A school for the cursed: A Psyker Quest. Warhammer 40k quest.
- Thread starter Mayto
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
You're missing a 't' at the end of the plan name.
I'm not dead! Been having holiday, health, and other stuff keep me busy. I see things have been moving around but I'll try to catch up quick.
Y'know, this sort of disoriented wakeup is getting to be rather a pattern for the MC. I imagine he'd get tired of them if they weren't better than the alternative. Then again, still can get tired of them even with that.
Well that's suitably horrific. Living in a construct connected telepathically to extra bits of her brain like a starfish. That has GOT to field weird. Unless it really does just feel like the one brain/mind.
Probably both in the case of what it is, flaunting in a location where it is needed. That she is able to keep track of it all is VERY impressive, not going to lie.
Well that does confirm this is meant to limit psyker powers to a good degree. Very powerful person to have so much...well, wood and non metal in their sanctum.
This is getting off to a splendid start, we now know where we stand, at the bottom. I'd say lord Prefect and Master of the sapphire keep would merit for the 'very powerful person'.
I imagine you are less effective Alfonse. And thus did not see the coming boom.
Yup, this is a place where things do be...hinky...
Oh, this was planned, and in detail. This lady clearly has designs for them.
Oh goodie, we are pawns in a greater game of Imperial Politics. That's always fun. At the very least our current patroness isn't going to let them come at us too soon, but whether she can keep it that way is another story.
Because...politics? That's usually the reason that things change in the Imperium, cause politicis and chaos.
Or that, that works too, being overcapacity would lead to a LOT of trouble when it comes to psykers and what we've seen so far.
And yet both were fit to train...
I am noticing a theme here...A theme of outcast and outlier.
Heh, 'waste not want not' as the saying goes.
Aha, "We need people that are juuust maverick enough to not be drones but won't actually try to tear down the social order." criteria, a tricky balance indeed in the Imperium. To better train more psykers for the Imperium.
This is huge, this can make a big difference for entire sectors in terms of effective psykers being used and available. The more there are and the better trained they are, the more people will survive. It won't nearly be enough but every scrap of progress and improvement counts.
Well then, seems like the MC will have a pretty lavish (for the setting) home. Martha seems to be doing well too, although I am concerned about the 'scuttlers'.
I hope that's just a pejorative because otherwise...we got sketchy mutants.
Oh boy! Time to budget. I'll go over the last few pages of the thread and see if there's plans I like before i make one of my own.
Y'know, this sort of disoriented wakeup is getting to be rather a pattern for the MC. I imagine he'd get tired of them if they weren't better than the alternative. Then again, still can get tired of them even with that.
Well that's suitably horrific. Living in a construct connected telepathically to extra bits of her brain like a starfish. That has GOT to field weird. Unless it really does just feel like the one brain/mind.
Probably both in the case of what it is, flaunting in a location where it is needed. That she is able to keep track of it all is VERY impressive, not going to lie.
Well that does confirm this is meant to limit psyker powers to a good degree. Very powerful person to have so much...well, wood and non metal in their sanctum.
This is getting off to a splendid start, we now know where we stand, at the bottom. I'd say lord Prefect and Master of the sapphire keep would merit for the 'very powerful person'.
I imagine you are less effective Alfonse. And thus did not see the coming boom.
Yup, this is a place where things do be...hinky...
Oh, this was planned, and in detail. This lady clearly has designs for them.
Oh goodie, we are pawns in a greater game of Imperial Politics. That's always fun. At the very least our current patroness isn't going to let them come at us too soon, but whether she can keep it that way is another story.
Because...politics? That's usually the reason that things change in the Imperium, cause politicis and chaos.
Or that, that works too, being overcapacity would lead to a LOT of trouble when it comes to psykers and what we've seen so far.
And yet both were fit to train...
I am noticing a theme here...A theme of outcast and outlier.
Heh, 'waste not want not' as the saying goes.
Aha, "We need people that are juuust maverick enough to not be drones but won't actually try to tear down the social order." criteria, a tricky balance indeed in the Imperium. To better train more psykers for the Imperium.
This is huge, this can make a big difference for entire sectors in terms of effective psykers being used and available. The more there are and the better trained they are, the more people will survive. It won't nearly be enough but every scrap of progress and improvement counts.
Well then, seems like the MC will have a pretty lavish (for the setting) home. Martha seems to be doing well too, although I am concerned about the 'scuttlers'.
I hope that's just a pejorative because otherwise...we got sketchy mutants.
Oh boy! Time to budget. I'll go over the last few pages of the thread and see if there's plans I like before i make one of my own.
The Lord Prefect has probably got an entire cabinet full of discarded Brains labeled 'Inquisitorial Secrets' 'HORRIBLE DONT RECONNECT' and 'Netflix', cause you don't mutilate your consciousness like that unless you've experienced unspeakable things with such regularity that you wanted a surgery-free option to get rid of them, or just really like being able to rewatch your favorite TV shows for the first time.
Vote closed
I wonder if we spend enough actions transcribing our teachings it will become a psychic artifact or a series of artifacts.
Blackmarket could be good for getting psychic crafting material, things charges with emotions over factory made equipment.
That is one of the things I mean about exotic stuff, and don't think our students we train are going to have any special equipment for a while because we still don't even know what is the kind of effective ways to train them yet.
I know from Necromunda that constant exposer to the drug Spook/Ghast can make a normal person or really low tier psyker into a permanent psyker of useful capabilities. It often comes with Mutations and madness though. So theoretically if (big if) it falls into our remit and we get enough of the drugs we could try and make useful psykers out of people who'd be useless to us.
- Location
- Netherlands
'
There are rooms dedicated to Archeotech Memory Buffers, rooms full of vats of vat-grown psi-active brain tissue that serve to store messages intercepted by the Astropaths.
Special installations to decipher these complicated messages are located at seemingly random distances from the Memory Buffers, in accordance with the geological layout of surrounding rock. In these chambers, Astropaths sit in meditation, drawing the contents from one buffer cell at a time, so they can be fed into vast memetic transcription looms. Wall-sized punchcard interfaces are configured by servitors connected to the Astropath, each image they receive coming from a set library and corresponding with a card.
As the wall clicks and grinds, rows of shifting wheels with many esoteric symbols each move, spelling out garbled texts that are automatically copied by servo-scribes on vast rolls of cloned parchment skin of uniform size and thickness. Each roll the size of a main battle tank. Long strips of esoteric text is immediately sliced off in marked locations, then fed into an auto-sanctifier where molecular locking agents are carefully applied over the still-wet ink, to encode the printing information into the ink itself.
These strips are loaded into pneumatic tubes, and shot at high speed towards the vast scriptorium of the Sapphire keep, where the scribes of the Keep can translate the symbols into Low and High Gothic. Hundreds of arthritic ink-stained hands transcribe these texts with quills that move faster than the eye can follow, while others type runes into their cogitators. Marked texts are copied additional times for storage, either types and entered into the vast date looms for short term digital storage, or transcribed onto specialized acid-free parchment for long term storage in a climate-controlled vault.
'
Because damn it, we'll find a way to employ massed menial labour into interstellar communications!
There are rooms dedicated to Archeotech Memory Buffers, rooms full of vats of vat-grown psi-active brain tissue that serve to store messages intercepted by the Astropaths.
Special installations to decipher these complicated messages are located at seemingly random distances from the Memory Buffers, in accordance with the geological layout of surrounding rock. In these chambers, Astropaths sit in meditation, drawing the contents from one buffer cell at a time, so they can be fed into vast memetic transcription looms. Wall-sized punchcard interfaces are configured by servitors connected to the Astropath, each image they receive coming from a set library and corresponding with a card.
As the wall clicks and grinds, rows of shifting wheels with many esoteric symbols each move, spelling out garbled texts that are automatically copied by servo-scribes on vast rolls of cloned parchment skin of uniform size and thickness. Each roll the size of a main battle tank. Long strips of esoteric text is immediately sliced off in marked locations, then fed into an auto-sanctifier where molecular locking agents are carefully applied over the still-wet ink, to encode the printing information into the ink itself.
These strips are loaded into pneumatic tubes, and shot at high speed towards the vast scriptorium of the Sapphire keep, where the scribes of the Keep can translate the symbols into Low and High Gothic. Hundreds of arthritic ink-stained hands transcribe these texts with quills that move faster than the eye can follow, while others type runes into their cogitators. Marked texts are copied additional times for storage, either types and entered into the vast date looms for short term digital storage, or transcribed onto specialized acid-free parchment for long term storage in a climate-controlled vault.
'
Because damn it, we'll find a way to employ massed menial labour into interstellar communications!
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- Location
- Netherlands
Telekine Personal Shields:
The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
Can these shields be bestowed onto non-psychic soldiers fighting with the Choir? Or are these shields for Choir members only?
Well, tabletop Primaris can do this for the entire squad they join, but these are only Wyrdvanes...
- Location
- Netherlands
It wouldn't be a passively imbued shield but something a member of the Choir would need to actively channel.
Turn 1 results
- Location
- Netherlands
The Sapphire Keep is an ancient construction, and moving around it is not easy. Designed primarily with Astropaths in mind, the lighting is largely sparse and nearly entirely provided by sodium tubes with energy cells plugged into them.
The structure is expansive, spreading organically using natural caverns and rock formations that were hollowed out and expanded for additional room. Massive arteries of psi-conductive cablings have been attached to intact mineral veins to create what looks like what you can only describe as geo-cybernetic constructs, flowing through and between the many Astropathic sanctums and choirs spread throughout the structure.
Groups of Astropaths shuffle from room to room, moving between the many lesser choirs across the Keep. Servitors trundle through the hallways, replacing energy cells as they go, and keeping every surface fastidiously clean. You decided to examine the Keep in more detail to see how it is operated, and the subsequent reveals are little short of astounding.
You have seen many astropathic choirs, but never one with as much mechanical assistance as the Nautilus one. Only short range and small broadcasts are processed in the heads of the Astropaths themselves, and every scrap of information that goes through the system is recorded.
At the upper levels of the keep, two dozen Lesser Astropathic Choirs remain in permanent contact with relays across the Sector, sending the telepathic images they receive to the Primary Choir for processing and transmission beyond the sector. The Primary Choir is a massive cylindrical chamber built around a great pillar of psi-reactive stone, hundreds of chairs facing inwards, guarded by patrolling Black Sentinels.
There are rooms dedicated to archeotech Memory Buffers, rooms full of vats of vat-grown psi-active brain tissue that serve to store messages intercepted by the Astropaths which would otherwise hold up one of the receiving astropaths, and allow for a message backlog to form.
Special installations to decipher these complicated messages are located at seemingly random distances from the Memory Buffers, in accordance with the geological layout of surrounding rock. In these chambers, Astropaths sit in meditation, drawing the contents from one buffer cell at a time, so they can be fed into vast memetic transcription looms. Wall-sized punchcard interfaces are configured by servitors connected to the Astropath, each image they receive coming from a set library and corresponding with a card.
As the wall clicks and grinds, rows of shifting wheels with many esoteric symbols each move, spelling out garbled texts that are automatically copied by servo-scribes on vast rolls of cloned parchment skin of uniform size and thickness. Each roll the size of a main battle tank. Long strips of esoteric text are immediatelyis immediately sliced off in marked locations, then fed into an auto-sanctifier where molecular locking agents are carefully applied over the still-wet ink, to encode the printing information into the ink itself.
These strips are loaded into pneumatic tubes, and shot at high speed towards the vast scriptorium of the Sapphire keep, where the scribes of the Keep can translate the symbols into Low and High Gothic. Hundreds of arthritic ink-stained hands transcribe these texts with quills that move faster than the eye can follow, while others type runes into their cogitators. Marked texts are copied additional times for storage, either types and entered into the vast date looms for short term digital storage, or transcribed onto specialized acid-free parchment for long term storage in a climate-controlled vault.
All pages of Parchment once completed, are fitted with wax purity seals and fed back into the pneumatic system for sorting and transfer by message servo-skull to whomever in Nautilus the messages are for.
Scholam Psykana:
The Scholam Psykana is still under construction, but the Astropathic Choir it is connected to is positively ancient. You could examine it and learn a bit more about where you'll be
[] Training from the Black Sentinels:
The Black Sentinels are excellently trained and drilled fighters. Ask them to assist in training and drilling your Shock Troops.
A routine request to make. (+20)
Your fellowship is 45 + 20 = 65
You rolled 86
2 degrees of failure.
Requesting the aid of the Black Sentinels proves harder than expected. First, there is a temporary confusion within the chain of command. The Sapphire Keep already has a standing force of Sentinels, which manage their safety. But the Nautilus Scholam Psykana is to have its own garrison.
So when you finally manage to track down and speak with the Sapphire Keep's Black Sentinel Captain, he says that the decision is one he expects his underling, a Lieutenant, to make the final decision.
In the end, you make your way back to the Scholam and find the still-under-construction barracks of the Black Sentinels, finding them playing a card game on the back of a currently inactive heavy-lifter servitor. They eye you cautiously as you enter the room.
The Scholam's Brotherhood of Black Sentinels is led by a Captain named Alstar Rostiam Odum Ood Udo, and he agrees to hear you out. You speak of your plans, and how you need people skilled at training soldiers.
"No." Is the answer you receive. "We are the iron fist of the Astra Telepathica. There will be no fraternization, no mutual training, no friendliness of any kind with our charges." He then narrowed his eyes. "And I do not want your Psykers being as physically fit as the ones meant to keep them in line."
The answer puts an end to any hope of getting assistance with physical training and exercise from within the Astra Telepathica.
Because the Black Sentinels flat out refused to train your Psykers, the Lord Prefect did not need to arrange any paperwork. You do not lose any influence.
[] Combat-Biomancy feasibility studies:
Work with Astrid to lay out how your theoretical Psychic Shock Troops might best train their biomancy for both healing and self-empowerment.
Working on teaching is challenging for you. (+0) But Astrid is experienced in this. Teaching is routine for her. (+20)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 70
You rolled 28
5 Degrees of success.
Costs 2 Influence with Astrid
Improves relationship by 1
Astrid's suite within the fortress is already turning into a very macabre place. She has put up numerous anatomical models across the rooms, all consisting of humans and licensed abhuman strains with removable organs and intricately detailed veins and nerve structures.
She has a shelf full of cages, each containing different insects, reptiles, and other peculiar creatures you've never seen before. These are looked after by her Wyrdvane. She keeps them close in a set of rooms close to her suite, where they can assist her in her research. The Wyrdvanes are bound together into a shared telepathic mind to share the strain of their powers, although the extent to this you are not sure of.
They work around her new 'lab', performing a myriad of little tests and examinations on the collection of creatures.
You find Astrid inside of a surgical theatre that has the air of an Imperial Guard Medicae installation installed in a hurry. She is wearing a full surgical gown as she operates with the aid of a Wyrdvane orderly. There are three slabs, two of which contain a patient that has been strapped in. They are short and very pale humans, locals you surmise.
A Cherub hovers next to Astrid, the small servitor holding a tray containing a selection of small bone ink pots, each with a quill or a needle placed into it. Astrid looms over a patient that she intermittently draws upon with a quill, while a pair of mechanical arms from the ceiling aim medical instruments at the patient. She occasionally places the needle inside a small tattoo gun that she then uses to more complex symbols.
"Are you experimenting on a recidivist?" You ask, trying to think of why Astrid would be working on someone so early.
You look the man over. He has been secured on the surgical bed, but not very securely. The man on the slab glares at you, but does not move.
Astrid chuckles. "Throne, no. I took him from the Medicae ward where he was being fitted with an augmetic." Her hand twists and crackles, growing additional joints as it makes a series of complicated hand gestures. The lines of ink drawn upon the man's chest begin to glow.
Reaching out psychically for what she's doing, you note that she is causing the body to self-heal rapidly. The tattoos appear to have cleared up flows of energy within the body, or started them in the first place. The man's lungs, and you note one had been halfway shrivelled by something, are growing inside his chest and restoring to full functionality.
You lean over to examine the man. He isn't missing any limbs. "An augmetic?" You ask.
"Left foot." She says.
You examine the limb. Nothing seems wrong with it. You raise an eyebrow at Astrid.
"It wasn't there when he arrived." Astrid says with a smile. She moves over to the next patient. "Anyways. How can I help? I am preparing this one for surgery with the Wyrdvanes. Just removing some bone cancer, clearing cataracts. Simple enough." She frowns. "We have not had a chance for meatball surgery yet. The Lord Prefect hasn't gotten any heretics for me to place on the slab yet."
"I want to discuss possible uses for biomancy with my Wyrdvane. I am not as advanced in the subject as you."
Astrid considers the request. "Hrmm. That can be arranged. I take it you have primarily been considering ways they can heal themselves in the midst of combat."
"Our beloved Astra Telepathica tends to focus more upon Bio-Lightning and punching through heretics than the more subtle uses of Biomancy." She considers something. "But for shock-troops, you want something universal. Yes? Something even middling Biomancers could still do for the sake of improving their combat ability."
"Yes. I want my Shock Troops to fight as excellent soldiers first, before they even begin using their psychic powers."
Astrid muses on this. "I can help you with that. I wrote a medical journal about ways the human body and its organs can be optimized. With the right medical textbooks and demonstrations, it should be possible to teach even weak biomancers."
"An excellent choice for a choir." You remark. A Wyrdvane Choir, when properly connected with telepathic bonds, is capable of imbueing even the weakest of biomancers with potent enhancements, so long even one member of the Choir is capable of it.
You spend several days working the matter through with Astrid, as she inquires with the regular faculty of the Scholam, ensuring that they are instructed in the techniques you want your apprentices to learn. Astrid shows her skills, and soon the instructors are potent Biomancers in their own line.
Among your Psychic Shock Troops, dedicated Biomancers will be instructed by Astrid in the following abilities:
Biomantic Meatball Surgery
A skilled Biomancer can, by placing their hand upon a fallen comrade, knit bones together, grow back lost organs, restore ruined flesh, and ensure a fighter can keep going. Your Wyrdvanes will be trained extensively on how to get a soldier back into the fight quickly. These changes can be undone by a medical biomancer after the fighting is over.
When your Psykers form a choir, all members will me capable of:
Biomantic Self-Optimization:
Using subtle Biomancy, the senses of the soldier are optimized and improved beyond baseline humanity. Soldiers can smell hormones in the air, see in near complete darkness, and hear the most minute of noises, and achieve levels of strength comparable to the Tempestus Scions and Sororitas. This is a passive improvement that can be adjusted as needed by the Psyker. Part of this includes a low-level healing factor that actively clears the muscles of lactic acid, and allows cuts and lesser bullet wounds to heal by themselves.
[] Transcribe Telekinetic Teaching instructions:
While you could train excellent Telekinetic students, doing so will require your training. By taking the time to transcribe your knowledge into a stored format, you can ensure that your Wyrdvane pattern does not require your personal presence to be trained.
Transcribing training Telekinetic knowledge is challenging for you. (+0)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 50
You rolled 16
4 Degrees of Success.
With a steaming hot cup of recaff and a quill, you got to work.
Tomes on Psychic lore are easily among the most regulated objects in the Imperium, and they are intentionally rarely transported between Scholams, and only with the most heavy of scrutiny. And what you create will undoubtedly be hoarded for generations to come.
You etched your knowledge onto crystalline wafers with a specialized acid pen, page after page of esoteric psychic lore instructing the readers how to manifest telekine fields. Some of your own essence was poured into each page, just enough that able Psykers can read the exact thoughts they need in order to manifest the powers you explain.
The tome you drafted an instructional, intended primarily to help Telekines start their psychic education. Training techniques, breathing exercises, mental processes to aid in managing their powers, and several abilities that from your opinion, are within the capability of Wyrdvanes. You included your newfound knowledge of Gravitic Manifestation. Although you are certain that you can greatly advance the ability, at its most rudimentary form, it will still impact with the strength of a grav-gun.
Among your Psychic Shock Troops, dedicated Telekines will be taught the following skills by instructors, using the knowledge you wrote down:
Crush:
A Telekine focuses their power upon a single point in space, manifesting a brief moment of intense gravity akin to a Grav-Gun.
Telekine Dome:
The Telekine, if equipped with a force staff or a potent enough focii, conjures a dome of Psychic energy for the squad to take cover in. The dome will absorb small arms fire and indirect shrapnel from artillery.
When your Psykers form a choir, all members will be capable of:
Telekine Personal Shields:
The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
[] Black Market Connections:
You give Martha a supply of currency and have her get into contact with the local ratlings. You want to establish connections that you could make use of, both for finding esoteric lore, Psykers, and equipment.
Martha will not be available this turn.
Working with a black market is difficult for you, challenging (-10), but Martha is a Ratling and for her it is merely challenging. (+0). You providing funding allows her to roll with advantage.
Your fellowship is 45. 45 + 0 = 45
You rolled 67, 3 with advantage. 3 is the roll used.
4 degrees of success.
"You should go outside once." Martha says from the entrance of your doorway.
The Ratling is wearing a fine set of clothes tailored for her size, marked with a collar insignia marking her as member of the Astra Telepathica. She looks better than she did when you met her. Her hair has been washed, combed, and braided very nicely. Her rosy cheeks have a bit more colour, and there is a smile on her lips.
You take a sip of the recaff from the canteen she's prepared. "Perhaps. Is this about you going out to contact the Infractionists?"
Martha frowns at you. "Infractionist?"
"People who live beyond the Adeptus Terra. Criminals and the like."
The Ratling narrows her eyes. "You don't really get the Torvum Sector, do you? There's more than just the Adeptus Terra here."
"Be careful of what you say, Martha. If someone wished you harm, those words coul-"
"Occ', please. Let me explain." She gives you a scrutinous matronly stare.
That nickname. It always manages to disarm you. You offer a faint smile. "Sorry, Martha. Go ahead."
Martha takes a seat opposite to you, her legs not touching the floor as she sits. You remind yourself to get a seat for her prepared. "Torvum's Adeptus Terra has a very loose hand. Always has. Most of the economies are allowed to run on their own, so long the proper tithes are paid. Most people don't work for some Munitorum Manufactorum or the like. They'll work for a guild, conglomerate, or whatever The Gilded call it. Criminals aren't people who turned from the Adeptus Terra or detached themselves, most will never have worked for them in the first place."
You consider what she's said and think about it in the context of what you know of the Imperium. The Torvum Sector is definitely not the most normal of Imperial sectors. It is not one of the newly established sectors, where all industries and labour are controlled through the Adeptus Terra in one way or another. It is an old sector, with a history of loyalty to the Imperium, but also a sense of identity beyond the Imperium. The latter concerns you, going as it does against your ingrained belief that humanity and the Imperium are one and the same.
"What do I call people who aren't part of the Adeptus Terra in one way or another then?"
Martha quirks her head. "People." She frowns, voice suddenly serious. "Just how old are you, Occam?"
You consider the question. "I am physically twenty-five Terran years." A respectable age from your experiences upon Terra. You do not have the large families that someone your age might have upon Terra, but you have over a decade and a half of intensive training in the Psychic arts.
The Ratling blinks, eyes wide. "Occam, you look like you're fifty. I am forty-three!"
"You're ancient." You mutter. "Fifty years?" A note of panic enters your voice. "Wait. Do we need to get your family brought here? I thought you to be sixteen or perhaps eighteen. You must have a large family by now, yes?" You draw from your knowledge of Terra and your Hive World, where most women will have a child by sixteen and continue having them until their thirtieth year.
"I don't have children, Occam. Never wanted them."
You blink. "Emperor Bless you, Martha. You are my elder. I shouldn't send you out to work with hardened criminals."
Martha leaps onto your desk and point a finger at you. "Young man. I know quite well how to look after myself when I am in a proper mental space. You wanted to get into contacts with those people? Well, I have done just that. In fact, it is why I came here."
You let out a sigh of relief that you whitelisted Martha from the Murder Servitors in your room. Or one might have leapt into action following her energetic act.
"What do you have?"
"This city is old, Occ. Really damn old. And it is a real bitch, pardon the language, to get into. Turns out, when things get that old, the criminals go official in a lot of ways. So I splashed some cash around, started talking, gave some people some five-fingered encouragement, and got a scoop on what it is really like. Not the reports you'll have gotten." She grins sheepishly.
You wonder what a five-fingered encouragement is, but don't ask, instead you lean forward inquisitively and motion for her to continue.
She speaks animatedly, hands frantic. "The Pit is apparently full of Archeotech, old factories, corporate holdfasts, isolated communities. And all the major conglomerates and the like of Nautilus? They fight over it using gangs as proxies."
"This definitely isn't Terra." You say. "Any gang larger than ten gets targeted by the Arbites or Inquisition upon the Holy Throneworld." You consider her words and think about the clean streets you've seen in all the briefings of Nautilus. "Explains why there's barely any violence or conflict, even in the Lower-Middle and the Deep Hive."
"There's a whole code of conduct regarding fighting in Nautilus and the Pit. Places and people which can't be targeted, neutral zones, mediators and brokers. No targeting the air-cyclers, recyc stations, or getting in the way of the repair crews."
"What about the Enforcers? The Ministry of State must not appreciate such an area not being under control." You find it hard to imagine an Imperial government tolerating such an anarchic mess.
"They treat it like a resource. The place is allowed to run on its own, and routinely brings back archeotech salvage, cheaply mined ore, hardened fighters, the like. Anyone causing trouble gets hit by the 'Repair Crews'. Think Arbites, but they show up to repair the recyclers and keep the air flowing. They turn anyone who gets in the way into corpse starch."
"Just how big is this Pit?" You ask cautiously. "The Astra Telepathica said it was just old mining pits and the like. You make it sound like it is a civilization in its own right."
"I've heard prospectors talking about entire communities and even small cities across the planet. Its a popular topic of conversation. Lost cities with the tunnels sealed off, mutant outposts, stories of some kind of 'scuttlers' having a base so deep it nearly goes through the crust."
You lean back into your chair, considering what you've heard. "Do you have any permanent contacts we might get use out of?"
"There's ratlings all over the city. I got to know them, and they put me through to some very interested people who want to know just what we get up to."
Martha made several contacts within Nautilus. Of these, one of them is willing and able to have an immediate meeting with you.
Choose one group.
-Write in a short succint request and what you'd offer in exchange. The shorter the better.
[] Brotherhood of Kel:
An ancient corporation that has resisted any attempt to stamp it out. In Nautilus and across the Sector, Kel is an arms guild known for providing reliable and expensive autoguns, but with a lack of success in finding buyers for their designs, due to each design being artisanal.
Kayl-Tek is also the primary arms dealer for the world's elite criminals, producing weapons for crime-lords and the private forces of Deep Pit fiefdoms. The guild operates from somewhere in The Pit, with a front office in Nautilus itself for the sake of legitimacy. They have a somewhat good reputation for the eagerness with which the guild sends its private security after sources of unrest in the Pit, primarily as marketing. It is only the exceptional ties between the guild and the local Mechanicus that have stopped it being declared full outlaws.
Martha has made contacts with a faciliator of the Brotherhood whom has discussed providing equipment.
Provides:
Autoguns, Stubbers, weaponsmithing, specialized munitions creations, custom-weapons and in-house manufacturing under license.
[] Brakvarr Corsairs:
There is a well-equipped group of Abhumans operating within the Pit and parts of Nautilus, although nobody is sure how they got there. This group has a holdfast deep beneath the surface that regularly trades with Nautilus, providing potent technology and equipment to buyers that risk the wrath of the Mechanicus. Their technology is impressive, however unsanctioned. Their presence is a source of contention by Adeptus Terra representatives, whom cannot decide if they are
1: A band of licensed Abhumans named Squats, according to the Administratum.
2: A band of recidivist Non-Imperial Abhumans named 'The Votann' according to the Arbites.
3: A band of foul Xenos named 'The Demiurge' according to the Ministorum.
Various encounters between different groups have resulted in a situation where nobody is sure just which category the Abhumans fall under, which has left them in a legal loophole.
Martha has met a trader from the Corsairs whom is interested in legitimate trade with an Adeptus.
Provides:
Energy weapons, Power-weapons, possible contact with the Leagues of Votann.
Note: This is not officially sanctioned technology and the Mechanicus is legally allowed to seize this technology, if they so wish.
[] The Family:
Ratlings, lacking the might and lack of intellect of the Ogryns, often face persecution due to them being an easier target. This makes the Ratlings of the Imperium generally congregate into large communities for mutual support. Nautilus has a large population of Ratlings living throughout its lower levels as an oppressed working class, primarily working in maintenance, cleaning, and manufacturing. Nevertheless, the Ratlings have managed to form a network across the city.
'The Family' is the name for an underground crime syndicate that spans most of Nautilus and much of the Pit, woven through the many Ratling communities. They primarily provide intelligence, spying, and information upon activity throughout the city.
Martha has spoken with an elder, who has mentioned that The Family knows of some black market Psykers operating in the Pit.
Provides:
Information on activity within Nautilus, identities and locations of Rogue Psykers, hooks into 'soft' organized crime.
[] The Alkata Cartel
Every Hive city has its own criminal underbelly, providing luxuries and distractions for the Imperium's many -many- tireless labourers. And one able to provide these things, is liable to get quite rich indeed. But all riches need protection, and not everyone has a hereditary family of bodyguards to their name.
Outside the upper spires, Nautilus's Lower-Middle and Deep Hive are rampant with the narcotics trade, skin-trading pimps, sanctioned and unsanctioned recreational establishments, gambling, pit fights, and more. And when one of these entrepreneurs desire protection, they head to the Alkata Cartel.
The Cartel is rife with Imperial Guard and PDF veterans, Pit Gangers, and vat-grown hired muscle, trading protection for hard currency. Their services range from skilled bouncers for middle-class drinking establishments, bodyguards for drug-dealers and pimps, and gangs for hire in The Pit.
The Alkata, however, tries to maintain a veer of legitimacy and looks down upon any activities that might draw the attention of Imperial Authority. They will immediately hand over Psykers and mutants who attempt to hire them (for the bounty mostly).
Provides:
Muscle. Combat experience. Possibly trainers. Drugs. Narcotics. Hooks into hard crime.
You have unlocked contact with the following organizations:
The Brotherhood of Kel.
The Brakkvarr Corsairs.
The Family.
The Alkata Cartel.
You have unlocked the following research options:
Telekine Rounds:
The choir infuses solid projectiles with telekinetic energy, increasing the speed and impact of each round many times over. While a taxing process, this will allow Autoguns to hit like heavy stubbers.
Required for Psi-Munitions research alongside a source of Autoguns and ammunition.
Biomantic Juvenant Treatments and beauty:
You're twenty-five but look almost fifty according to Martha. It might be time to look into Biomantic Juvenant or perhaps visit a clinic in Nautilus, to bring yourself back in line with your actual age. This would also be a good opportunity to look into the presentability of future Psykers. Many high-ranking Imperials are vain, and many of your Psykers will come from poorer backgrounds. Straightening backs, whitening teeth, restoring hair, and removing unhealthy palours, could improve the status of your Psykers, making them look like paragons of the Imperial Ideal.
4 Hour Moratorium for the choice. Consider it a free action.
The structure is expansive, spreading organically using natural caverns and rock formations that were hollowed out and expanded for additional room. Massive arteries of psi-conductive cablings have been attached to intact mineral veins to create what looks like what you can only describe as geo-cybernetic constructs, flowing through and between the many Astropathic sanctums and choirs spread throughout the structure.
Groups of Astropaths shuffle from room to room, moving between the many lesser choirs across the Keep. Servitors trundle through the hallways, replacing energy cells as they go, and keeping every surface fastidiously clean. You decided to examine the Keep in more detail to see how it is operated, and the subsequent reveals are little short of astounding.
You have seen many astropathic choirs, but never one with as much mechanical assistance as the Nautilus one. Only short range and small broadcasts are processed in the heads of the Astropaths themselves, and every scrap of information that goes through the system is recorded.
At the upper levels of the keep, two dozen Lesser Astropathic Choirs remain in permanent contact with relays across the Sector, sending the telepathic images they receive to the Primary Choir for processing and transmission beyond the sector. The Primary Choir is a massive cylindrical chamber built around a great pillar of psi-reactive stone, hundreds of chairs facing inwards, guarded by patrolling Black Sentinels.
There are rooms dedicated to archeotech Memory Buffers, rooms full of vats of vat-grown psi-active brain tissue that serve to store messages intercepted by the Astropaths which would otherwise hold up one of the receiving astropaths, and allow for a message backlog to form.
Special installations to decipher these complicated messages are located at seemingly random distances from the Memory Buffers, in accordance with the geological layout of surrounding rock. In these chambers, Astropaths sit in meditation, drawing the contents from one buffer cell at a time, so they can be fed into vast memetic transcription looms. Wall-sized punchcard interfaces are configured by servitors connected to the Astropath, each image they receive coming from a set library and corresponding with a card.
As the wall clicks and grinds, rows of shifting wheels with many esoteric symbols each move, spelling out garbled texts that are automatically copied by servo-scribes on vast rolls of cloned parchment skin of uniform size and thickness. Each roll the size of a main battle tank. Long strips of esoteric text are immediatelyis immediately sliced off in marked locations, then fed into an auto-sanctifier where molecular locking agents are carefully applied over the still-wet ink, to encode the printing information into the ink itself.
These strips are loaded into pneumatic tubes, and shot at high speed towards the vast scriptorium of the Sapphire keep, where the scribes of the Keep can translate the symbols into Low and High Gothic. Hundreds of arthritic ink-stained hands transcribe these texts with quills that move faster than the eye can follow, while others type runes into their cogitators. Marked texts are copied additional times for storage, either types and entered into the vast date looms for short term digital storage, or transcribed onto specialized acid-free parchment for long term storage in a climate-controlled vault.
All pages of Parchment once completed, are fitted with wax purity seals and fed back into the pneumatic system for sorting and transfer by message servo-skull to whomever in Nautilus the messages are for.
Scholam Psykana:
The Scholam Psykana is still under construction, but the Astropathic Choir it is connected to is positively ancient. You could examine it and learn a bit more about where you'll be
[] Training from the Black Sentinels:
The Black Sentinels are excellently trained and drilled fighters. Ask them to assist in training and drilling your Shock Troops.
A routine request to make. (+20)
Your fellowship is 45 + 20 = 65
You rolled 86
2 degrees of failure.
Requesting the aid of the Black Sentinels proves harder than expected. First, there is a temporary confusion within the chain of command. The Sapphire Keep already has a standing force of Sentinels, which manage their safety. But the Nautilus Scholam Psykana is to have its own garrison.
So when you finally manage to track down and speak with the Sapphire Keep's Black Sentinel Captain, he says that the decision is one he expects his underling, a Lieutenant, to make the final decision.
In the end, you make your way back to the Scholam and find the still-under-construction barracks of the Black Sentinels, finding them playing a card game on the back of a currently inactive heavy-lifter servitor. They eye you cautiously as you enter the room.
The Scholam's Brotherhood of Black Sentinels is led by a Captain named Alstar Rostiam Odum Ood Udo, and he agrees to hear you out. You speak of your plans, and how you need people skilled at training soldiers.
"No." Is the answer you receive. "We are the iron fist of the Astra Telepathica. There will be no fraternization, no mutual training, no friendliness of any kind with our charges." He then narrowed his eyes. "And I do not want your Psykers being as physically fit as the ones meant to keep them in line."
The answer puts an end to any hope of getting assistance with physical training and exercise from within the Astra Telepathica.
Because the Black Sentinels flat out refused to train your Psykers, the Lord Prefect did not need to arrange any paperwork. You do not lose any influence.
[] Combat-Biomancy feasibility studies:
Work with Astrid to lay out how your theoretical Psychic Shock Troops might best train their biomancy for both healing and self-empowerment.
Working on teaching is challenging for you. (+0) But Astrid is experienced in this. Teaching is routine for her. (+20)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 70
You rolled 28
5 Degrees of success.
Costs 2 Influence with Astrid
Improves relationship by 1
Astrid's suite within the fortress is already turning into a very macabre place. She has put up numerous anatomical models across the rooms, all consisting of humans and licensed abhuman strains with removable organs and intricately detailed veins and nerve structures.
She has a shelf full of cages, each containing different insects, reptiles, and other peculiar creatures you've never seen before. These are looked after by her Wyrdvane. She keeps them close in a set of rooms close to her suite, where they can assist her in her research. The Wyrdvanes are bound together into a shared telepathic mind to share the strain of their powers, although the extent to this you are not sure of.
They work around her new 'lab', performing a myriad of little tests and examinations on the collection of creatures.
You find Astrid inside of a surgical theatre that has the air of an Imperial Guard Medicae installation installed in a hurry. She is wearing a full surgical gown as she operates with the aid of a Wyrdvane orderly. There are three slabs, two of which contain a patient that has been strapped in. They are short and very pale humans, locals you surmise.
A Cherub hovers next to Astrid, the small servitor holding a tray containing a selection of small bone ink pots, each with a quill or a needle placed into it. Astrid looms over a patient that she intermittently draws upon with a quill, while a pair of mechanical arms from the ceiling aim medical instruments at the patient. She occasionally places the needle inside a small tattoo gun that she then uses to more complex symbols.
"Are you experimenting on a recidivist?" You ask, trying to think of why Astrid would be working on someone so early.
You look the man over. He has been secured on the surgical bed, but not very securely. The man on the slab glares at you, but does not move.
Astrid chuckles. "Throne, no. I took him from the Medicae ward where he was being fitted with an augmetic." Her hand twists and crackles, growing additional joints as it makes a series of complicated hand gestures. The lines of ink drawn upon the man's chest begin to glow.
Reaching out psychically for what she's doing, you note that she is causing the body to self-heal rapidly. The tattoos appear to have cleared up flows of energy within the body, or started them in the first place. The man's lungs, and you note one had been halfway shrivelled by something, are growing inside his chest and restoring to full functionality.
You lean over to examine the man. He isn't missing any limbs. "An augmetic?" You ask.
"Left foot." She says.
You examine the limb. Nothing seems wrong with it. You raise an eyebrow at Astrid.
"It wasn't there when he arrived." Astrid says with a smile. She moves over to the next patient. "Anyways. How can I help? I am preparing this one for surgery with the Wyrdvanes. Just removing some bone cancer, clearing cataracts. Simple enough." She frowns. "We have not had a chance for meatball surgery yet. The Lord Prefect hasn't gotten any heretics for me to place on the slab yet."
"I want to discuss possible uses for biomancy with my Wyrdvane. I am not as advanced in the subject as you."
Astrid considers the request. "Hrmm. That can be arranged. I take it you have primarily been considering ways they can heal themselves in the midst of combat."
"Our beloved Astra Telepathica tends to focus more upon Bio-Lightning and punching through heretics than the more subtle uses of Biomancy." She considers something. "But for shock-troops, you want something universal. Yes? Something even middling Biomancers could still do for the sake of improving their combat ability."
"Yes. I want my Shock Troops to fight as excellent soldiers first, before they even begin using their psychic powers."
Astrid muses on this. "I can help you with that. I wrote a medical journal about ways the human body and its organs can be optimized. With the right medical textbooks and demonstrations, it should be possible to teach even weak biomancers."
"An excellent choice for a choir." You remark. A Wyrdvane Choir, when properly connected with telepathic bonds, is capable of imbueing even the weakest of biomancers with potent enhancements, so long even one member of the Choir is capable of it.
You spend several days working the matter through with Astrid, as she inquires with the regular faculty of the Scholam, ensuring that they are instructed in the techniques you want your apprentices to learn. Astrid shows her skills, and soon the instructors are potent Biomancers in their own line.
Among your Psychic Shock Troops, dedicated Biomancers will be instructed by Astrid in the following abilities:
Biomantic Meatball Surgery
A skilled Biomancer can, by placing their hand upon a fallen comrade, knit bones together, grow back lost organs, restore ruined flesh, and ensure a fighter can keep going. Your Wyrdvanes will be trained extensively on how to get a soldier back into the fight quickly. These changes can be undone by a medical biomancer after the fighting is over.
When your Psykers form a choir, all members will me capable of:
Biomantic Self-Optimization:
Using subtle Biomancy, the senses of the soldier are optimized and improved beyond baseline humanity. Soldiers can smell hormones in the air, see in near complete darkness, and hear the most minute of noises, and achieve levels of strength comparable to the Tempestus Scions and Sororitas. This is a passive improvement that can be adjusted as needed by the Psyker. Part of this includes a low-level healing factor that actively clears the muscles of lactic acid, and allows cuts and lesser bullet wounds to heal by themselves.
[] Transcribe Telekinetic Teaching instructions:
While you could train excellent Telekinetic students, doing so will require your training. By taking the time to transcribe your knowledge into a stored format, you can ensure that your Wyrdvane pattern does not require your personal presence to be trained.
Transcribing training Telekinetic knowledge is challenging for you. (+0)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 50
You rolled 16
4 Degrees of Success.
With a steaming hot cup of recaff and a quill, you got to work.
Tomes on Psychic lore are easily among the most regulated objects in the Imperium, and they are intentionally rarely transported between Scholams, and only with the most heavy of scrutiny. And what you create will undoubtedly be hoarded for generations to come.
You etched your knowledge onto crystalline wafers with a specialized acid pen, page after page of esoteric psychic lore instructing the readers how to manifest telekine fields. Some of your own essence was poured into each page, just enough that able Psykers can read the exact thoughts they need in order to manifest the powers you explain.
The tome you drafted an instructional, intended primarily to help Telekines start their psychic education. Training techniques, breathing exercises, mental processes to aid in managing their powers, and several abilities that from your opinion, are within the capability of Wyrdvanes. You included your newfound knowledge of Gravitic Manifestation. Although you are certain that you can greatly advance the ability, at its most rudimentary form, it will still impact with the strength of a grav-gun.
Among your Psychic Shock Troops, dedicated Telekines will be taught the following skills by instructors, using the knowledge you wrote down:
Crush:
A Telekine focuses their power upon a single point in space, manifesting a brief moment of intense gravity akin to a Grav-Gun.
Telekine Dome:
The Telekine, if equipped with a force staff or a potent enough focii, conjures a dome of Psychic energy for the squad to take cover in. The dome will absorb small arms fire and indirect shrapnel from artillery.
When your Psykers form a choir, all members will be capable of:
Telekine Personal Shields:
The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
[] Black Market Connections:
You give Martha a supply of currency and have her get into contact with the local ratlings. You want to establish connections that you could make use of, both for finding esoteric lore, Psykers, and equipment.
Martha will not be available this turn.
Working with a black market is difficult for you, challenging (-10), but Martha is a Ratling and for her it is merely challenging. (+0). You providing funding allows her to roll with advantage.
Your fellowship is 45. 45 + 0 = 45
You rolled 67, 3 with advantage. 3 is the roll used.
4 degrees of success.
"You should go outside once." Martha says from the entrance of your doorway.
The Ratling is wearing a fine set of clothes tailored for her size, marked with a collar insignia marking her as member of the Astra Telepathica. She looks better than she did when you met her. Her hair has been washed, combed, and braided very nicely. Her rosy cheeks have a bit more colour, and there is a smile on her lips.
You take a sip of the recaff from the canteen she's prepared. "Perhaps. Is this about you going out to contact the Infractionists?"
Martha frowns at you. "Infractionist?"
"People who live beyond the Adeptus Terra. Criminals and the like."
The Ratling narrows her eyes. "You don't really get the Torvum Sector, do you? There's more than just the Adeptus Terra here."
"Be careful of what you say, Martha. If someone wished you harm, those words coul-"
"Occ', please. Let me explain." She gives you a scrutinous matronly stare.
That nickname. It always manages to disarm you. You offer a faint smile. "Sorry, Martha. Go ahead."
Martha takes a seat opposite to you, her legs not touching the floor as she sits. You remind yourself to get a seat for her prepared. "Torvum's Adeptus Terra has a very loose hand. Always has. Most of the economies are allowed to run on their own, so long the proper tithes are paid. Most people don't work for some Munitorum Manufactorum or the like. They'll work for a guild, conglomerate, or whatever The Gilded call it. Criminals aren't people who turned from the Adeptus Terra or detached themselves, most will never have worked for them in the first place."
You consider what she's said and think about it in the context of what you know of the Imperium. The Torvum Sector is definitely not the most normal of Imperial sectors. It is not one of the newly established sectors, where all industries and labour are controlled through the Adeptus Terra in one way or another. It is an old sector, with a history of loyalty to the Imperium, but also a sense of identity beyond the Imperium. The latter concerns you, going as it does against your ingrained belief that humanity and the Imperium are one and the same.
"What do I call people who aren't part of the Adeptus Terra in one way or another then?"
Martha quirks her head. "People." She frowns, voice suddenly serious. "Just how old are you, Occam?"
You consider the question. "I am physically twenty-five Terran years." A respectable age from your experiences upon Terra. You do not have the large families that someone your age might have upon Terra, but you have over a decade and a half of intensive training in the Psychic arts.
The Ratling blinks, eyes wide. "Occam, you look like you're fifty. I am forty-three!"
"You're ancient." You mutter. "Fifty years?" A note of panic enters your voice. "Wait. Do we need to get your family brought here? I thought you to be sixteen or perhaps eighteen. You must have a large family by now, yes?" You draw from your knowledge of Terra and your Hive World, where most women will have a child by sixteen and continue having them until their thirtieth year.
"I don't have children, Occam. Never wanted them."
You blink. "Emperor Bless you, Martha. You are my elder. I shouldn't send you out to work with hardened criminals."
Martha leaps onto your desk and point a finger at you. "Young man. I know quite well how to look after myself when I am in a proper mental space. You wanted to get into contacts with those people? Well, I have done just that. In fact, it is why I came here."
You let out a sigh of relief that you whitelisted Martha from the Murder Servitors in your room. Or one might have leapt into action following her energetic act.
"What do you have?"
"This city is old, Occ. Really damn old. And it is a real bitch, pardon the language, to get into. Turns out, when things get that old, the criminals go official in a lot of ways. So I splashed some cash around, started talking, gave some people some five-fingered encouragement, and got a scoop on what it is really like. Not the reports you'll have gotten." She grins sheepishly.
You wonder what a five-fingered encouragement is, but don't ask, instead you lean forward inquisitively and motion for her to continue.
She speaks animatedly, hands frantic. "The Pit is apparently full of Archeotech, old factories, corporate holdfasts, isolated communities. And all the major conglomerates and the like of Nautilus? They fight over it using gangs as proxies."
"This definitely isn't Terra." You say. "Any gang larger than ten gets targeted by the Arbites or Inquisition upon the Holy Throneworld." You consider her words and think about the clean streets you've seen in all the briefings of Nautilus. "Explains why there's barely any violence or conflict, even in the Lower-Middle and the Deep Hive."
"There's a whole code of conduct regarding fighting in Nautilus and the Pit. Places and people which can't be targeted, neutral zones, mediators and brokers. No targeting the air-cyclers, recyc stations, or getting in the way of the repair crews."
"What about the Enforcers? The Ministry of State must not appreciate such an area not being under control." You find it hard to imagine an Imperial government tolerating such an anarchic mess.
"They treat it like a resource. The place is allowed to run on its own, and routinely brings back archeotech salvage, cheaply mined ore, hardened fighters, the like. Anyone causing trouble gets hit by the 'Repair Crews'. Think Arbites, but they show up to repair the recyclers and keep the air flowing. They turn anyone who gets in the way into corpse starch."
"Just how big is this Pit?" You ask cautiously. "The Astra Telepathica said it was just old mining pits and the like. You make it sound like it is a civilization in its own right."
"I've heard prospectors talking about entire communities and even small cities across the planet. Its a popular topic of conversation. Lost cities with the tunnels sealed off, mutant outposts, stories of some kind of 'scuttlers' having a base so deep it nearly goes through the crust."
You lean back into your chair, considering what you've heard. "Do you have any permanent contacts we might get use out of?"
"There's ratlings all over the city. I got to know them, and they put me through to some very interested people who want to know just what we get up to."
Martha made several contacts within Nautilus. Of these, one of them is willing and able to have an immediate meeting with you.
Choose one group.
-Write in a short succint request and what you'd offer in exchange. The shorter the better.
[] Brotherhood of Kel:
An ancient corporation that has resisted any attempt to stamp it out. In Nautilus and across the Sector, Kel is an arms guild known for providing reliable and expensive autoguns, but with a lack of success in finding buyers for their designs, due to each design being artisanal.
Kayl-Tek is also the primary arms dealer for the world's elite criminals, producing weapons for crime-lords and the private forces of Deep Pit fiefdoms. The guild operates from somewhere in The Pit, with a front office in Nautilus itself for the sake of legitimacy. They have a somewhat good reputation for the eagerness with which the guild sends its private security after sources of unrest in the Pit, primarily as marketing. It is only the exceptional ties between the guild and the local Mechanicus that have stopped it being declared full outlaws.
Martha has made contacts with a faciliator of the Brotherhood whom has discussed providing equipment.
Provides:
Autoguns, Stubbers, weaponsmithing, specialized munitions creations, custom-weapons and in-house manufacturing under license.
[] Brakvarr Corsairs:
There is a well-equipped group of Abhumans operating within the Pit and parts of Nautilus, although nobody is sure how they got there. This group has a holdfast deep beneath the surface that regularly trades with Nautilus, providing potent technology and equipment to buyers that risk the wrath of the Mechanicus. Their technology is impressive, however unsanctioned. Their presence is a source of contention by Adeptus Terra representatives, whom cannot decide if they are
1: A band of licensed Abhumans named Squats, according to the Administratum.
2: A band of recidivist Non-Imperial Abhumans named 'The Votann' according to the Arbites.
3: A band of foul Xenos named 'The Demiurge' according to the Ministorum.
Various encounters between different groups have resulted in a situation where nobody is sure just which category the Abhumans fall under, which has left them in a legal loophole.
Martha has met a trader from the Corsairs whom is interested in legitimate trade with an Adeptus.
Provides:
Energy weapons, Power-weapons, possible contact with the Leagues of Votann.
Note: This is not officially sanctioned technology and the Mechanicus is legally allowed to seize this technology, if they so wish.
[] The Family:
Ratlings, lacking the might and lack of intellect of the Ogryns, often face persecution due to them being an easier target. This makes the Ratlings of the Imperium generally congregate into large communities for mutual support. Nautilus has a large population of Ratlings living throughout its lower levels as an oppressed working class, primarily working in maintenance, cleaning, and manufacturing. Nevertheless, the Ratlings have managed to form a network across the city.
'The Family' is the name for an underground crime syndicate that spans most of Nautilus and much of the Pit, woven through the many Ratling communities. They primarily provide intelligence, spying, and information upon activity throughout the city.
Martha has spoken with an elder, who has mentioned that The Family knows of some black market Psykers operating in the Pit.
Provides:
Information on activity within Nautilus, identities and locations of Rogue Psykers, hooks into 'soft' organized crime.
[] The Alkata Cartel
Every Hive city has its own criminal underbelly, providing luxuries and distractions for the Imperium's many -many- tireless labourers. And one able to provide these things, is liable to get quite rich indeed. But all riches need protection, and not everyone has a hereditary family of bodyguards to their name.
Outside the upper spires, Nautilus's Lower-Middle and Deep Hive are rampant with the narcotics trade, skin-trading pimps, sanctioned and unsanctioned recreational establishments, gambling, pit fights, and more. And when one of these entrepreneurs desire protection, they head to the Alkata Cartel.
The Cartel is rife with Imperial Guard and PDF veterans, Pit Gangers, and vat-grown hired muscle, trading protection for hard currency. Their services range from skilled bouncers for middle-class drinking establishments, bodyguards for drug-dealers and pimps, and gangs for hire in The Pit.
The Alkata, however, tries to maintain a veer of legitimacy and looks down upon any activities that might draw the attention of Imperial Authority. They will immediately hand over Psykers and mutants who attempt to hire them (for the bounty mostly).
Provides:
Muscle. Combat experience. Possibly trainers. Drugs. Narcotics. Hooks into hard crime.
You have unlocked contact with the following organizations:
The Brotherhood of Kel.
The Brakkvarr Corsairs.
The Family.
The Alkata Cartel.
You have unlocked the following research options:
Telekine Rounds:
The choir infuses solid projectiles with telekinetic energy, increasing the speed and impact of each round many times over. While a taxing process, this will allow Autoguns to hit like heavy stubbers.
Required for Psi-Munitions research alongside a source of Autoguns and ammunition.
Biomantic Juvenant Treatments and beauty:
You're twenty-five but look almost fifty according to Martha. It might be time to look into Biomantic Juvenant or perhaps visit a clinic in Nautilus, to bring yourself back in line with your actual age. This would also be a good opportunity to look into the presentability of future Psykers. Many high-ranking Imperials are vain, and many of your Psykers will come from poorer backgrounds. Straightening backs, whitening teeth, restoring hair, and removing unhealthy palours, could improve the status of your Psykers, making them look like paragons of the Imperial Ideal.
Nautilus Scholam Psykana Internal Hierarchy:
Like any Imperial organization, the Astra Telepathica is rife with factionalism and groups intending to climb to the top at the detriment of others.
The Scholam Psykana currently has five Prefects, one from each of the five major schools of Psykana, all of whom have been granted a great deal of freedom and leeway by the Astra Telepathica in the pursuit of setting up an efficient training schedule.
Your fellow Prefects are:
-Prefect Biologica Astrid.
Universal Epsilon Psyker.
Astrid is a middle-aged woman with black hair, blue eyes, and an eerily symetrical face. She routinely uses her biomancy to change or optimize her appearance how she sees fit. She has few visible implants.
Currently training Biomantic Support Choirs:
Astrid's Wyrdvances are taught to both be nurses as well as biomancers. While lacking the control for fine surgery, when they put their powers together, Astrid's Wyrdvane is able to perform miraculous feats of healing and regeneration.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 6/10
Your influence with them: 2/10
-Combat Biomancy Development Unlocked.
-Prefect Telepathica Silvia
Astropath Transcendant, Delta-Grade Telepath.
Silvia's skin is weathered and etched with the lines of countless years. Her blindfold is made from a deep indigo fabric. The robes she wears are adorned with subtle psychic wards, their intricate patterns barely visible unless caught in the right lumen light. Her cane is carved from dark wood, its surface polished smooth by years of use and imbued with latent psychic energy that hums gently under her touch.
Currently training Bonded Telepathic Choir:
Silvia's Wyrdvanes are trained to function as living relays for communications, providing a safe and instantaneous form of communication across a battlefield between each member of a Wyrdvane.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 3/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
-By proving that Psychic Shock Troops have potential, Silvia will assist in training Dedicated Telepath Vox Operators.
-Prefect Pyromania Hans:
Gamma-Grade Pyromancer, Delta-Grade Telekine
Hans is a dark-skinned Psyker with a head covered with cybernetic plugs and cables that connect to an imposing psychic hood. His middle-aged appearance belies the combat prowess he possesses, with every movement echoing the precision and power of his pyromantic and telekinetic skills. Despite the constant sheen of sweat from overheating, there's an undeniable aura of intensity that surrounds him.
Currently training Pyro-Telekinetic Psychic Artillery.
Hans's Wyrdvanes are taught to be Psychic artillery. They are to rain down hellfire and telekinetic strikes from a distance, destroying everything in their path.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 1/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
Hans believes your Psychic Shock Troops plan is doomed to fail and does not wish to involve himself.
-Prefect Divinatoria Alfonse:
Delta-Grade Diviner, Combat Cartomancer,
A pale-skinned man in simple clothes, rarely wearing robes, with dark black hair shaped over the cybernetics in the back of his head. Routinely seen wearing a bracer connected to a silver pane marked with six small rectangles.
Currently training Reading the Emperor's tarot. Sanctic sorcery.
Alfonse's Wyrdvanes are taught to read the Emperor's Tarot as well as divine the course of events. They are a support force meant to provide Imperial Commanders with knowledge of future events, or the likeliness of enemy actions.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 3/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
-By proving that Psychic Shock Troops have potential, Alfonse will aid your Psychic Shock troops to train their Precognition abilities.
-Prefect Telekinetica Occam:
Beta-Grade Telekine
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Scholam Psykana Faculty and Staff
You have gathered up a following of servants and allies that help with running the Scholam Psykana.
-Martha Sternback, Ratling:
A diminutive ratling woman whose dream job became a nightmare after a friendly Master of Service had her prepare meals for Imperial Guard officers kept as guests aboard her ship, the Sword of Integrity, instead of just the Junior officers. After deserting from the ship, you found her and offered her a better life. Due to the genuine kindness that you have shown her, you have her undying loyalty and friendship.
While a curious sight among the largely terran-norm members of the Astra Telepathica, few who actually speak with Martha don't find it easy to not be charmed by her smile, manners, and jovial attitude. Of those unable to get over their disdain for 'abbies' or 'gene filth', none dare to be rude to her, lest they face your considerable wrath.
Martha as a Ratling chef is a master of understanding the ability of food to motivate, encourage, punish, or break down an individual. She also has learned to work in the underbelly of society to survive, and finds it easy to make black market connections with the ubiquitous ratling communities across the Imperium.
-Gives a +20 to any rolls involving nutrition as a factor in Psyker education.
-Allows you to develop black market contacts.
The students have not yet arrived at the Scholam Psykana, but the final stages of construction are nearing their end. You have been given time to prepare fully for the arrival.
You have a nearly unlimited discretionary budget, but accessing it will require the (so far, Unlimited), approval of the Lord Prefect.
Like any Imperial organization, the Astra Telepathica is rife with factionalism and groups intending to climb to the top at the detriment of others.
The Scholam Psykana currently has five Prefects, one from each of the five major schools of Psykana, all of whom have been granted a great deal of freedom and leeway by the Astra Telepathica in the pursuit of setting up an efficient training schedule.
Your fellow Prefects are:
-Prefect Biologica Astrid.
Universal Epsilon Psyker.
Astrid is a middle-aged woman with black hair, blue eyes, and an eerily symetrical face. She routinely uses her biomancy to change or optimize her appearance how she sees fit. She has few visible implants.
Currently training Biomantic Support Choirs:
Astrid's Wyrdvances are taught to both be nurses as well as biomancers. While lacking the control for fine surgery, when they put their powers together, Astrid's Wyrdvane is able to perform miraculous feats of healing and regeneration.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 6/10
Your influence with them: 2/10
-Combat Biomancy Development Unlocked.
-Prefect Telepathica Silvia
Astropath Transcendant, Delta-Grade Telepath.
Silvia's skin is weathered and etched with the lines of countless years. Her blindfold is made from a deep indigo fabric. The robes she wears are adorned with subtle psychic wards, their intricate patterns barely visible unless caught in the right lumen light. Her cane is carved from dark wood, its surface polished smooth by years of use and imbued with latent psychic energy that hums gently under her touch.
Currently training Bonded Telepathic Choir:
Silvia's Wyrdvanes are trained to function as living relays for communications, providing a safe and instantaneous form of communication across a battlefield between each member of a Wyrdvane.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 3/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
-By proving that Psychic Shock Troops have potential, Silvia will assist in training Dedicated Telepath Vox Operators.
-Prefect Pyromania Hans:
Gamma-Grade Pyromancer, Delta-Grade Telekine
Hans is a dark-skinned Psyker with a head covered with cybernetic plugs and cables that connect to an imposing psychic hood. His middle-aged appearance belies the combat prowess he possesses, with every movement echoing the precision and power of his pyromantic and telekinetic skills. Despite the constant sheen of sweat from overheating, there's an undeniable aura of intensity that surrounds him.
Currently training Pyro-Telekinetic Psychic Artillery.
Hans's Wyrdvanes are taught to be Psychic artillery. They are to rain down hellfire and telekinetic strikes from a distance, destroying everything in their path.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 1/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
Hans believes your Psychic Shock Troops plan is doomed to fail and does not wish to involve himself.
-Prefect Divinatoria Alfonse:
Delta-Grade Diviner, Combat Cartomancer,
A pale-skinned man in simple clothes, rarely wearing robes, with dark black hair shaped over the cybernetics in the back of his head. Routinely seen wearing a bracer connected to a silver pane marked with six small rectangles.
Currently training Reading the Emperor's tarot. Sanctic sorcery.
Alfonse's Wyrdvanes are taught to read the Emperor's Tarot as well as divine the course of events. They are a support force meant to provide Imperial Commanders with knowledge of future events, or the likeliness of enemy actions.
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Your relationship with them: 3/10
Your influence with them: 1/10
-By proving that Psychic Shock Troops have potential, Alfonse will aid your Psychic Shock troops to train their Precognition abilities.
-Prefect Telekinetica Occam:
Beta-Grade Telekine
Lord Prefect favour: 20/100
Scholam Psykana Faculty and Staff
You have gathered up a following of servants and allies that help with running the Scholam Psykana.
-Martha Sternback, Ratling:
A diminutive ratling woman whose dream job became a nightmare after a friendly Master of Service had her prepare meals for Imperial Guard officers kept as guests aboard her ship, the Sword of Integrity, instead of just the Junior officers. After deserting from the ship, you found her and offered her a better life. Due to the genuine kindness that you have shown her, you have her undying loyalty and friendship.
While a curious sight among the largely terran-norm members of the Astra Telepathica, few who actually speak with Martha don't find it easy to not be charmed by her smile, manners, and jovial attitude. Of those unable to get over their disdain for 'abbies' or 'gene filth', none dare to be rude to her, lest they face your considerable wrath.
Martha as a Ratling chef is a master of understanding the ability of food to motivate, encourage, punish, or break down an individual. She also has learned to work in the underbelly of society to survive, and finds it easy to make black market connections with the ubiquitous ratling communities across the Imperium.
-Gives a +20 to any rolls involving nutrition as a factor in Psyker education.
-Allows you to develop black market contacts.
The students have not yet arrived at the Scholam Psykana, but the final stages of construction are nearing their end. You have been given time to prepare fully for the arrival.
You have a nearly unlimited discretionary budget, but accessing it will require the (so far, Unlimited), approval of the Lord Prefect.
Your goal is to train Psychic Shock Troops.
Current Armour: Flak
Current Weapon: Lasguns, laspistols, simple psi-staves.
Combat Training: Whiteshield
Sanctified Stakes: Not acquired yet.
Micro-Explosives: Not acquired yet
Biomancy Training:
All dedicated Biomancers in your Wyrdvane will learn the following abilities.
-Biomantic Meatball Surgery: A skilled Biomancer can, by placing their hand upon a fallen comrade, knit bones together, grow back lost organs, restore ruined flesh, and ensure a fighter can keep going. Your Wyrdvanes will be trained extensively on how to get a soldier back into the fight quickly. These changes can be undone by a medical biomancer after the fighting is over.
Telepathy Training: Simple
Pyromancy Training: Simple
Divination Training: Simple
Telekine Training: Excellent.
Your writing upon Telekinesis are already being spoken of highly by the tutors of the Astra Telepathica. They will ensure your Wyrdvanes receive excellent training.
-Crush: A Telekine focuses their power upon a single point in space, manifesting a brief moment of intense gravity akin to a Grav-Gun.
-Telekine Dome: The Telekine, if equipped with a force staff or a potent enough focii, conjures a dome of Psychic energy for the squad to take cover in. The dome will absorb small arms fire and indirect shrapnel from artillery.
Wyrdvane Skills:
A Wyrdvane is telepathically linked, sharing power, skill, and training. This allows them to tap into each other's shared powers. Several abilities will be shared by each member of the Wyrdvane Choir.
-Telekine Personal Shields: The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
-Biomantic Self-Optimization: Using subtle Biomancy, the senses of the soldier are optimized and improved beyond baseline humanity. Soldiers can smell hormones in the air, see in near complete darkness, and hear the most minute of noises, and achieve levels of strength comparable to the Tempestus Scions and Sororitas. This is a passive improvement that can be adjusted as needed by the Psyker. Part of this includes a low-level healing factor that actively clears the muscles of lactic acid, and allows cuts and lesser bullet wounds to heal by themselves.
Current Armour: Flak
Current Weapon: Lasguns, laspistols, simple psi-staves.
Combat Training: Whiteshield
Sanctified Stakes: Not acquired yet.
Micro-Explosives: Not acquired yet
Biomancy Training:
All dedicated Biomancers in your Wyrdvane will learn the following abilities.
-Biomantic Meatball Surgery: A skilled Biomancer can, by placing their hand upon a fallen comrade, knit bones together, grow back lost organs, restore ruined flesh, and ensure a fighter can keep going. Your Wyrdvanes will be trained extensively on how to get a soldier back into the fight quickly. These changes can be undone by a medical biomancer after the fighting is over.
Telepathy Training: Simple
Pyromancy Training: Simple
Divination Training: Simple
Telekine Training: Excellent.
Your writing upon Telekinesis are already being spoken of highly by the tutors of the Astra Telepathica. They will ensure your Wyrdvanes receive excellent training.
-Crush: A Telekine focuses their power upon a single point in space, manifesting a brief moment of intense gravity akin to a Grav-Gun.
-Telekine Dome: The Telekine, if equipped with a force staff or a potent enough focii, conjures a dome of Psychic energy for the squad to take cover in. The dome will absorb small arms fire and indirect shrapnel from artillery.
Wyrdvane Skills:
A Wyrdvane is telepathically linked, sharing power, skill, and training. This allows them to tap into each other's shared powers. Several abilities will be shared by each member of the Wyrdvane Choir.
-Telekine Personal Shields: The Wyrdvane Choir pools their collective Telekine potential and spreads it evenly among their members, wrapping each soldier in a protective regenerating energy shield that deflects kinetic and energy small arms fire. The power of the shields can be adjusted by the Choir, or overcharged by an able Telekine among the Choir.
-Biomantic Self-Optimization: Using subtle Biomancy, the senses of the soldier are optimized and improved beyond baseline humanity. Soldiers can smell hormones in the air, see in near complete darkness, and hear the most minute of noises, and achieve levels of strength comparable to the Tempestus Scions and Sororitas. This is a passive improvement that can be adjusted as needed by the Psyker. Part of this includes a low-level healing factor that actively clears the muscles of lactic acid, and allows cuts and lesser bullet wounds to heal by themselves.
4 Hour Moratorium for the choice. Consider it a free action.
Last edited:
birdmaster01
Big Tech's Strongest Soldier
Just one step removed from pure telekinetic force rounds,hell yeah
