Hello everyone.

Im trying to write a scenario here and the plan is to include investigations concerning the Beast House and it's depraved customers. The plot-hook has taken form in an earlier scenario (so this one will serve as a sort of "part two"). The first scenario involved the PC's (who are acolytes to an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and also an ex-Techpriest to boot) who were sent on a mission the the war-world Kulth were they were tasked to find and secure an Ordo Xenos research outpost that was established there sometime early during the very first exploration phases. Now the world in question is locked in a war against an Ork invasion (and because im an evil gamemaster, the research outpost was located deep behind Ork held lines in the equatorial jungles of Kulth ).

In any case, the PC's managed to find their way there, securd the outpost and gathered as much information and evidence as possible from the burnt out outpost. The learned that the Ordo Xenos Interrogator responsible for setting up the outpost was conducting forbidden biological research on some Tyranid Genestealers that they caught on Kulth, with the help of a few Beast House hunters brought in from off world. Sometime during the research phase the Interrogator decided to steal all the Genestealer samples (consisting of a brood of 12 genestealers frozen in cryogenic tanks), kill all the unecessary bystanders (Biologis personel, Adepts, Mercenaries etc.) and leave the planet (perhaps the Interrogator learned that the world would soon be invaded by Orks and saw an opportunity to be free of the Inquisiton, the PC's dont know that yet).

Anyway, while the PC's were rummaging through the remains of the outpost they were attacked by a Tyranid Lictor (an organism that hade come down on Kulth with the same mycetic spores as the genestealers) and they had to trek back to Imperial lines with the nasty monster at their heels. Eventually they managed to defeat the monster and they burned it's carcass and when they were approaching the Imperial HQ of the equatorial areas (at the same time when the greenskins were sending in an assault wave), their Inquisitor came down along with a contingent of Deathwatch Space Marines by drop-pod and the acylotes were ushered aboard a shuttle for orbit while their master and the Deathwatch beat back the greenskins.

As you might suspect, the plot-hook here is that there are twelve frozen genestealers in the hands of a rogue Interrogator somewhere in the Calixis sector. Naturally the Ordo Xenos will not accept that, and the acolytes are supposed to investigate the latest leads their master has gathered concerning the Interrogator and the missing xenos specimens.

While I do have a larger story in mind (that is supposed to come to it's concluscion in the "part three" episode of this campagin) im going to focus all details on this scenario. The acolytes are supposed to be led to Scintilla, the sector's capital world, where the rogue Interrogator was last seen. His intentions are to sell off the genestealers to some depraved noble juves that are in cahoots with the Beast House.

No, while I have a lot of ideas going here I would like to introduce the almost mythic figure known as Solkarn Senk sometime when the acolytes are investigating the fringe Red Circuses and other Beast House owned locales. Although some of the players do own their own copies of Disciples of the Dark Gods, I don't think they'll actually remember the name Solkarn Senk (after all, it's a thick book with lots of names mentioned ). So I was thinking of maybe just introduce him as a rather innocent looking man with an evil aura around him. Someone who really is the leader is this exstensive xenos trafficking bloodsport organisation, but who likes to observe his work from the eyes of the audience (instead of acting like an archetypical mafia boss who rarely leaves his stronghold).

My intentions are to use him as another plot-hook for future adventures concerning the Beast House, where the players will have the revalation that they have actually met and spoken with the mythic figurehead of this dangerous organisation without really knowing that he was THE Solkarn Senk.

But... I haven't really come up with what the real story about Solkarn Senk is supposed to be. Is he supposed to be a normal human but with an extreme thirst for blood and violence? Is he supposed to be a rogue psyker telepath that has become addicted to the feelings of the thrilled bloodthirsty crowd? Is he supposed to be a daemon in disguise?

I can't seem to think of a cool enough background, so please help me with extrapolating a cool concept. Toss some ideas for me (perhaps even reveal your own spin on who or what Solkarn Senk is?). Im sure that if I can get some other point of views we can come up with something cool together!

So: Who/what is Solkarn Senk? Why does he/she/it do what he/she/it does? Does he/she/it have an unknown agenda?

Come on people, lets get our brains together!

I've generally assumed Solkarn Senk might be a Dark Eldar. The longevity, the guile needed to lead an empire such as the beasthouse, the bloodthirst and sadism... I think it fits.

Yeah i always thought he was dark eldar as well usuing xeno tech to change his face to be more human and to live longer

Cifer said:

Not a bad idea at all. And a perfect excuse to introduce Dark Eldar into my Ordo Xenos campaign. He'd have to be a really old Dark Eldar with an extensive alien mind (as to portray him/her/it ina more scary and devil-ish way).

it seems pre-decided, but what about a human hunter of legendary skill who's pwned existing dark eldar, tortured them mercilessly for centuries, and stolen/pirated their tech?

He could even be known to the dark eldar, either with a measure of respect (he understands their ways), or as an abomination who needs to be corrected, if only they could find him. That would have some interesting plot hooks where the house liase with/fight against the dark eldar.

oh thatd be interesting especialy if he was an ex inquisitor of the ordo xenos that went radical and insane

ThenDoctor said:

Hehe, well as a matter of fact, I think the players in my campaigns are a bit fed up with radical and insane Inquisitors. Simply because their own is a bit of a radical and also has over 50 insanity points.

Still, the skilled hunter approach is interesting. Although I haven't really planned to include Dark Eldar in the forseeable future I like the ideas presented so far (since it's nice to keep your options open regarding plot-hooks and how xenos species fit into them).

But, for the sake of variety, how would the daemonic approach be? Sure, it's not really something that concerns the Ordo Xenos (but I will not be particularly hardline about that, Eisenhorn had plenty of run-ins with daemons and heretics in spite of being an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor). My main concern is that if Solkarn Senk is a daemon, then the players would see it coming from miles away.

If I were to describe him as: "A rather unremarkable man with a friendly face but with a strange aura of menace around him." The first suspicion any player would have is: "he's a daemon of some kind". I want the true revalation to really jump the players, something they could never have imagined, and while a daemon certainly would play well with the snuff and violence loving aspects of the Beast House's figurehead it seems just a bit too obvious.

I want him to seem human but with a creeping sense of inhumanity and evil about him. Perhaps a Dark Eldar would fit in to that niche. A Dark Eldar Haemonculus whose looking for a new apprentice among humans? Would certainly prove for a reasonable and equally disturbing explaination as to why he started the Beast House in the first place (if you want to find the true sadists of society then the best place to start would be the fighting pit's and other forms of snuff spectacles).

Keep the ideas coming people! Looking good so far!

Ok Varnias this is how Id approach a daemonic Solkarn Senk.

Daemons need rituals and worship to remain in the material universe, unless they are bound into flesh. The games, with all their death, blood and gambling are merely a convenient way for the Warp entity that is Solkarn to remian in the material universe. Every time a fighter gives praise for surviving, an operative thanks the organisation that pays him and a gambler wins it big they are inadvertentdley worshipping Solkarn Senk, who IS the Beasthouse.

He also maintains dark pacts witht those that have fallen far into their debts, or are nearly finished in the ring, offering them salvation in return for their 'service'. This is not an obvious 'soul for riches bargain' but a subtler offer that nonetheless traps them in Solkarns service.

The daemon dosnt want to destroy or upset the Imperium. At present it could survive for ever off of the greed, bloodlust and terror generated by the Beast Houses activities. It merely wants to continue existing and will take any steps to ensure this, bargaining with those it can or silencing those that wont.

Its aura and appearance are not the standard fare for a daemon. Rather than terror its aura generates a sense of risk, that life is temporary and must be lived in for the moment. Its can assume the appearance of a ruddy faced spectator, a grovelling loser, powerful gladiator or monstrous xeno/cyborg beast, all of which are merely aspects of the whole Beast House. It enjoys taking in the fights to absorb the emotional energy directly

I also think that the dark eldar is a really neat fit. The masks the Beast House use (certainly in tattered fates though that might just be because of the world its set upon) fit with dark eldar.

Or even have Solkarn as just a man that wants to be filthy rich, nothing more, nothing less. He has extended his life again and again using his money to buy up endless rejuvenat treatments, cryo suspension for his infrequent warp travels, possibly even has his mind stored and backed up in data-storage and inserted into new clone or cyber bodies. He is totally insane but has no grand plan, no overriding ambition, hes just a monstrous selfish individual that wants to continue becoming richer. Such an anti revelation might be more shocking to your players than the usual its a xenos/daemon.

In terms of how hes palyed I would go more with 'he seems outwardly friendly but his eyes look dead, they have witnessed too much'. Strange auras of menace are always too much of a tip off. Id make him really enthusiastic pointing out, clapping and laughing at high lights but rather than a game of footie its people being torn apart. Maybe hes gives the acolytes some tips for catching some really good games afterwards. He isnt wrapped up in the bloodlust of the crowd, or the terror of those that came along just because it was forbidden, hes jovial and having a pleasant time. Make the inhumanity come across by how he reacts to the bloodsports.

Sorry its ended up a little large, let my thoughts run away with me. Hope theres something useful in there for you!

If I were you, I'd have a daemonic Solkarn Senk as... actually I wouldn't, I'd mutate my earlier idea, making Solkarn Senk a human hunter of legendary skill, who stumbled across something he shouldn't have out there in the Halo Stars. Now he's ageless and immortal, having formed a pact with some dark being in The Warp, heightening his abilities to absolutely superhuman levels. Furthermore, his hunting rifle/hrud fusil/musket/bow and arrows etc are now daemon weapons of tremendous power. He's waited a long time for prey worthy of hunting when the acolytes show up...

DivinatorVictus that human idea is simply amazing...just...beautiful brilliant and fantastic

and Locque if you want him to have found something in the Halo Stars make it a Halo Device those things are incredibly nasty little buggers.

DivinatorVictus said:

Don't worry. Let your thoughts run. The more text I have to work with, the better.

ThenDoctor said:

Yeah I was considering a Halo Device as well. I love those things because of their overtly Lovecraftian inspiration (they are usually found in ancient cyclopean tombs built by some ancient and lost alien civilisation, the Halo Devide replaces the human mind with an utterly alien mind etc. etc.). And it would definetly be a useful plot-hook because the acolytes' Inquisitor have actually been using a Halo Device in the past (but managed to take it off and eliminate it's effects through forbidden technosorcery at the cost of most of his sanity and also his friends).

The only thing I have against the idea is the mutating aspects of the Halo Device (you know, where the user/victim starts to sprout an insectoid carpace and grows claws on his/her fingers etc.). I want Solkarn to look outwardly human, so if i go with the Halo Device idea I'll have to come up with something to keep his human exterior but give him a grossly perverted and alien interior.

ThenDoctor said:

ThenDoctor said:

I think my players are just about sick of halo devices at this point, having spent some serious time killing one of those monsters after following him halfway across the sector.

I'd be against making Solkarn Senk himself an actual daemon. The idea of a daemon itself running what is essentially a business just seems.... eh. I couldn't make it work. I do like the idea of him being a Dark Eldar though, or a human hunter who's using dark eldar/daemonic perks to boost his lifespan and skills.

Locque said:

Well, the reason why I was considering it is because of a little different spin I have on how the beast house works. Im more interested in portraying the Beast House as a snuff establishment rather than a simple hunting/gladiator spectacle. To me hunting and gladiatorial spectacles already seem to be a pretty common sight throughout the Imperium of man, so to make the Beast House stand out as truly disturbing and disgusting I want to portray it as something straight out of the Hostel movies. An organisation that not only provides entertainment in the form of fighting pit's and gladiator fights against xenos species, but also provides "services" for its wealthy clients, where they kidnap human victims and let the more depraved nobles to torture/kill them in whatever way they see fit. Quite simply, an establishment that provides the means for it's customers to "play" with just about anything that involves blood and pain, for the right price of course.

In fact, the very first leads I intend my acolytes to go on will be to approach the beast house through a group of dissolute nobles. A group of four young men who have taken a taste to depraved and violent spectacles, they have a lot of influence and a lot of thrones to spend. The very first event would be that the acolytes are informed of a wealthy noble daughter that has been evidently attacked and raped (she is still locked in a state of psychosis so she won't say anything at all). The truth of it all is that one of these four young men, who had taken a morbid interest in the woman had used his wealth and contacts in the Beast House (namely Solkarn Senk who's visiting from Fenksworld) to stage a "show", involving the kidnapped noblewoman being raped by a tyranid genestealer (as genestealers are biologicaly programmed to find victims and pro-create with them). The original intention was to kill her afterwards, but she turned up alive against all odds (a weak voice cried for help in the heap of dead bodies in the crematoria and a worker heard it) and this sparked the interest of the acolyte's Inquisitor who naturally suspects that it might be the doing of one of their missing twelve genestealers.

I know, it is a twisted and horrible idea, but if I am to succeed in portraying the beast house and it's "customers" as truly depraved and awful then I need to take it to the extreme, since the "normal" human society is rather violent and depraved already. (also our gaming group is pretty used to really dark role-playing games, so im sure they can take it)

Which is why I was thinking of having Solkarn Senk be a daemon or a daemonhost, since such atrocities seem to be right up their alley if you know what I mean.

Varnias - I would avoid making Solkarn Senk a daemon in any way and this is why - it loses the true horror of the Beast House. If Senk is "just" a daemon or daemonhost, your players will readily write off his actions and what he did, e.g. he was a daemon, they do horrible things all the time. If he is a Dark Elder, he's a filthy Xeno, they do horrible things all the time.

He's a human. Just a human. The Senks have been running the Beast House for generations out of mind. Yes, they worship an aspect of Khorne, yes Xathreth the Hunter has granted Solkarn certain gifts...

But in the end, he's human and that is the true horror.

I have to say I agree with T S Luikart on this one. My personal choice would be to have him human.

Also Varnias a note on 'canon' genestealer procreation. They don't actually procreate with people like people, they implant their genetic materail into them through an oviposter located in the tip of their tongue. This then alters their victims dna, spawning a hybrid human/genestealer. The victim then becomes a thrall to their monstrous child, procreating themselves as much as possible as well as bringing people into the cult which will begin to form around their activities. So no genestealer ****, though you could do it with a hybrid.

Please excuse the pendantry as it is the only thing I can cling to avoid gaining that insanity point

DivinatorVictus said:

Yes I know, but im deviating from canon with that particular aspect and the reason for that is that I want to stick true to the inspirational roots of the genestealers (namely the creatures from the alien movies). Let's face it, Genestealers are basically a more "kid-friendly" version of xenomorphs. While H.R Gigers vision was both spectacular and disturbing, it had way too many sexual overtones to be apporpriate for the brunt of Games Workshop's demographic of customers (namely boys in their pre-teens to teenage), so the Genestealers were a good improvisation. They had that "alien movie"-feel and were reasonable as monsters go, but somewhat lacked the artistic sophistication that H.R Giger's alien had. I want to bring a sort of disturbing level of sophistication to the genestealers that will be involved in my campaign, and if that means I have to stretch the canon a bit to fit my ideas then so be it.

Still, it's not really a long stretch. It isn't mentioned anywhere exactly how long this "implantation procedure" takes, nor does it say anything about exactly how violent this procedure is, and considering the fact that genestealers have huge clawed hands I'd suspect that however or wherever they insert their ovipostor into their victims, the process would most likely be painful, invasive and disgusting.

Quite simply, if I want to portray genestealers as rapists I can do it, without having to stray too much from canon at all. In fact I think it might be one of my better GM-related ideas (although cerainly one of the most disturbing ones), since it makes the genestealers all the more appalling than they were before.

//Varnias Tybalt - who enjoy's being generous with insanity points and knows how to aim in order to disgust

Locque said:

I kind of like the dark hunter concept too. A man who has hunted everything over the years that can be hunted. He might have been a legendary Xenos Inquisitor but for a quirk of fate that never brought him to the Inquisition's attention. I'd play him as something of a kindred spirit to the Order Xenos, not an ally, but to look at him is to look into a mirror darkly. A man driven by a xenos hatred so intense, so bitter, that when he was almost killed (and not just a close call, but literally taken to the brink of death, looked into the cold, souless "eyes" of the xenos, and felt real terror) it turned into an obsession, and from there into a twisted sort of love.

Any xenos tech that has extended his life is his rightful trophy. His life, perhaps his very soul put on the line in each hunt, such... trinkets... are only fitting. Only species that he himself has hunted and/or captured are permitted in the beast house. In his obsession, he saw a beauty in the xenos, the way one can watch a shark feed, completely inhuman, and see beauty. He also sees his own obsession in the hearts of men around him, and thus shares the thrill, nay, the terror of these beings with those who understand, those who wish to feel alive.

His greatest prey? His trophy of trophies? It's not the dark eldar helms, the xenos trinkets wrenched from mortis-tight grasp. It's not the chipped and battered chitin armor that clad the Tyranid he fell. Nor is it the scalp of a master psyker, or the massive bolt pistol carried by the Space Marine that put him into traction for the better part of a year. In his office sits a sarcophagus. Warded and ancient, it looks like it'd take a team of men to throw the massive hinged shell open. Inside, visible only through a slit in the face of the sarcophagus, is a human, unconsious and pale. Stubby horns grow from his forehead into the darkness, and beneath the warded metal lays layers of chain, wards etched into flesh, and prayers and devotions, yards of them, on narrow parchment, wrapping the figure almost like a mummy.

It may have cost Senk his soul, indeed he feels the corruption within him perhaps, but the most dangerous prey of all has fallen to him. When he figures out how to contain his trophy, like any other creature, he will show those of his mind a beauty beyond any that can be imagined.

Okay, I just read more on the Beast House.

I still dig my hunter idea, but I might change a few minor things. The inner court is a collection of truly sick f*cks who each try to one-up themselves and the "old man" with their creations and their arrangements of the macabre. They use xenos tech acquired by "hunting trips" that Senk has embarked on, although for most of the *really* good hunts, Senk goes alone, and claims the trophies, alone. He always seems to outdo his inner court through sheer simplicity. A murder golem is well and good, but how on earth can one man, with a small team of porters/tamers, bring back a carnifex? Senk doesn't say, but merely challenges his inner court to reach deeper and dream more. To him, they are something like students who don't quite see through his eyes yet. They haven't been taken to the brink, where there isn't even any life, just simple, primal terror and the xenos. So he tests them, encourages them, pushes and prods them until they one day might reach the same place he has seen. It has killed many of them throughout the years, but Senk is patient.

To the inner court, Senk is the boss, but more importantly he's something of the human, and especially male, drive for gore and destruction, and manifest destiny. To some, he's the proof that no matter how henious the xenos, no matter how foul the golem or the construction, man will hunt it, and man will eventually kill it. He's also the pass on the lack of morality. He has done such henious things in his life, that anything the inner court does seems pale in comparison. But Senk and the court do not actually understand each other, or perhaps Senk understands them too well. Perhaps, realizing that man is the ultimate beast, the ultimate preaditor, he's crafting the inner court to be the ultimate prey. Or perhaps he's reached a pure abstraction of his obsession between predator and prey, and is actively elevating himself to becoming the ultimate single predator, and his inner court the hunters to finally attempt to hunt him down one day.

There's something quite horrific about that, and something quite... alien in that thought process. Not xenos, just... alien... not human. I wouldn't play him as obviously insane, I'd play him dead-pan straight, completely in control of his reality (his reality is just really, really f*cked up).

ARGH! I just typed out about a page and a half about what I'm doing with Solkarn and my firefox crashed and can't restore the page :@

Well, long story short:

He's a human, who has his spirit contained within his necklace, it has finger bones hanging from it Whoever wears the necklace will eventually be taken over by Solkarn, leaving the original wearer to wither away and die. He's running the beast house to smuggle a vast variety of Xenos beasts into the Calixis sector at the behest of the witch who made the necklace for him. But what she wants the aliens for is unknown.....

Strangely, i'd suggest him as a man just like you want to put him as......exept when you finnaly fight him he has a personalized sentinel walker equiped with xenos tech (adding to his heresy) and he fights the alcolytes in one of hte beast house arenas. I would suggest someway, to give your alcolytes many chances to get a lascannon (man-portable, u now for u dummies out there) as for how this happens, why, and what happens afterwards is up to you

Farax Isan said: