Hello friends,

Well, I am past part three in Illumination. And all my players are doing ok (well not ALL of them)... Heres the out of game problem.. Two of my fundimental players are going away for the weekend (we play on sunday nights after everyones done work and whatnot). Two of my players are going away for a Vday weekend. And us broke, single, or those of us who were wise enough to take care of Vday plans on saturday (where it belongs); are still game for a game. So, my plan is to run an in-between shortie game. The problem, is that they have all just finished part three, and are on their treck back to Stern Hope.

WARNING, SPOILERS BELOW!!!

So, the acolyes just killed the corrupted hexlid, without taking any serious wounds. However, our sadistic-arbitrator walked up to the corpse and started laughing at it, and kicks it. I told him that his foot went inside it and he must make a ordinary +10 willpower check. He failed on a 100. So i told him that maggots were crawling their way up his leg. Without even rolling on the shock table, he said "F**k shock checks, my character will deal with this problem like most, and shoot his leg". I let him, telling him that the fact that he was shooting himself negated a BS test. He rolls rightous fury, and dealt enough damage that his leg came off at the knee. Our sister of battle (walking the path of healing), started doing emergency care. And using our Redemptionists hot flamer tip, cauterized the wound and stabilized him at one wound. He is currently passed out on the back of a wagon they found at one of the dead Alsheen camps, and two of our player characters and Lamark are dragging the wagon along...

Thats where I left off. So as a time consuming game, just because I dont wish to proceed to the end fight with the Skae-Thing, or even the attack on stern-hope without them. I decided that a little mini-scenario where the acolytes try to procure and attach a bionic leg on the arbitrator dumbarse. While he is a dumbarse, hes pretty handy in a fight, and I think they will need him mobile. So now the real question is how?

The sister of battle and the cleric are the two that will be gone. So, I have decided that they (being the moral fibre of the group) are walking and blessing the towns people, and taking up conversation with Lamark. The group does have a tech-priest. So I was thinking having him check in with the tech-adepts at the Generatoria and Workshop. And see if with their help, he can construct a bionic replacement for our arabite. Now, no matter how well they roll, it will still be a poor quality bionic. And upon failure, I am going to introduce a "peg leg".

But I dont see that taking longer then an hour, and thats if we take a half hour dinner break. So I am open to suggestions and opinions.

-Ira-

Perhaps the local tech-adpets have been suffering sabotage and theft at the hands of a group of hereteks (or a heretek's group, as the case may be) and, either as payment, or in order to procure the proper parts for the replacement, the acolytes have to hunt down and deal with the hereteks?

to add to Spaceratcatchers idea.

Maybe currently the only person in town who has the parts and the knowledge to create or attach a bionic limb (no matter how poor) is a Heretek. Course the alcolytes don't know this until they start investigating to even find him, and once they do they find out, through a number of investigations and such that he is indeed a heretek.

So now comes the question, do they kill him up front because he's a heretek, let him live long enough to attach said leg (and personally if I was him I'd put in a deadswitch so that if they did kill him, something happens to the leg), or my favorite is attach a number of corrupted items into said bionic leg, that slowly corrupts the arbitrator. Maybe in some way everytime he kills something, the demon bound into the leg awakens a bit more or something

So do they get the arbitrator up and running as fast as they can for combat, but risk him being corrupted, do the right thing and kill the heretek, but not have the arbitrator up, or go in between the two, and risk both occuring.

Well, I would suggest something a bit different:

Iocanthos is a "backwater world", so I would not assume that anyone would have bionic legs "on stock, just for the case..." or even the parts to construct them. In fact, give him a "peg leg" (if this means a wooden one). He voluntired to upon up fire with a shotgun on his leg. He deserves it.

So, what to do to "stall for time"? Let them travel back to Stern Hope, but delay the "scripted progress" of the adventure. Perhabs Korsk an his men have not arrived/are out hunting/on some ceremony to honour some old battleground or something.

Allow the cleric and the sister to tend for the abitrator for a day or two. The arb is out of work for now, give the player a pre-made npc. A trustworthy young guy from the imperials around in "stern hope" (not an ashleen!).

So, what to do in the meanwhile?
Their is need for some medication. The "trustworthy young guy" nows a bit of the local flora and happens to now about a certain kind of root that will aid the healing. Unfortunatly, the last time he has seens this root was in a little church garden in a settlement nearby... a settlement that was recently burned down. He is from this settlement, infact. A survivour that fled an onslaught of a wild warrior mob. He is willing to go back, if they in turn help him to get hold on the heads of his familie members. He thinks he knows where they died and he wants the heads since on the planet he hails from you bury your people by baring the skull from the flesh and place them in a certain tomb shrine (or offer them to the mechanicus for servo skulls!).

The settlement has been burned and plundered. Only those building made of stone/rockcreet still standing, and even here all roofs are gone. The corpses lay where they have fallen, most of them now mummified by the heat..and their eyes taken out be shale crows. But a small group of mutant outcasts has now taken this place a residence..

Make it a travell throug the settlement, while they have to check out
- the garden of the fortresschurch (the roots are deepn in the ground and unharmed!)
- his familiy home
- the five watchtowers that were placed around the settlement

While they go around, let them first encounter some native creatures nagging on the corpses. Scale crows are all around, perhabs some beast equall to our hyane. To not make this a fight. The creature are barking and growling, but will not attack. In fact, they can be scared off!.
Next. let them run into some traps as they search the ruins. Allow them to check for awareness while they are around, since the mutants saw them coming and they are watched now!. Finally, let the mutants attack. This is not a fight meant to kill the group or harm them seriously. In fact. if they kill a good number, the rest will flee.

As the dust settled, they will check the corpses for weapons and stuff. While checking, tell the pc that the shale crows are gathering. And then tell one of them, that the dead mutant that he is looting whisper "you shall die on my ground!". The mutant is dead, and was dead before. In fact, the freak had a lower jaw that was split by birth, so he will have been unablte to speak clear during his life!
Ask for fright checks. Tell them the shall crows rise in the air and fly about ...

Later, in your "main game".... let the Skae-Thing tell the akloythes that "You shall die on my ground!" when the final battle starts.

Confront

Xathess Wolfe said:

I think this will fit perfectly with both the scenario and with the arbitrators character. He's playing a hard-line guy, who gets corruption for every act of sadism in the emperors name. Bringing a daemon-incorperated device into the mix, and attaching it onto one of the players will spice up the story, and give the arbitrator the chance he needs to change alliances. I think I'll run this. Thanks Wolfe.

Thank you too Gregorius and Spaceratcatcher. But in all honesty I want him mobile, but also something that will bring his corruption to the light. This fits perfectly.

If all else fail to grant him a leg then there, should be both sticks, shoos and duct tape to make an crude peg leg, incase he dont want to share his leg with a deamon.

Thats assuming he knows the leg is tainted...

.... which we wont...

During the trek back to Stern Hope one of the players says something along the lines of, "This reminds me of that time we..." and you run a short side scenario which happens to be a flashback involving the players present for the day. This idea of course assumes that these particular members of the party have some sort of unexplored history prior to the actual start of your DH game. I always like to start a group assuming they've met before or worked together before so I can leave room open for things like this.

Alternatively, if they don't have any prior history, you can run a short scenario which actually takes place in the future and even has some similar themes as Illumination. That way when the short scenario ends the players can perhaps observe any similarities and "flashback" to the conclusion of Illumination for the next week's game session.

Basically there's nothing saying the players can't have a short adventure out of the current timeline which you assume already happened or will happen following the conclusion of Illumination. The second assumption works well if the players have fate points remaining or you award them one for the side scenario to ensure their survival of Illumination so your timeline flows well.

The way this group plays, they bicker and argue alot in the begining stages of a campaign, before meeting a neer-death expirance in which some bond and others are outcasted for being cowards. So eventually it leads to a strong group alloy. So I always have it to where the group has never met before playing.

An into-the-future scenario would be fun, but it would confuse the hell out of the players. And I dont intend for a certain player's character to live that much longer. But that is a handy tip Zero, I will remember that for the future.