[Tattered Fates] The path to radicalism is paved by good intentions…

[Luthor Harkon 13]

Dear all,

I again need some advices to decide how to proceed with my group.

We just finished Tattered Fates and in the climatic end-scene the clash between the Beloved and the Widower was sort of won by the Widower when he cut down the Beloved after a couple of rounds of close combat. My players did not intervene into the duel beforehand, partly due to being busy defending against other assailants and saving Julia Strophes and partly due to being rather undecided who to kill and who to support.
So when the Beloved ran out of Precognitive Dodges (I used the stats of the False Prophetess from DotDG with a couple Divination Powers and Hellish Blast) and was cut down by the Widower, he turned upon the PCs who tried to shot him or manipulate/destroy the Steel Clock (they haven’t gotten the hint that the keystone is the, well, key part of it). First he cut down the Psyker hammering onto the Steel Clock without taking a sweat and then he proceeded to attack and cut down a major NPC as well as raining blows upon the groups Arbitrator. After a second round of Defensive Stance the Arbitrator suffered two criticals and went down in a pirouette. The groups Assassin (scion of Haarlock) further tried to somehow destroy the keystone or stop the mechanism of the Steel Clock) and the Tech Priest, who just had helped Julia Strophes (who tried to claw her eyes out) to the exit, kept firing his Fury Laspistol at the laughing Widower without notable effect.
In the meantime the groups Guardsman had left his firing position, rushed to the body of the Beloved, after he had plundered three corpses on the way (…), and picked up his vile Daemon Sword. He won the Daemonic Mastery test (i.e. opposed WP-test vs. Astral Spectre) and charged the Widower for 24 damage (!) in the first round and 31 damage (!!) in the second round (single strike) thereby destroying the Widower (31-10=21 i.e. a single wound more than needed) utterly.

Almost directly afterwards, the rest of the group was threatened by a group of four armed people led by a Bolt Pistol wielding woman. This is in fact another Acolyte group of the groups Inquistor, that is hunting for the group, as they had disappeared (abduction at the start of TF) and the Inquisitor fears that they had became rogue elements or renegades or whatever.

To cut a long story short, I am not sure how to handle this whole Daemon Sword thingy. While I always wanted to tempt my players with radicalism in the near future, this incident somehow handed this opportunity suddenly on a silver platter and left me a little overwhelmed. Using Chaos (or its weapons) in a desperate situation for the sake of surviving (not only of oneself, but of a whole planet) and overcoming a highly destructive foe through it sounds just like good old Eisenhorn. So how shall I proceed to keep it interesting and the damnation palpable without going “lol, D100 Corruption Points and spontaneous mass mutation et al.”? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[Storhamster 0]

 Well played, well played indeed. You not only made sure they were rewarded for picking up the sword by allowing them to defeat the widower with it. you also sent in another group of acolytes to hunt them down and when they did find them the guardsman is wielding a daemonic weapon!

This is a lovely opportunity for minsunderstandings. Have the group of hunter-acolytes demand that they surrender and allow themselves to be apprehended and tried for touching such a vile weapon. If fighting breaks out and the hunter-acolytes are slain your group will be firmly within the extremely radical if not outright rogue category 

Yes, most excellent indeed...

The fact that your players took up the weapon in the first place indicates to me that they do not place a very high value upon the Imperial Creed and that they would do so again without hesitation. It all begins with on small step, the next one will be a bigger step.

Give them similair opportunities in the future. I think they will go for it when they realise just how powerful radical instruments can be. Before they know what has happened they will be despised, hunted and powerful.

There is no need to hit them with a bazillion corruption points, just play up the stigma of being a radical and let the players drag themselves down into that pit.

[Gregorius21778 249]

Eisenhorn, the Radical. Yes, it sounds like him. A shame this capable Amalthean has fallen at last 

So, how to deal with this? 
If your guardsmen isn´t already having 10+ points of Corruption, I would assign him one at the end of the scene. His will was struggling with the one of a daemonic entity, so one can assume that he might got sullend if he was "rather pure" to begin with.

If he keeps the weapons with him, I would assign another one after a month. But again, only if he is under 10 CP and that´s it. No further points for just owning and using a Daemonweapon.

If you want to corrupt him further through the weapon, wait for a moment where it is up to the guardsmen to leave an opponent alife. A situation where the opponent is no further danger and could be just left where he is. A moment where he could kill him easily. Make the weapon wisper to him, urging the pc to kill. If he does not abide, role a daemonic mastery test the next time he uses the weapon. If he loses one of the abilites of the weapon will not work in this time. 

The next occasion, repeat this play. If the player guardsmen gives in, it is another point of corruption.

[Gregorius21778 249]

Addendum:
Stormhamsters idea about the Acoleytes being arrested is a good one. But give the players the opportunity to argument against it. Pointing out that they will follow and secure their arms but that they are in no way "the enemy" and that they won´t disarm themselves with all the danger surrounding them on this world.

This could be achieved by a difficult to very hard (your choice) test for Charm, Intimidation or any other skill of your choice. If you do have stats to the other cell, it could become an opposed test (Skill vs. WP of the other cell´s leader).


In case the pc will get arrested and their weapons are kept from them, let a Hunter-Acolyth take hold of the Daemons sword. Peacebinding it, wrapping it in cloth and perhaps sprinkling holy water on it and adding some seals of binding. The H-A will keep the sword "to hand it to our master, whom will know how to deal with such a blasphemy". Perhaps, another opportunity for the weapon will arise later...

[Luthor Harkon 13]

Thanks for the input. Well, the situation occurred sort of spontaneously. Or as I always say, the best stories evolve through the input and commitment of many players as well as through the incalculable influence of chance.

The other group of Acolytes indeed will demand their surrender (in fact that was how we ended the last session) and will more or less apprehend them. Slias Marr already awaits them onboard a light cruiser in orbit anyway. I doubt my players will start a fight as the Psyker and Arbitrator each burned a Fate Point and both are still unconscious, while the Guardsman is heavily wounded.

The PC, who picked up the weapon, is in fact not a heretic in the sense of “not placing a very high value upon the Imperial Creed” as you say. He is just a rather simple person (Int 27) – a Feral Worlder Guardsman from Fedrid, who got drafted into the Imperial Guard as a conscript before being reassigned by the Inquisitor. For him the Daemon Sword was just “the biggest knife around” so to speak and he was a little desperate when his Hunting Rifle had about no effect. He simply didn’t knew that it is a Daemon Weapon, just that it looks ‘a little weird’ and that it felt a little like he had to wrestle a feral crocodile in his head... Interestingly (and fittingly), the Guardsman player is the one from the group, who knows the least of the 40K setting and most probably did not knew it either. But he already said that he wants to keep the…knife.

[Lynata 2,228]

I rather like Gregorius' idea. You could even make it a "hidden" rule only you know about (and the players have to find out for themselves by sheer experience), if you'd want to expand it beyond a purely narrative quality:

The weapon thirsts for blood of the innocent and continuously aches to be drenched in it. Should the blade not be allowed to regularly take a life, it grows blunt and heavy, as if having lost its reason to exist.

• Blood of the Tainted (target had CP) = fed for 1 day per kill (to a maximum of 9)
• Blood of the Innocent (standard target) = fed for 3 days per kill (to a maximum of 9)
• Blood of the Faithful (target had Pure Faith) = fed for 9 days per kill (to a maximum of 18)

The weapon feels more at home in the warp and will never grow hungry whilst transported on a vessel that passes through the Immaterium.

When the Sword grows hungry and is not being fed, you can start removing its abilities one per day. After all the daemonic abilities are gone, increase its weight by x1.5. The next day, add a -10 modifier to any tests made to attack or parry with it. Finally, on the day after that, change the entire weapon profile to that of an equivalent standard Primitive weapon. These penalties remain in effect until the weapon has been coated with the blood of as many bodies as it requires to be fed for at least 9 days.

Should be an interesting incentive ...

[Bladehate 112]

Sounds like an awesome finale.

One thing you could play up is that Chaos is never truly "safe".  Even after winning the first willpower struggles, the Daemon Blade would just shift gears.  Although the rules don't really go in depth with it, having a fairly powerful and self-aware warp entity in the blade would make for some interesting RP opportunities.  It means fleshing out the personality a bit more rather then just having the wweapon traits, but that's not really a hindrance, more like a bonus =).

Its similar to Lynata's idea, but with a less murderous focus.  Perhaps the blade shifts its shape to something less spiky and more generic, starting next game session.  So most of the players and NPCs don't realize what it really is.  Oh and you might have a small voice making a suggestion to the Guardsman that not announcing who the previous owner of the blade is might be a good idea.  That way the blade has more time to slowly work its way into the Guardsman's soul.

Perhaps the Feral-worlder might start hearing the voices of his ancestor spirits?  Especially if those spirits might know things that the guardsman doesn't...useful, interesting and quite helpful things...it might be all too easy to start to trust those spirit voices...

In fact, the Daemon in the blade could see this as a rather exceptional opportunity to infiltrate and subvert staunch servants of the God-Emperor.  Obviously this means the sword would need a bit more work then the average daemon weapon, and probably be a touch more powerful...but that's only appropriate for the Beloved's personal weapon I think.

[Luthor Harkon 13]

Great ideas.

I will give the Guardsman a single Corruption Point as proposed by Greg to begin with. I will also try to incorporate Lynata’s ideas/rules; these fit in particular, as the Guardsman rolled that it will bring bad luck to draw a blade without using it/coating it in blood for his Feral World background during character creation. Furthermore, the Hunter-Acolytes prime (i.e. the Bolt Pistol armed woman) is in fact a Sororitas (Blood of the Faithful here we come…). Maybe, I should begin the next session with another opposed WP-test to check whether the “ancestor spirits” Bladehate mentioned urge him to cut this savory woman down…

The blade is in fact not that spiky. It looks like a prolonged cleaver or an unfinished falcata that looks somehow burned (as if it lay in a campfire for a few hours). So it does not look like the “classic” oversized Daemon Weapon with huge spikes and all that chaosy stuff, but more like a weird looking crude blackened sword.

I just realized it is in fact not an Astral Spectre within the blade, but a ‘Bound Daemon’ with a WP in the forties. I will let it be some sort of Daemonic Herald like in WFB/WFRP; so with a ‘powerlevel’ somewhere in between a Lesser Daemon and Daemonic Prince/Greater Daemon.

Thanks guys.