Apothecary

Description
Space Marine Apothecaries are charged with maintaining the bodily health of their Battle-Brothers, whether this is monitoring their genetically engineered implants or administering emergency medical attention on the field of battle. Only the bravest of warriors are chosen for this honoured duty, for each must look first and foremost to the health of his companions, and consider his own life as secondary. Apothecaries are at once mighty warriors and selfless servants, and each would fight their way through hordes of vile enemies to reach a fallen Battle-Brother and then transfuse the very last drop of his own blood to save the life of the wounded. Deathwatch Apothecaries take on a number of additional duties over those performed in their parent Chapter. For a start, they must master the genetic inheritance not only of their own helix, but of a myriad of other Chapters too, so that they might monitor and maintain the implants of all their fellow Space Marines, each of which may be drawn from a different Chapter. In this matter, Deathwatch Apothecaries occupy a uniquely trusted position. Space Marine Chapters do not lightly share the details of their gene-seed, with its associated traits, variations, and even mutations. Deathwatch Apothecaries are sworn to maintain the secrets of each of the Chapters from which their fellows are drawn, an oath that carries the harshest of penalties should it ever be broken. Aside from monitoring the state of the Space Marines’ implants, the Apothecaries must also be ever alert to the risk of alien contamination. Whilst undertaking their missions, the Deathwatch Kill-team

s are likely to come into contact not only with creatures of utterly alien biology, but with all the bacterial life that accompanies them. While the Space Marines are blessed with the very strongest of immune systems, it is known that the spores of some alien life forms can cause mutation or death even in the Adeptus Astartes. There are some xenos that actually reproduce in this vile manner, their seed infecting the victim and slowly mutating him into the original life form. Such blasphemy must be guarded against, and the Apothecaries administer an entire bank of tests on every member of a Kill-team before and after every mission. Another area in which the Deathwatch Apothecaries are highly involved is that of training. Deathwatch Kill-teams push their bodies to, and beyond, the limits even of their unique physiology, and the Apothecaries must monitor this process closely. But they are a part of the training too, for the Apothecaries often aid the Watch Captains in formulating the most arduous of training regimens.Using his unique knowledge of his charges, the Apothecary can induce various states in his Battle-Brothers, under which their skills and strengths will be tested all the further. Interfacing remotely with a BattleBrother’s armour systems, the Apothecary might disable a limb, limit blood oxygen levels or simulate the effects of any number of poisons, all in the cause of maintaining combat readiness. In battle, an Apothecary carries a number of specialised items of equipment, integrating a variety of tools into a single, wrist-mounted unit. The Apothecary may have crafted many of these himself according to his own needs. He uses a high-powered laser scalpel or an adamantine-toothed chainsaw to cut away ruined armour so that he can treat a Battle-Brother’s wounds, and he administers the panacea of drugs stored within the unit using long syringes. Apothecaries invariably carry a bolt pistol, intended not only for self-defence. One of the most arduous duties they must perform is to end the life and the suffering of a battle brother wounded unto death. Space Marines’ bodies are such a feat of genetic engineering that they are able to sustain horrific injuries and live on. However, there are some wounds that not even an Adeptus Astartes can survive, even though he may remain conscious for some time. The Apothecary must offer the fallen Battle-Brother such words as will ease his passage to the afterlife, where it is believed he will sit at the right hand of his Primarch, or even the Emperor himself. Once the Apothecary has spoken such words that the dying Space Marine needs to hear, a single bolt pistol round is the final mercy that he can administer. The greatest duty that a Deathwatch Apothecary must perform is to recover the gene-seed of a fallen Battle-Brother, so that it may be returned to his parent Chapter, and he may live on through future generations of Space Marines. This is a solemn enough task in a normal Chapter, but takes on an additional weight in the Deathwatch. No Chapter would agree to dispatch its sons across the galaxy to fight at the behest of the Inquisition and other Chapters (some of whom may be rivals), were it not for the certain knowledge that their gene-seed will be returned should they fall. It has been known for a Chapter to temporarily withhold its honour service to the Deathwatch if too many of its Space Marines serving with the Ordo have been killed and their precious gene-seed irretrievably lost. Thus, the survival of a Space Marine’s parent Chapter and the reputation of the Deathwatch itself relies on the action of the Apothecaries.

Skills

 * Medicae (Trained Advanced)

Special Ability
Choose one:
 * Guardian of Purity - The Apothecary’s careful monitoring of his Battle-Brothers’ gene-seed means that any Space Marine in a Kill-team that includes the Apothecary reduces all Corruption Points he suffers by 2 (to a minimum of 1), as long as the Apothecary has access to his narthecium.
 * Create Toxins - Once per day, the Apothecary can create a virulent poison that he can hand out to the members of his Kill-team to help destroy a particular enemy. The Apothecary needs a tissue sample of a particular enemy, his narthecium, and one hour to create the toxins. Once the toxin is applied, the Kill-team’s attacks in the next combat all have the Toxic quality against the enemy type (Tyranid, Tau, etc.) for a number of rounds equal to the Apothecary’s Intelligence Bonus. Creatures with the Daemonic Trait are not affected by this ability. In order to benefit from this ability, the Space Marines in the Kill-team must be in Squad Mode.
 * Enhance Healing - The Apothecary may restore 1d5 additional Wounds with any successful Medicae Test for First Aid.