I have an idea for a starting adventure, but Im concerned it's a bit much.

The acolytes are sent to establish a safehouse at a venue that was used by the inquisitor a ong time before
However the region they are to travel to is sealed off, so they have to take a dangerous route (cue simple combat).
When they arrive they discover the reason why: there's a plague.
Said plauge is a product of Nurgle: the dead are up and about (the main enemy) while plague carts (tougher opposition) are collecting the really dead and taking them to a place called the Mortefactorum to fuel even more gruesome plagues as the endgame.
They reach the safehouse and find their contact is still alive. Within are some basic elements for a cure (stockpiled the last time the Mortefactorum was active).
They need to get the hell out and return the resources to the inquisitor. Not really sure how curatives work in 40k: it's not a case of Dr McCoy synthesising a vaccine.

The acolytes themselves lack medicae skills so having them do it without support would be impossible.

Sound okay, but I would suggest a minor change:

Change the hook: the Inquisitior knows about the quarantine and needs one of his other acolythes to be transferred out. The pc will get a pass getting them throug the quarantine, some general anti-dote injection and special suits (both will proof to be of limited use!)

While they enter the area, they find out that the dead are rising and it is all about Nurgle. As they finally get to the home of the other Acolthe (an Adept) he tells them about a Lab in the Morit...whatever that used to be close to get an antidote but is know in the hands of the undead. He demand that he & pc get in order to safte the work-in-progress.

So, you have your basic mission and it is up to the pc to decide if they risk more or simply command the Adept to follow them (or force him to).

Reason: I think it is rather unlikely that the Inquisitor would not be informed about the quarantine on his intended safe house area.

It sounds like a great idea for an adventure, but not for a standard 1st-level party. I recently ran a session where my 5th-level party fought a bunch of zombies and, despite being quite tough in combat, the party had a tough go of it. I would recommend either starting your party at a higher Rank, or holding off on this scenario until they get some actual experience under their belts.

Gregorius21778 said:

However the idea is the rtuth about what's inside isn't yet apparent. Access has been sealed as a precaution but the authorities don't yet know if it's something more than an industrial mishap (ie not an inquisitorial matter). So the acolytes aren't prepared for this.

And anyway how do vaccines and biohazard suits work in the imperium? Do they have such things?

The idea of the Mortefactorum is that it's something of an otherwordly place that connects to our reality from time to time; it's basically a place for Nurgle types to brew unpleasant things.

I'm not sure how an antidote would work? It's not like Star Trek where Dr Crusher can just synthesise a vaccine and then inject everyone.

Adeptus-B said:

@Adeptus-B & the undead
Well, I think combat-wise the only question is what stats one give the zombies. If (for example) you do not go for unnatural toughness & "only destroyed if the head destroyed" to a plaque-zombie that is not a "living dead" but more of a plaque-victim taken over by nurgles famine... well, they will go down as easy as a human target. Even easier if one rules that the illness wasted them away before it took their will and soul.

@SignOfTheSerpent
I think that those stuff is known in the Imperium but just not available to everyone. An actual example (Panimune) is given on p.130 of the IH. I think this is just the stuff your pc would be handed in order to help prepare for their mission.
DotdG features the "vile savants"(p.150) which are described as wearing soiled containment suits (AP:2, by the way). So, I guess such suits are very well available. I guess AP:1 would be a good idea and the pc would be completley save as long as the suits are not raptured.... which will of course occure during the first hit in combat! You could ask for Toughness test to check for infection, the difficulty could be based on how long it took for the pc to seal the suit again ("hey.... uh... any patches left?"). Actualy wounds will of course make things much much worse.

signoftheserpent said:

1. Acquire mission.
2. Go to venue. (to establish a safehouse)
3. Encounter unexpected plague. (At this point just background information)
4. Meet with contact. (to work out the details on establishing that safehouse)
5. Then despite mission objectives go rogue and break in to the Mortefactorum and steal elements to be used in a some sort of plague antidote.
6. Establish Safehouse?

I don't think your mission is difficult at least on the high level. But breaking it down in to these elements it really seems like the step between four and five needs to be fleshed out a lot.

signoftheserpent said:

Hmmm... maybe give the characters an Outrider with a mounted Heavy Stubber as part of their starting gear? That would give them more hitting power than standard 1st-level charaters, and allow them to flee if they are overwhelmed. To keep the party from simply staying in the vehicle and avoiding any personal combat, you will need to place some obstacles that will require them to get out (clearing debris from the road, for example) and expose themselves to potential attack.

I ran a mission similar to this one with my 1st level PCs..only mine was on a asteroid base...that had the Fydae strain virus released. The basic was the asteroid base was a secret project lab setup to study ways to make a potential vaccine or innoculant to the strain to render it useless ( for use with the troops and key planetary officials etc ) in event of a widespread outbreak courtesy of the vile servants of the dark gods. Shortly after another cell team found clues as to a leak concerning the location of the asteroid base in the hands of a cult they clensed all contact with the asteroid is lost...Its been approx 1 month since loss of contact that the PCs arrive and due to the risk of contamination the navy ships captain has stated that no one will go down BUT the PCs..they can however take any gear they can carry/use and the lander they will be transported in wil be flown by servitor.

Their orders are simple

1) Reestablish contact with the asteroid base and ascertain what is going on

2) Deal with any/all threats as fitting throne agents ( IE destroy )

3) Rescue any survivors ( will be quaranteened to ensure no contamination..as will the PCs... )

4) Make it back to the navy ship intact

I gave the undead the ability to hear sounds from distance and come investigate them.....the PCs found out real fast that if they made noise..they would get attacked by any/all undead that heard it within a few rounds

I even had them have to use some voidsuits the base kept in the airlock areas to move from one hab unit to another when the previous security teams tried to blow the accesstube leading from one to the other to try and contain the infection. And they had combat outside on 0G from some of the zombies that got out through the hole....They found a few survivors ( malnourished and injured ) ( 1 magos biologis with damaged mechadendrites and arm, 2 adepts, 1 mid level tech-priest ( magos assistant ) and 3 security team with empty shotguns and knives.

They were smart though and tried to keep combat at ranged intervals and the really intelligent PC grabbed a flamer and some spare canisters of fuel in addition to the pack. they loaded up and went in..and they survived as well as all levelling up at least once in the fighting...( they even called in a orbital bombardment from the navy ship in close orbit on the outlying hab block that housed the source of it all once they disabled the scrambler in main control and were able to contact the ship to give the captain a SitRep.

In the end the the Inquisitor ( after the full situation report was made to the Inquisitor by the acolytes) ordered the Captain to carry out Exterminatus on the asteroid base to prevent any further issues with it. The Captain called in a few support cruisers from battlefleet Calixis to assist in carrying out Exterminatus...they were quite helpful once the reason was given in coded communication and promptly responded...in the end...the asteroid was nothing but space debris .