Daemon Vessel to Daemonhost

By BlkSabbath74, in Dark Heresy

This is on regard to the Daemon Vessel Elite Advance in the Radical’s Handbook.

If a player took this advance and later reached 100 points of corruption, how possible or plausible would it be for the character’s to bind the resulting Daemonhost.

We have a player character who is a Sanctioned Psyker, specializing as a Pyromancer, who might very well work for that. He has the Mind-Cleansed Background. He rolled Throne of Blood for that, and has hinted that his background is very dark, although he’s left it to us to create the specifics.

In terms of his character, he has loaded up on Forbidden Lore, grabs every book or manuscript he can get his hands on, and is not playing it sae in terms of corruption or insanity. I’d say he is a perfect candidate.

In terms of the player, he has a good understanding of the system but is NOT a power gamer. His role in the group is pretty much to use his Forbidden Lore skills to dredge up arcane information, and then to nuke things with his psychic powers. I could see his role as a Daemonhost being pretty similar, with the added bonus that he could roleplay his hatred of us and try to steer us off course.

So what would such a binding require?

They would need the Folio Diabolicus firstly. Secondly, they'd have to anticipate the Daemon's full manifestation and be ready to bind it. Then comes the Willpower test. Note that reading the book, preparing the binding and performing the binding causes 4d10+1d5 Corruption Points. Nobody is getting out of this uncorrupted.

Then there is the fact that their fellow Acolyte is gone . In his place is a vile beast. This beast hates them, lies to them, and will try to get them killed at every opportunity. It can't harm its master, but it can get him killed, or worse , through its own actions.

From a meta-game standpoint, how will the other players take to this eldritch horror hanging out with them? Assume it's not just some unclean spirit who will drink too much and vomit on the carpet, that most folks can deal with. What about a Plagebearer or a Bloodletter? Specific daemons have really bad behaviors or side effects that can be very hard to hide from outsiders.

Also, what is the relative power level between one acolyte and this players new daemon-infested form? Might there be some meta-game envy, jealousy or resentment? I do not know your players. You do. Weigh that against having the daemonhost around.

Obviously, in a novel or film , the binding would work, the daemon would become part of the plot, and it would all work out. That's what you have to shoot for... how would this go down in the movie?

Nearly impossible. The resulting daemonhost would be initially uncontrolled. The PCs would need to capture it, and then bind it. Given an unbound daemon host with a comrade's knowledge of the rest of the PCs it would be an extremely hard fight. Even bound the daemonhost's knowledge of the PCs would be dangerous in the extreme. Worse yet the daemonhost wouldn't emerge in a controlled circumstance, but most likely in the middle of a fight or other distraction. (The daemon would certainly attempt to setup the final corruption.)

As far as the player playing the PC. The player would need to play the daemonhost not as an ally or as his old PC but as a compelled slave plotting and scheming for the rest of the PCs corruption and/or deaths. Most player and groups are going to handle this well.

Good points, thanks.

Actually, I'm pretty sure our Sister Dialogus will probably go for the Exorcism option, now that I think about it...much easier.

Just keep in mind that Daemonhosts have really high willpower, especially unbound ones, so she'll be in for a really hard struggle if she chooses that path.

Of course. I will leave the course of action up to the players. They may very well just choose to destroy the Daemonhost, although that's not exactly easy either.

As I see it, they can either kill him, bind him or exorcise him. All three are viable, none are particularly easy.

Jephkay said:

They would need the Folio Diabolicus firstly. Secondly, they'd have to anticipate the Daemon's full manifestation and be ready to bind it. Then comes the Willpower test. Note that reading the book, preparing the binding and performing the binding causes 4d10+1d5 Corruption Points. Nobody is getting out of this uncorrupted.

Where can I find out more regarding the Folio Diabolicus? Is it included in the Radical's Handbook?