Hello all.

I have been rewriting the third part of the DW scenario in TEP: The Vigilant Sword. I changed the middle TEP part also, and it went very well, as I tied in the knots from Chaos more firmly - instead of adding more fronts to the setting in going with Necrons - as the Chaos connection got started in the first part of TEP, so why not continuing it?? The players were shaken enough in TEP pt 2, in finding an underground chaos temple and all that goes with that.

Anyway, here's the real reason that I made this thread: I want the Apostate Mechanicum world of Samech to be a very very long gone version of the planet Gerion in the Gaunt's Ghosts "Traitor General" novel. I want there to still be people who somehow carries the worship of the Emperor with them, though they are now in many ways ignorant of what they're secretly worshipping. It's more like they're feverishly adhering to some ritualized mantra-mumbled hope of a down watered version of the Imperial faith. Even the name for the Emperor is almost lost, and even the expression "The Emperor Protects" have transformed into another of these mumbling mantras that the (still semi-sane) resistance people of Samech cling to. The expression these days have become only "Imra Tek", and is also the name of the remnants of a secret resistance movement that the KT is to make contact with (though Erioch doesn't know its name).

The first part of the plan is to go in without power armor and (visible) weapons, the KT disguising as one of the bigger more muscular work teams, and then when they are nearing the shipbuilding area, the armors and weapons are air-dropped "under radar" in a daring suicidal run. This whole assignment should stink of "suicide mission"! So, I want the Imagoes and the Glyphs and I want the Wirewolves! Or something similar.

If I use these excellently horrid things, what could they be modelled on, in game mechanics? I am totally open to something else entirely than these three from the Gaunt's Ghosts book. But! It has to convey the same type of weird and insanely dangerous feeling that these things do! All suggestions are welcome. But please, no trashing of these ideas. I don't want to start a flame war. I want ideas!

Samech has always appealed to my storyteller inside....so I'm glad to hear yer cool idear! Wish i knew what you were talking about so i could help you....but haven't read those books, and will hafta research on lexicanum...

If you have access to DH material - especially the Book of Judgement - using a modified version of the Cyber-mastiff rules might work for the Wirewolves. I don't have the boosks in front of me atm, so I have no idea how much you'd have to scale them up to make them work though.

What I would recommend for such messed up opponents, is start calling for your players to make tests based off different stats. Concealment using Willpower instead of Agility as the Wirewolves start sniffing out your thoughts. Making them make ranged attacks based off their intelligence as they have to fire the concept of a bolt shell at a Glyph. All sorts of messed up stuff like that to throw the group off balance.

I'd also recommend allowing for a one shot hypno-training of Bluff to make sure that the group don't all accidently spill the beans the second they make planetfall.

Zappiel said:

Thanks for your answer! YES! Please read the Gaunt's Ghosts books - you'll definately NOT regret it! They're supergood. Especially the later ones.

professor_kylan said:

Many many thanks for your excellent answers! Yes... Cyber mastiffs - why didn't I think of that? Very good, and rolling on the concept instead of the real thing, now THAT'S inventive! It even smacks of Pendragon style thinking, of which I am great fan! Hmmm... This is excellent! I'll start sketching on these right away!

But, the Glyph - what kind of creature, game mechanically, could it be? In the book, it floats around in the air like a "balloon" and has strange runic and chaotic letters showing on it. I also got the feeling, from where Rawne later gets influenced by the overall chaos atmosphere on Gereon, that weird signs and patterns comes to haunt the unwary. It's like a Call of Cthulhu-feeling, with non-Euclidian geometry! This is great stuff! Should be messing around with the Imperial mind something awful...

Again, if you have access to some DH stuff, play around with the Daemonhost rules. An unbound Daemonhost should be scary enough for a Killteam to want to avoid.

Thanx, Dracopticon! Gotta admit, i've read 7 or 8 black library 40k titles, and have been savagely disappointed in all but "Fallen Angels" (and that includes a lotta material written by the darlings of the black library)....so, i accept yer recommendation of the Gaunt series with eagerness...

Zappiel said:

And thanks to you Zappiel! Why I absolutely love the Gaunt books, is the fact that they give you a terrific view into how true imperial faith can work. Dan Abnett is the absolutely best Black Library author IMO. But, as I said it's especially the later Gaunt books that tap into this subject. So hold out. It's important to read the earlier ones also though, as they present all the interesting themes and characters.

professor_kylan said:

Daemonhosts...yes for the wirewolves! That may be it. Glyphs is kind of flmsy things though, I wonder what they could be? I'll cook something up!