I've always been fond of the Warhammer setting, but not of the grimderp pointlessness that many people seem to insist on enforcing. To me, it's about how humans battle impossible odds, fighting desperately to keep the darkness at bay for just a little while longer, even knowing that salvation will never be known if their lifetimes, if ever, but struggling and hoping regardless.

So after one too many threads on /tg/ about how everything is doomed and nothing changes and anyone who tries immediately gets NOM'ed by Tyranids, chaos, necrons, or smote by other humans for Emprah and lulz, I decided to start thinking about what might happen if someone did try things a little different, and fought to make things just a little bit better. And of course, all the trouble he would get into as a result.

Though his goals are noble, the galaxy of the 41st Millennium is never kind to such men…

First, some backstory to establish things and a blurb on the men responsible. Then there are three sections detailing themes and events for the players to become involved in, and how things change and grow over time to fit the scale and settings of Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and finally Deathwatch. Then there is a bit to descibe the star system my little troublemaker calls home. It ends with three wacky inventions, and I hope you come away from it with enough plot hooks and possibilities to build some interesting games on.

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Magos Tesla was a great man who pursued the quest for knowledge with unparalleled devotion. He was brilliant, inventive, open-minded and progressive in his philosophy. To the structures of the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus, such a man was the most dangerous of heretics. With his every word questioned and every act scrutinized, he was continually hounded by the most puritanical elements within the Cult of Mars. Despite being repeatedly vindicated before his peers, in the end only a single student would remain faithfully alongside him, swearing to keep safe his works and beliefs when Tesla passed on.

A century later, Durandall Levin would attain the rank of Magos Errant, and scrape together the resources needed to found a tiny outpost in a distant system where he could continue the quest for knowledge – in his own way. The fear of original research among the Mechanicus was always particularly galling, and Levin’s (unvoiced) opinion was that the pursuit of STC recovery above all else had reduced the priesthood to little more then glorified tomb-robbers. Thusly, Magos Levin dedicated his tiny domain towards pure scientific research, away from prying eyes.

Magos Levin is outwardly cheerful and pleasant, acting far more ‘human’ then most tech-priests. Even his cybernetics are elegant works of art that blend with and compliment his human body rather then detract from it. Though disagreeing with some aspects of common doctrine, he is nonetheless highly devout and would never tamper with warp-tainted artefacts or dabble with dark powers. Somewhat idealistic, he is often shocked by the brutal practices of the Imperium and tries to hold himself to high moral standards, agonizing over every difficult choice he is forced to make. The day he must choose between his standards and his goals will be a painful one.

Dark Heresy

While the small army of adepts and workers begin setting up the main facilities, Levin quietly lays the foundation of his dream – a series of semi-hidden laboratories isolated from the main compound to avoid casual attention. The beginnings are agonizingly slow and fraught with fear of discovery, but Levin soon gathers the support to begins a program of biological research disguised as a census and study of the world’s remaining organic life. It begins with work on simple life forms from rats to algae, and after years and literally tens of thousands of variables explored, from genetic recombination to the effects of poisons, chemicals and varied environmental conditions upon developing organisms, the magos is ready for the next phase of his work – human experimentation.

Levin is confident this base of knowledge, combined with all the information he has discreetly gathered from Mechanicus databanks will help decode human biology. Ambitious, but naïve, he makes his first major project the prevention or even reversal of mutation. Under the guise of gathering a cheap labor force, he has brought thousands of mutant workers from the surrounding hive-worlds to study and learn from. While Levin begins his studies of mutated biology, the movement of so many mutants will naturally draw the attention of several parties, including the Ordo Hereticus.

Although humane in his methods and compassionate in his treatment, even towards the most horribly mutated, he is caught off-guard when Pale Throng agitators and chaos cultists emerge from within the press-ganged population. However, that same honest care he shows ensures that not all the laborers will fall to dark whispers, and events may be decided by those mutants initially unwilling to choose sides when fighting the Imperium means slaying the man who has treated them so kindly.

Alternatively, it is a puritanical Inquisitor or elements within the ecclesiarchy itself that seeks Levin’s downfall. When his work bears fruit – literally – with his research allowing a mutant woman has given birth to a normal, healthy baby boy, word cannot be kept from spreading. But what should be a miracle is taken as blasphemy, as it is seen to be a member of the heretical machine cult daring to purge sin from a man’s soul, to intrude upon what should be the Emperor’s authority alone. It will be difficult enough to appease the ecclesiarchy without the presence of a fanatical mutant cult that has begun worshipping Levin as a saint, if not the Emperor/Onmissiah Himself and doing their very best to ‘do his will’ as best they can guess it.

Another possibility is wide-spread gene-tweaking that begins to stabilize the gene pool of his mutant workers, drawing out and refining the questing strands of DNA that sought to survive the hellish environments they once called home. The results are new true-breeding abhuman strains, which will eventually be shipped to the unnamed fog-bound world farther sunward. While not the cure that Levin hoped for, in his eyes it is at least an acceptable stopgap, and a good first attempt. He will continue his work with more mutants gathered to replace ‘losses’ while he directs the ‘refined’ abhumans in developing their new home towards agri-production and assigning adepts to monitor the integrity of the new species. In time, the most capable of the new abhuman strains will be trained and serve Levin loyally in various capacities, including as skitarii, a fact brought up as damning evidence towards whatever charges may be one day be brought against him.

Rogue Trader

At this point, Levin’s colony has grown explosively, fuelled by the recovery of unearthed artifacts among the ruins. But with his power expanding and the mysteries of one world almost exhausted, Levin turns his gaze outwards. He courts rogue traders with offers of unique and discreet services, gathering agents to seek new sources of knowledge from distant worlds. His biological research facilities will expand, fuelled by exotic creatures from alien worlds, but alongside are built material labs are to perform similarly exhaustive research into every form of matter and energy brought before him, and the foundations are laid for a massive, hidden cogitator array to correlate and safeguard all that he has learned.

While Levin would never combine machines with xenotic components or trust lives to un-consecrated or unknown devices, he does not hesitate to dissect and dismantle every example brought to him. Firmly believing he can ‘liberate the pure mechanism’ from beneath the touch of xenos artificers, and when it time approaches to repay his debts, Levin’s burgeoning forgeworld begins field-testing new non-standard designs – many of them so bizarre in appearance to appear to incorporate, or even be of purely xeno tech.

Mainly ignorant of the darker forces at work in the Calixis sector, Magos Levin runs the risk of becoming entangled with organizations like the Beast House as he seeks new samples to study. Also, the merest hint of new weapons and war-machines will inevitably draw the attention of the Logicians, who may even see him as a possible convert, though any overture from that group will be viciously repulsed. Rogue traders are frequently under surveillance and the sudden ripples caused by a new player in the cold trade will bring attention from agents of the Ordo Xenos.

Despite his fear of discovery at this crucial stage of growth, Magos Levin still yearns to find like-minded men among the priesthood and will carefully test those that find their way to his world. He carefully recruits other tech-priests when possible, otherwise, he spares the resources to train new initiates to the priesthood and indoctrinate them to a less dogmatic way of thinking. Levin’s world is slowly changing, but it has not gone unnoticed by the more puritanical tech-priests that first accompanied him here. If they are not already speaking to their superiors about the strange goings-on, then they are sharpening long knives. Levin stands at the head of a growing following that is hedging them out from influential positions in what is becoming a growing force within the sector, and they will not be denied the power they feel they deserve.

Deathwatch

By now, Magos Levin stands supreme over an entire star system, and perhaps more, having at the least created a new forge-world and being almost completely self-sufficient. His forces are potent, his resources extensive, and while his knowledge yet pales in comparison to his fellows, his understanding is matched by few to none. The priesthood at large views this unconventional upstart with great suspicion, and some may have clues of his connection to an infamous Magos of years past. At the least, many are calling for an accounting of his activities, if they have not already begun levelling charges.

If Levin learns of the warp gate to the Jericho Reach, he will spare no effort to acquire samples of tyranid biology or Tau technology, and his agents will march forwards bearing strange and powerful machines. Beyond the proper devotional markings, the outward appearance of his equipment means little to Levin, but someone taking note of these unusual devices is inevitable.

The Deathwatch will likely first learn of Levin’s activities by reports of his agents on the battlefield employing unusual weapon designs, absconding with fallen xenos or salvaging their technology. All such activities are technically within his rights as a Magos, but it is likely factions within the Mechanicus are already known to be preparing accusations against Levin for all manner of heresies, from employing Xenos technology to creating xeno-human hybrids. It is only a matter of time before something happens that the Deathwatch will feel compelled to investigate.

While he remains faithful to the tenets of the priesthood as always, the horrors he has witnessed and the fear of everything he has built being brought to ruin has begun to wear on Magos Levin. Such is the price of too much compassion in these dark times that his cheerful demeanour has been replaced by the fear that doom comes for mankind and that on his knowledge alone hangs billions of lives. Seeking some way to validate everything he has done to himself and his detractors, Levin labors day and night within the depths of his laboratories, developing weapons and war machines of terrifying power. His gene-labs now process viral agents to rival the dread life-eater virus, tested repeatedly against captured tyranids. The secrets of tau weaponry, anti-gravity systems, and even their unique warp drive are being picked apart to thwart imagined apocalypse. He yet refrains from outright blasphemy, but perhaps, only just.

A great accomplishment will shake Levin from his despair and silence his detractors, while a terrible failure may strip away the humanity and the standards he has held on to so dearly. His dream rests on the actions of the deathwatch squad that will one day cross his path. To succeed in restoring his shaking faith means making a powerfully ally for the deathwatch, one that possesses wondrous devices and esoteric knowledge that simply may not exist anywhere else in the Imperium. To fail will turn Levin down a dark path that he will follow as carefully as methodically as before, and what has been faced so far in the Calixis sector and the Jericho Reach will pale in comparison to the horrors he will create as his sanity slips away.

The hidden system

Levin has settled in a trinary system that should be situated just far enough from high-traffic areas to avoid casual attention. A bright white star (Clotho) shines over the entire system, while a more familiar yellow star (Lachesis) holds the orbit of the planetary bodies. A dim, dying red star (Atropos) sits in a far orbit. The worlds present include:

Closest to the sun is a large, heavy world with one face locked towards Lachesis. In the relative safety of the planet’s dark side, a highly-profitable mining operation will be established to feed the demands of the forge-world, and will be the site of one of Levin’s greatest achievements. From research and salvaged archaeotech is born a space station built in geo-synchronous orbit and physically tethered to an installation on the ground. Cargo containers lightened via anti-grav generators are effortlessly driven along the cord via mag-lev into orbit. It is a sight that induces great awe and envy in equal measure among followers of the Machine God.

The second world is tiny, cold, lifeless and toxic, but will nonetheless hold secondary research outposts and installations. There is little of real interest here, as the real work is being done to create a secure back-up for all of Levin’s research should the worst come to pass.

The third body is an earth-like world, though perpetually hot, humid and randomly flooding beneath shallow water. As Levin’s needs grow, this world will serve two purposes. First, it will be developed to provide agri-production, and secondly, it will be the new home of those stabilized abhuman strains Levin sanctions to breed and expand their numbers.

The fourth and site of Levin’s original colony exists here, a world damaged at some point during the Angevin crusade, which shattered its cities and damaged its ecosphere. Carefully sifting through the wreckage has yielded wealth, curiosities and a few dangers in the course of transforming the wrecked planet into a true forge-world.

Much farther outwards, two massive gas giants follow precise orbits with a dead, airless world tucked neatly between them. A perfectly straight line can be drawn outwards from the sun through the middle of these three bodies, and the oddity does not go unnoticed by astronomers. However, the dead world is on the same orbit as a dense and unnaturally chaotic asteroid field, and the gas giants have collected their own share of debris, not all of it natural. The dangerous conditions mean that it cannot go investigated for some time.

The works of Magos Levin

Dark Heresy

At this level, Levin uses standard Imperial patterns almost exclusively. He does not have the facilities or knowledge to create or modify existing technology in any special way. Anything non-standard will be an experiment, gimmick, or the result of a flight of fancy.

Antipode-pattern Lasgun: The basic weapon used by Levin’s forces, often derided as a ‘poor man’s hellgun’ the Antipode pattern is simply two barrels stacked vertically. However, the machine spirit is one of such precision that the antipode is capable of two separate firing modes, chosen as a free action thanks to a handy switch next to the trigger assembly. The first mode fires both barrels staggered apart by micro-seconds, allowing the first shot to soften the target’s armor before the second discharge hits, granting Pen 2. The second mode simply regulates and alternates the barrels used, granting a Full-auto mode of 5. Excluding pistols, good and best-quality models allow for two charge packs to be inserted simultaneously, offsetting the increased rate of ammo consumption. Otherwise, the Antipode follows all normal rules for a weapon of its type.

Rogue Trader

A perfectionist, Levin will never sell supplies and equipment of poor quality, even if specifically requested. However, successful Rogue Traders who bring particularly interesting things to barter with can expect to receive, at minimum, crew rated ‘crack’ and equipment of Good quality. The most trusted will be gifted with potent devices and engines of war with unique modifications, as a sort of ‘field-testing’ with the expectation that they will returned at the Rogue trader’s next visit. Rules-wise, this equipment should be above-average, or even able to completely overpower comparable machines, but possessing a measure of annoying or possibly dangerous flaws. Levin will be suitably apologetic in all cases, and will make restitution if anyone was seriously injured as a result.

Levin’s growing resources means that he has a limited ability to repair and modify voidships, at most two smaller vessels (up to frigate-class) at once. Trusted Rogue Traders can expect Levin to perform discreet work in his budding shipyards, and while what little is can do is of rigorous quality, he will flatly refuse to incorporate xenotech components into a ship. He will not refuse repairs to such vessels already modified, but Rogue Traders must be prepared to give him unrestricted access to examine the foreign tech and sit through a stern lecture regarding the dangers of such things.

On a personal level, best-level power armor and plasma weapons, or exotic devices such as graviton guns or force-fields are still outside Levin’s ability to manufacture. Otherwise, almost anything from the core books can be purchased at Levin’s forges. Also, as Levin is unafraid of experimentation, PCs are free (within reason) to commission any sort of bizarre weaponry, which includes special qualities, shuffling or increasing weapon stats, and unusual ammunition.

Poison Children

During Levin’s research into mutation, one abhuman strain refined from the mutant gene-pool was deemed untenable and relegated to the dissection tables. Dubbed ‘Poison Children’ in his private notes, they were apelike in form, extremely aggressive and bestial in intelligence. Their name came from the array of bacteria and biological toxins that they continually and uncontrollably excreted from every pore. It wasn’t until the Logicians and their blasphemous creations threatened Levin’s new home that he found a use for these creatures, amplifying their already deadly qualities and transforming them into weapons of war. All remaining specimens are destroyed after the conflict with the gene-templates and weaponizing process sealed in Levin’s private archives, but nothing prevents samples being salvaged from the battlefield…

‘Poison child’ is a template applied to any normal servitor or arco-flagellant.

Add +10 to the base creature’s strength and toughness and give it a fear rating of 1 if it did not already possess a fear rating.

Normally transported in sealed, chem-resistant suits, in combat apertures vent streams of poison into the surrounding air, having the same range and effects of a hallucinogen grenade.

When a Poison child in combat mode dies for whatever reason, implanted explosives ensure the toxin-glands and containment suit are ruptured violently. The result is equivalent to a Virus grenade. So caustic are the compounds released that even inorganic targets or those normally immune to the Toxic quality can take damage. (GM’s call)

Poison Children are commonly equipped with grafted mono-great weapons that always possess the Toxic quality. Naturally, Poison Children are immune to the additional damage from weapons with the Toxic quality, the detonations of other Poison Children, and similar effects.

Deathwatch

The Jericho Reach provides Levin with Tyranids and Tau technology – highly advanced biological and technological mechanisms in his eyes. Tyranid bioforms are abducted and transported in stasis under null-psi wards to his laboratories, while every scrap of Tau technology within reach is carried away to be dismantled. Their mastery of anti-grav and magnetic weaponry is of particular interest, and the combination of Mechanicus knowledge, archaeotechnology, and Tau-derived research is what allows Levin to create the Orbital Tether that garners so much attention.

At this point, Levin’s access to knowledge approaches the height of current Imperial technology. Though the most advanced technologies are still beyond him, he understands the guiding principles behind what he can build to the point that his devices are vastly more efficient then standard – above his world still known only by its numeric designation, an experimental sword-class frigate is nearing completion that Levin firmly expects to outperform ships of that class in every possible way. On the ground, the lack of ability to construct Titans or some vehicle patterns has not been a hindrance. Combined with fearsome creatures culled from distant death-worlds and altered by Levin’s gene-research, massive bio-constructs augmented with cybernetic systems and implanted weaponry are being prepared for war, the very largest of which approach a Warhound Titan in size and firepower.

Infiltrator construct

Reputedly inspired by excessive amounts of alcohol, Levin hit upon the idea of making something ‘just xeno enough’ to act as a saboteur. The result is a kind of servitor that is basically a hollowed-out xeno containing some kind of surveillance technology, bio-weapon, or powerful explosive ranging from melta charges to a miniature fusion bomb. They are deployed to perform reconnaissance or destroy high-value targets such as Ethereals, synapse creatures, breeding pits and the like.

Fearing they might fall under the control of the hive-mind made Levin hesitant to attempt this deception with Tyranid-based bio-constructs. The first prototypes have so far performed as expected, but Levin’s adepts are under the strictest orders to transport and deploy them under heavy security. Infiltrator constructs are roughly as effective as Infiltriol Enamel (From Rites of Battle) for fooling Tyranid senses, but as the construct is mostly Tyranid in form and not only scent, rolls to notice the deception are only made within Perception bonus in meters.

With his current knowledge of xeno biology, behaviour and language, Levin can only create a reliable facsimile of Tau and a few Tyranid strains. And regardless of the victories these constructs bring to Imperial forces, they sit high at the top of ‘things the Mechanicus does not like .’ Likewise, chancing across one or more in the course of a mission is sure to draw the attention of the Deathwatch.

Well written and quite inspiring, for nearly all levels of play.

I might seriously use some of this in my campaign. The Tech-Priest in my group is already bordering on the tech-heretical so Levin might make a useful ally and an interesting NPC to watch as he, and his world, grows.

In any event, a very interesting concept, with great depth and writing. Thanks for posting this!