Hello All

In my previous Campaign, an Ordo Malleus Oblationist Inquisitor, posing as an Amalathian, is working in a triumvirate of Inquisitors at fighting off threats that might destabilize the Imperium form within.

In reality, he is preparing to destroy the Calixian Conclave as a whole by organizing the "Event" that is so major and important that would require ALL of the Inquisitors to meet together [in my game, this is the Reincarnation of St Drusus- keeping in mind that I am not running in any way, shape or form Chaos Commandments- I don't even own those books].

Now the players, though his acolytes, inadvertently foil his plans aboard the Pale Sepulcher to carry out the reincarnation and at the very end of the mission, his "Oathed Acolyte" finds an Oblationist cipher left behind by the bad guys that indicates that there might have been something more going on aboard the ship than they, the players, had suspected.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but I've recently had to start a brand new campaign for a new set of players- but I want to keep it heavily tied with the previous campaign, as this new group is going to meld together with the previous groups and carry on from where we left off after the Pale Sepulcher.

For their first game, I took them to Dusk where, by order of their Inquisitor [That same Oblationist], they went chasing after a missing Interrogator in order find out what happened to him. In the process, they find and destroy what they believe to be a Cult of Cannibals that turns out to be a cell of Puritan Inquisitorial Agents performing brutal exorcisms and keeping the avatar of a powerful daemon [Mord'gan the Corpse-eater] sealed up within a shrine.

Now a fragment of Mord'gan has possessed one of the Acolytes and they returning with it [ and with a prisoner from the previous cell] to inform their Inquisitor on what has happened. They've been arguing whether they should tell him or not that they killed other members of the Inquisition seeing as, them being rank 1, that would mean an Immediate death sentence for all intents and purposes.

I, being a terrible planner, haven't really decided where to take it from there and would not mind a bit of help.

I want to do something completely different this time around- I've throwing cults and daemons at my players so long, they would love for a change in flavor: and I've found just the place to take them: Kulth in the Periphery.

Orks-a-plenty, Secessionists, Imperial Guards and a War-torn world with a bitter history linking back to St-Drusus and powerful Chaos McGuffin [Hellbringer's Relic, the Mysterious item and prophecy mentioned in Enemies of the Imperium supplement.]

Now here's my problem. If your still with me after my habitual wall of text, I am out of ideas on how to get the players from Dusk to Kulth. My players have expressed interest in playing out a scenario similar to Einsenhorn's hunt for Lyko and Quixos - so I would love to have the plot thicken somehow in that direction.

All the tools I have to work with are sort of there:

1) There was, on Dusk, a cell of Inquisition agents working to seal off a daemon. They had access to Morse-telegraher and were communicating with someone Off-world. Perhaps a ship- which has just recently set sail to Kulth with a regiment of Duskian Imperial Guard?

2) What did the Oblationist want with this group? One of his acolytes has now been possessed by a fragment of a daemon- was that his plan all along?

Perhaps he needed to question that daemon in particular about something only it knows- that would lead him back to Kulth in his search Hellbringer's relic? Or perhaps he wanted to question them on their Masters Whereabouts, thanks to the Dusk's hag meddling, headed off to Kulth after receiving a vision of sector's death and destruction.

3) What if the cell that the players destroyed was a portrayed as Radical by the Oblationist, in the hopes that the acolytes won't question the hunt for its master's destructions?

Those are a couple of ideas that I had, just writing them out has helped out quite a bit actually- fleshing them out more, or brainstorming them, would be very cool.

I'm a more warlike Inquisitor.(the time i spent with the imperial guard rubbed off on me). So maybe i'm not the best at conspiricies. But maybe it would be entresting if the 3 are combined? I'm bad conspirater...my Lord usualy sends me to battle to keep me from messing up cloak and dagger operations.

Think big, eh?

I like that idea- could easily be all three.

The first is the easiest to incorporate- the Survivor can easily described his boss after numerous torture sessions- a man wearing an ebony, silver-engraved, trench-coat, black gloves and an equally dark wide brimmed hat. Underneath, his usual outfit consists of a black doublet and a blood red shirt with a slightly silvery belt-buckle. Around his neck, he has a metallic medallion in the shape of a pentagram and he always carries with him his silver sanctified cane- distinctive features include a scar on his right cheek [matching a cool picture I found on the net].

Lets call him Inquisitor Nixios Gallus (because why not!?). Players can research the Vox-messages sent out to to the space-port town [ or an orbiting ship? ], only place with levels of technology capable of receiving this message and find out that a man fitting the above description recently payed for off-world passage using Malfian Currency [as I've already established that his crew was using to pay for mercenaries]. Perhaps he's left a trail of tips here and there, to ensure that a ship leave port much earlier than planned. He would not have used his Inquisitorial Authority, despite the perceived urgency of his flight, as he suspected that he was being tracked or traced by forces unknown- he is the first to use Off-world currency instead of their credit line to conceal his presence. Alternatively, if doesn't fit with his "overly puritan nature", he could grab an Imperial Guards shp and have it change its course abruptly- instead of heading to the Periphery straight off the bat, it turns towards a relatively nearby destination [Malebolge ---> see #2].

Second- the Oblationists plan: combined with the destruction of the puritan cell, the Oblationist had originally sent his agent to investigate the cursed shrine and recover some information. Now when his own cell returns with a fragment of Mord'dagan the corpse-eater, he makes the best of the situation.

For this to work, the Mord'dagan/Hellbringer connection needs to be solid and coherent. "Only War" points to the planet Malebolge as the location where Hellbringer located the book which contained both the prophecy and the location of the unholy relic- but makes no mention as to where Malebolge is located- only that the Chaos-warlord was well on his way to conquering the Drusus marches when he encountered it. Luckily for us, Dusk is perhaps the last planet in the Malfian sub-district before it turns into the Drusus Marches- so what if Malebolge, a dead and scorched planet with no sun, is floating somewhere in that area?

Another weird thing about Dusk- it has two major daemons associated with it: Mord'dagan is one and the Dusk hag is the other. Always struck me as strange. What if there was a reason for that? It could be that the Eater of the Dead was moved from his planet, perhaps attracted by Dusk's powerful warp-currents. In reality, his true home is Malebolge, where Hellbringer found the book and the prophecy- as such, he would be intimately aware of where to find the drifting, dead planet... That the dusk hag helped orchestrate the events of his release only reinforces this idea- she wants him off her world, back onto his own.

But the oblationist is not stupid- he won't reveal his hand right away. Instead, he accuses Inquisitor Gallus of all sort of heresies: radicalism turned vile. He orders the players to hunt him down, all the way to Malebolge, and destroy him. In the process, he hopes to have them unlock the secrets of the planet- and if they are sacrificed in the process, so be it, a fair price to pay for the next chain in the link and answers that would him, and the group, to Kulth in the periphery.

Hows that sounding for a plot?

I like the ideas pitched in this thread and would like to add another layer (in lnclusion to the points mentioned) as a bridge to ultimately answer the question: How do I get the players from Dusk to Kulth?

From my understanding of my reading of post #1, one of the players possesses a shard or fragment of Mord'dagan within himself (herself). When the party reaches a settlement or perhaps somewhere in the wild an encampment they meet with a party of well-armed men led by a Witness of Dusk, whose discussions with the dead has lead him to seek out the acolyte who know possesses a shard of the corpse-eater.

This Witness of Dusk would communicate the need for the fragment must be taken to the daemon's true home (ala your interpretation above) before the daemon can be banished back to the warp. He'd provide the information for the hooks needed to get the party to Kulth.

In truth, this Witness of Dusk is in fact a prime agent for the Oblationist, whose inspiration comes from the doctrines of the Witnesses of Dusk and their own esoteric prophesies. This astropath would be keen on forcing the potentiate fates coalesce to meet with the most dramatic and disastrous outcome for the Calixis Sector (whatever you decide to be the end game result).

Man Cogniczar, that's a freaking brilliant idea!

But the game was Yesterday unfortunately, so I didn't get a chance to play trough it!

However, it was one of our better games- and the players, luckily, loved it.

I sent them off to Malebolge, combining most of the ideas above- after catching trail of the Inquisitor, and had them explore an ancient abandoned Xenos city.

By solving a few puzzles and tracking the Inquisitor, they retraced Hellbringer's steps from 400 years and got a chance to sacrifice something for books of their own [Actually Xenos Disks inscribed with an ancient, incomprehensible language].

One of the big leads that took them to Malebolge's secret location was a ritual of exorcism performed on the player, though I had it happen on Dusk, where the Planet's location was FORCED out of the Daemon [who "originated" from that planet, or at least migrated from it partially during a meteor shower.]

Ultimately, it was a freaking good game- but I like the idea of introducing a Witness of Dusk as the astropath for the Rogue Trader ship that have currently hitched a ride on as another agent of the Oblationist's plot!

Now, for the next session of the game, both groups are headed to Reshia, the Hospital Planet!