Hello forum . here's my idea for an upcoming campaign i will soon be writing. what do you think? any sugggestions or ideas? need a name for the machine cult so any good suggestions would help (best i can come up with is the brotherhood of Iron)

Deus Ex Machina

The Acolytes have been sent to investigate a signal deep from the city of Ironkeep. The signal is from an Inquisitor long fought dead, lost in the depths. What is lurking in the sprawling catacombs below Ironkeep? The party is about to realise that they have more problems than an old signal!

City of the Machines

On the planet of Covenant sits the vast multi-levelled city of Ironkeep, a huge sprawling tower like structure several miles and miles deep. Forgotten secrets and ancient history lie untouched at the bottom level.
At the top level, live the City Elite, a region separated by the commoners by a large wall and heavy gates. Only the aristocrats and the powerful are allowed here, the only citizens being servants or that are deemed worthy of invitation.

Ancient History

Ironkeep has a long and bitter history. The city was constructed millennia ago and ruled over by a Machine Cult that worshipped machine as gods. A vast A.I program was constructed to control and master the city. Helios ruled over and controlled every aspect of the citizens’ lives, the Machine Cultists Helios’ right hand of justice and power. Helios was an extremely powerful program with an almost-human personality, and the city was a utopia. But anyone who did not worship Helios as a god was destroyed, or forced into labour. Helios was absolute and omnipotent.

The Imperium

This all came to an end when the Imperium came to ‘conquer’ the planet. It took over five decades and bitter war that devastated the city, but Ironkeep was taken. Helios and the machine cultists were declared a tech-heresy and purged. Helios was shut down (some believed by cultists to save it) and the central control was never discovered.
Over the millennia wars and time wore down the city. Whole levels were destroyed and fell into disuse, becoming a hidden ‘underworld’ for mutants, criminals and worse. Helios and the cult were forgotten believed to an arcane and heretical myth.

Hunters in the Dark

Over the years many groups and individuals have explored the catacombs, some never returning. One such man was an inquisitor and retinue hunting a group of mutant heretics. His entire party went missing, lost in the deep. That was ten years ago.
A group of tech-priests (of the Logicians) determined to discover the truth of the legends and uncover new knowledge and understanding for the Imperium. They stumbled upon the hidden Helios Complex, the command centre for Helios. They pressed the wrong button and Helios reactivated.

Helios

Helios is a machine marvel, a sophisticated and highly intelligent A.I program. It was also a megalomaniac and believed mankind and other life forms to be obsolete, imperfect and waiting to be replaced by his self-designed machines that he would control.
Helios can’t be shut down and was put into a slumber, this gave him time to organise his plans and go insane. The tech-priests that found him are now his servants and tools to be used.
Helios wants total control over Ironkeep and to replace the living with his perfect machines. He is without mercy, compassion or empathy and will stop at nothing to complete his plan.

The Machine Cult

The machine cult survived the years and is now a powerful and lethal tool of Helios. Helios years ago replaced with the leader with a machine, a living person with a machine brain under Helios’s control.

The Survivor

One of the inquisitors acolytes survived and now survives, lurking in the ruins, hopelessly lost. Recovering his masters’ rosette he is sending out a plea for help. He knows what is going on.

thanks for your time

I wana play this... **** i gm in my game. Sounds really fun and i always like megilomaniac machines. tell me hows it goes so when i steel the idea i know the bumps

Sounds good. . But what are your plans for the solution of this campaign? Do the pc have to rush to find a way to "contain" Helios? (like severing all connections between his level and the rest of the hive?) or will this all end in melta torpedo bombing from orbit?

Suggestion:
If this whole city was used to be the abomination the Mechanicus calls a "Silica Animus", there will be a heavy presence of the Tech-Priests, especially the "Light of Sollex" and other militant groups. Since the Mechanicus will know that this hive will draw Hereteks to it like a magnet draws iron scraps. Perhabs Skitarii are on patrol together with Secutors to have a very close eye on anyone with a dealing in the ways of the machine got, from the lowly Reclaimator to the familiy lines /guilds whose duty it is to appease the acient power lines of the Ironkeep.

Of course, such an opressive and iron handed approach (ha-HA!) helps to plant the seed for rebellion and conspiracy in those who dare to re-fuse (ha-ha-HA!) and who are smart enough to hide their ways and avoid being culled.

essentially the Acolytes will have to enter deep into the hive (going through the abandoned catacombs and other passages) and discover whats going on. the party will have to destroy Helios's central processing unit and wipe out Helios's machine factory.

the mini adventure conclusion would be the party tracking down the head of the machine cult and ending the order for good. if this adventure runs well i might save it for the next adventure contest :-) thanks for the encouragement.

A little lemon I would like to point at:

Why are the pc able to find the "central processor unit" while over a hundred years ago a full blown search by an imperial invasion army was unable to locate it?

Halfway through you could have another AI construct aid the acolytes (although for added effect they don't know it's AI to begin with) called Daedalus. Though this AI ends up being a rogue off shoot of programming from Helios and although it thinks it is working with the acolytes against Helios it is really the other way around. For something a little different, Daedalus could be a tech priest.

(Yes I am aware of the obvious reference (read - plot stealing ) I am making but it was the first thing that came to mind after reading this idea. Which BTW I do think is really cool!)

i see you got the reference (hopefully the same as mine: Deus Ex possibly one of my favourite PC games ever). yes i was considering a rogue AI construct or alternatively a rogue tech-priest? maybe i'll combine the two). the Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum will hopefully give me lots of ideas)

Yes Deus Ex was foremost on my mind! Don't feel as bad now lol. It IS one of the best PC games ever made so the word "possibly" should not be in your last post

As for rogue AI or Tech Priest, definately have both. One called Daedalus and the other Icarus!

Targetlock said:

Is there no hope for the Widow's Son?

Very cool idea, a nice mix of HAL and Terminator ^^ one alternative could be a Mechanicus magos who uploads his mind to the computer to become it with the complex, but the experience drives him insane.

nice idea cryxx might have to use it. Helios is very much gonna be a sentient personality with a personality like SHADON (is that correct?) or GLADOS. maybe it could make regular insane broadcasts to taunt the characters as they enter the complex. such as:

' Warning. All trespassers will be shot. survivors will be shot again. thank you'

Nice going Target, now I have to play Portal again ^^

Theres loads of things you can do to freak out or anoy players with that sort of thing, I ran another sci-fi RPG once where an AI had taken over a facility and set loose some killer cyborgs and on every screen the players came by the AI showed video of the work staff getting mutilated by the cyborgs, to sorta "show them their fate".

Targetlock said:

SHODAN, but I think we understood. As another possibility, you could borrow a page from Paranoia, in which the central Computer has been, due to multiple root programmers with no unified plan have splintered the AI into multiple personalities. Perhaps Helios was originally beneficent and was originally intended to serve the inhabitants of the hive, but malfunctions and conflicting code caused a split between what is now known as Helios and another, less aggressive or less influential personality that wants to help the Inquisitors fix the computer. This separate personality may only have limited control over the city (maybe it controls a lost and forgotten Infirmary area, allowing it to provide the Acolytes with a safe base; you could call it Aescapulus, if you wanted to keep the Greek derivatives) and cannot directly countermand Helios' actions. The Acolytes could get both the insane broadcasts of Helios and hints from Aescapulus over their voxes. If anyone pays close enough attention, they might realize that the voice is the same, except that Helios is loud and megalomaniacal and Asecapulus is quiet and afraid. Of course, Aescapulus would be helping the Acolytes under the impression that they would fix the AI; if the Acolytes reveal that the Inquisition and the Tech-Priests consider an AI tech-heresy and that they intend to destroy it, it might switch sides.

Renraku Arcology Meltdown for Shadowrun, Third Edition, is a good source for possible inspiration as well. It's got a good AI with Messianic delusions as the antagonist, and lots of things that you could adapt for use on the tech-priests or servitors.

nice idea Ebony i might have to use that Shadowrun and Paranoia are great game, so's Portal !

Lupinorc: yes, my mistake Deus Ex IS one of the greatest PC games ever

Maxim C. Gatling: who or what is the widow's son?