Select items from the Codex Heretica (part 1)
Title: The Key
Appearance: This is a small book of medium thickness. The cover is black cloth with a gold key stamped on the front. There is no other information on either the covers or spine. The pages themselves are gilt edged although the printing and overall construction of the book suggests that the book pretends to a level of quality it simply doesn’t have. Despite this, the book itself appears to be in fairly good condition and although it may have the look of a mass-produced copy, only one specimen is known to exist.
History: The Key first turned up several hundred years ago in the possession of a low-status noble on Scintilla. The noble, one Baron Hawthert suddenly burst from obscurity to become one of the most notorious figures at the court. It was said that no woman could resist his charms and he cut a swath of broken hearts and jealous husbands.
After a couple of assassination attempts, Hawthert decided that perhaps he needed some allies and quickly surrounded himself with a coterie of young rakes, all of whom were anxious to learn his arts of seduction. He taught his fellows a systematic method he referred to as “The Key” because it was “the key that unlocked a woman’s heart and thighs”. Although many people dismissed him as a shifty con man preying on the sexually frustrated and gullible, it soon became apparent that many of his students learned something from Hawthert because they were quickly racking up their own impressive collection of heartbroken women
The group also began to gather a different, rather less savory reputation. Wild rumors soon sprouted up about secret rituals and rites that the group was conducting. Whispers of witchcraft and demon-worship were bandied about. Soon those whispers reached the ears of the Inquisition who decided to take a closer look.
It was Inquisitor Pontifex who investigated Baron Hawthert and his crew and discovered a rapidly-building Cult of Slaanesh. During the Brokenhearted’s Revenge, the Inquistor brought fire, blade and bullet to the Court of Scintilla and put several hundred nobles (mostly men) to the test and found them very, very wanting. Baron Hawthert himself was very carefully tortured and revealed that he had fallen to the taint of chaos after following the instructions in a book called The Key. Having already leveled several palace towers in the Revenge, Inquisitor Pontifex was prepared to consign the book to the fire, but Inquisitor Castis intervened and the book was transferred to his care.
Known Powers/Abilities: The book purports to be a foolproof system for psychologically disarming women and making them more easily seduced by the practitioner. This does appear to be the case given the case history of Baron Hawthert and his men. However, while the book makes no overt reference to Chaos or Slaanesh, repeated use of the technique by the reader (and the kinds of men who would stoop to this deception are unlikely to stop using it), renders them susceptible to infiltration by Chaos. Baron Hawthert reported that he was sent dreams and visions at the consummation of his various conquests and through these revelations he created the cult that Pontifex destroyed.