The Pursuit of Lady Solace (Need Help Writing a Dark Heresy mission)

[Gregorius21778 249]

Another update: 

Tavius Nestun and his crew

 

The „Void Commercialst“ whom isn´t wearing any heraldry is going by the name of “Tavius Nestun”, and he is no Commercialist but an independent trader owing (by heritage) an old guncutter. He travels from planet to planet “docked” to freighters, smuggling weapons, drugs and what seems profitable. He and his crew have spend some time on “[PortofDeparture], selling weapons and buying drugs. Now, he makes an “empty passage” to Prol IX and afterwards to [insertSomething; perhaps a small mining colony?] to sell his drugs. His latest (now sold) cover load was “diverse tools for agriculturing and fertilizer” (enough metal and chymicals to hide weapons and ammo from routine checks).

Tavius Nestun is not a flamboyant, but a swaggering person. Making a big show of his “independence” to whomever talks to him. He keeps to him self, but likes talking and gambling to much to resist and approach. Use “Recidivist”, but increase WS, BS and IN by +5 and add Pilot (Space; Military) and Navigation (Land, Space).

His crew consists of his “left hand men” Zelv (a gunman, use “Bountyhunter”), his Co-Pilot Byrn (use “Scum”, but increase INT and AG by +5; and add Pilot (Space; Military) and Navigation (Land, Space) and six “ratings” ( Use “Scum”; add the Talent “Hidden Body Cavity”)
In game:
If the pc spend some evening with Tavius, listening to the stories, gambling with him or just have a good time (“Charm”+10, losing a substancial money or “Carouse+10”) he will tell them “a secret”: Allow the pc to roll once a day and add up levels of success (not “mere success”) If the reach 10, he tells them. “The Scrivener Stars aren´t the quiets worlds they seem to be. I heard stories of increased smuggling into this area. Chemicals. But not drugs. More like explosives. Something is stirring up there. And all the hired guns on board with use are proof enough to me. Be careful”. If the pc stay on his good sight (reaching 20 before the end of the journey), he will tell them that “Heard of a name, Irvian Fawn, who seems to involved into it. But not more”. If the pc are gamblers and Tavius is losing much money, he will offer this info as his ante.
Said Irivian is radical Pyratic which hired arsonists are to contact on Prol IX

“Zelv” is an utterly silent person, never answering with more words then absolutely necessary.
“Byrn” likes chatting, but does not tell anything useful,
Same as the “ratings” whom at least three are ordered to stay on the Cutter any given time (missing every second meal; Tavius only paid for the food for three of them, so the are eating “on rotation”).
If the pc show to much “interest” into the cutter or the rating, “Zelv” will have a chat with them. Telling them to “stay away and stop nosing around”. Unless, they befriended Tavius.
 

If the pc ended up on his good sight (at least 5 success scored during the journey), they might ask him for a "black flight" to Prol I.  The "Dignitatias" will stay inside of the system a couple of days, anyhow.

[Kaihlik 50]

Looks like I will be GM'ing the first session of this on Saturday so I plan on going back over this thread and creating a comprehensive set of notes so that I am ready for it. One problem of not doing the detail myself is going to be an unfamiliarity with the NPC's, if you have any more ideas for the first part Gregorius21778 (or anyone else for that matter) then let me know by Friday so that I can add them in. I'll let you know where we get to and any problems I have after I've done the first part.

Thanks for all the help.

Kaihlik

[Gregorius21778 249]

Hi Kaihlik,

so times is ticking out. I do not think I will be able to come up with anything further for the trip(Thursday and Friday are rather "packed" for me).

Some final general ideas:
If the pc interact with some people/groups, allow them extended roles for charm and/or other skill like carousing, gambling, entertainer skills (i.e. story telling) and so forth.  If the score a certain number of success while doing so, offer them something (one example can be found with Tavius  or the mentioned options for "elite advances").

Build a small number of npc that will interact with the pc on there own device (like the "fake cleric" from the pilgrim) so you have some "encounters" you can scatter along the journey.

Do not map the whole ship, but map the "passenger area" where all the travellers are. Make a lot of empty cambines (there are not that many people who like to travell to Prol IX, me assumes).

 

I hope I can pin down some more, but perhaps not

 

[Gregorius21778 249]

False Cleric walking
Preacher Omenicus Rall will function during the journey as the “link” between the pilgrims. They know that people are/might be after them, so they choose not to contact each other directly. All communication goes over the false cleric, in the guise of “taking confession”.
In order not to give them all away, his is also offering “confession” to other travelers as well. Problem is, the Pilgrim impersonating the Preacher makes mistakes. Minor ones, but those who quiet familiar with Liturgy notice “something odd” and might mention this after a couple of travel day to the pc (during a chat).
The following persons will notice the “oddness” after a while:

 

- one of the Void Commercialist (not the one from the “Alliance” and not Tavius!)
- some of the Enforcers (they are investigators, after all)
- some of the Scribes from Scintilla

Those who are from Regulus are themselves “a little out touch”, so they are not sure (see DH Core Rule book for some notes of the Celestine Alliance and there “Homeworld” Regulus.
The other clerics only notice that “that Preacher” is very tight lipped and actively goes out of their way. They will mention this if asked or if they are chatting about the fellow passengers. Make sure they talk a little negative about each other as well! (different "schools" of believe)
The pc might notice themselves. During the journey, Omenicus will offer confession to them sooner or later. Allow each player who actually gave confession a check:challenging “Common Lore (Imperial Creed)” OR Routine “Scholastic Lore (ImperialCreed) . Give +10 bonus if the player has the skill “High Gothic”. If they succeed, they notice that the prayers and sermons he gives do not match to the “school” of believe his robe indentifies him to be from.
 

[Kaihlik 50]

Ok I ran the first session today and it went ok, we took forever to get started as usual. I had to find a place that sold the ink cartriges for my printer before I could print off my notes. At this point we are still on the journey over.

We ended after a fist fight between the group the three thugs and the false preacher where only one of the thugs got away. Basically the sister and the cleric caught on really quickly that the false preacher didn't know what he was doing. They were disguised as part of an entourage to the Techpriest so it wasnt obviouse who they were. The sister put pressure on him for a while chipping away at his flimsy backstory and making him nervous. When she asked to meet him in private to discuss a Saint which he had made up he failed a willpower test to keep his cool and go alone (I rolled 100). The thugs followed him and they tried to take her to dispose of her out of the way. Unfortunately the group had set a trap and ambushed the ambushers beating three of them into unconciousness, including the preacher before one turned and ran (the Sister Hospatalier with rubbish WS and str managed to punch out the false priest). One is currently running away and about to be followed buy the assassin who will catch him but whether he can stop him I dont know. They haven't approached the Hibberts yet and are largely unaware of thier existance at the moment. They are aware of Jomares but not of his involvement at the moment.

I will now definetly need another cell of pilgrams at Prol IX but they will be forced to meet up with them first which will slow the pilgrams down a bit. Before the False Cleric Rall went to meet Sister Verity he informed the group of his suspicions about her working for the Inquisition, they are aware of the Inquisition being involved in this so the group is going to be under surveilence from now on. Jomares will use his trick in order to incriminate them and try and hold them up and if the other Pigram gets back then he will pile the blame on the PC's making any other acts more believable.

One thing that I felt needed expanding was methods for introducing the characters to one and other. I really struggled to think of ways to intoduce the characters to each other, so far the only characters that stood out were the False Cleric, the 3 grunts and the Kritcher family who sat at the same table as them in the mess hall and they have heard arguing, I had the wife becoming angry at the husband and getting more and more so as the flight goes on. She has turned to "confessions" to ease her pain feeling the need for the compasion of the Emperor rather than the cold logic of the Omnissiah. This lead to an interesting turn of events which I will tell you about later when I have more time.

Kaihlik

 

[Gregorius21778 249]

Hi Khailik,

if they got the false cleric and the brutes, I do not think this is -that- bad.  Okay, it is three goons and a thinker missing. But including "some more" should be okay...especially since you said you plan for some of the Pilgrims to be on Prol already. Just make sure they do not take out Jomares.

I run one of my own games today, so I will come back to this later. But I think one of the Enforcers from Scintilla could be "re-declared" as a Pilgrim with ease.

 

About "introducing the characters:
The other npc could actively approach the pc. Perhpas some-one else is sitting on there table next time? Or some of the other npc start some "events" during the journey in a room/deck they "got permission" for from the Captain. In order to shorten the time. This could be little evening of "fun and games" (imperial way!), sermons in a little board chappel (by one of the REAL priests) and so on.

About the thug on the run
Desperate situations call for desperate measures.How about  letting him go done a shaft/shut that leads into the black holds. Let´s see if the pc behind him follows him down there for long...and what they run into! If the pc brave the situation, let them have him as well. Otherwise, he might smuggle his way out later...or simply vanish.

[Gregorius21778 249]

Bye the way... the fight between the "false priest" and the "nun pretending to be none" would have made me smile. Just for the humour undercurrent (both a deceiving, both things involve clerics). But if "her" WS & ST are that bad... it seemed to have been a fair fight

[Kaihlik 50]

What wasn't fair was the rolling, I couldn't hit and the Sister player hit every turn bar 1 and rolled a 9 or 10 on the damage which was a wound and a point of fatigue every turn. He was sitting right beside me as well so he wasn't cheating. I just imagine the False Priest swinging and missing only to have the Sister come back at him with a huge right hook, his swings getting lazier and her just punching him everytime he missed.

I will need to stat up the next set of Pilgrams properly next time because otherwise it becomes a bit of a cakewalk for the players.

Kaihlik

[Gregorius21778 249]

Talking stats:

I found out the hard way that most of the NPC from the core rulebook are rather loosy fighters. Even those whom one supposes to be better (like heavies). Make sure to add up +5 on WS und BF if they are not already 40 or above!

Anyway, change of tactic
I guess it would be fair to assume that the rest of the Pilgrim will try to keep there heads down for the rest of the journey. After all, half there number have been busted! If there is some travell time left, let some travell days pass between the busting that took place and Jomares "attack".

During this time, the pc will want to interrogate those captured.

If they did not gave there intention away till now, let the three "muscle" (Khaleb, Jorwyn & Faddel) pretend to be "simple ruthless thugs" who were paid by "that priest" to beat the crap out of "that wench" for some"religious reason. Didn´t mattered to us, the money was fine. And a woman not obeying a man deserves a sound beating!". As a "proof", the thugs can show the money the priest gave to them: a pouch with about 100 throngelt ("Omenicus" really gave them that money... but as "extra funding" for later actions on Prol. If the players want to take that money, have one of them come up with a challenging Scholastic Lore (Jura) check for a "legal reason". Otheriwse, some roleplaying and social roles might help them to get along with this "Dear DeckOfficer, it is only fair if the lady gets the money that had been used against her. As a compensation."
If one of your pc asks if he believes the story, role in secret for him on his "Scrutiny"+10. If achieves "levels of success" (not a mere succes), he does not. Otherwise, he really believes the three to be nothing more then "thugs for hire". If the pc ask why the three are on the travell in the first place... they will grow silent for a moment and utter something about "had to leave the planet, business reasons ", intending to make the players assume that there is a price on there head on Iocanthus.

Omenicus will not answer any question, just murming some strange and hatefull verses over and over again. Anyone passing a challenging(+0) check for ForbiddenLore(Cults) will identify it as "The 27 verses of Disdain", a litany associated with the Pilgrims of Hayte. Anyone in contact to this prisoner for a longer period of time (say, a try for interrogation) while have this verses ringing in his head. Those players have to check Willpower (+10) over the course of the next hours, or they will earn one point of corruption unless there corruption already equals or exceeds 10.  This role can be substitued by "CommonLore (ImperialCreed), but based on WK. In addition the pc can be "assisted" (see core rules) by a figure with Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed) if the pc in questions spends some hours in prayers leaded by said figure.

If all of this does not stop the pc from interrogating him, remember that he is "Consumed by Spite" (Talent of the Pilgrims, +30 against Interrogation).If the pc interrogate him, let them make checks against the "27 verses" again and again (until they received that point or scored five levels of success against it). In addition, allow Omenicus a difficult willpower check once a day. If he succeeds, he bites his own tounge of (as far as possible), hindering his ability to share any information profundly.