Recent developments in the adventure I am running have led me towards thinking of sending some Mandrakes after the group. They've had a run in with the Cabal of Crimson Woe in the past due to Shades on Twilight, which I slotted into my campaign as a diversion for them. The current thought is to have the Mandrakes slip aboard the players ship in the same way as they got onto the Twilight, with what I presume was a warp gate of some kind. I was originally planning on a full-scale Dark Eldar attack, but further thought on it made me consider this to just be daft.

Instead a squad of mandrake will slip aboard the ship in an effort to assassinate the players and the senior crew. This should enable me to ramp up the fear rating a little more, and make it more RP based instead of plodding through lots of combat. The thing is I can't remember much about mandrakes from 40k, apart from their super-sneaky nature. So what sort of equipment should I be looking at, and what kind of weapons etc?

After poking through the Radical's Handbook I quite like the idea of them all wearing Eldar bodygloves with chameleoline coatings. If I go with the bodyglove from the core rules and simply make them best quality, this should make them very hard to detect with the chameleoline coating as well. Weapon wise a brutal mono-knife of some kind and splinter pistol seems the most logical, but I'm considering the garotte from the Radicals Handbook. I think that kit should make them fairly nasty, but hopefully not too nasty. I'm thinking of having them attempt to take care of the players in their sleep, a few will be detected as I have some light sleepers, who will probably be able to deal with the one's sent to take care of them before dealing with the ones attacking the other players. After that, preventing the other mandrakes from murdering key personel onboard the ship seems a good bet, and at this point I'd probably really play with their stealth abilities, having them apear to attack whoever is at the back, phantoms on the players auspexes etc.

Any other ideas would be welcome!

i have created a full set of stats for all the troop types and leader units of the Dark Eldar, they diverge from those created in Purge the Unclean. nastier.

for the Mandrakes I created them as this:

WS 45 BS 45 S 34 T 35 Ag 50(+10) Int 40 Per 45 WP 37 Fel 30

Movement: 5/10/15/30 Wounds: 14

Skills: Acrobatics, Awareness +10, Dodge, Drive - Hover/Skimmer +10, Pilot - Spacecraft +10, FL - Warp/Xenos, Inquiry, Interrogation +10, Intimidate +10, Navigation - Surface +10/ Space +10, Scrutiny, Search +10, Security +10, Shadowing +10, Silent Move +10, Survival +10, Tracking +10, Chem-Use +10, Decieve +10

Talents: Ambidextrous, Blind Fighting, Dark Soul, Pistol- Splinter, Exotic - Shredder pistol, Hard Target, Heightened Senses - All, Rapid Reaction, Resistance - Fear, Swift Attack, 2 Wpn Wielder - Ballistic and Melee

with the RT release I added Combat Sense and Melee - Universal

Traits: Unnatural Agility 2x, Fear 1

Armour: Xeno mesh - arms, body, legs locations 4 with a chameleon coating that performs as an advanced xenos version granting +25 to concealment tests. and can perform a Full move and still be considered at Extreme range for when being targeted by ranged weapons.

Weapons: Splinter Pistol Exotic 50M -/-/6 1D10R Pen 4 Clip 120 Rld Full Hail of Splinters/Bleeder/Reliable Wt 1kg mono attachment blades (knife)

Hail of Splinters: when fired, the Splinter Weapons gain the Tearing Quality owing to their sheer volume of fire.

Bleeder: the Dark Eldar have an affectation for poisons as such their splinters are treated with toxins to prevent coagulation and keep wounds bleeding freely. these rounds add 3 to the weapons damage against living 'biological' targets. Daemons and Machines do NOT count as such. see RT for more on this type of ammo.

splinter weapons are much nastier. i attempted to give the Dark Eldar a slightly more unique weapon perspective by not allowing their splinter rifles to have multiple firing modes. a squeeze of their xenos fingers hurls splinters. i also increased the Pen to 4, just because i felt the dark eldar are an extremely nasty bunch that realize they will combat all manners of enemies with better armour than what they have typical access to. also changed was the reload time was shortened. the Dk Eldar are raiders, a fast moving force that wouldn't seem to be bothered to create weapons that would hinder their ability to keep up a rapid consistent rate of fire.

the Killer Mandrake (call him a Master Mandrake is even nastier)

Shredder pistol . a version of the Warp Spider death spinner, it unleashes a web or mesh of monofilament wire often with miniscule barbs or serrations along its lines. this mesh entangles the victim, slicing them to pieces as they struggle. Its dense cloud is also highly effective at finding weak points in a vehicles armour.

Exotic Pistol 30M S/-/- 1d10+5R Pen 4 Clip 20 Rld Full Snare/Tearing/Flame Wt 2kg mono attachment blades (knife)

this weapon functions as a flamer in that it projects a cloud of monofilament out to the range of the weapon and has just one range. the wielder does not need to test Ballistic Skill, he simply fires the weapon. all creatures in the path of the shredder, a cone extending in a 30 degree arc from the firer to the weapons range, must make an Agility Test or be struck by the monofilaments and A. take damage as normal and B. become entangled in the net.if the target fails his Agility Test he becomes immobilised. the immobilised target can take no other action other than to try and free themselves. the only way to escape is to be cut free with a monoblade, powerblade, industrial shears etc. each round entrapped causes 1d5 points of damage.

I like to think of the Dark Eldar as having some of the nastiest weapons in existence. Hope u might be able to utilize this as you see fit.

the Mandrakes can act as a prelude to a full scale raid for the Kabal. their task being to identify and kill key personnel and cripple the vessel.

cheers