In the Dark Heresy adventure "Dead Stars" it is emphasised that the Dusk Hag is a "dark power of the Warp on its chosen ground" and gives examples such as turning weapons into snakes or breaking bones with a wave of her hands. She also may or may not have a pet unaligned greater daemon to hand. The Hag being considerably stronger.

It is emphasised that any attempt at aggression or violence against her will be met with contempt.

Fair enough. A party of acolytes is still no match for something like that.

But.

It is entirely possible depending on in game events that at some stage one Killteam Onslaught will encounter the Hag on Dusk. And knowing them, they are going to at least consider whether or not they can banish or outright destroy the Hag, especially in the aftermath of the events of that adventure. Whether she offers deals to them or not, they are going to see a daemon and thus something worth fighting if they can possibly win. My immediate thought was "Hell no, that's suicide." but I am considering the following:

* Mighty warp entities *can* be beaten by space marines. Even big named ones. M'Kar, Angron, etc have been driven back to the warp. Generally by the mightiest of astartes and/or astartes in huge numbers.

* The killteam will most likely consist at that stage of a Chaplain, a Champion, A Keeper-Librarian and a sniping Killmarine, all at high rank and almost certainly at Hero level reknown. Also at the rate they're going bedecked with honours, distinctions (some combat orientated) and potentially a handful of appropriate elite advances (the latter are the least likely).

* The killteam has made consistent, ferocious and incredibly effective use of squad mode abilities and coordination in general.

* The killteam have already with some effort banished one daemon prince who appeared unexpectedly. And that is before their current level of strength, let alone what they will reach should they survive long enough.

* The Librarian (who is likely to reach Keeper despite my tough rp requirements) invests quite heavily into knowledge skills. So he should have a breadth of knowledge about daemons in general and potentially the Dusk Hag in particular.

So I am considering giving the Dusk Hag stats and thus a chance, however fleeting, for the Killteam defeating her.

For statting up, I have already considered amongst other things an enormous number of wounds, various unnatural characteristics and truly ludicrous levels of Psy Rating. Also special abilities to hamper, befuddle and ruin the Astartes and their wargear that they might have a chance to resist being heroes of legend.

Is this idea completely ridiculous? And if not, any suggestions on how I might stat up such a powerful entity or run this unexpected battle of the ages?

Of course, the Dark Heresy Radical's Handbook describes "The Eater of the Dead: Mord'dagan, supernatural beats of legend, god head of the Saynay cannibal cult, Dusk".

The Hag? Quite possibly her true form isn't that of an old, disturbing woman…

Edit: And there is this thread: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=101&efcid=3&efidt=393624

Good initial reference points are probably a Daemon Prince and The Paragelle from The Emperor Protects part III: The Vigilant Sword.

I am quite wary of allowing even very good rolls to provide a depth of knowledge on an obscure source. So you rolled a 1 on a TN of 85 for Lore: Daemonology…that will give you a good amount of information but extremely specific and tactical information on a particular being that's not even openly known as a Warp entity and which only exists on a specific planet in the Calixis Sector? If you're not a Storm Warden (in other words a Sector native) there's realistically only so much you might have heard about.

Thanks for the input. Hard information is likely to be scarce, especially if the killteam has no reason to prepare for that encounter in advance. Sometimes a Forbidden Lore roll will provide only a few details and "but you know where that information might lie in the archives". If librarians and sages could simply memorise all the relevant data, it makes librariums a lot less useful than they are mooted in 40k.

So what do you think of the idea of such a killteam being able to battle the Dusk Hag?

I suspect the Dusk Hag is inspired by the Russian folk character Baba Yaga (who has seen a recent uptick in fame due to her appaerences in Hellboy comic books). Baba Yaga is described as being terrifyingly powerful- basically a demigod- but she is occasionally defeated and killed by brave and clever mortals. The problem is that she just won't stay dead…