More characters, this one with a Carthaxian point of origin! I'm a little less sure about this guy's game profile, but I plan to kitbash him using Skitarii plastics.
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NAME: Willem Cals
RANK / AFFILIATION: Tech-Priest / Adeptus Mechanicus (Ordo Hereticus)
BACKGROUND:
What started as a purge and mass deletion of schismatical cultists on his homeworld of Erstenheme led Willem Cals to begin his 140-year long career alongside the Inquisition. Interrogator Osmond Johm had been the one to enlist Cals' help in the first instance, but his patron Inquisitor, Diederich Paxton, had been the one to take credit for the Interrogator's hard work, and although the Erstenhemer Forge Guard were reluctant to let Cals go, the Tech-Priest saw it as expedient to install himself in Inquisitor Paxton's retinue in order to shut him up and get him to move on.
Osmond Johm was upgraded to the status of Inquisitor some eighteen years later, and Cals transferred his services from Paxton to Johm, operating as Johm's longest-standing companion and a valuable asset to the Ordo Hereticus for some one hundred and twelve years. Beginning in Carthax, Cals served the Inquisition's interests across a truly broad area of space under Johm; whether assisting him in purging Denialists within Carthax, to dismantling rebellions on Issana in Segmentum Tempestus, to investigating high-level corruption on Armageddon (during both the Second and Third Wars, much to Cals' annoyance).
Early into M42, Inquisitor Johm received word of Inquisitor Paxton's murder and chose to investigate personally, leaving Cals in Carthax along with a considerable portion of his acolyte network. When rumours that Johm had also been murdered began to circulate among the Carthaxian Conclave, Cals and his immediate cell received an astropathic communiqué bearing Johm's ident-stamp and were prepared to dismiss the rumours as mere hearsay. However, Cals -- having known Johm for a hundred and thirty years, and understanding the Inquisitor's idiosyncracies better than Johm himself -- was able to deduce that Johm truly had been murdered, and that the orders were being circulated by an impostor. Thus, Cals found himself in the service of his third Inquisitor, and the only one whose identity he still does not know, albeit only for a brief period of time before he and his cell were assigned more formally to the Carthaxian Conclave, then "adopted" by Inquisitor Fabian Filipowski of the Ordo Malleus.
Under Filipowski's direction, and assigned by the Inquisitor as a direct liaison, Cals investigated the Arch Worlds phenomenon along with his cell. Travelling from Kharybdis Alpha in Carthax to Scylla in the Abraxis Sector, Cals set about his mission of exploration and stufy, fully intending to report back to the Conclave in Carthax. However, on attempting to return to Carthax, an interdiction ship from the Abraxian Conclave destroyed Cals' transport ship. Arbitrator Lozano and Trooper Kass were killed in action, though Cals, along with Savant-Warrant MacKay and Sergeant Tobin, escaped back to Carthax using a saviour pod. All three were recovered, and MacKay and Tobin both mind-wiped, though after a rigorous battery of tests it was determined that Cals' thoughts should remain intact, and the mind-wipe deemed "unnecessary" and "detrimental" to his continued Inquisition service.
Cals briefly partook in a series of investigations under Inquisitor Ianthe Skarkon, returning once again to the service of the Ordo Hereticus under yet another distant lord, but a return to field work was a poor fit for the veteran agent of the Throne, and Skarkon reassigned him to another fact-finding mission related to the Arch Worlds. Cals' return visit to Scylla was even more violent than his previous escape, and the interdiction ship under Inquisitor Dalziel's authority obliterated the vessel in mere minutes. Once again, Cals escaped in a saviour pod, but the pod suffered a hull breach in the violent escape, and all other occupants perished. Inquisitor Dagan, Dalziel's former Interrogator, brought the saviour pod on board the interdiction ship for further investigation, but discovered that Cals was still alive, if badly wounded and in dire need of medical attention. Rather than execute him, Dagan and Dalziel opted to spare Cals' life and have him questioned, grilling him for any information he possessed regarding the Arch Worlds. To their surprise, Cals willingly provided what limited knowledge he had, as well as an assurance of his continued loyalty, in exchange for protection and asylum within the Abraxis Sector. Dalziel was reluctant, but Dagan agreed.
Six years have passed since Cals found himself in Abraxis once again. Dagan gave Cals over to the Magi on Zorya Prime, who replaced most of his injured flesh and "upgraded" him with bionics fit for a senior Skitarius Alpha. Most of Cals' internal organs have been replaced, as have his legs and both eyes, and the Magi have even granted him mechadendrites that connect to ports on his spine. Even severe brain damage caused by void exposure has been undone through the Omnissiah's bounty. However, Cals claims that his new brain implants must have belonged to a Sicarian Ruststalker, as he experiences memories that overlap with, or exist alongside, his own; and where he once favoured a high-magnum stub gun, he appears to have lost his aptitude for firearms almost entirely, and developed melee skills he has no recollection of learning. Even so, enough of Cals remains intact that both the Inquisition and the Adeptus Mechanicus see the value in his continued survival.
For her part, Inquisitor Dagan considers it a sign of the Emperor's blessing that Cals, who has served the Ordo Hereticus for longer than she has been alive, is on her side. His first-hand experience of passing between the Arch Worlds fascinates her to no end, and Dagan sees him as a valuable ally in understanding the Arch Worlds and the potential benefits they might bring to the fractured Imperium.
WS BS S T I Wp Sg Nv Ld
73 50 59 54 66 62 69 67 57
Handedness: Ambidextrous
Equipment: Two shock mauls, gas mask, mechadendrites
Bionics: Two average eyes, average legs, average heart and lungs, average brain
Cals has AV 4 on his chest, AV 3 on his abdomen, and AV 2 on all other locations (inclusive of bionics).
Skills and Talents: Dual Strike, Feint, Jaded, Luminen Charge, Speak Lingua Technis
Bionics:
Cals' bionic legs increase all his movement speeds by 1 except for crawling and climbing.
His lungs grant him an additional +20 to rolls made to resist gas (cumulative with his gas mask for a total of +35 to resist gas).
At the start of every turn, there is a 10% chance that his brain implants will glitch and reduce Cals' Speed by 1 and his WS, BS and all mental characteristics by 20 for the whole of that turn.
Cals' mechadendrites give him a +20 bonus to tests taken when interacting with machinery, and grant him one free improvised weapon attack per turn.
Cals' eyes and heart, while still bionic, have no in-game effect.
Dual Strike: Once per turn, and only if his brain is not glitching, Cals may make an attack with both melee weapons, without incurring the usual -20 penalty for two-weapon wielding.
Cals may not use Dual Strike and Feint in the same turn.
Feint: Once per turn, and only if his brain is not glitching, Cals may make a feint instead of his normal melee attacks; if successful, the target counts as having made two additional parries that turn. The feint itself cannot be parried or dodged, but if he misses, his opponent may make an immediate counter-attack.
Cals may not use Feint and Dual Strike in the same turn.
Jaded: Cals may re-roll Fear and Terror tests, provided that the Fearsome or Terrifying character or creature is not a Warp entity.
Luminen Charge: Cals may test Sagacity to power inactive technology; the effects of which should be determined by the GM. Every time Cals uses Luminen Charge, then successful or not, Cals must pass a Toughness test or add D3 to his Injury total.
Additionally, Cals may use Luminen Charge to add an extra damage die to each shock maul's next attack, testing once for both weapons. This additional damage may be stacked with further uses of Luminen Charge, up to a maximum of three extra dice, but each successive use after the first is taken at a (static) -20 penalty to both Sagacity and Toughness tests. Furthermore, if the Toughness test for adding damage dice is failed, Cals adds D6 to his Injury total instead of the usual D3.
Speak Lingua Technis: Cals can speak Lingua Technis. In game terms, this gives him a +10 bonus to his Sagacity when operating complex tech (cumulative with his mechadendrites for a total bonus of +30), and allows him to speak with other servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus (including servitors) without being understood by those outside the Omnissiah's service.
