I don't know how I get myself into these situations… Running an Ascension game so my Inquis has a ship at his disposal. This guy has gone fairly radical and has a bone to pick with the Ecclesiarchy, but that's actually beside the point.

He has decided to take his ship and cadre and make a pilgrimage to Holy Terra. While this is fun, it leaves me with the unenviable task of trying to show a couple of things to them while they're there and I have no idea how I'm going to pull it off. Namely:

1) The crippling beaureacracy of the government.

2) The stunning epic scale of the architecture.

3) The fact that the Inquisition might not really care for them doing what they're doing.

4) The OUTside of the Golden Palace, or the Throne Room anyway. There's no way they'd have access, but they're used to the idea that they can do what they want. I'm thinking the Adeptus Custodes could simply refuse to grant them entry without special dispensation from the local ranking Inquisition but I've no idea who those people might be or how they could be contacted.

Anyone have ideas for this stuff or did it in their game?

Jeff Tibbetts said:

1. Let them run through endless halt, stops and inquiries about their purpse. And possibly let different agencies of the Adeptus Administratum demand that they fix things with them, with no communication between the agencies. That should leave them for a bureucratic nightmare.

2. Everything is big, think old Sovjet style buildings but MUCH larger

3. Not sure really. But possible they may have missed something important while they were away

4. First its a refusal, and if the characters makes a fuss they are either escorted out or thrown out in a hard way. That's how I'd run it. The Adeptus Custodes don't take **** from some little no-one inquisitor from the middle of nowhere.

1. Every friggin task should be a nightmare. Just to get the permission to actually enter the Sol System, pass the System-Defence ships etc. should show them how serious things can go. But also you might stick with some nonsense-bull in the beaureacracy when they have to fill out sheets of sheets, just think of asterix here.^^ The only thing is to keep the balance and do not make it a comedy. Every rule has a reason though this reason might be lost for over several millenias.

2. I would introduce a contrast much more "epic" than your "regular" hive world. Terra is crowded and the biggest luxury is space. Let alone the imperial palace that spans over an entire continent with huge but classic walls of marble, polished floors and acient statues that portrait heroes long forgotten to mankind. Banners and simple but impressive insignias of power can bee seen everywhere, not only the Aquila but the older and more holy the place is also some thunders (the old insignia of the emperor himself). On the other side you might have some hive areas that also cover entire continents like africa or america where the filth of all the pilgrims and even worse individuals are crowded. The situation there should be horrible for Terra, the most holy of all worlds, is crowded with zealots that prefer to die in the dirt of terra than live anywhere else. The buildings might be huge and impressive, telling some tales of better times but over the millenias they have become a symbol of the decline the imperium suffers from.

4. The Adeptus Custodes have absolute authority over the Imperial Palace, they can even throw out a high lord of terra if they want to. Even the Inquisition has no way to influence them other than asking firmly. Also they employ some of the most advanced technology to "check" their visitors. If they are even allowed to enter the "outer" areas of the palace, still hundreds of miles away from the emperor, they should expect the pinacle of security tech, maybe even from the dark ages. This includes physical checks like DNA etc. to check that they are not Genestealers or manipulated and psychological tests where a choir of deviners scans them for corruption and they are beeing interrogated even with drugs or what ever. After that they may still spent some months in quarantine. I doubt that they are that important to actualy enter the palace, but when they do they will absolulty not be important enough that the Custodes let down their defenses. And this is actualy Level 1 security in my interpretation. Imagine another dozen of security levels with their checks the closer they get to the throne room.

If you want someone to tell them "**** you" even if they say they are inquisitors and can back up on all their power, the place of choice would be a gate of the imperial palace. Many of the living custodes may even predate the founding of the inquisition, and they wont allow such an unimportant little man to be bossy where they serve the emperor. And if they try to infiltrate the palace… well… the custodes do not like jokes. They are ahead of an astartes, just as a space marine is to any man. They try to infilitrate the imperial palace on their own in special trials and though they are among the most skilled and intelligent servants of the imperium they never suceeded in over 40 millenias. But even if the acolythes, for what ever reason, should do, they will encounter two imperial titans at the eternity gate and the entire pissed up praetorian guard.^^

Something weird going on. All my replies are going crazy.

Allright, new try…

You seem to have trouble controlling your game. Or perhaps your players are ignorant of the setting. Because thinking they can walk into the throne room (or even just get close to it) is monumentally silly.

I am going to assume you want this pilgrimage to be both memorable and humbling.

First, the sol system is the most heavily guarded sector in space. No one can just warp in. And that includes the inquisition (e.g. your low ranking inquisitor). After all, Terra is where the High Lords of Terra reside. They effectively outrank everyone. Yes, even the inquisition. It would take a massive coalition of space marines, imperial guard, clerics and inquisitors to take on a high lord (as happened with Vandire). Note this doesn't mean they are beyond investigation. Just that you'd need a lot of political pull to try a pissing match with a high lord.

So we have this inquisitor flying in waving his rosette. And being ordered to stand down and be boarded by stern navy armsmen or be blown in little bits by Battlefleet Sol. After inspection, they are taken to a space station in system and investigated most thoroughly (body cavity search anyone?). Are they tainted (and all hell will break lose if they indeed have a significant level of corruption points….)? Why didn't they file a destination/flight plan with the segmentum navy HQ of origin before warping into the sol system? Don't they know sol is restricted space? Ignorance is no defence!

With Terra being so popular for pilgrims, there are strict limits on visitors and very high security arrangements. The players will have to wait on the space station and get permission to actually go to Terra, e.g. charm/deceive (with heavy penalties) other pilgrims into handing over their spot (which is still months in the future as there are huge queues). And no, they can't use intimidate as the other pilgrims are very motivated and security is very high on the space station. Or perhaps they have to beg permission from the navy HQ. Use any peer (Imperial Navy) talents together with knowledge (bureacracy) to jump the queue. If your using Ascension's influence, this would be a perfect situation, with a series of meetings, from officer of the day to XO of the system admiral.

And if they reach Terra, they can either do the tourist thing which means follow the tour of sacred places (this is where Saint X did this, there Primarch Y did that etc.) while in a queue of millions slowly shuffling forwards. The enormity of the architecture and the weight of centuries crush their egos, leaving a new spirituality. Increase fellowship by d5 points, lower willpower by d5 points. They are constantly being harangued by clerics of all stripes and may spend XP to acquire either Imperial Creed or an advance on this. Part of the tour is shuffling past the Imperial palace and the gate where the traitor legions almost broke through. This tour will last for months (they sleep where they stand and get sustenance from vendors). The highlight will be a concluding ceremony in a cathedral of Saint X, the patron saint of pilgrims, where a million people receive the benediction at a time, it truly is that big. If they are truly lucky, they might spot a custodes in his golden power armour manning the walls.

Or they can find the office of the inquisition on Terra which will be a complex the size of a large country. Just getting past the gate guards will be difficult. Even the rosette won't help as the inquisitorial data stacks claim the inquisitor died on Janos VI. Clearing this up will take days and some smart thinking as its very difficult to prove you're still alive when the system says you are dead! Once inside, it will take them days to make their way through the red tape and find someone who will talk to them. That someone will not be amused that they are on a pilgrimage unless they are either just about to undertake a difficult mission or have just finished such a mission. Either way, there will be debriefings and accountings. If the players pass an extended test using all their social skills as well as Forbidden Knowledge (inquisition), they can get special dispensation to walk past the walls of the palace. If they didn't know it yet, the inquisition has no authority over the custodes and those guards don't let anybody into the throne room to just gawk.

If you indeed use influence rules, I'd also suggest lowering it as your inquisitor used up some of his influence on this trip by not being properly prepared.

There you have it. A possible trip to Terra.

Haha! Both great responses, gentlemen. They're not doing it to be dicks. They honestly thought it would be cool. I plan on highlighting most of what you both suggested.

In Calixis, it's all too easy to forget that this is an Imperium in open and total war… And they're losing. It will be fun to really push the security and crushing red tape.

https://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/beforethelaw.htm