Rosa Sinclair

[Shard0808]

To the Conclave

Please find below the newest addition to Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan's family, Rosa Sinclair. She is the first Psyker I have created, so rules are up for tweaking. Comments on both rules and background welcome.

WS    BS    S      T      I     WP   SG    NV   LD
30     35     35   44   68    88    50     56   50

Psy Rating -  4

Force Staff
Conversion field
Robes

Blind
Corpus Conversion
Warp Sight
Jaded

Detection
Endurance
Blood boil
Drain
Open wounds

'Nightmares, they say, are our minds purging of our darkest fears. An expulsion of the innermost workings of the brain, deemed too tainted or too corrupt for our concious self to find reasonable use for. An imagined purging of our inner beasts, our inner monsters, our inner Demons.
If this is true, then I fear my mind has found a trapdoor to madness, where the Warp touches my thoughts and the demons play the drums behind the sockets of my skull. A door that refuses to close, no matter how much my brain tries to purge or my mind tries to fight, no matter how many nights I awake screaming into the dark or lie curled in a ball too terrified to sleep. A door that I can see, all too clearly, with my waking thoughts, a pit of horror into which I have long since fallen.
Nightmares, they say, aren't real. A figment of fear that cannot harm you, a natural remedy to our concious worries, a simple dream.. To them I say that I have seen the raw flesh of my dreams made reality, born into this world spewing the blood of the Warp and the stench of corruption. A stillbirth foetus of my minds womb that refuses to accept its illogical existence. The dread child of my nightmares.
My friend, my only friend, let me tell you of how I came to be this mother of blood, let me remind myself of the journey I have taken from my simple home to this darkened cell, of the imprints my feet have made, slick with the crimson sheen of those most close to me, on this steep and treacherous road to madness. You won't be here long, I promise. I ran it quickly, you see.
You may not wish to follow me, dear friend, the Warp has ways of sliding itself into the very fabric of your being before you even feel it's invasion, it's slick taint coiling through your soul like a dark lover in a final, deathly embrace. You may even discover that you have a trapdoor of your own, though I trust that you will have the will to keep it tightly closed. But then, Curiosity, they say...'

++ 909.M41++
Tan IV + Tanus System + Segmentum Solar
++ CRIME LOG, ADEPTUS ARBITES INVESTIGATIVE UNIT SOUTWEST 12, OUTER MARSHLANDS, SUB-DWELLING 347 ++
+ Investigating officers Lane and Jarude +
L- 'This is messed up Jar'
J- 'if you think this is messed, you should see the girls' bedroom'
L- 'do I want to?'
J- 'not really. This [EXCOMMUNICATE]s tame compared to what went on in there, I almost choked on my own vom'
L- 'maybe I'll send a tech in to take the lumes, then. That's what those guys get paid for right. They join up for the sick ones'
J- 'I doubt even they'd get off on this Lane...'
L- 'guess not. So, preliminaries?'
J- 'Region command got a call about an hour ago, local sheriff damn near passed out over the comms, babbling about this and that, praying for the emperor to come save us, usual marshlands babble. Then he mentioned the stream of blood and it pricked our attention.'
L-'yeah I noticed my boots aren't claret proof after all, damn socks squelch as I walk'
J-'we arrived, no sheriff, found the mother out the front door, Marie Sinclair. Physically ok, but we didn't need the mind screen to see that she was gone. Don't know if it was something that happened in her head or she just gave up after seeing, well, this, but she won't be coming back. Might as well give her to the Servitorium now for all the difference it'll make.'
L-'I heard she was holding...'
J- 'yeah, the younger ones foot. The rest of the girl is... Well, everywhere, we think. Too much blood for just one girl though, hell too much blood for a whole village huh...'
L-'so who are the other vics? I hear the father was working the abattoir, which would almost be funny if we weren't swimming in his family. Where's the older girl? Twenty. Rosa, whatever'
J-'she's waiting for her ride.'
L-'she's still alive? What do you mean her ride? She talking?'
J-'Talking? Hell don't you know? Throne... I mean that when we went into the girls' bedroom, that part of the house that reeks of death so much that me, the damn 14 year Arbites don't want to go in again, that girl was just sat there. Wearing a pretty dress with blood and bits cascading over her, pouring down her front, like she was some doll in a market store been dipped in scarlet ink. This look on her face, like she was listening to something somewhere else, hearing it, except.. Except, somehow she looked at me Lane. She.. She looked at me with holes where her eyes shoulda been, as in her eyes were just... gone. But she was SEEING me man, she looked right at me. And the blood? All that blood outside? In here? Think there's too much? From those eyes Lane, those holes. They just kept bleeding and bleeding and bleeding. They didn't stop when we picked her up, they didn't stop when we put her in the van, and I sure as hell bet my last cred they haven't stopped yet.'
L-'...You've lost me, Jar. So, what, she pulled them out herself? Killed her sister? I don't get it, the medics save her?'
J-'Sometimes Lane you can be so solid I don't wonder you were made from permacrete. She's a Psyker, a damn mind stringer, but she's not like any Psyker I know of springing up on Tan. Young girl like her it probably happened in her sleep or something, blew her eyes out of her skull, smeared her sister into the walls, fried her mother's brain in the pan, and bled the warps taint all over the emperor cursed street.'
L-'oh.. I know we've had a few crop up, but rivers of blood? You're sure? I mean.. This is something crazy alright...'
J-'You're damn right. Black Ships are en route Lane, start thinking happy thoughts.'

++909.M41++
++Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Black Ship MOURNFUL CALL++
++Tan IV tithe manifest++
++ACCESS GRANTED++
++WELCOME INQUISITOR++
++State query++
++Confirm search parameters++
++CONFIRMED++
...
++Searching...++
...
++Searching...++
...
++SUBJECT CONFIRMED++
++ [ROSA SINCLAIR] ++
++WARNING - EPSILON LEVEL++
++Location - SOLITARY CELL ONE++
++CONFIRM RELEASE TO INQUISITORIAL CUSTODY++
...
++Confirming...++
...
++AUTHORITY CONFIRMED++
++Release - GRANTED++
++Status - TRANSFERRED++
++THANKYOU INQUISITOR++

Black Ship Mournful Call
Aft Observatory Chamber.
Audio log time lapse 4.25
Throne Agent Marcus Veer - 'She's dangerous. And young. Not to mention already losing her grip on reality. You should let the sisters take her, they'll find far better uses for her whichever side the scalpel falls.'
Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan - 'Such a worry Marcus, how ever do you sleep?'
M- 'With great difficulty.'
H- 'No doubt.'
M- 'She's a lost cause Helen. Blind, mad, a liability in the field.'
H- *sigh* 'Ever the voice of boring reason, my dear friend. Unlike her I am not blind, and surprisingly nor am I mad, regardless of what you may sometimes think. I know the dangers, but I believe that they are outweighed by the enormous benefits that an Epsilon level Psyker may bring to us. She just needs.. Direction.'
M- 'I only question your sanity when you make dangerous decisions. Which is somewhat frequently, I might add. She's Epsilon level at the moment, what about a decade from now? Delta? You won't be able to control her. Biomancy is the closest to the sick ways of the Warp, we could take her on board the Darkshard and she could erupt into a seething entity the moment she leaves the Black Ship. You know this.'
H- 'Yes, I know. But I have you don't I? Don't fret dear Marcus, I'm sure that you are more than capable of protecting me. Unless of course, this is your way of telling me that you're not up to the task.'
M- 'Throne...'
H- 'It's your age, I know. It creeps upon us all. What are we now... A hundred and eight?'
M- 'a hundred and three, as I'm sure you're well aware.'
H- 'Ah, my memory fades. Never fear, I'll ensure that the sisters know how well equipped you are to guard this twenty year old blind marshlands girl. Have her sent aboard the Darkshard Marcus. Watch her, but not too closely. I want to give her room to grow. I think that with some careful manoeuvring and a touch in the right direction, she will make a powerful weapon for the Emperor. And more importantly, for us. Now, we know it's Biomancy, have the sisters led on as to why it's so...messy?'
M- 'My attempts at polite conversation on the Psyker we effectively stole from the Telepathica have, I'm afraid, fallen short of anything more than a cold stare. Colder than usual, that is. The original report stated only what we already know, wounds that won't heal, profuse bleeding  without physiological impact especially when employing her talents. A psy scan also revealed a spike in beta waves on infliction of pain, so it's safe to say that an element of corpus conversion is present. She's quiet, hasn't slept since the initial manifestation, screams during the night. A few of the crew a couple of decks up from her cell have spontaneously bled from the eyes, but nothing that the medics couldnt treat. It shouldn't be happening at all in the transport decks due to the shielding, but sometimes the more powerful ones slip through.'
H- 'Impressive. All the more reason we should requisition her. Have a room prepared with a full dampening suite, I don't want my veins itching when she's on board. She can start honing her talents in the brig. There's a few of those mutants we captured on Prantor that I'd  enjoy seeing hemorrhaging from the eyes. Or any orifice, actually. I don't suppose she can choose...? Also let the crew know what's occurring. If any of them start developing symptoms then we'll know that the suite needs an upgrade.'
M- '...dammit, fine. I'll do you a favour and try not to let her blow a crewman apart once she's settled.'
H- 'So witty Marcus. Age hasn't dulled your grasp of sarcasm in the least. How lovely.'

++909.M41++
Personal log
Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan
Ordo Xenos
She's not quite as far gone as she would have me believe, that one. She lies just on the usable side of mad, with a head full of twisted thoughts and a somewhat fractured emotional psyche, but a willingness to listen to instruction at least. I'm more than a little curious as to her corpus conversion abilities.. It seems the infliction of pain, especially anything that causes permanent disfigurement or scarring, enhances her connection to the Warp quite substantially. We can't over use this of course or there won't be much of her left, and I'm not entirely convinced that she won't cut her own throat at some point, but it should prove useful if used sparingly. I only hope Marcus doesn't give her any undue encouragement.
Her nightmares are a slight concern. We have had to relocate the stewards mess from the deck above her room. In part this is due to Rosa's night terrors and subsequent screams, but it's also down to the dreams infecting the crews sleep. It's to be expected to a degree, but if the dampening field isn't holding them back now, even following an upgrade, then whatever powers are at work in the girls mind are proving relentless indeed. Its no wonder she avoids sleep.
The physical effects of her initial manifestation are also proving somewhat difficult to manage. When not using her abilities the bleeding tends to slow down somewhat, not so much a cascade, more of a steady trickle, but it's damn annoying. I stick to the deck anytime after I pay her a visit. The medics can't pack out the sockets, it soaks straight through after 30 minutes or so, and nothing seems to encourage clotting. Short of having her hold her head over a bucket I'm not sure what we can do. Her ventures out of her cabin are already strictly limited, so it shouldn't spread too far, however. After all, crew morale won't be improved with trails of blood leading to the galley now, will it.
For all this there's something different about her, that much is painfully obvious. It's not just the manner of her manifestation, emperor knows worse things have happened to less fortunate Psykers, but it's the rawness I feel permeating from inside her. She has a dangerous connection, held barely in check by an unstable mind that by rights should have trembled and  cracked the moment the Warp took an interest in her. But somehow a small, concious fragment of herself has survived, afloat on an ocean of her own despair, the dark waters of insanity lapping at her tenuous hold on reality. I have no idea how long she will be able to keep herself above the waves, but I'll try damn hard to keep that sliver of herself alive.
She's too good an opportunity to miss.

[Koval]

Huzzah, someone's using RIPPA!

IMO the physical stats just need to come up a bit, say bumping S and T into the low 40s -- and she's going to need a BS, because although she's blind, she does have Warp Sight so can still see. BS also reflects things like hand-eye coordination, remember.

Everything else looks great at first glance.

[MarcoSkoll]

My thinking is similar to Koval - great background so far, but a stat tweak or two wouldn't go amiss.

I'd add 10 points to her toughness. Toughness values below 40 are so incredibly frail as to not be suitable for player characters - and actually makes a character thoroughly disappointing to play or play against, because they shatter like sugar glass and aren't any kind of interesting challenge to overcome.

Her strength doesn't necessarily need scaling up - if you really want to represent a frail character, a low strength is a better option, as it affects things like Knockback and dropping weapons, but doesn't give the character a ludicrously high chance of system shock.

And as Koval says, seeing as she can actually see in some respect, she shouldn't have a ballistic skill of 0.
(But even a completely blind character should have at least a few points of BS, as they could still potentially be able to throw things at people they could hear moving near them).

[Shard0808]

Cheers for the comments guys, I've upped her toughness to make her somewhat survivable, and given her a basic BS. I've also lowered her Psy Rating from 5 to 4, deciding that while she's naturally quite powerful she's yet to recieve the years of hardcore training needed to improve beyond that. And 4 is probably being generous for a novice Psyker, but as the fluff shows, she's something special already

[Kallidor]

Really enjoyed the background, I found the banter between the Arbites quite amusing.