Planning on starting a group with the opening mission being an investigation in and around the Rogue Trader setting of Port Wander - Because space station. I can play DS9 references. Thing's gonna develop into a Tzeentchian Heresy based around some artefacts found and sold by Rogue Traders but obviously I can't have the Inquisition know that and send a pack of rookies to sort it out, especially when Port Wander is awash with Inquisitorial Acolytes already. So I need a reason for them to be there that seems realistic to put some green acolytes against but can develop to the fun kind of thing Tzeentch presents.

Halp?

When it comes to opening adventures like this, it's really up to your imagination. Anything from invesigating suspicious Cold Trade rumours to a Scum player meeting some old "friends" in a seedy bar. Heck, if you want to make them feel annoyed, use it as a pumishment. A few months scanning an entire space station for minor heresies would drive any Acolyte insane

Hmm... Is a kind of bodyguard retinue too much of a stretch for a ragtag bunch of new recruits?

Depends on who they're guarding. Maybe another high-up Acolyte who just needs some extre hands (and muscle) for the job he's doing.

Nah. Not keen on that. A techpriest going to the Maw?

Perhaps but try to think of questions your PCs might ask: "Why doesn't he just get a security detail from his forge world?"

I do love techpriests though, and searching for archeotech could be a great way to stumble across those artifacts the Rouge Trader is selling

Rouge Trader , you say? But I could give them an standing order to kill any hereteks or errant rogue traders to keep Imperial Law in check?

Like I said, the best solution will come from your imagination. In the bowels of a space station, the only law comes from the barrel of a gun and against a well-connected Rouge Trader or crime boss, they may be forced to cut a deal just to survive.

Of course if your inquisitor is an extreame Puritan (Monodominant) this may not be an option in which case, I'm stumped. Perhaps an over-zealous Arbitrator sees a corrupt official exploit his power only to find he was paid off by said Rouge Trader to ignore their illicit sales

I like how you keep spelling it Rouge Trader.

And yes, it's up to my imagination but my imagination's failed me so I'm asking for suggestions :3

Don't think too straight line, people tend to go for either heretics, chaos or xenos.

A Xenos race could be trading tainted artifacts with Imperials to weaken them, or maybe simply to get rid of them because they can't destroy them.

Maybe the trader didn't grasp what the Xenos were telling him, maybe he just didn't care, or dismissed the warnings as the superstitous rambling of primitives.

I'm not too au fait with Port Wander but the DS9/Bab5 idea would suit the whole weird alien artifact thing.

Port Wander's basically the main stop-off point for a bunch of Rogue Traders as it's like the only way into the Koronus Expanse from Imperial Space, hence the parallel with DS9. Anyway, I'm just gonna go for a politics reason for going there, with hints of Heresy as those exposed to the new artefacts rise in station and power in accordance with a demon of Tzeentch's schemes and the Acolytes can go and stem the flow of these artefacts and dethrone the new upstarts, regardless of if they know themselves to be heretical.

I like how you keep spelling it Rouge Trader.

Have you seen how much makeup Sebastian Winterscale wears?

the Rogue Trader setting of Port Wander - Because space station. I can play DS9 references

Especially with the visual background of the two warp storms and the Maw - it's kind of the wormhole in reverse; one narrow channel of normal space through a curtain of roiling madness.

Bear in mind the difference in scale, though.

So I need a reason for them to be there that seems realistic to put some green acolytes against but can develop to the fun kind of thing Tzeentch presents.

The Cold Trade - smuggling Xenos Artefacts - is a common and endemic crime through the Rubicon system. Whether sent as a delegation by themselves or as 'arms and legs' to support a more senior acolyte in his investigations (either being sent along with him as a bodyguard/retinue or being sent to meet someone already there), it's a fairly good reason. Note that the artefacts at the core of the campaign don't have to be the artefacts they were originally sent to investigate, but it does allow them to come across things in the course of their investigations (they'll be looking at the right sort of things). Note that you may want to have the senior agent killed at some point if you want to let them follow their own head on the investigation.

Alternatively, Port Wander is a huge imperial facility, with a population easily matching a large city or small hive. Exactly the same reasons you would send the acolytes anywhere still apply; heresy, generic wierdness or other stuff is going on, please go poke it with a stick. The Inquisition is very good at not talking to itself so it's very likely an inquisitor might send acolytes of his own to investigate something rather than contact another inquisitor's agents who are already on-station. Which can lead to all sorts of fun as both parties (unaware of one another's identities) sneak up on and ambush one another simultaneously, both accusing the other of being heretics...

Lastly, the one thing that is unique about Port Wander is, of course, the Maw. Which means that the one thing unique to the place is that it's a waystation for people heading to the Koronus Expanse. Therefore, a quite feasible mission that sets the character of the place is a known heretic who managed to escape Inquisitorial brutaliza probing stupidit justice might well make a run for the Expanse - if he can make it to Footfall he his to all intents and purposes beyond the Imperium's reach unless they really, really want to make an effort to go after him. Footfall, to continue the movie analogies, is much like Mos Eisly, except larger, scummier, more villainous and significantly more wretched, and if he makes it there a heretic can disappear pretty easily. For that matter, if he makes it into the Maw on the right ship, he might even be able to disappear into the Screaming Vortex itself - there are rumours of chaos worlds hidden in the storm that can be accessed through some of the Maw's stations of passage*.

If the heretic is important enough to chase, but not important enough to shoot ships down, kill thousands over, or send battleships or inquisitors after, then dispatching the acolytes after him is quite likely. Let's say he's been tracked across the 'koronus-wards' edge of the sector - the Spectoris System, then the frontier world of Zael Tertius, then on a Rubicon-bound pilgrim transport or freighter. The Inqusitor, calling in a favour, has got them transport from the Naval Base at 88 Tanstar to the Rubicon system aboard an Imperial Navy frigate** that's been in refit - which should get them there first...

* See Black Crusade.

** See battlefleet koronus for the names of the Navy warships assigned to Port Wander

Actually, your idea totally works. And the artefacts need not have come from the Koronous Expanse after all. The heretic could have bartered them to a Rogue Trader (one who asks no questions) in exchange for a ride. Wonderful Ta for the info and ideas

Make your players inquisitive and wanting to find out more. Once you get players asking things from their character perspective you can create plot arcs just off that. I also agree with non straight line plots. Cold trade guilds, smugglers, pirates, mercenaries hired by some shadowy other party. Even other inquisitors manipulating the situation to cause this due to their radical ideas. Like Istvaanians that believe the Imperium will only get stronger by overcoming massive threats to it's existence. Basically try to make the plot multi layered with different factions and moving parts involved. Each with their own parts to play and even competing against each other as well as the imperial authorities.

Just let your imagination go wild and see what comes up.