We walk for a further 20 minutes before coming face to face with a set of gigantic double doors, probably 15 meters or more in height. There's a lever mechanism we assume will open the doors, but for the nonce we decide to leave them well alone, given that several more animal and human tracks go through them.
After another 5 minutes, we come upon a normal-sized door and enter it. There's a staircase inside, at the bottom we find a corpse and the words "help me" scribbled in (presumably his own) blood on the wall. Helpfully, the corpse possesses a stub revolver with 2 clips as well as a fragment grenade. Me and Mr Potter share the bullets while he takes the gun, leaving only Lazarus without a ranged weapon. Excepting Dar of course!
We enter the door at the bottom of the stairs, and another gigantic room spreads out before us. A few of us spot a large flying xeno of some sort diving down towards us, clearly intent on, well, killing us. I take careful aim with my gigantic pistol, fire and manage to hit the thing square between the eyes, killing it instantly. Frustratingly, I am unable to identify the beast. And to think I don't have my pict recorder! Most annoying.
We go back up and find another door after a short while. Inside there's a rank smell of meat, as well as two men chatting and smoking lho sticks some 20 meters ahead of us. In the dark they don't spot us. One of them has an animal mask, both are wearing leather aprons. After 5 minutes they go into the same room. The room opposite turns out to be a storage room. We pick up some tools, lights and the sort. Unfortunately there is no water or food - and we are on the verge of becoming seriously dehydrated.
Because of this, we chance looking into the room the two cultists (I assume, or maybe they just have a very strange fashion sense) entered. The room is fairly large, stretching into darkness. Cells line the walls, containing both beasts, xenos and men. Around 20 meters ahead, 4 chaps are struggling to get a xeno into what looks like an elevator. And most importantly - around 10 meters ahead, there's a big tray filled to the brim with disgusting yet glorious-looking water!
We hurriedly concoct a plan. We will shoot one of the cultists, hopefully setting the beast free which will then take care of the rest while we deal with whoever is still standing. I manage to get another bullseye with the monster gun, and the beast starts casually (or so I like to think) eating the face of one of the slavers-turned-meal. It ends up killing two of the men while the last one runs. Me and Dar run after him, being the cardio enthusiasts in the group, while the rest finish off the wounded xeno.
Unfortunately, ahead there are another 3 cultists, and these look like guards of some sort, armed with shotguns. Not liking the odds of the two of us out in the open versus 3 shotguns, we turn on our heels and run back. We manage to grab a bunch of water and quickly make our exit. We discuss where we should go and end up going back out into the big room. We are not followed.
A few minutes later, we find another door leading into what seems like the same area. We do not enter, assuming an alarm has been sounded. A bit further ahead there are some stairs leading down into an area that seems much older. There's a split left-right, we go left for 10 minutes before we come upon a courtyard before a partially razed noble mansion. I'm able to recognize the noble family style, a now extinct but at the time very powerful family from my dear home planet Malfi. Someone's obviously been here before, probably to rob the place of its riches - there's a path into the house. We follow it. We come into a dinner area of sorts, with a very old corpse sitting at the head of the table. Unfortunately there is nothing useful in the room, just a gold ring with an encased ruby. A bit further ahead, the road is completely blocked. We find the would-be thief under a big pile of rubble. Luckily, he's got corpse starch rations enough to fill us up and last us another day. I must say, it's not half as bad as it sounds...he's also got a backpack and a shotgun. Aren't we quite the looters!
We go back to the junction and take the other way, but we quickly run into a dead end. By now we're very tired and it doesn't seem like we will find an exit anytime soon, so we decide to make camp and go to sleep. Dar sets up a trap of sorts in the stairs, which will warn us if anyone comes looking for trouble. Sure enough, on the last watch, the trap is sprung. We see 2 men, probably scouts. We will probably be able to kill them, but they might have enough time to sound an alarm, so we decide to try to hide in the noble courtyard.
Unfortunately it turns out there are six men in total in the party, as well as what looks like two sabre tooth tigers. Ordinarily this would have me quite excited as they are a very rare race indeed, but the prospect of studying their gigantic teeth from inside of their mouths dampens my enthusiasm a tad. The animal handlers loose the tigers when they're about 20 meters ahead. We decide to use our grenade, and Alpha runs forwards and manages to score a perfect hit, right in the middle of the group. ALL of the men go down, with just the tigers left! They charge us, but in their weakened state we quickly dispatch them, Dar suffering a bite but nothing lethal.
What looked like a dangerous encounter has now turned into an opportunity: we can enter the complex disguised. 4 of the cultists had masks, so everyone but Lazarus don their outfits. Our dear arbitrator puts on a guard outfit instead. We then head back into the cultist lair. We quickly find a room with more than sufficient provisions, canteens and backpacks. Some stairs and a corridor later, we find ourselves face to face with a rather large door with "Vault 13" imprinted on it, as well as a biohazard sign. Well, there's nothing to do but give it some stick and enter is there?
Inside, a huge area, at least 100 meters in diameter, opens up. 3 gigantic lamps illuminate parts of the area, lots of crates are spread throughout, the floor is mostly made up of metal gratings and there are a lot of cultists in the area. At the other end there is what looks like it might be our way out: an elevator, with 10-15 cultists in the immediate vicinity. We head towards it. About halfway another group comes towards us, we nod to them and walk past without incident. Excellent.
Closer to the elevator, we come upon an Imperial bunker and a hospital unit. Most strange...it is quite rare to find such buildings outside of the Imperial army. The doors of the bunker opens up, and out comes a familiar face, or should I say mask: the jackal-faced man and two hereteks. Jackal face is clearly not happy, shouting at the hereteks that an Inquisitor was brought here by the Heron without his knowledge, to be pried and mutilated. He kills one of them with what looks like a flaming whip, and instructs the other to discover what the "mangled Inquisitor" told the Heron, then goes into the elevator with a couple of guards. The heretek enters the hospital unit.
We discuss our options, and see no other course but to try to rescue any Inquisitor that might be held captive here. We enter the hospital unit, which not entirely unsurprisingly has been converted into more of a torture chamber. Ah cultists, quite predictable and ever so charming fellows. Blood is everywhere, the telltale instruments of torture are scattered throughout the area, and what looks like human skin lies on several slabs. The heretek is standing by one such slab, where an unfortunate fellow is hooked up to life support gear. A closer look reveals said gear to be quite vital to his survival, as all of his limbs have been cut off, an eye has been burned off and his Inquisitor pin has been seared into his bare flesh, in addition to more standard evidence of torture like burn marks, stab wounds and so forth.
We quickly dispose of the heretek and go to talk to the mutilated Inquisitor. Here is what he tells us.
- His name is Inquisitor Nazauth Karkalla (whom I remember is a seasoned Inquisitor of the Amaltine faction belonging to Ordo Xenos)
- We have been brought to the pleasure planet Quaddis, more specifically the Red Cages, which is a blood sport area run by the Beast House (legally)
- "The heron-masked man must be stopped, or the entire world is doomed!"
- He and his cadre came here to investigate the cult, but were ambushed. The only one left is one Septimus Dexter, nicknamed the White Scholar. He is somewhere in the city above, probably in areas connected to learning (such as there is on a planet like Quaddis). When we meet him, we are to ask "What can be found in the 9th stack Prol[...something]? His answer is to be "Emptiness". He is fairly easily recognized since he has an augmented arm and eye as well as long, grey hair.
- The Inquisitor calls the Jackal-faced man a "fool". His name is Marcus Vulpa.
- A festival called the Festival of Tattered Fates is fast approaching on Quaddis. It is marked by the Grand Conjunction, where the three moons of Quaddis line up to block the sun. During this time period, all laws are void and chaos reigns. Often used by the noble houses to settle scores.
We decide to take a quick look into the command bunker. No one is there, but a far more welcome sight greets us: our gear! Well, not all of it - most weaponry and mundane gear is gone, only the exotic stuff remains. Personally, I am beyond thrilled to find the pict recordings of the Greyskin Psalter and the Book Unbound untouched. If the Inquisitor's description of the jackal face is correct, he probably did not realize the value of what he was sitting on. We also find a carapace armor, which is obviously quite interesting for the more martially inclined in our cadre, as well as some money.
We decide to just go straight for the elevator, chancing that no one will question us given the amount of people in the area. This turns out to be quite correct, and we arrive unscathed to the surface. There's a big courtyard in front of a huge building on one side, and an exit to the streets of the city on the other. We go for the exit, and the guards do not stop us. Freedom!!!
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