Puritan Tools

Reading the Dark Heresy 2E supplement, Enemies Without, I found these cool resources they had to radical inquisitors. I thought that there should be puritan versions of them. These would be more expensive, take more time, and/or not do the things radical resources could do.

These individuals and groups represent those belonging to Imperial organizations or burn with the puritanical zeal of a witch hunter. They do not stray from the sight of the Emperor; in fact a few try to reach new zealous heights to serve their immortal lord. They do this with such fervor that it drives them mad in their supplication. The less fanatical know their station and serve their masters. These can be loaned or requisitioned by acolytes or an inquisitor. Although many Imperial commanders and rogue traders knows that to treat with an Inquisitor may lead to a loss of valuable assets at best and certain doom by the Inquisition’s hand to stave off possible corruption at worst.

               The services offered by these resources can aid an investigation. They have a variety of different uses. However, they do come with different conditions, strengths, and weaknesses. The Emperor’s mill grinds slowly and not always finely. They may take time to be summoned and used. They are also often subject to different oaths and responsibilities to different masters. This may make them less available and cost more to use than their radical counterparts. They may come with different stipulations and scruples. An arbitrator would only be interested in those who broke the tithe. Enforcers will not hurt their masters interests. Savants may have encyclopedic knowledge of one subject but lack knowledge in other subjects and would not have the deep, forbidden knowledge of a malefic scholar. All have things they may not do that their radical counterparts would.

               Their services are obtained using a requisition test. However, these types of services often need to be justified in roleplaying. Unless an inquisitor wanted to throw their authority around and earn the ire of lord generals, they would not just order a squad of guardsmen like one orders amasec at a tavern. Often there needs to be a link that connects the party or inquisitor to these groups, like a befriended noble allowing use of his personal enforcer retinue, or a favor given by a High Marshall to use one of his arbitrators in exchange for saving his life. There could be adventures to earn these services.

               The table given lists a sample of services and availability ratings. A GM should change these based on location, situation, and resource called upon. Peer talents allow bonuses to requisition these groups. Enemy talents give maluses. Difficulty to obtain these services should change depending on the difficulty of the task the acolytes want done. The descriptions of services given are also not set in stone. There may be more than one use of an arbitrator than finding and capturing a criminal that sabotaged the Tithe. A judge may have knowledge on a specific law from decades of studying the Lex Imperialis. A savant may be a linguist rather than a repository of information. A GM may choose how to implement these services.

               If there are other rules and guidelines one wants, check out the Enemies Within supplement chapter of radical tools on page 72.

Bonded Bounty Hunter

(Check page 384 of DH2E CB for more info)

Bonded bounty hunters hunt those in dereliction of their proper duties. They return criminals to their proper place to serve the emperor or be punished by local laws. A bounty hunter will track down and capture or kill a target of the Acolyte’s choosing. The bounty hunter requires the target to be a fugitive of the law, for they are often constrained by their own scruples or by the local laws of planetary governments. They will also insist on capturing the target unless paid extra, for planetary authorities often pay more for living fugitives that can go on to serve. To determine whether the bounty hunter succeeds, the degrees of success on the Requisition test must exceed the first digit of the target’s threat level or its Influence bonus (whichever is higher). Bounty hunters can be hired as followers and reinforcement characters as well.

Arbitrator
(Check page 384 of DH2E CB for more info)
Arbitrators are unflinching enforcers of the Lex Imperialis. They care not for simple matters such as murder or thievery. They protect the tithe. They pass judgement on those who would threaten the tithe. Arbitrators are not above the law. They are the law. They will seek to try perps by a court held by a judge. An individual arbitrator can be sent out to track down and capture or kill a target of the Acolyte's choosing. Slate-agents can be used to work undercover in criminal groups. The different forms of Detective arbitators can use their individual strengths to aid in an investigation. Detective-Espionists/Surveillors can offer key information, set up wires and listening devices in locations, or use their networks to aid the acolytes in finding individuals or information. To determine whether the arbitrator succeeds, the degrees of success on the Requisition test must exceed the first digit of the target’s threat level or its Influence bonus (whichever is higher). Arbitrators can also be hired out as reinforcement character squads in special uses (such as snatch squads) or as a four-man NPC teams that will follow the acolytes' orders.

Redemptionists
(Check page 389)
Zeal is all-consuming. To these men and women faith is everything. To toil and walk in the Emperor's light is ecstasy compared to sin and damnation. These devout see it as their duty to cleanse the Imperium of the unclean. This includes mutants, gangers, witches, and anyone who gets in their way. For to deny their work is to deny the Emperor's will. Redemptionists can be directed against a target of the Acolytes’ choosing. If the roll for the Requisition test results in a double, however, the
zealots' nonspecific fervor results in numerous additional casualties, either in the physical vicinity of the target or related to it in some other way. At the GM’s discretion, 4 or more degrees of failure on the Requisition test may result in other problems, such as the redemptionists seeing the Acolytes
as sinners needing to be purged. Redemptionists use the burdener profile on page 389 with an assortment of weapons with a preference for flame, chain, and energy weapons.

Techpriest
(Check page 396)
Ciphers of the machine spirit. Worshippers of the omnissiah. Techpriests learn their craft with religious conviction through rote memorization. They tinker and build weapons, vehicles, art, bionics, and more. They adhere to a strict orthodoxy.  Acolytes likely have some specific reason for seeking out their services, such as identifying an archaeotech relic or installing a cybernetic. Alternatively, techpriests can craft tools and weapons for acolytes that adhere to specific guarded STCs or cannot be bought or requisitioned. They will only build equipment that is orthodox to the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus. They may build chain, power, or shock versions of different low-tech weapons. At lower availabilities, they may be the keepers of different power weapons or strong archaeotech such as plasma weaponry or graviton weaponry. They keep these weapons under very heavy lock and key, but perhaps by earning their trust and proving one's zeal to the Omnissiah they can be persuaded to relinquish these powerful artifacts and tools to a true servant who would put them to good use. Some may be armour-mongers that can shape one's armour to the user or harden its steel. They can also install modifications. They cannot improve an existing weapon's quality for that would be a slight against the machine spirit.


Enforcers
(Check page 385)
Enforcers are men and women who uphold local planetary laws. Those crimes that would be overlooked by an Arbitrator or Judge would fall under their jurisdiction. Crimes including murder, theft, incitement, fraud, and others. On most Imperial planets, enforcers are protectors of their masters' properties. They serve at the behest of local governments, nobility, and the enfranchised. They may prosecute crimes for the common citizen, but many enforcers wish to clock-in and clock-out at the end of the day. Enforcers can range from the callous and cruel to the dispassionate and indifferent to the impassioned and fervent. Enforcers can be used to gather information about the criminal behavior of groups such as hive gangs, suspected heretics, and others. They may be used to make inquiries into criminals easier. They may be called upon to stop crimes in progress, stop criminals, and investigate crime scenes. They can be used to provide surveillance on gangers and heretics, although the tech and equipment they have is not quite up to par as the Adeptus Arbites and their Surveillors. Enforcers may be hired out in squads of six to serve as extra guns in firefights. Enforcers, unless they are corrupt, generally will not break the local laws of their planets. They cannot be made to fight other members of planetary or adeptes government (without just cause like a purge of heretical elements). They will step away from investigations that are assumed by the adeptes or ordos for their own good (unless sponsored by an adeptes organization or ordo).

Savant
(Taken from http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Uber_Aemos)
A Savant is an Inquisitorial investigator whose brain had been augmented with increased mental processing power, data storage and memory recall abilities. A Savant's special talents were used to help an Inquisitor with various tasks related to an investigation that required a rapid utilisation of useful information, such as calculating various mathematical probabilities, communicating in rare languages and dialects with indigenous populations and translating ancient texts. A savant as a resource has all scholastic and common lores at Veteran rank (+30). They also have several languages, including xenos tongues, at Experienced rank (+20). These languages include, but are not limited to, low gothic, high gothic, chapter runes, imperial codes, techna-lingua, and xenos markings. They do not understand languages borne from the foul denizens of the warp. Savants have no forbidden knowledges known, as those are the purview of the malefic scholar.

Guardsmen
(Check page 395)
The men and women of the Imperial Guard, or in High Gothic parlance the Astra Militarum, number in the billions. The vast majority are given flak armor, a lasgun, training, and then are pointed to fight the myriad enemies of man. Their availability is not based upon their numbers, but rather their duties and oaths to their masters. It is a foolish man who vexes a Guard general by stealing away their resources. Members of the holy ordos, in theory, can requisition anything they need. If they wish to keep allies and not gain enemies through thoughtless action, then they will not pluck the Guard's troopers at their fancy. As a resource, guardsmen can be sent to attack locations or groups. Guardsmen as a resource also includes access to the Munitorum's wares that officers can requisition from. They can also accompany acolytes in squads of five as extra help.

Temple Revelationist
(Check page 390)
Temple Revelationists seek to spread the word of the Emperor throughout the Imperium through word or through flame. They are known for conducting missions to enlighten those hold-outs or ignorant tribes who have been overlooked by the Missionaria Galaxia or local clergy. They also seek out holy relics throughout the planets of the Imperium. Temple Revelationists as resources can serve as guides through the places they have traveled through with a veteran navigation of surface (+20). Temple Revelationists are also zealous warriors of the Emperor, ready to put heretics and infidels to the eviscerator or flamer. They may be hired as reinforcement characters and/or with a retinue of redemptionists.

Sanctioned Psyker
(Check 391)
Known as psyker primaris, astropaths, and other names. A sanctioned psyker are those who are attuned to the warp and are tolerated, although still often loathed, in Imperial society. They are taken by the black ships of the Ordo Hereticus to be tested and bound to the Emperor on Terra. Primaris psykers are often seen as advisors and warriors in the Imperial Guard, smiting foes. Others are recruited by Inquisitors or become Inquisitors themselves after service to one. Others may be loaned to other adeptes by the Astra Telepathica for their different talents, such as those who can seek out witchcraft and sorcery for the Arbites using their eyes opened to the Immaterium. As a resource, Psykers can be used for their psyniscience to investigate scenes, as those who can give forbidden knowledge about other psykers and the warp to those who need it, and as reinforcement characters.

Character: Wu Tang

"All I ever wanted was some bread"

So OC do not steal: I made a miniboss in Dark Heresy for my players that I kind of fell in love with. I now want to play him as a PC.

When writing the Rainmaker Part Two module climax for my players, I wanted a number of minibosses so the final battle could be dynamic. The adventure had been mostly investigative and combat free, so I thought they and the allies they were given could handle a select number of hard NPCs to fight. The minibosses would affect the battlefield by flanking the acolytes and their allies, distracting them, and giving a reason for the acolytes to chase them through the spire and have a showdown with them. I wanted one of these to be a quick, agile western gunslinger type character. He would contrast against a berserker type and a miiltary commander type.

What I came up with was a kung-fu, western, amoral mercenary. He’s got black jeans, black duster, grey vest, white shirt, black bandanna, and black hat which covers a natural afro. The bandanna over his face hides horrific burns. In his duster he keeps five revolvers and a unique handcannon called “Big Iron” that has six chambers and has the property "reliable". He has 36 chambers of death, total. He has all those because he has a superstition about reloading. He has to pass a willpower test to reload. He gained that after the event that gave him his face. He hates lawmen because of that event. Along with his guns, he has a shockwhip and is trained in a martial art style he learned on his home planet.

When he was younger, he was caught stealing food for his family. Enforcers gave chase, and cornered him in a building. He took a gun out, pulled the trigger, and found it was jammed. The enforcers decided to make an example of him in the settlement they lived in. He was dragged to the middle of the settlement. The enforcers took white-hot metal tools and pressed them on both sides of his face. They left a permanent reminder of his failure and cemented his hatred against authority. He swore to never have to face that situation again. He was exiled from the town, and his family died of starvation and sickness. While exiled, the boy took up banditry, bounty hunting, and mercenary work. He learned his martial art, Shuiniu style, from the leader of the gang he spent the most time with. He came back to that settlement years later, and slaughtered the lawmen that punished him. He became wanted in all the planets' settlements by decree of the planetary governor, and he escaped to space by sneaking onto a rogue trader ship. He roams the sectors of the Imperium, getting paid by the highest bidder to do their dirty work.

He comes from a frontier world called Bianjing that is like a Firefly mix of American western and Chinese. One can find frontier towns of prospectors and bandits wearing leather dusters while also wielding jians and wearing hifus. The planetary governor is empowered by the rogue trader dynasty which threw a coup d'etat against the former dynasty of rulers whom were in power for centuries. That dynasty mainly keeps a lasseiz faire attitude of running the place as long as it receives its share of promethium and gold while paying the greater Imperium's tithe to keep the adeptus administratum and arbites off their back. It is located on the edge of a subsector in segmentum Obscurus. Although, unrelated to DH, I could tweak him to fit in a number of settings if I ever get to play him as a PC.

He has a genteel demeanor that hides a bloodthirsty fighter. He is generally polite to all he talks to, and if someone isn’t necessary to kill for the job he’ll give them a chance to leave, but in the middle of a fight he revels in the bloodshed. He’ll start taunting, laughing, and even singing once he’s pulled into it. If his bandanna rips off, it shows a nightmarish, burnt, smiling face.

Wu's use can be as a PC but I created him originally to serve as a miniboss of sorts. Rather than being a guy hanging out in a dungeon, he can be used to spur the players to action by actively hunting them. He was made to face a newer party of five alone or with one or two other NPCs.