rescue people, keep people alive and get them to medical facilities, help with clean up, shoot looters, get the power back on, help shut down the swamped fusion reactor before it explodes... Have them attempting to re-establish order while everything around them is falling apart.

... And then just maybe hit them with the vast Cthulhu-like/godzilla-like sea monster that caused the tsunami when it arose, and is now wading through the harbour.

Jack of Tears said:

By the way... which way did they went? Perhaps it leads straight to another fine opportunity?

Let's see ... they ended up killing a club owner and stealing his drugs, sold his drugs to an underworld contact, then took that money and went shopping at a black market weapon shop which was tipped off to the constabulary by a guy they pissed off and barely escaped with their lives. That is about as much time as we've had to play since posting this question - things keep coming up with the rest of the group. (family issues, vacations, etc.)