I know a Narthecium has something to do with the Medicae skill, page 83, but what is it and what does it do? I have not seen it listed in equipment either.
What is a Narthecium?
the Narthecium is a tool used by the Space Marine Apothecary.
If I recall correctly, the Apothecary uses it to extract the Genetic code or "Gene-seed" from a chapters fallen marines. This allows them to make more marines for their chapter and to prevent enemies from getting their hands on it. in some stories Chaos Marines would try and raid loyal marines Gene-seed vaults in attempts to weaken the chapter and give the Chaos marines new Genetic material to mutate for their own fiendish purposes. A chapter without its Gene-seed will die a slow death so they take any and all means to protect it.
In other words, it's a high-tech apple-corer.
Destro said:
the Narthecium is a tool used by the Space Marine Apothecary.
It's also been used as a generic 40K term for a med-kit (3rd and 4th ed Codex: Imperial Guard).
There is a reference in RT to it being used in the administration of drugs/meds, so it's a bit more than just an apple-corer.
Yep, its essentially a grimdark 'Star Trek style medical tricorder - *** - first aid kit' in 40K. Very useful!
So is it the same medikit found on page 142?
is an forearm attachement including medical tools (scalpel, injector, scanner...) the space marine use it to make medical treatement, recover gene seed, test potential candidate dna to look on there compatibility vs the gene-seed of the chapter.
BTW, the gene-seed harvesting attachment is the Reductor.
Narthecium : a Space Marine Apothecary's version of a medical kit. It contains various anti-venoms, stimulants and healing agents to treat a marine and get them back into the battle as quickly as possible. Associated with the narthecium is the reductor , which is used in the recovery of the Progenoid organs; or Gene-seed , of a fallen marine.
The Narthecium is the "Bones McCoy" of 40K. The Reductor is the "apple-corer." In the case of a SM Apopthecary, both are typically built into an arm mount on their power armor, and tied into its systems.
Addendum : Of course, others beat me to the posting...
-=Brother Praetus=-
Brother Praetus said:
In the case of a SM Apopthecary, both are typically built into an arm mount on their power armor, and tied into its systems.
Quite simply: an inverted power fist.
(by "inverted" I mean that instead of turning things to a bloody pulp you can heal people instead)