Into the fire

Mara certainly gets to you. It is the most unnerving, outright murderous and most hostile place I have ever been. I fell assailed every minute I spend here, even asleep. But this is not the way Mara gets you; the weird part is the effect the utter certainty of death and defeat has. As I fight tooth and nail, every minute, I am detached. I watch my own furious determination. I am, in the middle of the most important and most difficult task I have ever undertaken, looking at myself from the outside.

I assume it is a way of coping. I have always known that I eventually would give my life in service to the emperor, but now I know almost exactly when it will happen. We might stop Haarlocks return, but I do believe that we will die fairly shortly, on Mara. Even if we by some utterly implausible event leave here somewhat alive, I think there will be nothing of the old Lazerus that leaves.

Enough metaphysics for a while. What have we been doing lately? Wandering around, endlessly, and fighting, endlessly. I prefer the fighting. The tunnels change, we search for something, milling around like mice, and time just passes. And nothing gets to you like nothing happening in these tunnels. When we fight at least we do something.

We go back to the surface, to sleep. We camp in a large reactor-room. After a few hours we are assaulted by some ugly beings, who look like they have been dead for ages. We kill them fairly easy, they close in quickly and we shred them. When we ride the elevator down again, Kort says he recognizes the surroundings, and thinks that he can find the way to where Beloved and the Pilgrims have camped.

We walk along, for once with some direction. We start finding 'traces' of the Pilgrims: symbols, blood, human remains, altars, chaos symbols, in staggering amounts. Full human skins, tattooed all over, stretched out in frames. They have obviously been warding something off, probably Mara herself.

We find a huge hall, some 200 meters high, platforms suspended out in front of us. Several reactor cores. We see a few pilgrims. Alpha sneaks into the hall and sees a few pilgrims. One salvo from her bolter and they die. The last one falls long before the echo from the rockets stops reverberating around the hall.

There are more pilgrims, and a demon, but with a combination of tactical withdrawals, Potters healing skills and fire support from Alpha no one dies. We proceed inwards, and discover Beloved staring at us from one of the reactor towers. An enormous flying beast appears. It breaks the platform we are standing on, and one of the Janissaries falls to his death. It is capable of attacking us all in one go as well, so we have to retreat unto different gangways. The monster looks like some kind of serpent, it is horrifying, you feel like you want to soil yourself watching it, and it attacks with bite and tail. Dar collapses from fear, and I drag him away. And we shoot and shoot and shoot. Reload. Repeat. And we kill it. We kill this monster too.

Beloved moves onto a nearby platform, and gates in 4 demons. We all shoot at him, but he seems to be very difficult to harm. We also remember what went on at Xinophia, so we assume he has multiple lives with him. Potter flies onto the tower, finds Beloveds lair, chock full of horrible symbols, and the mask of the Widower. He takes the mask and jumps, Beloved runs after, and jumps after him.

Potter just manages to get of a flying spell, while Beloved crashes to the ground. We heal up, and Potter flies down again, just in time to see Beloved about to, probably, gate in another huge flying serpent.

We all leave, and find a place to take a break. We try to read the book, but noone understands it until Holder-Smith puts the mask on. Then he can read the book, and it really gives directions; we now move with purpose. What gives the creeps is seeing Holder-Smith with the mask on. Radical does not even start to describe this... We could have gone to look for another guide, but I guess this is the only way that is feasible right now. Mara, it gets to you, in every way, not the least those you did not think of... The Janissaries look like they are about to flip seeing the mask on Holder-Smith, but they contain themselves. They have very rigid minds, that is one reason they are useful here.

Holder-Smith manages to get some proper information out of the widower, in between the masks mad ranting. He says that we are doing exactly what Haarlock set in motion ages ago: we are looking for the Blind Tesseract, aiming to change either the future or the past. I hope the chance to foil him will arise.

The Widower tells us that the Tesseract contains doors to different times and different places, we will have to deal with all of them in order.

We get to another large hall, with a reactor. Ice on the floor, with a bluish glow. As we go into the hall, beings start to rise from the ice. Many beings. The Janissaries propose to distract them while the rest of us escape. After brief consideration I accept their offer, thank them for their service, and we head out, barring the door behind us. We hear them on vox for a short while, then there is silence. I note that the only qualms I have are of the tactical kind: does this improve or reduce our chances of accomplishing our mission. But we will make it count.

We find a large mining elevator, which we ride down another 200m, into the 'Deep Mines'. The tunnels are rough hewn, and we see demonic faces moving inside the rock. What the living fuck is actually Mara? How did it get to be like this? The worst part is that we might find out.

We get to a room with some weird machinery, with the remnants of a fight. 18 of Korts co-mercs, and Inquisitor Herrod and his retinue. And the chartist captain leading the mercenaries. We scrounge some choice gear. I find myself utterly indifferent to finding Herrod. I don't care that I think they would have attacked us if given the chance, or mourn a fellow member of the inquisition, I just don't care.

The Widower says that what has been here is a Slaught Destroyer. Much worse than the overlord Master Nonsuch we met in the House of Ash and Dust. He also says that Miss Book now has the navigator and so has all she needs, and that the reason the Slaught are here is probably because they have infiltrated the sector so well that they don't want time turned backward.

Holder-Smith investigates the machinery. He suddenly sees a face on a screen; Kalium Samriel. He shouts warnings at us. Then we see a black body-gloved hand over his mouth, and a pair of white eyes staring out at us: Erasmus Haarlock himself.

And then we proceed, further and further into the fire.

The horrors of Mara

Testing theories
Before proceeding into the compound proper, I propose that we test exactly how dangerous using psychic powers on Mara is. I have a theory that the number of psychneuein summoned and chance thereof is linked to the level of power used as well as a certain randomness factor. It's a risky proposition, given that we do not know the upper limit on beasts we risk facing - but I feel that without mr Potter's considerable resources, we are likely to be dead anyway. We also need to heal the Jannisaries that were injured in the fall. And of course, I have my own reasons as well... *cue ominous foreshadowing*

Mr Potter fires of three psychic powers of various strength. Nothing happens! Huzzah, my theory is proven! Or rather not disproved at least. And we know that we won't automatically be swarmed by the fearsome xenos.

A revelation
I ask the cadre to step away from the soldiers for a rather private conversation. Delving ever deeper into esoteric knowledge over the years, I've gradually felt something unlock in my mind. When Haarlock's ship appeared, that seemed to open that gate fully - I suddenly felt power and the warp rushing into me. It's hard to tell whether or situation or my new link to the warp caused it, but I had a hard enough time staying on my feet. I managed to conceal it at the time, given our chaotic surroundings, but I felt that I had to reveal this to the cadre now, for several reasons.

First, I might need to use my new powers for us to survive, meager as they are. Second, it would possibly be revealed in some way on Mara either way. Third, no one in the cadre seem to be particularly zealous/orthodox...which I figured would reduce the odds of one of them cutting my head off/putting a bolter magazine through me/fling a giant statue at me/insert other gruesome deaths here. And of course, finally, having an unsanctioned psyker in the cadre is a risk in and of itself - they deserve to know. I am both afraid and excited by discovering this untapped well of power. For now, I will focus on the task at hand and deal with the fallout later.

I'm not sure if I would call the cadre my friends. They are both less and more than that. We are comrades. We are fellow soldiers in an unending war against Chaos. We are the last defense against that ancient evil Haarlock tearing our galaxy to pieces. And yet, we would probably go our separate ways if we ever were disbanded as a cadre...but I have come to hold everyone dearly. Even Dar and Alpha, with whom I share about nothing in common. Reading about the comradery developed between soldiers in wartime is one thing, experiencing it first-hand is quite another. The God-Emperor, in his infinite wisdom, surely saw this bond as humanity's greatest strength and hope in standing against the tides of Chaos ever tearing at our throats.

But I digress. A lot. As usual. The cadre, to my great relief, accepts my proposal that I will use my powers if needed and deal with the sanctioning process when (or rather if) we get back alive. We press on.

Exploration
We decide to explore the buildings in order. The first is a storehouse, housing a lot of crates and the now decrepit anti-air missile shield. One of the Jannisaries discover a body frozen in the ice. Closer examination reveal it (and probably the 15 or so others) to be a prisoner from 50 years ago. We move on to what appears to be a control room building of sorts. There are tracks leading into its interior, so we proceed with caution with Dar taking the lead. A circular corridor leads to the control room proper, with nothing interesting but four dead servitors and a lot of useless machinery.

A corridor leads onwards to another building. In the middle we see four bodies...and as Dar approaches, he hears an incessant buzzing in his head, as a swarm of insects are near. We see nothing though...so we press onwards. As Dar approaches the corpses, the buzzing rises to unbearable levels and he cries out. The rest of us are wary - is he being attacked somehow? Controlled? But after a while he gets a hold of himself.

The bodies are a mixed group. One of them is a mercenary similar to the ones we just bested. The other three are representatives of our good old friends the Pilgrims of Hayte. The Pilgrims have been killed in ordinary ways, while the mercenary's head has been bitten off. A psychneuein? Seems likely.

The next building is unoccupied, with a lot of doors which we mostly ignore given that we're under time constraints and no one else has entered them. At the end is an elevator going down to "Utility". It has been jury-rigged to move. We decide to go check out out the fortress before going down to what we assume is the mine area, so we take the battery so that elevator can't be summoned from below.

One of the Janissari sergeants vox us that they've spotted movement in the fortress in one of the windows on the second floor. We spend some time sneaking the long way around to the fortress (as sneaky as the power armors allow us to be that is...). Dar once again (actually) sneaks ahead. The entrance is clear. The first level is huge, we ignore it for the time being. Dar sneaks upstairs. In one of the corridors a barricade has been erected, though a long time ago. A group of arbitrator corpses is locates nearby.

The horrors begin
I send out the pict fly into the room where the movement was spotted. The images reveal a horrible-looking beast of some kind - before it then winks out of existence. What in the abyss? Shamefully, I was unable to recognize the thing. We forge ahead...when one of the Jannisaries informs us that one of their comrades is gone. Just gone. No one noticed anything. There are no tracks. Surprisingly, weird incidents abound on Mara...

We enter the room where the pict fly recorded the beast. Nothing jumps us, but there's a sniper rifle leaned against the window and a lit lho stick in the window sill. Signs that someone has camped out here are evident. We see no one and there are no tracks. There is, however, a sign scrawled in soot into the floor. I recognize it as a sign used in the Inquisition to warn of "danger:static". Meaning there's a danger that's specific to this area. Okay...we can't quite make heads and tails out of anything and decide to move along.

Despite the danger, I suggest we explore the fortress for useful knowledge, such as journals, maps and so forth. God-Emperor, why am I a human and not a cat? That is surely the only reason my curiosity hasn't killed me..though some of my comrades have certainly suffered. As we all would now.

The third floor doesn't contain anything particularly interesting. We find the officers' HQ, but nothing of interest is there. On the second floor, however, we find the comm station area - and it's functioning. Obviously, someone's been there before us. A confusing array of images are shown on the screens. The cutter is visible on one. On another, prisoners are working in the mines with arbitrators overseeing them. And on a third, we see a big man in a power armor with the Inquisitiorial badge clearly shown along with five others. Lovely, it seems the Tyrantine Cabal has indeed dispatch a cadre as well.

A near-tragedy
I try to recall who the Inquisitor might be...and decide to reach into the Warp to help me remember. As soon as I start drawing power, I can feel everything going horribly wrong - and three psychneuein appear from out of nowhere. All of the Jannisaries are knocked out simply from being in their horrible presence immediately except the two sergeants. A viscous fight erupts, with Dar going down from two gruesome hits from one of the beasts fairly quickly. And to make matters worse, one of Potter's powers go awry and FOUR more are summoned!

For a while it looks like we are done for, but luckily the Jannisaries recover in the nick of the time. We brought them along for firepower, but we all knew they served a second function - cannon fodder. Lazarus commanded the troops into precarious positions, but it helped turned the tide of the fight. One by one, we dispatched the beasts - Alpha getting a direct hit on one with a full round of her roaring bolter, shells flying around her, Lazarus blasting open the side of another with his shotgun, Potter smashing yet another to a pulp flinging a giant statue at it with the power of his mind.

And in the end we stood victorious, drenched in blood and entrails from both friend and foe. The Jannisaries and their sergeants survived. And miraculously, Dar was not dead. He might appear a simple man from a feral background, but surely the God-Emperor loves him dearly.

Shaken, we heal our wounded, clean ourselves off as we best can and move on. I can barely hold it together, jarred to the core of my being for being the cause of all of this. I resolve to not use my powers again unless strictly necessary.

The cutter
On the way back to the elevator, we stop by the cutter. Dar starts disabling the lock on the door when Alpha spots the bomb attached to it just in time. One second later and Dar's luck would have run out for sure. We disable the bomb and open the lock to the ship. Inside, we see a stripped down cutter designed for speed. Curiously, there's a very peculiar lock on the door to the cockpit - Eldar technology! It proves utterly impossible to open without the key, as one would expect from the Eldar. We exit the ship and set the trap again, but slightly differently (pointing away from the cutter), hoping to kill anyone trying to escape the planet. It is very possible this will be our only hope of escape should we somehow escape the horrors below alive.

Going down
We go back to the elevator, enable it and ride down. A corridor going in each direction greets us. I will skip the uninteresting parts and navigation and skip to the juicy/scary parts. At the end of one corridor, we're faced with yet another barricade, this one with a corpse sitting by it, shotgun in hands, the dried remains of his brains still showing on the wall. Not shying away from cliches, he's written "Make it go away - crawling, crawling in my head" on the wall in his own blood. Lovely, quite lovely. Cliche or not, I am still quite "creeped out" as Alpha would say.

Naturally, we enter the room anyway. There are a bunch of crates and 8 corpses. They've all committed suicide. As we contemplate this, one of the Jannisaries points his Hellgun at one of his comrades and fires a full round into him. Chaos ensues as the more martially inclined charge him, Dar once again getting a solid hit right in his face. Nothing Potter's healing can't handle after we handily take him down and manacle him. He seems completely insane, grinning and laughing hysterically, trying to bite us and so forth. I sedate him enough for him to fall asleep, but I'm not optimistic.

We move on, filled with a growing sense of dread of what might be around the next corner. We move through hospital and insane wards, maintenance rooms, workshops, storage rooms and more. Seemingly random horrors greet us regularly. A corridor with a prisoner who seemingly died 5 minutes ago, scratching at the wall with bloody fingernails. Suddenly, the body starts moving - from the inside. We take no chances and reduce the body to charcoals with the flamers.

We reach a cargo room. A nicely-clad corpse of what seems to be an adept from one of the more radical universites on Scintilla is on the floor, clutching data slates and some notes. A man in power armor is fused with some metal junk of sorts. I conclude it is likely the result of a teleportation gone wrong. They must have been quite desperate to try to teleport to Mara...I would never assume the necessary calculations to not be thrown off by the Warp here. It's almost like a living thing, breathing down your neck, only waiting for you to take one step away from your friends so it can devour you in secret.

As we're standing there, a demon of Hayte charges us - or rather, it charges me. Fairly tall, with a gigantic claw on one arm, I dodge, run and desperately try to stay alive. The rest of our party fire with full force, and God-Emperor be praised! I survive without a scratch. At least to my physical body.

The mines
Finally, we find a corridor that starts going down. After a while, natural caves replace the corridors, and we reach a mine cart at the top of rails going down. I examine the poor Jannisar and inject a dose to wake him up again. Unfortunately, he's still a raving lunatic. The sergeant decides he's a liability and I give him a lethal injection. We say our prayers and move on.

After walking for two kilometers, a vox radio crackles to life with pleads of help. Lazarus resolutely puts a bolter shell through it. A while later, we hear screams of help from a side corridor. What better way to lure in the righteous? Despite Dar's pleas, we head in. For once, we're not greeted by hordes of daemons, but rather a mercenary trapped under some beams, two prisoner corpses with bullet holes next to him.

We free him, weapons trained. He introduces himself as Kort Luther, a mercenary hired by a chartist captain named Aedric. Some "traders" headed up their party, consisting of roughly 50 mercenaries in addition to the four traders. Their leader called herself miss Book - and she carries the key to the cutter cockpit. She also carried a grey tome around...The mercenaries were told they were going to a planet called Mara, which of course meant nothing to them. They started dying rapidly, by the hands of Pilgrims, psychneueins and demons. At one point, one of the mercenaries went crazy and fired a round right into the face of one of the traders. He reacted by punching into his belly, extracting his spine whole and his face instantly healing up. That was enough for Kort and one of his buddies and they ran away. Shortly thereafter his buddy disappeared and Kort was trapped here, attacked by the corpses of the prisoners.

He informs us the Pilgrims' lair is further into the mines. There are about 10 pilgrims, 2 giant constructs of some sort and of course - the Beloved, carrying the grisly face of the Widower around. He's fairly sure he can lead us to the heretics, though "there's something weird with the corridors"...

Miss Book told the mercenaries to keep their eyes open for "the heart of a clock" and "strange machinery that seemed out of place". So, she certainly doesn't have the key. How convenient that we brought it, and that the Beloved brought the Guide.

They also briefly encountered the Inquisitorial party, though they weren't spotted. They had a what clearly was a prisoner in tow, a bald man with an extra eye in his forehead. I assume it's a Navigator. Their leader carried the amulet of a black sun around his neck. Personally, I doubt a Navigator is a good enough guide, unless he somehow is of Haarlock descent. Which is, of course, a distinct possibility.

After a brief discussion, we decide to bring Kort along. Lazarus swears him to the service of the Inquisition and instills the fear of God-Emperor into him with tales of what happens to those who betray us. He is not kidding, the Inquisition takes revenge very, very seriously...

The Mara landing-Ground Hog's day crossover

We continue with our preparations for Mara, gathering equipment and supplies suitable for the mission and preparing ourselves.

I have decided to get one of the tatoos; it will work as a ward against warp influence. It will cover my entire body, face and all. In essence it is not at all as momentous as becoming part of the inquisition, however it feels much more real; every time I see myself on pict or in the mirror I am most forcefully reminded that I am no longer first and foremost a detective. Questioning witnesses with my face covered in warp-warding tatooes will certainly be different from what I am used to. I am now an agent of the inquisition, first and foremost, and I can no longer fool myself to think otherwise. On the other hand, I get to participate in the solving of the Haarlock riddle. And there is hardly a bigger game in the sector at the moment.

Other than that I have got a custom crafted power sword, a most powerful implement. In addition I have expanded my arsenal with a combat shotgun with chain sword attachment, two hand flamers of the destroyer type, and a recoil glove. On Mara there is no way, or reason, to pretend that we are anything resembling 'civilians'.

We will get passage on the Sigilites Word, a renowned top of the line frigate, and we will have support from 2 psychers and a small complement of Maccabian Janissaries on Mara. The Janissaries are led by Childres and Makrade. The two psykers are Kessa Silinius the astropath, and old lady without eyes, and Kalium Samiel the battle psyker, a handsome, dark haired man. Kalium is part of our support team because he has experience figthing psychneuein, a very dangerous warp-xeno that is attracted to casting of spells. They are numerous on Mara, or in the warp on Mara, if that is close in any ordinary sense of the word. More importantly, they are melee experts, and lay eggs inside humans. Wonderful.

Finally we board, the Sigillites Word is in very good shape. We get the biggest rooms I have ever seen on a vessel, certainly much better than what we had on the passage to Xicarp. We even have our oun servitor butler, Jeeves. As soon as we board the Word sets off.

On the trip I decide to start penning a diary. It somehow feels right; there is something very final about going to Mara, and we are leading a team as throne agents. All in all, this seems like something that needs to be recorded. On the first day aboard we meet the captain, Captain Exail. He is very young, but seems very on top of his game. He explains that the Word will be in geostationary orbit, above the penal station on Mara, and that we will deorbit on a lander. He serves us a most extraordinary dinner.

The trip in itself is uneventful, except for a few incidents. We talk to the sergeants to prepare them for our kind of operation; we assume that we require a bit more initiative and thinking on your feet than ordinary military operations. We also gather all the Janissaries, and I try to scare them sufficiently for them to stay on their toes for the mission. Time will tell if it worked.

We also have a meeting with the psykers, Kessa dislikes being subject to our leadership. It should not be a problem, however we are dependent on the astropath.

We take stock before entering the Mara system: on a general level we have no inkling about what to expect; we have the pattern, the Grey Psalter, and a key, the Steel Hart, but we have no guide. Going in more or less blind, as usual.

As the Word enters the Mara system we are called to the bridge; it is enormous with the ambience of a temple of war. As soon as we drop out of warp, the ship rings like a gong from hits. Twice. A spacebattle is unfolding, with several sides. The Mara monitors are fighting other human ships, and we see a very strange looking one in the distance. The Word is both firing and being fired upon.

Suddenly we see a strange light outside the Word, and all the servitors fall silent. Then they speak in unison: 'the traveller shall return, and the stars shall die, his servants come, the key turns'. We see a ship made from bone and bright granite, it is Haarlocks vessel, the Spear of Destiny. It fires something that looks like light, but destroys one vessel per shot.

We run to the hangar, and are received by the Jannisaries, who have made a perimeter around our lander. As we leave the last thing we see is Samiel, his eyes rolled into his skull, consumed in flames he screams 'the traveller shall return, and the stars shall die, his servants come, the key turns'. As the lander leaves the Word, she bucks and is blown apart. No point in looking back now. May the Emperor watch over us, so that we may suceed in stopping Haarlock.

On the way down we take a hit. Alpha tries to save the ship, but we go in hard. Two Janissaries are killed, and so our work on Mara proper starts. At least the astropath is alive. Holder-Smith patches up the survivors.We move out, toward the penal station. Dar sneaks ahead, to check on the gate. He discovers that it is guarded, by tripping a trap. We storm it.Potter uses a few spells, and a psychneuein appears. It is though, but we kill it. We take stock, and it turns out we have no casualties.

Around the gate I see tracks from about 15 persons. We proceed inwards.

Gaining Friends and Replacing a Leader

We are about to engage with the Inquisitorial Kill team when out of the blue the Psyker and Sniper take out the rest of their cadre.

Uhm.... what??

They are Lothan and Arcadia, respectively, and inform us that Silas Mar had a favor he could call on with their team.  They want us to come with them to Macabeus Quintus. We agree to meet them at the space port the next day

We have a longish discussion about cleansing me. There is a church or something two days away. I don't really see the point.

The town is a lot calmer - guess that demon kept it's word. As we walk through the arbites canteen, suddenly I feel a strange surge as something leaves my body. My friend finds a new host, as Laz tries to kill the host it jumps to another. Laz does not fail this time.

We go to an astropath to deliver a report about the recent events, and that we're leaving for Macabeus. Obviously we don't tell everything. There is a message from Silas Mar. He says that Inquistior Whitlock is dead. Assassinated.

We are obviously a little taken aback by this. What does it mean? Is it true? Who can we trust? But these are the thoughts we face on a daily basis, and the reason I sometimes grab the opportunity to loose all thought and fear in a bottle or other means of escape.

We meet up at the ship. It is filled with pilgrims and religious nutters. Arcadia shows another side of herself. She is very extrovert and super flirty. It makes for a nice change. The psykers practice their sword skills on the flight. Holder-Smith reads and reads. I try to keep up my strength and fitness.

Holder-Smith has found something interesting in his books. All signs point towards the planet Mara, a mining planet and prison world. It is a forbidden planet due to all sorts of freaky shit happening in the past. Put short: teams just vanish over there.

We arrive and almost instantly a monk appears and hands a scroll case to Lothan. It a message from Silas to meet him in the catacombs. Silas is there in a chair, Psyker along side. Silas coughs up a bit of blood and greets us.

Whitlock has been killed by the Tyrantine Cabal about two months ago. A servant passes a scroll to Laz. We are officially Silas' cadre now. Whitlock was killed because of the desperate regards to secrecy that is the motto of the Tyrantine Cabal.

Silas says he is impressed with our work so far. He has received the reports we sent Whitlock. He also says he suspects that Mara is the key. There are three elements required to find the Blind Tesseract:

1. A pattern - Silas has it in the Greyskin Psalter
2. A guide - A scion or servant of Haarlock
3. A key - We have it - the Keystone

We need to prepare for the hell that is Mara. We are offered wards for our armour, blessed ammo and gear. We can also have a ritual done on us that will give us benefits against psychic attacks. We will also have a posse with us to Mara consisting of two psykers and ten maccabian janissaries. And a ship - Sigillit's Word.

Restoring Order and Releasing Demons

We drive off from Lady Amarite's mansion, the arbites provide us with the address for Euphemia Tessel. We might get to general Khan through her, and she seems like a more reasonable person than most of the inhabitants here. I feel really on edge, more so than usual. The strange thing is that it seems to go for the rest of the crew, and in fact the whole goddamn city. It's a tad late to go see Ms. Tessel, so we head back to HQ.

Back at the Folly there is fighting all around, enforcers are acting more aggressively after the noble killings. Attacks are thankfully completely disorganised. We head up to Precinct Marshal Skarmen's room. Dar has no trouble with the lock. The room is huge. Nothing of interest her really, then Laz finds a secret door.

There's a narrow and short hall leading into a small room. The floor in here is covered in dust, but frequently travelled by the look of the track marks. All the same person. The most recent tracks are about a week old.
Inside the room is the mirror! It is covered with a cloth. I start to approach, but Potter gets the eebie jeebies and Laz says we're not gonna enter. Dang.

Revisiting the good librarian - and it actually pays off. He claims that you can find some writing between the lines in volume three of the warpy books Holder-Smith got from the library. Need a prism, though.

Suddenly three empty men emerge from the morgue. We take them down, and I disarm one of the bombs. It has two separate mechanisms to set it off, one that auto executes on "death" and one the empty man can release himself. The body is covered in demonic writing. This might be part of the ritual that animates them. Holder-Smith draws some samples. This body has been autopsied here... a dock worker stabbed to death. Time to check out the morgue more closely.

The Tech Adept has quarters in the lower levels. We find him sleeping in some sort of harness and with two gunbots at his side. We wake him up and question him.

Checking the morgue, we find many bodies to be missing. About 30 in total, and all seem to be big, fit men who have been murdered.

Potter finds another secret entrance.

My memory here is hazy. I have the locket in my hands.... I need to go up. Up to the mirror.

We're all in the secret room at the Precinct Marshal's office. The mirror is unveiled. One half is whole, the other is a jigsaw of 13 puzzles, only two missing. There is a demon inside the mirror. It says I have an unclean spirit in me.

Holder-Smith is talking to the demon, it won't reveal it's name. It is trapped in the mirror by Erasmus. He claims to be in trouble if Erasmus returns. We can help each other it says. We find the missing pieces and release him and he will give us a vital clue to where Erasmus will return. It says the whole side of the mirror cannot be broken by conventional means.

We head down to discuss. We hear reports that general Khan's car has been shot down. Holder-Smith thinks we're dealing with a level 5 demon - malleus extremis. The Marshall arrives and marches inside the folly. He has empty men with him. We fight it out in the mirror room. The marshal goes into the mirror, as he does the risen fall. I yell for all to get the hell out. And we manage to get out before they explode.

We go back into the room and strike a deal with the devil, I mean demon. He vanishes further into the mirror.

Constantin arrives. We take him and a patrol and head out to the Clockwork court, filling him in on the way.
There is a big ass clock, and lots and lots of casualties here. The Precinct Marshal has killed the Planetary Governor. Holder-Smith addresses the government and reveals who we are.

Vice guvernor Maywroth is fighting with Tessel. Laz flashes the pin. Tessel seems pleased, Maywroth not so much.

Constantin will take temporarily take up the position as Enforcer General.

Now for the underbelly. We claim a meeting with the Rag Royals. They say that the team following us are an Inquisitorial Kill team of four operatives. A Son of dispater assassin, HB guard, Psykana templar and a tech priest.

We rest. They don't trust me now they know of my little "friend". More sleep for me, less weapons while sleeping.

The next day we have to head up to the space port to find a live astropath. Deliver a report.

Back on groun the Inquisitorial Kill team stops us in the middle of a street. They want to talk to us about the events on Xicarph, and invite us to "their" place. We insist that we can talk at the arbites HQ.

So... long story short. Holder-Smith mentions somethings about a Tyrant Star and all hell breaks loose. Oh yeah, and the big clue from the demon is that we need to find the Blind Tesseract.

Kill the dead!

We try to gather togeher the strands of our investigation to this point; it proves difficult. It seems that we know of 8 dead, who have had various things made from the shards of Erasmus' mirror. These 8 are

• Kalisto
• Legat
• The Viscount
• Sokken
• Bal Grey
• Juvinal
• Mademoiselle something
• Mr X in the canal (uncertain)

We consider that we really do not know who is behind all this; it is fairly sure that Erasmus' is behind it, but we have no idea who his agents are.  In other words, we have to dig further, and see what we might find out about someone who is driving the grand scheme here. We decide to start digging among the nobility.

Of course, in addition, it seems that we have 3 different sets of people shadowing us. 2 locals, and (worryingly) 1 unknown, but higly skilled, crew. Possible explanation of the subterfuge regarding the inquisition itself?

Anyway, the nobility. We drive to district 7, the Shadow Manses, to contact Margraeve Cal Sur'Meywroth. The district is walled, and a passcode is needed to enter. The Arbites provide us with one. Holder-Smith and Alpha make the machine spirit in the terminal report to us, in an attempt to find out who is tailing us.

We drive to Sur'Meywroth's estate. It is enourmous. I speak to some servant through a terminal, stating that we are the Arbites, and the ones who saved his barge. We are told 'Thanks', and not let in. I call on the mansion again, this time being more unequivocal about us being the Arbites, and this time we enter.

The Manse is utterly overgrown, dirty and worn down, and the servant that 'greets' us is wearing the remnants of a fine outfit. The Margraeve is a very old, very skinny and very frail man, and almost before we ask about the murders he tells us that he belives they are the work of the Undertow.

More useful: he has seen and used the spyglass, you would see yourself  from the outside. Most unsettling, he says. He also says that General Kahn is investigating the murders, and has amassed a large evidence base against the Undertow, and this will form the justification for a operation to "stamp out the vermin, once and for all". He also says that the selfsame general has a fragment of the mirror, in the General Office badge.

He knows someone else who owns a fragment, Rias Sur'Biscari, and he gives us the adress and a letter of introduction.

We are let into another mansion in terrible disrepair, and met by Sur'Biscari. Again haggardly thin and sickly. We cut to the chase quickly; he has lost the fragment gambling. It was lost to an offworlder, Salonius. Large, bearded guy, with a scar on his forehead. This Salonius has problems with Hesul, the Rag Queen.

He knows of another fragment, owned by lady Amonite. A possibly insane woman, who has not been seen for some 10 years. Her fragment is in the shape of a handheld mirror.

We ask about General Kahn, he describes Kahn as a powermad psychopath who will kill anyone in his way. As we inquire further, we talk about the council, he describes it as split between Meywroth, the evil one, and Euphemia Tassel, the good one, who says we cannot just starve everyone. As this happens we hear a 'thump', as from a breaching charge. It's the dead guys.

It is a very hard fight, the dead guys are very hard to 'kill'. And they hit hard, with some kind of poison. Dar is almost killed, as he receives the attention of several of them. During the fight we notice them going for Sur'Biscari. Has he been lying to us? We drug him and start the interrogation. It turns out that he still has shard, he is in fact wearing it, and it is his most priced possession. He has owned the locket for as long as he has been head of the family.

The locket was found in the uppermost room in the Folly. We discover just in time that the dead guys have implanted bombs in their spines, so we run. As we get outside we discover another mansion burning, it is the manse of Lady Amarite. We retrive the pict-fly we have had hovering about, it has a recording of the dead guys arriving; we see a flock of cyber mastiffs that just fall over as they arrive, and get up after they have passed. This looks like evidence of Logican involvement, but it is circumstancial at best.

We drive to the manse of Amarite, there is fire droids there. We find Amarite inside, beaten to death. The dead guys were there, before we met them...

The investigation continues….

Rupert spots someone watching us from a rooftop. Or at least it seems like this person is watching us. So he dispatches a pict fly. A jigamathing that can fly and somehow see, record things and transmit back to us. An eye if you will. Not so very conspicuous thing. A stone or two are being flung at the squad car. We cannot linger here where turmoil is a part of every day life, so we better hit the road again. Driving to the soup kitchen proves difficult with all the things blocking the road totally sometimes. But that gives Constantine time to tells us more about the Empty Men. Their four different stages of mutation before they die. The name Logicians is mentioned. A name that was associated with Mrs.Nile´s cyborg assassin on the House of ash and dust. Might be a coincident. He also suspect that the man on the roof is either a criminal or an agent of Mandato, the secret police. Which is surveilling both the law enforcers and criminals, and is very corrupt.
 Anyhow we arrive at Worm´s End, the soup kitchen located in the poor quarters of town. Not tempting to ponder how it got it´s name. Inside there´s a bloody mess. All inventory is broken and the place reeks. Five day old corpses tend to make a certain smell which we find very unpleasant. It´s obvious that someone´s been here searching for something on the late employees after their passing. Gunfire makes a whole lot of mess. This proves my point that a sharp blade is more pure and slices through the victims without making a mosh out of the bodies. There´s blood alright, but it´s more art like my way. Like painting, but only with red. Hope we encounter some heretics soon…..Nothing of interest here in this place. So we head out again. Our only conclusion so far is that on all the crime scenes the victims are killed on site by someone looking for something. After a little drive we pull over by a small group of people. One poor soul approaches us when we tell them that any information concerning the massacre at Worm´s End is rewarded with ownership of some extra thrones. The others involve them selves too and in the end we learn:
 * Three men in cloaks gunned the victims down
 * There was one survivor called Yeantra Yantra works at the wharf and is currently in hiding
 * The three men gives us a short description of Yantra.

Next stop is the wharf where a long queue of hopeful applicants stand by the fishing boats. Last man in line seems like an eager fellow. Eager to earn money, so after offering him some and thus gaining his trust he speaks to us about Yantra. A crone is taking care of him. He gives us the adress. After giving him some coins we´re off to the crone´s place. On the way we encounter a vigilant group of people blocking the road. It´s the neighborhood watch and they stop us and start asking questions. Ready to gun us down by the looks of it. This could get ugly. Then Rupert flashes the Inquisition rosette and they stand down. Letting us through the roadblock. Now our presence is surely known all over the place. Finally we arrive at our destination. The old woman looking after him hesitates when we ask her that we´re friendly and want to talk to Yantra, but we´re able to convince her. Yantra is a wreck of a man. Totally nervous and paranoid. All we get from him is that 4 men arrived at Worm´s End killing everyone inside, but Yantra was able to hide and lived to tell the tale. They were looking for a shard of glass wrapped in cloth, possessed by what everyone assumed was a crazy old man called Sokken. What had freaked him out the most was the fact that the men were already dead, as evidenced by the fact that one of them had a big gunshot wound in his face, yet moved and spoke in a ghastly voice. Since we most likely have blown Yantra´s cover, we take him with us to the Folly. Once again it´s time to move out and this strange person from the rooftop earlier is seen standing by our vehicle. He´s attaching something to the car which later turns out to be a tracking device. Government issue no less. Of course it´s removed and disabled.

Back at the Folly we enter the basement where the morgue is located. All the autopsies is conducted by Lecto Talanis, a bioadept. Finally Rupert gets his opportunity to engage in conversation with him. Bal Grey´s body lies here on a slab, so does all the nobles. Looks like they´ve been killed by something inhuman. Mutilated. Almost unrecognizable. Lecto gives us the case files and autopsy reports. This place is too cold to stay in unless you like freezing, which none of us do, so we take the elevator up to our floor. Lazerus and Rupert stays in our quarters reading through the reports and files while the rest of us are going to explore more of the Folly. Team bookworm finds out as follows:
* Money is not the motive for the murders.
* The noble´s names are: Mam´sel Samwa Rollart, Legat Senh´ar Dole and Wiscount Hiram sur´Sekulo.
* Rollart has many rings, but one finger is missing on the autopsy picture.
* All the inventory from the victims´ estates are stored here on the Folly and not considered important for the arbitrators´ investigation.

Me, Acadia and Cornelius are taking a look around the premises. Acadia seems to take the assignment a little too serious, sneaking and moving around tactically in a military fashion. Even behind an arbitrator. As if prowling. Or is she too bored to death by this investigation and is just having a bit fun. I can relate and think nothing more of it. There´s an itch for combat in my hands. Hope we encounter some heretics soon....Cornelius on the other hand raises an eyebrow at Acadia´s behavior and finds it a bit peculiar and consults Rupert later on. I don´t understand. As soon as someone, me or Acadia, do something a little bit off normal behavior we´re immediately under scrutiny. My new taste for fresh bloody meat and my self made icon for my rituals also qualify as very unnatural apparently, and I feel I´m being watched closely by especially Rupert and Cornelius. After the incident on Xiraph I could well understand the suspicion, but now I tell them I´m alright and feel fine. The aura about me is gone too. But still they´re somewhat skeptical. Now where´s did I put that fine dagger....oh, there it is!

Eventually evening catch up on us and we head back for some R&R. Nightmares seem to haunt this night except me and Lazerus(?). Horrifying dreams of some black suns and some lurking evil is coming. Morning is a great relief for those having these nightmares. They´re all very tired and out of shape. But we still have some investigation to do and head down into the storage area where we rummage through the noblemen´s stash and find:
* Rollart´s diary which speaks of a special ring she had.
* The ring´s center piece would reflect her image as a young and beautiful woman when she looked into it.
* Dole was a money loaner and we find a book with records of all loans and pawns.
* A box in Sekulo´s inventory, wherein a cylindrical shaped object would fit. A spyglass perhaps. But it´s gone.

 Dole´s book turns out to reveal something interesting. Rupert spots an entry concerning a man called Lexandro sur´Elbadah pawning an unusual diadem. The diadem is nowhere to be found among these items. On account of the terrible sleep last night the group decide to check in to a nearby hotel and then we´re off to visit Lexandro. On the way there Rupert has one of his urges to read again and we make a stop at the library. His craving for books and knowledge is admirable. It´s almost like mine for blood and carnage. I admit it´s a useful trait. But still....books!
Inside the library he strikes a nice deal with his hecuter and cunning. The librarian who pulls the shortest straw and the deal ends on his behalf with a bullet in the leg and five less books in his personal select collection of books. On the Elbadah estate we´re met by the janitor who introduces us to the lady of the house. She has some interesting facts:
* It was her diadem and which she had inherited.
* The center piece of it was made from a shard of a Haarlock estate mirror.
* Gazing into it enabled the viewer to see into the future.
* The mirror was shattered and all the 13 pieces spread around.
* Nepotamius, a scholar at the library, can probably tell us more.
* Lexandro hasn´t been seen for some months now.

 Lazerus donates 50 thrones to the poor woman and her family for our appreciation of her help. Now we drive back at the library to meet up with Rupert and also to talk with Nepotamius who´s having a very bad day. We drag him with us. After a debriefing we learn:
* Rasmus Haarlock experimented with sorcery.
* One experiment resulted in him making a pact with a demon.
* A double mirror was used in this experiment.
* One side broke and shattered into 13 pieces.
* Items made from the shards were: a ring, a diadem, a spyglass and 10 other unknown items with similar properties.
* The demon lingers in these pieces.
* They can drive the wearers insane.
*  The demon can possess anyone gazing into them.
* The Folly contains several secret rooms.

 Nepotamius is left in a holding cell at the Folly while we hit the road once again. This time to seek that Juvinal Priator. We ask around at a shady bar and again money talks and reveals that he´s been missing for 2-3 weeks. Roumor has it that he owned two pieces of shattered glass. His crew and girlfriend Flo hangs at another bar. Not too far from here. Everyone but Rupert enters. We´re trying to be incognito and act casual. Barkeep is approached and asked with the aid from our friend Mr.Throne. Flo has been missing too for about a week. The man behind the bar recommend we talk to Georg Lussk, a lieutenant in this organization. Lussk knows we´re working for the Inquisition so there´s no point hiding it no more. At least not from them. Our wish is to talk with his superior and after a while we´re offered a meeting with a man called Tiber. Only term is that we´re transported to his location blindfolded. Reluctantly we agree. And we´re taken to a large warehouse. Within this warehouse we´re met by a huge man. I mean really fat. Cleaving such a man in half would prove a challenge I reckon. Tiber is a smart man and knows these murders are not done by his enemies, but someone who´s certainly heating up the tension between the parts involved. A war soon is imminent unless we put an end to it.He wants to exchange information with us and can share the following:
* His former boss Calisto had a shard of glass and were brutally murdered.
* The addresses to Priator's 3 hideouts
* A floating corpse were found in the river, killed in the same manner as the victims in our case. Unidentified.
* Someone´s watching us. Doesn´t know who.
* Mandato is also watching us.
* Mandato´s leader is a man called ...…

 As a part of the agreement we also share some information. Then we´re off to Priator´s place. I take the lead, sneak up to the entrance and check for traps. None are found, so I enter the house. On the floor lies a dead doglike creature. Probably xeno animal. Nothing more in this room, so we move towards the next. In there we´re met by a grotesque sight of yet another slaughter. Three mangled corpses lies on the floor. Obviously tortured. And of course there´s a horrible stench fills the room. Five days old corpses tend to make a certain smell. But we carry on and start searching for clues. Acadia and her eminent searching skills detects a secret door, which I check for traps. This door leads to a small room and all we find inside is a dataslate, some drugs and a small box. Within the box there´s only a piece of cloth. Priator probably kept a shard in here. Nothing more is found so we roll back to the hotel.