Autumn Conclave 2013 - WHW 28th September

[greenstuff_gav]

as Shannow is there, i'd say 100% chance at the moment

[DapperAnarchist]

Eeexcellent... I'll be able to REALLY confirm closer to the date. I thought academic life was supposed to get rid of this sort of thing...

Also, not to start a spin off topic, but we really should do some sort of South West Conclave...

[Shard0808]

Hello conclave
I'm really hoping to attend the event if it's alright for complete Inquisitor newbies to attend? I can guarantee that I'm free and only live an hour away from WHW so it's no great shakes for me getting there. However I only ever played one game 8 years ago, will need somebody to hold my hand lol. If this is possibly a problem then let me know.
I will also be limited on models, having by then only one complete 54mm model (my main character Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan) will this be enough to fit into the campaign..? I was thinking of perhaps throwing a couple of  servo skulls in there, but that is all I could manage by then.
Any help or advice much appreciated!

[MarcoSkoll]

I'm really hoping to attend the event if it's alright for complete Inquisitor newbies to attend?

We've had people with less experience at bigger events.

The big suggestions I have for you are read up on the rules, and these files of my own creation:
Economy character sheet V2
Updated Quick Reference V1.2.1

The latter is my version of the QRS, except it's actually up to date with the latest version of the digital rulebook and has  a redesigned injury table that is much quicker and easier to use than the official one.

The former... well, that started as a project to condense four character sheets on two sides of one sheet of paper. It learnt a lot of lessons from the first version and got tidied up a lot.
Even if you don't want four characters on the same piece of paper, it's better laid out for some people (and I've seen it reformatted to just have one character on it).
Also, less ink hungry than the default sheet.

I will also be limited on models, having by then only one complete 54mm model (my main character Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan) will this be enough to fit into the campaign?

One character won't be brilliant (although I have seen it done), but people are usually perfectly happy to loan out models if needed. They're hardly doing anything on the shelf at home!

I may have some of mine going spare - I have a few "floating" characters that are deliberately left so they can be reasonably be attached to various groups; mostly so I can fill in gaps in groups if I haven't finished all of the models I need in time for an event! (Easy example - one of them is a mercenary).

Although, as always, I don't necessarily know if I'll need them myself until I'm either done or realise I've procrastinated too much and'll have to use them. Still, someone else may be able to give you a firmer offer!

(That said, I'll actually have to find the time to read the remainder of your fluff to be sure if they're the types that Helena would actually work with).

[greenstuff_gav]

One character won't be brilliant (although I have seen it done), but people are usually perfectly happy to loan out models if needed. They're hardly doing anything on the shelf at home!

i'll have a variety of spare miniatures (with character sheets incase you don't know what characters'd be appropriate for Inquisitor Shal'tan) as well; i've used 1-character warbands atleast twice and it's no fun for someone to shoot your guy in the head turn 2 and stun him for three turns...

[Koval]

Hello conclave
I'm really hoping to attend the event if it's alright for complete Inquisitor newbies to attend? I can guarantee that I'm free and only live an hour away from WHW so it's no great shakes for me getting there. However I only ever played one game 8 years ago, will need somebody to hold my hand lol. If this is possibly a problem then let me know.

That's absolutely not a problem at all, if you're interested in joining us then I look forward to seeing you there.

I will also be limited on models, having by then only one complete 54mm model (my main character Inquisitor Helena Shal'tan) will this be enough to fit into the campaign..? I was thinking of perhaps throwing a couple of  servo skulls in there, but that is all I could manage by then.
Any help or advice much appreciated!

As Marco pointed out, loaning models is not uncommon. And I can offer something as well -- admittedly I only have one 54mm model that's suitably generic to be slotted in anywhere, but if you can think of a reason why Helena might have picked up a PDF officer* then I'll bring him along and throw in a simplified profile.

At 28mm, there are more options.

*The model I'm talking about -- a Major Jaxon conversion with an autocarbine -- could be used as any generic PDF character. I imagine grey battledress is par for the course in a lot of PDFs.


Out of interest, while the fluff you've written for Helena is all well and good, is there any chance that you could describe her in 50 words or fewer as a sort of brief overview? That'll help people on the other side of the table develop a working understanding of who she is, and if we're loaning models to one another, we'll know what kinds of operatives and henchmen she might employ.

[Shard0808]

Much appreciated guys, I'll go over the rules as much as possible before the event to make it easier on everyone. The final piece of fluff for Helena is in the works and should be done soon, I'll fire out a stats list with abilities and equipment along with a simple round up of who she is for everyone's benefit. Koval a PDF officer should be easy to enough to write into her story, the offer is massively appreciated
Hope to see you there guys

[MarcoSkoll]

it's no fun for someone to shoot your guy in the head turn 2 and stun him for three turns...

If I recall (and/or recognise the crotch behind Lord Toff Posh Poncington-Toff as mine), I was GMing that one and used my godly omnipotence to stop the remaining shots. Here, have an obligatory Matrix scene.

To tell the truth, characters to be used on their own generally need the rules bent a bit to keep them in the running - either by the favour of the GM (not a good thing to rely on) or getting special rules to make them more resistant to injury penalties.

[greenstuff_gav]

i think you were GMing; had Kaled's Tau and i remember a dude with a gurt massive shield!

so, Fun Fact; having (realistically) 12 players means i'm 4 scenarios short; had written The Eramus Affair for 9 players :lol:
still, i've got a couple weeks to write some more! 

and the lack of dedicated 28mm players means i'll have the players to shuffle scenarios into 28mm, but won't be printing an extra copy of the Campaign Pack or building NPCs / Objectives with 28mm in mind i'm afraid!

[Shard0808]

Is the Erasmus Affair a continuation of an overall story arc? As in, the last Conclave campaign directly proceeds the events of the upcoming one? If so is there a thread detailing exactly what happened in the last campaign(s) and the current state of affairs (with battle reports..?), just so I can get familiar with characters, settings, backgrounds etc and bring Helena realistically into the setting.
Many thanks guys

[Koval]

Conclave events are discrete standalone entities. It's basically a case of "hey guys, I've got an idea". So you can join in with no prior knowledge of previous events -- though there's nothing stopping you from working an event's plotline into your character's backstory afterwards*. Let's face it, they were there.

*I did that with the Twin Arches event last December, adding the events of that to several of my characters' backstories -- even ones that weren't physically there.

[greenstuff_gav]

The Eramus Affair follows on from a previous Conclave, The Cold Trade in which hte Inquisition failed to stop Xenos technology and it's Black Market in the Carthax Sector (apparently i didn't do my own writeup!).
In this Conclave, characters will be investigating a major supplier of arms onto the Hive World of Obcultus; a Rogue Trader known as Eramus.

Since the Cold Trade civil unrest has been on the increase and apparently Eramus is somehow bypassing the embargo.
Your characters maybe there to support the local PDF, maybe touch base with Eramus and secure arms or stop him; it's pretty flexible regarding characters objectives.

Across each scenario you gain "Information Points" which increase your standing in the investigation and placing higher will uncover more of the plot and grant more influence on the story up until the finale(s) which will determine several specific outcomes...

...

.. of course, that's the theory; how well it works is a completley different situation.
At worst you'll get 5 games and thanks to our awesome playerbase i've not had a bad game yet!

[MarcoSkoll]

I will add though, the Carthax Wiki (and its Conclaves page) is generally the centralised resource for such things (although I recognise I've never fully written up the Twin Arches. Whoops).

But, here's a slightly more summarised summary than that:

~~~~~

- The Hastor Stones: A dozen stones with exceptional regenerative abilities were found on Hastor. Naturally, these valuable artefacts are highly desired.
Inquisitor Kaled is killed in the conflict, but revived using one of the stones, and escapes with a second. Inquisitor Necris also exits with one of the stones.

- The Grundig Affair: The killing of Inquisitor Solomon Stoker starts a war within the ranks of the Inquisition. Eventually, Inquisitor Kor Grundig is revealed as the culprit and is seemingly killed by Inquisitor Jakart.
However, his apparent reappearance afterwards makes it highly likely a double was killed.

(The Hastor and Grundig events were both older events somewhat retconned into Carthaxian continuity.)

- The Grand Conclave M42.009: Mixed event with no overriding theme.

- The Succession: Inquisitor Lord Marcus Grolin, head of the Carthaxian Conclave, dies. Although the circumstances are suspicious, the main need is to elect his successor. After various quarrelling and in-fighting political campaigning, Inquisitors Necris and Goddard have sufficient support to nominate themselves, and Lord Smogg the support to nominate another candidate, Inquisitor Lord Calleia.

During the voting, Lord Inquisitor Calleia was attacked with an unknown plasma weapon, and Inquisitor Necris was pushed from a rooftop by an attacker who then fired upon nearby witnesses (although both survived).

Ultimately, Lord Calleia is elected head of the Conclave.

- The Grand Conclave M42.011: Mixed event with no overriding theme.

- The Antonine Amulets: The small Antonine cluster of worlds is essentially being propped up entirely by its cold trade in xenos artefacts (including the titular amulets). Various parties seek to strengthen, control or destroy this trade - and some just go about trying to cause anarchy.
Ultimately, the cold trade is primarily strengthened.

This is what the Eramus Affair (partially) follows on from.

- The Saint: A long running war on the Fortress world Ilithyia, trying to keep out traitor forces from a fallen neighbouring sector, is given a beacon of hope - Corporal Aderyn Aeslin, killed after a heroic and largely single handed defence, has resurrected and is being hailed as a vessel of the Emperor's will.
This calls in any number of parties seeking to canonise, control, investigate, martyr, assassinate or derail the possible saint.

Ultimately, after a lead-in, Inquisitor Cortez is chosen to meet the Corporal, but the meeting between her and Aderyn is infiltrated by a heretic psyker and a number of Tau, before a massive scale security snafu allows...

... first, a traitor force to breach the ground perimeter
... secondly, a Valkyrie (sabotaged with improvised explosives) to breach the anti-air defences and crash metres from the Corporal.
... and thirdly, a daemonhost to take control of one of the planet's orbital weapons platforms (sabotaged to overload and destroy itself if fired), having just been transmitted targeting information from the planet below.

While many Imperial forces escape the resulting devastation (along with the Tau delegation and the heretic psyker), the Corporal is believed to have been destroyed along with a large portion of the traitor force.
The uncertainty results in mass rioting over much of the sub-sector, although the situation is eventually brought under some level of control with Aderyn's posthumous canonisation.

- The Grand Conclave M42.012: Mixed event with no overriding theme.

- The Kaede Mack Conglomeration: Any number of wildly different (and frequently criminal) individuals are all using the name Kaede Mack, with no sign as to which is the real article.

The Inquisition attempts to crack down on the Conglomerate. Eventually, forced onto the run, the Kaede Mack conglomerate take to using a mobile command headquarters, which is assaulted by a number of Inquisition parties, eventually destroying the xenotech transmitter used to co-ordinate their activities.

While elements of the Conglomerate still exist, any underlying plan of actions is now fragmented.

- The Twin Arches: The skies around two star systems have changed. Codenamed Scylla and Kharybdis - the former from the Abraxis sector, the latter from Carthax - the shifted constellations in their skies throws their present galactic locations into doubt. Not that the fickle and unnatural warp cares, for they can both still be found on their old warp routes... and one more, a new doorway that connects these almost galactically separate systems as if they were just two rooms in a house.

A number of Inquisitors from both ends of this connection investigate, and find evidence of an ancient xenotech warp gate - its connection to the warp starting to "leak" after many tens or even hundreds of millennia.
This is what is resulting in the apparent shift of the worlds, some very weird laws of physics in the immediate vicinity of either gate's locus and quite possibly partially explaining the long running correlations between the Carthax sector and the Eastern Fringe.

A number of parties speak in favour of destruction of the gates, although a cell of agents in service to an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus urges further investigation. An agreement is reached to allow that, although the investigation is still on-going and both worlds remain under some degree of quarantine.

- The Grand Conclave M42.013: Mixed event with no overriding theme.

[greenstuff_gav]

I will add though, the Carthax Wiki (and its Conclaves page) is generally the centralised resource for such things (although I recognise I've never fully written up the Twin Arches. Whoops).

feel free to steal words and pictures from My Collection Of Works should you need it!
as i'm not actually partaking in The Eramus Affair, i'll be keeping notes and have a writeup for the wiki of key events and the result

[Necris]

I'm afraid I can't make it, though to be honest with GW's recent trend of releases I'm finding myself utterly uninspired by the GW ip's I'm more interested in other gaming systems at present