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new to conclave, new to inquisitor, new warband ideas ;)

Started by eyeolas, October 26, 2010, 02:01:18 AM

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eyeolas

Before I start, I'm new so hopfully I got the right sub-forum for this.

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I've always loved the inquisitor range, and thought it about time to get some models, even if they simply gather dust after hours of loving conversions and painting (wouldn't be all that different to a lot of my projects ;))

I've had zero experience of making warbands, so this was essentially letting my mind run riot while scouring the inquisitor models for ideas and after a few different ideas, I think I'm getting near a winner. Second to that, I've had zero experience with the game itself, so if anything is obviously flawed, overpowered or whatever do say so, it's all part of the learning curve.

Fluff wise I'm pretty terrible when it comes to knowledge of the imperium (orks and kroot I'm sorted, the imperium, not so much) so quite a lot of what I write may just be silly and impossible. Clearly the point of me posting is to get ideas so hopefully with some help this can turn into a really cool and characterful warband (which, in the end, is what inquisitor should be all about). And on that note, I haven't put in stats since different GMs will have different ideas of power level of groups, so I've put in what some ideas for where they'd be, but no finite numbers (it doesn't help that I myself have little idea of what is balanced).

Here's my group of five, with everything about them I've decided or written so far (ie, fluff, skills, weapons, and conversion for the model itself).

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Taken from his parents at birth, the nameless baby was one of countless imperial bourn children taken for experimentation by several scattered research facilities during the years after the Armageddon war, where warriors were scarce and the imperium was eager to develop new soldiers to counter the ever present threat of xenos attacks. Having survived the initial tests, "Raven" as he was deemed on his first birthday, the overseers began radical alterations to their subjects. However, during the initial stages of gene seed manipulation, a neighbouring planet was discovered to be host to a large band of cultists of Khorne, where a huge daemon gate had just been opened, flooding the nearby planets with demonic taint and followers of the renegade god. The swift response of a nearby company of steel legion, as well as a handful of grey knights, ensureed the forgeworld stationed in the sector remained taint free. With the cultists dispersed and the daemon threat suppressed, the research facility was cleansed and the experiments continued.

As years passed, many more of the subjects succumbed to the influence of the experimentation and harsh training regime fit for those who had survived thus far. As Raven turned ten, the hundreds of children that had entered had faltered to a less than a dozen, due to the facility losing its recruitment drive as the steel legion took charge of the infants in the sector. However, as the numbers dwindled, the influence of Khorne grew more apparent in the facility. With the decreased attention from the imperial higher ups due to dwindling numbers, the taint affected the overseers unnoticed as they continued their modifications, spreading their new found possession with their subjects. The dozen soon became even less as experiments left both students and overseers spread across laboratory walls, and after a particularly evident disaster, a platoon of guardsmen were called in to investigate, only to find two children left inhabiting the facility, both curled up in a corner, soaked in blood.

After being examined by an inquisitor of the ordeo malleus, the children were deemed a worthy investment of time and the experiments continued, though this time to suppress the daemonic power the kids had inherited. While the experiments showed promise, one of the children, Lazarus as he called himself, succumbed to his taint. The inquisitor quickly bound the daemon in his host before fully emerging and removed the host from the nearby area in the hopes the last child would not be influenced. However, as the daemonhost was removed, both it and Raven, the remaining child, started shrieking in pain until the two were reunited. The only option was to keep the two contained together. With Lazarus slowly but surely losing grip on reality, Raven gained increased stability as the experiments suppressed the possession to its source, a brain implant from the previous facility that had left daemonic taint dormant in his mind, who's access to the outside world was through Raven's left eye. With his eye sewn shut and a seal placed on it, the taint was deemed suppressed and was soon ignored as a problem.

Several more years passed as Raven's power lay dorment, he was classed a successful experiment, and was trained in typical fighting, as he showed particular promise with a sword. Should he die, he would die a dignified death for the emperor he was born to protect. However, due to his ties to Lazarus, and his reputation as a daemonhost, none of the nearby forces would take him in. With his reputation on the line, the inquisitor requested he be trained to as an inquisitor himself, allowing him to act independently. Given his evident lack of radical thinking, dedication to the emperor, and his exceptional fighting prowess, the request was passed and Raven was given the inquisitorial cross, but vanished with Lazarus from the imperium's eye soon after.

In the following years, the two kept a low profile, living as rogues. Living by his sword, Raven continued the work his master had taught him, defending the integrity of the emperor and delivering justice to any who opposed him, taking what resources he could find. The bloodlust of Khorne, though supposedly eradicated, was still evident in his actions. Through the years, his combat skills increased dramatically, but the seal placed on his eye grew weak.

It was one faithful day where an ork waaagh reached the planet Raven was resting on when war broke out between the ork force, and the defending guardsmen. It was there, on the outskirts of the battlefield that the bloodshed overwhelmed Raven and his powers awakened. Raven's eye burst open in a red glow as he rushed headfirst onto the battlefield, brandishing his sword high as he ran with unnatural speed into the centre of the conflict. With several orks left headless to his sword, Raven drew particular attention from an ork warlord, who rushed to meet him in combat, but was stopped dead by a flash of light from one of the guard officers. At the moment of the flash, Raven regained composure and covered his eye as he shrieked in pain, falling to the floor. The officer, quick on his feat, rushed to the body and started dragging him into the trenches, stopping periodically to defend himself from the ork assault. With the line being overrun, the officer was forced to abandon the body in as safe a place as he could find before returning to the fight, but was cut off by Lazarus, hovering in front of him, blocking the light behind him and blocking the orks' from reaching the two. Ever since being abandoned by Raven in his frenzy, Lazarus had regained a degree of sentient thought and composure, regaining control of the powers given to him as a child. With a cry to the heavens the three were surrounded by a red light and disappeared from the field in an instant.

When news of the rookie inquisitor, referred to as "the faceless butcher" in reports, and the missing officer reached the imperial higher ups, and with the invasion dying down in the sector, several teams were dispatched to search for the potential traitors and document their activity before bringing them in for questioning. It was several years later that a squad made up of commissar Garus and a servitor, Atellus, found the runaways taking refuge at the decommissioned research facility the two had grown up in, searching through the countless documents for any answers to their existence.

To this day the commissar and servitor follow the three, allowing them to act independently for the imperium, but under strict orders to restrain or kill them should they stray from the imperial way or should they be deemed a danger to the imperium. Officer Ajax, with his platoon all but wiped out in the battle, was given task to protect Raven and Lazarus, as the imperials continued to take interest in their capabilities, even if they only fought as individuals. Garus took particular offence at having to follow two abominations, but followed his orders diligently until the day he was given clearance to leave or execute them, but his influence as a diehard imperial was seen as a necessity to keep the brothers in line. Atellus in particular kept in constant contact with the inquisitor lords of the ordeo malleus, documenting the group's every action, and receiving any responses to his observations in the form of new or updated orders. The group was left to live as rogues, but were kept on a tight leash, and were never let out from under the watchful eye of the imperium, should they continue to follow its teachings.


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Inquisitor Raven "The faceless butcher" – right handed

Would have a suitably high weapon skill and initiative, respectably high nerve and strength, average toughness and willpower, slightly low sagacity but very low BS and leadership.

Nerves of steel, possessed

Due to his partial possession (see fluff), he walks the line between human and daemon. After years of experiments and training, Raven has gained moderate control of his powers, and is able to unleash his full potential as an experiment when the situation sees it fit. At the start of any turn, Raven can use one action point to unveil his covered eye and unleash the daemonic power dormant in him. This gives him +1 speed, +5 WS and +10 strength, as well as the following abilities:

Frenzy, lightning reflexes, furious assault, deflect shot, terrifying

Being a mere mortal, the possession takes its toll on Raven's body, slowly destroying him from within. At the end of every turn he has awakened, Raven takes D3 damage to D3 random locations. Raven can chose to end the possession at the beginning of any turn as a free action by making a successful leadership test to regain control of his body and cover his eye. If this test is failed, Raven continues the possession for another full turn before he can try again. If there are no enemies in Raven's line of sight, he gets +15 leadership for the purposes of this test only. Also, if Raven becomes temporarily blinded for whatever reason (say, photon grenades or the like), he will regain his senses long enough to cover his eye and suppress the daemon, though this is optional, and must be decided as soon as the cause occurs.

(I've never played a proper inquisitor game, so that may need a fair bit of balancing)

Raven carries: power sword with attached exterminator, carapace on his chest, flak everywhere else, hexagrammic wards, counts as-highly advanced bionic brain, counts as-filtration plugs and Lazarus (counts as MIUed familiar)

The model would be a virtually untouched bounty hunter (with hat of course) for the basis. I'd take off the silly skull from his hat and put an inquisitor symbol in its place, and I'd want to do something to the cloak around his legs, possibly extending it all the way round to hide most of his legs, or just decorate the back (removing the equally silly trim the goes around the bottom of the cloak). I'd use the pistol arm with pistol+hand removed and replaced with Gruss' gloved hand and pistol, but remove most of the pistol itself, leaving just a gloved hand with trigger. A long, thin blade of some form (elder ranger, assassin sisters or the force sword) would be attached to the trigger, and a pair of thinned town flamer heads would be put by the handle of the sword, making a gunblade, just with a flamer instead of revolver.
picture
The left arm would be outstretched to the side, possibly replacing the hand with a more demonic one, such as a 40k tyranid rending claw. He'd be holding up his familiar by a chain attached to the cross (see Lazarus bellow).

Raven is still young, 36 by his count but he has no ties to his birth parents and those who raised him are long dead by his hand. The documents from the research facility he grew up in held only vague insight into his childhood, but nothing was recorded in great detail of the children that came through the doors, only their physical beings. When asked about his childhood, Raven will respond with the well versed line "I was born at 13. I have no home planet. I have no parents." showing his resentment to not only the people who made him who he is, but to his parents for giving him up so easily. Raven does however claim that he was born with Lazarus as a brother, and though he was constantly reminded that their situation is in no way his fault, Raven constantly blames himself for Lazarus, and as such will always have his well being at the forefront of his mind, even when it means going to great lengths, such as training his body to be able to carry Lazarus wherever he went. Raven has also put hundreds of hours into training his sword fighting, as his ranged potential was always going to be hampered by his left eye. Raven and Lazarus have lived solitary lives, being forced to avoid any heavily populated planets, and so have learnt to be self sufficient, though Raven was never afraid to spill blood for a night's meal, though he has always ensured his victims had reason to die, as he never forgot the imperial ways and never spilt innocent blood. Raven has a particular fondness for his inquisitorial hat and seal, being the only ties left to his master, who he is eternally grateful to, though he never was allowed to know his name. However, aside from these, Raven has no particular attachment to any of his possessions, and will constantly trade out his supplies for anything he "finds" on his travels. Physically, Raven is a shorter than many, but with his hat it can often go unnoticed. Most of his face is covered by a bandana or any suitable piece of material, covering all but his right eye, which is a particularly deep blue. He has long considered each meal a blessing rather than a given, and as such has a slight build, but compensates by wearing large coats whenever possible, and it is a rare day he will not be wearing his armour and weapon on him, always wanting to be prepared for whatever may lie ahead in the hostile environments he was forced to call home. Raven is slightly awkward to other people, and is very defensive when confronted by anyone, especially when referencing his brother. He is particularly offended when people ask him about his left eye, which crops up often due to the large scar that is not entirely covered by the bandana, though he takes most things people say as offensive, but will rarely act out and tends to bottle his sorrows as he prefers to avoid conflict with people he has no reason to kill. Raven finds it difficult to sleep at night, not due to any haunting memories of his past, simply due to being a night person. He will often be found training late at night on particularly bright evenings, but will equally regularly sleep well into the morning if left to his own devices. His constant training also means he will eat as much as he can find, and rarely saves any for later dates, which can leave him gorged one day, but left hungry the next. Living off the land has left him relatively indifferent to his physical appearance and hygiene, which can often leave his grey/brown hair long, shabby and greasy, which isn't helped by it being under a hat all day long, even in baking heat.

However, with the recently acquired teammates, Raven has started to open up. His facial features are still a mystery, but he has gained a heartening laugh and sense of humour, but only to his new friends, though he still maintains a determined attitude and will always put his brother's safety above the other should it come to any fighting, and has never forgotten his upbringing, though he is always more interested in thinking about the future.
 

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Lazarus, daemonhost of Khorne – right handed (stop me now if Khorne is a no go zone and I'll change it all to khorne, it isn't a massively important detail)

Would have very low weapon skill, ballistic skill, initiative and leadership, but would high frighteningly high willpower (I mean frighteningly!) and nerve, along with a high toughness and sagacity (I have no idea about sagacity for a daemonhost).

(for the willpower, he can't actually do much with it offence wise except lift heavy thing and hurl them at people, so I'd have thought it'd be ok to make it extremely high)

Impervious, regeneration, fearsome, telekinesis, teleportation

Due to some of his essence being trapped in Raven, the two are connected in thought and soul, much like a familiar is to his master. If Lazarus takes damage, Raven takes residual damage in the same way described for familiars. Also due to this connection, Lazarus cannot survive long if separated with Raven, and hence must stay within 50' of him at all times (I'm not going to put a penalty here for going outside the limit as this could give GM grand ideas for story telling which I wouldn't want to ruin) .

Since Xaldin is tied down to a giant cross (subtlety was never the imperium's way), he can only move normally through telekinesis or by being carried. Having grown accustomed to carrying his own weight for a century, Lazarus counts the difficulty of moving himself as 50 (this number will change depending on the decided willpower). Lazarus also has the power to teleport, but doing so would cause his being to be temporarily away from Raven, and hence succumb to instability is lost to the warp. For this reason, the teleport power can only be used if Raven is within 4' of Lazarus, and will target both of them. The spell's difficulty is increased by 15 (to 35) and receives an extra -1 penalty for each yard teleported for this reason. When the models are replaced, Lazarus is placed in the intended place, and Raven is placed anywhere within 2' of him.

The model would be cherubael tied down to a large wooden cross, with chains around the back near his arms for Raven to keep hold of him.

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Commisar Garus – right handed

Stats are pretty self explanatory for a combat oriented commissar, though with a slightly higher than average leadership.

Leader, force of will, fearsome to Ajax and Raven, first strike

Laspistol with reload, pump action shotgun with 30 scatter shells, holy power sword, 2x photon grenades, carapace armour for all but the head, average bionic eye

The model is going to be the arbites judge body and head (with typical commissar hat sculpted on), and arms/weapons taken from Eisenhorn. He'd have the judge's shotgun slung over his right shoulder and would either get Eisenhorn's pistol holster somewhere, or failing that I'll just say he has a pistol under the cloak.

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Officer Ajax – "right handed"

Again, the stats would be typical human stats, with emphasis on ballistic skill and nerve rather than physical prowess.

Ambidextrous, gun fighter

2x laspistols with reloads, sword, carapace for all but head, crude bionic legs (both), 2x photon grenades

The model is Eisenhorn's body and head (will probably also get a typical guard style hat, because they're awesome) with Jerico's two outstretched arms (pointing to each side) with Jerico's two pistols in hand, face looking directly forward, slightly at the ground in the menacing walking forward style that Eisenhorn has. Jerico's sheathed sword handle would be put in the cloak to represent his combat weapon, and if I can find space Jerico's pistol holsters would be put somewhere on the model, but I may have to resort to the "they're under the cloak" excuse again.

(This guy is fairly dull on the character and rules front, he's mainly there because I'd have the parts for the model and if it goes like I'm imagining, he'd be a pure awesome model, so some ideas on how to spice him up would be awesome)

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Gun servitor Atellus – "left "handed"" (double sarcasm)

High BS and toughness, low natural strength (though the mech arm will have its own that's a bit higher) and weapon skill, but fairly high for all the mental stats  

Ambidextrous, rock steady aim, medic

MIU multimelta with laser sight (replaces his right arm), counts as implanted chain axe (left hand), 2x melta bombs, flak armour for all but right arm, refractor field, average bionic left arm, gas mask, mechadendrites

Based heavily on Gruss, slapping a multimelta onto his right shoulder. On his back would be the thorian inquisitor's backpack with the two quills, and a couple long scrolls, as well as a couple servo skulls holding more scrolls. The mechadendrites would be coming out of this backpack as well (may need extending to accommodate all the arms coming out of it).

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I know it's a lot of text, but I'd love to know what you think. I'm very open to ideas, as I'd like to make these guys really come alive, and as ever two minds are better than one

Dust King

First of all
Welcome to The Conclave!!!

Second, I'm not sure the inquisition would be two happy about letting anyone with a hint of taint live, let alone join their ranks. However I think you could just say he escaped the facility, taking his "brother" with him. Although hunted by the inquisition his dedication to humanity and natural (or unnatural) leadership abilities have allowed him to become a powerful independent force in his sector.

Rule wise he seems all right (Although I would have pictured him with guns given his name ;) ). My experience with flamers on close combat weapons ended "interestingly", still he was good fun while he lasted. Xigbar also seems good, nice idea of having him attached to another character is a interesting idea and his powers seem good/

Some of the other characters seem a little overpowered when done together. Power weapons and a multimelter can be nasty but any people go for them in their first attempt at a warband.

Still I'd say it's a good first try, you'll soon get the hang of it (or should I say find the key ;) )

InquisitorHeidfeld

When I read that a facility which has had any possibility of being tainted by a Daemonic influence I tend think that that has involved Napalm... Lots of Napalm...

Followed by the execution or mindwiping of everyone involved in deploying the Napalm...

There is no such thing as surgical removal of daemonic taint, nor is there such a thing as overkill in regard to it in the Imperial mind.


It's nice to see Malal again, every time I think people have forgotten him he pops back up again. :-)


Bear in mind that Geneseed is a specific thing - the few undifferenciatted cells of each of the implanted Zygotes which are stored in the Progen(at)or Glands. There is only one thing which can be done with geneseed besides testing it and that is growing new Zygotes.
If you're talking about implantation of Space Marine Zygotes then stop right there... Space Marine Inquisitors are another thing which keeps coming back - no matter how hard we nail the lid on their coffin.
If you're talking about genetic modification or Gland Troopers then Geneseed is not involved.


Finally, the power of an Inquisitor is Plenepotentiary rather than absolute, and (as befits the distopia of the 41st Millenium) their organisation must (to my mind at least) contain significant beurocracy...
Part of that would be to confirm the purity of individuals who are to be granted such Plenepotentiary power, genetic and spiritual, or the Inquisition would have ceased to exist long ago through the acts of infiltrators (and potentially Infiltraitors). Regardless of the dormancy of any possession the apparent link between your Inquisitor and a Daemonhost would have to be sufficient to bar his ascendance.

eyeolas

I've added the second half of the fluff and changed up a couple things. I got rid of the KH references (though managed to include a few others from various other manga with a bit more subtlety ;)), and Malal got changed to Khorne, simply because he fitted the sort of character I invision when Raven starts going berserk.

Ajax was demoted to an officer. A missing colonel seemed like it would be a much bigger deal

Lazarus got a bit of a character boost fluff wise. I didn't want him to be portrayed as a lifeless shell of a person lost bewteen humanity and the warp, as he is still supposed to be one of the warband, not just an annoying extra.

I changed the "let him go" to "escaped" as Dust King suggested. It makes much more sense and fits prety well.

And for I Heidfield: I'll change the part when the facility gets tainted, now that I think about it, the imperium isn't too subtle with these matters, so I'll have to make it more subtle.

as for the genesead, it was supposed to be a generic gene manipulation, rather than the actual genesead, so that'll be changed. These guys were never supposed to become space marines.

For the keeping a daemonhost on premesis issue, do you think an inquisitor would have the power to keep it as clasified information? or would it just never happen.

Also, with the story of the group done, I intend to write a bit of bio for each of the characters, just to describe them a bit better for the purposes of roleplaying (especially since the henchmen didn't exactly get into much of the story)


and as a side point to do with the forum itself, is there a reason that whenever I type anything, the textbox scrolls to the top of my text? Its slightly annoying to have to make long posts mostly blind.

Kaled

Quote from: eyeolas on October 26, 2010, 06:40:58 PM
and as a side point to do with the forum itself, is there a reason that whenever I type anything, the textbox scrolls to the top of my text? Its slightly annoying to have to make long posts mostly blind.
I assume you're using IE8 as your browser? If so, switch to 'compatibility mode' using the little button next to the address bar - that should fix it (with the side effect that the menu bar sometimes looks weird). Or, use a different browser...
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

eyeolas

Cheers, that solved it. Allowed me to make the first post a little more reader friendly

MarcoSkoll

One thing I would care to add...

You've given Fearsome to the Commissar - in a manner, at least. My take on Fearsome (cue everyone who's heard it seventeen times before groaning) is that it should only be applied to characters who obviously grossly outclass you as an opponent - fighting them is almost guaranteed to result in a defeat that would be well described with a combination of the words "quick", "bloody", "painful" and/or "fatal".

Commissars just aren't that kind of dangerous - a willingness to execute allies affects how allies fear them, not their enemies!
It's very, very rare that I'd suggest that someone who looks pretty much a normal-ish human (from your description) should get Fearsome. They'd need to be relying on a hell of a reputation, and Commissars don't have that (and I severely doubt he could have that kind of individual fame. A big name like Yarrick, definitely. Almost all others, no.)
The other thing is that the generalisation is inappropriate. Some regiments - such as the Catachan ones - have a habit of making Commissars "disappear", so it seems doubtful they'd fear him.

Fearsome for Space Marines or Daemonhosts... yes, without question. Commissars... not unless you've got a very good reason.
However, if you wish to make him fearsome to specific individuals (for whom there is a reason, of course), go ahead - it's just the use of a "generic" fearsome that I'm questioning.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

eyeolas

The reason for the rest of the party fearing him was his ability to contact imperial higher ups and petition for they're removal. I was under the impression from 40k that commisars had a bit more shove in the guard ranks, but I'll remove that emlement, as if they're opposing him, the threat of being executed isn't exactly that great if he's shooting you anyway.

As for an update, I've got a good chunk of Raven's character done. Let me know if anything is missing, I'll have a reassess when I do the others, as it'll become much clearer where the holes are.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: eyeolas on October 27, 2010, 02:06:28 AMI was under the impression from 40k that commisars had a bit more shove in the guard ranks
They do have a lot of shove in the ranks... but, as you say: "if they're opposing him, the threat of being executed isn't exactly that great if he's shooting you anyway."

Ultimately, fearsome isn't about the worry of someone being able to petition for your removal - it's about being so scared that you're having to work on not emptying your bowels while you fight.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles