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I think I'm just going to call it here for the moment, I was just running the adventure at the back of the core rulebook while trying to learn the system. I have a vague idea for some adaptation of Pathfinder rules for the 40K universe, but I'm going to take the time to write out my entire story before I even think about trying that. Thank you for the experience and the time you gave me, I really did enjoy it! Best luck to all of you in the future, in gaming and otherwise!
I’m more than willing to have you back, these in life things happen. Just leaves the one ‘face’ character spot left, and if everyone is on board I’ll post in the recruitment thread again.
Seems like the best option. Want to try to recruit two players, a face and a medic? Or try to get one player for both?
We’ve lost two of our warband, it seems. What shall we do about it?
Even as the two are discussing what to do about the heretic and his artefact, the man on the floor begins to convulse violently. Blood begins to pour more freely from all of his orifices, and way too much for any human to survive begins to puddle under him. Finally, after several agonizing moments, Lans finally collapses and his body falls limp to the floor in a pool of his own blood.
Apologies for the delay, yesterday and today were quite busy. Is everyone still with us?
Morvius' words seem to snap Sank out of whatever trance he had been in, staring at his master as if he didn't truly believe what he was seeing, and returning him to the real world. "I understand. You aren't who you said you were, are you? Once things are settled here, we need to have a talk about all this." he says, waiting for a short reply before nodding and then leaving the room to do what needs to be done. Even as Havelock calls out a warning to Ptah, he feels a strange connection to it for just a brief moment, as if it was reaching out to him. Havelock: For the moment, the entire world as you know it falls away. As if in a dream, you find yourself flying across an empty plain on a planet you have never seen. The stars and planets you can clearly see above you in the sky seem both too large and too close at the same time.
The land of the planet itself is an eerie light blue, with not a single other living being in sight. In front of you, however, is a massive collection of alien buildings, a twist of an unfamiliar purple metal wrapping around itself many many times before disappearing in a convoluted pattern beyond your comprehension. Suddenly, your flight increases exponentially until you are speeding directly at the cluster of buildings. The second before you are sure you will impact with the side of the alien metal, the vision snaps away and you are back in the hive, with your fellows. While it felt like you spent hours flying across the alien planet, you see it has only been a few seconds at most.
Maxim, the wonderful group medicae, takes a look at the man before opening the medi-kit and kneeling next to him.
Maxim is easily able to geet his wounds to stop bleeding for the moment, although it is quite obvious that he will need more serious medical help soon. The knowledge he has about wounds also does confirm that they are self-inflicted. Finally, Lans talks.
He repeats these phrases, most notably "pale child" and "wheel that wails" over and over again, until finally his words seem to merge together into one calm and monotone speech. An unrecognizable language, almost...alien?
As soon as Ptah gets within a short distance of the orb on the table, however, Havelock's head begins to hurt as he feels the stink of the warp on the artefact.
Unfortunately, without first aid he does not seem responsive. The medi-kit will help with that, though.
Everything alright guys? He's still alive, for now, just needs a bit of consoling before he can give any useful info.
Any attempt to survey the scene or get any useful information out of master Lans, for that is who this is, requires restraining the gone-astray noble and preventing his further self-mutilation. Indeed, even as you enter the room and begin talking, you don't even see him turn his face toward you. It seems as if he can't perceive anything that is happening in the room, and even the screams from the servants and the chanting of your techpriest does not disturb him. More intervention appears to be neccessary.
Hey guys, sorry for the delay, but I’m suffering from some food poisoning after a very unwise meal. I’ll be back to update when I feel a bit better, sorry about that!
The servants don't seem to be interested in stopping you from following them or meeting their master, it appears. When you reach the source of the screaming, a study on the third floor of the manse, you witness a scene of absolute chaos. Embossed books and fine quills are strewn about haphazardly, while parchment, ink, and a lamp have been knocked from the desk, leaving only a small black orb sitting atop it. Kneeling on the floor, a man in ripped and shredded finery screams and babbles incoherently as he claws at his own face—his lips are ripped to tatters, and blood streams from numerous cuts and tears across his face. Lying near him is a bloody letter opener and two pulped white globs—his eyes.
The servants that opened the door and the ones that have gathered behind you (aside from Sank) flee the room in abject terror, their screams echoing down the hallway long after they've left sight.
Morvius doesn't seem particularly charming, but luckily for you Sank seems to somewhat believe the circumstances of your visit. "That's all fine and well. I'm oathbound to Master Lans, so I'll be here as long as he is. Don't you worry, as long as you aren't a threat to him, I won't have any need to use this." he says, his hand resting on his handgun. The servant returns suddenly, his face attempting to hide that he has been shaken by something. He nods to Sank, before returning his attention to the acolytes.
His words are cut off by a blood-curdling scream coming from the floor above them, and the two servants immediately stop talking and turn to sprint up the stairs towards where the servant went the first time.
"I'm not sure whether we're friends or not, not yet." the gruff man replies, looking down over the group. "Depends quite heavily on what you're here for, I suppose. Name's Sank. Who are you and what do you want?"
All good, things happen! Welcome back.
I want to apologize if you feel that your character’s role here isn’t very applicable. I promise to make sure everyone has their time to shine, but you know how the beginning of an investigation plays out. The face needs to get the people talking, but everyone will have their turn.
The servant seems to understand the threat implied to his employment and sighs, his head dropping almost imperceptibly before he nods and opens the door the rest of the way. He ushers you in, and grudingly takes you to a welcome room that has seen better days. "Please wait here, I will go inform the Master of your arrival, and will return shortly." The servant then disappears down the hall and then up a spiral staircase. The room is furnished with ageing and ill-kept trappings of finery: dust-covered paintings, verdigris-coated brass sculptures, decorative rugs, tinted lamps, and curios imported from across the sector. Above you is the second floor balcony, where a much tougher muscle-looking figure in rough black combat armor stands leaning on the rail looking down upon you. You can see a hand cannon in a holster at his hip, and some handled melee weapon in a sheath over his shoulder. "Mornin'." he says, simply, sipping a liquid from a plain mug.
Even before you introduce yourselves or say a single word, you can tell the servant is afraid. Of you, or something else, you cannot tell. A moment of silence passes, and then the servant smiles somewhat warmly.
Morvius has enough sense to know that the servant is hiding something, intentionally or not, and is extremely nervous to see anyone outside of the staff at the manse.
It is clear at a glance that Guljian’s manse has seen better days-crumbling stonework and tarnished plasteel show a shocking degree of neglect. Two lumin-globes, one flickering intermittently, illuminate the large arched doorway, which houses a set of heavy wooden doors inlaid with elaborate carvings of mythical wasteland beasts from Desoleum’s most ancient legends. A short flight of broad steps leads to the doors, set with a knocker cast in the form of a coiled serpent.
Within a few moments of Morvius knocking, a noticably surprised servant in the livery of House Guljian opens the door and seems shocked to see visitors.
The skills of the techpriest is more than enough to access the information you require, and a few minutes of searching through the records reveals a glut of payments from accounts loosely linked to Lans through various slightly hidden names and aliases. These payments are all heading to something under the title "The Wheel", although any searches on this topic or who the account receiving the deposits is inconclusive.
The minor nobles spread throughout the market can answer the more simple questions you have about Lans. His manse is situated at the lowest level of the Apex- meaning that in the eyes of most of the nobility, he is little better than the merchant princes and wealthy gentry of the Upper Hive. For many weeks, he has been rarely seen outside of Hesentanz Manor, his formerly opulent manse. He has refused visits even from family friends and important business associates. His family has grown concerned about Lans’ expenditures, with great sums of money being diverted to unknown purposes. He has been sighted descending into the Main Hive, something the majority of nobilitiy usually avoid unless they have unavoidable or pressing business reasons. When he does appear in public, his appearence has been dishevelled and unkepmt, with an air of urgency and irritation. A small search of the merchant areas reveals a data center that anyone (with the right clearences or permissions, of course) can access, with multiple dataports to connect to.
The vox crackles once more, after giving you a chance to discuss amongst yourselves. "I won't be able to contact you once you leave this house, as things are still being set up planetside. Once I and the inquisitor are on planet, things will be more connected. If this matter was not of the utmost urgency we would not need tp move so soon. You will be on your own until you return to this house, so do be careful. The Emperor protects." You learn a slight rain has begun to fall when you leave the safe house, and the drops sting slightly when they land on exposed skin. Not enough to be worrisome, and its quite normal on these levels of the hive. From the directions the interrogator gave you, Hesentanz Manor is a short hour walk away from the safe house, which is probably why they chose this one to hold the operation. Arbites presence is high in this section of the hive, as its aimed at offworld traders and the nobility of the planet. You know as soon as you leave this section of higher-end housing and head towards the manor it becomes less and less attended.
I’ll get the story rolling as soon as I get off work, sorry for the delay!
The voice is silent as the group discusses amongst themselves for a bit, but then the sound crackles out again. "We know little of the nobleman himself, as he is one of the last of his declining line. The Guljian family is a shadow of its former glory, having lost most of its wealth and standing in recent years. It is a possibility that this is a factor in why mister Lans has fallen into the heresy he takes part in." "In the same way, we know little of these dangerous xenos artifacts. They have caused a number of particularly gruesome deaths in the higher echelons of the hive's nobility in the past ten years, yet they do not appear to be any sort of actual weapon. The connection of these artifacts to their deaths is unclear, for if the victims were murdered for possessing such objects, then why didn't the assailants take the artifacts? Yes, much is obscured in this case, which is why Inquisitor du Bordaal has brought in his agents." "He wishes he could be here at the onset of the investigation, but the urgency of the issue means you must act immediately. I recommend you start your investigation with mister Lans Guljian, and work out from there. His family owns a one Hesentanz Manor, where we believe Lans resides. Be careful, there is a significant likelihood that there is a larger trade group at work here, and you shouldn't flash your true credentials around. Asking questions of his fellow nobles may bring some results, but asking too many questions of the wrong people could cause problems."
Gameplay is up! Feel free to do the pre-briefing roleplay introductions if you wish, you each made your way to the safehouse separately before Katarinya speaks.
You have been gathered inside a small safehouse in one of the upper levels of Hive Desoleum. The vox unit on the table in front of you is your main communication to Inquisitor du Bordaal's Interrogator, Katarinya van der Orm. Her voice crackles out of the unit once more. "Welcome, acolyte prospects, to Gilead. You have been selected for a special assignment under Inquisitor Vervize du Bordaal of the Ordo Hereticus. I am acting as his agent in this matter, he will arrive on planet within the week. I do not have to explain to you how dangerous this system has become since the Cicatrix Maledictum split the Imperium in half, and how much holy work the Inquisition has performed since." The vox voice pauses for a second, as if to gather its thoughts, before continuing in its electronic tone. "Hive Desoleum on the capital hive world of Gilead holds many heresies and horrors, and you are gathered here for but one of them. There are increasing reports of horrible deaths within the hive’s upper levels, with odd items of a possible xenos or archaeotech nature found with each corpse. Fellow nobles have related these were preceded with bouts of erratic and troublesome behaviour, and worry that a hive noble named Lans Guljian has exhibited many of the same behaviours. You are tasked with the Emperor’s Work: to investigate the deaths and possible connections to any illicit artefacts, determine if they are potential dangers of a wider nature, and terminate their distribution. Recover and contain any items uncovered, lest they corrupt others. Carry the Emperor’s Light with you throughout the hive, for there is little proper illumination to be found in this festering, ancient edifice. Desoleum teeters on the blade’s edge of damnation, and one further heresy could topple the entire hive into the abyss. You must not fail in this task." "Any questions?"
I love Abnett's Inquisitor series, just finished it a few days ago with Penitent. It's what convinced me to run this, and you might notice some influence in the overarching campaign we end up running through. The problem with adding more options in is that I don't 100% know what the basic options do. I'll be more open to adding in new weapons and systems and such when I have a complete grasp on the system's mechanics.
I love Owlcat's games, can't wait for the Rogue Trader game as well! I'll be getting the gameplay post up tomorrow, so sorry for the delay! Figured we'd get it started then.
Before we get this wonderful totally-happy adventure started, I did want to just check in with everyone, for two reasons. One, wanted to make sure everyone was happy with their character choices and the skills and such were locked in. Two, I want to ask everyone to describe their familiarity with the lore of the Warhammer 40k universe in terms of knowledge of both themes and the technical details. I don’t mind explaining out some of the smaller details like cogitators or servitors and the like if I need to, just curious what everyone’s level of experience is with the actual lore of the setting. Not this specific system/sector, just the universe in general.
I have the gameplay thread up, feel free to dot. I'll have the first intro post up by the end of tomorrow, and we can get started after that. Feel free to move around any skills you may or may not need, but of course try to keep the core character concept you're going for the same.
Apologies all, got a bit busy. I am here to announce the unlucky victims of the next Inquisiton warband! Maxim Ashvayne, the medicae
It was incredibly hard to narrow it down to these five, as everyone made excellent submissions! If the chosen unfortunates would report to the discussion thread for processing!
Hello! Welcome, acolytes, to the famously grim dark setting of 40k, and the Dark Heresy system. Before we begin and you introduce yourselves to your group and Inquisitor Vervize du Bordaal's Interrogator, I have a few disclaimers. First, this is a completely new system to me. I don't have any experience with it, and as such, I will likely be somewhat shaky with the mechanics in the beginning of things. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it quickly, but you'll have to give me some time to get used to it. We'll be doing the intro adventure in the core rulebook to begin with, to help everyone get acclimated. Second, this is the Warhammer 40k setting, with all the nasty dark stuff that entails. This will be a more adult-themed campaign, in terms of violence and such. I won't go out of my way to describe anything horrendous or unnecessary, but there will be gratuitous violence, blood, gore, and death. With all the horrors awaiting you in the 41st millennium, you will need to be strong of mind and spirit. You have been warned. With that out of the way, feel free to introduce your character here, and talk about any small choices you may need to change to make the group work. I'll get the intro post up on the gameplay thread in a bit.
Apologies for my absence and silence, have been quite busy with things lately. I’ll be taking today to look over the completed applicants, and will make and announce my decision tomorrow afternoon. Thanks to all who entered. The Emperor protects!
Heya guys, just checking in. How’s everyone’s progress going?
Yeah, you have plenty of time! I won’t close it early while people are still working, anyway.
Probably going to aim for next Friday, so April 7th. If everyone that's here finish, I might close it early and pick then, but we'll see.
Well the Gilead system originally comes from the Wrath and Glory core rulebook, as a small system with not a lot of information. I think it is in, or close enough to, the Calixis sector, yes. But the detail on system's location in the 40k universe relative to other places is tenuous at best, so I will just say that the Gilead system is in the Calixis sector, far off away from most other systems, and be done with it. Love the backstory for Morvius, lots of hooks to use!
Few important notes, from what I've seen so far. The Dark Heresy campaign book assumes the campaign takes place inside the Calixis sector, and there is a TON of lore and backstory and exploration of that sector inside the material for the game. I prefer a more mysterious, farther-out approach to my world, and therefore the game I plan on running will be held inside the Gilead System. While I will adapt whatever material from the system's resources, I like the blank slate setting of the Gilead system more. It is basically right next door to the Calixis sector, so do not feel bad about using any backgrounds/resources that mention worlds or figures in the original setting of the rpg. For Ptah 7-Kappa, I noticed that you were born on the dead world of Klybo, and that is fine. You won't be that close to your home system, is all I want to mention. As far as Fate points go, I will likely just have a checkpoint system set up for natural rest periods in the story where they will be refreshed.
1. From what I've gatehered, making a skill check, you need to roll under the attribute or skill that governs the action. It's not just 1d100 versus your relatively low skill floor, though, as there are a ton of situational modifiers that affect your roll. On page 25, there's a chart that shows the range of difficulty modifiers, for one. In your example of having a 40 skill, to succeed at a test for that skill you need to roll under a 40 on a 1d100. But if the task is, say, "Easy", that 40 gets a modifier of +30, making it so you need to roll under a 70. And that's just difficulty, I assume there are a ton of other circumstantial modifiers like equipment or distance or other actions you can take to make it easier. 2. Yes, that's how it reads to me. Checks out! 3. Without going too deeply into spoilers, the most prominent ones I see you encountering in this adventure and future ones would be Arbites, Mechanicus, Sororitas, any number of cults, Rogue Traders, and the Guard/Navy. It's a little hard to go into too much detail, but hopefully that helps! Edit: and, of course, the Inquisition. Forgot to mention them. 4. I don't see any issue with you taking that when you can, no. Seems good to me!
Do you have a link for that expanded weapon stuff? Searched for it and couldn't find it specifically. Are the Fate points just one per session things? Could just do it one per day, or one per "outing", if that's the case.
Flavor wise I don’t have an issue with it, but are solid round guns better than lasguns? Gonna do a lot more reading when I get off work today, so hopefully I’ll be more able to answer questions you guys have. I also appreciate you collecting the applicants!
Yeah, seems like it works that way. Each item category is treated as if it were one less. Checks out!
This is absolutely not the RPG of the wargame. All of those honorable drawn out conflicts take place far far away from your area of expertise. There is no honor in Dark Heresy, only an unending fight against the hidden enemies of mankind. For your second question, could you point me to the page that ability is on in the core rulebook? I’m having trouble finding it.
Yeah, I wanted to make sure people knew it was open. Didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t. Lack of experience won’t be an issue, I think, as I have never played it either. It’ll be a learning experience, together!
Yes, certainly! Throw your ring in the hat, good sir or madam.
No need to rush into finishing anything. I figured I’d give it a week or two, or until I had a complete well rounded-ish party.
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