Hey all!

I am planning on bringing back Hadarak Fel (of the Core book as well as at least one other) for a gigantic 'end of the story arc' battle!

When last they saw him, he had made a deal with...something sinister to escape their clutches. I had some vague ideas about this deal involving daemonic possession or even daemonic prince-dom, not as well thought out as I had hoped.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can adjust/mutate/possess/etc Fel? I'd like this to be a battle for them to remember without REALLY piling on the foes, and they seem to be able to cut through most enemies like butter!

L-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Piratedavyjones.JPG

guest469 said:

A good idea, as far as the end result of 'the deal', though I am still open on suggestions there...

My main concern was: How do I stat him out so as to provide a challenge without guaranteeing a TPK??

After all, I want this to be the end of the story arc, not the end of the game!

L-

He made a deal with Harlock?

Slautghs?

Eldar?

Chaos?

The Deamon ship from DH creature aneatema?

@Lustcraft
It sounds like you lock forward to "upping his defence" while keeping the offence in line with what he already has.

But before we a talk about this; I see another problem coming up to you: How will you "enforce" that the players will meet him "face to face" instead of attacking his vessel in order to gun this one down?


Again: Back2Topic
I would not use alter the stats. I would alter the "meta game". How about him having a pact with an evil Power that grants him visions and/or glimpses of the futur? Think about an enemy who knows what your players are up to. Who knows all of their cunning plans and is thereby able to take some counter measures? If he is able to counter them is a different topic, but it would ensure that the pc will unable to suprise him with anyhting or that they would be able to lay any trap.

On the other hand, the players would be unable to hide from him. Whatever they try to achieve, wherever they are: Fel will know it.

Gamewise, you could simply grant him a lot of re-rolls or bony on his defense rolls. I am unfortunately not gaming RT. In DH, there are some psyker powers to emulate this. Giving him a lot of Fate points, both to spend and burn would be alright as well. In this case, the Fate points are the daemons favours. Everytime his life is saved just barely by "Burning Fate", it was the Daemon who guided him with using his might to betray Fate just one more time.

If you want it more supernatural, Unnatural Willpower &Toughness are always an Option. The Toughness helps to ignore wounds (especially, if combined with an energy field and proper armour)will the Willpower might provide some help against certain Psyker/Navigator Powers.

Last but not least, part of his deal (besides the mentioned points) could be the "summoning out of thin air" of two daemonic bodyguards (which always linger close to him...and thereby corrupt him further). While the presence of something malign will be sensed, it is reasonalbe for the Navigator/Psyker pc to turn it down as "his corrupted Aura" unless they achieve some very good success on a Psiniscience test.

Since these two Daemons (whom would still need to be stated later) appear out of thin air, they would be cause for surprise on your players. And thereby, would become a danger since they are likely to gain a "free strike"

I have to say I really like Gregorious' suggestion. If you do decide to go Chaos as the source of the pact then I'd suggest looking at the Dark Pacts section of Dark Heresy, the options their are interesting including ones for regeneration and things (then again with the damage output of the average arch militant this only helps a little, but does nicely scare players when the enemies wounds heal before their eyes!).

If it is the a Chaos Entity at the source of the pact try and think about what they want out of this? Daemon X isn't as scary as an established villain in the background such as The Hag from Dusk or a homebrewed Daemon Prince/Greater Daemon/Minor Chaos God who have their own goals and may seek to plague the party long after Fel is properly dead, possibly reanimating his corpse with vile magics to taunt them (this should be done no more than once I'd advise). You can always link they in with other groups supporting the entity even if not directly. For example if he strikes a deal with the Hag, she is worshipped by the Saynay Clan I believe so perhaps in the opening gambits Fel trades insults with the players at a feast in Footfall or somewhere else important he smiles to himself knowing their holdings are being assaulted by these chaos pirates. What I'd personally be tempted to go with if I went the Hag/Saynay Clan route is say that Fel has been infused with power for a year and a day (or longer) to do as he wishes (hunt the party) before he must pay his end of the bargain. As a skilled captain he is to become the leader of the flagship of the fleet or atleast his immortal soul bound to it, perhaps at that point regretting his actions and trying to subtly aid the PCs hoping his immortal master will not notice. Say for example if his soul is bound to the ship the odd locked door might open giving them a bonus to boarding actions or the option of facing the true leader of the chaos pirates in single combat.

Perhaps Fel hasn't struck a deal as much as gone to an extreme he had never hoped to when he fought the party last, opening a safe and withdrawing a Halo Device, increasing his power and slowly corrupting him. Stats for these are found in the Dark Heresy book Disciples of the Dark Gods... very scary.

Perhaps a cyborged up Fel who made a deal with Hereteks or the Logicians? More machine than man he now seeks the blood of those that stole his humanity, or maybe even a full robotic body with his soul trapped inside? As for cyborg give him some of the traits and talents from the Augmentisist alternate rank amongst other dread things.

All good suggestions!

Too many to use with Hadarak Fel by himself (I think the deal with daemons for extra power/daemon henchmen idea is the one I am going with), but I plan on using all of them at one time or another later!

Thanks all!

L-

A deal with something sinister, eh?

How about the Inquisition? Nothing like the shock when the players realize that Fel is seen as the "Hero of the Imperium" and they've been turned on by the Inquisition.

HPLustcraft said:

Hi Lustcraft,

if you are interested in some suggestion for the stats of said henchmen, I could try to brew something up. I would need some infos about your pc, so. Mainly, the general weapons & arment. I am not familiar with this part of RT since I am not gamemastering it.

Something I've done in the past when I want my crew to kill something in person, rather than just blowing them out of the sky, is by giving them a specific way of killing something. Perhaps Fel has made a deal with the daemon prince Malothrex the Unliving where he will live through any attack; weapons bounce off his skin, wounds close and even death itself refuses to take him. Upsettingly for our antagonist, Malothrex cannot bear the touch of true life, so a blade made from living wood, plunged through Fel's heart, will destroy him instantly.

I t means your players have to track down the weakness, souce an appropriate weapon and, unless they want to hand it off to a minion, get into the fight themselves to finish him off. There's an endeavour in and of itself.

Also, not sure why noone has mentioned this thus far, there's always your friend and mine, Halo Devices! The perfect thing to make a bad guy truly, utterly bad.

An option for increased durability through demonic assistance could be to have some minor demons acting as shields : each time a hit slips though his defenses, there's a percentage that a a minro warp critters pops out of the warp and takes the hit.

Technicaly speakign it's the equivalent of a force field, but with more flavor. Depending on how gross the crittrs and their demise, it might even bring a little bit of corruption/insanity from witenssing such a blatant example of the powers of the warp acting in the material world.

From a GM's side, it has the advantage of being easy to manage and let you free to ajust on the fly - if more hits seems to slip by as the fight drags out, it can be ratinoalized easily that the supply of meat shields is running short.

Give him control over a one-bound or twice-bound daemonhost