Dark Heresy: The Plague Year
Dark Heresy: The Plague Year
In the Dark Future of the 41st Millenium death and disease is everywhere, and it's the latter that concerns us here. The inquisitor Gaius Murenus learned that a Nurgle cult planned to release a deadly plague on the Hive World of Verantium. To stop this plot he personally went to Verantium to lead an investigation, dividing his interrogators between the various insulae the spire cities of Verantium.
Your immediate superior, the interrogator Lucius Verrus, was sent to the insulae of Carusium Inferior. Here he discovered that the local Nurgle cult was getting ready for a large ritual. Naturally he joined up with the local Arbites and moved in to crush the cult before they could unleash the Plague.
He failed.
Everyone on the team died.
Except for you.
Trapped in a spire city under quarantine, among increasingly desperate citizens, you must try to stay alive and possibly find a way to stop the plague. You're the only ones who can do it; you're the only ones left. No one else can get in or out.
Character Generation
You will generate new starting characters, though I will probably be using a point buy system. Keep watching this space.
Equipment
You get whatever equipment is listed for your career. In addition to anything it'd make sense for you to be able to requisition for this mission. Don't sweat stuff like ammunition etc, etc. Though stuff like forceblades and sacred rosariuses are still out, so show me the list of kit you want first.
As for money simply assume that you have reasonable amounts of cash, that you're able to pay bribes and rewards as needed. After all you are the inquisitions agents in place.
Background
Verantium
The origins of Verantium are long lost. It's been a hive world for as long back as there are reliable records. Life on Verantium is concentrated around the enormous spire cities, the famous insulae, which jut out of the black wasteland that cover the entire planet. For most life is spent inside these enormous buildings, passing from the cramped domiciles to cavernous public spaces and back. A dreary life filled mostly with every day concerns.
Despite that the planet is not without a certain beauty, the heavy pollution has coloured the clouds brightly orange, and there's nothing quite as spectacular as a Verantian sunrise or sunset. For centuries poets and painters have flocked to Verantium, watching the sun rise and set, drinking absinthe and praising themselves for their artistic soul.
More importantly Verantium is a vital industrial hub for the sector, especially because of its enormous chemical industry. To lose Verantium would be a great setback for the Imperium.
Carusium Inferior
Carusium Inferior is mostly built around its promethium refineries, which supply most of the sector. Though like most of Verantium it has a developed overall chemical industry. The entire city is criss-crossed with vast pipelines and whole neighbourhoods may live in the space beneath a single vast tank of chemicals. However the locals have decorated this bleak industrial landscape, covering the machinery and pipelines with engravings and murals praising the Emperor and his saints.
Like most great hives Carusium Inferior is heavily stratified, the nobility live near the top, and then as you go further down the social ladder you also move further down physically. From the palatial glass and steel palaces at the peak, overlooking the vast plastic deserts around the spire; to the shanty towns at the bottom, overlooking the stagnant pools of waste chemicals that have seeped down from the higher levels.
The Plague
The Plague seems very similar to the bubonic plague. Those affected by it are covered in buboes, which easily burst covering the victim in suppurating wounds. Death is slow, but certain, within a couple of weeks at most. Medical treatment can help slow the plague down, but can't stop it. At any rate medical treatment advanced enough to alleviate the plague is too expensive for anyone except the nobles at the highest levels.
The response to the Plague is quite varied, ranging from resignation, to religious ecstasy, to frenzied partying as the world seems to come to an end. It is hard to tell if any of this is a disease sign of the Plague, or simply the result of being surrounded by death and decay.
The only genuinely good piece of news is that the plague has not spread outside of Carusium Inferior.
Major NPCs & NPC Groups
Inquisitor Gaius Murenus
Your Lord and Master, well sort of, he's always been sort of a shadowy, distant figure to your PCs. Currently he is busy hunting down Nurgle cultists across Verantium, not to mention preventing them from making their way into Carusium Inferior. For now he's willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and provide whatever support he can so long as it doesn't involve breaching the quarantine.
The Nobles
The head of the local nobles is Romulus Scaevola, who is the de facto mayor of the spire. A fairly young man barely in his second century he is still a representative of one of the most powerful families on Verantium. Tall, dark and handsome, with those all too perfect looks that only extensive plastic surgery can grant. Though a reasonably competent administrator he and his fellow nobles are only dimly aware of the teeming masses beneath them.
Overall the nobility has chosen to deal with the plague by holding up in their palaces, refusing to let anyone in who might bring the plague with them. Rumours abound about debauched feasts and wild orgies going on behind the closed doors, making the masses grow angrier by the day.
Ecclesiarchy
The Pontifex Urba Julianus Severus is dead from the plague, or so everyone thinks. When the plague broke out he gathered the faithful, the Sororitas, and his personal entourage into the Cathedral, sealed the doors, and began a month long session of fasting and prayer. No one knows quite how the plague came into the cathedral, but before the end of the month everyone was dead. No one has dared to break the seal and enter the cathedral after that.
In the power vacuum two figures have emerged: Gregorius the Confessor and Bassianus Bernadottius.
Gregorius the Confessor is a wild eyed ascetic who leads a group of fanatical flagellants. They march through the streets, flaying their backs, while loudly chanting their "Penetenziagite!" According to them the plague will only end when the Emperor sees the whole of the spire doing penance for their sins.
Bassianus Bernadottius is a moderate who preaches the love that the Emperor has for all of his creatures, and that everyone must join in prayer and mutual effort to see this through. The temples and preachers under his control are currently handling various charity efforts, often at great personal risk. Every day Bassianus and his preachers pass through the streets, sounding their bells and calling, "Bring out your dead!"
As for the rest of the Ecclesiarchy, they have holed up in their temples and shrines, passing out benedictions and charity through vox-casters and holes in the walls.
Adaptus Mechanicus
Though the Adaptus Mechanicus keep to themselves their power is felt all across the Carusium Inferior. Not only do they manage the enormous chemical factories and refineries, but they also maintain the air purification system and the hydroponics systems. So far they have avoided the worst of the Plague, thus ensuring that when the plague passes Carusium Inferior will still be able to serve the Empire.
Tension is growing however as certain fanatics claim that the reason the senior Adaptus Mechanicus are untouched is an unholy alliance with the arch-enemy. The Adaptus Mechanicus scoff at this, pointing out that it's the blessings of the machine-god (extensive cybernetics) which keeps the plague away from whatever fleshy parts may remain.
Planetary Defence Force
The local PDF was fairly average, though of course infantry heavy. They have bit hit about as hard as the rest of the spire, but further infections are limited due to their use of sealed armour. The PDF is currently stretched quite thin trying to maintain martial law, as well as prevent anyone from entering or leaving.
Adaptes Arbites
The Arbites were present at the massive raid on the Nurgle cultists, which resulted in pretty much all of them catching a particularly nasty strain of the Plague. The Arbites presence in Carusium Inferior was always rather small, now it is virtually non-existent, with only a handful of new recruits guarding the local outpost.