Aberrations and Abnormality: Rules for Daemonic Possession (WIP)

[Koval]

Kick-started by a Skype conversation with Marco.

Charax used to have rules for daemons, daemonhosts, and daemonic possession. He probably still does, but I don't have them and I don't know how to get them, so I figured I should have a go at doing my own. If it looks like it's been inspired by Dark Heresy, it probably has.

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DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: Throughout this post, song lyrics from various artists will be quoted. All quoted lyrics are (C) their respective owners.

DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: Inquisitor is a game. This thread, therefore, is intended to present game mechanics for Inquisitor. The entities, events, and things depicted below do not exist. The author does not endorse real-world occult activity, devil worship, violation of the Second Commandment / Shahada, or anything else considered heretical or evil in real-world terms.

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A Preamble
For this article, I will be using the following example characters to help illustrate the mechanics.
-Agares, Exalted Bloodletter of Khorne
-Severino Valdez, Butt Monkey psyker
-Inquisitor Madoc Haines, Ordo Malleus

On terminology: I will be using the term "Possessed" to denote a character that has been possessed by a daemon. This is a rather large category that includes both bound and unbound Daemonhosts, unfortunate psykers, Possessed Chaos Space Marines, and many more besides.

Creating A Daemonhost
THROUGH YOU I AM BORN...

(Miracle of Sound. "Binary Divide" 2012)

The creation of a daemonhost cannot feasibly take place within a single scenario -- it simply takes too long, and the time required can be better measured in days than in minutes. Not only must a suitable victim be found (and possibly captured, abducted or otherwise apprehended), they must also be marked physically with runes of binding, and "prepared" mentally for their eventual fate as a daemonhost. At the same time, the creator must find, and find out about, a suitable daemon for binding, while the creation process itself involves summoning, subjugating, and binding the daemon within its new host as part of a long ritual.
While GMs are at liberty to incorporate elements of the creation process into scenarios (perhaps a Xanthite's followers are in the middle of the summoning ritual when a Monodominant intervenes), one should not expect the processs of creating a daemonhost to take place in a matter of turns.


Daemonic Possession
Waiting with carnivorous patience, their memory timeless // For all they know, I must succumb sometime

(Arch Enemy. "Vultures" 2007)

Among the more common ways for a daemon to enter the material realm is to willingly enter a luckless victim. In many cases, this will be a psyker, as the minds of psykers act as a beacon and a doorway for daemons, though this can also be a sorcerer who has opened himself up to the power of the Warp through dabbling in things man should never know.

For a daemon to possess a character of its own accord should require some prior planning by the GM, possibly in concert with at least one involved player. Suggested events leading into the possession process include (but are not limited to) Psychic Overloads, failing to cast a psychic power through Risky Action rolls, or falling prey to one's own daemon weapon. This means that daemonic possession is normally reserved for sorcerers and psykers (typically in that order owing to the nature of sorcery, with psychic sorcerers being preferred over non-psychic ones), so a GM will need a very good reason for a daemon to possess a character that is neither a psyker nor a sorcerer, and that does not have a daemon weapon.

As a daemon will typically have its own profile (including an Initiative value), it may make a possession attempt in its own turn should one of the events suggested above occur. For the sake of simplicity, daemonic possession can take one of two forms: indirect influence and direct possession. In both cases the daemon is assumed to be either in the Warp or bound into a weapon, in which case the daemon will enter the victim, either by taking advantage of failed psychic powers and/or sorcery, or by overpowering its wielder if bound into a weapon.
Indirect influence assumes that the daemon is casting the Enforce Will psychic power on its victim (even daemons of Khorne). Assume that the distance between the daemon and its victim is zero. Indirect influence is not a Risky Action and does not cause Psychic Overloads.
Direct possession, on the other hand, represents the daemon forcibly taking over its victim, and can take place over several turns. While the daemon is directly possessing its victim, the victim counts as Stunned (but does not fall prone).
At the start of each of the daemon's turns, and each of the victim's, the daemon and victim must each test Willpower. Record the amount by which each test was passed or failed, and keep a cumulative score. Should the cumulative result swing more than 50 points in the victim's favour, s/he has resisted the daemon's attempt at possession and the daemon may not make any further possession attempts in this game; however, should the cumulative result swing more than 50 points in the daemon's favour, the victim is completely taken over and becomes Possessed.

Example: Agares (Wp 88) is attempting to possess Severino Valdez (Wp 65), who has failed the Risky Action roll to manifest a psychic power. Initially, Agares rolls a 63 for his test, passing by 25, whereas Severino rolls a 34, passing by 31. Currently, the score is in Severino's favour by 6.
On the next set of Willpower tests, Severino rolls a 98, failing by 33 -- shifting the score to 27 points in Agares' favour -- whereas Agares rolls a 70, passing by 18, which brings the total score to 45 points in Agares' favour.
In the third round, Severino rolls a 60, passing by 5, whereas Agares rolls a 76 and passes by 12. This is enough to slide the score up to 52 points in Agares' favour, which is more than the 50 points required to win the contest, and so Agares successfully possesses Severino.

An incarnate daemon may also attempt direct possession (not indirect influence) through touch -- this is considered to be an unarmed attack dealing no physical damage if the victim is aware of the daemon, or a standard action if the victim is somehow oblivious to the daemon's presence. Obviously, this requires direct physical contact, so an incarnate daemon must be within two yards of its victim to attempt possession. The incarnate daemon itself can perform no other actions while attempting possession, and disappears should it successfully possess its victim (as two characters have merged into a single Possessed entity).

Attributes of the Possessed
You, you're my mask // You're my cover, my shelter // You, you're my mask // You're the one who's blamed

(Metallica. "Sad But True" 1991)

Daemons in the material universe are, invariably, creatures of immense power, but have to expend energy maintaining their physical form in realspace. Daemons possessing living beings already have a body (albeit one that will, over time, decay to the point of uselessness through exposure to their new owner's Warp-spawned essence), and need not focus on maintaining that which maintains itself.

To generate the statline of a Possessed character, replace the character's original WS, BS, I, Wp, Sg, Nv and Ld with the daemon's own stats. The original character's Skills and Talents are replaced with the daemon's own, unless they are connected to the character's physiology -- psychological and "trained" abilities are replaced.
Example: Severino, now Possessed, loses his Jaded, Magpie and Quick Draw abilities, and gains First Strike and Furious Assault from Agares. If Severino had Acrobatics due to being naturally hyper-agile, however, then Agares would retain that.
The Possessed's S and T should, however, be left as they are for the time being -- changes to the Possessed's physical strength are covered separately.

All Possessed should have Wyrd-Telepathy and Wyrd-Warp Strength as standard; even those possessed by daemons of Khorne. These represent the tendency of the daemonic to speak directly within a character's mind, and the Possessed's augmented strength, respectively. Do keep in mind that the Possessed is therefore able to nullify psychic powers in the same way as mortal psykers.
Possessed who have been possessed by non-Khornate daemons can and will have other psychic abilities, typically those of the possessing daemon, but occasionally those of the character being possessed at the GM's discretion.
Possessed will also typically have the Daemonic and Fearsome traits. Many will also be Ambidextrous, as daemons do not tend to favour one hand or the other (both are equally delicious whether cooked or eaten raw). In addition, Possessed will also have the Unholy Might, Dissonant Mentality, Warp Sight, and This Form Is Fragile traits detailed below.
The unarmed attacks of the Possessed may (at the GM's discretion) take on any of the Daemon Weapon Properties listed on pages 68-9 of the Inquisitor LRB.
If such is the daemon's nature, the Possessed may also consider gravity to be optional (unless attacked with graviton or repulsor tech).

Unholy Might: Sustained and fuelled by the power of the Warp, the Possessed can perform feats of strength beyond mortal men and can shrug off otherwise crippling blows with a disturbing ease.
The Possessed may re-roll Strength tests. In addition, the Possessed counts Toughness-and-a-half for determining the death threshold on its Injury total (rounding half-values up), increases its BIV by 1, cannot lose consciousness through its Injury total, and automatically passes System Shock tests. (Note that forced System Shock from damage results will still apply, as there is no test to pass or fail).
Possessed are also liberated from the need to breathe, and can therefore sustain themselves in airless or toxic environments without breathing equipment (however, the Possessed are not immune to the effects of space, particularly roasting to death from direct starlight exposure)
Example: Agares, while wearing Severino's body, has T46. He should have a BIV of 5, but Unholy Might boosts this to 6 instead. In addition, Severino should die once his Injury total reaches 46, but Toughness-and-a-half puts Agares' death threshold at 46*1.5=69 instead.

Dissonant Mentality: Daemons do not see or interpret things as mortals do, and what inspires terror in mortals may simply cause amusement to a daemon.
The Possessed may re-roll Fear, Terror and Pinning checks (note however that Force of Will and Nerves of Steel take precedence). The daemon is also immune to psychic powers and similar effects that normally affect a character's mind (examples include the Enforce Will and Mesmerism psychic powers, as well as Hallucinogens)

Warp Sight: See the Carthax Wiki for details on this trait.

This Form Is Fragile: Being sustained by a daemon greatly augments the physical capabilities of the Possessed, but the nature of the daemonic brings its own costs and drawbacks.
Blessed or holy weapons, and psychic attacks (including attacks from force and rune weapons), gain the Tearing and Rending(2) properties (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury for details) when damaging the Possessed; if the weapon or power already has Tearing or Rending, then add extra levels to each as appropriate. Blessed Force Weapons do not, however, gain this bonus twice, as the weapon's already special enough by that point that anything else would just be greedy.
Note that force and rune weapons retain their own additional properties against daemonic characters, as do psycannons and Psy/Anti-Daemonic ammo from the RIA*; however, bonus damage does not itself benefit from Tearing.
Example: Agares is wearing the body of Severino. Inquisitor Haines is attacking Agares with his thunder hammer; for the sake of this example we will consider Haines' hammer to do 3D10+4 damage with the Knockback Bonus, Shocking and Blessed** properties. Haines hits Agares in the chest and scores a 1, a 4 and a 6 for a total of 15 damage -- boosted by a further +7 to 22, due to Haines' S120***. However, his hammer gains Tearing, so he rolls an additional D10 and scores a 9, discarding the 1. He therefore deals 4+6+9+4+7=30 damage with his swing. Agares, who has T46 in Severino's body, would ordinarily have a boosted BIV of 6, but Rending(2) brings that down to 4. As Agares also has no armour, he takes full damage; he has therefore taken a Crippling wound to his chest, must test Toughness or be stunned, is prone (actually supine), and is also suffering from System Shock.

*With the exception of Corporeal ammo, which does not ignore This Form Is Fragile and so benefits from its effects.
**Haines' hammer isn't actually a blessed weapon, but for the sake of this example, it is.
***He's 6'10" with two S60 bionic arms and a bionic spine. Minus the arms, his Strength will still be somewhere in the mid-70s. I should, however, remind everyone reading this that this thread is not about justifying Inquisitor Haines.

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New psychic power: Resist Possession
Difficulty 0. The psyker marshals his mental strength in an attempt to throw off daemonic possession. Test Willpower immediately. On a failure, nothing happens, but if successful, add the amount by which the test was passed to the psyker's possession score.
This power may be used while Stunned (counting as a free action, used in what would have been the psyker's turn), and in fact may be used only when resisting direct possession. Note that the possessing daemon may not attempt to nullify this power.

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It's still a very horrible WIP, but hopefully I can hammer it out into something a bit more user-friendly soon. Thoughts are of course welcome.

[DapperAnarchist]

I'm liking this - I have a character I'd like to make Possessed, but wasn't sure how to do it as none of the Daemonic abilities seemed to fit very well.

However, I think a little more got imported from DH than you meant, unless I forgot the existence of Wounds in Inquisitor? Under Unholy Might.

[MarcoSkoll]

DISCLAIMER THE SECOND:The entities, events, and things depicted below do not exist. The author does not endorse real-world occult activity, devil worship, violation of the Second Commandment / Shahada, or anything else considered heretical or evil in real-world terms.

... it's close to miiiiiidddnight. Something evil's lurking in the daaaarrrrrkkk!

Sorry, couldn't resist - but you should know by now that irreverence is a common trait for me.

Direct possession, on the other hand, represents the daemon forcibly taking over its victim, and can take place over several turns.

It's not entirely clear under what circumstances this can happen - does it require physical contact, or can it be achieved at distance? If the latter, is there a penalty?

The original character's Skills and Talents are replaced with the daemon's own, unless they are connected to the character's physiology -- psychological and "trained" abilities are replaced.

Personally, I divide these into Skills and Traits (not quite the same definitions as in DH) on my character sheets - I tend to summarise it as "Skills are what you can do, Traits are what you are".

You can see the basics of this on Jax Lynn's profile. And if there's ever someone you would not want to get possessed by a daemon...

... although, as minor spoilers for further through Ad Vitam Aeternam's plot (if I ever get back to it), there's a reason she's not daemon fodder. (It's all to do with the "rules" for her immortality/regeneration. I won't go into it here.)

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DapperAnarchist has addressed my question about quite what wounds are supposed to be (at a guess, the injury total needed for death?)

Beyond that, I think I need some thinking time. Or going back to bed time. Not sure.

[Koval]

I'm liking this - I have a character I'd like to make Possessed, but wasn't sure how to do it as none of the Daemonic abilities seemed to fit very well.

Happy to be of service.

However, I think a little more got imported from DH than you meant, unless I forgot the existence of Wounds in Inquisitor? Under Unholy Might.

Honestly, I thought that Wounds were also shorthand for "accumulated points on one's Injury total" or something like that, but if that's not so, that's not so. I've changed Unholy Might's wording, and added an example, to clarify what I meant.

Direct possession, on the other hand, represents the daemon forcibly taking over its victim, and can take place over several turns.

It's not entirely clear under what circumstances this can happen - does it require physical contact, or can it be achieved at distance? If the latter, is there a penalty?

I've tried to fix this to clarify it. Basically, if we've got an incarnate daemon running around, it needs physical contact, and ditto for a rebellious daemon weapon, whereas a daemon in the Warp would neither need physical contact nor necessarily be all that far from the character it's about to possess. To borrow from your own interpretation of the Warp, the daemon could be about ten narwhals away from its intended victim.
Word of advice: if you ride a narwhal, mind the pointy end.