I was looking over the Slaugth from various sources and realized how powerful they are. In the adventure, Maggots in the Meat, 1st or 2nd Rank Acolytes are meant to fight against multiple Slaugth.

Looking at their profile, they have Unnatural Toughness (x2). If I'm reading the Unnatural Characterstic Trait correctly, then taking the Trait twice provides them with a Toughness Bonus x3. So a Slaught Infiltrator has a Soak of 15 in addition to its Shroud Cloak (Armour 3).

An Acolyte has to inflict 19 points of damage before even hurting this creature (that has 27 wounds no less) before inflicting one point of damage to it. On top of that they are damned near immune to Psykers as well.

How could a group of 1st or 2nd Rank Acolytes take on one of these creatures, much less multiples?

Am I looking at this incorrectly? What weapons would a group have to carry to even have a slight change of besting one of these guys in combat?

Thanks,
SS

No, Unnatural Toughness x2 is the 1st rank of Unnatural Toughness (there isn't an Unnatural Toughness x1), it doesn't mean two lots of Unnatural Toughness. The x2 means you multiply the Toughness Bonus by 2, which gives them a Toughness Bonus "soak" of 10.

The way I'd combat Slaughth is to not go into toe-to-toe combat with them. As with Necrons, the best plan is to use the local terrain and the like to your advantage. In Maggots in the Meat, my players, upon realising they had little chance of killing them with mere bullets, set the windmill on fire. Given the wooden structure, plus the methane gas given off by so many decomposing bodies, the whole place went up like a gas line explosion. Not only was the fire enough to kill all but one of the creatures, but the fire damage did more damage than it could either soak with Toughness or get back with Regenerate, and a quick round of automatic weapons fire put it down.

That's the best way to take down most powerful enemies, I believe. Brains over brawn.

Good points on using other means to defeat them. But I'm not sure about the Toughness thing. The stat block lists it as Unnatural Toughness (x2), which I assume to mean that the Slaugth has taken the Trait twice.

From the rulebook:

For example, one selection multiplies the Characteristic Bonus by ×2, two selections by ×3, and three selections ×4.

So the question is does the x2 mean it has the talent twice or it is the talent at a x2 multiplier.

Looking in Disciples of the Dark Gods, the example for the Slaught Overseer shows he has a 10 Toughnes bonus (using the newer profiles that show the bonus), so apparently when you read a (x2), this refers to the bonus itself, not how many times the Trait has been taken.

Very confusing, to say the least!

MILLANDSON said:

Amen. Ambush them, snipe them from rooftops, poison their food, burn the house they are in. Dying in the Emperors service is easy and any fool is capable of that. Fullfilling your duty and surviving is the hard part.

And sometimes the best option really is to retreat and fight another day. Learning this simple truth separates old RPG players from bold RPG players. Its what my group did when we faced the Slaught. We actually considered the same solution that Millandson described. Unfortunately we did not have any flamers or incendiary devices .

Shadowspawn said:

If you look at page 332/333 in the main DH rulebook though, the example use of Unnatural Characteristics explains this.

And Aajav, neither did my team, until they forced the scum to hand over the six pack of rotgut he had in his backpack, ripped his shirt off and tore it up to use as wicks, and then used them as fire bombs

Nice.

Did he flex really hard when he ripped off his shirt? Gaining extra Toughness!

Okay, so environmental factors and running aside, what weapons would be up to the task?

Nah, he was pretty p*ssed off it was his best shirt... it only had two beer stains and cow muck on it!

As for weapons up for the job.... flamers, incendiary ammo for shotguns and bolters, autoguns on full-auto (hopefully ), melta guns... pretty much any high-damage output weapon is good. They are tough buggers to put down, to be sure, but they can be put down with sustained fire.

@Millandson: Molotov coctails? Made from booze? The veterans of Winter War would be proud of you!

@OP: Provided that you do not have any suitably high powered weapons ( melta, plasma etc. ), go for volume of fire. Semi- and Full Auto Fire and plenty of it. Concentrated on one target at a time to make sure the bugger is dead. Enough grenades might do the trick too.

Maggots in the Meat is a horrible adventure because of the Slaugth. The average group of PC will simply be slaughtered. It's made worse by the fact that up until you meet the Slaught and their pets you face nothing that prepares to the fact that they are about to face the Xenos from hell. The only real way around this for the Slaught to be more interested in leaving now that their cover is blown than killing the PCs.

Shadowspawn said:

People traditionnaly use explosives and firebombs when they want to send something to Hell and can't engage it toe-to-toe. Plant them in their car, their appartment, their meeting places. Equip a servitor with explosive rigs and have it cross their path on the street. Bring a flamer or two to finish them while they're down. It lacks panache and fair-play but, as Corwin of Amber would say, this is not the Olympics.

SPOILER! Maggots in the Meat.

I remember playing that adventure... and our GM didn't let us just burn the place up (claiming that a stone mill didn't burn). So basically we had to do things the hard way. Ok we were not all Rank 1, but still we noticed the slaught were nigh indestructible, and also did considerable damage when they hit at range. I actually suspected closing into melee would be a good thing (cough, mono great weapon, cough), but it turned out they were even more dangerous close up.

We managed to make one of them flee outside the mill, and then had to go up the winding stairs, taking cover on the way, firing full-auto bursts mostly (this was before the Accurate damage rule). At the top we fought on and I think I had to leave at that point. Maybe character had to burn a Fate Point, but somehow we won.

I plan to use the same module with rank 8 PCs, should be an ok challenge

Friend of the Dork said:

See, that's a common misconception. Stone buildings can burn, because otherwise most homes nowadays wouldn't burn. A stone windmill would, almost certainly, have wooden braces, etc, in place to keep it standing.

Plus, it wouldn't really matter if it burnt well. Enough fire to ignite the methane in the air inside the mill would be like dynamite, the strong structure would increase the power of the explosion.

The most important part in running the scenario would likely be showing the players that yes, these are the tough ones, you don't want to fight them fair-and-square. Or Else. Preferably before the Slaugth have noticed them.

The adventure's actually not that bad, honestly. Your objective is not to "kill everything." It's to investigate. The combat with the Slaugth shouldn't be a slug fest to the death, but cause enough of a ruckus that others take notice to what is going on. Yes, the Slaugth are powerful. No, they don't like doing their dirty out in the open. They're "scouts," as I recall.

There are several ways to increase survivability and potentially come out victorious. First; the mercenaries on the platform that try to start a fight with your acolytes, if your PC's are smart and hot on Fellowship, hire them. Nothing says meat shield quite like a half dozen "red shirts" to take the pain. Explosives and incendiaries in the mill, bring the 3rd floor down to ground level, and then light it up. A couple of your boys with AGLs on their auto- or lasguns should about do it. A flamer, or a few "firebombs" to ignite the rot, and FWOOSH. I mean, it's not always going to be a lot of damage, but the panic makes for a spectacularly entertaining show.

Also, don't run it for rank 1 characters... Unless you want to illustrate the frailty of mankind. Rank 2-3 is pretty much what I look at for that particular adventure.

-=Brother Praetus=-

I've run two adventures with Slaugh, one of my own and the second being the Slaugh Overseer Mister Nonesuch in "The House of Dust and Ashes". Both were killed in melee with (1) An Eviscerator and (2) Power Scythe.

I had the.........experience...... to play in this module once, from the perspective of a PC to boot. Afterwards, while talking it over with the GM, we came to a conclusion: The adventure was a poor one, not purely because of the end boss fight (because as we've seen here there are numerous creative methods of taking them out, in addition to more cowardly options), but because the entire adventure tests things that first-rank characters (which I believe it is described as themed towards) cannot possibly hope to succeed on purely because they lack the skills to test in the first place.

As for killing the Slaug'th in personal combat? My first thought was Fire, because to me that is the ultimate death sentence in DH. Fire drags things down quickly, it forces WP tests to do stuff, and then you have to put yourself out, which is hard too. Then I realised that with a TB of 10 it would be impossible to actually hurt it while ablaze; all you'd get is a flaming Slaug'th instead. So how about Toxic? Since Toxic damage ignores TB and AP, you could get in a few cheap shots and wear it down. The only problem there being that Toxic stuff is expensive, rare, and usually doesn't do much initial damage to force the Toxic check (which the Slaug'th still has a reasonable chance of failing).

It seems that you need to be able to hit it for a lot of damage in one go to bypass its defenses. So I guess you'd be aiming for either military-grade heavy weapons, or, if that's unavailable, tearing weapons or high-RoF guns. Anything which rolls a bucketload of dice has a better chance of RF and thus a better chance of racking up the damage count on an individual hit.

So chainswords and boltguns, personally. Which are still **** hard for anyone below rank 4 to use capably.

Did I mention this is a really terrible adventure to run for early rank characters?

I ran this game very much in a horror mode, as I recall - rather in the best traditions of CoC. Sometimes there are situations which the PCs cannot really hope to win, but forcing the Slaugth to flee, and sidelining them as a signicant threat for the future was my basic intention. The war that formed the background was played up in terms of both its brutality and futility too, with poorly equipped serfs going at it from rotting hulks on the putrid river and coastline of the city.

This background miasma of woe and despair formed a backdrop to the first encounter with one of the Slaugth on the ground floor of the mill, where it rose up from a pile of corpses and promptly set about flaying at the PCs. After a few injuries the party were forced to run away outside, and had the opportunity of firing up the building, but chose instead to assault up the stairs, and so took further injuries while trying to return fire. The slaugth were able to send their xenos nasties in while firing bursts of fire through the floor - one burst of which took off the cleric's leg at the knee (he now has a prosthetic with purity seals on it).

Eventually battling tenaciously to the top of the stairs, they were 'rewarded' with the Slaugth departing the scene, and so in our round up at the end the general mood was a little despondent. They realized they had effectively been bested, but that there were solutions they could have tried to alter the situation. Perhaps in order for the game to be more balanced, the scenario ought to have more fully categorized how a level 1 or 2 group of acolytes could hope to carry the day against such fearsome opponents. At least my players now have an unremitting hatred of these foes which I can use at a later date.

the x2 means that the trait is at the x2 level

We played the adventure, and burned the mill when we discouvered that the enemy was to tough. A nice point for DH players, no you can´t fight with everything and survirve.

And x2 means times two.. Tougness bonus doubled. And it is the first unatural you get, then it is x3 and so forth...

@Maggots in the Meat [sPOIL-O-RAMA]
Besides "Mechanics", I say the adventure isn´t well written.The description of the "Empire Island" is nice... but it just a stop by! The city would have deserved more attention.

Smeet and Smoot are pure motivated. The Slaught offer them to keep the posessions of the bodies? They could have so anyway!
Why do the Slaught need Smeet and Smoot at all? They have animals cabable to go on a killing spree at night. Said animals are not able to well..bring
the prey back to it´s lair? While first going unnoticed on a hunt through a city at war with patrols around?

The whole hook is hilarious. People in a city at war are inteded to find the sight of blood strange? Or to care about missing bodies? Hack, in PEACEFULL medivial cities their were people whom were PAID to take the corpses off the street to prevent plagues! Doubtfull that a community at WAR would not do the same..

@How to challenge the Slaugh
In MitM, I say: a lure/decoy and an ambush involving one of those black poweder cannons...(if the city is sieged with some, the city might have some on the cities side as well!).

It might be a good idea to rally a mob, as well. A lot of casualities but nothing unites the ´hood like a common enemy from the outside (off-world).
A lot Plumes. The hunting rifles are accurate, and due to some rules gab the "makes more damage while aiming and achieving levels of success" is something the isn´t excluded from the organless Slaught

Gregorius21778 said:

I have to agree that I would have liked to have seen some more detail on the matter of the city proper.

The Slaugth do not operate openly within the Imperium. While they know they are stronger and more technologically advanced, there are many times more humans then Slaugth. Even a Saurian Carnosuar will be devoured under the weight of a swarm of Blood Locusts. Smeet and Smoot are employed so that the Slaugth do not have to send their creatures out and to reduce the risk of exposure. After all, draw too much attention and the news gets off planet and Ordo Xenos may get involved. As it stands, it defaults to Ordo Hereticus sending operatives to investigate a possible resurgence of a cult previously believed to have been expunged.

The hook may seem silly, but hidden murder and missing bodies reek of a time in the world's recent past when a powerful cult was active. Cults are bad, and better to err on the side of caution and insure an old enemy has not returned, then to have it run rampant across the world again.

There are a lot of ways to deal with the adventure, and it pays to have players who think in nonlinear ways. Maggots is not a horrible adventure, but should be run for a group that is probably rank 3 or 4, as opposed to being an introductory adventure for fresh characters. It requires some work on the part of the GM to calibrate it to fit their group, but then, any prefab adventure will need the same to varying degrees.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Does anyone see a reason that the slaugth could not have something similar to the risen from damned cities? I need something a little less out right obvious than the constructs, but more obviously bad than the syndicate troops.

Thanks

cycliclife said:

While I don't have the book, I'm go0nna go out on a limb here and guess the Risen are another animated dead zombie like critter. In that case, I see no reason at all the Slougth wouldn't have technology to make such at their disposal -no reason that wouldn't find playing with their food a bit entertaining ;-)

In my game, the Slougth had developed these lesser worm like creatures, refereed to the players as "WORMS!", that sustained themselves on the nervous tissues of other creatures. They generated an incredible amount of bio-electricity and, while feeding on the various nervous tissues throughout a corpse, were able to cause it's decaying muscles to contract and expand. These worm-batteries were a hive creature and had a very rudimentary hive like intelligence which the Slougth took full advantage of (and were probably responsible for it). The Slougth, through some arcane technology which I never had to invent, were able to control and direct the impulses of these worms on the whole (there wasn't much in the way of fine control) as long as they were within 1km of the them. One thing they became fond of doing is, after feasting on the delicious brains of course, implanting a small colony of their batteries into a few corpses to act as short term guards, distractions, or, when needed, wave upon wave of expendable and highly demoralizing foot solder to mask their escape.

I based their stats off of the risen zombies in DotDG only reducing their Int a further 10 pts, their agl a further 10 points and giving them a weakness to electricity as it disrupts their bioelectic field and keeps the individual worms from being a part of the hive mind. Because of that, all "worm-zombies" had a -30 to resist the effects of shock weapons, their TB was 3 less then listed for the purpose of damage reduction from shock weapons, and the duration of the stunning effect was tripped.

The "WORMS!" or battery-worms, or what-ever-the-hell the Slougth would call these are easily recognizable by their electrified blue glow, the faint smell of ozone that accompanies them and, when in a host corpse, it would seem that the corpses veins are twitching and glowing blue (not really it's veins, just the worms in the meat) as well as a slight blue glow coming from the eyes (lots of nervous tissue there) as well as the spine.

The Slaugth do have their "Flesh-Parasites" which are basically human corpses animated by an "insectile-mass" inhabiting the skull. Master Nonesuch has a few of them in his service during The House of Dust and Ash. Basically this gives them the Unnatural Toughness x3 trait and From Beyond maybe something else too, can't remember off the top of my head.

I've used them well in the past, they make good scary thugs to soak up bullets while the Slaugth Principals get away.