So, most of my PCs just hit Rank 7, and I'm in the early stages of putting togeather some Ascention-level missions. The 'Beast of Solomon' entry from the Xenos section of Desciples of the Dark Gods caught my eye- particularly the whole 'the monster is this place' bit. I'm toying with the idea of using this concept with a 'Grendel' spin: The players kill a big, scary monster (based off the sample monster stats from DotDG, but goosed up for Ascention level), and, as they are basking in glory, come to the horrible realization that they have pissed off the monster's much bigger, much scarrier mother.

My idea was that the mother would be the 'gaia-force' of the planet. I have previously established that 'healthy' planets have a gestalt life force that can occasionally manifest avatars. On hive worlds, these gaias are usually dead, killed by the destruction of the ecosystem that normally follows mega-scale industrialization and human overpopulation. Being 'living things', however, they can- on very rare occasions- mutate and adapt to the toxification of the ecosystem. Hence, the Mother would be a hideously mutated gaia, and the Beast of Solomon would be her first new offspring in centuries. Naturally, she will be enraged when the human parasites kill the offspring which she hoped would be the first of a new wave of 'natural' creatures.

Which all sounds good in ultra-vague 'outline' form. The brick wall I'm running into is: how the heck do you stat up a 'hideously mutated planetary life-force bent on avenging the death of her last offspring?' In her rage, she would certainly cause devastating hive-quakes (thus also making enemies of the local government if the PCs can't put a stop to it); how else would she attack the PCs specifically? And how do they kill her? I have an image of a massive chamber deep underground with a ghastly mutated heart, miles-across and squirming in a lake of noisome slime, which the PCs have to destroy… somehow? And how would you go about finding something like that? And how would the gaia fight back?

Any suggestions are appreciated…

Adeptus-B said:

I like this idea is better than the Gaia world concept. Instead of it being a Gaia avatar, it could instead just be a local life-form deep underground. Like a Rock / Mineral creature, one that is mutated due to the Hive's pollution runoff into the soil. Same goes with the "mother," a mutated sentient life-form that went into hiding when man colonized the planet. But, it's you game, so what I propose below can go with either concept you choose.

Adeptus-B said:

There is a deep excavation mine shift on the planet, that goes for a mile or more underground, and there is also a very deep ravine on the planet that no one goes down because they say it is 'haunted' (the ravine becomes important at the end, if you want it too). They can constantly found rare exotic minerals and have continued to go deeper until their drilling machine punched a whole into a deep underground cavern. This cavern can have the pollution runoff from Hives coming down here, that has created all kinds of exotic flora and minerals. And who wants to research and catalog this flora? The Adeptus Mechanicus. So down there they are, taking samples, harvesting things, and who do they also try to take a sample of? But the sentient/gaia life-form. And what does the sentient/gaia life-form do now that he/she/it has been woken up from it's 1,000 year slumber, but take out it's anger on all the people nearby, including the mine workers.

So, now the mine is closed, the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel are missing, and who do you call? Your dang skippy, the Ghost Busters… err… I mean the Inquisition. Enter your pc's. They kill it along with possibly other sentient life-forms that might of been in the cavern, and leave to celebrate at the local Hive.

The local ravine now comes into play. And you guessed right, the mother is down there. First an minor tremor or two, or three or four , then a huge earthquake or two, followed by the ravine collapsing on itself. A huge dust storm forms, and something almost Titan size can be seen moving around in the storm. And bam, enters momma into the picture, with each pondering footstep causing the ground the shake and a loud deafening groan that causes your soul to quiver.

The end.

A couple of thoughts, if you want to have an epic titan sized gaia avatar creature that starts coming towards the nearest hive in order to crush the puny human parasites the PCs may have to get onto it and find their way to it's heart. The obvious way to destroy that is with explosives but they could also sever arteries with power weapons etc. While they are making their way there they could be assailed by the environment itself, blood vessels bursting, airways with strong winds, nervous systems that arc electrical charge etc. or they could also by attacked by the creature's immune system. The form that takes could be almost anything! Some thoughts:

Acid creatures that try to absorb.

Straight up insectoid things that just try to stab.

Spores released into passageways that poison/start to grow on the PCs to stick them to the walls.

Another (completely different) thought I had is to have 'the beast of solomon' actually be a very old corroded and malfunctioning canoptek spyder or wraith. It could appear to be a creature of xenosy flesh due to dirt etc. until it is destroyed and more closely inspected. The destruction of which wakes the slumbering necron tomb complex below the hive. This could cause quakes as ancient power systems begin to come to life etc. Then the PCs have got to get to the heart of the complex and destroy something vital to halt the process fighting off more automatons as well as potentially the first few waking warriors etc.

I think it all comes down to what kind of story that you want to tell. If you want to have it a big fight then a mutated lifeform is probably the very best thing while a Gaia-esque being is perhaps more suitable for another kind of stuff. If you go with a Gaia then perhaps some form of rites to placate it (if you're radical) or to destroy it would be more suitable than having some kind if great fight as I'd imagine "Gaia" as not being foremost a physical creature but a spiritual one.

Gurkhal said:

Like the Dusk Hag perhaps… The PCs may have even met her already if you've played a certain ffg adventure.

Mwah ha ha haaaaaaaa….

Interrogator Z.

Thanks for the replies.

@Nameless2all: You are right that a 'standard' monster would be more managable, but I really like the weirdness of the Boss Monster turning out to be the life-force of the planet, and I don't want to abandon that angle unless it proves to be absolutely unworkable. Plus, I'm really looking foward to the moment when the PCs realize what is going on and say "Holy crap- we have to kill Mother Nature!"

@BrotherKane: I love the idea of a Necron guardian 'bot being mistaken for a living animal because of built-up layers of crud- just not for this particular scenario. That concept really needs a whole expansive Necron story arc to support it. In my next DH campaign, though, I'll be using the Ordo Xenos instead of Hereticus, and I'll almost certainly be swiping that idea!

@Gurkhal: I'm not locked into this, but I'm leaning toward the idea that the mutation that allowed the gaia to survive the destruction of the ecosphere caused it to assume a permenant physical- or partially physical- form.

To give a bit more background: the PCs would be on Solomon to complete a short mission unrelated to the Beast. After that is wrapped up, they will have a few weeks to kill before their transport is ready; while trying to pass the time, they will stumble across the legend of the Beast of Solomon. Since the party's assassin's mantra is "I wanna kill somethin'!", I'm pretty sure they will jump at the chance to go monster hunting. If they succeed in killing the Beast, that's when it really hits the fan and they realize they may have bitten off more than they can chew…

Adeptus-B said:

Well I suggested the Dusk Hag in a Caliban and Sycorax kind of way. The PCs off Caliban only to find that mummy is bit tougher and more difficult to kill as you have suggested. Or perhaps they off the child only to find that mum is something altogether more cthulian and the mission becomes more about prevention and escape than outright killing.

Like the Dark Young of Shub Nuggurath and Shub Nugurath herself for example.