Dark Heresy: Overall Logician plot

[Magua]

*minor spoilers about Dark Heresy adventures published almost ten years ago*

So the Logicians are the big bad in my Dark Heresy game, and the PCs have realized this and begun to investigate.

What I need is some overall goal for the Logicians within the campaign for them to thwart.

I've run Edge of Darkness, so bio-research and augmentation, and I made the Logicians the masterminds behind Rejoice For You Are True, so they've also got their fingers in psyker research and manipulation.

So I'm thinking something like trying to augment humans via Xenos bio-engineering to become psykers. But I'm looking for ideas as to what their next steps might be, how to tie the PCs in, and what their overall goal is going to be (something more specific than "Overthrow the Mechanicus" and "Perform research").

[Spacebatsy]

The thing I like about the Loigicians is that they can actually be relatable, almost “good guys”, witch make them a bit more fun as a long time antagonist. I’ve played many of my logician groups as people who generally care for improving mankind, and my players seems to appreciate those guys the most, since it challenges their characters.

Point being: I recommend you think about WHY your logicians are doing what they are doing, besides WHAT they are doing


A couple of logician projects:

Immortality! Free humanity of disease and aging!
This is a noble cause that could bring in some genuine motivations for your Logicians (and rightful anger towards the inquisition and Mechanicus for trying to stop them). You can have a bunch of different characters with wildly ranging moral and motivation. From the crazy doctor who simply want to see how far he can take his research, considering the people of Calixis his own personal playground, to the grieving but brilliant father who want to spare anyone the pain of losing a child to disease.

Plot possibilities:
• zombie-plagues (experiment gone wrong)
• A century old logicians imbedded in other organizations, maybe even the Mechanicus or inquisition themselves (experiment gone right!)
• Hunts for, or recreation of, Halo devices (maybe a treasure hunt adventure where the acolytes race to get there first) (page 97 of Disciples of The Dark Gods)
• Advanced bio-engineering like in Rejoice For You Are True
• Psyker engineering if they consider it to be the evolutionary goal for humanity to all become psykers.
• Tobias Belasco could very well be involved in this is you want to bring in nobility plots, or just like the idea of Hannibal Lector in Space! (Page 197 of Disciples of The Dark Gods)
• Accidental nurgle infection/summoning/influence (experiment gone very wrong!... or did it?)
• Brain transfer (If you want a reoccurring villain to be truly reoccurring, you never know in what form he/she may come at you!)


The flesh is weak!
Converting humanity (or parts of it) to cold hard metal, or bringing up machines and abominable intelligence (A.I.) to human level or further.
This could either tie in with the immortality idea or as a wish to create better and more advanced machines. There are so many good reasons to improved machinery, that I’m sure you will find a good motivation!

Plot possibilities:
• In search for ancient technology. A lot of humanities technology was lost during the Dark Age of Technology, maybe for good reasons. Logicians disagree! (another treasure hunt maybe)
• Janus simulatra. One of my favorite Logician gadgets, and I have no idea where I first heard of it. In short a servitor that can be mistaken for a real human. It opens up a lot of possibilities for conspiracies. Maybe the governor of a planet is actually a J.S. controlled by the logicians? Maybe the acolytes Inquisitor is? Or maybe there is simply a lot of merit in having a hidden army or robots, looking like humans, hidden in the population. If you want to tear at some heartstrings maybe a logician have replaced his lost friends/family members/ colleagues with J.S. and trying to pretend they are still alive.
• The biotech of Rejoice for you are true may be a project to create artificially superior humans/soldiers for a greater cause.
• Psycic machines? Trying to create psykers out of machines. Look into the Phaenonites for inspiration on machines+warp/deamons (Radicals handbook, 117). Or, maybe creating a machine that makes people psykers?
• A.I. example: I have a long term logician obsessed with creating true souls in machines, so he is really into A.I. (Or Silica Aniums, Page 44 in Disciples of The Dark Gods) and Golephs (page 196 Radicals Handbook, stats and everything!). This made him a fun enemy since although he can’t shoot a gun to save his life he don’t have too, since he’s infected the buildings security system with an AI that controls the facility and weapon system (like the Red Queen AI in Resident Evil).



Now I’m too hungry to write any more!
Hopefully you got some inspiration

[Magua]

That's a lot of great info!

I agree on the greatness of Logicians -- one of the reasons I picked them was because one of my players is very, very pro-tech in real life but also likes roleplaying challenges.

I also really appreciate the followups to other established DH lore, like the Phaenonites, which I was previously unaware of.

I dig the immortality angle as their end goal, both because it's got so much promise, but it should also conflict the player's morals (isn't it worth it to sacrifice a few billion lives if trillions of humans get saved?), which I enjoy.

And as luck would have it, I'd already tasked the players with going to tail Octavia Nile and figure out what she's up to, which is going to lead them right to the House of Dust and Ash and a Halo device, so that all fits in incredibly well.

Thanks again for the ideas.