Hi all. This is the first proper "high stakes" adventure I've written for Dark Heresy and I'm planning on running it tomorrow. Any suggestions for improvements would be greatly appreciated
“Suffer the Children”
An adventure for Dark Heresy
Outline: The acolytes are requested to make all haste to Malfi, where her Eminence, Glydus Del’Agenor the Matriarch, has decided to build a theme park, known as Jocquin’s Joy, dedicated to her youngest, dearest (and most spoilt) great-grandson. This merits the attention of the Inquisition for one reason alone. The amusement park is to be built on the site of House Orsini, a place of infamy, where the Holy Ordos first became aware of the malignant cult known as the Menagerie. Varl’s fears are well founded. Unknown to her Eminence, the Menagerie is well aware of these plans and intends the opening night to be one to remember for the nobility and their youngest and dearest. The architect in charge of the project is secretly Jeliani Orsini, the sole survivor of that fateful night, many years ago. Now transformed into one of the cult’s most adept Revelators, Jeliani has been busy filling the amusement park with all kinds of horrors. The acolytes must uncover the truth of the matter, or they and Malfi’s youngest and brightest will stare into the face of chaos.
To make matters worse, the acolytes have only three days before the park opens. Other complications involve a red herring in the form of Viels D’Lolthanuo, a servant of Baphomel. He is spectacularly murdered, via the darkest of sorceries, in mid-sentence, even as he attempts to warn the Acolytes of Jeliana’s plans, as they run counter to those of Baphomel, who has no wish for Malfi to become a daemon world. The fact that Viels is clearly branded and the suspicious circumstances of his death, coupled with the anguish of his daughter, Sapphira who may well accuse any psker among the party as behind her father, could well cause the players to focus their efforts on investigating the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness.
Note: A great deal of these traps have the potential for extreme danger to the acolytes or at the very least mutation and corruption. Rather than dicating their lethality, this should be left up to the discretion of the GM. Given that many of the traps expose their viewers to the horrors of the warp, Willpower tests are an appropriate way of adjudicating this. Some such as the Planetarium may merit a number of corruption and insanity points (3-10) even in the event of a successful test, while several degrees of failure could merit mutation or temporary/permanent possession (a fate point may be burnt to avoid the latter) in the case of the hall of mirrors.
Read out the following or give it to the players as a handout (adjusted for the circumstances of your campaign)
Incoming transmission.
+++++ Decrypting+++++
Greetings,
You have served me well on Scintilla and acquitted yourself admirably. I suspect that we are on the verge of stricking a great blow against the Serrated Query <replace if yet to run Purge the Unclean>. However, I have need of you elsewhere. It has come to my attention that the Governor of Malfi has inexplicably decided to build an amusement park on the former estate of House Orsini. Given that this accursed place witnessed the true horrors of the cult known to us only as the Menagerie, I fear that this ill-advised project may awaken old evils that should best be allowed to slumber undisturbed. To the best of my knowledge, construction has only just begun. The Emperor willing, although the journey to Malfi will take over two years in sideral time, you should arrive prior to the opening of the park. Investigate it for any malign influence and make it safe for the young scions of nobility. You have my permission to terminate any taint with extreme prejudice. I am entrusting you with my full authority in this matter. Do not abuse it, least my wrath fall upon thee.
I have already arranged passage for you on the "Spear of Antioculus". Go and may the Emperor guide your hand.
<Insert name of Inquisitor/Interrogator>
Ordo <as appropriate>
Excta acta probat
Cast:
Eminence Glydus Del’ Agenor, the Matriarch
Arrogant in the extreme, but admirably competent, Her Eminence is in some respects the very pinicale of hundreds of years of selective breeding in the cut-throat world that passes for high society in Malfi. However, her mind, once honed to a razor-edge, is starting to decline, due to the fact that her artfully arranged courtly system has done wonders in focusing the efforts of the nobility against one another, limiting the need for her to personally involve herself. In addition, despite repeated rejuvenat therapy, she is starting to succumb to old age, although her skin remains that of a woman in her mid thirties. Her main weakness is a love of her great-grandchildren, who she spoils horribly.
Jeliani Orsini, the Architect of revelation – Uses the Revealator profile in Disciples of the Dark Gods.
The years have not been kind to the former lady of House Orsini. Forced to watch her entire family, including all of her children go mad, before perishing under the occult onslaught of the Menagerie, Jeliana’s sanity was shattered a long, long time ago, aided by the fact that it was she who invited the revelators to enterain her house and guests. The constant attentions and mental ministrations of the revelators have shaped the broken fragments into a truly dangerous individual. Now a revelator herself, she has been charged with the goal of teaching the nobility of Malfi, a lesson that they will not soon forget. To that end, she has killed and assumed the identity of the renowed architect, Huthbert Knons. In this guise, she appears as a rather timid looking, short and slight man, wearing large glasses. He continually appears ill at ease, apparently not used to the finery required for appearances at court. Observant Acolytes may notice that there is some odd about his gait. It is incongruously effeminate. In addition, if a suspicious acolyte where to accidentally drop his or her purse in Huthbert’s direction, the man will oddly open his legs to spread his non-existent skirts.
If the Acolytes decide to pull out all stops regarding Huthbert, he/she will either make an incompetent attempt at evading capture or go willingly, depending on the circumstances. During interrogation, he/she will make every effort to protest his/her innocence. If the acolytes press matters to the extreme, he/she will pretend to break completely, begging to be told what it is he has done so he can confess, if they’ll make the pain stop. Jeliana’s priority, is to delay the acolytes for as long as possible. He/She will ask why are the acolytes doing this? He/ just wanted to make children happy. In addition, “Huthbert” will suggest that evil cultists might be trying to stop the park due to their desire to spoil everything that is good.
If the Acolytes are not fooled and are convinced that the park is damned and Huthbert is at the heart of it. Jeliana will wait until they are otherwise preoccupied and teleport out of her cell. Alternatively, if he/she cannot do so, due to the nature of her holding cell, then she has two options. The first is to resume her true form, letting her constructed personality slip. The poor damaged woman will re-emerge, just long enough to lull her captors into a false sense of safety. Once they start to feel sorry for her, her constructed personality will reassert itself and woe betide all those who stand in her way. Alternatively, particularly if the GM is feeling particularly cruel, she will transform into a lithe, muscular woman and explain that she is in fact a Callidus Assassin, who had been instructed by the Inquisition to get close enough to her Eminence, in the case that her removal becomes necessary. She humbly suggests to the Acolytes that they let her go. This approach is particularly appropriate, given if the acolytes have tried to investigate Huthbert’s background, they will discover that no-one has seen his wife and children for several days (they are currently a insane, fused pile of flesh, through which the Greater Daemon Tesh’lezenth gives Jeliana instruction and through contact, maintains the psychic wards that keep her constructed personality in place).
Seneschal Jospain – Giles/possible red herring
The Matriarch’s long-serving (and long-suffering) butler, advisor, chauffeur and personal bodyguard (now retired from primary service), is extremely capable. In fact, his competency is only matched by his dress sense (functional, with a debonaire hint of elegance). Now in his mid 260’s, Jospain is one of the few to have survived House Orsini’s final social function. However, he did not escape unscathed. Jospain is a mutant. Tendrils under his armpits make him mildly empathetic and he has a small tentacle at the base of his spine. Lately, he has been suffering from unnatural hungers and despite his pleasant exterior, is seriously contemplating suicide, before his will breaks. A psyker should notice something odd about him on a successful psyscience roll. In addition, a –20 scrutiny roll should alert an Acolyte to a number of subtle but unusual bulges underneath Jospain’s elaborate courtly costume.
Viels D’Lolthanuo – Servant of Balphomael/Red herring
Viels D’Lolthanuo is a member of the one of the most powerful and openly devout families on Malfi. The Lolthanuo are renowned for their wealth and respectability. However, the family owes much of its success to its choice of Balphomael, the Horned Darkness as its patron. Viels is the head of the family and has presided over countless carefully orchestrated atrocities done in his lord’s name. However, the daemon has learnt of the Menagerie’s plan is not amused. He is quite pleased with the pain and suffering tithed to him and has no wish for Malfi to be extinguished in a glorious but ultimately short space of time. Therefore he has instructed Viels to warn anyone investigating the amusement park of its true nature. However, the daemon Tesh’lezenth is aware of this and instructs Jeliana to dispose of Viels shortly after the acolytes arrive by means of a parasite doll. The death is spectacularly as the man spontaneously combusts from within. It should occur for dramatic effect in mid-sentence – “There is something you should know about the park. It’s AAAAARRRRGHHH.” (or something similar).
Jocquin’s Joy – A land of hidden horrors
There are ten major attractions within the park. However, nine of these have been rigged using sigils and tainted artifacts to induce insanity, mutation or even death. They are as follows:
1) The haunted house
Designed to be a decoy and hide the mystically significant “9”, the haunted house is completely harmless. Filled with cobwebs and automatons in the shape of ghosts, clumsy orks and the like, it is a place of no true horrors, only a few carefully scripted jumpy moments. That said, it hides a vital clue. One of the spooky portraits with moving eyes, is actually of Jeliana D’Orsini in her true original form. Only Jospain or an acolyte who has devoured the entire Inqusitionarial file on the previous incident will recognize it. Jospain’s face will go white when he sees the painting and he will mutter something on the lines of “I know that face. I know that face. Oh sweet Emperor… Its her.”
2) Death’s wing
A gargantuan and over-wrought gothic masterpiece, with its front car shaped into the likeness of a gargoyle, this death-defyingly fast ride has a number of innovative features, including several plunges into long dark corridors. These tunnels are covered with glowing lines. At a flick of the switch, the lines reconfigure, creating a highly localized warp-space overlap and allowing the daemons separated by a hair’s breath of reality to both see and be seen by the rollercoaster’s passagers. This holds true for the first two tunnels, with the third allowing the daemons to feast on the souls of the now terrified victims.
3) The Twister
One of the most prosaic and simple of the rides in the park, this mechanical contraption of flashing lights relies on centrifugal force to keep its passengers upright as it twists and turns. At the flick of a switch, esoteric symbols can be deployed and the spinning motion can be ramped to an insane velocity. Eventually, the passengers’ flesh melts, resulting in an insane, many limbed Chaos Spawn.
4) The colosseum – Small children love dinosaurs. This then, is a child’s delight. Giant Animatronic Carnosaurs and Tricerapods fight one another, complete with realistic blood effects. However, in a secret hold underneath the stadium, a real Carnosaur and Tricerapod are stabled and once enough spectators have gathered, they will rise up from a platform. Goaded by combat drug injectors, they will run amoke through the audience.
5) Angels of death – Essentially a giant game of laser tag, this attraction dresses visitors in crude mockups of Astrates power armour and allow them to fight each other. The catch is that the guns are programmed to switch to fire poisoned ammunition, once the park opens and once sufficient people are playing.
6) The petting zoo – This is packed with the softest, cutest animals brought from across the Calixius sector. Unfortunately, for visitors, come the opening day, the ranks of the animals will be bolstered with several Meequails. These incredibly sweet looking creatures look for all the world like medium sized balls of fluff. They are gregious, socialable and regularly “talk” to one another in a series of bubbling and squeaking noises. However, as a means of self-defence, the hair of their fur is covered into tiny microscopic glass shards, each containing a potent mutagen. Those who handle the Meequails with bare hands, must take a difficult –10 toughness test against poison or quickly grow into a slavish brutish hulk, with glistening black skin and razor-sharp claws, its only purpose to protect the Meequails and bring them food.
7) The Model Hive – A breathtakingly impressive model of Malfi’s cardinal hive, this work of art, even features small tiny automatons in the shape of men and women who go about their business to the beat of a equally tiny clock. When this piece of entertainment is activated by Jeliana, the small automatons spill out and attack the spectators. Equipped with small harpoons, they immobilize their prey before devouring them with tiny teeth, like a swarm of army ants.
9) The planetarium. Prior to the grand opening, this somewhat sedate affair, designed with the intention of providing something marginally educational, show the Malfi night sky in staggering detail, It zooms into individual stars and effectively gives a guided tour of the wonders of the Calixius Sector, with a stunningly impressive deep male voice. However, on the day of opening, it instead gives a guided tour of the Eye of Terror, made worse by the narrators calm dispassionate descriptions of the very worst scenes the Eye has to offer…
10) The hall of mirrors
As the name, suggests, this ride is essentially several interconnected rooms, filled with mirrors of varying shapes and sizes. A quick incantation, and the angels subtly change. The room’s occupants will then start to see.. things… crawling up onto their shoulders, their faces distorting into true horrors, their reflections committing hideous acts upon those they love and if their will shatters under this onslaught, daemons ritually trapped within the mirrors will possess them. The need for an incantation to activate this trap, means that the mirror room has been situated close to the park’s center of operations. Access, as far as the player character’s is concerned is through a special room, filled with the same tainted mirrors as before. However, the mirrors are deliberately placed to confuse attackers and warp and twist space itself. Juliana has spent a great deal of time learning to use the room to her best advantage and has a +20 per cent situation bonus to all reflexive actions (dodge, parry etc) and gains an extra reaction, as long as the mirrors are intact.
Avenues of investigation.
Probably the way of dealing with this part of the adventure is to improvise according to the actions of the players. That said, there are some obvious routes.
The acolytes will be given access to the blueprints for the park. These are not complete and do not include the Carnosaur cages. However, careful examination or a careful search of the park, does throw up a few puzzling design features. These include the fact that the robust security (such as fences etc) seems directed as much to prevent easy escape as it does illegal entry. The somewhat odd orientation of the entrance and exit, will if queried by the party, be explained by the Architect, as a means to increase the attraction of the park, as seeing large numbers of people leaving its delights, devalues the expectations of those about to enter.
Particularly through players may well want to examine the money trail. This will throw up some interesting and puzzling pieces of information, such as large purchases of fodder and raw meat, (passed off for construction and catering, respectively). However, the quantity and assumed sell-by dates, suggests that the meat is being consumed on the premises.
Another quirk is that all the construction materials have been sourced from one company: Holsome Cement Co. Further investigation reveals that this company is one of the three largest cement companies on Malfi, but is unique, given that it also runs an extensive number of funeral homes. Apparently, its profitability owes a great deal to its use of human ashes as an extender in cement. (Red Herring).
The real kicker is the fact that for some reason, significant quantities of psychically and mystically significant materials have been used in the theme park’s construction.
In addition, numerous craftsman have been commissioned to make some of the more unique pieces such as the mirrors. Investigation will uncover that several of the workers have either committed suicide or have been committed to an insane asylum. In addition many will show signs of psychic tampering, as their minds have been selectively purged of the exact nature of the work they have performed.
Finally, large amounts of two apparently innocent chemicals have been purchased. One is a food additive, while the other is essentially a perfume with a distinct colour. A successful chymistry test reveals that the two when combined, produce a powerful hallucinogen. The latter is used in the numerous smoke machines in the major rides. Those who ingest both components, must take a difficult (-10) toughness test (reduced to challenging if they possess the carousel skill) or suffer a –10 per cent to resist the mind-twisting effects of the various attractions.
All of this should alert the Acolytes that something is very wrong about the park. However, even with their authority, it will be difficult to convince her Eminence to delay the opening. What they will need is hard evidence that something is wrong.
There are two main ways in which can be achieved. The acolytes will need to hot wire the central command panel or must uncover the code phrase that activates the mirrors. The latter would require the presence of a diviner. There is no reason why the Acolytes cannot recruit the services of one. Nathulus Haster is the Hall of Voices’ best Diviner and would be willing to work for them at a suitable price.
Hotwiring the control panel is an extended –20 test, and requires a total of three degrees of success to be achieved.
Unfortunately, this then involves exposure to at least one of the rides….
The Price of Failure
If the park opens as planned and the acolytes have not successfully uncovered the deception, they will still be likely to attend the grand opening. Play it up as much as possible. Let them even be lulled into a sense of security and let them witness the children enjoying the rides and so forth. However, once you have set this up, let an observant acolyte realize that the ever present screams of the children from stomach-churning excitement have changed in pitch, louder and more urgent. As before the screaming comes from the rides, but is swiftly hurt off as if by a signal. The silence is unsettling in the extreme. Seeing the aftermath of any of the more messy rides is certainly good for a fear check.
Should the acolytes fail, the park will remain open for as long as it can. It may well be at least several days before people’s suspicions are roused. In this scenario, the park’s small stores of sweet meats and other delicacies will be replenished with the prepared flesh of previous visitors. Should none of the acolytes survive to warn the Inquisition, then the situation is truly dire. With the nobility traumatized and footage of the atrocities being broadcast day and night thanks to Jeliana’s sorcery, riots break out and the intrigues of Malfi explode into bloody excess. The resulting insanity draws the attention of the King of Rags and Tatters and he rewards his loyal servant, by turning her into a vessel for the Lord of Change Tesh’lezenth, he of the burning gaze. The daemon’s birth drag half the hive into madness and the skittering, ever-changing horde he brings in his wake plunge the world into nightmare.
Success!
Should the acolytes succeed and importantly, are able to prove to Her Eminance that the park is a danger, she moves swiftly, shutting it down and demolishing it. The acolytes may well assist, in which case they may have to help the authorities deal with a ramaging Carnosaur, the Meequails and their victims.
Providing her Grandchildren are saved, she is most grateful and will reward the Acolytes appropriately. GMs discretion as to the specific nature of the reward, but all players who have contributed meaningfully should receive something of value.
Any player who successfully kills Jelianna, gains a fate point. Give a bonus of 500 exp to the player most responsible for the discovery of the park’s true nature.
Given the extreme dangers present in this scenario, giving 400exp per player is justified.
