So, I looked over Maggots in the Meat and decided that it was a wee bit shabby, plus I've never really been a fan of dropping people onto Feudal Worlds. I decided to keep the general theme of the Slaughth causing anarchy, civil wars and general shenanigans going in the campaign I have been running with my new group. They started at rank 1 with no real bonuses to speak of…

…Then I re-read the Slaugth Infiltrator rules.

58 Toughness? 53 Agility? 27 wounds? HORRIFYING! They can't even be stunned!

Isn't this meant to be an adventure for starting Acolytes? How is a fresh group going to fight off two of these guys -and- their pets? I'm obviously not going to copy and paste the showdown with them and I don't want my whole party getting butchered and devoured by two guys in cloaks only a few sessions in. Maybe my lack of GM'ing Dark Heresy in a while is just making me paranoid, but would one of these guys and a pet (maybe a weakened Vassal from Disciples of the Dark Gods?) provide a satisfying showdown? Or would it all be over a bit quickly? I'm pretty bad at either having my players (in other games) walk all over my antagonists or be utterly crushed by them.

Currently the group is fairly combat focused with an Arbitrator, Assassin, Tech-Priest and two Battle Sisters (Inquisitor's Handbook).

Maggots In The Meat doesn't make it clear what level it is intended for, but it is definitely not suited for starting Acolytes. I haven't run it myself, but I suspect that a Rank 4 party would be about right. If you stretch out the investigation portion of the mission long enough for your PCs to gain some XP and take some advances before the final showdown, your party might be able to take down a single Slaught at mid-Rank 2. If you don't want to risk it, you could define the Acolyte's mission as simply locating the Slaught's hideout, then calling in a Deathwatch Killteam to wipe out the xenos.

Adeptus-B said:

I was considering simply lowering the stats a bit, or would that kind of harm the 'effect' of encountering one? Funnily enough, the reason I re-checked was because I read a thread on RPG.net saying how their toughness was a controversial thing for such a low level group.

Direct quote for the record:

"It is intended for Acolytes in their first or second Rank. However, with a few adjustments it can be modified to accommodate groups of any experience"

Calling in a Kill-Team seems a bit out of their pay grade at this point. Heck, they don't even know they're hunting down Slaugth (they think it's a Nurgle cult by their own assessment. Just as planned) and the way I wrote out the campaign was to have them discover the lair and "Omg corpses!" everywhere. Would having the Slaugth escape once it has been cornered (and after a brief fight) by unleashing his pets on them work? Or, would it feel too much like a kick in the groin for their quarry to flee?

Arbitrator said:

It seems to me that the main potential problem with 'scaling down' the Slaught for a low-level party is that, if your party encounters them again at higher levels, they will assume that they will be comparable to the 'neutered' ones they already encountered.

A similar discussion was made in the topic "Maggots in the meat - party wipe" on this forum. Alas, it won't let me open it though. But, a google search allowed me too, for some odd reason. Go FFG. Anyhoot, here is the link.

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Hope it helps some.

Yeah, they are tough, but they can be overcome. Trust your players, once they see how ineffective their weapons are they will start to look for alternatives to a straight up fight.

I believe the optimum solution to overcoming them is to burn the building down. I 'engineered' it that my players got access to firebombs prior to the encounter. Unfortunately for them, they decided they would have no use for them….

There's this:

http://www.darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/component/docman/doc_download/396-maggots-in-the-meat-widening-the-horizons-of-olrankan

This is some notes I'm running currently for Maggots in the Meat. I have Rank 4's, and they've just faced the Slaugth.

They're HARD. Two Angelus Bolt Shells was not enough to knock one of these puppies over (even with the extra damage dice from Accurate.) I added notes in my Campaign about how to possibly change it for Rank 1s, but to be honest… Only one of them is enough to instill fear in any rank up to 4. If they hit, they ignore most armour and will incapacitate characters, and frag nades/autoguns are almost useless against them.

Some OTHER advice though… If they're going to fight in the skymill, don't start the enemies in the dome, have the pets/minions/cultists/gribbleys on the ground floor and the slaugth (single or otherwise) on its/their own in the dome. Learned that on Friday. 200 metres of ascending stairs is enough to drive people mad.

It's transition program designed to help D&D powergamers get used to running away from things and dying gruesomely.