To kick off my attempt at running Dark Heresy, I want to run a simple combat. I'm thinking of some malcontents in an abandoned Hive Cathedral, or somewhere suitable. BUt I am not sure how to balance it, or what foes to pick for 2 rank 1 characters (psyker and assassin). Nothing too taxing, a simple combat affair to familiarise us all with some rules.

One trope of DH is the dull trip between planets. What if someone on ship has a hankering to kill the PCs?

Or maybe the ship gets boarded by tyranids and while the space marines take on the genestealers, some little ripper bastards are stalking the halls and the PCs need to deal with them.

Hmm...any tyranid may be too much. Maybe the boarders are orks, still scary tough, but the PCs can plug them in a firefight.

That isn't a bad idea but i think i'd rather it be set on a planet, besides I think orks would be too tough.

The ship idea is good, but go for the middle ground and give 'em a creepy hullghast or two to chase around in the dark of the ship.

I not own Creatures Anathema. I was thinking of using the mine part from Shattered Hope. My main concern is balance. It would be a shitty deal to have the players overwhelmed in what is an exercise in learning combat!

Couple of cultists with 25-35 in Characteristics.  Basic weapons like lasguns and clubs will suffice.

For base level antagonists, go with that - more characteristics tends to mean an experienced or dangerous enemies.

Well-built and equipped Dark Heresy characters can usually take on between 2 and 3 times their number of human opponents so long as there's good cover.

well they have tatty clothes and las pistols. What more (along with their faith in the Emperor) do they need?

Figure if an Inquisitor actually wants his acolytes to survive & succeed on their first mission he's got to supply them with between 500 and 1000 creds worth of gear, each. That gets them things like decent weapons (long-las, autoguns, grenades, custom mods) and armour (Flak or better), basic detection equipment like auspexes, flashlights and magnoculars, with some pocket money to procure other items as needed (gas masks, rope, medical supplies).

DH is much like Shadowrun or Traveller where PC equipment is critical.

I was going to allow them to spend their starting money on common or greater availability gear from the book. I'm just going by what the book says. I have no idea how things will play out.
That's not going to be anywhere near that kind of money (certainly not for the psyker).

Oh bloody hell, i've just discovered the errata file.

Oops.

Ok, so i've come up with an overview of a small scenario. Effectively a dungeon crawl through a small lunar facility. All I need is to find a suitably sized map of such a facility I can use. It shouldn't be too big as this isn't even an adventure, just a series of quick combats, a plot twist/final fight, the end.

On the moon called Murgos, shot out of its original orbit and pulled into that of a Warp rift, a Tech Priest agent of the Inquisitor, Binarius Thule, needs to be rescuing after transmitting a coded message via Astropath to the Inquisitor’s headquarters.
The content of that message explains that the experiment has reached a critical stage and must be transferred offworld. The moon is starting to tear itself apart due to instabilities in the nearby rift.
The acolytes are dispatched as the only nearest agents of the Inquisitor to rescue the Tech Priest. They are not briefed as to the nature of his work, nor are they even made aware of its existence. They have no information regarding Thule’s work at all.
Unbeknownst to the Inquisitor, and thus the acolytes, Thule is corrupted. He is now Heretek; his work with the experiment and the close proximity to the Warp has opened his eyes to a different reality. He has new masters now and they are eager to receive the experiment.
To that end he wants escape from both Murgos facility and the reach of the Inquisitor. All he needs is safe passage. This is easily achieved so long as the acolytes do not discover, prior to reaching him, he has turned. Unfortunately for him they will learn this fact early on in reaching the facility with the presence of a psyker and the availability of clues.
The rescue process is also hampered by the presence of malfunctioning servitors, hereteks loyal to Thule and some minor warp entities, including mutants that are the result of his work now freed from their prisons by the failing facility. There is also a time limit: the facility is collapsing and the acolytes are pressed for time.
Thule will assume the acolytes are none the wiser unless they declare their position. Upon reaching him they will be presented with a choice: Thule can transport them all off the moon by means of a Teleportarium device, or they can attempt to kill him (of course he will resist).
The choice comes down to this:
If they kill Thule their escape will take much longer; they have no hope of operating his technology to reach his vessel.
If Thule learns they know of his treachery he will attempt to escape. This results in combat the same as if the acolytes attempt to kill him; however he has a brief window to escape.
Should he escape or should the acolytes kill him, they have to make their way back through the facility to their rendezvous shuttle in time. This is an extremely tight window of opportunity.
Thule cannot teleport them to their shuttle; his device will only transport them one way – through the rift to a waiting shuttle of his own. The acolytes can only imagine what will happen to them as Thule will have the upper hand. They do not understand his teleportarium device and will only know that it is pre-programmed to a set destination and cannot be changed.
Furthermore, the facility was designed to be shielded from the Warp. As it is failing, there is a chance that certain rooms will be have their protective blast shields down. This means that, while not directly exposed (the facility remains pressurised and airtight for the moment); the rift can be seen through the windows. This is not a good thing as it has a hypnotic quality if observed for too long causing mental disturbance. Thule knew this and the acolytes are briefed prior to arrival.

If there are any holes in that twist I haven't planned on and what suitable clues I can provide that will lead the 2 acolytes to discover Thule is now heretek then speak ye here. Thanks.

So if he has a shuttle on the other side of the Warp and wants to join his new masters why does he need the party?  Why did he call them??  I either missed something or it just don't fly with me.

Rather he needs them as an an offering to his new dark masters, especially the psi.  His experiment is the mechanism he will use to subdue them.  A weak creature of chaos used as a power cell for a corruption ray, its connected to a machine so they need to be in the right place, cause he only has a few shots before the creature is a wasted mutated hulk.   The corruption stuns the crap out of them, makes the Psi more likely to perils of the warp when they tap the warp.  They also gain some corruption if they are hit multiple times.  Once they are all his he plans to take them to the warp.  

Or he just wants to show the imperium, and the inquisitor that he is their doom and shove it in their face he escaped.  So he is waiting, tries to take them with to offer to the dark masters, else he is gone.  unless some one can figure out how to stop the teleport.  

At least thats what I would do.

Oh and Its my first post hello rpg site

Or he didn't call for help, but someone else did. That person got murdered by Thule between then and the arrival of the acolytes and as such discovering his body is the simple clue (or the catalyst) at least to revealing Thule's treachery.

This is only meant to be a very short interlude primarily based around combat. Consequently the station needs to be small, have a few mobs, and then the boss encounter. The point of which is ultimately a fight with Thule, but with the acolytes believing they don't know he's evil.
He offers them a quick escape route they know they can't take knowing that he's a traitor. So back they go through a collapsing station with perhaps one more big fight and then free.

Quote from: Spinachcat;493771One trope of DH is the dull trip between planets. What if someone on ship has a hankering to kill the PCs?

There is a hilarious scene in Mitchell's For the Emperor, in which a mutiny breaks out on the ship and the protagonist has not simply to dissolve the violence but also steer the delicate diplomatic situation that ensues.

You'd have to read it to know what I'm on about, but if this situation could be rewritten as a scenario I think that could be interesting. The point of combat here would not be so much for the PCs to kill people on deck as to contain them, knock them out, etc., and then face these very people again in a court hearing on the ship.