ok so like it says i'm new to the game, me and my fellow acolytes have started our careers, and we are all mid way through our third level,

in our latest round of play our resident psyker rolled a nine on an attack, and then a 75 (as i recall , regardless a daemonhost was before us now) it was unlike anything we had ever seen,

when we went to make our daemonhost we noticed it got fear 4, we looked it up and the reference gives us the example of "the king in rags and tatters" for a fear 4 creature. this had us scratching our heads. i'm pretty well versed in 40k mythos and lore but it's something i'd never heard of, which doesn't surprise me since there is a lot in dark heresy that isn't. i asked my fellows, and they didn't know, though our GM keeps coming up with the conclusion that it is a visage of the Emperor of some kind

i couldn't find it in the core book, and am currently reading though the anathema to see if it is in there, in fact the only thing i could find so far that has fear 4 is the daemonhost

so anyone have anything on this? is "the king in rags and tatters" a horrible vision of the god emperor, some beast somewhere that i missed or have yet to find, is it a referance to "the king in yellow" aka the avatar of hastur from the lovecraft mythos

also any tips to playing a cleric would be great

in his holy light

-cleric cromwell

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
...In Carcosa

Strange is the night where black stars rise
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
...Lost Carcosa

Songs that the haydes shall sing
Where flap the tatters of the King
Must die unheard in
...Dim Carcosa

Song of my soul, my voice is dead
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
...Lost Carcosa

-Cassilda's Song from "The King in Yellow" act I, scene 2 by Robert W. Chambers

Can't help with the "King in Rags and Tatters", but I have been playing a cleric for about a year. We're into rank 5 now in our group.

I'd say, you need to pick a focus. You can head down the path of the fire and brimstone or go more towards the "Faceman" leader of the group.

I've suffered a bit since I tried to make myself good at both. By rank 5 you are a fair combatant. While not as good as a guardsman or assassin, you can hold your own. I recommend taking as many Sound Constitution increases as possibly allowed. You will get into combat and it is deadly. That's sound advice for everyone really.

Clerics excel at being the social character, the persuader and sometimes the leader in the group. Focus on getting your social skills and attributes up to snuff. Increase Intelligence and Fellowship since that is what most of your skills are based off of. Increase skill proficiencies as soon as possible. +10s and +20s make a difference on your rolls. I tended to wait a bit too long on this and my group paid early and often for my lack of social skills. Now, we acquit ourselves quite well in social settings (except maybe our guardsman.)

Since you are not a GREAT combatant, but instead a fair one, I recommend taking Basic and Pistol training (LAS) ss early as you can and sticking to that category. HellGuns and Hellpistols are your best friends once you can afford them prior to that, las weapons don't do tons of damage, but they are reliable. Don't waste time learning to use every gun in the game system. It's not useful for you. Specialize. For example, I took the Basic Weapon Training (Shock) early on and realized fairly quickly that It was a waste. The ability rarely worked. You may want to stay with primitive weapons in melee until you get a Basic Weapon Training (Chain)... Take this training! The ability to use the Tearing ability in combat is worth buying a chainsword alone for.... Plus, it's really cool. A flamer can come in handy later too, but it's not necessary.

Try to focus on what direction you want to head early and build with that in mind.

As for RP. Your class lends itself to being the leader of your team. You bring the righteous wrath of the emperor with you! Lead by example and others will follow. Strategically using the following skills will help cement you as default social situation leader.

Deceive, Charm, Scrutiny, Inquiry and Common Lore skills will do well.

As Graver pointed out, the King in Tats and Raggers (haha) is an entity that refers to the Chambers book. The Warhammer 40,000 is full of references like this, it has broadly 'borrowed' from for example Lovecraft's Chtulhu mythos. Also, never assume that there is something behind a name dropped like the King, it is most often purposefully left a mystery who or what such a thing is ... and that's pretty scary with a name like that, uh?

In Disciples of the Dark gods there is this Tzeentchian revelrie thing, some kind of danse macabre,a menagerie-carnival thing of Chaos, and on p155 there is mentioned the King of Rags and Tatters as being behind it, hell, it even has a very disturbing picture.

Additionally, I you have a focus or path you'd like some advice on that's different from my way, I'd be happy to offer advice on that as well.

Give me a little more info and I'd be happy to assist.

thanks leblanc, i appreciate that this is my first real time playing a table top game though my fellow gamers have a long history with DnD

i was thinking i would take a lot of hatreds, pick up melee training chain, and basic flame, and work my combat as kind of a mid ranger as my other gamers are mostly long rang other than our assassin who is mostly close combat, i figure i will go down the redemtionist path and pick of litany of hate down the line so i can boost our WS.

i think i missed inquiry and charm, i was going to pick up command, is carouse a good skill to have?

Carouse: I haven't found a use for carouse, but my character doesn't drink or eat to excess either.

Command: I've also found no use for command, since at this point, no one has been put under my command. It only works on your followers after all and unfortunately, most of my fellow acolytes only really listen to me when it suits them. Like I said earlier, lead by example.

Charm: Charm works on most NPCs that you would need to influence. If you influence the right people, they give you access to their underlings.

Deceive: Deceive is an AWESOME skill. Deception is a necessity in this game where knowing too much can get you killed. Who woulda thunk a clergyman would make a good liar?

....make sure you carry LOTS of fuel for your flamer. They jam easy (roll of a 9 on damage dice).

If you're going down the path of redemption, I also recommend putting exterminator cartridges on all of your weapons. They are a blessing in disguise.

Also, don't forget to take advantage of staying in Temples and shrines wherever you travel. It's free and they wouldn't turn a fellow clergyman away who's ministering to the people in the name of the Emperor. It also tends to be good for you using charm and deceive to convince good Emperor worshipping citizens to let you travel for free. You're on a mission from your Lord Emperor after all. It doesn't work on everyone, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Anyway, glad I could help and it seems you're well on your way to the path of redemption.

Long live the Emperor and all his works!

(A few additional notes about playing.

Since you're new to the game, I have one parting thought!! Pay attention to modifiers! If you fire at someone under half your weapons range, you get a +10 bonus to BS. Add a +10 bonus for having a red-dot laser sight to the gun and your at +20 to hit. Aim on top of that and your at +30 BS. Pretty nice huh. Don't neglect the bonuses. Keep a bookmark on that page of your rulebook or do what I did and take a GM screen with you as a cheat sheet. I leave mine open flat on the table in front of me so I don't forget.

I've been much more successful in combat and through the game by keeping all of my modifiers handy.

thanks a ton leblanc, that helps out a lot,

yeha i'm still getting used to the modifiers but they help out a lot

I can see Carouse being useful in a "let's go infiltrate the debauchery of a onbleman's cult" sense, but depending on your group, your methods, and what scenarios the GM throws at you it may or may not be useful. But by all means take it if you think your character is the type to get smashed on communion wine or something , it's more characterful than taking Common Lore (arbites) "because it might help us a lot" with no prewarning.

As for Command, by itself it isn't so great. Once you get a few of the command-related talents under your belt, such as Air of Authority, Master Orator, Iron Discipline and Into the Jaws of Hell, you can pretty much count on being able to round up a frothing mass of the faithful whenever you deem it expediant. That's something I haven't seen anyone else bar a Guardsman on the officer path able to pull off. I think militant path Sororitas can get there too by rank 8, but it really is a Cleric's forte.

As for your idea of a melee supporter: Clerics are reasonably badass for this role. Lots of Hatred talents for that WS boost combined with good Fel advances for your Litany of Hatred, reasonably early access to chain weapons, and readily available cheap Sound Constitutions. I don't know how much I can stress the cheap part. I've statted a rak 8 NPC cleric up with 25 wounds and TB5 easily, without shirking on any other roles bar ranged combat, and he was still quite competent in everything from leading the flock to knowing all sorts of lores.

So going the melee route is quite understandable for a cleric, and they're not bad at it. If you can, see if you can let your GM switch your WS and BS advances if you'll play the 'lead from the front' type well enough.

FYI: Last night, I did pick up command.

Combined with Command +10 and Air of Authority, you gain the ability to affect those not directly under your control and you get a +10% bonus to doing it.

Cleric Cromwell said:

I'm hoping there were more rolls made than that...

A 9 on a Power Roll causes a roll on Psychic Phenomemon. A 75 or higher causes a roll on the Perils of the Warp table. Only a 91-99 on the Perils of the Warp roll will you create a daemonhost. You then get a difficult Willpower Test to avoid being possessed.

There's a lot more to Perils of the Warp than causing a TPK (which an unbound Daemonhost seems like it would cause without sweat).

Unusualsuspect said:

spot on, we were all shocked, our gm even said that he skipped over the daemonhost making section based on just how unlikely it was that our lone psyker would pull it off, he ended up burning a fate point to save us from ending the campaign

well seeing my cleric has just become cripplingly addicted to some weird drug i thnk i am goign to swear off most heavy drinking for the most part,

ok generating followers out of the crowd does sound kinda cool i must say, with that in mind, picking up master orator sounds like it could be a really cool thing to have especially if i can create a flash mob just walking through the town square and doing a little talking

so what all can i do with these followers?

Cleric Cromwell said:

Have you seen Galaxy Quest?

There is a funny scene in the movie where one of the main characters leads the alien Thermians from one part of the ship to another and just has them tackle the invading aliens until he can get to them to deal with them. It's a funny scene as they just mob the bad guys who are individually more powerful, but can't resist being dragged down by the crowd.

Think of all of the possibilities of controlling a mob. Hangings! Burnings! Frontier justice at it's finest!

Think of the intimidation checks when you show up to bad guys local hang out with 25 underhivers frothing at the mouth behind you. Then, you just point and say sic em'. A lot less messy to make others do your dirty work for you.

Oh, the possibilities!

man i love this game

The king is the daemon leader of the tzeetch cult The Menagerie or as much as i can presume from references in the DotDG as well as a literal daemonic being in a quarantined section of space guarded by a good portion of the fleet calaxis

it is also alluded in RH that the king is one of the seven most powerful demons of the sector and is a key component in a larger conspiracy of the calaxis sector

as for stats lets just say this if you see the king in rags and tatters you are going insane, and he will make you change from an octopus to a gerbil in about half a second...

The King in Rags and Tatters. The King in Yellow. The Unspeakable One. Him Who is Not to be Named. The Feaster from Afar. Assatur, Xastur, or Kaiwon.

These are all nomenclature pertaining to the entity/place/object Hastur from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The merest utterance of Its name can call Its gaze upon you. A little bit of background can be found here and here. There are numerous allusions to the mythos throughout WH40K in general. It is part of the reason I love the background so much.

As to a good time... Hehehe... Grab ye olde flamer and invest heavily in Blessed ammunition (IHB pg. 190) for it.

ThenDoctor said:

I missed the part about KiRaT being quarantined. Is this the Thronus Zone perhaps? And where is the allusion? Inquiring minds want to know!

Cleric Cromwell said:

Just out of curiosity, are you guys running through Purge the Unclean?

to be honest i'm not sure what the name of the mission we are running is called, i started late and didn't get most of the background,

we are investigating a cult, and their higher ups are all addicted to this drug, we were goign to buy some info off of a guy but he was assassinated

That would be Idyll heresy I think. I am currently running it as well

Edit: Isnt "The King in Rags and Tatters" the coolest? (i am not being biased, ignore my avatar )

Cleric Cromwell said:

This sounds like Rejoice For You Are True.

Visitor Q said:

Yeah, that sounds right. A lot more so than Idyll Heresies.

Actually, the group the Menagerie (DotDG page 152) worship the King and his Radiant Court.

i think it is rejoice for you are true

Nope. It's in Disciples. I've looked it up a couple of times.