The Ordo Revealed ...

Suffer not the heretic, the traitor or the mutant, annihilate the xenos and burn that tainted by the horror of chaos


The emperor protects

And we shall protect the faith

For this we were created

For this we were forged

And for this we will die


Armed by blade and by holy fire

Clad by our unbreakable will

Fortified by our faith

Driven by our belief

We will purge the heresy from within

We are the Ordo Hereticus
We are the Witch Hunters


And for this


We shall know no fear

The first meeting ...

     A long corridor stretches off into the distance as far as the eye can see … dim greenish blue lights flicker and sputter.. Ancient forgotten technology powering them. The weight of ages can be felt as you walk … these corridors have existed for millennia … perhaps even to the time of the great crusade. That was an age when man ruled the galaxy, when man had promise and hope. A time when the Emperor himself traveled the stars with armies of Astartes and godlike sons. Expanding humanities domain discovering, exploring and enlightening. Those days are far gone … as you walk you ponder this … for some unknown reason your mind wanders to thoughts that you either have never had or perhaps haven’t had for quite some time. Wondering what the future holds for you seems to be a more pressing matter than wondering about the future of your race. For it has been this way so long … how could it ever be any different … if the Emperor himself failed to free humanity … could anyone?  A bright light looms ahead and at that moment you think you hear laughter in the distance, but you’re not sure. The light is so very far away. A chill air blows down the corridor and you pull your collar up and brace yourself against the sudden gust.

You walk on for a several more minutes and corridor widens as you get closer to a very large door, two thick adamantine blast doors are open towards you. Easily two meters thick… you find yourself wondering what would be the need for such doors so far down? What weapon could pierce such doors that someone could bring through the corridor? You hear the laughter again … this time it is much closer and louder … you enter the cavernous chamber beyond the door. The vast room has a massive fireplace on one end and is filled with books from the floor to the very high ceiling. There are large overstuffed couches clad in exotic skins whose origins you can only imagine. You see a large desk with a throne of a chair turned away towards the fire. Several massive paintings of various heroic figures line the walls in the few gaps between the bookshelves. There are various large statues, yet more heroes of the imperium presumably.

As you get closer to the desk you can see smoke rising from behind the chair. There are two wingback chairs which sit on each side of the desk facing it. You hear a deep rich voice “Please be seated” and the chair slowly spins revealing a handsome man, who appears to be in his early 40s, dark hair with the exception of a little grey along the temples and a hint of grey in his close cropped mustache. He looks up at you and meets your gaze with sharp, steel grey eyes. He is clad in a simple black tunic and save the red Rosetta hanging ceremoniously from his neck he has no other ornamentation.

“I am Verlok Malthorn and as I hope you have gathered I am the one who has had you brought here. I have been watching you for quite some time.” He pulls a file out of a desk drawer and motions to a large crystal decanter on his desk “Please pour yourself a glass of Amsec … it’s a delightful vintage. Very rare. I’m sure you’ve never taste it’s like … Go on I insist.”  You stand and do as instructed and he then says “There in the humidor feel free to help yourself to those as well.” You open the case and take a Lho stick and proceed to light it. You then settle back into the chair and take a drink, Inquisitor Malthorn looking over your file.  “I see you have had a … shall we say interesting career thus far.” Perhaps it is the Amsec or your nerves … but you find yourself asking a question “Sir … if I might ask. As I approached I heard laughter. Were you talking with someone.” His eyes lift from the pages and he turns his head slightly raising one eyebrow inquisitively or perhaps in annoyance. “Well … as if the business I conduct here is any of your business.” A broad smile crosses his face and he leans back in his chair and looks at you this time with an expression of sheer mirth. “Your thoughts amused me. As you wandered down the long hallway I rather enjoyed how your mind wandered. It seems you have similar thoughts to my own. I found that rather ironic … given the great difference in our backgrounds and our age. Perhaps there is a place for you here … after all."

------------------

Essentially this is the type of meeting I have planned for each party member. I might change my mind and RP it all out. But we'd need to basically have five sessions. I don't think the party would know each other before they'd know the inquisitor. I myself ... if I were an Inquisitor ... would want my staff loyal to me first and foremost. In the beginning that would be my first thought for new staff.  If that were the case then ... why would new staff meet with each other before the Inquisitor himself?  A few party members might have a slightly different experience ... but this is the general introduction for everyone. Each would have slight variation of course ... but hopefully that passage paints the picture to some extent ...

D&D module link

Quick link for classic D&D mods

Quick link

Good article regarding magnetization of predator/rhinos ... http://paintpotprocrastinator.blogspot.com/2010/05/magnetizing-rhino-predator.html

DARK HERESY and beyond ...

My goal with this game is threefold ... one I love the Warhammer 40,000 Universe and any excuse to play any games relating to it ... well I'm on board lets just put it that way. Second I see this as a place where there is potential to satisfy both a deeper roleplaying desire on my part but also still experience cool combats and rockingly good fun. Third this is actually a well done game system and I have wanted to just get into it and run some games with it and be both a player and a GM. My hope is others in our group will enjoy the game so much that they might eventually try their hand at GMing it too!

First I see two specific sub groups that will likely form ... based on those who have expressed interest initially.

Faction one -- Team Alpha -- AKA the "LETS FETH SOME SHIT UP ADEPTUS ASTARTES STYLE!!"

Faction two -- Team Bravo -- AKA the "The Lord High Inquisitor has authorized exterminatus extremis  upon your world governor ... in the case that we find evidence of systemic corruption and heresy beyond which we can cleanse with conventional methods. I suggest you cooperate to the full capacity of your authority and ability ... you will remain upon this world ... under the protection of the Inquisition until this investigation is complete. It would be unfortunate to see you burn along with your planet." 

Faction one will probably want gritty combat and epic battles over deep roleplaying and thought provoking investigation. Faction two will likely value the depth of roleplay and investigative intrigue that the Dark Heresy system allows for.

I think that the beauty of doing a game in this setting is that both groups could possible get alot out of this game. If we get enough interest later on I'd even be willing to break the group into two factions and run two sessions of the game, etc. but first things first ... lets get this game rolling and see how we all like it, etc. before I get two far down the "that would be epic" road ...

DARK HERESY ... THE COMING STORM!!

Here are a few videos I found ... now this doesn't fully do justice to the Warhammer 40,000 universe by any stretch. For one thing the mood and feeling of Dark Heresy isn't captured the pure Space Marine and Imperial Guard stuff has a more standard sci-fi feel to it. But the universe in which Space Marines live is a dark, gothic, cyber-punk/steam punk feeling place. Its as big and open as the Star Wars and Star Trek universes are with as much material in print and nearly as much fan fiction, fan art, etc. etc. and I love it. Its created by Brits who have a dark cynical view of the world, who abhor organized religion and have honed in on the dark side of man. To me this universe is alot more (minus the magic and demons and what not) along the lines of what our eventual future would be ... if we ever last long enough to get off this rock we call earth.

Here is some fan stuff off of youtube, etc. mostly footage of video games, etc.

Anyway here are a few clips with more to come.





-------------------------------------------------------



-----------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------





------------------------------------------------
There are other parts of this one ... its very Dr. Who-ish ... but this sort of does a good job of conveying how psychic communication works in the 40K universe.




----------------------------------------------



----------------------------------------------

The "Dip Method" ... for miniature painting

There is a good article on the tabletop gaming news page page regarding the "dip" method or the "magic sauce method" ... "future finish floor wax method" .. etc. etc. this is basically what I use for a dip if I'm going to brew some up. I also just use plain old minwax wood stain. These methods really speeds up painting ... its not for every project or for every painter ... but if you want quick "tabletop standard" paint jobs ... this method is your friend. I have largely converted to this style of painting now ... as it saves massive amounts of time and at this point competition quality paint jobs aren't very important to me.

My recipe is 1 part future finish floor wax ... 2 parts distilled water ... 1 part Higgins Black Fountain Pen Ink (frequently called "India" ink) ... 1 Part Higgins Brown Ink

... I combine that stuff in a nice air tight container. Not usually just a tupperware style one ... but one that has a threaded lid so its very air tight and can withstand being knocked over, etc. 

The thing is this stuff is literally made to DIP ... i.e., fully submerge entire miniatures in. So you want a wide mouthed container that you can just kerplunk minis into. I usually take a pair of needle nosed pliers and grab a corner of the base and plunge the mini in. As you start running low on the dip ... mix a whole new batch so you keep your proportions correct and on this note having an oversize container (by this I mean something that would hold say two full batches of dip) is a good idea. For large models like vehicles, giant figures (monsters, giants, dragons, etc. ... shit that's too big to fit in the container) you can use a large "tank" brush or even a full sized edging paint brush or something ... and just completely cover the model. You'll still get the "dip" effect by doing that.

Essentially to break down how this works:

Assemble, Prime, Flock the base with gravel flock ... 

Block paint the mini (i.e., paint all the basic colors): to break this down further ... lets use an orc for an example. You would paint the skin green, the shoes and leather bits brown, the armor a metalic color of choice ... apply red to the eyes ... whiten or yellow depending on preference the teeth ... etc. just the basic colors your going for. Now this is again a matter of preference ... for the skin you might be talking about a two or three step painting process ... same with other parts ... but you can just go single step block color painting. 

Once that is done to your preference ... the mini gets dipped. 

What I do as I'm doing this is use a paper towel to daub off any excessive pooling of the dip. You want the dip to help shade the model ... but you don't want big pools to dry leaving odd lines, or watermarks on the mini. 

Let the mini dry ... 

look it over and do detail cleanup where needed ... but in many cases your done with the minis when the dip drys.

Here is a quick image of something that has been dipped. The mini isn't mine ... but you get a quick and very rough idea of what the method does. My results are usually even better than this picture ... but to me this picture demonstrates what your going for (bear in mind that the dipped mini on the right hasn't dried yet nor did they do a good job priming this mini ... it has very telltale primer screw up signs):