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Psychic Powers

Page 3 of 8

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Astrotelepathy Powers

Astrotelepathy is a highly specialised discipline of telepathy developed and used almost solely by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. The only official users of astrotelepathy outside of the Astra Telepathica are certain Librarians of the Adeptus Astartes. Astrotelepathy emphasises the range of powers, rather than their versatility, and is incredibly hard to use. Most astrotelepathy powers will be virtually useless in a citizen-level adventure, only coming into play in court-level scenarios, or more wide-ranging battlefield-level scenarios (for example, in the Imperial Navy).

The astropath transmits a telepathic message over many light years. The maximum range of this power is equal to the astropath’s Willpower in light years. Messages intended for recipients further away can be sent via astropathic relays, although each relay station along the route must capture and then resend the message. The message can be sent either as a placed sending, normally to a known Adeptus Astra Telepathica outpost, or it can be broadcast to any astropaths who may be listening. Most messages are encrypted by the sender’s client to prevent information falling into the wrong hands.

Normally, a message is equivalent in length to something that could be said in five seconds. There is a –5 penalty to the Psychic test for each additional five seconds that the telepath wishes to add to the length of the message.

Sending a still image requires the astropath to see the image (or a cryptographically scrambled version of it), and imposes a –10 penalty.

Pict- or vox-recordings impose a –20 penalty per five-second fragment, which is doubled if the recording contains both pictures and sound.

Astropathic messages can be sent while still in the warp, although the range is measured from the relative position in real space, and there is an additional –50 penalty to the Psychic test.

Placed sendings allow an astropathic message to be sent to a specific astropath or more generally to a particular Adeptus Astra Telepathica outpost, with no one else able to listen in (except for astropaths using the Monitor power). Note that the recipient (or one of the duty astropaths at a Telepathica outpost) must be using the Astrotelepathic Trance power to successfully receive the message. If the recipients are working for the Imperium and other organisations wealthy enough to afford full-time astropathic monitoring, this will normally be the case. The GM may wish to apply a percentage probability of whether the message is received, depending on how likely it is that there is an on-duty recipient.

The astropath will be able to detect if a message has been successfully received or not, and so it is standard practice to send a brief ‘test message’ to ensure that someone is listening, before sending a complicated or long message that may require a lengthy ritual.

A broadcasted message is sent to all astropathic recipients in range. Because of the way broadcast messages distract the hundreds of incidental astropathic recipients from messages that were intended for them to receive, most are ignored. Emergency distress calls (from planets attacked by aliens or pirates, ships lost in the warp, are normally sent via broadcast astrotelepathy, and will always be accepted by a Telepathica astropath before being passed on to the relevant authorities.

The astropath enters a trance in which he is capable of receiving any astropathic messages sent to him, or any broadcast astropathic messages that come by. Sounds and images (still or moving) can be recorded on psychically-charged data-slates placed in proximity to the astropath.

The astropath can slip into a brief trance, in which time he will detect any and all warp gates within a distance of 10 light years, assuming any are present. In the warp, there is only a 10% chance of this being the case. The usual method of passing on the location of the warp gate is to draw it on a star chart or chart of the solar system, while still entranced. The astropath need not have any knowledge of astro-cartography or astro-navigation in order to do this.

This is a variation on Astropathic Trance where the ability to pick up broadcasted messages is abandoned in favour of being able to tap into messages received by a target astropath. The range of this power is equal to the casting astropath’s Willpower characteristic. All placed sending telepathic or astrotelepathic messages sent or received by the target will also be received by the casting astropath. Sounds and images (still or moving) may be recorded as normal. Intercepted messages will still arrive at their intended recipient, and neither party will be aware that their communication is being monitored.

The astropath is capable of broadcasting a psychic beacon similar to the Astronomican but far less powerful. The range of the signal is a 10 light year radius from the astropath. Within this area of space, a Navigator can guide a ship reasonably safely, even when beyond the range of the Astronomican.

This ability cannot be used from inside warpspace, so an astropath on board a spacecraft cannot provide a signal. However, two ships, each with an astropath able to use this power, can alternate jumps, the stationary vessel projecting a beacon that the moving vessel used as a point of reference.

The astropath can plant a small part of his own essence within the mind of an unwitting target, who will be unaware of this fragment’s presence. The fragment acts as a psychic homing device, allowing the astropath to track the target over long distances (up to 10 miles in dense cities, or up to 1000 miles in open wastelands or in space).

Should the target enter the warp for any reason (usually for the purpose of interstellar travel), the astropath will immediately become aware of the intended destination.

In the warp, the distance at which the homer can be traced is increased to several light years of equivalent real space – this should mean that the astropath’s own vessel is in no danger of being spotted by the target’s ship.

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