Hi I'm new to Dark Heresy and finished up my third session last week.

The acolytes are investigating a cult and I was thinking about switching it up and making the inner circle of said cult a chaos worshiping genestealer cult. Problem is I'm not super familiar with the lore and I don't have the creatures anathema supplement.

I wanted to know if Genestealers are a bit much for tier 3 acolytes. I know they can be dangerous even for Space Marines so I was concerned about this kind of threat. (though it does seem like the sort of thing the Inquisition would specifically look in to)

note: Normally I'd just punch down some stats but I think one of my players is pretty familiar with 40k lore and will call me on it if the genestealers aren't represented well statistically.

Rank 3 Acolytes will be dead in a straight fight, like within a round. If you want, have them do the Call of Cthulhu thing and blow up the building the genestealers are in or something.

ah they would be more than dead, genestealer would rip them open inject it's extra DNA into them then kill them even more, players would die either way, no way around that, maybe if they were 1 or 2 ranks higher and had things to act as meatshields to fight against it, but if you really want to use genestealers, just have them be narrative and not battle genestealers, have them run away from the acolytes but still have the genestealer dread around..

Darkmittens said:

Its possible for a genestealer to one shot a space marine in power armor, and kill a termie in two turns. DH PCs, even ascended PCs are in extreme danger of dying instantly. A meat shield isn't going to mean much.

In a cult worship of Chaos and worship of gene-stealers is mutually exclusive, you can't have both. Gene-stealers are tyranids, mostly immune to the corrupting influence of chaos.

And to say again, because it pays to be clear. You really REALLY shouldn't be pitting any kind of non-Ascended acolyte cell against pure strain gene-stealers. Now, to fill in some fluff. Gene-stealer cults exist to infiltrate existing civilizations and destroy or weaken them from the inside out before the main hive fleet arrives to clean up the planet. To do this they need more than just pure strain gene-stealers, which are basically uber dangerous killing machines. Most of the population of a cult is made up of half breeds, most of them can't blend in with normal humans because they are horribly mutated by tyranid DNA, but some can, and do. Most of these half-breeds are mook material, and can fight with Tier 3 PCs on an even level. There may be some that are super human, or are boss material, like an Arch-Heretic or Hive Gang boss. you can use the half breeds as killing material for your PCs.

You can also hit at pure strain gene stealers in some way as well, as a kind of terror tactic to make them realize they are dealing with something that can possibly be way out of their field of expertise and ability to deal with. One thought is that the players see sleeping or gestating pure strains, and anything excessive and loud (gun fire) will wake them. At which point the entire party dies and their mission is a failure.

I also suggest you not pit the players against the Gene-stealer Patriarch, as that is even more powerful than the normal pure strains by a large margin. They also have psychic power as well, if I'm remembering right. He can be another 'danger from afar' part of the mission.

Garner said:

You over enthusiastic munchkin!

This been said, I would not advise this approach for different reason.

1) The genestealers seed genetically turns the tainted individual to "worship" the Patriach/the Genestealers / the Tyranids. And them only, to the point of total self-neglect/self-destruction in their deeds. At least this is what regularly happend to humans infected by the cult. The fluff is ribe with stories like this. Thi

2) In all inccidents where chaos taints something successfully, it gains the distinctive taint of corruption and mutation. Once the genetic template the Genestealers planted is corrupted, the result may be similiar to Genestealer-Hybrid (or Genestealer) it started from, but it I doubt that it will be a part of the Hive Mind any longer. And at least not treated by the hive mind as such.

If you are after a once-Genestealer cult now turned into a Chaos Cult, go for it. I would make it a chaos cult with some devouring daemonic entitiy at the center, an undivided force of hunger and consumption that can never-ever be satisfied. The mutants and spawns the cult would have at hand would have some/many traits of the Genestealers and Hybrids, but would in the end be nothing else but a different breed of worshippers and mutants.

But as already mentioned, I think the "best of both worlds" attempt you seem to aim it is

a) out of fluff
b) complete munchkinness

My two cents

Smart Acolytes don't fight the genestealers. They blow up their nest.

Thanks to everyone for the great responses. Looks like genestealers would be crazy dangerous. I remember reading (when I was kid) that the genestealers tend to gravitate towards religions and take over their hierarchy within society. I thought to myself... "y'know I bet they're not too picky who they're worshiping!" so that's why I was gonna go with a chaos cult. In my current game the acolytes are investigating a cult and they suspect that it might be chaos. I wanted to both confirm their suspicions yet still surprise the snot out of 'em.

I liked the suggestions about using 2nd and 3rd generation genestealers because they're decently mookish. I suppose because genestealers are reliant on multiple generations it might take a few decades before they could produce more 1st generations. So for my adventure I could leave it as a relatively new cult with only one founder that gets taken out via the previously suggested explosions, PDF, deus ex machina, or whatever.

Thanks again every one!

(Any one know if the creatures anathema book covers topics like this? If so I might want it to keep myself out of trouble. )

Garner said:

Acolytes to Inquistor: "Genestealers!"

Inquisitor to Acolytes: "Evacuate now, cleanup in inbound in two minutes, do not be there when it arrives."

Garner said:

It does. Has the stats for a Genestealer for example, and much nice fluff on their modus operandi.

Garner said:

First: I would like to apologize for my rather harsh post. I had a bad day and got carried away. A question should not receive such an answer as I gave.

Back2Topic

The CA (unfortunately!) does not cover "Hybrids" or the process of transformation. Just the final product (the genestealer) and the seeding technique (and a one-liner about such a taint could be removed. Very simple; just skill test & difficulty). I hope for answers to this in "Mark of the Xenos" (which is from Deatwatch) but the topic was not covered their as well.

@Chaos as a Mask
Hmm... a Genestealer Cult masking itself as a Chaos Cult? As I am a "hardliner", I cannot think that G-Cult would really attempt anything like this (hard enough to hide from the Emperium. Already pretending to be something else sounds..a bit to complicated for a seeded instinct-like behaviour). Anyway, the cult could easily be mistaken for a Chaos Cult. After all, their member mutatet slowly and worship something that is not the Emperor

How about a Cult Worshiping "He who devours - The Great Genitor". The Cult could actually worship the "Patriach" at the center as good, bringing him women as "sacrifices". Cultist might speak about the women they abduct for sacrifices, "the brides of the devouring one" they bring to him "so the Insemination spreads". With this combination (and an abscence of women how might be hidden away as birthing machines in the cellar of some hideout/temple). By what the pc might learn from the spurtings, damnations and infos screamed under torture the pc might actually believe that they are facing a Slaanesh cult. You just need to play up the sacrifice of females and the "sirigin" aspect. Perhaps a fertility-aspect as well. Their even might have been a pre-imperial fertility-cult on this world and the hybrids somehow "believe" that they are worshipping an Avatar of their god.

But I do not think that their would be any actual sorcery or things like this. Just the Psy-Power of the Magus and the Patriach. Playing up "the unresitable gaze of the god" could lure the pc into believing that it is Slaanesh as well.

In the very early days of Genestealer lore, back when they first appeared in White Dwarf (somewhere around issue 114 if I recall), there was motive for genestealer cults to turn to the worship of chaos. Generally, it was considered a genestealer infestation that had somehow "failed" in its infiltration of a planet, and the patriarch (and sometimes the magus, if fourth generation hybrids were already around) would sell their souls to the ruinous powers in exchange for the power to do what they had so far failed to accomplish.

So in a nutshell, while a chaos-worshipping genestealer cult is rare, there is precedent for it in the background. On the other hand, what the posters have said here about your Acolytes getting insta-killed by the 'stealers is pretty much on the money.

Short questiong from a player who has yet to throw the Genestealer at my brave Acolytes and thus may speak from ignorance, but wouldn't it be possible to run that creature as a kind of enemy that must be outwitted and caught in some form of trap rather than a straight up fight, even for lower levels Acolyte? Or is it to strong even for that? I could well see the entertaining horror element and challange in facing off aganist a creature like that and trying to trick into a position in a factory complex where some industrial tools or something could be brought to bear against it with overwhelming power to destroy it.

Or another way may be to allow the Acolytes to gear up from the local Arbitares amory before they go xenos-hunting, which might even the odds a little.

angryboy2k said:

Back in THESE days, Squads where around and the Adeptus Sororitas had the official function of checking the Space Marine Chapters Gene-Seeds for corruption.

Gregorius21778 said:

Aw Gregorius, you're no fun at all

Gurkhal said:

That's a pretty good idea IMO. But you have to make it clear to the PCs that fighting it is not an option. It should rip apart an arbites squad or something to let them know how serious it all is (you know the redshirt style).

Gearing up from an arbites armoury would not help low level PCs. They wouldn't be able to use the really big guns capable of taking out a stealer!

If I were you I would give them the option. They can try to take it on by trickery and dropping it into a vat of molten metal etc. which will be incredibly dangerous but rewarding. Or they can run and call in the big guys, for guaranteed survival but less credit.

I too am running a game that involves a genestealer cult. The PC's are mostly going to encounter hybrids, but I will be throwing one pure genestealer at them for a couple reasons. 1. There are six players, and they are all fairly competent. They will have casualties but it wont be a party wipe. 2. I am bringing the game to an end soon so nobody will really mind getting killed off anyways.

I found a PDF that was really useful in making all of this... it's not official material, some homebrew thing that somebody made, but all the lore seems accurate and it has stats for normal genestealers, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation hybrids, a patriarch, a magus... everything you need. Just go on scribd and type in "dark heresy genestealer cult" and the first thing you get should be it.

Genestealers? Not pretty at all. I remembered my Deathwatch squad almost dissected by the razor sharp claws of a genestealer ambush. As Gregorius had mentioned, it's an 'either-or' scenario.

Maybe you could have them investigate rumours of said cult. As they are all ragged in appearance, they may have been mistakened as a chaos cult. After taking out some devotees of said cult and inspecting them; there seems to be lack of Chaos symbols. This leads them to look closer and realise it could be a Xenos cult.

You might want to establish the link to the Tyranids/ Genestealers after they discovered some form of malformed/ 'stealer mishappened hybrid. Can throw them an option of bringing down the building or comms to the Inquisitor for help. Said inquisitor may despatch Imperial Guard artillery shelling or may request for the deathwatch to step in.

My personal take, inquisitor tells them to get the hell out of said location and summon shelling. On the way out, you might wanna consider what BrotherKane mentioned earlier as a squad of arbites being ripped asunder to remind them that a 'stealer is tough to fight. On the way out, they may have to fight a running battle against one or two 'stealers.

Upon bailing from said location, either marines drop or them may send artillery. But note that nids are tough creatures and caving in the ceiling on them may not be a permanent solution. Scouring the place is the job of more able troopers like the space marines.

DastardlyIceHole said: