Sunday, February 4, 2018

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. 






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