A warband revisited

[Canis-Sapiens]

Since i last posted my warbands details i have played a dozen or so inquisitor games varying outcomes and from them have adjusted stats and expanded the backgrounds a little. i intend to design and 5th and th character to complete the eams and am interested in people opinios as to which route i should go down. i am hoping to avoid to many cliches as i already have a marksman, a brawler and a physically weak telepath and need a bit of inspiration.
any other feedback on the profiles or backgrounds is also welcome.


Inquisitor Zoran Gragan

Zoran was born into a wealthy merchant family on necromunda and it was always assumed when he grew he would join the family business but things don't always go to plan. At the age of 14 he began develop psychic abilities and though he parents tried to keep them secret he drew the attention of an old inquisitor who fortunately for Zoran was an acquaintance of his father's. The old inquisitor gave Zoran a very rare opportunity, to train and join the inquisition to protect mankind. After Schola training he joined his mentor travelling the sectors hunting demons and other heresies. 40 years later when age and old wounds claimed his master's life he joined the Ordo Malleus and gained his rosary. In the years since Zoran joined the Ordo Malleus he has hunted down and destroyed dozens of daemonhosts and daemonic artefacts and when necessary sanctioned other inquisitors who have interfered with his work. To carry out his chosen tasks Zoran has forged a retinue of loyal experienced men not afraid to do whatever is required to further their masters' goals. In addition to his retinue Zoran commands an underground network of hundreds of hundreds of informants willing to sell information and if needed kill to conceal it.

Zoran holds 2 beliefs above all others: the corrupting influence of chaos unlocks the doors of a man's mind and allows his base instincts and drives to come to the surface, any man may be tempted by the appeals of letting go but he who resists his drives cannot be corrupted and secondly that daemons are the primary carriers of the corruption. All daemons must be banished from the physical plains and anyone who worships them must die. All daemon swords and artefacts containing a daemon essence must be destroyed and anyone who uses such items must hand them over or be executed as a traitor to mankind. He is less concerned with physical corruption and mutation, a man's body may be changed by chaos but if his mind stays pure he is innocent. These beliefs frequently bring him into conflict with other inquisitors, especially those that advocate the use of daemonhosts or even worse have a hand in creating them. Many an inquisitor has been given the ultimatum "hand over the daemonhost so it may be destroyed or you will die with it.

Stats
Ws 71
BS  58
S    59
T    65
I     74
Wp 79
Sg  71
Nv  74
Ld  76

Zoran is left handed
Equipment: Force staff,  las pistol, carapace armour on chest abdomen and groin, robes on other locations except head
abilities: deflect shot
psychic powers: Telekinesis, psychic impel, psychic ward



Former guardsman Matthis Verak

Matthis was born on the forest world of Khiran VI and at 19 joined the Khiran 3rd infantry regiment at its founding. After 22 years of war crossing dozens of different planets during which he achieved the rank of sergeant he retired from the guard and returned home. Using his exceptional marksman skills gained in the guard he built a simple life living of the land and hunting animals in the forest for their pelts though he secretly missed the adrenalin fuelled life to the warzone.

He returned to the battle against the enemies of mankind through random chance, Inquisitor Zoran Gragan had tracked a chaos magus into the woodlands after destroying his cell in a neighbouring system. Unfortunately things had gone badly for the inquisitor who was lying stunned at the mercy of the magus when a round from Matthis' rifle blasted a hold in the chaos worshippers' side throwing him to the floor. As Matthis helped the inquisitor to his feet the magus pulled the pin from a grenade before he passed out from blood loss. Zoran saw the grenade roll out across the floor and quickly tried to raise a psychic field to protect himself and his rescuer but was only partially successful. The blast threw them both to the ground, shrapnel ripped across Matthis' face taking his right eye and part of his scalp.

Matthis woke a day later lying in the medical bay of the Zoran's ship with the inquisitor standing over him and was shocked to find his right eye replaced with a bionic implant. After explaining the situation and thanking him for saving his life Zoran offered Matthis a position in his retinue saying he could always use another brave man. In the years Matthis has been part of Zoran's retinue he has helped the inquisitor hunt down countless heretics and daemons, always being ready with a well-placed rifle round. After a narrowly missing an exceptionally long range shot he upgraded his bionic eye with an integrated range finder as not to let the inquisitor down again.   

Ws  53
Bs   74
S     56
T     59
I      54 
Wp  62
Sg   56
Nv   66
Ld   54


Matthis is right handed
Equipment: Hunting rifle with 20 shells and 4 manstoppers, revolver with 15 shells, knife, flak armour on all locations except head, average bionic right eye with  integrated rangefinder
abilities: dead eye shot, rock steady aim


Former Planetary defence enforcer Bryn Thalon

Born on necromunda Bryn was an aggressive youth who used his size to intimidate other children before moving on to running a smuggling ring which never really worked out for him. Once caught he was given 2 options work in the mines to pay of his crimes or shape up and join the PDF. This turned out to be the defining point in his young life and he excelled in military service and was rewarded by being given a spot in an enforcer squad.

Some 3 years after matthis joined Zoran's retinue Bryn's enforcer squad was seconded to the inquisitor during a hunt for a cell of chaos worshippers believed to be trying to summon a daemon. Bryns knowledge of the underhive and experience hunting criminals was of great benefit to the inquisitor and they soon tracked down the cell but unfortunately they were a little late. They stormed the cells hideout just as the magos in charge finished his ritual and a daemons spirit was transferred into his body. The enforcer squad charged into the den with Zoran and Matthis behind, a blistering firefight ensued. Outclassed and out gunned the members of the chaos cell were slaughter, the final few fleeing into underhive. But the fight was not over yet, an evil laugh echoed through the air as the magus regained his fee the bullet holes in his chest closing rapidly he extended a hand encased in a glowing nimbus and a wave of force threw most of the enforcer squad across the room, bones snapped and the cries of wounded men filled the air. Bryn seeing his comrades in trouble dropped his shot gun and wrenching his sword of his back as he ran charged the magus and slammed his shield into the magus' face hoping to finish him with the sword before the man could react. it was a brave but foolish move as the magus caught the sword in its hand and snapped it, spun round and threw Bryn to the ground, this act however was its downfall, leaving the daemon thing with its back or Zoran who instantly taking advantage of the opening smashed his force staff down on the back of its head. A few days after the fight Zoran approached Bryn and asked him to join the never ending fight against chaos and Bryn accepted


Ws   72
Bs    64
S      62
T      61
I      58
Wp  63
Sg   49
Nv   74
Ld   60


Bryn is right handed
Equipment: Pump action combat shotgun with 20 shells and 2 inferno rounds,  chainsword, pavise, 2 smoke grenades, flak armour on all locations except head
Abilities: furious assault

Pavise: A large, heavy curved shield capable of being deployed upright on the ground. A character may deploy his pavise (1 action) after which it is treated like any other piece of cover. retirieving the pavise takes a further action.
A pavise is too heavy and unwieldy to be used effectively in close combat and may only be used to parry the 1st attack in any turn of combat and cannot be used for bash attacks. It has and armour value of 5



Psychic savant Charon Zheral

Charon Zheral, a nondescript man with a walking cane who if you passed in the street you probably wouldn't give a second glance. However if you did look again the disturbing gleam of intelligence in his cold grey eyes would have you rapidly walking in the opposite direction. Charon was born an insignificant man on an insignificant feudal world some 250 light years from necromunda and probably would have lived his whole life in an unremarkable manner if he hadn't begun to develop telepathic abilities at very young age. When he was 8 Charon noticed that he could instinctively predict what his peers would do and even the words in their mouths before they said them. As he grew up Charon used his abilities as much as he could, focussing and strengthening them while being careful to avoid drawing attention to himself and living in eternal fear of the black ships. Luckily for Charon his planet was away from any busy trade route and distanced from imperial authority. At the age of 20 he started a small business dealing in medical supplies using his telepathic abilities to gain inside knowledge on his rivals and undercut their deals. His business prospered and he made a comfortable living and remained a simple respected man until some 15 years later when rumours of a rogue psyker hiding out in his city reached the ears of Zoran Gragan. When he saw the inquisitor's ship arrive Charon panicked believing that they had finally come for him and abandoning his business fled into the cities underground depths. Unknowingly however he was not the target of Gragan's hunt and he had unfortunately chosen the same hiding place as the real target. He realised his mistake as he slipped round a corner in the dark tunnels and felt a powerful telepathic presence. Detecting Charon's mind the rogue psyker immediately unleashed a powerful psychic attack draining his physical essence. Charon responded to the attack with mental blast of his own breaking the rogue's concentration and providing time focus. The mental duel escalated and the psychic fallout drew Zoran quickly to the scene who recognising the rogue from his wanted description took immediate action placing a las blast between his eyes. The inquisitor's timely action saved Charon's life though he was left physical weakened by the psychic duel. As the seconds ticked by Zoran and Charon sized each other up, Charon knew he was looking at a member of the inquisition but was in no condition to run and Zoran realised he was facing another very powerful psyker, the rogues psychic power has been very highly rated hence the need for his immediate sanction. Charon broke the tension raising his hands in supplication and dropping to his knees in front of the inquisitor and to Zoran's great surprise offered a deal. If the inquisitor would spare his life and not send him to the black ships Charon would dedicate his life to the inquisitor and serve until one of them was dead. Initially taken aback by the brazen nature of the psychics offer Zoran considered executing him on the spot after all a powerful unsanctioned telepath is a dangerous thing but pragmatism one through as he could always us such power at his side. Over the years Zoran and Charon hunted daemons, heretics and rogue inquisitors together and Charon has never shown anything but loyalty to the inquisitor but Zoran still does not entirely trust such a powerful unsanctioned telepath. Charon is dedicated, highly loyal to Zoran and eternally grateful to the inquisitor for saving his life and not turning him over to the black ships. He does however sometimes disagree with his masters more extreme views regarding daemonic influence and would prefer to study and utilise daemonic artefacts. He uses is potent psychic abilities and genius level intellect to overcome his physical limitations.


Ws   38
Bs    45
S      44
T      46
I       54
Wp   81
Sg    78
Nv    54
Ld    46

Charon is left handed
Equipment: revolver with 12 shells, force rod, robes on all locations, medi-pak, bio-scanner
Abilities: Medic
Psychic powers: Demoralise, Psychic Shriek, Mind Scan

[Inquisitor Cade]

Been a long while since I've given feedback on a character, or done anything on the forum in fact. I like these guys though.

Is Zoran unsanctioned? While there might be the odd illegal psyker working for the inquisition, I'd not think one would be promoted to inquisitor and if they were it would be by a very radical master. It makes much more sense that he went with the black ships but was reserved to return and serve the inquisitor once he was sanctioned.

Why did you choose to have him from Necromunda rather than somewhere original, it doesn't seem to have any import on the backstory.

Promotion at the death of the master is not, I think, a good cliché to adhere to.

It seems unlikely that Zoran would have encountered 'many' Inquisitors that he knew to be using daemon hosts.

Not much to say about his stats, I agree with them all. His Ws is maybe a bit higher than I'd have thought given his psychic proficiency, but not unbelievably so for an inquisitor. I'm not a fan of deflect shot though. Unless justified by a suitable psychic tendency, super human ability or specialised augmentation I don't think it is a realistic skill. What about a force field instead?

Does the model use Covenant as a base? Despite what the rulebook says, the brestplate doesn't cover the groin and shouldn't claim to in my opinion.

Matthis has quite pedestrian weapons for an agent of the inquisition. I'm sure Zoran could get him a better rifle and would be inclined to, maybe a needle rifle or a decent lasgun.

His leadership, toughness and perhaps nerve seem low for someone who reached the rank of sergeant and survived 22 years in the guard.


Your description of Bryn's service doesn't match what I know about the enforcers on Necromunda, though I could be miss informed.

I like the rules for the pavise, though suggest that he can't sprint with it.

He is strong and tough, but I'd expect stronger and tougher from such a big guy, who relies, and has an inquisitor relying, on his strength, I'd suggest low 70's. His Ws on the other hand is really good, better than I'd expect but entirely believable. He's of average intelligence, lower than most you'd expect to be in an inquisitor's retinue, but that isn't a problem either.

I'm not sure the term savant applies to Charon. I think that supporting an illegal psyker is much more radical than Zoran otherwise seems. He also seems very stable for a rogue psyker. I suggest that his counter offer to Charon was that he had to go and get sanctioned, but then would be spared being fed to the astronomican and would come and serve Zoran personally.

His stat line doesn't portray him as all that frail, so with not much practice he could learn to wield his rod a little better. A Ws of around 45 would be justifiable. I'd suggest a few more powers as they are his main thing.
Why a revolver?

I've missed doing that. I hope some of my comments are helpful.

[MarcoSkoll]

Promotion at the death of the master is not, I think, a good cliché to adhere to.

There are of course two ways to play it.

The very clichéd deathbed promotion: "Oh no, I'm dying/dead, take my rosette" (On that note, Canis, Rosary and Rosette are different things. A Rosary is a set of prayer beads - which, of course, a pious Inquisitor might well have, but I doubt he would attempt to derive any authority from them.)
This, as (hilariously) set out in the Thorian sourcebook, is only a half promotion, as any other Inquisitor can retract it at will.

Or the more sane variant where the master is killed, but his peers find the apprentice sufficiently skilled to not require further training and sufficiently worthy of a true promotion by the sector conclave. I'm not sure I've seen this one done very often, but it can't be that improbable.

[Canis-Sapiens]

Cade thank you for the feedback, its very useful.

regarding Zoran yes he is sanctioned, i see him as having undertakedfull inquisitorial training before joining his former master's retinue and only upon his masters death claiming his full rights as an inquisitor, taking his rosette (ty marco) and forming his own retinue
i gave him deflect shot as to me it seems to fit with his telekinetic abilites, he can sense the physical movement of projectiles and use his force staff to block them.
and as for necromunda, it was a bit of lazyness on my part, i chose the 1st hive world i could think of

i deliberatly gave Matthis slightly lower stats, he left the guard some years ago and settled down and so lost some of his physical edge though maintained his marksmanship abilities hunting which is also why he has kept his rifle, it has provided his living in the years since he let the guard though Zoran has provided some manstoppers for when extra punch is needed.

i am glad you like the idea of the pavise, it has be very entertaining to use in games though at one point backfired
on me when bryn was shot and my opponent picked it up and planted it in a doorway with a skitarii standing behind it with a heavy stubber

Charon has definatly proved the most difficult character to design, he was the 4th one i made and i was looking for someone not combat orientated. my main reason for keeping his unsanctioned is because he is so stable, he lived his whole life as a normal person in complete control of his telepathic abilities. if it hadnt been for pure chance no one would have ever known about him. he works with Zoran because he has no choice and because he is tired of hiding who he is. Also in Zorans view psykers are nothing to be overly concerned with since they do not (usually) spread a demonic influence so he doesnt see an issue with using an unsanctioned one. the revolver was a bit of an after thought as i cant really see anyone on an inquisitors retinue not having a gun of some kind even if he cant hit a barn door with it.

Since i my 1st post i have had a further thought about my final 2 characters. i have the idea of a form of archoflagellant designed by zoran to hunt daemons. it would have extra senses built in to detect the influence of chaos and melee weapons with similar bonuses against daemons to a psycannon but be almost blind to nn daemonic enemies. And for the 6th i see some kind of information dealer/trader who would lead Zoran's network of informers and only come out of the shadows on rare occasions, perhaps equiped with some form of camo gear and poisoned knives.

[Canis-Sapiens]

1st draft of my deamon hunting arco-flagellant. I plan to sculpt the model bases on a warhammer ogre or possible a stone troll and i'l ake the evicerator using 3 or 4 chaos space marine chainswords fused together. the bacround and stats here are a work in progress and i plan to update them after a build and play test the character, any thoughts or advice on either the sculpting or profile are welcome

Timrek-9543

Timrek was created at the specific order of Zoran Gragan after a daemon he was hunting managed to evade and escape his retinue after being wounded. His life prior to beocme an arco-flagellant has been expunged from all records but it is believed that he was a member of chaos cult that destroyed by Zoran. Timrek was captured during Zorans raid and rather than executing him the inquisitor saw a better use for his captive. Zorans orders were very presice regarding what he wanted Timrek to become, His arms were lengthened and fused to an evicerator, pentagramic wards were carved into his flesh, a speacially modified psi-tracker was implanted at the base of cerebrum and multiple stimm injectors completed the package. under almost all cercumstance Timrek is kept secured in Zorans ship his pacifyer helm locked firmly in place, he is olny bought out to kill once the rest of the retinue have tracked and confirmed a daemonic presence.

Stats
Ws 69
BS  28
S    78
T    74
I     62
Wp 83
Sg  16
Nv  120
Ld  12

Equipment:  Evicerator, stimm injectors containing slaught, barrage and phychon enough for 50 turns. Implanted passive warp tracker, (role for dection at the begining of each turn with a detection value of 60, if passed Timrek becomes aware of all daemons and daemonically influence items, Pentagrammic wards.
Abilities: Furious assault, force of will, fearsome

[Inquisitor Cade]

Arco-flagellation is a reasonably minor punishment, especially for a chaos cultist. It is more often used on repentant criminals so they can serve in penance, not heretics who's only possible chance for repentance is burning at the stake, and that might not work either.

Given the short like span of arco-flagellants, and of people who fight daemons in general, I'd not be surprised if this wasn't one of a series of them, the expensive helm, eviscerator and psy-tracker being retrieved went one body expires and being attached to the next 'eager repentant'. His stats don't show evidence of degradation from drugs, leading me to assume that he is at the beginning of his service. Being a recent replacement would explain this, and I like the emphasis it puts on the human part of the arco being more or less irrelevant, but equally Zoran could only recently have come up with the idea.

I'm still not sold (not that I have to be of course) on Charon being a powerful, unsactioned and stable psyker. An unsanctioned psyker is the easiest gateway for most daemons into the material realm.

[Canis-Sapiens]

My initial idea for Timrek was as an experimental prototype of Zorans devising, a sort ace in the hole he pulls out when he finds a daemon he and the rest of the retinue cannot handle alone but i definatly likethe idea of there being a series of them, perhaps the anti deamon modifications shorten his life span evan more than a normal arco-flagellant or the psi-tracker fries his brain after a short time of activation making him a 1 or 2 shot weapon after which time he dies and Zoran grabs the nearest heretic he can find and has the next one version constructed. it definatly sounds like the kind of thing an inquisitor would do and Zoran certainly wouldnt have an issue with making anti daemon weapons out of anyone who opposed him.