Hello all

So, my players are about to fight what I am heavily implying to be the resurrection of St Drusus- but gone horribly wrong (and hijacked by some sort of monstrous warp-creature.)

I want to make this more than a Hack and Slash combat... but I am not quite sure how yet.

The two big things I can think of are-

Location: A tomb in the middle of space. Actually a converted Cargo-hold aboard a ship turned into an Mausoleum...

Special Victory Conditions: Fighting or Killing this guy should be VERY difficult, instead the guys may want to... plant explosives in the place, detaching from the ship and causing it to go into the void? Work at the manual consoles around in the room in order to cause it to depressurize or freeze?

I am not sure- I will admit that this fight has be completely stomped, and I am not how to make it suitably epic and engaging....

Anyone have any ideas?

To keep the players from simply destroying part of the ship, probably the best solution is to have the Bossmonster hiding in a critical part of the ship that can't be destroyed without also likely killing the PCs- by the Engineerium's plasma generators, for example.

As far as not making it too easy to kill the Big Baddie... yeah, that's something that I struggle with as well. There's a Talent in Black Crusade that allows Boss Monsters to switch places with loyal goons in combat, thus causing hits directed at the Boss to be absorbed by grunts- that could be useful. Also, try to make the location play a part (such as having stray shots have a chance of causing a reactor breach- maybe a 1% chance per point of AP?). Since Imperial voidships use 'gravity plating' to simulate gravity (rather than centrifical force or something), the floorplan doesn't have to be strictly linear. Especially in a location like the Engineerium, you could have a weird, M.C. Escher-esque 3-D maze, with combatants running along walls and ceilings...

OoOh, I like the idea of a 3D Maze- though that will be a bit hard to emulate in RL on our Combat-Grid-Map.

As for not destroying part of the ship- and unfortunately, the layout of the ship, I've already established that these "Vaults" can "usually" be cast-off without any real danger to the ship, so I'd rather not work around that but instead use to my advantage.

We've gotten a good idea yesterday- to point out that the mechanism to drop and disconnect the vault has been eroded: the machine spirit that handles it is now corrupt, and the mausoleum must be disconnected manually.

The tomb is actually connected to the rest of the ship by five massive anchor-like chains or "Graspers" and these must be disconnected from inside of the vault, where they've "locked up".

When the players get there, they find the sections of the walls - large archways made up of statues holding the anchors, all broken up or stuck. In two instances, the machine spirit must be activated manually to release the locks, in two others a STR test would be required to Unjam it first and in the last one the entire thing must be destroyed- opening up the room into the void.

At the end, the entire vault will slowly detach itself from the ship- making the grave-plating go all wonky, and keeping the footing difficult. Likely someone will have to sacrifice themselves to blow up the last chain- since its at the very end of the room, opposite from the entry doorway, and blowing it up first would expose the entire room to vacuum straight off the bat.

As for the actual boss fight- the monster himself: his presence leaves people in awe, mesmerized by what appears to be divine light. Every round, he forces everyone to test WP- on a failure, they take 1d10 WP damage and 1d5 Woiund Damage, soaked using WP bonus. On a success, he slowly erodes your WP, dealing only 1d4 Wp Damage.

In terms of actual attacks- he'll be virtually immortal, move one or two steps per turn, and use the power "Push" to fling people away, only dealing fatigue. If people manage to get into Melee with him, he'll use an equivalent of force sword but dealing impact damage.

He has no real goal but to get to the main deck- and as he advances, zombie minions or dead NPCs will slowly enter the room as actual damage dealing enemies. Perhaps some of the Ships' security servitors will also join the fray- but only to be destroyed and rise up as his undead minions.

The Players' Resources, Tools and Weapons (whom they've either dealt with or saved already)-

Lord Jacobi Blackthorn is aboard the ship: a member of the brotherhood of the horned darkness, he has vested interest in that this particular daemonic creature remains dead- he offers the players weapons, but mostly illegal drugs: the potent "White Void", which gives the acolytes +20 WP, a considerable bonus that helps them resist the Alpha-psyker's unholy radiance.

Lord Haxtes Callidon is also there- Prominent heir of a highly religious and militant Family, has been afflicted with a terminal disease and sent out to die in the pale sepulcher instead of the Battle-field. The players save him from a Simulacra's plot to take his place, and he gladly donates both religious paraphernalia for rituals, blessings, sanctification and a number of his house-hold troops (though with the creature's monstrous ability, these may prove to be more of a hindrance than help...). The holy incense he carries with him shield the acolytes from the Psyker's daemonic presence.

Master Necrochirurgeon & St Lionus' Tomb- The players have previously rescued one of the master Ice-men aboard the ship. His high rank allows him privileged knowledge into the location of ST Lionus Verne's Tomb, the rogue trader who owned the Original Trade warrant and converted the ship into its current purpose. He will lead them to it where, if they are of pure faith (and perhaps possess some the St's gene-matter to open up the Bio-locks), they will be able to enter and recover his holy/warded power armor, sanctified sword and his prized relic: an anointed shield which it is said he used to carry the bodies of his dead comrades back to safety. This massive shield completes negates the Psyker's presence, protecting up to four people behind its bulk.

How does that sound for a Final, FINAL boss (for this Arc)?

I don't know how much this suggestion will help but perhaps it can inspire some ideas in your particular setting.

First off, for a big boss fight and culmination point of an entire campaign, requiring one player to sacrifice himself is a very good thing. It makes the entire ordeal more memorable and poignant for the players.

As interacting with the machine spirit is an important part of the session, I'd make it more than just a tech-use or security test.

For example, one player must man a cogitator and insert a virtual avatar of himself who will have to defeat 2 virtual skittari guards or a large tech-priest avatar before being able to command the machine spirit with a succesful tech-use skill test. This will play out as a regular combat encounter but instead of using WS/BS to hit and Dodge he must use Intelligence to hit and Perception to dodge. Any wounds inflicted will however be mirrored in actual wounds caused by electricity shooting out from the cogitator. Meanwhile, the rest of the players will have to fight off a wave of attackers intent on getting the first player away from the cogitator or the cogitator will ‘animate’ cabels linked to cogitator work stations and use them to attack the player attached to his cogitator. The other players must protect him from these attacks as every succesful attack by the cabels makes it more difficult to take over the machine spirit.