Confessor Itero's Warband

[Dorn]

I'm just working on my first warband and I have an ecclesiarchy warband in mind.

Confessor Itero's Warband

Eli Itero

He was born on the shrineworld Sepultra VII. Shortly after his birth his parents died by the Black Plague and he was one of the countless orphans on the world. He would have died, if the preacher Timotheus hadn't discovered his awaked spirit. Thimotheus learned the young boy to read and brought him books about the imperium and the most holy god-emperor. As a compensation for his dead parents, he took the emperor as his new father.
At the age of sixteen the boy entered the monastery Lux Imperatoris as a novice. At this time he took over a new name: Eli. Eli was one of the most pious brothers in the monastery and one day abbot Decius asked him to become a missionary of the Missionarus Galaxia. Eli asked for some time to think. In the following night Eli prayed in the chapel and had a vision of the emperor. The emperor said to him: "Bear my light to all men. Illuminate the darkness."
After the morning prayer Eli told the abbot, that he will go to travel among the stars.
Confessor Gallios de Damarsus took Eli with him. The first mission was the feudal world of Ares. At first the mission was very successful, but when they encountered the tribe of the Areoans Gallios and many of his followers were murdered. Eli was among the few who escaped their bloodthirsty foes. The Areoans took Gallios bones and made a totem out of it, but it should not serve them well. A few weeks later Eli returned with the help of sister Annais and 20 other Sororitas of the Argent Shroud. They exterminated the tribe of the Areoans. Not even the women or children where left alive.
After Eli's bloody revenge, he declared Gallios and his followers to the first martyrs of Ares. He build churches, schools and buildings of the Administratum. Soon the world became a part of the imperium. Lyrosius, the first governor of Ares, was so grateful for Eli's work, that he asked his friends in the ecclesiarchie to make Eli a Confessor.
Eli became a confessor and he did his service on many other imperial worlds, like Akro-Korinth or Isthmia. At the age of 63 he wanted to retire and went back to his monastery. Thimotheus and the Abbot Decius were already dead. Arius the new abbot, declared Eli to the master of novices. Eli lived a month in his monastery, before he saw the corruption that was growing in the sacred halls. He wanted to warn his brothers, but many were already corrupted. They poisoned him, like they did with Decius and Thimotheus. Half dead Eli fell on the floor of the great cathedral. Then he heard a familiar voice: "Bear my light to all men. Illuminate the darkness."
At this moment Eli knew, that his mission wasn't over. It had just started. Eli fled out of the monastery. However shortly after his escape he came back, with the Sororitas of sister Annais. They purged the monastery, burned Abbot Arius and his corrupted brothers. Only the pure uncorrupted monks, were 'only' sentence to acro-flagellantion.
Shortly after this incident Eli Itero was imprisoned by the orders of a cardinal from Ophelia VII. The cardinal's name was Desmosus. Eli was accused of destroying the monastery for no reason. Desmosus declared Eli Itero to be a heretic against the god-emperor himself. Eli was nearly sentenced to death by the tribunal on Ophelia VII, but Inquisitor Gojar managed to save him. The Inquisitor revealed the sins of Abbot Arius and showed that Eli was right.
The cardinal, who imprisoned Eli, showed his true face by attacking the Inquisitor. After a bloody fight the cardinal escaped and was he declared to be a heretic. Eli was free again and he promised the Inquisitor to hunt down the apostat cardinal Desmosus. This was Eli's new mission, his holy duty.

For those who speak german, I have written a more detailed background here: http://www.planet40k.de/geschichten/bezuglich-des-falles-itero-t3355.html

Statline
WS35 BS58 S46 T57 I53 WP74 Sg65 Nv63 Ld84
Old Statline: WS33 BS48 S43 T52 I45 WP66 Sg65 Nv57 Ld77

Armour
Head = 0
Arms, Abdomen, Feet= 2
Chest = 3
Gallios' ancient Rosarius (Conversion Shild 2D6)

Items
Relic on a Staff (used as a Staff cc weapon)

Maybe a relic Hot-Shot Duelling Laspistol? (that Eli took with him, when he burned down the monastery Lux Imperatoris)


Special Abilities
Leader
Word of the Emperor (At every turn start choose one of the four from the Thorian Sourcebook, only one per turn)


Jacob Xadres, Brother of the Burning Heart

Fluff in Progress

"Emperor, be my shield, so the deamon shall not hurt me. Be my light, so the deamon shall not mislead me. Be my sword, so the deamon shall not overcome me." - Prayer of the brothers of the Burning Heart

It is rumored that the Order of the Burning Heart was once founded by a thorian inquisitor. But those ancient legends are long forgotten and may be only found in the vast forbidden library beneath the monastery on Ophelia VII.
Nowadays the monastery is mostly a training facility. Three masters train the novices in the ways of war, rites and arts. The Prior monitors the overall progress of the novices, while a confessor is cultivating their spirituality and love to the god-emperor of mankind.
A special part in their education is the demonology, where the novices are told about the existence of demons and the true nature of the warp. Before a novice may start this extraordinary education he has to swear various oaths. Under no circumstance is he allowed to talk about those secrets with anyone, who is not a part of the order.
The master of rites shows the novices the most holy rituals of banishing a demon, while the master of war tells them how to use various weapons against the followers of chaos. In addition the master of art teaches them the preperation of an holy oil, that is used to coat the blades of the order. This oil is indeed a very powerful weapon against the ones tainted by the warp.
The Inquisition only tolerates this teachings, although they are not very fond about it. This is the reason why the order is especially monitored by the Inquisition and only the usefulness of the order's monks stopped them from closing down the facility.
After a novice completed his extensiv education, he is ordained by the grandmaster of the order. After the ordination ceremony most monks leave their monastery to serve imperial agents, mostly inquisitors or wealthy priests, as bodyguards, warriors, preachers or even as exorcists.
The imperial agents have to give the serving monk shelter and food and have to help him maintaining his equipment. Beside of that, they are paying a quite high sum of money directly to the grandmaster of the monastery. This money is used to maintain the strutures of the order.

Jacob Xadres came to the order as a young ten year old boy. Not even he knows, who his parents were, but most initiates come from poor families or were orphans. At the age of 27 he was ordained by the grandmaster. In the following 19 years, he served various imperial agents, from pious cardinals to rascal rouge traders, befor he was hired by Inquisitor Gojar to serve Confessor Eli Itero as a bodyguard. At the time he first met the confessor, he was a battlehardend 46-year old monk.

(I may write more about Jacob's life between 27-46 in the future)

Statline
WS68 BS64 S78 T68 I66 WP60 Sg45 Nv55 Ld38

Armour
Head = 0
Arm right = 5
Arm left = 3
Chest, Abdomen, Feet= 6

Items
Handflamer
Bastardsword (Falchion)
   - coated with a holy oil (+1d3 damage against cultists or +1d6 damage against psykers or +1d10 damage against deamons)

Special Abilities
Furios Assault
Word of the Emperor (standart version from the LivingRulebook)
May use complex rituals for banishing deamons (What these rituals are and how they are preformed should be decided by the GM; it is more an option for interesting roleplay or warband goals, like preforming the ritual)

Arbitor Senioris Javert, Arbites Judge

"Every man is born in sin
Every man must choose his way"

Born in jail, Javert knows the scum of the human society. But he choose his way to the holy law of the god-emperor himself. He rose from the gutter and joined the Adeptus Arbites. The divine law is everything for him. Every man has to decide for or against it. This decision is a final one. Someone who has fallen from the law is damned forever. Javert's holy duty is to hunt down those, who don't bow before the law. He preforms this task without the irritation of emotions. His world is black and white. No shades of grey exist for Javert, only good or evil.

Javert worked together with Eli on the world of Acro-Corinth. When Javert heard about the outcome of Eli's trial on Ophelia VII, he immediately joined the Confessor to hunt down the heretic cardinal. In Javert's opinion the heretic tried to abuse the law and for this serious crime he shall die.

Statline
WS 65 BS72 S65 T60 I70 WP77 Sg64 Nv69 Ld63

Armour
Head = 5 (Plasteel Arbites Helmet)
Chest, Abdomen, Arms, Feet= 6

Items
Shock Maul

Bolt Action Shotgun with Laser Sight (12 normal shotgun shells/ max. 6 Bolt shells) Javert is able of getting new Bolt shells from the local Arbites fortress.

Special Abilities
Dodge
...

Acro-Flagellant, Fallen Brother from the monastery Lux Imperatoris

Statline
WS60 BS20 S80 T80 I50 WP100 Sg10 Nv160 Ld15

Items
Two implanted Electro-Flails
Combat Stimm-Injectors (Slaught, Psychon, Reflex, Barrage / lasts for 50 turns)

Special Abilities
His triggerword is "Lux Imperatoris".


Nemesis

Apostat Cardinal Desmosus

Fluff in Progress

Nathan de Porta was born on the powerful Administratum-world of Scribor VII, which controlled almost half of the Carean Subsektor. His parents were two powerful officials of the Administratum. Nathan had an especially good education. When he was 21 years old he finished his education and entered the Administratum. He climbed the career ladder quickly. At the age of 30 he married Carina Morana and had three young children with her. His life was joyful and wealthy. But the times should change.
When Nathan was 37 years old, his father died by an sudden illness. Nahan's spirit was strong and awake, so he took over his father's duty swiftly.
Soon he discovered several discrepancies in the case of the rouge trader Xyphias. This special case was actually the last case his father was working on. Several documents had disappeared. When the autopsy of his father's body showed that the father was poisoned, Nathan expected the worst. He was eager to follow this trail of crime to it's origin. He wanted to see Xyphias dead.
Pure luck saved Nathan's life, when a bomb detonated in his office. Nathan was taken to the hospital, where he met the rouge trader Phillipo Navra, an old friend of the Porta family. Navra told him, that Xyphias' men destroyed the ancient family villa and killed Nathan's whole family. Not even the kids were left alive. Navra saved Nathan's life by smuggling him off the planet. The rouge trader hid Nathan in the Monastery of the holy Primarchs on Ophelia VII.
His mother, his relatives, his wife and children... They were all dead. All that remained was Nathan's bare life. Nathan was desperate and tried to commit suicide. Gull Farring, the monastery's abbot, managed to save his life.
All Nathan could see, was the vile corruption in the imperium of men. The swamp in which all the righteous have to die. The abbot told him, that the righteous can change that. He showed him the way of the emperor, the way of faith.
Somehow he convinced Nathan. Nathan became a monk and took over a new name: Desmosus. A new life had started.
At the age of 59 Desmosus became a missionary and traveled among the stars. After several years he became a confessor and got the chance to take revenge on the rouge trader Xyphias.
In the landing bay of the trading makropol Ferringhall Xyphias' personal Aquila Lander crashed. Nobody ever knew that this was not an accident. In the following years Desmosus used his new unknow identity to kill all those who took part in the intrigue against his family. While the years passed Desmosus became a famous preacher of the emperor's word.
On the feudal world of Amaria Desmosus was wounded by an poisoned arrower. Although a local shaman could save Desmosus life, the confessor's flesh was marked by the terrible poison. Desmosus started wearing a mask, a white skull, to hide his corrupted body.
Desmosus was 77 years old, when a bitter message reached him. Abbot Gull Farring was declared to be a heretic and Cardinal Macros had burned him on the stake. Desmosus travelt back to Ophelia VII and found his monastery in flames. Desmosus swore bitter revenge.
Desmosus met the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Alicia Raven, who was investigating against Macros  since he burned the innocent Gull Farring. In the famous trial in the Sanguiem Cathedral Desmosus and Raven proofed that actually Macros was the heretic, while Farring was rehabilitated. Together Desmosus and Raven destroyed secret cult of decay. The heretic cardinal was burned and Desmosus became the new cardinal. After the residence of Macros was purified by the Inquisition, Desmosus decided to live there.
Several years after the trial Desmosus found a book in Marcos' old villa. It was of heretic origin and Desmosus wanted to burn it. He threw it into the flames, but it stayed untouched by the flames. Desmosus took his relic Boltpistol to shoot the damned book in parts, before he could pull the trigger the book showed him a way to cure his corrupted flesh.
Desmosus started reading the book and became eager to preform the ritual, the book showed him. A new cult of decay started rising around of Desmosus and the cardinal sent his servants to aquire the parts for the ritual.
Arius, one of his acolyths became the abbot of the monastery Lux Imperatoris. But abbot Arius had no luck, because he was burned by a confessor, called Eli Itero, for heresy. Desmosus became angry about this incident and wanted see Eli Itero dead. The confessor was imprisoned and taken to Ophelia VII.
The trial of the confessor was interrupted by  Inquisitor Gojar. Gojar's agents freed Eli Itero and took him to the monastery of the Sororitas Order of the Bloody Rose. Gojar took the lead in the trial and proofed Arius guilt. Gojar even accused Desmosus to be a heretic.
Together with his acolyths Desmosus attacked Gojar. The cardinal knew, that all witnesses of the trial had to die. A bloody fight took place and both sides accused the other one of heresy. Finally Gojar's men defeated Desmosus and the cardinal escaped barely with the help of the rouge trader Phillipo Navra.
Desmosus called Inquisitor Raven for help. They formed an alliance against Gojar and his acolyths. A war within the Inquisition was upon to start...

[renegade thor]

Sounds good so far, like the back ground and look forward to seeing how u progress this and the miniatures you create.

[Dorn]

So I have updated the Statlines, Items, Armour, Special Abilities of Jacob and the Flagellant. I also gave my Confessor specific weapons. What do u think about it? Is a boltpistol too strong? Or does it fit for the main charakter?

Another rule specific question: Who does the barrage-characteristic-loss influence the characteristics exactly? For example the flagellant has a base value of 80 on Strenght. Strengh gets doubled to 160. Now every turn the flagellant loses -10 to all characteristics. So after one turn his strengh is reduce to 70. So is it only doubled to 140? Or is it still 160 - 10 = 150? What do u think?

[Koval]

Itero's stats look a bit low, especially his Wp and Ld -- and I need to question whether he's the sort of character that needs Heroic (Marco uses the Indiana Jones Test; is your character crazy prepared like Indiana Jones?). Sounds to me like you could just bump him up to Speed 4 (by way of giving him Initiative 50) and not bother with Heroic.

The bolt pistol's potentially a bit much as it is (and no, BS 48 is not a means to balance that out -- it's just a low BS score), but if you take a look at the Revised Armoury, you'll find some more balanced weapons in there, including some more interesting las and solid projectile weapons if you're still wary about using bolt pistols.

Keep in mind that bastard swords have their own rules -- you don't have to choose now whether it's a sword or a falchion greatsword.

With regard to Barrage... I'd say your Arco's Strength actually becomes 160, rather than 80x2. So on the first turn it would come down to 150 as it's working on your current, rather than starting, Strength.

[MarcoSkoll]

Marco uses the Indiana Jones Test; is your character crazy prepared like Indiana Jones?

I do use the test, although I wouldn't phrase it that way. Indiana Jones is more of a "never tell me the odds" attitude to being unprepared.

Basically, the raw idea is twofold:
1) You can see the character taking the place of Indiana in the "I'm going after that truck" ("How?" "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go") scene.
2) The Raiders March (a.k.a. "The Indiana Jones Theme") could sensibly be the main musical theme for that character if there were a film about them.

If that works, then heroic is right for the character.

The bolt pistol's potentially a bit much as it is

It's not necessarily too much, but it's also not necessarily right for the character. He was a missionary for many years, expected to serve in underdeveloped heathen cultures - but a bolt pistol is a temperamental weapon that uses rare and expensive ammunition. It doesn't suit this role.

If you want a weapon to keep working for years or even decades without advanced maintenance or a constant supply of ammunition, the answer to such a question is "laspistol". So that's probably a more likely weapon for him to have acquired a taste for.

[Dorn]

Thanks for the reminder that a boltpistol is unaprobiated for this charakter... I'm not quiet sure what I should give him. Laserpistol... I don't know... In 40k thinking it seems so weak... I will take a closer look on it's rules

Yes, the Confessor is not the Indi-Type. So I skipped Heroic and just added a bit to his profile, I hope that it is now more fitting.

Thanks for your advice.

Just about Barrage... How are the long term effects? After the game the stats get halfed but the losses stay. So let's say Strengh 160 - 10 = 150... After the game is he now at strengh 75 or at 70? So are the long term effects -10 or just -5? Does this also mean, that I can use an Acro-Flagellant only 16 turns, before he has 0 Strengh? So u cann't use them for many missions, befor looking for a new one?

edit: I also added the background of my second char

[Koval]

Well, the good thing about laspistols is that they come in many different patterns. What you see on most 40K models is best equated to a service pistol that's basically designed to do its job, rather than an expensive designer gun with all sorts of bells and whistles. Besides which, the rulebook version is bloody lame, so again, I'd refer to the Revised Armoury here.

As for Barrage, nobody I know bothers with the long-term effects of drugs, so it's never an issue I've had to worry about. Then again, I only play at events where there's (usually) a house rule that resets characters' profiles to their starting values after each game (even if they're dead*) -- which is also why I think "50 turns of drugs" is just pointless. I guess it just depends on your gaming group.

*This probably arose because let's face it, you're likely to get a bit narked if your character suddenly keels over and dies and that's that; you get to decide when the character dies, not the dice. Turning this round to stat loss... well, although something like Barrage is supposed to have nasty side effects, having a character explode because he's had too much is a very unsatisfying way to go. For what it's worth, the same applies to Psychic Overloads, which I've chucked out the window.

[MarcoSkoll]

Lasweapons are underwhelming in 40K because the other "small arms" they're being compared to are things like burst-fire rocket propelled grenade launchers (boltguns) or hypervelocity plasma accelerators (pulse rifles) and the targets they're expected to kill are super soldiers (wearing enough armour to build a small tank) or heaps of alien muscle (capable of surviving decapitation as long as their head is sewn back on soon enough).

The Imperial Guard gear that 40k players are derisive of is gear that modern special forces would sell their own grandmothers into slavery to get their hands on; although lasweapon performance is variable in the background novels, it's safe to say they are of at least comparable lethality to modern small-arms... but also quieter, recoilless, hugely reliable, possessed of a huge ammunition capacity and capable of recharging off enough heat or light.

~~~~~

The matter of campaign stat damage is really down to whatever rules the Gamesmaster wants to set.

Personally, most of my experience of the game is with characters that are not expected to earn "XP" or "level up" over the course of the games; occasionally, certain happenings might warrant small changes to the character but, with Inquisitor, you already get to start with what are effectively several levelled up characters.

You don't have to start from level 1 to get your character as you want him, so the need to "level up" is pretty unneeded. These characters are already pretty experienced (many of them with decades of experience) - shooting a few more cultists isn't going to suddenly make them a master marksman.

With characters not improving over the course of time, they also generally get to avoid debilitation as well. Things like ammunition expenditure and injuries might require reacquisition or medical attention between games but a character will generally get to recover to whatever state their owner wants them to over time.

So, personally I'd let characters reacquire expended/lost equipment (at some point, anyway), heal their cuts/bruises/etc and recover statistic damage over time, although I can't say there's any one set of rules I'd recommend.

[greenstuff_gav]

You don't have to start from level 1 to get your character as you want him, so the need to "level up" is pretty unneeded. These characters are already pretty experienced (many of them with decades of experience) - shooting a few more cultists isn't going to suddenly make them a master marksman.

as a Random Tangent© my local club wants to play Inquisitor-scaled games (2/3 miniatures with the more RPG aspects fo the game) but with something similar to Necromundas' advancements / injuries; they want their characters to develop and grow
think i got it written, just working Character Creation / income at the mo

[TheNephew]

I'd always figured the 'best' way of doing campaign exp/injuries would be much like I remember the White Dwarf mini-campaign handling it - someone gets set on fire, they turn up next game with burn scars and heavier robes; someone communes with a giant ancient imprisoned daemon, perhaps they gain a minor psychic power and a tendency to steer clear of daemons.
Other little additions, like bumping WS by D6 after a particularly spectacular performance in a duel or surviving a brawl against all odds, seem reasonable too - conceptually, the idea of random-selection advances never sat right with me.
Naturally doing this after every game over a long campaign would create de facto Spess Muhreens, but one or two characters every one or two games, strictly in special circumstances, shouldn't ruin things.

[MarcoSkoll]

Well, to continue the "Random Tangent©"... I don't think that's really right for Inquisitor.

Not to say that I'd try to strong-arm people into not playing Inquisitor that way, but in my mind, the amount of experience any given game represents to almost all Inquisitor characters is trivial.

To have characters who'd level up on the basis of a few games would mean starting with really quite inexperienced characters, which doesn't make a lot of logical sense for the world of Inquisitor - these are massive affairs under the watchful eye of the high and mighty.
Inquisitors, Interrogators, Rogue Traders, AdMech Magi, Daemons, Sorcerers - such characters are already packing decades or centuries of experience (or for daemons, halfty-two walruses). For them to advance at any appreciable rate in campaigns that represent only days, weeks or even months just doesn't seem appropriate.

Maybe if you're focusing on a team of inexperienced agents (in the same vein as low rank Dark Heresy characters) it would make sense, but mostly it doesn't really fit for me.
I occasionally do things like TheNephew said - although more often related to characters changing their equipment based on any shortcomings that have shown up over time - but don't think the notion of XP works well for Inquisitor.

[Dorn]

i personally think that if u want any leveling system in a longer campain, the one of Call of Cthulhu is most fitting. Whenever a character preforms extraordinary well, the GM grants him to make a hook at the on attribute where he did this heroic act.
After some games, the character may try to get better in the hooked attributes. He throws a D100 and if he fails the test (so it is more difficult to get better in an attribute that u have already nearly mastered), he may add some points to the attribute (for example a D6).

How death or wounding is handled is another question. If the acro flagellant is dead after one game, it would be not a tragedy, because he is only a side charakter, nothing more than a living weapon. Eli Itero might have more fallen brothers from his former monastery, that can be used as acro flagellants.

[Koval]

Arco-flagellation is not that common a punishment, as I understand it, so do be careful with having too many "replacements" there . It's not difficult to explain a higher proportion of Arco-Flagellants with some clause about religious prerogatives -- perhaps the Lux Imperatoris monastery is on a world where the local Adeptus Arbites are especially subservient to the Ecclesiarchy -- but they're still unlikely to be that numerous.

Maybe consider mixing it up a bit, such that Eli only breaks out the Arco-Flagellants for something especially serious (for example, "I want that cult leader deader than dead!") and employs more subtle servants of the Emperor for other matters.

[Dorn]

Yes, I already thought about this. I just added a new character, the Arbites Judge Javert, as an alternative for the flagellant. As u may notice he is stolen inspired by Javert from Les Miserables , which I watched yesterday. I just loved his performance and thought that his "the law above all" ideology fits perfectly for the 40k universe. Also his stubborness(hunting Valjean for years) seems fitting for the Arbites.

[Dorn]

I just added the fluff for Eli Itero's personal nemsis, the apostat cardinal Desmosus. I wanted to make his motives understandable. What do u think? Are his actions understandable? Are the reasons for his fall to the ruinous powers realisitc? Or should I expand the aspect of temptation?