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Kresten Fortidius Morseccio

Started by Kresten, August 14, 2010, 07:42:25 PM

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Kresten

This is the background for my rogue trader. Feel free to poke holes in it, I'd prefer to have a background that is really solid than one that is just accepted as being ok. Also I knicked the headings from someone else, can't remember who, but thanks anyway!


NAME: Kresten Fortidius Morseccio

KNOWN ALIASES: Commodore Morseccio, The Duke of Orange, Black Son of Morsec

RANK / AFFILIATION: Rogue Trader operating under ancient license and writ, Second son of Noble House Morseccio

AGE / GENDER / APPEARANCE : 189 Terran years, Male
Species: Human
Height:  5' 9" / Weight: 126 lbs
Eyes: Blue

Morseccio is an old man, and would like others to see him and treat him as such, it gains respect so he says. This extends as far as allowing himself to wrinkle slightly and his hair go grey. That is as aged as he is willing to be and he maintains his physical fortitude in a number of ways, the more formal rejuvenat treatments have worked well enough, but also, under the careful hand of his Chief Scientist Dr. Blume, he has been experimenting with various alien technologies and life-extending concoctions.

He is a very thin man with a large nose and a well-preened moustache, he likes to wear this moustache in a variety of styles depending on his often fluctuating mood. His favoured style is the Ecerean Double curl.

He has an advanced bionic eye that is made of Mordian gold and antique Terran ivory, a gift from his mother after a hunting rifle back-fired and exploded in his hands, a piece of shrapnel completely removing his left orbit. He also has an amazingly intricate alien bionic hand, a gift from the shadowy Khorim, a highly advanced reptilian race, after he brokered deals between them and neighbouring factions. He never lost the hand, the gift, which he thought to be an advanced gauntlet of some sort crawled onto his hand when activated, and much to the delight of the Khorim, opened up completely and encased Kresten's hand, digging into it and fusing living metal to bone, sinew and vein, literally becoming a part of him. At first Morseccio was terrified and thought himself to be the victim of betrayal, but soon he became aware of the distinct advantages of his new attachment. It enhanced his mind and awareness greatly, allowed him to move objects with thought and to control the will of others. Since he and this contraption bonded, he has become reliant upon it, ever discovering its hidden abilities, he even talks to it sometimes on those lonely nights, claiming that it told him its name, Teyun, and over the years,  it has begun to slowly spread up his arm... He has also had an alien weapon mount and MIU unit grafted onto his skull and linking into his brain. He has a variety of attachments for this and like the Teyun, they can move of their own free will and when activated simply crawl onto his head and attach themselves automatically.

ATTIRE:

Morseccio is a man of great extravagance and dresses as such. He often wears hats of various elaborate designs, his favourite being a top hat. He is a wickedly humorous man and likes to conceal his alien weapons in these hats, often popping suddenly out of a skulls mouth, or the top of his top hat, or a feather arrangement. He likes fur and finery and his traditional House color is orange, therefore his ship's uniform is this colour and he almost always wears it upon first contact with any new persons or regions.

PERSONALITY & BELIEFS:

Kresten is a relentlessly selfish man and in his younger days spent all of his time accruing wealth and power with a mind to usurp his elder brother's position as patriarch of House Morseccio. As he grew older however his passion in this matter waned and he ended up viewing his lot as second son and carrier of the family writ as rather a blessed one.

Over the years he has become a ruthless black-market figure and well known as the Duke of Orange. He has crushed enemies and has taken countless lives to get what he wants and made many new enemies and connections in the process.

Now he no longer seeks wealth as he has more than he could ever possibly spend and instead devotes his time to his goal of immortality. He collected alien artefacts, ancient imperial artefacts, astartes artefacts etc and now is bent on populating his newly built zoo and aquarium with a drive to discover the secrets of eternal youth, it is this reason that he employed Dr. Blume's predeccessor all those years ago.

ABILITIES / STRENGTHS / WEAKNESSES:

Ever since the incident that lost him his eye, Kresten has been afraid of conventional firearms and has thus opted against them. He is not a warrior, never really has been. He finds that he can get by with having highly effective bodyguards, a servo-skull and a mounted digi weapon. Thus he tends to back off from direct confrontation and use his psychic powers from afar. He has the power of telekinesis, with this he can choke and even break bones. He can also command the non-psychic, this hand also gives him the power of regeneration as alien nannites in his blood knits together bones and sinew when damaged.

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT:

Given that Morseccio is not a fighter, he doesn't use conventional weapons or tactics.
He has a master-crafted bionic eye, concealed alien digital weapon, which actually uses the wearer's blood as ammunition, and the Teyun, his bionic hand, this also emits a force-field.

SERVANTS/ACQUAINTANCES:

Being a Rogue Trader he has thousands of lives under him upon his vessel, but he has a core team of loyal servants. The first of which is Szeren, a void-born warrior from an ancient cadre that formed and stays on the Maw of Morsec. In keeping with the long tradition and relationship between House Morseccio and the cadre, he has become Captain of the Guard and Chief Enforcer as well as Morseccio's personal bodyguard. Also there is Dr. Blume, Chief Scientist and Kresten's friend. Kresten also has an advisor by the name of Kerato who has been with him since birth.

He has a vast network of contacts, loyalties owed and vendettas unresolved and weaves his way through them daily while amassing power and alien knowledge.

HISTORY:

The second born son of the noble House Morseccio, Kresten inherited the family writ and eventually took to the stars upon the Maw of Morsec, the families ancient trading vessel, to explore and claim new territory and alliances in the House's name. Kresten was at first very unhappy with this arrangement, seeing it as an archaic method of avoiding conflict in the succession process. Thus he mounted an assassination attempt on his elder brother, employing local workers to end his life however they could. The plot was uncovered and Kresten found to be the mastermind. His uncle, acting head of the House, arbitrated the matter and saw it as an inept and feeble attempt on the elder brother's life, more of an act of petty sibling rivalry than serious malice, after all such things were common in the world of high society. He therefore elected to grant the honour of the House writ to Kresten earlier than expected. The second son left the moon of Anthera and the House's territory in the midst of a scandal and was painted the 'Black Son of Morsec' by the dismayed masses, Morsec Morseccio being the House's earliest patriarch.

Early in his career as a Rogue Trader, Kresten was hellbent on amassing wealth and power with a mind to taking his brother's position and trading empire, in the meantime however, his brother proved to be highly efficient in his new role and became a much harder target than previously estimated. In the next few decades this did not deter Kresten and he forged ever more insidious relationships with a view to his brother's destruction. Throughout these years he amassed wealth, power and military strength and became a prominent figure within many circles.

It was later in his career, after many years of maintaining a functioning criminal enterprise trading in Xenos artefacts, drugs, firearms and other illicit goods, he had an epiphany and forgot his dreams of becoming the head of House Morseccio. He had grown into his role as the 'Duke of Orange', a smuggler, pirate and kingpin of renown and thoroughly enjoyed his varied encounters, relishing his contact with the myriad of Xenos species that populated the unchartered regions of space, far from the Emperor's sight. Becoming rededicated to his role, he plunged forward into the next few years, growing his reputation and his coffers immensely. For the next few decades he operated as before, until a long-running deal with Eldar pirates by the name of the Star Spider Corsairs collapsed, the deal was for information on Imperial shipping routes in exchange for arms. It went sour when the Corsairs jumped directly into the wake of an Imperial fleet. Their casualties were extreme and they blamed Kresten for the loss of their brothers and sisters. Morseccio was merely peddling outdated information with no intention of harming the Corsairs. Nevertheless after surviving an attack from a Corsair scouting party, Morseccio decided that he had lingered too long in the Kamodian sector, had made more than enough profit and was growing restless. He decided wisely, to concentrate on exploration and made a timely exit.

In the next few years he became increasingly more interested in the biology of the variety of Xenos he encountered. He tried unsuccessfully to capture and mate some indigenous life-forms he found interesting and decided to employ an experienced scientist to help him. He therefore started scouring the fringes of Imperial space for a suitable candidate and found one. Former Biologis, now heretic Lectite. Lectite brought with him his student and assistant Dr. Uldous Blume. In the months to come Lectite grew horrified at the increasingly bizarre and border-line heretical experiments Morseccio suggested. He began to gather evidence to bring to the authorities, unable to do it himself he was helped by a lesser minion. Blume however, had none of the hang ups of his master and was thrilled to be at the 'forefront of science' as he saw it and when he discovered Lectite's plan, murdered him and brought the entire matter to Morseccio. Morseccio was very grateful to Blume and gave him Lectite's position, confident that he could trust the man implicitly. Blume did not disappoint and together they have become great friends, each only adding to the insane curiosity possessed by the other.

Now Morseccio has entered the Carthax sector, led by 'dreams and visions' of ancient technology, capable of turning a man into an immortal of immense power. He and Blume are on a dedicated mission of unearthing the meaning of these dreams and to unlock the powers of the technology gifted to them by the elusive Khorim.


QUIRKS/NOTES:

Prone to mumbling to himself and laughing at private thoughts out loud no matter the company.
When explaining things tends to shut his good eye.
Smokes Mahjan Weed through a pipe that extends from the bottom of his bionic eye.
Has a problem looking people in the eye.
Often asks members of his retinue to talk for him, even when asked a direct question.
His servo-skull is the skull of his biggest rival in the Kamodian sector, the warlord Cade Maximo

QUOTES:

'So what would happen if we impregnated a human with them do you think?''The subject would most likely be eaten alive from the inside out Kresten.''Hmm i see.............want to try it anyway?'

'Your friends, family, so called gang, all dead. Your wife was fed to my pets and your children given to the Evicatii*. Your men were all set on fire while chained to each other, they boiled in each others fat. From this I want you to know that you are crushed. To learn that I am mighty and that you are weak. That by going against my will, by mounting your pathetic resistance that you have cost yourself everything, everything that you knew and everything that you have worked for, I have taken from you. But most importantly I want you to know that your [EXCOMMUNICATE]ing smuggling runs and your pathetic [EXCOMMUNICATE]ing fleet are [EXCOMMUNICATE]ing mine. Unlike you of course, no, you're the property of Dr. Blume now.'


*the traditional void-born death cult that exists within the Maw of Morsec's society

"A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn"

Shannow

As crisp clean and delightfully grim as the model it describes! A very colourful character which has many a flourish without straying into cliche, and the last quote.....fantastic! I very much wish I could build this sort of depth for a character without it becoming stale such as you have done. I do not have a single criticism and I am very picky :D

Rob
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

JoelMcKickass

I do like the background, but where's the profile?

Flinty

Very nice, lots to get your teeth into and an interesting character with some depth.

Agree personal stats would have been nice as would some stats/rules on 'Teyun' - it sounds as though there is going to be something sinister going on when you bind with alien tech...
Neanderthal and Proud!

Acolyte Havlan Tome

If you catch sight of me twice your either lucky or not worth exterminating

Kresten

Thanks very much for reading and commenting, I'm glad you like him :)

and yes I should have done stats etc, so here they are;

Right handed

WS  Bs  S   T   I   Wp Sg  Nv Ld
31   39 39 51 72  68  86  52  89

Talents:
Leader

Equipment
Alien digi weapon, MIU, counts as already aimed whenever enemy is within 10 yds, has unlimited ammo, when used counts as having fast draw, uses Kresten's blood as ammo and if used more than 20 times it begins to drain him (GM's discretion)

Teyun - counts as having psychic powers; choke, regenerate, enforce will, psychic shield, telekinesis, the Teyun has a mind of its own of sorts and its motives may conflict with Kresten's (GM's discretion). Also if out of action the Teyun will attempt to drag Kresten into cover, moving 1d6 yds per turn if not on difficult terrain, if he is the roll is halved, if on very difficult terrain, it cannot drag him at all.

Advanced bionic eye w/bio-scanner

Gun skull w/autopistol
"A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn"

Shannow

Despite his aversion to weapons, I think the Ws and Bs you've given are very very harsh and I would certainly bump them up to the high 40's. As they are they, to me, represent a half wit who doesn't know which way a gun points (and I should know,,,being a half wit and all......)

I'd also up his nerve as he strikes me from what you wrote as a ruthless bastard who has cut throats to be as powerful as he is and surely that takes a good deal of backbone? Low to mid 60's perhaps?

If the Teyun has a mind of its own I would personally consider that it should have its own Wp stat,,,not possession as such but perhaps a distinct mind within a symbiosis?

Unlimited ammo I think is a bit much as is used more than 20 times as you are unlikely to fire that many times in a game. I would instead say something along the lines of 'requires a pause for breath in between each shot as his body accommodates the use of his blood'.

All in all very good, a little overpowered in some areas and a little undersold in others I feel.

Hope that helps :)

Rob
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

Kresten

I see what you mean with nerve, ill bump that up a bit. Although with the rest I went by the Conclave standard here http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=162.0, so I think by those standards he's ok?


True 20 times maybe a bit much, although I cant see it using enough of his blood to make him woozy otherwise... it's around 2pints (litres maybe) I think, that makes you feel a light-headed, so it would have to use a lot to affect him. Hmm.

Where did you think he was over-powered?
"A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn"

Shannow

The unlimited ammo and woozy after 20 uses thing are to me a little overpowering, as reloads aren't that frequent and its a little over the top to me especially with such strong psychic powers. That is however purely my opinion and its completely workable as is :)

I still think that Ws and Bs are a little low, though I can see that Bs may be low due to his background, the Ws still seems to me like he should be more competent than an average human. But again this is my opinion, and of all the things I wouldn't want you to do is deviate from how you feel this guy should be,,, no point if you do!

Also I think a Wp for Teyun is a must as you have given it a clear sentience, and if the hand was trying to pull him into cover, it would make it a viable target I reckon, especially for Puppet master, oooh that sounds like something fun waiting to happen.

Sorry if I seemed harsh or attacking, wasn't my intention :)

Rob
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

MarcoSkoll

Don't forget... there may be other reasons he's losing blood (injuries being the obvious one), so you have to take those into account.

Personally, I'd do something more like I did for Silva's integral laspistol. It draws its power off the same bio-electrical exchange that runs the rest of her bionics, so it doesn't need a power pack, but the problem is that the system can only provide so much power safely. For every shot after the first in a turn, she adds 1 to her injury total.

In his case though, as it's expressly using up blood every shot, I'd make it +1 to injury total every time, which while a couple of shots won't make a big difference, he's got to be very careful about overdoing it.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Kresten


Quote from: Shannow on August 16, 2010, 06:49:15 PM


Sorry if I seemed harsh or attacking, wasn't my intention :)

not at all mate, i'm greatful for the input. Im a former art student so criticism is something I've had to get used to!

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 16, 2010, 07:13:32 PM
In his case though, as it's expressly using up blood every shot, I'd make it +1 to injury total every time, which while a couple of shots won't make a big difference, he's got to be very careful about overdoing it.

I like this, let's go with that one. And youre right, the Teyun should have a Wp.

so;

WS  Bs  S   T   I   Wp Sg  Nv Ld
41   39 39 51 72  68  86  52  89

Teyun - Wp = 70, I thought I'd make it a little higher than Kresten's to show that it is slowly dominating him?
"A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn"

Shannow

Yeah the idea of Teyun dominating him is very good and compelling for a story line, I would still up his Nv but all in all he's perfect and as you already know, the model is just so good. I had looked at the base model several times but could never have envisaged the outcome you've produced! Hope to play against him at a conclave meet maybe :)

Rob
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

Kresten

indeed, i missed the Nv

*ahem*

WS  Bs  S   T   I   Wp Sg  Nv Ld
41   39 39 51 72  68  86  63  89

youre right, as the head of a criminal empire he should have more balls really :)

Ill definitely try and make it to the next meet, it'd be great to actually play the game! I'll be seeing you at the Dark Heresy game in Nov before that though I think.

As for the model, I was just looking for one with a top hat, swapped his hand and gave him a bionic eye to 40k him up a bit, fur to pimp him up a bit and the rest sort of wrote itself. I had wanted to do an evil eccentric rogue trader for ages. The teyun is definitely the coolest thing to come out of it though, I really like the idea of him being corrupted by this thing, theres a lot of potential for disaster  ;D
"A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn"

Shannow

Indeed I think the background you wrote for the character and the mysterious hand will work so well as a plot hook for a campaign you could run, though if he ends up removing his hand/arm i'm not sure what your model would say :P

I look forward to seeing you at the DH campaign :) and hopefully a conclave meet, though it would be my first also :D

Rob
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.