deathwatch relics

•	Jovian Cutter) A one-handed Power Blade of exquisite balance.  The blade is shaped like a medieval Terran arming sword and embossed with the sigil of the Forge Moon of Gantz.  The blade was a gift from the Adeptus Mechanicus stationed there to maintain the Titans of the Legio Praesagius, after a Kill-Team from Watch Fortress Dascomb rooted out a genestealer cult that had spread among the Legio’s support staff.  Grumbling among the Deathwatch’s Techpriests would hold it that the Gantz Tech-clergy made the gift as much as a bribe for silence over their shame in failing to detect the cult as it was a genuine offering of respect and gratitude.  Regardless, it is artificed and crafted to absurd heights of precision and durability, and often sees use by the Brothers of Dascomb in battle against the thick hide of the Ork.
•	Vacuum Bulwark) At one point, this tower shield was the property of the native Chapter of Space Marines, the Blue Daggers.  However, this solidly-crafted Thunder Shield changed hands when First Company Veteran Brother-Sergeant Alsterwicz gave his life to protect the sarcophagi of two downed Deathwatch Dreadnoughts that had been disabled by an EMP bomb in battle against Chaos-worshipping aliens in the Cloudburst Circuit.  In honor of his sacrifice, the Blue Daggers allowed the Deathwatch to keep his masterwork Thunder Shield, to ensure that the Vigil never forgets the hero the Chapter lost that day.
•	Eraser) This weapon is new enough that calling it a ‘relic’ is something of a misnomer.  However, while some may contest its status as an artifact, none could contest its power.  This is no mere Conversion Beamer.  This weapon, the product of the tempermental genius of Forgemaster Asutori of the Bone Knives, is a shoulder-fired Conversion Beamer that uses a microgravitic stabilizer similar to the ones used on Fire Wasps to board Space Hulks.  The weapon is bulky and runs quite hot, but its effect on enemy armor and buildings is nothing short of horrifying.  Instead of a single energetic conversion beam, the device uses a tiny laser rangefinder to zero three smaller, converging beams on a target.  Thus, the target does not slowly convert to energy in a process that ends in a single large explosion.  Instead, the target is wildly thrown about as jets of energy and destabilized matter erupt from the impact site as the antimatter beams jostle each other.  This has the effect of dissolving the target very rapidly, with no explosion at the end.  Given the sheer cost of the weapon and Asutori’s lack of notes, the weapon will likely remain unique.
•	Castigant) No Chaplain would be seen taking to the field without a Crozius Arcanum at their side, and the Castigant is unique among them.  This was the first relic bequeathed to the Watch Fortress Dascomb by visiting Marines.  The Castigant is an ancient Crozius, dating back to at least the Eighth Founding, although it is bereft of any icons or Chapter sigils.  Like most Croziuses Arcanum, the Castigant sheathes a stave in a potent energy field that disrupts matter.  Unlike most, the energy field of the Castigant can be independently modified by a technician prior to use in the field, to render the power field invisible, brilliantly glowing, sheathed in flame, sparking with electricity, or other visual effects.  This allows the weapon to be fine-tuned to the needs of a circumstance.
•	Ghost Finder) The Deathwatch holds the unhappy responsibility of second contact with many alien races, if the first contact was found to merit the race’s extinction.  While no Brother of the Deathwatch would be anything but pleased to see xenos species rendered extinct, the first contact with hostile aliens is rarely one that allows the Imperium of Man a detailed understanding of those aliens’ strengths, numbers, anatomical features, and other combat factors.  The auspex known as Ghost Finder was designed specifically for the Deathwatch and built on the Forge World of Cognomen for the purpose of scanning and recording the most expansive and esoteric information about any possible life form.  This model of auspex was originally designed by the Raven Guard, and has proliferated slowly to the Forge Worlds that supply the Deathwatch over the centuries. Bulkier than usual but quite robust, Ghost Finder can track any object the user manually confirms to be a life-form, through walls, water, total darkness, sub-zero temperatures, and even hard vacuum.  The machine tirelessly records data about whatever is tagged as a life-form, in rich detail, and serves thusly as a cataloguer as well as a tool of battle.  After all, the Deathwatch is usually the first organization to whom Rogue Traders and Inquisitors turn when an alien race suddenly reappears after being declared extinct, and it would not do for the Deathwatch to be lacking information about defeated foes.
•	The Smith’s Glove) Many find this relic annoying.  Its performance in combat is sterling, and its Machine Spirit easily supplicated and hungry for blood, but the name is quite offensive.  The Celestial Knights Chapter, an ancient Successor of the Dark Angels, holds it to be that the Iron Hands and Salamanders had the same Primarch, a being they call The Smith.  This weapon was bequeathed as a gift from the Chapter to the Deathwatch, to help bind together their alliance against the hated Glasians, but the Knights’ insistence on naming it after a being that transparently did not exist vexes the Salamander and Iron Hands brothers of the Vigil.  In combat, however, it is extraordinarily effective, and cleaves through ceramite, titanium, plasteel, and ferrocrete as if they were not there.  Between the need to maintain close ties with the well-equipped Knights and the weapon’s admirable effectiveness, the Deathwatch shall probably not choose to change its name any time soon.
•	Alloy-Bane) The Doom Eagles are an ancient and well-honored, if somewhat moody and dour, Chapter of Ultramarine Successors.  In the never-ending task of shielding the easternmost portions of the galaxy from aliens that dwell beyond the range of easy reprisal for attacks, the Chapter has developed a need to repulse and destroy foul xenos armor as rapidly as can be safely managed.  Rather than build up their own armor fleet, however, the mobile and rapid Chapter has built weapons such as these.  The Alloy-Bane is a cut-down and light multimelta that uses two parallel thermic expansion coils and a tight zero to punch through nearly any metallic substance.  Built with its barrels side-by-side and drawing power from the backpack feed of the user, this weapon is wielded like a comically-oversized shotgun by Assault Marines of the Deathwatch, punching through tanks and bunkers and darting away before escorting infantry can retaliate.  Quite how these rare thermal weapons could have parted from their origin Chapter is unclear, but Watch Fortress Dascomb’s records claim the weapon was abandoned by a Doom Eagle sometime in the 900.M39 era with no further detail.
•	Wildfire Engine) Flamers are especially useful in large-scale operations of xeno extermination.  The cleansing power of fire against spores and emissions of aliens is well-documented and easily-verified.  For the same reason that the Blue Daggers like to use combi-Flamers on their bolters, the Deathwatch often brings this beautiful Heavy Flamer with them when doing battle against large numbers of aliens in the field.  The Celestial Lions donated this weapon to the Deathwatch in 420.M41, and the Techmarines of Dascomb are grateful for their willingness to part with this work of art.  The flamer’s hull is made of an expensive alloy of tungsten, titantium, and adamantine that is effectively immune to all small-arms fire and thermal damage.  The alloy is difficult to work and must be forged at insanely high temperatures, which apparently did not stop the master smiths that forged it from decorating its every inch with expressive imagery of Space Marines setting whole alien towns and armies aflame.  Its flames burn dark blue with air-rippling heat, matching the subtle gradients of metal color in its case and making the flames look like part of the weapon itself.  It is a treasured tool of Dascomb’s elite Kill-teams, who rarely take to the field in large numbers without it.
•	Tome of Hatred) This book was donated to the Watch Fortress Dascomb by a pair of Emperor’s Falchions Chaplains who were invited to the Fortress specifically for a mission.  Among the very first missions undertaken by direct Inquisitorial request after Dascomb was finished and set in its place, it was an unqualified failure that saw millions slaughtered by ravenous alien marauders from a mongrel fleet of multi-racial spacers, driven mad by exposure to Warp energies from the Terminus Shock Warp Storms.  After the mission, the two Chaplains together crafted this metal-clad book of prayers, historical anecdotes, tactical advice, and doctrinal chastisements for the Deathwatch to encourage and enable success in later missions.  This book instills a certain superstition in the Marines who see it, thanks to its ugly history and biting tone of critical recrimination, towards any Marine who would deserve the recitation of its contents in the field.  Marines in Kill-teams whose Chaplain feels the need to bring along this book fight like men possessed.