Guilders Wrath: The Sump Thing

The Sump Thing

The Thing from the Sump is a unique and extremely tough creature. Being largely made up of slime and gunk, it is completely immune to most normal weapons. The best you can hope for with a regular weapon is to drive it back slightly. The only way the gangs can think to destroy it is by submerging it in a particularly noxious toxichem pool. Fortunately for the gangs such pools are not uncommon amongst many parts of the
Underhive. The only problem is how to push it in...

Original image by http://www.christopherburdett.com/

This scenario should be played whenever a gang tries to fight off the Thing from the Sump, with the Arbitrator setting up the table and controlling the Thing. When setting up for this scenario you should place something to represent the toxichem pool that the gang is trying to drive the Thing in to. This should have several gantries and walkways overhanging it for the Thing to be blasted off - it's not so stupid that it will just walk into the pool ! The toxichem pool should be placed about in the middle of the gaming area. Anything falling into the toxichem is instantly killed, and any equipment is lost permanently!
Randomly select a table edge - the Thing will start in the middle of this edge. The gang may then set up anywhere within 8" of the opposite table edge. The gangers have two objectives. Ideally, they would like to destroy the creature, so that they can claim the bounty on it, and not have to worry about it attacking any more of their territories. However, if they cannot destroy it, they at least want to drive it off out of
their territory. The Thing is destroyed if any hit forces it back so that it cannot avoid falling into the toxichem. It is driven off if any hit forces it off a table edge and out of the playing area.

See the following section for rules on driving the Thing back with weapon hits. The gang must take bottle tests as normal when they have suffered 25% casualties, but must also test each time the Thing devours one of the gang.
The Thing just wants to eat as many gangers as possible. It always takes the first tum in this scenario.

A number of special rules apply to the Thing from the Sump, making it a unique adversary.

The sump thing causes Terror as stated in the rulebook.

Wounds

The Thing from the Sump starts with six Wounds. In fact its entire profile starts at six. However, every time it suffers a Wound its entire profile gets reduced by one, so that the whole profile will always remain at the same level as the number of Wounds it has remaining. It only ever suffers one wound at a time, even weapons with Damage D6 for example will only inflict one wound.

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD
6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Regeneration

The Thing from the Sump can regenerate Wounds (and the rest of its profile) during the recovery phase.

During each if its recovery phases, roll a dice for each Wound that the Thing currently has missing. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6, the Wound is regenerated. Remember that the rest of the profile will also regenerate at the same time. The Thing from the Sump will continue to regenerate even if reduced to zero Wounds. The only way it can be killed is by submerging it in the toxichem.

Movement

The Thing from the Sump can neither run nor charge. It therefore always moves at its Movement characteristic speed. Note, however, that this will drop if the Thing suffers any wounds. The Thing may freely move over any obstacles without penalty, and may climb up or down walls as if they were ladders.

Pinning

The Thing from the Sump cannot be pinned. Nor can it be taken man down, man out, or suffer flesh wounds. The only way to stop, or damage, it is by the methods described above. Also, it need never take agility tests to avoid falling off heights if hit.

Shooting

The Thing from the Sump may lash out with one tentacle for each of its Attacks. Note that this means that as it suffers wounds it will be able to throw out fewer tentacles each turn. Each tentacle has a range of 12". Roll to hit as normal.

For each hit, pull the target 1 " closer to the Thing. If it is pulled into contact, then fight as normal in the hand-to-hand combat phase. These attacks can pull gang members off high levels.

Any hit by a tentacle will cause that gang member to become pinned, even if it does not pull them into the Thing itself. The Thing has a 360' line of sight.

Hand-to-hand combat

The Thing from the Sump cannot charge. Instead, it automatically fights a round of hand-to-hand combat against anything that it is in contact with during the hand-to-hand combat phase. However, both the Thing and its hand-to-hand opponents may move off freely in their movement phases - they are not locked in combat. If a gang member goes down in combat to the Thing they will be absorbed. Any gang member unfortunate enough to be absorbed by the Thing is lost permanently, along with all his weapons and equipment!

Push-backs

Every time the Thing from the Sump suffers a hit (even if it can't damage it), from shooting or hand-to-hand combat, it is driven back 1 ". It is particularly susceptible to hits from flamer weapons, which drive it back 1D6" instead of just 1". Move the model of the Thing directly away from the attacker. If this pushes it over the edge of a high level, then it will fall to the ground and suffer damage as normal.

Feeding Frenzy

When the Thing from the Sump senses food nearby, it will sometimes go into an uncontrollable frenzy to get to it. Roll 1D6 at the start of each Thing turn. On a 1, 2, or 3, it is controllable and may be played as the Arbitrator wishes.

However, on a roll of 4,5, or 6, the Thing is affected by its Feeding Frenzy. It must move at full speed towards the nearest visible gang member, but will always select a target in the open over one in cover. The Thing will always lash with as many tentacles as possible at this one target. Note, however, that even when in a frenzy the Thing will not move into a toxichem pool voluntarily, and will try to move around it. The only way to force it into a toxichem pool is to blast it there!

Leadership

The Thing never bottles out and is immune to all psychology. It is assumed to automatically pass any Leadership test it is required to make, and so its Leadership value is never actually used.

As the Thing stomps and slimes its way around the Hive, bounty on its metaphorical head gets bigger and

bigger. Every time the Thing is involved in a battle which it survives (whether it gets driven off or not) its bounty increases by the roll of a dice times ten. This amount is added to the income of

whichever gang eventually manages to kill it.

Experience

Experience is awarded to gang members fighting the Thing as follows:

+D6 Survives. Each surviving gang fighter earns D6 experience points. Even fighters who are taken man down or man out receive experience for taking part.

+D6 Driving off the Thing. If the Thing is driven off, each surviving gang member gets a further D6 experience points, on top of the D6 for surviving. This bonus is also awarded if the Thins is killed.

+10 Killing the Thing. If the Thing is killed, the gang member who blasted it into the toxichem pool gains 10

experience points.

This is the old sump thing rules from tales of the underhive, but with a few tweaks and edits.

If it turns out to be too powerful we will let it be "driven off" when reduced to 0 wounds, if its too weak its brother will tag along next time...

As normal what are your thoughts? Chris's Orlocks are the first to be attacked by the thing so we will post when the battle has been fought.