Fral Leman

Man of Action, Man of Legend, Hope for Hire

I wanted to tell ya about a certain Dark Heresy character (from 1st Edition) that effectively won at Grimdark. I know what your thinking: "That's stupid, you can't do that. Trying to be a Henderson ripoff? GTFO!". Well I assure you that, he was truly a character in of his own right and beyond. Henderson he ain't, but every time I ran a game including him after the first, it became an express intent to kill him - as for the time I was trying to set the example for what Dark Heresy was.

There were no action heroes in Dark Heresy. Well, I guess I fucked up since a truly stupidly impossible character came from it. Sit awhile and listen to the tale of the Man of Action, the Man of Legend, Fral "Motherfucking" Leman.

Beginnings

It started one day with my party and I wanted to create a more high-end, action-adventure style story where my Players could succeed and then fail at some of the truly insurmountable obstacles. If I recall correctly, it involved a mad Planetary Governor/former inter-Sector Trade Syndicate Lord, an Insane Inquisitor who had a massive love for Pre-Heresy era Space Marines, and his son of whom he had turned into an almost complete Space Marine through his many decades of "acquiring" pieces. The goal of the adventure was your typical "prove guilt, then Take-down", however it was suppose to turn into a rescue of sorts for the Inquisitor's son. Needless to say, nothing went according to plan.

My Players had three characters lined up: one was my best friend, a Psyker who specialized in Biomancy (and rule-lawyer'd me to death about "Shape Flesh"), the other, my cousin, I think he was an Assassin (who, regardless of class, had an unhealthy love for Grenades), and lastly, my brother, a Guardsman (displaying himself as a freelance-type, complete with business card). He specified to me that, Fral Leman was going to do everything in the most awesome ways he could think of, because he wanted that. I scoffed inside with a daemonic smile and figured he'd be death within minutes. Oh how wrong I was, and butt hurt over the next dozen differing games. But that's a different story for a later time.

They arrived on an "Imperial" world at the time, more a cross-between Hive & Agri. The central city was kind of obvious, so was where the governor had taken roost. A giant-ass odd construction that was in the center of the city and easily poked through the clouds. The party decides to go into the city to evaluate the conditions of everything, and see the city has been immensely fortified by the PDF with resources that they should likely not have (Chimera's, fortified Heavy Bolter positions, Automated Multi-Laser Defense Systems, etc.). Mind you, all their characters are starting level. Now, unfortunately, I vaguely remember the next portion, but I know the broad strokes.

The group was originally suppose to go to a multi-tiered hab-structure to find their contact, some typical lookout guy, and gaining a bunch of information on their target afterwards with stakeouts and stuff. Unfortunately, one point or another, Fral Leman hijacks a Chimera from somewhere I don't recall, and uses it to help blend in. Works perfectly, but when the party is directed to another Hab-structure, this one much closer to the Planetary Governors citadel, my trap is sprung. Fral Leman waits outside in the Chimera (his particular model has an industrial tow-hook) while the rest of the party ventures up the lift to the topmost floor. They hear a hoard of squealing delight rampaging upwards from underneath the structure. Fral Leman decides it is a good idea to seal the entrance with the Multi-Laser turret (foiling the "mutants swarm, you die" I tried throwing at him), forcing the mutants up the Hab-Block and towards the rest of the party. The others are effectively screwed since they didn't listen to any Officer channels to find out their new hideout was already compromised. Needless to say, I gave them the perforated skeleton and clothes clue. I can't remember what happened next, either the Assassin died in a hail of shots from two Turrets armed with two Twin-Linked Multi-Lasers, or they ventured out over the construction scaffolding. Either way, Fral Leman seemed not too content with waiting around, and using the the tow-hook, latched on to the roof of the structure. And so, however unlikely, Fral Leman was riding a Chimera up the side of a multi-storied structure while the party was trying to survive. Eventually, once he reached the top, to cable snapped and the Chimera plummeted to destruction. The party were running on the outside of the building, on the scaffolding and around the turrets that fired at them while mutants chased them. Not bad for our first session.

Long story short, they survived and made it in to the "safe room", and prepared for their next step - Infiltration.

I'll continue in time, but the story is long and hard to remember. Have fun with these in the meantime, however, the one's I placed are true:

Acts of Legend

Rallied mentally-disturbed Imperial forces while the end seemed nigh.

Ended an oncoming daemonic incursion single-handedly.

Survived the crashing of a starship from low orbit while fighting a possessed Planetary Governor.

Acts of Actions

Defeated a Chaos Beast in the void the size of a Battleship.

Power Fist'd a Chaos Terminator Lord back into the warp while coming at him at full-speed from a Imperial Fighter.

Killed hundreds of rampaging Cultists with plenty of his personally made explosives, while also taking down 4 Alpha Legion Chaos Marines in Close Quarters Combat (at the same time).