Hey. My player's warzone is a city on a paradise world full of hotels, shops filled with luxury products and so on.

They've taken it recently, but there is one more thing they have to do. Because part of the city had it's power cut off, a megabeast escaped from the local ZOO. It's eletric fence became ordinary fence so it rammed it and escaped. The players will be tasked with neutralizing the threat.

They will be able to choose from among many weapons and control the area of the hunt to some degree.

My thoughts are: what megabeast should it be? Squiggoths are too orkish, but I think Great Knarloc fits. What do you think? I've got 6 veteran players, one psyker, one very good sniper among them. They all are great with planting explosives. It has 95 wounds 8TB and 6Armour though...

The TB is way to low, with alomst unlimited choice of weapons they will eat through that beast within one round.
Especially the psyker and the snipers.

TB 8 is fine, but than take away accurate weapons and psychic abilities...

Need I mention than a knarloc is from the other side of the galaxy roughly 100,000 LY away. Even assuming Warp travel can be 100xLS it wouldn't even have evolved when the last ship that arrived in the spinward front from Tau space left.

Why not just invent something, give it a suitably fearsome name and description and GM it. Meaning that it dies when the players have worked hard enough, rather than a specific number of wounds, TB and such that can be defeated by a cheesey choice of weaponry and abilities?

Exampillian Spine-Hulk

A terrifying juggernaut of toxic spines, vicious teeth and scything claws the Spine-Hulk is a native to the swamps of the deathworld Exampil.

Thought to be distantly related to the porcupines of ancient Terra. The spine beast stands on six thickly muscled legs, and commonly towers over six meters, although large males can reach over ten meters in height.

The Spine-Hulk is famously aggressive, attacking anything it perceives as a threat primarily by firing three meter long toxin-laced spines, although enraged males and brooding females have been known to close and attack with their ferocious teeth and claws.

Despite it's intense aggression and ferocious territorialism the Spine-Hulk is a herbivore, and the was primary food souce of the now-extinct Exampillian Gore-Thirster.

BS 50 (Spines) Rng 15, 1d10+2 pen 2 Toxic(3)

WS 70 (Teeth/claws) 2d10+6 pen 4

WP 40

Size:7

Each turn the SH takes damage take WP test, if failed the SH fires D5 spines at random (roll scatter), if passed the SH targets D3 spines at the source of the attack (if aware of the source.)

Depending on how 'mega' you want your beast to be, there is a huge T-Rex-like dinosaur-thing in the Deathwatch adventure The Emperor Protects (-and it's stats are reprinted in Mark of the Xenos ). Since it's intended to be a moderate threat to Space Marines, it would be pretty terrifying to Guardsmen; so if you want the full-on 'Godzilla' effect...

You could even take the stat block for a Squiggoth or Knaarloc and just give it some new talents/skills and rename it. Boom, new creature, little effort.

Or I can use alien generator from Rogue Trader. It's good to have an idea-particle that you build the whole thing around.

Yo yo!

If you want to, you could make the monster fight through different phases which each present a new threat to the players, so that they can't anticipate everything at start and just shoot it dead.

For instance, say monster gets lowered to two thirds health, it then flees into a new district, maybe through an industrial building. The building had huge vats of some kind of goo that covers the monster which effectively renders it very resistant to, for example, Las-damage because of reasons.

At one third health the monster stomps the ground which shatters and the players and monster all fall down into the huge sewersystem which covers the underworld. In here it's almost completely dark, which is the monsters natural habitat. The sniper can't use his long range effectively and because of the sewer being full of other kinds of lifeforms the psyker has difficulty sensing the monster.

Just some thoughts, I'm sure you have some great ones yourself!

A tyranosaurus rex!

But in my opinion you should definatly go with a great knarloc. And when they kill it have them attacked by Kroot lying in ambush (they original had heard of the knarlock's presence in the zoo and were planning on setting it free/taking it with them.)

If your guardsmen were not fighting tau on that world please ignore that bit.

Or some other exotic beast and suddenly a bunch of pissed of eldar appear (out of a hiden webway portal) claiming some rogue trader stole said beast from an eldar (exodite) world and they want it back...

Once again, Kroot and Knarlocs are young species from the other side of the galaxy.

It'd be impossible to have them in a zoo in the spinward front. it's a simple fact that the two are about as far away from each other as it is possible to be without entering darkspace.

I... did not know that.

Still my Eldar idea has merrit.

Let us know how the hunt went will you? It seems like a nice adventure.

Once again, Kroot and Knarlocs are young species from the other side of the galaxy.

It'd be impossible to have them in a zoo in the spinward front. it's a simple fact that the two are about as far away from each other as it is possible to be without entering darkspace.

Well they are in OW Rulebook though and i's written that Kroot mercenaries are met in the Spinward Front.

Anyway I decided to use randomly created monster from RT. There'll be also a kroot shaper, who used to work as kind of an animal caretaker in a zoo and now leads players to the monster. And maybe does something else but we will see.

Oh and about the ZOO. It's nothing like it anymore. It's gonna be a "Molokaian Park", the amusement park with creatures from the death world of Molokai to watch for the audiences. After all we're on a touristic planet.

Kroot and their sphere ships are pretty much everywhere, yes. It's the Tau you're unlikely to see.

I... did not know that.

Still my Eldar idea has merrit.

Let us know how the hunt went will you? It seems like a nice adventure.

I had to improvise a little. 3 players didnt show up so there was only 2 and I had to ease the fight a little. Turned out bit too easy, but it was fun anyway. The players made an excellent plan and with a little bit of luck they managed to slay the beast, even without the help of the kroot shaper that bred it.

Then well done I say

Fun is most important!

Have it as the last descendant of the Terran Elephant Africanus. Players blast it easy enough

'....congratualtions you guys are responsible for killing the last African Elephant

...you monsters'.

Have it as the last descendant of the Terran Elephant Africanus. Players blast it easy enough

'....congratualtions you guys are responsible for killing the last African Elephant

...you monsters'.

The sad part is that I doubt the african elephant will survive into the 41st millenium...

Have it as the last descendant of the Terran Elephant Africanus. Players blast it easy enough

'....congratualtions you guys are responsible for killing the last African Elephant

...you monsters'.

The sad part is that I doubt the african elephant will survive into the 41st millenium...

Yes.

I kind of figured maybe a few had been taken thousands of years previously duirng the age of colonisation. (Well not really but for this scenario to work)

Have it as the last descendant of the Terran Elephant Africanus. Players blast it easy enough

'....congratualtions you guys are responsible for killing the last African Elephant

...you monsters'.

The sad part is that I doubt the african elephant will survive into the 41st millenium...

Last I checked, odds that it would make it to the next (4th) millenium weren't too hot.

Have it as the last descendant of the Terran Elephant Africanus. Players blast it easy enough

'....congratualtions you guys are responsible for killing the last African Elephant

...you monsters'.

The sad part is that I doubt the african elephant will survive into the 41st millenium...

Last I checked, odds that it would make it to the next (4th) millenium weren't too hot.

Yeah, why does it have to be an Urban Megabeast hunt? Why not change it around so some off world poachers are trying to kill the thing, while the Regiment have been given the task of capturing and retreiving the animal.

Visitor Q: You

Yeah, why does it have to be an Urban Megabeast hunt? Why not change it around so some off world poachers are trying to kill the thing, while the Regiment have been given the task of capturing and retreiving the animal.

Nice but still not grimdark enough. Come on guys, we can do better! How about instead of a xeno beast we have some corrupt imperial nobles hunt a sentient xeno? (say a Kroot for example) or even hunt low class humans like the Spyrer gangs from Necromunda...

Maybe its a fight to the death between a sentient megabeast and an administration governor or eccentric rogue trader party will hunt the winner for sport.