Inquisitor Eliesa Schwertwald, Ordo Xenos, and acolytes (C&C welcome)

[Koval]

It had to be done eventually. I've been throwing ideas for this character around for a long old time (three years, I believe), and they've finally taken form.

Owing to the huge reams of background* on this lady (her file on my computer is half again as large as the file for all the rest of her staff!), I'll have to put her background, profile (with 100% more tank chair than the next leading brand) and retinue up separately. C&C welcome.

*Short version: Multilaser Granny has come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and she's all out of bubblegum.



NAME: Eliesa Schwertwald

RANK / AFFILIATION: Lady Inquisitor / Ordo Xenos (Amalathian)

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (4)366713.M41
Place Of Birth: Valeine II, Seltheran Sector (Ultima Segmentum)
Gender: Female
Height: 160cm (235cm in chair)
Weight: 55kg (470kg in chair)

KNOWN ASSOCIATES:
--Sergeant Eirick Visstra, sharpshooter, formerly Leucavian 12th Grenadiers
--Acacia Lelant, sanctioned telepath
--Enginseer Melantha Kranat, formerly attached to Leucavian 12th Grenadiers
--Ceridwyn "Kerrie" Grieve, courtesan/assassin

HISTORY:
-713.M41: Born on Valeine II to Sir Wulfram and Tatjana Schwertwald, as the third of three children.
-719.M41: Sir Wulfram, a well-respected Arbitrator, introduces Eliesa to shooting, and enrols her into a young shooters' club to be "more like her brothers". As Eliesa is only six years old, however, she is restricted to blank-firing stub pistols. Eliesa is strictly forbidden from touching her father's own guns at home.
-722.M41: Upon turning nine, Eliesa is finally allowed to use blank-firing rifles.
-722.M41: Eliesa is accidentally given a full-sized 16-gauge shotgun and live rounds.
-722.M41: Eliesa is rushed to hospital with a dislocated shoulder; Sir Wulfram immediately transfers her to a different shooting club and makes sure to grill the instructors on their diligence towards gun safety. The managers of Eliesa's old club are arrested and found guilty of causing injury through negligence.
-723.M41: Nikolaus, the Schwertwalds' firstborn, enrols as a junior Enforcer. Artur, the middle child, joins the PDF Youth Corps.
-726.M41: Eliesa joins the PDF Youth Corps in an attempt to emulate her brother.
-730.M41: Artur is assigned to the Valinese 241st Armoured.
-731.M41: Pte Eliesa Schwertwald joins the Valinese PDF as a full adult member.
-733.M41: Eliesa suffers two fractured ribs after being assaulted by another trooper, who is promptly discharged. Curiously, she fails to notice her injuries until fourteen hours later, and sees the medicae only when ordered to do so by her drill sergeant.
-735.M41: LCpl Schwertwald is assigned to the newly formed Valinese 457th Heavy Infantry.
-739.M41: Cpl Schwertwald is given command of a special weapons squad.
-739.M41: Eliesa's squad operates alongside Interrogator Gideon Antal on Cerris V, tasked with clearing out a recidivist cult. Eliesa shoulders Antal aside to shield him from an incoming hand grenade, which scores a direct hit on Eliesa's head but fails to explode as the fuse was cut too long. Eliesa promptly returns the grenade to sender.
-739.M41: Antal mentions Cpl Schwertwald in a very positive manner in his report to his Inquisitor, the young firebrand Gervasio Ferraz. Ferraz warns Antal about getting too social with people he barely knows and prohibits the Interrogator from actively recruiting agents, but Antal is nonetheless allowed to continue in his ad hoc employment of Eliesa's squad.
-740.M41: LCpl Pekoni is killed in action by a heretic gunman. Eliesa picks up the dead man's flamer, shoulders her way to the front of the unit, and empties the tank into the heretics responsible before collapsing herself. The medicae later discover four bullets lodged in Eliesa's stomach. Despite Eliesa's persistent demands for the medicae to "just frakking well stitch me up already", she is removed from active duty for some six weeks. Interrogator Antal makes a point of visiting Eliesa on a twice-weekly basis.
-742.M41: Inquisitor Ferraz "advises" Antal to observe the Damocles Gulf Crusade in action, claiming that watching an Imperial Crusade wage war against an alien race is "crucial to your understanding of the enemy". Cpl Schwertwald's squad is indefinitely requisitioned to provide support for Antal. Although Antal does not even catch up to the Crusade, he does encounter a small expeditionary party of Tau on the frontier world of Kalon Tertius. Perhaps wisely, Antal chooses to leave the Tau alone.
-742.M41: Eliesa, having pulled the night watch the previous evening, is ambushed at dawn, and is forced to take on a Kroot armed with a dagger and a pounding headache. Interrogator Antal is puzzled by the scene and cannot determine which of Eliesa and the Kroot had been drinking so heavily.
-743.M41: Antal returns to Inquisitor Ferraz and is forced to fabricate his "observation" of the Damocles Crusade. Ferraz, however, has apparently changed his mind, claiming observation to be a pointless exercise compared with actual field experience. Antal is disappointed to have wasted the past year, but is nonetheless allowed to maintain "relations" with Cpl Schwertwald's unit as they rejoin the Valinese 457th.
-746.M41: Sgt Schwertwald is given command of a full squad of infantry.
-748.M41: A Dark Eldar raid on Lusin is brought to an abrupt halt when Eliesa's squad engages a Tantalus skimmer craft. Taking over from Pte Lindholm, Eliesa takes the squad's missile launcher and, on Capt Wendt's orders, brings down the skimmer with a direct hit to the engines. After-action reports confirm that Raechanar Hierarch was killed in action.
-753.M41: Gideon Antal is ordained as a full Inquisitor. His first act in his new capacity is to attempt to requisition Eliesa's entire platoon, only to be told that the platoon sustained 87% casualties against Orks on Aken IV and stands only four-strong, down from thirty-one. Apart from Sgt Schwertwald, the only survivors are the vox-operator LCpl Kubel, and LCpl Lindholm and Pte Roth, forming their unit's missile launcher team. Antal is undeterred and requisitions the unit anyway.
-753.M41: Eliesa's reticence to re-entering Inquisition service is dispelled suspiciously quickly after a night in Antal's company.
-757.M41: Pte Roth and LCpl Kubel are killed in action by xenotech smugglers on Isencor. Eliesa narrowly escapes death herself when a bullet penetrates her left lung. Officio Medicae adepts perform a pneumonectomy and replace the lung with cybernetics. Follow-up reports record Eliesa's "deep dissatisfaction at how long she must stay in hospital".
-758.M41: LCpl Lindholm is killed in action on Isencor when she shoulders Eliesa out of a marksman's line of sight, taking the bullet in Eliesa's place. Eliesa takes Lindholm's missile launcher and collapses a house on top of the offending marksman. Out of respect to Lindholm, Eliesa keeps the missile launcher.
-761.M41: A stop-over at the forge world of Halsetta turns into a fight for the life of Archmagos Veneratus Kriek as a rival archmagos sinks to tech-heresy to eliminate him. Eliesa encounters the heretek in one of Halsetta's spires as he attempts to contaminate vital medical supplies. When the heretek tries to convince Eliesa to join his cause, Eliesa "interrupts" him with a shotgun shell to the face at point-blank range. The heretek's body is fed into a plasma furnace, his assets seized and either rededicated or fed into the same plasma furnace, and his name struck from all records. Although the matter is of utmost importance to the grateful Halsettan Magi, Eliesa comments that actually killing the archmagos was "too easy".
-761.M41: Eliesa is nominated as Interrogator to Inquisitor Antal.
-767.M41: Eliesa manages to single-handedly destroy the heretical Gateway To Glory movement when she manages to sneak into the rafters of their prayer hall and launch a superfrag missile into the congregation.
-776.M41: A heart attack in the course of duty leads both Inquisitor Antal and the Brethren of the Emperor cult to conclude that Eliesa is either dead or incapacitated. Antal is forced to purge the Brethren on his own.
-776.M41: Antal's medicae prescribe a course of drugs to purify Eliesa's arteries, in the hope of preventing a second heart attack. Eliesa's protests that "I'm sixty-three and I'm on juvenat, I'm not over the bloody hill" are largely ignored.
-777.M41: Antal transfers Eliesa to Inquisitor Ferraz in order to continue her training.
-782.M41: Eliesa "borrows" two full squads of Enforcers on Omyr and launches a three-way pincer assault on a genestealer cult. Courtesy of a loose floorboard, she inadvertantly gets the drop on, and kills, the cult's Patriarch by "landing on its head, priming a meltabomb, and running really fast".
-787.M41: Waaagh! Gashnak descends upon Ralvoth, forcing Eliesa to abandon an independent investigation. Under her own initiative, Eliesa attaches herself first to a PDF tank squadron, then to the command elements of the Tantonian 17th Field Artillery when reinforcements arrive from Tantis Prime. Through sheer persistence and force of will, Eliesa manages to insert herself into Col Horish's command staff, before overruling most of his directives on Inquisitor Ferraz's authority. Accordingly, ammunition expenditure proves to be higher than expected, but within five weeks of the Tantonians' arrival, the punishing barrage has torn through the Orks like wildfire, and Boss Gashnak himself is killed by several extreme-range hits from Alpha Battery's Basilisks. Col Horish receives a considerable number of decorations for his unit's role in the fighting.
-787.M41: For a successful baptism by fire, Eliesa is ordained as a full Inquisitor and is invited to join the Ordo Xenos.
-792.M41: A second, catastrophic heart attack hospitalises Eliesa, and in order to save her life, the medicae make a decision to replace her heart with cybernetics.
-804.M41: Eliesa nearly dies when a Dark Eldar haywire blaster disables her heart and bionic lung. Although she makes a full recovery, the Halsettan Magi are insistent that she install an electromagnetic failsafe mechanism. Eliesa undergoes another pneumonectomy and lung replacement at the behest of the Magi, in order to optimise the working of her new safeguards.
-816.M41: After seven hundred and fifty-two years of devoted service to the Martian Priesthood, Archmagos Veneratus Kriek passes on peacefully and becomes one with the Omnissiah. Eliesa attends Kriek's funeral and data recovery on Halsetta.
-843.M41: A Rhino carrying Eliesa is attacked by Mechanicus schismaticals armed with EMP grenades. Eliesa's failsafe activates and although she is left unconscious, the failsafe ensures that oxygenated blood can still reach her brain and keep her alive. The Rhino itself is beyond repair and is commended to the Omnissiah. Eliesa resolves to stay away from the front lines as a precaution.
-860.M41: A miner on Sairtar infiltrates a heretical cult, then kills all of its twenty-seven members with a rock drill and a plasma cutter. Eliesa recruits the young Ottakar Grant as hired muscle.
-889.M41: During an Ork attack on Melvorna, Eliesa's Acolyte Primus is killed in action by Big Boss Kandrekka. Ottakar is given a formal promotion to Acolyte Primus when he brings Kandrekka's severed head to Eliesa.
-890.M41: Eliesa transfers Ottakar to Inquisitor Yngvésson.
-892.M41: Yngvésson transfers Interrogator Grant back to a somewhat confused Eliesa.
-898.M41: Eliesa transfers Ottakar to Inquisitor Ferraz, who then transfers him immediately to Inquisitor Severus Nock, of the Ordo Hereticus Norikian, in what Eliesa calls "a farcical inter-Ordo scrumball match".
-916.M41: Eliesa is called upon to ordain Ottakar Grant as a full Inquisitor. Much to her disappointment, Grant chooses to accept Nock's offer of joining the Ordo Hereticus Norikian, rather than becoming part of the Ordos Seltheran.
-936.M41: Eliesa partakes in a joint operation with Inquisitors Antal and Grant to tackle the Lecah Murders, eventually uncovering a Khornate death cult operating across the system. The murders on Lecah itself are stopped, but the nearby world of Adin becomes the site of a full-blown daemonic incursion, and the Black Templars and Leucavian 193rd Armoured are called in to stop the corruption from spreading to Lecah.
-937.M41: Though Inquisitor Antal is judged to be pure, Eliesa notices that the events on Adin have left him mentally scarred.
-940.M41: In recognition of her long and devoted service to the Imperium, the Seltheran Sector Conclave permit Eliesa the indefinite loan of the Dictator-class cruiser Quietus. Eliesa suspects that Antal and Ferraz have been calling in favours.
-947.M41: Inquisitor Grant transfers his Acolyte Primus, Savant-Militant Clarence Hawkswood, to Eliesa, who promptly nominates him as an Interrogator.
-950.M41: Word reaches Eliesa that Ottakar Grant has transferred to the Ordo Xenos.
-962.M41: The dissident Hollow Sun movement stages an uprising on Halsetta. Eliesa intervenes to counter Hollow Sun's "heterodoxy" with extreme prejudice, a distinct lack of subtlety, and a very large gun. The Halsettan Magi are appreciative of Eliesa's consistent dedication to the forge world's defence, and present her with an even larger gun as thanks.
-976.M41: Clarence Hawkswood is ordained as an Inquisitor, but declines to join an Ordo.
-994.M41: Reasoning that having a psyker on her staff would be useful, Eliesa recruits a young sanctioned telepath by the name of Acacia Lelant and maintains her as an aide.
-998.M41: Eliesa takes an interest in the Taros campaign, but is already too busy engaging in a war of words with the Storm Chaser Corsairs above Tantis Prime. Eliesa concludes that "the only things more infuriating than Eldar and diplomats are Eldar diplomats", but somehow convinces the Storm Chasers to depart.
-998.M41: Inquisitor Antal leaves the Seltheran Sector and departs for distant Carthax.
-001.M42: Eliesa recruits Sergeant Eirick Visstra, a sharpshooter in the Leucavian 12th Grenadiers, during the Vertataiken Reclaiming and attaches him to her personal staff.
-001.M42: In the wake of the Vertataiken Reclaiming, Enginseer Melantha Kranat, a Halsettan attached to the Leucavian 12th, is approached by Eliesa and asked to join her staff in a bid to strengthen Eliesa's relationship with the Halsettan Magi.
-003.M42: Eliesa discovers that a Rogue Trader Tamara Venechesko is smuggling and trading xeno artefacts on Valois.
-003.M42: Ceridwyn Grieve, an upper-hive bounty hunter on Valois, is found foiling the same Cold Trade operation that Eliesa herself is trying to halt. Upon witnessing Grieve's skills in combat, Eliesa recruits her and puts her through formal training. Eliesa later finds out that not only is Grieve an accomplished killer, but -- to Eliesa's mild discomfort -- that she is also an experienced courtesan.
-003.M42: Although the Cold Trade ring is broken and the Cold Traders' partners among the Valosian nobility are incarcerated, Eliesa is somewhat displeased upon discovering that Venechesko has already left the system.
-007.M42: Elements of the Norikian and Seltheran Sector Conclaves are attacked by Inquisitor Asgeir Yngvésson during a cross-Conclave meeting. Aside from Eliesa, Inquisitors Grant, Nock and Ferraz are injured by psychic lightning, and two other Seltheran Inquisitors are killed. Eliesa stays conscious for long enough to unload a shotgun into Yngvésson's belly, causing him to lose control and electrocute himself. Opinions are divided on whether Yngvésson was possessed or a traitor, but nonetheless Yngvésson's assets are impounded.
-007.M42: Eliesa is told by a Magos Biologis that the damage to her nervous system was severe enough that she will never walk again, and even cybernetics will be of little help.
-007.M42: Magos Biologis Devries is hospitalised with a broken face, but admits that he "probably should have seen it coming".
-007.M42: Eliesa's tank chair is commissioned on Halsetta.
-008.M42: Nock departs for the Dalthus Sector. Grant leaves at the same time, heading instead for Carthax.
-009.M42: Inquisitor Gervasio Ferraz's health begins to deteriorate. The medicae give Ferraz another two years at the most, although Eliesa takes it upon herself to deliver the news personally.
-009.M42: Eliesa and Inquisitor Hawkswood are called upon to counter a Tauist uprising on Tsuikelyon, and a Deathwatch kill-team is deployed to engage the secessionists' Tau masters. Both Inquisitors also uncover a haemovore cult in servitude to the powers of Chaos, using the Tau incursion as a convenient cover. The haemovore cult is purged, the Tau driven away, and Tsuikelyon returned to Imperial control.
-010.M42: An astropathic communiqué reaches Eliesa that Inquisitor Gideon Antal has been killed in action fighting a daemonic incursion in the Carthax Sector. Inquisitor Grant, also in Carthax, expresses his deepest condolences, but informs Eliesa that Antal died "with a gun in his hand and a prayer on his lips".
-010.M42: Inquisitor Clarence Hawkswood is found dead in a Valosian bordello. Eliesa suspects cult activity and, courtesy of Ceridwyn Grieve's underworld knowledge, hunts down and kills the perpetrators.
-011.M42: Inquisitor Gervasio Ferraz passes away at the venerable age of three hundred and thirty-six. Although Eliesa is by no means a stranger to the deaths of people she knows, she comments that all of her peers are "dropping like flies". Rather than wonder when the Emperor's angels will come for her, Eliesa resolves to "live as old as I frakking well can, and go out with a two-fingered salute to the Emperor's enemies".
-012.M42: Eliesa expresses curiosity in the Arch Worlds, and returns the Quietus to the Seltheran Sector Conclave, in exchange for the much smaller, but somewhat more practical Firestorm-class frigate Mataris Alpha. By the time of Eliesa's arrival, however, the bulk of the investigation has already concluded and the Abraxian Sector Conclave is already forming a cordon around Scylla.
-012.M42: Eliesa's operatives locate Rogue Trader Tamara Venechesko on the fringes of the Dalthus Sector. Eliesa launches a pre-emptive strike against Venechesko's ship, the Sword-class Seeker of Solace, and in the resultant boarding action Venechesko is slain.
-013.M42: Eliesa, posing as Rogue Trader Venechesko, enters the Dalthus Sector in a bid to expose and terminate Venechesko's remaining links with the Cold Trade. During one such attempt, she encounters the Dalthan Inquisitor Asandrea Corvus attempting to do the same, and finds herself engaging with Dalthan sector politics more rapidly than she might have anticipated.
-013.M42: The present day.

[Koval]

Now that the reams of background are out the way, we get round to Eliesa's game profile. Most of the tank-chair rules were stolen shamelessly from Jarec Tobin's bike; similarities are intentional, although references to bikes are not.

(Yes, she is supposed to have a multilaser; in terms of me writing the character, she's had it for two and a half years.)





WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
59 71 46 67 66 83 76 78 81

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Tantis-pattern laspistol (one reload), average bionic heart, average bionic lungs, electromagnetic failsafe, Tank Chair

Skills and Talents: Heroic, Leader

Tantis-pattern laspistol: As a Tantonian copy of the Thacian-pattern laspistol (albeit one resembling a Kantrael Defender), this weapon has the following profile:

Type   Range  Mode  Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J     Sg    -   3D6-1    36      2    19

Electromagnetic Failsafe: This curious device serves as a ward mechanism, protecting sensitive and vulnerable machinery from the worst effects of EMP and haywire devices. Eliesa has one fitted in her heart, allowing her cardiovascular system to continue functioning should it otherwise go offline.
Should Eliesa ever be affected by a weapon, psychic power or ability that disables her bionic heart and lungs (for example, a haywire grenade), she will automatically suffer System Shock as her bionics fail her. However, the failsafe will keep her organs working at a reduced capacity, meaning that she will not die from her cardiovascular system becoming disabled.

Tank Chair: See rules below.
Eliesa's chair has Toughness 80, AV 7 on the body, and AV 4 on the tracks. It is equipped with a bio-scanner, a vid-recorder, spotlights, a life support system (redundant), and an integrated Halsetta-pattern light multilaser. Additionally, the chair incorporates a conversion field generator, protecting Eliesa but not the chair itself.

Redundant Life Support: Despite Eliesa's protests, her chair was constructed with a full life support system. Eliesa keeps it turned off, as experience has demonstrated that she does not yet need it.
Eliesa's life support system comes with a rebreather that she occasionally finds useful. The life support has no further effect at this time.

Halsetta-pattern light multilaser: The forge world of Halsetta produces a multilaser variant that began as something of a design accident. Attempts by the Halsettan Magi to produce a rapid-firing assault lasgun initially met with failure, as the high fire rates tended to burn out the lasing chamber after going through only a few charge cells. Undaunted, the Magi continued experimenting, and settled for a bulkier weapon with heavier, more resilient components. Though unpopular with the Imperial Guard, the Halsettan multilaser has managed to find a niche as a sentry gun in secure compounds. Eliesa's chair incorporates a Halsettan multilaser, disguised as part of her life support until deployed.

The Halsetta-pattern multilaser is constructed using a power feed, an extended barrel, a standard muzzle, a 19MTh lasing chamber, a Halsetta-pattern discharge generator, and a standard frame. It has the following profile:
Type   Range     Mode      Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Heavy    C   Sm(2,4)/F(8)  -5   3D6-1    40     [8]   50
Deploying the multilaser takes one action; the resulting hiss may be heard by anyone within 20 yards.

Low Recoil: This weapon has little to no recoil, making rapid fire significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.
[...]
A number with square brackets indicates the number of shots recharged at the end of any turn the weapon goes unfired.

Halsetta-pattern discharge generator:
--Shot modes: Semi(2,4)/Full(8). Power modes: Low only.
--Changes weapon type to Heavy. +25 Enc. Rare.





The Tank Chair
Motorised transport is a frequent sight in the Imperium, but turning a means of transportation into a display of affluence is less common. More unusual is the individual who, for whatever reason, uses this technology almost exclusively, even instead of walking. Typically, this is the preserve of the extremely wealthy or ostenatious, who for some reason or another consider walking to be either unnecessary, too much effort, or just plain undignified, and so use chairs with motorised wheels or even automated legs of their own as a status symbol. A few adepts of the Mechanicus use similar technology for their own benefit.

When Inquisitor Eliesa Schwertwald was crippled in action, the Magos Biologis attending her discovered that the damage to her nervous system was too severe even for cybernetic legs to remedy; although subdermal bracing has since been fitted, Eliesa can take only a few unsteady steps as the bracing itself has to walk for her. As an alternative solution, adapting the motorised chairs of affluent upper-hive nobility for Eliesa's benefit was a simple matter; it was deemed unbecoming of an active and highly regarded Inquisitor to stop with mere pomp and ostentation, however, and when Eliesa's chair was designed, the Mechanicus adepts constructing it opted for tank tracks instead of wheels or mechanical legs, and added extra armour and even a weapon mount so that the Inquisitor could continue to persecute her enemies. She does, however, insist that the life support system is not yet necessary.

Tank Chair Movement
-Basic Movement: Eliesa may walk, run, or sprint as normal in the tank chair. Obviously Eliesa is incapable of actually walking anywhere, but for simplicity's sake her movement rates will retain their names.
-Tank chairs are not subtle things. Eliesa may not crawl, sneak, or evade.
-Turning: If Eliesa is walking or running, she may turn as normal. If sprinting, Eliesa may make only a 45-degree turn, either at the start or end of her move.
-Difficult Terrain: If Eliesa is walking, she ignores the effects of difficult ground -- the tank chair is designed for uneven terrain. Eliesa may also walk up a straight stairway at her normal rate, although curved or spiral stairways are not possible to navigate. (Apply common sense if there are landings.)
-Obstacles: Obstacles lower than one yard in height are considered to be difficult ground (even if walking); taller obstacles are impossible to navigate.
-Eliesa may not climb, swim, or jump.
-If the terrain looks particularly unstable (a rickety wooden bridge, for example), then it will give way should Eliesa attempt to traverse it.
-Doors: Eliesa cannot open a door herself except by attacking it; she requires other characters to actually open the door. Passing through a doorway requires a successful Initiative test; if passed, Eliesa crosses the threshold and stops on the other side of the door, but if failed, Eliesa stops at the threshold and must continue attempting to pass through.
-Obviously, if the doorway is barely wide enough for a single person on foot, Eliesa cannot pass through it.
-Conversely, if the doorway is very wide, Eliesa may pass through it freely without needing to test Initiative.

Tank Chairs and Shooting
-Personal weapons: Eliesa may shoot her own weapons normally, but should ideally keep one hand on the chair's controls.
-Mounted weapons: The multilaser mounted on the chair itself is fired using Eliesa's own BS. However, owing to Eliesa's partial reliance on a targeting cogitator, all bonuses received from Aim actions are halved.
-Off-hand and Strength-related penalties do not apply when firing a mounted weapon. (Designer's note: The weapon is attached to a gun mount, and Eliesa operates the trigger remotely; she isn't actually holding it.)

Tank Chairs and Close Combat
-As Eliesa has no actual weapons of her own save for her laspistol, she may make a "ram" attack with the tank chair itself. This requires Eliesa to be either charging or at arm's length. Rather than using her WS, test Initiative to hit the target instead; on a success, the ramming attack deals 2D6+3 damage to the target's legs (randomise which), causing double damage for the purposes of Knockback.
-Ramming attacks may not be parried, but can be dodged.
-If Eliesa rams a prone target, this becomes 2D10+6 damage to a random location as she runs over the unfortunate character.
-Eliesa may not parry attacks, and all of her Dodge rolls are at -20 in addition to any other modifiers.

Tank Chairs and Damage
-Eliesa's tank chair has Toughness and Armour just like normal characters. It therefore has a BIV and a Consciousness value as well. However, the tank chair ignores System Shock and Knockback.
-If the tank chair takes enough damage to bring it above its Consciousness value, it is taken out of action and breaks down immediately (which also robs Eliesa of her multilaser and conversion field!). If the chair ever takes enough damage to bring its Injury total above its Instant Death threshold, it explodes; resolve a frag grenade explosion directly underneath Eliesa, who is killed instantly.
-Tank chairs are large targets. Characters attacking Eliesa add +20 to their To-Hit roll.
-Attacks against Eliesa have a 60% chance of hitting the chair instead; however, attacks from behind Eliesa will hit the chair automatically. If a shot hits the chair, there is a further 40% chance of hitting the closest track; other shots hit the chair's body. Tank chair locations have five Injury levels: Superficial, Light, Heavy, Serious, and Wrecking.

The body has the following Injury chart:
--Superficial: No effect
--Light: Reduce the chair's body armour by 2 points.
--Heavy: Eliesa suffers a -10 penalty to her BS when firing her multilaser as the tracking system begins to break down.
--Serious: Eliesa's conversion field shorts out and provides no further protection.
--Wrecking: Resolve a superfrag missile explosion directly underneath Eliesa as the chair explodes. Eliesa is killed instantly and the chair is destroyed.

The tracks have the following Injury chart:
--Superficial: No effect
--Light: Reduce the track's armour by 1 point.
--Heavy: Reduce all movement rates by one yard.
--Serious: Sprinting, and moving across difficult terrain at any speed, become Risky Actions; if failed, Eliesa must forfeit her next action to regain control of her chair.
--Wrecking: The track breaks down and the chair is immediately immobilised.

Other
-Awareness: Eliesa's chair is fitted with spotlights. If Eliesa uses the spotlights, she halves all Awareness penalties for low light conditions when testing to see things in front of her. Conversely, anything in front of Eliesa halves all low-light Awareness penalties when testing to see her.
-Tank chairs are not built for subtlety. Treble all distances at which Eliesa's movement may be heard.
-Eliesa: Neither Eliesa nor the chair may fall prone; ignore anything that tells them to go prone. The sole exception to this is if the chair is prone after falling, in which case it takes a whole turn for the chair's self-righting mechanisms to right it. Note that the chair will do this automatically even if Eliesa is stunned; she might be stunned, but the chair won't be.
-Eliesa is immune to Knockback.
-If Eliesa should go out of action for any reason, then her chair will come to a halt.
-Special Injury Rules: The tank chair does not make Recovery tests, nor is it affected by psychic powers with restorative effects (such as Regenerate); repairing it takes place outside the scope of a game.
-The chair ignores Blood Loss (as it has no blood to lose) and cannot be stunned, though Eliesa cannot say the same.
-Haywire grenades and similar effects will instantly render the chair non-functional for the effect's duration; this also shuts down Eliesa's conversion field.
-Obviously, the chair is mechanical, and is therefore affected by Machine Empathy and similar powers.

[Koval]

And finally Eliesa's personal staff.



NAME: Acacia Lelant

RANK / AFFILIATION: Sanctioned Psyker / Scholastica Psykana (answers only to Eliesa)

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (5)456971.M41
Place Of Birth: Estu, Segmentum Tempestus
Gender: Female
Height: 170cm
Weight: 55kg

ELIESA ON ACACIA:
Acacia's been on my staff for eighteen years. She's also useful beyond measure, even if I have to put up with the strange idiosyncracies of psykers. Her talents lie in playing mind-games with people, bolstering her allies' resolve and misdirecting her enemies, which would've made her only too valuable to the Imperial Guard had I not recruited her first. The Scholastica Psykana were almost too quick to let me have her, actually, although I suppose they noticed my gun collection and reasoned that I was sufficiently militant to need Acacia.

In my opinion, there's a place for a psyker on most Inquisitors' personal staff. Admittedly, I didn't bother for years, but I've operated with psykers before, and I've got psykers working in independent cells; however, it wasn't until Clarence came along sixty-five years ago that I realised that actually maintaining one as an aide has its advantages. To be fair, Acacia isn't exactly a fighter, but if I'd wanted someone who could throw fireballs, I'd have petitioned the Scholastica Psykana for a pyromancer. Instead, I've taken to employing her when I need to resort to subterfuge, or when a kind word gets the job done better than a big gun. It seems to be more her element, and it also means that she can work on her own, or with Eirick, if I need her for covert ops while I'm elsewhere. I just wish she were able to hold her own in a fight.


WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
49 52 45 48 63 70 64 57 63

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Mars-pattern laspistol (one reload), focal rod, impact-braid clothing (AV 2 on chest and abdomen, AV 1 on all other locations except head)

Skills and Talents: None

Psychic Powers: Demoralise, Distraction, Inspire, Psyniscience, Suggestion, Telepathy


Mars-pattern laspistol:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J  Sg/Sm(2/3)  -   2D6+1    32      2    12

Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has no recoil or nearly no recoil, making rapid fire  significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.

Focal rod: Staves like this are used by some psykers in a similar manner to a force rod. While not an actual force weapon, it nonetheless allows a psyker a greater level of focus and control over his or her powers.
When held by a psyker, this confers the same effect as a psi-booster (note that the bonus from a focal rod does not stack with a psi-booster). It counts as an improvised weapon in close combat.

Inspire: Difficulty 15. Pick one character of which the psyker is aware. That character immediately overcomes the effects of Pinning, and gains the Nerves of Steel ability until the end of the psyker's next turn.

Suggestion: Difficulty 0. The psyker immediately attempts to Persuade or Threaten the target character, testing against full Willpower rather than against half-Leadership. All other rules for Persuasion or Threats apply.
Special: Obviously, the psyker must be interacting with another character to Persuade or Threaten them.





NAME: Eirick Visstra

RANK / AFFILIATION: Sergeant / Leucavian 12th Grenadiers

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (5)672977.M41
Place Of Birth: Lecah, Seltheran Sector
Gender: Male
Height: 170cm
Weight: 70kg

ELIESA ON EIRICK:
I can't say the Vertataiken Reclaiming was the most pleasant campaign in which I've fought, but Sgt Visstra made it slightly more bearable. We never had specialist marksman units in the 457th, and in my experience, the special weapon sections tend to be more of a close-in element, but I lost count of how many heretics that man's section pinned down. And he really knew what he was doing. Once he'd fulfilled his primary objective, he'd go off on his own initiative and have his unit take out other strategic targets as well, which no doubt hamstrung the heretics we were fighting, but annoyed his company commander to no end. I had to more or less pull rank on their Commissar and take responsibility for the section's behaviour just to stop him from executing Eirick, before attaching him to my command on an indefinite basis. When Eirick came back alone after an operation went sideways, I made his new appointment more permanent, as his sort of initiative is wasted in the rank-and-file.

Eirick's useful. He's overly talkative off the field -- usually to himself -- and tends to pop up in the most unexpected places, but he's the sort that would follow you to the end of the universe and back again. He's good at finding a vantage point and supporting me with covering fire. When I need him for covert ops, chances are he'll take his time going over all the necessary precautions before making damn sure he gets the job done. I can't say I regret recruiting him; now if only he'd shut up a bit more.


WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
56 63 60 57 62 59 51 63 60

Handedness: Right

Equipment: Isencor Mk.XI support lasgun (three reloads), Lecah-pattern compact laspistol (one reload), two frag grenades, flak armour (AV 3) on all locations.

Skills and Talents: Deadeye Shot, Survivor

Isencor Mk.XI support lasgun: This weapon was designed as a designated marksman rifle, and is issued to local Imperial Guard units whose sharpshooters and marksmen are also required to support their platoon with accurate long-ranged fire. Although not the most powerful or sophisticated weapon of its kind, Isencor's Mk.XI is easy to manufacture and use, as it shares most of its components with standard service lasguns.
The Isencor Mk.XI is constructed using a military magazine, an extended barrel, a redshift muzzle attachment, a 19MTh lasing chamber, a Kantrael-pattern discharge generator, a standard frame and a skeleton stock. It is also fitted with a telescopic sight. It has the following profile:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Basic    C    Sg/Sm(3)  +5   3D6-1     50      2    45
The Isencor Mk.XI is Uncommon among Imperial Guard units from Isencor, Lecah and Tantis Prime, and Rare elsewhere.

Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has little to no recoil, making rapid fire significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.
[...]
Redshift Attachment: Rending(2) damage. Armour is increased by half (rounding down).
[...]
Low power is the option presented in the profile. ... High power is at quadruple ammunition use, but +4 to damage.
[...]
Telescopic Sight: +1% bonus to each aim action (cumulative) for each full 5 yards to the target, to a maximum of +10%.

Lecah-pattern compact laspistol: Popular with covert ops teams and soldiers already carrying bulky primary weapons, this easily concealed weapon packs a similar level of stopping power to the standard-issue laspistol into a frame a little over half the size.
The Lecah compact laspistol is constructed using a military magazine, a standard muzzle, a short barrel, an 18MTh lasing chamber, a Mars-pattern discharge generator, a standard grip and a compact frame. It has the following profile:

Type   Range   Mode     Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   E   Sg/Sm(2,3)  -    2D6+1     16      2    8
The Lecah compact laspistol is Common among Imperial Guard and PDF units from Lecah, and Uncommon elsewhere.

Survivor:

The character has a finely-honed sense for danger – and how to avoid it.
When the character fails a Pinning test, he dives D6+2 yards towards cover, rather than the usual D6. In addition, whenever a Pinning test is failed voluntarily, the character need not use his next successful action to recover.

NAME: Melantha Kranat

RANK / AFFILIATION: Enginseer / Leucavian 12th Grenadiers (Halsetta)

Date of Birth: (4)548969.M41
Place Of Birth: Forgeworld Halsetta, Seltheran Sector
Gender: Female
Height: 170cm
Weight: 75kg

ELIESA ON MELANTHA:
Most of the Enginseers I've encountered in local Imperial Guard regiments have either been from out of sector, or they've been from Isencor or Tantis Prime or another one of these industrialised worlds with lesser Mechanicus holdings. In that respect, the Leucavian 12th are quite fortunate to have a higher-than-average number of Halsettans, and came the Vertataiken Reclaiming it just so happened that I got to know one of them.

Melantha isn't really one for frontline combat. Not many Enginseers are, unless they've operated with a Skitarii unit. She tries, though, and she's not a bad shot with a laspistol when push comes to shove, but the real reason I keep her around is because she's a dab hand with machinery; to be fair, so are most members of the Mechanicus, but most members of the Mechanicus haven't gone out of their way to maintain my wargear in the middle of an extended campaign. Since I've been stuck in this chair, she's had her hands full just making sure it works, but she doesn't complain about it. She's also hugely influential in maintaining my relations with Halsetta, as although she's only an Enginseer, she's still one of them, which means that I can show them that I'm still on their side.


WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
53 56 ** 49 50 67 71 58 54

**Natural Strength 52. Left arm 40, right arm 26, combined Strength 66

Handedness: Left

Equipment: Lecah-pattern service laspistol, shock staff, Halsettan Enginseer's armour (AV 3 on all locations, with average audiovisual autosense suite inc. integrated motion tracker auspex), average bionic left arm (S 40), average bionic lungs, vocal implant, Arca Fabriliae

Skills and Talents: Speak Lingua Technis

Lecah-pattern service laspistol: These weapons are the standard service sidearm for Leucavian Imperial Guard and PDF units. They are frequently marked with their manufacturer's coat of arms, and although the weapon's design is standardised, pistols made by a more highly regarded weaponsmith will fetch a higher price based on reputation alone.
The Lecah-pattern laspistol is constructed using a military magazine, a standard muzzle, a mid-length barrel, an 19MTh lasing chamber, a Necromunda-pattern discharge generator, a standard grip and a standard frame. It has the following profile:

Type   Range   Mode    Acc    Dam    Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J    Sg/Sm(4)  -    2D6+2     24      2    15

Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has no recoil or nearly no recoil, making rapid fire  significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.

The Lecah-pattern laspistol is Very Common among Imperial Guard and PDF units from Lecah, and Common elsewhere.

Shock staff: This is a shock maul with Reach: 4, but which adds the user's Strength bonus only when used in two hands.

Vocal implant: Aside from giving Melantha's voice an unpleasant mechanical edge, this has no in-game effect. Note that anything capable of disabling machinery will reduce Melantha to communicating in charades (assuming, of course, that her lungs are still online!)

Arca Fabriliae: An arcane, bulky unit commonly seen on servitors and some of the more practically minded Tech-Adepts, this contains tools for all purposes, whether opening a maintenance panel with a multikey, holding objects in place with an extending manipulator arm, or jump-starting a ground-car motor using the device's built-in power pack.
The array of tools within the Arca Fabriliae confers a +10 bonus to all tests taken when interacting with machinery. The manipulator arm, which is operated via a neural link (treat as MIU), is treated as an additional Strength 60 bionic arm. The arm may be targeted and attacked by other characters, and may be hit on a roll of 101+ after modifiers. It has AV 3 and uses the Arm damage table, but attacks made against the servo-arm will not add points to Melantha's Injury total.
Special: An Arca Fabriliae has Enc 50 and prevents the user from sprinting. It is Rare within the Adeptus Mechanicus, and Exotic for those outside it.

Speak Lingua Technis: Melantha can speak Lingua Technis. In game terms, this gives her a +10 bonus to her Sagacity when operating complex tech, and allows her to speak with other servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus (including servitors) without being understood by those outside the Omnissiah's service.





NAME: Ceridwyn "Kerrie" Grieve

RANK / AFFILIATION: None / Answers only to Eliesa

PHYSICAL STATS:
Date of Birth: (5)596984.M41
Place Of Birth: Valois, Seltheran Sector
Gender: Female
Height: 180cm
Weight: 65kg

ELIESA ON CERIDWYN:
Miss Grieve, for want of a better expression, is a little blonde fireball. She's fast, clever, and she can do things with a knife that you just wouldn't believe until you've seen her in action. A pity, then, that my first experience of her was as an enemy.

I was on Valois hunting down a Cold Trade syndicate headed by a Rogue Trader Venechesko. They were smuggling Eldar artifacts, as I remember, and even if people don't quite realise what Eldar tech actually does, it still fetches quite a high price. I encountered them and moved to shut them down, but little did I know at the time that I wasn't the only one chasing them. Apparently, they were being sponsored by a corrupt noble house, and one of their more upstanding rivals had taken out a hit on the Cold Traders and Venechesko, in a twofold bid to gain favour with the authorities and damage the other noble house. The hitwoman they'd hired happened to be Ceridwyn Grieve, and I was unfortunate enough to make her acquaintance at knifepoint in one of the Valosian spires. We ended up competing with one another to shut the Cold Traders down; I had my connections and resource network, but Kerrie knew the hive a lot better than I did, and neither of us could catch up with the Cold Traders until we'd agreed to cooperate. Once that was taken care of, we took out the Cold Traders between us, and I went further up the spire to "have words with" their noble backer. Venechesko, on the other hand, had already made herself scarce, but tracking her wasn't hard.

Kerrie took to Inquisition service rather more readily than I'd anticipated. She was a bounty huntress by profession in the spire, so she was already a resourceful killer, and entering my service just gave her a new way to apply her talents. I put her through assassin training, but it felt almost like a formality. One thing that worries me about her, though, is her "other" former occupation as a hive-spire courtesan, and how readily she turns on the charm to get closer to her mark; she's safe enough, but I can't ever shake the feeling that Kerrie trying to seduce a target could go horribly wrong, both for her and for myself.


WS BS S  T  I  Wp Sg Nv Ld
67 58 51 48 70 62 57 60 69

Handedness: Right (trained ambidexterity)

Equipment: Mars-pattern laspistol (one reload), two knives (Stun toxin), short sword (Bloodfire toxin), hardened bodyglove (AV 2 on all locations except head and abdomen), fancy hat

Skills and Talents: Always Has Another Knife, Blademaster, Catfall, Courtesan, Persuasive


Trained Ambidexterity: Courtesy of Kerrie's assassin training, she is almost as adept at using her left hand as her right. Any actions Kerrie takes with her off-hand are at half the usual penalty.

Fancy Hat: Eliesa has no idea where or when Kerrie acquired her hat, but it nonetheless lends her a certain flair.
Other than inviting comments from fashion-conscious characters, Kerrie's hat has no in-game effect.

Mars-pattern laspistol:
Type   Range   Mode    Acc   Dam   Shots  Reload  Wt
Pistol   J  Sg/Sm(2/3)  -   2D6+1    32      2    12

Low Recoil (LR): This weapon has no recoil or nearly no recoil, making rapid fire  significantly more accurate. For the purposes of firing on Semi or Full modes, there is a +10% accuracy bonus. For example, Semi (3) would only confer a -20% to hit, not -30%.

Always Has Another Knife:

Searched her pockets? Her belt? How about her hair? Shirtsleeves then. Shoes? It doesn't matter. Strip this girl naked if you like; as soon as your back is turned, a knife will be buried in it.
If any situation occurs in which Kerrie would be considered unarmed, she can spend an action unearthing yet another of her concealed blades -- these will be mundane knives. Note that these weapons will not be balanced for throwing, so they would count as an improvised weapon if she wishes to use them at range.

Special: Any knives that Kerrie generates using this ability will be unpoisoned.

Courtesan: Prior to making a Persuade test, Kerrie may use this ability on an opposing male character, in an attempt to "persuade" him through courtship.
--If the opposing character is likely to be seduced by a determined killer with too many knives and half a mind to use them, he may attempt to resist the Persuade attempt on a quarter of his Willpower.
--If the opposing character has Compassion for another character (or is otherwise involved with someone else), he may resist the Persuade attempt using his full Willpower.
--If the opposing character is uninterested in women, or is immune to the temptations of the flesh, he may resist the Persuasion attempt using twice his Willpower.
--If the opposing character is a "playboy" (for example, if his name is Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, Hugh Hefner, or Jack Harkness), he may waive the resistance check and allow Kerrie to Persuade him, in exchange for automatically passing the Sagacity test needed to "reconsider" Kerrie's offer at a later time.
Obviously, the finer points of using this ability will need to be discussed between both involved players and the GM as and when it comes up, but a Persuaded character will still be Persuaded as normal.
Special: Kerrie is exclusively interested in men, so she may not use this ability on characters that do not present or identify as male.

Persuasive: Kerrie may make Persuade tests using her full Leadership.
Special: Kerrie may not attempt to Persuade Eliesa, or characters that Eliesa and Kerrie both consider friendly.