Col. Jebediah Kolensburg

[dirkthe1]

I have added quite a bit more back story to his fall from grace.


"Col." Jebediah Kolensburg.
Jebediah Kolensburg was born to Steel legion sergeant father, and a mother who worked in a munitions factory. Growing up in Hive Infernus, he often accompanied his mother to work in the South Forge Complex where she worked, helping build chimera chassised variants on the massive production lines.
A natural academic, excelling in maths, physics, chemistry and engineering, however he struggled with the more mundane subjects was banned several times for fighting with older boys for money, and finally asked to leave after a chemistry experiment left a boy blinded. After several failed jobs, and a brief stint in the PDF, he joined the Imperial Guard ¹
Originally of the 116th (Assault Regiment) ², Armageddon Steel Legion, he quickly found notoriety as a Captain in the Regiments Special Operations, Arial Targeting & Insertions Squadron, and ultimately commanding the squadron (known as Kolensburgs' Kommandos). Throughout his career he led many raids and reconnaissance missions, and most notably ran long range patrols both in the Fire wastes in the north, and the dead lands in the south. the 3rd Armageddon war- locating Rok ground fall sites, calling in orbital strikes, and after the fleets withdrawal, marauder runs. On one such occasion when air support was unavailable, he called in indirect fire from a nearby heavy brigade and titan battle group.

The squadron proved particularly adept at ambushing speed freak convoys; spending weeks driving round the desert in heavily modified (though often desperately in need of major overhaul) chimeras. Kolensburg personally led assault groups accompanying the Salamanders in bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the tunnels of discovered roks, and was present when Chapter Master Tu'Shan found the only intact teleporting device of the campaign.

A tactical genius, he personally planned and led several actions that are now taught at the Tactica Schola (General Staff) course. Quick thinking saved his life on more then one occasion, assisted by an ability to adapt to a given situation-writing several papers on improvised explosives, breaching techniques, use of indigenous (and non-human) personnel, and the application of armoured assault. His most recognised document is an account of his captivity at the hands of heretic cult on planet P6235:XG1, where he lost an eye, several feet of intestine and required extensive surgery after his escape.


His career was ended after two Pyran Dragoon staff officers died, and several more were hospitalised after a large explosion in a disused mess storeroom ³ , Kolensburg was arrested and charged. It was at this point he was brought to the attention of Inquisitor Thaddeus Ratch; Kolensburg was left with little choice- agree to join the Inquisitor, and he would arrange for his escape. Refuse and face a firing squad.

Kolensburgs' transport vehicle was later found burning in woodland, 3 dead arbites in the back, and the prisoner unaccounted for. He is still wanted in connection to this, and the death of several further Pyran officers (in suspicious circumstances), 4 Arbite Recovery Agents, 2 smugglers, and numerous other offences ⁴ .

Kolensburg now acts as a "problem solver" - his status as a wanted criminal giving the Inquisitor the ability to access back street channels, and carry out activities that might well be considered dubious under Imperial Law, with the complete deniability of his actions. This however has not affected Kolensburg well, with time spent infiltrating gangs, committing crimes, drinking heavily, spending much time in saloons and hellhole bars. He has fallen a long way, and with every passing day, he gets closer to becoming scum that surrounds him.

Kolensburg is a tall, well-built Imperial Guard officer. His face bares multiple deep scars around the left eye. His dress is defined by situation, however typically he marches sleeveless (exposing his heavily tattooed arms) and helmet less, although is often see wearing a re-breather, or chomping on a cigar. Whilst he still favours the dress of fatigues and webbing, he is often found wearing a duster jacket, eye patch, and grox smugglers attire or similar disguise. He was famed (locally) for a large converted imperial staff car, in which he implanted the engine from a chimera and performed several upgrades. Adept at creating things, he spent many years in munitions factories and is known to create Improvised Explosives. He dislikes aristocrats, arbites, jungles, boat travel and pyskers. 

Awards; (6) Imperial Winged Skull , (2) Marcharian Cross, Order of the Scarlet Wing, Order of the Eagles Claw, Medallion Crimson (awarded after the removal of his eye during torture), (14) Variants of the Honorifica Imperialis. He wears 28 different campaign medals (including 2 Armageddon (both with gallantry citations), in addition to 5 unit awards.


WS   BS   S   T   I   Wp   Sg   Nv   Ld
69   67   60   67   75   62   70   66   82

Equipment (stolen);
Pump action combat shotgun with 10 rounds of Executioner 10 Scatter 3 Hellfire.
Revolver (no reloads)
Chainsword
Average bionic eye
Carpace armour-chest and abdomen
Flak armour- legs, groin
No armour-head, arms


¹ It is noted that he originally applied for the Imperial Navy, however was twice refused due to air sickness, a condition which plagued him until his mid twenties, when a shrapnel wound required the removal of a large section of digestive tract, and a replacement stomach.
² He first served with the 121st during the 2nd war, acting as a chimera commander, on an attachment whilst still an Officer Cadet.
³ Kolensburg was known to be a (terrible) card player & gambler, and thought to have had large debts. This cannot be proved however as the suspected bookkeeper was found dead when his staff car detonated a previously undiscovered Ork mine, in an area thought never to have been mined.
⁴ Including illegal weapons importation, armed robbery, racketeering, theft and an unfortunate blackmailing incident involving 6 prostitutes, several metres of adhesive tape, an agri-world herbivore, and an unnamed planetary governor.
 

[Inquisitor Octavian Lars]

does the flak armour cover his head
excecutioner rounds are only avaliable to arbites
anyway, Welcome to the conclave

[dirkthe1]

Thats a good point-no armour on the head.

I read excecutioner as being ususally arbites, but thought that it wouldnt be so strange for a fairly specialist guard unit to have them. That said, if not I can always shift it around.

Thanks for the welcome

[precinctomega]

The pertinent question is how he fits into the Battle for the Emperor's Soul.

The sort of soldier who gets drawn into that grey and shadowy combat is one who has been pulled into the orbit of the Inquisition, for good or ill, and who has seen things he should not have seen.

Col Jedediah so far looks like he's just a clever grunt, equipped for fighting a war.

R.

[dirkthe1]

Another good question. My thinking was that he fell in with a fairly extreme Ordo Xenos Inquisitor- perhaps one that had fallen out of favour, unable to call on the deathwatch so has had to find a new militant force.

One thing I didnt mention is that I had planned to model and run a Blood Axe Kommando- not sure if this has been done before. Fits with the previous Armageddon fluff, and comparable to the fight chaos with chaos mentality of some other inquisitors.

Originally though I was looking to see if this character was 1 stat & equipment wise suitable 2 wether I had the right idea in general with regard forming backstory, etc.

[Adlan]

Why are most of his stats multiples of 5?

Why not have his disgrace be part of his reason to get involved with the inquisition?

[dirkthe1]

Purely as I wasnt sure if they were too low or too high. I figured if they were right i could always add a few/take a few.

I was thinking he could be a little like "hero" from the last chances-refusing a direct order, gets kicked out. I'llhave a biy of a rewrite, and add in the other bits I've written and try and make it legible!

[Ynek]

His background story seems just fine for a WH40k colonel, who leads a WH40k Imperial Guard army, but I can't help but feel that it doesn't quite fit in with the atmosphere of Inquisitor.

Whilst reading this story, I was kinda expecting to read that he had grown drunk with the power that his limitless success had given him, and made a fatal blunder, causing him to fall from his pedestal and end up having to flee from the guard to escape execution. Then, living as a dreg in the hives of Armageddon Hive, he would eventually manage to barter his way offworld by reluctantly handing over his hard-earned medals, becoming the very image of a hero fallen from grace.

In this instance, he could fit very nicely into the 'feeling' of Inquisitor, which typically takes place away from the front lines of the Imperium. Perhaps Inquisitor X is seeking him to recruit him for cause Y, knowing his brilliance and expertise in commando warfare against Orks? Perhaps Ordo Militum Inquisitor Z, or Military Intelligence Operative W is seeking him to bring him to account for his 'fatal blunder'? Perhaps Crime Lord V offers protection from these groups to the soldier, in exchange for performing certain special 'tasks' for him, namely the elimination of his rivals? In short, I think that he needs an excuse not to be in the front line of combat anymore, and I tend to find that stories of a fall from grace normally work a lot better to explain this than a clichéd "The Inquisitor heard about him and decided to recruit him." With regard to an Imperial Guardsman, simply walking in and saying "I want to take that soldier over there away with me. The one who keeps winning these battles for you. Yeah, that one there. The one who single-handedly wins all these campaigns and you could never hope in a million years to find a better replacement." Would probably result in a definite, but politely worded, refusal. The Imperial Guard doesn't hand over it's win-tickets so easily. The Inquisitor can technically requisition anything he wants to assist in his causes, but he will often have to justify his actions to his colleagues. If he simply wanted a man for muscle, and he took away a tactical genius, he would probably be suspected of deliberately sabotaging the Armageddon Imperial Guard by taking away one of it's most decorated officers. Inquisitorial Cartas have been published for less.

If you're determined to have him in an Inquisitor's warband, perhaps the Inquisitor was on-world when the colonel was about to be executed, and offered to spare his life in exchange for his services. "I have the ear of the Commissars, and if I were to find a good reason to keep you alive, I might see to it that the formality of your execution is forgone...." In this instance, it isn't so much that the Inquisitor decided to recruit him, and pried him away from the Guard. It's that the Guard no longer wanted him, but the Inquisitor thought he still had some use, and was therefore both attainable, and of some use.

[Adlan]

I love that phrasing 'the formality of your execution'.

[dirkthe1]

Ok, that makes complete sense- The Characters I had invisigided do actually come from a guard army I used to play.

Again, I admit I am new to Inquisitor itself- I did see a few games at an instore club back when it first came out, but I didnt pay much interest.

What I initially wanted to do was form a pool of characters whose stories interlinked; A (disgraced) imperial officer, Veteran guardsman specialist A-still loyal to the officer, Veteran B, some sort of attatchment (in this case, specifically a Ork Kommando), an inquisitor who fits with the theme, an assasin, maybe a close combat monster (chrono-gladiator or similar) from the inquisitors personal retinue, a rogue trader whose path crosses with the above when the situation benefits him, and so on and so on, allowing a bit of choice, but all the while keeping to one overall theme;

"love the xenos-burn the witch" metality.



A big part of the hobby is modelling and conversions-im not that great at painting I'll admit, but the idea of tying that in with a small scale skirmish-cum-RPG game is an amazing appeal.

Perhaps I am still hung up on a 40k way of thinking (I will admit that I read some Armageddon fluff shortly before and it may have stuck) but hopefully between the helpful pointers you are all giving, and a bit more thought from me and a few weeks, I;ll have a backstory that fits the role thats not 1. beardy (is that word still used?) 2. an excuse to have over eqiupped kill machines in a win or nothing mentality.


Thanks to all

Geoff

[dirkthe1]

Master Sgt Jergens Sturgstom- Sniper-Observer

Master Sgt Sturgstom is a veteran of 2 Armageddon wars, having served under Kolensburg for most of his career . An expert marksman, Sturgstom developed many of the selection and training processes which the 116th (indeed most of the steel legion) use for the Sniper-Observer training course.

Sturgstom holds several regimental records, the most noticeable of which is for longest confirmed kill, where he waited in a chem-waste silo for 5 weeks waiting for a clear shot of a renegade commander. It is thought the removal of this traitor saved thousands of lives, and a vital agri-world in the Armageddon sector.

A slight man, Sturgstom excels at stalking and surveillance due to a small, lean frame. Born in Hive Volcanus, his father served as a guard in the Penal Colony close by. His mother, an abusive drunk, did little in the way of good for the family, drinking the families' meagre earnings (including those he earned from shooting the chem. rats in the grain stores in the lower hive) and forcing him into a life of petty crime- pick pocketing, theft and burglary. On one such burglary, he was caught and flogged. The judge proceeding offered him a choice; join up, or end up dead at the hands of a ganger . 

Whilst his basic training report reads rather disappointingly , it was at the advanced infantry centre he found his calling, graduating top of his group and being awarded the Overlords Medal for outstanding achievement.

His part in the 2nd Armageddon War was wholly unnoticeable- a junior private in a mechanized unit, but his part in the 3rd was legendary-even by SOATIS standards. Sturgstom led the observation teams in the desert, operating separately from the squadron. At one point, his team lay exposed on the deck of the Dante's Canyon Oil Platform, providing vital intelligence to imperial forces. He also had over 1000 kills for the entire campaign, with no less than 28 war bosses to his name.


Sturgstom is an older generation of sniper, shunning laser and semi auto weapons for older more reliable rifles.
He harbours a strong dislike for arbites, and hand-to-hand combat. 

WS   BS   S   T   I   Wp   Sg   Nv   Ld
28   68   40   43   66   50   33   59   63



Skills- Dead eye shot,

Equipment- Hunting rifle, carries 5 of each ammunition variant. Suppressor
Knife
Revolver with no reloads
Flak armour all over (bar head)
2x smoke grenade

[RobSkib]

I have never really got on well with sniper characters - I have found that games of Inquisitor tend to be on tables where a sniper can't be used to his full effect - either with too much terrain, too small a table, or no vantage point to shoot from. I have found that sniper characters always end up a bit limp, unable to be as effective as they are on a battlefield.

Over the years, the Conclave has seen many-a sniper characters with crazy-high BS and the general feeling is that this doesn't represent a sniper character effectively. A sniper should take his time, line up his shots, take a breath and squeeze the trigger. A BS of 82 means that even a snapshot fired from the hip will hit 3/4s of the time, which is totally out of character for a sniper. A better way to represent this would be a more respectable BS of 60-70, and give him a bonus to aiming, say 25-30% instead of the standard 20%.

What is the Master Sniper special ability?

[dirkthe1]

I have never really got on well with sniper characters - I have found that games of Inquisitor tend to be on tables where a sniper can't be used to his full effect - either with too much terrain, too small a table, or no vantage point to shoot from. I have found that sniper characters always end up a bit limp, unable to be as effective as they are on a battlefield.

Over the years, the Conclave has seen many-a sniper characters with crazy-high BS and the general feeling is that this doesn't represent a sniper character effectively. A sniper should take his time, line up his shots, take a breath and squeeze the trigger. A BS of 82 means that even a snapshot fired from the hip will hit 3/4s of the time, which is totally out of character for a sniper. A better way to represent this would be a more respectable BS of 60-70, and give him a bonus to aiming, say 25-30% instead of the standard 20%.

What is the Master Sniper special ability?

I had a search through after reading that and I see there have been seveal threads on snipers. The only alternative to that would be limiting the BS to a given range, and have a seperate BS for shorter range and whilst using revolver-thereby negating the abilty to pop off unaimed shots. Maybe even as far as being in firing position, concentrating on looking down the scope and some modifer because of this?

The master sniper rule wasnt ment to be on there-I hadnt worked out the specifics, but most likely a similar bonus to aiming as you stated.

If nothing else, its another character to make, who more then likely wont go out that often!

[Myriad]

Bear in mind that the bonus for resting, then a couple of aims, already puts a sniper to about +60%, and quite well respresents them taking the time to line up a shot, so given a suitable weapon they don't need a high BS. 

[MarcoSkoll]

Definite agreement with RobSkib on the BS 82. I tend to make snipers in the BS 60 range - while their firearm training will come through, they won't have as much practice with the snapshot as a regular guardsman, so I'd have them no higher than an average guardsman on that front.

However, they get +30% for aiming.

Sturgstom holds several records, the most noticeable of which is for longest kill

Be more specific here. Is this a 116th regimental record, Armageddon regiments' record, or what?

I'd recommend your superlative is narrow enough not to tread on other people's toes (i.e. it certainly shouldn't be an Imperium wide record - because that's really GW's prerogative to decide*), but wide enough to be meaningful.
* Also, there have got to be a dozen fan characters (not all of them necessarily in Inquisitor, but in fictions) who all somehow hold this same record.

One note though.
5.43 miles is an impossibly long range for a solid shot rifle like he's using - it's not practical to get beyond about 1,200 m/s with a solid shot rifle (at least, if you want any barrel life at all), and those velocities just aren't enough to get a bullet out to those ranges.
In my opinion, any long range kill records would be held with a long las (which being a beam of light, has no concerns with drag and gravity**).

**Yes, light is affected by gravity, but by a piddlingly minute amount.