Hey guys,

I recently bought the Black Crusade rule book and after a quick scan of the chapters i immediatly wanted to pit my Acolyte PCs against some form of chaos invasion as well as possibly exposing my Puritan players to subtle corruption (eg. one of my players is very puritan and extreamly anti-psyker to the point where, if they aren't officially sanctioned, he'll attack them regardless of mission objective, so instead of penalising him, I'm going to offer him a power to shrug off most psychic powers, but only tell him later on that it's the Comtempt of the Blood God talent)

I was hoping for some tips on how to give off such an atmosphere of apocayptic doom that they look to more unorthedox methods of victory without compromising their character's views

Well then: Heresy may begin as a single mote of thought in a sea of idleness, but can certainly spread amongst the very foundations of a world, slowly bathing it in ruin from the knees up.

A hive world whose initial interest to the acolytes may be simple discrepancies of protocol may unfold into a widespread infiltration of occult practices among all levels of society.

Might that ecchlesiarchal statue of blood dripping from the hand of The Emperor upon a backdrop of eight warriors with eight axes under eight stars be a simple local and pure observance of The Emperor, or a slowly corrupting effigy to Khorne?

Could ritual duels between underhive gangers be innocent territorial politics, or an obsession with the perfection of land borders and flawless martial skill? Could the reason for conflict have been lost in the pure Slanneshian desire to be the 'perfect' duelist and crimelord alike?

Corruption may be highly insidious, and the slow deterioration of seemingly innocent local practices may eventually reach the point of breaching the warp's veil.

As for such a 'talent'-- perhaps the only way a pious servant of The Emperor might become affected by it is likely if he loses the reason he hates psykers. When it just becomes about the death, and the killing, rather than protecting humanity from their baleful influence.

Very nicely put but perhaps not what the op wants...?

I would suggest a series of events that slowly escalate tension and show the local authorities lose control.

All the while the acolytes are pursuing their own mission but are increasingly sidetracked or opposed by the rising influence of chaos.

For example:

First their will be "mad prophets" foretelling the invasion. Most will be typical village idiots but one will be a ranking priest or official.that will get noticed and talked about. There will be (far more) random killings in the streets. At first these will be indeed random but as the cults grow stronger and more organized, they will actually target those officials that could hinder them.

Mutants will appear, perhaps before their very eyes.

Riots will start and be brutally suppressed, perhaps the players will be caught up in one and have to fight against local enforcers or arbitrators. (perhaps that will incur corruption points)

Rumours abound and rich people and officials will be fleeing, either off planet or to their country retreats. This will likely hinder their investigation our their attempts at stopping the invasion if they are aware of it.

Have the local clerics run around in a panic as they dimly perceive something but are afraid to encourage panic.

At some point martial law will be imposed and perhaps the general is a secret cultist....

These incidents and more should be spread out over several sessions with imperial rule slowly breaking down.

If the players don't get involved, have them contacted by a witch who offers them a prophesy/warning and perhaps a cryptic hint how to stop the invasion or perhaps defeat the chaos daemon or warlord....but consorting with her incurs corruption points too.

And let her be the one to offer the contempt of the blood God talent......

Very nicely put but perhaps not what the op wants...?

I would suggest a series of events that slowly escalate tension and show the local authorities lose control.

All the while the acolytes are pursuing their own mission but are increasingly sidetracked or opposed by the rising influence of chaos.

For example:

First their will be "mad prophets" foretelling the invasion. Most will be typical village idiots but one will be a ranking priest or official.that will get noticed and talked about. There will be (far more) random killings in the streets. At first these will be indeed random but as the cults grow stronger and more organized, they will actually target those officials that could hinder them.

Mutants will appear, perhaps before their very eyes.

Riots will start and be brutally suppressed, perhaps the players will be caught up in one and have to fight against local enforcers or arbitrators. (perhaps that will incur corruption points)

Rumours abound and rich people and officials will be fleeing, either off planet or to their country retreats. This will likely hinder their investigation our their attempts at stopping the invasion if they are aware of it.

Have the local clerics run around in a panic as they dimly perceive something but are afraid to encourage panic.

At some point martial law will be imposed and perhaps the general is a secret cultist....

These incidents and more should be spread out over several sessions with imperial rule slowly breaking down.

If the players don't get involved, have them contacted by a witch who offers them a prophesy/warning and perhaps a cryptic hint how to stop the invasion or perhaps defeat the chaos daemon or warlord....but consorting with her incurs corruption points too.

And let her be the one to offer the contempt of the blood God talent......

Everything sounds nice until the last part. A Witch offering the Contempt of the Blood God talent? There's got to be some other way than to have a psyker do this.

True, but how else is the player going to get this talent?

Or know about the invasion?

And the talent has to be offered by the "bad" side, right?

As to the rising tide of chaos, i recall reading somewhere about the arrival of the black star....it was a nice presentation of creeping doom which went from nightmares to riots to madness, all in a few days....

All excellent tips, I'm inspired already. my plan now would be to have a Red Redemption cult on the planet the PCs are investigating, but is in true being corrupted by Khorne (hence the talent), who will preach their zealous creed to whole cities, causing instability. to make matters worse the governor is a complete sociopath (think walking dead) who has no issue with suppressing protests are to the unrest (most of which are just normal citizens scared for their lives) with lethal force from him private army and mercenary kill teams.

To top it off the conspiracy, the entire civil unrest is being instigated by someone (I'm not quite sure who yet- perhaps an Isstvanian?) behind the scenes who will covertly try to elinimate the Acolytes once their presence is known... and given that these guys are armed to the teeth and tend to shoot first, that should be pretty soon.

Finally, a Warlord with a small but powerful fleet notices the unrest on the planet (perhaps informed of it and led here by the mastermind behind it all) and decides to plunder what he can from the planet. this leaves the PCs against an invasion with a pdf ruined from the civil unrest and minimal inquisitorial support. this ought to force them to think outside the box. those redemptionists had some pretty powerful occult artifacts...

i would need a reason for them to be there in the first place and make the Redemption look like an ally at first though.

"i would need a reason for them to be there in the first place and make the Redemption look like an ally at first though."

How about…cold trade has been traced back to the planet. The acolytes are sent to see if the government is turning a blind eye to the trade in xenostech. Your puritan PC would probably see the redemptionists (who are of course loudly preaching in the streets about how to abhor the xenos etc) as natural allies and possible witnesses, and seeks to enlist their aid in the investigation. The governor, for his part, is not happy that the redemptionist sermons seem to be driving his people into a state of hysteria and that is causing conflict between the planetary government and the ministorum (with the adeptus having yet to step in on the matter). Maybe the governor really is involved in the cold trade, or he's being set up to look like the bad guy by one of his advisors (your mastermind).

Maybe give this a spin.

A minor tzeentchian cult springs up amoungst the nobles and merchants of the world,tired to being ignored and sidelined by the headstrong governor and by the sector in general due to the planet`s relative lack of wealth and isolation.

The cultists are trading artifacts with a nameless offworld source trying to gain that ever elusive quick route to greater power and influence, their obsession with their search for forbidden lore and artifacts causes them to neglect their people and duties causing the cult of the red redemption to gain a growing foothold among the dissastisfied populace that is slowly building into a popular uprising.

The governor, seeing the uprising on the horizon is urged by his tzeentchian advisors to suppress the unrest. He unleashes the PDF and secretly calls for assistance from the Imperium (enter the acolytes) little does he know that his violent campaign against the redemptionists will allow the secret khornate cult in their upper ranks to effectively declare war on the tzeentchian nobles.

The planet starts to tear itself apart as the khornates, backed up by the people hold an overwhelming advantage in numbers while the tzeenchians and the nobility use the full weight of the PDF, security forces, the near unlimited resources of the Governor`s household and their own dark lore to fight back against the tide.

The world falls ino swirling civil war that ultimately grinds to a stalemate, lawlessness and chaos reign.

Which is just what the Word Bearers hiding on a stolen ship in orbit had wanted all along. Seeing the world rendered defenseless by the cults they seeded decades before they launch their attack.

More shades of moral greyness, nobody is pure but the governor and the acolyes. Ultimately nobody is the good guy players must side with one faction or the other or risk being targeted by both.