Through one thing or another, a makeshift agri-world under the control of my heretics suddenly suffered a food shortage. Apparently our oh-so-wise Apostate didn't quite do his research, and the planet's soil is in fact unfit for most crops.

Then our Heretek had an idea.

Tobias the Tau-Friend*: "When daemons possess people, they grow loads of extra limbs and heads and wings and stuff, right?"

*Our mutated, pariah tech-priest. Infamous for his adorable anime eyes, gill slits, and his astonishing -01 Fellowship.

Me (the GM): "Yes."

Tobias: "Well, if we bound daemons to plants instead of animals, would the same thing happen?"

Me: "I imagine so, yes."

Tobias: "So if we get demonically possessed wheat, or something, we essentially have a regenerating, exponentially growing food supply."

Me: "Yes."

...

Me: "Wait, what?"

HELLWHEAT

“Ch-ch-ch-chia! Ch-ch-ch-Chaos!”

– Dark Magos Metafice, Sect of the Black Artificers

One of the many madcap creations of the Dark Mechanicum, this consumable was originally intended to serve as a self-replenishing food source for worlds in need of a vast, instantaneous food supply. The process by which Hellwheat is created is a mystery to most, but it involves the carefully controlled binding of a daemon of the warp into a sample of vegetable matter, such as a stalk of fruit or a cane of sugar. Due to the regenerative and mutagenic capabilities of organisms subjected to daemonic possession, the possessed plant can grow without need for any of its usual metabolic or dietary requirements. In addition, just as in a sapient organism the bound daemon manifests a large variety of additional limbs, even tiny samples of Hellwheat can grow and mutate to eventually feed the equivalent of an entire regiment’s worth of soldiers – although by that time, the daemon-crop will in no way resemble the plant it once was, sprouting all manner of eldritch tentacles, feelers, vines and growths. Some daemons that manage to lessen the wards binding them into their vegetative hosts can even generate sharp claws, wickedly burning eyes, and maws of circulating fangs, uprooting themselves and charging across their heretical gardens until exorcised or dismembered by its would-be cultivators.

Description: Generating Hellwheat is a Ritual, as described in the Dark Heresy Radical’s Handbook and the Black Crusade Core Rulebook. Alternatively, certain organizations or factions associated with heretical technologies, such as the Dark Mechanicus or Traitor Legions, may already be in possession of samples of Hellwheat.

Requirements: First, the creator must pass a Very hard (-30) Forbidden Lore (Demonology) Test o successfully research this ritual himself given access to certain materials, although this information can be gained in other ways via a Dark pact or the like. To cultivate Hellwheat, the ritual’s creator requires a sample of living, consumable plant matter, such as a food crop. While the ritual can be technically enacted using inedible or toxic plants, the daemonic plant matter produced by such a ritual will be inedible.

Conducting the Ritual: The ritual culminates in a 2d10 minute procedure during which the creator must pass both a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test ad a Difficult (-10) Forbidden Lore (Demonology) Test to successfully summon the daemon, using relevant modifiers.

Effect: A sample of Hellwheat is created. The creator must successfully pass a (+20) Daemonic Mastery test. If failed, the plant spontaneously mutates and takes on the profile of a Ripper Whip, albeit with the From Beyond, Fear 2, Regeneration, and Daemonic Traits. If the test is passed, one square meter of Raw Hellwheat is created (see NPC: Raw Hellwheat). Based on the number of Degrees of Success, the Growth Rate of the Hellwheat is slowed based on the following table:

0-1 Degrees of Success

The Growth Rate is unaffected.

2-3 Degrees of Success

The Growth Rate is halved.

4+ Degrees of Success

The Growth Rate is quartered.

If successful, the sample of Hellwheat will grow in surface area, engulfing everything in its path. This rate begins at an additional 4 square meters per day in any direction or shape, but can be slowed by gaining Degrees of Success on the Daemonic Mastery Test.

Cost: 1d5 Insanity Points, and 2d5+3 Corruption Points are incurred by the creator.

The Hellwheat may be harvested at any time to provide food (see Consumable: Hellwheat Rations). Each square meter of Hellwheat can produce 10 Hellwheat Rations. Harvesting the wheat involves entering into close combat with the wheat, treating each square meter of Hellwheat as a separate enemy (see NPC: Raw Hellwheat). A character may attack a number of Raw Hellwheat equal to his Agility bonus, as long as he is in range of all of them. The square meter of Raw Hellwheat has been harvested once reduced to zero wounds. Excess damage dealt to one Raw Hellwheat carries over into any other random Raw Hellwheat adjacent to that square.

NPC: Raw Hellwheat

WS

BS

S

T

Ag

Int

Per

WP

Fel

28

-

15

20

42

05

30

25

-

Wounds: 5

Move: X

Skills: Concealment

Talents: Ambidextrous, Dual Strike, Lightning Attack, Rapid Reaction, Two-Weapon Wielder (Melee).

Traits: Blind, Multiple Arms (Toughness Bonus included in profile), Regeneration, Short Tentacles.

Short Tentacles: These are melee weapons that may be used to attack one target up to five meters away from the Raw Hellwheat each Round.

Armor: None

Weapons: Tentacles (1d5 I, Primitive).

CONSUMABLE: Hellwheat Rations

Hellwheat is a cutting of demonically possessed, mutated crops, which grants strange, horrific abilities to its consumers. 5 rations of Hellwheat quench a hearty appetite. For every 5 rations of Hellwheat consumed in one sitting, a character gains 1d5 Corruption Points. For every 10 rations of Hellwheat consumed in one sitting, a character gains one random Minor Mutation, which disappears after the demonically possessed plant matter has been fully digested (1d5 hours). For every 20 rations of Hellwheat consumed in one sitting, a character gains one random Major Mutation, which is permanent. No more than 20 rations may be consumed at once. After consuming any amount of Hellwheat in one sitting, a character regains a number of lost wounds equal to the total number of corruption points gained during that incidence. This cannot grant a character a number of wounds in excess of his starting wounds.

If 100 rations of Hellwheat are consumed over the course of multiple sittings by a character, the daemon of the crop manages to instill part of its own warp-spawned essence in the character’s soul, causing them to become a Daemon Vessel (see the Elite Advances Chapter of the Radical’s Handbook).

This just waiting to happen

"Better get me herbicide and chainsaw out of the barn"

I guess this is why so many people are against GM crops.......

This is great.

It reminds me of one of the most disturbing things I've read in an RPG, which is in "Empire in Flames'. Basically theres a chaos cult who have group of members with severe mutations. One of these mutants has the mutations, grossly fat and regenerate, so they have him chained in one of their caves and each day the slice parts of him off to cook and eat, knowing that with his regenerate mutation they have an endless food supply.

Good work man

A "human" Sæhrímnir ?

Nice!

This is really, really amazingly cool. It looks as though you've established the rules for using Hellwheat in Dark Heresy, so it would take some tweaking to fit it into a Black Crusade game (as I read it). I could see this stuff being especially useful to a particular stripe of Rogue Trader, as he could turn just about any world into an agriworld. Deathworld? Daemonworld?

One of those.

Hmm, daemonically possessed wheat. So has anyone thought about making it into alcohol then?

"Daemon Brew - The only brew guaranteed to get you hammered as well as grow horns and claws."

Wow, thanks for all the great replies!

Cail: I don't know if you have every heard of the show Torchwood, but its protagonist is a man who, through ta strange twist in the space-time continuum, cannot die and always regenerates his flesh )even growing back together from a severed limb, in one episode where a bomb detonates inside his stomach). The rough part is that he is awake for all of it, and in one episode a mob of superstitious New Yorkers chain him up inside an abattoir and cut him for meat, as per the "Empire in Flames" that you described.

This is an awesome idea! I think that a shipment of Hellwheat is due in at the pirate station that my players are currently docked at.

Wow, thanks for all the great replies!

Cail: I don't know if you have every heard of the show Torchwood, but its protagonist is a man who, through ta strange twist in the space-time continuum, cannot die and always regenerates his flesh )even growing back together from a severed limb, in one episode where a bomb detonates inside his stomach). The rough part is that he is awake for all of it, and in one episode a mob of superstitious New Yorkers chain him up inside an abattoir and cut him for meat, as per the "Empire in Flames" that you described.

I've heard of Torchwood but I don't watch it. Empire in Flames was released some time in the 80's, so its either a case of great minds or someone else read Empire on the Torchwood team XD

Consequently, making bread out of Hellwheat could spontaneously result in something like this happening while in the oven

Dear Gods of Chaos.

I am new on the forum, but funnily enough, I had an almost simmilar idea with my heretics on a small agri world with one volcano chain on it that mostly produces recaf beans. Basically, they manned a huge Slaaneshian ritual inside of the volcano, causing an eruption of tainted ashes that fell upon the hangs and proved to be very fertile. The recaf beans that grew seemed to moan slightly when roasted and some say that they seemed to look a bit like grinning lips rather than beans. But the recaf is great. You literally don't ever want to sleep again. There is so much more to feel when awake

Overcaf: Black as tar with hard punch of sheer taste, a cup of overcaf will remove two levels of fatigue from a character if they have less than three or one if they have three or more (At that point, they are too tired to notice the boost much). In any case, characters also gain a +10 to perception for 1d5 hours due to their wonderful awareness. On a downside, if a character drinks 6 cups on one day, they gain 1d5 points of Corruption. Furthermore, a character listening to music, poetry or reading a novel while under the influence of overcaf has to pass a simple (+10) Willpower test or he is lost in the artistry until the overcaf's influence wears off and will crave more of both art and caf.