Suffering Marshal

"You eluded me in Port Suffering. Your trail was faint through the wastelands, but I caught wind of your passing at Misk. You stayed out of sight, but your comrades let slip your destination before I gave them the justice of my boltgun. Finally, I find you here. You have run as far as you can, Vai Los, but you shall elude me no longer. Justice belongs to the God-Emperor, but your death shall be mine."
—Stavlar Darius, Suffering Marshal
Iocanthos is a harsh and brutal world, known for its chief
export of Ghostfire, a crop used to make combat drugs.
Many lawless criminals and scoundrels make use of the
vast stretches of untamed wild and the feuding warlords
to evade prosecution and cheat the fate they so rightfully
deserve. Indeed, it is fairly common for more skilled
fugitives to flee to Iocanthos with whatever resources they
can manage in an attempt to build a new powerbase. It takes
a stalwart and resourceful agent to track down this sort of
criminal---a man whose dedication to the Imperium and its
laws drives him on, alone, for as long as it takes to catch
those who would jeopardies the harvest of Ghostfire. This
can often take months, and a Suffering Marshal must remain
true to his purpose for the duration. For
this reason, only those Arbitrators with
specific qualities are chosen for the
arduous duty of Suffering Marshal---those steadfast in their love of the law,
those who have shown an aptitude for
the hunt, a cunning mind, and a ready
willingness to adapt to any situation
or environment. It is these sorts of men
and women who are chosen by their
superiors to hunt down and mete out justice
to dangerous gang leaders on Iocanthos.
Stationed at the small Precinct house
on Iocanthos, Suffering Marshals are a
necessary deviation from typical Adeptus Arbites practice. The world's unique crop
and the tentative stability created by King Skull make larger military actions
questionable. While King Skull
(and many other Vai) respect
the authority of the Suffering
Marshals, it would be politically
unwise to move in force to take
a quarry who threatens the
Ghostfire tithe. To this end, Judge Porvin created the Suffering
Marshals to be roving agents
throughout the outskirts of Port Suffering and beyond. Granted
wide jurisdiction through the
whole of the planet, Suffering
Marshals are free from the usual bureaucracy and oversight of
the traditional Adeptus Arbites. This gives Suffering Marshals
a great deal of personal discretion in so far as how they go
about their duties, a necessity of their work, but one that many
more traditional Arbites consider to be dangerous. Given too
much operational leeway, these traditionalists fear, a Suffering
Marshal will become a law unto himself, a violent predator,
and a disgrace to the reputation of the Adeptus Arbites. In
order to avoid this outcome, the Precinct Marshals only
nominate the most steadfastly loyal members of the Imperium
of Mankind to the Iocanthos post of Suffering Marshal, often
pulling from those Arbitrators who have served an Inquisitor
and are accustomed to acting with such authority.
While each Marshal is called upon sooner or later to
track down specific fugitives and deliver the righteous
punishment of his Arbites, it is also their duty to know
intimately the frontiers in which these criminals will
eventually try to hide. They are free to travel the planet,
with massive banners to signal their position and to the
locals. Called "Flags" by many, local settlements and
tribes will flock to the Marshal for judgment in tribal
affairs. In this way, these solitary agents of the Adeptus
Arbites become experts of the customs, environments, and
populations of dozens of frontier outposts and locales,
and are adept at learning new customs quickly. When they
are not actively hunting a quarry, it is their prerogative
to familiarize themselves with the stretches of Iocanthos.
In many such places Suffering Marshals are welcome
operatives of a distant Adeptus Terra, known and trusted
by local tribal chiefs and leaders. In others, they are
considered as good as the criminals they hunt---violent
vigilantes or harsh agents of an unwanted, tyrannical
Imperium. Regardless of their reputation, it is the duty
of each Suffering Marshal to cultivate contacts and
personal resources. It is these contacts on which
the Suffering Marshal must rely for information
of the goings on in the surrounding area,
for even men and women as well-travelled
as a Suffering Marshal
cannot possibly know all the
secrets of an entire world.
Suffering Marshals become
adept at making contacts
in new locations and quickly
ferreting out dissenters.
While it is an Inquisitor's
duty to root out heresy and treason,
it is also his duty to apprehend those
who perpetrate such vile crimes against
humanity. To this extent, a Suffering
Marshal's craft is often coterminous
with that of the Inquisition. An
Inquisitor on the hunt for a dangerous
heretic in an unfamiliar region (such as
the Koronus Expanse or Jericho Reach)
would do well to acquire the
services of such an Arbitrator,
for their knowledge and ability
to develop contacts quickly will
surely point the way to the whereabouts of their quarry.
Already tasked with apprehending dangerous criminals, a
Suffering Marshal is the perfect operative to act with his
master's proxy, should an Inquisitor wish to keep his hunt
quiet and leave his own presence hidden from his prey.
As it is a Suffering Marshal's duty to put to death those
who have already been pronounced guilty by the Arbites
courts, they are notoriously unconcerned with evidence
gathering procedure. Their talents and training lie largely
within the scope of tracking their prey, driving them to
ground, and overcoming them in violent confrontation. For
this reason, Suffering Marshals tend to be straightforward,
inelegant individuals, often considered violent and thuggish
by the already blunt-minded Arbites and especially so by
the more technical Adepts. This is also likely the result
of the theatre of operation in which they exist---a harsh
frontier populated by hard-bitten Imperial citizens and
malcontents. In such an unforgiving environment and
among such no-nonsense people, elegance and pretension
are merely signs of weakness, not sophistication. Suffering
Marshals are experts at confronting their quarry man-to-man,
and more often than not a Suffering Marshal's grit
will be put to the test on the wrong end of a bolt-pistol,
though the fugitive able to come out the better for such an
exchange is rare indeed.
==Alternate Career Rank==
The most common means of becoming a Suffering Marshal is
through service to the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. Those
Calixian Arbitrators who show great promise in this area are
usually given a temporary promotion to the rank of Suffering
Marshal and provided a quarry whose capture is the test by
which their worthiness will be measured. They are delivered
to the Precinct in Port Suffering, and expected to return with
their target. In rare circumstances, a criminal will so vex an
Arbitrator that their capture and prosecution becomes his sole
purpose, consuming his every thought and deed. In cases
such as this, an Arbitrator may request special dispensation to
pursue their prey. These sorts only rarely become true Suffering
Marshals, though their experience and accommodation lead
them to similar skills and circumstances.
While only an Arbitrator would be considered for the
assignment to Iocanthos and the rank of a true Suffering Marshal,
the Holy Ordos have been known to send their Acolytes along
with a Suffering Marshal for training. These agents are jokingly
called "suffering fools" but they none-the-less gain the same skills
and training as a Suffering Marshal, if not the title.
Required Careers: Arbitrator, Assassin, Guardsman, or Scum
Alternate Rank: Rank 5 or higher (3,000 XP)
Requirements: Tracking and Shadowing Skills