I left my group in a bit of a cliffhanger last time we played, and wondered if anyone had any ideas to help flesh out the last part of their adventure. They're last few outings investigative and not too combat heavy, so this one is more extreme than subtle and is a nice change of pace.

They had finally met up w/ a paranoid, high ranking member of a heretical organization (Serrated Query), impressed him w/ their cover as smugglers w/ a rare powerful warp artifact to sell (a pre-imperial warp/tech device), infiltrated and powered down his station's defences, and subdued him. However, they quickly learn he was holed away in seclusion to escape from a ship of Dark eldar pirates mad at him over a deal gone bad. Pirates who proceed to tractor aboard their craft a chunk of the room they're in and enjoy the spectacle of the group fighting a few orcs and aliens they keep aboard for their amusement. As they slip into the warp to Emperor knows where the final "gladiator" the eldar have prepared emerges: a tortured and under control space marine lost in a blind battle rage- an ally they thought lost aboard a space hulk. To top things off, the warp artifact they brought w/ them is responding to all the death and emotion around it and the raw warp starts to influence the eldar ship.

The acolytes free the marine from control, sniping off mind influencing probe in the back off his head. With his help and in the midst of the confusion of the warp influence, they pick up their prisoner and escape the 'arena'.

Now they're loose in an out of control eldar ship, full of enemies and under the influence of the warp. I think they'll meet up w/ a dark eldar slave who can guide them to different parts of the ship, and ultimately they'll figure out a way to escape the warp and the ship'll crashland on an out of the way world. What kind of encounters could they have in the meantime?

TL;DR: What kind of horrors can you think up that might be on a dark eldar ship, particularly one where demonic forces are invading the status quo? Any cool encounters you can think up? Non-combat situations, decisions, or ideas would be particularly useful. I was thinking there could be some opportunities to unleash the orc slaves on their masters, I know the group would love the chance to do that. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

FurtiveNoise said:

You mean on top of Dark Eldar who start to be possessed / mutated by the " raw stuff off the warp "? Not much, me thinks. Besides Incarnate Daemons of Slaanesh and Khorne.

- Warp Specters (see core rules) intruding and possesing slave and/or DarkEldar
- "Raw stuff of the warp" glinding visibily through the ship, turning onlookers insane and mutate Slaves and/or DarkEldar nearby rapidly.
- Resulting Chaos Spawns rampaging through the ship; best to be avoid/fled (remember the tried and true "to small opening" as a "save point.
- Orcs going completely "WAAAAAAAAGH!" attacking anything and everything "not green"
- Parts of the Ship "blending" with the warp, turning into alive daemon-machien-fusions & resisting "handling" (ever tried to look a door scratching &
biting you? Now, thing of accessing a cogiator system doing the same!)
- Loads of Insantiy & Corruption points for the pc. If RAW STUFF OF THE WARP will not ruin them, they will scoff at everything else afterward
"You are in the wrong place at the wrong time..."
- Races to differents parts of the ship as doors start to close since the DE try to seal some parts off for "containment".

But more important: What gettaway did you plan for your group from this hell of a situation? This info is kinda vital since if any "random encounters" damages / blocks the "only chance of escape", this ends in "new characters for all".

As I understand it, the ship is quickly becoming a battlefield for dark eldar, invading daemons and escaped ork slaves? Try giving players a chance to see the fight through and actually affect its outcome. Make it clear they won't be able to make it off the ship completely on their own - due to all the chaos onboard, alien design, obvious need for the crew to operate its many systems, whatever - and that they would need to find an "assistant" and earn his (her) trust.

These can be:

1. A dark eldar sybarite, who is trying to escape the Thirst of Slaanesh AND usurp his dracon's position as the ship master at the same time.

2. An ork boss intent on having a Waaagh! of his life right here right now no matter the cost.

3. An incarnate daemon eager to infiltrate the real space once all the fighting be over.

4. A captive Imperial Navy officer, miraculously still sane enough to pilot a spacecraft.

As for the encounters, the following comes to mind:

1. Haemonculus Laboratory. Not a pleasant place even in best of times, now it is corrupted by the warp and became a true house of horrors. Mutated Grotesques (try using DE profile ("Purge the Unclean" adventure book) with added Unnatural Toughness (x2) trait and 2-3 random Minor Mutations) and Warp Beasts roam its halls, fighting with emerging daemons and amongst themselves. Slave cages are turned inside out; flesh of former occupants fused with the bars, their mouths begging for release and eyes weeping blood instead of tears. Haemonculus himself is being slowly torn apart by his own devices of torture, which are obviously possessed by some kind of daemon(s).

2. Premium Slaves. A selection of premium-quality slaves is found by the PCs in a sealed chamber. A small number of human and / or eldar specimens, taken for their transcendent beauty or great martial prowess, obviously destined to be offered as gift for dark eldar superiors upon their return to Commoragh. Maybe the group even includes particularly innocent-looking children...

3. Skin-eaters. One of dark eldar onboard had a perverse hobby of preserving the flayed skins of his foes. Now these very skins are alive, infused with the warp energy, and are actively trying to find a new body to wrap across. They should be fairly easy to destroy (ie: T15 (TB2, Daemonic), Armour 0, Wounds 6), but very difficult (-30) to spot, and their attack should be a sort of Grappling. If creature passes the Grappling test, it is considered successfully attached to the victim, melding slowly with in both in the flesh and soul.

4. Living Shadows. Due to a power failure all lights in this section of the ship went out. Dark eldar Mandrakes and warp-spawned Shades are fighting each other here, blinking in and out of the gloom, exchanging killing blows and vanishing without a trace. Party must find a way to cross the section without being backtabbed to death or dragged into the darkness.

5. Impaler Module (possible escape route?). Dark eldar ships are often equipped with an Impaler Module - large boarding craft, well-armored and with completely self-sufficient life support, but somewhat limited fuel supply. Now, if only players could banish the daemon possessing its control systems...

@Erborn

Very good ideas!

But in case of the "Helpfull Daemon" I would suppose he is not into "let me into real world" but into "sign over your soul and I will help you out of here" (Dark Pact oder Daemon Seed if one ones RH).

He would loom about, watching the pc in their troubles..always there to offer the "easy way out".

Or worse yet a daemon helping them without asking for any help. That's sure to frighten players to no end. What horrible fate could he be preserving them for?

Other ideas

- Strange beasts from a number of worlds.

- Daemonhost dark eldar...

-Small cute cuddly friendly creatures loose on the ship. They are completely and utterly harmless, and highly resistant to the warp. Of course when they start following the PCs around, and hiding in their gear. Paranoid city...

-Xenos of unheard of races.

-Minor Daemons possessing the PCs favorite things....

Immagine a daemon posessed Talos... Sort of like a Chaos Marine Defiler, but instead of a horribly mutated clawed semi-sentient ex-tank it is instead based off a horrible automated torture device made to rampage across battlefields and spread terror and misery... THEN a daemon got involved!

Add all measure of terrible minor demons, warp anomolies, MUTANT-dark eldar!! Gotta have a wytch or three too. Keep in mind, Dark Eldar ships do not have Geller Fields and Eldar souls are apparently quite TASTY!

Also make sure that if they make an alliance with one of the Eldar, Orcs or a Daemon that you betray them at at least one point (preferable more if you can get away with it).

We ARE talking about Dark Eldar here, so really there are few attrocities that are beneath them. This is a race that night capture a mother and her 7 year old child in a slave raid (dad died horribly and in sight) and have the child gang raped to the point of death while a psyker broadcasts the child's every thought and emotion to all the nearby minds (including mom). Then they slowly flay the now-insane mother over the course of several months in some infernal torture rack and record the screams and gibberings for "musical use". Then once the mother's body finally reaches the point of death they use a psychoactive device to rip her soul out and trap her still conscious essence in some sickly glowing green jar for later "amusements". If anything they might reject a torture as being too "droll" or "mundane".....

*yawn* "so boring... I must hear a new kind of scream. One that has not yet been heard by mortal ears..."

If their boss is Amalthan, Monodominant or something stricter (?) then the survivors are in for a VERY bad time of things.