Hand 13's page

Hand seeing his master prepare himself with his Navigator's Coat, took his place to escort Lion to the bridge.

Hand made sure his weapons were loaded and prepared.

While it was unlikely that Lion would meet any enemies on the way to the bridge, it was thinking that there was no danger that could cost Hand his principle.

An Oath-sworn never took the lack of danger as meaning the same as no danger.

Hand stiffened at the knock. His senses went up and he buckled on his weapons as he checked the door.

Intruders bent on murder did not often knock but there were people that used a knock to draw their prey close to a door before firing into the door and the walls to either side of the door.

It was a sad fact that while many doors were armoured, the walls beside them were often quite porous to weapon fire. People also instinctively hid to either side of their armoured doors when threatened making them easy prey to the experienced gunslinger.

Hand checks the door and sees that it is the Void Master Soeul, a person that has the almost exclusive right to go anywhere on his ship. Void Master Soeul could even enter the quarters of the Rogue Trader if the Void Master felt the ship was in peril and access to the quarters was a requirement. A Void Master that did such without good reason would soon find themselves assigned to a new vessel or left beached.

Knocking was strictly a courtesy.

Hand opened the door and escorted Void Master Soeul to where Lion was finishing his 'fortification meal' while making notes on data slates to send as messages to the choir.

With Lion safe in his quarters, Hand strips off his soiled Void suit and steps in the refresher.

A while later he realizes that he is sitting on the edge of his bed loading and unloading his Autoloader.

He isn't sure how long he's been doing it or how he got from the refresher to his bed.

Hand takes advantage of the retreating Mutants to go for an all-out attack on the huge mutant. Hand's principle was safe; so, now was the time to return some of the hurt that had been done to him.

Hand steps forward to the side of the hulking mutant.

He knew there was no way that he could take the brute on singly and he didn't have the blessed marvels of his betters to aid him in such an unequal contest.

He did have a shock glove and his presence could help harass the brute and give an opening for either of Trader's protectors to deliver a devastating blow.

Hand has been trained to fight beside his principle with his weirding ways. He keeps his eyes focused away from Lion and on the Mutants that swarm ahead of him.

Minerva and Hand have passed; so, Thale gets the re-roll if needed.

Hand, freed of the tangle of multiple opponents, now focuses on the one mutant that has refused to leave him alone.

His shock glove crackles with energy as it prepares to get a blessing in the fires of battle.

The mutant is a more agile target then Hand expected and dodges the punch.

Hand stares into the face of the largest monsters that he could imagine.

Even through the Void Suit, he is sure he can smell the twisted corruption coming off the creature through the pea green haze of his Void Suits vision.

It is death that has come for him with the huge hammer to ring the bell of destruction.

Hand sees Death.

And Death blinks.

Faith in the Emperor be praised.

All around Hand there were mutant scum. If that weren't bad then there were half a dozen people with pistols take pot shots at him. If that weren't bad then there were more mutants running towards him. If that weren't bad then there was gorrum huge mutant in the centre of this fresh lot.

Hand didn't have many choices.

He could try to fight but so heavily out numbered he'd be lucky to even take one of the boggers with him.

He could attempt to get back behind the barrier. That would bring the whole wall of the scum down on top of his principle and leave the RT stranded with no one near by to help him.

Last, he could do as he was taught to do. Hang tough and trust his armour.

It was a lousy choice whatever he did but at least if he hung tuff then he might keep a few of the boggers occupied long enough that someone could get them out of this mess.

Hand recovers from the vomiting as he feels himself being attacked and dragged into the darkness.

His life hanging by a thread; so, he attempts to break free

Hand is dragged off by the mutants while he feels the pounding of their clubs on his body. He is jarred out of his vomited revulsion.

'Get it off me! Get it off me!'

Hand see pure corruption and he begins to heave uncontrolably in his vac suit. The front of his Vac Suit visor disappears in a yellowy green bile as he doubles over unable to do anything.

Hand falls for a common problem of combat. He becomes locked on the threat he can see rather than the threat that he can't see.

The mutants closest to the barrier in front of him have been bathed in cleansing fire and he can see no other mutants in front of him.

The extremely large and hideous abomination looms large in his sights and he just raises his fire to continue to spray it at the mutants to drive them back.

The shots streak towards the mutant scum and catches one in the chest.

With the last of bullets firing from the autopistol the chamber finally slams down on an empty clip.

Hand is glad that he has his shock glove and laser should he need it before he has time to reload.

Hand seeing the Mutants charge forward, lowers his aim to start to skip the bullets just in front of their feet to try and break up their charge.

The mutants charge heedless of the warning and find two of their number with fresh holes in their skulls.

Lion opens up with his Autopistol firing it on full auto to spray into the front ranks.

A small block of four of the hive scum feel the Emperor's Wrath as Lion walks the fire from body to body with the manstopper rounds finishing with a shot to the head on the last of the scum.

Hand is first into the Life Support Room and takes the full brunt of what he sees.

He has trained to react to problems in an instant and to not let the sight of an allies head being lobotomized by a bolter shell affect him. All that preparation and training and Hand still doesn't recall how the autopistol got out of his holster and into his hand.

All he knows is that the sight of the oozing form and him waking up having emptied over half a clip into the disgusting thing. What happened in-between? He doesn't know.

Hand continues to scout ahead using his photo contacts to scout each corner and look for routes to move the principles away from the following fiends.

The doors were set with standard locking mechanisms and Hand easily opened them allowing the group to move through the subsidiary maintenance tunnels and avoid the main tunnels where the corpses hung from beams like some monstrous meat locker.

The path was clearer this way and there was less chance of something ambushing them along the path.

Hand hated the sense that there were people or mutants lurking around every corner.

It was exactly the danger that his training had told him to avoid exposing his principle to but he had little choice. The Rogue Trader himself was present along with his Arch-Militant and Missionary. Already the Missionary was calling for holy war.

Hand was as religious as the next citizen of the Imperium and made sure to keep his prayer card up to date and carry a thrice blessed charm said to have been carried by an Adepta Sororitas on a Crusade to cleanse a hive world of Orks.

At least that was the tale the charm seller had told him on the steps of the temple and it would be a foolish man to make such a claim and have it not be true. It wasn't like the fake charms said to have come from some bit of broken piece taken off the throne of God-Emperor. Everyone knew that if you gathered up all the metal with that supposed claim you could likely rebuild half the Imperial Fleet.

Despite his faith and the charm, Hand knew that Holy Wars were won with the spilling of Holy Blood. Hand had many desires to complete in life without being in any rush to do that in the name of the God-Emperor.

Personal desires had little to do with the situation. Hand's Principal had to be here and Hand had to do everything possible to keep the mutants from making Lion end up like some of the deck offal that he was stepping through.

Hand moves first off the small fliers as he is the lowest rank person of this crew of officers. The record will record that the Rogue Trader was first to land but Hand knows that it his sworn duty to take the bullet for others.

He regretted only having a void suit to cover his Flak armour instead of his normal heavy chest carapace. It made him feel more vulnerable and given what he saw when he landed he felt as if he was going to need every inch of armour that he could scrap together.

His photo contacts compensated for the low light vision as the red dot of his Autopistol loaded with Manstopper rounds swept over the wreckage. He hustled out ten yards in a crouch and then hunkered down behind some wreckage.

His left hand was slightly heavy with the Shock Glove he wore on it. The book recommended only wearing the Glove when danger was imminent because it had a bad habit of fatiguing the fingers and leading to muscle spasms. The book could be melted down in the divine forges of Mars for all he cared. If this wasn't imminent danger than he didn't know what was.

Many soldiers liked getting posed for statues holding a gun in one hand but Hand was all professional. His left hand steadied the Autopistol in a stable two hand grip.

He swept the area with his night sight enhanced senses looking for trouble.

Hand dropped a small pouch on the desk.

Lion looked at Hand but he remained silent. He rarely spoke more than a dozen words in a day.

His physical actions spoke volumes.

Lion opened the pouch and found several charms in the pouch.

Charms were to be expected as they were the only way to protect a soul when traveling the rigors of the warp. Instinctively Lion fingered his own charm that hung around his neck.

The charm was a bolter casing recovered from earth and filled with holy scrip. The shell had been kept in the presence of the God-Emperor and prayed over for one hundred days before being carried on a pilgrimage through the Imperium to the resting place of each of the known Primarchs.

It was said that there was no where in the Imperium or beyond that the shell having been exposed to the holy aura of the God-Emperor could not find it's way back to him.

The charms in the pouch were different.

Smerg any chance you can make an alias for the Demetrius Dervish? I think its best if the alias isn't in the hands of the GM :P.

So i'm waiting to inspect the aliases for the RT and Void Master I think.

Is it alright to use this Alias for the Oathsworn Bodyguard?

I used it in a Dark Heresy game that I used to play in.

This would make an interesting seed for a Hersey investigation or back-story.

Cob Hermitage

What next?

'Where do we find the latest murders? Let's go.'

'I promise to make sure that Eighty-Eight doesn't suffer. His blood would go to serve the Emperor.'

'Then I will wait. Where do we go from here six?'

'Eighty-eight's blood appears to be weak. Should he be purified if he arrives?'

Hand finds the crowd infringing on his personal space.

But he is able to negotiate his way onto the train.

Hand follows along with the others not understanding why most of the citizens try to keep a fair distance from him as he walks along.

Maybe they see the symbol of purity on my arm and recognize that I am blessed by the protection of the Emperor. The others may think this life is normal and regular but it is only because they have not lived in a heaven blessed by the Emperor's words.

It would be cruel to let them know how far they live from the light of true peace and contentment. Heaven is for the angels.

Hand tries to interact with the citizens.

Hand understood the concept of travel and knew that he had left his home. It was the duty of the Hand to serve the will of the Emperor. The Hand helped keep the blood purged of weakness.

Hand took in the name, Manufactorium. It was truly a terrible and depressing hell to be banished to. He silently prayed the Emperor would quickly cleanse this stain from the great Imperium.

'Manufactorium. I will remember to send people that I don't like to this hell.'

Hand reacts to the bitter tang of humanity and industrialization. If this was civilization then he wanted no part of it. He began to wonder how he would survive forty years if he had to breath this fetid sludge.

Hand reached into his equipment harness and pulled out a set of filters for himself and inserted them to keep his lungs clear of the poisons in the air.

Hand then inserted a micro bead into his ear after checking that it was turned on.

He then turned to 'Eighty-Eight' and asked.

'Which of the thousand hells are we in?'

Hand couldn't imagine that this place was real place where people lived. It must be a punishment for people that had offended the Emperor. Truly, the Emperor was kind to not send the Deathwatch to have this place cleansed completely when it so clearly needed it.

'Where do we go now?'

Hand reached to his right bicep where his Imperial Charm dug into his flesh. He gave it a bit of a squeeze to make sure the blood would cleanse the taint he felt in the ghost's passing.

He prayed under his breath that the murderous ghost would move on and leave them alone without hunting their own flesh.

'If you know the location of the deaders, tell us that we may serve the Emperor's Will.'

Hand wasn't sure of what Fifty-Seven was speaking. How could someone be in front of you and not be there. It made no sense. Not unless this figure was some ghost that called for blood from the grave. The priests had warned of this if the rituals were not followed when the blood was purged of weakness.

Hand nodded slightly at the stranger, no, Arch Stanton's words.

hmm...a pack he thought or a team. There would still be a dominant or head. Cut the head and the blood spilled from the rest of the body till the whole thing died.

'You may call me Twenty-three.'

Hand calmly looked over the person. There presence was a bit strange but not totally unexpected. The governor had often provided him with a guide to make sure that Hand didn't get lost in the strange corridors and buildings of the hive.

The target of the ambush would stop and study the tracks giving time for the ambusher to aim and attack instead of trying to hit a moving target. It also made camoflage work better as people focused on what they could already see and miss details that were only a few feet away.

I have so far never had a problem with showing dice rolls. The other option is to keep that sort of stuff contained in a spoiler. The dice roller still works when it is inside of a spoiler.

Personally, it has never bothered me as long as it is usually marked with a bit of ooc text to let me know that is a dice roll and what the dice roll is for.

Brief Retcon to answer Atella question on why the number 57.

'I knew a Fifty-seven. She died well.'

Back to down on the planet.

Hand follows the others as they board the shuttle to planet and gets off of the shuttle with the rest.

Awareness Per 28 trained skill 1d100 ⇒ 9

Scrutiny Per 14 because not trained Basic skill 1d100 ⇒ 98

Tocal, if I have read the rules correctly, you add the modifer to your attribute to get the level of your skill. Your roll is then compared to the level of your skill to determine the degree of success or failure. The GM can also give a modifier based upon the ease or difficulty of the task. Routine Tasks are +10 and Difficult Tasks are -10. Pg 185 has the table.

So on the Awareness without any modifier for difficulty, Hand made the roll one degree of success (one full 10 better than the 28 of his skill). Convesely, Hand failed the Scrutiny by 8 degrees (he is very clueless on that Scrutiny).

'Fifty-Seven. It is a good number. It won't call attention.'

Hand looks at Augustus and decides, 'Eighty-Eight. A popular name that is very lucky. You look like you will need all the luck you can get. I knew several that killed each other for possession of such a lucky name.'

Hand looks then at Tocal, 'I would suggest Six for you. Four would be a better number as Four is a number feared but you don't want to draw attention. Six is good?'

Last, Hand decided they should give a number to the Inquisitor. 'We should also have a name for the Inquisitor if we are not to talk of her. I would suggest Two. It is an easy number to remember but won't call attention to it like One would.'

Hand wondered at this talk. It was like he didn't fit in. He fit in perfectly at the temple.

Though the man, Augustus, was clearly confused. He thought that names and numbers were clearly separate ideas. Maybe, since he was some sort of priest that instructed in rituals, he was testing Hand. The priests were constantly testing the faithful.

'I was raised at the temple.'

'Names are numbers.'

Hmm...Let's see with a Fel of 25 and Primitive that gives me a Fel of 15 when working in urban enviroments. Yup, I know to avoid calling attention to myself. ;>

Hand listened to the instructions. They were to blend in with the other people of society and find the murderer. A person that didn't do the proper rituals to offer blood in the Emperor's name.

Certainly, people would notice her unusual choice of name as it was not like the others. Hand decided it was his job as being more experienced in this sort of thing to show how a person chose a name that matched the pattern of others.

Hand removed his mask and stored it with his equipment harness. His features were of a Caucasian man with smooth skin that was not out of his late teens. Hand then removed the braiding that had kept his hair tied back revealing that it was longer down his back then his shoulder blades.

His smooth looks and strong physique would normally have called attention to him in most bars or schools. His features, though, were the features of a statue. They were locked with no emotion. No animation of the soul.

'Call me Twenty-Three,' he said.

It was a good number that didn't have anything remarkable to call attention to it. It would blend in with all the other numbers.

I have a character in another game and that has been happening alot too. It really is hard to look kwel with your character and then have them roll poorly. :<

Hand 13 wrote:

The planet that we are going out into the field.

What are some details like law level for owning weapons? What kind of weapons and armour do people carry normally?

Does are brief include cover identities and what kind of police powers we might have? Are there any rules like Miranda rights, illegal search laws, or other things that we need to be aware of?

Roll Common Lore Imperium and we shall see.

Common Lore is an Advanced Skill that Hand does not possess. As an advanced skill, there is no chance of success without the skill.

So, there is no way for me to know.

The planet that we are going out into the field.

What are some details like law level for owning weapons? What kind of weapons and armour do people carry normally?

Does are brief include cover identities and what kind of police powers we might have? Are there any rules like Miranda rights, illegal search laws, or other things that we need to be aware of?

Sorry, this is my first time playing Dark Heresy as a player. I've played quite a bit of 40k over the years and am familiar with things on the battlefield and have gone through the first few chapters of the rule book for how to make a character, equipment, and combat. I just thought that I would leave the information on what worlds are like up to the GM.

Oh, I noticed this blog post of a group doing Rogue Trader.

Rogue Trader Blog

Atella takes up a copy of the imperial guardsmans uplifting primer and places the pamphlet within it. The small book shows large blackened stains on it and the cover is torn. It seems to be fairly new other than that though. She then proceeds to return it to her pocket.

"Umm... do you need to do that thing with the spiked chain often? Is that.. eh.. Why -do- you do that?"

Penance.

Atella then points at Hands injured arm. "Do you want me to help you with that though? I am a -very- competent medicae."
She continues probingly, almost sounding preppy "You can't have an injured arm if you are to slay enemies? Right?"

"I have a few incantations and prayers to recite while using and modifying your ranged weapons too. When we get time to sit down I can teach you them if you want." She taps the book through the fabric of the robe.

'No. This will purify me.'

I'm not sure if you have seen the movie, 'The Da Vinci Code' or read the book but I figure Hand's Imperial Charm is a variation on the item the albino Sibilas of Opus Dei, uses to discipline himself.

Hand first hears words that he expects from Tocal. Hand is given a job, a purpose. Find a way in. Get close to the deader. Hear the deader breath. Take the deader's breath. Purge the wound.

'I obey.'

Hand wonders at Tocals strange request to not do self injury. Of course he wouldn't self injure himself. Only a fool would stick a knife in them without being ordered. Penance wasn't self injury. It was purification of the soul.

It was clear that Atella was as confused as he was on this matter. She showed wisdom in wanting to consult a priest. Augustus seemed more certain of things though he talked of such non-sense like machines having spirits.

Still, this Augustus understood rituals needed to be done for weapons. This was good. Hand didn't bother with guns but if he ever was given one he should do the correct rituals to keep it happy. An angry weapon could poison your dreams and leave you weak in the morning. Weakness was purged.

'Yes, teach me these rituals; so, I do not offend the spirits of the weapons.'