Our meeting with the ill-reputed Inquisitor draws to an end, but we do get a bit of further information. The location of the auction is named The House of Ash and Dust, for rather obvious reason, namely it being a crematorium. It is located a few days' travel out in the Balemire Sea, which is as everyone knows a very polluted body of water. Drowing is not the chief danger if one were so unfortunate as to plop into the sea. Or rather, it would be a fierce competition between your lungs filling with water, your skin melting off due to the absurd pollution levels or some giant, mutated sea monster having you for an afternoon snack with its tea. Quite lovely.
Our contact at the auction will be one Loktur Mayweather, who works as a solicitor and is in the employ of the estimable Inquisitor. Our task, even after some careful prodding, is rather vague: look for "interesting" material and/or people related to heretical activities. The attendees can be expected to be a mottled sort of the type typically drawn to such places: collectors, the rich and bored, heretics and other queer fish. Some witty cynics would say these are merely synonyms and quite redundant.
We are first and foremost to gather intelligence; only in the case of obvious heresy are we to act directly. Given our little adventure on Sephiris Secundis, I have little doubt the latter option will come into play in some way or the other. Still, there is nothing to do but to give it some stick and prove once again what resourceful fellows we are!
The auctioneers are from the Sorrowful Guild, which have control of the island (which is actually the top of a not active volcano). It is in something of a judicial vacuum, with significant leeway from the laws of the hives. It is also considered neutral ground for the noble families which according to long-standing tradition in the Empire are at constant war with each other. In addition this guild, there are some adepts, PDF guards and solicitors stationed at the island, one of which is the esteemed mr Mayweather.
As a parting gift, we are given a data slate containing the names, descriptions (rather sparse for almost everyone) and other tidbits of info of roughly 100 heretics which we may encounter. I resolve to memorize each and every one of them. The auctioneers have chartered a boat which we are to board more or less instantly. So we head out in a hover car. On the way I regale my fellow cadre members with tales of the Haarlock family. Obviously I select a small subsection of what is known about them, I could (and would love to) educate everyone for days on the matter but alas, we are short on both time and, I suspect, patience.
In any case, Solomon Haarlock was the founding father of the prestigious family. During the colonization of the Calixis sector, he mapped out large portions of the sector, thereby earning the gratitude of the Empire and a rather useful charter stating he and his family could do...well, just about anything and get away with it. Not surprisingly, being that power may or may not corrupt, his family used the charter to get every advantage they could think of in the coming centuries and grew hugely powerful and wealthy. Relevant to our current mission, Erasmus Haarlock won a war that raged for literal millennia between family members and devastated several planets and undoubtedly led to the death of billions of the poor and ever downtrodden. Mr Erasmus was known to be a rather dark fellow (in demeanor that is), and shortly after winning said war disappeared into the Halo Stars. This was roughly 100 years ago, and the auction reportedly contains items mostly from this sinister Haarlock family member.
A light drizzle of acid rain spatters against the car as we drive out towards the harbor. Inquisitor Mar luckily provided us with capes made to protect one from the awful environment. The Cygnan Martyr is a rather awkward-looking hull, made to imitate some sort of marine animal. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the ratio between hull and animal is 1:1. We are met by a very portly fellow named Nahun Grist, the steward abord the ship. Despite his uncouth appearance mr Grist is a rather jolly and charming fellow, eager to tend to our needs. After putting our gear in our cabins, we head to the observation deck to get some "chow" as Acadia calls food and engage in some investigation of our fellow passengers.
As predicted, they are a, well, not ragtag bunch, but quite the collection of characters. There's the morbidly obese cleric with his bunch of followers (who are already drinking quite heavily). There's Octavia Nile, who turns out to be an agent for a local guild looking for "interesting items", with her two bodyguards, one of whom practically screams "assassin". There's Mr Jerger, a tall, gaunt figure in his forties, who works for a merchant house but is here on his own looking for interesting objects d'art (particularly a statue reputedly made by xenos). There's an old gentleman named Lanus Cisten Went, a historian mainly interested in writings by the Haarlock family. And finally there's Vymer and Quill, two bonded agents for parties unknown.
The clerics are a very boisturous crowd, and one of them, a tall, wild-looking fellow, almost comes to blows with Dar due to some imagined slight - I suspect that would have ended very badly for him. After a couple of hours we retire to our quarters for some much needed sleep. After 3 hours of sleep and a further 3 hours, the entire ship is rocked by a big boom and the alarm goes off - we're being boarded by "wreckers". Damnation...never a boring moment in the Inquisition.
We storm off to the observation deck and see a bunch of thugs and the indomitable mr Grist who is under heavy fire. A furious fight breaks loose, but luckily the wreckers are poorly armed and disciplined and we manage to take them all down, about 10-12 of them, with Dar taking on the lion's share. By the God-Emperor, that man can really swing a sword! Potter also proved his worth, using his psyker tricks to jam the villains' weapons. Mr Grist is eternally grateful for us saving his hide, we have made a friend for life I believe.
We have dinner with the captain at night, an elder gentleman who is heavily geared up with cybernetics, sporting a constructed arm, leg and eye. The heavy-set cleric turns out to be called Abbot Tamas of Shale, hailing from Iocanthos. He claims to be after "the statue of Drusus" and spouts such gibberish that it's evident to anyone with an inkling of knowledge about the Ecclesarchial Creed that he's no more a cleric than I am a Moritat.
I make some conversation with Lanus, who tells me of a certain human-sized statue that reportedly will be on the auction. The statue has a sinister reputation and supposedly has dark powers and was something of a centerpiece of Erasmus' collection.
Later, we discover that our data slates have been hacked. We suspect the hooded bodyguard of Octavia is to blame - he had previously been close by her at all times, but was missing earlier. Hm. Apparently we need to be a bit more concerned about our security. We will also be a bit late arriving on the island, one of the propellers was damaged and is now unusable.
We go to bed, but with guards posted. Around 7 in the morning, we hear the abbot screaming bloody murder, literally, in the hallway. We rise to investigate. Lazarus has a strange sensation of the flapping of crows when he passes the abbot. In their room, we find one of their numbers dead. The rest claim they found him this way. I volunteer to investigate further, which the "abbot" accepts after some deliberation. The dead fellow was intoxicated at the time of his death, but nowhere near levels that are deadly. Early analysis points towards a massive brain hemorrhage as the cause of death. We recruit the aid of mr Grist to move the fellow downstairs where I can perform an autopsy in piece. What I find is quite disturbing: his entire brain is turned to, well, mush. No natural thing could have caused this, leading us to suspect a psyker and/or heretic.
Further, we find crow and tribal tattoos on his body. I recognize the crow tattoos as signifying worship of Tysiach, The Crow Father - a daemon/warp being some of the natives of Iocanthos have held dear for millennia. Some of the more liberal clerics ignore the worship of Tysiach, believing it to be relatively harmless and mostly functioning as a boogeyman to scare the children. For a core of the natives though, they see Tysiach as all too real.
Analysis of the brain matter reveals the exact cause of death to be electricity of some sort. The abbot later tells us the deceased went to their room alone - about the same time we had our slates hacked. Hmmm...mystery within mystery!
We arrive at the island around midnight. Smoke rises from gargantuan chimneys. As we prepare to disembark, Grist pulls us aside. He says there's a small village called Deadtown where gear can be bought (at a mark-up). More interestingly, he tells us they were hired to take the passengers to the island - but not back...The ship will however wait until they finish repairs, and longer if we're willing to pay (which we obviously are). It is obvious this will be no mere auction...
søndag 19. mai 2013
fredag 3. mai 2013
Mallear
Born to parents of middle class: father a fairly high ranking administratorium clerk, and stay-at-home mom, the middle of 7 siblings. Pretty uneventful upbringing, at least in the physical sense: a safe and quiet life on an Imperial planet.
It was at a very early stage easy to see that Mallear was a very perceptive, curious and attentive kid. His mother collected written materials from all ages and of all kinds (except the expensive and heretic kind), and Mallear loved reading, and especially mysteries and puzzles. His mothers most priced books was three ancient tomes about the detective S'erlock Omes, whose amazing powers of observation were both amazing and almost familiar to young Mallear.
Another interest of Mallear's, manifesting at a later date, was his fascination with law. Around the time he turned 13 it was clear that he wanted to join the arbiters, either to become a detective right away, or study law first, and then become a detective.
Of course, that is not how it happened: But after a fairly brief interlude even the Arbiters noticed that they had something unusual in their hands, the recruit would pick up things and events nobody even thought to look for. And so, Mallear became a detective. No law degree just yet, but who knows, maybe this will come later.
After some years as an arbiter on his home world, Mallear picked out a pattern among a series of killings. Or series, this is in itself a bold claim, as it is impossible to describe how he is so sure that they are connected, just that he is utterly convinced that it is not just coincidence. The series progresses from ancients times unto the present, always in shadow.
After countless hours of delving into these killings he was contacted by the inquisition. Or contacted, a request by the inquisition is heresy to decline, more or less by definition, but the promise of greater mysteries and more difficult puzzles would have been impossible dismiss for Mallear. So, there he is.
It was at a very early stage easy to see that Mallear was a very perceptive, curious and attentive kid. His mother collected written materials from all ages and of all kinds (except the expensive and heretic kind), and Mallear loved reading, and especially mysteries and puzzles. His mothers most priced books was three ancient tomes about the detective S'erlock Omes, whose amazing powers of observation were both amazing and almost familiar to young Mallear.
Another interest of Mallear's, manifesting at a later date, was his fascination with law. Around the time he turned 13 it was clear that he wanted to join the arbiters, either to become a detective right away, or study law first, and then become a detective.
Of course, that is not how it happened: But after a fairly brief interlude even the Arbiters noticed that they had something unusual in their hands, the recruit would pick up things and events nobody even thought to look for. And so, Mallear became a detective. No law degree just yet, but who knows, maybe this will come later.
After some years as an arbiter on his home world, Mallear picked out a pattern among a series of killings. Or series, this is in itself a bold claim, as it is impossible to describe how he is so sure that they are connected, just that he is utterly convinced that it is not just coincidence. The series progresses from ancients times unto the present, always in shadow.
After countless hours of delving into these killings he was contacted by the inquisition. Or contacted, a request by the inquisition is heresy to decline, more or less by definition, but the promise of greater mysteries and more difficult puzzles would have been impossible dismiss for Mallear. So, there he is.
Afterdoom
Once Moirir falls, everything quiets down. After gathering our wits we start healing up, and while working his trade Potter disappears instantly. We are very confused. Indeed, the warp is fickle, but this is too much. He shows up a few minutes later, initially unaware that anything has happened. Strange.
Rutland tells us that he must go to the capital to report to his superior, and needs help to fix his squadcar. Alpha helps him out with this.Outside the serfs are massing, a low murmur everywher 'Ulbrexis, Ulbrexis,...' There is a few men right outside the door, fanatism shining in their eyes, demanding that "the saint" appears. We decide to let Ulbrexis out.
If there were many serfs before, it explodes now, they show up in the thousands out of nowhere. Holder-Smith and Ulbrexis go out among them.
We decide to destroy the Scourges vox-caster, and everyone but Holder-Smith goes to get this done. Potter and Alpha shoot it to pieces easily, and we run of, the scourges pursuing in an armored car.
Alpha finishes fixing the Arbiters squadcar, and Rutland sets of. We have given him a note from the Inquisition to his superior: 'don't tell the queen Ulbrexis is back'. We wait.
After a week we receive a coded transmission, it is from inquisitor Whitlock. He requests a quick report, and gives us coordinates for a rendezvous. We get there as Whitlock lands, in a large Aquila, with a troop of stormtroopers aboard. The serfs have followed us, but the stormtroopers hold them back.
We give our report, Whitlock looks concerned at first, but is very pleased with us, it turns out. Unusually pleased, he says. He tells us to kill Ulbrexis. I must admit, I balk. I find it difficult to belive what he preaches is heretic, and the condition the serfs live under are utterly appaling. But we do it, or more correctly, I distract him while Potter shoots him in the head.
We have a new mission: go to Solomon and investigate the Serrated Query. We get 500 thrones each for gear, and Whitlock secures us passage on the Antagonist. He seems to know the captain, and bullies him into travelling to Solomon. The passage is uneventful. Underway we read about Solomon, it is a Hive, utterly ravaged by millenia of industrial exploitation.
At the spaceport we find an astropath, and get a message. We are to contact Lorelei Dekant, in Hive Gloriana. We get planetside, contact her, and get her adress. She lives on the 140th floor of a large tenant building. It turns out that she is an Adeptas Sororitas, 1.95 tall, from the Dialogous part of the order.
She tells us that something extraordinary has happened, we have been 'transferred' to a local inquisitor, Silas Mar, of a sinister reputation. Mar is not an ally of Whitlock. All in all, strange. We have a new mission, and we are to contact Mar at the Halls of Chancellor Court, to get the details.
We dress up to dine with Lorelei, it is a fine meal, and she is certainly an accomplished diplomat, being most pleasant company. The following day we fly to the Court. Enormous building, it takes hours just to get permits to enter the building. Eventually we are met by a clerk who seems to get regular mind-cleansings, and are led to a small dark chamber. Mar shows up, ancient and scrawny.
Our mission is to go to an auction over the Hairlock 'relics', to observe. But we are warned, this is a very dangerous place where the auction is held, with lots of very dangerous people. We are to pose as the agents of Ezekiel Saunder. We are given ID-papers, rebreathers and corrosion-resistent cloaks, and fine clothing, in addition to 1000 thrones apiece. In addition 1000000 thrones locked to bidding at the auction, if anything 'interesting' shows up. Finally, a dataslate with noted heretics in the sector. We shall travel with the Zygnam Martyr. These ship names, I wonder where they get them...
Rutland tells us that he must go to the capital to report to his superior, and needs help to fix his squadcar. Alpha helps him out with this.Outside the serfs are massing, a low murmur everywher 'Ulbrexis, Ulbrexis,...' There is a few men right outside the door, fanatism shining in their eyes, demanding that "the saint" appears. We decide to let Ulbrexis out.
If there were many serfs before, it explodes now, they show up in the thousands out of nowhere. Holder-Smith and Ulbrexis go out among them.
We decide to destroy the Scourges vox-caster, and everyone but Holder-Smith goes to get this done. Potter and Alpha shoot it to pieces easily, and we run of, the scourges pursuing in an armored car.
Alpha finishes fixing the Arbiters squadcar, and Rutland sets of. We have given him a note from the Inquisition to his superior: 'don't tell the queen Ulbrexis is back'. We wait.
After a week we receive a coded transmission, it is from inquisitor Whitlock. He requests a quick report, and gives us coordinates for a rendezvous. We get there as Whitlock lands, in a large Aquila, with a troop of stormtroopers aboard. The serfs have followed us, but the stormtroopers hold them back.
We give our report, Whitlock looks concerned at first, but is very pleased with us, it turns out. Unusually pleased, he says. He tells us to kill Ulbrexis. I must admit, I balk. I find it difficult to belive what he preaches is heretic, and the condition the serfs live under are utterly appaling. But we do it, or more correctly, I distract him while Potter shoots him in the head.
We have a new mission: go to Solomon and investigate the Serrated Query. We get 500 thrones each for gear, and Whitlock secures us passage on the Antagonist. He seems to know the captain, and bullies him into travelling to Solomon. The passage is uneventful. Underway we read about Solomon, it is a Hive, utterly ravaged by millenia of industrial exploitation.
At the spaceport we find an astropath, and get a message. We are to contact Lorelei Dekant, in Hive Gloriana. We get planetside, contact her, and get her adress. She lives on the 140th floor of a large tenant building. It turns out that she is an Adeptas Sororitas, 1.95 tall, from the Dialogous part of the order.
She tells us that something extraordinary has happened, we have been 'transferred' to a local inquisitor, Silas Mar, of a sinister reputation. Mar is not an ally of Whitlock. All in all, strange. We have a new mission, and we are to contact Mar at the Halls of Chancellor Court, to get the details.
We dress up to dine with Lorelei, it is a fine meal, and she is certainly an accomplished diplomat, being most pleasant company. The following day we fly to the Court. Enormous building, it takes hours just to get permits to enter the building. Eventually we are met by a clerk who seems to get regular mind-cleansings, and are led to a small dark chamber. Mar shows up, ancient and scrawny.
Our mission is to go to an auction over the Hairlock 'relics', to observe. But we are warned, this is a very dangerous place where the auction is held, with lots of very dangerous people. We are to pose as the agents of Ezekiel Saunder. We are given ID-papers, rebreathers and corrosion-resistent cloaks, and fine clothing, in addition to 1000 thrones apiece. In addition 1000000 thrones locked to bidding at the auction, if anything 'interesting' shows up. Finally, a dataslate with noted heretics in the sector. We shall travel with the Zygnam Martyr. These ship names, I wonder where they get them...
torsdag 2. mai 2013
Doom
We plan the ambush on the Broken Chains terrorists in the Arbiter HQ. We decide to get into the mine through the side tunnels fairly early in the morning, and wait for the anticipated attack, somewhen between 12 and 2 the following day. The idea is to hide in the tunnels, so that we won't be noticed by advance scouts.
The night is uneventful, but on Dar's watch, Potter starts bleeding profusely from eyes, mouth and ears. And bleeding severly. He wakes, and is 'fine', but feels sick. With his psyniscience he senses that the barrier between our world and the Warp is very thin indeed. We decide to start the day early.
At Arbiter HQ we check around for any other signs of the warp intrusion, but everything seems normal. The Arbiters check Hazel's cross, and there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. We hail the Royal Scourges, but get no answer, so we go over there. The guard won't let us in, so I have to show him our Inquisition badge.
We find Captain Movern in his shack. He is obviously recovering from heavy drinking, with two serf women tied up inside the shack. He claims to have interrogated them. He pretends to be afraid of the Inquisition, but it is easy to see that he is not nearly as deferrent as he lets on. He praises our investigative results, but what he really is thinking is harder to fathom.
But the scourges move out, 20 of them, and with 15 arbiters including Mallier and Rotland, we're a quite large force. On the other side, the terrorists are many, and Hazel's cross big.
Around 12 Potter starts to feel something: there is a lot of small explosions, and suddenly terrorists are swarming everywhere. A burning woman in a loincloth shows up at level 3, most certainly Raze. At the bottom Krogel the metal man carrying a large bag, Moirir and some 10 terrorists show up.
Holder-Smith hurts Raze severly, she retaliates, but the spell backfires spectacularly, and she herself is incinerated instead. The warp is ficle. At the bottom both Alpha and I miss everything, but Holder-Smith hits Moirir with a well placed bullet. Moirir seems totally unhurt, and does not seem at all concerned with being shot at.
Krogel takes the 'bomb' out of the bag, and starts to set it. It has the markings that Alpha has drawn earlier. We hurt him. At this point Ulbrexis takes of his hood and challenges Moirir. Moirir looks terrified at this, and calls the retreat. Dar kills Krogel with a mighty swing, and the terrorists leave, blowing up the tunnels behind them.
Rotland looks very concerned, he has recognized Ulbrexis. We study the bomb, it looks like a psyfoci, but is probably not dangerous anymore, perhaps because Moirir is gone. As we do this serfs start to gather, and the chant "Ulbrexis is back!" starts to rise among them.
When we get outside Captain Movern shows up, and wants us to hand over Ulbrexis. We decline, and Captain Movern orders the scourges to kill us all. They get of a useless volley before they are torn to shreds by the serfs.
When we get back to Arbiter HQ Potter falls out: he has a vision, where he is in a forest with his dad. They see a snake, which his father kills, before another snake shows up and slices his father in half. His father says something like "not all heads are equal". Very strange.
Potter uses his psyniscience, and sees a massive warp vortex, or just armageddon, coming. He is, understandably, very upset about this. Outside we see thousands of serfs coming, both alive and dead.
We hear an otherworldly voice on the comlink, 'Ulbrexis'. We are discussing how to get away, if we should try the aerocar. The Arbiters are thinking along the same lines, and we have a stand-off. I say that I will not shoot at Arbiters. Dar, Potter and Alpha make a break for the car, with 3 arbiters. Before they get there the car is Krak'ed by some terrorists, so they return. Outside they only see undead, terrorists and Moirir.
One of the arbiters die inside the HQ, and rises again, so we kill him again. Moirir is outside, with some terrorists, it seems like the undead ignore him. We decide to confront him, and let him inside. There is a desperate fight, as he comes in, some zombies get in together with a few terrorists. Finally, a stray bullet from an Arbiter goes through Ulbrexis and into Moirir, and this bullet finally hurts him. So, Ulbrexis' blood harms Moirir. With this knowledge, we are finally able to kill Moirir, and as he dies all the undead collapse and the warp vortex disappears.
The night is uneventful, but on Dar's watch, Potter starts bleeding profusely from eyes, mouth and ears. And bleeding severly. He wakes, and is 'fine', but feels sick. With his psyniscience he senses that the barrier between our world and the Warp is very thin indeed. We decide to start the day early.
At Arbiter HQ we check around for any other signs of the warp intrusion, but everything seems normal. The Arbiters check Hazel's cross, and there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. We hail the Royal Scourges, but get no answer, so we go over there. The guard won't let us in, so I have to show him our Inquisition badge.
We find Captain Movern in his shack. He is obviously recovering from heavy drinking, with two serf women tied up inside the shack. He claims to have interrogated them. He pretends to be afraid of the Inquisition, but it is easy to see that he is not nearly as deferrent as he lets on. He praises our investigative results, but what he really is thinking is harder to fathom.
But the scourges move out, 20 of them, and with 15 arbiters including Mallier and Rotland, we're a quite large force. On the other side, the terrorists are many, and Hazel's cross big.
Around 12 Potter starts to feel something: there is a lot of small explosions, and suddenly terrorists are swarming everywhere. A burning woman in a loincloth shows up at level 3, most certainly Raze. At the bottom Krogel the metal man carrying a large bag, Moirir and some 10 terrorists show up.
Holder-Smith hurts Raze severly, she retaliates, but the spell backfires spectacularly, and she herself is incinerated instead. The warp is ficle. At the bottom both Alpha and I miss everything, but Holder-Smith hits Moirir with a well placed bullet. Moirir seems totally unhurt, and does not seem at all concerned with being shot at.
Krogel takes the 'bomb' out of the bag, and starts to set it. It has the markings that Alpha has drawn earlier. We hurt him. At this point Ulbrexis takes of his hood and challenges Moirir. Moirir looks terrified at this, and calls the retreat. Dar kills Krogel with a mighty swing, and the terrorists leave, blowing up the tunnels behind them.
Rotland looks very concerned, he has recognized Ulbrexis. We study the bomb, it looks like a psyfoci, but is probably not dangerous anymore, perhaps because Moirir is gone. As we do this serfs start to gather, and the chant "Ulbrexis is back!" starts to rise among them.
When we get outside Captain Movern shows up, and wants us to hand over Ulbrexis. We decline, and Captain Movern orders the scourges to kill us all. They get of a useless volley before they are torn to shreds by the serfs.
When we get back to Arbiter HQ Potter falls out: he has a vision, where he is in a forest with his dad. They see a snake, which his father kills, before another snake shows up and slices his father in half. His father says something like "not all heads are equal". Very strange.
Potter uses his psyniscience, and sees a massive warp vortex, or just armageddon, coming. He is, understandably, very upset about this. Outside we see thousands of serfs coming, both alive and dead.
We hear an otherworldly voice on the comlink, 'Ulbrexis'. We are discussing how to get away, if we should try the aerocar. The Arbiters are thinking along the same lines, and we have a stand-off. I say that I will not shoot at Arbiters. Dar, Potter and Alpha make a break for the car, with 3 arbiters. Before they get there the car is Krak'ed by some terrorists, so they return. Outside they only see undead, terrorists and Moirir.
One of the arbiters die inside the HQ, and rises again, so we kill him again. Moirir is outside, with some terrorists, it seems like the undead ignore him. We decide to confront him, and let him inside. There is a desperate fight, as he comes in, some zombies get in together with a few terrorists. Finally, a stray bullet from an Arbiter goes through Ulbrexis and into Moirir, and this bullet finally hurts him. So, Ulbrexis' blood harms Moirir. With this knowledge, we are finally able to kill Moirir, and as he dies all the undead collapse and the warp vortex disappears.
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