Have any of you continued on past Maggots in the Meat? I recently ran that as a lead in, and let two of the Slaugth escape to lead the investigation further afield. SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Those of you with Snowtiger as a GM, read no further. Dain, I'm looking at you.

The setting of the feudal world was quite interesting and fun. The Slaugth themselves seemed to be dialed up pretty 'ard, but such is life in the 41st millenium. The Acolytes in our party went out looking for dead bodies to sell, trying to find other contacts like Sneed and Snoop or whatever their names were...can't remember. Anywho, being a sandbox style GM, they were able to find another set of corpse movers, who indeed planned on using the skymill as a drop. At the same time, the escaped Slaugth were perpetrating a nightmare in the rank and file of the army laying siege to Olrankan.

Cliff Notes: the group split, the acolytes at the wall hearing the screams of they dying out in the swamp and choosing to investigate. I layed out a grisly scene of carnage for them to find, and the feudal troops already reacting badly, with massive desertion. Needless to say, they called for the rest of the acolytes to join them and track down the perpetrators of the heinous slaughter.

What I really enjoyed doing, though, was fleshing out the Slaugth. I decided that they'd made contacts with the Lady in charge of the ensiegeing army (Falatrix, was it? I have to stop posting these at work...) The Acolytes discovered a hidden tunnel, and I really tried to hammer in the creepy, tension building feel. The tunnel was smooth, hidden by Xenos technology. There was no obvious source of light, though a dull red glow illuminated the entire tunnel in a way that cast no shadows. I sweetened the pot by making the tunnel constantly curved, for no reason the acolytes could discern...just to illustrate their alien thought process. Most disturbing to my group, however, was the strange power source they located at the end of the tunnel, in a large room directly below the Lady's "palace". (I guess for a feudal world, it counts as one...) A smooth column of silvery metal, from floor to ceiling, with no markings or apertures. A thin film of blood slid down, somehow folding into it somewhere around the middle. The Slaught sprang from concealment, and in the process of dodging, one of the acolytes discovered the red liquid was blood when he braced himself on the pillar...bloody hand!!!

The next challenge will be prepping their next adventure. I'm not sure yet whether this group will continue to investigate or play their "call in the big guns" card on it yet. It'll be interesting discovering what other vile xenos tech might exist in the town, that the greedy nobility was trading their foes' souls for.

Our GM took the background, threw out everything else and it wound up that one of the warring princes was really a Genestealer Patriarch and the other asked the Tau for help removing his enemy.

Meanwhile, the greedy Mayor of the port city helped us out, so when all the Xenos taint is gone we're going to appoint him Planetary Governor and set up some proprietary trade agreements between him and our Rogue Trader character so we'll have the cash for some decent equipment and hire us some muscle....

I reworked it entirely with a planet-spanning conspiracy between the planetary Agriarchs (feudal farmer lords) and the Slaugth. The Agriarchs had even set up a lottery among their workers with winners getting rewarded with relocation to the 'metal islands' and the stars above- but in reality they became Slaugth-chow. Things went from bad to worse when the Acolytes discovered that the world was being investigated by an Adeptus Arbites force cracking down on tithe evasion among the Agriarchs and their business partners. Since the acolytes were posing as part of a trading firm wanting in on the Agriarchs fortunes, they initially caught some heat from the Arbites too... In the end, the Arbites formed a great backdrop battle against the followers of the Slaugth while the Acolytes did their duty and put down trio of xenos - with a hastily concocted truck full of fertilizer and a few charges. Great fun.

I did not played the module, but toyed with the idea of making the

WARNING!!! HEAVY SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!

....making the mill only some kind of "outpost" with the "main encampment" within the swamps. The Slaught use this legends of "this old cult" hence it makes the people stay away from the swamp (see the rumours in the module) and beef those rumours up with some of their more nastie (and bigger!) thingies unleashed in the swamps. They went down with a small craft conealed as an asteroid (kinda crash landing).

Their aim: securing the "base" and infiltrating the small settlements nearby under the guise of the cult. Step one ("hinder and/or kill all travellers from/to the villiages") is actually at work. Part two ("send in infiltrators and kill the priests of the imperial cult") is in progress. Step three ("use the infiltrators to establish the cult as "the only way to survive this!") comes next.

Sounds like a great idea...you should run with that and tell us how it goes!

Snowtiger said:

Thanks, but personally I have one big problem:

I do not know any "aim/motivation" for the slaught. I mean....what are they after? Only feeding?

Where can I find this module?

Letrii said:

Unfortunatly, in a shop. Together with "DH GameMaster Screen" for a price much to high if you take into account that the module itself is not great (it needs SERIOUS work!) and the generator & poison rules are mediocre or very short.

But if you are looking for a good GM-Screen and do not mind paying a rather high amount of money....I have never seen a screen more sturdy&beautifull

Gregorius21778 said:

I had the same problem with this adventure. What are the Slaugth doing that is so horrible? They're just eating dead bodies. Sure they're foul Xenos and all, but they're not really harming anybody.

Gregorius21778 said:

In my campain they are a C'tan servant race trying to bring back the Tyrant Star Komus (a C'tan or a C'tan weapon thrown into the warp millennia ago). They not only consume the dead but also suck out the life-force of humans and other sentient creatures. The Amaranthine Syndicate (from DotDG) is a good cover for them.

Luthor Harkon said:

Thangs for a helping hint, but I am not very found of all this "everything points to C´Tan / The Founder Race at the end" approach.

Think I´ll have to stick to the food stuff. Perhabs the swamp makes a good breeding ground or something.

Who/what are the C'tan?

The C'Tan are ancient beings that turned a servant race into what are now the Necrons and tried to kill off everything in the galaxy. The Eldar and others opposed them. This was long long ago even by 40K standards.

Letrii said:

They are an ancient race of energy beings (if four guys are a race) who once feed off of stars before realizing that life tastes a lot better. They are the ones who made the Necrons, destroyed the Slaan (old ones, or what ever), made all sentient life fear death, inspired the imagery of the grim reaper, killed Santa Clause, kidnapped the Lindbergh baby, shot J.F.K. and J.R., and canceled Firefly. They are the ultimate bad guys who will end the universe... at least until GW reveals the fact that they are just a puppet race for the True Ultimate Bad Guys who will Really End the Universe for Reals who are also behind the Golden Throne failing or some such.

More info on them can be found here:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/C'tan

If they inspired the Grim, they can't be all bad.

Graver said:

Okay. That´s it. NOW I hate ´em!!!!!!!!!!!

Never saw Firefly.

Letrii said:

Don't let the necrons win! You need to remedy that post-haste!