Thinking of an adventure for Friday night.

Basis for the adventure is the PC's have been picked up by a ship returning with wounded from an Imperial Guard action on some other planet. During the stay the PC's become aware of a Psyker being kept on ice in a secure location. They discover that the Psyker was healing the badly injured in a MASH unit when it appears he was taken by a Daemon. The Psykers guard noticed something out of sorts and immediately tried to kill the Psyker. A battle ensued and with the aid of a chaplain the Psyker was taken down. The Psyker was tested and found to have no trace of taint but the Psykers body has been left with four arms and four legs so the chaplain insisted that the Psyker be kept in cold storage for the journey back.

The trouble starts when the Psyker is almost killed in his cold sleep. It is obviously sabotage but initially it might not appear that out of the ordinary - who wouldn't think of just killing him. Later a headless body will be found. Some of its limbs will also have been removed but only one of the limbs will be missing.

The story will be that the Daemon sensed the Chaplain and installed a little piece of itself in a number of the guardsmen it healed. An arm here a leg there and then a last piece fled from the Psyker back to the warp. It now follows the ship and is manipulating the guardsman to hunt and kill one another until "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE" which will then try to disrupt the void shields and become whole. With each body part each acquires the surviving individual becomes stronger.

I was thinking of clues I could leave for the PC's so that they eventually realise what is happening. All bodies have been killed by removing the head. The daemon doesn't want to damage the part it is hosted in. All attacks are head shots and use melee weapons. The daemon itself has no head so that is a safe target.

note: warp taint after each killing gets stronger/easier to detect by another Psyker. The winner removes the body parts until he discovers which one has the bit he needs.

Psyker almost killed by pulling a power cable - it should have killed the person doing it. - tech use check
first body will have no identifying marks, both arms and a leg removed, right leg missing - no marks because of Psyker healing
second body right Arm missing but remaining arm has a IG tattoo - Skill? to identify regiment
third body has the same tattoo as the second body and only the left leg has been removed and is missing - skill? to link the two men to dead Psyker - not in same regiment but next each other in MASH

some more skill checks??

7? vid of two mutants fighting, one with three arms and another with four legs. After beheading the loser the winner removes one of the arms and sticks it to himself at which point the room is filled with a warp discharge and the vid is broken. Monster now has 3 arms and 4 legs. Only an arm is missing. Somewhere on the ship is the last piece of the puzzle. The creatures have probably been hiding down below hunting one another but the last man may be resisting/protected by the Psyker in cold storage.

etc until we have a walking monstrosity with 4 arms and 4 legs. If it manages to pull the void shield down - it joins with the last piece - doubles in size - rips off its own head, revealing a toothed maw surrounded by teeth and several eyes. It then goes on a rampage.

I see there are a few ways this could go - they take out two or three of the lesser creatures, find the last man and void him or lastly take out the big bad in an interesting place to have a battle on ship.

I see the ship as similar to a WWII submarine - dark corridors - exposed pipes - having to squeeze by people on a regular basis. Using skills for moving quickly through crowds etc would be tested. Heavy armour would be constricting except on the upper decks.

Any ideas for improvement or clues I could leave for the PC's appreciated.

"no trace of taing" and "four arms and four legs" contradict each other.

As does "was taken by a daemon" and "caputedt alive" does.

At least, to me

By no trace of taint I meant that there was no trace of the Daemon inside the Psyker when tested. There was visual evidence of the fact there had been in the extra limbs though.

The Psyker was taken over by the Daemon / posessed and then it hid itself in the various bodyparts it was healing on the guardsmen. The body of the Psyker started to deform to the point it was spotted by his guards. The fight ensued and what was left of the Daemon left the Psykers body. The Chaplain and the troops put the Psyker on ice.

Sorry if the original text didn't make sense - I was kind of jotting down ideas at work during my lunch.

First, what ever mutation you expect for the psyker, make it something less radical then "extra limbs". It is hard to believe that the IG will leave something like that alive instead of killing it outright. A suggestion: give him no extra organs at all. He simply was a "host". Perhaps he is mishappend know, muscles deformed (but not enlarged) and most of his sanity gone. And come up with a GOOD reason he is left alive. Perhaps he is the son of planetary governeur, and the the father demands as an "act of honour" to put out his son of his misery himself. (both as a "sentimental act" and to proof that he is an unequestianable loyal servant, dispite his sons "conditiion".

Second, you mention these "mutants" fighting each other for body parts. You explained that the demon spread itself on victims of the psyker had healed. And this mutants are the "wounded" who got healing from the pskyer.

So, you should start with "missing patients". Perhaps the captain knows who the pc are and asks them after more and more start to disappear. He believes that Ghalam/Hellghast take the patients. It looks like it, since patients are missing and there are open hatches to tunnels/ducts that lead into lower levels of the ship.

In truth, the "possessed" simply start to level first, crawling away from the "populated" areas (shunning attention). In the lower levels, they are drawn to each other (pretty highlander-style, this story of yours! Reeks of "Khorne" as well) and do battle.
However, do not give the any equipment besides things they scavenge in the low levels (pipes, fan parts etc). Patients in a hospital bed do not wear much clothes. Hack, give them just this "operation shirts". They will strip these of quickly, so your pc will be lead to the assumption that they are hunting for Ghilliam/Hullghasts. As they go down or read "Surveillance Skulls output" (got send down there after the inccidents) they might become a clue.

In addition, as more and more of them start missing, they will demand "guards for the patients". Simply declare that there are to many wounded... and make sure all of them are BADLY wounded so they are all in "induced coma", so no "eye witness" of the disappearances exist.

Perhaps they will wind up tracking a REAL Ghilliam (for thinking this are the culprits)...and this one will tell them that "those ´rre none of uzzz". After "fighting & killing" the first "HullGhast" they might notice IG regimental tatoos...pointing out that those mutants are infact the missing patients!

So, you will have real "twist" in the story. If the "under level" the "mutants" meet for battle are seedy and dirty, tracking skill could be used.

Thanks I think I will incorporate some of your ideas. Thanks for replying. If I think the adventure is any good I will type it up.

I added another slight detail. I was thinking of characters that would be in the medical unit and then thought of MASH - so my unit will be the Guard Advance Surgical Hospital or GASH for short. Full of ready made characters to draw on with names doctored (if you pardon the pun)

Moff8 said:

Since it has already been mentioned that the multiple limbs mutation and captured alive by IG is a bit unlikely and possible alternatives offered I figure I would focus on the big glaring setting issue with this story. You have the demon following the ship as it travels through the warp, which clearly it can do if it so desires. The problem is having the demon control the Guardsmen on a ship traveling through the warp while NOT onboard the ship... The Geller Field would utterly block this! And a sabotaged Geller Field generator would be bad too, since that just kills off (or worse!) everything onboard as the raw stuff of Chaos pours through the ship.

Suggestions:

1) Seriously tame down the mutations suffered by the Psyker-on-ice. Likewise come up with a GOOD reason for why a Psyker who was confirmed BY CLERGY as direct eyewitness to have been posessed by a demon to have not been executed ON THE SPOT as per normal IG and Departmento Munitorum policy. Even if the priest somehow took pity, it is unlikely that the Commisar did.

2) If the story requires the demon to be controlling the infected Guardsmen while it is in the warp then you need to put the demon onboard the ship somehow. Perhaps instead of the demon walking around in it's own form it was forced to assume the form of an unbound Demonhost. Or perhaps it has been a bound Demonhost all along, having staged the whole "possession" stunt as part of a plan to free itself?