Dark Heresy Adventure Inter Tenebrae et Lux

Inter Tenebrae Et Lux A Standalone Adventure for Dark Heresy

Table of Contents Historical Brief:...........................................................................................................................3 Briefing.......................................................................................................................................4 Transit to Amaymon...................................................................................................................7 The Bridge...................................................................................................................................9 En route.....................................................................................................................................10 Contact......................................................................................................................................11 Arrival.......................................................................................................................................13 InSec Headquarters...................................................................................................................16 PDF briefing..............................................................................................................................17 Meeting Gottrich.......................................................................................................................18 Attack aftermath........................................................................................................................19 Local Preacher...........................................................................................................................21 Mining Records.........................................................................................................................22 Raid on League of Semyaza cell...............................................................................................23 Advisors on board the Shrouded Dagger..................................................................................24 Night drilling facility................................................................................................................25 Attack on drilling facility..........................................................................................................27 Vox Relay.................................................................................................................................28 Aboard the Shrouded Dagger....................................................................................................30 The Command Post...................................................................................................................31 Attack on the Shrouded Dagger................................................................................................35 Sanctity under Siege..................................................................................................................36 The Sanctity Palace...................................................................................................................38 And I dub thee Unforgiven.......................................................................................................39 Historical Record......................................................................................................................41 Secrets and Truths.....................................................................................................................43 Dramatis Personae.....................................................................................................................44 Handout Images........................................................................................................................55

Historical Brief: “The Tiberias Crusade, a vast military expedition into the Cradle Drift, was ordered by the Obscurus Segmentum Command in 109.M39. Whilst it did not succeed in driving the Enemy completely from the Drift, over thirty worlds were returned to the Emperor's light during a decade of fierce conflict, as three vast Imperial offensives – each consisting of a full battlefleet of the Imperial Navy, dozens of well-equipped Guard regiments, and several pledged companies of Astartes - struck deep into the Enemy's space. Most crucially, the former Shrine Worlds of Tiberias and Hattin, and their surrounding sub-sectors, were captured, and these became key rallying points in the wars of the following millennium. By 112.M39, significant gains had been made – especially by Lord General Ipos, whose diversionary spearhead had pushed deep into the Enemy's left flank. By the Feast of Ascension of that year, he had fully secured no less than four star systems and was well on his way to taking four more; the relentless pace of his advance doing much to pull the Enemy's reserves away from the Crusade's true objectives. Lord General Marbas, charged with the principle line of advance towards Tiberias, had also broken through the border worlds with ease thanks to the aid of the Space Marines, and was now fighting on multiple fronts deep within Enemy space. With the bulk of the Enemy's forces drawn off to meet Battlegroups Ipos and Maras, Battlegroup Orias was able to take the opportunity of reduced enemy pressure to consolidate and secure its supply lines in preparation for the final push on Hattin...” Extract from 'The Cradle Drift Wars' by Adept Praefectus Grendel, 547.M41

The Tiberias Crusade

Battlegroup Ipos

Battlegroup Marbas

Battlegroup Orias

Hattin Tiberias

Briefing The acolytes are aboard the Inquisitorial battlecruiser Hammerfall, the flagship of the Ordo forces accompanying the Crusade forces. Their patron, Inquisitor Khan, has summoned them to a briefing in the ship's Long Gallery – an ornate corridor running along the flank of the bridge superstructure. It is the first occasion in which they have seen the Inquisitor in some time; the Ordos have been required to intervene repeatedly in the internal politics of the Crusade forces to keep the offensive on track, and this has occupied much of his time.

The Inquisitor is watching the ships of the fleet manoeuvring beyond the vaulted armourcrys windows, a lone, stationary figure in grey and gold amongst the bustling crowds of the ship's complement – none of whom would dare intrude on the private deliberations of one of the Emperor's chosen. “There you are.” He says, evidently sensing your presence as you approach. “Thank you for responding so promptly. I apologise that I have not made time to keep you properly informed recently. I wish I could claim that it was some test, to force you to develop your own sources of information amongst the Crusade forces, but it is simply that I have not had the chance. Mea Culpa.” He smiles, thinly, turning to face you, the augmetics making up the left side of his face hissing slightly as they move to match the smile on his lips. “That said,” he asks, his voice the familiar patient tones you have come to trust in over a decade of service across the several sectors of the Cradle Drift, “One should never miss the opportunity to gain experience – or useful contacts. Tell me, have you heard about Lord Orias' latest debacle?” Acolytes will indeed have been following the rumours from the front as best they can, but may or may not have had much success – it can be assumed that each acolyte will have had the opportunity to make an Inquiry test. Fail: Lord General Orias is the commander of Battlegroup Orias, the Imperial force pressing toward the shrine world of Hattin. The Crusade has advanced less on the Hattin front than the others, and has been for some time, but you do not know the specifics of why. One degree of success: Battlegroup Orias has received lower priority from Segmentum Command from the first day of the Crusade. There seems to be a reluctance to commit forces, but they are not prepared to abandon the Hattin Offensive. Two degrees of success: Lord General Orias is widely considered the least renown of the three offensive commanders – which is far from saying he is incompetent – and he has been fought to a standstill by the Enemy far earlier than the other forces. The matter is not helped by the Hattin front being furthest from the main logistical centres for the Crusade, resulting in persistent supply problems. The 'debacle' to which the Inquisitor is referring is probably the 6th Kalte Armoured Legion, a group of tank and super-heavy regiments which have recently been cut off in an Enemy counter-offensive on Chalons. Three degrees of success: The most recent rumours point to Battlegroup Orias – Lord General Orias's operational command – taking major casualties as it trys to break through to the Shrine World of Hattin. More specifically, several regiments of the Kalte Armoured on Chalons have been all but exterminated – some cut off by enemy action, others committed to a desperate breakout

attempt without sufficient supplies for sustained combat. The Hattin front has always been short of troops and supplies – as has the Crusade as a whole – but Segmentum Command cannot afford to abandon it. There are persistent rumours that the Crusade's supply needs are largely being met by the vast wealth of the Ecclesiarchy Synod, and that making the former Shrine Worlds the main objectives is the price of their support. The Inquisitor will confirm any known rumours and fill in any blanks – he will be pleasantly impressed if his acolytes prove well-informed already. Allow some interaction around the script as listed – Inquisitor Khan isn't one for high-handed monologues in briefings and the acolytes are among his most trusted retainers “Trying to take both Tiberias and Hattin at once was always a...challenging...prospect. Inquisitor Lord Sonne told the Cardinal-Astral as much, but the stubborn old man wouldn't listen then and I doubt he would now. I suppose we should give thanks to the Throne that we've pushed as deep as we have on the Hattin front. Now, of course, we have a new problem – which is why I need your assistance.” His expression turns serious, and he gestures towards a nearby alcove. “Orias' general supply problems have been bad enough recently, but now there is a more specific concern.” He activates a hololithic display. “Amaymon is a mining world to spinwards of here, which produces a tithe of promethium and fuel gases, the bulk of which currently go to supporting Battlegroup Orias. If Amaymon's tithe falters, Lord Orias' armour and airpower suffers, since distance – and apathy – makes it difficult for him to requisition the resources he needs from Segmentum Command.” “The promethium supply from Amaymon has become increasingly erratic – delays, shipments under quota, contaminants and so forth. The scale of the problem is not yet catastrophic, but the risk of cult activity behind the Crusade's lines is substantial enough to warrant some discrete attention from the Ordos. Specifically, my – or, in practical terms, your - attention.” “The gladius-class frigate Shrouded Dagger has been seconded from the task force to my authority, and will be placed at your disposal. She is a fast ship, and Captain Weltanshaung has a skilled navigator in his service - you should reach Amaymon within the week, Emperor willing. I will see to it that all the information we have is made available to you during the journey, and that the planetary authorities know to expect you. It is a shame that I cannot accompany you, but there are, as ever, more problems demanding Inquisitorial attention than there are Inquisitors to attend to them. Who knows? Distinguish yourself in an independent mission and you will have taken an important step towards that status yourselves.” He will present the acolytes each with a Legate-Investigator's Sigil of Question (a signet ring of silver and brass), and a warrant of authority to accompany it, granting them the authority to instruct (but not directly command) the Shrouded Dagger, the authority to detain and question persons on Amaymon, and the right to bind and loose individuals from the planets (small) population of Adeptus Arbites. “This is no menial task. I have another acolyte – one Wilhelm Gottrich – keeping a discrete watch on the situation on Amaymon without the knowledge of the planetary government, but you will be the only openly acknowledged representatives of the Ordos in the system. I have faith in your skills; do try not to disappoint me.” With that, you are dismissed.

Transit to Amaymon The Shrouded Dagger may be small compared to the vast behemoths of the fleet, but the frigate is still a starship – a warship a full mile in length and bristling with weaponry. Most importantly, the Gladius-class is one of the fastest ships in Imperial service, which is why it is most commonly found in service with the Adeptus Astartes and the Inquisition. The acolytes will be conveyed to the ship via an Aquila, and will be taken directly to the bridge's VIP docking port, getting a chance to overfly the length of the ship and get a good impression of the size and power of the vessel Inquisitor Khan has placed at their disposal.

As the Aquila's hatch hisses open, you get your first look at the inside of the Shrouded Dagger. The docking port – intended to receive visiting dignitaries and flag officers – is a sizeable, vaulted hall, currently empty aside from your single shuttle. The walls and fixtures of the bay are worn but spotlessly clean, with various monotask servitors standing ready in wall alcoves like statues and neatly coiled power and fuel feeds emerging from brass gargoyle faces. Waiting as you emerge from the Aquila is a small group of the ship's stormtrooper company and an officer with a Lieutenant Primus' badge of rank – on an escort ship like the Shrouded Dagger, with only a few hundred crew, he is almost certainly one of the ship's most senior officer save the captain. “Side party, Ten-Shun!” He barks, and the accompanying stormtroopers snap to attention with bone-crunching precision. He moves over to you, briefly inspecting your warrants of authority and gesturing to two of the servitors to begin unloading your effects. “My name is Lieutenant Primus Johan Sutton, Sirs; I'm the Dagger's second officer, and Captain Weltanshaung has asked me to act as your staff officer whilst you're aboard.” He turns, and gestures at one of the armoured stormtroopers, a lean man with close-cropped brown hair and a scar across one eye, who nods respectfully to you and steps forwards out of the squad. “This is Major Sebastian Dawson of the Inquisitorial Guard. As a ship detached to the Ordos we have a company of Inquisitorial stormtroopers embarked rather than regular naval security, and the Major is their commanding officer. He'll be responsible for providing you with backup on the ground if you need it. The Captain is on the bridge, getting us ready for a priority departure to Amaymon, so I thought you might want to get settled into your quarters before you meet him.” Sutton, as the acolyte's liaison, has been sent all the information the Inquisitor has on Amaymon, along with copies of Gottrich's reports, so he is very well informed. He will see the party set up in a set of quarters in the bridge decks, set around a central briefing chamber and a small armoury, and will answer any questions they have. Whilst doing so he will also (diplomatically) correct anyone under the false impression that they are in command of the Shrouded Dagger – On board, they can make requests to the captain, who will almost certainly grant them, since he has been placed 'at their disposal', but as they are not formally in the chain of command - and without genuine Inquisitorial Authority they cannot put themselves there - giving Imperial Navy officers direct orders is out of the question. Captain Dawson (who will be 'bumped' one rank socially when referred to by the Navy, rather than use the sacrosanct phrase 'Captain' for anyone other than Captain Weltanshaung, the Dagger's commanding officer) and his men are members of the Inquisition. As such they are an exception to the above and are subject to the acolyte's whims, but Dawson is a veteran of the Inquisitorial Guard with at least as much experience as any of the acolytes and won't

take well to being messed about. He will explain to anyone with enough sense to ask what forces they have at their disposal. The Dagger is carrying a stripped-down stormtrooper company – three platoons, each of four tenman squads, with a Lieutenant and medic replacing the squad sergeant in the first squad of each platoon. The company is equipped in classic stormtrooper fashion as grenadiers, with plenty of assault weapons, but lacks any integral transport – in practice using the Dagger's small-craft (mostly Aquilas and Arvus) for any combat deployment. The company's armoury is available to any acolytes who wish to plunder it for grenades and ammunition; Captain Dawson will sign off any reasonable request without protest.

The Bridge Captain Alexander Weltanshaung is a grey-haired bear of a man, an Imperial Navy officer of nearly a century's standing and build like a bull grox. He has an imposing presence that dominates the Shrouded Dagger's bridge as he directs the ship free of the Ordo battlegroup. “Welcome aboard.” He says, turning to face you. “Has Johan got you settled in?” “We should make good time; according to Guildsman True the warp looks calm at the moment, and the tides are with us, so with the drives at maximum power we should make the outer fringes of Amaymon within three or four days, and reach orbit a day or so later.” He turns to the helmsman. “Is the ship secure for warp?” The helmsman salutes, glancing quickly down at his console display before responding. “Magos Varus reports the warp engines are spinning up and the Gellar field is stable, Captain. The Guildsman reports ready in the navigatorum. We are ready for warp jump at your command.” Weltanshaung nods, looking out of the bridge's arched windows along the frigate's spine. “Give me ship-wide.” There is a brief blare of an alarm before the Captain's baritone voice echoes from every vox station on the Shrouded Dagger. “All hands, this is the Captain. Stand ready for warp transit. I repeat, stand ready for warp transit. That is all.” He turns back to the helmsman. “Activate warp engines.” There is a distant rumble as the ship's warp engines tear at the fabric of space, punching a hole edged in blue and purple wytch-fire through reality itself. The sight is disconcerting yet eerily beautiful for the few seconds before the bridge's blast shields close over the windows and you can feel the drives switch to full power, hurling the frigate into the heart of the warp rift.

En route Whilst en route to Amaymon, Lieutenant Sutton will be at the acolytes' continuous disposal, helping run through the (significant) amount of background information Inquisitor Khan has provided them with. He will answer questions as they arise, but will try and ensure that the following key bits of information are in the Acolyte's hands before they arrive: •

• •

•

•

• •

•

•

•

Amaymon is a mining world, which has been settled since the dawn of the Imperium – whilst the difficulty of mining there means it's tithes do not match some of the most productive worlds, it is a testament to the sheer scale of its reserves that ten millenia of determined exploitation have not managed to exhaust them. The system produces promethium and gases used as fuel by any number of STC vehicles. At the moment this mostly translates to tanks and aircraft in the Crusade forces. Amaymon is somewhat out on a limb geographically, and – whilst answerable to the LordGovernor Sector, is one of about a fifth of the worlds in the region that are too remote to belong to any specific sub-sector; aside from the endless cycling of tankers to and from high orbit around the world there is little interstellar traffic through the system. The planet itself is unusual in that it is tide-locked to the star (anyone with a void-born background or suitable lore will know what this means, otherwise Sutton will explain) – the population live in Twilight, whilst the mining operations occur in Night (Twilight deposits having been mined out) – these, of course, being planetary regions rather than times of day. Day is uninhabitable due to the continuous and merciless solar barrage of the yellow-white star. Upon arrival, the Shrouded Dagger will take up an orbit shielded behind the planet. There have been recent irregularities in production – convoys delayed in loading, some deliveries not provided with their full quota or with part of their quota met from Amaymon's stored reserves rather than fresh production. Other shipments have proved contaminated, doing almost as much harm as good with the extra maintenance rituals the enginseers have had forced on them to deal with the resultant internal damage to vehicles using the fuel. Whilst these irregularities are limited in scope at the moment, they are increasing and the Inquisition intends to deal with them now rather than wait for matters to escalate. The planet is ruled by a Planetary Governor elected by acclaim from the planets (rather small) noble population. The current Governor is Lord Iblis, who, if not precisely popular, has ruled effectively for some sixty years. Whilst there has been occasional dissent from the masses, he has previously been able to suppress it with impressive efficiency. The current unrest is on a scale not seen before, and it has displayed a degree of organisation, and a penetration of the planets PDF, that suggests it may be something more than home-grown rebels. Worse yet, some fragmentary reports describe cultists bearing heretical symbols. According to Gottrich's reports, Lord Iblis has been fighting the insurrection as best he can with magistratum (locally called Internal Security, or InSec), but with only a small Arbites force to support him, and an increasing distrust of the PDF's higher command, there is a limit to what he has achieved – despite what Gottrich describes as “extremely strenuous measures” against the rebels. The rebels – or at least the most important group of them, called the League of Semyaza (after their elusive leader) – first appeared a little over two and a half years ago, shortly after Gottrich arrived on the planet, but he notes that “the scale their initial successes suggests years of covert preparation”. They do not openly claim to be acting against the Imperium as such but are rebelling against the specific duress of the current tithes and the “brutal exploitation of Amaymon and its people” that the Crusade, and by extension Lord-Governor Iblis, are inflicting on the planet's population. Gottrich notes that “the rebels have a disconcerting level of popular support amongst the native population and lesser nobility”.

Contact During the warp journey (interrupting the discussions rather than after them), Sutton will arrive at the Acolyte's chamber. He looks puzzled and distinctly uneasy. The Lieutenant Primus gestures you over to one of the chamber's cogitator stations, bringing up something from the ship's main data network. The screen shows a rippling wave of colour on an auspex display that pulses back and forth until Sutton pauses it, and a new line appears on the display, running from the aquila icon at the centre of the range rings to the outer edge, where a flickering point is visible near the edge of a warp wake. “I think...that you should see this, Sirs.” He says, his voice somewhat strained. “This is a record from the aft-port auspex feeds. We only saw it briefly, and this is about the best look we had at it.” “This is the energy-scanner data. There's a rip-tide in the warp that's on roughly the same course we are, so the Captain ordered us to keep an eye on it – he wants some warning in case Guildsman True is going to have to manoeuvre around it as it passes us.. For the most part, it's what you'd expect.” “There's no way to be certain what that is, sirs. It could be a vortex in the warp, or an auspex glitch, or...” Or? “Or it could be an extremely weak engine flare. Another ship running under stealth, hiding in the auspex clutter on the fringes of the storm.” What sort of ship? “I don't know. There isn't much in the void that can keep up with a Gladius on full burn.”

Anyone with a tech-use skill can try to refine the auspex data, but the odds are fairly low. A Hard (20) tech-use test is required to get anything beyond what they've already been told – the Shrouded Dagger's crew have already analysed the data as best they can before bringing it to the Acolytes'

attention. Fail: The Dagger is not a dedicated scout vessel, and lacks the massive sensor installations of a heavy capital ship like the Hammerfall. As the Lieutenant Primus says, it is next to impossible to be sure precisely what the contact is, or if it really existed at all. One degree of success: Sutton's suspicions are correct – whatever the contact is it is not some artefact of the auspex cogitators. It could be some momentary turbulence forming in the storm front but you suspect it may be a ship on a parallel course. Two degrees of success: Whilst it is hard to be certain, you are confident that the Shrouded Dagger has indeed spotted another ship on a course towards Amaymon. The is being handled with superlative skill if it can survive so close to the storm's edge. You cannot tell much about the drive flare, save that it appears to be a ship of human origin, but whether it is a vessel of the Imperium or the Enemy is impossible to know.

Arrival You can see the world of Amaymon ahead of you through the open docking bay doors, outlined by a corona of actinic yellow-white starlight as the Shrouded Dagger manoeuvres into the planet's shadow. The Aquila steadily lifts off its launch ramp, joining two identical craft -each in the crimson and brass livery of the Inquisition – and beginning a powered descent towards Sanctity, the planetary capital, resting in the permanent gloom on the outskirts of twilight. The Shrouded Dagger has already been in touch with the Governor's Palace during its approach from the outer reaches of the system, and the Minister of Internal Security, Klaus Otto, is awaiting your arrival at the Palace's private spaceport. The InSec Minister's honour guard – some thirty troopers in the light, guard officer-fashion tunics and peaked caps of Amaymon's Internal Security forces – come to attention as your landers touch down on the pads. As the doors of the Aquila's open, two squads of Captain Dawson's men fan out to form a guard of your own; one far more imposing, given the stormtroopers' faceless body armour and hellguns held at the ready. Whilst there is a degree of nervousness evident in the faces of the Internal Security guard – perhaps thinking of all the rumours they have heard about the Inquisition summarily executing those who disappoint them? - Minister Otto seems perfectly calm as he walks up to meet you, staff of office striking against the cobbles as he approaches. He bows from the neck as he introduces himself. Otto is a very intelligent man – having been picked personally for the job by Lord Iblis. He will be diplomatic to the point of obsequiousness so long as he can get the Acolytes pointed at the League of Semyaza and turn them loose with Inquisitorial Authority to do their job. He will, however, become cautious if it's clear the Acolytes are turning up information that Iblis wants kept quiet – unless Iblis becomes desperate enough to risk blowing the Shrouded Dagger out of orbit, Otto knows he can't just make the Acolytes disappear (much as he might like to). Note that once it becomes clear that there is something rotten on the planet, the aim should be to focus attention on Minister Otto, not the Lord-Governor. “Welcome to Amaymon, Legates.” Says the Minister. “Inquisitor Khan sent us some advanced notice of your arrival – although I must say perhaps not so much as he intended! I had been lead to believe we had another day or so at least before your ship would reach the system, let alone make orbit.” “I'm not complaining” The minister says, gesturing towards the baroque chancery building adjoining the palace landing pads. “If we thought we had more time before you arrived, then so did the League. Since their plans for your arrival almost certainly involved more than a platoon from the palace garrison stuffed into dress uniform shuffling nervously into parade lines, I'll be rather glad if we've caught them on the hop for once.”

Otto leads you through a set of arched doors into a long, vaulted corridor set from end to end in marble pillars. Aside from a single servant waiting to serve recaff, the corridor is empty – unlike the various bustling administry offices which adjoin it. Otto pauses, clearly glad of the privacy from the innumerable low-ranking administry flunkies. “Don't be in any doubt, Legates; the League of Semyaza knows the Inquisition has arrived – or if it doesn't know yet, it will soon enough to make no practical difference. But it didn't know ahead of time or there's a good chance the cultists might have tried shooting you down. Semyaza – if he's real – is significantly better at intelligence and counter-intelligence than the other assorted malcontents we've taken down over the years or we wouldn't have ended up with the Inquisition getting involved. No offence intended, of course.” “They're yet another tiresome group of native plebs whining about how we're oppressing them. Personally I'd like nothing better than to let their sort have their way for one tithe cycle, and let them deal with the sector administry after they didn't meet their commitments. Then they'd see some Throne-damned 'oppression'... But we found out through painful experience that this lot are different. They're organised, they're smart, and they know Imperial military and security doctrine as well as we do. They claim they're hitting 'legitimate' targets – InSec bases and mining or refining facilities, mostly – but they don't seem all that concerned when innocent citizens get gunned down in the process.” If an acolyte asks about the Arbites “The Arbites don't get involved. They haven't really got the manpower to achieve much unless they can justify calling in major off-world backup. So far as Lex Imperialis is concerned, maintaining order and civil disputes fall under our jurisdiction, and whilst failure to keep the planet under control may constitute a crime against the Imperium, the cultists' attacks themselves don't unless they specifically hit Imperial holdings. Which, of course, Semyaza is far too canny to allow.” If anyone asks about the PDF “The PDF takes losses but generally as collateral damage, aside from the rare occasions that an attack goes on long enough to call in PDF backup before the cultists disengage. With a few exceptions most industrial sites have an InSec garrison, not PDF; we try to avoid having more than swords and side-arms on display unless someone starts something. The League doesn't generally go after the PDF explicitly but they show no hesitation killing them -or anyone else - if they're in the way.” If anyone asks about the contact in the Warp “I'll take your word for what you saw, of course, Legate, but we're not expecting any traffic in the next few days – the gigatanker Provident Gift broke orbit a day before you arrived, bound for the Crusade fleet's forward depot, but until the Lord Kado comes on station to replace it in a week's time they system is quiet. Certainly, we've not seen any hint of another ship; we're far from being a fleet base but I'd hope the defence grid's auspex systems would at least have picked up a warp transit.” If this subject comes up, Otto will appear disconcerted. He's put out enough with the Inquisition poking their noses in, but is doubly worried that this other ship may represent a backup team unknown to the first. Iblis will order the defence grid quietly stepped up to high alert as a response, which will have no particular effect other than giving the Shrouded Dagger even less of a chance to respond once he decides to blow it out of the void. If anyone is dumb enough to mention Gottrich at this point, Otto will be happy to set a meeting up but Gottrich will be 'killed in the crossfire' of the first League raid, without giving the acolytes the

chance to talk to him in person. The information he might have given them will still be available via documents in Inquisitorial Ciphers left hidden in his home. There won't be any direct proof that InSec killed him, but anyone inspecting the corpse will find him killed by 'las-fire' – note that the majority of the League are armed with slugger weapons (which are cheaper and easier to acquire and are not subject to detection with energy-scanners) Once the acolytes exhaust conversation with Otto, they will be more or less left to direct their investigations at will.

Possible ideas the acolytes may come up with - or which you may wish to suggest – are as follows:

InSec Headquarters The Chancery Building is effectively InSec's headquarters. Klaus Otto will be available, and other minor InSec functionaries will be called in to brief the acolytes as required. If the League of Semyaza cell has been raided, the prisoners will be available for interrogation/autopsy/etc, but won't really know anything useful. Nonetheless, they might be able to identify a few other minor members of the League, so this represents an opportunity for Interrogation, Intimidation or Telepathy-skilled acolytes to let rip with the full scope of their abilities. One thing that will become clear if anyone thinks to ask is that they aren't Chaos worshippers and have no idea that the iconography Semyaza has ordered the league to wear has any deeper significance. Gottrich's corpse will also be here if he's killed. The InSec headquarters also hosts the general staff office and the comms centre for the Planetary Defence Force, although anyone spending any time talking to the assorted generals based there will swiftly realise that they are largely InSec yes-men selected from the Amaymon nobility with no military skill and little imagination; Minister Otto is effectively dictating policy to them to pass along to the professional soldiers in the PDF commands. There will also be some InSec 'aides' who will be more useful to talk to, and who are able to talk through examples of recent attacks by the League of Semyaza. They admit frankly that whoever is masterminding the League's attacks is 'a throne-damned genius' and a better strategist than they are – some of the attacks have been planned with a skill that better befits a well-trained commando unit than a bunch of cultists.

PDF briefing After discovering how useless the PDF's high command is, the acolytes may decide to visit one of the largest of the PDF's front-line garrisons. Alternatively, they may come into contact with the PDF in response to a League raid, seek to investigate rumours of PDF support to the league, or try to requisition PDF troopers for some purpose. However they come across him, the senior officer of the PDF they encounter will be Colonel Lucretius – referred to (when out of earshot) by his subordinates as 'Old Lucky'. Lucretius is one of the only senior officers in the PDF to have seen any actual fighting, due to a tendency to lead from the front in those fights his unit has been involved in. He's been wounded in action a few times as a younger man, and wears a medallion crimson proudly on his tunic. He trusts his men and likes to think his men trust him – and they do, far more than he realises. Lucretius is a good man, and will help the acolytes where he can, but is somewhat despondent – he is a man without a purpose, and he knows it: with the Crusade armies between Amaymon and the Enemy, the threat of invasion is effectively non-existent, and the tasks of internal enforcement have more and more been consolidated under the umbrella of the Ministry of Internal Security – with InSec's facility garrisons now effectively giving it its own private army with authority over PDF units, the PDF's own chain of command has become more and more redundant. He is also suspicious that some PDF garrisons (not his, and anyone investigating will be able to prove this) have been tacitly supporting the League of Semyaza, especially with explosives and stubber ammunition. He feels deeply ashamed at the possibility members of the Planetary Defence Force are conspiring to kill citizens of Amaymon. The colonel is aware of the levels of brutality that InSec is employing to suppress the populace of Amaymon, and is less than impressed. He also suspects part of the truth about Iblis' excavation digs on Night – he is aware through various colleagues about large numbers of pioneer units and security teams being drafted by InSec to support 'additional promethium mining activities'. Lucretius doesn't believe a word of it – even allowing for League attacks on the planet, there's no good reason for a permanent PDF presence on a largely unimportant facility stuck in the lethal sub-zero wasteland of Night - but doesn't know what to think instead.

Meeting Gottrich Assuming the acolytes don't mention Wilhelm Gottrich to Minister Otto, they won't have much difficulty locating him in the mercantile district of Sanctity. Gottrich runs a firm called Universal Imports, based in a small, ornate, but slightly decrepit shop on the main street underneath a couple of highly disorganised floors of assorted warehouse space, which buys in off-world luxuries that are shipped to the planet via the (limited) dry cargo space of the gigatankers and sells them to the nobility. As a result he has ready access to persons of influence without ever entering the palace complex, and and interest in the shipping fleet and regularly sending messages to obscure off-world individuals are considered a normal part of his business. He doesn't have vast quantities of equipment that would be of interest to the acolytes (unless they want a new wardrobe or a drinking habit) but might have ammo for exotic weapons or the odd piece of sophisticated gear (like a geological auspex) if they come up with an idea that needs something a little bizarre. He is an overweight, genial salesman who will greet them cheerfully and chat politely until he becomes aware that they are from the Inquisitor – at which point he will stop the inane babble and be all business, closing the shop and taking them directly to his office in the warehouse floors to talk. If Gottrich gets killed, then any subsequent visit will find the Universal Imports building ransacked – word of his death has got out and looters have broken in to grab as many valuables as they can before someone locks the place down. Nearby shopkeepers will admit to hearing it happen but not intervening beyond notifying Internal Security – who didn't turn up till too late (since it was actually InSec personnel who were searching the place). Acolytes searching the building will discover the ciphered messages concealed in his business account books, checked but overlooked by the InSec troopers who didn't realise what they were looking at. Gottrich keeps an eye on matters of promethium production – not only was he concerned that the attacks by the League were disrupting the flow, but recently he has noticed a disturbing trend in the creation of new promethium wells – the rate at which exploratory drilling sites are being established in Night are going up, yet, even allowing for the attacks by the League, production is at best holding steady and possibly dropping slightly. He has no idea why, “unless the exploratory teams are being spectacularly unsuccessful in finding promethium deposits – which on a planet with deposits like Amaymon is ridiculous.” If told that InSec are also drafting PDF troops to support the drilling activities, he will become pensive and worried – he will concur that “whilst security is a good thing there are far more profitable places to employ PDF troops than protecting already inaccessible refinery wells - unless they're searching for something more important than promethium.” In addition to this, he can tell the acolytes rather more than a provisions salesman should be able to about the League of Semyaza – especially the reports of them wearing heretical iconography. As an inquisitorial agent, Gottrich has no sympathy with the populace and supports InSec's thorough repression of the populace – but if pressed will admit that “they might be pushing it too far – with the League mostly claiming to fight for stupid concepts like 'justice' and 'freedom', clamping down too hard creates more recruits for the cultists' real agenda.”

Attack aftermath One thing that can be guaranteed is that at some point whilst the acolytes are on Amaymon, there will be an attack by the League of Semyaza. The acolytes will not be in a position to intervene, but may well wish to inspect the aftermath.

The facility – previously a promethium cracking tower – is a mess. The building has been all but obliterated, as have the surrounding offices and workshops. The League attack finished less than three hours ago with a cataclysmic detonation, and the site is already swarming with InSec investigators trying to piece together what happened, and how the League of Semyaza was able to punch through the well-armed security cordon. The InSec commander on site will fill them in. “We had an emergency alert from the site three and a quarter hours ago – the perimeter security came under fire from nearby warehouses. We mobilised a reaction force at once – I've had too many cases where these attacks are too quick to wait to see if one's needed or not – but by the time they got here the perimeter was already punched through in four places and the cultists were inside the site. Then...I don't know. The whole site just detonated. We could see the fireball from the our base across the city. Whatever they did, the bastards did it just as the two-platoon reserve force arrived, doubling our losses. The death toll is estimated as around three hundred, split more or less evenly between site workers and Internal Security troopers.” The grounds are littered with charred corpses, and it will take a bit of effort to locate specifically InSec and/or League corpses. The site had comprehensive pict surveillance and vox records but resurrecting anything useful from the wrecked cogitator banks will take some doing. An easy techuse test will produce one two-to-three second fragment of footage per degree of success, which will be seized on by the InSec investigators with gratitude. Inquiry tests with other investigators or the few survivors may help too.

Events the acolytes may be able to identify – randomly pick items from this list • The supply gate comes under fire (solid projectile weapons) from somewhere off-site. • An attack occurs on the blockhouse near the supply gate. • Some sort sabotage to the power grid causes power failure to the lighting around the perimeter • Small teams of League cultists pass through between the two fire fights, which intensify to draw the InSec trooper's attention. They are carrying belts of grenades • Several office buildings near the tower are attacked, the workers being shot with silenced weapons and the controls for the cracking tower's systems destroyed. It is impossible to tell what was done with them before. • A workshop inside the perimeter was broken into, and something (from the looks of the packing in the crate it was taken from it could well be a vox-detonator) was removed • The League cultists with the grenades start climbing the tower, emplacing grenades on the outside at regular intervals. • The reaction force arrives and heads directly into the fight. Despite this, pre-prepared crossfires slow their advance to a crawl. • The bulk of the cultists disengage at a short recall vox signal. Those still inside the perimeter do not. • The krak charges are used to blow open a chain of holes in the tower's tanks, then a series of incendiary devices previously smuggled in went off, first inside the tanks then outside – turning the hundred-metre tall cracking tower into a fuel-air bomb of massive proportions. Once all the data has been analysed, a common lore (war) test will do a good job of recreating events – how much of this the acolytes share with InSec is up to them, of course. The difficulty of the test should depend on how much effort they've put into gathering evidence.

Local Preacher Brother Martin is an itinerant Ecclesiarchy preacher on Amaymon. One of the preachers errant, he is sworn to poverty and lives amongst the lower classes he ministers to. Inquiries, Gottrich's notes, or reference to him as a 'possible rabble-rouser' by InSec will make the little shack of a shrine he maintains on the outskirts of Sanctity easy enough to find. He does not precisely advocate support for the League of Semyaza but has seen enough of InSec's brutality first-hand to find it hard not to sympathise (he wouldn't do so publicly but wouldn't dream of lying to agents of the inquisition whom he's been taught to regard as the Left Hand of the Emperor). If the acolytes haven't had any opportunity to find out what the League claims to be fighting for, Martin will explain: “Lord Iblis – or more properly, Minister Otto, has been pushing the people harder and harder – not for the promethium tithe from existing wells, which we have always met before, but his insistence on new wells being found in Night. Hundreds or thousands of people are drafted by the Ministry of Promethium every month for exploratory teams, and in the cold of Night that's as good as a death sentence unless you're valuable enough to keep alive. Supposedly this is to meet the demands the Crusade forces are putting on us. Everything is being thrown into this vast effort at searching Night – including sometimes pulling in people who support workers in the current refineries, which must surely hurt the task, not help it, mustn't it?” So what does the League want? “The League wants it to stop. They don't want to throw off the Imperium, so they claim, but they want Otto and Iblis gone, and to concentrate on meeting the current demands, not freezing our citizens to death in thousands searching for promethium wells we don't need yet. They want the Ministry of Internal Security to return some of the rights the citizens of Amaymon once had, and they want someone they trust in the Governorship.” Martin shuffles papers on his desk for a moment before locating the ones he wants. “Here.” He says. “This pamphlet showed up a few months back, nailed to the Cathedral door. It's called 'The Duties of the God-Emperor's Proxy' – it's a list of ninety-five specific complaints about Lord Iblis. Copies of this spread like wildfire amongst the literate. Speaking as a seminary student, this 'Semyaza' is quite the writer and orator if this is his work. You don't want to hang onto it, by the way – that's an automatic death sentence if an InSec thug sees it, and Inquisition or not, 'misunderstandings' happen; I know at least one of my order was killed after they found some he'd confiscated.”

Mining Records If set on the path to suspicion by Gottrich, Colonel Lucretius and/or Brother Martin, the acolytes may want to see the records relating to the drilling explorations. These records are held by the Ministry of Promethium, which is (unsurprisingly) to all intents and purposes an organ of InSec (although this is not necessarily obvious – the only direct hint is that all members of the ministry will have military or security titles). The ministry's records department is a secure blockhouse not far from the palace grounds, manned by just about the most stubborn and obstructive individuals the acolytes will ever have met. Playing the inquisition card and producing the legate's seal of authority will just about get them to open up the vaults but navigating the labyrinthine bureaucracy of the ministry's records department's is (intentionally) next to impossible. Any attempt to compel the doormen to show them around will be met with a truthful “I just work the doors.” response. Short of calling down a stormtrooper team and frog marching the appropriate bureaucrats in from Sanctity, this will be a very hard inquiry test (of course it can be repeated so long as the acolytes are able to keep at it – but events are likely to conspire to pull them away). Fail It is next to impossible to verify what you suspect – you can barely find your way around the bafflingly illogical filing system. One Degree of Success There are definitely more exploratory digs going on than there should be given the rate of new wells being located, but it is not clear under what authority the work is being done, or where the reports on the new sites are going. Two Degrees of Success It is becoming increasingly clear that the Ministry of Internal Security ordering a detailed survey of Night, and the security and manpower investment are quite clearly not in keeping with promethium wells – indeed, there is no indication of even one of the secured dig sites being subsequently earmarked as a well. InSec is clearly looking for something – but the records don't show what. You can see several sites that do not seem to meet the Ministry of Promethium's own guidelines for exploratory digs, which would definitely bear closer inspection. After the acolytes look into the mining records, Iblis will start to regard them as a much greater threat. A gang of well-paid but untraceable thugs will attempt to murder them at the next suitable opportunity.

Raid on League of Semyaza cell If the acolytes can somehow locate a cell of the League of Semyaza, they can either call in Dawson's stormtroopers or InSec to support them in taking it out. The League is maintaining a supply depot concealed in a derelict warehouse. In it, they have stored a significant quantity of weapons and explosives, and there is a significant number of guards watching over it. There will be enough cultists to match whatever the acolytes have brought with them – matching InSec troopers or PDF one-for-one and stormtroopers two-to-one. In addition, there will be two cult soldiers for each acolyte. The various crates contain a mix of solid projectile weaponry and ammunition and some explosives, which the acolytes will discover as soon as they open one or see one opened by gunfire. Taking cover behind crates is not necessarily wise and stray shots should be watched with care. If the acolytes win, they will be able to search the warehouse – there is a significant amount of firepower stored here, enough to equip at least a platoon of infantry, and quite a lot of it is military grade. However the records are next to useless; the cell structure of the League of Semyaza makes it next to impossible to identify the deliverer or recipient of the weapons and any prisoners won't know anything useful – although they will be more than happy to denounce them as 'Insec Thugs', at least until they realise who they are really dealing with.

Advisors on board the Shrouded Dagger At some point it is likely that the acolytes will want to go back aboard the Shrouded Dagger. Equally, if going to one of the cities on the opposite side of Twilight, such as Sancta Silvarum, the most fastest route is to have the Dagger collect them, manoeuvre to an alternate orbit and drop them by Aquila again somewhere outside the city. In either case, as the Aquila approaches the frigate, it will become apparent that the ship is on high alert – void shields are powered, and targeting augurs are activating, sweeping back and forth across space. Upon arrival on deck, the acolytes will be partially deafened by a grating alarm klaxon blaring out over and over. Any acolyte with suitable military experience, the Aquila pilot (if not one of the acolytes), or whichever crew member they first ask, will identify it as the ship's General Quarters alarm – the Shrouded Dagger has been ordered to battle stations. As you arrive on the Shrouded Dagger's bridge, Lieutenant Primus Sutton moves over to talk to you. “Our friend is back, it seems.” he says, gesturing at the augury nave. “The sensorman has picked up some echoes from a military-grade auspex sweep, emanating from somewhere in a trailing orbit. We can't see anything at this range, and whilst the Amaymon defence grid spotted the auspex flicker is reporting too, they're also reporting their scope as clear. It's definitely no figment of someone's imagination this time, though – there's another ship out there, running under a blind field. We're not alone up here.” No plan the acolytes come up with (up to and including weapons fire in the rough direction of the target) will succeed in provoking a response or in gleaning any more information. Lieutenant Primus Sutton and Captain Dawson will help the acolytes as best they can, and – as noted before – Dawson will provide firepower and/or manpower if the acolytes intend on doing something violent.

Night drilling facility Sooner or later, the Acolytes will become aware that all is not as it should be in the promethium mining activities in Night. If they have managed a thorough analysis of the Ministry records, they can identify a possible target to look at themselves, or if they have been in touch with Colonel Lucretius he can find out which digs have been assigned a PDF garrison. Until one or the other of the above is available, the acolytes will be wasting their time – random inspections will be unlikely to find any of the critical digs, and if they instruct InSec to take them to one of the digs then they will automatically end up at a genuine promethium well – albeit one with a specially shipped in garrison due to ill-specified 'recent security concerns'. Assuming the acolytes manage to find one of the additional dig sites, and don't give InSec the opportunity to send a warning ahead of them to cover its tracks, they will be confronted with something quite strange. The dig site is set in the limited shelter provided by a stone escarpment that protrudes a few dozen metres above the ice sheet. Your Aquila is flying in by instruments alone – in permanent darkness of Amaymon's Night region, and the howling blizzard that seems continuous in this wasteland, visibility is next to nothing. Fortunately, the dig site maintains an encrypted navigational beacon that your lander – with Inquisitorial authority encoded into its systems – is able to lock onto with ease. The lander settles into a recessed landing pad, whose launch door irises closed behind you, shutting out the wind and the dark. The facility is a prefabricated, temporary structure, but it is brightly lit with lanterns and if not exactly balmy it is at least heated; you have no doubt that if the heating here were to fail, everyone will be dead from hypothermia within a few hours. There are a squad of PDF troopers standing in the bay to a rough approximation of attention – given their badly dirty winter dress uniforms and their general unshaven and exhausted appearance, they have been roused from sleep and crammed into the bay to provide some sort of honour guard for visiting dignitaries – the Inquisitorial beacon announcing that those en route are not to be trifled with. “Legates...” Begins the squad sergeant, stammering nervously. “We...ah...we weren't told to expect you. We've not...” His voice trails off. The PDF are scared, but really know nothing of what's going on – they've been pulled out of their units to provide 'security' for the facility but no-one has explained what they're really doing there. Inspecting the work occurring in the dome will quickly make it clear that this is no promethium exploration facility. The central lab is equipped with a rapidly deployable geo-scanner, but it is not able to sweep deeply enough into Amaymon's rock to find promethium deposits; instead it is designed to quickly search the surface, down to a few metres, over a radius of twenty-five miles or so. It is also configured to search for a mass signature which looks like noting so much as ceramite. Locating and identifying the chief technician will allow the acolytes to get a more accurate definition of what the dig team are searching for. If questioned, the chief technician will, without hesitation, produce some papers showing what look like structural sketches of a military command post – the architecture recognisably Imperial but the design not one of the many standard patterns

you recognise. He will be quite puzzled if the acolytes ask about promethium exploration, assuming that the Inquisition would be fully aware of what they're looking for. He doesn't know why they're looking for the command post, but the request is a legal one, fully endorsed by the Ministry of Internal Security on behalf of the Lord Governor. “It's supposedly somewhere in Night – I gather they've searched every inch of Twilight twice – but they don't know where. Hence, these survey outposts. Not that, at this point, we've found anything either.” The chief technician will answer any questions he can but is unlikely to have much else useful to tell them.

Attack on drilling facility After the acolytes have exhausted the possibilities of conversation, but before they can head off back to Sanctity or the Shrouded Dagger, the facility will come under surprise attack by the League of Semyaza. The first attack will blast open the launch bay and reduce their Aquila to flaming wreckage, trapping them there until backup can be dropped from the Dagger. The acolytes and the PDF should be extremely hard-pressed – the League has committed significant forces to this attack, because Semyaza wants to make sure they will call in backup at the right time to overfly the vox-beacon. The attackers will consist entirely of cult soldiers in stolen PDF cold-weather gear, giving them what is effectively guard flak armour (All 4). At least one of them will carry something heavy enough to breach the facility walls – an RPG launcher with krak missiles should do (Heavy, 120m, S/-/- ; 2D10+4 X; Pen 6; Clip 1; Reload Full; Blast (1) ) Captain Dawson's men will arrive by Aquila, coming in low and strafing any particular knots of resistance outside with autocannon fire before deploying and moving into the base. Once the mopping-up operation is finished, Dawson will take the acolytes off to one side and inform them about the beacon. “There's something you should know, sirs.” The captain says to you under his breath. “We...spotted something...on the way here. I'm no adept or cogboy to figure out what, but there was a vox-source not far from this base that suddenly started transmitting on an open channel as we overflew it. The message was a general Imperial recognition signal – something any Ordo or senior Adeptus personnel would know – but I wouldn't have expected to see it from either cultists or backwater pdf and oil-grubbers. It didn't seem to be coming from any facility we could see; it's about halfway between here and the nearest drilling site.” Dawson leans over the table, unrolling a survey map of the local area. “The transmission is coming from somewhere around here.” He says, indicating a spot on the map. “It's still cycling through the recognition signal, so it wouldn't be too hard to track down unless the weather gets a lot worse. Shrouded Dagger says the area looks like it's very dense crevasse country, but can't give us a precise location – the transmission is too weak to be picked up from orbit.” The point the Captain has indicated is only twenty miles or so from the base. Anyone realising that this should be inside the survey perimeter can have the technician scan the area; he will be able to lock on to the transmission and locate it as easily as Dawson did, and will report that there's something artificial in the crevasse – although its signature is very small, and if he hadn't been looking directly at it he wouldn't have seen it. Astute acolytes may also realise that if the signal is halfway between them and the next site, someone else may spot it – and reported it to Minister Otto.

Vox Relay The acolytes will have to transfer out to the source of the transmission in one of the reserve Aquilas, and it will take some effort to find a stable landing zone in the crevasse field; a piloting skill check is required to set down without trouble, and even then the ice will creak uneasily under the heavy lander's undercarriage. The cold is also worth some regular easy toughness tests that will cause fatigue on failure – Dawson will provide the acolytes with cold-weather gear if they didn't think to source any before flying to Night, but it's really, really cold. Getting down into the crevasse will require several climb checks, made all the worse due to the blizzard and the pitch darkness. If any of the stormtroopers are accompanying them, the acolytes may need to go to their assistance (but the stormtroopers will return the favour and help if the acolytes get in trouble).

The vox signal leads you to the bottom of the deepest crevasse you have yet seen, a curved scar in the ice some fifteen feet from wall to wall. You cannot be sure how deep you are – an overhanging shelf of ice blocks your view of the sky – but as your feet touch the bottom, the crunch of gravel makes it instantly clear you have climbed right through the ice shelf to the planet's surface. Glittering flakes of ice and snow knocked loose in your descent float lazily in the light of your torches, the howling winds of the surface lost far above you. Your breath steaming in the frozen air, you make your way forwards, following the transmission, until you see a second pool of faint light ahead of you. As you approach, you are able to make out a rectangular object protruding perhaps a metre from the rock, made of dull grey metal decorated in brass with Imperial heraldry. There is a small console active on one side, and it is this that is producing the light reflected off the grey ice face.

Anyone trying to use the device needs to make a hard (-20) tech-use test. Fail: Whilst the device is clearly responsible for producing the signal, you cannot tell much else about it. The only interesting facet is that it lists a string of planetary co-ordinates (28 degrees 35 minutes latitude by 77 degrees 12 minutes longitude) as the 'activation site'. As soon as you view these, the system promptly shuts down again. One degree of success: The device is a relay of some kind – connected to another point on the planet by cables running through the planet's crust. The relay was activated remotely, from a set of co-ordinates (28 degrees 35 minutes latitude by 77 degrees 12 minutes longitude) you are able to extract. As you do so, a remote command shuts the system down again. Two degrees of success: The device is a vox relay, part of a network that (if the information you see is to be believed) crisscrosses the entire planet, giving complete vox and auspex coverage to its central node. It is this central node – perhaps the command centre InSec is looking for? - that sent an activation command for the recognition signal, and – as you watch – it is the same central node that shuts it down again. The system stays on line, however, for long enough for you to back-track to the co-ordinates (28 degrees 35 minutes latitude by 77 degrees 12 minutes longitude) of the central node's location. If the acolytes manage two degrees of success, an easy common lore (tech) test will confirm that this is a very impressive feat of engineering (especially on such an inhospitable world) and would represent an enormous investment of effort by the Mechanicus – if even the sector's Tech-Magi were still capable of duplicating all of the complex technology involved. It is more likely that this system is an ancient relic from the early Imperium, forgotten by the planet's later inhabitants.

Aboard the Shrouded Dagger The acolytes will need to regroup, and if they don't suggest heading back aboard the Dagger then Dawson will. Lieutenant Primus Sutton will meet them in the embarkation bay, down checking any Aquilas that came under fire and organising medicae aid for any of the stormtroopers that were injured. He has been told about the vox signal Captain Dawson's men picked up, so if the acolytes don't mention the relay system to him he'll ask what was transmitting it. When the acolytes give him the co-ordinates, his face will crease into a baffled frown. “But that's on...” The Lieutenant Primus begins. Shaking his head, he turns and leads you over to a hololith display of the planet below. “That's somewhere in the day side of Amaymon.” His hands fly over the console, and a blinking red dot appears on the flickering display. “No, correction, it's in the centre of the day side.” He looks at you, shrugging. “I'm sorry, legates, but the day side of Amaymon is like a blast furnace within a few hundred miles of the planetary terminator. If there is anything there – and I don't see how there could be – we don't have any way to reach it. A lander wouldn't survive an extended flight through the atmosphere, let alone setting down and waiting on the ground – Throne, sirs, even the Dagger herself would need to keep her void shields on almost continuously to protect us from the sunlight if we come around from behind Amaymon! If you a particular yearning to die in a thousand-degree inferno for no purpose, let me know and I'll get Magos Varus to let you into the plasma drive inspection chambers...” Let the conversation go on long enough for one of the acolytes to say something like 'so there's no way down there, then?' “...I'm afraid not, legate. There...” One of the junior bridge crew walks up to Sutton at this point and salutes. “Yes, Mr Vincent?” The Lieutenant Primus asks. “Sir. Captain's complements, and the auspex has just picked up something unusual on the planet below. It looks like a teleport beacon!” “Hmm...wouldn't be broadcasting from about twenty-eight degrees by seventy-seven degrees, would it?” He asks. The junior officer's jaw drops. “Sir? How did you...” “Lucky guess, Mr Vincent. Get back up to the bridge and pass my thanks to the Captain, and let him know that I suspect the legates will be wishing to make a teleport insertion to these coordinates.” He turns back to you. “Not that that really requires much guesswork either, does it?” The Shrouded Dagger will manoeuvre just over the dawn edge of Amaymon, its void shields flaring with the sudden influx of energy, whilst Magos Varus prepares the ship's teleporter. At this point, any attempt to contact Minister Otto will be rebuffed without response, and the acolytes will find the civilian vox network not accepting their transmission if they try to contact Brother Martin or Gottrich (assuming he's not either already with them or dead). They can contact Colonel Lucretius through the PDF's command net if they can connect directly to the base uplink (an easy tech-use test), but how much use he'll be to them is another matter. Fairly quickly, they will be informed that Magos Varus is awaiting them in the teleportarium chamber. The Shrouded Dagger has the capacity to send and retrieve them, but has no additional capacity – whoever goes in, they go in alone, at least for the few minutes until the ship's teleporter recharges.

The Command Post The Shrouded Dagger's teleporter is an ancient and precious relic, rarely used in the ship's history. Magos Varus and a trio of enginseers stand at the centre of the gold and brass etched control systems, chanting binaric hymns as they wake the machine spirit from its slumbers. You can hear in the background a single, steady bass pulsing sound – the teleport beacon on the planet below. As you approach into the chamber, the Magos indicates several circular panels in the floor, inscribed with complex circuit-runes, and you make your way across to stand on them, one of you on each panel. Your skin starts to tingle with crackling static. There is a rising, atonal hum from the machine. Purple and blue sparks begin to flicker in the corners of your vision as the temperature in the chamber drops like a stone, as the tech-priest's chanting reaches a triumphant climax and suddenly...you are somewhere else... The experience of using a teleporter is not a pleasant one – the acolytes left all but unprotected, albeit for a fraction of a heartbeat, in the fury of the warp. All the acolytes must make a willpower and toughness check, gaining one insanity point for each failed test. They experience a momentary awareness of an inferno of fire – an endless landscape of molten rock and fire at the heart of Day, exposed to the eternal fury of Amaymon's sun, before they are deposited, sweating, gasping for breath and possibly vomiting, on a cool stone floor. The acolytes are on a walkway overlooking some sort of large open chamber. The room is filled with blinding light from a series of skylights in the chamber's roof – even with the damping that must surely be in place to prevent the room becoming an oven, the sunlight floods the room, leaving the chamber a mass of contrast. After giving their eyes a chance to adapt, the acolytes will see that the room appears to be some sort of central command room, with a vast hololith display taking up the opposite wall, and several banks of consoles in the centre of the floor. An awareness check will draw their attention to the consoles – there is something odd about them, but they can't place what until they get closer. If the acolytes sent down a stormtrooper team before them, the stormtroopers are deployed at the cardinal defence points of the room, hellguns sweeping back and forth. If they saw the plans for the command centre InSec is looking for, they will realise that this is it.

At this point, a vox transmission will come through: There is a garbled squeal from the vox which resolves itself into Lieutenant Primus Sutton's voice. “This is the Shroud......Ger!” He is shouting. “Do.....copy? The.....port....con is shutting down! We're losing.........on you........static! I repeat......you copy?” The channel breaks up into an incomprehensible hash. If the acolytes had enough sense to bring a teleport homer of their own, they will find that it is no longer receiving a return signal from orbit. The room is empty, and anyone searching the few side corridors will find that empty too. The air is crisp and cold – possibly feeling all the colder since you know the devastating firestorm that must surely have enveloped it – but tastes stale. The chamber is of clean and simplistic design, lacking any obtrusive heraldry, but a common lore (tech) test can confirm that there are definite STC elements in its design – it is Imperial technology that has built this impossible place. Descending to the main floor of the command chamber, the acolytes can see feeds from a planetwide network of auspex and vox relay systems feeding their output to the main display. In front of the display are a half-dozen banks of control consoles, whilst behind them, underneath one of the upper walkways, is a small, darkened alcove that resembles a shrine, adorned simply with a single aquila worked in gold lit from above by a gap in the walkway. Anyone approaching the shrine or the consoles will realise (if they had noticed before) why they seemed odd – perspective was not playing tricks, but instead they see the consoles are set at shoulder height on them! There is a fair chance at this point that even the slowest acolytes will realise that this is nothing less than an Astartes facility. Further investigation of the consoles will find a disconcerting lack of controls – for the most part they are simply readout displays without accompanying keypads or dataslates, controlled (presumably) by a series of complex data-jacks nestling next to each console. As a result, with a few exceptions, the acolytes can read the data on the displays to their heart's content but cannot control the relay network or alter what they see from the records currently open on the consoles. It is just possible that a tech-priest could modify one to be usable in several hours of work – but of course the acolytes won't have that long.

The acolytes will be able to see the following things. •

• •

•

The orbital relay data shows a halo of pulsing contacts around Amaymon – presumably the satellite defence platforms of the defence grid – and a single, larger contact in an orbit just above them representing the Shrouded Dagger. There is also a blurred contact visible in a trailing orbit that seems to be accelerating, slowly but steadily, towards Amaymon. A navigation (stellar) check will notice that the Shrouded Dagger is manoeuvring strangely; yawing back and forth wildly along its orbital track. The command centre's main records index is visible on one of the console displays. The dates there run back for three years, but then there is a vast gulf – the last time before then that the facility's cogitator systems were active was nearly seven millenia ago, in the early days of M.32. A scholastic lore (archaic) or scholastic lore (legends) will place this as the ancient era where the Imperium was reforged into its current form, after the devastation of the Great Heresy and the Wars of Scouring that followed it. The other consoles display the layout of the command centre, matching InSec's diagram precisely – the diagrams show chamber after chamber of secured data-vaults, but the facility's other compartments are all sealed by colossal void-protected adamantium blast doors that nothing the acolytes have can hope to breach.

Allow the acolytes time to digest this information. At this point (or if one of them specifically asks if there is anything else useful displayed), one of the acolytes will register that one of the consoles is not displaying information of the same format as the others. In fact, it seems to be displaying a page from one of the secured data-vaults.

Within moments of the acolytes reading Iblis' name, an alarm blares out. “Warning. Facility heat shielding override engaged. Retracting command centre heat shielding. Evacuate command centre. Evacuate command centre.” Anyone attempting to see what's going on on the consoles can readily see the vast heat shielding plates around the upper floors of the command centre start to hinge back. A quick analysis by a tech-use test will reveal that this is a timed command; presumably part of the same command sequence which shut down the teleport beacon. The temperature in the command centre is now beginning to rise. At this point, it is only to be expected that a degree of either panic or fatalism set in. At this point, however, a successful awareness test will notice that the lights in the shrine alcove have come one. Anyone looking inside will notice a set of aquila pendants lying on a lower shelf, with a piece of folded parchment resting on top of it.

The device on the pendant, on closer inspection, is quite thick – as if it contained something inside – and has a single, small button on the back. Pressing it will start a humming noise from inside the pendant. Once at least one of the acolytes has put the pendant on, there will be an audible pinging sound coming from all of them. It will take them a moment to realise that these are teleport homers, and that someone has locked on to them – and as they do so, they will be teleported away in a flare of light. If there were any stormtroopers down there with them...well, it was a shame to be them.

Attack on the Shrouded Dagger The acolytes reappear an instant later in the teleportarium chamber of the Shrouded Dagger – and a moment later the deck shudders from a series of hammer-blows. Any acolyte who fails either an agility or strength test (acolyte's choice) will be knocked flat to the floor. Moments later, a shower of sparks and flame will burst out of the side of the teleporter. The Magos is nowhere to be seen; the equipment being operated by a desperate-looking enginseer. Lieutenant Primus Sutton is waiting for you in the chamber, Captain Dawson with him (assuming you didn't get him killed previously). There is another impact against the deck, and the distant roar of the ships' drive changes pitch as it banks in another evasive turn. The general quarters alarm can be heard blaring in the background over shouted orders and muffled explosions. Once the acolytes gather their wits they will swiftly realise that the Shrouded Dagger is under attack, and that the Gladius-class is losing. What may or may not catch them by surprise is that it is not the other ship that is firing on them – indeed it is still not within accurate auspex range – but that Lord Iblis has turned the defence grid's satellite platforms against the frigate. The Shrouded Dagger is putting up an impressive fight, but it has taken a pounding from the orbital guns – not least during the time it was forced to shut down its void shields to teleport the acolytes back aboard. The ship is crippled and dying, and Captain Weltanshaung is trying to fight his way into a low enough orbit to get as many of the crew and the Stormtrooper company down to the planet by lander and saviour pod as possible. Dawson will get the acolytes to the launch bay, where an Aquila flight is waiting for them. Sutton will salute, and head back towards the bridge; determined to buy as much time for them as possible. Getting to the launch bay will not be easy – agility tests for burning debris, tech-use or strength tests to get past failed bulkhead hatches, and so on; the ship is increasingly coming apart around them. Once they reach the bay, there will only be moments to spare before that section of the hull collapses. The three landers will make it out into space just as a volley of cannon fire slams into the hull ahead of them, destroying much of the Shrouded Dagger's dorsal weapons mount. As they fall away from the stricken ship, they will join other landers in their descent. The further they get from the Shrouded Dagger, the more the ship is lost in the flares of weapons fire. The acolytes are just about able to see the ship finally die, the hull breaking apart under a final barrage. More personally important will probably be that as the frigate dies, the surviving platforms will turn their point defence weapons on the landers and saviour pods – once you start shooting at an inquisitorial warship, it pays to be thorough about wiping out the survivors! Several visible landers will be caught by macrobattery fire and destroyed, and it will take several piloting checks to keep the acolyte's aquila clear of incoming fire – failure indicates several wounds to survivors as the ship is battered by fire and shrapnel tears through the passenger compartment. The incoming fire will intensify, then suddenly drop away to almost nothing. An awareness check will notice two sudden bursts of light as the nearest orbital gun platforms explode in a maelstrom of heavy-calibre gunfire from someone in high orbit. Before the acolytes have a chance to backtrack and see where the shots came from, the Aquila hits atmosphere and is wreathed in re-entry flames as it drops towards Amaymon.

Sanctity under Siege As you drop towards the surface, you can already see fires burning across Sanctity, and the darting lights of gunfire ripping back and forth between buildings in the city. Clearly, there is an attack against the palace; as you fly lower, you can see a sizeable force of troops, several hundred strong – presumably the League of Semyaza, given their lack of PDF or InSec uniforms – swarming through a breach blown into the palace walls. As you watch, a massive fireball rips through a building near the palace as one of the security towers is blown to pieces. The League are not alone in their assault. Hundreds, if not thousands, of the ordinary citizens of Amaymon are following in their wake, wielding whatever weapons they can muster – in some cases nothing at all. The palace garrison of Internal Security troopers are fighting back, firing the palaces' towermounted multilasers indiscriminately into the crowd, and a sizeable cohort of InSec troopers are meeting the assault blade-to-blade, trying to push them back to the breach in the walls. There is some fevered activity on one of the security towers, and the tower's guns starts to spit multilaser fire skywards at the descending landers... This is a full-blown battle that the acolytes are dropping into. Initially they will almost certainly wish to neutralise the tower guns firing back at them, which some focused fire from their Aquila's autocannons should be able to do, but this will swiftly draw the attention of more of the defence towers (and will sooner or later shoot down the surviving Aquilas). If they don't set down and deploy, then Captain Dawson will point out that the whilst their landers are a long way from being assault gunships, they do have over a platoon's worth of veteran grenadiers at their back to deploy into the fray.

This is a chance for the acolytes and their accompanying stormtroopers to really let rip with their military skills. Elements of the battle which the acolytes may encounter.

•

•

•

•

•

A gun-tower has several dozen stormtroopers – not to mention a similar number of ordinary citizens - pinned down behind a low wall in the outer gardens, and the lawns between them and the tower is strewn with several dead League soldiers. Several of them were carrying demolition charges, but none of them made it to the tower. A reserve platoon of twenty InSec troopers is moving along the walls to catch the attackers in a crossfire. A scaling line fired up by one of the stormtroopers provides a way up to intercept them. If the swirling melee at the breach can be won, the massed citizenry will break into the palace, giving a vast – if ill-disciplined – force to support the acolytes. Charging the InSec lines from the rear should do it. The PDF command centre is being held by two squads of PDF troopers alongside the InSec force. They are well dug in, but a successful command or intimidate test will see the PDF recognise the Inquisition amongst the 'enemy' – realising this, they will change sides and support the acolytes as best they can. If they take the command centre and investigate the vox net, they will find the revolt against InSec is planet-wide. The vox transmitters, however, have been destroyed beyond repair, so there is nothing they can do. The most heavily protected area of the outer palace is the Chancery house – the entrance to the inner palace and the Ministry of Internal Security's headquarters - the ultimate goal driving the enraged populace. There will be dozens of InSec troopers protecting the building, and ultimately Klaus Otto. Otto himself will fight, but will try to escape instead if he can (happily sacrificing his men)

If Otto is taken alive, it will take a hard (-20) Intimidate test by the acolytes – and in practical terms a ring of weapons-drawn stormtroopers – to keep the mob from ripping Otto limb from limb on the spot. Promising all sorts of Inquisition-based horrors awaiting him will help! If they fail, they will need to massacre a sizeable number of the civilians, and will end up having to fall back into the Chancery building themselves. If they can keep things under control, they will be able to interrogate him. He is clearly scared, but is equally clearly even more terrified of Lord Iblis. If asked why they were after the command centre: “Lord Iblis – he wants the files. There's something there, something secret...I don't know. He said I couldn't understand; that it could break the Imperium itself. And all this time the damn thing was on the other side of the planet. No wonder we never found it. ” If asked about Iblis himself – especially if the acolytes are under the impression Lord Iblis is a descendant of the man named in the files of the facility: “He...he found me. Eighty years ago. He needed the governorship – needed the planet to be somewhere he could control absolutely, somewhere he could be safe, needed the resources of the PDF and the Ministry of Promethium to search the planet for the command centre. He gave me the Ministry. I manoeuvred the nobility into selecting a man they'd never even met in person. They never realised what he was. ” If pressed about Lord Iblis' nature, Otto will simply respond: “You have no idea what you're facing. He'll kill you and you won't even slow him down.” If able to escape, before or after interrogation, Otto will flee further into the palace.

The Sanctity Palace The heart of the compound is a vast stone building called the Sanctity Palace. Entering the high, vaulted stone halls leads to stairwells and passageways that twist and turn every which way. Aside from an occasional servo-skull hovering in the recesses of the walls, and one or two InSec troopers who fell back further into the palace, the acolytes will encounter no-one in the darkened stone corridors. Whilst they may keep a squad or so with them, the rest of their force is split up by the need to cover the various junctions, as are the citizens. The acolytes will occasionally hear gunfire and yells in the background, but will not manage to locate their source. As the acolytes make their way up the winding stairs, they will eventually reach a pair of vast steel doors, with a brass Aquila emblem stretching wing-tip to wing-tip across the arch – presumably Lord Iblis' audience chamber lies beyond. As you open the doors, you enter a large open chamber in the upper levels of the Sanctuary Palace, surrounded by vaulted marble cloisters, its floor a vast mosaic showing a map of the surrounding sector. Much of the local region on the map is stained with the blood from the gutted corpse that has been slammed into the floor with enough force to crack not just the mosaic tiles but the marble on which it sits. If Otto escaped, then this will be him, otherwise if will be a senior InSec officer who had the misfortune to be the one to report the bad news to Iblis. As the acolytes and any forces with them fan out, there will be a scream quickly cut short, and the body of a citizen or stormtrooper will fly across the room from one of the darkened cloisters. A metal blast door will slam closed across the entrance to the chamber. An awareness test will detect a figure standing in the shadow of the cloister, silhouetted against the faint light from a window The figure is that of a cowled and cloaked man, but as he strides forwards into the open chamber, you feel that same feeling of wrongness of perspective you felt in the command centre. Lord Iblis is immense, a warrior some two and a half metres in height. At his side, he holds a polished blade as long as you are tall, whilst tucked under the other arm is an elegantly crafted helm; a single piece of lacquered black metal with a slit for a visor. He stops, and with a shrug of his shoulders throws off his cloak, revealing the jet-black powered armour beneath it. As he does so, Iblis flicks his blade in salute, a cruel smile on his face, sets his winged helm on his head, and advances, the mosaic tiles crunching under the weight of an armoured Astartes.”

And I dub thee Unforgiven

Iblis' fear rating will come into play at this point. The acolytes may try to charge him (brave but futile) or flee and hope that the stormtroopers can stop him (no, they can't). Iblis is relentless and will quickly massacre his way through anything between himself and the acolytes – he knows they are from the Inquisition and therefore have to die. Allow the fight to go on for a short while. At the point where any supporting troops have been slaughtered and at least two acolytes are critically wounded, one of the acolytes who is still wearing one of the teleport homers may make an awareness test. If passed, he will hear a faint pinging sound coming from his pendant. Someone has locked on to the teleport homer! Let the fight continue for a few more rounds – the homer is still pinging but there is no sign of the acolytes being teleported to safety. At this point, if they haven't figured it out before, the acolytes will realise that no-one is trying to teleport them to safety. Someone else is teleporting in. There is a flare of blue-white light, and a sudden pulse of energy that will knock over any acolyte still standing. As they gather themselves, Iblis will roar “No!” And turn away from the acolytes, hefting his sword. Formed up in a close ring, weapons sweeping the chamber, are six hulking figures that can only be other astartes. Five of them are armoured from head to toe in bone-white, whilst the sixth wears a jet-black as deep as Iblis – but where Iblis' armour is close-fitting and plain save for a winged sword picked out in brass on his breastplate, the newcomer's is massive armour, decorated with emblems of death – the armour's helm a leering skull, and a staff topped by a winged raven icon in one hand. Iblis breaks into a charge, running at the newcomers, drawing back his blade to strike, and the black-armoured figure thunders forwards to meet him, a battle-cry on his lips, bolt rounds ripping from his weapon into his opponent but detonating harmlessly against Iblis' armour. The two meet in the centre of the chamber weapons striking and parrying with blinding speed and unimaginable force.

It is at this point a shadow will fall over the acolytes and they will realise that the rest of the newcomers are forming a circle around the duel. There is a cry of triumph from the Interrogator Chaplain as Iblis collapses, his sword shattered in two and blood streaming from a wound in his flank. The chaplain levels his crozius at Iblis throat, then turns to his squad and nods. There is another flare of light, and the Interrogator-Chaplain and his prey disappear. It takes a moment for you to realise that the remainder of the squad have not left. They remain at rest, stockstill, watching you silently. Then, moving as one, they reach out and ready their stormbolters, levelling them at you...

Here ends the adventure.

Historical Record

It's finally done. Emperor be praised, it's over. The fall of the final stronghold on Hattin to the battered but victorious Battlegroup Orias came last night, on the eve of Candlemass, 119.M39, some three years after the Strategos Imperialis had originally expected it. The world itself is shattered – the ancient shrine world's great cathedrals have been blasted to wrecks in over a year of siege fighting against Enemy forces dug into massive fortifications – and countless priceless relics of the Ecclesiarcy, some of them dating back to the founding of the Imperium itself, must be considered lost forever. There can be no single excuse for our delay in taking Hattin – for no undertaking so vast and complex as an Imperial Crusade can ever stand or fall on a single event – but the bloodbath of the retaking of Chalons, a sudden enemy counter-offensive which overwhelmed a Guard army desperately short of supplies and bought the Enemy precious time to raise fresh armies and fortify the worlds protecting Hattin from our advance, must surely be considered a major factor. Lord General Orias himself blames the disaster of Chalons on the disappearance of the Precept of Silence, a strike cruiser carrying a force of Astartes veterans that formed our Battlegroup's mobile reserve. Though they rejoined the Crusade later, the Disciples of Caliban, who had should have intervened to turn back any sudden Enemy advance, were mysteriously absent at the critical moment, and showed no interest in the Lord General's increasingly desperate petitions for support. It is a testament to the stubbornness of the Kalte Storm Regiments that they were able to hold the line at Hawthorne despite this and prevent the Hattin front collapsing completely. Extract from 'A Line in the Stars', the journal of Lord Militant Obscurus Lucretius Magnus, 323.M39

Of all the minor battles fought on the fringes of the Tiberias crusade, the Amaymon suppression is perhaps the best known – despite its lack of scale and particular savagery (although the minions of the enemy were, as ever, brutal in the extreme in their attacks, the revolt was short-lived and swiftly crushed). Whilst some men become known for the decisive battles they fought in, so do the lesser battles fought by the great heroes of the Imperium become events of note. Lord Millitant Obscurus Lucretius Magnus is such a man – raised by the force of events, his skill as a leader of men and his own stubborn sense of duty and honour from the obscurity of a backwater Planetary Defence Force command to his eventual role, in 301.M39, as the segmentum's Lord Militant, the supreme commander of the Imperial Guard in the Obscurus Segmentum and answerable only to the High Lord Militant on Holy Terra itself. In understanding the man who rallied the Guard to victory through the desperate times of the Eleventh Black Crusade, one should begin with the battle that set him on that path. If the simultaneous assassinations of Planetary Governor Lord Iblis and Minister Klaus Otto of Internal Security came as a shock to the population of Amaymon, then the storming of the palace in Sanctity, the capital, must have been unthinkable – an armed mob of cultists, hundreds strong and following a well-laid battle-plan suddenly materialising out of Sanctity's population just as similar forces attacked Imperial holdings across the planet. Whilst there had been sporadic disturbances before this point, no-one had seriously believed the cultist forces capable of fielding an army that could topple the planetary government. With the planet's civil authorities paralysed, the PDF's central command and communications facility in enemy hands and cult cells attacking all across the planet, it would have been no surprise had Amaymon collapsed into anarchy before any effective response could be organised by the decapitated command structure of the PDF. Instead, taking the initiative, Colonel Lucretius – a man who for all his sense of duty had never commanded more than an infantry company in action – bypassed the compromised command facility in the palace and illegally sent out a plea for the local units of the Amaymon PDF to protect the people and the critical infrastructure of the planet. It has been said that Lucretius, who never realised the respect his men held the man they called 'Old Lucky' in, was stunned when his message was somehow instantly relayed around the planet's entire vox-network and the Planetary Defence Force, to a man, formed up and rolled out into the streets. The battle to retake the Sanctity Palace lasted a day and a half of fierce fighting, by which time the cult's forces in the capital had been utterly crushed. Colonel Lucretius, by unspoken consent, took command of the PDF and the small Arbites force to survive the bombing of the Sanctity courthouse and tirelessly led them over the following weeks to oust cult forces from the rest of the planet. The cult, although it fought desperately to survive, was no match for the vengeful Imperial forces - in no small part due to the disappearance of its leader, the mysterious Semyaza. This heretic's fate is unknown but it has been hypothesized that he was killed whilst attempting to flee the planet; persistent rumours remain of a battle occurring in high planetary orbit around the time of the revolt. With the situation stabilized, Lucretius was named Governor-Militant and swiftly returned Amaymon's promethium refining industries to operation. He was praised for his actions by Lord General Orias, and after witnessing a new Lord Governor swear the Amalathian Oath in the palace's High Chapel, he accepted the Lord General's offer of a commission as General in the Imperial Guard. His promotion to Orias' second in command, and the events of the siege of Hattin itself, of course, are the stuff of legend and need little description...” Extract from 'The Cradle Drift Wars' by Adept Praefectus Grendel, 547.M41

Secrets and Truths A member of the Inquisitorial task force assigned to the Tiberias Crusade, Inquisitor Khan remained in the newly-founded Hattin subsector as one of the Ordo Hereticus Tiberias' senior Inquisitors. He won much acclaim rooting out the remaining cults and Traitor Legion forces that had 'gone to ground' within the Hattin sub-sector after the Crusade, until his death in 257.M39. He and most of his retainers were killed in the loss of the Hammerfall whilst investigating rumours of a group of renegade astartes pirates operating out of the Cadgwidth Nebula.

Semyaza's heretical tract “The Duties of the God-Emperor's Proxy” was one of many texts quoted by the Arch Heretic called the 'Voice of the Emperor' during the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

The Gladius-class frigate Shrouded Dagger is listed by the Imperial Navy as lost in the warp with all hands en route to Chalons during 112.M39

The name of Brother-Sergeant Iblis appears in the Book of Salvation.

Dramatis Personae InSec Troopers The generic enforcement teams available to the Ministry of Internal Security. More than enough to keep the population in line, they will struggle to take on proper military opposition.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

30

30

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 2 (Minion) for troopers, or 10 for officers or senior officers. Senior officers should get a random minion equipment upgrade. Skills: Awareness (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (Administratum) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Judgement) (Int), Intimidate (S). Officers and senior officers also have Command (Fel) Talents: Pistol Training (Las), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive). Senior officers will receive any weapon training talents to use any unusual weapons they possess. Weapons: Laspistol (Pistol; 60m; S/-/- ; 1D10+2 E; Pen 0; Clip 30; Reload Full; Reliable) Sword (Melee; 1D10+3 R; Pen 0; Balanced, Primitive) Equipment: Micro-bead Vox Armour: InSec Trooper Armour (Arms 3, Body 4, Legs 4)

PDF Troopers The Amaymon Planetary Defence Force is, like all PDFs, a volunteer militia force. That said, its troops are dedicated and fairly well trained, and equipped to the same standard as most regular Imperial Guard units.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

30

35

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 2 (Minion) for troopers, or 10 for officers or senior officers. Senior officers should get a random minion equipment upgrade. Skills: Awareness (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (War) (Int), Common Lore (Tactica Imperialis) (Int). Officers and senior officers also have Command (Fel) Talents: Basic Weapon Training (Las), Pistol Training (Las), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive). Senior officers will receive any weapon training talents to use any unusual weapons they possess. Weapons: Laspistol (Pistol; 60m; S/-/- ; 1D10+2 E; Pen 0; Clip 30; Reload Full; Reliable) or Lasgun (Basic; 100m; S/3/- ; 1D10+3 E; Pen 0; Clip 60; Reload Full; Reliable) Short Sword (Melee; 1D10+2 R; Pen 0; Primitive) Frag Grenade (Thrown; 9m; S/-/- ; 2D10 X; Pen 0; Blast (4) ) Equipment: Officers and Senior Officers have a Micro-bead Vox Armour: Guard Flak Armour (All 4)

Sanctity Thugs Once the acolytes graduate from an irritation to a potential threat, Minister Otto will attempt to have them killed. These toughs-for-hire are no professional soldiers, but with surprise on their side and a vicious streak in their nature they can be quite dangerous.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

30

30

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 2 (Minion) Skills: Awareness (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Underworld) (Int), Secret Tongue (Gutter) (Int) Talents: Pistol Training (SP), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive); Double Team. Weapons: Stub Automatic (Pistol; 30m; S/3/- ; 1D10+3 I; Pen 0; Clip 9; Reload Full) Chain or Flail (Melee; 1D10+5 I; Pen 0; Primitive, Flexible) Armour: Heavy Gang Leathers (Arms 2, Body, 2, Legs, 2; Primitive)

Imquisitorial Stormtroopers Captain Dawson's men are Imperial Guard veterans hand-picked from the Crusade forces. They have served with the Inquisition for long enough to know that they will one day be asked to lay down their lives for a cause they will not understand.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

35

35

(3)5

(3)5

(3)5

(3)5

(3)0

(3)5

(3)0

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 2 (Minion) Skills: Awareness (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (War) (Int), Common Lore (Tactica Imperialis) (Int), Forbidden Lore (Inquisition) Int), Climb (Ag). Officers also have Command (Fel). Talents: Pistol Training (Las), Basic Weapon Training (Las), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Rapid Reload, Nerves of Steel. A reasonable proportion of the stormtroopers will carry assault weapons and will have appropriate weapons training for their armament. Weapons: Assault Hellgun (Basic; 110m; S/3/5; 1D10+3 E; Pen 4; Clip 40; Reload 2Full) Hellpistol (Pistol; 35m; S/-/- ; 1D10+3 E; Pen 3; Clip 20; Reload 2Full) Mono Shortsword (Melee; 1D10+2 R; Pen 2) Frag Grenades (Thrown; 9m; S/-/- ; 2D10 X; Pen 0; Blast (4) ) Equipment: Micro-bead Vox Laser Dot Sight for Assault Hellgun Armour: Stormtrooper Carapace Armour (All 6)

League Cultists The rank-and-file of Semyaza's organisation is made up of fairly generic looking cultists, wielding ornate blades and rather a lot of blatantly obvious chaos iconography. In truth, of course, none of them are chaos worshippers or even know what chaos is – and this may be noticed by an astute acolyte in interrogations or by the absence of battle cries praising the dark gods. As far as they are concerned the eight-pointed star is simply the League's symbol, selected by Semyaza. Which it is – Semyaza selected it for the express purpose of attracting the attention of the Inquisition and the Unforgiven to Amaymon.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

25

25

(2)5

(2)5

(2)5

(2)5

(2)5

(2)0

(2)5

Movement: 2/4/6/12 Wounds: 2 (Minion) Skills: Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int) Talents: Pistol Training (SP), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive) Weapons: Stub Automatic (Pistol; 30m; S/3/- ; 1D10+3 I; Pen 0; Clip 9; Reload Full) Shortsword (Melee; 1D10+2 R; Pen 0; Primitive) Armour: Leather Robes (Body 1, Legs 1, Primitive)

League Soldiers The reason that the League of Semyaza has proved so much more dangerous than any of its predecessor rebel groups – aside from Semyaza's skill as a tactician – is the core of members that have been trained to military standards by PDF dissidents and deserters, giving the League a force capable of carrying out Semyaza's intricate plans to the letter. Highly motivated and ready to die for their cause, they are arguably the most dangerous force on Amaymon.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

35

35

(3)5

(3)5

(3)0

(3)0

(3)0

(3)5

(3)0

Movement: 2/4/6/12 Wounds: 2 (Minion) Skills: Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int) Talents: Basic Weapon Training (SP), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Unshakeable Faith Weapons: Autogun Shortsword (Melee; 1D10+2 R; Pen 0; Primitive) Armour: Leather Robes (Arms 1, Legs 1, Primitive) Flak Vest (Body 3)

Minister Klaus Otto Klaus Otto is Lord Iblis' ruthlessly intelligent Minister of Internal Security, and is the LordGovernor's public face.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

30

33

(3)0

(3)0

(3)4

(3)9

(4)3

(4)0

(3)8

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 10 Skills: Awareness (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Speak (High Gothic) (Int), Secret Tongue (Military) (Int), (Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (Administratum) +10 (Int), Forbidden Lore (Inquisition) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Bureaucracy) +20 (Int), Scholastic Lore (Judgement) (Int), Charm +10 (Fel) Scrutiny +10 (Per), Deceive +10 (Fel). Talents: Pistol Training (Las), Melee Weapon Training (Primitive), Heightened Senses (Sight), Dark Sight Weapons: Civitas Laspistol (Pistol; 25m; S/2/- ; 1D10+1 E; Pen 0; Clip 25; Reload Full; Reliable) Staff (Melee; 1D10+3 I; Pen 0, Balanced, Primitive) Equipment: Micro-bead Vox, Bionic Eye Armour: Best Quality Mesh Vest (Body 5)

Captain Dawson Commander of the Shrouded Dagger's stormtrooper company, Captain Dawson is the archetypical battle-scarred special forces veteran; gruff, taciturn and lethally competent in a fight, both in person and as a tactician. He will show the acolytes respect and expects the same from them – whilst he is content for them to be in command of the mission, he is a professional soldier and, not to put too fine a point on it, they aren't.

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Per

Int

Wp

Fel

41

43

(3)7

(4)0

(3)9

(3)7

(3)9

(4)0

(3)3

Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 12 Skills: Awareness +10 (Per), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Speak (High Gothic) (Int), Secret Tongue (Military) (Int), (Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (War) +20 (Int), Common Lore (Tactica Imperialis) +20 (Int), Forbidden Lore (Inquisition) (Int), Forbidden Lore (Heretics) (Int), Medicae (Int), Climb +10 (Ag), Dodge +10 (Ag), Command +10 (Fel), Demolition (Int). Talents: Pistol Training (Las), Melee Weapon Training (Power), Rapid Reload, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Die Hard, Hip Shooting, Iron Discipline Weapons: Hotshot Hellpistol (Pistol; 35m; S/-/- ; 1D10+4 E; Pen 4; Clip 10; Reload 2Full) Power Sword (Melee; 1D10+5 E; Pen 6; Balanced, Power Field) Frag Grenades (Thrown; 9m; S/-/- ; 2D10 X; Pen 0; Blast (4) ) Equipment: Micro-bead Vox Laser Dot Sight for Hotshot Hellpistol Armour: Stormtrooper Carapace Armour (All 6)

Lord Iblis The reclusive 'Lord' Iblis was once Brother-Sergeant Iblis, leader of the command squad of the Fourth company, Twenty-Second Chapter of the First Legion – a Space Marine of the Dark Angels who was left an outcast and a renegade from his own kind after the destruction of Caliban. He has survived some ten millenia of being hunted by the Unforgiven, and a more deadly mortal foe is hard to imagine. It is not known what he seeks on Amaymon, but whatever it is, he will stop at nothing to find it. He is concerned about the appearance of a chaos cult on the planet – it risks attracting attention from the Inquisition, or worse yet (though he cannot fully explain why to Otto without telling him more than he wants him to know) the Inner Circle of the Unforgiven.

WS

BS

67

64

S 12

(7)3

Ag

Per

Int

(5)0

(5)0

(5)4

(4)2

10

T

Wp 12

(6)3

Fel (3)8

Movement: 5/10/15/30 Wounds: 30 Skills: Awareness +10 (Per), Common Lore (Imperium) (Int), Common Lore (Administratum) (Int), Forbidden Lore (The Fallen) +20 (Int), Forbidden Lore (Warp) (Int), Forbidden Lore (Heresy) (Int), Forbidden Lore (Inquisition) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Legends) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Archaic) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Judgement) (Int), Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) +20 (Int), Scholastic Lore (The Astartes) (Int), Speak (Low Gothic) (Int), Speak (High Gothic) (Int), Command +20 (Fel), Intimidate +20 (S), Survival (S), Deceive +20 (Fel), Scrutiny +10 (Per) Talents: Basic Weapon Training (Bolt), Fear (1), Melee Weapon Training (Power), Arms Master, Combat Master, Wall of Steel, Counter-attack, Disarm, Die Hard, True Grit, Lightning Attack, Mighty Shot, Fearless, Blade Master, Iron Jaw, Strong Minded, Hatred (The Deathwing) Traits: Unnatural Strength (x2), Unnatural Toughness (x2), Unnatural Willpower (x2), Peer (Administratum), Peer (Nobility) Weapons: The Angel's Blade – Relic Blade (1D10+19E; Pen 6; Power Field, Balanced, Fast, +10 to Hit) MkII Astartes Boltgun (Basic; 100m; S/2/- ; 2D10 X; Pen 5; Clip 24; Full; Accurate, Reliable) Armour: Artificer-Crafted Crusade Armour (Head 11, Arms 12, Body 13, Legs 12. The armour provides a +20 bonus to strength after other increases – included above – and increases Iblis' size to hulking)

Semyaza The mysterious Semyaza is actually the individual known variously as 'The Voice of the Emperor', Fallen 001, and Cypher, playing Iblis, the League and the Dark Angels for his own purposes. He will never be encountered directly, and hence has no statline.