Heavily inspired by Call of Cthulhu, this an idea for my Ascension campaign (see my other thread). just need your advice and criticism. are the aliens cool enough? powerful enough for ascension and any suggestions for improvements would be awesome

The Cthonians

The Cthonians are an ancient and mysterious race, seldom seem or encountered. but they are a dangerous and powerful race of all-psychic beings. there civilisation is unimaginably old but in ruins, only a few hidden worlds and there numbers in short supply.
The Cthonians were first encountered on the planet of Cthonis, a now barren wasteland.

Appearance

A Cthonian is a truly alien monster. almost 7 foot tall with a humanoid body with the tale of a serpent
instead of legs. they have two long slender arms that end with hands with long razor sharp talons. their head is like a squid with many tentacles usually 6 where their mouth is. there eyes are usually the purest black orbs. their skin is mottled and scaly, usually ranging in shades of green. an aura of cold menacing evil hangs around the, as well as the stench of death and decay.

Kinda like this: http://api.ning.com/files/Mtcj6Uo0B8sOskypODDn9jGorwX-v7uh5PB53T4bdUQ_/cthulhu02.jpg (but smaller, with no wings and a serpent tail for legs )

Origins

The Cthonians were once a dominant and powerful race, but inter-galactic war with a another long dead race left them as a shadow of their former selves. they now hide in secret in several hidden cities, lurking within small-pocket dimensions only accessible by specially crafted portals or ‘space-doors’. it is believed through these warp portals instead of conventional travel.
The Cthonians feed on the life-force or essence of other living creatures and consume all their flesh in a rabid frenzy. (preferably while the victim is still alive), and consider all other species as prey or ‘food stuffs‘. The Cthonians are especially fond of a Psykers brain, which they find especially invigorating (they have a racial hate of all untouchables, whom they consider ‘tainted meat‘). strangely a Cthonian can communicate to any sentient race, through psychic telepathy

Society

The Cthonians are a hive-mind race, now worth individual personality, except the primes. the primes are the council or ruling elite, each powerful and ancient, their psychic abilities near alpha level. these primes dominate and control all aspects of their race and plot all their schemes.
They are also masters of the ‘Chamber of Possibilities’, a crystal chamber at the heart of a Cthonian city, this crystal is psycho-reactive and allows the Prime to view possible futures and outcomes, they use this help aid their plans.
A Cthonian City is a strange and surreal place hidden in a pocket dimension where the city is hidden in plain sight. the cities are crafted from stone and crystal. A Cthonian is lethal in a fight, being able to summon strange alien psychic abilities, with powerful reflexes and strength and a high tolerance to damage.

Cthonian

WS: 40 BS : 40 S: 50 (5) T: 60 (6) Int: 80 (16) Per: 40 WP: 70 Fel: 30

Movement: 5/10/15/30
Wounds: 18

Skills: Awareness +20, Psyniscience +20, Search, Forbidden Lore (Any), Scrutiny, Dodge +10, Intimidate +10,
Traits: Fear Rating 3 (Horrifying), Dark Sight, From Beyond, Strange Physiology, Telepathic Communication (see below), Unnatural Intelligence (x2), Improved Natural Weapons
Talents: Leap up, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Training, Fearless, Hardy, Furious Assault, Psy Rating 2.
Powers: Mind Scan, Compel, Dominate, Psychic Shriek,
Armour: Alien Carapace (3 all locations)
Weapons: Cthonian Talons (1d10+8 R, Pen 2, Tearing), Cthonian Death Bolt (see below)
Special Abilities

Telepathic Communication: a Cthonian may communicate to any other being within a distance equal to (Cthonians WPx10 metres). the target may resist the communication with a willpower check. the experience is horrible and mentally straining on the target and they must pass a willpower check or suffer a a fatigue level.
Cthonian Death Bolts: A Cthonian can summon lethal orbs of green psychic energy which they fling at foes. these can be used at will and have the below stats:

Type: Pistol Range : 30m Damage: 2d10 Pen : 3 Clip: - Reload: - Special: Alien Wgt: - Availabilty: -

Alien: a Cthonian is strange and deadly. a Death bolt ignores all fields and has the shocking quality.

Cthonian Prime

The Ancient and malevolent alien leaders.

WS: 50 BS: 40 Str: 50 (5) T: 60 (6) Int: 90 (18) Per: 60 WP: 85 Fel: 25

Movement: 5/10/15/30
Wounds: 25

Skills: Awareness +30, Psyniscience +30, Search, Forbidden Lore (Any), Scrutiny, Dodge +20, Intimidate +30, Command +20
Traits: Fear Rating 3 (Horrifying), Dark Sight, From Beyond, Strange Physiology, Telepathic Communication (see below), Unnatural Intelligence (x2), Improved Natural Weapons, Undying
Talents : Leap up, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Training, Fearless, Hardy, Furious Assault, Psy Rating 4.
Powers: Mind Scan, Compel, Dominate, Psychic Shriek,
Armour: Alien Primal Carapace (5 all locations)
Weapons: Cthonian Primal Talons (1d10+12 R, Pen 2, Tearing), Cthonian Death Bolt (see above)

Telepathic Communication: a Cthonian may communicate to any other being within a distance equal to (Cthonians WPx10 metres). the target may resist the communication with a willpower check. the experience is horrible and mentally straining on the target and they must pass a willpower check or suffer a a fatigue level.
Viewer of Possible Futures: Thanks to many years of study in the Chamber of Possibilities A Cthonian Prime has an innate ability to glimpse the future. a Cthonian may re-roll one skill check per turn or force an opponent in line of sight to re-roll one skill test.
Dominant Masters: all Cthonians within line of sight of a prime all +10 to all willpower checks.

You take unspeakle and utter dark gods and reduce them to a (simple) race of psyker aliens. Next logical step would be to turn Khorn, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch into a Bloodletter, a Plaguebearer, a Horror and "Warp-Next-Topmodelle".

Using The Mythos races could be fun I toyed with the idea of using Byakee against the ship the party was using at the time but opted out after various threats and objects came hurtling my way from the players I would liketo note that he who Must Not Be Named would make an excellent Prince of the Warp (I was thinking Nurgle). but the Imperium of man can be beset by any of the malformed servitor races out of Lovecraft's Mythos (the two are definately interchangeable).

I can see it now a Cthonian cult uncovered by Imperial Mining on G'harne IV, twisting the minds of the Adeptus Mechanicus with their subterranian movements sending sisemic messages trying to twist the minds of the humans on the surface to serve their will - The Cthonians need not be chaos worshippers but make excellent Xenos enemies (remember to use LOTS of clensing fire on them - or at least the young ones).

Asfor the hard stats you have listed. I would point out the Young cthonians are Not heat resistant (hencewhy their young are found near the surface and the older ones are found deeper within the planet. Otherwise Go to town It looks like it could be a fun challenge though I see an Exterminatus in the near future of this. One question though would the Cthonians be able to travel through space or would they have taken over portions of the Eldar webway? Just a thought

Guys, its only a race inspired by Cthulhu not a direct translation!! using the parts of the eldar webways might be a good idea actually

On the flipside, I've been running 'The Madman' as a Tau Empire campaign. A young ethereal and a handful of 'special' tau were being reassigned to 'special duties' (i.e. they're wonky so removed for research) during the Third Phase Expansion. en-route, war causes them to be the only investigative force available to a foundling colony which is subject to the bizarre predations of the classic Call of Cthulhu adventure.

In terms of 40kifying it, the 'spectral god of icy stuff to be summoned' is actually a Necron lord being teleported in from somewhere else whilst the 'Funghi from Yuggoth' are Halo Device infected Kroot...

The idea is that kroot on the planet found some halo devices, became fully infected as a kindred and then began preparations for awakening a nearby tomb by building a teleport amplifier-y thing to summon a lord from 'somewhere else'.

In 40k terms, it works, but the 'naivety' of the Tau Empire and its lower level citizens makes the campaign rather fitting for the 'horror' aspect of it. The party consists currently (after some player attrition) of an Aun'la alongside his kroot and Demiurg automaton 'advisors'. The other tau players drifted away from it.

I rather like this, actually. For the Tau Empire a 'race choice' consiting of Kroot, Demiurg, Aun or Human would work very well. The Classic Tau Castes are all a bit too...organised to be off having adventures, eh?