Alice Fenn, ex-PDF Commissar (now with +1)

[Koval]

It's about time I did something with this character. I've been promising Marco a total rehash of this one for ages, seeing as she's tied in with a couple of his characters and fixing her backstory also fixes a small gap with theirs, but I got a bit sloppy and didn't do much with the character since July.

It's more Dark Heresy back-conversion, I'm afraid, but at least I've got my finalised algorithm nicely planned out -- it's at the bottom of the post.


NAME: Alice Fenn

RANK / AFFILIATION: (Former) PDF Commissar / Inquisition, formerly Kurabata Prime PDF

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (3)791975.M41
Place Of Birth: Nova Calcaria, capital of Kurabata Prime (Segmentum Pacificus, near the coreward border)
Gender: Female
Height: 160cm
Weight: 50kg

HISTORY:
-975.M41: Born in Nova Calcaria to Adolphus and Maritta Fenn.
-977.M41: Adolphus Fenn, a long-time gambler, wins five thousand thrones in a game of cards against his brother Everard, and immediately squanders it on illegal stimms.
-977.M41: Lucinda Fenn, Alice's eleven-year-old cousin, attempts to teach Alice to read using a Children's Illuminated Codex Of Imperial Law. Although well-meaning, Lucinda's efforts end in failure when she herself is flummoxed by the legalese. Nonetheless, Alice successfully learns the word "heretic".
-981.M41: Alice, now six, is left confused and fatherless when Adolphus, well and truly intoxicated on stimms, comes home and beats Maritta, strangling her in an apparent attempt to kill her; Maritta shoots her husband in self-defence.
-982.M41: Maritta Fenn, never having come to terms with Adolphus' death, commits suicide on Ascension Day, throwing herself and Alice off a bridge into the River Jarlsvegg. Alice survives but is unconscious.
-982.M41: Upon her recovery and following the funeral of her mother, Alice is taken in by Everard, but quickly becomes a drain on Everard's already limited funds and is given over to the Schola Progenium.
-982.M41: Alice's instructors at the Schola assess her for signs of psychological trauma and discover that aside from the (expected) shock of being orphaned, Alice is completely psychologically sound.
-988.M41: An impressive performance in an athletics contest quickly comes under scrutiny when Alice manages to perform at a higher level than some progena several years her senior, regardless of gender. Drugs tests reveal no signs of doping, and Alice is in fact capable of reproducing her performance under controlled conditions. Coupled with a dismal academic track record, Alice is immediately pencilled in for military instruction.
-989.M41: A general detachment from, and mild disregard for, the finer points of theology rule out a potential future in the Adepta Sororitas, though Alice's drill abbess consistently notes exemplary performance during physical training, while her logic instructors comment on her inquisitive mind and flag her up as a potential Arbitrator.
-994.M41: Having made a vast improvement academically over the past six years, Alice enrols as a Commissar cadet.
-997.M41: A highly promising company-level posting with the Kurabacian 22nd Grenadiers is scrapped when Alice is caught brawling with Cadet Grigor Mieroslawski, with both combatants in what appears to be a state of undress. Alice is found guilty of brawling, causing actual bodily harm, and conduct unbecoming of one of the Emperor's Commissars, and is relegated to a PDF posting. Alice nonetheless escapes with "only" local planetary PDF duties when it turns out that Cadet Mieroslawski had in fact been trying to sexually assault her; as a result, Mieroslawski is sent to a penal colony to serve as a warden.
-999.M41: News reaches Alice that Grigor Mieroslawski has died on the Port Carcera penal colony. The coroner's verdict amounts to "suicide by airlock".
-002.M42: Arrival of Inquisitor Yuri Ageryn at Kurabata Prime.
-002.M42: Alice is "recruited" by Inquisitor Ageryn, together with several local Enforcers, a squad of Governer Tarabangian's household guard, and a platoon from Alice's PDF unit, in order to combat a Denialist cult.
-003.M42: Alice, independently of the rest of Ageryn's team, manages to locate a Denialist cell and neutralise it with just a single PDF fireteam. Ageryn is impressed, but his comments amount to wondering why Alice joined the Commissariat and not the Adeptus Arbites.
-004.M42: Ageryn locates and raids the Denialist cult's main power base. Ageryn is killed in the process when a Denialist throws a krak grenade at him, but the ringleaders are taken alive and their accomplices put down once Alice manages to restore morale.
-004.M42: The Denialist cult leaders are executed by firing squad.
-007.M42: Governer Zautho Tarabangian, beloved by his people for his frequent engagement with the "common man" and for his staunch faith in the Emperor, is found dead in his bedchamber. Investigators, aware that Tarabangian posted armed guards outside his chambers, suspect that the perpetrator entered through the ventilation system, but beyond the sudden and near-total liquefaction of his entire body (save for the skeleton and a few stubborn bits of gristle), no cause of death can be pinpointed, and to all who investigate, it appears as though Tarabangian spontaneously dissolved.
-007.M42: Alice attends Zautho Tarabangian's funeral. The whole of Kurabata Prime seems to go into mourning for two standard weeks.
-007.M42: On the eve of Candlemass, the dreams of many Kurabacian citizens are invaded by what many can only describe as "a hungry hole in the sky".
-008.M42: PDF elements, including Alice, are drafted in to act as security when Avedis Grigerian is sworn in as the new Governer.
-008.M42: Alice executes three civilians for attempting to attack Governer Grigerian during the ceremony.
-008.M42: Alice attends the trial of Eugene Edmundson, who attempted to destroy the Cathedral of Saint Drusus in a determined arson attack. The trial is abruptly halted by an arson attack on the courthouse itself, killing the defendant, Judge Lucinda Alice Fenn (presiding), all members of the jury, and all witnesses to the case; together with members of the public, as well as other Arbites and administrative personnel in other areas of the courthouse, the casualty list spirals into the hundreds. There are reports of dozens of incendiary explosives detonating in the various offices and storage rooms, blurring the lines between arson and a bombing. Alice escapes with only minor burns, but is acutely aware that an Inquisitor was also present in the court room. Multiple eyewitness accounts from survivors confirm this, but not only does this Inquisitor remain unknown and unidentified, but the perpetrator of the courthouse attack remains unknown.
-008.M42: Riots -- most of them violent -- begin to flare up across Nova Calcaria and all of Kurabata Prime as the civilians take an immediate dislike to Governer Grigerian, considering him to be wholly incompetent. They are proven right when Grigerian advocates a completely ill-advised Adeptus Arbites deployment, necessitating the intervention of the PDF under Colonel Virkkunen.
-009.M42: Arrival of Inquisitor Marco Skoll at Kurabata Prime.

-009.M42: The so-called "Kaamos Incident".
----Over the course of several nights, fully one-tenth of the PDF's combat knives "go missing". Colonel Virkkunen advocates capital punishment for those that have lost their equipment, but Alice sees no point in essentially decimating the PDF and overrides Virkkunen's authority.
---- The knives begin to turn up in the residences of Governer Grigerian, his nephew Cedric, the planetary Cardinal, and other members of the Kurabacian ruling caste, always pinning a handwritten note to the wall foretelling the "day of judgment". Alice, with the help of Arbites investigator Friedrich Altenburg, is called in to investigate their appearance at Cedric Grigerian's estate.
---- Alice discovers two mutants at the Grigerian estate, apparently at different stages of turning into human crustaceans. The more advanced mutant is put down, whereas the lesser mutant -- masquerading as a butler -- is taken into Adeptus Arbites custody.
---- Together with Adept Kalle Hjert, Alice and Friedrich investigate the appearance of doomsday messages at the central Arbites courthouse, in the hope of interrogating other captured demi-crustacean mutants for possible leads.
---- Alice encounters Inquisitor Skoll, who is investigating the messages alongside Governer Tarabangian's assassination and the courthouse arson/bombing, though the files appear to have been tampered with.
---- A mutant attack very nearly turns the courthouse into a bomb site as explosive charges are found within folders in the archives. Courtesy of Inquisitor Skoll, the courthouse's destruction is averted and the bombs disarmed and removed.
---- Inquisitor Skoll, in his own investigation, notices a "Judge Lucinda Alice Fenn" among those killed in the courthouse arson/bombing. Fearing something sinister, he questions Alice about Lucinda, though the revelation that Lucinda was simply Alice's cousin is benign. Skoll drops his line of inquiry, neither particularly concerned nor satisfied with the answer.
---- The "hungry hole in the sky" begins to manifest, its presence driving people -- including Friedrich Altenburg -- insane. Coupled with the ongoing riots and protests against Governer Grigerian's rule, much of Kurabata Prime seems to erupt in civil war with Nova Calcaria right at the epicentre.
---- Alice is forced to execute Friedrich, but Inquisitor Skoll notices that for each person that dies, the maddening aura from the hole in the sky appears to grow in potency. Skoll speculates that the hole is in fact consuming dead souls to serve as a power source.
---- A chance encounter with a group of the demi-crustacean mutants reveals Kalle Hjert to be an Inquisitor, and possibly psychic, when one of the mutants is taken alive and Kalle inadvertantly reveals things about the hole in the sky of which the mutants themselves had not yet spoken. Kalle tries to flee, but is caught by Alice and Skoll; when interrogated, Kalle reveals that he, with Judge Lucinda Alice Fenn as his operative, was responsible for Zautho Tarabangian's murder. Alice correctly deduces that Kalle was the Inquisitor at the courthouse arson/bombing, and was in fact behind it. When Kalle describes Lucinda's death as "getting rid of a loose end" and Lucinda herself as "no longer useful", Alice snaps Kalle's neck, though it takes a supreme amount of willpower to "only" paralyse him from the neck down rather than kill him outright. Alice finishes the job properly once Inquisitor Skoll is satisfied that Kalle has nothing else to say.
---- The hole in the sky erupts with all the devoured souls of the insane dead, together with a daemon of Chaos that had been using the hole as a means of exerting its influence in the real world. Kurabata Prime undergoes a zombie apocalypse of sorts as spectres of the unhallowed dead begin to attack the living.
---- Alice takes a shot to the side of the head and loses the use of her right eye.
----Through the efforts of Inquisitor Skoll and Alice leading those PDF units that are still mostly sane, the daemon orchestrating the mass insanity of billions of souls is defeated and banished back into the Warp. The hole in the sky closes.

-009.M42: Inquisitor Skoll, having overseen much of the clean-up operation following the Kaamos Incident, brings up Alice in conversation with Inquisitor Lyra Rhodes and mentions her in a positive light. Inquisitor Rhodes takes an interest in Alice.
-009.M42: Alice finishes the process of acclimatising to her new cybernetic eye.
-009.M42: Avedis Grigerian, who was found dead with a stub pistol in his hand and the back of his head missing after the Kaamos Incident's conclusion, is replaced by Kalbuc Tevanian as Governer.
-010.M42: The Kurabacian 22nd Grenadiers, 63rd Light Infantry and 159th Mechanised are recalled to serve as Kurabata Prime's new Planetary Defence Force, in the absence of any surviving officers more senior than Captain Viljo Relander. When Relander is relieved of his command and the (sane) PDF soldiers integrated into the 63rd, Alice is in turn relieved of her duties as Commissar.
-011.M42: Alice arrives in Carthax and meets Inquisitor Rhodes.
-012.M42: Alice is transferred to Inquisitor Fabian Filipowski's service.
-012.M42: The present day.



WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
60 61 47 51 66 60 56 65 70

Handedness: Right (partial ambidexterity)

Equipment: Kurabacian "Contender" stub pistol with one reload, Theklian "Cataphract" autocarbine with two reloads, chainsword, bionic right eye, AV 2 on chest and abdomen, AV 1 on all other locations except head, microbead.

Skills and Talents: Catfall, Dodge, Feint, Jaded, Rapid Reaction

Partial Ambidexterity: Any actions taken with the character's off-hand are at half the usual penalty.

Kurabacian "Contender" stub pistol: The standard service pistol of the Kurabacian military is highly regarded by its users, as in spite of its notoriously heavy trigger, it will continue to fire no matter how much abuse the elements inflict upon it. It notably shares a cartridge with the standard-issue Warden submachine gun in order to cut each weapon's production costs.
The Contender is a Standard Stubber (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury) which has the Heavy Trigger drawback, and a reduced capacity of ten rounds. It has the following profile:
Type   Range    Mode     Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   E   Sg/Sm(2/3)   -    2D6+1     10      2    12
The Contender is standard issue among Kurabacian military units, and Common elsewhere.

Heavy Trigger: The trigger is stiff and hard to pull, making precise shooting considerably more challenging.
The character's aim bonus is reduced by -5% (normally to 15%)

Theklian "Cataphract" autocarbine: Alice's old autopistol was damaged beyond reasonable repair when she was forced to club a demi-crustacean mutant to death with it during the Kaamos Incident. After acquiring a faulty replacement that broke down after only two months, she made the natural decision to "upgrade" to this autocarbine during an operation on Theklae.
The Cataphract is a Light PDW (see the Revised Inquisitor Armoury). It has the following profile:
Type   Range        Mode         Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Basic    J    Sg/Sm(4/5)/F(10)    -     2D6      40      2    20
The Cataphract is Uncommon.

Jaded: Although Alice's survival instincts are definitely intact, she managed to stare down a resurrection of damned souls and fought a Daemon Prince of Chaos without showing any trace of fear, yet as far as Imperial psychometrists can tell, she is still mostly sane.
Alice may re-roll failed Fear or Terror tests, provided that the Fearsome or Terrifying character is not a Warp entity.

Rapid Reaction: As "Lightning Reflexes" from the Carthax Wiki (so renamed to avoid clashing with the LRB).

The character has astoundingly quick reflexes and can react to circumstances with blinding speed.
The character may, at any point once per round, attempt to take a "Reaction". This is always a single action which must be a 'reflex', reacting to the actions of another character or to an event - it may not simply be to run an extra 6 yards, make another attack in combat, or fire an extra shot.

Examples might include jumping aside as you see a gunman rear up from behind some crates, lunging instinctively with your sword as the enemy charges in at you, or diving to catch a valuable object that has just been dropped. As ever, the GM is the final arbitrator.

The player declares their reaction and rolls a D6. If the result is equal to or less than the character's Speed, the Action is achieved (a roll of 1 always fails). Once the reaction has been resolved the round continues as normal and the character whose turn was interrupted may continue his turn.

---

For ease of reference, the current iteration of my convert-from-40KRP-to-INQ algorithm is as follows:
WS, BS: +20
S, T: +15
I: Ag+20, or (Ag+Per+40)/2 if there's a substantial difference between Ag and Per
Wp: +20
Sg: Int+15
Nv: Wp+15
Ld: Fel+15

Skills and talents can cause a bit of fudging as appropriate.

In this case I fudged Alice's Ld because it would've been 55 otherwise -- she's a former Commissar, and 55 is too low for that.

Yes, I'm aware the background part is gigantic, but I was trying to revise/retcon an entire RP and associated short stories, and condense them down into one post.

Finally, obvious disclaimer is obvious, Inquisitors Skoll and Rhodes do of course belong to MarcoSkoll, so any questions about their motivations probably need to be directed to him


EDIT: Bumped up Alice's Nv because a score in the 50s is far too low for her.

EDIT: Changed her sidearm because of a trend I noticed in low-cost firearms in reality.

[MarcoSkoll]

What you've got so far looks fairly good. I know we'd discussed a lot of this via PM, but it's nice to have that finalised version of Kurabata Prime down for reference.

Personally, I'd break from your algorithm a little, as I'd expect Nv and Leadership to be a bit higher than that for a Commissar.

My own algorithm is basically +15 to all stats, then try and work out how to trim down the list of skills and talents into either stat boosts or abilities.
For example, with Gala, Nerves of Steel, Jaded and Resistance (Fear) between them became a +10 Nv boost (which also helped differentiate her Wp and Nv stats). But her various Fellowship skills and talents I didn't really feel represented a complete enough spectrum of bonuses to communication and command to merit any advance over an already impressive Ld 68. (I'm not sure how she ended up with Fel 53. Or indeed, no stats below 40...)

EDIT: Frak, you edited your post.

~~~~~

I also recall you mentioned Lady Grigoryan as a possible base model for Alice. As a slight heads-up, Grigoryan is quite a small model at 52mm tall, so maybe not quite that scale 170 cm you've got listed there.

[Koval]

The 170cm was a number out of a hat, basically, though if you give me a moment to do some maths, I'll bring her height down to match.

EDIT: In 54mm scale, we're supposed to assume that 54mm is the height of a model representing an average man -- do keep in mind that I'm not confusing my genders here, rather going by a Wikipedia definition of 1:32 scale (which is what 54mm ultimately is).

If the average height of a man's supposed to be around 175-178cm or so, then if the Lady Grigoryan model is 52mm tall, we end up with a woman that's (175*52/54) = 168.5cm tall.

Assuming I've not garbled my maths, I'd say Alice's height is correct to the nearest 5cm.

[MarcoSkoll]

I was going to edit my post, but seeing as you have posted again:

Your changes address my point about Ld. 70 seems decently representative.

As for Rapid Reaction:

(a roll of 1 6 always fails).

While a lot of people have assumed it is, it failing on a 1 is not a typo. It's like that to reduce the chance of success and differentiate between a Spd 5 and 6 character's chance of success.

Inquisitors Skoll and Rhodes do of course belong to MarcoSkoll, so any questions about their motivations probably need to be directed to him

Indeed. For the benefit of others, and as I said above, we did actually discuss a lot of this through PM.

Marco and Lyra being involved in Fenn's transfer to Carthax (where Koval now wants her to be based) was something I offered them up for a role in, given the normal unlikelihood of Inquisitors recruiting out of sector.

The fact that Marco was out of sector... well, he wasn't. The After Hours RP preceded the development of the Carthax Sector, so there was no such clash at the time.
I have however postulated an explanation - the small numbers and somewhat specialist role of the Ordo Perditus mean that several tend to collectively centralise their resources in one sector and then extend their networks and reach outside it as necessary.

As for why he was in another Segmentum, a) the Ynys Mon is a very fast ship, b) it's a game. It doesn't really matter.

[Koval]

I was going to edit my post, but seeing as you have posted again:

Your changes address my point about Ld. 70 seems decently representative.

As for Rapid Reaction:

(a roll of 1 6 always fails).

While a lot of people have assumed it is, it failing on a 1 is not a typo. It's like that to reduce the chance of success and differentiate between a Spd 5 and 6 character's chance of success.

I'll tweak it back, then, and may add three words to clarify it on the wiki.

Inquisitors Skoll and Rhodes do of course belong to MarcoSkoll, so any questions about their motivations probably need to be directed to him

Indeed. For the benefit of others, and as I said above, we did actually discuss a lot of this through PM.

Marco and Lyra being involved in Fenn's transfer to Carthax (where Koval now wants her to be based) was something I offered them up for a role in, given the normal unlikelihood of Inquisitors recruiting out of sector.

The fact that Marco was out of sector... well, he wasn't. The After Hours RP preceded the development of the Carthax Sector, so there was no such clash at the time.
I have however postulated an explanation - the small numbers and somewhat specialist role of the Ordo Perditus mean that several tend to collectively centralise their resources in one sector and then extend their networks and reach outside it as necessary.

As for why he was in another Segmentum, a) the Ynys Mon is a very fast ship, b) it's a game. It doesn't really matter.

C) I never actually fixed Kurabata's position down past the Segmentum level, so I've since booted it over to the Pacificus border. If I can find where I even made the claim that Kurabata is in Solar, mind you, then I can adjust again as necessary, maybe even pushing it over into Pacificus like I did with Erstenheme.

(Erstenheme, as it happens, was much easier to move between Segmenta, as Kurabata predates my use of charts and spreadsheets that actually keep track of these sorts of things.)

[MarcoSkoll]

I'll tweak it back, then, and may add three words to clarify it on the wiki.

I've added a sentence to the wiki myself. The question has come up a few times.

If I can find where I even made the claim that Kurabata is in Solar, mind you, then I can adjust again as necessary, maybe even pushing it over into Pacificus like I did with Erstenheme.

It wasn't ever in character, only in the OOC introduction and Hidersine's character's backstory.

However, as the canon version of the After Hours story had to be revised without all the characters belonging to inactive players, I guess the latter isn't important.

[Koval]

I'll tweak it back, then, and may add three words to clarify it on the wiki.

I've added a sentence to the wiki myself. The question has come up a few times.

I was just about to do it, actually, but got distracted.

If I can find where I even made the claim that Kurabata is in Solar, mind you, then I can adjust again as necessary, maybe even pushing it over into Pacificus like I did with Erstenheme.

It wasn't ever in character, only in the OOC introduction and Hidersine's character's backstory.

However, as the canon version of the After Hours story had to be revised without all the characters belonging to inactive players, I guess the latter isn't important.

In that case I've pushed Kurabata over into Pacificus. It's still miles away from Carthax, but at least it's now in the right Segmentum. (EDIT: A search reveals no definite references to Kurabata being in Solar, and only one "possibly".)

Now I've got to go through that old thread with a fine-toothed comb, seeing as I can't just delete it (and you've got some good quotes in there, too, so that would be rather unwarranted)
EDIT: Job done, all I had to do was clip out three clauses, and you're probably already aware of the references I wanted to delete.

[MarcoSkoll]

EDIT: In 54mm scale, we're supposed to assume that 54mm is the height of a model representing an average man

... except that GW tends to go with a "to the eye" scale - Eisenhorn, for example, if he stopped slouching, would be most of 60mm tall.
Adding in the bulky heroic proportions, her frame is going to look pretty petite in comparison to any GW models.

Personally, I work by a 10mm to the foot scale (1:30.5) rather than 1:32, particularly when working with non-heroic build. At that scale, Grigoryan would be more like 160cm and with that build... 45 kilos, ish.

[Koval]

Personally, I work by a 10mm to the foot scale (1:30.5) rather than 1:32, particularly when working with non-heroic build. At that scale, Grigoryan would be more like 160cm and with that build... 45 kilos, ish.

I'll settle for 50, as 45 is apparently underweight if you're 160cm tall.


On a side note, I love how there's apparently so little wrong with my character that the only thing we're arguing about is her physical measurements.

[krenshar]

-008.M42: Alice attends the trial of Eugene Edmundson, who attempted to destroy the Cathedral of Saint Drusus in a determined arson attack. The trial is abruptly halted by an arson attack on the courthouse itself, killing the defendant, Judge Lucinda Alice Fenn (presiding), all members

Is the judge supposed to have a name so similar to the protagonist?  It's the same in the section about Kalle's unmasking but still, seems a bit odd.

[Koval]

-008.M42: Alice attends the trial of Eugene Edmundson, who attempted to destroy the Cathedral of Saint Drusus in a determined arson attack. The trial is abruptly halted by an arson attack on the courthouse itself, killing the defendant, Judge Lucinda Alice Fenn (presiding), all members

Is the judge supposed to have a name so similar to the protagonist?  It's the same in the section about Kalle's unmasking but still, seems a bit odd.

Yes, it's absolutely 100% intentional, and if you'll give me a moment to get my facts straight for myself I will explain -- it does involve Kalle so I'm glad you noticed that.

The simple version is that Lucinda's middle name is Alice, courtesy of them sharing a great-aunt. That, unfortunately, is the very short version that doesn't quite convey any of my thought processes.

The version I haven't told anyone, because it came about much earlier in development (like, three-and-a-half-years-ago earlier in development), was that Alice (our one) was the double-agent working for Kalle, and Lucinda was an extra persona tacked on top; Alice, therefore, would have been the judge at the Edmundson trial, and she'd have escaped the courthouse fire. I think a very early version had her actually set it off. "Lucinda" would have been registered as dead at the scene. I since dropped that idea because it would have led to some very complicated places and some gaping plot holes.

The current version, for which I really had to check my facts and my inbox (and for which I'm probably repeating myself, but bear with me), has Lucinda as Alice's older cousin (which is what we have). I deliberately introduced Lucinda during Alice's infancy, albeit without revealing Lucinda's middle name (as it wasn't important yet), purely so that suddenly having a person called Lucinda appear wouldn't look so weird. They were both named for great-aunt Alice, and Lucinda was presumably named for another relative as well. I took a few cues from Jewish tradition (except I dropped a generation and did a sidestep instead).

At some point, Kalle (a Recongregator, who was on the planet all along) noticed Inquisitor Ageryn's presence, and that he'd drafted in the Adeptus Arbites, together with PDF elements and someone called Alice Fenn, to assist in his investigation. Kalle assumed that Ageryn was closer to the Arbites (and rightly so, since the Arbites and Inquisition frequently have similar agendas), and located an "Alice Fenn" among the Adeptus Arbites -- that being Lucinda. The fact that there was also our Alice among the PDF didn't cross his mind until the name "Commissar Alice Fenn" crossed his desk.

In a way, the courthouse fire was intended to kill both Alices in one go, but it didn't work; therefore, around the start of the Kaamos Incident, Kalle inserted himself into the Adeptus Arbites, in an attempt to get closer to Alice by way of Friedrich Altenburg (who was just a tool in all of this).

If Kalle had had his way, and Inquisitor Skoll hadn't been there, Alice would've gone the same way as Lucinda, and Kalle would've tied up a loose end so that he could then deal with Kaamos his own way (though I should point out that Kalle didn't know about Kaamos and didn't plan for it to happen; it was just convenient for him that it did)

Marco (both our Marco, and Inquisitor Skoll) picked up on this during the archive investigation and assumed that there was something Alice wasn't telling us about Lucinda, particularly since Lucinda's file -- which you'd expect to be in an Arbites archive, if she was an Arbites Judge -- was missing (thanks to Kalle's tampering). If I remember rightly, Skoll was practically busting for an opportunity to ask Alice about Lucinda, but that didn't really come up during the RP and had to be resolved via PM.

So in short, yes it's intentional, and was very nearly a plot point in After Hours before it died (a combination of the previous Conclave exploding, the start of my year abroad demanding all my attention, and then me forgetting where the story was going not long after I was able to settle down, as all my notes and files were at home). I deliberately didn't retcon it out because of where it would've gone.

[krenshar]

Thanks for clarifying beyond the very short version, I enjoyed reading that.  I thought you might be going down the listed-dead-due-to-clerical-error route, the coincidental relative is a nice touch and suggests how a gambler's daughter gets to go to the schola progenium.

And now I spot Lucinda Fenn in Alice's childhood and feel like a bit of a berk.  I'll have to get better at reading if I ever want full inquisitorial status.

[Koval]

Don't worry about not spotting Lucinda early on; I'll admit, there's a lot of stuff to plough through before we get to the good stuff.

Incidentally, Alice -- although she's younger than 40 -- probably has a bulkier background post than any of my other (extant) characters, including at least one Inquisitor. I am not entirely sure why that is.

[MarcoSkoll]

I'll settle for 50, as 45 is apparently underweight if you're 160cm tall.

If you're going by BMI, then it would say that. But BMI - mass divided by the square of the height - is actually a poor assessment, as weight doesn't scale proportionally to the square of height. (Or indeed with the cube, as people tend to be proportionally more slender when taller). BMI therefore tends to report people below average height as underweight and above as overweight.

The best exponent is really about 2.6 (which gives a result that can then be multiplied up by 1.4 to fit the normal bands for BMI).
With that in mind, 45kg & 160 cm would be an adjusted 18.5 - lower margin of normal weight, but not unreasonable for that build. (But I'd add I said less than 160.)

Apologies for waffling - in much the same way as I like to give the planets I write mathematically correct orbits and gravity, I looked into the subject of body weight vs. height more than a bit when I was trying to figure out the physical stats for my characters.

If I remember rightly, Skoll was practically busting for an opportunity to ask Alice about Lucinda, but that didn't really come up during the RP and had to be resolved via PM.

He was keen to ask that question, but their first meeting did keep getting interrupted by mutants.

In terms of the final time line, I'm guessing Skoll got at least a cursory "cousin" answer at some point after the courthouse attack (As Alice denying it would have been a pretty risky and hollow ruse - Skoll wouldn't've believed it, and while he is unusually "nice" for an Inquisitor*, I doubt she was going to test his patience.), but not a full one until Kalle's capture*.

*For certain values of nice. While he's normally the least intimidating and most tolerant of my Inquisitors, he is also the one I really wouldn't want to piss off.
**I don't know exactly how your storyboard for this scene would play out, but I can't help but imagine his escape ending with a certain character clocking him one.

[Koval]

I'll settle for 50, as 45 is apparently underweight if you're 160cm tall.

If you're going by BMI, then it would say that. But BMI - mass divided by the square of the height - is actually a poor assessment, as weight doesn't scale proportionally to the square of height. (Or indeed with the cube, as people tend to be proportionally more slender when taller). BMI therefore tends to report people below average height as underweight and above as overweight.

The best exponent is really about 2.6 (which gives a result that can then be multiplied up by 1.4 to fit the normal bands for BMI).
With that in mind, 45kg & 160 cm would be an adjusted 18.5 - lower margin of normal weight, but not unreasonable for that build. (But I'd add I said less than 160.)

Apologies for waffling - in much the same way as I like to give the planets I write mathematically correct orbits and gravity, I looked into the subject of body weight vs. height more than a bit when I was trying to figure out the physical stats for my characters.

I'd rather go with "this makes sense" in this case -- we do have to remember that most models are more likely to be representations rather than actual scale copies.

In terms of the final time line, I'm guessing Skoll got at least a cursory "cousin" answer at some point after the courthouse attack (As Alice denying it would have been a pretty risky and hollow ruse - Skoll wouldn't've believed it, and while he is unusually "nice" for an Inquisitor*, I doubt she was going to test his patience.), but not a full one until Kalle's capture*.

That'll be about right, though I dare say it would've fallen to Skoll and Alice to work out that Kalle had screwed up his loose-end-tying-up stuff.

**I don't know exactly how your storyboard for this scene would play out, but I can't help but imagine his escape ending with a certain character clocking him one.

If this character is the same character as the one I'm thinking of, then I'm having an easier time imagining Kalle getting clotheslined, but clocking him works as well. (That said, I can't imagine either of those being especially pleasant with 300 pounds of bionic lady delivering them.)