Main Menu

News:

If you are having problems registering, please e-mail theconclaveforum at gmail.com

What's this? A teanage Psychic Tech-priest? Surely not!

Started by Vladimir, March 16, 2010, 02:10:05 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Vladimir

[From the records of Tech-priestess Jestille Mordicci]
On the tech-adept Severine Neau
+++Access to log requested+++
+++Opening file...+++
Homeworld: Astraeus minor [note: Sixth moon orbiting hive world Astraeus]
Birthplace: Adept Vaults, Cryptine 32b8n
Parents: Orla Neau [father unknown], tech-adept

Early Life: Born into low-mid ranks of Adaptes Mechanicus on Astraeus minor, a minor forge-moon. Raised in common with several other children according to cult Mechanicus doctrines (minimal contact with biological mother). Showed signs of promise from early childhood. At young age [equivilant to 13 Terran years] formally inducted into cult Mechanicus, serving as apprentice/assistant to an emissary to orbited hive-world.
Rose rapidly in station, become a primary Mechanicus representative on Astraeus after 35 Astraen months [16 Terran years]. Devotion to Adaptes Mechanicus lead to gift of Luminen Grafts after 37 Astraen Months.

The Kamaki experiments: Volunteered as recipient of experimental psyber-implants developed by Magos Kamaki on Krovux Lucifiris. Due to possession of Luminen Grafts and with minor psychic ability detected [note: Psychic activity registered as marginally above human norm, but of limited enough capacity that she was not considered a potential recruit of the black ships. Such individuals with stable psychic activity slightly above normal are generally permitted to exist in mainstream Imperial society, and may comprise up to 2% of some populations] she was selected as one of the recipients of the newly extrapolated Isen Coil, a device placed in the cerebellum that amplifies and focuses slight psychic abilities. Out of a total of 22 applicants, 5 did not survive the implanting an Isen Coil, and a further 14 died at some point in the testing of the device. This left Severine as one of only three surviving subjects. It is interesting to note that magos Kamaki's harsh methods- and his preference of teanage girls as subjects- led to his being posthumously excommunicated by the Adaptes Mechanicus.

Current Career: Magos Kamaki was killed by Jestille Mordicci several months into testing in a still unexplained incident. It is believed that Severine was taken on by Mordicci as an asistant, who'm she still serves. Mordicci is known to make extensive use of  Severine's still-unexplored talents, on several occasions using her as a living weapon. Despite this, Mordicci has become something of a mother-figure to Severine.

Capabilities: At 17 terran years old, Severine is the youngest and least experienced member of Mordicci's retinue. Due to the implantation of the Isen coil and the horrendous punishment endured in testing it, Severine has developed something of a split personality- while normally somewhat innocent and cooperative, when confronted with violence she becomes incredibly cold and ruthless. The full capabilities of her Isen coil are not yet understood, but it is known that she registers (as before she received the implant) as a normal, if slightly above-average, human in terms of psychic power. It is unlikely, therefore, that she will attract the attention of either the daemonic or of human psyker-hunters. It could be argued, however, that she is an unsanctioned psyker.

Ws 32.  Bs 37.  S 34.  T 48.  I 49.  Wp 70.  Sg 44.  Nv 55.  Ld 41.
Skills: Right Handed, Alternate Personality, +20 to interaction with technology.
Alternate Personality: If Severine Neau is severely injured or sees one of her allies severely injured (taken up to at least Heavy wounds, or light wounds to 3 or more locations), her murderous personality takes over. For the remainder of the game, she benefits from the abilities Heroic, Force Of Will and True Grit. She may not use Machine Empathy, or take any action requiring concentration that does not relate directly to killing- for example, she would be prohibited from aiding a fallen friend. Note that other situations, such as seeing an ally held hostage, may also cause her murderous personality to take over (Gms disgression).
Equipment: Light robes and cybernetic parts (1 point of armour to all locations), Bionic Eyes encompassing Infra-scopes, Artificial Blood (+10 to resist toxins and viruses), Luminen Implants (all unarmed attacks count as shock weapons)
Isen Coil:  Severine Neau counts as a psyker with the ability Machine Empathy, Psychic Impel, and telekinesis. Although she uses her Willpower score to use her abilities, psychic overload reduces her Sagicity, not her Willpower. Should her Sagicity fall below 20, she may only use the power Telekinesis.


Figure is currently based on a WIP sculpt... for those that are interested, the character concept and appearance are loosely based on this anime character (suitibly grimdarkified, of course)
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Daxam

Like the story, and the idea of the a Mechanicus Magos being excommunicated for experimenting with psi- implants. As for the anime in question, it's Elfen Lied I believe?

The stat line is good, reminding us that this is a girl barely into adulthood, and as such would have very little combat training. I think you've balanced out her stat weaknesses with some good equipment and some cool special rules.
I seek a perfection. I won't attain it. But it is a lofty enough goal for my ego.

Kaled

Quote from: Vladimir on March 16, 2010, 02:10:05 AM
[note: Psychic activity registered as marginally above human norm, but of limited enough capacity that she was not considered a potential recruit of the black ships. Such individuals with stable psychic activity slightly above normal are generally permitted to exist in mainstream Imperial society, and may comprise up to 2% of some populations]
The Blackships are supposed to collect anyone with a psi rating above the human norm, but in practice someone just above human norm will only have low level residual psychic activity that they are probably not be aware of and they are therefore very hard to detect.  So she should have been collected, but might have escaped detection.

QuoteIsen Coil:  Severine Neau counts as a psyker with the ability Machine Empathy, Psychic Impel, and telekinesis. Although she uses her Willpower score to use her abilities, psychic overload reduces her Sagicity, not her Willpower. Should her Sagicity fall below 20, she may only use the power Telekinesis.
I'm not sure about the idea of using Wp, but reducing Sg...  Why can she still use telekinesis if her Sg drops below 20?  What if it drops lower than 20?
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Vladimir

In reply to Kaled:

The Isen coil: Efectively it's creating 'artificail' psychic powers. It requires Wp to work, because Wp is the stat for tapping into the warp, which she is still doing. However, when it goes wrong, rather than the warp seeping into her mind, the coil malfunctions. Considering that it's been stuck into her brain, the malfunctioing implant will effectively begin to wipe/alter her memories- this is partly what causes the split personality.
When her Sg drops below a certain level, she will literally forget how to use most of the devices functions, being limited to the most basic one (throwing stuff around). If it drops to  or less, I believe she will become catatonic.

And Daxam:
Yes, it's Elfen Lied. Normally I try to avoid anime influance in =][= but the idea was too cool to pass up...
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Kaled

In game terms though it's effectively psychic powers but with vastly reduced risk - I would suggest, based on your description that she lose one power for every 10 points of Sg lost - then you get a gradual loss of ability. Telekinesis doesn't seem more basic than Psychic Impel, I'd have it so that she loses all ability if her Sg drops too low.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Vladimir

Hm. How about simply having her lose a randomly selected power for every 10 points of Sg lost?
Nothing quite like having her go psycho, balls up a few psychic tests and be stuck with Machine Empathy (which she's too psychotic to use...).
I also feel that it makes little sense for her to lose Wp- she has the Esen coil as an interface between her mind and the warp, and even without it she's unlikely to draw the attention of anything too nasty.
Also, I acnowledge that the mechanism I've given is something of a fudge- if anybody has a better way of managing it, feel free to suggest it...

Incidentally, I'm considering dropping both S and T by ~5 points. I want her to be fragile but potentially powerful.

But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Lazarus Caladine

Imo I would suggest from what you have said that this device would take a sg test instead of a wp for psychic powers, much like the archeotech from one of the admech articles. She seems a little young to be out of the manufactorium, but other than the wp stat (which if you take my suggestion will go down, and up the sg a bit) she sounds like a good character.

Vladimir

Hm. She *is* a little young- that's entirely the point. She'd still be doing what amounts to menial paperwork had she not volunteered herself to be experimented on.

This is the problem with the Isen coil- I was looking to create something that was partway between archeotech and genuine psychic abilities.
Remember, an archaotech item doesn't nessesarilly interact with the warp. Behaving like a psychic power using a Sg test in place of Wp is a shorthand (and not one that I'm completely happy with...). The test represents the character trying to work out/remember how the item is suposed to be used. On the other hand, Severine is utilising artifical psychic abilities- to me that says Wp test.

Willpower is intentionally high- she was in the 15% of subjects who weren't killed off by the device- to me that says high WP. SImilarly, SG is intentiionally low- she's not the most clued up of characters, and I wanted loss of WP from the coil to hurt.
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Lazarus Caladine

#8
I meant no offence, it is certainly original and very grimdark.
I do agree with your thoughts about 'regular' psychic power inducing equipment, as most of it seems like fairly simple gear (i.e. the tac-nuke pistol: point, shoot reload when goes click) but I thought the isen coil might make more use of sg than a dump point for psychic overloads. Granted it would definitely hurt once she starts failing.

Kaled

How about she loses both Wp and Sg (and powers) when things go wrong? Sg to represent her losing her knowledge of how to use the Coil for certain tasks, and Wp to represent her loss of control as her mind is overloaded. It doesn't seem to make sense that her control be unaffected when her mind is being fried by the Coil.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Vladimir

I considered also reducing Willpower, but that reduced the importance of Sagicity to an afterthought. The way I see it, her high Willpower score is a combination of two factors: her natural will, and the fact that her psychic powers are being produced by a frickin' machine.
Now, it's not her mind making contact with the warp, it's the Isen Coil. Thus, when she suffers feedback, it's not her mind that gets fried, its the implant. I've always seen Wp loss as the warp forcing it's way into the psyker's mind and driving them insane. This is not exactly what happens with Neau, as instead the malfunction from the coil temporarilly (well hopefully temporarilly) wipes part of her memory. I don't see her clutching her face and getting psychic nosebloods when it goes wrong, just forgetting who she is and what's going on.
I'm using Wp to actually manifest the abilities, as something is still making contact with the warp- the Isen coil. And, no matter how much Neau's mind gets shredded, the coil is going to carry on working according to specification...

As a side note, The image I had in mind was of a character who, despite the shrapnel in her gut, and despite the fact that 70% of her personality has shut down, keeps on killing with the same ruthless eficiency. Hence the image I posted.
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Kaled

So when something goes wrong, the implant gets fried not her mind - but the implant wipes part of her memory and then continues working just as well as before? Maybe I'm just having difficulty understanding the concept you're trying to portray, but why is her mind affected, not the Coil? As the Coil effectively boosts her own psychic potential and power, why not just make it a (fancy) psi-booster?
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Vladimir

Pretty much, yes.
And, no, it's not a psi-booster. It's a device artificially producing psychic powers in a non-psyker.
Remember, as an admech, much of her brain is probably bionic: thus when the coil goes wrong, it effectively causes her brain to 'crash'.
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i

Kaled

Quote from: Vladimir on March 16, 2010, 09:09:34 PM
And, no, it's not a psi-booster. It's a device artificially producing psychic powers in a non-psyker.
I think you need to rewrite some of your fluff as it seems rather confused and inconsistent - for example, in the first post you said that it 'amplifies and focuses slight psychic abilities', which sounds a lot like the description of a psi-booster; or in some places you say that her mind is affected when she suffers feedback and later that it's not her mind that gets fried, its the implant.  The idea itself is workable, but you need to be more clear about what it does.

If it's the Coil that makes contact with the warp and not her, then you could have seperate Willpower stats for her and for the Coil...
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Vladimir

True.

Stats taken down to S 32, Tf 41, Wp 67.

OK- revised version of the coil. This is slightly more complicated, but probably makes more sense.
Isen Coil:  Severine Neau counts as a psyker with the abilities Machine Empathy, Psychic Impel, and Telekinesis. For the Purposes of Psychic tests, she always counts as having a Willpower score of 70.
Should she suffer psychic feedback she loses 2d6 from her sagicity for each 10% failure. Should she fail a Risky action, she loses 4d6 Sagicicity. For each full ten points of Sagicity that she loses, Severine Neau loses the ability to use a randomly selected psychic power. Note that no matter how much Willpower she loses, she will always use the Coil's Willpower of 70.
Severine Neau may not nulify psychic powers.

To clarify how it works:
Severine is slightly psychically active. The coil uses this activity to produce artificial psychic powers. The coil couldn't function without being implanted in the brain of a psychically active creature. If placed in the brain of a Tau or not implanted, it wouldn't function. Severine herself is not a psyker, just an 'above average' normal human. Without the coil implanted, she would be unable to manifest any psychic abilities.
Severine's mind does not make direct contact with the warp. Instead, it makes contact with the coil, which amplifies the slight activity in her mind and produces the desired effect in the warp. Thus, her mind is not directly exposed to the warp, instead the coil is. Should the warp feed back into the coil, this causes it to malfunction. Since the coil is implanted in Severine's (somewhat bionic) brain, this malfunction will cause other parts of her brain to shut down as well, causing memory loss and altering her personality. However, the warp does not make any contact with her mind, so her *actual* strength of will is not effected.
But what if the Emperor could be granted a body that does not wither and die, that could be his vessel for all eternity to come? I believe that such a thing is possible, that the Emperor yet waits for his new body to be found or created. In essence, a new Emperor will be created to lead Mankind to i