Dark Heresy Campaign:

-First off, DO NOT have the players actually put time into creating a character beforehand.
Simply have them roll up characters before starting up, and tell them that there is a reason to it.

Intro: It is the 41st millennium, humanity has reached amongst the stars to create an interstellar
empire known as the Imperium of Man, all of which is headed by the most glorious Emperor of
Mankind, who brought forth a golden age of technology and prosperity for over thirty millennia
and fought against the ruinous powers of Chaos. But alas, the Emperor now sits immobile upon
his Golden Throne, as he has been for over ten centuries. He is the master of mankind by the will
of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a
rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the
Carrion Lord for which thousands of lives are extinguished every day so that he may never truly
die. Yet even in his deathless state, the emperor continues his eternal watch. Mighty battlefleets
cross the demon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit
by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s Will. Vast armies give battle in
his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the space
marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the imperial guard
and the countless planetary defense forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition, and the tech-priests of
the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough
to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants- and worse. To those who join
the inquisition, the promise of supreme authority and power make many willing to sacrifice
everything in order to live in some semblance of comfort. However, most who attempt to achieve
the rank of inquisitor are only met with torture, insanity, and death in this cold bloodthirsty
galaxy. So to those who have come to the 41st millennium seeking an escape from the torture that
is reality, forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to
be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress, and understanding, for in the grim dark future
there is only war.
Start the combat based players off in warzone on some unnamed planet defending a city from
either an Ork Waaagh. Have the soldiers attempt to survive being put on the front lines of the
defense, and the non-combat focused characters attempt to survive the ensuing anarchy caused
by a few xenos breaking through the line. If the PCs die have the players roll up some more. As
the combat PCs become overwhelmed, and the non-com PCs are about to meet certain doom, the
cavalry arrives. In the case of the Combat PCs the Adepta Sororitas arrive and begin taking on
the xenos with faith and fire. For the Non-com PCs the Arbitaes show up and protect them from
incoming orks. At some point the Arbitaes die and the Non-com’s must either fight or flee, and
the Combat Pcs are ordered to protect the civvies from the ones who got through. If one of the
characters becomes a sister of battle, then they are ordered to go with the Combat Pcs in order to
provide support. At this point the line begins to fall, and the PCs must scramble to get on the last
ship out of the city. The PCs might be able to save some NPCs along the way from gretchin and
lone boyz. The Pcs eventually meet up at the heart of the city, it is here where the PCs all meet
up together and have the first major encounter. The encounter will contain several ork boyz, led
by a Nob. The group then will attempt to fight off the greenskins as the last batch of shuttles
arrive, once the shuttles touch down the group is immediately ordered to retreat onto the shuttle.
However as one of the shuttles takes off it is blown to smithereens by the Nob shooting at it with
a small cannon. Should the Pcs attempt to fight the Nob, he will not notice them until the party
attacks him. The Nob then will drop his cannon as to not waste the ammo on some “puny
‘Umies” and engages the party. After a hard battle the party will (hopefully) come out victorious.
Once the Nob is taken care of, the party quickly boards the shuttle only to witness in horror as
some of the dother shuttles that took off with them are being shot down regardless due to some
Fly Boyz. The shuttle will receive some structural damage but will be able to successfully enter
orbit and dock into one of the Imperial Navy’s vessels. The party can then look down as the
planet is hit with a quick Exterminatus in order to purge the greenskins on planet as a “farewell
gift”. In this ship the captain will inform them that all of them will be taken to the an Inquisitorial
station called “The High Tower” because they have just received orders from the commanding
Inquisitor aboard the station to dock there in order to take any military or other important people
and relocate the civvies. Upon reaching the High Tower Inquisitor Brigham will be waiting with
an entourage of arbitrators and a commissar and ask who disobeyed an order to retreat and
fought the Ork Nob. If the party fesses up, Brigham will note that the group fought well to get
those last shuttles off the ground, but to NEVER disobey a direct order like that again, lest they
be executed by a Commissar for insubordination. Brigham then informs them that he is
reassigning all military personnel to The High Tower due to their exceptional fighting ability,
and taking some of the adepts and such for their skills. This is then where the Players can either
choose to create a new character from the survivors within reason (Ex: no sororitas only party,
because OP) or keep the survivor they played through the intro.
Inquisitor Brigham Bio: Brigham was of noble birth on a hive planet, so he did not know of the
suffering that went on in the under-hive until he was around 9, when he managed to escape his
family’s tower and managed to get lost in the under-hive (albeit only for a few hours before
some arbritrators managed to find him). The things he saw opened his eyes to what the common
and impoverished people experienced every day: starvation, violence, and death. This ignited a
sense of compassion and duty within young Brigham, who began to demand for the
abandonment of the uncaring monarchy for a more responsive, democratic system of
governance. This perturbed his noble family who implored that he forget these unnecessary
demands. When he did not cease advocating for total government reform, Brigham’s family sent
him off to join the Inquisition to be rid of him and quell the movement that was beginning to
form from his ideas. Brigham originally hated being in the Inquisition but came around to being
dedicated to it once he realized how big of a threat one small cult could be for an entire planet.
Thus, Brigham has created a system of bringing Interrogators and sending them on missions
across the sector in order to help the inhabitants, and also weed out the weak Interrogators.
Brigham may seem stern and strict, but in reality he acts this way because to him failure is not an
option. Brigham also strongly objects to the usage of an Exterminatus due to his belief that it is a
huge waste of resources and human life, but he can live with it if the planet was doomed either
way.
Act 1: The Rouge Star
The party is introduced to Brigham’s space station “The High Tower” and given a quick
rundown of where everything is and where they will be collectively staying. Once the party is
settled within their quarters, an officer will come and organize the survivors into teams, with the
party being put into the same team due to their co-operation with taking down an Ork Nob. After
this the party will be allowed to explore the station whose layout will be detailed in some map
and prepare for any potential mission. After a day or so, a runner will be sent to the party’s
barracks in order to tell them to ship out to a mission. The party will then meet their first
interrogator who introduces himself as Vincent Droden.
Droden is a man of average height and of fair complexion. His white hair is extremely
shaggy and matted, his pale blue eyes are constantly scanning the room even if there is no-one
else present. He hardly ever sleeps and is extremely jumpy because of it. He is quick to accuse
people of being either heretics, traitors, or even xenos and often wheels people off to
“interrogate”. This then leaves a majority of the investigation to the other members of the team.
Vincent travels with three other people, an assassin, an adept, and an arbitrator. The only one of
them who isn’t batshit insane is the adept who is only there because of their skill with a
cogitator. The assassin and arbitrator are respectively, a sociopath who works with Droden
because of the abundance of targets, and an old paranoid vet who cant forget his war days. The
mission itself take place on “Calrad CIV” which is officially a manufactorum planet. The planet
itself is extremely small and far away from its star. Its moderate at its equator but extremely cold
on either poles. Unfortunately the manufactorum that the group is sent investigate is at the
Northern Pole. The mission itself is to investigate the disappearance of a large amount of
inventory produced from the factory. Once the party lands, Droden immediately dives into the
nearest open storage warehouse and claims sets up a FOB there. The warehouse itself has a very
ineffective heating system, and Droden has prohibited anyone from making any sort of fire or
use any heating device aside from blankets and clothes, thus ensuring that the first rest is
extremely uncomfortable. The next “morning” Droden thinks he hears someone and takes his
two cronies to investigate, only to find a janitor who happened to be sweeping nearby. Droden
immediately says he is the source of the disappearing weapons and hauls him off to “interrogate”
him. Only leaving the party and the adept, who after using a cogitator discovers the location of
the shed where the disappearances happened first. The first looted shed were near a bar and
barracks, which held the factory’s guard detail. This is where the party can start asking questions
about the disappearances until they are pointed to a man name Stephen Maloneus who can get
things. The party can either convince him that they can be of use to him, or steal a slip of paper
with a location on it. Either option leads the party towards the equator except if they convince
him he explains how he is working for some rouge traders and supplying them with some fresh
weapons and ammo, in exchange for thrones to purchase some luxury items. The equator holds a
hive city stretching across the entire equator but is only about 400 km wide due to the rather
harsh temperatures beyond that.