Hey Dark Heresy fans!

I just posted up another designer diary entry with the second Creatures Anathema preview: the Fenksworld Pit Thing. Enjoy!

Check out the Fenksworld Pit Thing!

Nasty! Looks sick.

very cool.

I like the logician involvement and the hint that they might....once.... have been human

to quote a film. "its beautiful!"

Although initially I was struck by how Gug-like it is.

I was at first thinking "rancor?"

Lovely picture.

Its a nice gribbly mindless bullet magnet that will keep the gun-bunnies happy in a stand up combat encounter.

So a psyker with a force weapon and an ork fall into a pit......

Pretty cool, I must find a way to intigrate this something so hard-to-kill into a game.

Erm, that's nasty.

"Hey Rock, what do you think?"

"I don't know, Dak, grenade?"

"Grenade."

*tosses grenade into maw*

"EVERYBODY HIT THE DECK!"

Not that a single grenade would kill it, but I can't imagine surviving a shot from that thing, so we'd all hope to kill it in a shot or two.

But yeah, looks hard to beat on.

Dak Rogers said:

Fair point.

Actually, assuming every grenade hit and did average damage ('12' from 2d10X), you'll need 15 frag grenades to bring this beastie to zero Wounds...20 or so to kill it....

Suicide bomber with dead man trigger on 10 sec delay?

And at 10 thrones a week, what better use could a feral world porter have?

Don't have to outrun the beastie, just shoot porter in leg and outrun him.

Letrii said:

Good idea except GW dropped the whole penal legion / suicide bomber thing a few editions back...

I'm thinking a Psyker with Firestorm might be the best option here...

Or simply stand off and pour long rang fire into the thing...a las cannon or needle rifle are probably the best bet. You're definately going to need a healthy bank balance to take this gribbly down...

They mention penal legionairres in the core rulebook. They even have explosive collars on gear list.

Explosive collars are in case they attempt to rebel or leave mate. They don't blow up more then the neck/head.

Anywho. I'm reminded of a shaved headless Yeti when I see this thing. A rancor had eyes...this is more like like someone blew the head off an orgun. Can't wait to get my hands on this book. Threats to the Imperium run more then the human/mutant cultist gauntlet. Must be why I prefer Ordo Xenos. Yum yum.

I knew they only blew off the head, thought he was saying there weren't penal legions anymore.

More.

That's all I want. More.

Um...Now.

I am a little dismayed. Not with the monster, of course.

This is the second entry that gives us a "2-page-of-text-and-1-page-of-picture" mix. Guess the whole book will be this way.

While pictures are important to get a vision of the thing, they do not have to be "full page size". A quarter or half of a page should be enough to "get the picture". If I want a graphic novell, I can have it for less money. Well, at least if I am not being gw-stuff.....

Talking: "Pit Thing":
It is good that they introduced this "Fear aura thing" and the logician rumour. Otherwise, I would have a hard time to come up with a clue why this chemo-rancor is banned from the legal pits by law.
I hope for the pit thing to be more of a "class for the bigger mutations" with lots of variables and options, but this thing is fine, too!

With all the "unnatural", these beasties are pure evil. Eating 10points of damage a hit an not giving a ****.

Gregorius21778 said:

Indeed.

As i said, you'll need 20 average damage frag grenade hits to kill it.

You'd need 8 maximum damage shotgun hits to reduce to to zero wounds. 16 maximum damage lascarbine hits.

And contrary to my earlier advice, they are immune to needle weapons....

Melee?

Ok SB3 PC with a power sword does 14 damage average per hit. So it'll take 8 hits to take this beasties down.

How many Pcs will be able to go toe to toe with this thing for that long? It deals average 16 damage per hit! The PC with the power sword is in trouble...SB4+Mesh armour 4 and 12 Wounds means he'll take 2 average hits before he's into criticals...brutal.

Very nasty gribbly. Definately one to keep the rollplayers and gunbunnies happy!!!

How do these two example creatures fair against the Space Marine in PTU?

Well, they finally found a reason to include meltas and lascannons in a roleplaying game. No doubt some players, roleplayers and gun bunnies alike, have been looking for an excuse to bring out the heavy ordinance.

Gregorius21778 said:

Not at all! I selected two previews with full-page art because I felt that A) these monsters were really cool, and B), the art was very good.

Full-page artwork is generally only one per chapter.

I think this creature is great. It's not a subtle tool for the Gm to use, but rather a pretty gruesome surprise to spring on unwary acolytes, forcing them to consider if they should fight or flee. I'm sure the book will include less combat oriented creatures as well, and I'm liking what I've seen so far.

FFG Ross Watson said:

I was getting ready to say something like that. Mainly that with the proposed 50 some creatures and the page count of 120 or so, it is impossible for each to get 3 pages.

But I do hope some get more then 3, like the Orks and the Eldar. I will be dissappointed if they dont get at least 5 pages each. Otherwise it will more or less be a retelling of the Eldar from PTU and even Unearthed Apocrypha's Dark Eldar supplement was 8 pages and the Ork one 14 pages.

But I imagine some of the critters (normal monsters and animal types) may be even 2 or 3 per page.

Please tell the Slaugth are not in this book as well.

Any chance we can get an table of contents peak?

Sorry, it is just that this is the book I wanted since day one LOL.

BTW Ross, you guys going to be at Origins this year?

Yay for Pit Things! I think Fenksworld is my favorite little hellhole, I love all the IH references to how indescribably fethed up Volg is.

So, now, the only question is.....when does it come out?

I cannot wait to get my copy. This is torture.....but don't stop previewing=