Dear all,

In one of our next DH sessions I intend to have an Inquisitorial outpost raided by a few Dark Eldar and I need some help and input in regard to how such a Dark Eldar warband would act “realistically” according to the 40K background.

The Inquisitorial outpost is a hidden archive on a moon like asteroid in an Imperial system with a single habitable planet (i.e. a shrine world). The outpost is not well defended as its main security asset is that about no one (even within the sector’s Inquisition) knows about it. There are a few sentry guns (twin-linked autocannons and lascannons) on the roof of the main building as well as a few battle-servitors and maybe Inquistorial Stormtroopers as guards. A very old Inquistor-Emeritus is in charge of the outpost/archive and the PCs are sent by their patron Inquistor with a letter of recommendation to consult the Inquisitor-Emeritus in regard to some occult texts.
Unfortunately for them, a certain Dark Eldar warband led by a Haemunculus got their a few hours in advance (they were hired as mercenaries by a certain cult to get the very same information (without any letter of recommendation of course… )).

Now the question arises, how the Dark Eldar would do this. The warband consists of their Haemunculus leader as well as ten Wyches and is allied with two Mandrakes. My idea was that the Mandrakes somehow infiltrate the compound and let the Wyches in so that they can slaughter everyone within and torture the Inquisitor-Emeritus of any information.
The PCs will reach the outpost a few our later and already wonder on the shuttles descent why they get no vox-reply from the compound. On the ground they find the first two decapitated battle-servitors and within the compound they find further decapitated guards and adepts.

Now my questions: First of all, is it viable for the mentioned Dark Eldar warband to infiltrate and raid such a lightly secured outpost in such a way or in any other way? Secondly, how would the Dark Eldar react to the new arrivals (i.e. the 5 PCs)?
The PCs are rather martially minded and do not look like civilians. How arrogant are Dark Eldar and Wyches in particular? Would they ambush them with all force or would they see it as a hunt or game? Are they so overconfident to send only a single Wych at first in the assumption that 5 Mon’keigh are not a threat or challenge for more than one (or maybe two, three?) of them? Would they try to talk to the PCs or maybe try teasing, provoking or leading them into a trap them?
I want to illustrate them as alien and as vile as possible without playing them dumb or absurdly arrogant due to false overconfidence (i.e. sending Wych after Wych to be killed one after the other by the PCs).

I really appreciate any helpful comments and ideas for this scenario.

Cheers

Hmm… let's see.

1. Dark Eldar invariably rely on lightning-quick raids and won't be attacking on foot. Also, a haemonculus is a very cunning and cautious individual, and he won't be caught with his back against the wall: that's an amateur's mistake for him.

2. Since there is no Raider (or similar) transport at the warband's disposal, it's safe to assume they're using a portable webway gate, probably carried by one of the mandrakes.

3. The small numbers of dark kin involved in the raid also suggest this is a Hit-And-Run mission, and as such it would be done as quick as possible.

With the above-stated in mind, the raid could be played out like that:

Step 1: Mandrakes inflitrate the moon through some forgotten webway gate and travel to the facility on foot. One mandrake will then proceed with eliminating the exterior guards as fast, quiet and brutal as possible one by one (an easy task for one capable of melting into shadows and back at will). The other mandrake will enter the facility proper and then activate the portable webway gate, unleashing the wyches upon unsuspecting Imperials.

Step 2: As soon as all resistance was crushed - under ideal circumstances, it would take a few minutes - the haemonculus will arrive to ensure his overzealous followers won't botch the mission by killing the mon'keigh inquisitor.

Step 3: Once the valuable slave is captured, the warband will retreat into the gate and the mandrakes will then retrace their steps to the insertion point.

Step 4: Inside his lair deep within the bowels of Commoragh haemonculus will torture the inquisitor at leisure, eventually breaking his will so that the slave will reveal everything he knows.

Step 4 (optional): If by some bizarre twist of mood haemonculus would honour his deal with mon'keigh cultists (unlikely, but not impossible), the broken slave will be returned to the "customers" along with the information they desired.

PC's only hope of catching up with the raid is to arrive somewhere between steps 2 and 3, when the massacre is in its final stages, but the haemonculus still not reached his prize. In this way the wyches might decide to make sport of PCs and - depending on they Cult's teachings and habits - either hunt them down for sport or meet head on. Whatever the wyches do, please notice the haemonculus won't linger in the facility - as soon as the inquisitor is in his hands, he would reactivate the webway portal and leave the scene with all haste. He won't hesitate to leave the wyches behind, also, as "there is no honour among thieves" and besides, wyches are big girls and can take care for themselves.

I really like your idea with the portable webway gate carried by one of the infiltrating Mandrakes to let the rest of the warband in. I forgot to mention that the Dark Eldar have a Corsair Escort at their disposal, but this ship must remain as hidden as possible as they are acting in an Imperial system. Thus the webway portal could lead to the ship, right? Or what range (if at all) does such portable webway portals have?

Your other steps sound reasonable as well. It is just that the Haemonculus cannot take the Inquisitor with him right away as the information they are looking for (i.e. an occult tome) is most probably somewhere within the compound. Further, the Haemonculus will indeed honour his deal with the Mon-keigh cult (i.e. the Serrated Query) as he does these sorts of deals rather often to get hold of human captives (he is of the Kabal of the Crimson Woe). They might even be accompanied by a human “cultist”.

Thanks a lot for these detailed and helpful ideas.

The portal has no maximum range as such - consider it just a portable door into the webway. It can open pretty much anywhere within that labyrinthine domain - probably somewhere into a tunnel or branch "close" to the planet, but that's about it. And, of course, it could open a way aboard the raider starship lurking somewhere nearby.

Thanks for the help again.

We played the session recently and I indeed ambushed them with three Wyches (one came from behind) at first. They were really fast (Initiative of about 20) and dodged a single attack per round with an 83 % probability. The groups Psyker was almost disembowelled in the melee, but when the Wyches realized the resistance the PCs were able to bring up, two of them flipped out of combat to throw plasma grenades at their respective adversaries.
As the fight took a while and the rest of the Dark Eldar where sort of nearby, I decided that the other Wyches came in as well. It was a real bloodbath. Only the Hekatrix survived after she hit the groups Arbitrator twice on the chest with her Blast Pistol and cut down the groups Tech-Priest with her Agonizer in close combat. The Tech-Priest had to burn a Fate Point to survive, but all his grenades and ammunition exploded in the process, so that the Hekatrix could slip away in the ensuing chaos. The PCs were far too heavily wounded to pursue her right away.

I kept the Mandrakes at the Haemonculus side (i.e. out of any combat so far), but when the Hekatrix returned without her girlies, the Haemonculus sent the Mandrakes out to shadow the PCs (and to kill the pilots of their gun-cutter standing outside the compound).
The PCs - after licking their wounds – were now trying to outflank the inner compound in the hope to surprise whoever is left of the xenos, while the Haemonculus thinks about leaving through your mentioned portal. The PCs could get a glimpse of something moving in the shadows (i.e. a Mandrake) and were really anxious (e.g. always keeping eye-contact on each other).

In the end the PCs stormed the central area of the compound from two entrances. The group’s assassin scored a righteous fury on the first hit with his off-hand Fate Bringer (the first shot was dodged) and ripped off the Hekatrix’ right arm (though she was only stunned for a single round and survived throughout most of the fight). A lone remaining Wych charged the groups Arbitrator, while the human cultist (which was on the verge of becoming a Grotesque due to recent experiments of the Haemoculus) fired his Autogun in suppressing mode to pin the PCs. None the less, the Arbitrator beheaded the Wych with his Power Sword (who ran away headless and burning), when the two Mandrakes made their appearance. One of them cut down the group’s Assassin easily, while the others attacks were parried by the Tech-Priest who in turn beheaded the Mandrake with his Chain Axe.

In the end the one-armed Hekatrix kept the Arbitrator at bay with her Blast Pistol and later her Agonizer before being cut down. The Cultist/Grotesque was knocked out by two successive Psychic Screeches and the Haemoculus was cut down (i.e. his leg cut off) in melee at the end, because I was too reluctant to disengage into the nearby portal in the first round after being charged by the Arbitrator and Psyker. Though, he still crawled into the portal in the end…