Heres an Ordo Xenos adventure outline I'm thinking on springing on my players. Its a bait n' switch adventure (see my thread about Standard Acolyte Missions in the main forum) that starts off as standard investigation, goes into lurking/unknown horror and then turns into a mix of Terminator/Aliens desperate action-

Silver Dawn

The Acolytes are tasked with capturing returning to Scintilla for interrogation a minor heretic called Otto Veer who has connections to the Logicians. He’s hiding out in a small colony planet near the Halo Stars called Terminus Beta. Theres an Ad Mech xeno-archeological dig there and the the thought is that Otto is there to try to steal some advanced Adeptus Mechanicus tech. The only ship going that way and back is an Inquisition-friendly Rogue Trader- the “Dawn Searcher” captained by His Excellency Capt. Leomund von Bek. The Captain is every inch the flamboyant space pirate, toting around a pair of illegal Eldar Shuriken pistols (from DotDG), but that’s OK- he’s got a seal of approval & permission to bear them from a Radical Inquisitor since the Captain once used those same pistols to save the Inquisitors life from Space Ork freebooterz.

Reaching Terminus Beta, they can easily find Otto Veer and arrest him in a cantina or his lodgings. He’ll make a half-hearted attempt at suicide to avoid capture, but he’s not the most callous of Logicians so wont be prepared to go the mass destruction way and destroy the town. (I’m toying with the idea of giving him a small nuke).

So with Otto captured, the party can head back to the Dawn Searcher. Except of course, since it’s the only ship to visit the planet in a year, there are a whole lot more passengers on the way back- newly raised up Ecclesiarchs returning to Scintilla for confirmation in their posts as the first native-born priests, an AdMech Magos named Binar returning some discoveries to the Lathes and a Guilders family who despaired of the primitiveness of the colony and want to return to the Hive (they have an attractive daughter who might show love interest in the Acolytes).

Allow them to mix & mingle, secure Otto in the ships brig, view the AdMech discoveries (silver machinery, some sort of metal sarcophagus or coffin with strange writing and some fist sized silver spheres).

The ship jumps to the Immaterium for a 3 week voyage. And that’s when things start to go wrong. Power fluctuations plague the ship, knocking out lights or sealing doors. Crew complain of hearing things in the vents. Cables are cut through in small, tight passages. Items go missing. The AdMech Magos complains someone stole some of his xenos-spheres and demands they be found.

Then the deaths start. First the Magos is found, electrocuted in his recharging chamber. And now the sarcophagus appears to be open- revealing an empty space inside, big enough for a 6’ humanoid. Crew begin to go missing. Then passengers. Ships systems report high-energy discharges. Something is stalking the bowels of the ship, killing as it does.

What do the PC’s do?

What is going on – Terminus Beta is a world formerly touched by the Necrons. The sarcophagus contained a somewhat intelligent Necron Warrior. The silver spheres were the inactive form of some Necron Scarabs. The translation to Warp Space awoke the Necron-tech as it lost its connection to the material planes and higher dimensions. I’m going to say that the Necron cant phase out in the Warp, but with its nanites and scarabs will keep repairing it. However, technology is definitely its friend and it may well have more control over ships systems than the humans now. It can seal off portions of the deck and bulkheads at will, allowing it to isolate and hunt its victims. Sealing it off never seems to work since it can override electronic commands, and burn through bulkheads with its Gauss Flayer if they are manually deadlocked. Physically the Necron is as resilient as a Terminator-cyborg, las doesnt worry it, bolters might damage it, if you get some Emperors Fury. Meltas? Meltas would do it, but they are contra-indicated for firing inside an ship, since if you miss, it will go through the hull. And if you do down it, then it will get back up again next turn.

Possible solutions –

As always PC’s can have some great ideas that surprise me. Some possible solutions that I’d have as possibilities (and I don’t think there should ever be any ‘clean’ solutions in Dark Heresy, only ones that involve some sort of compromise, sacrifice or moral struggle) -

- With the death of Magos Binar (and the ships Enginseers being more “By the Rote” types) the only NPC who might have Forbbiden Lore Xenos-Tech is the Logician Otto Veer. Dare the PC’s trust him to devise a way to deactivate the unstoppable killing machine? He might be able to fashion some sort of EMP bomb (to take out the Necron) but there is that whole Proclaimation of Scant Mercy standing order to worry about. And what would he want in return for his aid? Freedom, a quick death?

- Captain Leomund von Beks Eldar Shuriken pistols seem to penetrate Necron armour with ease and disrupt its circuitry. Pity the Captain is going to get killed by a Gauss shot if he goes into combat with the Necron. Dare the PC’s use the weapons of the Xenos against the Xenos? Or is that too Radical? If reports get back to their traditionalist Inquisitor, he may well punish the one who took up those pistols.

- Destroy parts of the ship to blow the Necron into space. That’s almost certain to doom some of the crew and passengers. Perhaps even a PC. Will they kill the few to save the many?

- Psyker powers. Necrons seem vulnerable to Psychic powers. But using Psychic powers while within a Gellar Field is contra-indicated. Dare they compromise the warp field to kill the Necron? They could drop out of Warp, but with the systems damage caused by the Scarabs, no one is sure they will be able to re-establish the warp engines.

Thoughts, comments etc?

Bizarre- my first post appears blanks. Here goes again-

Heres an Ordo Xenos adventure outline I'm thinking on springing on my players. Though initially it’ll appear to be a Hereticus adventure-

Silver Dawn

The Acolytes are tasked with capturing returning to Scintilla for interrogation a minor heretic called Otto Veer who has connections to the Logicians. He’s hiding out in a small colony planet near the Halo Stars called Terminus Beta. Theres an Ad Mech xeno-archeological dig there and the the thought is that Otto is there to try to steal some advanced Adeptus Mechanicus tech. The only ship going that way and back is an Inquisition-friendly Rogue Trader- the “Dawn Searcher” captained by His Excellency Capt. Leomund von Bek. The Captain is every inch the flamboyant space pirate, toting around a pair of illegal Eldar Shuriken pistols (from DotDG), but that’s OK- he’s got a seal of approval & permission to bear them from a Radical Inquisitor since the Captain once used those same pistols to save the Inquisitors life from Space Ork freebooterz.

Reaching Terminus Beta, they can easily find Otto Veer and arrest him in a cantina or his lodgings. He’ll make a half-hearted attempt at suicide to avoid capture, but he’s not the most callous of Logicians so wont be prepared to go the mass destruction way and destroy the town. (I’m toying with the idea of giving him a small nuke).

So with Otto captured, the party can head back to the Dawn Searcher. Except of course, since it’s the only ship to visit the planet in a year, there are a whole lot more passengers on the way back- newly raised up Ecclesiarchs returning to Scintilla for confirmation in their posts as the first native-born priests, an AdMech Magos named Binar returning some discoveries to the Lathes and a Guilders family who despaired of the primitiveness of the colony and want to return to the Hive (they have an attractive daughter who might show love interest in the Acolytes).

Allow them to mix & mingle, secure Otto in the ships brig, view the AdMech discoveries (silver machinery, some sort of metal sarcophagus or coffin with strange writing and some fist sized silver spheres). Some dinner at the captains table to flirt with the Guilders daughter, talk politics and relax. The dangerous bit is over and the heretic is in custody.

The ship jumps to the Immaterium for a 3 week voyage. And that’s when things start to go wrong. Power fluctuations plague the ship, knocking out lights or sealing doors. Crew complain of hearing things in the vents. Cables are cut through in small, tight passages. Items go missing. The AdMech Magos complains someone stole some of his xenos-spheres and demands they be found.

Then the deaths start. First the Magos is found, electrocuted in his recharging chamber. And now the sarcophagus appears to be open- revealing an empty space inside, big enough for a 6’ humanoid. Crew begin to go missing. Then passengers. Ships systems report high-energy discharges. Something is stalking the bowels of the ship, killing as it does.

What do the PC’s do?

What is going on – Terminus Beta is a world formerly touched by the Necrons. The sarcophagus contained a somewhat intelligent Necron Warrior. The silver spheres were the inactive form of some Necron Scarabs. The translation to Warp Space awoke the Necron-tech as it lost its connection to the material planes and higher dimensions. I’m going to say that the Necron cant phase out in the Warp, but with its nanites and scarabs will keep repairing it. However, technology is definitely its friend and it may well have more control over ships systems than the humans now. It can seal off portions of the deck and bulkheads at will, allowing it to isolate and hunt its victims. Sealing it off never seems to work since it can override electronic commands, and burn through bulkheads with its Gauss Flayer if they are manually deadlocked. Physically the Necron is as resilient as a Terminator-cyborg, las doesnt worry it, bolters might damage it, if you get some Emperors Fury. Meltas? Meltas would do it, but they are contra-indicated for firing inside an ship, since if you miss, it will go through the hull. And if you do down it, then it will get back up again next turn.

Possible solutions –

As always PC’s can have some great ideas that surprise me. Some possible solutions that I’d have as possibilities (and I don’t think there should ever be any ‘clean’ solutions in Dark Heresy, only ones that involve some sort of compromise, sacrifice or moral struggle) -

- With the death of Magos Binar (and the ships Enginseers being more “By the Rote” types) the only NPC who might have Forbbiden Lore Xenos-Tech is the Logician Otto Veer. Dare the PC’s trust him to devise a way to deactivate the unstoppable killing machine? He might be able to fashion some sort of EMP bomb (to take out the Necron) but there is that whole Proclaimation of Scant Mercy standing order to worry about. And what would he want in return for his aid? Freedom, a quick death?

- Captain Leomund von Beks Eldar Shuriken pistols seem to penetrate Necron armour with ease and disrupt its circuitry. Pity the Captain is going to get killed by a Gauss shot if he goes into combat with the Necron. Dare the PC’s use the weapons of the Xenos against the Xenos? Or is that too Radical? If reports get back to their traditionalist Inquisitor, he may well punish the one who took up those pistols.

- Destroy parts of the ship to blow the Necron into space. That’s almost certain to doom some of the crew and passengers. Perhaps even a PC. Will they kill the few to save the many?

- Psyker powers. Necrons seem vulnerable to Psychic powers. But using Psychic powers while within a Gellar Field is contra-indicated. Dare they compromise the warp field to kill the Necron? They could drop out of Warp, but with the systems damage caused by the Scarabs, no one is sure they will be able to re-establish the warp engines.

Heres an Ordo Xenos adventure outline I'm thinking on springing on my players. Though initially it’ll appear to be a Hereticus adventure-

Silver Dawn

The Acolytes are tasked with capturing returning to Scintilla for interrogation a minor heretic called Otto Veer who has connections to the Logicians. He’s hiding out in a small colony planet near the Halo Stars called Terminus Beta. Theres an Ad Mech xeno-archeological dig there and the the thought is that Otto is there to try to steal some advanced Adeptus Mechanicus tech. The only ship going that way and back is an Inquisition-friendly Rogue Trader- the “Dawn Searcher” captained by His Excellency Capt. Leomund von Bek. The Captain is every inch the flamboyant space pirate, toting around a pair of illegal Eldar Shuriken pistols (from DotDG), but that’s OK- he’s got a seal of approval & permission to bear them from a Radical Inquisitor since the Captain once used those same pistols to save the Inquisitors life from Space Ork freebooterz.

Reaching Terminus Beta, they can easily find Otto Veer and arrest him in a cantina or his lodgings. He’ll make a half-hearted attempt at suicide to avoid capture, but he’s not the most callous of Logicians so wont be prepared to go the mass destruction way and destroy the town. (I’m toying with the idea of giving him a small nuke).

So with Otto captured, the party can head back to the Dawn Searcher. Except of course, since it’s the only ship to visit the planet in a year, there are a whole lot more passengers on the way back- newly raised up Ecclesiarchs returning to Scintilla for confirmation in their posts as the first native-born priests, an AdMech Magos named Binar returning some discoveries to the Lathes and a Guilders family who despaired of the primitiveness of the colony and want to return to the Hive (they have an attractive daughter who might show love interest in the Acolytes).

Allow them to mix & mingle, secure Otto in the ships brig, view the AdMech discoveries (silver machinery, some sort of metal sarcophagus or coffin with strange writing and some fist sized silver spheres). Some dinner at the captains table to flirt with the Guilders daughter, talk politics and relax. The dangerous bit is over and the heretic is in custody.

The ship jumps to the Immaterium for a 3 week voyage. And that’s when things start to go wrong. Power fluctuations plague the ship, knocking out lights or sealing doors. Crew complain of hearing things in the vents. Cables are cut through in small, tight passages. Items go missing. The AdMech Magos complains someone stole some of his xenos-spheres and demands they be found.

Then the deaths start. First the Magos is found, electrocuted in his recharging chamber. And now the sarcophagus appears to be open- revealing an empty space inside, big enough for a 6’ humanoid. Crew begin to go missing. Then passengers. Ships systems report high-energy discharges. Something is stalking the bowels of the ship, killing as it does.

What do the PC’s do?

What is going on – Terminus Beta is a world formerly touched by the Necrons. The sarcophagus contained a somewhat intelligent Necron Warrior. The silver spheres were the inactive form of some Necron Scarabs. The translation to Warp Space awoke the Necron-tech as it lost its connection to the material planes and higher dimensions. I’m going to say that the Necron cant phase out in the Warp, but with its nanites and scarabs will keep repairing it. However, technology is definitely its friend and it may well have more control over ships systems than the humans now. It can seal off portions of the deck and bulkheads at will, allowing it to isolate and hunt its victims. Sealing it off never seems to work since it can override electronic commands, and burn through bulkheads with its Gauss Flayer if they are manually deadlocked. Physically the Necron is as resilient as a Terminator-cyborg, las doesnt worry it, bolters might damage it, if you get some Emperors Fury. Meltas? Meltas would do it, but they are contra-indicated for firing inside an ship, since if you miss, it will go through the hull. And if you do down it, then it will get back up again next turn.

Possible solutions –

As always PC’s can have some great ideas that surprise me. Some possible solutions that I’d have as possibilities (and I don’t think there should ever be any ‘clean’ solutions in Dark Heresy, only ones that involve some sort of compromise, sacrifice or moral struggle) -

With the death of Magos Binar (and the ships Enginseers being more “By the Rote” types) the only NPC who might have Forbbiden Lore Xenos-Tech is the Logician Otto Veer. Dare the PC’s trust him to devise a way to deactivate the unstoppable killing machine? He might be able to fashion some sort of EMP bomb (to take out the Necron) but there is that whole Proclaimation of Scant Mercy standing order to worry about. And what would he want in return for his aid? Freedom, a quick death?

Captain Leomund von Beks Eldar Shuriken pistols seem to penetrate Necron armour with ease and disrupt its circuitry. Pity the Captain is going to get killed by a Gauss shot if he goes into combat with the Necron. Dare the PC’s use the weapons of the Xenos against the Xenos? Or is that too Radical? If reports get back to their traditionalist Inquisitor, he may well punish the one who took up those pistols.

Destroy parts of the ship to blow the Necron into space. That’s almost certain to doom some of the crew and passengers. Perhaps even a PC. Will they kill the few to save the many?

Psyker powers. Necrons seem vulnerable to Psychic powers. But using Psychic powers while within a Gellar Field is contra-indicated. Dare they compromise the warp field to kill the Necron? They could drop out of Warp, but with the systems damage caused by the Scarabs, no one is sure they will be able to re-establish the warp engines.

Heres an Ordo Xenos adventure outline I'm thinking on springing on my players. Though initially it’ll appear to be a Hereticus adventure-

Silver Dawn

The Acolytes are tasked with capturing returning to Scintilla for interrogation a minor heretic called Otto Veer who has connections to the Logicians. He’s hiding out in a small colony planet near the Halo Stars called Terminus Beta. Theres an Ad Mech xeno-archeological dig there and the the thought is that Otto is there to try to steal some advanced Adeptus Mechanicus tech. The only ship going that way and back is an Inquisition-friendly Rogue Trader- the “Dawn Searcher” captained by His Excellency Capt. Leomund von Bek. The Captain is every inch the flamboyant space pirate, toting around a pair of illegal Eldar Shuriken pistols (from DotDG), but that’s OK- he’s got a seal of approval & permission to bear them from a Radical Inquisitor since the Captain once used those same pistols to save the Inquisitors life from Space Ork freebooterz.

Reaching Terminus Beta, they can easily find Otto Veer and arrest him in a cantina or his lodgings. He’ll make a half-hearted attempt at suicide to avoid capture, but he’s not the most callous of Logicians so wont be prepared to go the mass destruction way and destroy the town. (I’m toying with the idea of giving him a small nuke).

So with Otto captured, the party can head back to the Dawn Searcher. Except of course, since it’s the only ship to visit the planet in a year, there are a whole lot more passengers on the way back- newly raised up Ecclesiarchs returning to Scintilla for confirmation in their posts as the first native-born priests, an AdMech Magos named Binar returning some discoveries to the Lathes and a Guilders family who despaired of the primitiveness of the colony and want to return to the Hive (they have an attractive daughter who might show love interest in the Acolytes).
Allow them to mix & mingle, secure Otto in the ships brig, view the AdMech discoveries (silver machinery, some sort of metal sarcophagus or coffin with strange writing and some fist sized silver spheres). Some dinner at the captains table to flirt with the Guilders daughter, talk politics and relax. The dangerous bit is over and the heretic is in custody.

The ship jumps to the Immaterium for a 3 week voyage. And that’s when things start to go wrong. Power fluctuations plague the ship, knocking out lights or sealing doors. Crew complain of hearing things in the vents. Cables are cut through in small, tight passages. Items go missing. The AdMech Magos complains someone stole some of his xenos-spheres and demands they be found.

Then the deaths start. First the Magos is found, electrocuted in his recharging chamber. And now the sarcophagus appears to be open- revealing an empty space inside, big enough for a 6’ humanoid. Crew begin to go missing. Then passengers. Ships systems report high-energy discharges. Something is stalking the bowels of the ship, killing as it does.
What do the PC’s do?

What is going on – Terminus Beta is a world formerly touched by the Necrons. The sarcophagus contained a somewhat intelligent Necron Warrior. The silver spheres were the inactive form of some Necron Scarabs. The translation to Warp Space awoke the Necron-tech as it lost its connection to the material planes and higher dimensions. I’m going to say that the Necron cant phase out in the Warp, but with its nanites and scarabs will keep repairing it. However, technology is definitely its friend and it may well have more control over ships systems than the humans now. It can seal off portions of the deck and bulkheads at will, allowing it to isolate and hunt its victims. Sealing it off never seems to work since it can override electronic commands, and burn through bulkheads with its Gauss Flayer if they are manually deadlocked. Physically the Necron is as resilient as a Terminator-cyborg, las doesnt worry it, bolters might damage it, if you get some Emperors Fury. Meltas? Meltas would do it, but they are contra-indicated for firing inside an ship, since if you miss, it will go through the hull. And if you do down it, then it will get back up again next turn.

Possible solutions –
As always PC’s can have some great ideas that surprise me. Some possible solutions that I’d have as possibilities (and I don’t think there should ever be any ‘clean’ solutions in Dark Heresy, only ones that involve some sort of compromise, sacrifice or moral struggle) -

With the death of Magos Binar (and the ships Enginseers being more “By the Rote” types) the only NPC who might have Forbbiden Lore Xenos-Tech is the Logician Otto Veer. Dare the PC’s trust him to devise a way to deactivate the unstoppable killing machine? He might be able to fashion some sort of EMP bomb (to take out the Necron) but there is that whole Proclaimation of Scant Mercy standing order to worry about. And what would he want in return for his aid? Freedom, a quick death?

Captain Leomund von Beks Eldar Shuriken pistols seem to penetrate Necron armour with ease and disrupt its circuitry. Pity the Captain is going to get killed by a Gauss shot if he goes into combat with the Necron. Dare the PC’s use the weapons of the Xenos against the Xenos? Or is that too Radical? If reports get back to their traditionalist Inquisitor, he may well punish the one who took up those pistols.

Destroy parts of the ship to blow the Necron into space. That’s almost certain to doom some of the crew and passengers. Perhaps even a PC. Will they kill the few to save the many?

Psyker powers. Necrons seem vulnerable to Psychic powers. But using Psychic powers while within a Gellar Field is contra-indicated. Dare they compromise the warp field to kill the Necron? They could drop out of Warp, but with the systems damage caused by the Scarabs, no one is sure they will be able to re-establish the warp engines.

First of all, your players might know what´up the frist trouble starts.

Take a look around the internet. As far as I can see, every fan written DH story that involves a xeno-dig is about the necrons. Especially if a sarkophagus is found. This tends to screeeeam NECRON.

Second, a player might take the eldar pistoles without hesitation as soon as they learned that the thing is able to harm the necron. All players I know aren´t thinking "ahead", unless the weapon is a daemon weapon or any other direct threat to themselves. You idea of "moral conflict" is quiet fine her, but I doubt that it will work out.

The solutions:
The Logician jurry-rigging EMP out of the ships components (because their is nothing else) sounds fine, but I think it will be hard task to lure the necron into a part of the ship that will be blown away. After all...what is the lure? What is the necron after? What should make him go into a place near the hull the pc filled with explosives? Bye the way... what explosives? Is the trader stocking on explosives? Are melter torpedos (ore something like this) part of his ships arment? Or do you want to blow up the warp core? Last but not least... why does this necron have a weakness against psyker powers? Necrons are machines. Even servitores are not really effected by psyker powers, and these are somewhat human (i.e. nerves, brain, etc.). I don´t have any official rpg stats for necrons, but from WH40K I do not remember any thing about "weakness against psyker powers".

Perhaps someone who wishs to keep Otto silent set this up? Someone with power who is most definatly dealing in Xeno tech. This would give you a good follow-up investigation which would probably take alot longer.

Solutions

The interrior of the head, the unknowable machinery that can be called the Xeno filths brain, is the weak spot. Dealing enough damage to the interrior of the head would cause a Necronic EMP pulse that would shut down the scarabs in addition to killing the unholy machine. This is, however, very difficult. As the front of the head is heavily armored and the back is protected by the scarabs, and the fact that the machine is smart enough to not let anyone get behind it. However, there are two ways to destroy the interrior of his brain. A skilled marksman may be able to shoot a shot into one of his eyes, as there is no armor protecting those. The lucky shooter needs to take a Hard (-20) BS test to manage a hit, and must deal atleast 8 points of damage to shut the machine down.

Guns arnt always the only way. As a skilled swordsmen or axe weilder may have a chance of taking the vile filth down. The lucky combatant would have been wise to procure a power blade (perhaps one found earlier in the scenario), as this makes decapitating and stabbing the lone head much easier. If necrons were to feel fear, it would be for power weapons and power fists, as the sheer cutting ability of these weapon dont give them enough time to attempt self repairs. A chainsword/axe may also succeed, but the teeth of the blade may jam and break. On any roll of a 92 or more to hit the blade jams and explodes in the users hands, caused 1d10 rending damage to the PC in question. The character in combat with the Necron may make an ordinary Agility test to get behind his opponet as a half action. (You can decide to give him a break on the armor value of the back of the head for this.

Melta and plasma weapons would also work, as well as a lascannon, but any miss must make a scatter test to see if it breachs the hull.

Solution no. 2

The necron is in an area which can be isolated and seperated from the rest of the vessle. Such as an airlock or a new addition to the cruser which can seperate and wander aimlessly in immaterium. However, it can only be accessed from the inside this addition. A player with a successful decieve test may send one of the crew or passengers to their death in order to save the rest. Or they could decieve Otto into his own death, as he is doomed to a death by interrogation anyway. A particularly noble PC could choose to sacrifice their own life to save the others.

Any player who decieves a crew/passenger gains 1d5 corruption points. If this crew member to die for the rest is the guilders daughter, and if any of the player characters had a relationship (sexual or other) with her, they will gain 1d10 insanity and forever have a bitter hate for the PC who decieved her to die (a particularly dramatic player may choose to attack the deciever insted of getting the insanity points). IF the PC who decieved her was the one to have afformentioned relationship with her, then they instantly get 1d10 insanity or 1d10 corruption (GM's choice), and visions of her will plague his dreams for many years to come.

If Otto is sacrificed then the players have succeeded in saving the cruser and its population, but their master is displeased and this may reflect in their games to come.

If a player is sacrificed then there are a few paths that can be taken. The burning of fate may allow the character to live, but this would require a **** good explanation how. A pact with darkness may also allow the player to live, as the demon patron would give the character a path through the warp to a planet. Perhaps his home, or possably a more devious place. This is for the GM to decide.

As a side note, I would like to formally ask permission to plagurize this for my own group. I really like the idea of the "Mystery Train" via warp travel. I intend to alter it (most likley substitute the necron with an alpha+ psyker under suppression drugs, and insted of scarabs having him touch the minds of the crew.) But it doesnt seem right running it without proper permission.

By all means use this adventure as you will- thats why I posted here in a public board to get ideas and to inspire or be of use to others. Feel free to take, adapt and run.

Kind regards,

SJE

Gregorius21778 said:

Why does the Necron have a weakness to psyker powers? Well I think we'd all agree Necrons are machines. And that minor Psyker Power "Weapon Jam" shuts off all machines in a 50m radius when used. True that will totally screw the ship too (and you dont want to be within 50m of the warp engines or Gellar field generator when you pull that ****). But it will stop the Necron for a turn. And if you keep doing it, turn after turn, that might be long enough to bundle the Necron out of the airlock or what not.

Fortunately most 40K ships are kilometers long, so it might be doable if they lure the Necron to a non-critical area of the ship.

As for Necrons being overused. Thats fine. I havent used them yet. Even if the Players twig what it is, the characters wont. It'll be like Columbo- the players know who the killer is, but how they prove it and stop it is the interesting challenge.

Thank you, I have a feeling my gaming group will enjoy this scenario.

If you are in need of any other possable solutions PM me, I would be happy to help to the best of my ability.

I must agree, necrons are kind of obvious choice for scary monster killing people of the ship, at least if there are some kind of xeno artifacts involved. But then again, that is because they work. I would make that story as fake one-shot, with first part being the hunt for Logicians. Players should think they got trough the story and their characters are peacefully returning for their master, when some member of ship crew comes saying "You are the members of Inquisition, right? The captain thinks you should see this" and the **** hits the fan in form of Necron Flayed One. Flayed Oneis my choice for the monster because half-immortal mono-clawed serial killer running towards you in dark corridor causes more panic than warrior with gauss rifle, since most of player characters tend to be better in ranged combat than in melee. Of course the most of PC's heavy artillery like plasma guns is packed for the journey, so they don't have access to them right away.

Some of the equipment I would give to Flayed One:

Pair of chain axes, representing the claws of the monster

Light power armor, the body of the beast

Chameleonine cloak, hiding the beast and thus making it more effective assassin

Several scarabs that have hacked into ship's security systems, so players could recover the control of system by destroying all the scarabs. Of course the Necron would try to prevent the destruction of scarabs once it realizes what the PCs are up to.

In my bastardized altered version Im toying with the ideas of substituting the necron for either A- A bound psyker hidden in the cargo hold... or B- a sentiant artifact (i just reread the first eisenhorn novel and the idea of pontius works for the scenario). The artifact could be mistaken/disguised as a technological find by a traveling Magos.

Ira, one thing to consider in your planned variation- how will an Alpha psyker interact with the ships Gellar Fields. They may well have the psychic potency to accidentially pop the Gellar field whilst the ship is in the Warp. Then its Game Over Man!

SJE

Thats why I think a minorly psychic artifact would work better, and be better hidden in the ships hold.

SJE said:

I am sorry, but Weapon Jam was only working on weapons , wasn´t it?

Nope, Weapon Jinx (not Jam, sorry) stops all mechanical devices within 50m for 1 round. In addition you test Willpower to jam 1 gun, which is where it gets its name from. But this secondary effect is nowhere near as powerful or disconcerting as the stopping all machinery in a 100m diameter! All for Threshold 8.

Basically, if the Psyker can keep it up, they can paralyse the Necron (and any nearby Tech priests) every round. But bundling them through a non-working star ship could cause problems too. They certainly wont be able to cycle an airlock until they stop using the power for example.

SJE

Well I ran a convention game of this mod at Concrete Cow and it seemed to go OK- the Pysker s wound up getting very, very nervous as he made 10 Power rolls to keep it immobilised - sweat and veins popping from his brow. The Adepta Sororitas lost an arm to its gauss flayer, so wondering whether she should shoot the psyker first, decided to back all her frag grenades into its chest, lie on top of it and pull the pin, so they both took maximum damage!

And so a Martyrdom victory saw the Necron phasing out, though they never did track down all those Scarabs and the ship went missing on its next voyage...

Now I'm running it at our local club in East London at a slightly slower pace -

Session 1

In which the team is given a mission, a modest budget and an extravagant ship. A Heretic, Otto Veer has been identified and returned to the tender mercies of Inquisitorial interrogation on Scintilla. Much non-lethal weaponry is purchased.

The team board the Rogue Trader "Imperial Dawn", and met His Excellency, the Lord Captain Leomund von Bek (8th of his name) and note the unusual Xenos weapons he bears under permit of a grateful (though probably Radical) Inquisitor.

Those new to space travel experience the unique experience of Warp dreams as the ship sets sail across the Immaterium ("Its what psykers feel like, ALL THE TIME!")

The team conclude by undertaking the Emperors good work by purging with fire and bolt shell the bilge decks and dark places of the ship of the inevitable infestation of mutants and Warp and radiation touched creatures which every ship is plagued.

SJE said:

I'd say when dealing with anything with living components it would constitute either a will save on the part of the target or completely fail since essentially you're vying for control of a sentient being. If anything I'd give them resistance to Psychic powers because their C'tan masters are anathema to the warp and the powers used to create the necrons as they are now was not warp based in any way, similar to an untouchable almost. This is of course what the 3rd ed. fluff says, not sure if they changed it since this was printed.

Well there is that, but I preferred the Babylon 5 example. Dont know if you remember the scene where the Telepath Lyta uses her psychic powers on the Shadow ship and it suddenly stops in space. She is straining and eyes going black as she attempts to keep the Xenos super-ship still long enough for the rest of the fleet to blast it. The strain on her face and what it cost her was the kind of tension and risk I wanted to bring into my game. How long can the psyker hold it before rolling a 9? How long do the rest of the group take to find a way to destroy it forever before the pysker explodes? Thats drama.

I thought that was cool, and thought that the Old Ones using psykers as a weapon against the non-Psychic Necrontyr worked. After all- only the Necron Pariahs are anti-psychic, the rest of the Necron army simply lacks psykers.

SJE said:

Good points on all. And I loved that scene. The pariahs were what I was thinking of actually... And as I just realized pariahs are not the rank and file necron warriors...

very nice stuff. i might just have to use a version of this idea for my own campaign

hey SJE

why not use a daemonically possessed piece of archeotech as the evil character, where it starts out as an inert cube and as it enters the warp it wakens an starts to absorb the tech all around it (and the hapless Magos that found it) so that it has essentially a body and its main goal is to kill all passengers on board for it god then escape back into the warp?

wulfenite said:

Something ala Virus. I like it.

hey guys and girls

just sarted my campaign using SJE's idea and my own together, my characters are running screaming from it atm so im tryingto think of some way to help them. any ideas?

They are running screaming from the Necron?

Remind them of their duty to the Emperor to allow no foul Xenos to go unpurged perhaps?

Or did they all fail their Fear checks ? In which case remind them they can spend Fate Points to reroll their Willpower or snap out of shocked.

SJE

SJE said:

no they're running from my creation, the demonic piece of archeotech thats combined various bits of machinery(and a tech priest) into a body and some nasty weapons too.