Via Scientia - The Road to Knowledge​

You can't help but look to the red, smoke-filled sky, even as you hear the binary chanting and give the ritual answers

Somewhere up there is the Voidship that will soon be yours, undergoing last routines and rites to ensure its readiness

It had taken you decades from the moment you looked upon the parade of a returning Explorator, bringing your world the marvels of long-lost STCs, to where you are now. You had been a simple Enginseer back then, now a true Techpriest and Magos in your own right.

Your internal auspex notes the presence of your benefactor on a raised balcony far above the others watching the ceremony. Everyone is here, your fellow techpriests, your former teachers, even the 43% of the menials in the local manufactorums that were not currently on a high-priority duty or the mandated recovery from one had been given two extra hours of free time to attend this event.


You would need to show something, for the trust invested in you, and soon. You are not yet a Venerable Archmagos Explorator that is trusted to go into the void for decades, in the knowledge that their journey would eventually provide results. You owe your patron much, and so you will have to repay him much.
You save yourself the effort of trying to read their face, hidden behind far more advanced augments than your own, you could not tell if they feel pride, impatience, expectation of anything else at the thought of your Journey. But they must have some faith in you, or you wouldn't be here.

Who is your Patron though?

[] Archmagos Scaevola "Offertor Argentus" of Stygies VIII
The Silverbringer is a former Explorator herself and now Fabricator Locum of Stygia Tertius, one of the great Forge-Hives of the moon Stygies VIII. Her adherence to the Xenarite creed is a barely hidden secret among the Mechanicus, though outsiders rarely know even the most common rumors that circulate within the order. She had become an Explorator herself after certain successes at Silva Tenebris and a Fabricator Locum riding on the successes of that quest for knowledge.
She would not be a patient patron, but a tolerant one.
Pros:

• Xenarite: Scaevola will never ask question that she doesn't need answered, for example why the blueprints for improved Plasma-containment you send her look almost exactly like a Tau Pulse-Rifle's firing-chamber
• If your research-backlog grows to large, she will accept samples of Xenotech for the same amount of favor that samples of similar human-based tech would have gained
• Stygies-Tech: Your ship and personal equipment will get boni against detection and for scrambling hostile auspexes

Cons:

• Known Xenarite: While the Imperium at large is oblivious to the particularities of Stygies VIII or Scaevola in particular, the Mechanicus and the Inquisition know about them, making you inherently suspicious through association in their eyes.
• Demands of Secrecy: Even if you in particular have nothing to hide, your ship has. Full repairs of your ship by any techpriests not allied to your homeworld or on some personal level sworn to secrecy will reveal questionable technology.

[] Magos Revera Thoth "Viator" of Cypra Mundis
The Fabricator Locum of Cypra Apex is both the head of her own Forge-Hive and the de facto point of contact with the Administratum Master and the Lord Admiral of Battlefleet Obscurus, both of which usually orbit the planet in their titanic Star Fort, the Segmentum Fortress Obscurus.
Ascended to Fabricator Locum after a long and fruitful service as Emissary aboard the Flagship of Obscurus, the Soaring Wrath, the Viator is known for her diplomatic skill and her investment in the greater Imperium. Her ascension to Fabricator Locum was something of an internal scandal, as it was exceedingly rare that a Magos who had not yet earned the title of Archmagos through mastery of their field of study rose to such lofty heights, but on Cypra Mundi politics must be payed tribute.
Pros:

• Navy Connections: Your patron has excellent connections to the Imperial Navy, you get a bonus on Diplomacy towards them
• Imperial Patriot: You get a minor amount of favor for helping the Imperium and destroying its foes, though you should not let that distract you from your Quest for Knowlege of course
• Cypra Mundi Experience: Your ship will start with a particularly well-trained crew and it is efficiently run by lessons learned from millenia of working with the Navy

Cons:

• Barely a Fabricator: Your patron has, for all her other talents, not truly pushed her mastery of the Omnissiah's lessons. By association, your diplomacy towards more dogmatic members of the Mechanicus suffers.
• Standard Ship: The arsenals of Cypra Mundi can never stop their endless production and repair, certainly not to costumize your ship too far from the basic build. You get no initial costumisation to your ship (though it is still Mechanicus-Grade and not a regular Navy ship)

[] Archmagos Phi Rho VI "Gravitatus" of Graia
The master of Gravity is the current Fabricator Locum and Forge-Captain of the Graian Crown, a titanic fortress and manufactorum-complex capable of leaving the planet Graia and taking flight of its own, if necessary. Phi Rho VI is in many ways a very traditional Fabricator, one who rose through the ranks of the local Mechanicum by endurance, intelligence and of course patronage of his predecessor Archamgoc Veneratus Phi Rho V, who has recently retired from the position of Fabricator Locum to fully focus on his work of trying to make the artisanal Grav Tanks occasionally used in the Imperium mass-producible.

Pros:

• Graian Drives: Your ship will use Graian propulsion technology, making it faster and more maeuverable than most ships of its tonnage, for a bonus on defensive maneuvers in void combat.

Cons:

• None

By the way, what was your name again?

[] Vote for a name. You can use any IRL name from any culture, some mechanicus-appropriate variant thereof or just a combination of Greek letters and Arabian numbers, anything goes in the wide world of 40k.

//Well, let's see how this works out. I'm no expert on 40k and I will read what suggestions and canon-knowledge relevant to the situation you can tell me, but ultimatly this is done with flexible canon, using what I think works, rather than trying to apply everything from 40k's dubious canon.
We are playing somewhere in the middle of the 41st millennium, so the Great Rift or the returning Primarchs won't come into play.

Your Patrons favor is what keeps you in charge of a Ship and Crew, it is what buys you repairs and restocks. If you loose it, your Quest for Knowledge will find an ignoble end, as you are recalled to your homeworld, demoted to a different task and your ship is set to worthier endeavors.

You loose some favor every turn, representing the value your ship could have had for the Forgeworld on more conventional uses.

You gain favor primarily in three ways:

• Send pieces of archeotech or rare Imperial technology back to your patron​
• Send blueprints of archeotech or rare Imperial technology back to your patron (you can create those through research-actions, mostly reconstructing found technology)​
• Send partial STCs you find back to your Patron​

A rough estimation of Favor:

-A piece of rare Imperial Technology, or unusually efficient version of know Technology: 5-20 Favor (about 5 for a Volkite-pistol, about 20 for a working example of a Graian Anti-Gravity-Drive
-A piece of real Archeotech: 5-100 Favor (about 5 for a real Dark Age Coffee-machine, about 100 for an unknown Titan)
-Blueprints of the same: +50% base Favor
-Partial STC: 50-??? Favor


I'll be using a system similar to CKII-quests whereby most of your actions are governed by simple, broad-area stats.

Those are Martial, Diplomacy, Administration, Intrigue, Willpower and Prowess.

From those basic stats, Learning is omitted, as it is too vital to a Techpriest's works to leave as a single, undifferentiated stat.
You get access to the following Knowledge Skills:

• Motive Force: This is the lore that governs generators, ship-drives and non-projectile weapons from Lasguns to Power Weapons.
• Mechanical Movement: From the lever to the Macro-cannon, if it requires the interplay of moving parts, Mechanic plays a part.
• Spiritual Guidance: This knowledge covers a wide field from the creation of servitors, over the comprehension of Auspex to the placation of Machine Spirits. In any truly great project, such as ships or Titans, it is necessary to create harmony between the different mechanical components.
• Biological Comprehension: The perfection of the human form holds secrets even after countless millennia of study. This knowledge applies to medicine, human augmentation and discovering the weaknesses (and potentially useful strengths) of Xenos.
• Esoterica: This is, in a simple phrase "the rest". Understanding of the Warp goes here, as well as specific phenomena and technologies that don't or only partially fit under the four great ones.

Every turn will roughly represent a year (realtime) and you will be able to take 1 Expedition, 1 Contact the Locals and 2 Research actions.

• With Expeditions you will follow up on rumors that could lead you to worthwhile technology. These can be on the small side, such as scanning a planet that was supposed to have a long-abandoned colony somewhere, to the very involved, such as temporarily joining a a major military action to reclaim a lost world.
• Contact the Locals is your primary means of gaining more leads to potential caches of Archeotech or other interesting targets. It is also your way of networking with other forces in the Sector, potentially helping each other for future favors.
• Research is the action in which you either try to improve your fundamental understanding of known technologies, or dismantle found technology to be able to recreate it. Later on your advanced understanding of certain areas of technology might allow you to create improved versions of existing tech. Your research actions might also be used to solve local problems to gain favors or repay them.

You as a Magos Explorator will have a ship of your own. This is mechanically relevant in two ways. Firstly, there will be Void-Combat, secondly your ship has Production.

Ship to Ship combat will be resolved by simple D100 rolls opposing each other, including any boni the ship might have, as well as the Captain's Martial stat. This will be resolved mostly narrativly as guided by those rolls, similar to regular CKII-Quest battles.
I might try for a proper combat-system later, but until then I'll try to incorporate relevant traits and upgrades in the descriptions and outcomes to the best of my abilities.

Example:
Sword Class Frigate "Glory"
Size: Escort (low total health, small crew)
Speed: High (+30 to attempts to dodge or escape)
Weapons: Macro Turrets (+0 on attacks, one of the weaker weapons in the game)
Armor: Low (+10 on resisting damage)

Your ship also has a capacity for Production.
This is used every turn to replenish or improve your Skitarii, to craft equipment for your Techpriests, to repair minor damage to your or other ships or to help others for Favors or Rumors.
Your ship's production-capacity will mostly depend on the class of ship you choose, though certain technology can improve it.

Ships have Four stages of damage:
Minor: Takes penalties in battle, can be fixed during normal operation by spending Production
Moderate: Takes large penalties in battle, you need a dock or station to make proper repairs, but you can still do it with your own Production
Major: Options in battle are limited to playing dead or sacrificing yourself with some last act. Requires proper facilities for repair, this usually requires either a Favor from a nearby Naval Base or Forgeworld, or to spend Patron's Favor on it.
Hulk: Your ship is incapable of travel or combat, it will likely take a rescue-ship to even tow you to the nearest dock. Repair options same as Major, but more costly.

Examples of Production-Costs:

1PP
Restore 5% of your army

2PP
Create a relic of a basic piece of equipment (includes a roll)
Create an advanced weapon or item

5PP
Complete a small civilian project, like a Generatorium or Water Filter sufficient for a town
Create a relic of an advanced item

10PP
Minor Repairs on an Escort
Build a wing of fighters
Build transports for 5% of your army
Civilian Project for a small hive

Current Favor: 70


Wanderer Class Light Cruiser "Gilded Lantern"
Size: Light Cruiser: Roughly 4.3 Km length, 60k Crew, 6k Fully Equipped Skitarii including transport vehicles, scout walkers and tanks
Speed: Medium (+15 to attempts to dodge or escape)
Weapons: Macro Batteries (+20 on attacks), Triple Torpedo Tube (extreme range)
Armor: Medium (+20 on resisting damage)
Special: Stygies-Scramblers (+10 on attempts to stay undetected, -10 on enemy aim)
Production-Capacity: 15PP per Turn
Cost: 10 Favor per turn

Magos Explorator Vitruvius Crurium

Martial: 13 +1 (Traits) = 14 You have basic proficiency in assessing tactical situations and leading Skitarii
Diplomacy: 17 +1 (Traits) +1 (Equipment) = 19 You are unusually skilled in interacting with the unenlightened
Administration: 9 +2 (Traits) = 11 Your understanding of logistics and workflow is mostly theoretical, but you can put the work in
Intrigue: 19 +6 (Traits) = 25 Keeping and finding secrets is second nature to you, even your Patron can barely guess what you know and don't know
Willpower: 13 +1 (Traits) = 14 Your faith in the Omnissiah is of acceptable intensity
Prowess: 10 +5 = 15 (+2 at range) You are trained and ready for combat, but lacking experience, your augments do much of the work for you

Lores:
Motive Force: 12
Mechanical Movement: 10
Spiritual Guidance: 10
Biological Comprehension: 8 +5 (Traits) = 13
Esoterica: 5


Traits:

Paranoid: +3 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy and Administration -1
Ambitious: +1 to all stats, -1 on all Knowledges +1
Diligent: +2 Administration,+ 1 to all Knowledges +1



Augmented Techpriest (+5 Prowess)
A Techpriest equipped for even moderately dangerous environments is a considerable force in battle, his body easily equal to carapace armor, his weapons and mechadendrites exceeding a specialist-team in power. Further, an integrated Rebreather reduces the dangers of poison gas or airless environments and rad-cleansers make it possible to work besides Skitarii with their typical Rad-Weapons with minimal long-term damage.

Genetor Minoris (+5 Biological Comprehension, +2 Diplomacy and Intrigue)
Your comprehension of the human form is both instincual and comprehensivly enhanced by study. In preparation for your Journey you have studied everything you could about your fellow man, to recognise anything from microexpressions to the altered smell specific hormones cause when being produced in greater amount with your enhanced senses.



Equipment:
Melee: Power Axe
Ranged 1: Plasma Gun
Ranged 2: Arc-Rifle

Mechadendrite 1: Stimulant-Injector
Mechadendrite 2: Tech-Interface

Advanced Personal Auspex: +2 Prowess while at range, +1 Diplomacy, +10 on any rolls to detect hidden objects or sneaky targets
Your ocular augments are far more advanced than those of most techpriests, piercing attempts at stealth, cataloguing the reactions of a conversation-partner and enhancing your personal aim.

Stygian Scrambler (+10 on attempts at stealth, -10 on attempts to aim at the character by technological means)
Stygies VIII is somewhat infamous for its advanced auspex-scramblers, giving their Infiltrators and Rust Stalkers a decisive edge in many engagements. Vitruvius has been gifted an advanced model of such a scrambler to integrate in his personal augmentations, making him difficult to notice by almost any scanning-devices in use by the Imperium and its more common foes. Even when discovered, the scrambler fouls automatic aiming and target-visors to some degree.