Lysimachus

Not really an update, exactly, but I figured as you've walked through I'd reveal what you see on the other side...

You pass through the xenotech portal, from the bright, clean hangar into a dark, stony chamber. It is lit only by the glow from the gate behind you, but this is just enough to reveal a perfectly hemispherical space perhaps twenty metres in diameter and ten metres high at the dome's apex. As soon as you emerge, you immediately see that you are not alone. A double line of shadowy figures are crossing the chamber towards you, flanking either side of the path that leads directly from the webway gate all the way to another archway on the opposite wall. Lithe, graceful shapes, racing towards you with a plethora of bladed weapons raised; knives, swords and spears. After only a fraction of a second, the illusion is shattered. The figures are not approaching you at all. They are instead utterly motionless. Statues, yet so finely carved as to suggest living flesh and lightning fast movement. They stand on low plinths, their still forms somewhere between perfect balletic artistry and raging, bloodthirsty savagery. The sculpture plainly depicts the proportions and armaments of Eldar warriors, though their open-mouthed smiles show pointed canines and imply a gleeful, reckless abandon, both indicators that these stone killers do not represent the strictly controlled inhabitants of the Craftworlds. All of this is the impression of seconds only. As soon as the last of you passes through the portal, its luminescence winks out, leaving you in absolute blackness. Even the low-light sensors of your autosenses cannot enhance what is not there at all. Just as he promised, Tarvathel the Wayseeker has brought you here… and with this promise fulfilled, he is gone.

Interesting that it says that the terrain underneath is modular/optional. I wonder, if you didn't add the craters, would it be very hard to pin the doors so that they could open and close?

There we go, update finally added. I'll probably play it by ear a bit whether I bother with an update this Friday, it might make more sense to just leave it another week and a half until the following Friday?

Scene 31. …and Back Again Two days of total isolation. Tarvathel apparently feels no need to provide any updates regarding your progress. Within the confines of the Corsair escort’s guardroom, there is no sense of travelling, no audible thrum of engines, no shudder of warp translation. Only the flickering digits of the internal chronometers of your armour. Just after these devices tick over into the fifty-second hour since the Wayseeker left you, suddenly the inner doors glide open once more. The Corsair psyker strides in alone, with no-one else in sight… though you would be fools to believe that his warriors are not extremely close by. “We have successfully reopened the Alucar gate and entered the system. Our shadowfield is active, and there is no indication we have been detected by your defences. In a few moments, we will be close enough for me to open a path from here into the gate chamber buried beneath the surface.” Tarvathel weaves his way amongst you, moving to stand before the tall gate, just as he did in Prince Kal'li-nath's palace. He pauses there, waiting, staring at a device built into the vambrace of his armour. After several seconds pass, he nods and begins his task. Just as before, the solid matter of the gateway changes, starting to glow with a pale but pure white light. The Wayseeker does not even open his eyes. “Now… begone from my ship.” He pauses, then relents and continues more quietly. “I wish you good hunting.”

Hey all, just a heads up that I've had a few things going on this week that have been taking up my time (that won't be fully sorted until at least end of the day on Saturday). Nothing bad/problematic, just busy. As such, I haven't had time to put together anything yet for Friday's update. Therefore it may be a few days late, or it may even get pushed back to the following Friday. So if anyone is working on a post (answering Alda or whatever else!) you've got a bit of extra time!

I think because it's such a short distance (relatively speaking) you would step through and immediately be on the ship? The staging area would be a mid-sized square(ish) chamber, maybe 10m x 10m, and totally empty. (Tarvathel has obviously had his crew pull any cargo that was here back out of the way) The portal that you enter through is identical to the one in the palace (tall and wide enough for something a fair bit bigger than a Marine to fit through; definitely a Wraithguard, maybe even a Wraithlord if it ducked a bit). Once you all pass through, the portal turns back into solid wraithbone. There is another doorway on the opposite wall that obviously leads further into the ship. It's shut, and will stay that way (unless anyone does anything crazy...?) Logic would suggest that there might be a substantial number of Corsairs waiting on the other side of the door, just in case anyone gets curious or wants a wander. Feel free to describe the design of the room as you like, but it's basically Eldar-y.

If I was doing Craftworld Eldar, I think I'd start PCs off as Guardians. Either Defenders or Storm Guardians, then you could progress towards becoming Aspect Warriors, or even take the Path of the Seer or the Outcast. Rank 1: Guardian Defender or Storm Guardian Rank 2: Defender could become: Dire Avenger, Fire Dragon, Swooping Hawk, Warp Spider, Dark Reaper, Pathfinder, Warlock Storm could become: Howling Banshee, Striking Scorpion, Warp Spider, Shining Spear, Warlock Rank 3: Aspect Warriors could then progress to being an Exarch Warlock to a Farseer (or a Spiritseer?) Pathfinder to a Corsair But also a character at Rank 2 could choose to move sideways rather than up the progression, i.e. switching to another Path, etc because they haven't yet become too obsessed with one focus. They wouldn't be as specialised, but after taking 3 Aspect Advances, they could instead take Rank 3 Path of Command and become an Autarch. Wraithguard (or Wraithblade) would be cool too, but I'd keep it as a progression option for characters that had been killed during the game, as a way they could continue to play? Edit: maybe you could insert another Rank between 1 and 2 (so 1-4) where they become more specialised Guardians; Gunners, Jetbikers, Falcon crew, etc, and then move along to the appropriate Aspect (Jetbiker > Shining Spear, Gunner > Fire Dragon or Dark Reaper, stuff like that?)

Scene 30. Ways of the Witch You stand before a wide, tall arch in an anteroom that adjoins the Prince's throne room. Unlike those that look out over the palace grounds, the interior of the archway is solid, pale stone. Tarvathel stands in front of it, his staff clasped upright in both hands. At the point where the tip of the long wraithbone rod touches the floor you might notice alien carvings in the tiles that radiate out towards the archway and climb the pillars around it. The Wayseeker stands silently for a moment, head down, as though listening for something only he can hear. After a long moment, the archway… changes. Though the stonework in front of him looks just as solid as it did before, an ethereal glow begins to emanate from it, changing its colour from pale sand to shimmering, opalescent white. As it does, Tarvathel nods to himself, a short, sharp movement of quiet, commonplace satisfaction. “The way is now open. The path leads to another gate in a staging area aboard my vessel, Fuiseog de Neamh. I have ordered my crew that they will withdraw from, and stay out of, that chamber. You will remain within it for two days while we travel the Ways to the Alucar system. Once we have entered that system and moved close enough, I will open another path from the staging chamber to the gate hidden on Alucar’s surface. You will go to kill Orochi. We will depart.” He smiles faintly. “And may Hoec grant that our paths never again cross…” Tarvathel steps forward, into the gleaming archway. There is no sense of resistance. Like a thick fog, the solid stone seems to swirl around him as he sinks into it. Then it returns to its previous state, still emanating pure light, but perfectly smooth and motionless. OOC: If you have any last second orders you want to give to Ibrym aboard the Supremacy, now is the time. If you have weapon-swapping tacticool posts, perhaps they could take place on the Eldar ship, as you will have 2 days of waiting in the staging area? (like a small hangar/guardroom)

Very interesting ideas here. I agree that a xeno-focused game would still need to provide a good variety of Archetypes and ways to develop them. As mentioned, Eldar would work well as a mixed Aspect Kill Team, Tau could also work as the various Castes plus xeno auxiliaries, Orks could work with Boyz from the different Kulturs plus specialists (Mad Dok, Mechboyz, Weirdboyz, etc) I think a big challenge might be to actually get the players into the alien mindset? Eldar, probably one of the physically closest xenos to humans, don't think like them at all. Admittedly, Space Marines don't really think like humans in a lot of ways, either, but it's still close enough to work. Would it work with Eldar/Tau/whatever? Or would it just become a re-skin of the DH or DW games?

Yeah, for simplicity I'd probably encourage leaving them where they are? The Supremacy has better facilities to look after Amaras and remove geneseed from Skaayn. Setting up a delayed beacon from Amaras' transponder is fine, too.

Zidemi: You carefully examine the machine spirits within the armour of yourself and your brethren. Nothing is revealed within the binharic pathways or noospheric network that suggests that there is any way by which an outside party might be able to shut down or control your armour. Likewise, the even simpler spirits of your bolters and other weapons do not appear to have been tampered with in any way.

You wouldn't have thought the Codex would approve such a response! Edit: though I'm immediately wondering if there is a Chapter or Appendix with Guilliman-approved curse words!

I'm not sure it's a massive problem, very unlikely for Orochi to have been able to mess with your gear without getting caught? I'm not sure how it works in the background. I imagine maybe Power Armour Autosenses and HUDs might combine to provide some sort of 'friendly fire' warning if the wearer pointed their gun at a comrade? I'd guess it couldn't actually stop them from pulling the trigger, though...? If Zidemi wants to check everyone's kit over to make sure it's not been tampered with, that's cool by me!

Tarvathel appears faintly amused. "We value our privacy, and the construction of this palace prevents us being spied upon. If you wish to vanish into aether without a word to your comrades, that is easily achieved."