Hey all!

As part of a story I'm running my group through, they need to sneak into a DE base. I'm looking to mine some ideas from the devious minds of my fellow GMs. What sort of nasty surprises would await them in the DE's den of evil?

Things I'm looking for:

1. Ideas for rooms or chambers within the base.

2. Ideas for encounters, both combat and non-combat ones.

3. Fiendish ideas for traps/puzzles/riddles that the KT would have to solve.

I'm not a huge stickler for Tabletop canon, so don't worry about thinking outside the box. I'm just looking for some nasty but fun surprises to throw at my group.

Thanks alot guys, I appreciate the help!

Hehateme said:

The concept of DE base in realspace has gotten a bit tricky since the last Dark Eldar codex - it says they try to stay in realspace as little as possible, because their "soul-drain" works much faster there. Ergo, unless the PCs stumbled there just before or after a raid, there shouldn't be many (if any) actual dark eldar there - it should be more of a supply base. You mentioned you don't care a lot for TTcanon though, so treat these simply as suggestions:

1. Overall, I imagine the base would mostly have storage and containment rooms (for supplies, plunder and slaves). There would be mundane items such as weapons or ammunitions, though be sure to put in some less-than-mundane versions of the above - we are talking Dark Eldar here, after all. The containment rooms would probably be empty, but have enough "furniture" that the PCs get some suitably gruesome ideas. Perhaps you can even find a few lifeforms in them - sufficiently long-lived and in pseudo-stasis, so their mental energy (read: complete and utter anguish) keeps some of the engines running. Imagine a huge, part-organic knot of pulsing tentacles, with a bubble in the center where you can see an obviously tortured and insane alien. Or human. Or heck, eldar - the DE aren't much nicer to their own. The machine could do something as arcane as spreading an aura of fear or as mundane as keeping the lights on. There should also be larger meeting halls where the raiders could stay overnight, possibly training rooms and maybe even a lab or two for the haemonculus who wants to study something right now - or under the effects of realspace. A Webway entrance can also work, although I suggest you have it inactive - or keyed to an object the PCs don't have.

2. Encounters: I would rather the base had no or almost no eldar there - imo eldar work best as players behind the curtains, lone operatives, or plot device rather than a screaming horde to throw at the PCs. There is a saying that a home is a reflection of the owner - try to portray the base not (just) as a battleground, but a very brief and shallow peek inside the head of a dark eldar. There should be plenty of things that creep the acolytes (and hopefully the players) out, and more than a few ways to get insanity points (maybe one or two corruption ones, too). A Haemonculus' room might have creatures in vats that are almost unrecognizeable at first - and then players realize it is something they should be quite familiar with. A training room for the kabalites or the wych cults may be an arena which would not be out of place in Quake 3, but with many more ways to kill yourself with the scenery. The "holding" rooms should show that what the DE off-handedly do to captives makes children tearing the wings off butterflies look like a lover's caress. If you can, try to have some of it look almost appealing, in a perverse way. Remember, it was the ancestors of the Dark Eldar that created Slaanesh - and the Dark Eldar embraced and furthered their heritage.

For combat encounters, I imagine that proximity to a webway gate and the DE's own interests may lead to various exotic xenoforms or even warp creatures (i.e. chymeras) being around, maybe even some minor malefic forces (the new DE codex mentions some haemonculus wargear that uses minor daemons). Not all of it should be readily identifiable as "enemy" or even directly hostile - for example, you could have a plant that grows and creates fruit when pain and suffering are unleashed close by. You could have a battle with a few warp-beasts and the PCs might notice (or not) that since the battle, the grapevine-like plant growing on the walls is pulsing slightly and the tendrils seem to be turning ever-so-slightly purple. At the first (or last, so you don't interrupt the action) death they may elongate and start caressing the corpse, and soon the vine starts visibly growing and flowering, and may even bear fruit. It should be almost as beautiful as it is creepy - and yes, decide on something happening if a PC decides to eat the fruit. Make sure there are some beneficial effects, too . For the final encounter, I'd either have the eldar finally make an appearance - either a dark eldar "warden" or a sufficiently corrupt ranger (Creatures Anathema mentions "fallen rangers", and one or several might have appropriated the base) or somehow turn the entire base sentient and have the PCs run for their lives. In the first case, consider having the last room be a "quasi-dimensional" space, bigger on the inside than the outside, showing some exotic landscape - a verdant jungle, perhaps, or a crystal forest for fallen rangers, an arena for a cultist, perhaps the fleshy insides of a huge creature (that the enemy can somewhat manipulate) for a haemonculus. Have the final battle be a hunt rather than an open slugfest. After all, the PCs are guests here - the fight should be on their hosts' terms. In fact, if you think you can do it, you can have no battle at all - just enough mindfuck that afterwards the PCs would much rather charge a daemon with their bare hands than go back to that... place.

3. I would suggest using quite a few traps. Some should be simpler, like poisoned needles, gas, or electric discharges. Some should be more direct and simply cause pain or terror. Some should show a macabre sense of humor, such as tiles becoming electrified due to a seemingly random pattern. I'm less fond of riddles here because solving riddles should imply familiarity - eldar, and especially dark eldar, should not be familiar. At most, have one where the PCs must find ways to "learn" of the dark eldar mindset to find the answer; have that be part of the whole "seeing what you cannot unsee" theme. Puzzles, where the PCs track pieces to, perhaps, solve a code or recite a mantra (which, again, could help "introduce" what the dark eldar are about) would work better; Disturbing components such as using withered hands to gain access to bio-locks should, of course, feature heavily.

**** it, this plant idea is excellent.....although I would ommit the tendrils... I salut thee!

[A Dark Eldar base in general]
First and foremost I would assume that the DE did not "build" a base but took over some (derilict?) structer and "modified" it to match their needs and tasts. This seem realistic to me if we are talking about some kind of pirate group that might change its lair within a matter of years (to avoid capture and to reach "fresh sources"). In addition, it helps you as a GM since you can use a concept you are familiar with (human/imperial building) to have better feel for the mundane aspects. An abandoned mining complex on some uninhabited moon, for example.

(Room Feature: Entering Pain)
The door handles/door knobs leading to the quarters and/or lab or the homunculi have been exchanged for strange, sleek devices. The devices look like they are meant to be gripped firmly (i.e. the surface features "grips" for fingers. The door in question will open after about 3 seconds of contact to exposed, living skin. During this period, the one touching the doorknob will experience intense pain.
At first contact, a test Willpower/Toughness test is needed to avoid shouting out in pain. To hold contact with the knob/handle long enough to open the door, an extended test (2 successfull test or 2 levels of success) are needed. Of course, the pc can always opt to open this thing the noisy way.
This assumes that the homunculi either enjoys pain, is immune to pain or has a slave around whom handles the doors for him (like the other warriors of the cable tend to do).

As a mean variation/trap: The lab/quarter of the Homunculi contains some caskets/cabinets/doors everyone but him is forbidden to enter. The handles look the exact same but some plates around the point the location where the keyhole uses to be indicates some kind of “difference in function”. This information could be granted by successful challenging/difficult test for Common Lore (Tech), Scholastic Lore (Archeotech) or Forbidden Lore (Xenos). Or any other skill indicating some source of technical wisdom the pc could expand upon. In fact, this handle contains a “gene pattern reader”. If the gene pattern is not the one of the Homunculi himself the handle will heat quickly. But not to the point of burning, only enough to liquefy the necrotic contact poison the pc in question just infected himself with.
The fellow Eldar know of such traps and simply do not nose around…intruders do not have this “tender warning”.

(Encounter: Prowling Warp Beast)
Some Warp-Beasts could be prowling the station and its immediate surroundings. They are trained well enough will not attack any DE (or anyone wearing a DE suit of armor!) without being ordered to. Anything else is fear game. The beasts are able to sense souls wandering around and pc with a Psyniscience skill will notive (after an extended test +0; 15 success; one test every “scene”) that they are “watched from beyond the wail”. The beasts, on the other hand, make extended tests every scene as well, based on their Perception. If they accumulate a number of success equal to 20- the number of pc in the group, a number of 1d5+1 will attack. The veil is thin enough around the base for them translate into realspace. If a Psypower leads to Perils, 1d5+1 Warpbeasts will go for the psyker 1d5 Minutes after the incident.

[Encounter: the Blind Slaves]

If the DE are really absent for long periods of time, it would make sense to have slave along doing some work. The fact that Warpbeasts tend to kill them off from time to time only helps to create fear in the minds of the slaves. The slaves are not chained nor anything else. They are blinded, the eyes taken out in gruesome fashion. Those who are not meant to speak have their tongues cutted. Not cutted OUT, but simply cutted. Hack, have those who ARE to talk getting their tonuges cutted! Anyway, the pc will stumble across some of these wretched creatures, whom are so afraid of their masters that they will not obey to the pc and will even actively hinder them in freeing them!

If, on the other hand, the pc try to immitate the dialect of a dark-eldar speaking Low Gothic (they might have heared it if the pc where involved into Shades of Twilight or had any other contact with a DE) they could coax some information out of the wretched souls. At least out of those who have been blinded.

ALL of this slaves should be counted as being insane, so the matching Peer-Talent will make sense at last

Grotesques are by far one of the most cool dark eldar servants. Your players should definately run into one of these.

And heres a little free pdf booklet with all kinds of dark eldar stats. When you go on the page click the Download Now button and you'll have to wait a few seconds for a slow download if your not a memeber but trust me the websites legit.

http://www.4shared.com/document/My9pcogB/Web_Enhancement_-_Dark_Heresy_.html

Hey thanks alot guys, I appreciate all the help. Happy Holidays!

as an added thought, rooms should have elaborate hangings, tapestries, skulls, and other trophies should litter rooms, as a way to show off the kabals power, also rooms full of prolonged suffering and pain are a must, and the tools to do this can be as sadistic as possible, from body dehydrators, to simple but very efficient flayers, have a crazed homoculous or 2 wandering the base looking for a test subject or two to give the players some sense of urgency (if the foreboding webway portals don't do that)