SO, in between our Deathwatch game and our group starting a Black Crusade game, I am going to do a one off Dark Heresy game. The premise is that the entire squad is made up of untouchables and are an elite witch-hunting team. They will start at around rank 10ish, so Ascension will be used. I plan on having them investigating a new drug that is rumored to heighten user's psy potential. Even users that don't have a psy rating exhibit some degree of psychic talent after use for a short period of time. Obviously, this is not something the Ordo Hereticus (i think that's the right Ordo) would like spread around. That is however as far as I am so far on the plot. I welcome any and all advice for creating this adventure. remember this is a one or two session adventure so nothing too extravagant.

Thanks in advance!

Do not use an Ascenion level swat-team of NULLS. Do not even use ASCENSION at all. It is bloody hell in regard to balancing and more then one of your Players will try to become a "Null Temple Assassine". From that point on you will know what I mean and start crying.

I suggest to use Rank 5 DH instead. Still fun but you will have it easier to come up with opponents.

Are you aware that a drug like that already exists in the core rule book, by the way? Spook, page 149.

A GROUP of Nulls? Holy crap, where did that Inquisitor go to hire minions? A Necron Tomb World? (and then, to cover his tracks, he implemented the retcon, and new motif for them). I'm relatively certain that no Inquisitor would be allowed to have several 1-in-a-billion individuals, to say nothing of the Culexus Temple looking on hungrily, hoping to abduct one or two of them, since Blanks are so rare, and every Culexus Assassin must be one. Still, ignoring my awe, it seems a bit odd of a plan. I'm not sure how sneaky they'll be able to be, what with them putting off everyone, and every psyker, even the partials on the drug, having their spider-sense tingle, whenever the players are around. It's my experience that, once one player is a Blank, the GM starts using non-psykers as the enemy, sort of to slap the player in the face for spending those EXP points on that Trait.

Your only real risk might be that the party has little problem stopping the bad guys. Wannabe psykers will be suppressed by the null field, while even the bigger ones will be half-ganked, and at that high a level, your players will have all the gear, and most of the classes to deal with whatever else the psykers bring along. it sounds interesting, but be careful.

venkelos said:

Nope. I guess he would be hiring the same places "the Femininum" had hired their cadre of nulls (see Abnetts Eisenhorn series)

JediChris said:

Why?

Gregorius21778 said:

Agreed - Eisenhorn made special use of untouchables, and in fact his practice carried over to the Ravenor series where Ravenor not only had several untouchables on his staff, they were able to activate 'limiters' that put a limit on their 'blankness', which was crucial since Ravenor was basically a crippled ball of alpha-psyker-grade meat.

I'd be totally up with running a squad of untouchables - it seems to me it's the perfect NON-radical answer to Chaos and the warp.

Maybe as a twist at the end, after a successful mission, they all get mind-wiped and disappear into temple culexus having 'proven' themselves... Grimdark much?

OP

I really like that idea Orion. Build a group up through DH, every one of them an Untouchable of some kind. At the end of the game you go into vivid detail about how each one is separated from the group in some way by assassins, are then mind wiped and given to the Culexus. With or without the knowledge of their Inquisitor. I think that'd be an epic end to a game indeed, the knowledge that your characters have been pressganged into the services of an Assassinorum Temple is a pretty epic/grim-dark way to leave things hanging.

so other than Orion's twist on the end, I haven't really had my question answered. Since the drug idea i had is already in game, i am thinking of changing it to the Flects from the Ravenor series(great books btw) I suppose since none of my players have read those books i could always shadow the plot there but would rather not.

I am looking for interesting plot ideas/twists, i am already aware of the power of the Ascencion classes and the rarity of untouchables. Going from creating enemies to face Space Marines in Deathwatch to this isn't much of a stretch.

As a side note, all characters will be pregenerated by me so I will know what they can and can't do and be restricting certain classes.

Haha aren't tangents great/frustrating?

In response to your original question, I recently re-read 'Scourge the Heretic' by Sandy Mitchell, after getting a copy of 'Innocence Proves Nothing', the sequel. For those of you who haven't read them, Scourge the Heretic was released to coincide with the original Dark Heresy release (even the cover's title font is identical). In it, the main characters (coincidentally an arbitrator, an assassin, a guardsman, a sanctioned psyker, a tech-priest and a scum), all working for an inquisitor who stays out of the investigative shenanigans, investigate the mass theft/kidnapping/release of psyker prisoners destined for the Black Ships. There's plenty of interest for any Inquisitor, Xenos, Hereticus or Malleus, Deathwatch marines here & there, and so on. Very cool.

So...

How bout your characters are an untouchable kill-team hunting down a recently freed number of psykers? The psykers represent a whole mix of powers and ratings, some that can be dangerous indirectly (telekinetic booby-traps, for example), but the PC's can out-blank a number of highly powerful abilities, like Psychic Blade, Blood Boil, etc. Maybe they're being led/have been freed by a Chaos Marine sorcerer?

My logic is basically, untouchables are too rare to squander on non-psyker targets. Psykers are rare enough as it is, so if you're going to send a team of blanks, it'll be against a horde of unsanctioned psykers.

OP