Hello there fellow Gamemasters.

My players have recently been enjoying their trip into the icy hell that is the Ice Station of Mara V.
For one reason or another they have joined up with Miss Book and her mercenaries since both parties had something the other one needed. Miss Book with the Grey Skin Psalter and the Acolytes with the Heart of the Widower.

This agreement hast only been recently reached and as a GM I'm quite sure that it will fall appart quite soon.
The Acolytes are acompanied by the surviving remants of the Jannisaries and Mr. Luther, one of Miss Books former soldiers that is getting increasingly paranoid ever since he learned that the Acolytes drafted him into service not to get him out but to continue onwards. (He tried taking his own live last session but one of the players managed to stop him).

Anyway. This unlikely alliance has reached an alternative future in which the Slaugth have destroyed Hive Scintilla and are scouring the city for the last morsels they can find. This is where we ended last session.

Now this is obviously the best point for Miss Book to turn on the acolytes, after all she's on friendly ground right now and can even get support from the slaugth machinery that is searching the city.

Here's my problem:

I think a head on fight with Miss Book would be 100% fatal for the group. Now I have no (real) problems with killing the players however I want them to have a fighting chance. The problem is this.

Miss Book sports a wooping 18 TB. In addition to this she reduces incoming ranged damage by 10 (for a total of 28) that will never fail. Furthermore she will regenerate 2d5+5 hitpoints almost every round (on average she regenerates about 7 hitpoints every round when accounting for the toughness test).

So in short:

The acolytes need to deal around 10 damage past TB and her shield to even harm her.
This mean a ranged attack needs to deal about 35+ damage to be a threat to her.

Now there's only one melee specialist in the party that has any chance of hurting her. A buff guardsman in light power armor with an eviscerator dealing about 1d10+19 damage. Since he "only" has to bypass the 18TB of Miss Book he's the only one that has a chance of hurting her. So once he's out of the fight (and he's quite hurt already) Miss Book could take her time slaughtering the other party members. (An Arbitrator and a Techpriest as well as the remaining 5 soldiers which have been taken over by a player).

None of those ranged combatants wields a weapon that would be capable of punching through her soak of 28 on any reliable rate.

Here's the last problem:
My player aren't to fond of running from a fight.

So I ask you this fellow gamemasters.

Should I change Miss Book in some way and if so how to make her at least somewhat killable (unnatural TB comes to mind) or should I hope that my players realized they need to run to survive?

tl;dr: Change a powerful enemy that WILL kill the players or hope they'll run?

One option is to fill the mines with terrain hazards that the PCs can use against Book when they realize they can't kill her in a stand-up fight. Things like a rickety bridge over a bottomless casm which they can destroy when Book is in the middle of it, or a groaning support column that they can take out, dropping the roof on Book (and of course, cutting off the PCs exit, forcing them to go foward...).

Adeptus-B said:

I like that, I like that a lot. Especially since the slaugth are exteremly hard to kill I can just have her come back in case I need to. It's not like a little fall is gonna kill one of those abominations anytime soon.

I would not change any rules for her.

In the alternative future of Scintilla (which is indeed the best location for Miss Book to attack the PCs) Hive Sibellus is a battlefield, so you could let them find a medi-pack for the guardsmen or an assortment of heavy weaponry able to wound Miss book (i.e. a Missile Launcher, MP Lascannon, or any sort of melta weapon), so that the PCs can make use of it. You could also use Luther to warn the PCs before an ambush by Miss Book occurs. Furthermore, the Slaught tend to be sort of arrogant at times and overconfident regarding their superiority in comparison to mere humans. So, let Miss Book play with them like a cat with mice, until it is to late for her and she is hit by a Lascannon in her wormy face...

I have been wondering the same thing myself. The only two ways I can see my player doing any significant damage is through the use of eviscirators or dual strike, which most of my players do not have and maybe a few lucky righteous furies. Don't forget to add in the untouchable trait and her fear rating (running away screaming on mara means certain death).

I think there is no shame in the players retreating or trying to use the environment to their advantage. However considering miss books untouchable nature and the ample supply of bodies, she could live on mara for an extremely long time.

If a NPC should be beatable, can't you just change the stats? Perhaps the PCs were presumed to have better gear, to be in a better position, or some such.

Generally, if their chances to win should be minimal, they should have the option to escape, either physically or via negotiation. Maybe a PC (or, better yet, NPC) will sacrifice themselves for the greater good, fighting the enemy while the PCs make their escape? Bonus points if they actually meet that character (or what is left of them) later .

No shame in tweaking the statistics of a Slaugth. There is little fun in a total party kill ruining the climax of the Haarlock Legacy trilogy.

Perhaps nerf her regeneration? Master Nonesuch in House of Dust and Ash regenerated 2d5 wounds a round, which made him practically invincible.

The Laughing God said:

That was my thought upon reading this topic, as well. Seems a little anticlimactic to come so far and yet die so close!

Make it really clear that she is out of their league.

bogi_khaosa said:

An option would be to use the Janissaries as "ablative wounds" - have them die messily covering your Acolytes' retreat!

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong when an enemy needs to be outsmarted rather than killed in a fight now and then. I didn't encounter the problem myself - Haarlock Trilogy being a part of a larger campaing made the heroes tough enough to take her head-on, but…

Mara is so full of things you can use. You can crash her with a mining machine, send hacked servitors on her, use mine-grade explosives or drills, set up other parties (Tyrantine guys!) against her. Every vision contains things thath one can use - maybe the red thingy found on the corpse could be of use? Make them THINK, not SHOOT. And if they have to spend fate party-wise… be sure to tell them why, maybe next time they'll use brains instead of dice ;p

My players eventually worked it out that they were unable to conventionally kill Miss Book. So they used some melta bombs on some critical support structures to bring the underground facility down upon her, whilst booking it at maximum speed the hell out of the immediate area. I figured (as a G.M.) that it worked, as they passed thier relevant demolition skills, etc . But I'm not going to tell them she actually survived. And she will definitely be back to challenge them in their ascended careers, where she will pose a more "balanced" threat. But yeah she's a VERY tough cookie that I think was introduced into the adventure to force the P.C.'s to think outside the box for a change.