The Emperor's Lament [DH] OOC Thread

[Olis]

I'll be interested in watching another thread from the galleries. Here's hoping another GM drops by soon. ;)

[Commissar Molotov]

Well, I ran a Dark Heresy game for three years on a different forum and am keen to bring it (and the players) over to the B+C. Thing is, I need to run some details past a mod. Which would be the best one to communicate with? 

[Olis]

Whichever one is online at the time.

At the moment, *Furyou Miko, Slipstreams and Conn Eremon are the Mods here.

[Charlo]

Hey all - sorry for the delay, thought I would have some time but hay-fever knocked me out all weekend and work was mental!

 

I'll get my bio up tomorrow but I've rolled some stuff below.

 

If I'm honest i'd like the int a little lower and T a little higher - I can't remember the specifics of doing the stats so any suggestions highly welcome!

 

 

Name: Baine

Homeworld: Forge World

Career: Guardsman

Rank: Conscript

Gender: Male

Build: Brawny

Skin Color: Fair

Hair Color: Dyed

Eye Color: Green

Age: 26

Quirk: You have a chemical smell.

Point of Origin: Greater Forge World

Divination: The gun is mightier than the sword.

Starting XP: 400

Starting Package: None

 

WS: 32

BS: 38

S: 37

T: 29

Ag: 31

Int: 41

Per: 29

WP: 31

Fel: 29

Wounds: 9

Fate Points: 1

Insanity Points: 0

Corruption Points: 0

Thrones: 71

 

Traits: Fit for Purpose, Stranger to the Cult, Credo Omnissiah

 

Basic Skills: Common Lore (Tech) (Int) and Common Lore (Machine Cult) (Int)

 

Advanced Skills: Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int), Drive (Ground Vehicle) (Ag)

 

Talents: Technical Knock, Melee Weapons Training (Primitive), Basic Weapons Training (Las), Pistol Training (Las), Basic Weapons Training (Primitive)

 

Gear: lasgun and 1 charge pack, knife, guard flak armour, 1 week corpse starch rations, sword, las pistol and 1 charge pack, shotgun and 12 shells, uniform (Common Quality Clothing), mercenary license, heavy gloves (memento), shard of ceramite armor (memento)

 

Special Qualities: None

 

Family: None

[Conn Eremon]

Did a thing.

 

Hive World Caloris

 

What is the purpose of Hives if not to illustrate just how far humanity can push the relationship between population density and spread? The size of the Hive World should not matter to its size of population. Still, many seem surprised when they come within docking range, and the whole globe of Caloris can still fit within their viewports. The Hive World of Caloris is small. Smaller even than Luna, they say. Caloris is no satellite, however. The Magos Cartographica technically classify it as a dwarf planet. It's a terrible classification. There are no dwarfs on Caloris, and it is therefore not a dwarf world.

 

Caloris has a total of eight fully enclosed, iron-sheathed Hives, each ranging from having 200 to 600 million occupants. Though sealed off from the rest of the world, Caloris is not without a breathable atmosphere. In fact, in between the large, barren flatrock valleys one can see grassy hills and broken, hardy forests. The Hives of Caloris are sealed because of the severe weather conditions. The shallow Konsalakes in the southeastern hemisphere are the only lasting bodies of water on Caloris, however one could accurately say that it is a very wet world. The hydrological cycle on Caloris maintains a more rapid pace than many worlds, with 90% of the world's water spending 75% of its time pouring from the clouds. The Hive covers serve to redirect the liquid for reclamation and use. Without this protective layer, the Hives' layout would serve only to funnel the water into devastatingly large collectives, drowning whole districts for decades until successfully drained, which has happened from time to time.

 

Like most Hive Worlds, Caloris requires a large Arbites presence to keep the peace. They rarely send a tenth of what would be necessary however. As such, the enforcers tend to rely heavily on local militia and the privatized forces of the various Calorian oligarchs. More often than not, these extra numbers are used to put down the near annual mobs that tend to congregate around centers for the Astra Telepathica and Administratum. Two very prominent Imperial offices on Caloris, being after all the primary point of the planet's colonization thousands of years before. Caloris's placement near a nexus made it a proper choice for centralized, interstellar communication and governance. The infamously improper governance on Caloris itself has led to the popular phrase "Rule abroad; blind at home." Nevertheless, with much of the law-keepers on Caloris having their own self-interests in mind, many Calorians tend to have a poor opinion of the authority of the Arbites.

 

Within, the Hives can almost be as waterlogged as the outside, for constant rainfall and often poorly kept paneling tend to lead to equally constant leaking and dripping. As most of Hive life has been privatized through corporate-like dynastic lines, the dozens of families who perform maintenance and upkeep on the Hive outer shells are among the least respected. It's not uncommon to hear their ancestral names used as a form of swearing even. This can be seen elsewhere in Calorian speech, such as the familial names of the grav-gen tenders used to infer that someone is rather more eager than is helpful, as evidenced by the finely well-kept gravity fields offsetting the naturally low density of Caloris by pushing internal conditions up to 1.2 Terran standard. Of course, they have historically refused to consider the impracticality of such a setting, which is why their names are also used to infer mule-headedness. About the only thing not privatized or hereditarily-linked are the imported psykers of the Astra Telepathicus. As is well-known, witches and warlocks make terrible partners to start a company or a family with, let alone both.

 

All in all, while perhaps not the most efficiently run Hive World in the Calixis Sector, Caloris has nonetheless gotten by well enough on its own.

 

It did used to have nine Hives though.

[Charlo]

Baine's backstory:

 

The Mighty and blazing Forge. Is there a greater place that man can be? Baine certainly doesn't think so.

 

Born into a Forge-bound family Baine was raised in the heat, soot and chemical smell of burning alloys. His house is a well respected cadre of metal shapers, known for all manner of work from creating standard issue grunt-level weaponry all the way up to large components for the Mighty Titan Legions themselves - so he is no stranger to the touch of flame or the feeling of hard graft. The upbringing this Granted Baine was a hard one, but fair. He was taught the skills of his father that his father before him had passed down and expected to earn his own name in the house and become a renowned metal shaper in his own right or even be drafted into the ranks of the Tech Adepts themselves. Sadly, as skilled as he was and as much as he had learned in his 18 years studying the ways of forge, such an opportunity never came for Baine...

 

When his home, the small, but not insignificant Forge World of Infernum Prime came under attack from an the Ork Waaagh! Dakka Rokkit led by the terrible Warboss Chuzz, all able men deemed so were drafted into the planetary defense force and few regiments of guard that hailed from the world - told to take up arms without question unless they were better served working in the forges. Not having yet surpassed his father or taken the necessary tests to become a shaper other than by family induction, Baine was taken from his family and put on the front lines of battle. With no formal battle training other than what he had taught himself in the throes of fooling around with weapons his family had created, Baine was ill-prepared for any real engagement.

 

Shockingly enough, even with his ill training, be it luck or protection from the Emperor himself, Baine survived battle after battle, engagement after siege after ambush, his skills slowly growing but his passion never truly in the fight - he wanted to get back to the forge. His skills from the forge served him well on the battle lines, in time, no one could strip, reassemble or maintain a weapon like him. He could spot weak-points in enemy armour; weld lines and loose rivets, things that when struck with enough force would cripple or kill a hostile instantly. Such a keen ability led him to serving in tank crews, his affinity for armored warfare and maintenance - not to mention the inside of a tank being akin to a forge - meant that Baine was in his element.

 

For over half a decade he served the war effort to keep WAAAGH! Dakka Rokkit at bay, acting as a key component in many a armored column, directing fire and spewing white-hot death all over the emerald menace. The war effort was proving strong and at last the time had come for a final push upon the established base of the Orks - a huge rokk of meteoric proportions covered in armour & dakka and bristling with green bodies within it's stony veins. In an effort to crush the enemy in one fell swoop the Imperial Guard armour would act as escort for the Warlord Titan; Ferrum Mortum of Legio Miceox, a weapon newly created on Infernum itself. The assault on the Ork megarokk was, by all accounts, as befitting of the God-Machine's deployment; Titanic. Infantry died in droves every second on both sides wihile armoured companies fared little better, thier metal exteriors becoming a final sarcophagus for those inside when the Orksih ordnance scored a felling blow. After hours of fighting, the battlefield had become little more than a corpsegridner for both sides, but it was clear this victory here would only ever be Pyrrhic for the Imperium. Ferrum Mortum had exhausted it's payload and the Rokk was still standing. The Imperial Guard escort inclusing Baine were still fighting, but barely holding on. With no choice left, the Princeps of Ferrum Mortum put all spare power to her main reactions and surged towards the Ork rokk, blasting for all Imperials to clear the air over all available Vox channels - if she was going down, this menace would also be lain to rest this day. But minutes later, in one final tribute to the Emperor the god machine slammed into the Ork rock, disregarding all incoming fire as little more than a person would s gnat. For a brief moment.... Silence... Until everything became an unprecedented Inferno of destruction, a blast the size of a hive city incinerating all life forms and scouring the land of utmost everything in it's path.

 

There were no survivors this day.... Except one. Baine awoke, days later in the medical bay miraculously alive and only minorly harmed by the blast. Word travels fast and a case such as his invokes... Suspicion. How could a mere man survive such an ordeal? Perhaps he has been chosen by the Emperor himself - safeguarded for greater destiny? All Baine knew was that his, unusual circumstance had landed him under the service of a new master, an inquisitor wishing to test his faith and abilities and see if he didn't have a greater power to harness for the Imperium.

[Commissar Molotov]

Talon, of the Rake

There are those who say that the Rake have operated for centuries, if not millennia. The truth may never be truly known, for this particular (and peculiar) death-cult has never kept written histories. Rather, their libraries are filled with devotional texts that glorify the Saints of the Imperial history. They are said to hail from a remote and nameless planetoid, barren and arid, upon which they have built monasteries. The tenets of their belief rest upon the potent symbolism of the Imperial Aquila: its wings encompass the galaxy, protecting all within; its claws rend and snatch at the Emperor's enemies, tearing them to nothing. The Rake, it is said, are trained to be lethal embodiments of that powerful creature.

 

The Rake spread among the pilgrim routes of the Imperium, mingling with the faithful. It is no facade, however; they endure the predations of slavers, pirates and xenos alongside their charges. And yet, they also witness moments of wonder and see the true character of humanity in adversity. Their code demands that the warriors of the Rake are a blade in the crowd, disguised among the innocent, so that the enemies of the Imperium might never truly know from where they will be struck. 

 

The warrior chosen for Inquisitorial service is known as Talon, of the Rake. This is, in a sense, less a name than a rank, for he is 'a' Talon, a single claw of the Imperial eagle that strikes at the foes of the Emperor. He is a low-level member of the cult, and has been tasked with experiencing the wider Imperium so that he might comprehend the enormity of his duty. He has endured a life of rigorous religious scholarship and gruelling combat training so that he might be forged into a weapon. 

 

Time will, perhaps, determine whether he is tempered and honed into a deadly blade, or whether he snaps and shatters. 

 

 

Character Sheet

I've emailed my character sheet to Dosjetka and am just waiting for some feedback before I continue. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dosjetka]

I know a few of you are waiting for my approval/comments on stuff and while I'd love to provide those ASAP, I'm still very busy until Friday evening and will require some sleep before being able to do anything so nothing from me until then at the very least. Sorry folks.

[Noctus Cornix]

Given that there's already a quite hefty number of members, I will respectfully bow out of this group. To be fair, I have already played the pre-made games that this group will be experiencing, though this was many years ago and I have forgotten almost of it. I think it would be better that I give the space to someone who hasn't played the missions. Besides, I will hopefully be starting up my own Roleplaying thread shortly. :P

[Charlo]

I know a few of you are waiting for my approval/comments on stuff and while I'd love to provide those ASAP, I'm still very busy until Friday evening and will require some sleep before being able to do anything so nothing from me until then at the very least. Sorry folks.

 

No worries man, take your time! We're all patient little acolytes here :D

[Dosjetka]

*phew*

 

Finally back and ready to move on with this. :)

 

Morovir: You'll have to draw your own conclusions about that. ;)

 

Charlo: Modified a couple of your stats. New T is 40 and Int is 30. Also, please erase the starting wealth, divination, wounds and fate points: I will attribute those to your character.

 

Mol: Got your e-mail and I'll get back to you later on this evening or tomorrow.

[Commissar Molotov]

Glad to see you back! Looking forward to your email.

[Commissar Molotov]

EDIT: Removed for Concision

[Dosjetka]

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, Mol. I'll have a look at the suggested changes and get back to you via e-mail.

[Dosjetka]

Right, got back to you via e-mail, Mol.

 

Olis, Conn: Thanks for your fluff pieces, really enjoyed those! If you have more, I'm more than happy to read them. *hint, hint* :D

[Olis]

Olis, Conn: Thanks for your fluff pieces, really enjoyed those! If you have more, I'm more than happy to read them. *hint, hint*

I'll do you a deal. One fluff piece for an extra skill (from the Technographer skill table). Caveat: The anecdote must involve the selected skill. Naturally, this would involve an agreement on what skill prior to the fluff piece. What say you, GM? ;)

[Dosjetka]

What Talent/Skill did you have in mind?

[Commissar Molotov]

Dos, here's the character sheet based on what you've said. I still need wounds, fate and starting wealth. How will we manage purchases before the game starts? When are you planning the game to start? 

 

Name: Talon, of the Rake

Description: Slender, 28 y/0, 1.75m, 65kg, Fair Skin, Black Hair, Grey Eyes, Aquila Tattoo

Homeworld: Imperial World (Monastic Upbringing)

Rank: 1 (Sell-Steel)

Wounds: 13

Fate: 2

 

Income: 120 (+12)

Starting Wealth: 133

Current XP: 0

Spent XP: 400

Divination: A Suspicious Mind is a Healthy Mind (+3 Per) 

Insanity Points: 1D5

 

 

WS   BS   S    T   AG  INT   PER    WP    FEL

 37   39  28  30   28   28    32     29      29

 

 

Gear:

 

Mono-Sword

Six Throwing Knives

Crossbow Pistol and 20 Bolts

Grapnel and Line

Equipment Harness

3 Doses of Stimm

Protective Bodyglove (2 points Primitive Armour to Body, Arms, Legs) 

 

Traits:

 

Blessed Ignorance: -5 to Forbidden Lore (INT) tests.

Liturgical Familiarity: Treat Literacy (INT) and Speak Language (High Gothic) (INT) as Basic Skills

Sign of the Aquila: -10 penalty to any act that would damage or harm the interests of the Ecclesiarchy in any way. Unmodified Willpower Tests to avoid piously making the sign of the Aquila when facing an Ecclesiarchal shrine or when presented with the Chaotic spoor of the Ruinous Powers.

The Bloody Edge: must pass a Hard (-20) Willpower Test to use any weapon lacking an "edge" in combat (thrown blades, knives and arrows are fine) unless they obviously have no chance of harming their enemy otherwise. However, such is their deadly artistry at bloodletting, any edged weapon wielded by them counts as having the Tearing quality when used against living targets. 

 

 

Basic Skills:

 

 

Awareness (Per)

Climb (S)

Dodge (Ag)

Inquiry (Fel)

Silent Move (Ag) 

 

Advanced Skills:

Secret Tongue (The Rake) (INT)

Shadowing (Ag)

Silent Move (Ag) 

Speak Language (Low Gothic) (INT)

 

Talents:

Catfall

Hardy

Jaded

Melee Weapon Training (Primitive) 

Thrown Weapon Training

Unremarkable

 

[Dosjetka]

Great, thank you. I still need to get back to you concerning the punch dagger/daggered vambrace. Will do that in the morning. I'll post wounds, fate points and starting wealth tomorrow morning, too.

 

A first series of purchases will be possible at the beginning of the game. The plan is to start the game on Sunday evening around 20:00 GMT.

[Olis]

What Talent/Skill did you have in mind?

 

I'm thinking Evaluate. Or, if not, Literacy +10. Your call, brother. ;)

[Charlo]

Just so you guys know, I'm scrapping my previous character. He was never really what I wanted to be.

 

I am joining Olis in dedicating my mind, body and soul to the Omnissiah!

 

The Prefecture Magisterium comes for all Hereteks! :D

[Olis]

Just so you guys know, I'm scrapping my previous character. He was never really what I wanted to be.

I am joining Olis in dedicating my mind, body and soul to the Omnissiah!

The Prefecture Magisterium comes for all Hereteks!

I'll be quite interested in how your character differs from mine (especially as we accrue and spend XP). ^_^

[*Furyou Miko]

Interesting..! We truly are a faithful party, it seems.

[Charlo]

I'm hoping there is such a thing as a torture mechadendrite. Although I suppose any mechadendrite could be a torture mechadendrite if you praise the Omnissiah hard enough

Obviously a lot to go, but the barebones are here:

Name: Luther Comtense Epsilon Designatio Ionsight

Homeworld: Forge World

Career: Tech-Priest

Rank: Technographer

Gender: Male

Build: Lanky

Skin Color: Stained

Hair Color: Dyed

Eye Color: Lenses

Age: 25

Quirk: You have a chronic, hacking cough.

Point of Origin: Minor Forge World

Starting XP: 400

WS: 24

BS: 36

S: 31

T: 33

Ag: 32

Int: 43

Per: 28

WP: 31

Fel: 28

Wounds:

Fate Points:

Insanity Points: 0

Corruption Points: 0

Divination: ??

Wealth: ??

Traits: Fit for Purpose, Stranger to the Cult, Credo Omnissiah

Basic Skills: Common Lore (Tech) (Int) and Common Lore (Machine Cult) (Int)

Advanced Skills: Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int), Tech-Use (Int), Literacy (Int), Secret Tongue (Tech) (Int), Trade (Scrimshawer) (Ag)

Talents: Technical Knock, Melee Weapons Training (Primitive), Basic Weapons Training (Las), Pistol Training (Las), Electric Graft Use

Gear: metal staff, las pistol and 1 charge pack, las carbine and 1 charge pack, knife, flak vest, glow lamp, data-slate, Mechanicus robes and vestments (Good Quality Clothing), spare parts (power cells, wires, chronometers etc), vial of Sacred Machine Oil, Mechanicus implants, fancy vest (memento), lump of your own mummified flesh (memento)

[Olis]

Quirk: You have a chronic, hacking cough.

lump of your own mummified flesh (memento)

Possibly one of his lungs?