Deathwatch: Murderers in Black (IC Thread)

[Lysimachus]

Kal'li-nath smirks and gestures subtly towards the overwhelming firepower arrayed against you.

 

“Such bravado. If death is your desire, Templar, I will oblige you as quickly and as easily as I did your predecessors. And yet… that is not my wish. For this moment, at least.”

 

Then he turns to look at Alda.

 

“And so you would be the wits of the group? Marvellous. True indeed that we have cut you... but do you seek vengeance against the blade, or the hand that directed it? Currently, I am inclined to assist you, even though you have invaded my favourite place of business. Yet ask yourself, why would I do this?”

 

The Corsair Prince reaches down to lift something from beside him. Then, without effort, he tosses a large black shape over the balcony to fall out through the energy bubble and down into the fire-blackened and shredded garden. It lands on the stone paving a few metres from Gerhardt with a dull, wet thud.

 

“I dislike being betrayed. Orochi feared that I might reveal his plans to you, so he sent his pet killer to murder me before I could. That inclines me to do just as he feared, to betray him, to unmask all his secrets.”

 

Kal'li-nath leans casually on the balcony.

 

“If you do happen to find Orochi before he completes his mission, tell him he needs to try harder than that. Tell him to come try it himself.”

 

The black lump is oddly light-absorbent, making it hard to immediately understand the shape, but closer examination reveals it is a broken human body. The corpse is clad from neck to toe in synthskin, and various straps and packs carry innumerable, tiny, yet utterly lethal tools of death. Undoubtedly the head was similarly covered too, but the Anrathe must have removed the close-fitting hood in an attempt to identify their lord's would-be assassin. Though bruised and bloodied and now pale in death, the body is immediately identifiable to you.

 

It is… was… Interrogator Aykawa.

 

 

Edited January 5 by Lysimachus

[Lysimachus]

The Prince notices your uncomprehending expressions and rolls his eyes.

 

“‘Who is ‘Orochi’?’ Isha's Tears, what is it like in your funny little mortal minds? It must be so dull.”

 

He sighs.

 

“I have known Orochi for several millennia. He is a thief, a liar, a saboteur, an assassin. He serves no master, has no purpose except to build his own wealth and power.”

 

“He last came to the Bazaar perhaps three of your ‘years’ ago. There was something he was seeking. An… artefact… of some sort, that he had been… contracted… to retrieve. He had traced this item as far as a specific world. A world controlled by your Imperium. Tightly guarded, utterly inaccessible. Far better protected than the feeble defences of most of your planets. He needed a way in, in order to perform reconnaissance, find the artefact. All our actions on both Correllageon and Dorghra provided him with that way in.”

 

Kal'li-nath smiles widely again.

 

“And I believe that will be enough. I will not give you all the answers, after all! More fun for you to work some of it out by yourselves, yes? My Company are leaving this moon now. I have other Markets to visit, and I suspect this one will be swarming with filthy mortals very soon. Perhaps I will return in a few centuries, after your primitive ‘scientists’ have given up again?”

 

He turns to leave, then pauses and turns back.

 

“There is one final clue that I will leave you. Down in the larders beneath this palace. Something Orochi brought with him when he came here. When you have seen it, perhaps then you will understand? I will leave one of my ships behind, and if you have not damaged him too badly…”

 

He looks down at the fallen, unconscious Wayseeker.

 

“...and if you grovel sufficiently for his forgiveness… perhaps my servant will consent to guide you where you need to go? Maybe, if you are quick, you will be in time?”

 

Now he does leave, disappearing into the shadowy interior beyond the balcony. Then, in good battlefield order, the rest of the Corsairs begin to pull back from the parapet. The last of those fighting Asterius moves to assist the Wayseeker, and the Venoms quickly collect their passengers.

 

After only a few moments, you have been left utterly alone.

 

 

 

 

OOC: This brings us to the end of Act 3 of Murderers in Black! We will now take a break for a month or two. I'm thinking of coming back at the beginning of March? First Friday is the 7th, so is that ok for everyone to commence Act 4 then?

 

When we come back, we'll find out what Kal'li-nath's final clue is, and we’ll move into the finale of the story! If, like Mazer, you think you've already figured it all out, can I please ask that you don't post it and spoil it for the rest? (If you want to PM me with your theories, feel free… though I cannot promise to confirm or deny whether you are right!)

 

As it is the end of the Session, all PCs will gain the usual 500XP. However, as this may be the last opportunity of this particular game, you will each also receive a bonus 500XP! As usual, this will need to be spent and added to your sheets before we restart on the 7th.

 

[Machine God]

Asterius:

 

Orochi? 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6 by Machine God
Typo

[Lysimachus]

Act IV: Slaughter and Lies

 

Scene 26. The Empty House?

 

There is a subtle change, both in the surrounding jungle and in the palace itself. Though the Anrathe have left, somehow the setting feels more alive, as though the clearing is suddenly able to start to draw breath again. Less perfect, but nevertheless more comfortable, more human.

 

The House of the Lions stands seemingly empty. There are only a handful of signs to suggest that the Aeldari were ever here - the battle damage to the silent gardens, your own wounds, and the broken body of Interrogator Aykawa. From your position at the threshold, there are no visible signs of life within, either, even though the Corsairs retreated inside only a few moments ago. There are no doors or sealed windows to bar you from entering. Indeed, the palace seems to be built to be as open as possible, ideal for the hot climate of the Bazaar moon.

 

As you go inside, you find that the interior is light and airy, divided into chambers and halls by a series of delicate pillars and arches that rise into elegant vaulted ceilings. The proportions of this stonework are alien - just slightly, disturbingly different from the honest, solid lines of Imperial gothic design. The halls are sumptuously decorated and adorned with countless treasures and trophies, presumably given as tribute to Prince Kal'li-nath or taken as plunder from his victims. Artwork, statuary, jewellery and even armour and weapons. Some appear to be of Aeldari origin, others are plainly Imperial, still others unidentifiable as belonging to any race of the galaxy that you recognise.

 

As you move deeper into the palace, you finally encounter another living being.

 

In an open-sided parlour that overlooks the stunning gardens, sprawled atop a chaise lounge upholstered in deep, rich blue and embroidered with golden thread, you find the silver-clad Wayseeker. He has removed his tall helm, revealing a face that is remarkably similar to that of Prince Kal'li-nath himself, but somehow seems more youthful - though with the Eldar, that is a confusing, relative term. You might also notice that his features are even paler than the norm, except for several purplish-blue contusions. When he sits up at your entrance, you might get the sense that his movement is cautious, even painful. Clearly, he is still suffering from the beating given by Gerhardt. Slowly he stands, leaning upon the carven wraithbone staff he used earlier.

 

“Well…,” he winces slightly at the effort of speaking, “my Lord suspected that Mon-keigh gene-brutes such as yourselves would be unable to resist plundering or destroying the wonders that he has gathered. If you must, you must, I suppose… but be aware that he has already retrieved all the objects that have any true value.”

 

The Wayseeker smiles through bruised lips.

 

“Moreover, as he said, you have little time to revel in such vandalism. He bade me remind you of the gift he left you down in the larders. Orochi wished it destroyed when he last left this place… but my Lord is more cunning than that snake ever could be. He saw that it might be useful and therefore ordered it preserved.”

 

The xenos witch points off through another archway.

 

“The stairs to the lower levels are over there. When you have examined my Lord's gift… and if you have sufficient wit to understand what it means… then I shall be awaiting you in my Lord's audience chamber up on the highest level of this palace.”

 

He offers no bow, nor even a nod, but instead turns and walks - rather stiffly - from the parlour through another archway.

 

 

OOC: Welcome back to Session 4! This post is really just to remind everyone of where we left off at the end of Act 3, with Prince Kal'li-nath's words about the mysterious Orochi, and the gift the Prince left you, and his offer of the Wayseeker's assistance. Feel free to continue your investigations as you see fit!

 

If you want to include stuff in your posts before you actually enter the palace, or before you speak to the injured Wayseeker, that’s fine, I will add responses in line with your actions; eg. if you want to, describe some of the esoteric treasures that you find as you pass through the palace. It is up to you whether you choose to obliterate these xenos artefacts, or allow them to remain.

 

 

Edited March 7 by Lysimachus

[Machine God]

Asterius:

 

Ignoring the Xenos Witch, he walked over to the stairs leading to the lower levels. 

 

+We do not need to destroy anything, the Exterminatus will do that!+ Asterius stated. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Zulu]

Zidemi:
 

As Zidemi walks through the palace, he will pay closer attention to the artefacts displayed for anything notable, focusing more on those of Imperial origin…

 

Spoiler

Awareness Test: 41 (Per) +0 = 41 required

Roll d100: 30 = Pass, 1DoS

 

 

 

+++

 

“Well… my Lord suspected that Mon-keigh gene-brutes such as yourselves would be unable to resist plundering or destroying the wonders that he has gathered. If you must, you must, I suppose… but be aware that he has already retrieved all the objects that have any true value.”

 

Was that a bluff, or a genuine disregard for their own treasures?

 

“Nothing would be in this chamber if it had no true value,” Zidemi scoffed at the eldar. He knew well enough that these xenos were as vain as they were deceitful.

 

With flamer in hand, he tailed the eldar who slowly departed to the chamber, and this supposed evidence they were so keen to share…

[Trokair]

Alda

 

The battle, well, skirmish if she was honest with herself, was over. Adrenaline was still running high. The mantra of calm she had forced on herself while addressing the Eldar Prince was but a temporary dampening. Between the Xenos Prince’s word and the ease of his escape it sat badly on her temperament, and no doubt worse for the einherjar. Coming down from their battle fervour not to a clean victory, but a mess of a situation.

 

Shaking of some of the fugue Alda tended to what injuries she could with Amaras’s supplies, until the Apothecary had recovered from the snipers wound they were without an experienced combat medic that could properly deal with Astartes physique, what little she could do a mere stopgap.

 

Once done, while the einherjar moved to secure the now empty palace, Alda examined the remains of Huskarl Aykawa. He was still a superior in the Order, and deserving of funerary rights, even if his role in this was far from clear, and likely honourable. In any case there may still be something of use or insight to be found.

 

Spoiler

Search

Per: 48 + 10 (Search +10) = 58

D100:40, Pass, 1 DoS

 

[Necronaut]

Gerhardt

 

Gerhardt seethed with roiling, inchoate fury while the Kill-Team toured the alien pleasure palace. The meaning, value and artistry of the sumptuous appointments and works of art were utterly lost upon him. The thought that any living creature could withstand such depraved luxury warred furiously with his generally single-minded focus upon austere asceticism and honour and duty above all other things.

 

He found the place repulsive in the extreme. He wanted it all to burn.

 

And his wish would soon be granted.

 

Passing through a gallery, the Templar was confronted by a sculpture carved from some multi-hued, monocrystalline gemstone, approximately a metre long by a half metre tall and wide. It depicted an alien woman, nude and in repose, and was carved with such exquisite, aching beauty that it gave even the dark crusader pause, causing his breath to catch in his throat. It was flawless, it was perfection; it was undoubtedly the masterwork of an artisan who had honed their craft well beyond the limits of their peers. Based upon its size alone, the gem could have been valued equivalently to that of a hive-city, that is before one even mentioned its clarity and lack of imperfections, and even that calculation was before factoring in the sublime piece of art wrought from its core. That geological processes could have produced a work-piece so pristine was a near-mathematical impossibility, even from such a vast galaxy with millions upon millions of worlds, many of which as yet lay undiscovered and unmolested by the touch of humanity.

 

It was the product of a diseased mind and weakness given form and substance.

 

Drachenhauer ignited with the malevolent crackle of actinic discharge, and Gerhardt smote the sculpture into ruin, hacking and bashing away at it with sword and fist until it was in small enough pieces that he could reliably grind them into powder under his enormous ceramite sabatons. In short order, nothing recognizable remained of the masterpiece, only broken shards of stone refracting forlorn and ruined bands of light across the tiles of the chamber from a distant, waning sun. The hulking, black-armoured knight stalked away to rejoin his cohort, satisfied that he had rid the galaxy of some small perversion, his fury sated for a time.

 

When they found the Witch again, Gerhardt looked on with smug satisfaction at how he had disfigured and injured the wretched abomination. The time for justice was nigh, but he would have to restrain himself until then. The alien spoke and then departed, and he found himself overwhelmed by an overpowering sense of claustrophobia, if such a thing could exist for an Astartes. 

 

He had to get out. He had to get out, or he might lose control entirely.

 

+This place is revolting in the extreme. I must – I will – depart to stand vigil over Brother Amaras. It would not do to have any surviving xenos or heretics molest our fallen brother, nor purloin his effects.+

 

Gerhardt inclined his head towards Váfri and the others in a slight bow and departed, eager to be outdoors again, under an alien sky.

 

To Zidemi, Gerhardt privately voxed, +Burn it all, brother. Burn it all...+

Edited March 7 by Necronaut
Added private message to Zidemi

[Mazer Rackham]

Azadth:

 

Whilst Adept Ulfurbur performed her medical ministrations, the Mantis Warrior peered about carefully.

 

Filling his lungs, he affected a dispairing sigh before speaking.

 

'Sage. Where is your kinsman with whom I duelled in the forests? He owes me a debt. It may be repaid with his name.'

 

Edited March 8 by Mazer Rackham

[Lysimachus]

Alda: Your search of Aykawa uncovers a few things that may or may not relate to what has happened to Kill-Team Lucifer.

 

The fact that the Interrogator is clad in sythskin - smelling faintly of sterilised rubber - is not unusual for an Inquisitorial operative, but it does raise questions about his claim of not being a trained fighter. In a holster you find a damaged pistol, a needler of some description, though it is hard to be sure as the end of the barrel has been neatly sliced from the body of the gun. Evidence of the sharpness of Prince Kal'li-nath's long spear, perhaps?

 

And for the DoS: When you crack open the chamber of the dart gun, there is a silver cartridge visible inside. Letters and numbers are neatly stamped along its side: VT097.65

 

As you finish your examination, you stand to see Brother Gerhardt striding out of the palace with a look of utter disgust on his face.

 

Zidemi: Your focus is on what you know, rather than concern yourself with the filthy creations of xenos minds. There are treasures of art hailing from throughout the Imperium's history, as well as several items that you suspect might contain archeotech that would fascinate the Explorators of the Mechanicus, but nothing that appears to have any immediate use.

 

There is one exception. Among the arms and armour of countless races, there is an old helm that is clearly of Astartes design. Painted black, or perhaps very dark grey, it's armaglas eye lenses are a bright yellow that stand out against the ceramite. MkIV, or perhaps MkVI, it's long snout has been reshaped into the image of a snarling canid. It occupies a place of honour among the other relics - perhaps a trophy taken by the Aeldari Prince from a worthy foe?

 

 

If it's not obvious, it's a Fenris-pattern Wolf Helm (RoB pg143). It doesn't really add a great deal crunch-wise, it's more of a fix that should have been added to the SW stuff in the Crb, but I've been trying to think when/how to add it to Vafri's gear now that you're all Respected.

 

 

 

Asterius/Azadth: The Wayseeker gives little attention to your words, until the Mantis Warrior requests the name of the xenos’ kinsman. He pauses on a landing just outside the parlour, with sets of stairs that connect with both upper and lower levels. 

  

“Perhaps, depending on your choices here, you will cross paths with him again. However, the giving of another's name is not within my right… For now, I will grant you my own instead. I am Tarvathel.” 

  

Then he continues, taking the flight that leads upwards.

 

 

Edited March 8 by Lysimachus

[Mazer Rackham]

Azadth:

 

+Fairly spoken,+ Azadth replied. He doffed his helm and described a curt nod. He cradled the Mk VI casque in the crook of his left elbow, keeping his right-hand draw of the Khukurai free.

 

OOC: Azadth will take a quick scope around to spot anything hailing from the Endymion Cluster, or relating to his bloodline. If so, he takes it.

D100: 19. He will then follow Alda.

[Trokair]

Alda

 

A needler and a means to procure questions from the unwilling, Perhaps the Eldar had been wrong in his assessment, not an assassination but a interrogation had been the intent. Or thinking back to Librarian, a bespoke way to seriously mess up a Psyker. The Eldar where known to have them amongst their ranks, was the Prince one?

 

Either way the presence of the dug in a neelder administrable form was troubling, had Huskarl Aykawa been the one to instigate the murder of Dendinius?

 

Pocketing the cartridge of interrogative drug Alda stood up and joined Asterius and Azadth at the main staircase. The Xenos guide was already ascending, and no doubt one of the einherjar would follow to keep an eye on the ‘guide’.

 

“Downwards then, to see this ‘gift’.”

[Mazer Rackham]

Azadth:

 

'I shall be rearguard Adept Ulfurbur. A stairwell is an ignoble place to be caught unawares.'

 

This was true - stairs and doorways were most lethal in close quarters. That, and having the...observer in front of him would prove prudent. He sniffed, caught the preservative in the air from below.

 

As Alda concentrated on moving down the stairs, Azadth carefully deposited the bundle of leaves and moss he'd scooped from the jungle under the top flap of her rucksack. The small creature buried within moved around then settled. A pink string fired out to snare a flying insect stirred by the Marines' passing, and quickly withdrew.

 

Suppressing a small smile, Azadth bent his senses to the task at hand - making sure they were not passing into ambuscade.

 

Edited March 8 by Mazer Rackham

[A.T.]

Omoc

 

"One of us should watch the witch", too many of the xenos had already slipped away. This one would not be amongst them as Omoc trained his weapon and followed.

[Machine God]

Asterius:

 

++I'm glad that you could make it!++ he dryly muttered when the rest of the squad came over to him at the top of the stairs.

 

 

 

PER30 +0 (Awareness) +10 (Occulobe & Lyman's Ear) +5 (Mk V Autosenses) = 45. Result: 77, Failure 3DoF

 

 

 

The stinking Xenos palace was assaulting his senses with its wrongness. He could see, but not as well as he would have liked.

 

He took point and proceeded downwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lysimachus]

GM @Mike Zulu @Mazer Rackham Zidemi/Azadth: As you have searched through the various treasures of Kal'li-nath's palace, you both find small items that somehow speak to you.

 

You may both choose one additional Chapter Trapping, selected from the Trappings in FF (Salamanders/White Scars, respectively). This cannot be a duplicate of your existing Trapping.

 

This is not necessarily an item taken by the Corsairs from your specific Chapter, it could be from another Chapter of your geneline, or it could just be an item of unknown Imperial origin with which you feel some sort of affinity? Feel free to describe it as you wish.

 

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

Azadth:

 

Presented on a simple plinth of alabaster sat a long, sabre-tooth. Some nine inches long, partly sheathed in jade, and banded with gold at the first and last third of it's length, there was no mistaking the origin - Azadth would know it anywhere.

 

A Jaigu'Aira fang.

 

The beasts haunting the high limb of the trees, shoulders hunched as they padded along. Long, lean muscled bodies thick with ropes of muscle ready to contract and launch the beasts at anything upon which they desired. Solitary beasts except when hunting large game, or for mating, this was obviusly taken from a Pack Leader, the calcidium deposits forming stong striations at the root, and well into the canidineal* blade.

 

At another time, this would have been a prize for a tribe's headman.

 

Here, here it was a gift of fate and resolve. 

 

In another case, there was a piece of ancient armour strung togehter with more modern, supple leatherwork. In a rune-blink, Azadth cut the impossibly tough xenohide leather to form a thong for the great tooth, quickly trussing it about and securing it with strong knots. He lowered the necklace into place, gently dabbing it about with repair cement, which rapidly hardened and anchored it to him.

 

This trinket had not come from the Endymion Cluster, for the Jaigu'Aira did not hail from there, but the Chogoris sector, one of the training worlds stalked by the Blessed Primogentor, the White Scars.

 

He stroked the now amulet, and quietly thanked the Sky-Khan for his benificence, Mistress Fate for her kindness, and urged both to imbue him with the spirit power contained within this talisman.

 

He opened his eyes, and followed the others below.

[Urauloth]

Váfri

 

Zedemi had a point: Eldar were strange creatures, but even they wouldn't hoard items in a treasure vault unless they had some value. As he followed the Salamander, it occured to him that what was valuable to the Xenos might not be useful to anyone sane, but it would be a pity to pass up the chance to see what these pirate creatures had accumulated.

The Wayseeker's mention of plunder made him grin. "Plunder is the right of a victorious warrior" he said, partly in reply and partly as a simple statement. The fight had done a great deal to improve his disposition, and with the Eldar defeated he bore them no particular ill-will. That would change abruptly in the face of treachery should they try anything underhanded, of course.

 

He was wondering what among the strange and slightly repellant array of alien artefacts might even be worth plundering when he saw the helm the Salamander had found.
"Morkai's blood," he swore. "Is that what I think it is, Zidemi?"

[Mike Zulu]

Zidemi:
 

“Fascinating,” Zidemi uttered softly as he inspected the Astartes canine-helm. It was mounted with a degree of emphasis unlike the other items on display. Whomever this helm belonged, he would have been a true nemesis to these eldar. He was unfamiliar with the design, but had a suspicion that Vafri would.

 

Zidemi carefully retrieved the helm from its wall anchors. As he briefly looked over the helm in his hands, he turned to Vafri as he approached from behind.

 

"Morkai's blood," Vafri swore. "Is that what I think it is, Zidemi?"
 

Zidemi looked back at the helm in his hands. “Perhaps a relic you would recognise, brother? A functional Astartes helm, with canid stylisation and a peculiar feature: a semi-permeable membrane that enables olfaction whilst wearing it. It may serve you well.”

 

Zidemi will offer the Fenris-Pattern Helm to Vafri.

 

Zidemi spotted another item of interest; a gilded Imperial aquila medallion hanging from a short chain. It was the hammer and anvil symbols embossed on the chain that caught his eye; a feature of many Salamanders craftwork. It was likely a gift from the chapter to an outsider and had no significant meaning in itself. Nonetheless, Zidemi felt it distasteful to leave it here in the xenos possession.

 

Attaching the icon to his belt, he proceeded to re-join his battle-brothers.

 

Zidemi will add the Aquila Icon (as a proxy for “the Flame” Chapter Trapping) to his inventory.

 

+++

 

“I’m glad you could make it,” Asterius jested, as Zidemi reached the bottom of the stairs.

 

“I am in no hurry to unravel what would most probaly be an eldar riddle,” replied Zidemi, as he configured the Auspex in his hands. “I fear more questions than answers will come of this.”

[Trokair]

Alda

 

The Drake was right, whatever answers they found would be only partially illuminating, and mostly just more threads to pull together.

 

"Ask not the Eldar a question, for they will give you three answers, all of which are true, and horrifying to know."

 

She spoke with care, recalling the words.

 

“To quote Inquisitor Czevak*, and frankly I think I’d settle for one answer that is of use.”

 

 

*I don’t actually know if time and location wise Alda could have seen or heard said inquisitor, but that quote was always one of my favourite little titbits in the 3^rd edition Eldar Codex.

[Necronaut]

Gerhardt

 

The Charnel Guard apothecary lay in deathly repose where the Black Templar and the others had left him, the river lapping gently at the stone wharf where he slumbered in suspended animation. Gerhardt nodded to his fallen comrade, raising his sword in salute. It was an ill thing to be laid low by a sniper’s bolt, rather than locked in mortal combat with one's foes, but at least the wound had not been inflicted from behind – there was no shame to be had in that, at least. The Sanguinary Priest had heaped plenty of glory and honour upon himself in prior engagements so as to be beyond reproach, regardless, and Gerhardt thought no less of him for it, ruefully wishing he had suffered the blow instead. A kill-team without a battle-tested apothecary existed on borrowed time.

 

He knelt beside Amaras upon the flagstones of the quay, resting a gauntlet upon his inverted longsword, studying the encrusted vitae sacris upon his oath-brother’s plastron, the terrible rent in his throat armour, and finally the fanged skull and ornate cruciform upon his pauldron, not so dissimilar to the crusader's cross he bore upon his own shoulder. What legacy had the Great Angel left his myriad sons? He had heard… rumours of the bloodlust of the sons of Sanguinius, that it bordered upon the unnatural.

 

But these were rumours, nothing more. The talk of soldiers. 

 

Steam rose lazily from the foetid jungle in the baking sun and multi-winged aviaforms soared on invisible thermals far overhead. The din of buzzing insects was near omnipresent, with entire choruses of the things rising and falling in succession, like some deranged invertebrate opera serenading them to prevent any actual silence from befalling the place. Gerhardt cast his gaze about grimly, the ancient MkII auto-senses in his ebon crusader helm whirring and clicking an anachronistic rhythm of their own, borderline archeotechnology from a long bygone era in their own right, as his armour’s machine spirit sought out any threats in the green hell.

 

Nothing of interest. Just himself and Amaras, who lingered in a dark limbo of death interrupted. He knew at least one other xenos pirate yet lurked in the jungle depths, frightened into submission and flight by Azadth. Another death denied.

 

He looked down at the Sanguinary Priest again, wondering what distant alien suns he and his brothers had seen, what alien and heretic empires they had brought low. What burdens they had borne down through the ages.

 

Who truly knew what darkness lurked in the hearts of the Emperor's greatest warriors?

Edited March 13 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

Scene 27. Shambles

 

The wide stairs descend in a long, gradual spiral into shadows, lit by dim, crystalline xenos lumens. The larders of Kal'li-nath's palace are deep underground. Their vaulted construction is designed to remain cool even in the jungle heat, and as you descend you can feel the chill in the air. The ranked chambers are neatly laid out, and filled with an array of exotic food and drink.

 

Beyond these storerooms, the air becomes even colder, silently and suddenly lowered to sub-zero temperatures by some form of arcane xenotech. Various cuts of meat, and even entire carcasses, hang from hooks in the ceiling. There are some identifiable as grox and other animals known by the Imperium, beasts and birds, but many that are not. Several are strange beyond belief.

 

Anyone who wishes may make an Ordinary (+10) Awareness/Search Test.

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Moridyn

 

Moridyn walked into the storage chambers, sweeping with his shotgun. No enemies, but plenty of odd xenos. He had remained quiet while the others discussed and searched, his mind remaining on possible enemies and targets.

 

Spoiler

Awareness Test

Target - 42 + 10 = 52

Roll - 44

Result = Pass, no DoS

 

[Trokair]

Alda

 

Spoiler

Awareness/Search Test

Per: 48 +10(Ordinary) +20 (Awareness +20) = 78

Or

Per: 48 +10(Ordinary) +10 (Search +10) = 68

 

d100: 13, Pass, 6 DoS or 5 DoS respectively

 

With the size of these underground cold storage, and unsure what this ‘gift’ was, other than it would probably be obvious once they finally found it, they spread out a little. Enough to better cover more ground, but close enough to cover each other in case of a further skirmish.

[Mazer Rackham]

Azadth:

 

Stepping into the lee of a vaulted stone buttress on a landing of the staircase, Azadth donned his helmet and vanished into the shadows, keeping an eye on the mortal. He had no doubt the others could look after themselves.

 

Actions/Tests:

Spoiler

Half-action: Put on Lid

Half Action: Conceal

D100: 012 PASS, plus 6 DoS.

Free-Action: Pull out Mr Hiss-Pop (Stalker Bolter)