Warp Dabbler

“She would have been just a petty recidivist and peddler of harm, but then the warp found her and she became a true monster. I am just grateful that she is a monster loyal to me.”
–Inquisitor Soldevan, spoken of his Acolyte Lotus Zan
Warp Dabblers, sometimes referred to as warplocks and petty
sorcerers, are individuals tampering often blindly with the
malignant arts of the warp sorcery. Whether cultists, noncompliants,
recidivists or even servants of the Inquisition,
these individuals have had contact with forbidden knowledge
and have decided to succumb to the possibilities it can offer.
These are not true sorcerers or savants of the forbidden, but
instead are dark-hearted warriors, soiled enforcers, spiteful
adepts, and twisted killers who have acquired a degree of
warp lore and have made the perilous decision to put it into
use. Although they may never achieve the terrible heights of
occult power and knowledge that the true masters of sorcery
can, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This knowledge,
in particular, makes most Warp Dabblers very dangerous
indeed.
Warp Dabblers may have walked almost any path before
they begin their dalliance with warp craft. In the case of
recidivist heretics, they may be cultists, criminals, smugglers
or even gang bosses. The intelligence and strength of will
to study the forbidden is not something that all can do, but
should one with the potential be presented with forbidden
power, he will often seize it and put it to imaginative and
horrible use.
The trick for the would-be Warp Dabbler, of course,
is to find information on the immaterium, daemons,
and warp craft in the first place. The Imperium is in
general a closed and ignorant society---in fact, one
of the Inquisition’s vital tasks is to censor and limit
the spread of information deemed ‘dangerous’ or
‘corrupting.’ Meanwhile, the Ecclesiarchy constantly
preaches rhetoric designed to inspire dogmatic
obedience and abject abhorrence of the heretical in
equal measure. To the average Imperial citizen,
an education is an unobtainable luxury,
daemons are distant horrors portrayed in
morality plays, and the warp does not exist.
In this social climate, it is onerous to the
extreme to obtain texts or information
about daemonology, the occult, and
the immaterium. However, it is by no
means impossible. There are few things
more consistent in human nature than
the desire to possess the forbidden and
unobtainable. In the darkest corners of
Imperial society (and all too often, its
loftiest heights), proscribed
texts, forbidden
tomes, and other
instructions in
warp craft can
be bought, traded, and stolen by someone with the right connections
or resources.
The sad irony of this is that due to the Imperium’s tireless
efforts to suppress forbidden malefic knowledge, those
who do manage to obtain such information often have no
understanding of just how dangerous it can be. To them, the
rituals and incantations are just another tool to obtain their
goals, or worse, an amusing dalliance. Only when it is far,
far too late, does the average Warp Dabbler realize how his
actions has doomed him.
That is not to say, however, that Warp Dabblers are not
formidable foes. On the contrary, the combination of low
skill, resourcefulness, and ruthless cunning they need to
obtain the forbidden knowledge in the first place makes
them competent adversaries. In addition, the warp-fueled
powers and daemonic allies they can draw on makes them
even more dangerous. Warp Dabbling crime bosses may take
down rivals with warp entities,
while assassins may use sorcery
to pass unseen and so eliminate
the most heavily guarded of
targets. Cultists may attract
their followers with forbidden
pleasures and dark rewards,
while protecting their secrecy
with hexes and malefic
curses.
All this makes a Warp Dabbler an all-too-common quarry
of the servants of the Inquisition. However, it also makes
such an individual extremely useful to those Inquisitors
willing to use the warp to their own ends. Warp dabbling
Acolytes can call on their knowledge to bend the powers of
the warp to pursue and defeat their targets, or use it to gain
a better understanding of the motives and operations of their
adversaries. There are few truer examples of the very nature
of Radicalism than a Warp Dabbler Acolyte.
== Becoming a Warp Dabbler ==
Becoming a Warp Dabbler requires both motive and
opportunity; the Acolyte must have a source from which
he could acquire Forbidden Knowledge (Warp), Forbidden
Knowledge (Daemonology) or Scholastic Lore (Occult). The
Acolyte’s Inquisitor might be a source of such possibility,
while contact with warp cults or forbidden tomes might be
other possible routes. Once a character chooses to dabble
in warp lore, he must spend an amount of time studying or
being tutored, at the end of which he enters this rank and
gains 2d10 Corruption Points.
Required Career: All except Tech-Priest and Adepta Sororitas
Alternate Rank: Rank 6 or higher (5,000 XP)