"What would you do if I told you that heretics, daemons, and xenos are not the greatest threat the Imperium faces today?" Inquisitor Victus Antio pauses for a moment to observe your reaction. Security aboard his personal strike cruiser is tight, and here in his lavishly decorated inner sanctum it's even tighter. Two servo-skulls scan the room for hidden recorders, and a gaunt, death-masked murder servitor paces silently behind you, boltgun at the ready.
You don't reply. He leans forward confidentially, apparently satisfied that you don't outwardly disagree, and clarifies. "What would you do, if I told you that the greatest threat the Imperium faces today is the Imperium itself?" You almost start, and shift nervously in your seat. Here is a distinguished member of the Ordo Hereticus, a zealous crusader for the Emperor, speaking heresy! Victus senses your apprehension and raises a bushy gray eyebrow. The murder servitor stops its pacing.
"Now now, there's no need to be frightened. Rest assured I -- and you, should you commit to service as my acolyte -- am doing the Emperor's true will." The Inquisitor is an imposing man, despite his age. Behind his gray hair and wrinkled skin are harsh, penetrating blue eyes. A deep scar from some grievous injury runs the entire length of his face. "I told you, when I chose you, that you would be fighting heretics and heathens in the Emperor's name. That wasn't a lie; you will certainly find and destroy them and their foul works in the course of your service. Rooting out heretics simply isn't your primary goal."
Victus stands and looks at the ancient weapons, relics, and purity seals that line the walls, trophies from uncountable battles against evil. "Tell me... When a good Inquisitor comes across a degenerate mutant, festering with cancerous growths, does he simply excise the tumors and let the wretch go free? No! He puts a bullet in its head and burns the body." Victus turns to you. "So why, then, do we continue to fight the corruption that bubbles out of society day in and day out, knowing that tomorrow there will be more?"
The Inquisitor begins to pace angrily. "The Imperium is dying. It's shackled by bureaucracy, tradition, the decadent inbreds of the great houses, fear of its own technology, a thousand different things! The vultures are circling, it's only a matter of time before they descend, and the Imperium as it stands is too weak to hold them off. This isn't what the Emperor wanted." He picks up an archaeotech digital hellpistol; searing death the size of a coin. "In the Emperor's time we used technology to bend the impossible to our will; now we cower behind rites and rituals, terrified of progress, of science.. With each passing day the Imperium wanes, and soon it will be too late. Drastic action must be taken. That is where people like you come in."
He sits down again. "I wouldn't have called upon you to serve me if I didn't feel you could see the truth of what I'm saying. I will warn you: If you become my acolyte you will kill Imperial citizens. Your acts will be denounced as terrorism and heresy. One day you may even face the wrath of the Holy Ordos, and be forced to fight and kill misguided Inquisitors. You will bear this burden because someone must if mankind is to see the dawn of the 42nd Millenium."
When you don't leap to your feet and denounce him as a heretic, Victus continues. "Now then, enough hot air and rhetoric. You haven't fled or tried to kill me, so I'll assume you see my point. We can now discuss how you will serve as my acolyte. You, along with several other visionaries I've recruited, will use your unique skills to force the changes that must be made. You will cast decadent leaders from power and bring new blood to the throne. No more fear, no more red tape, no doddering planetary governors stumbling about while heretics and worse spread like a cancer. Accomplish your missions by any means necessary, be it assassination, arming dissidents, demagoguery, whatever it takes. I have contacts who will be able to supply you with whatever you need, for a price. You must be independent and creative. Do not contact me during a mission unless the situation absolutely demands it. These missions will be what the Imperial Guard would call 'deniable operations.' You will carry no Inquisitorial insignia or identification. If you are captured, I will decry your actions with the rest of the Inquisition. If your capture implicates me as part of your conspiracy, I will make sure you don't live long enough to be interrogated. What you are doing will be seen as heretical by those too blinded by tradition to see what we're stumbling towards. The Inquisition, especially the blind zealots of the Libricaran Doctrine, will try to arrest or kill you if they discover your acts. Strike them down if they stand in your way, but do so without malice. They are not heretics, only misguided.
Aside from your true duty, you will occasionally be sent on more traditional missions, rooting out cults and heretics and the like. This is to keep up appearances. Never forget your true purpose, and if the opportunity presents itself to upset the status quo, take it.
I understand that this is a heavy burden, and not all are meant to carry it. If you don't think you can handle what I'm calling upon you to do, leave now. A lighter will take you planetside. Never speak of this meeting to anyone, and remember that I am always watching you."
Victus smiles. "If, however, you're as strong as I sense you are, stay. I'll make arrangements for you to meet the rest of your team. Walk always with the Emperor, Acolyte."
Dun dun dunnn! Long story (Way longer than I intended it to be) short, you are acolytes of Inquisitor Victus Antio. Victus, as you may have noticed, has a pretty extreme view on how the problems facing the Imperium need to be solved. He's of a semi-secret (They're accepted enough to be openly debated, but their subversive actions are not) ideology called the doctrine of the Recongregators. He believes that the greatest threat to the Imperium is the status quo. More specifically, he thinks that the only way to save the Imperium is to overturn the current bodies of power and install new ones who will lead us into a new Golden Age. Some of his ideas aren't that crazy. Even the hardline Puritans know that much of the Imperium is irredeemably corrupt. Some of it, however, such as his belief in Scientific Progress, is straight-up heretical. That's why he's so secretive.
Your job, then, is to act as a sort of Liberal Crime Squad. You'll be sent into the real hotbeds of festering corruption and tasked with breathing new life into the system. How you do this is your choice. Think of these missions as a sort of sandbox. You want to assassinate the governor and install Ernestus "Che" Maccabeus to the throne? You want to use your resources and powers of oratory to inflame and arm an uprising? You want to blow something up? Go for it. Just be ready to deal with the consequences. This type of mission will probably be pretty long. Lasting change isn't something you can make in a few days.
Other than that, you can expect the occasional "traditional" mission, going out to root out some heretic, stuff like that. You can probably also expect smaller scale operations where the means of achieving your goals are more clear. Nothing is set in stone yet. If this offends your puritan sensibilities too much, maybe I'll scrap the idea and we can do things the regular way. Who knows!
I'm pretty lenient when it comes to creating your character. If you use a character generator try to make sure your sheet is legible. Some of those generators spit out a whole lot of poorly-formatted gibberish. Try to know how to play. I'm not asking you to buy the book or anything, and I would rather you not buy the book just for this game. If people absolutely need it, I can set up a quick training adventure with premade characters to get you acquainted.
The following will be a list of things to consider:
If you stayed with the Inquisitor, chances are you agree with him. Your character doesn't need to be a revolutionary zealot, but he/she should be dedicated to the cause and willing to die to see the Imperium reforged. Maybe that makes him a revolutionary zealot. Who knows? The worst heretic is the one who thinks he's doing the Emperor's work. :3
There are certain skillsets needed for this kind of work, and should go into consideration. Infiltration is something you'll probably need to do, going undercover to learn secrets or set something up. This should be pretty easy for arbitrators, techpriests, and the like, as they're already Imperial employees. Assassination may also be necessary. Obviously assassins are best for this, but scum can be pretty stealthy too and you don't need a heart-eating death cult psycho to plant a bomb on somebody's car. Demagoguery can be used to your advantage too. The Imperium is a harsh place and there's no shortage of malcontents just waiting for the chance to riot. Clerics are best at this, although scum could too. There are other, more creative ways of getting people to revolt, but I don't want to give you too many free ideas... You'll still need investigators. Even when you're not hunting cult leaders, you can accomplish a lot by digging up the right kind of dirt. Arbitrators, certain scum, adepts, those are probably the best for it. Finally, there's combat, because sometimes your plan goes pear-shaped and you have to kill a whole bunch of people. Sometimes that can work to your advantage, as long as you don't get caught.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that for the most part you won't be able to flash your inquisitorial seal and get people to do what you want. These kinds of missions are delicate and knowledge that you're part of the Inquisition will undermine your plans. Don't do anything foolish.
The game will use maptool, but don't expect it to start for probably at least a week or so, I'm getting this out early so I don't waste a whole bunch of time setting up for something people end up not wanting to play. If you want to play, I need to know what times you're available and your time-zone. For simplicity's sake, try to post times available in GMT, since it's an easy standard. Remember that Dark Heresy is a pretty high lethality game, and I'm not going to stop you if your plan is obviously retarded. Try not to raeg if you die.
Suffer not the slogan to be needed.
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Topic: Dark Heresy: Something Different (The Mission Begins Sunday at 10PM GMT) (Read 18529 times)