I'm about to run my first DH game and I've got some questions that I'm sure are going to come up in the game as I try and convey the mood of the game to my players.

My only real involvement with WH40k is from back when it first begun (I was at the Gamesday where it was launched) and it ended before the 2nd Edition was released. Now I'm picking up DH and reading the Eisenhorn trilogy as revision.

The setting has changed somewhat in between.....

My understanding was that the Imperium used to be very harsh with pretty much anyone who had contact with Daemons, Imperial Guard units would for example be pulped after a battle with them.

However that doesn't seem to happen in Eisenhorn, so have things now softened?

What would happen to the people involved with the Illumination adventure? A poster below suggested that they would all be executed, which fits in with my understanding of "old" Warhammer. However the book talks about the PCs possibly returning to Stern Hope to check for contamination, insinuating that execution is not automatic.

Is it only the connection of Daemons and the Warp/Psykers that's the issue now and the secret that the Imperium is trying to keep?

Would the Imperium, and those who were witnesses, explain the events at Stern Hope as being "evil spirits" giving proof as to why mankind needs the Emperors protection?

How much do the general population know about Daemons?

Esha Rayne certainly knows that ancient "evil" spirits exist that can possess people and return to the world after being "defeated". Does she know too much or is her view of the thing as being a "spirit" her protection?

Anyone who sees evidence of the Daemonic can be executed after the battle, usually if the Grey Knights get involved, which is why it didn't happen in Eisenhorn. In fact, there's a Formation for the TT game in Apocalypse using Grey Knights that demonstrates it quite well.

If memory serves, the general population knows very little if anything about Daemons other than that there are 'evil spirits' seeking to corrupt Humanity

Members of the Inquisition are exempt. Since the PCs are under the protection of an Inquisitor they're relatively safe, but any Guardsmen/Arbitrators/etc. working for them are pretty screwed.

It also would make for an interesting campaign if the PC's Inquisitor decides to snuff them and they have to run for their lives.

I imagine that they would kill people out of necessity. And demons would be bogeymen and myth. The 40k universe seems to suggest that your mental state can cause warp entities and such to result, even from a non psyker. Corruption points further validate this idea.

In the game experiencing a demon gives corruption points, corruption points are bad and lead to bad things. So those exposed to demons would be killed, just to be safe. Or checked for contamination if convienent. And only convienent or desired. I'd say an option hardly used.

Since the most likely result is killing those exposed, the myths and bogeymen stories would be huge and outrageous, as first hand accounts would be rare. Rarer still from a survivor.

Given that demons can pop out of the warp anywhere. It would be impossible to keep it a secret. But with propaganda, and killing. The social perception would be simply a horror story, or a moralality play.

I would guess that it would be how we as americans feel about demons really existing. How does the average american feel about the reality of demons? Because of the inquisitions purging it would be a fairy tale. But there certainly is a minor segment of the population that believes. And a unfortunate few who claim to have been a witness or been possessed.

The Third Edition TT had some fluff about "the second war for armageddon" stating that after a successfully rappeled demon invasion the whole population of the makropol was sended into a huge gulag to work themselves to death (!). The imperium was not willing to risk the "moral breach" that would happen through witness of such a strong daemon force. The makropole where settlet a new!

In my opinion, the key to the "kill the witness / let the witness live" is in calculation balancing the "value" of the suspect(s) [if allowed to live] compared to the potential "risk of corruption" or risk of information over the real power of daemons. A minor village of serfs could (and would!) surly be slaughtered by a callous =I= while the survives of an army battalion would perhabs be put into special camps for testing first...and the handed to the =I= as trainee for Inq-Stormtroopers or handed to the AdMech for Servitors

The "Mind cleasning" mentiont in InqHandbook was something mention in TT Edition one as an option for space marines encountering daemons!

Action_Carl said:

*SPOILER*

So presumably at the end of the Shattered Hope published adventure the PCs should order the Imperial Guard they are called in to help to be executed en masse?

*/SPOILER*

Well, that depends on your flavor of Inquisition. Execute all witnesses, for they are surely tainted, and you're a Puritan. Spare them, for they have fought valiantly against a grave foe of the Imperium, and you're a radical. There should be consequences if your group takes a tack that doesn't jive with their inquisitor.

Executing those corrupted by warp exposure makes sense; the corrupt are dangerous. Keeping daemons secret makes less sense, for the simple reason that everyone believes in them anyway. The church preaches against the temptations of evil spirits, feral worlders tell tales of the monsters that creep into your dreams and steal your children... the Imperium is ignorant, superstitious, and paranoid, and would believe in daemons even if they didn't exist.

Naturally, one would want to limit access to specific knowledge such as names and summoning rituals for specific daemons, but if a hive falls to daemons and has to be purged, where's the benefit in keeping it quiet? Stating it openly is more helpful in maintaining the Imperium's general siege mentality, and would serve the dual purpose of increasing piety among the populace, as they hear what happens to a settlement whose faith in the Emperor is weak.

I really don't see the point in trying to keep daemons a secret. It's a thoroughly lost cause, and publicly preaching about the dangers of daemonic incursion and the necessity of piety and witchburning can only help the Inquisition.

Thank you all for your responses.

I'm sure I recall reading somewhere that it's the connection between Daemons and the Warp that is the Imperium's big secret. What I can't recall is if that's from the original Rogue Trader book, the fluff that came out in White Dwarf, my very sparse knowledge of the 2nd Edition and onwards TT game, Eisenhorn or the DH books...

I think I'm quite keen on having a very harsh Inquisition, therefore I think I will have the following happen...

** Possible Spoilers for the adventure Illumination **

The Acolytes will know that the population of Stern Hope will need to be contained so as to check for contamination, this they will do until relieved by a detachment of Adepta Soritas from the Abbey of the Dawn. They might be overkill but they are the closest forces loyal to the ideals of the Inquisition, and they can be trusted to do what is required.

The Acolytes will then be sent away, the surviving residents of Stern Hope that were in the Cathedral will all be executed as they actually witnessed a the summoning or/possession by a Daemon. The Acolytes won't get to hear of this immediately, though if they ask later or look into it they will find out. I might even have some of the survivors turned into Servitors so they can continue to serve the Emperor, perhaps they later meet one recognise someone that they met, Brother Lamark?

The official story will be something along the lines of ancient evil spirits attacked the Cathedral but thanks to the sacrifices of those there and their faith in the God Emperor they were destroyed, though at great cost.

Esha Raine's fate depends on what the Acolytes report to their Inquisitor, if it's made to sound as if she knows too much then she too will be executed, however expressing knowledge of "spirits" alone isn't going to bring about that fate.

Does all of that sound "plausible"?

How did other GMs deal with the fall out from Stern Hope?

@"Plausibel"
Ja, das tut es / Yep, it does.
But I would assume that the =I= might think twice about openly executing Esha Raine hence a lot of the ashleen might turn against them if find out. But a covered operation, perhabs done by a small force group some weeks later. Perhabs making it look just like another raid of some crazed marauders... you know, people tend to die all the time on Iocanthus.

Suggestion:
How about giving them another mission on Iocanthos. One that has nothing to do with Stern Hope. The pc will find out that some people simply are now quiet uneasy to talk with them. People they might during their first stay at Port Suffering and who are in the now that they went to Stern Hope, just before "the inccident". No one came back alife, the cathedral now guarded by sororitas. Groups of priest in black robes heading of from port suffering into this direction.
These "do not want to talk" should not be to much of a hinderance and should not apply to too many a people. After all, who will really remember their faces? Perhabs some guys at the gates that checked them while coming back or some workers at the star port who helped to refuel their lighter "back up".

Perhabs the group is ordered to assasinate Raine and make it look like random violence. After finding her first, which will be hard since she had visions and tries to hide.