DH2E Generic NPCs: Cult Enemies

I felt there needed to be more generic NPCs for easy GM use. Here are some and modifiers and additions to fit a specific theme.

Cult Follower (Troop)
These represent the majority of a cult's strength. The basic rabble soldiers.


Variants:

Khorne: Raise WS, S, Fel by 1d10 or average an increase of 5 for each. Give Frenzy as a talent. Add axes, spears, and knives to gear to emphasize a more aggressive bloodletting nature. Upgrade flak vest to flak coat or chain mail to represent them as being raised from warrior or militant groups like corrupted PDF, gangers, or death cultists.

Tzeentch: Raise WP, Per, and Int by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Resistance (Psychic Powers). Add autopistols, shotguns, and knives to gear to emphasize a more overwhelming approach to fighting to make up for lesser martial prowess and knives for their symbolism of causing change through assassination and such. Remove the flak vest and give a less hardy armoured body glove or light flak coat.

Nurgle: Raise T, Fel, and S by 1d10 or give an average increase. Add 1d5 to wounds. Add Improvised weapons to represent factory equipment and weaponized tools such as hammers or cleavers along with sticking to basic pistol weaponry like stub automatics, revolvers, las pistols to represent a much more basic source and impoverished source of cultists whose weaker weapons are backed up by larger numbers and tougher bodies. Stick with basic armour like flak vests or dirty imperial robes.

Slaanesh: Raise Ag, Int, and Fel by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Disarm. Add swords, whips, and autopistols to represent the higher class stock these types of cultists can come from along with their cruel sadistic natures. Give them flak cloaks, chainmail, and body gloves.


Cult Trooper (Troop)
These represent the trained and militant of a cult. These are the cult's backbone.


Khorne: Raise WS, S, Fel by 1d10 or average an increase of 5 for each. Give Athletics +10, Parry (Known), and Intimidate as skills. Give Frenzy, Double team, and Rapid Reload as talents to show a more trained class of militant cultist. Add chainswords and chainaxes to gear. Upgrade the flak coat to Imperial Guard Flak Armour or Feudal World Plate Armour.

Tzeentch: Raise WP, Per, and Int by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Dodge +10 and Awareness (Known). Give Resistance (Psychic Powers), Disarm, and Constant Vigilance as talents. Add shotguns, hand cannons, and staffs to gear. Keep the cloak. Add one spook.

Nurgle: Raise T, Fel, and S by 1d10 or give an average increase. Add 1d5 to wounds. Give Medicae (Known) as a skill. Give Iron Jaw, and Resistance (Poisons, Disease) as talents. Add Unnatural Toughness (1) as a trait. Give great weapons as gear. Stick with the coat for armour.

Slaanesh: Raise Ag, Int, and Fel by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Acrobatics (Known), Charm +10, and Parry as skills. Give Disarm, Quick Draw, Leap Up as talents. Give Unnatural Agility (1) as a trait. Add rapiers, chainswords, shock whips, and autopistols. Keep them in flak cloaks or give them poor quality Mesh vests. Add a single stimm and a single slaught dose.

Cult Lieutenant (Elite)
These are the trusted inner circle of a cult that carries out operations and oversees the lower members.


Khorne: Raise WS, S, Fel by 1d10 or average an increase of 5 for each. Give Athletics +10, Parry +10, and Intimidate +10 as skills. Give Battle Rage, Devastating Assault, Die Hard, Frenzy, and Rapid Reload as talents. Add great weapons, warhammers, and/or eviscerators to gear. Replace the mesh cloak with Feudal World Plate Armour or Carapace chest plate with a flak cloak covering the rest.

Tzeentch: Raise WP, Per, and Int by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give a psychic rating of 3. Choose three successive powers on only one tree. One can use Invigourate, Smite, and Enfeeble as a default. Give Dodge +10, Awareness +10, Scrutiny +10, and Logic. Give Resistance (Psychic Powers), Strong Minded, Warp Sense, and Constant Vigilance as talents. Add psy-focuses, auto-pistols, and staffs to gear. Keep the Mesh Cloak.

Nurgle: Raise T, Fel, and S by 1d10 or give an average increase. Add 1d5 to wounds. Give Medicae (Known) as skills. Give Iron Jaw, Die Hard, and Resistance (Poisons, Disease) as talents. Add Unnatural Toughness (2) as a trait. Give great weapons, chainswords, and/or eviscerators as gear. Stick with the mesh cloak for armour.

Slaanesh: Raise Ag, Int, and Fel by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Acrobatics +10, Charm +20, Dodge +10, Deceive +20, and Parry +10 as skills. Give Disarm, Quick Draw, Leap Up, Whirlwind of Death, Combat Master, Hard Target, and Swift Attack as talents. Give Unnatural Agility (2) as a trait. Add chainswords, shock mauls, halberds, shock whips, and/or an autopistol as gear. Give them good quality mesh cloaks or replace with sense excess inducing carapace chest plates and carapace helmets, and extravagant and flashy clothing. Add a single stimm and a single slaught dose.

Cult Leader (Give 1 Fate Point)

Khorne: Raise WS, S, Fel by 1d10 or average an increase of 5 for each. Give Athletics +20, Parry +20, and Intimidate +30 as skills. Give Ambidextrous, Battle Rage, Combat Master, Counter Attack, Crushing Blow, Deny the Witch, Devastating Assault, Double Team, Die Hard, Frenzy, Iron Jaw, Rapid Reload, Swift Attack, Two-Weapon Master, and Two-Weapon Wielder (Ranged, Melee) as talents. Add Power Swords, Power Halberds (Malice Overhaul), Heavy Bolters, and/or Eviscerators to gear. Replace the mesh cloak with Storm Trooper Carapace Armour or Light Power Armour.

Tzeentch: Raise WP, Per, and Int by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give a psychic rating of 5. Choose five successive powers on two trees each. One can use Enfeeble, Forboding, Hemmhorage, Invigourate, Life Leech, Precognition, Prescience, Scrier's Gaze, Smite, and Warp Perception as a default. Give Dodge +20, Awareness +30, Scrutiny +20, and Logic +20. Give Bastion of Iron Will, Constant Vigilance (Intelligence), Deny the Witch, Favored by the Warp, Resistance (Psychic Powers), Strong Minded, Warp Lock, and Warp Sense talents. Add psy-focuses, auto-pistols, and staffs to gear. Keep the Mesh Cloak.

Nurgle: Raise T, Fel, and S by 1d10 or give an average increase. Add 1d10 to wounds. Give Charm, Medicae +20 as skills. Give Bulging Biceps, Die Hard, Iron Jaw, Never Die, Resistance (Poisons, Disease), True Grit as talents. Add Unnatural Toughness (4) as a trait. Give great weapons, chainswords, and/or eviscerator as gear. Replace mesh cloak with Bone and Flesh Cage that gives the Nurgle Cult Leader 8 AP to everywhere.

Slaanesh: Raise Ag, Int, and Fel by 1d10 or give an average increase. Give Acrobatics +20, Dodge +30, Deceive +30, and Parry +20 as skills. Give Blade Master, Disarm, Quick Draw, Leap Up, Whirlwind of Death, Combat Master, Hard Target, Inescapable Attack, Lightning Attack, Sprint, Step Aside, and Swift Attack as talents. Give Unnatural Agility (3) as a trait. Add a power sword, power spear (Malice Overhaul), or a power rapier (1d10+5 Pen 5 Balanced, One-Handed, Power-Field). Give them best quality mesh armour and a refractor field, and extravagant and flashy clothing. Add a single stimm, a single slaught dose, and a Speed of Thought dose (Enemies Without).

The Hive as a Setting for the Malice Campaigns (WIP)

Author's Note: As of April 24th, this doesn't say shit about fuck.

So, in the beginning, I did a lot of hand-wringing about what a hive actually looks like. I had a generalized idea of what a hive where it was based on basically an up-sloping Judge Dredd mega-city. I was told this was wrong so I had to start again. Now, and I will repeat this all the time because it bears repeating, there is no strict orthodoxy to follow when it comes to Warhammer 40,000. There are multitudes of contradictions in the lore when it comes to things like civilian life, geography, quality of life, etc. Thus, your version of a hive is not going to be wrong if it is open to the air, ultra wide or ultra tall, built underground, built into a mountain like the dwarves in Warhammer Fantasy, a massive constricting arcology, etc. However, for my series of campaigns, I would like to give some information that would assuage people like me who over think this kind of stuff.

The hive that my campaigns are primarily set in is Desoleum Primus from Dark Heresy Second Edition's lore section. The hive in my campaigns does not have to be Desoleum Primus or use the lore from the core rulebook to perfectly make sense. I use that lore because it was the most convenient at the time when I was starting out GMing. You may also see I have assigned roles to certain people or organizations from the core rulebook lore they do not have. To be honest, especially since I started playing in Desoleum as a new GM, I do not put a lot of emphasis on the oath system presented in the book. That is not to say one cannot bring that aspect of Desoleum's lore to the fore, but that in order to facilitate writing the oath system is going usually be more for flavor than as a restrictive presence. The restrictive presence of class, station, location, culture, and upbringing are always around.

The point is that my perception of a hive is colored by images of the internal build of a hive being built tall such as in these images. The first full-colored one is an official piece of art found in a module for Dark Heresy 2E. Once again, there is no orthodoxy. If you wanted a hive built wide rather than tall, such as 1E's hive Tarsus, then make it as such. For my series of campaigns, I perceive the hive being tall. Change that how you see fit.

The hive is covered. Great big metal and rockcrete walls enclose most of the city. The exceptions to this enclosure are hive-ways, ports, outer gates, and portions of the upper hive where the upper class can gaze at the clouds and the sky above the smog and pollution. The common hivers are not likely to see the sun. Even if they could see the sky, the smoky layer caused by hive industry would obstruct their view.

The hive is made up of a wide base whose underpinnings make up the underhive. The hive's foundation was on top of a mountain. The structure of the hive has far outgrown the width and height of the mountain it was built on. If you are going by 2E's lore more strictly, the spine grew out of the center of this mountain. Moving up, the width of the hive narrows. The Main-Hive is the majority of the hive and creates the bulk between the underhive and the Noble spires. Conditions and wealth generally improve moving up. The further up one goes the smaller foot traffic becomes and the greater autocarriage traffic is. The great noble spires and their foundations are found closer to the last fifth of the top. Imperial adept organization headquarters will be found near the upper hive.

The hive is divided into sections. Each section is like a city in its own right. Imagine dozens of Manhattans stacked on top of each other. The sections contain life support systems, local government organizations, residential buildings, commercial buildings, and all that is needed to have a functioning city within this mountain of cities. The roof on most of the sections is high enough that hover aircraft could reasonably fit inside. Air travel is not free or uncontested. Gates controlled by local planetary government forces guard the inner hive airways and require special permissions and licenses to use. Image great metal mouths that open near the top of the sections. On the top of these sections are grand sol-lights, giant tech fixtures that are meant to simulate a progressing Terran day and night.

Sections will differ from each other in terms of specialization. Some sections are built to be based around a certain type of industry such as butchery or weapons building. Some are meant to be purely residential and require the common hiver to travel to their work. Some will be built around a certain organization or institution such as a merchant's guild. The sections may be built wide and resemble walled off Imperial/Civil world cities and some will be built tall where vertical transportation and less orthodox ways of travel are needed to traverse them.

Travel for the common man is going to rely mainly on walking, mass-lifts, and magrails. Mass-lifts are great wide elevators that raise or lower hivers. Magrails are essentially subway systems. For the more fortunate such as overseers for manufactorums or those in the patronage of the relatively generous, they may find themselves able to afford personal vehicles or use a taxi system. Rising up in the hive merchants, lower gentry, and noblemen have personal vehicles of varying degrees of ostentatiousness and functionality.

The common sectors will differ from each other in wealth and quality of life rising up from the base of the hive. However, common fixtures will be rockcrete or synth built pre-fab structures, neon lamps, narrow or wide travel spaces, and a lack of ways to view the outside. To base this in a relatable analog, try to imagine the ways Soviet cities and their pre-fabricated buildings were along with crowded cities of the modern variety like Shanghai while also having the layout of a place like Victorian London or early-to-mid century New York City.

Going up to the spires, there are separate sections and common areas where gentry, merchants, and less pretentious nobles may venture out. These are generally extremely well kept and luxurious. They contain a lot of greenery and beautiful aesthetics. These sections also contain prestigious commercial luxury establishments. They may contain great windows or viewports to the sky outside.

A big question I have asked myself and what I imagine some will ask is, "if the layout of a hive means something to you, why don't you create a map for the hive to simplify things like how Forgotten Realms in DnD has a whole map full of history you could just point to?" Believe me, I have tried. I have tried a simplified map that was basically squares stacked on squares with specific markings. I have even gone the lazy route of trying to find a pre-made map online that was very detailed but left the inside sections blank and I attempted to fill them up. I am not creating a specific detailed map and instead allowing a foundation to be built via description that can be used to further adventure narratives for a few reasons. For one, I tried to make those maps because I player complained they did not understand how stuff worked because they were used to a Forgotten Realms style of setting where everything is detailed. So I tried to make a map like Faerun has. They then did not even use the map I created. This same player is also the reason the "So You are Now an Imperial Citizen!" roleplay guide was created and no one has ever actually used that either. So I am saying I am biased toward a concrete map due to my disappointing experiences. For two, hive cities are complex, labyrinthine, huge places that creating a 2D map even in the style of the very helpful ones above just doesn't feel right to me. Not that the maps you see are wasted effort, they are actually very useful. Notice though that they are offering generalized regions rather than hyper-precise details, however. For three, the lack of a highly detailed map is actually a narrative strength. Rather than forcing an orthodoxy where a map has to exist and be followed to the letter like the Sword Coast (what a fuckin' weak name) in Faerun, one can just make their own adventures and not have to worry about the precise where. When I made "Who's Got the Vibe", would it have really mattered that the bar full of dead gangers was in district Wurmstrung or sector Lantus? What do those names even mean? What actually matters to create context is the general idea of where they are. If a thing with nobles is involved it matters if it happened up-hive where they would normally be found or down-hive where many would not step foot in. Even if one was to make a mystery-based module where exacting details are important, a pre-existing reference that chains one's creations does not really need to exist in order to make a really fun adventure. What matters is conveyance between a GM and their players.

The Malice Series of Campaigns Titles (WIP)

Malice

The Domino Orchestra: Greene Lament, Polonaise of Pestilence, Dirge of Gore, Sonata of Secrets, Tenorlied of Traitors, Who's Got the Vibe, White Room, Sublime, Peace Sells.


God-Dust Crusaders: Blue Lamp (Hrax), Pressure (Rann), Assumption (Enkidu)

DH2E Character Cast: "Big Smile" Siggy and The Joy Troupe Cloudboy Gang

The Joy Troupe is a band of acrobats and performancers that perform throughout Desoleum Primus. The Joy Troupe is a breakaway cloudboy gang from the style killers that perform murders, thefts, and smuggling. The Joy Troupe is a Cegorach worshipping cult whose namesake refers to the harlequin patron that guides them. They are all the above at once. Their leader is Siggivere du Bornae, a native of Elysia. His street name is "Big Smile" Siggy for the intimidating bionic replacement jaw he wears that has an engraved image of a monstrous jagged grin. Siggy is a perceptive, rational, cool, but intense person. Underneath the visage of a feared gangster is a thoughtful but dangerous man. Siggy and the Joy Troupe are extensively trained to be speedy and mobile fighters. They are as acrobatic in combat as they are performing in the street and back up the speed with devastating upscale weapons for the underworld including bolt weaponry, grenade launchers, and chain weaponry. They all keep a healthy supply of frag, stun, and photon flash grenades on them to overwhelm enemies. The Troupe is a minuscule band compared to others only comprising of around three hundred members. The Troupe are not exactly an evangelizing cult or gang and their members usually find them or impress them rather than being recruited off the street. Their disadvantage in numbers is made up for by their skills and equipment. Siggy is a relatively new face to Desoleum Primus's underworld only beginning operation for around a decade. He has made a gigantic splash in the underworld and people know him and the troupe as the people you go to when you want a special piece of equipment or someone dead. Siggy does not work for the hive nobility and actively spurns any offers for gang bonding that the elite like to engage in. His main mission is decided by his patron, the Joy, and her main prerogative is to have the troupe engage in actions on Imperial land that the Eldar could not easily. One particular thing of note is the Troupe's trade with the Tarot associated Brothers of Var'Nahesh, a Khorne cult. They exchanged bolt weaponry that the Tarot would later use for soul stones gathered by one of the Tarot's leaders named the Living Masquerade. This was an ill-informed trade and the Brotherhood's nature was hidden from the Troupe. The Brotherhood presented themselves as a simple warrior's fraternity of the Cadre PDF. The stones were priceless but from that point on the Troupe was set upon the Tarot to spy on them and fight their proxies. The Joy sets the troupe against the followers of the ruinous powers along with their other works.

All of the Joy Troupe wear expensive, loud, and fine quality clothing that mixes harlequin and Imperial designs together to where those in the know would be suspicious but would otherwise be innocuous. They use Imperial weapons to keep below suspicion of inquisitors and arbitrators.

Siggivere, as mentioned, was a native of Elysia. He grew up in a small village and was training to be a doctor when his village was raided by Dark Eldar. The Drukhari are a known menace to Elysia and the Elysian PDF have constant clashes with them and other pirates. Many in his village were taken as slaves. Praying to the Emperor for rescue, his prayers went unheeded. He attempted to resist and had his jaw torn off for his trouble by his captors. In his agony, he saw a shape in the darkness execute his tormentors. The shape was the Joy, a child of the laughing god, and for his salvation, he became her disciple. He was trained in the ways harlequins were but modified for humans. He would follow her to the ends of the galaxy and took her every word as gospel. The Joy sent him to Desoleum in order to do what she could not. He built the Joy Troupe with help from his matron. He built his image as a mask much like the bionic he installed to hide his true nature. His jaw is clunky, Imperial, and menacing. It is what he wants the world to see as his true soul is kept behind a shroud of appearance and performance.

(They play parts in the Dirge of Gore and Tenorlied of Traitors adventures)

Big Smile Siggy underneath the outer bionic.
Big Smile Siggy profile (Elite)



Escape Artist Profile (Elite):


Trick Shooter Profile (troop):




Fireworker Profile (Troop):



Blade Dancer profile (Troop):



The Joy profile (Master):

DH2E Character Cast: Inquisitor Eldrus Ivo and his acolytes

Inquisitor Eldrus Ivo is an inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos. He was the interrogator to the late Inquisitor Ritornello. He was also the last to be ascended to inquisitor by his master. Eldrus Ivo is relatively young for an inquisitor being physically 33 but receiving rejuvenat for his true age of 87. He is a very independent agent in a sector that lacks a grand Inquisitorial structure and entrenchment such as the Calixis, Scarus, or the Ixaniad sectors. He often travels lightly and his operations have him be highly mobile due to constant journeying throughout the sector. His only consistent company is his acolytes. Inquisitor Ivo would be considered radical by general inquisitorial standards. He does not ally to a specific ideology like xanthism or recongregationism but does hold slightly similar views to the Xenos Hybris ideology found in the Calixis sector. Slightly because he does not fully believe in the viability of humanity allying with xenos, but he does work with them. Specifically, Ivo has built up an alliance between him and the hidden craftworld of Askellon. He has been building up this relationship for a long time in order to achieve his ultimate goal of being allowed into the Black Library. He sees the Black Library as a shortcut to finding a way of ultimately solving the problem of the pandaemonium that his contemporaries, including Inquisitor Rondos, are taking the long way towards as he sees. Inquisitor Rondos knew Ivo as a young acolyte of Ritornellos far after Rondos had taken up the rosette. Rondos finds Ivo's personal errant journey to be incomplete in fighting the enemies of man versus Rondos's intricate web of intrigue and alliances. Rondos has also spent a longer time trying to find the same thing and does not believe the Eldar have the answer or could even be trusted to give a true answer that would not just be a ploy for their own gains. Ivo finds Rondos's ways quaint and has argued with him in the past that Rondos's blind stabbing in the dark to find an answer wastes time that leads to the warpstorm consuming more and that there could be an answer that the Eldar do not want to use simply because of its manner or their disinterest in the overall sector aside from their personal interests. If it turns out to be a farce than it was a farce and at least the avenue is used. If it turns out to be genuine than it could save the sector from its seemingly neverending doom along with other possible major benefits.

Inquisitor Cavello might want to kill Inquisitor Ivo.

Inquisitor Ivo is a tall man with an athletic build and a head of close shaved hair. He has brown eyes and is generally ruggedly good looking and cleanshaven. He often travels in a black grox-skin duster, tan closed vest, white button-up shirt, black gloves, dark grey denim pants, and black combat boots. He is generally a light-hearted person whose deep voice and direct demeanour give an intimidating presence who can turn on the terror when he needs to. He keeps his humour even in the field and has an oddly amused flippant attitude to most of the things he does. It keeps people he meets on his toes. He tries to enjoy his work. He does not insult or demean the people he knows but he is extremely sarcastic with them. Ivo is an very intelligent and headstrong person which he has to be when he regularly meets with the intentionally befuddling Eldar.

He generally packs a large array of equipment. He has tools, gear, armour, weapons, and anything he can carry conveniently on his personal guncutter, the "Revelry". He does not keep access to heavier equipment due to his vagrant nature but he is ready at the drop of a hat to use his power as an inquisitor to requisition what he needs. He rides a middle line of subtlety and overtness as he is ready to drop into disguises and pseudonyms and engage in covert skullduggery, and he ready to open fire in the middle of a crowded room and announce himself if it gets him what he wants. He does not keep cells of acolytes but he does keep a personal retinue.

(He basically is 40k Idris Elba. Even his name is a gigantic mangling of Idris Elba. He's my interpretation of what Gregor Eisenhorn and Luther from the BBC series Luther would be if you would put them in a blender)

Karl Grimskalle-Big guy. Nice guy. Swears like a sailor. Fenrisian. Thick accent. Just barely failed initiate trials for the Space Wolves but was allowed to work as a chapter serf. Picked up for Inquisitor Ivo's warband later. Karl was a young warrior of the Grimskull tribe of Fenris. He grew up in a tribe that mainly fished for their sustenance and Karl grew big and strong hauling nets, cutting down trees, and knocking out ruffians in the long hall that would attempt to steal his mead. When the local fisheries ran dry one Fenrisian winter, Karl was chosen along with his other kinsmen to go out into deeper water where great leviathan preyed. Unfortunately for him, his boat caught the eye of a Fenrisian kraken. Fortunately for him, during the time a Wolf Priest was observing his struggle. Karl cleaved and rent and and screamed his fury but unfortunately the kraken had its fill of his kinsmen. It missed him and he was revived using gifts of the omnissiah. He was chosen as an aspirant. Karl did very well in the training camps and trials. His fall from being given the geneseed was a literal fall during the trial right before the test of morkai. Unfortunately, Karl was on the older side of the prime age range to accept the canis helix. The recovery time would have put him right outside the age needed. So he was not able to become a space marine. Karl took this in stride. Karl is an oddly optimistic and calm person, especially fr a Fenrisian. He was instead taken on to be a chapter serf which he was equally happy to become. Chapter serfs are an esteemed position in the Imperium and the Space Wolves are one of the better chapters to become a serf for. Carrying out his duties for around a decade, Karl became embroiled in an operation by an inquisitor Eldrus Ivo that concerned the Vulka Fenryka. Eldrus found Karl to be a steadfast and tough warrior so he had Karl join his retinue. 


Urist MacBelegar-Squat. Tinkerer. Engineer. One of an endangered race of abhumans. 

The Malice series of campaigns for Dark Heresy 2E Synopsis

So I realized parts of my campaign make no sense without the background of why they are happening and I'll finagle a fanciful-worded essay as I am wont to do later but for now a simple info drop.

For this series,
the Chaos god Malal existed. It was the god of banality and the recursive nature of Chaos similar to 1E. It was as strong as the other gods and grew along with them. The other gods destroyed it. However, the essence was too powerful to be annihilated completely. It congealed over millennia into the form that is known as the pandaemonium. At one time, a xenos race who were the original rulers of Askellon almost found a way to get rid of it. They were corrupted and their empire spread to ash. They exist now as the dwellers of ancient xenos ruins known as the White Ones. The Pandaemonium, even with its warp storms that swallow planets, was relatively chained by that race's rituals that preceded their failed attempt to destroy it. Then an agent of the Tarot; a Chaotic alliance of Slaaneshis, Khornates, Tzeentchians, and a mix of renegades, mercenaries, and mutants; performed a ritual at an ancient ruined city seemingly in stasis known as the Pristine City. This ritual eliminated the chains of malice (hence the original name of the campaign series) and now the pandaemonium is rearing its head more powerfully than before and more importantly now vulnerable to the ancient xenos weapon simply known as the Theoclast. Along with the breaking of the chains is a narrowing in the divide between the immaterial and the material allowing for increased phenomena and facilitated rituals to summon abominations from the warp along with other harrowing effects. The series of campaigns is the result of the efforts of the Tarot and along with them the Dark Eldar kabals, Nurglite cults, and the Inquisition's race toward control of the Theoclast with interference by Craftworld Eldar, cults of Chaos Undivided, genestealers, and horrors best left undisturbed. With the Theoclast is the ability to absorb the power of a god for the foolhardy, the use of it as a weapon that can rend the galaxy, or dissipate it entirely and eliminate the pandaemonium and stabilize the warp around Askellon to turn it from a doomed sector to a possible citadel in the coming centuries.

(When the Imperium Nihilus occurs and it is one of the few places not affected because I don't do nihilistic cosmic horror feel-bad bullshit where everyone's efforts were in vain).

Also yes I did get this idea from that one episode of If the Emperor had a Text to Speech Device but transplanted it to 2E's pandaemonium rather than 1E's tyrant star.

The campaign takes place 200 years before Cadia's fall.

Who's Got the Vibe (Dark Heresy 2E Adventure)

Who's Got the Vibe

Table of Contents

Introduction

Zeke’s Last Call

6   Our friend Marty

7   Terra Bella Shake

8   Papa Ruckus

9   Mummer’s Rest

1   White Snake

Introduction

            The underworld of Desoleum is made up of hundreds of gangs, and one of these have risen to the top as kingpins. This group is the Insuratti. They have fingers in a million pies all over Desoleum, reaching into its airspace and shaking hands with the grand cartel conspiracy known as the Faceless Trade. They are thorns in the sides of ruling nobles and merchants. They are secret friends of the same groups. The Insuratti are a constant in Desoleum. Until recently.

 One of their number, a younger captain of the group, Sirgev Gach has upset the enshrined balance of power. Gach is ambitious, sly, charming, and extremely dangerous. He was an upstart from his early days, but now he has new friends that supply him with the resources necessary to conquer the underworld. The resources also include those of a foul blasphemous nature. His seditious branch of the Insuratti is called the Gach Clique, and includes numerous other gangs along with fixers, suppliers, and contacts all under his thumb.

The Insuratti wants an edge against the clique and wants to remind the underworld of the good thing they had. The original meaning of nostalgia means the “pain from an old wound” in an ancient Terran language. The Insuratti wants to put everyone back in their place like the old days. They have found new ways to bring pain.

The Inquisition does not care about local planetary crime. It does not care about gangers dying in some speak-easy. However, the nature of this crime falls under the purview of the Ordo Xenos. Their interest is flared by the weapons used in this underworld execution. 

Zeke’s Last Call

The acolytes begin the story driving to Zeke’s, a speak-easy in district Straten, a hab center. They have been told that a gang hit took place the night before. Their inquisitor’s overseer, Harkonn Straussheim, want the acolytes to investigate due to the Gach clique’s involvement. Zeke Ludwig was one of Gach’s men, and the owner of the restaurant. Gach’s activities have been placed under watch since acolytes have witnessed the malefic power he possesses and his connections to the Tarot, a grand conspiracy and alliance of different Chaos groups.

The district is owned by house Rhomana, one of the great families of Desoleum. They have sent investigators from their sanctionary forces to the crime scene and will have shown up before the acolytes get there. Sure enough, as the acolytes near Zeke’s, sanctionaries with a chalice crest upon their armour are seen surrounding the crime scene. Crime tape has been put up. Two sanctionary autocarriages are parked outside. The sanctionaries are turning away citizens with morbid curiosity about the restaurant.

The sanctionaries can be persuaded immediately with the flashing of a rosette. They can be persuaded to allow the acolytes in if they have any history with the houses. They can be lied to and told they were sent by house Rhomana, the Rosa Initiative Enforcer Department (a special enforcer group), or any other excuse to get them away from the scene. They can also be simply bribed. There can be more ways to get by.

The speak-easy is set on a corner with surrounding businesses. One of these is a laundry. It has a door that passes into an office that has a door covered by furniture that leads into the kitchen of the speak-easy. Behind the speak-easy is part of a hab-block with no entrances or exits to the speak-easy. The other side of the speak-easy is a boxing gym called “Avon’s Golden Gloves” with no connection to the speak-easy either.

The acolytes may also just wait until the sanctionaries leave, as they do not care about Insuratti getting gunned down. Sanctionaries don’t generally care about gang crime. They’re mainly enforcers for the great houses’ wills, keeping the oaths of Desoleum’s citizens in line and cracking down on oathbreakers. They will have to wait until around midnight for this, however.

Inside the speak-easy would be a cozy place with warm lighting and cold booze if it weren’t for the two dozen bodies. Two inspectors, really officers of house Rhomana’s security forces, are investigating the scene and trying to make sense of it. These are Kellam Neadham and Halloway Rackham. They wear three piece suits with badges carrying the house Rhomana chalice. Hal is a large man with a permanent scowl, a wide nose, and thinned black hair with a widow’s peak. Kel is a skinny man with brown hair and a well-groomed mustache.

They will be non-plussed to allow the acolytes to investigate away. They’ve lost interest in the case after they didn’t find what they wanted. The most interesting things they have found are the strange blast marks and impacts on the walls. The wounds of the dead are also strange, not being the same as standard las or solid projectile damage.

Challenging (+0) Medical Tests

1DoS: The wounds look like they were caused by plasma.

3DoS: The plasma wounds are in an almost rectangular shape, and not caused by a glob of plasma like standard plasma weaponry.

Challenging (+0) Awareness Tests

1DoS: The blast marks are consistent with plasma.

3DoS: The plasma penetrated through the wood and rockcrete inside fairly strongly. The marks are rectangular shaped and not rounded.

Challenging (+0) Scrutiny Tests

1DoS: The gangers were taken by surprise. Most of them have their autostubbers, autopistols, and las pistols still in their holsters. Those that died with their gun in their hands may have gotten one or two shots off before being taken down. The gangers all have a somewhat similar dress of cheap facsimiles of three-piece suits.

3DoS: The bartender pressed a secret alarm button before he died. It is found underneath the bar next to the cash register. A group of shooters took these men down. Judging from the number of shots and the overall carnage, plus the lack of wounded on the attacker’s side, it might have been around six to ten shooters.

The inspectors quietly confide amongst themselves.

Challenging (+0) Awareness

Quietly they will ask if the Rook, an alleged terrorist known for bombing clinics and gunning down medical personnel and criminals, is part of this. Neadham tells him that the wounds and witnesses don’t really follow. He prefers hot-shot weaponry when he uses energy weapons, and the damage caused doesn’t follow that. This is the real reason why they were sent here. Lord Rhomana sent the orders specifically. His clinics are the majority which have been bombed.

If the acolytes look through the bodies, then among the wallets, guns, jewelry, lighters, and lho sticks among the dead is a match book to a club named “Ruckus”. It has a silhouette of a dancing woman pressed on it. Inside the match book are twenty-two matches left, and a note on the inner top flap. “Martin Leinz’s shop. Make him bow or slot him!”

A vox-phone book is on the counter of the bar. A Challenging (+0) Scrutinizing for Leinz will come up to an autoshop a district away. The same test will show a local gentleman’s club called “Ruckus”.

Our Friend Marty

Marty’s Quick Fix is a mechanic shop owned by one Marty Leinz. Leinz is under a protection racket of the Insuratti for a percent of his profits but is not an officer or really a grunt in the gang. The inside of the Quick Fix is a garage with autocarriages being worked upon by mechanics in coveralls. The autocarriages themselves look decent, like the types merchants would drive, rather than the rusty gang modified types common to lower hive habways. The front door leads to a small office that receives customers. It is covered by large windows with blinds. There is a desk with a cogitator on it. There is a chair behind it and two chairs in front of it. Behind the desk are filing cabinets full of receipts, folders, and papers. Inside the desk is a stub revolver, eighteen bullets, a bottle of amasec, and a paper note with a vox-number on it.

Calling the number leads to a secretary answering from a spa called “Terra Bella”. The secretary is just a worker at the spa, but her boss is Hezekiah Steiner, an Insuratti captain and “legitimate businessman”. She will tell the acolytes that Mr. Steiner is out at the moment and if they ask if Martin called she will diplomatically tell them that she can’t tell them that.

Martin is on the floor right now. He is smoking a lho sick and looks somewhat agitated. With a challenging (+0) awareness test, one can find that he’s hiding a stub automatic in his jacket. With a challenging (+0) scrutiny test, one can find that he’s scared of something and is ready to run at the first sign of danger. They can calm him down by charm, intimidation, or deception. They can convince him that they’re not there to hurt him and under the inquisition’s purview he doesn’t really have anything especially heretical to be purged for (unless you’re a puritan like that). They can also deceive him by saying they’re Insuratti or someone who wants to help. There are other ways to make sure he doesn’t run.

If the acolytes openly question Marty about anything to do with gangers or the Insuratti without convincing him it might be a better idea to talk, he will start running toward the back of the garage. The back leads to a scrap yard the size of a small landfill and behind that is a market bazaar. The scrap yard is difficult to cross and Marty has to climb a fence at the back. If the acolytes use acrobatics to deftly get across the yard or athletics to outrun Marty and tackle him to the ground. If he gets to the bazaar, he will try to blend into the crowd of people and the acolytes can attempt to use awareness to find him in the middle of the crowd. If he gets away, the acolytes can be set on the right track by getting to the Ruckus club or following up on the vox phone note.

Marty is no hardened criminal and once caught will open up about anything the acolytes want. Marty will attempt to hide his criminal contact if questioned without duress. Marty was visited by a Gach Clique tough guy named Jan Kreel and his boys three days ago. Kreel gave Mary the same offer many gangs and anyone connected to the Underworld have been getting. Join the Clique and prosper or be buried. Marty was already paying protection to Mr. Hesh, an Insuratti big shot who owns a number of laundering businesses around Desoleum. He called Mr. Hesh out of fear. Two days later, a Clique speak-easy gets shot up. Someone in a black car in a cheap black suit and hat shows up earlier today and tells him his worries are over.

Terra Bella Shake

Terra Bella looks like an ordinary massage parlor. It is all above board of course. The proper oaths are in place. The workers are all legal. It contains a front reception area, ten private massage rooms, three saunas, two bathrooms, and a back office. It is a laundering business by the Insuratti in the local district. It is run by one Hezekiah Steiner, an officer in the Insurrati.

“Hesh” is an old dog. Pushing seventy, he is a respected institution of the cartel. He is cautious and calculated. He controls a number of rackets in the surrounding section of the hive that he has set up with trusted men and fall guys. He also has taken on himself to groom his shining star of a protégé, Drusus Hohlstein.

Drusus is a young top earner. He is ruthless, cunning, charming, and dangerous. He is the obvious choice to take the helm of the Insurrati. Drusus is also the one bringing in Tau Pulse Rifles to use in the gang war between the Gach Clique and the Insuratti. He is also one key to Gach’s betrayal, the fellow gangster always feeling snubbed by “Prince Dru”.

Hesh does not keep arm guards within Terra Bella. He finds it invites too much attention. Rather, he has a group of guards (now armed with pulse rifles) in a local butcher shop’s backroom. He can call them over with the touch of a button that turns on a klaxon.

What Hesh does know is that Drusus is the one bringing in the guns. What Dru tells him is that he worked out a deal with a smuggler. Dru goes to a tavern called the Mummer’s Rest and asks for the VIP room. Dru goes to sleep in that room and wakes up in another. He gets to speak to his dealer and is sent back with a crate of guns. He sends his guys to distribute them across the hive. Dru is vague on the details, but he turns up with results.

Hesh will not give up what Drusus is doing easily. Anyone asking about the weapons could be someone from the Gach clique, another rival, a sanctionary, an arbitrator, or worse, the Inquisition. A subtle approach would be to try to approach Hesh as a potential customer looking for the guns, a member of the Insuratti, or another approach that would get Hesh talking openly. The unsubtle way would be to interrogate the information out of him, preferably somewhere away from the eyes of his goons. Furthermore, Hesh does not know that the guns are Tau. They could be Selvanus Binarian pulse rifles for all he knows.

If Hesh is kidnapped or otherwise harmed, a hit will be placed upon those who did it. This hit takes the form of six hitmen (use bounty hunter profile) whose mission are to rescue Hesh and kill anyone who harms him. Hesh may call them off. Killing Hesh gives the acolytes the Enemy (Insuratti) talent and will lead to progressive strikes against them and the people and places they associate with.

The Insuratti’s influence is vast. They will be able to track the movement of those who would mean harm to their bosses.

Papa Ruckus

Ruckus is a strip club downhive. The outside is hidden inside an alleyway between a Mechanicus shrine and a glass foundry owned by a merchant family. The pulsing music beats against the hearts of the acolytes as they near the front door. The same lady silhouette dons the top of the door along with the name of the place. An ape of a doorman stands at the front of a line along with four other men in blue cheap suits hiding guns. The doorman is maintaining a proper class of occupancy and clientele. Those with merchant clothes or higher are allowed in. Those who disagree are kicked, literally, to the curb by most of the guards. Those with bribes, charm, or proper lies can also be allowed in. Those of stern will or enough muscle mass to cow the doorman can also find their own way in. The guard will not give his name, but his name is Mercer Renzo.

The inside contains a dazzling array of colored lights pulsing over the floor. A bar lies at the far side of the floor, as the middle is made up of pole dancing stages with a number of smile girls going through their routines. A good number of customers occupies the space. Around a dozen gangers in cheap suits are spread out over the club. Near the corner of the room is a door to what looks to be dressing rooms, a backroom with a dozen more gangers and the office of “Papa Ruckus” Lucio Andreis.

Papa Ruckus’s office is an opulent space with high quality furnishings, art, liquor, and a cogitator. Ruckus spends his time in here in a high-backed leather chair smoking a lho cigar and keeping track of the club’s workings. Ruckus is a rude, caustic, portly, tall beast of a man. He is bald and his jowls vibrate when he shouts. His heft hides a great strength.

Ruckus was the one that sent Kreel to the Quick Fix as part of Gach’s gradual takeover of the district. Ruckus also knows that the weapons are of xenos-make but he does not know what type. He does know that a dealer has been talking to the Insuratti old guard. He sent a skulker to spy on Drusus Hohlstein, a lieutenant to one of the top chiefs of the Insuratti. Drusus was seen going to port Morn and disappeared for two days after entering a place called the Mummer’s Rest. He came back with a crate dropped off at an Insuratti racket near the port.

When the acolytes are done with their interview with Ruckus, or when they have been turned away, four cars of men in black three-piece-suits of Insurrati gangers will show up in front of the club. They are toting pulse rifles and are there to kill all of the Gach clique soldiers inside. Use the thug profiles from the core rulebook of Dark Heresy 2E with pulse rifles from the Enemies Without expansion book. They do not care about collateral damage to the dancers and other customers inside. If the acolytes are armed or show any sort hostility to the men, they will open fire on them assuming them to be part of the Gach Clique or its allied gangs.

If the acolytes decide to run, Ruckus will also try to run and will beg the acolytes to help him leave if they cross paths. If they help him, he will be open about where the Insuratti have been getting the pulse rifles.

If the acolytes decide to fight back, Ruckus will tell them about the pulse rifles. If any of the gangers get away and live, they will gain the enemy (Insuratti) talent and have their subtlety changed by 1d5.

Mummer’s Rest

The Mummer’s Rest is an unassuming inn found within Port Morn. It is a three-story building with a common room, ten standard rooms, and a suite. It contains a front room with a receptionist. It contains no food or drink and is not a tavern. Its prices for rooms are fair. Most of the place is a rather plain pre-fab rockcrete structure. The common room contains bunk beds lined in rows with simple cots on them. The suite is a decent place with a queen sized bed, a wardrobe, a desk, a shower, and a couch.

Drusus Hohlstein is returning to this place. He comes in a green Hectin autocarriage with four of his guys. They’re there to make sure no one followed him and as personal protection. He will walk in, ask the owner for the VIP room, and be let in. Inside the suite there will be an amasec bottle and a glass. He has instructions to drink it then lie on the bed. He will and lies on it. He will pass out due to the tranquilizer in the drink. During this time, a black imported autocarriage will pull up. Out of it comes two robed and hooded individuals that look like pilgrims. Their heads are shrouded, and they wear bodygloves underneath with a face concealing wrap. Their movements are unnaturally graceful, to the point that the robes almost look like they are floating if it was not for the soft footsteps one can hear in the silence of the upper floors. These are Dark Eldar of the Serrata Kabal, and they have struck a deal with Drusus, people he trusts, and smugglers to take them to their secret hold amongst the stars to do business with them and other xenos. They enter the suite and carry the sleeping Drusus into their autocarriage. They take him away to a public landing pad and park the car inside of an arvus lighter. This lighter will fly away.

The players have a couple of ways to follow this. They can try to talk Drusus in taking them with him. They might be able to do this by convincing him they’re oilers (see the Core Rulebook NPC description) sent by other Insuratti bosses to partake in the deal. They can make a deal with the owner, who is a one of the survivors of the Rosethorn cult. The Rosethorn was a BDSM club that served as the headquarters of Dark Eldar worshipping cultists. It was raided by the Rosa Initiative (a newer special enforcer institution) a few months ago. The cultist set up the inn at the behest of his alien masters to continue smuggling operations. The deal mentioned before can be the same one that Drusus and the Insuratti oilers he has set up with a room set up that they take a sedative in and be transported to where the Dark Eldar have been taking the smugglers. They can follow the robed Dark Eldar to their ship and attempt to sneak on it. The two of them would be busy flying the flyer for most of the trip. They could use their own ship to try to follow it, although this will be fairly difficult due to the paths and skill of the Drukhari pilots and the generally unknown path they would be taking. They could attempt to come back later to avoid Drusus. The main point is they need to find a way to get to the asteroid base

If for some reason they were to try to uncover the inn to arbitrators, enforcers, or other forces of the inquisition or attempt to kill the Dark Eldar, Drusus, or the cultist owner then the other inns doing this smuggling operation would still continue to exist. The PCs can try again at one of them but they may have their faces known. If the players were to leave the first situation, news of more gang killings would occur. The gang war would start to spread collateral damage to the citizens of the hive and the merchants and nobles that rule it. Arbitrators and possibly a puritan inquisitor would begin to look into the situation. If they have drawn the ire of anyone involved with the pulse rifles, then a hit squad using the weapons would be sent after them.

White Snake

There are two general ways to follow the smuggler’s tracks. Either sneak onto the arvus shuttle the xenos are using to transport the unconscious smugglers or attempt to follow them with a stellar-capable vehicle. Sneaking onto the arvus is facillitated by the nooks and crannies of the flighter being made to legally carry things in compartments or have special smugglers holds that could hide would-be stowaways. Trying to commandeer the flighter is also a possibility but depending on the experience of the party a poor idea. The flighter is flown by two kabalites (see the Enemies Without expansion book). Attempting to subdue them and forcing them to fly to their destination will also be trouble. As Dark Eldar, they see all other life forms as beneath them. This will make interrogation tests and intimidation tests harder (by a -10 to -20 penalty depending on the context of the tests) to succeed at. One could look through their nav-cogitators and try to find the base that way. It would take either a tech-use test to narrow down where they were going or a scrutiny test to look through the logs and find their location. If hiding acolytes or imprisoned acolytes are discovered by the Drukhari, they will be questioned by Kaevana Serrata. Serrata is the true-born daughter of an archon working in Askellon. The interrogation will not be pleasant and they are likely to be killed.

The other method, following the xenos as they fly has its own difficulties. The base the xenos are flying to is hidden within an asteroid floating in a belt. The operator of the stellar vehicle will have to avoid their gaze, fly through dangerous space, and be able to keep track of them. These will all require challenging tests to do. If your acolyte party are not exceptional pilots, then having an NPC either being hired or given to fly can help them.

Either way, the route to the base starts around Desoleum’s outer atmosphere. The xenos have forged clearances with the local ports and starbases. They will advance past the moon and enter the general vacuum. After an hour of travel, they will find themselves flying near astral bodies that generally keep orbit to the system’s sun. Past those is a large asteroid belt that orbits a red dwarf. The asteroid belt moves quickly that a deft pilot is needed to traverse and navigate through it yet generally keeps to a pattern of space debris that one who recognizes it can more easily fly through it (with a +20 bonus after either a challenging [+0] awareness, navigation [stellar], or scrutiny test). Entering the belt is harder than leaving the belt. The base is found on one of the larger asteroid bodies that looks like its is a compacted fragment of a moon. The base itself is about the size of a small Terran or Civilized World city, and is found nestled within a deep crevice. The location along with radiation interference from the astral phenomena along with cloaking by the Drukhari themselves keeps it hidden.

The lighter docks in a cloaked base inside a large asteroid’s surface. This is a Dark Eldar outpost and xenos black market. It is known as Munla Vaul, or Vaul’s Mold after the dead smith god of the Eldar. The Dark Eldar of the Seratta Kabal own the place and enforce their wills upon it. Numerous alien species, outcasts, and mutants can be found here including the Vespid, Greet, G’nosh, Rashan, Hrud, beastmen, pirates of every shape and size, orks, mercenaries, and more. The base is more similar to a human starbase’s than the labyrnthine domicile of Commoragh, the Drukhari’s home. The layout is shaped like an Eldar symbol where the symbol makes up halls that then spill out into concourses, domiciles, and other locations. The Drukhari have the place split up per race and affiliation as to keep hostilities to a minimum. This of course separates the high and mighty Dark Eldar from the rest of the refuse of the galaxy. The main marketplace and where the majority of deals are done by the Drukhari and those inside Munla Vaul lies at the center where a confluence of passages is. This is where a tribe called The Far Kindred, a kroot kindred, does their deals with the Dark Eldar. The end of the tail is one star port out of Munla Vaul.

The kindred The Far Kindred generally do things similarly to many Kroot kindreds. They are a group of around a hundred led by a shaper named Ku’tep and generally seek to consume different species to gain a variety of strong traits. They are rather far flung from the Tau Empire and their lower numbers are due to attrition over years of fighting and hunting. They are often hired as mercenaries where their main rewards are the ability to gain more genetic material to advance themselves. This is where the Drukhari come in. They trade different species for slaves and weapons from the Kroot. They have no need for the weapons but their find slaves valuable for their agony-based culture that keeps the eye of Slaanesh away. Also personal amusement. The Far Kindred roams Askellon raiding ships and relatively isolated worlds. Their main source of slaves are humans from frontier worlds like Havarth among others. Their lack of protection from the Imperial navy and their primitive defenses makes them easy to gather. The weapons The Far Kindred gives to the Drukhari they pass on to smugglers to engage in their proxy war against a grand Chaotic conspiracy known as the Tarot. The Tarot was allied to them in the past but betrayed them once their use was done. The Tarot also have a vested interest in the criminal underworld of Desoleum among other planets as one facet of their grand plan. The Gach Clique is a breakaway from the strongest cartel on Desoleum, the Insurrati. The Insurrati needed extra firepower to deal with the Gach Clique’s resources that are provided by the Tarot including sorcerous means. The Drukhari supply pulse weaponry in an attempt to dash the Tarot’s attempt to control the underworld out of spite and to keep them off balance without using Drukhari resources.

The Far Kindred has Munla Vaul as a secondary base away from their ships, which are also their source of pulse weapons from the Tau Empire, hidden away from prying eyes; Drukhari, human, or otherwise. The Far Kindred has a profitable relationship with the Drukhari as they have access to many species in the materium along with possibly never before seen creatures within the webways. However, shaper Ku’tep is not naïve. He knows the perfidious reputation of the Dark Eldar. He also cares deeply for his kindred. He does not harbor any ill will towards humans or the slaves he gathers but sees them as a means to an end. Ku’tep can be convinced to stop dealing with the Drukhari although it will be difficult to simply talk him out of a profitable deal for him and his kindred. A similar deal where another could take the place of the Drukhari such a radical inquisitor or tolerant rogue trader from the acolytes’ past would help make his decision and make persuasion easier. They want genetic material. It does not matter who gives it to them (unless they are corrupted genetically like the tyranids or genestealers or spiritually like Chaos).

Alternatively, the kindred could be ejected from Munla Vaul or wiped out. It would take a silver-tongued acolyte, but the master of the place, Kaevena Serrata, could be convinced that the Kroot are more trouble then they’re worth. She could alternatively be convinced that the proxy war is inefficient, or that the Kroot are conspiring against her. She is a shrewd mistress and will not be led easily. Killing Kaevana will draw the ire of her father Furemahr. It will also be rather hard with the sslyth, mandrakes, and incubi protecting her.

The kindred could also be gotten rid of more directly. Killing the shaper will not solve anything, as one of the hundred kroot will step up to his place and have the acolytes hunted down. A challenge with the condition to leave Munla Vaul and stop dealing with the Dark Eldar can be given by the acolytes. The shaper will not accept one on one duels but will accept an even combat challenge in a setting of his choosing. This can be facillitated by the Dark Eldar having a complete virtual reality training chamber or take place on a local unmarked jungle planet. An even number of combatants will start a kilometer apart and have to kill eachother. The Kroot being cunning hunters will use traps, stealth, and pack tactics to destroy their enemies. All the kroot must be killed and a piece of their body returned to the kindred to convince them to follow the conditions set by the combat.

 The Drukhari will allow the acolytes to roam free as long as they do not know that they are inquisitorial agents. If they are, they will be hunted down by warriors of the Drukari and the beasts subjugated by the Drukari including ssylths and mandrakes.

Calling the navy or some other fleet on Munla Vaul will result in casualties due to the asteroid belt. The Drukhari will also leave the place and continue their dealing with the Kroot as Munla Vaul was a place of convenience to trade and not the lynchpin the trade was set on. Furthermore, it would mark the acolytes as targeted enemies of both the Dark Eldar and Kroot.

REWARDS2 Influence Gain

1000 XP

A piece of the Tau or Kroot armoury if radically inclined

A free arvus lighter or aquila lander if puritanically inclined.