***This more than likely contains a spoiler for PtU***

Hey folks, two things really;

First, during Shades on Twilight one of my PCs managed to get a hold of the ‘Warp Whistle’ without alerting the Brother-Sergeant or anybody else in the group. What I was wondering was what the game mechanics for this item should be, what I’ve thought so far is: Full Action to use, and the user takes 1 permanent point of Toughness damage, gains 1 corruption. After 1d10 rounds the summoned Warp Beast comes into view, attacking everything in its path as it makes its was towards the user… Erm, yeah.. So how far off the mark am I compared to what you'd do?

Second, my Acolytes have managed to acquire a rather beaten up Guncutter. One of the group is a Tech Priest, and asked about going to the Adeptus Mechanicus about getting it back in working order. I was going to run a side mission based on them doing a favour for the AdMechs in return for the repairs, but I’m fresh out of good/interesting ideas for what the Mechanicus would want doing, especially when outsiders are concerned; So if any of you guys have any ideas on what sort of tasks the Mechanicus would ask them to do that would be awesome

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

Is that toughness and corruption each time it's used? I still don't understand why the toughness damage. If memory serves, it makes your ears bleed, but so does being too close to a flashbang or any other large explosion, and aside from long term hearing damage, you can recover fine from that.

I'd give moderate deafness to you instead for a week or two until the damage healed. Maybe impose a 1 degree of difficulty penalty on agility/finesse or something like that for a while too.

Seems less brutal in the long run, but far more painful in the short term. The corruption I have no problem with. Hell I'd even give them limited control over the warp beasts in exchange for more corruption.

But the guncutter... hmmm... Two minds of this. One, the cutter gets a "patchwork" job. The tools to rebuild the thing have been lost to the ages, or it would simply take too long or too much money to get it running shipshape again, and everything that has been done has been essentially pulled out of one's posterior. It requires a full time MA to keep it running, and is seen now as a post for a young, promising tech priest NPC, who needs to "put in his time" in the real world. Of course, that means that this tech priest gets a share of the loot from the players' party, including picks and pecks and possibly even first pick of any interesting tech, including potential heretek.

Second idea is to put the cutter's repair at the ass-end of a waiting list that could probably span the Calixis sector a few times, and leave the person in charge of scheduling with his hand out and his throat cleared waiting for a "gratuity" to help underscore the severity of the repairs needed and the time frame that it's needed in. The other option is a MA that lives out in the middle of nowhere, that is not really talked about much, who has acquired an interest in certain... questionable technology. His army of servitors could probalby get the heap flying again easily, but while they're waiting they *could* do him a favor by going back to an Adeptus Mechanicus stronghold and retrieving some of his "study materials" that were deemed too questionable. A preposterous suggestion, as the Tech Priest assures the PCs that the machinery was "completely unstudied aside from verification that it was quite inert and unpowered. Besides, if it *was* heretical, it would have been destroyed immediately, meaning the Mechanicus clearly wish to impead my work for their own means. That was the final blow in our... 'schism'... which left me out here in the hinterlands..."

So the players have the option of ten or twenty thousand thrones to get the wheels lubed, or can go to the nearest forge planet/MA stronghold to retrieve... something... Perhaps if they opt for the latter they can make a lucrative business under the table of obtaining "rare antiquities" for the Tech priest and his very small circle of collectors. The Inquisitor might not ever find out even!

Warp whistle: I'd rule this one of two ways, depending on how you want to be:

1) You blow it, ears bleed, it summons any warp beasts in the area. If there are no warp beasts in the area, nothing happens (aside from the aforementioned ear bleed).

2) You blow it, ears bleed, you gain corruption, and a warp beast comes by in due course. Uncontrolled.

I'd go with the first one in my campaign. My opinion is that it's just a signalling device, nothing more; the equivalent of saying "here, boy"; if the beast can hear it, it'll come, if it can't, it won't. It doesn't give any magical summoning or controlling powers.

Either way, the thing's heretical to have, natch.

As for the guncutter, it seems like a great idea for bringing in an Arch Magos who's in (bad place) and needs (shadowy help) or (illegal thing). Ideally, something they can do, but something they think they probably shouldn't do...recovering xenos artifacts, tracking down and delivering a rogue AI android unharmed to the magos, things like that.

I don't recall there being any ear bleeding, infact I think it might have been slient. Ketserar's mouth did begin bleeding after he used it though.. I thought that might have been a sign of some of his 'life' being taken away in exchange for the summoning... I don't have a clue what I was thinking then...

TheFlatline said:

More Corruption for limited control, now I do like that idea, thanks

TheFlatline said:

Now why didn't I think of something like this, I'm such a fool... I can picture it now, after being turned away by the AdMechs proper for not being top amoung their list of priorities, said a mysterious Magos could approach them about 'fixing-up' the cutter in return for X, Y and Z... Brilliant ideas, thanks