Penitence

A Dark Heresy Idea

Inquisitors are not known for taking prisoners, as the forces of chaos deserve no forgiveness, but somethings are too precious to be destroyed, even if it means the preservation of chaos. So on a icy planet in a corner of a forgotten system lies the prison known only to a few as Penitence.

Its existence is a closely kept secret even from most of the inquisition. Several times more puritanical members of the Inquisition have ordered the planet to be wiped from the face of the galaxy and some radicals have attempted to infiltrated the complex. None of these plans have succeeded as more moderate members of the Inquisition keep it safe so that they can discover from the twisted minds of Penitence inmates what needs to be known.

A prison for the mind ,body and the soul
In orbit is a series of small stations that each have a skeleton crew of a dozen plus servitors. They have only two tasks, the first task is simple, eliminate all incoming and outgoing craft that are not authorised, with a shoot first, never ask questions policy. The second is to obliterate the prison complex with a series of ancient viral, atomic and other mysterious missiles if the correct command code is sent. These crew have no idea what they guard and most will lose their minds within a year so. Replacements often arrive late only to find the previous crew all dead or of no use. The former crews are packed away to a nice quiet asylum where they can hope to forget what tormented them in that cold, dark place.

On the planet surface there are only two major structures the space port and Penitence itself. The space port is manned by servitors and is armed to the teeth with anti aircraft fire platforms. There is a group of heavy transports that will make careful trips across the ice fields. There is an exact route to travel, too much deviation from it will lead the vehicle into various minefields or into hidden crevasses. Each vehicle will transport 1 and only prisoner at a time. They are equipped with psychic dampening fields that reduce the average psyker to a drooling heap. It will take about a day to travel the distance although with the lack of landscape features it will seem a lot longer.

Then there is Penitence itself. A 15ft wall surrounds the area and guards patrol it regularly in the severe cold. The prison is made out a series of circular buildings with the security and danger of the inmates increasing towards the centre. The outside buildings are mainly for non psykers, non augmented traitors and heretics. The centre building are reserved for the most vile and dangerous of heretics who will need special containment.

How to get the players there
If the players are delving into the past quite a bit this can be a useful way to get that information.
If the subject of an investigation is an inquisitor this is even better as their former associates are quite likely to be kept here until they divulge their knowledge.
This should be a place visited at most once in a campaign otherwise it will become a crutch for the players to go find out information.