I also missed this in life continuing to be a pain. I will catch up eventually!
Continue developing your Gravity manifestation technique to try and improve your Telekinesis. Focus upon developing your personal abilities by experimenting upon your Psychic abilities.
A challenging psychic feat. (+0)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 50
Occam rolled 24
3 degrees of success.
One of the training rooms in the Sapphire Keep is set aside for you. A massive square training room composed of psi-inert rock in which you can train without peace, and any trouble can be resolved through the kill-servitors and the nerve-gas dispensers.
You spend a month just creating and recreating the point of extreme gravity. It takes a great deal of your focus, but it becomes increasingly easy, relatively speaking, to increase the gravity of individual points.
Well this is off to a good start, don't want to botch up training.
damn, this is legitimately impressive, being able to do it at all, let alone within a month. Our boi do be STRONK!
The most difficult part is to stop also generating telekinetic fields while you perform your art. It takes a great deal of meditation and unlearning what you have taught yourself, but once you succeed at this, you find that it becomes progressively easier to perform gravitic manipulation.
You attempt to move the point, perhaps even draw it out, but this effort resists you.
Ah, yesh, unlearning old habits, always *fun*. So moving gravity points are not yet within grasp, heh, get it?
However, you increase your ability at manifesting gravity, teaching yourself to use less and less of your body to do so. You strip away hand gestures, high gothic words, mental states, and focus upon developing the ability to manifest your power with just your mind.
And after eight months of training every single day, you finally succeed.
Oooh, very nice, so not just casting the spell but completely internalizing the process so nobody can see it coming. Me liiiike.
Your mind feels like it expands as you finally mentally grasp how to draw upon your Psychic might and shape it to command the generation of gravity.
You stare at a metal ball and glare at it.
The ball crumples and crushes inwards around the spot you focus, pulled inwards until the sphere is a rough small orb.
You have improved
Manifest Gravity: Occam is able to use just his mind and focus, to generate a gravitational pull towards and object in space, using just his mind. His knowledge of the ability has made it an easy ability for him, and part of his regular arsenal of Psykana.
This is deadly, and considering MC can do it without warning, pretty sure that heads are going to implode and other people are going to be paniking to put it mildly
I wonder what that would sound like, a head imploding on itself.
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.
Setting this system up requires some effort. (+0)
Target Difficulty (Psy-rating * 10) + Difficulty = 50
You rolled 5
5 Degrees of success.
Costs 3 Influence with the Lord Prefect.
Presentation does matter, and better healing and body state can make a difference in work and battle too. Am veddy happy we scored such a high degree of success here. Wonder how else it'll pay out.
The high grade Juvenat the Astra Telepathica provides is far too strong for the relatively minor treatment you wish for. You merely wish to correct your aging, not reverse it in full.
Being an ancient Imperial sector, Torvum has access to technologies that are not available in newer sectors. Nautilus, as a city that endured the Age of Strife intact, had a thriving biomedical and chemical industry. Submarines routinely traverse the world's oceans, harvesting carefully managed aquatic lifeforms and aquafarms for chemicals.
Yis, no need to become bebe. Smolness is not something we aspire to at present
Yesss, harvest those whale juices for pseudo immortality! For great power and profit! It is also rather neat that the system being so old we get access to things that might not be present in regions that were hit harder or settled more recently.
Most of the world remains unsettled, and the city has resisted demands to increase production or attempt industrial-scale farming, citing the complex interactivity of the planetary biosphere and the failure to transplant any of it. Juvenat treatments are available to the middle class, as are cosmetic augmentations, and several clinics providing Juvenat are known across the sector.
It takes little effort to sign up for one of these prestigious private clinics, especially due to the presumably large rush fee that the Lord Prefect paid.
The Clinic comes to the Sapphire Keep, bringing with them all the equipment needed to treat you within the comfort of your own room. Augmented well-trained hands examine your body as marks are placed on your skin. They are quick and efficient.
Hrmm, well that's a shame, planet is mostly left fallow.
Still, plenty of access even beyond the upper crust is good, should make getting access reasonab-
Ah yes, exceedingly easy thanks to money and connections. As it is ever thus
Oh hey, house calls. Makes sense, psyker in the clinic would likely lead to...complications in a few cases >.>
Soon, you are covered with medical pads and jabbed with far too many needles. A specialized pod is prepared, which you are lowered into. A green liquid is pumped into the vat. The oxygenated liquid is awkward to breathe, but you get the hang of it quickly enough. You are sedated and allow yourself to fall into a deep slumber.
When you wake up in the morning, you are helped from the pod and cleaned. You do not feel very different, but when Astrid performs the final checkups, she is astounded by the quality of Nautillan Juvenat. You don't just look younger, nor have had your life expectancy lengthened through implants or genetic engineering. You have been fully genetically de-aged, and even Astrid can scarcely find proof it happened.
Always needles, gah, i remember one nurse trying to find a vein in my foot. Took her, no lie, at least 20 times on both feet together.
Nice, so the body got it's 'cellular memory banks' reset, so MC can actually live longer and re age properly. Very nice. And this is available to even the middle class? Fanceh.
You both request the Lord Prefect to hire a permanent staff of Juvenat and Aestheticians to aid each Psyker. You do not need to do anything to ensure that you get the outcome you initially wished.
Soon, you receive a report on just what Astrid and the Clinic have established.
Huzzah! This should give us not only better healthed psykers, but ones that will stick around longer without stuff going wrong cause of the sanctioning process.
The Scholam Psykana Gains:
Juvenat, Aesthetics, and Biomancy clinic:
The Sapphire Keep has hired a permanent assignment of Juvenat and Aestheticians from a prestigious clinic named 'Golden Lord Aesthetics'. These specialists work over each arriving Psyker, fixing congenital errors, restoring hair, and making people look profoundly good looking, if somewhat generic.
Astrid's Wyrdvanes have found common interests with 'Golden Lord Aesthetics', and there is some experimentation going on regarding how biomancy can be used in Juvenat treatments.
Astrid's assistance was not needed due to the skill of Nautilus's Juvenat professionals.
Unlocks 'choosing the right appearance' option next turn.
Well that's good, not only our group but Astrid's too, a double win indeed.
All Psykers handled by the Scholam Psykana will gain the trait:
Good looking and healthy:
Every Psyker trained in the Scholam Psykana undergoes significant cosmetic surgeries both biomantic, surgical, and hybrid, resulting in Psykers that look like they could come freshly from the Schola Progenium.
That's probably going to throw some people who expect them to look more...rumpled shall we say?
With the aid of Martha and the Alkata Cartel, ensure that when the Wyrdvanes arrive, the ones assigned to you will be provided with strong meals, exercise plans, and some chemical encouragement, to get them into the peak of physical shape as quickly as possible.
This is a challenging action for you. (+0)
Martha is providing her assistance. (+20)
Your intelligence is 45 + 20 = 65
You rolled 64
Success. No degrees of success.
Well that was close.
With Martha's help as your intermediary with the Alkata Cartel, you being the plan for getting the future recruits into a healthy shape. The meals have to be mass-produced, and so the options are very simple. Carb loads. A variety of flavoured nutrient pastes. Mushrooms. And a little variety in terms of dinner.
The Alkata Cartel sends a large ganger named 'Big Joe', a hulking gene-bulked bruiser with worn Imperial Guard tattoos. He brings with him a lifelong experience with steroid and nutritional supplements to help speed up the recovery of the Psykers.
Going to need plenty of protein too, body tends to fall apart without it. We needs our meat
Well then, we got someone that knows what they're doing, good. And yup, steroids can and often are useful in medical treatment, like all medicines it is when they are abused that it's a problem.
The Lord Prefect examined the proposed program, and telepathically scanned each member of the Cartel sent to aid in training. She does not fully trust them, but agrees to allow your plan to continue. Nevertheless, Astrid was assigned to examine the plan to confirm that it was safe.
It takes some paperwork, but separate facilities for food, training, and sleeping, will be provided for the Psykers assigned to follow your training program.
Costs 3 Influence with the Lord Prefect.
All psykers trained according to your method will be reasonably physically fit.
Glad we got approval and verification that it will work, but shame we didn't get anything more. Still, just it working is reasonable enough for making the psykers more than glass canons
Offer above-board currency in exchange for the identities and locations of Rogue Psykers.
Working with criminals is Challenging (+0).
Martha is a Ratling and your treatment of her provides a good introduction to The Family.(+20)
Rolled 66
Your Fellowship is 45 + 20 = 65
You barely succeed
Costs 2 Lord Prefect Influence
Ooof, another squeak by. Concern levels are rising a bit.
Martha returns from her meeting with the leaders of The Family. The Ratling slowly walks into your office as you're performing some mundane administration, placing a file on your desk.
You raise an eyebrow.
"These are the Rogue psykers, I take it?"
"The Don is still looking. But all he has are some children that have had weird things happening around them.
At least that's something, be good to get to them before they go through something like what the MC did.
"Then they agreed to our offer?"
+That they did.+ The Telepathic voice of the Lord Prefect echoes through your head. The massive cybernetic figure appears in the doorway, passing by Martha and making her way to your desk, each spider step resulting in a loud tap. "Your acquisition of this information is a proactive measure. One you were not required to do."
...are we going to get praised or put in place? Both seem plausible with the low roll we got, but I hope for praise...
The Lord Prefect traces a mechanical hand along the surface of your desk. A layer of hoarfrost appears around the touch as she drags it along the metal.
+Some would consider it dangerously ambitious, and mark you for excruciation.+ She turns her head to face Martha. +Others might consider it worthy of approval.+
"What do you believe, Lord Prefect?" Martha asks, puffing up her chest.
Oh Martha, how adorably out of your depth you are. Still, good to see her so loyal.
The Lord Prefect looks down upon the Ratling. Telekinetic energy manifests over Martha's head and pats her benevolently. Her upper body turns to face you. She takes a small hourglass from the robes around her organic torso with a withered skeletal hand and leans forward, placing it down before you.
+This 'Family' found several young Psykers without fully awakened abilities. Their methods, I will discover in due time.+ She glances at Martha. +Now, tell me, Occam. What would you do with these Psychic?+
Hehe, the pats of approval.
Phew, that's a relief. And hey, more psykers being found is always good.
The Lord Prefect's eyes are upon you.
She will judge you for your proposal.
Perhaps she will decide to do so.
Or she will dismiss it.
You have thirty seconds to decide.
No pressure
What do you actually tell the Lord Prefect:
Hmmm, lotta options but the one that made sense to me is the following.
[][Tell] Telapathica above all:
"Take the Psykers into the Astra Telepathica for awakening. Perform genetic tests of their families and make matches for increased Psychic potential."
Our priority is finding and increasing psykers for the Imperium. And nothing says we can't improve things for the families because they're new psyker bloodlines. But we need to check if the kids are one offs or if they're indicators of a greater source.
You gain the Renown trait
Tolerant:
You are tolerant. Perhaps a bit -too- tolerant towards Abhumans. Some Imperials will worry that this means tolerance towards mutants as well.
2 Iconoclast Renown.
Hmm, hopefully we can alleviate these concerns at least in the case of actual mutants.
Martha gains the talent
Friend to Ratlings:
Martha is not afraid to let people know that you have her back. And you treat her kindly and with respect when she's around you. You treat her as well as a human!
All rolls interacting with Ratlings are rolled with Advantage.
On the other hand, this is definitely worth it, Ratlings are not to be underestimated.
You refuse to believe that you're the first who wishes to create a group of Psyker Shock Troops. Your lack of support from other Prefects is due to your lack of precedence that your plan can work. If you can find examples of a previous attempt to make Psykers like this, it would help undo the fear of 'new' developments.
Improves your influence and standing with fellow Prefects.
Historical research is challenging for you. (+0).
Your Intelligence is 45 = 45
Rolled 52
You had one degree of failure. You failed, but your failure did uncover something.
Oho, did we now? Shame about failing, but at least we did learn something.
he Saphire Keep's newest library is a truly massive structure, and you find visiting it to be enjoyable.
The uppermost level consists of many long meandering rooms built into natural rock structures. Two massive rows of bookshelves face each other, with a ladder mounted on the bookshelf every fifty meters. A set of rails is set into the ceiling, along which move square platforms from which Servitors hang from metal wires.
You spend hours browsing through the shelves, gathering information for your latest investigation. The history of combat Psykers in the Imperium. You have already scoured dozens of books on the subject but are still searching for more information to help you understand the complexities of this power. And unlike the libraries you are used to, they are not heavily redacted or full of blatantly useless information.
With how old the setting is, and how disparate and oftentimes curated the knowledge is...i can't imagine how much a struggle something like this would be without the advantage of it being NOT redacted or filled with...well, let's call it fluff
As you make your way around the library, pulling out volumes that catch your eye and skimming through their contents, examining scrolls, or powering up old data slates, a figure watching you catches your eye.
It looks like a Servitor clad in robes, attached to a large telescoping arm fitted to a moving plate in the ceiling rails. She looks roughly female, and quirks her head at you. The withered face is woven through with complex cybernetics that supplement without replacing all sensory organs. Her eyes are organic, but set behind crystalline lenses full of a liquid that replaced her need to blink. Numerous cables run from her metal skull into the telescoping arm.
Gods, it still horrifies me, the level of crudity that many augments in the setting have. Very well done showing the horror of it.
"Can I assist you, Prefect?" A mechanical voice asks. "You appear to be searching for information."
You blink. Not a Servitor, then.
"I apologize. I thought you a Servitor." You incline your head in apology.
The Servitor makes a noise akin to choking and a broken vox. It takes a moment to realize that she is laughing.
"You are not the first to make that remark. I find it aids me in my duties, few pay attention to me."
"Then I thank you for revealing yourself to me, miss…?"
....ho BOY, all that and she isn't a servitor. That is...gods I can't imagine living like that. At least she's...taking it well?
She demurely waves you off with a hand consisting of extendable mechanical fingers and integrated quills. "Oh. I have forgotten. I believe it is marked somewhere in the archive. Call me Trina."
You glance at a serial number fitted on the arm that she is mounted on. The first digits are '3-N-A'
Wow, to last so long you forget your own name...Yeah i'll be getting to sleep fine, nope, no memories of my grandmother descending into dementia for me hehe...i need cat pictures.
"A pleasure to meet you, Trina. Could you guide me to the historical records? Astra Telepathica combat equipment. Historical examples of groups that do not fit with the regular pattern of Wyrdvanes."
Trina tenses up on her steel wiring, shuddering for a few seconds, before turning and aiming a finger tipped with a quill at a bookshelf. "You will find the information you seek there."
Very helpful she is at least
shame our roll wasn't better but at least we found someone to help in the future.
"You must be connected to the sole computer network of the Keep."
"The largest. I have maintained it since my installation in this Keep during its founding in.— Oh. It appears we forgot when this keep was founded." She inclines her head. "Apologies, Prefect. Will that be all you seek?"
Ah, we call them computers here, aren't we fanceh and old tech
..."We forgot"? that feels rather telling....
You consider the question. "Force-Weaponry, and Psykana applied to firearms and weapons."
She again tenses up, this time taking longer to go through her datastacks. You hear a fan turn on somewhere as a hidden cogitator heats from the request.
"No digital copy exists, and my datastacks report the absence of mentions on this subject. But I will despatch servo-skulls to search in the deep archives."
Hmm, looks like someone either wiped it or hoarded it for themselves.
"Is that not contested? I heard scuttlebutt about the Scribe Clan fighting over it?"
"Oh no. That is the -Old- Library. The one that was here before we the Sapphire Keep was established. Oh, what I wouldn't give to finally catalogue that place. Alas, I heard that the Incinerator Clan tore down the rails I might use to transport myself there, over a millenia ago, when they learned to melt steel." She shakes her head. "Not that I'd go there. The tribes down there are quite feral."
Hmm, maybe the we represents her and the computer system?
ah, a libarary settled by ferals...yeah i'd go for it. for the stories!
You walk back slightly to look down at the lower levels of the library. You can't even see the bottom. And this isn't the original one that the Keep came with? The scale of the Keep is impressive. "I will find a place to sit and study."
"I'll return if I can find anything, Prefect."
"Return anyways. You are agreeable to converse with."
She pauses, confused by your words. "I would like that. It has been some time since She left me here. Like a book on a shelf."
"She?" You raise an eyebrow.
"The Lord Prefect. This existence is my punishment for…" She tenses up. "I can not elaborate."
...Not that she doesn't know or remember, she's hardlocked into not being allowed to elaborate. Concern levels continue to rise...
The historical findings are… surprisingly lacking.
While there is a history on the Astra Telepathica and the Scholam Psykana's, it is heavily focused upon Astropaths, with only small references to the actions of Wyrdvane and Primaris Psykers.
The dataslates are especially sparse, with short descriptors, curt stories of Sanctioned Psykers, and only the most generic of portrayals.
Definitely leaning towards someone already went through and grabbed what we were looking for.
There are few mentions, if any, about commercial Psykers as far as you can read, which confuses you. Commercial Telepaths and Diviners are relatively common. So why are there barely any mentions in the history books?
Whomever has composed the archives must either really like Astropaths, or not be interested in the stories of other Psykers. Then again, you could expect that from a Keep that was mainly set up as an astropathic choir. All the books have been written with a psi-sensitive ink to let Astropaths read them more easily.
Plenty of stories of Wyrdvanes and Primaris Psykers using their powers, but scarce few of them with firearms.
Eeeh, this feels more like someone left enough that it would *look* like this is astropath prioritizing library, it's been too thorough in removal of anything else.
A Servitor pushing a cart containing scrolls, data slates and battery cells approaches the reading alcove you're using. You sit up, slightly more interested in the findings of the Trina.
A cleaning Servitor you'd ignored until now twitches audibly. It is a four-wheeled variant with a torso in the front that can turn to face a small flat bed filled with cleaning equipment. You can see short blurts of mental activity in its head.
Oh...well that's not good.
Thoughts.
Emperor have mercy. An improper mind wipe. You feel the cold hand of dread slowly moving down your spine.
Reacting on horrified impulse, you reach out with your mind and take hold of the thoughts, tracing them to the Servitor's repurposed brain. With a force of Psionic power, you obliterate the mind utterly.
The Servitor slumps forward, lifeless.
All you can do, grant mercy *finally* at last.
You will send a scathing report to the Magos in charge of the Keep for the employment of an improperly mind-wiped Servitor. You control your heartbeat, recomposing yourself. An un-wiped Servitor is a horrible thing, a dangerous thing, even banned in most Imperial Sectors you've been in.
Trina approaches at high speed, her ceiling-mounted frame moving rapidly, the telescoping arm she's on at peak extension in the direction she's travelling. She stops inches from the Servitor, the frame needing a few seconds to catch up with her. She examines the Servitor and then looks at you. "What happened, Prefect? Why did you damage one of my Servitors?" Her mechanical voice manages to sound upset.
Yuup, that way lies possession and worst. You do NOT leave the squigglies of the warp a backdoor like that.
"It was improperly mind-wiped." You say, shrugging off the touch of the servitor's cold and empty mind. The wiped servitor spasms intermittently. You examine it more closely, eyeing over the cleansing supplies it carried. The Sapphire Keep is remarkably clean, even by the standards of the Astra Telepathica. You nod in approval.
You smell something. A scent that is distantly familiar to you, but you can't quite put a finger on it.
...concern levels remain rising and the rising increases. The twitching is not good at all imo.
The scent being familiar...i hope this isn't a relative.
"What?" The remains of Trina's eyelids tense wide behind gel-filled lenses, distracting you for a moment. "How sloppy. Typical of the Admech. An improperly wiped Servitor. I bet this does not happen to the ones they provide to the Administratum!" She tuts and moves in on the Cleaning Servitor. She extends a finger that folds out into a dataslug. She inserts it into a port in the servitor's head. "I'll trigger an automatic return protocol."
You barely notice her. The scent is bringing back strong memories. Memories from before you became a Psyker. You furrow your brow as you search through your memory palace.
Heh, the books are always neat in the other shelf I suppose.
The scent brings back a memory of…
It takes you a precious few seconds to find the memory.
Your uncle returning from a night with his friends, nearly blackout drunk on rotgut made from... paint thinner?
The Servitor reactivates with a jolt.
It smirks at you.
You reach for your power.
The Servitor's cargo explodes, flames washing over you and through the room. Everything goes black.
I KNEW IT! Badness has happened! Smile bad, kaboom worse!
Your Wyrdvanes will not all be able to rely on their psychic powers for the duration of battles. Instead, they are likely to need firearms. Research into the ways Psykers have historically used firearms in their training.
Discover which type of firearm is historically the best for each type of Psyker..
100
Automatic Critical Fail.
The Sapphire Keep Library has been hit by an improvised firebomb, destroying the records recovered for you.
Weeeel furk. so much for that avenue, this is very, very bad. But imo this also confirms that someone took the records and set up this trap for anyone that came looking.
