[DH1e] The Damocles Contingency (RPG IC)

[A.T.]

Falk

 

A temporary reprieve no doubt, but a chance to regroup and for Bardas to act. Holding the holocameo high to drop into the hand of the creature Falk advanced steadily, shield ready but weapon hung at his side.

 

Beneath the twisted metal and warp corruption something of this creature reminded him of Kraevus in his final moments, but this machine body was different - could the golem true be drawn out here in truth within the reach of Hywelesbane ?

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FOUR CONTINUES

 

The Warden:

With an impressively dexterous showing, the massive, misshapen palm gently parts, thick fingers the size of heavy boltshells peeling apart from a mutated, wickedly transfigured fist. The odd mask of sorrow shifts and twists into something pathetic. Whilst the brute doesn't move from Scourge it carefully, extends it's upturned, open palm. It's eyes are rivetted to the glowing image. It continues to wheeze and bleed, the pain obviously constant as flesh is vexed by metal, ragged, red raw incisions constantly slicing and healing with each heartbeat.

 

"Please...please..."

[A.T.]

Falk

 

He doubted any weapon he carried could fell this thing, only the hammer or perhaps the cure... he glanced past the man for a moment wondering which would come for him. Words now must be chosen carefully, as with Helene this brief lucidity was no sure thing.

 

He lowered the holocameo into the wardens palm.

 

"Her life in your hand. The golem must die that she might live".

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FOUR CONTINUES

 

Lord Aldario

The man looks out of the daemonic machine. With exquisite tenderness, he pulls the holocameo to his face, admiring the picture of his daughter.

 

"Beautiful...always..."

 

With the chain looping around his fingers, he once more reaches out to Falk, gently directing the barrel of the Vox Legi. He doesn't yank or tug it, he simply guides it to a spot, directly over his chest, perhaps where his heart would be. The plating is mangled and burst open by Hywelsbane's power.

 

"Still...human..." he rasps, a great tiredness and sorrow marring his words, or perhaps it is just the slavering of corrupted lips.

 

He holds the barrel to his body, before letting his hand return to his face to look upon his last family.

 

"Sorry...daughter..." he breathes at Gwynne's visage. "Failed....you." He doesn't even look at Falk, but his voice carries to him all the same.

 

"Officer...do...duty. Release...me."

Edited July 26, 2023 by Mazer Rackham

[A.T.]

Falk

 

No more words to be spoken, he was no priest nor could he offer absolution for the acts that had brought them to this place. But Aldarios dedication not never wavered even now in seeking a life for Magda, Helene, and Gwynne.

 

Falk pulled the triggered, and offered silent prayer to the Emperor it would be enough to bring the old lord peace.

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FOUR CONTINUES

 

Lord Aldario

He dies like a man, with a smile on his face. You know that, because he dies well.

 

The massive round of the Vox Legi shatters the organs, as black as they are, which still beat with a father's love for his child. Pulled from the great darkness of folly by the light of his life. The shredding of flesh and rancid steel are drowned by the booming of the Emperor's law. Justice delayed, not justice denied.

 

The life-force animating and binding him falls away, the aetheric flesh stripping from his bones in unholy smoke and fire, leaving him a naked and decrepit, smouldering husk on the floor. Red cinders and dark ash linger in the air, a funeral pall for the man who would be king of this terrible underworld.

 

He does all of this, without a groan or curse.

 

And all that remains, is half a skull, melted augmetics, and splinters of seared meat on broken bones.

 

The crown tumbles from the crumbling shape, to drop and roll to Falk's feet.

 

And yet...the Kingmaker awaits.

 

Next Player [ ]

Edited July 26, 2023 by Mazer Rackham

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

The Staff struck true, to grizzly effect as the skull just caved in. Brain matter and shattered delicate components that had once been an implanted gift vacated the cavity. For a fraction of a second Bardas saw what was coming, but he could not turn aside in time as momentum carried him into the splutter. For all the success that the Omnissiah granted him as he felled the thrall, good fortune was but momentary in these depths. 

 

Turning aside to avid the gore had not only proven futile, but in the last instant before it him a blinding flash cut the goggles feed as safety mechanism isolated them lest the implus burned out other systems.

 

Remaining still to wait for his sight to restore was not a viable course of action, and relying on his other sense would not get him far. Smell was out of the question, hearing all too frequently interrupted by battle din as to drown out all else, though from the snatched he caught the others were baiting the former Lord. A smile reached the corner of his mouth; he wished them luck with such a ploy.

 

It would have to be touch then. He remembered the months after his eyes had been taken, before the gifts had taken. The staff turned from weapon to aid, tapping out what lay in front of him. Calling forth the last visual data of the surroundings as an aid Bardas started to head forward a little, and leftwards, towards the wall. There might be cover there, and had that been a terminal in the gloom?

 

He stumbled, head spinning, a sudden assault of error messages and nonsense. Scrap code was eating at his gifts. How? He had reduced external input means to the barest minimum wherever he could. Sight was currently totally out, audio clipped and filtered, comms were not receiving.

 

So distracted had he been in fighting of the scrape code that it took him long seconds to feel the chill side effect of wrapcraft. The Golem! The scrap code was coming directly from it through the Immaterium.

 

‘Be gone’ he thought at its presence, ‘you are outside the grace of the Omnissiah, and I will end you.’

 

Lapsing into recitation of one psalm after another, flooding his internal gifts with the binaric code conveying the tenants of the Omnissiah. As suddenly as the scrape code assault had begun it ended, and in the last fleeting remnants Bardas saw a suggestion of what the Golem had intend him for, and a hint of how to turn this failure of the fiend into more.  

 

Full Move 4m (8m/2 due to blindness) as discussed in OCC

[Necronaut]

Scourge:

 

Using the daemonhammer as a makeshift crutch, Scourge forced himself upright. The deathblow from the Aldario-thing had not come as expected. At the instant Hywelesbane had struck the abomination and stolen his sight, he had again had a fleeting, momentaryvision of a skeletal king, seated upon a throne of gold, watching him. The afterimage greeted him as his vision returned and once again the empty eye sockets of his cadaverous Lord bored into his mind. In a moment of clarity, he realised some measure of the God-Emperor's essence was contained within the great maul, Ira Dei made manifest.

 

It was apparent now why the hammerblow had never come from his foe: the Aldario-thing was pleading with Falk for a bauble bearing the image of Lady Gwynn, begging the Arbitrator to end his wretched existence. Scourge looked on in disbelief as the Golem's Warden was cut down by Falk, the thunderous report from the Arbitrator's hand-cannon punctuating the demise of the arch-Heretic of Damocles. The twisted creature disappeared before his eyes, leaving naught but a skull fragment and a crooked crown.

 

The Penitent doffed his sallet and spat a gobbet of blood where the crazed Aldario patriarch had just stood, letting his dented helm clatter to the ground. He hefted Hywelesbane and sneered at the remains, his grizzled countenance a rictus of pain and disgust. 

 

"Thus endeth the reign of Lord Aldario, king of nothing," he growled. "The wicked bringeth upon themselves the suffering they causeth the righteous."

 

He spat more blood and set off at a lope toward the effigy of the Golem, clutching Hywelesbane in a white-knuckle grip, his fury barely overcoming his weariness. 

 

 

Full Action: full move towards the magical, mechanical man. 

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

Nicios stared at the Golem, his body wracked with pain from the impact of the Warp. Through the pain the only thought was to gather his power as much as possible and send another bolt forward. 

Spoiler

Full Action - Invocation Test

Target - 53

Roll - 30

Result = Pass, 1 DoS

 

We... will... destroy... you, abomination.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard listened as Falk took up his improvised attempt to appeal to Aldario's humanity and fatherhood. His vision cleared just in time to see the lawman deliver mercy to the smiling old man. He wasn't jealous that Falk had succeeded where he failed, it had been a team effort… although he slightly wished that he could give off such an air of reliability and trustworthiness.

 

With it, he could steal half the galaxy.

 

He grinned to himself for a moment, then looked down at what was left of Aldario and felt suddenly serious. He didn't know if any part of the Lord could hear him, but…

 

"Well done, old man," he whispered under his breath. "You did it right at the end. Know that if we survive, I will see your Magda cured."

 

First though... time to kill this  thing.

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Lysimachus

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FOUR ENDS

ROUND FIVE BEGINS

 

+Initiative Order Remains+

Spoiler

Restal - 17

The Golem of Antares - 16

Reynard - 15

Bardas - 14

Scourge - 13

Falk - 12

Nicios - 9

 

MAP

Spoiler

 

Restal [ ]

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal:

 

He holstered Muninn and took a knee to reduce his silhouette. He then withdrew the magazine from Huginn.

 

He then stashed the empty magazine in a deep pouch. Carefully he withdrew a spare magazine from his belt and thumbed out the top round into a pocket, he then loaded the magazine into his pistol.

 

 

 

 

(Full Action) Reload

 

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Machine God
Holster Muninn

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

+Critical Warning: Core unstable. Nucleonic rampancy in effect. Vent process 50% and climbing.+

 

The Golem of Antares: Actions

Maintain Thinned Veil 

Half-Action: Possess Bardas

WP D100 +10 (Concentrate): PASS

Manifest Test (24): 27 +2 (Thin Veil) -4 (Sustain)  = 25 (No Psychic Phenomena)

 

GM: Opposed Willpower Required (Either Nicios or Bardas).

 

GM: Nicios may make a Routine (+10) Psynicience Test as a Free Action.

 

Reynard [ ]

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Mazer Rackham

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

The scrap code was back, manifesting out of nowhere.

 

‘I deny thee fiend, Surrender to the Omnissiah and die.’

 

Spoiler

WP: 35, D100: 53, Fail, 1 DoF

 

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

GM: Due to the nature of Dominate, the controller can split their actions, so next turn, unless Bardas passes another WP on his turn the Golem will Act again, through him.

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

Spoiler

Willpower Test

Target - 53

Roll - 44

Result - Pass, no DoS

Psyniscience Test

Target - 46 + 10 = 54

Roll - 44 (twice in a row, freaky!)

Result = Pass, 1 DoS

 

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

Using the substantial power of his will, Nicios cuts the dark bonds from Bardas' soul and mind, allowing him to think for himself. In response, the effigy shimmers with incandescent frustration.

 

Nicios ONLY:

Spoiler

You can feel the Golem's power diminish with each strike upon the effigy. You realise it is a psychic locus, but similarly, although the core soul matrix is within the golden cage - you will need a substantial effort to remove the kanker. Banishing the enemy will require more than just mental fortitude, but Holy fire.

 

You gather the chains of the Golem's power. The other statues form a warp vane, feeding the creature from the Dark Aether. They in turn are fed by mortal power, the roiling heat of barely constrained energies, hot as the sun, hatful as hades.

 

By these chains is the Golem bound and secured, by freedom shall it perish.

 

 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

Nicios gasped out his vision to the others, still keeping his ring spinning and his mind focused on destruction.

 

"Cut the chains of power to the Golem, banish it with Hywelesbane!"

[A.T.]

Falk

 

Freeing his lascutter Falk looked upon the fields surrounding the statues, "where must we cut?"

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

GM: Looking about frantically (or not), you will see many cables and conduits siphoning power from the Plasma Turbines, and burying within the two smaller statues.  It stands to reason that severing enough of these will drop the shields around those constructs, permitting access to the terminals. Bardas will know these work - however, the power of the Golem waxes strongly here, he knows that too. Any use of the terminals will require Opposed Tech-Use Tests as the Daemon haunts the machine, and seeks to keep you out. You may sever a main conduit as a Full Action without risk. Shooting them, or the plasma turbines, which will indeed get the job done, is...ill advised. You don't need to be Bardas to know that.

 

GM: Further, these smaller Terminals are symbio-synchronous. Their machine spirits must be accessed and used simultaneously.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard shook his head slightly. Had he… …had he just been thinking about putting a few bolt rounds into the closest plasma generator? Madness! The closeness of the warp in this bedevilled chamber must be playing with his mind.

 

Easy now, Reynard, or you'll kill us all faster than the Golem was going to!

 

However, just as Nicios had said, they did need to cut the power from the shields. But there was a much safer way to do it.

 

Reynard looked down at his feet, where thick cables snaked across the deck, carrying power from the generator towards the right hand statue. He reached down and took hold of the thickest he could see, and with a grunt of effort, pulled on it as hard as he could.

 

Spoiler

Full Action: Sever Main Conduit between south (right hand) generator and statue.

 

I hope Reynard is close enough to do this without needing to Move? While blinded he did a Half Move to take cover behind the generator, so I think he should be?

 

 

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

GM OOC: I'll answer @Lysimachus here for speed. Yes, the movement is fine.

 

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

With a schloop-pop, the conduit pulls from the plasma turbine conversion outlet socket, trailing bioplastic goo. Snapping and sparking it rears up in Reynard's hands, the shift of gravity depositing him on his backside. The smell of electrically burned synthetic polymer resin and vat-grown carrier is quite something. A clap of thunder and rush of air displacement signals the falling shield (Lower statue). If this wasn't enough, the actinic sizzling makes your teeth itch.

 

 

[A.T.]

Falk

 

Bracing his shield against any blowback Falk set about the cables across the room from Reynard, not as safe but considerably faster than pulling the cables by hand and time was not their friend.

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

As before the failed invasion by the Golem left a trace of the Golems thinking, not enough to see anything for sure, but perhaps a guide.

 

Nicios had the start of it, without material power the Golem lost a some of its protection, they would need to take the opportunity when it arose to get close.

 

Spoiler

Continue moving forwards as far as he can, hopefully next round Bardas will be able to do more.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND FIVE CONTINUES

 

The Lascutter slashes the branch of conduits and with a thump - the second shield drops as Bardas staggers forward.

 

GM: @Lord_Ikka We'll hold for Nicios' Action and then close the Round. (I've assumed your nullification was your 'Reaction')