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This is a Background Package for a group of Assassins from my game, they worked out pretty well and proved a nice iconic adversary for the group.
The Hourmen
"The bell tolls for you."
- Hourman designated"VII", transcript from audio reccording, whispered in the ear of victim Fayde Vermont.
Allowable Backgrounds: Mind Cleansed only. Cost: 300xp
The assassin sect going by the monkier of 'The Hourmen' are the creation of the Adrantis-centered organised crime cartel, The Thuring Syndicate. They form the enforcement arm of the syndicate and are skilled in both covert killing and psychological warfare. The Thuring Syndicate is subject of intense inquisitorial scrutiny primarily because its largest trade is in the securing and exploitation of unsanctioned psykers for sale as psi-slaves, and it isthis resource that is crucial in the creation of Hourmen, all of whom are former enemies of the syndicate, their personalities erased and replaced with hypno-doctrination templates by unsanctioned telepaths.
One of the traits that has made the Hourmen so feared is that each one has a period of time correlating to one of the hours of ancient Terra during which they operate at their optimum effectiveness, originally an unwanted stopgap that came into being due to the syndicate possessing imperfect mind-cleansing facilities, outside this sixty-minute window of time they become psychologically unstable and will often flee to reattempt their mission during he next time window if they are unable to complete it within the hour. While something of a serious flaw in the creation of the Hourmen the fear engendered by this bizarre, ritualistic pattern in their attacks, coupled with their lethal skill, has nevertheless enhanced their effectiveness as a terror-weapon, elevating them above mere killers in the minds of their quarries and transforming them into nigh-daemonic figures of impending doom.
Hourmen are often reseeded into the general populace after their creation and work common blue-collar jobs until triggered via their command-word and assigned their mission. Some, however, break their conditioning and turn against their creators and are readily tracked down and employed by the Ordo Hereticus for use against the Thuring Cartel...though not before altering their trigger command and ensuring they are watched very carefully.
Effects Apply the following changes to your character: Skills: You begin the game with Ciphers (Thuring Code) (Int), Concealment (Ag), Interrogation (Wil) and Intimidate (str). Talents: you gain the Unremarkable talent. Corruption: You start with 1d5 corruption points as a result of being subject to the psychic powers of unsantioned psykers. Equipment: replace corpse-hair charm with a black-faced pocket chron set to terran time that also functions as a charm. The Appointed Hour (Trait): You have an Electoo on some concealable part of your body, usually the chest or shoulder, that depicts a roman numeral 1-12. The electoo is programmed to only be visible during the time in which the hour in the Emperors throne-room on Holy Terra is equal to the hour it displays, both AM and PM. When the electoo is visible the Hourman gains a tempoary Fate Point that is lost if not spent within the hour and gains a +10 bonus to any Intimidation checks agains anyone who knows or suspects that he is an Hourman, which is usually automatic agains anyone with Common Lore (Underworld) providing the electoo is visible. Once the electoo disappears the houman suffes a -10 penalty on all pinning tests for the next eleven hours, until the next interval.
New Rules 
