[DH1e] The Damocles Contingency (RPG IC)

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

Geist looks at Restal, and the faint ghost of a smile flits across his face. Maybe just a trick of the light. "Could be, little killer."

 

He cants his head at Reynard. "This is a stummer-box. No damage, but no Techna Lingua either. As for the rest, that's up to Drexler."

 

Imperial Knights:

 

The creature, dripping oil and unguents, extends a hand, buzzing in irritated machine-language. The mechanical manus gently turns the handle, and in a writhing of cabled limbs and twisted robe cloth, it slinks into the room. Knife-fingers clinging to the ceiling, it hovers above Bardas' recumbent form. The head turns around, and extends on a telescoping neck, the red beams scanning his head and implants.

 

When it spots the electoo, it recoils, the antennae becoming excited, fascinated.

 

Is slowly snakes one of its extending arms, the harness carrying vials of preservative fluid, empty. They gently clink together in crystal ring as another mechadendrite is producing, snaking from the depths of crimson folds and oily cables, tattered flesh and slimy pus.

 

It hesitates, looks around the room once more, and ignites the plasma cutter, some three feet from Bardas' arm.

[Trokair]

The high energy emission triggered a further alert, raising the priority threshold. If Bardas had been merely in a cognitive down cycle this would have triggered wakefulness. However the recuperation protocol ruled with an iron command.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard smiled again.

 

"Interesting… and if we preferred for some of our party to wait here and protect our property instead of taking up your generous offer to secure it... would Drexler have any objection to that alternative?"

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

Nicios quietly put his micro-bead in the box, while watching Geist closely. His left hand, unseen in his coat's pocket, begins to spin his ring. You've pulled a gun on us, so just in case...

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

Geist shrugs.  "Doesn't bother me, and I doubt it would bother anyone else."

 

Imperial Knights:

 

A noise from below, footfalls carrying something heavy. Detectors sample the air. The Mecha-thrall reasons the humans below are a work party, collecting corpses to put them aside, and to rob the dead already within. It hesitates, the glow in its ocular augmetics fleeing, perhaps reflecting into the cogitation engines, scrying operators to attain decision.

 

Logic gates switch at the pondered variables, and the light returns to the cluster of ruby lenses. Gentle clicks and whirrs announce the refocus of prismatic sensor tubes, and several mechadendrites unfurl, dropping like gossamer from above, to carefully wrap and truss each of Bardas' limbs. The plasma cutter withdraws, retreating to the robed menace above the Tech Sentinel, and a brass-tipped transmission augur extends from the macabre contraption's skull.

 

The commotion downstairs cover the noise. Optimal decision.

 

Bardas/Tro will now still be asleep, but your inner functions will certainly be roused. You will feel the connection immediately, even though subconscious, and now your security protocols are under attack. This will take the form of 3 Tests, representing the metaphysical data battle of hack and counter-hack. You must make either:

• An Opposed Tech Use Test (full stat, plus any training bonuses), or
• An Opposed Willpower Test (full stat, plus any training bonuses).

If you succeed, you will gain a cumulative +10 bonus to subsequent tests.

[Trokair]

The connection flares through Bardas’s gifts, racing along the electoo, rousing the gifts. The guardian data djinn snaps back at the intrusion. A moment gained, the djinn turned to suppressing the recuperation protocol, survival in the short term trumps survival in the long term. Then it was back to defending the Tech Sentinel.

 

Spoiler

Bardas’s WP is 35 comapred to Int 34, and I don’t think he has any bonuses to either beyond having Tech-use to to even do a tech-use test. So WP it will be.

 

Target 35

1.       D100: 23, Pass, 1 DoS,  Target now 45

2.       D100: 85, Fail, 4 DoF  

3.       D100: 13, Pass 3 DoS

 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Trokair

[A.T.]

Falk:

 

Falk nodded at Reynard, the information gained at the sanctum could not be risked. Retaining his own comm-bead he took a step back from the others.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard nodded back at Falk and handed over the four items from his pockets to the Arbitrator. He looked back at Geist.

 

"Very well then. My colleague will remain here. We will continue on with you."

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

Offering Falk a brief nod, Geist slowly shakes his head. "You're continuing. I wouldn't go through that door for all the gold on Terra."

 

He knocks three times, and the door swings in with a squeal of rusty hinges. Beyond it is a small corridor, gothic lamps fitted over industrial glow-globes either side, a thickly carpeted floor in carmine red, with what appears to be wood panelling from floor to waist, where it then gives over to rich wallpaper. Beyond appears to be a study, with several couches and high-backed chairs, all upholstered in red leather. The ceiling betrays a little of what came before it, steel joists and lintels, bracketed buttresses in the corners. It serves to provide a truncated, metallic vault, making the corridor and room beyond seem bigger than it actually is. 

 

The smell of parchment and vellum, of old ink and burning tallow reaches your nostrils.

 

One word carries out to your ears, a confident female voice. "Enter!"

 

It's rude to keep a lady waiting, surely?

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal

 

Kerr Restal confidently walks into the study.

 

A smile on his lips, hidden by his mask.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Machine God
Typo

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

Light of Terra, guide my thoughts. Calm my mind, clear the aether.

The Catechism of Clarity runs through Nicios' head as he thumbs his ring.

Spoiler

Invocation skill test

Target- 53

Roll- 60

Result- Failure, no DoF

Unfortunately, he is still jittery from the firefight and the walk into the unknown. Still, Nicios slowly gathers his power and lets it seep into the nearby area, looking for any hidden foes. We will not be caught off-guard this time!

 

Spoiler

Manifest Psychic Power- Sense Prescence

Threshold- 7

Roll- 10 + 5 (WPB)= 15

Overbleed x 1 (exceed Threshold by 5) - Expand range by 10 meters

Result- Detect the minds of all living things within a 60 meter radius. Walls in excess of 1 meter thick block this power. No Psychic Phenomena occurs.

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

Nicios: Your power breathes through the air between you and all the lives surrounding you.  Beside are your comrades, a now accustomed presence, thieves, murderers, judges. Maybe those things are not mutually exclusive.

 

At the edges, you can feel the dozens and dozens of tiny creatures crawling up and down through the unused servo-skull tubes, busy with their tiny thoughts, the minds of these creatures just flotsam and jetsam. You can sense the strangely, oddly vague soul of Geist just opposite. Not a blank, he appears to be one of those grey souls, who dwell in the twilight of psychic reality. It is no wonder then, he's so...blunt.

 

Within, is a solitary, vibrant life-sign. You can feel the soft and hard edges of the mind. Sharp thoughts blend with those of a feminine persuasion.

 

Slight friction of lives that once were fade in and out, along with simple intent. Servo-skulls. Two of them. Thier mechanics, you cannot detect with your uncanny power, but the half-lives within betray them.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Hmm. Fancy.

 

But not particularly surprising. The aspiration to gain the trappings of the Spire was all too common amongst those with even a small measure of authority in the Underhive. Reynard was self-aware enough to admit that he, with his manner and dress styled after the Imperial nobility, was guilty of just such aspirations.

 

Perhaps that commonality might at least give him some level ground from which to bargain with Drexler?

 

Then Drexler spoke, and he had to re-evaluate again. A female opponent was no less a danger - and much more so in many ways - but required a different approach. Reynard entered, ready to offer a courteous bow.

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Lysimachus

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

As the party enters the study proper, the origin of the female voice is busy behind a desk. It isn't up to the spec of the room, but the wooden veneer is creased and stained by ingrained soot. The legs and frame is scarred by gouges, cuts and chips. The desk is bolted to the floor with crude rivets, poorly masked by folds of carpet. The woman is bare-headed, but instead of a simple robe, or suit, she wears a uniform in the cut of a naval officer, and better good quality.

 

Scrapes and scribbles of a fountain pen nib on yellow vellum, no doubt a local product. Trees, wood and paper, so hard to come by on such a world as this, a treasure trove panels the walls. Bureaux in wooden tops and clinical steel trolleys hold bottles of wine, and several glasses. Books, thick and thin, decorate tall bookshelves. On the walls, there are two chute-maws, the openings crested with gothic reliefs. The gentle breeze of air-currents and servitor chutes stirs the loosely pinned maps of Damacles across the walls.

 

Behind the scribbling woman is a large picter screen, another on the wall adjacent to the corridor you have just entered by. Across both of these screens is picter footage of the Sanctum, replaying over and over, the devastating clash between the Inquisitorial Clade and the thugs who pursued you. Restal's smile, and Reynard's bow are greeted with a glance, and the woman goes back to scribbling.

 

"Please take a seat," she invites, without looking up.

 

Two feet to her left, a pair of servo skulls hover, their tiny clamp manipulators clutched like mortal servants. She stops, her jet black fringe trembling, as the weight behind her brilliant blue eyes rests on each of her visitors. There is judgement there. How, why, when, what. All in the glance. Perhaps some of it is even for your benefit. She looks back down to the desk, carefully dashing a tray of sand over it, drying the ink before tapping it off.  One of the servitors comes in with an auto-vacuum and tidies it.

 

"Thank you," she tells it, rolling the scroll and handing it to the other skull.

 

"Scalpel," she says. The small gravitic motors bob the head, it's singular sapphire monocle blazing, before it turns and drops into the chute with a whoof of displaced air.  She takes another letter, and hands it to the second skull, now finished in cleanup duty. A tiny silver clamp waits. "Tracer."

 

The skull follows the first.

 

She leans back into her padded chair, arranging her long shock of plaited jet hair so she isn't leaning on it, before folding one, highly polished booted knee over the other, the deck officer's boots catching the light on mirror-black toecaps.

 

"Well, gentlemen. What can I do for you?"

Edited October 23, 2022 by Mazer Rackham

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal

 

"Ma'am so nice to finally meet you." said Kerr Restal.

 

"May I introduce Bertram Von Graen of House Graen of Cal Ferrina" gesturing to Reynard. 

[Mazer Rackham]

Imperial Knights:

 

The subroutines and encryption endjinns war on a perfect plane of mathematics and logic. Battering rams of digital engrams are blunted by firewalls of perfect binharic majesty. The war waxes and wanes as whole sectors of data are sacrificed, algorithms tumbling in great scattering waterfalls.

 

Drone:

Spoiler

FAIL 4 DoF

FAIL 1 DoF

FAIL 2 DoF

 

Finally the last wall of defence crumbles, and you access a part of the datavaults withing your agressor.

 

Spoiler

9 4 3 2 9 D 4 3 2

3 3 4 3 2 E 9 8 3

7 6 9 8 5 L I 3 2

3 2 2 1 4 5 V 4 6

9 8 9 7 5 3 5 E R

2 2 2 1 L 5 4 3 6

9 9 8 3 2 3 O 4 3

3 2 2 2 1 C 4 3 2

9 9 8 K 4 5 E 7 1

=ERROR/SUS.CUT/AMPUTATE.CONN=

+implant.comm 4./nix-echo:off+

 

With that, the connection is brutally severed, and the presence is gone, leaving you exhausted and asleep.

 

The Nexus:

 

She nods cordially at Restal's greeting, before looking up at one of the vidscreens, obviously putting names to faces as the siege of the medical facility replays.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Mazer Rackham

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard nodded his thanks to Restal, then grinned - an even blend of impudence and charm- at the woman.

 

"I think maintaining that lie here would be both unnecessary and somewhat offensive? If you have been watching us since the Sanctum, my Lady, you are already aware that I am not some foolish noble wandering aimlessly through this Hive."

 

Pointless to defend a position that was already overrun.

 

"My real name is irrelevant. My purpose - our purpose - is not. We are, as you are also aware, investigating the death or disappearance of Magos Biologis Dreyfuss. We have learned that he came to you for assistance. We therefore need to know whatever you know about him, his work and what he wanted from you."

 

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

Her face changes, opens a little, impressed. "Refreshing. I shall repay that. Dreyfuss, came to us, yes. Before I continue, tell me, is there a reason your friend is waiting outside? You'll forgive me if I view it as...suspicious?"

 

Her high cheekbones and slightly upturned peasant nose jerk in Falk's direction.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard shrugged.

 

"Simple caution, my Lady. Being suspicious is part of our job. How were we to know that our belongings would not be stolen as soon as they were out of our sight? We had no idea what we might be facing here."

 

He finished more warmly, an eyebrow half-raised and a half-smile on his face.

 

"You are certainly not what I was expecting."

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

The Lady smirks at Reynard's final comment, pale lips on a tanned face. A scar at the corner of her eye crinkles at the gesture. "Sensible. And your surprise pleases me. To be brutally honest, there is no Drexler. He is the head of our...organisation. You can't find and arrest what doesn't exist. It has the benefit of keeping strangers surprised."

 

She leans forward, picks up picks up her pen. She grips it in the forefinger and thumb of both hands, twisting it.

 

"Dreyfuss said his life was in danger. He scratched our backs, so we helped him. A disposal chute to allow him to leave the lab unobserved, weapons, equipment. In return he provided a medical service."

 

"Of course, you know that by observation, hence it's free." She looks from face to face, her smirk still in place.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Mazer Rackham

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard nodded thoughtfully. Of course. The 'Big Boss' scam. He'd used it once before himself. He must have been about thirteen, Terran-standard. No one had believed him capable of running a job at that age, so he'd used it to his advantage.

 

"Indeed," he answered, "that much we had assumed. Of course, it is nice to have it confirmed. I presume that you also have more specific information, but there will be a cost?"

 

He nodded again, not surprised. Perhaps even slightly pleased by her acumen? It was one of the first things you learned - never give away anything for free.

 

"I would do the same in your position… but when you ask your price, please be aware of two facts. First, the simple truth is that we do not have great resources here to bargain with. However, the second, more important fact is that giving us what we need - as quickly as possible - will be to the benefit of this entire Hive… your organisation included."

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Lysimachus

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

"There are deep currents here, madam, that are not wise to play in." Nicios looked at the woman blandly, every inch the Administratum bureaucrat. "Those in Hive Tertius can attest to that fact."

 

"Our need is great, our time is short."

[Mazer Rackham]

The Nexus:

 

She listens to Reynard, then Nicios, directing her attention mainly to the psyker, face hardening. "And where you come from, that might mean something. I was wondering which type you lot were," she says, gesturing first to Reynard, then Nicios, "the open hand, and the gloved fist."

 

She sighs, whatever warmth won retreating into chilly indifference. "You're trouble, and the frag mines you're standing on are expensive. Since I'd rather just be rid of you, we put Dreyfuss in touch with a gunsmith by the name of Julo Kathago, a datacrypter called Sebastian Lecroix, and the Magister envoy, Lady Gwynne."

 

"You can find them in the lower hive. I am sure you will swim quite happily in those depths. Good morning."

 

She picks up the pen, and once again begins scrawling. It appears you are dismissed.

 

Once you leave Geist will return your equipment and lead you back to the town, where Bardas slumbers.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard's look as Nicios spoke was almost as frosty as the woman's. He'd have words later, but for now he just wanted to smooth things over a little. Who knew if they might need her again? He held back a little as Restal and the psyker left.

 

"You have my sincere thanks at least, my Lady. I consider myself in your debt." He paused. "In fact, in the spirit of sharing information… are you able to run your business from anywhere outside Secundus and Primus? If you can, might I quietly suggest doing so for the next fortnight?"

 

He grinned.

 

"Consider it a holiday or something?"

[A.T.]

Falk:

 

Falk watched as the rest returned, the speed of their meeting neither a good nor bad sign but there was at least no signal for violence. Reynard would no doubt divulge what had been spoken at a more opportune moment but for now it seemed best they put distance between themselves and this place before those hunting them could organise a new tracking party.