Ref: Inq/045678499/BI
Author: Necrozius
Subject: Shades on Twilight ref. 421.59814348AE

Ave Imperator, fellow savants of the Calixis Sector.

I'm about to run Part II of the Purge the Unclean trilogy tomorrow night, and I'm eager to impress my players.

Do you all have any last minute advice for this story?

Any devastating plot loopholes that I should be aware of?

Also, any suggestions as to how to make it a bit more difficult? My players' characters are of a higher level than what is recommended. I mean besides just adding MORE bad guys, which will just slow things down...

Any advice or suggestions are eagerly welcome!

Thanks in advance...

Necrozius said:

Give the Dark Eldar a broader assortment of weaponry, and tweak the splinter weapons a little. I made the splinter pistol 1d10+2 R, and the splinter rifle 1d10+3, which (combined with their Pen and Tearing when on full-auto) means they can actually be pretty damned vicious weapons (by the end, not one of the players in my group had full wounds, and all but one had suffered at least a minor critical), but I also gave the overall raiding force a single Blaster (Basic; S/-/-; 40m; 3d10+5 E; Pen 10; Clip 10; Rld 2Full), Shredder (Basic; S/-/-; 2d10+6 R; Snare (deals 1d10+3 damage each turn ensnared); Clip 20; Rld 3Full) and Splinter Cannon (Basic (two-handed use only); S/3/10; 1d10+5 R; Pen 3; Reliable, Hail of Splinters; Clip 250; Rld 4Full) to boost their firepower.

I also gave the Haemonculus leading them a Shadow Field (absorbs 3d10 damage per hit, fails after the first hit that deals more damage than the field absorbs) and a Scissorhand (glove with several poisoned blades on the fingers; 1d10+SB R; Pen 2; Tearing, Toxic).

The other thing would be to ensure that each Dark Eldar has the Dodge skill - with their agility scores of 45 and Unnatural Agility, it gives them a 55% chance of avoiding one attack per turn, making them more likely to survive to inflict considerable amounts of hurt on the players.

Oh well, I was hoping that other gamemasters here would have shared some tips based on their experiences.

Anyways, the game went really well (finished in about five hours).

Some things went by really quickly and without issue: when the Acolytes were face to face with the rival team of Acolytes, the Cleric ended any confusion by showing his Inquisitorial I.D.. No problems there! Unfortunately, when the Acolytes met the ghosts in the Black ship, the same character told them that they were inquisitors, causing the ghosts to go mad and everyone lost a fate point, had most if not all of their equipment broken.

That did make things interesting in the final fight, because they really had to be careful with dealing with the Dark Eldar.

Overall a good experience, although everyone's sore from losing a Fate Point so easily.

Glad to hear your game went well.

I hope you don't mind, but I have a couple of questions about 'Shades' and instead of creating a new Post I thought I'd post them here if thats okay..

Firstly, What would happen to an acolyte with no Fate points when/if their goup are forced to Burn one? Would they die, or just fall unconscious like the rest of them?

Secondly, How would the spirits react to a Blank/Untouchable? I mean, as far as I remember (Don't currently have the book in front of me) they were just psychic traces on the Immaterium or something to that effect, so would they be able to register a Blanks presence (and to the same effect would they be able to harm the Blank in the event of a forced Fate point Burn)?

Thanks for any help you can offer

Lucky you, my group spared the lone dark eldar, annihilated the rival acolytes from a distance with heavy weapons, showed inquisitorial ID to the ghosts, gave away the book as a diversion and then set themselves on fire while trying to recapture it.

Oh, and the good brother sergeant killed the tech priest and cost the scum his last fate point while attempting medicae. Epic fail session.

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

Thanks. Sure, no problem.

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

The Acolyte in question would be dead. It is a harsh event, that is for sure. A bit of a reality check to the players that the 40K setting is brutal and horrific, I guess.

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

The spirits are those of dead psykers, thus if they ever DID detect the Untouchable, they wouldn't like him or her very much. That might make things awkward.

To get around this, you could have it that the ghosts just can't perceive the Untouchable character at all, and vice versa (the Untouchable doesn't see them either). That would be a really interesting twist!

I'm not too sure about whether or not the Ghosts could even hurt the untouchable. That is up for debate.

Personally, I'd say yes they could, because the ghosts are Warp entities, not strictly psychic phenomena. If a Daemon can physically assault an Untouchable, then I suppose that a Warp ghost could.

Thanks for the advice

Necrozius said:

Well I can definitly see one of my groups acolytes dying when I play them through this.. Poor guy, he's the only one who knows whats going on half the time

Necrozius said:

Now I do like that idea, very ingenious

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

What kind of character is he? There might be ways that he/she could be spared:

If the character's a psyker, then maybe the ghosts spare him.

If he's a cleric, perhaps they see a holy symbol on him and leave him be.

Or, regardless of class, instead of killing him off, have him wounded at a critical state (blood loss and all), and the other acolytes could have a chance at saving him after the event (there IS some downtime that could be used). That way he won't feel COMPLETELY hopeless...

He's a Tech-Priest, so theres little hope of a repries from the ghosts as far as I can see. However, if the worst dose happen I had the idea that his lifeless body could become possessed by Vogel, and let him play through that...

"How come you suddenly know so much about the Luminous Reproach?"

"Errm... Data Slate?"