Interrogator Veritas

Interrogator Viggio Veritas and what remains of his fellow henchmen. 

As the interrogator and possible heir of Inquisitor Het'fjeld, Veritas has access to a varied array of specialised equipment to help him undertake his mandate. He wears a suit of ancient and highly customised power armour, at least partly concealed by the dark grey robes he almost always wears. Here he can be seen retaining the chequered heraldry of his Master, having chosen to display it on his power armour pauldron. On the other pauldron he has the Imperial Aquilla as a symbol of his devotion, and of the authority he has.

He is armed here with his two most commonly used weapons. The pistol is a needler that he can supply with a variety of toxins, enabling him to incapacitate his foes, rather than kill them outright. This allows Veritas to interrogate, publicly execute, or deal with his captives as he sees fit.

His sword was claimed when he subdued the Beastmen of Skalla, with Veritas choosing to carry it as a symbol of his dominance over them.

Veritas was pivotal in recruiting the Skallarn beastmen into the Imperium, uniting them and showing that they were a viable resource provided they could be successfully lead. The fact that he did this by murdering their leaders with a chaos weapon, Vilegrind, that he took from one of their chieftains after he defeated him is irrelevant. The Beastmen are now loyal to Veritas admiring his strength and combat prowess. Apart from the abhumans, who know more of it than the Interrogator, only Veritas knows the weapon is a Chaos Weapon, with others believing it is a trinket from the primitive world and a symbol of leadership for the beastmen. 

Since he has taken possession, Veritas has learned its true name is Kwiiluucogchul, which is a power word that can activate one of three powers; the ability to reflect psychic attacks, an ability to invoke an aura of protection, and the ability to inflict horrific damage to foes it strikes. The beastmen know it is capable of much more, and are waiting in anticipation for their leader to discover its secrets.

The inquisitor's psychic advisor, Erasmus d'Rake was also present in the retinue when the events on Skalla took place, and suspects the nature of the artefact. This has created animosity between d'Rake and Veritas, who is devoted to keeping the nature of the weapon secret from the Inquisitor until he himself is a member of the Inquisition. d'Rake is the only other surviving member of the retinue, with the others now servo-skulls serving Veritas.

Veritas is one of the old Ordo Malleus inquisitors, and is an unusual sculpt because of the massive cavities that were in the shoulder pauldrons at the back that allowed the power armour backpack to fit. I filled these in with putty, and put a backpack with rear mounted vents that fitted pretty well, albeit at a bit of an angle.

I reasoned that it would be pretty unusual for 2 inquisitors to be working at the same place at the same time (at least amicably), and as I already had an Inquisitor in my narrative I decided that Veritas would be his Henchman Interrogator, and 2IC. However as the Inquisitor is a straight-down-the-line Amalathian, and this model is armed with a daemon weapon, I decided that I needed to address this. So I reasoned that the young apprentice is treading dangerous waters by using a Chaos weapon rather than a daemon weapon. They are distinctly separate in the Realms of Chaos book, and I reasoned that if the Inquisitor is aware of it (as I imagine him as dealing with big ticket items and not being overly involved with the dealings of his underlings), he might be watching his protege with interest, seeing where he goes with it before condemning him, banishing him, publicly executing him or whatever. Anyway, it might turn into an interesting little sub-plot. I also implied (somewhat subtly) that Veritas might be willing to go to extremes in order to protect his secret, with the former war-band now all servo skulls (or likely to become one if the opportunity presents itself in the case of d'Rake the Primaris Psyker).

From a gaming point of view, I imagine that this guy will do more of the legwork, being a more common inclusion in my games, and the inquisitor only showing up for bigger battles.

But the model itself is a great sculpt. If you look over the cavities in the back of it, and the massive pauldrons which aren't everyone's cup of tea, it really has so much character, detail, and tells a story all of it's own. As soon as I primed it grey and looked at that characterful face I knew that this guy was a force to be reckoned with. 

Another great old sculpt that was just a pleasure to paint.