First off this may contain spoilers from the Radicals handbook, so proceed with caution.

I am currently running a campaign where my players are falling off of the puritan band-waggon pretty quickly, some through choice others basically sleep-walking into it.

As a result they are going to need a new sponsor pretty quickly as their Inquisitor is setup as a puritanical nut - their current investigation has them hunting Inquisitor Gelt - who in my version is a confirmed heretic - and they are now very motivated after he turned one of the party into a daemon-host (the player was leaving so I decided to let her transition to NPC with style). I have now decided to introduce Inquisitor Osrinn (another radical) as a dilema for them. He is actively opposed to Gelt - and hunting him - but he openly uses xenos technology which makes some of the party a little uncomfortable. Add to that the fact that the party's inquisitor has told them Osrinn is just as bad a as Gelt and should be horribly killed and I've got the party in an interesting place.

Now what I've got the stage of wondering is have any other GM's used Osrinn or Gelt in their campaigns, and if so what did you do with regard to followers and such like?

Here come the spoilers

To help people get in the right frame of mind, here is the official version of Osrinn's background and then my "this is what really happened" version and an explination of why he is hunting Gelt.

The official Record - from the Radicals Handbook

Osrinn is a devious man, but also a man of action. He despises the waiting game, preferring to move as soon as he judges the moment precipitous. Osrinn depends heavily on his retinue of trusted Acolytes and rarely takes the field alone, though he often teleports directly into the heart of the action. A former student of Inquisitor Van Nuygens, the man now known as Natius Osrinn began as a trusted and diligent Acolyte. Osrinn was chosen for his quick wits and agressive nature from among the lower-hive scum of Solomon, and over time proved his worth to Inquisitor Van Nuygens many times during a career that spanned five decades of service.

Eventually, Osrinn was promoted to the rank of Interrogator and thence to a full Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. However, not long after his ascension, Osrinn’s interests shifted, focusing more and more upon sorcery and the arcane. In time, his allegiance shifted away from his mentor and his Ordo, and eventually, he disappeared, claiming “special circumstances.” The Tricorn Palace received several reports indicating glimpses of the enigmatic Inquisitor Osrinn, including several that claimed he had been seen assisting Space Marines of the Relictors Chapter. Other reports indicate that Osrinn wandered far into the reaches of the Segmentum Obscurus, all the way out to Belial IV and back before he re-appeared in the Calixis Sector in 803.M41.

Osrinn’s return caused a stir in the Tricorn, for he bore with him ancient Terminator armour of unknown origin and a sword that was unmistakably a daemon weapon. Refusing to account for his actions, Osrinn avoided a summons from the Tricorn and struck out alone into the Halo Stars. Some say he has gathered around him a group of unusual Acolytes: mutants, aliens, rogue psyker-witches, and even a daemonhost of incredible power. What he intends to do with such an assorted retinue is still a matter for conjecture.

The Truth - Or my version of what Osrinn is actually like

Much of what has been said about Natius Osrinn has been manipulated by the more puritanical elements of the Inquisition. While it is true that Natius is very much a radical, but he has no fondness for daemons or those that worship chaos. Natius has decided that the only way the Imperium can destroy chaos is by gaining the aid of the more civilised Xenos races in the battle against the warp. He believes that the Eldar and Tau can be brought to the Imperial cause through diplomacy, whilst the Orks can be suitably directed with bribery and other direct means. To further his cause Inquisitor Osrinn has been trying to gain the trust of some of the xenos that already inhabit the Calixis sector in the hope that they can later act as emissaries to their cultures.

As a result of this Osrinn has gathered an eclectic group of followers, including the support of the Hazeroth Bloodsharks elder corsair band and at least one kindred of Kroot. More surprisingly Osrinn has managed to recruit a Loxatl pack to his cause, this may be linked to the recent pact he has made with the Stryxis of the Koronus Expanse who are well regarded as traders.

The other main ally the Osrinn can call upon, and rely upon more than any, is the Relictors chapter of space marines. Both the Relictors and Osrinn share the belief that chaos must be stopped, even if that means using tools that most would shy away from. Osrinn’s terminator armour is a gift from the chapter in thanks for coming to the aid of one of their company commanders who was engaged with the heretical Inquisitor Draven.

Osrinn and Gelt - the justification for Osrinn being in my campaign

Inquisitors Osrinn and Gelt met shortly after Osrinn gained his rosette, the meeting was arranged by Gelt and took place in a private area of Port Wander. Gelt tried to recruit Osrinn, seeing him as a kindred spirit and fellow radical Gelt believed that by working together they could develop effective methods of fighting the forces of chaos. Osrinn initially agreed to Gelts proposal that they joined forces, however it wasn’t long before they suffered a rather serious difference of opinion. This difference of opinion occurred when Gelt introduced Osrinn to his other ally, Inquisitor Draven. Draven was a committed Oblantionist, and openly wielded and forged chaos tainted weapons, used followers that worshiped the fell powers, and used sorcery itself to achieve his ends. When Gelt voiced his admiration and support for Draven’s methods Osrinn decided that there alliance was not going to work, and more importantly that Gelt and Draven represented a serious threat to the Imperium at large. Declaring Special Conditions, Osrinn sought the most powerful aid he could in bringing his fellow inquisitors to justice, he contacted the Relictors chapter of Space Marines and sought the guidance of their librarians and chaplins. The chapters leaders agreed with Osrinn that Draven and Gelt should be stopped and so the chapter aided him in tracking down the renegade inquisitors. When Osrinn and the Relictors 3 ^rd company eventually ran Gelt and Draven to ground the fallen Inquisitors had amassed formidable resources and occupied a world deep in the forgotten reaches of the Segmentum. With massive defences arrayed before them the Relictors decided to conduct a surgical strike on the inquisitor’s headquarters. Osrinn requested, and was allowed, to join the second wave of the assault that was coming in via thunderhawk. By the time Osrinn’s party reached the landing site the initial drop-pod assault was in serious trouble. Draven was personally leading the defence of his base, and calling upon every tool of chaos he could muster. As Osrinn fought his way towards Draven the captain of the 3 ^rd company engaged the fallen inquisitor. The fight should have been stacked against Draven, there are few men that can stand up to a normal space marine let alone a veteran like a company captain, however Draven was barely a man any more. Sustained by the warp, and wielding a huge daemon blade, Draven’s initial attack severed the captains left arm at the elbow. Seeing that no-one else was in a position to assist Osrinn charged into the fray. He fought like a man possessed as he allowed his anger at how far Draven had fallen to flow, his hexagramically warded lath-blade and null rod proving to be a match for Draven’s daemon blade. As the three of them fought Osrinn soon realised that he was not fast enough to deal a fatal blow to Draven, but the captain’s chainsword wasn’t able to penetrate the fallen Inquisitors armour. Taking a huge risk Orsinn through his Lath-blade to the marine captain at the same time as striking Draven with the full force of his null rod. Fortunately for Osrinn the captain had come to exactly the same conclusion and was ready to take full advantage of Osrinns actions. With Draven reeling from momentarily having his connection to the warp severed the captain drove the lath-blade through his chest with all his might. Draven simply ceased to exist, the combination of a null rod and a hexigamically warded blade severing his connection to the warp so thoroughly that his true age caught up with him. Neither of the weapons survived the event, and Gelt used the chaos of Draven’s death to escape. As a show of thanks, and a sign of his commitment to eradicating those that have fallen to chaos, the Relictors banished the daemon from Draven’s blade and consecrated it in the name of the emperor before gifting it to Osrinn as a replacement for his destroyed weapons. They also gifted him all of the inquisitorial relics that they had found stored in Draven’s compound, including a set of terminator armour that Osrinn decided to take as his own.

Osrinn now hunts Gelt to bring the fallen Inquisitor to justice.

___________________________

Really look forward to seeing what you all make of this.

Regards

Surak

Pretty cool background. I haven't used either of them in my games, but I like where you're taking this.

I'm not really sure what the question is but it sounds like you've got your players in a position to be forced to choose sides with no clear Good Guy, which is the correct way to play Dark Heresy.

Hi CPS

The question really was "had anyone else had used these NPC's and if so how they did it".

I always like to collect as many different views on official characters as sometimes you find someone who has put a really interesting spin on the established info.

Either way I'm glad you liked the background, and I'll make sure I post back and let you know which way the characters go.

Regards

Well we had a session saturday night and as promissed here is reaction from the players.

Initially the players were incredably hostile to both Osrinn and Gelt, having been told by there very puritanical Inquisitor that both were heretics and should be denied wherever possible.

Unfortunately for the players the situation they were presented with was a little complex to say the least - a daemon host, a mining complex being used as a base by Gelt, and an orbital engagement going off above the whole thing - and as a result by the time the team had dealt with the situation on the surface - killing the daemons current host (its a re-occuring character) and capturing Gelt - Inquisitor Osrinn had finished dealing with Gelt's ships in orbit and made a landing.

(As a note to other GM's running a full-on RT naval engagement in secret behind the GM screen whilst running a suspensful horror-style ground investigation isn't always as easy as you think when you come up with the cool idea)

Once the team discovered Osrinn had taken control of the landing field - with their ship on it - they decided that handing Gelt over to Osrinn was far too dangerous an option (at this point they were convinced Osrinn wanted Gelts knowledge of the daemonic) and promptly executed the fallen Inquisitor. As they had a passable working relationship with Osrinn from a previous mission - before they were told to consider him a heretic - they decided to play dumb, pretend they didn't know that Gelt was Gelt, and try and bluff their way off-world. Osrinn decided to meet with them personally and thanked them for killing Gelt for him.

At this stage I added up the "Trust Track" that I had been keeping in relation to Osrinn and the Cell adn realised that they had done a good enough job at the diplomatic side of their dealing that Osrinn was prepared to try and recruit them away from their current Inquisitor.

Needless to say that this was a bombshell that the party wasn't expecting at all, and once Osrinn had explained his views on Xenos, Xenotech, daemons, and the use of chaos both sides realised they had alot more in common than they had first thought.

So now the cell have severed all ties with their current inquisitor to join Osrinn, and as a result now have a slightly upset monodominant with a grudge to worry about.

Looks like I've got a nice collection of plot hooks to play with - but as always I always like to hear what you guys have to say..

Regards

Surak

You actually ran an off-camera space battle with die rolls and everything? That's the kind of thing I would have just decided narratively one way or the other (possibly determined by player actions, even if they were unaware of it). That's a lot to keep track of.

I'm a little surprised your players actually told their inquisitor they were quitting to work for Osrinn. If it were me (or my players), we'd have gone to work for Osrinn without ever saying anything. Seems like a great way to make a powerful enemy, telling him like that. There's also a weird bit of dishonesty in that they knowingly killed Gelt, lied to Osrinn about it, then went to work for him. Not sure what their angle is, but you could use that as a point of contention pretty easily. Maybe there were security cameras that caught the group interrogating Gelt before Osrinn showed up?

CPS,

Yes I ran the space battle in full - not entirely off-camera as bits of starship fell to earth in places - but mainly because I had purposly balanced the two sides and it was very much down to luck and the small amount of input the players had before they went planet-side. The outcome of the fight in orbit also decided if Osrinn landed or Gelt's reenforcemnts did. In the normal course of action I do decide this sort of off-camera-ish think via narrative, but this time around I didn't want to scew the outcome as I wanted it to be as player driven as possible.

As for telling there inquisitor - they kind of had their hand forced by one of their cell-mates - a crimson guard - who declined to join Osrinn because of his use of xeno-tech. Osrinn had fought alongside said Crimson Guard in an earlier part of the campaign and (after some luck on the players part) decided to let him return to the mechanicum. Of course the first thing the Guard did on returning to Opus Macharius was contact his Inquisitor and tell him everything.

As for the groups wierd dishonesty over Gelt - at the time of killing him they really didn't trust Osrinn at all, but very quickly they found out that they couldn't trust there current inquisitor either and there was a very dramatic shift in trust towards Osrinn as he had been nothing but honest in his dealings with them. And of course there were security camera recordings of the team taking Gelt alive, so some unconfortable questions will be asked at some point, but Osrinn is at the moment quiet happy that Gelt is dead regardless of who it happened.

Next up for my poor acolytes (in no particular order) -

Becoming part of an Imperial Crusade into the Koronus Expanse, trying to turn part of it into a new sub-sector of Calixis

Dealing with the fallout when Osrinn's aliies, the Relictors Space Marine Chapter, get declared heretic

Dealing with their old Inquisitor and alot of interal politics within the Inquisition.

Regards

Surak