I am designing a pre-Imperium world where the Slaught have arrived in their body-suits as "Gods" to rule.

At first it will appear to the players that these individuals might be a fellow Rogue Trader party which was shipwrecked on the planet.

The players will discover that when the Gods landed, the planet was in the middle of a massive war. The Gods imposed order and discipline on the masses, and brought peace and prosperity by overthrowing the local elites. The players will witness a public execution, where a strange alien beast decapitates the war criminals (elites). This is a Slaught Harvester, and if the players follow its rounds of the city, they discover that it is taking the heads back to a central structure, where the Slaught will consume them.

I am doing more work on this. The Slaught have a warship hidden in a gas giant, and will eventually bring all of their ilk down to the surface once they have totally infiltrated the world. I need to design the Slaught Warship, which is going to be a huge black disk with weapons similar to the hand held weapons they carry.

I am probably going to set this world in the area of the map closest to calixis.

So what tech level are the resident humans....primitive, steam, WO2 level.
How much resources do the PC's have at their disposal (orbital bombartment can throw mud in ther cogs of your story)

I would suggest that the Slaught actually welcom the pc's, not overly to rise suspicion.

Do remember, Slaught are realy dangerous, they can easily whipe a party...

All in all it reminds of the series V

Santiago said:

Which, IMHO, is a good thing.

I think the Slauhgt are a fine foe, and hopefully we see more of them in Deathwatch.

Peacekeeper_b said:

I'll second all of this

The Slaugth are a great set of villains and the more the merrier.

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex - please keeps us updated with your work, I'm especially curious to see how you stat out the Slaugth ship.

And of course even if your players win this round there is always the Amaranthine Syndicate to cause plenty of trouble for them in the future ...

DW

Congrats Traveller61! You are the first poster to spell Slaugth correctly in this thread.

Spelling being our number-one concern!

I will try to scribble up some stats over the next day or two.

I am thinking of several small ships, like destroyers, and one big mother ship, a big black disk, as mentioned. Do you think it should be a bioconstruct?

<my players keep away!>

I am so stealing this. What a wonderful world. Please post ideas for Slaugth ships.

I'm running Lure of the Expanse right now, and two of the competing Rogue Traders are already under the sway of the Slaugth.

Djanko Scourge was and is working for Amaranthine Syndicate. He was instructed to bring in the vulnerable and desperate Madam Charlabelle to the Syndicate, and has just sealed the deal at the battle of the Temple of Farseeing. She's been using xenos mercenaries already, and does not yet suspect the real nature of her new benefactors.

Djanko used other Rogue Traders to do away with Krakwin Feckward at the same battle. Feckward was aligned with The Kasballica, who are rivals in the cold trade with the Syndicate. In my world the Kasballica is under attack by the Syndicate, and if the players don't do anything to tip the balance, the Syndicate will grab and enforce a monopoly on the cold trade from the Expanse to the Calixis Sector. They convinced the players to help board and take Feckward's ship so Lady Charlabelle could upgrade from her merchant class ship to something a little more powerful. Thus my players are already working for the Slaugth, though they don't know it.

I've also given some other DothDG (I *love* that book) allegiances to other Rogue Traders in Lure:

Abel Gerrit discovered the Temple Tendency when he arrived in the Calixis Sector, and has converted. The senior officers and all clergy on his ship are all members of the cult. So far my players haven't have much dealings with him yet.

Lord-Admiral Bastille the Seventh owes his rise to the writ to The Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness. Bastille was accompanied to the Temple of Farseeing by a dark familliar (ala Malessence). Imagine my surprise when the players took on Bastille's forces and prevailed (a few fate points in the hole). Bastille is now held hostage by the players. They fought his demon, but don't know if Bastille or the demon was the boss. They might let Bastille go.

Madam Charlebelle and Lady Sun Lee assisted the players against the demon, so my players are feeling good about the two women. Lady Sun Lee will not want Bastille freed. We'll see.

I can't wait for Edge of the Abyss. Hopefully there will be some new factions that my players can run up against. My players have managed to turn Hadarak Fel (whom I RP as the Scarlett Pimpernel) from a hostile rival to a friendly(ish) rival. I'm making him less stupid than was depicted in Into the Maw. No reason to throw away trained senior personnel. He values them as assets, and will protect and care for them as long as the cost benefit ratio makes sense. I'd like to tie him in with some iffy by not totally sinister faction. If Edge doesn't have what I want, I'll make my own.

In any case, I can't wait to see what you come up next.

</my campaign>

Hmm, must read up on Slaugth. they sound like good adversaries.

I enjoy the slaugth as adversaries as well. At the moment I am trying to expand the Haarlock Legacy campaign where the players follow the trail of haarlock into the Kronus Expanse determine where the Haarlock realm is and how the slaugth tie into the Haarlock Legacy.

Salcor

Grand Inquisitor Fulminarex said:

Sorry if I sounded like a ****. My brain melted over 11 misspellings in 3 posts.

>bioconstruct vessels?

Yes!
FTL system should be non-warp based and difficult to detect by Imperial Navy sensors.

Hi Fulmirax,

the following suggestiosn from my side:

Slaughtships: I would say "no" to bioconstruct ships, simply in reference to "Dead Stars". And for not bluring the lines with Tyranids to much. While a small armada of Slaught ships is one possibility, how about having the slaught ships simply appear in the system as an response to an interstellar signal the Slaught on the planet send? This could happen shortly after they note the RT presence on their world, something akin to a "plans have to change, come for harvest NOW". Of course, the RT will not be able to translate the message, but they might well be able to identify it as such..and thereby get a hint that they are not dealing with another RT but something alien. Of course, after deciphing it.

The Peace Cult: That is a fairly new approach ("stability and peace") to Slaught Harvesting, but why not? How about a cult of Justice, with the "Gods" being the final arbiters of justice? Of course, most crimes are punishable by death. Perhaps to a degree even an imperial citizen would find harsh.

War is crime unless it is justice: Part of your mentioned infiltration could be that the "Gods" demand that no human wages war. Instead, the Gods provide for "Guardians". Volunteers might go to the high temples where the priest measure them up and deem them worth or not. Those worthy are guided on the journey to them temple in a recluse location that is hard to reach and forbidden to approach of you do not wear a sign the priests gave you. Of couse, these "temples" are places where the Slaught create bio constructs. Some human shaped constructs are clad in full suits of armour (provided by local believing populace) which help to conceal the true nature of the "Guardians".

Perhaps their are still some factions (warlord) remaing that are unwilling to obey to the "gods" which could be swayed by the RT to join their site... if they are able the to overcome the distrust those rules know have against any new "sky people".

I've used the Slaught quite a bit myself. I see the Slaught as parasites that depend upon others to survive and thrive amongst the stars. In my games, they don't tend to create starships of their own, instead relying upon the vessels of their pawns and allies. I've had Slaught control an Imperial vessel from the shadows of the underdecks unknown to most of the crew and I've also had some alien vessels that are controlled more openly, with the crew serving as direct thralls to a Slaugth. In this way, it's hard to eliminate the Slaught - or even to concentrate forces against them since they could be anywhere and anyone could be one of their agents. This insidiousness is their strength and why they are such a good DH villain, but that doesn't mean that RTs can't share in the horror too.

I am still working on the Slaught War Disk, but I think I have a gruesome main weapon for it, the Slaught Necro-Beam Emitter. This is fired from a cupola on the War Disk. Each is on a Keel mount, one upper and one lower. The beam is a sickening green, jagged like a lightening bolt, and gives off a screeching sound.

SLAUGHT Necro-Beam Emitter

Strength= 3

Damage= 1d10+6

Critical= 4

Range= 5

For each point of Hull Integrity damage, the Necro-beam does 3 Crew Loss and 3 Morale Loss.

The Warship is accompanied by 1d5 "War Orbs." These smaller, armored ships are heavily armored, and designed to ram an enemy vessel, then unload hundreds of Slaught boarders. Stats to follow. They carry a short ranged plasma beamer to breach the hull for boarding.

The War Disk can also fire "Breach Constructs" to attack the hull of a vessel. The War Disk can fire 10 Breach Constructs per turn. These bizaare monstrosities are pallid grey, with many numerous eyes, tentacles, and spider-like limbs. They are launched from the War Disk with a range of 6, and hit the vessel on a successful BS roll. The turret value of the vessel will eliminate successful strikes, 1 for each turret factor. Once a Breach Construct has landed, the turrets have no effect. Each turn, the Breach Constructs do 1d5 Hull Integrity of damage as the hull is ripped apart. Normal crew and morale loss.

<My players go way>

Perhaps Slaugth ships could melt away when destroyed, just like their vassal constructs do. That way they leave no trace behind.

In my game I'm not using them to stand and fight in traditional battles, but to infiltrate and dominate from the shadows. Perhaps my campaign conclusion could have them going all out, like in the vision of the future from Dead Stars.

</my players>

Well, they are using this ship to infiltrate the planet. The climax of the adventure will be the players fighting the War Disk. Having them melt away seems reasonable. It will be impossible for the players to infiltrate the War Disk, as it does not have a layout remotely humanoid, and is more fluid and pipe flow.