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In the events of our game, we have come across several situations where blips have come up on our scanners, for a split second, and then vanished.

One such occurrence was on our ship's radar, looking for signatures of other active ships in the surrounding area: blip; then nothing.

On several occasions looking for life signs on an Auspex: sometimes multiple blips, sometimes only one; then gone.

Can the Dark Eldar cause this? Or is it... Something else?

Ben
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  • Is this a question as a DM or as a player? Because you'd end up with wildly different answers. – Theik Sep 09 '14 at 07:43
  • As a player. My character has experience with them in his backstory. – Ben Sep 09 '14 at 10:30
  • Well, as a player, you can assume they are Dark Eldar based on knowing they could do that. But really, it could be anything your DM came up with, regardless of if it makes sense in the lore or not, so while Dark Eldar might sound entirely plausible to you, don't be surprised if the DM suddenly proclaims that your scanners were sabotaged by an Imperial Soldier who was upset that his tea was the wrong flavour. (British imperial soldier?) – Theik Sep 09 '14 at 12:17
  • Yes very true. I am just following fluff though and I wanted to make sure it was a mechanic the Dark Eldar are capable of, even if it's not actually them in the long run – Ben Sep 09 '14 at 12:55

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Dark Eldar are sneaky sadistic space pirates. If they don't want to be seen or heard, with technology or with human senses, they won't be detected. They can show themselves with one blip to terrify their prey before striking: it's sadistic, evil, sneaky and right up their alley.

One thing you should keep in mind is how this is going to end up for the players: will the Dark Eldar sneak up on them and strike without them having a chance to react? If so you might want to reconsider. But if it's merely foreshadowing it could certainly work. Or consider working this into a Space Hulk scenario: there are more blips than bogeys, meaning the players have to be on their toes at all times.

If you want to know things like this, just put yourself in the mindset of a psychopath space elf in a gimp suit and ask yourself if you would do that to terrify your prey before striking (but please do not use this mindset to hurt acual people).

Thomas Jacobs
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  • I had an idea that might be the case, and since my character is familiar with the Dark Eldar, I figured I should probably brush up on my knowledge of them. "Sneaky f***ing Russian" - Bullet-tooth Tony: Snatch – Ben Sep 08 '14 at 14:56
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    If you want sneaky Russians in 40k, I point towards Valhallan scouting regiments. Dark Eldar are a mix of equal parts slasher movie villains, alien invaders, creepy BDSM and hair metal. Though since 5th edition GW has been easier on the hair metal. – Thomas Jacobs Sep 08 '14 at 15:12
  • Well I really think we're going for the "eerie" factor, so yeah, Dark Eldar really are fitting the bill. – Ben Sep 08 '14 at 15:16