[BC] The Blackest Heart (Data/Character)

[Mazer Rackham]

++ BLACK CRUSADE RPG CAMPAIGN ++

 

++ THE BLACKEST HEART ++

 

'The Imperium suffers the painful throes of many deaths, and I have planned them all as repayment.'

- Huron Blackheart.

 

(CHARACTER/DATASLATE THREAD)

 

 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

• Hagga Rykaz, 'The Heart Eater' - Lysimachus
• Xerxes - A.T.
• Crux'as 'The Smiler' - Lord_Ikka
• Tarh Teshub - Trokair
• Ukalegon Moros 'The Twice Lived' - Necronaut
• Kraggan - Machine God
• Cyrandras Rakash - Xin Ceithan
• Issekar Grimm - Ancient Sobek

 

PERSONAE CALAMITUS:

• Red Corsair Agents

 

++ CONDITIONS OF PLAY ++

 

CAMPAIGN RULES:

Spoiler

1. The GM can, will, and should: Change, alter, ignore or substitute any rule, roll, or instruction to serve the Players and the Story better, and to make things easier on himself. 
2. When Psykers roll 'Perils of the Warp' the GM will roll for the result on the table (unless you're Sanctioned), so as to moderate the result if required.
3. This campaign requires big boy trousers/big girl jodhpurs at all times.
4. This Campaign uses the Black Crusade FAQ. Players should ensure their Character is compliant.
5. Standard play does not make use of unlimited ammunition. Once it's gone, it's gone.
6. Ammo, clothing, and supplies on your person have weight.
7. All guns when purchased are fully loaded/come supplied with a full magazine, except Heavy Weapons.
8. Ballistic Weapon weight is loaded weight. If you strip the magazine, that weight comes off the gun.
9. All Acquisitions outside of initial Chargen Acquisitions (including services, goods or supplies) increase rarity by ONE step.
10. If you are decapitated, or your Head Location is otherwise crippled as per the Critical Damage rules (your head explodes etc), you CANNOT burn an Infamy point to save you. Your Character is dead.
11. Characters do not have to purchase Prerequisites for the Talents, Skills and Abilities the Archetype begins play with.
12. Encumbrance applies - you may carry the following items:
    • 2 x Basic, 1 x Pistol, 1 x Melee
    • 1 x Basic, 2 x Pistol, 1 x Melee
    • 1 x Basic, 1 x Pistol, 2 x Melee
    • 0 x Basic, 2 x Pistol, 2 x Melee
13. You are Mortal (and if you are a Space Marine without Nutrient Recyclers) you will need to eat, drink, and sleep at least every two days. If you miss sustenance for more than four days (i.e two occasions), I will impose 1D3 Temporary, cumulative Characteristic Damage to random Stats until this situation is remedied.

14. Once a Player or GM posts a roll result, and we've moved on, that's it, the roll is down. If a Player (or GM!) forgets something, unfortunately, it's too late once another post is made. Big Boy Trousers.

 

The Rules may evolve or alter over time as play continues and you are encouraged to check them regularly.

 

Party Composition:

 

No Party splitting. Either you do it together, or not at all.

 

Players may choose from either Mortal or Space Marine Archetypes.

 

Player Characters and Game Attendance (AUTOPILOTING):

 

Players have to deal with real life, I get that. People who are busy will no be penalised, but I can't autopilot for long periods of time, since I have a lot to do on my own account. Therefore, if a Player enters a Compact, (goes on a mission etc) and cannot attend for whatever reason, the character will be deemed to be present, but otherwise unavailable, occupied, or what-have-you. They will take no part in the combats, either dealing or taking damage, and will to all intents and purposes be in the GM Bag Of Infinite Holding.

 

Note that I will massage the numbers and quality of the enemy to compensate, but I will not run your Character. I simply have too much to do.

 

Infamy Rating, and Security Threat:

 

Players will have an Infamy Threshold of 85 for this Campaign.

 

Spoiler

Infamy works as the book with a few extra bells and whistles.

 

Each Infamy Point a PC possesses will result in a corresponding Imperial Threat Rating, so as your Infamy scales up, your enemies will scale up, but that's not all. Each zone of the operational area (AO) will have it's own Security Rating, which will be fixed. Now, all that means is that your Threat rating + Security Rating means Quality and Quantity of opposition, or the forces already established therein. The Imperial Defence plan is a designed as a constricting net of steel, formed into concentric rings, each collapsing onto the disturbance in order of economy of force. You can see this in the Battle for Armageddon.

 

Example:

Spoiler

Moroc is a Chaos Space Marine. He has a ball and and 2 Infamy Points. The ball is red, and very bouncy! See Moroc run and play! Unfortunately, Moroc has been kicking this ball against a wall, and has invoked the wrath of Old Man Jenkins, who is a Justice of the Peace, and saw Moroc widdle on his prize water-lilies last week.

 

His threat rating of 2 means (for example) Moroc will be looking a herd of PDF troops in a Level 2 Security Zone, but because he is a complete asshat, he's crossed the border into a Level 3 Zone, and now he's looking at a couple of squads of Arbites. He's beats them up, and gains another Infamy Point, so now he's Threat Rating 3, and so if he breaks Jenkins' window, the Arbites are going to bring a Rhino, and support troops, possibly with a Sororitas, and now he's dead.

 

Poor Moroc.

 

Missions will be 'Compacts' as described in the book - from small ones like a supply raid on a fuel dump, to large ones (required) on the Precinct House. The bigger the Compact, the more your Infamy goes up, and therefore...poor Moroc.

 

You will be required to scout for, and establish, hideouts in your chosen Operation Zone. Every time you undertake a mission, there is a chance Imperial Intelligence will get wind of your hole (in the ground, you Slaneeshi perv), and go and kick over the rocks. This could mean losing your assets. Undertaking a big mission will reduce these chances, all the way down to zero.

 

Let me be clear: if you keep low-balling to dodge the claws of retribution, and avoiding high-level missions to actively combat your persecution, you will eventually be found, and they will kill you off, Infamy or no.

 

The Imperium is looking for you - always.

 

Alignment:

Spoiler

The alignment system, I think, is one of the weaker aspects of the ruleset - albeit I know what they were doing and where they were going. Now, unfortunately, pulling the ruleset apart is a no-go, unless I start a gofundme for Imperium Maledictum, and we can try that instead, but I digress. Alignment will rely on what you do, not what you pick - however - and I stress this, it will still count. It will be assumed that your choices show the predilection your PC has for which way they are going to fall. Now, if you wish to follow the path of Khorne (and his big red ball), then you can do things dedicated to him, but, if your Alignment is contrary, then you're going to get the attention you deserve, uh, of someone else.

 

The Four Kings (Imperial Adversaries, below) are roughly related to the four Chaos gods. In order to do works which prove worthy, you would do well to take these into account when looking to advance yourself with the fickle monsters of the immaterium:

 

Apart from doing the act listed as examples in the Core Book and a few supplements, generally speaking:

 

• Attacking the PDF (Security) appeals to Khorne.
• Attacking the Ministorum (Faith) appeals to Slaneesh.
• Attacking the Administratum (Money/Authority) appeals to Tzeentch.
• Attacking the Mechanicum (Materiel/Drudgery will appeal to Nurgle.

 

Gear:

Spoiler

You get jack and nowt, and jack already left town with the best stuff. If your Party chooses to be Marines, you will be equipped with Legion Power Armour. However, this is not without caveats. Every armour piece will require a D10 roll to see how awful it actually is, which I will roll on your behalf. On a 7+, the armour piece is knackered, and provides 1 AP lower than standard. I will make these rolls unless otherwise agreed.

 

Weaponry is the same. It's busted. You want better stuff, you'll have to beg, borrow or steal it. Everything beyond starting Acquisition rolls is one bracket higher than normal. Further, you have a choice of either:

 

• One of your Starting Weapons or Items is gone. The rest is unaffected. 
• All of your staring Weapons or Items downgrade (you may pick) by one penalty (cursed metal etc).

 

The PC's will have full access to as much intelligence about the AO and Imperial Ops as your Harrowmaster can muster. If you want more, you'll have to get it in a raid.

 

You may not start with a Mortal/Marine Minion.

 

Allies and Resources:

Spoiler

There will be people who want to defect to the side of tentacles and blood. These informers can provide intelligence on targets for raiding, personnel capture, or loot. They won't repeat. As your influence and power grows, so will your allies. You will be able to requisition (Infamy) vehicles, support squads, artillery, air power and comms support. All these can be lost if the Imperium manages a reversal. The more materials you gather, the more effective and better equipped these forces will be.

 

Resources must be acquired for upgrading or securing better equipment, and your allies' capabilities. There are four resources important to the continued Operations:

 

1. Components: Used for upgrading, building, repairing and maintaining equipment.
2. Supplies: Food and water. This supplies you and the forces you are currently building, too little and the Quality and Quantity of your forces suffer.
3. Fuel: Tanks do not run without fuel, flamers do not make the loyalist dogs of the Corpse-emperor cower in fear when they do not light.
4. Medical supplies: The more of these you have, the faster your minions (and you) can return to battle or undertake missions on your behalf. It will also affect any 'Hearts and Minds' campaigns you undertake.

 

Resources will be limited, and also random. The game will develop the tools so that you will be forced to use what you have, as opposed to what you want.

 

ADVERSARIES:

Spoiler

The Four Kings and the Crown:

 

To prevent a reversal, and to ease the grip of the Imperium on your throats, you must defeat the four rulers of the sector who govern over each of it's main arms:

 

• Fabricator Maximal, Corvé Deguerro, Logos Ultima of the Forgewold Ryza and the Omnissiah's Desmenses.
• Cardinal of the Adeptus Ministorum, Bishop Exemplar Dagrianne Von Kartoffelburg, Lady of Holiness and the Emperor's Light, Mistress of the Faith and Authority of the Commanderies of the Sororitas Orders of the Eternal Martyr.
• Planetary Defence Commandant, Brigadier General Arrian Cumberland, Veteran of Armageddon, Hero of the Fourteen Battles, and commander-in-chief of the Planetary Defence Regiments (Heraclean Volunteers) and Imperial Guard formations (Heraclean Fusiliers, Tyrcanian Dragoons, Valkar Grenadiers).
• Administratum Principalis, Lady Jasmine Anastasia Vanderfleur, Word and Deed of the Emperor's Continuing Beneficence and Regulation.

 

Above them, sits the System Overlord, and Lord Commander Sector Imperialis, His August Magnificency, Agamemnon Parcifal-Kallimachus.

 

These five beings cannot be attacked directly, immediately. It is impossible due to the copious security, and any attempt to assault their power will result in instant failure. Each one of these august Imperial lackeys has a number of things which may topple them, removal of key commanders, exposure of dirty secrets, inability to meet quotas, that kind of thing.

 

Other Imperial organisations will be in play to varying effects depending on your actions, status and direction, such as:

 

Adeptus Arbites:

 

Several divisions of Imperial Arbites, Proctors in command of local Precincts, Lord Proctor enthroned upon the Seat of Justice (Sector HQ)

 

Order of the Eternal Martyr:

 

Several Commanderies, under the ultimate command of Canoness Martial Lady Grendela Faustian, Hero of the March of Piety, and holder of the Four Scrolls of Suffering of St Tiberius.

 

The Imperial Navy:

 

Admiral Gaius Jellicoe, Commander of Bastian Fleet Heracles, containing:

• 1 x Retribution Class Battleship Unrelenting Persecution
• 1 x Mars Class Battlecruiser Furious Angel
• 3 x Lunar Class Cruisers, Glory's Gold, Juno's Sceptre and Iron Lance
• 4 x Dauntless Light Cruisers
• 5 x Sword Squadrons
• 49 x Imperial Transports (Voss Pattern)
• 103 x Imperial Landers, Bulk landers and Inter-systems Patrol Craft

 

The Adeptus Mechanicus Fleet:

 

Void-master, Magos Impeticus Iago Portious Metullum:

• 231 x Transport craft, haulers, mining vessels, salvage vessels
• 6 x Universal Mass Conveyors
• Indeterminate Machanicus Escorts

 

Criminal and Chaos Adversaries:

 

There will be several criminal and pirate organisations that may be fought, bargained with or sworn at as you discover them, and they naturally react to your presence in the sector.

 

 

+ [PLAYERS MAY NOW POST] +

 

 

Edited October 1 by Mazer Rackham
Infamy Threshold, PC Updated

[Mazer Rackham]

PLAY LOCATION:

 

(Imperial Commincation Intercept - comm/break duct declination 0.113, abstraction 9.55, Commline RhesusIX/Phi-32)

 

Imperial Space: INCA SECTOR

Status: Secure

Defensive Posture: Confrontatio Proxima

Disposition: 4 x Stellar Conglomorates Majoris, 6 x Minoris

Mineral extractables: Helium-3, Aurum, Sanguinite, Carbon-41K, 4 x grain product, 3 x Ocean product (Live and dry), Heavy minerals and Promethium.

 

Martial Assets:

1 x Main Battlefleet (on deployment to aid the Adeptus Astartes: White Scars) in the Magog Sector

1 x Bastion Fleet on continuous variable patrol routes

7 x Regiments of Imperial Guard (Reconnaissance, Assault, Infantry and Mechanised formations)

12 x Adeptus Arbites Precincts Majoris, 16 x Minoris

8 x Adepta Sororitas Commanderies, 6 x Preceptories

10 x Adeptus Mechanicus Battalions of Skitarii and Secutarii

 

++ CLASSIFIED ABSOLUTIO ++

 

++ IMPERATOR VULT ++

 

Core Syatems/Worlds:

 

St Ithyca's Requiem (SECURITY RATING 3)

Spoiler

Main Solar body: Ithyca-II. Green Small, Main-phase, three orbiting masses Ithyca-II a, b and c were destroyed 10,000 years before ADI in what the survivors called the Great Admonition, when legions of Horus and the Emperor clashed in mighty combat, using weapons of unfathomable power. It is the site of a great Imperial victory (in this small place) and the ruined shoals of asteroids are said to contain many treasures.

 

Ithyca-II D, 'Benediction' (LYNCHPIN).

Spoiler

Population: 23,454,102

Type: Civilised, Ecclesiarchy World

Security Rating: 3

Tithe: Exactus Secundus

Capital: Hope's Beacon

 

Seat of the Cardinal and home of the Adeptus Ministorum. Notable buildings include the House of Remittance, the Cathdrum Imperialis of the Emperor Vigilant and Immortal (Capital Faith Building), and the Palace of the Questors Frateris Felix.

 

Ithyca-II E, 'Bounty'.

Spoiler

Population: 2,569,532

Type: Agri World

Security Rating: 2

Tithe: Exactus Primus

Capital: Harville

 

Main Producer of the System, the 'Breadbasket' from which the Emperor feeds his armies and faithful.

 

Ithyca-II F, 'Mercy'.

Spoiler

Population: 2,303,456,221

Type: Civilised World

Security Rating: 3

Tithe: Exactus Secundus

Capital: Gabril's Fall (After Captain Gabril of the Adeptus Astartes Ultramarines Legion)

 

Civilised world, with a few shrines to the glory of the Ultramarines, and occasional pilgrim trail for those august, stern brothers. A commercial world similar to anywhere in the Imperium.

 

Ithyca-II F, 'Penitence'.

Spoiler

Population: 7,109,449

Type: Feudal, (but Civilised proximate).

Security Rating: 4

Tithe: Exactus Extremis

Capital: Overlook (Military complex housing the guards etc)

 

It's a mining world for freemen and unrepentant recidivist prisoners. There's more of the latter, now.

 

 

Kataris-41 (SECURITY RATING 4)

Spoiler

Main Solar body: Kataris-41. Red Small, Main-phase, approaching Terminal-phase. Several bodies have been established by the Mechanicum. Each of these fulfils an aspect of the tireless endeavour and industry of the Omnissiah. Glory to the Cog! Kapirs-41 is a Satrapy of Ryza and the immortal minions of the Guilds of Constantine.

 

KT41 A (Alpha) is given over to city-scale mining facilities, KT 41 B (Beta), has a Penal Colony and Servitor Conversion Facility for both humans and abhumans, and sports a training world for the Skitarii Legions. KT41-Om (Omega) (LYNCHPIN) is a weapons, armaments and refitting world, with vast mining colonies and extraction refineries. It is home of the Fabricator Maximal, who oversees the exacting Tithe extraction demanded by the Imperium, and expected by the Secret Priesthoods of the Machine.

 

KT41-On (Omicron) is a Civilised world housing various elements of the Adeptus.

 

KT41 Y (Ypsilon), and KT41 U (Upsilon) are Gas Giants.

 

Hyrcanian Expanse (SECURITY RATING 5)

Spoiler

Main Solar bodies: Aquilla Primus and Secundus, binary Medium White, Main-phase. This is the main system which is dominated by the Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum and Imperial Naval commands. It is replete with training grounds, recruiting words, and civilised planets which keep it all going and provide succour for the recruits.

 

Hyrcania-1 to 3 are large Agri worlds, whereas Hyrcania-4 (Quartus) (LYNCHPIN) is the Fortress World, with significant fortification and arrays of ground-to-space defences, orbitals and landing grounds for deployment and reinforcement. A populous world, as rife with uniforms as side-swiping criminals and entrepreneurs, Quartus generates as much wealth as it does soldiers.

 

The remaining bodies are: Hyrcania-5 (Ocean world, Feudal, Training), Hyrcania-6 (Civilised), Hyrcania-7 (Gas Giant), Hyrcania-9 (Pleasure World).

The Aurean Reach (SECURITY RATING 3)

Spoiler

A series of small sub-systems easily crossable by an intra-system transport network of teleporters and by less esoteric voidcraft. The Reach contains three, Main-phase Yellow Mediums, casting the whole subsector in a golden light. Twelve worlds, the Adeptus Administratum clots here thickly, with entire cities dedicated to the functioning of the Sector, and receiving the orders form the Throne World only a few light years hence. As such, their codes and creeds are the most up-to-date of the entire Sector, and not a word passes a pen nib, or vox-fraught comm line that doesn't bear some scrutiny of the Comptrollers.

 

 

The Palace of Continuum is the main building on Aurum VI (LYNCHPIN) and is a city-scale complex of smooth, pale buildings, great slabs of alabaster, white plaster and dressed limestone. The sectors of industry - whether clerical or commercial are remarked upon by the different quarried materials. The Mechanicum Delegation reside upon streets of Sanguine bricks, the Faithful tread and see the lustre matching the blue skies above, and the Militarium District is home to the gardens and emerald dressing of the lush landscapes.

 

Hidden within each of course, lurk the defenders of the Imperium, in all their guises.

 

Here also resides the High-Astropathic Choir, the Minds of Minds, the Souls With Tongues to Speak. It is the most heavily guarded and reinforced area of the giant, sprawling city of Nyneveh, and glows both in the dawn and sunset, where the cloud-piercing tower lights with silver and scarlet as the suns pass.

 

++ IMPERATOR VULT ++

 

Edited July 11 by Mazer Rackham
Added Security-ratings.

[Mazer Rackham]

[PLACEHOLDER FOR FUTHER INFORMATION OR NPC/INTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN CHARACTERS]

 

++ RED CORSAIRS SUPPORT 'ASSET' ++

 

Ship Name: The Ravager (Officially...)

Ship Hull ID: Carnage-class Cruiser

Dimensions: 5km long, 0.8km abeam

Mass: 28.5 megatonnes

Crew: 80,000

Acceleration: 2.4 gravities (See notes)

 

Weapons: Port and Aft, Long-range plasma macrocannon. Single, retrofitted dorsal lance.

Torpedoes/Strike Craft: None

Notes: Starboard weapons battery removed, and replaced with landing bay.

 

Addendum by Harrowmaster 'Assessor':

 

Function and repair is exceptionally poor. Vessel is remarkably undermanned, with barely 10% of required personnel to function. Armour and superstructure is severely damaged. Drive output is 135% of potential, owing to remodelling by...experts...siphoning power from the long-range guns, which have mostly been torn out or destroyed - more than one loading gallery has been turned into a rotgut still! Some enterprising wag has even set up an entertainment venue, complete with Obscura alcoves, a gambling den and dancing girls!

 

And what is that bloody music?!

 

The crew are loyal to Lord Blackheart, ex-Battlefleet Maelstrom personnel and disaffected Loyalists, so their competence is...adequate. Desertion rates are low, since no-one expects to do any fighting!

 

Be warned, power is not consistent outside of essential functions. Parts of this ship are literally held together by repair cement and the worship of adhesive tape, and some of the holds fall for hundreds of metres into darkness without any decks in between. I can still see the scouring of lance beams. Plenty of doors open to vacuum (I've marked them), and this whole thing, is as my father would have said 'A proper shed'.

 

Thorns, is it any wonder they call this thing 'The Dredge'?

 

Edited July 6 by Mazer Rackham

[Lysimachus]

Hagga Rykaz, the ‘Heart-eater’.

 

 

 

A barbarian. A brutal, bloodthirsty killer. Clad in mismatched and battle-scarred warplate, decorated with the skins and skulls of his fallen foes, such is the initial impression one might have of Hagga of the Red Corsairs. Certainly among the prideful warriors of Huron's own gene-kin, who disdainfully bestowed upon him the epithet he still carries, he is viewed as little better than a dirty, feral savage. However, this scion of Stygia is much more than his outward appearance might suggest.

 

Once the Company Champion of the Executioners 5th Company, Hagga is a highly skilled swordsman. His chosen weapon, a monstrous power blade styled after the fashion of a Stygian Claymore, is more than six feet in length from pommel to tip, standing taller than most mortals. He is also armed with a deadly plasma pistol that is fueled directly from the microfusion generator within his backpack. Like many Executioners, Hagga is a tactically-minded warrior and a cunning strategist.

 

More than this, Hagga is stern and resolute, guided and bound by an unbreakable personal code of honour. It is this code that has demanded his continuing loyalty to the Tyrant of Badab, fulfilling oaths sworn in word and blood, even though the path is not one he would choose. Ironically, his determination to keep his honour intact might be what leads him into damnation.

 

Hagga's ill-assorted armour stubbornly remains painted in the blue-silver of his former Chapter, though the Executioners’ twin axes have been obscured by the jagged crimson saltires of the Red Corsairs. Of course, this choice hardly endears him to either his old brethren or his new.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26 by Lysimachus

[A.T.]

Xerxes

Heretek

 

 

For long decades Xerxes had been a loyal slave to the mechanicus and the truth of Omnissiah, that those who came before had paved the road with the only true path and that in time the fullness of humanities achievements would lead to final and dominant perfection over all things.

 

The expedition to Silva Tenebris had disabused him of that notion when protocols buried deep within the noosphere engaged to interface with the technologies of the xenos civilisation buried beneath the surface.

 

Others dismissed it or did not notice at all, another example of the perfection of the Omnissiahs creation in their calculations. And there were those who did not return from the surface, and those unaccounted from the ships complement, and the exterminatus brought upon the world.

 

The truth was inescapable - the technologies of the noosphere and beyond were based in part on xenos technology and with it the whole lie of the one true path fell.

 

To remain was impossible for a new path beckoned and now the whole galaxy stood against him.

[Lord_Ikka]

 

Crux'as the Smiler

 

I was once like you. Once a lapdog of the Corpse-Emperor, that rotting skeleton on a gilded throne at the heart of a corrupt system. Writer, poet, and remembrancer of the Ecclesiarchy- chained by blind faith and duty to spend years crafting speeches and sermons for inbred idiots.

 

In truth, I was like you. Toiling and toiling. Never complaining, never thinking. Until I chanced upon a little book during a research journey. Just a scrap of a thing, more pamphlet than novel, but oh the brilliance contained inside. Questions that were posed by this simple tract began to resonate through my mind. Why was freedom denied us, the working, the poor, the masses? Why did the so-called blessings of the Emperor go to those of wealth or power, the nobles of state and church? Who really benefited from not allowing tech-priest to innovate, or psykers to explore the realms beyond.

 

Yes, I found Chaos, or Chaos found me. The close-minded psychopaths of the Inquisition will tell you that I am a heretic, a degenerate defiler of everything good and noble in the Imperium. I agree. For the Imperium of Man is a cancer eating at the heart of humanity. A repressive regime founded on lies and fear that wants no progress or freethought to threaten its hold on power.

 

Indeed, I was like you. Now I am free in mind, though shackled at the moment for my many "crimes". The great Kaaryr Twice-Scarred, Na-Count of Shadows-Among-Stars himself, has visited me in this squalid cell. He praised me for my razing of the cathedral of Solvan II, for overthrowing the authorities of Alfo and Rigtown, for speaking the Truth to the mutants and twists of the lower wards.

 

Come my friends. Come taste the exquisite delights of power and passion. Come free yourself from the yoke of unjust fate and embrace the true destiny within you. Come with me and see the real Gods. Join me, and together we will soar.

 

 

The words are spoken not in the ravings of the insane, but the soothing tones of a favored minister or actor. The man who speaks them is mid-sized, lean rather than muscular, his bearing confident even in chains. His clothes, formerly well-made but understated, now tattered from the rough handling of the prison guards. His hair and beard are similarly mussed, but underneath show traces of careful grooming. Bright eyes study the world around him carefully, but almost nothing about the man is noteworthy. He could disappear into a crowd just as easily as he could spur one on to acts of rage and greed. The face and body of a stage magician, able to slip on and off roles like a change of clothes.

 

There is only one truly distinguishing feature on the man. The smile. The constant, never-ending smile that can promise anything to anyone. The gentle smile of a friend, lover, confident, as needed; the smile that changes to the disturbing grin of a raving lunatic or serial killer when blood and violence fills the air. The Smiler smiles, and madness smiles with him.

 

Edit: Prison ID COL-1016, resident of Communal General Block Alpha, or A-Block, Primary Prison Complex

Edited July 18 by Lord_Ikka

[Mazer Rackham]

++ THE LONG REACH OF HURON'S HATRED ++

 

++ RED CORSAIR OPERATIVES ++

 

 

++ SUSPECTED ++

Crime: Low Moral, Petty theft, defacing a statue of the Bishop DuFraisne with obscenities.

Imperial Citizen Database: GALT, DAHLIA. A

Citizen ID Number: 23.997.3/255.8891.M41

Age: 29

Occupation: Petition Fabricator, Sepulchre of Eternal Sacrifice

Birthplace: (UNSUBSTANTIATED) Galen V Orbital (Rumour), Magog Fabricatorum (Serf Quarters) Tau-Phi-37 (Rumour).

 

Siblings: Galt, Josiah, (Brother, DECD), Galt, Kyrean, (Brother, DECD).

Issue: 2 x Children (Male, Female) taken into the Emperor's Grace and Might.

CONFIDENTIAL EXTREMIS: Black Ship Tithe #87091 fulfilled. Subject psychically interrogated, non-viable. Gene origin unknown.

 

Notes: Administrative punishment administered 6 x occasions, detention by His Grace Philemon Hastus for several months for private tutelage proved Subject unrepentant. Minima Charges pressed.

 

HARROWMASTER ADDENDUM:

Dahlia is one of the sullen girls for a reason. Two children fathered by a Bishop of the Ministorum, who were then exiled. Slightly touched in the head, Dahlia is garbed with several sigils of unknown origin to 'keep the voices out.' This is just the information I know. There is certainly more here, but I do not ask. She goes where I cannot, sees, hears and reports. She cares not for the Eightfold, but she knows of Lord Huron, but I know not how this comes to be.

 

Regardless, I have trained her and found an apt pupil.

 

RED CORSAIR OPERATIVE/ALPHA LEGION HARROWMASTER: 

+ PERDITA EXTREMIS, PERSONAE INIMICUS DIABOLUS, PERSECUTIO INFINITUM +

 

Identification: Torun Valex.

 

//Err.interrupt-co/ident...restrict//CLOSE.

 

HARROWMASTER ADDENDUM:

Surely, you did not think it would be that easy...did you?

 

Edited July 8 by Mazer Rackham
Formatting

[Trokair]

Tarh Teshub, Naram-Sin 57th  Auxiliary Conscript Levy 

 

Apprenticed at an early age, to settle a family debt he was told in later years, to one of the myriad of crafters in one of those artisan districts that arise whenever a particular temple or shrine gains the favour of the masses and pilgrimage. Traded from master to master, sometimes little more than an extra hand, sometimes a worthy student. Thus the formative years of Tarh were spent in the shadow of the temples of the pantheon, forever working on the myriad of devotional offerings sold in the bazaars the lined the temple avenue.

 

Fortuned looked to change for the better when he was a mere few months from making journeyman. The Sargonic Lords of Akkad and the eightfold priesthood declared a crusade against the unbelievers, whether to further secure the peace of the land or increase their own power of little matter to the common folk. Such endeavours always swelled the population of the cities and with it the earnings of the temples and all those in the devotional industries.

 

It was thus a shock to many when the temple quarters and surrounding districts were rounded up and forcefully conscripted. Those with means could buy their way out, but young Tarh was not one of them. Months of training followed, months that saw their number twiddle as the meek and slow perished. Of nearly a third of a million conscripted workers, artisans, priests, monks, and pilgrims that had been taken only 60 thousand left the training fields as part of Auxiliary Levies, with a further few thousands filling penal regiments instead, all destined to be frontline troops in the crusade. The remainder fertilised the fields.

 

Having lived in this life longer than the other now, Tarh’s service ended as prisoner here, wherever that was. Why the remnants of the 57th Auxiliary had been taken instead of executed like their officers was likewise a mystery. Now months later even the remnants of the regiment had drifted apart in this city prison.         

 

 

 

Edit: Prison ID Number is OED-808, location Delta, or D-Block, Primary Prison Complex

Edited July 30 by Trokair
add picture

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon Moros, the “Twice-Lived”

 

 

Prelude:

 

Fires raged aboard the Daughter of Tempests, and her ancient hull groaned and creaked sickeningly under the stresses as the ship heaved in its death throes. He had to get out. He had to escape and live another day to reap bloody vengeance upon these bastards, the lapdogs of Terra who had come to brutalize and pillage and annihilate the so-called traitors. His chainsword had become jammed with viscera and ceramite fragments and his ancient sidearm, Mors Dei, a relic bestowed upon him by Master Phoros himself, now hung silent and empty on his hip.

 

He had to get out. He had to escape and live another day to reap bloody ven--

 

Almost too late he threw himself against a bulkhead as a hail of bolter fire streamed past him. Damn them all!

 

He waited a few moments and then with a roar he drew his combat blade, fired his jump pack and hurled himself into their number. He slashed the throat of the closest bronze-armoured tactical marine with one stroke and continued on past the rest, paying them no mind.

 

He had to get out. He had–

 

An explosion of pain threatened to overwhelm him as he barreled past the enemy tactical squad and they fired upon him at near point-blank range. Angry red warnings filled his HUD while he fired off another burst from his jump pack and bolt rounds sailed around him. His armour was thoroughly compromised and he was bleeding badly.

 

He had to get out.

 

There! The final set of blast doors that led to the hangar bay! He crashed into the wall adjacent to the command terminal and punched in the command runes while more bolt rounds slammed into the thick void-hardened steel doors.

 

+Not today, you whoresons,+ he rasped over an open vox channel while his mouth filled with blood, not caring who heard him. Sweet, sweet blood.

 

As the doors started to grind open, he was alarmed to notice the ambient temperature began to plummet and the smoke-clogged atmosphere rushed out through the yawning portal. And through it all he saw were stars and wreckage and the lifeless, shattered bodies of chapter serfs cartwheeling madly into the void.

 

No! Impossible!

 

+Today, you die, traitor!+

 

He whirled around too late and caught the crushing blow from the Minotaur sergeant’s thunder hammer full in his sternum, which sent him sailing through the chasm left by the blast doors into the bitter cold of the abyss. Ribs and ceramite cracked from the force of the impact and the wind was driven from his lungs. Everything had gone horribly wrong.

 

Warnings continued to flash in his vision, but there was naught he could do, there was nowhere to go. He fought to control his breathing as the icy talons of the void clawed at his exposed flesh and the blood boiled painfully from his wounds. If he could enter the deathless sleep there was a chance he could be found and rescued. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fought to maintain consciousness and engage the hibernation trance as he spun into the stygian expanse. He blinked and gritted his teeth and gasped for air and recited the mantras that would inhibit his body’s metabolic processes and possibly save his life. The broken shape of the Daughter of Tempests loomed large in his blurring vision while he fell away from the doomed ship.

 

As his sight dimmed and his hearts beat their last, he ignited the last of his jump pack’s fuel, sending him hurtling into the embrace of the void, another corpse to join the dreg heap.

 

And then he knew no more.

 

+++

 

Description:

 

Ukalegon was found by chance floating in deathless sus-an sleep amongst the wreckage and detritus of a titanic battle from many decades long past by a ship of piratical salvagers sworn to Huron Blackheart. His lifeless form was recovered and spirited away to the Red Corsairs’s stronghold in the Maelstrom, where he was revived through the vile arts and cruel ministrations of Lord Huron’s apothecaries. Upon recovering, he was surprised to learn that decades had passed since the conclusion of the Badab War, along with his chapter's crushing defeat at the hands of the “loyalist” lapdogs known as the Minotaurs. 

 

During his convalescence, Ukalegon was visited by Lord Huron personally, now the twisted and shattered wreck of a man fueled by his hatreds and the blessings of the Dark Gods, who seemed amused to greet a fellow veteran of the War of Secession, to invite him to rejoin the ranks of his just cause, and to offer him a chance at revenge against a corrupt and decadent government that had cast him and his brothers aside. Seeing the power the Tyrant now commanded, and swayed by his magnetic personality, Ukalegon renewed his vow of allegiance to the now Chaos Lord and to the cause of the rebellion, swearing bloody vengeance upon those who had shamed his chapter during the climax of the Battle of Optera. 

 

Ukalegon wears a cracked and thoroughly battered suit of partially painted Mk VII power armour, which has been patched and repaired numerous time to make it battle-worthy once again. Many attempts have been made to apply the bloody colours of the Red Corsairs, but due to many standard years of continuous exposure to the hostile depths of space, or perhaps due to some brush with the Warp, any paint applied quickly cracks and flakes off exposing bare ceramite, giving an observer the vague impression of the plumage of some strange and enormous bird of prey, a perhaps apt comparison considering his proclivity for jump pack assaults and a love of high speed flight. The crimson and black Claw of vengeance now adorns his left pauldron, though when it too invariably cracks and flakes away, the faint remnants of a black-and-white chequer motif become visible beneath. 

 

In battle he bears a heavily used and scarred chainsword with a worn black casing, and a baroque infernus pistol bearing the High Gothic inscription Mors Dei, which is connected to his armour’s power supply via a thick conduit cable. A jump pack adorns his mantle, rounding out the image of a rapid assault specialist.

 

He reserves a special enmity for the chapters of Astartes who had fallen upon the secessionists with such cruelty, particularly the Minotaurs, whose works he would see utterly obliterated, and their gene-seed defiled for their actions against his beloved and ill-fortuned chapter, the Lamenters.

Edited July 20 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

++ SECTOR IMPERIALIS ++

 

++ POENA IUDIMENTA MORTALIS INCARCARE ++

 

 

++ Carthage XIII ++

 

Population: 368,203 (Prisoners), 15,703 (Sentinels)

Security Rating: Variable (Median - Maximum)

Exports: Recycled Matter (Corpse Starch), (Fabrics), (Cybernat Metallics).

Imports: Recidivist Scum

 

Termination Protocols: Supremus (Neutron, Pyro and Gaseous Purgation)

 

Main Commandant: Lord Poena Exaector Rhufus Flavian Wayland

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

++ DATA PACKET #1 ++

 

TARGET LOCSIT: ABANDONED LISTENING POST THETA(REF/ADEPTUS ASTARTES 'HOWLING GRIFFONS'/BADAB WAR).

SECTOR: KYMARAN DRIFT, THIRD MOON.

IMPERIAL FORCES: NEGLIGIBLE

ASSETS: INTELLIGENCE DATA CRYSTALS, RESOURCE DEPOSITS, SECURITY MANIFESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT: ZERO ATMOSPHERE, LOW GRAVITY.

INTERNAL: O2 AND POWER MINIMAL. NOT ALL BUNKERS SEALED. (COMMAND CENTRE PICTURED).

SECURITY RATING: ...UNKNOWN.

 

Edited August 8 by Mazer Rackham
Busted link scrubbed.

[Machine God]

KRAGGAN

Prison ID IOW-065

 

 

The Blade was sharp, it needn't be. Blunt worked just fine, he had found.

 

Applied trauma produced results, blunt and jagged even more so.

 

As long as the blood flowed it mattered not from where,

 

or so he had heard.

 

Or been Told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26 by Machine God
typo

[Xin Ceithan]

Cyrandras Rakash

Red Corsair, formerly of the Astral Claws

 

>> … of whom very little existential information is to be found  in the remaining archives and data-vaults. 

These fragments indicate that a subject of the same name was shown as  a member of the Chapter Librarius, though no further information or even official rank  is given. 

 

Rumors tracing this individual to the households of the Badab Spire Nobility likewise remain unconfirmed, as well as tales that the  gifted youth escaped being tithed to the Black Ships by virtue of the clandestine attempts to increase the requisition of  suitable candidates to be inducted into the Chapter as potential Aspirants in the build up of the ill fated rebellion of this Chapter under the now infamous traitor, Lufgt Huron

In fact, the very idea illustrates the length to which the later so called “ Tyrant of Badab” would go to realize his demented dreams of a force resembling the vaunted Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusades. In his delusions, Huron not only withheld much needed  resources from HIS glorious Imperium,  but apparently even did not hesitate to reroute potential aspirants from those destined for service to very foundations of the Imperium of Man, from the High Imperial Tithe itself, those destined for Black Ships. 

 

While we safely can assume most of these poor souls would soon perish,  but some few may have survived initiation into the Astral Claws and that these could have  then went on to serve among that Chapter’s Librarius. One of which, apparently might have then become known as Cyrandras Rakash.

 

From several other retrieved data-fragments, we can postulate that this individual saw action during the Secession among forces under the direct or indirect supervision of the self-styled “First Captain” of the Astral Claws, Corien Sumatris, who, as the war progressed, is known to have increasingly came to use  the capabilities of select forces of small and irregular tactical units or “ Killteams”, as they are often referred to, in a desperate attemptto counter the victorious Imperial forces as  the tides of the war shifted against the Secessionist. 

 

Among these action were apparently events such as the uprisings on the fortress world of Surngaard, where surviving data shard fragments from the polar fortress chains hint at the presence of one Cyrandras Rakash (referred to there as an “Envoy to the Throne of Thorns”) active among the secessionist forces, at least during the early stages of planetary unrests. 

 

Further more … 

…

>>  4760 Megapulses withheld by order of [Redacted] <<

…

 

…when more verifiable records place a Cyrandras Rakash among the secessionist fighting at the later battles at both Cygnax and then Sagan.

 

Some of these accounts hint that encounters with forces belonging to the Exorcists chapter of the Adeptus  Astartes led to his increased interest in more occult matters, especially with the rumoured acquisition of….

…

>> Data-Stream… lost… retrieval… interrupted. Failed to retrieve 6745 Megapulses. Further inquiry .. denied. Adjacent Data-loom… corrupted. Purged by order of [Redacted]<<

 

Finally, a Cyrandras Rakash was then listed among the casualties following the Siege of Badab Prime as missing, presumed dead and another report based on the testimony during later  Inquisitorial investigations of a surviving  Astartes battle brother from another Maelstrom Warden chapter who had apparently served with the Astral Claw librarian at some earlier time during  the Secession, claiming to have killed the individual in question during the fighting around the major spaceport just prior to the extensive orbital bombardment of the port facilities.

>> see Reference Xxxx [withheld by order of the Inquisition] <<

 

…

….  of an individual referred to as “Cyrandras Rakash” from reports of survivors and after-action site analysis seances linked with appearance of the renegade Astartes of the so called “Red Corsairs”, especially as the number of incidents involving these renegades have been steadily increased during the closing decades  of M41. Even though,  in general  these seem to indicate said individual’s involvement in smaller scale engagements or even among lone raiding parties, mostly away from what we believe to be the renegade main naval force. It is unclear at this time if this is a matter of choice or an indication of an estrangement from those currently in power around  the “Tyrant of Badab”.

>> see also -ref sightings of heretic ships of the line - “Bane of Carthage”; “Sorrow Shard”; “Ravager”; other, a.v. <<

 

Excerpt from “Ex nigerrima profundis - a treatment on the most despicable raiders  and cutthroats of the Maelstrom Zone” by Commodore-Analyst Xharl Jorgson, Battlefleet Maelstrom, 3rd anointed Edition, redacted under the aegis of HIS holy Ordos

 

+++++

 

Appearance 

 

Cyrandras retains the tall, imposing built common to Astral Claw stock as well as the patrician features reminiscent of the nobility of the Avenging Son’s  gene seed,  though these days a  vast and delicate spider’s web of barely visible scarring runs across the right side of his skull. Eyes of  an uncanny brilliant blue flare from beneath a shock of pale hai,  a hint to the genetic deviance of  the  psyker’s genetic  heritage as much as the unhealthy hue of his   unnaturally pale skin. Chromed plug in sockets crown his head, still ready to connect  to the matrix of a psychic hood.

Clad in an ancient suit of Mark V Armor, tightly wrought,  swaying lengths of chains, hooks and bladed edges flow over ragged robes and spiked molecular bonding studs. The bright  arterial red  and onyx metallic hues of the Red Corsairs have long replaced the deep metallic blue of the Librarius. Still,  the  remains of  a  snarling, horned skull of a huge hunting feline on his right shoulder brings back echoes  to the heraldry of the lost Astral Claws.  Likewise, a keen eye might  still notice that once an artist took great care to work references and elements  of  the Badab sector's stellar cartography in the rendering of what was once a reference to the insignia of the Maelstrom Wardens. Now, the claw and lightning insignia of the Bloodreaver dominates the center of the  left shoulder guard and the  edges of both  armoured shoulders are rimmed by a rendering of  black vines, an obvious a reference to the Palace of Thorns. 

Similar designs can be seen running beneath the swathes of bladed chains and spikes covering the power armor  arm and leg guards, though the former have obviously had to be replaced by more modern pieces of armor, as well as the bulk of the chest guard after suffering  some sort of rather extensive  and potentially crippling damage somewhere in the past.

 

Notable Equipment

 

Bhael-Four

 

Rumor attributes the origin  of  this Servo Skull of an unorthodox pattern among the Chapter of the Exorcists and that it fell into the hands of Cyrandras Rakash in the wake of the fighting at Cygnax.

Interwoven strips of prayer and oath papers, lined with arcane signals wind through the orbitae and nasal cavities, sealing these while grinning teeth are clasped tight around  a scroll casing of dark metal, bound likewise with oath papers and silver thread. A single large disc the size of a large coin dominates the front of the skull, likewise held in place by strings of silvery thread. 

The skull itself is said to have been taken from a noted scholar of the occult, possibly even of Astarsian origin and that some part of that wicked soul - or something else - is still bound the mortal shell it once occupied. Though clearly a variant of a Mechanicus design, It  communicates primarily by short bursts of thoughts and images. Those possessing the gifts of the Psyker will perceive a barely noticeable, yet near constant whisper-like sing-song in its presence. 

 

Cyrandras also carries a force sword of unknown origin, which he apparently obtained during travels inside the Maelstrom with the Red Corsairs as well as a dated but well- maintained bulky Sarum pattern Plasma Pistol

 

Edited August 12 by Xin Ceithan
Edited added appearance, equipment

[Ancient_Sobek]

Issekar Grimm

 

“The space between worlds is no place for mortal men…”

                                                                                  -Anon

 

I have walked these darkened path for many years now. Betrayed, abandoned, hunted. When I needed my brothers most they turned on me. I was scared, in pain, but instead of extending a hand in brotherhood they offered a clenched fist  instead.

 

I have learned that the Imperium is only interested in maintaining their own power. The common man is nothing to them but a commodity to use up and cast aside. They tell us that they are the only truth and the only salvation. That all others are evil and false. This, like everything else they preach, is a lie.

 

Chaos is not what they tell us. It is not evil, at least not entirely. Yes, there is great evil in the Immaterium. But chaos itself is just that, chaos. It is potentiality, nothing more. In that great ocean there are many intelligences, each with their own desires and ambitions. Some seek to control, some to corrupt. Others, are just trying to survive. Like any of us. Lost and afraid in the vast emptiness of existence.

 

So I have made my curse my ally for a time. Walking these benighted shores until a better way forward is made known to us. Alone in a world of the desperate and depraved, the broken and deprived. I pass between the veils ever forward fighting and scraping for survival.

 

Aligned now to the ego and whims of one more petty tyrant I strive ever on. That I get to bring misery to the Imperium that tossed me aside is a small boon in this hardscrabble life.

 

++ Undated log ++

+ Bulk Freighter “Iago”

+ Found adrift off the Tycho belt

+ All hands lost

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++

Edited August 12 by Ancient_Sobek

[Mazer Rackham]

++ PERSONAE MAJESTIS DIABOLICUS ANATHEMA ++

 

++ DELPHYNIE'AN'DRAKI'INA ++

 

++ MISTRESS OF ENDLESS PROMISE, SEER OF THE TWISTED DREAM, DARK PROPHETESS OF YGREKIA ++

 

'I like games, and the Rules are simple, plaything. I do whatever I want, and you must try and stop me.

The more you struggle, the more entertainment, so defy me all you like.' - Delphynie.

 

 

Delphynie'An'Draki'Ina (Master)

 

WS: 74 BS: 67 S: (11) 59 T: (14) 62 AG: (12) 81 Int: 57 Per: 64 WP: 69 Fel: 76 Inf: 80

 

Movement: 14 / 28 / 56 / 112 [Wounds: ??]
Armour: Daemonic Chitin (4 All) Total TB: 14

 

Skills: Athletics (S), Dodge (Ag) +10, Intimidate (S) +10, Parry (WS), Survival (Per).
Talents: Ambidextrous, Combat Master, Die Hard, Disturbing Voice, Hard Target, Iron Jaw, Leap Up, Lightning Attack, Lightning Reflexes,
Preternatural Speed, Psy Rating (6) (May use any Slaanesh Pyschic Power).

Traits: Daemonic (+3), Dark Sight, Deadly Natural Weapons, Fear (3), Size (6), Unnatural Agility (+4), Unnatural Strength (+6), Unnatural Toughness (+5), Warp Instability, Multiple Limbs (Tail).

Weapons: Claws (2d10+11 R, Pen 0; Tearing), Whip of Screaming Bliss (1d10+11 R; Pen 3); Flexible, Razor Sharp, Long Reach (Can melee up to 3m).

Special Rules: The Painful Majesty of The Perfect Form

Anyone looking at Delphynie must make an Easy (+20) Willpower Test or be unable to move as they stare in dumbstruck awe. If they fail by more than two DoF, they are Stunned for one Round. Note that Infra-contacts, Input Filtering, visor upgrades, etc are all useless. This is a power which extends beyond even the cold, harsh spirits of wargear.

 

 

Edited September 18 by Mazer Rackham
Clean up and adjustments, forgot Slaanesh mindbullets.