Deathwatch Forge Master
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A Techmarine who wins suffi cient renown may eventually be raised to the honoured rank of Forge Master. A Forge Master oversees the manufacture and maintenance of Deathwatch armaments of all kinds in a particular Watch Fortress, from Kraken bolt rounds to planet destroying Killships. A Forge Master must also deal with all manner of xenotech captured by Kill-teams on their missions, studying, categorizing and determining its potential value or threat. A Forge Master is commonly a close confi dant of the Watch Commander and acts as central cog to the functioning of the whole Watch Fortress and its associated Kill-teams. To achieve such heights, the Techmarine must have demonstrated tremendous skill in the arts of the forge as well as the arts of war. Not all Techmarines show a great asperity with alien technology;
indeed many fi nd it repugnant in the extreme. This is seen as no barrier to them becoming a Forge Master in its own right; many Forge Masters are trenchant conservatives that hate all things xenos.
However, a Forge Master must grasp the tainted paths of alien technology on some level so that they can ultimately dispose malevolence successfully.
Examples of xenotech might include anything from individual artefacts that can be returned to the Watch Fortress to monumental engines that must be examined in situ on some alien world or ship. By working closely with Inquisitorial representatives of the Ordo Xenos, it is the Forge Master’s lot to pass judgment on the artefacts he surveys.
He must decide whether some element of the alien science he sees may be blessed by the Omnissiah despite its unfamiliar guise, or whether the foul taint of the xenos is so perniciously woven into an artefact’s very fabric that it must be destroyed. The slow, often painstaking process of examination can take years of effort to determine the fate of a single artefact and its lessthan- certain results can be the subject of great argument between individual Forge Masters. Over the millennia several pieces of “rediscovered” technology derived from the study of xenotech have been incorporated into Deathwatch wargear and even into the munitions of the Imperium as a whole. However, some Forge Masters always remain sceptical and will only ever grudgingly accept any form of xenotech into their armouries. More radical Forge Masters are prepared to exploit new ideas without waiting for the results of a full investigation, incorporating xenotech into their own creations with little concern for the fears of others. Each Watch Fortress incorporates extensive manufactoria for the production of weapons and armour. Within sweltering, fl ame-lit halls a lone Forge Master controls potentially hundreds of mono-task servitors and artisan savants as they hammer relentlessly, shaping new weapons of war. Monstrous crucibles of molten metal swing silently overhead, ready to tip their glowing contents into moulds and formers. Sparks fl y from electro-welders and grindstones as the work continues without cease. Not all Forge masters are bound to a single Fortress, and some travel endlessly between Watch Fortresses and stations dispensing their knowledge, learning what they can from their fellows and assisting Kill-teams in the fi eld.
Whether in a Watch Fortress or out on a mission, the Forge Master’s position is one of the gravest responsibility. Kill-teams rely on the quality of the Forge Master’s work in environments where a single dud bolt round or a faulty vox receiver can bring disaster. The maintenance and supplication of machine-spirits is a matter of the greatest import and the Forge Master maintains records of every piece of equipment under his charge, including the Techmarines assigned to maintain it and a history of past rituals undertaken to keep it functional.
The greatest joy of a Forge Master
is in the crafting of
magnifi cent armour and
weapons for the Deathwatch.
While servitors can wield hammers and stoke furnaces, and Techmarines can attend to the maintenance of guns and ships, it takes the touch of a true master of the machine cult to build something anew.
The chain blades made by a Forge Master will cleave
through the toughest alien flesh and the unquenchable fires of their plasma weapons burn forever hot and true. The most famous Forge Masters are often sought out by the greatest heroes of the
Deathwatch, who desire a weapon worthy to carve a legend.
PREREQUISITES Requirements: Rank 4 or more, Techmarine Cost: 2000 xp FORGE MASTER WARGEAR Deathwatch Forge Masters gain a servo-harness, a power axe, and artifi cer armour as standard issue wargear (see page 28 in the DEATHWATCH Rulebook). FORGE MASTER SPECIAL ABILITY: MASTER ARMOURER The Tech-Priests of Mars are masters of the secret and lost technical lore of the Imperium, harbouring a knowledge of machines and machine spirits long lost to the bulk of humanity. When a Techmarine is trained on Mars he gains some of this knowledge so that he might better serve his Chapter, though even such training is only the tip of the iceberg and the very beginning of understanding. A Forge Master has taken the next step and through long years of working with ancient weapons and armour has developed a knack and empathy with machines that allows him to use them in unexpected and interesting ways, coaxing abilities from archaic tech and stubborn machine spirits. To refl ect this unique gift, a Master Armourer may unlock or suppress a single Special Quality (see page 142 in the DEATHWATCH Rulebook) in a ranged or melee weapon. This must be done at the start of a Mission, during the preparation stage and will only apply to one item, though it need not be wielded by the Forge Master. The effects of this ability last for the duration of the Mission (at the GM’s discretion, a particularly long Mission or one that is far away from any resources may mean that the ability does not last the entire time) but are otherwise not permanent. Note: The Forge Master may only choose one quality to unlock or suppress. The Forge Master may unlock the following qualities: • Melee Weapons—Balanced, Defensive, Razor Sharp, Shocking • Ranged Weapons—Accurate, Gyro-Stabilised, Reliable The Forge Master may suppress the following qualities: • Melee Weapons—Primitive, Unbalanced, Unwieldy • Ranged Weapons—Overheats, Recharge Unlocking a Special Quality in a weapon which already possesses it has no additional effects. In cases where unlocking or suppressing a quality would contradict an existing quality of the item (such as making an Unwieldy melee weapon Defensive) it has no effect. In addition to this ability, Deathwatch Forge Masters are also adept at understanding xenos weaponry, coming into contact with it constantly during the course of their missions and studying it as part of their role within the Chapter. While no Space Marine would intentionally favour such cursed devices, this expertise does mean that a Forge Master does not suffer any unfamiliarity penalties when using such weapons, as if he had the appropriate weapon training talents. The GM may still of course rule that certain alien weapons are just too rare or unusual for a Forge Master to have come in contact with and so will not benefi t from this special rule. NEW SKILL GROUP: TRADE (FORGE MASTER) The Battle-Brother is adept at manufacturing weapons, armour and countless other tools of war. Given time and the right equipment (usually never found outside a Forge World or Chapter Fortress Monastery) he can create much of the basic gear used by the Adeptus Astartes and repair even its greatest machines of war. A player may use this skill in place of any Tech-use skill test if he is dealing with Astartes equipment.
pg 118-119
