The Martyred Line is how the Order spends what its faith earns. It draws on Acts of Faith — the shared pool that rises whenever a Sister is martyred — but where other Orders pour that faith into the charge or the redeploy, the Martyred Lady leans every miracle into standing still and shooting. When Battle Sisters and Retributors make no move in a round, they fight as a single holding line, and the controlling player spends the pool on Divine Guidance to guide the bolt, Light of the Emperor to hold the nerve, and the Emperor's Aegis to turn the incoming blow. A fighter of the line that did not move also gains the extra shot of Storm of Wrath. The Order calls on no faith but the one every Sister shares; it invents nothing new, and simply refuses to leave the ground it has consecrated. It is a wall of fire that wants to be shot at — every wound it takes makes another martyr, and every martyr is fuel for the next miracle.
Signatures3
Acts of Faith are the beating heart of the Sisterhood — a single gang-wide pool of Faith that any faithful fighter may spend to call a miracle. The pool opens each battle with a single point of Faith, the reliquary carried into the field. Thereafter it grows through sacrifice: whenever a friendly fighter goes Seriously Injured or Out of Action, the martyr's fall adds a point; whenever a friendly fighter takes an enemy Out of Action in melee, the righteous kill adds another. No more than two points may be gathered this way in a single round, the pool never holds more than six, and each fighter may benefit from at most one Act in a round. A gang that neither bleeds nor kills calls no miracles.
Faith is spent on discrete miracles. For one point, a faithful fighter makes a free relentless advance toward the nearest enemy (Spirit of the Martyr), gains +1 Strength and re-rolls failed Hits in melee until the end of the round (The Passion), re-rolls one failed Hit or Wound (Divine Guidance), or lets herself and friendlies within 3" auto-pass their next Nerve or Cool test (Light of the Emperor). For two points, the Emperor's Aegis hardens the Shield of Faith to a 4+ invulnerable against one attack or ignores a wound outright, and the Hand of the Emperor stands a fighter up from Pinned or Prone to act freely, or grants a free 6" redeploy. Endure the wound, then answer with the Emperor's own grace.
The Emperor's Grace is the litany a Canoness or Sister Superior raises once per battle, when faith becomes manifest around her. Until the next round, friendly fighters within 6" may re-roll a failed Act of Faith and re-roll a failed Nerve test, the Champion's presence steadying the line and drawing the miracle out where it faltered. This is the saint's grace projected through her officers — not the Faith pool itself, but a surety that the faithful gathered near her will not be forsaken at the decisive moment. Where the Emperor's Grace shines, no Sister breaks and no miracle is wasted.