Howdy everyone! New to the forums here and I was curious if I could get a little input for my campaign. In recent events, a cultist cleric sacrificed many a soul in order to summon a daemonette of slaanesh. Lucky with my rolls, the daemonette incaped everyone in the party but the psyker. Having passed his initial willpower test (Willpower was a 52) and going toe to toe with this daemon for many a round, the daemonette offered him a dark pact in exchange for the life of his fellow acolytes and himself (and possible other dark powers). However, their is a major problem now facing him....he works for a puritan inquisitor. My questions are these....

1. Unless shown in front of the inquisitor, would the acolytes inquisitor have any idea that he made this pact?

2. I made him roll a willpower check to resist corruption at the point where he made the pact (Which he rolled a 2 on) only to realize after close inspection that the book just says give him 20 corruption points. Would it be fair to allow him to dodge those points?

3. Other than selling his soul to Slaanesh, in what ways should I make him pay tribute to the god?

4. This is a complete long shot and I am expecting major flamage here (Just trying to open up options), but could he confess his heresy to the inquisitor with the excuse that their mission must be complete and to save the lives of his fellow acolytes and submit himself to a purging of the soul or should the inquisitor just kill him on the spot.

Any input would be welcomed!

That is a cool idea but you should let your characters role play it out. If the psyker wants a dark pact then you should let him and see how it goes for him.

1. If the other players are psykers too or if they come across another psyker then the other would know he is more powerful then he should be. AND if the other has the resources to figure it out they probbably would try to expose him. Or if your other acolytes expose him for this pact then it would most likely end badly for him.

2. If it was your mistake then give him less points but any touch by a daemonic entity should result in some corruption. OR as a result give him one or two minor mutation rolls and give him endurance checks to see if he gets more every game session.

3. A good way to pay tribute would be offering souls to slaanesh. That could be done with killing in the patron god's name. Or defiling bodies in a horrific and very thematic fashion. Though you should consider consequences for not submitting proper tribute or enough tribute. More mutations, soul crushing pain, something.

4. You said your inquisitor is a puritan. He would be purged in fire. There is no excuse for corruption. Though if the inquisitor is not a psyker or has no way to know, then the corruption points could cause him to be less then honest with the inquisitor.

Tubble said:

Hi there!

1) Their is a rule given in the core rules regarding this. Please check the book again (I do not have it with me), it is just a small paragraph on the "right" page, the corner "down-right"

2) If he is to have much more darker powers, he should get more corruption. Ramp it up or simply let them in over the next "days" (in-game-time)

3) In a shuddering way!

I do not know how old you and your players are, but making the daemonette reappear at night when is alone is a good start. Then, the daemonette demands "a night with him", in the course of which not only his back gets heavly rended but one of his ears gets bitten off. (One wound, and the missing ear)

Next night, daemonette returns, proclaiming that s/he is hungry for him. He has the choice: spending another night with her (which will end with the first bit of his ring finger bitten off) or he has to enter a chapel/church this night and descecrate the altar by ejaculating against it.

You know where this is leading to: from time to time, the Daemonette will appear and give him the choice: spending a night with him/her and losing some part of his body (or become damaged in some other way) or do a dead both wrong, unholy and shamefull in the eyes of an imperial educated citizen. All the acts are inteded to sullen him, make him shameful, destroy his relation to the Imperial Cult -and- bestow upon him dark pleasures.

4) Your Inquisitor is Puritan. He will kill him on the spot if he confesses this. That´s what puritans do.

Yep, Gregorius has it right ... on every point.

Unless you are playing with a relatively mature group, a daemon of Slaanesh could be problematic. Because Slaanesh is all about the seduction of the pure, leading them into corruption with depraved pleasures, etc.

But if you think your group can handle that sort of thing, it could lead to some interesting role-playing, to say the least.

And yes, a Puritan Inquisitor (depending on his relative puritanism), would most likely put a bolt shell in his head without delay.

Sister Cat said:

"Relative Puritanism"...

is this more similiar to

"gentle violation", "reasonably radical" or to "benevolent abuse"?

Relative puritan might be something like Amalathian as opposed to Monodominant. So I can see that somewhat. The Inquisitor would still most likely cleanse and purify the tainted acolyte, he/she just wouldn't do it in public along with the rest of the cell.

But a reasonable radical? Not sure there is such a thing...

Gregorius21778 said:

Hehheh. Yeah, I know. But like Redeucer said, I was referring to the fact that - at least in the novels - even some puritans are more, well ... puritan ... than others.

This is Slaneesh we are talking about here. Start small and fairly benign. Maybe even pleasant or helpful..... at first! Then as things progress further along, darker more extreme things start to be asked of the character. Pleasure is the reward, pain is the penalty. Then start having the line between the two blur a bit.... You could wait for the character to suffer from some excruciating wound, then slip the player a note informing them that their character feels a strange rush of pleasure mixed in with the pain of their wound and they should immediately remove all Fatigue points they are suffering from: The extacy of pain has refreshed them in a perverse way.

The point is to start small and subtle and then ramp things up. Then sit back and enjoy the fun as the character struggles to keep their dark secret from their teammates and of course the Inquisitor! You can of course slowly slip the character the corruption points over a period of time: Nothing says you have to give them all 20 in one fell swoop! Spread it out over time and make sure to handle any Malignancy tests away from the rest of the group... Have the player show up early or stay late on game day, meet up between sessions... be creative and secretive.

Also VERY important: Part of the Dark Pact is the daemon protecting it's servant so long as the bargain is kept up, so Psykers looking for signs of "something wrong" in the character suffer a -30 to their Psyniscience tests. Sneakier GMs will instead simply require an extra 3 DOS so they don't tip their hand to a suspicious Psyker.

When the secret is revealed the Inquisitor WILL kill the character as immediately as is prudent, unless of course events transpire to have the Pact-maker escape and go into hiding. Either way there will be high drama!

<<< Evil GM's seal of approval>>>

ZillaPrime said:

While I normally would give credit to that point since Slaanesh (es well as anyone but perhaps Khonre) can be rather helpful and friendly to begin with. But the whole affair startet after a drawn fight to the death(banishment) which crowed to a stalemate where the daemonette offered the pact as a way for the psyker to ensure he and his friends would leave their scene with their lives.

I think that under this circumstances, foreplay can be skipped

Wow guys thanks for all the replies! Glad I didn't give him the inquisitor option and thank you for correcting me on that. While I agree on some of points like doing something depraved like "bedding" the daemonette.....with the players in the group I think that would be just way to weird for them. I do like Zilla's option of pain-to-pleasure then entertwining them. So many options I just need to be more creative!

Also, if he decides he went in too deep and denies the demon......what would be some good ways of punishing him? One idea I had was to turn everything beautiful (Master crafted items) he touched into poor quality. Perhaps give him chem geld with extra insanity tacked on? Have visions torment him in his sleep giving him fatigue?

Tubble said:

No, no, no... Don't Chem Geld him. He needs to become more lecherous and depraved. He has gone back on his word, and the dæmon isn't going to let him get away with that. He needs to feel more and more, as every passing experience merely is a shadow of what it should be. Like Amasec? But now it tastes so dull and lifeless on his tongue. Cut it with some drugs. But the high is ever more fleeting, requiring him to growing excess. And eventually, there will come a time when nothing can slake his hungers, and he has no recourse but to turn to the one he betrayed to find anything that will sate him even the slightest. Then, he will know the folly of his ways, and forever be a play thing of Slaanesh.

Mechanically, I would recommend a whither of his Fellowship and maybe his Intelligence as well.

-=Brother Praetus=-

I second to brother praetus here.

Mechanically, I would give him this one maligncy that has "food tastes like ashes in his mouth" as a descripiton.

But that alone is to easy. Remember, with a dark pact the very soul is forfeith. Direct attribute damage is a little drastic. Your ideas with reducing every quality of items he touches is a good one...but turn it into "he puts to use". Otherwise, he will start to rust chains and crumble looks his party needs to bypass. We do not want to give him a benefit, do we?

The "dream thing" is a good one as well. Make the daemonette hunt him every knight. Unless he puts himself to a very deep sleep with drugs or large amounts of alcohol, he will have a level of fatigue for the rest of the day after the second night he didn´t "blacked out". Good way to blend brother praetors ideas with your own

Every time he is wounded, he could suffer such intense pain that he needs to test for willpower or become stunned.

In addition, the next a psyker near him roles "perils of the warp", the daemonette shows up again...but stronger (due to the energy from the soul gained from the pact). If the Daemonette is banished, he will -NOT- regain his "soul". Instead, he suffers the pains of banishement himself, giving him 2d10 Insanity.

If he wants his soul back, he needs to be "exorcised" or to get the Daemonette into a a host so he can command here to release him (see "Radicals Handbook" for both).

To support Brother Praetus's idea, I have an idea as per how to portray these cravings and issues to the player discreetly and without letting the entire group in in the player character's issues immediately.

When I started with my group, I made these small cards (one A4 sized sheet of paper cut into 25 cards), which I laminated into nice little play-aids. I made one for each skill, talent and weapon in the core rulebook and made three copies (which I believe should be enough for almost all cases) for the players. It's much easier to check what it means to have the "Rapid reload" talent, or what specialities did the needle gun have, from a small card in front of the player, than shuffle through the rulebook for the info.

I'd create a series of these cards for the corruption working its way in the character, where the first card would say something like "You crave for Amasec, or any kind of alcohol, in exessive amounts.", the second would say "The booze isn't cutting it any more! You feel the need for a stronger sensation" and so on, until the final cards have effects that can drive a character insane, inducing heavy penalties to carouse, fellowship, intelligence and which add insanity points when the effect escalates to a new level. At regular intervals (a month of game time) you could swap the player's card for the next one in the series, and he/she can keep it near him/her, as an easy reminder as to what kind of issue the character has. The other players need not know at all that the pact was made, or that it was broken and the character is being punished.

Just imagine the role-playing possibilities, as the characters begin to have dark secrets from each other and try to hide the effects or explain them away.

I have only three words for you : The Penitant Engine

LegendofOld said:

Is this one equal to the "Lustorgel" (german expression) from the old trash movie Barbarella ?

I think it is "lust organ" (like the music instrument you find in churches!")

Ho ho, the penitent engine is not some tool of the Dark Gods, but rather a mighty instrument of the Imperium.

Essentially, you strap heretics into the thing and while torturing their eternal soul into some semblance of purity, you also get some juice to power a war machine on the level of a dreadnaught.

Always fun times.

Ah! I know which one you mean! Used to own the "Witchhunter" 40K-Codex, but cannot remember the german name any more.

Its from the old Sisters of Battle Codex, they get them in Dawn of War: Soul Storm too, pretty badass, though i wouldn't want to be hooked up to one.