I am spitballing ideas for a campaign to start after this one. Getting a head start.

The nutshell is that the AdMech uncovered the presence of a previous Necron colony, and they flat out abandon their research station until they call for support in case it awakens. We're talking about a remote location in the mountains of a barely colonized frontier world. No contact with the pilgrims the Ecclesiarchy is bringing in. So, basically they had a small outpost and they're pulling out for now, unconcerned with the populace (there really aren't many). As it turns out, the Logicians have sent an agent in to take a look around and see what they found there to see if they can steal anything. After disabling the defenses, they take over and - surprise surprise - awaken a very small outrider group of Necron. This is where our cell comes in.

I really want the environment to be different from what we've been doing, which is mostly in larger cities or smallish colonies. I want this to feel remote and very intimate. Also, I want it to feel very creepy and abandoned. I haven't really done an environment like this, so I ask you fine folks if you've run anything like that. What sort of tricks did you do to make it feel more cinematic and creepy? Do you have any good artwork from the books or otherwise that you found for reference? Also, about how big do you think I should make it? Like, how many people worked there? I was thinking no more than about 30 or so, basically a small fortress lab. I have been trying to hash out what sort of facilities they would have and whatnot, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it as well.

30 people is a good amount, if you are going for a horror/creepy atmosphere the most important thing is the mundane details… such as those 30 workers' living quarters, each with a small amount of personal belongings, possibly pictures of family, names, etc. The factory itself should have most of the fine details worked out also, maybe written in "boxed" text. The players need to be able to see that everything is finely detailed, the description of the environment needs to cover all senses - sight, smell/taste, hearing, feel, everything in those descriptions should start off normal…. Normal enough that the players are feeling comfortable with the setting, and can truly visualize what is there. I personally think the outside environment should be cold, dusty, dark, and windy, while the interior should be near freezing and dry, with machinery still droning, and the strong smell of chemicals everywhere. Try to emphasize the feeling of isolation.

Then, you can start creeping them out. Leave much of the creepy effects up to the players' imagination to figure out, don't tell them what it is. They will end up scaring themselves from implications more than from the actual truth behind it.

Some creepy effects to insert when you feel the mood is right(I wouldn't recommend using all of these, just the ones you think would fit):

-Extremely loud Com static sounds like whispers and moans.

-The sound of insects buzzing over rotting corpses can be heard all around.

-Machinery occasionally starts to make grinding noises, crunching and dripping can be heard each time.

-A groaning sound of stressed metal gets closer and closer…. A warm draft of air blasts you, carrying the stench of sewage and rot with it.

-Children's laughter echoes from the creaking and squeaking machinery, and seems to follow one of the players anywhere they go.

-In a place they have already explored, a single drop of blood can be seen on the floor.

Don't stray from using cliche's they work perfectly once the mood is set.
-A series of mechanical slams echo throughout the facility, as doors begin to shut and lock all around them.
-Hissing vents and jets start issuing forth a low-lying extremely cold fog.
-Static electricity hangs in the air, as cybernetic beeps and buzzes surround the players.
-The facility's power is cut off, machinery stops, lights go out, etc. An unnatural pale green light slowly illuminates the facility.

As for the Necron ruins:
Low-lying cold fog.
Pale green illumination.
Metal skeletons standing uniformly up against the walls of hallways.

That's all I got for now, hit a wall in the brain. Hope some of that is useful or helps to inspire ideas.

A few odds/ends:

I read the novelization of the movie Alien back when I was in Junior High, and there was one phrase in it that has always struck me as awesomely creepy: on the planet where the xeno ship is discovered, the naration says something like "Night was falling, turning the sky the color of blood…"

Howling wind is good, too. Maybe combined with clouds of dust: have the PCs make an Awareness test- if successful they notice some motionless, two-meter-tall silouettes dimly visible in the choking dust. After they have blasted away on full auto, let them discover that the shapes are simply wind-carved spikes of stone rising from the rocky mountainside. Pepper in a few more incidents like this whenever they are outdoors; once the PCs are numb to the 'false scare', have the shapes turn out to be Necrons…

Scratching sounds from under the floors might be normal vermin… or they might be tunneling Necrons…

If the PCs have to spend the night, write up a note describing a very disturbing dream, which is actually a glimpse through time to when the Necrons were active here, and give the note to a random player…

Man, you guys are good. I think this is shaping up to be really fun. I like the idea of machinery going a little bit haywire (as the Necron perhaps begin to feel it out and tap into it, perhaps observing the Cell through the monitors on equipment), as well as blasts of strange air and dust as passages into the building are opened up. That crypt air carries it's own smells as ancient machinery reawakens. I had also fully intended to ham up how harsh and desolate it is outside, and the eerie freezing cold inside as it has stood without filtered air and heat for some time.

There is the other element of the person that they followed there who has been tooling around with his colleagues for a little while. The principal being a Logician cultist and I figured he can have a couple of servitors and perhaps some menials with him as well. I thought maybe just five people all told, including the servitors. I've no idea if it would work yet, but I would LOVE to set up a moral quandary as the Logician offered to team up with them to fight these new threats, but he'll probably end up getting killed by the Cell. Thing is, they may well need his knowledge to fight them off but how do I impress that idea upon them? I guess he could say it if he gets a chance to plead for his life.

Thanks for the tips, both of you!

Dang, now I'm wondering if the Logicians should be dead when they get there… I would like them to talk to the main guy. Perhaps he has sealed himself inside one of the rooms and fortified it? Hmmmm…

The Logicians would be in a desperate situation indeed, though I am supposing that they are well-equipped enough to travel here.

Not sure what you have planned exactly for the story involving the Logicians, but….
Maybe only the one Logician survives, planning to use his colleagues as test subjects in experiments with Necron technology(possibly trying to infuse machines with their souls). However, things go horribly wrong for him and he ends up becoming a victim in the scenario. The infusion works, per se, and the ruins become possessed by the vengeful spirits of his colleagues.

Inanimate objects become "living," the walls attempt to capture anyone close enough by using wiring and tubing as tentacles, mundane machinery acts with vile sentience.

He has activated the long-dormant ruins, a tomb that is now rapidly repairing the Necrons that have been in storage for all these millions of years.

When they finally encounter him, they must decide if they kill him and escape, letting the Necrons loose, or use him to find the solution and deactivate the tomb before its too late.

In any case, sticking with the original topic, there should be ominous signs and portents about what actually happened, and what is about to happen. If he killed his colleagues, and is using them as experiments, there should be signs of struggle - destroyed servitors, blood splatter, smeared trails of blood.
Creepy effect: The machinery seems to chuckle softly at/around the murder scene.

The logician could even play into the mounting fear by scratching cryptic messages into the walls to communicate with the acolytes. As they progress, the scratches turn to riddles scrawled in blood. Until they are eventually left with a gruesome scene that is artistically painted in gore, demonstrating the logician's descent to madness.

Couple more ideas:

*Make a set of recordings that your players can find. Get some of your other friends to record them - there's nothing quite like a recording of someone hoarsely whsipering "pleasepleasepleasepleasedon'tfindmedon'tfindme" or muttered prayers to really 'improve' the mood.

*Consider using a Haephastus Ore Seeker (mentioned in RT - http://charaxcrusade.freeforums.org/hephaestus-ore-seeker-ground-vehicle-near-unique-t134.html - looks like a small oil rig on tank treads) insetad of a settlement. Not only is it small, enclosed, and claustrophobic, it means once your players decided to flee the scene, you can awaken it

*If it's possible in the place that you play, alter the lighting in the area. Changing up the lighting to suit the mood can be really immersive.

*Don't use the word Necron. Describe the look of the warriors, but never completely. Build up the sheer otherworldlyness of them. "For a second you see a tall slender figure carrying a long barrelled weapon before the shadows move past and it's gone." Call for FL:Xenos rolls - enough successes with indicate that the figure had the stature of an Eldar xeno-breed… but just the skeleton (remember - the necrodermis was developed in the War in Heaven to frighten the Eldar, it's not a HUMAN skeleton they're mimicking )

*If you want to use Wraiths, give them a recognisable signature when travelling through things - like a burst of gamma radiation. Have one of your players pick it up on their auspex or one of the auspex mounted in the settlement/vehicle. Just mention it offhandedly, "Just a small thing, it looks like there might be a piece of equipment or the like that's faulty, you're picking up a small radiation emmesion on a lower floor". When they investigate, there's nothing there. Leave it for a half an hour or so, then repeat the exercise, but a little closer. Work it slowly, have it get closer to them by increments. By the time you want to attack, you want them so paranoid that they'll snap at anything.

*Call for awareness tests. Ask the character who rolled highest to roll initiative. Once he's done so, explain that they feel like they're being watched - possibly from over in that room. There is, of course, nothing there. Shake this up a bit, perhaps if one of the characters is notably gunhappy you could get them to open fire on a rat or the like, "You can't see anything, but you can hear a skittering sound coming from right… over…. there !".

*This is one that can REALLY make a creept session. Take each of the players aside, or give them each a note. Tell them all, "Your character is NOT acting strangely" and make sure they keep their notes/what you told them to themselves. They'll all work out pretty quickly that if they're being told that they're not acting strangely, it means one of them was told differently…

Hope some of these help!

Those are all great ideas- I'd love to contribute to the conversation, and I will once I find something of caliber to add to it. For now though, Great job- I am bound to use some of them myself.

Thanks!

Recorded distress calls are always creepy. I might suggest that they describe something about the necron attacks such as:

"The clicking. It's like the machinary comes alive whenever it's near." You can probably write something a little more random and mad sounding to pad it out.

If you want the Logician to be a potential ally a good way to show that 'he is useful ' is to have him actually save them from something. They come under attack and he comes in with some techno solution for them. It is a little Deus Ex NPC if done too often but just once to get it into their heads that he can be used is ok IMO. Perhaps later they can find out how he got his knwledge (queue broken experiments of his companions).

A lot of good creepy ideas can be found in the Ice Station Mara encounters in Dead Stars. They are all warp based but might help with some inspiration. My particular favourite from there is a com station that repeats "help me" quite softly. When the players investigate it stays repeating until they decide it must just be an echo. Then it says one of their names. Not necessarily appropriate for this but perhaps a creepy message that they can't turn off and if they stay too near infects their com beads so they play it constantly. That might help creep them out by effectively cutting them off form each other if they split up.

I am going to offer up a more meta piece of advice that you've probably already thought of- but a good soundtrack adds a lot to the atmosphere of any game.

Silent Hill music would help you're game- it has a metallic feel to it, but might I recommend

The entire soundtrack is very good for games taking place in remote places, everyone should check it out.

Yeah, Saldre. That song was creepy… We usually don't play music at all but sometimes we do. I should really do it for this campaign though. Thanks for the tip on that song!

Saldre, I'm so using the Scratches soundtrack for the Haemetite Cathedral in the Apostasy Gambit. Thanks for sharing that, it's so creepy!

I usually let the soundtrack from Dawn of War 2 play as background music, and I love throwing in different soundtracks for different themes.