"I am the Law!"

"No, I am the law!"
"I am the law too!"
"Yeah, well, I have a cyber mastiff, and that makes me the law and than some!"
"...But I'm the guy with the bigger gun."

Or something like that as my players got into their roles as Adeptus Arbites, Imperial Judges of Task Force Gamma.

If you recall back at the end of summer I did a review of Dredd and compared the Judges found in the world of Judge Dredd to the Arbites of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I believe I stated that I really wanted to run an all Judge campaign for Dark Heresy. This past Friday I got my wish!

"I said: "Hotshot" "

 

My group hasn't played since last summer, and numerous personal events kept occurring that prevented us from picking that game back up. Leaving everything in a 'cliff hanger' state, I decided to run my Judge game, and have it pick up in the aftermath of the previous campaign, not revealing to the players the fates of their previous characters.

Accept one.

In the previous game, the players were running two teams and things were sort of crossing over and intermixing as both teams were working simultaneously to achieve multiple ends and stumbling over similar clues and tangents. In one of the last games, I had Da Masta Cheef's character, Boris, sent to join another character that was sort of removed from the main action to assist with whatever was going on. I decided that this new team of Judges, Task Force Gamma, would be investigating why Boris never showed up.

I just finished and sent out the mission brief, so for your amusement I shall share it with you. Sadly, I can't give you much insight with what's really going on as it would tip off my players (the few that bother to read my blog), and most of them only have a clue at best! LOL

(It was this or show you more progress shots of have half-finished Grey Hunters...)

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice,

Mission Statement: You have been assigned to special Inquisition sponsored task force. Your skills and attributes have been found exemplary in your previous roles, and together you are the unit we need to assist in finding and retrieving Boris Sevastopol, a missing agent of the Holy Inquisition. You are to assess his last known location and from there track down his whereabouts, and retrieve him. Early indications point towards an abduction scenario, but this is a theory at best. Find the facts. Find Boris. Bring Boris back.   

 

Team Composition: Zurio Lug, Metalus Zek, Pontius, Bones Gunner, Taron Drake, and another member who will join later.

 

Note 1: You are mostly likely going to descend into areas of the city where Arbite presence is scare or totally non-existent. You are the law. But to enforce every infraction you see would take a life-time. You must stay focused on your task and achieve success in your mission.

Note 2: You have been provided with a special Inquisitional Rosette that will allow you to by-pass most systems, and deputize you to carry out your orders. You have also been assigned a pack with additional gear: A combat shot gun, 3 clips of ammo, Magnagles, Carapace Helm, and Arbite Riot armor. Use these at your discretion. Remember that resupplying you will be difficult. Also you have a week’s worth of water and rations.  

Note 3: Keep a log of your progress, clue gathering, and who made what decision so that all note-worthy events can be properly vetted upon post-mission examination.

Note 4: Regardless of what has transpired with Boris Sevastopol he must be brought back alive. If he is involved with sinister or heretical forces, your assigned Inquisitor would like to personally pass judgment: you are not to make a termination of the subject unless the situation can be resolved in no other way.

Note 5: The chain of command of your superiors is as follows: Col. Gentleman, Interrogator Errasmus and Inquisitor Svech.

 

 

And now the mission notes, in case you're curious...

 

 

Game one Notes:

• Task Force Gamma’s 1^st mission takes them to the abandoned lander where the lander black box has been retrieved. The pilot has been violently slain and is in a state of rapid decomposition.
• A sniper kills the pilot to Gamma’s lander and it is lost. The sniper wounds a squad member. The sniper is still at large
• Navigating through the abandoned retail complex of Freddicus Mejiers Mexiplex Location XXV, Gamma follows a trail of dead gangers gathering clues that lead them to the Sommer Wells Hab Level 33.
• In Sommer Wells Hab Level 33 a precinct is found with a lone Enforcer who is unkempt and a touch mad. Sgt. Rathers is his name, and he tells Gamma on the fate of his unit. He tells of the times of trouble,the coming of the flys and how they coincided with the arrival of “the one who promises to bring salvation.” He provides info on how to proceed to the next sublevel, as well as where to get medicae treatment.
• Sgt Rathers has a container that contains a contagious object that burst out of one of his men’s navel. No one from Gamma wanted to see what was in it.
• Sgt Rathers provided some Inferno shells (12) to the group if they would send word that he desperately needs assistance at his precinct.
• Sgt Rathers IDs Borris Sevastopol as this salvation figure, and points to a 3-story work in progress mural of Boris. The mural has the words “The Grounds Keeper of the Garden of Salvation” on a scroll at the bottom of the piece.
• The medicae provides healing assistance to Zurio and Bones*.

*Bones injured his leg leaping from the crashng lander, and Zurio was shot by a sniper.

It was a lot tension having these guys worm their way through an abandoned store bloc, gathering clues and follwing the bread crumbs. It was even more fun getting to role play the Sgt Rathers NPC who was pretty much mad as a hatter and paranoid. Also, I got to assign this team to Col. Gentleman who a previous player, that moved away, based (loosely) off of the character with the same name from the Venture Brother's Cartoon, but played more like SNL Sean Connery on the Jeopardy skits. But I totally envision the character in the cartoon, but suited up as an Arbite. I could go on, but let's just say that Colonel Gentleman in my campaign was a riot!

"With Mind-bullets!" Our Psy player will join us in a future game.

 

So after the game, with half the group gone, I put in the Dredd bluray for additional inspiration and we stayed up late getting idea for next time. I like the dystopic and quasi-anarchy state of the lower and underhive, and the amped up level of paranoia and danger that these Judges are going to have to endure. I wanted to point out that Judge Anderson and Judge Dredd being trapped in Peachtrees isn't going to be too different from where these guys are going, only that this team is going down deeper and will be experiencing more hardships and challenges and with little chance of back up or extraction... it's going to be blast!
:D