Soon to be new warband

[blacknight]

So after a rather long hiatus (when I logged back in for the first time the other week it was over a year since my last log in), I am making some time to get back into inquisitor.

Anyway as I started going over some of my old stuff I realized that my previous warband lacked a bit of depth and was also very black and white over alot of the issues and didn't feel to have as much character as they could in a game all about the different shades of grey (no there are not 50 of them... that would be a slaaneshi themed game but I digress).

So starting to think of a new warband and I am looking to focus it around a Magos Juris who as far as I can tell from the different background sources I have read basically act as the inquisition for the Adeptus Mechanicus ensuring that all of the rules of the machine god are followed and hunting down techno heretics.

Currently trying to flesh out the background a bit for the characters before I post rules, but I had a couple of questions the community might be able to help me with.
One, what is the mechanicus stand on psykers, do they just give them over to the black ships for sanctioning/feeding to the goldern throne, or do they train them themselves.
Two, what are the chances of someone being able to infiltrate the inquisition.  My thoughts are to have a character that has meet the requirements and has become a fully fledged inquisitor in their own right, however they are also a very deep sleeper agent who was dilibarately trained to get into such a position.
Third, would a persistent psychic power that provides some form of EMP shielding to a character work, or would it be better to develop equipment to fulfill that role.

In terms of warband size I am looking to go for the Magos, with another adeptus character, an enforcer/muscle character and an ex arbitor for the normal warband (i.e. not drawing undue attention).  When subtly has gone out the window I intend to add a couple of battle automatons from the new 40k adeptus ones.

Regards

Blacknight/Marc

[MarcoSkoll]

a Magos Juris who as far as I can tell from the different background sources I have read basically act as the inquisition for the Adeptus Mechanicus

In the Calixis sector, anyway. What they (and the Lords Dragon that they're associated with) might be called further afield might be very different.

One, what is the mechanicus stand on psykers, do they just give them over to the black ships for sanctioning/feeding to the goldern throne, or do they train them themselves.

The Adeptus Mechanicus are... somewhat separate from the rest of the Imperium in general. It is known that the Astra Telepathica does not train and evaluate every known psyker within the Imperium, so it may well be that some forge worlds retain and train (for various values of "train") some number of their psykers.

Two, what are the chances of someone being able to infiltrate the inquisition.

Possible, but unlikely.

Rising up through the ranks takes decades - it's hard to even survive the external threats for that long, but if you're also trying to hide the truth from a group of colleagues and overseers who are naturally suspicious and prone to watching for signs of corruption or disloyalty, the mole would be hard pressed to make it to the rank of Inquisitor without being noticed. They might even have changed their loyalties over those years (they have after all been subjected to decades of experience of the importance of the Inquisition, and not really now in a position where they have to listen to you any more).

However, it's a big and old galaxy, so it's possible it might have happened somewhere and somewhen. Still, in all honesty, if you really needed a high ranking member of the Inquisition, it'd probably be easier (and definitely quicker!) to try to lure one already in such a position over to your cause - or assassinate them and take their place (this could be easier with an Inquisitor who isolates themselves, working through agents).

Third, would a persistent psychic power that provides some form of EMP shielding to a character work, or would it be better to develop equipment to fulfill that role.

It could certainly work, but doing it technologically would probably suit the Mechanicus better.

[Raghnall]

Well, the LRB describes machine empathy as "A psychic power often associated with the machina-mentors of the Adeptus Mechanicus" so there is precedent for Ad Mech psykers. Taking inspiration from that and developing some more machine-based psychic powers for a machine-mentor character could prove interesting, and they could certainly have something to deal with EMPs, but is general, technology is more their style.

Just looking at your brief description, I think the enforcer/muscle and the ex-arbitor could potentially be rather similar, although you could prove me wrong and take them in completely different directions, but other than that, I can't find any flaws in the idea, and you should go for it. Looking forward to seeing more.

[DapperAnarchist]

Someone being able to infiltrate the Inquisition by rising up the ranks would be rare... but then again, I'm not sure I've seen anyone else's character based on that concept, so they would, indeed, be rare! So I'm fine with it. The question would be who would have infiltrated them. Obviously, a powerful Chaos cult would be a candidate, but they'd have to be unusually powerful and cunning - like, we're talking "probably involve some influence from one of the more subtle Traitor Legions" powerful and cunning. Inside the Imperium there would also be groups with an interest in inflitrating and influencing the Inquisition - the Ecclesiarchy, the Mechanicus, the Officio Assassinorum, and the Telepathica would stand out for me. And I guess a few alien races might get involved, mostly the Eldar in their various factions.

[blacknight]

Evening all, thanks for the responses.

The intended background is that Magos Juris character is one who has infiltrated the inquisition.  Him and the more senior members of the Juris realized that the inquisitors are one of the prime culprits of techno heresy in breaking the guidance of the machine god. Either they are using technology unsupervised by the adeptus mechanicus, combining it with xenos tech or daemonic influences.  The Juris realized that the only people that inquisitors might pay attention to is other inquisitors.  He would not have been the only attempted infiltrator, just one who happens to have survived this long (currently have him getting his rosette 162 years ago).  Though it will make him reasonably powerful I was going to have this character as the psyker as well, but only with limited powers (machine empathy for one), as a pysker would have a higher chance of gaining the interest of the Inquisition to get recruited, and would also not be something as suspected by techno heretics when the door is kicked in and names are taken.

Would probably look at doing a technological solution to EMP attacks for him then.

For the enforcer vs ex-arbitor similarities, the plan is that the enforcer is an ex bounty hunter or similar who is a man with a moral compass that points due south and is used by the Inquisitor to remove witnesses or tidy up situations as required, the ex-arbitor is going to be more of a specialist tracker/investigator to make up for the inquisitor's different focus.  The ex-arbitor would be more inline with the interrogator for a normal inquisitor and lend him an extra level of cover by using the ex-arbitor to do a lot of the investigations into non mechanicus focused areas.

As mentioned in the original post the aim of the warband is to introduce more grey into my characters (might even use it in the colour scheme) and by having an inquisitor who is not afraid to remove witness or take other extreme measures to ensure his identity and role is covered is alot more character than my previous effort which was a monodominate ordo xenos inquisitor who had a large number of attached guardsman in his greater warband all specialized in fighting a different type of xenos.

Original plan was to keep the warband's to a public and private level of disclosure (ie the fact he was a double agent isn't on his character sheet) but it makes more sense if I am getting help and opinions on the warband to get the full background out (or most of it).

While I am here, I am intending to use two of the new Kastelan Robots as the battle automotons.  In keeping with the prescriptions of the adeptus mechanicus against abominable intelligence, intention was to use similar ideas to the cyber mastiffs in that they have several set programmed responses so they can attack, guard, follow etc.  If the intention is to run them in this manner is it a better idea to give them a full wound allocation chart and just assume that a shot to the head or groin has damaged a vital component and treat them as a human in all respects for damage or to use them as a cyber creature with x toughness, so many levels of light damage, then superficial and then destroyed.

Anyway I think that is a big enough wall of text for now.

Thanks again

Blacknight / Marc

[MarcoSkoll]

The intended background is that Magos Juris character is one who has infiltrated the inquisition.

That one's a lot tougher - the Mechanicus aren't technically part of the Imperium (more an ally), so a Techpriest of any stripe being promoted to the rank of Inquisitor is akin to having a Frenchman as President of the United States.

Yes, the French are one of the USA's most important allies (if not the most important - they were instrumental in the War of Independence), but they're not actually a citizen of the system they'd have control over.
(Of course, for the Presidency, it's vital to be a born US citizen, which is why there was such a brouhaha about Obama's birth certificate. For other positions, it's more lenient, which is why Schwarzenegger, a born Austrian, could be the Californian governor on his naturalised US citizenship. Still, he did have to be a US citizen).

I wouldn't call it completely impossible, but anyone who was known to be dedicated to the ways of the Machine God would have some serious conflicts of interest that would make it seriously difficult to find an Inquisitor willing to risk even trying to train them as an apprentice, let alone the two other sponsors needed to make it to the full rank.

Personally, I'd say a more plausible means to a similar end would be for a such a Magos to worm their way into the position of being an envoy to the Inquisition. Such positions do exist, and getting to such a position is a much more stable plan than trying to hope that one of your infiltrators might make it into the ranks eventually against all the odds and barriers that would be in their way.

In keeping with the prescriptions of the adeptus mechanicus against abominable intelligence...

If I were using simple programmed responses, I'd also simplify their injury rules. A lot of the more complex injury effects don't suit simplified characters.

However, I'm not necessarily sure that it's necessary to simplify them all that much. Servitors can still have fairly complex algorithms, so while I might restrict (perhaps needing an extra Sg test to be permitted) or disallow certain actions, I don't think they necessarily need to be cut down to just cyber mastiff level orders.

[DapperAnarchist]

I read Blacknight's idea being that his main PC is a Mechanicus agent who is a double agent within the Inquisition - pretending to be a loyal member of the Inquisition, actually serving the interests of the Mechanicus, rather than publicly being both a Magos and an Inquisitor. Rather than a French person being POTUS, it would be more like that old reliable of spy novels, the foreign agent with false credentials who works their way up the ranks. Obviously it's a big deal, and 'wrong', but that's the point, much as Philby being a senior intelligence officer was wrong given he was also a Soviet asset.

[MarcoSkoll]

I think to have dedicated yourself so fully to the will of the Machine God that you've become a trusted agent of the Lords Dragon (let alone a Magos!), you're at the point where you look like your father was a traction engine. "Not a tech-priest, honest!"

I guess there are potentially ways to remake your body into a more fitting form for the deception, but it starts to sound like quite serious sacrilege - not to mention the kind of heretical behaviour (as far as the Mechanicus are concerned, anyway) you'd have to nurture towards tech such that the Inquisition never suspected that you were a double agent.

[DapperAnarchist]

I agree! Which is also why I think it'd be a pretty interesting character - perhaps the 'Magos' is mostly a tool of the Lords Dragon and has been denied access to the blessing of the Machine God, leading to a certain bitterness towards their erstwhile masters. Or they wear a 'suit of power armour' that is no such thing, or have shifted the most important parts of themselves into a synthskin and ceramic replica human body. Heresy would be controversial, but with the reward of having an agent at the highest levels of the Inquisition? Sounds worth trying out.

All of these ideas are free to use, Blacknight!

[blacknight]

Thanks for the feed back so far.

Below is the background I have developed and the basis rules I had developed for the Inquisitor (Magos) Yodovich Asimov. With the names for his background and the mechanicus members of his warbands I was intending to stick with bastardisations of various scientists and engineers to suit their specialty.

I have not fully worked out all the psychic powers (will have one or two generic powers as well) and I am not 100% on the equipment either but I am open to feedback. 

Concern  I did have for him was that he seems a bit like Yoshimitsu from Tekken, he is a psyker and and inquisitor and a tech priest, which seems to be ticking a few boxes for one character.  I feel it is justified from his background in that beign a psyker is what brought him to the attention of the Inquisition in the first place.

With the (rather extensive) set of bionics he would have only had the cyber mantle, potentia coil and cranial circuitry (with psi booster) upgrades when he first joined the inquisition.  The rest would have been added time as a result of combat or using getting wounded as an excuse to get more bionics.  Ie my arm got severly injured in a fight and as a result I had it replaced by bionics, also he is a couple of hundred years old a this point.

I have affiliated him with Ryza even though it is a cannon world rather than adding my own because I want to take advantage of the colour scheme and iconography for some of the units (I want to try orange paint schemes) and I might use some of the models (battle automatons) for 40k games as well.

Will keep it as this for now as it will be a wall of text and add some more on the other members of the warband during the week.

So any comments or ideas let me know.

Thanks

Blacknight/Marc
*****************************************************

2.2.1   Inquisitor (Magos Juris) Yodovich Asimov
Background
Inquisitor Asimov originally started life on the planet of Ryker 3 a subsidiary world to the key mechanical forge world of Ryza, to parents within the Juris faction.  Asimov's early life was much like others on the planet receiving an education and indoctrination into the basis of the machine cult with the intention of moving into the adeptus mechanicus in some role in later life.
It was discovered early in life though that Asimov might have the potential to be a latent psyker with an affinity for control over mechanical components.  Hearing of this the senior adepts saw potential to use this to benefit them and use Asimov as a tool to control the potential threat of the hereticus mechanicus, including the threat of the knowledge of existence.
Asimov was rapidly and fully indoctrinated into the machine cult to learn the intricacies and secrets at a much faster rate than normal to take advantage of his youth and achieve something unique.  His background and family connections leant him to the Juris sect of the Forgeworld.  The goal was to get a Magos Juris within the inquisition to track down and remove those inquisitors who commit heretech crimes.  Also Asimov benefitted considerably less in terms of bionic upgrades than his peers whilst young, receiving them later in life as well to adjust the appearance of his age.  Thus after completing training within the adeptus, he still had a much more youthful appearance and didn't have the trappings of the any rank.  When the inquisitorial black ships came to conduct testing for psychic potential Asimov was selected and taken for additional training by the Schola Psycana to act as a battle psyker to attach to the Astra Militarium.
After completing the required training of a basic battle psyker, Asimov was attached to the 27th Regiment of the Otago Secoundus Armoured Fists.  Asimov served with distinction for a number of years but rose to particular attention during the battle of where he used his combination of psychic power and mechanical knowledge to thwart a rebellious attempt to conduct an assassination of senior planetary leadership.  During this battle Inquisitor Kaiwaka was present monitoring the situation as part of his research into the rebellions within the sector. Seeing the resourcefulness of this of this intelligent resourceful psyker Kaiwaka inducted him as a member of his entourage.
Asimov then spent the next several years learning about inquisitorial routines, conduct research into various rumours and tit-bits of information on cults and uprisings (having had basic mechanical grafts to increase cognitive function as a child on a mechanicus world).  Asimov was also used in the field on an increasing basis whenever Kaiwaka felt there would be a risk of the rebellious forces having access to heavier equipment.  Asimov continued to serve Kaiwaka for a number of years as a resourceful and loyal company until it became apparent that the inquisitor was starting to tip toe to close to the heretical line, using xenos technology in conjunction with imperial to meet his needs.  Having identified this trend Asimov continued to gather evidence over time and eventually presented it to a group of puritan inquisitors, known to be opposed to the actions of Kaiwaka, citing the logical and right thing to do as what he saw as a breech in the boundaries of what Kaiwaka should be doing as an Inquisitor.  They acknowledged the works of Asimov and took action against Kaiwaka, then transferred Asimov to one of their own staff as an interrogator, one to use his skills and two to keep an eye on him.  However his suspicions seemed false and after another decade of loyal service to Inquisitor Maharangi, Asimov was granted his own rosette as an Inquisitor at the age of 62.
Asimov then continued with Inquisitor Maharangi's work investigating reported incidents of heretical actions or rebellious uprisings.  Asimov also got back in touch with Clausis now one of the senior Magos Juris on Ryza.  During this time a heretical uprising was arranged, to enable Asimov to return to the planet and re-establish contact with the mechanicam.  With contact re-established Asimov could then start to carry on with the directive that he had trained for all those decades ago and concentrating on removing the threat of the heretechs within the ranks of the inquisition.
Inquisitor Asimov has now been an active within the order hereticus as an inquisitor for 176 years and has undertaken a large number of successful investigations and actions against uprisings, heresy and rebellion in the sector, not all of which are acknowledged as ever happening.  During this time Asimov has successfully tracked down and eliminated no fewer than a dozen inquisitors who have been deemed heretechs, of these only his original mentor and one other have been publicly accused, the rest having disappeared.
A small number of the investigations into the adeptus mechanicus have been made public knowledge (within a given value of public) to enable his more secretive continued connection to remain hidden.  These public actions have resulted in him earning high favour with the now Fabricator General Clausis who has rewarded Asimov with a pair of battle automatons.  Due to the frequent dealings with the mechicum Asimov has taken on a liaison from within the cult to enable the mysteries to be reasoned away for onlookers (even if Asimov has a higher level of understanding and rank within the cult)
Due to his advancing age and battle injuries he has sustained Asimov has undergone a number of bionic replacements to a number of body parts.  Due to his age and position this does not warrant undue suspicion to his motives (i.e. flesh is weak) and appears to just be the normal part of his role.
Asimov has taken a number of interrogators over the year of which five have survived long enough to earn their own rosettes.  All of these interrogators have gone on to become aluthorians, thinking they follow the same philosophies of their mentor.
Having a number of mechanical upgrades, some since he was young, others more recent, Asimov does not often try to take a too subtle approach (metal detectors are not his friend), however in normal investigations he has a more toned down level of equipment for when he is conducting interviews rather than his battle harness and fit out for when he is actively taking down heretechal cells.  Given that he has a penchant for dealing with those who are using potentially advanced technology, Asimov has a number of tricks and items of equipment to give him the edge in these situations.  Also due to the location of his home world and his continued contact (and undisclosed affiliation with) Ryza, Asimov has access to some more advance (sanctioned) technology from the Ryza vaults, chiefly plasma based weapons and containment fields.

Asimov is right handed.

Abilities and Rules
Ws   Bs   S    T    In    Wp   Sg   Nv   Ld   Spd
47    63   60   62   52   78   82   76    65    4

Abilities – leader; psychic power – machine empathy;

Wargear (Normal) – Cyber mantle, potential coil, electro graft port, advanced cranial circuitry, electoo inductors, psi booster, memory coils (included 5%), standard fit auto senses, memorance implant, filtration plugs, secondary bionic heart incorporating circulatory filtration, absorption filters, energy field, two advanced bionic arms (10% S bonus each incorporated), average bionic left leg, force staff, plasma pistol, stasis grenade, active phase cancelling*

•   Active phase cancelling – Asimov's primary quarry is techno heretechs who often have accessed to advanced weaponry.  As a precaution for this Asimov has out fitted himself with active phase cancelling, which when activated (standard action) provides a grounded protection against electromagnetic pulse interference with his circuitry, this gives Asimov a 50% chance to ignore any EMP or electrical weapon effects as it detects and dissipates them.  However due to the nature of it's operation it will interfere with the operation of energy field, and also prevent Asimov from doing any wifi hacking (can still jack in).