Last session.....arrgh.

Okay here's the situation. In last night's game bad perils roll causes PC acolyte to go daemonhost. Only other person present was Inquisitor. Inquisitor not willing to just kill daemonhost or let stay in possession of acolyte (largely b/c the inquisitor needs that particular acolyte as bait for capturing a much more powerful daemon which acolyte had previously made a pact with).

So the Inquisitor (who is a sorcerer, although none of the acolytes knew this before last night) uses the major arcana Daemon Wrack to force a control test, beats the daemon by many DOS on the opposed willpower and forces the daemon out of the acolyte.

However, I was left trying to decide about the physical changes inflicted by the Daemonhost transformation. Would they remain, would they just vanish when the daemon left, etc. As this whole incident was result of perils roll gone bad I really hadn't thought this out in advance.

So what I came up with on the fly was have the acolyte make a toughness/willpower mutation test for each change, if sucessful it goes away with daemon.

He sucessfully made 4 out of 5. What he was left with was wings.

Now I need to decide whether the Inquisitor will let him keep the wings or make the acolyte have them surgiucally removed. Also if I let him keep them, I need to decide whether to make them functional, how restrictive to be on governing the game mechanics for attempts to conceal them, etc. etc.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Surgical removal would be the way to go. Sporting warp induced wings is beyond mutation. I mean it's not like they must be "batwings" or something so mundane. For all we know they could be horrible looking flesh tendrils with aethyric membranes in between that "sails" the currents of the warp.

The Imperium is only cool with wings if your name is Sanguinus. Is his name Sanguinus? If not, best report to the chop-shop.

SJE said:

Never heard it put so right and simple.

First up, consider giving the acolyte a chance to get some Forbidden Lore skills to represent having a brief stint of sharing his mind with a daemon. That's what the Exorcised option in the Radical's Handbook is going to do (or so I hear), and you get to give the poor bastard another reason to wake up in the middle of the night screaming in terror.

As for the wings? If they're going to allow him, a fully grown man, to achieve flight then they're going to be big old things (unless you want to go with "the warp works funny," in which case he'll probably shine like a black light beacon whenever anyone makes a Psyniscience check within a few dozen meters of him). Concealing them will be a no-go, I expect, or at least make the acolyte's life alot more difficult that it is already. Doubly so if some puritanical nutjob starts asking why one of his acolytes is a dirty **** mutant. Besides, if the Inquisitor wanted him to fly he'd have anti-grav machines implanted in him. Give them the chop.

The Imperium is only cool with wings if your name is Sanguinus. Is his name Sanguinus? If not, best report to the chop-shop.

Living saints may or may not also have wings.

Well in the IH the starting package "A Shadow over Thy Soul" already gives you Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) so he should probably end up with that. And the wings have to go unless he wants to be flamed by... just about anyone, really.

Though it would be amusing to have him captured by another Inquisitor and hung by his wings while the heresy was tortured out of him.

Yes, the wings must go if the pc doesn't want the above and worse to happen.

Other effects ... give him forbidden lore, certainly. Perhaps grant him an ability to sense demonic presences in a radius if he makes a successful WP check. Nightmares are certain - perhaps even Night Terrors (which make nightmares look like lollypops ... trust me, I know) for the rest of his life. The demon which possessed him might now begin to harass him and follow him wherever he goes ... just waiting for another slip and whispering to him in quiet moments ... whatever the case, he should have an eternal connection to that demon now, which could make for some great plot devices.

Lose the wings unless it is something the player realy wants - I would make them some sort of warp invocation so that they weren't on his back all the time if he did.

I would let him keep some of the daemons memories (forbidden lore) and I would also give the daemon some of his memories. Maybe the next unexplained death will be a bully at school that the player remembers. Then an aunt who was mean to him.

The Daemon could be like the "Red John" character in the Mentalist TV program. Killing people that the character knows to torment him.

I would also make the character similar to Baron hopes. The PC's blood makes the Daemon vulnerable.

Moff8 said:

Or Dragonheart style. For the daemon to die the character must die (for his corrupted mind carries some of its essence). Insert Ordo Malleus to hunt the character (after an investigation into connections between several murders - perhaps even important figures with the daemon abusing the character's knowledge of the Inquisition). Play out the part where your Inquisitor needs the character alive while another wants him dead.

Oh and the wings must go.

Not much left of the daemon - the Inquisitor saw to that, a truely pissed off master telepath is a terrible thing to see.

Ended up going with wings surgically removed via chainsaw.