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Welcome
This is a starting adventure to introduce new players to Imperium Maledictum and Hive City Omin. The characters below are the ones my party made and there are a few hooks at the end to fit with them. If you are intending to be a player, DO NOT READ ON.
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Summary: The characters are asked to help Arbite Pashl Grimminger recover his stolen badge and uncover why it was taken. Their investigation leads them from the fighting pits of the Blood Bowl, down through the maglines into the Underhive, and finally to a confrontation with the Oneohtrix gang and their leader Talos, who seeks to use the badge as part of a larger plot to destabilize Omin's power structure. The party does not have a real Patron yet - this mission is intended to let groups figure out the vibe in Omin before deciding which way to go.
“Patron”: Pashl Grimminger (Arbite, off-duty and desperate)
Reward: 100 solars each + future favors from an Arbite + potential Oneohtrix contacts (if they betray Pashl)
Complications: The badge's theft has attracted multiple factions' attention, including the Knife Brothers who were counting on Pashl for a separate job. The characters risk exposure to the underhive's dangers, gang violence, and the warp-tainted horrors lurking in the depths.
Location: Underthedral of Saint Leopold of Keller (Smelter City, Demex)
The characters find themselves attending a service at the Underthedral of Saint Leopold of Keller, one of the unsanctioned churches that serve the lower hive's spiritual needs. The church is small and cramped, carved into a rockface within the Demex's main thoroughfare. Its ceilings are low and flat, nothing like the soaring vaults of the Cathedral Ward. A simple stone carving of Saint Leopold—sword in hand, standing over a sea of mutants and daemons—serves as the altar.
Sitting among the congregation is Pashl Grimminger, a tall, muscular man in his forties with a scarred face that resembles a weathered John Hamm. Notably, he is not wearing his Arbite uniform—just civilian clothing that doesn't quite fit his frame. The characters might recognize him as an Arbite, or they might simply know him as someone who occasionally drinks at the local bars and keeps to himself.
The service is led by Brome the Blessed, an underthedral priest with a booming voice and a theatrical delivery. He stands before the congregation and delivers his sermon on Saint Leopold of Keller:
"Thus was it spake: the light of his deific presence did burn the Nillinite hordes and their numbers did quake and fear and turn and flee and die. For the presence of the God-Emperor's chosen champions, no enemy of mankind, nor fell-god, may suffer. Thus it was that the Nillinite horde was turned and as they turned, as on a wheel, Saint Leopold broke them and for the God-Emperor another world was made man's. And when he saw all he had done, he saw that it was good and thus was his glory as one with the glory eternal. In memoriam…"
When the sermon concludes, Brome stands and approaches each character in turn, placing his hand on their heads and reciting the litany of death-life:
"His light gives you life. Your darkness gives it back."
The ritual complete, the congregation files out into the ruelles of the Demex. Pashl approaches the characters and invites them for a drink at the Last Stop, a grimy bar perched on the edge of Smelter City, just above the Underhive's entrance. The proprietor, Lina Corvus, recognizes Pashl immediately and greets him warmly—she's an old friend, and one of the few people in Smelter City who knows he's an Arbite.
The characters can order drinks while Pashl makes small talk:
Drink Menu: