Hi there,

I need some help to find a goal to the last room of my corrupted starship for my campaign.
Plot is simple cause my players are newbies, the KT must recover a book hidden in a lost starship recently appeared in real space.

Here the red line : after long and strange corridors (hallucinations, etc...), the KT emerge in a big hall where they can choose their way in the starship. The owner of the book is hidden in a room blocked by warp energies. The KT have to destroy the most deamonic enteties as possible to reduce and destroy the psychic fence. To do this, they have to explore the corrupted hulk. Each deamon has a psychic valu. By this, I can evaluate how many deamons they need to kill before the fence is breached.

I've made 7 rooms actually :

1. The Hall (hordes+elite)
2. The Reclusiam (where the book lies+elites+hordes+Boss)
3. The Laboratorium (elites)
4. The Generatorium (safe room)
5. The Refectorium (elites+horde)
6. ???
7. The Astra Tower (elites)

But I miss one room between the Refectorium where pink horrors and flammers will spawn, and the Astra Tower where fly some screamers of Tzeentch.
I thought of a flooded zone, but I don't know what to put in there...

That's all. Thanks for reading me.

Sounds good. Hmm, want a complication or a possible aid for the players? Nurgle forces show up to piss on the tzeentch cultists plans, so the players could get caught in the middle, attacked by foth fporces or let them fight till one wins and attack the weakened winner. Big debate over whether or not the latter counts as using chaos itself. Someone might mutter darkly about cowardice or heresy. Other NPCs could respect the players for their sense.

A Librarium is very Tzeentchian.

Or maybe:

Armory

Maybe have the KT get acces to a daemon weapon (and then devolve into arguments about wether or not using it is heresy.)

Medicae ward

With corrupted medical servitors and more of that fun stuff.

Cargo hold

Vast. Empty. Except for a few boxes marked "Experimental earth."

Observatory

Looks out directly into space (maybe something is out there.) or warp space. (Better close your eyes or go insane!)

Hall of mirrors/ M.C. Esher staircase/ Something that looks like it was designed by H.R. Giger.

It's a ship corrupted by Tzeentch; there's bound to be some seriously wacky sureal and creepy locations that are twisted beyond anything people expect. You know: corridor, corridor, cargo hold, corridor, upside down room made out of crystal...

A Librarium is very Tzeentchian.

A Librarium, of course !

Simpler is better.

Got already a deamon weapon in the Astra Tower by the way. But I can create some mind fuc%*& library aboard the ship, moreover, it will be a good place to search a book right ? And a good spot for Tzeentch to trap the KT.

Thanks a lot folks !

A dining area where the former crew is served in a variety of ways.

An art gallery featuring works that change in relation to the person viewing them. Hmm, marines may see works featuring them in their lives if they had not been marines, perhaps with a wife, children, home, loving family, etc. Possibly invoking extreme emotions from them. Maybe works showing the marines as nothing but pawns of an indifferent emperor and a corrupt, dying imperium.

A dining area where the former crew is served in a variety of ways.

An art gallery featuring works that change in relation to the person viewing them. Hmm, marines may see works featuring them in their lives if they had not been marines, perhaps with a wife, children, home, loving family, etc. Possibly invoking extreme emotions from them. Maybe works showing the marines as nothing but pawns of an indifferent emperor and a corrupt, dying imperium.

Very neat idea, First one is very Slaaneshi, but I like.

How about a rec room where they find a game table set up with lot's of minatures, of space marines and orks...No? To meta? How about Blood bowl? Ok I'll stop

How about a game table with a map of the ship and miniatures of the player characters and tipped over miniatures of what they'd already killed. See if smart players look at the map and take notes. Bonus points for whoever keeps their miniature.

Possibly a box with minautres of Tzreentchian forces? If a player smashes them, they don't face them later on. But the characters are left with a feeling they are nothing but pawns in a game, possibly giving them insanity points.

How about a game table with a map of the ship and miniatures of the player characters and tipped over miniatures of what they'd already killed. See if smart players look at the map and take notes. Bonus points for whoever keeps their miniature.

Possibly a box with minautres of Tzreentchian forces? If a player smashes them, they don't face them later on. But the characters are left with a feeling they are nothing but pawns in a game, possibly giving them insanity points.

LOL yes! Now I'd have my character pick up the minature of our assault marine and place it in the astra tower room on the map. Hopefully teleporting the actual marine straight on our objective.*

*Then again if I was GMing this game that would not work.

GM: "As you place the blood angel model on the map a giant ectoplasmatic hand grabs Brother Sangreal, crushing his armor as he is lifted into the air!"

Player: "Ooops! Ok how about I carefully pick up the space wolf model..."

Nice twisted ideas over here ! I like it.

To be honest I planned the Refectorium to be a place where a big painting was placed on an entire wall. These painting is in fact some abominable cluster of illusions where disturbed forms seem like to pop out the picture.
After a certain time, pink horrors and flamers of Tzeentch will indeed burst into the Refectorium attacking the KT for real.

I made my choice, the last room will be a Librarium, I dunno why I didn't think about it but thanks a lot again dude !
Within it I thought of a kind of labyrinthine place, where orientation and logic are fu#$? up. The KT will have to be careful and not listen too much the screaming voices flying in the air.
I'll see how many minutes/hours they will search for the next door ah ah.

But where I need some help too is may be concerning the great corridors the KT have to cross at their entrance in the ship. What kind of stuff can occur to them in corridors ?
I mean, no big deal but enough to set up the atmosphere of the theme : corrupted ship by uncle Tzeentch ?

These are some of the more normal ones, stuff could happen on a normal ship.

Hall of mirrors: Not something you expect and they make players wonderfully paranoid. What if the reflections are somehow different or wrong? What if they reflect back horrible parodies of the onlooker? What if some mirror entity crawls out?*

*Honestly I'm fully expecting the players to expect that last bit and start shooting them all to bits as soon as you say "You see a corridor lined with mirrors..."

Filled with fog: Not actual fog (or maybe?) but harmless* steam or vapor. It's probaly leaking from some ruptured pipes or broken atmospheric cleanser somewhere. Then again there could be things hiding in it.

* If there's a Space wolf in the KT, tell him it smells "odd".

Jump scare: A piece of ceiling/ vent/grill/ loose hatch falls open unexpectedly, or an automated sentry gun suddenly deploys* and does nothing. That should get the players nice and riled up.

* You can have normal sentry guns aswell. Something amongst the lines of a heavy flamer/ multilaser/storm bolter.

Mysterious jump scare: As above, but have something odd fall out or be revealed. (It can be just about anything, let's call it "object X") It's just there to make the players wonder. And when they kill whoever is guarding that book, have it's last words be: " You have seen object x! That was all that needed to happen. Tzeentch will be pleased ." this should make the players feel like they are pawns in an insane game they can't hope to comprehend.*

* "Object X" really isn't special. It's just Tzeentch being nonsensical with his superconvaluted plans, as usual.

Ok, now we're getting into the more bizarre stuff:

The black sands of Istvan V: * The corridor is filled knee high with corse black sand. Here and there are scattered pieces of bone and armor. If the players examine them they'll recognise the bones as remains of space marines and the armor fragments as bearing the heraldry of the (pre heresy) Iron Hands, Raven guard and Salamanders. While they remain in the corridor they can hear strange whispers and their voxlinks are suddenly filled with the noise of battle and anguised cries of betrayal who call out for help or roar in pain and anger.

This is of course all a reference to the dropsite massacres on Istvan V, during the horus heresy. Not something one expects in a corridor in a space ship.

*Use only if one or more of the players know a bit about the horus heresy (maybe they've read the books) Otherwise I'd just drop it.

The hall of fire: The walls, ceiling (and floor) are covered with multicolored flames.* Here are some options:

• Strange and disturbing images can be seen in the flames (characters see themselves parodied, or dying)
• Real flames! The characters take damage, how much is up to the GM.
• Warpfire! The characters take corruption points, how much is up to the GM.

* it's also a good place to have them encounter some Flamers of Tzeentch.

The tunnel of flesh: The corridor has been mutated so it's walls floor and ceiling resemble quivering living flesh. Viscous fluids drip from the walls and ceiling. Eyes and teeth jut from the walls.*

* If any player mentions that this is supposed to be a Tzeentchian ship, not a Slaanesh/ Nurgle one, feel free to summon a few Daemonettes/ Plaguebearers and have them attack that player's character.

Weird stuff, part 2 (electric boogalo)

A dark illusion: In a dimly lit corridor the KT notices figures (same number as player characters) at the other end. As they move closer they see another kill team squad, each one helmeted and bearing the same chapter icons as the PCs. * If the PCs try to talk to them, the mysterious figures, either:

1. Vanish in a cloud of black fog, and they hear hideous laughter mocking them.
2. Decompose into rotting skelletons who then vanish
3. Transform into chaos spawn that vanish when attacked.
4. Transform into chaos marine versions of the PCs that vanish when attacked.
5. Transform into Pink Horrors that vanish when attacked.

This should be a good way to let the pc's waste a few shots of ammo.

* Chances are the players are already shooting at them by this point.

Endless corridor: The corridor seems to stretch for miles and no matter how much they walk, the other end doesn't seem to come any nearer. after a few turns/rounds not getting anywhere, there's an odd popping sound, the effect ends and the PCs can move normally again.*

* End the effect when it stops being funny .

The whisper halls: While in the corridor, the PCs can hear whispers in their ears/ garbled messages on their voxlinks. One at a time, take some players seperate and tell them what they hear. Pick from the following sugestions* (or make up your own)

• " Beware! <other PC> is a traitor! Watch out for him!"
• "<other PC>" is acting strange. Watch him well."
• "Iron within Iron without!" (best used on an Imperial Fist character)**
• "The others doubt your loyalty..."
• " The other's believe you to be a traitor, best act fast!"
• "There's a traitor on your Kill team You must root him out."
• "Operative Alpharius237, prepare for upcomming mission upload. Hydra Dominatus! " **
• "This is Inquisitor Eisenhorn! There is a traitor on your team. Abandon the mission at once!"
• "There's no future but what we make."
• " I am Samus. Samus is the man besides you. Watch out! Samus is here."
• "Nothing."
• "Darkness there and nothing more!"
• "Beware the next corridor." (and then have that corridor be absolutly normal with nothing happening.)
• "Trust no one, trust not even yourself. It's better to die in vain than live as an abomination."
• The Black shield belongs to an excomunicated chapter." ***

* This should get all your players nice and paranoid.

** Only use it on a player who knows a bit about the Iron warriors/ Alpha legion.

*** Obviously use only if there's a Black shield on the KT.

The luminecent pool: The corridor is filled waist high with strange murky water. It constantly changes color and strange lights can be seen under the surface. If any PC sticks his head under water or tries to investigate the strange lights, spawn some enemy and have it attck them.

Some silly ones: because it's getting late and sometimes a little humor goes a long way in the grimdark of 40k.

Movie reference: The KT encounters a pink horror. It imediatly changes it's color to green and yells: "Away with your weapons! I mean you no harm!" Then it either vanishes or attacks.

The gingerbread corridor: The walls are made of gingerbread, control studs are candy, collums are made of candycane. and the air is filled with multicolred lights. * Maybe add some corpses to the corridor for a more disturbing effect.

* this is probaly the last thing the players expect. They either get paranoid or throw their dice at you, use

at your own risk.

• Hall of mirrors, ah ! They'll shoot without questioning, too obvious.
• Sands of Istvaan is definitely a great idea, I'll put it for sure !
• Tunnel of flesh is a good one to put the KT uncomfortable.
• Dark illusion with spawning stuff is also a great deal, I like it, dices will decide.
• I already though of whispers, but rising them one against the other is maleficent ! Love it.

Thanks a lot !

When you've run the game, could you please post some highlights,when it's done? I'm currious how long it will take them to start shooting at the dark illusions.

Have fun!

When you've run the game, could you please post some highlights,when it's done? I'm currious how long it will take them to start shooting at the dark illusions.

Have fun!

I will but the first session is not for tomorrow.

Here's a weird complication: Captured imperial loyalists who have resisted corruption up to now. Supose you have a captured psyker who has resisted tzeentch's corruption, or an actual saint tzeentch has captured and is trying to corrupt? Maybe an inquisitor? Some isolated section of the ship that has held out, protected by faith in the emperor and powerful hexagrammic wards?

Here's a weird complication: Captured imperial loyalists who have resisted corruption up to now. Supose you have a captured psyker who has resisted tzeentch's corruption, or an actual saint tzeentch has captured and is trying to corrupt? Maybe an inquisitor? Some isolated section of the ship that has held out, protected by faith in the emperor and powerful hexagrammic wards?

Or an adepta sororita? According to the canon, not a single sister has fallen so far.

The question of course is: will the pc's believe the loyalist is not corrupted?

Inquisitor Chastity Puresoul: "No wait! I'm loyal! I'm not tainted by chaos!"

Kill team: *BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! FWOOOOOOSHHHhhhh!*

Inquitor Hardnose Von Basterd: "Innocence proves nothing."*

*actual inquisitorical dogma.

Here's a weird complication: Captured imperial loyalists who have resisted corruption up to now. Supose you have a captured psyker who has resisted tzeentch's corruption, or an actual saint tzeentch has captured and is trying to corrupt? Maybe an inquisitor? Some isolated section of the ship that has held out, protected by faith in the emperor and powerful hexagrammic wards?

How about they find this missing inquisitor, locked in a dark cell, and the guy slowly gets up and in a steady voice sais:

"The changer of ways holds no sway over me. I abhor the trickster, the witch and the psyker. I am imune tho his deception and sorcerer tricks."

And then he pulls back his robes revealing a collar of Khorne,and he has the blood gods rune carved in his chest...

BFTBG time!

Here's a weird complication: Captured imperial loyalists who have resisted corruption up to now. Supose you have a captured psyker who has resisted tzeentch's corruption, or an actual saint tzeentch has captured and is trying to corrupt? Maybe an inquisitor? Some isolated section of the ship that has held out, protected by faith in the emperor and powerful hexagrammic wards?

Or an adepta sororita? According to the canon, not a single sister has fallen so far.

The question of course is: will the pc's believe the loyalist is not corrupted?

Inquisitor Chastity Puresoul: "No wait! I'm loyal! I'm not tainted by chaos!"

Kill team: *BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! FWOOOOOOSHHHhhhh!*

Inquitor Hardnose Von Basterd: "Innocence proves nothing."*

*actual inquisitorical dogma.

An interesting twist here is they go to fire and their weapons malfunction. Is the emperor protecting his devout daughter or is it some malign influence? The will of the emporer is real in 40k and can make things happen. Suppose they fire at her and a divine aura protects her? Emperor or something bad? Of their emperor sanctified weapons fail, again is that the will of the emperor? Do they trust her after this "miracle"? Is she really a saint or is the GM just being a real prick?

Here's a weird complication: Captured imperial loyalists who have resisted corruption up to now. Supose you have a captured psyker who has resisted tzeentch's corruption, or an actual saint tzeentch has captured and is trying to corrupt? Maybe an inquisitor? Some isolated section of the ship that has held out, protected by faith in the emperor and powerful hexagrammic wards?

Or an adepta sororita? According to the canon, not a single sister has fallen so far.

The question of course is: will the pc's believe the loyalist is not corrupted?

Inquisitor Chastity Puresoul: "No wait! I'm loyal! I'm not tainted by chaos!"

Kill team: *BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! FWOOOOOOSHHHhhhh!*

Inquitor Hardnose Von Basterd: "Innocence proves nothing."*

*actual inquisitorical dogma.

An interesting twist here is they go to fire and their weapons malfunction. Is the emperor protecting his devout daughter or is it some malign influence? The will of the emporer is real in 40k and can make things happen. Suppose they fire at her and a divine aura protects her? Emperor or something bad? Of their emperor sanctified weapons fail, again is that the will of the emperor? Do they trust her after this "miracle"? Is she really a saint or is the GM just being a real prick?

She's a witch with the machine curse power. and an Alpha Legion operative.

Everyone is Alpha Legion

Yeah that's the fun of 40k, somethingis protecting her, but who or what...

When you've run the game, could you please post some highlights,when it's done? I'm currious how long it will take them to start shooting at the dark illusions.

Have fun!

I will but the first session is not for tomorrow.

Soooo, first session done with my 2 players, 3 hours of game and it was meh ...

The thread was :

1. Entering the Hulk via Corridors
2. Encountering illusions in Corridors
3. Crossing an esoteric portal in a medium room
4. Landing in the big Hall of the ship

I made, like advised, a table with 6 possibilities concerning illusions and for me it was really quick and effective to use that tool to tell them what the illusions did. Thanks again for the tips.

There were 3 Astartes, in queue formation, the Leader first (NPC), the Apo' next, then the Tac'.

When I told them about 3 strange figures ahead in the corridor, the Tac instantly fired !

But roll a wonderful 98...

Thus the Apo' take the bolt right in the left elbow, incapacitating his arms badly... The Apo' healed himself before proceeding. It was the first illusion encounter.

Then a second and a third. They shot every time I described them the new apparition. So I decided to stop after the third apparition, smelling the boredom...

Finally, they reached the portal which lead them to the Hall and the rest of the game was good enough for us.

After every session I ask my players feedbacks, always. If my descriptions were good enough, if I leave them sufficient time and space to act, bla, bla, bla.

I made every maps, I gave them audio sample for the ship's ambiance and my script was well prepared, I was kind of satisfied of my work.

The only feedback was : "intersection corridors with encounters were very clichés , your narration was good but we have not done much during 3 hours you know..."

So may be I talk too much and I paralyze their initiate to act in the game ? In an other hand it was just 3 hours and we're all together rookies.

What are you thinking ? It's really hard for me to give you a realistic point of view of the session, but I did my best. In addition, english is not my native language, so I beg your pardon if I'm not clear enough.

I've to work harder about the flow of my narration but the atmosphere was totally present and for a first session it's a good point IMO.

LOL shoot questions first, ask questions never. I was half expecting that. Now I don't know your group ofcourse, I'm guessing they prefer combat and getting things done (capturing objectives and stuff). It's Always a balance between the GM wanting to create a wonderfull setting and the players wanting to kick ass and take loot. (That's why I don't GM in my group, that and other things... )

If it's location - illusion corridor- location- illusion corridor it can become a bit samey I guess. I'd drop the illusions for a bit, "Tzeentch is done playing with y'all!" And best not do that eteranal corridor one I came up with, that's gonna actuall piss them off.

I'd give them some more combat. I hope you guys had fun.

"Cliché" heh. The very last word we would use around our old GM. Last time we said the game was cliché he brought out HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) for the next game session, and that blew our minds.

"Cliché" heh. The very last word we would use around our old GM. Last time we said the game was cliché he brought out HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) for the next game session, and that blew our minds.

Sorry, but I can't get your last sentence. What's human occupied landfill ? What does it mean in the context ?

"Cliché" heh. The very last word we would use around our old GM. Last time we said the game was cliché he brought out HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) for the next game session, and that blew our minds.

Sorry, but I can't get your last sentence. What's human occupied landfill ? What does it mean in the context ?

Ah sorry, forgot to explain. It's an obscure RPG from the 90's our old GM had picked up somewhere. I'm gonna link you to the review https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12895.phtml because I by myself can't do it justice.

To view it in context; Dungeons and dragons is a normal RPG. Vampire the masqureade is a normal RPG. Even Senzar is a normal RPG, except that it's a power gamers dream and a bit broken. HoL on the other hand is the 90's (think beavis and butthead, Nirvana and skating) in book form. It's written in this weird scribble hand drawn letters and full of these weird characters and completly insane setting, and it blew our minds.

So here's what happened:

It happened a long while ago so I forgot a lot of details, but we had just finished a gme session (I think it was vampire, but I'm not sure.) and some one of the group brings up that we beat the story easily, because it was so cliché you could predict the actions of the NPCs. Then our GM goes, "Sorry, I can't help that, but I got this new game, if you guys wanna try that next week."

So next week he shows up with HoL. And w eall get to leaf trough the book, and we're all "dafuq is this?" And David goes: "Ok how do you create a character?" and our old GM goes: "There are no rules for character creation, but there are premade characters." " Now everyone roll off to see who get's stuck with the pedo priest !" (not something you wanna hear your GM say, and yes there is a creepy priest character in that book.)

So we messed around (and I do mean "messed around" because there's no sane way of actually playing this thing.) with this insane parody of an RPG for an afternoon untill we unanomously decided to go back to "normal" RPGs the next week. And ever since "cliché" became a word not spoken often in our group, as everytime there might excist the chance it would cause our GM to spring another batshit insane RPG on us.

For all it's weirdness Hol does have my favorite skill of all games I have ever played: "Making sharp metal things go trough soft things that scream and bleed." or as a normal game would put it "close combat skill".

So that's the story of Hol and why we would never call something cliché when our GM was around to hear it. (hope you enjoyed it. )