[DH1e] The Damocles Contingency (RPG IC)

[Mazer Rackham]

Lysi, yes, that's right.

 

The Free Market:

 

The figures shuffle around to face you, revealing they are the better condition corpses that lay scattered in the battlefield. Some hold stub pistols or autoguns, others cudgels and heavy tools.

 

++ STRUCTURED TIME CONTINUES ++

 

+ ROUND TWO +

 

Initiative Order (Unchanged): NOTE: The 'Puppets' will go after/at the same time as Helene (thereby, last). Since they are dead, they have pants WS/BS/AB.

 

MAP:

Spoiler

 

Note that the girl is not on the map, and as such is to be handled as a narrative lever to inform and provide conflict/context for your posts. She will move at the rate you assign her, and cannot be targeted etc etc. Questions in the OOC if you got 'em.

 

Reynard [ ]

(Since you were already in the immediate area, I've tried to accommodate your post with the setup).

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard didn't like the idea of battling corpses. Already dead but still up and fighting, the Emperor alone knew how much firepower it would take to put one of them down again. Plus, there were a lot of bodies around here, how many more of them could Helene animate and send against them? Finally, the shambling, silent things made his skin crawl...

 

"Get up here, girl," he muttered.

 

He reached down and grabbed the child, lifting her up. As he settled her almost non-existent weight over his shoulder, he nodded towards Scourge, Falk and Nicios.

 

"I suggest we don't waste time killing those already dead, gentlemen," he shouted. "We have been given more important tasks. Mine lies north, yours east. I wish you well in it."

 

With that, Reynard suddenly leapt forwards, dodging between the two closest corpses. They seemed to moan - just air escaping from lifeless lungs, he told himself - and reached out for him, but he ducked the slowly grasping hands and rushed up the passage Gheist had used earlier to take them to Drexler.

 

 

Spoiler

Full Action: Run (Up to 30m, so should have easily enough to go 10-15m through the upper left doorway heading to Drexler's office?)
If required, Dodge Test to get past Bodies 3 and 4:
Ag50, Roll: 36, Success with 1DoS.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

The Free Market:

 

The walking dead swipe and aim their weapons, but the slick-talking 'weasel' evades the ghastly grasping.

 

+ ROUND 2 CONTINUES +

 

Scourge [ ]

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

+That may have been a mistake+ he admitted, as he crouched next to the Voidsman.

 

+If it has lain here all these years then I suspect that anything volatile in the engine or generators will have dissipated. Furthermore I suspect these scavengers have striped what they can, so a lot inside will not be intact even it had survived the initial crash. I supposes that  if there are enough functioning control systems  that are tied to the generators then some form of nuclear meltdown akin to the fallen hives could be initiated, but if the Golem lurks within i doubt that is an option.+

 

Glancing up into the sky he concluded his thoughts.

 

+If we want to ensure obliteration then we will need lance strikes from up there.+

 

+First though we should find a way in and see if the monster is home, or if it fled long ago, ready?+

[Mazer Rackham]

The Wreck of the Gladius:

 

The broken ship is a void-whale carcass, and ingress into the outer pressure hull is simple enough. As Bardas predicted, additional plating to rebuff the hard caress of the void and even the warp, has been pilfered, large sections unbolted, or crudely sliced away with cutting equipment. Part desecration, part repurposing, the Mechanicum has done it themselves with battered and lifeless ship hulks - sometimes with the voiders still inside.

 

Adamantium and ceramite ablative are expensive, and here within this metallurgical corpse is a fortune for the right person, ready to put in the work. The nomadic Dregs have stripped away enough to bulge their pockets. If they could sell it without being executed.

 

Your radcounters tick away like mispronounced binharic, as you search for, and eventually find an inspection hatch. Although blasted to bare metal in places, it is unmarred by tools or plybars, and appears untouched by gloved hand.

 

Cutter powers the Voivode into the harsh clouds of poison gas and grit, the thrusters thundering overhead, rapidly gaining altitude.

 

+I'm...get... aus... returns. Comp...on the ..y," he says, radiation playing havoc with the vox channels. +Might w... to make .. qui...+

[Machine God]

Gladius Wreck:

 

+Well you've got the Las-Cutter,+ said Kerr Restal. +Be my guest.+

 

There was a garbled squak on the Vox.

 

+I'm...get... aus... returns. Comp...on the ..y," Cutter said. +Might w... to make .. qui...+

 

He got into a defensive position guarding Bardas and watching their exits. Cephas would make a nice speed-bump, but it paid to be sure.

 

+So we've got enemies inbound, get cutting!+

 

He tried to get through to Cutter over the Vox,

 

+Ground contacts or aircraft too?+

 

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

The Wreck:

 

There's a pause.

 

+Sur...ce.+

 

 

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

As Kerr Restal tried to clarify the situation with the Cutter Bardas approached the inspection hatch. It appeared unused, had the scavengers simply not worker their way to it yet, or perhaps they had an easier way inside that lead to the same area as the hatch. However this would be there way in.

 

On the off chance that the purely mechanical analogue safety release still worked he reached for the handle and tried it in both directions.  

Edited April 4, 2023 by Trokair

[Mazer Rackham]

Bardas:

 

Turning the handle acts as a crank, used in the event of power loss or in emergencies by an abandoned voidsman. Working the handle some more, the hatch creaks open with fairly little noise, whatever is emitted is swept away by the wind, and the natural creaking of the shivering hulk.

[Necronaut]

Scourge:

 

The Penitent panned his boltgun back and forth over the shambling horde of reanimated humans, the blood draining from his face. He resisted the urge to start firing wildly into the human effigies, his soldier's discipline and training taking control, but this was far, far beyond the pale of anything he'd ever encountered upon the myriad battlefields he had trod. He backpedaled through the encroaching bile and muck to stand amongst his cohort again, reaching down to retrieve his dropped lasgun. He watched Reynard take off with the girl, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach, and he cursed him under his breath. 

 

"Grox-headed fool," he hissed.

 

But Reynard was not wrong. Scourge had fought many a battle which in the end had been little more than sound and fury signifying nothing. This could become another one of them if they were to be mired here, flailing against the walking dead. 

 

Hopefully they had seen the last of the witch, but there was no telling what else awaited them in the darkness of the lower hive. Their survival hinged upon the remainder of the demi-clade remaining in force; one should not abandon one's squad.

 

"Falk, Nicios, stay close and we can cut a path through this rabble!"

 

Lifting his lasgun to his shoulder, he advanced in the direction Reynard had indicated and fired upon one of the walking corpses.

 

 

Half Action: Half Move (5m) to the east

 

Half Action: Standard Attack (BS) vs Puppet 8 (assuming we want to head in this direction?): 37 + 0 (SA) + 10 (Short Range) = 47

Standard Attack: 1d100 36

36: hit, 1 DoS (hit location: body)


Lasgun damage: 1d10+3E, Pen 0

Lasgun damage: 1d10 9 + 3 = 12 damage, Pen 0

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

The Free Market:

 

The body shows no sign of pain as the death-light spears it, the lasbolt illuminating the dark with a flicker-flash.

 

The rank smell of corpse-skin crisping is cut short as the groaning body faceplants the deck. No hell-light issues forth, no scream of a soul released to purgatory.

 

Although the whisper of a clucking tongue echoes briefly as the Party breaks or fights.

 

Leaving so soon? Don't you want to play with me?

 

Helene's voice softly croons in each ear. The words come from no lips, no breath carries them. They simply...are.

 

Falk [ ]

[A.T.]

Falk

 

Stepping back to keep pace with Scourge and using the wall of the skullery to gain what cover he could Falk unleashes a point blank shot into the cloest of the risen dead. The large-bore vox-legi was a weapon designed to see action against hive mutants and heavy gutter-forged armour and ensured there would not be enough left of the man to rise again.

 

Turning to Nicios, "Find her". Keep her talking, rile her, "More puppets and shadows. The golem could not face your sister, yet do you hide from it now as you hide from us?" He remembered the letters of Helenes jealous nature, "or are you still a slave? Dreyfuss offered freedom from your fathers pact and you turned from it".

 

 

If Falks half move gets him to point blank of a target to the east he will shoot that, otherwise he'll fire on the closer zombie to the south before moving to stand back to back with Scourge

 

Roll to hit: 58 vs 74 (hit with an extra DoS - so one bonus hit from scatter)

Damage: 1+9 = 10, and 8+9 = 17, Pen 0

 

Awareness roll to try and spot Helene: 91, fail

[Mazer Rackham]

The Free Market:

 

Struck by the heavy cartridge the cadaver is cleaved in two, toppling to the ground.

 

Dreyfuss was a fool, she hisses, hotly. I drained him dry - oh the secrets! His hot blood made me strong, his knowledge made me powerful! Gwynne was daddy's little babe, the Emperor's precious harpy! Magda - dear Magda, was his special project...to rule in his passing.

 

What was I? she snarls, rolling her rage into an answer. Ignored! Yet who ignores me, now? I will feast on you, and you will give me the Djinn's foe...knowledge is power...

 

She breaks into ringing, harsh laughter, which dies away into the dark.

 

Nicios [ ]

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

Damned witch, where are you?

Spoiler

Half Action - Move

Move to the east, following Scourge.

 

Half Action - Manifest Pyschic Power (Sense Presence)

Threshold - 7

Roll - 5(WPB) + 6 + 8 + 6 = 25

Overbleed x 3 - (5 over target each) + 30m to range

Result = Sense presence within 80 (50 + 30), walls 1m thick block power. No Psychic Phenomena (no 9s rolled).

His mind waded through the thick psychic sentch of the place, trying to find a controlling individual. 

 

"Keep moving, follow Reynard and stay together."

 

[Mazer Rackham]

MAP:

Spoiler

 

The Map has been updated for ease of reference. If your position is incorrect, sing out in the OOC. I have removed Puppet 1, because I gauged he was closer than Puppet 9 after Falk's move.

[Mazer Rackham]

The Free Market:

 

Nicios ONLY:

Spoiler

The anger allows you to focus in better, dialling in through the miasma of 'presence'. As opposed to seeing it, you feel it, a shadow lurking in the spill of your stablights, hiding in the cut and slash of the beams. You can hear her thoughts in her projected emotions.

 

...Ready...

 

Scourge's heavy sabatons slosh through the muck, cleats leaving thick prints behind him as he treads away. The bootprints he leaves suddenly flash freeze over.

 

Nicios ONLY:

Spoiler

Then the footsteps, the stab of naked feet racing on the toes, moving fast, the slap of bloody hands on frozen steel...she comes in hard, ten metres, five...

 

...or Not...

 

The stablight beams falter, flickering as batteries struggle in the cold.

 

Nicios ONLY:

Spoiler

...And she's there, right there! Up, climbing the wall, high up above you - leaping off the side of the Grox - plummeting right at Scourge!

 

...Here I COME...!

 

Scourge is about to be attacked, and the attack will count as Surprise. You may use your Reaction to warn him, if you wish, but the enemy are about to shoot at you.

 

Steel stanchions begin to creak, contracting in the cold. Icicles form from the dripping water leaking. They fall like cold bullets, as bloody streaks turn to thick slush in a skein of ice. Rimes form on all the fingerprints and where your breath has condensed.

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

+We are in.+

 

Taking the lad while the Voidsman kept watch Bardas advanced into the darkness. Was the floor slanting downwards, it was hard to tell, but years of experience in the mountains had thought him to take note of what his feet told him.  He looked back to the hatch and the dim light it allowed to fall within. Maybe it had been the result of the crash, but the spacing of the hatch to the floor seemed weird. He could not put his finger on it, but something was just ... not proper design. Or perhaps he had been walking on a wall or ceiling.

 

Taking out a glowglobe he shook it to life and then let it roll ahead of him into the gloom. It canted slightly to one side, and it did not accelerate much at all, the slop was minimal then, for now, just receding inwards.

 

Spoiler

Awareness Test

Per:34

D100: 32, Pass, 0DoS

 

[Mazer Rackham]

The Wreck:

 

Bardas:

 

You discern that due to lateral torque on the ship's hull as it landed it also rolled onto it's starboard side. Further, it would be safe to conclude most of the internal forward  hold compartments below decks, are buried under tons of irradiated sand.

 

You spy the way onward, a break in the passageway to the left (downslope) reveals another bulkhead door ten metres hence. To the right, the passageway is blocked by several metres of debris forming an almost solid wall.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Mazer Rackham

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

 

"Scourge, above!"

[Trokair]

Bardas

 

Unspooling the end of the thinner of the two ropes he had taken from the Cutters supply, he passed it back to Kerr Restal.

 

+Secure it near the entrance, getting lost in the bowls of the leviathan would be an ignominious end+.

 

Carefully uncoiling the rope as he went Bardas approached the bulkhead door he had spotted, the other way was blocked without a lot of effort, and even then there was no way to know if there even was a way through on the right.

 

Much like the outer hatch there was no power here, but the wheel turned a little when he tried. Leaning into it he managed to turn it further, but there was resistance, he could feel ho it staggered and vibrated before seeking up again, had it rusted or simply been deformed?   

 

Spoiler

Strength Test

S:35

D100: 56, Fail, 2DoF

 

Looking over to the Voidsman who had caught up he tilted his head a little.

+Together?+

 

If that did not work then it would be time for the lascutter.

[Mazer Rackham]

The Free Market:

 

Helene:

Spoiler

Full Action: Charge (Scourge)

WS: Hit (Body)

Damage: 15 Pen 3

Since Nicios warned you, you may use your Reaction.

 

Puppets:

Spoiler

Half Action: Half Move

Half Action: Standard Attack (Ranged x 2)

BS: 1 x Falk, MIss 1 x Nicios Miss

 

Weapons are brought up, in clumsy, wobbling hands. The guns bark, bullets flying completely wide. The sudden noise is shocking, but the violence is rendered harmless. You realise that one of the brutes will be in grasping range of Scourge soon, and the heavy wrench he's got might make a bit of a dent.

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal:

 

Picking up a loose bar, he jammed it through the wheel to make a lever. 

 

I can move the world

 

[STR 26 = 26. Result: 21, Pass] 

 

With a yank of the bar, the wheel turned. 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Machine God
Typo

[Necronaut]

Scourge:

 

Looking up disbelievingly at Nicios's opportune warning, his stab light revealed a quite intact Helene Aldario clinging to the wall, preparing to leap upon him like some terrible beast from mankind's ancient past. He stood there dumbfounded for a further half second before the reptilian circuitry deep in the recesses of his cerebellum took control.

 

"Clever wench."

 

He threw himself to one side as she crashed down with the force of a meteor, the powered muscle-bundles within his battered war-suit hurling him out of the way. 

 

 

Dodge Test +0 (Ag): 41

 

Dodge: 1d100 18

18: success, 2 DoS
 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

+ STRUCTURED TIME CONTINUES +

 

+ ROUND THREE +

 

Initiative Order

Spoiler

Scourge = 10

Falk = 6

Nicios = 6

Helene = 6 (??/??) (PC Takes Priority)

 

MAP:

Spoiler

 

Scourge [ ]

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

 

Reynard tried to slam the heavy door shut behind them, but he didn't waste too much time on it. Speed was their greatest ally, and he knew their best chance was to outrun the lumbering corpses. He hurried on, several times hearing noises behind them that suggested at least one of the hideously animated puppets was slowly following them down the tunnel.

 

He actually hoped so, if it meant any of the horrific things were drawn away from his fellow Acolytes. He could still hear the echoing retort of far-away weapons fire, so he knew they were still alive. Hopefully they were being smart and pulling back. Reynard felt slightly guilty about leaving them behind, but he was sure it had been the right play. Too late to change his mind now. Time to get on with the job he'd been given to do.

 

Just as he recalled, the tunnel descended slightly and curved to the left, the sounds of the vast heat sink still audible despite metres and metres of plascrete and plasteel in between. Now, somewhere around here there was the hidden access Gheist had used…

 

 

Spoiler

Awareness Test:
Per28 +10(Awareness+10) +10(HS:Sight) = 48, Roll: 39, Success.

 

 

Where is it? Where is… Aha!

 

Gently, he lowered the little girl to the sloping floor and reached towards the cover marked with the .

 

...and the catch was somewhere… around… here!

 

"Come on," he said aloud as the panel rolled back smoothly, "we should be safe in here."

 

He suddenly grinned impishly at the child, one Hiver to another, and shrugged.

 

"Well… safe from those things, at least."

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Lysimachus