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Deathwatch: Murderers in Black Act 1: Lucifer's Chosen. Scene 1. The Replacements. Over the course of days and weeks, you each arrive at the looming gates of the Inquisitorial Fortress on Alucar IV. The Alucar system lies only a handful of light years from the border drawn between the Segmenta Obscurus and Pacificus, located towards the rimward end of that invisible boundary line. Depending on the position and inclination of Alucar IV relative to its weak sun, at some points in the local year the night sky would be filled with stars beyond numbering, and one could gaze coreward into the blazing heart of the great and mighty Imperium. Sadly, this wonderful display will not be visible for many months. When you arrive, those same skies are empty by comparison, with only a few ghostly pinpricks of light piercing the darkness. You instead stare outwards, into the western reaches of the Halo Stars and the infinite abyss beyond. Alucar IV is a cold, mountainous world, with an atmosphere thin enough to be largely inimical to human life. This is just as the Most Holy Inquisition prefers, enabling their forces in this part of the galaxy to gather or to act without drawing the attention of prying eyes. Their fortress here, known colloquially by its inhabitants as the Bulwark, is a relatively small bastion when compared to the might of Talasa Prime or Bakka. Nevertheless, it is still a fear-inspiring citadel, well defended by massively thick plascrete walls and countless gun emplacements. In orbit, vast hidden minefields protect the approaches to the planet, and servitor-controlled augur and weapons stations carefully vet any ship that dares to continue past the warning buoys that ring the system's Mandeville Point. These outer markers reveal little, except to promise death and eternal damnation to any fools who would enter the Alucar system without permission. Beneath Alucar IV's rocky surface, the Bulwark extends deep into the planet's crust. There are levels below levels of buried chambers; state rooms, laboratories, barracks, interrogation chambers, and more - all connected by miles of twisting tunnels and shafts. There are few that know the true extent of this stronghold, and fewer still… perhaps none at all… who have accurate knowledge of everything that occurs within its walls. It is quite normal to see Inquisitors or Agents of any of the countless Ordos visiting and using Alucar's facilities, and several thousand support staff, adepts and Inquisitorial troops are typically in residence at any given time. However, in the late 38th millennium the Bulwark is primarily operated by the Ordo Xenos, and is host to a small Watchstation of their militant arm, the Deathwatch. In recent years the force garrisoned there has consisted of only a single Kill-Team. Nevertheless, these proud few have maintained a careful watch over the local Sectors for any sign of the alien menace; raiders from the deep abyss, foul alien cultures expanding from the Halo Stars, or the omnipresent danger of the filthy Ork. Such xenos aggression has ever been met in kind, with thunder and fury and blood. Yet when you finally arrive at the halls belonging to Kill-Team Lucifer - or ‘Light-bringer’ in the Low Gothic vernacular - the training ranges, strategium and private cells are cold and dark. They are empty and silent, but for the quiet hands and feet of Deathwatch Chapter serfs in deepest mourning. For the Astartes brethren of Light-bringer have fallen, one and all. You still do not know exactly what occurred, though you know it must have been terrible indeed to bring about the deaths of a full unit of Watch veterans. Within the small Chapel attached to the Watchstation an honour scroll, surrounded by burning candles, lists the names of those lost: Brother Gaius Argo Traxaes of the White Consuls, Watch-Sergeant. Brother Jarek, Codicier of the Executioners Brother Bellephon, Tactical Marine of the Star Phantoms Brother Ki'shar, Tactical Marine of the Salamanders Brother Gort, Devastator Marine of the Dark Hunters Brother Cassius, Tactical Marine of the Celebrants Brother Vintus, Apothecary of the Eagle Warriors Brother Incario, Tactical Marine of the Blood Drinkers Brother Alberon, Techmarine of the Red Scorpions (You might notice where a tenth line had been written, but the dark red ink has been carefully scraped away from the thick vellum) Stretched thin, already fighting in thousands of battles and campaigns across the Imperium, the Deathwatch could not quickly provide another squad to replace the loss of the Light-bringers. Therefore, messages were sent to Chapters of the Astartes with forces operating across the western reaches of Humanity's realm, debts of duty and brotherhood and honour called upon, that they should each provide a warrior willing to step forth and swear the Apocryphon Oath, taking the black and shouldering the burden of the Long Vigil. Thus you are here. OOC: Welcome to Deathwatch: Murderers in Black! When you arrive on Alucar IV, Deathwatch Chapter serfs will bring you to the part of the Bulwark that serves as Watchstation and will assign you each to private cells. There are perhaps forty of these cells in total, some of which may still contain the personal effects of the previous Kill-Team Lucifer, but most - including those you are given - are totally empty of any belongings. They are fairly small, but have all that a humble warrior could need; a simple cot large enough to support the weight of an Astartes, weapon stands, etc. The serfs will also tell you that you have been given access to the main areas of the Watchstation; the Chapel, training ranges and cages, and Refectory. There are also a small Forge (with Armoury) and Apothecarion, but these areas are off-limits - unless one can display the appropriate rites and sigils! (Of course, others could request entrance after these areas have been opened up by someone with the proper authority?) However, the Strategium is currently off-limits to everyone, until such time as you have been properly sworn into the Deathwatch. An Astartes Watch officer is on his way to handle this, along with your orientation, but many of you have arrived on Alucar before he does! Also you can explore the rest of the Bulwark, where you will be granted access to main ‘public’ areas like the hangars, etc. However, there are numerous parts of the fortress, entire levels in some cases, that are secure and/or belong to the various Ordos, and are therefore sealed and off-limits. You can even leave the fortress and go back outside - the terrain is much as you'd expect, snow capped mountains, rivers, etc. Air quality is poor enough that mortals could not survive for very long, but Astartes will be ok. There are various animals adapted to the environment - small rodents, large goat-like herbivores and larger, agile, snow leopard-like predators that probably aren't a serious threat to a Marine… unless he was careless… So, please use your opening posts to introduce us to your character. How do you feel about being here? Maybe tell us how you got here, catching a ride or maybe your own Chapter was close enough to drop you off? Do any of you, either personally or by reputation, know members of the previous Kill-Team Lucifer? What will you do while you wait for the Watch Officer to arrive? Train? Interact? Explore? NB. Just as a note for your posts and any character interactions, that until you have been sworn in, your Armour (proudly) remains in the colours of your Chapters. @Trokair: You are a fairly junior Inquisitorial Acolyte of the Ordo Xenos, and have been assigned to act as Liaison-Adjutant to the new Deathwatch Kill-Team. (You might even have been the one to show some of the new recruits to their quarters?) You are relatively new to this role and to Alucar, so you don't really know a great deal more than the Astartes, but if there are things they ask that you would/should know, I can fill you in via PM and you can relay it?

++ THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ++ PREY FOR DEATH: ++ A MEDITATION AND REFLECTION UPON THE ORIGINS AND HUMOURS OF THE MANTIS WARRIORS ++ Order Origination: White Scars (primogenitor), Marauders (gene-foster) Founding: Unknown; alleged to be the 8th Founding (Mid-34th Millennium) Region of Control: Maelstrom Wilderness Zone Strength: Recovering (as current date, M.42) Affiliation: ...Complicated… 'I have always been equally fascinated and horrified by the terrible occurrences within the Maelstrom Zone at the time of the so-called Badab Schism, a consequence of staggering arrogance and foolishness. Several Space Marine Chapters drawn into heresy by the perfidy of the Astral Claws, who left the others to bear the burden, ensnaring them into misguided alliance. The true horror of these times cannot be understated: even in comparison to the Heresy, the differences are stark. In the perilous days when Horus rose in treachery, brother indeed fought brother, but under Huron’s banner, loyalist fought loyalist, in a different shade of damnation altogether. Appeals to honour that haunt it, command it, shackle everyone involved to the millstone, making the grim voyage into crushingly deep betrayal ever more the bitter. This is well evidenced by the petitions of clemency from some of those the Secessionists called adversary, who decried the forfeiture of worlds, who baulked at the demands of hot, perhaps even hard-headed dissenters. It is this then, a tragedy upon tragedy that sustains the once great Chapter Master of the Mantis Warriors, Khoisan Neotera in his deep incarceration, from whom whence this small treatise originates. It has been complied for completeness, for the official record, for the history and future of the Mantis Warriors.' - By Hyronimus Oberon Satii Esq, Interrogator First Class of the Ordo Hereticus, by the Emperor’s Divine Providence, at behest of his master, Lord Inquisitor Garrad Locke. +++++ Whenever I sign onto a Deathwatch Game RPG in the Nook, I go to Badab for inspiration, and judging by one of the Fantasy Flight Games splatbook supplements – Honour The Chapter – so did they. Roleplay, especially PBP is a strange medium and niche. In one instance, you’ve got the fact that everyone either knows or has access to, the lore of 40k, and yet in another, you may have picked a Chapter (or be running a homebrew) that has little known history. However sometimes you’ve got that weird twilight twixt recorded lore and general impressions of a faction, which leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Games Workshop are masters of this, painting with a broad enough brush to leave room for a Player to pick out what he wants, to tell his own story. The Mantis Warriors are one such Chapter, but that approach is not good enough for me, because the deeper you can go, the better and more realistic the character becomes, the more layers can be added. What language do they use? What are their customs? What spiritual paths lead them to the Emperor? There is just no concrete information besides some awful fluff about Mantisae Religiosa. We simply do not know them – which to be fair, is par for the course for an insular, isolated people. Or do we? +++ When I came to my man from Ootheca, thankfully, I had a starting point. The Endymion Cluster is right next door to Badab, and just as afflicted by the Maelstrom Zone. It is heavily suggested that the Astral Claws are (with a few exceptions) based on the ancient Sumerians/Babylonians/Akkadians, later becoming the country we recognise as Iraq. I had researched this already for a previous character, and other projects without the scope of this forum, and this avenue provided me with a lot of material. At the time, I knew very little of the Mantis Warriors outside the Imperial Armour IX/X books or the infamous WD 101, and would go on to consider their origins, modus operandi and naming conventions to place them further East. Indeed, there are several player-made articles and artworks which would suggest their propensity to make war via hit-and-run, proclivity to ambush, and Chapter credo placing them as either ninjas or samurai. Given their iconography looking suspiciously like Kamen Rider – a 1970’s TV series about a group of motorcycle riding superheroes with a Mantis-like insect motif, (and de rigueur exceptionally tight clothing), you can easily see the conflation. So, where do they hail from? "The winds of the desert care not whose bones they scour clean." — Endymion Cluster proverb. A solid compass heading for us to take! To be fair, my conclusions are nothing ground-breaking. Further research leads me to diminish Far Eastern influence/coincidence as a primary concept; however it is useful, as we will come to later. I now believe the Mantis Warriors are not so far flung, and are more at home in the ancient Parthian Empire, a major political and cultural power existing from 247 BC to 224 AD, initially spreading from the province of Parthia, to the Northeast of Iran. The Empire itself spanned many modern countries, reaching all the way from Greece to the Indonesian isles. Their battle methodology of shoot-and-scoot, so remeniscent of the dreaded Mongolian horsemen the White Scars are based on, is another hefty clue. That empire provides us with a lot of room to work in, and is quite a nice symmetry with the Endymion Cluster itself, with plenty of tropical haunts, and empty desert spaces, over which the Mantis Warriors provide their envelope of staunch protection. What further entrenched this idea was a snippet of the heroes fighting in the Badab War – in particular, a Hellfire-configuration dreadnought, the Venerable Secarssa, the Bow of Ma'Dan. (Imperial Armour Ten – The Badab War – Part 2, p.72). I submit that this likely refers to the Marsh Arabs, the inhabitants of the ancient Mesopotamian marshlands in the modern-day southern Iraq, these wetlands also straddling the Iraq-Iran border, and once again, the propensity of archery in both the name of the Honoured Brother and his devastating equipment loadout harken back to the Parthian Archers of so long ago, the bow a weapon with an unbroken lineage of over 5,000 years. +++ At some point in time, the Mantis Warriors, like most of the White Scars’ offspring must come to terms with the haunting dark side of the Khagan’s wildling power – because like every other Astartes in the Deathwatch RPG, they have something called the Primarch’s Curse, which is a psychosis lingering in the deep hollows of the Quintessence Sacred. How this manifests is tied firmly to their Primogenitor, and so, the terrible fury of Jagatai Khan flows thickly through a Mantis Warrior’s veins, bringing an echo of this potent Primarch into the present. So, how do they deal with it? This is a question we can answer now we have an idea of where our Character and the humour of his Chapter originate. Fervour and foresight play heavily into the mix with the Mantis Warriors, with the Chapter’s spiritual core ‘tempered by Dark Prophecy’. This isn’t a surprise considering the etymology of the Chapter name (Mantis, in Greek, means Prophet). Games Workshop love doing this, leaving little breadcrumbs for us to follow, and it would be rude not to. One of the main figures within the Badab setting is Ahazra Redth, the Dust Prophet, Guardian of the Endymion Cluster, and Chief Librarian of the Mantis Warriors, interestingly an incarnation who also bears a passing resemblance to Paul Atriedes (calm down, Stilgar!) from Frank Herbert’s Dune. I submit that his name also vaguely echoes the spiritual figure of Azura Mazda, the figurehead of the Zoroastrian religion – which again – was very common in the Parthian Empire, and Persia in particular. I make no other parallels; I just found the geographical and spiritual occurrences interesting in the context of the topic at hand. In a further coincidence, Zoroastrianism contains a figure which we recognise as Ahriman, who is reasonably board appropriate, so make of that what you will. Earlier, I mentioned that we should not entirely dismiss the Eastern or Oriental inflections of the Mantis Warriors’ origins. The ecological and geographical diversity of the Endymion Cluster is quite broad, and with training grounds on Tranquillity II and Tranquillity III we find the Mantidae Bellicosa hail also from a death world of deep jungles and mountainous, windswept crags. Indeed, the Mantis Warriors’ main established base outside of Ootheca, is placed within the Valley of The Nine Winds, which could be related to either the nine cuts of the sword as recognised by the ancient Celts, or the Nine Ryu Schools of Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, which in turn are closely related to Ninjitsu. 'Kamen Rider! Henshin!' (Transform!) +++ The transformation of the Manga/Anime et al superhero mentioned above moves him into a battle-haze, with supernatural powers and speed. Here then, are those influences which interest us, loosely aligning with the particular condition of our eponymous Space Marines, the Mantisae Religiosa. Formed into a death cult within each Battle Company, it is a strange interaction between the Preomnor Implant and that quirky geneseed we mentioned before. The battle haze is a transformation wherein a brother finds himself with tunnel vision, ignorant of anything which is outside his immediate, murderous objective, but the condition provides him with uncanny agility and alacrity, not unlike the motorcycle warrior (and of course, the voracious predator). It is here, I think that GW beats us over the head with it, thankfully stopping shy of Mantis Missiles, Mantis-hawks, and Mantis Death Metal. Jagatai be praised. ‘To think is to do – to do; is to be.’ - The Principle of Alahk Geh. Given that the Far East has used the iconography of Mantids in many forms, and has some of the most beautiful living examples of the genus, it is easy to see where the influence bleeds in. One aspect of this connection we should not ignore is the prevalence of the spiritual married with the corporeal through Shintoism and Buddhism. The first honours the ancestors, the second we regard for the teachings of balance and atonement. Coupled with the desire to follow the path of enlightenment, and stand against the darkness from our Persian-planted roots; and we now have a powerful spiritual depth without contradiction, the press towards penitence in the contemplative pose of the prayerful supplicant. Obviously there is another martial exemplar here: the White Scars principle/performance of action-as-thought: Dreadful Perfection, Elemental Force. A broad scope you could call Zen Buddhist-led Bushido. The overriding tenet we are encouraged to take from this, then, should be as follows: that there is no disassociation between thought and action in the mind of the Khagan, there should be none in the locus of force exerted by the Mantis Warrior. How Inscrutable, mysterious and apropos. Perfect -and yet, as stated above, in my opinion, this should be considered a secondary theme, an overlay if you will, to the stronger evidence of Parthian heritage. +++

Hi guys, saw this over in the Special Projects forum. I checked it out, looks well put together. The download links are to an external site, but just thought it was in our wheelhouse.

Murderers in Black A Deathwatch RPG Adventure Character and Data Thread Dramatis Personae: Brother Gerhardt, Tactical, Black Templars (Necronaut) Brother Azadth Kaedyr, Tactical, Mantis Warriors (Mazer Rackham) Brother Vafri Bloodsong, Tactical, Space Wolves (Urauloth) Brother Moridyn, Tactical, Star Phantoms (Ikka) Brother Asterius, Assault, Black Shield (Machine God) Brother Omoc, Devastator, Red Scorpions (AT) Brother Amaras, Apothecary/Sanguinary Priest, Charnel Guard (Xin Ceithan) Brother Marax Zidemi, Techmarine, Salamanders (Mike Zulu) Alda, Inquisitorial Acolyte of the Ordo Xenos (Trokair) NPCs: Aarval Skaayn Lord Inquisitor Leopold Kine Interrogator Aykawa

So I was looking for online games of Deathwatch when I realised...trying to find a game of Deathwatch is so very hard. Everyone wants to play Dark Heresy, Only War etc. Well...we have a lot of fans of those power armoured heroes here so I thought I'd start this roster of anyone who plays Deathwatch and what they play. If you want it, I have a pdf of the Character Sheet that has fill-able sections I can email you So What I need you to do is in your post, write a brief description of your characters/and or if you wish to GM a session. Skype names, time zones and availability also helps. I'll link your post to this post later. Games Masters: - Tyear - - - - Players: - 11th CDM "Cappy" - Slipstreams - Russ Brother 92 - L33TFROG - Growler67 - Lysere

Hey, folks. I'll keep this brief, as I'm mostly soliciting advice and opinions regarding Apothecaries, with no experience of my own to share yet. My Deathwatch campaign starts in just under three weeks and I'm playing the Apothecary, but there's a lot of conflicting advice regarding builds, skills, experience expenditure, and so on across various forums. Just wondering if any Deathwatch players here have any words of wisdom to share on the subject. We're a 4-man Kill-Team (Tactical, Devastator, Assault, Apothecary) and although I don't expect to be Killing All The Baddies, I'm conscious of wanting to be an effective support role, focusing on what Apothecaries are good at in-game. So basically... any advice appreciated. Thanks, guys.

Hello all, I thought while I was waiting for Part III to start, I'd try to get some of the Chapter Creation stuff worked out for my various DIY Chapters. I started with one of my favourites (and the one that I would possibly use in the current game if I'm lucky enough to get a slot - yay for Ultramarine Successor Chapters!) the Emperor's Blade. Any C+C, especially from you guys who know the rules set better than I do, would be much appreciated! The Emperor's Blade Chapter in Deathwatch (using Rites of Battle) Why Founded: Crusade (counter to a Word Bearers Crusade) When Founded: M.33 (11th Founding) Progenitor: Ultramarines Gene-stock Purity: A New Generation Demeanour: Uphold the Honour of the Emperor Chapter Characteristic Modifier: Drills and Prayers (+5BS and +5Wp) Homeworld: Stewardship over Threskeia System. Fortress Monastery on Threskeia IV (Airless) but recruit from Threskeia VI (Temperate Shrine World) Chapter Organization: Codex Chapter Combat Doctrine: Codex Chapter Abilities: (as Black Templars) Solo Mode: Righteous Zeal Squad Mode: Attack: Holy Vengeance Defence: Armour of Faith Beliefs: The Emperor Above All Current Status: Nominal Friends: Ecclesiarchy (and by extension, Adepta Sororitas?) Enemies: Word Bearers Legion ***** I'm not sure how some of this works, particularly re the Solo/Squad Mode abilities, I wasn't sure if I could use the BT ones for a UM Successor Chapter, but they felt appropriate for their more zealous approach? I'd also be very curious to see how other players have translated their DIYs (or lesser known official Chapters) into the DW rules?