I was (re-)reading DW-14: Ark of Lost Souls as part of overall preparation for my Deathwatch campaign, seeing if I would need to prelude or tie-in anything beforehand.
Watch Captain Esteban de Dominova is a supporting character in the book Adventures of DW-10: Rising Tempest and DW-14: Ark of Lost Souls .
Off-handedly, I was thinking of making Captain de Dominova the Kill Team's primary Watch Captain (until one of them rises to the Advanced Speciality themselves), though they could be interchanged with other Watch Captains as the campaign progresses.
Where-upon it occurred to me, a major flaw with Captain de Dominova...
Captain de Dominova is a Crimson Fists Apothecary, risen to Watch Captain among the Jericho Deathwatch. Captain de Dominova's supporting role in DW-14: Ark of Lost Souls is that he is critically wounded when the Kill Team's starship crash lands onto the Mortis Thule, and Captain de Dominova falls into a Sus-an Membrane induced coma.
Unfortunately... (excerpted from DW-12: Honour the Chapter , pg. 61; also covered in DW-04: Rites of Battle )
QuoteCRIMSON FIST CHARACTERS
The Crimson Fists are a Second Founding Chapter with a glorious history which has accrued much honour for themselves and their founding Chapter the Imperial Fists. Stubborn and valourous, the Crimson Fists are noted for their many campaigns against the Ork menace and have earned a bloody reputation on both sides of such conflicts for their ability to deal with greenskins.
A Crimson Fists Space Marine gains the following benefits: +10 Willpower, the Hunter of Aliens Talent (this only applies to Orks unless the Battle-Brother acquires the full talent as an advance), and the Solo Mode Ability Ork Slayer.
Implants: Like their Imperial Fists progenitors the Imperial Fists do not gain any benefits from their Betcher’s gland and Sus-an membrane implant .
This (non-functional Sus-an Membrane) is also backed-up by the WH40K canon wikias.
Now, I am aware that WH40K often contradicts itself (both in lore and in gaming-rules), but this was careless (if not just plain sloppy).
So, as Game Master, I am faced with two storytelling routes:
A. The simplest route would be to change Captain de Dominova's Chapter-origin, probably to that of Ultramarines.
B. The more complex route would be to have Captain de Dominova still rendered critically wounded, but with Apothecary talents' Autosanguine & Prosanguine to keep him (comatose) alive. This is in-tandem with the Kill Team's Apothecary's efforts to keep him stabilized.
Edited by pendrake71