Weapons27

The arco-flail is the Arco-flagellant's arc-shock cestus — a mass of flailing electrodes and blades bolted to a penitent's wrists where its hands once were. A Melee weapon carrying Shock and Frenzy, its Strength and AP are modest; its menace is the sheer number of blows a maddened Arco throws with it, more still when the frenzon surge is upon the cyborg. There is no artistry in it and none is wanted. Field it as the only weapon its wielder will ever hold — the tool that drives the disposable cyborg into the enemy line to rend until it is finally cut down.

The penitent buzz-blades are the paired, walker-mounted saws of the Penitent Engine and Mortifier — great shrieking discs of teeth driven by the chained sinner within. A Melee weapon with Rending and Two-handed, at S+4 and -3 AP it tears through armour and flesh alike, the signature din of a penitent walker at close quarters. Nothing smaller than the engines that carry them can wield them. Field them as the reason those walkers are the anchor of the charge: once a buzz-bladed Engine reaches a line, little in front of it stays standing.

The Bleeding Petal is the Order's relic eviscerator, borne by the Repentia Mistress or the Canoness — a two-handed chain-greatblade sanctified in the blood of the martyrs who carried it. A Melee weapon of Power and Rending bearing the Relic mark, Unwieldy and Two-handed like its base pattern, it strikes at S+3 with -3 AP and 3 Damage, a full point past any common eviscerator. Its cruelest gift is faith: a kill made with the Petal feeds the Faith pool beyond its usual rail — the martyr's blade that reaps and replenishes at once. Field it in the hands that lead the charge, where a single swing is both a killing blow and a coin for the next miracle.

The blessed blade is a saint's relic sword in the lesser tradition — a power-sword blade re-forged around reliquary bone, its fuller etched with litanies and its edge sanctified against the enemies of the Faith. It carries the Melee, Power and Parry of the officer's sword, turning a stroke aside as gracefully as it opens one, but the Blessed trait is its true purpose: the sanctified edge bites deeper into the daemon and the witch, and the Sister who bears it seeks those foes out rather than shying from them. It is the weapon of a champion trusted to hunt the unclean, a lesser echo of the great named relics, and it hums in the hand when the true enemy is near.

The boltgun is the disciplined workhorse of the Sisterhood's firing line — a mass-reactive bolt weapon that punches through flak and carapace where a lasgun would only scorch it. Its Rapid Fire (1) rewards the Sister who holds her ground and pours a steady rhythm of shells into the advancing enemy, and its bite is enough to fell most infantry with a single blessed round. It is the first of the three sacred patterns and the weapon in most Sisters' hands, the sound of its firing as much a hymn as the litanies they chant over it.

The bolt pistol is the boltgun's shorter kin — a one-handed mass-reactive weapon carried by Sisters and their Superiors alike, ideal for the fighter who means to close and cut. As a Pistol it can be fired into the press of melee, letting a Sister blow a hole in her foe before the blades even meet. It gives up the boltgun's reach for the freedom of a hand kept ready on a sword-hilt, the sidearm of a warrior who trusts the killing will end at arm's length.

The Castigator battle cannon is the Sisterhood's main tank gun — a heavy, turret-slung cannon that throws shells in a rapid, punishing cadence and bursts them among the enemy. It is a direct-fire weapon that wants a clear line and a hard target: a Predator-class killer that cracks light armour and fells heavy troopers alike, its Blast catching the fireteam that huddles behind the one it kills. Where the Exorcist arcs its sermon over walls, the Castigator looks its foe in the eye and answers with mass. Its Strength reaches deep enough to gut a transport's flank, and its cadence lets it worry a target rather than gamble everything on a single strike. Unwieldy and dear, it anchors a battle-line rather than flanks one, the armoured fist of an Order that means to hold the ground it has sanctified.

The chainsword is the faithful blade of close war — a roaring loop of monomolecular teeth that tears through flesh and light armour as a Sister prays over the wound. It carries the Melee, Parry and Rending traits, a weapon that guards its bearer as readily as it savages her foe, chewing through plate that would turn a lesser edge. Common to every rank and cheap enough to arm a whole line, it is what a Sister reaches for when the shooting is done and the litany becomes slaughter. Reliable, vicious, and never quiet.

The relic combi-flamer is a Ministorum combi-bolter with a consecrated hand-flamer grafted beneath the barrel, a two-souled weapon carried by an officer who wants both the disciplined bolt and the cleansing flame in a single blessed frame. It fires as a Rapid Fire bolt weapon in the ordinary run of a fight, the Sister pouring a steady rhythm of shells down the range; but its Combi trait holds a second promise, and once in a battle she may loose the paired flame profile — a Blaze that washes over a knot of the enemy where the bolt would only pick at them. It is a shrine as much as a gun, its casing worked with litany and reliquary bond, reserved for the hand trusted to spend that one flame at the moment it decides the fight.

The combi-weapon marries a boltgun to a single sacred pattern of flamer, melta or plasma, a master-crafted arm borne by Superiors and Canonesses who want two answers in one grip. It fires as a Rapid Fire (1) bolter for the length of a battle, with the Combi trait holding its paired special profile in reserve for the one moment that demands it. A Sister carries it to keep the discipline of the bolt shell close at hand while saving a single killing blast for the enemy's champion or its armour. One weapon, two doctrines, and the wisdom to know when to spend the rarer one.

The condemnor boltgun pairs a bolter with a blessed stake-crossbow, a witch-hunter's weapon built to end sorcerers as surely as heretics. It fires like any boltgun, but its Anti-psyker trait makes it death to the warp-touched — a consecrated stake through the heart of the enemy's psyker, driving the fear of the Emperor into any mind that survives it. A Sister of the Ordo Hereticus carries one where witches walk, trusting the sacred bolt and the sanctified stake to unmake what unclean power protects. Against the sorcerer it is judgement given a trigger.

The eviscerator is a two-handed chain-greatblade, a slab of screaming teeth as tall as the Sister who swings it — the chosen weapon of the Repentia seeking absolution in one great stroke. It carries the Melee, Power, Rending, Two-handed and Unwieldy traits: a slow, ruinous arc that shears through armour and body alike and cares nothing for what it cannot cut. Its weight makes it clumsy to bring around, so it rewards the fighter who commits wholly to the swing and trusts her faith to see it land. When it does, little of the enemy remains to bury.

The Exorcist missile launcher is the great armoured pipe-organ of the Sisterhood — a raised rack of blessed tubes that sings its sermon in salvos of guided warheads. Its Indirect Fire arcs each blessed missile over wall and ridgeline to fall on foes who thought a corner kept them safe, and its Blast scatters a whole knot of massed infantry with a single hymn. Where the Whirlwind of the Chapters throws lighter warheads, this launcher answers with a full step more Strength and armour-cracking bite — the dearest artillery a gang of Sisters will ever field, and the reason no position on the board is truly beyond the Emperor's reach. It is Unwieldy and slow to cycle, wanting a hull built around it and a spotter to feed it targets, and it rewards both by making distance and cover a lie. When it speaks, it speaks as judgement.

The flamer is the third sacred pattern — a gout of blessed promethium that washes over the enemy in a cleansing sheet of fire. With the Template and Blaze traits it needs no aim, only a direction, and it punishes any foe foolish enough to bunch together or shelter behind cover. To the Sisterhood, fire is purity made manifest, and the flamer is the purest answer to the massed and the unclean. A Sister who carries one is the terror of a crowded advance, leaving the enemy line burning and its survivors still alight as they flee.

The frag grenade is the faithful line's thrown answer to a cluster of foes — a fragmentation charge lobbed into cover to scatter and stun whatever shelters there. It carries the Blast and Knockback traits, catching a knot of enemies at once and hurling the survivors back off their footing. A Sister uses it to break up a massed charge or flush a stubborn foe from behind a barricade, softening the enemy for the bolt and the blade that follow. Cheap, common, and carried by nearly every hand in the Sisterhood.

The hand flamer is a flame weapon shrunk to a single fist — a sidearm gout of blessed promethium favoured by Seraphim who bring fire on the wing. It carries the Pistol, Template and Blaze traits, so a Sister can loose it into the press of melee or wash a doorway as she drops from above. What it gives up in reach and strength against the full flamer, it repays in the freedom of a hand kept ready for a blade. A brief, roaring benediction delivered up close, and gone as fast as the Sister who wields it.

The heavy bolter is the Retributor's thunder — a crew-served bolt weapon that hurls a storm of heavy shells down the length of the battlefield. Its Rapid Fire (3) makes it the anchor of the firing line, chewing through infantry and light armour in bursts a boltgun could never sustain, while its Unwieldy bulk keeps it in the hands of a braced, patient Sister rather than a runner. Set it, sight it, and let the sacred fusillade fall. Where the enemy comes in numbers, the heavy bolter is the answer that thins them before they ever close.

The heavy flamer is the sacred cleansing at its fiercest — a great roaring tongue of blessed promethium that engulfs whole squads in a single pass. It carries the Template, Blaze and Unwieldy traits, a Retributor's weapon too heavy to run with but devastating once it is brought to bear. Where the flamer scours, the heavy flamer immolates, its Strength enough to burn through armour the lighter pattern only blisters. A Sister carries it into the enemy's densest ground and turns their advantage of numbers into a pyre. Purity through fire, delivered in overwhelming measure.

The inferno pistol is a melta sidearm, a short-barrelled fusion weapon that flashes armour to slag at close range. It carries the Pistol and Melta traits, giving a Canoness or Seraphim a one-handed answer to a walker or a heavily-armoured champion that no bolt could crack. Its range is punishingly short — it must be pressed almost to the target — but within that span nothing is safe, plate and hull alike running like wax. A Sister carries one for the single moment a battle turns on killing something that ought to be unkillable, and trusts her faith to carry her close enough to use it.

The krak grenade is the faithful line's thrown answer to armour — a shaped charge that concentrates its blast into a single armour-rending punch rather than a spread of fragments. It is death to Brutes and vehicles, cracking a hull or a walker's plate where a frag would only rattle it, and its Scarce trait means a Sister carries only a precious few. She saves them for the target that must fall and cannot be outshot: the enemy engine, the towering brute, the machine grinding toward her line. One well-placed prayer and one well-placed charge, and the unstoppable is stopped.

The meltagun is the second sacred pattern — a fusion weapon that reduces armour to running slag in a single blinding pulse. With the Melta trait it is the Sisterhood's chosen answer to walkers, tanks and the heaviest infantry, its short reach demanding a Sister close the distance under fire before she can loose it. Within that range there is no armour it respects and little it cannot open. A Dominion or Battle Sister carries one to break exactly what the boltgun cannot, trusting faith and the Shield of Faith to see her close enough for the killing flash.

The multi-melta is the meltagun grown to a heavy weapon — a multi-barrelled fusion cannon that unmakes armour in a wide, searing bloom. It carries the Melta, Blast and Unwieldy traits, a Retributor's or Paragon's weapon that answers not one target but a cluster of them, boiling through a knot of vehicles or heavy infantry at once. Too heavy to run with, it rewards the braced Sister who picks her moment and lets the sacred fire fall where it does the most ruin. When the enemy brings armour in numbers, the multi-melta is the Sisterhood's promise that none of it will reach the line.

The neural whip is the overseer's lash — a barbed energy scourge borne by the Repentia Superior who drives the penitents to their atonement. It carries the Melee and Shock traits, less a killing tool than a goad, its crackling touch enough to stagger a foe and jolt the condemned forward into the enemy. In the Superior's hand it is discipline and cruelty in equal measure, the reminder that the road to absolution runs only forward. Against an enemy caught by its lash, the shock buys the moment a Sister needs to finish what the whip began.

The penitent flail is a mortification chain turned into a weapon — Repentia scourge-links and a censer-head bound to a hafted flail, the instrument of self-punishment swung now at the enemy instead of the self. It reaches past a shorter blade to catch a foe on the step of engagement, and its whirling censer-head strikes with a Shock that overwhelms as much as it wounds, the Rending links finding the gap in any plate they wrap. It is the penitent's own agony made external, carried by a fighter who has already surrendered her body to the flagellant's road and asks only that every swing count for absolution.

The power maul is a hammer wreathed in a disruptive field — a heavier, blunter cousin of the power sword that trades finesse for sheer crushing weight. It carries the Melee, Power and Shock traits, driving a foe to the ground as often as it kills outright, its energised head splitting armour and jolting the body beneath. A Sister Superior favours it where the enemy comes armoured and stubborn, using its shock to break their footing and their nerve alike. When a target must be beaten down rather than cut apart, the maul is the faithful answer.

The power sword is the blessed blade of the officer caste — a sword sheathed in a disruptive field that parts armour like cloth. It carries the Melee, Power and Parry traits, a weapon of both killing and defence, turning aside an enemy stroke as gracefully as it opens one. A Sister Superior or Canoness bears it as a mark of rank and a promise of skill, the elegant answer where the eviscerator is the brutal one. In a duel it rewards the trained hand above the strong one, cutting clean where faith and discipline guide the edge.

The storm bolter is a twinned boltgun, two linked barrels that double the weight of sacred fire a Sister can bring to bear. Its Rapid Fire (2) makes it a step above the standard bolter for the Superior or veteran who wants to anchor the line with a heavier volley, drowning an advancing enemy in mass-reactive shells. It keeps the reach and reliability of the boltgun while nearly doubling its output, the weapon of a Sister who means to hold ground and make the holding cost the enemy dearly. Twice the shells, twice the hymn, twice the dead.