Of rational decisions and investigations

We slowly (since the skiff isn't exactly a speed boat) make our way into the city, Alpha steering towards the imposing building known as Haarlock's Folly. Sinophia has never been a very populous planet, but everywhere signs of its downwards spiral (a 92.5% decrease in population from its heyday) are evident. Neglect is omnipresent, and the city seems all but devoid of human beings. The streets have flooded in many places, transforming the city into a weird canalscape. Paired with the steady downpour and dark skies, it makes for quite the gloom portrait.

I am interrupted in my musings by the now all too familiar sounds of gunfire. Alpha edges the skiff forwards around a corner, where we see a transport being attacked by a gang of ruffians. We briefly discuss whether we should engage. Alpha and Lazarus in particular argue we should (though I suspect Alpha just wants some action), so I give in and we press the attack. I did some quick mental calculations and according to the criteria I set this was a clear no-brainer:

I am quite open to altering the critera, but if looked at logically I am very certain this was a very solid no go. However, this is where my recent reading of "A guide to well-adjusted social behavior: how to make friends and not enemies" volumes I-III came into play. I was fairly certain Alpha and Dar would look incredulously at me if I presented the basis for my vote. Lazarus would probably understand, but disagree anyway since his moral code as an arbitrator (which, given the events on Xicarph, seem to be fairly...fluid) would force him to act. Mr Potter didn't seem to care either way and my impression is his approach to knowledge is more intuitive rather than grounded in sound logical principles.

Either way, the upshot was that I deemed it unlikely to be able to convince my compatriots and thus only expressed mild surprise and disapproval that we chose to engage.

Alpha pointed the skiff towards the skirmish, the rest of us firing with various firearms at the bandits. Potter concentrated, then telepathically flung a big stone gargoyle directly at one of the bandits' vessel, completely destroying it. The fight seemed to be going well, but 4 snipers presented a challenge, nearly incapacitating poor Dar. Without mr Potter's healing abilities I am quite sure our cadre would have had some new members by now - if indeed it would exist at all!

In the end we prevailed. The boat turned out to belong to one Zul Maywroth, a minor noble with residence in District 7. The PDF arrive in a heli once the shooting stops, not surprisingly (given Sinophians' reputation) they don't give the slightest vermin's bottom about the bodies except for looting them. Their "report" consists of their captain scribbling something on a notepad then tossing it overboard as soon as Lazarus' back is turned. Lovely bunch. The captain on the barge shares some gossip, including one exceedingly interesting tidbit: about one year ago, pretty much exactly when we released the Gilded Widow from its prison in the house of Dust and Ash, the Folly was struck by lightning - 13 times. The adrenaline and rain had me shivering already, but I swear to the God-Emperor my spine was quite close to jumping out the top when I heard that!

We travel onwards towards the Folly. The building itself is quite impressive, as expected. We all notice the Haarlock symbol on the archway entrance: a golden spider in a web, with stars caught in it. Hubris? Not at all...

We are met by Fihad Constantine, arbitrator adjutant and our contact on Sinophia. He leads us into the building proper, explaining that the arbitrators moved in about half a year ago. Mr Potter uses his sensitive side, and not unexpectedly has a chilling reaction. He explains that he felt like a small child surrounded by infinite darkness, an ancient evil clawing at his back. Lovely, just lovely.

We take one of three elevators up to the second floor, where the officers are stationed. Constantine explains that their previous HQ was blown up by a group we've heard of already: the Logicans. Apparently the PDF was infiltrated...by themselves. The Logicans had managed to position themselves in positions as physicians, experimenting with gene altering on hapless victims. Most died, but they managed to cultivate a virus that turned some soldiers into "super soldiers", the so-called Empty Men. One of these gained entry to the Arbitrator HQ and overloaded the plasma generator used as a power source, killing 90% of the men, leaving a scarce 30 Arbitrators in the entire city.

We are led into a control room. A big map is on the wall, with an abundance of tools, cogitators and so forth spread throughout. A spiral staircase leads up to the quarters of Marshal Scarman, who is currently out on a mission. Constantine is of course happy to inform us about the previous cases, but tells us a new murder has taken place a scant two hours ago and suggests we go to the crime scene. I am quite eager to talk to the biologist adept Lecto Talanis, but agree that going to the crime scene takes precedence. This was my quick mental calculation of this scenario:

A clear "go" scenario.

Constantine informs us that the murder is both similar and dissimilar to the previous ones. The methods are similar, but the target is new in that it was not a nobleperson. Always interesting when the MO changes. This one took place in the 13th district. We take our own vehicle and drive out.

The scene is a hab unit in a fairly large building in a run-down district. There is blood spatter in the hallway and the door has been ripped off its hinges. The body seems to have been torn to pieces, 10-12 shotgun shells are scattered about it, clearly used in defense. I secure scans of the entire hallway and room with my auspex and camera before we disturb the scene.

The body has indeed been torn to pieces, and more disturbingly by what looks to be human hands. A secret compartment in the floor has been ripped open, wherein we find 6 vials of ghost pollen and a red silk cloth. The victim's name is Bal Grey, a so-called "rag baron" (a minor crime lord), ex-PDF. We are informed by arbitrators that there's another body in a nearby alley. Interestingly, this chap has been dead longer than mr Grey...and yet, his bullet wounds are consistent with the caliber and other details (angle, distance etc) from the hub, suggesting he was killed by mr Grey! My oh my, do we really have a zombie case on our hands?

Our investigation of the scene complete, we go to interview the reportee, a tired old bloke living in the hub capsule downstairs from the victim. He saw four men arrive, heard a lot of noise, gunfire and horrible screams from mr Grey's apartment. A short while later, the four men walked down the stairs, one of them staggering then lurching off into the alley. The rest simply walked on, not a word being exchanged in between them. Their faces were covered by cloaks.

The old man tells us that Bal and another rag king, one Juvinal Priator, were having a row previously. Insults were exchanged, then shots, then they seemed to come to terms again after mr Priator delivered a small package wrapped in red cloth to mr Grey. A veritable font of knowledge, the old man also tells us that there's been another murder similar to this one down in "the Sinks" (from my memory the most slummy part of the city), where 8-9 people where slaughtered four days ago. This was not reported to the arbitrators/PDF - the populace in that area prefers to take care of their own business. We also learn that Priator is either dead or undercover, as he hasn't been seen for a while (?).

There's certainly no shortage of directions to take here - let the God-Emperor guide our minds to decisive and rational decisions and allow us to stop these probable undead fiends from taking ever more lives. And then, of course, there's the Folly with its utter darkness, secrets and ancient evil...

Heaven is a place on Quaddis

It's strange, it's not that we're leaving right now, but it sure feels good to have an open space port.
The recent events are still playing in the back of our minds, most of all: what the hell, Dar? He can't really give any explanation to why he attacked Mallear. Sounds like some sort of mind control, but what triggered it? Is he a loose cannon?

Still it's about time we deliver a report to our inquisitor. We find the nearest astropath, and hold nothing back. In addition Holder-Smith sends a private message. Dunno whether that is suspicious or not. Do nobles use astropaths regularly?

The space port is bustling with people. Glad to have survived, and many mourning lost ones. I just know one thing, and that's that I would kill for a neat whiskey right about now. Finally the rest of the team are down for a bit of r'n'r. Enjoying my scotch is just slightly interrupted by the gruelling sight of Dar digging into a raw piece of meat. What's going on with you, dude?

Ofcourse, some people in the party find enjoying life to be overrated and start looking into our next point of action. Dang, can't we just party tonight and worry about the rest tomorrow? We could easily have gotten killed about a dozen times in the last days.

Guess not. One lead we have is Sinopiha Magna, referred to by Haarlock as his "folly". We discover that this planet was settled by a Tressa Sinoa, hence the name. It does have an interesting history. They managed to make enemies of most of the major noble families on the major metropolis', like Scintilla. Due to sector politics of some sort, I think I was, still missing my scotch and didn't quite catch the events. The result at least, was that Sinopiha got cut out of all trade routes. It has dwindled away since this, from about 2 mill to 'round 150 k in the capital. That's about the death rate per day in my suburb on Volg... Anyways, it is an ogliarchy, which I have learnt means that it is ruled by noble families. We discuss looking into the matter with that Vulpa-character as well.

Down in Xicarph we rent a flat. Not that much demand atm, to say the least. It looks like people are abandoning this place again. We have noticed that Dar has made himself a little icon of some sort, carved from bone by the looks of it. I don't make too much fuss about it, isn't he part of some
blade loving cult? Potter on the other hand is not convinced and confronts Dar about the things that are going on with him lately. In the middle of the argument there's a knock on the door. There a noble-looking man outside, his head shaved except for a braid in the lower back of his head.
"My master asks your presence" he says. "Vipus?" Mallear replies. Indeed the bald headed messenger represents the old geezer we met at Gabriel's chase. Not bad.

Wrapping up we decide to leave Dar out of guard duty. Indeed we are guarding us against him atm. We will watch over his weapons at night as well. He reluctantly agrees. He has an evil aura, Potter say. And his eyes turned black when he attacked Mallear.

My ever so dutiful friends want to check out the Beast House before we leave the planet. Bleh, on with the masks and we head over there. My moral is low. Is there no time to recharge around here? This is worse than the navy. Luckily, the Beast House is closed. They seem to be packing up.
Dar seems especially keen to get in, and even suggests climbing over the fence. The gun turrets tell the rest of us that's not a great idea. Mallear says nope, and I kindly suggest we do something completely different: the Akazen follies.

To my delight they agree! I've actually never been to a "pleasure house" before. Oh, I heard enough about it in the navy, but we never seemed to have time off in any place with some size to it. Then I got "promoted" to the Inquisition. By the stories I've heard this place must be one of the finer ones. Lots of different guys and gals to choose from, and a lot of exotic looking people. Quite skilled as well, I would say. Not that I have much experience in that area. Dating wasn't really a thing when you were trying to stay alive back home. My fighting skills both kept me alive and very much a virgin.

I feel a lot better now, as we head over to see Vipus. The address he gave us is to what looks like a store front, a tailor or something. Entering it we find that we have come to the right place. We are escorted through the building into the back yard to see the most fantastic aviation device. An ornicopter in the shape of what I'm told is a dragonfly. It's beautifully crafted from brass and wood, I struggle to take my eyes off it. The mechanics of it is thrilling. I ask to sit in the front with the pilot, and am allowed. We occupy an "eye" each so to speak. As he starts it up the ornicopter starts flapping it's wings faster and faster and faster. Then it begins to hop along the yard before it lifts off. It has a cruise speed of about 5-600 km/h. We are told it's a 6 hour ride to Vipus' estate. Partly because his feafdom is far away, but just as much because we have to fly tactically all the way, following this border and that while the defence systems beep and flash desperately warning us of targeting missiles. It seems like this is the normal state of things.

We arrive at Vipus' estate, in the jungle. The hearty welcome takes my mind off being in the jungle, all the lifeforms make me a bit uncomfortable. Vipus himself is there to greet us with his retinue. He treats us like returned heroes, which is really nice, and very new. They are all dressed in light summer clothes. Vipus presents his servants and say that we are welcome to one of our choice. And by welcome I mean welcome to all of their delights. Sometimes it's really nice being the only woman... To boot he gives us 5k gold and invites us to stay on his estate as long as we wish. We are free to use his means of transportation, but are urged not to fly ourselves due to the hostility of the feafdoms. We discuss what will happen to Xicarph now that the Widower is gone. Will someone take over? Two glorious weeks we spend there.

We travel back to check if our Inquisitor has replied. The first time we check there is nothing. But I get a chance to spend my hard earned cash. It is easily exchanged for a gleaming carapace armour and a heavy bolter. Hooyah!

A few days later there is word from our leader. He asks us to head out to Cyclopea to back up the units there in an extermination mission. Efficient as usual we head out on the first ship we find heading in that direction. Well, for 2k a head a lot of ships seem to head in your direction. There's an astropath aboard, and before long we get a counter message saying we should go to Sinopiha. Come to think of it we did question the security level of the first message. It was open for all, which is pretty unusual for the Inquisition. Must have been a decoy. The rapport reveals there have been a lot of attacks on the noble families on Sinopiha. Extreme violence, and the target unknown. Violence beyond normal human measures.

The captain agrees to ship us to Sinopiha instead, and we arrive after 3 weeks of training and reading respectively. By that time even Dar's freaky aura has disappeared. That's a relief. We grab a shuttle down.

Sinopiha is grey and dreary, with a low cover of clouds. It's really quite like home. The rain seems fairly acidic, like I said, like home. A guy approaches us, other than that the place seems deserted. He welcomes us and introduces himself as Sharan, jr. administratum official.

The main city is a city of channels, it is really quite a sight. We head down a spiral stair case and find the river. There are motorskiffs there for rent. We buy one, they're not expensive. However, the petrol seems to be!