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Post by hairyheretic on Mar 18, 2004 16:31:23 GMT -5
Wherever spacers gather, in smoke filled rooms where minds are addled with various intoxicants, eventually some unwary soul will name The Revenant. A hush falls across the room, rippling out from where the words are spoken, its passage marked with furitive glances and signs warding off ill fortune.
It has been sighted periodically in various systems over the centuries, though most frequently in the vortex system. It is reckoned an ill omen, as when it appears, trouble is sure to follow soon after. Its true name is unknown, but it has been dubbed the Revenant by the sailors of the deep, named after those spirits that will not stay quietly dead, and instead return to trouble the living.
It is unknown if it is the presence of the Revenant that causes these events, or if some otherworldly instinct draws it to them just before they happen.
- - - - -
The ghost ship is in fact a deamonically possessed Hellfire class heavy cruiser. It has been sighted in virtually every system of the sector, with recorded sightings going back over 30 centuries.
In its wake disasters occur ... ships are lost, plagues break out, natural disasters rock the worlds. And each time the Revenent drifts silently onwards.
Dozens of Imperial vessels have encountered the Revenent over the centuries, some engaging it, some unable to , their sensors refusing to lock on to it, as it phased in and out of realspace.
Those ships that have fired on it, it turned on ruthlessesly, destroying them within minutes. The few survivors reported seeing their damage repairing as the Revenent destroyed their ships, small craft and lifepods.
It is supposed that it feeds upon the death and destruction, though this is as yet unproven.
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Post by malika on Mar 18, 2004 16:36:48 GMT -5
Ok this sounds really cool, Im not familiar with the Hellfire class heavy cruiser. To which legion/chaos god does it belong to?
Does it only attack Imperial targets, or also stuff like Orks of other Chaos factions (Alpha Legion for example)
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Post by hairyheretic on Mar 18, 2004 17:36:09 GMT -5
The ship came from the BfG Annual 2002.
Hellfire class heavy cruiser - 8 damage points, speed 20cm, 45 degree turns, shields 1, armour 5+, turrets 2.
Weaponry: 8 weapons batterys each port and starboard, range 45cm L & R 2 lances each port and starboard, range 45cm L & R Prow weapons battery, range 30cm, firepower 6 L/F/R Dorsal lances battery, range 60, 1 shot L/F/R - - - - -
No one knows which chaos power the deamonship follows. It is as likely to attack orks as Imperial shipping, and has been seen to do so on at least 3 occasions in the last century. There are no recorded instances of it attacking other chaos vessels, but given how thoroughly it destroys what it does attack, and how few survivors there are, the possibility cannot be ruled out.
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Post by CELS on Mar 20, 2004 8:20:37 GMT -5
No one knows which chaos power... LoL! I thought we talked about this Why have it follow a chaos power though? Why not an unaligned daemonic entity? I think the daemons and warp creatures that don't serve the big four are regrettably unexplored. It's also a bit spookier if it isn't a servant of the big four though, because it makes it that much more unknown and mysterious. I'd also prefer to see this ship somewhat restricted to the Vortex system you mentioned. Not completely restricted, but... that should be where it has been sighted most often, IMHO... The idea of a pirate ship masquerading as a ghost ship was also quite interesting for me... them acting on an ancient legend... of course, that's going to be difficult if the ghost ship is an ancient and rare heavy cruiser, since pirates rarely get their hands on those...
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Post by malika on Mar 20, 2004 8:22:30 GMT -5
What about a crew...some ghost like pirates boarding enemy ships....for some reason I get these Pirates of the Carribean ideas Some officer (who used to be a loyal officer of the Emperor) got corrupted by some deamon in the warp... The deamon lured the officer into the warp...he sends his ship in and soon all these minor deamons start to possess the ship's crew... The original deamon possesses the officer. Soon the entire ship got corrupted by deamons...
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Post by CELS on Mar 20, 2004 8:30:50 GMT -5
It's a possibility. If D (aka Hairy Heretic) approves, I think it would be a good way to go. If the preferred idea was that the entire ship was unmanned and possessed, perhaps the spirits of the crew were trapped within the ship after they entered the warp. I'm not too happy with the Pirates of the Caribbean idea though. Must be because it's one of the worst movies I ever saw, despite the promising beginning... By the way Malika, I'm glad to see you edited your post to expand on your idea. More constructive this way...
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Post by malika on Mar 20, 2004 8:35:05 GMT -5
hehe you're welcome...some more ideas popped up in my mind Well...the Pirates of the Carribean thing...it;s not really the movie itself...I really dont like it, I only like Johnny Depp's part...his character is funny... I was more talking about the ghosts...maybe these minor deamons turned the crew into ghosts like deamons. The officer becomming an exatled deamon champion (kinda like that one in WBF)...a Deamon Prince might be a bit over the top.
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Post by Minister on Mar 20, 2004 9:44:56 GMT -5
The Daemons themselves probably don't acnowlege such distinctions, instead having billions of gradations of power, skill, patronage and so-on combining to form what is basicly a system of "obey those bigger than you or get shredded". The line between a Prince and an Exalted would be rather fuzzy...
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Post by hairyheretic on Mar 20, 2004 15:29:15 GMT -5
There are a few options we could go with. The 'traditional' possessed ship has a single deamonic entity in control of the entire ship.
I quite like the idea of the ship being one spirit, and the crew made up of lost souls and lesser entities.
Ok, lets see what I can do with that ...
Passed over for promotion on several occasions, Third Officer Parnelle grew more and more jealous, seeing the command he felt he deserved grow more and more distant with each failure.
His anger and sense of betrayal grew month by month, its faint flicker growing into a roaring flame that drew the entities within the warp every time the ship entered the immaterium.
They whispered in his dreams, telling him that the ship and every crewman aboard could be his to command, planting the seeds in his mind.
Time after time they whispered, each repitition causing Parnelles mind to focus that little bit more on how the ship should be his, would be his, must be his.
On a month long patrol in the Vortex sector, he finally got his chance. Illness rendered several of the command staff unfit for duty, and he took the command throne on the third watch. Late within the ships night cycle, he finalled acted, gunning down the bridge crew at their stations, or as they tried in vain to flee from him. The only one he spared was an adept of the machine god, and then only long enough for the adept to deactivate the warding spirits of the ships Geller Field. With this down, the entities of the warp poured into the ship, slaughtering at will.
True to their words, the entities of the warp gave Parnelle control of the ship, fusing his spirit into its adamtite body. The few crew still alive, and those whose spirits were not shreded morsels of horror, were bound to the ship, given over to Parnelle.
How does that sound?
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Post by Sojourner on Mar 21, 2004 13:28:33 GMT -5
*cough*
We already have a ghost ship story...
Two, actually.
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Post by malika on Mar 21, 2004 13:29:29 GMT -5
We do? which ones? where?
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Post by CELS on Mar 21, 2004 14:26:11 GMT -5
I believe Minister has already suggested the idea of a ghost ship, yes. I don't think the idea was ever developed, but I recall a suggestion about the destruction of an Imperial ship appearing in space as some kind of echoing warp phenomenon. Oh, and I knew about this when I suggested that D (aka hairyheretic) should post this on the forum, because A) The different ideas about ghost ships can be combined, and we can have several legends about the same phenomenon. Some will say that the ghost ship is merely a warp echo, bringing no harm other than bad luck. Others will say that it is a chaos-damned possessed ship, feeding on death and destruction. We can even have pirates exploiting these ghost stories; attacking mining installations in asteroids, flooding comm-channels with ghostly screams and whispers to scare away any defense ships, and then raiding the mining installations, leaving no survivors. B) There's been no talk about the other ghost ship(s) lately, so I see no reason why the Revenant idea can't be developed. Unless anyone objects, the other ideas have been abandoned. Sounds good to me. How would you feel about decreasing the size of the Revenant though, to play with the masquerading pirates idea? Maybe make it a light cruiser?
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Post by hairyheretic on Mar 21, 2004 15:08:06 GMT -5
Chaos doesn't really have anything in the light cruiser range. I suppose thats not that partciularly big of a deal. We could easily change it to an Imperial light cruiser class, given the back story.
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Post by Sojourner on Mar 21, 2004 16:24:40 GMT -5
The phantom ship story was mine, btw...
And I've forgotten where I wrote it. It's here somewhere.
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Post by CELS on Mar 21, 2004 17:03:49 GMT -5
My most sincere apologies.. Perhaps you can contribute then, and see if we can find a compromise? Or would you rather only use your own idea..?
D, not all chaos ships are chaos-built or pre-heresy. Quite a few have turned or been captured. A possessed light cruiser or a chaos light cruiser are quite valid possiblities.
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