Beyind the light of Holly Terra

[The oldest Herasy]

Signed up (2/6):

[EvilGinger]

A Death watch team has been assigned to the trade fleet of the Rogue trader Regius Vortans & no one seems to know why? Except perhaps the Team & their handful of servants & they are not saying.



if you want to find out you will need to sign up to play each character will have one space marine part of a tactical squad of death watch and two servants who are basically Dark heresy level characters to do the grunt work for the death watch.


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

I will be organising a character generation session at the Devi or Coopers the Thursday after Expo (the 9th of June) would all interested parties please attend and we can rough out every ones Marine & Secondary (dark Heresy) character then. I would like the party to be a good mix & capable of  forming a tactical squad with the ability to cover assault and special weapons operation as well, Terminator honours would be useful but as I dont have the rules yet I am not sure if this is possible for a starting character. The secondary characters are to supplement the marines & do the grunt work for them and should form a rounded team in themselves, but they need not be combat monsters as that's what the marines are for, but should be capable in other areas & able to survive things going badly wrong. I may throw more than the normal starting xp their way to help here.

Bonuses will also be given if folks turn up with figures for their characters at the first Session especially if they are painted or converted.


  Ginger

[EvilGinger]

The death watch kill team designated K2711 filed into the Inquisition briefing room on new Tallos the room was plain painted a uniform dark grey with only a gilt inquisition symbol challenging its stark plainness. There rows of  solid black plastic seating  easily sufficient  for the five space marines who looked slightly out of place in their Death watch jumpsuits behind them filed in & sat a half dozen grim looking individuals the support group form the Ordo Zenos for the kill team. Only the marines where openly armed with their duty side arms holstered at their hips.

There was no chit chat no sound at all as they waited for the briefing officers to enter.....




To be continued......


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

The briefing team filed in first a pair of inquisitional storm troopers in full red & black ceremonial carapace armour bolt carbines  held casually but obviously at the ready. Then a couple of hulking servitors in plain robes with empty staring eyes lugged in a heavy vid display screen & some other less identifiable equipment , followed by two more inquisitional storm troopers escorting a small rather rat like individual whose garb marked it as a lowly techpriest who bent low over the screen and equipment reciting the rites of activation and making adjustments until the holographic screen flickered into life. At which they stepped into a corner & the two escorting storm troops joined their comrades.

Finally the briefing team filed in  an odd group  a small  very elderly man but still hearty wearing the robes of a lord of the inquisition & the insignia of Ordo Zenos a younger man, perhaps middle aged with slightly receding  still dark hair flashily dressed in something which might have been based on the uniform of a senior officer in the sector fleet but which carried far too much baroque decoration even for that, who looked more than a little nervous. Behind him was a tall woman silent deadly in a black jump suit, unarmed but obviously as much a weapon as any she might have carried. She gave the Kill team an almost imperceptible nod as the briefing team formed up around the holographic display the Inquisitor lord to the fore.

The Inquisitor cleared his throat and began the briefing gesturing to the minor tech priest in the corner when ever he wanted the image on the screen changed.

"welcome, we have very little time for pleasantries  as we face a threat to the future of humanity & the imperium as grave as any other we have encountered in the last ten thousand years" The Inquisitor lord spoke with a calm confident baritone which sounded out of place coming form his ancient frame.

"Regius Vortans" here the inquisitor indicates the flashily dressed & nervous man with too much brocade on his coat "Is a rogue trader from a minor house but quite successful and without taint of any heresy until his last voyage when in accordance with the charter granted to his grandfather he was seeing out worlds lost to the Imperium recontacting them & making the first steps to reintegrating them into the it he and his fleet found an uninhabited garden world. Not his main task but truly inhabitable worlds which are not already inhabited by foul zenos are a rare treasure, and not one to be left in this dire age. So he had it surveyed & found it to be the gem it looked to be form orbit rich in all manner of resources & ready for eager colonists from the Imperium. Better yet there was a seemingly stable route to it through the warp. However just as he was going to go beyond his initial survey and was considering setting up an outpost & returning to report the world to the authorities. His fleet of twelve ships was approached by a small ship of unknown type which hailed him and told him that this world was off limits & he should leave immediately and not return"


 [/i]

To be continued.....

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

The inquisitor continued, " quite naturally Regius Vortans did not want to give up the treasure world without a fight & thought his fleet a match for on e small ship half the size of the smallest of them so he pulled his transports back & engaged with his flag ship & the other warships he had" The static images of the garden planet and screens of statistics & scan read are replaced by  moving images of the traders attacking squadron recorded from on of the transports seven ships all escorts but doubtless experienced combatants  with able crew & with overwhelming odds unless there opponent was a battle ship, which it was not. Regius Vortans fleet engaged it first with flights of torpedoes which it dodged then as they closed with main batteries.  The enemy dodged an weaved shot down both torpedo & munition with beam weaponry of unfamiliar design  but did not fire directly on the traders squadron so they pressed the attack. Until about five minutes into the hollo vid when it does with a single powerful beam weapon hitting six of the squadrons seven ships rapidly in turn. In each case the ships void shields flicker & fail & the ship blossoms into a fire ball as bright as any sun as the reactors blow, finial it turns on Regius Vortans flag ship Emissary and this time the beam strikes with lethal precision as the Emissary dodges and flees trying the avoid the fate of its squadrenmates.  The hollo Vid stops here suddenly. The Inquisitor turns to the man in the Baroque uniform and says "Regius Vortans will continue"  

The man in the Baroque uniform steps forwards and rather diffidently for a rogue trader clears his throat " here the transports where breaking off & preparing for warp as was our standard practice if a fight was going sour as this one was, they where supposed to meet at a agreed earlier point on the route we had followed an empty system with a dying star, I couldn't give orders as I was on the Emissary & that thing was pounding the emperor forgive me the crap out of us & wondering why it had not just killed us as it had the others. Well eventually it stopped firing but we where blind all our weapons where destroyed & we where leaking air like a cafe strainer does water, but we could still make warp my Navigator told me so we did heading for the meeting point like the transports where all the while trying to make temporary repairs & running our Tech priest ragged doing it, he said it was almost as if the spirits of the machines where fighting him. Worse our navigator couldn't find the route we had come in by & had to take us on one hell of a trip through the warp the worst I have ever experienced. Worse when we dropped out of warp it wasn't at the meeting system but here < New Tallos > & our navigator was a twisted and useless mad creature, half our compliment where dead & we had to be towed back to port from the the out system because our engines where off line & Galvus  couldn't get them back on line. I felt it couldn't get worse but once at Tallos port we found it did"




To be continued.......


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

The inquisitor steps forward " very good" he says rather dismissively to the Rogue trader " Indeed it did during refit & repair it was found that every machine spirit aboard the Emissary had be come corrupt worse they corrupted some of the port side ones and forced the shut down of half the space dock whilst they where purged, needless to say we took Regius Vortan & his crew in for questioning & found nothing regarding this event though we did discover several well known Heresies where present amongst the crew on the Emissary however those could not explain the deep corruption of the machine spirits of the ship & how it spread to the docks. Whilst this was being investigated a naval patrol found the transport Gorlath drifting in the nearby Selvek Mar forge world system  where the Vid was recovered from but all the crew where dead because the ship had vented all its atmosphere apparently Voluntarily & the navigator had commuted suicide with a plasma pistol. Notes left by the ships techpriest indicated the Gorlath's machine spirits had been twisted by a transitions traced to the enemy ship which had gone unnoticed at the time. on the advice of the Gorlath's now dead senior techpriest that the corrupt machine spirits where seeking out others to corrupt the captain of the patrol ship destroyed the Gorlath by weapons fire.

My researches in to the archives have not been conclusive as many records have been destroyed for the good of the Imperium no doubt but incontinent for the later quester for information to defend it. I am  none the less of the opinion that we are dealing with the thinking machines heresy  here and in conclave with my brothers and sisters in the Ordo Zenos it has been decided to send a kill team with our rouge trader to retrace his steps identify & eliminate this threat. Regius Vortans's ship has I am assured been rendered immune to further corruption & made serviceable again to act in this mission & a new navigator has been provided for it & it is only fitting that he and his surviving  crew are to take part in the purging of an evil which killed so many of their comrades"  


To be continued.......




 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Mission objectives

Locate the other four Missing transports from the Rouge traders fleet investigate them and determine if they pose any threat to the Imperium & neutralize it as required .

Relocate the garden world discovered by the fleet as the navigation logs where lost in the battle & subsequent warp transition or locked inn the mind of a hopelessly insane navigator.

Investigate the Garden world when found particularly with a view to assessing if it is a threat & the nature of that threat.

Locate the attacking ship determine its origin & Allegiance, then  either neutralize it or arrange for it to be neutralized sector fleet have a battle squadron on call for this latter possibility but be advised that direct naval action is to be the last resort






 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

On the practical side I now have the DEATH WATCH rule book to hand & am giving it a good read. I will be playing with the character generation shortly but I have noticed already that starting Characters seem very capable but are apparently at the level of experienced but not yet veteran space marines. There is a choice of all the expected flavours of marine & a selection of Chapters in the basic book Ultramarines, Stormravens, Space wolves, Blood angels & Dark angles. I belive others are available in game supplements  


Edit the forthcoming ;-Deathwatch: Rites of Battle



adds the ability to build custom space marie chapters from which you character can come to Deathwatch & adds rules the Crimson fists and some other successor chapters. It also adds vehicle rules apparently which is good as they are not much mentioned in the core rules & I have found no game stats

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Continuing fro  the above I have now got my head around the character generation system & have managed to create several space marines some of which I will be using as other marines operating out of the small watch post on gas giant Niolian largest moon. I had originality envisaged it as a base for a group no bigger than a marine squad, with each kill team being an equivilent of a tactical squad,  but given the ease of the basic character generation system it was quite easy to get a bit carried away & I now have enough for about two full squads & support services.

I am reading the combat system which whilst its based on the one used for Dark heresy & rogue trader is a deal more involved as it should be given that Space marines are humanities finest warriors & the focus of the game is them fighting humanities enemies. The additional complexities & elaborations look to make the experience of battle more fun & to reflect the capacity of Deathwatch to deal with large numbers (hordes) of enemies.


as far as equipment goes there are rules to make sure every one has the gear one would expect a marine to have both initially & in the case of consumable items such as ammunition every mission specialist stuff, deemed not essential  has to be requisitioned and there is a good system for that as well, based on accruing reputation from succeeding in missions. This however does not preclude the GM giving the characters a drop pod or a thunderhawk gunship or whatever if this is mission essential.

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

the specialities

Deathwatch Devastator marine - all marines pass through the  Devastator squads during the initial rotation  & can handle all the heavy weapons used by the Marines but it never does any harm to have a real expert on hand & this one is as he has returned to the devastators after being rotated through the other specialities.

Deathwatch Assault marine all marines pass through the Assault squads during the initial rotation & are experienced and deadly in close combat but these are real experts as they have returned to the assault squads after being rotated through the other specialities

Deathwatch Tactical marine the final stop on the rotation & where most marines stay, excellent generalists familiar with though not as skilled as the specialists with either close combat or heavy weapons they are tactically flexible and develop leadership skills as they advance, leadership being essential to the Squad mode in combat.

Deathwatch Techmarine combat engineers & technicians initiates of the machine cult

Deathwatch Librarian Psychers significantly more powerful than the sanctioned ones in Dark heresy but much more short ranged than the Astropaths of Rogue trader

Deathwatch Apothecaries


I am still familiarising myself with the last three character specialisations as they are more complicated & require a deeper reading of the rules.

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Just to remind every one that the character generation Session is Thursday of this week & that I will be starting the campaign a couple of weeks after that with a warm up mission or two to get every one up to speed before we start on the main & very epic adventure trailed in posts above.


 ginger

[EvilGinger]

The Still Birth
Brother Mandagore of the Death Whispers Hurled his last frag grenade down the dormitory corridor of the Death Whispers fortress Monastery & sent a burst of bolter rounds after it & fell back as behind him Brother Vendel gave covering fire until it was answered by a strobe of bright light which cut him into ribbons his ancient power armour not withstanding. Brother Mandagore knew he was going to die that did not frighten him but that no one would warn the Imperium  of the Doom of the Death Whispers did so his retreat became a rout as he ran for the landing Pad his Chapter was still born but the Imperium had to know why.

this will be a quick introductory adventure in which Deathwatch investigate the destruction of the newly forming Death Whisper marine Chapter


 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

follow developments here

http://www.bigbangburgerbar.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=1803.0

 Ginger