For those of you familiar with Dark Heresy, what sort of throne agent would an inquisitor send to a Tau occupied planet if the throne agent has the mission of making contact with local resistance groups on the planet and combining these resistance groups into a unified front? I'm thinking either using the desperado career path or the storm trooper career path for this NPC. Any version of the assassin seems too focused on mayham and death to make a good resistance leader.

This is for an NPC who will play a pivotal role in the first part of a campaign? The players in my group respond a lot better to NPCs with their own personality than they do to cookie cutter characters I pull out of my behind on the spur of the moment.

dwraley said:

I suggest an Interrogator - they're normally flexible enough to be useful in a variety of situations, and are commonly employed in high-priority situation in an Inquisitor's place (if only because it's good training for the Interrogator).

Well there is a planned moment in my campaign where the inquisitor will end up turning on her own throne agent because she believes the agent will have betrayed his mission because the interrogator relays an offer of cooperation he receives from a faction among the Tau and recommends the inquisitor pursue this course. She feras the doctrine of the greater good because the less faithful among imperial citizens can find the doctrine intoxicating, and she will condemn the throne agent as a heretic and demand the members of the kill team in my campaign carry out his execution. Do you think an inquisiitor is less likely to execute an interrogator than she is another agent?

Maybe I am giving this a little too much thought, but the plot should feel somewhat consistant to me before I bring it to the table. I want the situation to make sense and be a pivotal moment where the players can influence an a major turning point in the war with both the Tau and the Tyranids.

dwraley said:

He might send 2 or 3 (or more). A Bonded Emissary (see IHB) for negotiations/diplomacy. A guardsmen as military advisor. An Interrogator as CIA agent equivalent.

Alex

dwraley said:

If the Inquisitor is puritan enough, they will try to execute other Inquisitors who suggest even temporary cooperation with the Tau.

Thanks for the input, and I agree the inquisitor would make starteling choices if she held puritan beliefs deeply enough. I believe the Radical's Handbook for Dark Heresy mention a faction of inquisitors who take puritanism to a level so intense it makes them radicals. I think the faction called themselves the Libricar and would sanction key members of the imperial hierarchy when they felt it necessary.

dwraley said:

Which undermines the theory of some that all inquisitors are efficient and competent.

Alex

ak-73 said:

Modus operandi and skill are two different things. Every Inquisitor possesses a different view as to what is best for the Imperium... but that doesn't mean that they're not all exceptionally dangerous individuals...

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Well, ask an extreme puritan and and an extreme radical what they think about each other's competence and whether the other's methodology will lead to salvation or ruin of the Imperium.

Also I would never presume a lazy Inquisitor as unskilled, just as unmotivated.

Alex

Actually this kind of mission would be perfectly suited to the right kind of cleric. Afterall it involves preaching to Imperial servants, leadership and re-kindling their perhaps lagging faith. And when the time comes bringing holy wrath upon the alien and the heretic.

The Inquisitor just needs to make sure he picks a cleric that is prepared to quietly spread the faith until the moment is right rather than a redeptionist.....

Visitor Q said:

I totally agree on this, could be more interesting, especially if he starts to realize "they aren't so bad at all"
Also their is the schism between the Imperial Cult and the Astartes. But I agree on sending more than one TA. Suggesting, a Crusader and a Desperado. The Crusaders watches after the Cleric, the Desperado organizes Smuggeling routes, sabotage if neccesary, an Assasin would be also viable. Sadly no Callidus shrine exist as Template as far as I know, would be a perfect matchup.

Sending more than one throne agent seems like a brilliant idea, but then I need to briefly flesh out a few more characters. Perhaps this cleric you speak of begins to question his prejudices against the Tau because he sees some people prosper under Tau rule. This would make even more sense if the cleric already harbored doubts about the righteousness of the inquisitor because he witnessed the inquisitor comdemning other servants of the imperium she found wanting, and the throne agents realize the Tyranids represent an existential threat to every sentient being in the Jericho Reach.

Read Iain M Banks' 'use of weapons' .

Send Zakalwe.

Job's as good as done!