[BC] The Blackest Heart (Part II) (IC)

[Mazer Rackham]

The Refectory/Obadiah:

 

Even as you call out, the plascrete-buttressed roof does what all man-made cementery* does - takes strain until it does not. In a frightening, sudden plunge of gravity, hundreds of tons of granite and Throne-of-Thorns knows what else catapults onto the deck, amid piercing screams and wails of defiance.

 

The boulders slam in a violent tumble, blasting grit across the hall, and into the corridors in shotgun scatter. Dust chokes the hall, as the whole deck shifts, a vertiginous pirouette that threatens to cast you to the floor.

 

GM: Please make either an AG or STR Test at Routine (+10) DIfficulty due to your armour and implants.

 

* = Lol, I'm Damn Abnest.

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Name corrected.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Obadiah:

 

Spoiler

Ag 48 + 10 (Astartes!) = 58

Roll: 24.  Pass, 4x DoS.

 

 

That first ominous crack of the ceiling giving way was enough for his enhanced reactions.  He threw himself sideways as the ceiling came down.

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Ukalegon was jogging along an access tunnel on the way to Kraggan’s workshop and devouring a packet of protein slurry that he had snagged from the refectory when he was suddenly thrown to the rough hewn floor of the passageway. He recovered quickly and rose to a kneeling firing position with his boltgun at the ready in search of what might have knocked him over when the planetoid shuddered around him again.

 

Hagga’s voice crackled in his ear over the omnipresent rumbling, and in a flash the ex-Lamenter was on his feet at a full sprint.

 

He needed to recover his war-plate!

 

While he ran, he felt the small talisman slapping alternatingly against his bare chest and the rough fabric of his makeshift boiler suit. It was a curious device of xenos origin, resembling a stylized weeping eye set with a red jewel in the teardrop. And it thrummed with a strange power. 

 

+++

 

Nearly ten days prior he had bartered for it with one of Iorek’s quartermasters while the Wolf of Fenris had still hung at anchor just off of Brimstone filling its holds with plunder and blackstone. Its now-previous owner, a slight man by the name of Grablek, who had the demeanour of a wheeler-dealer always in search of the next opportunity for profit, had managed to corner Ukalegon in one of Brimstone’s myriad storage rooms and had practically begged him to bring him some Legion weaponry, but such that Lord Iorek or anyone else would be none the wiser. Ukalegon had been prepared to beat the man into a bloody pulp at the mere suggestion that he hand over astartes weaponry to a human, and off the books at that, when the talisman that Grablek wore around his neck caught his eye. After threatening the quartermaster and demanding to know what the piece of jewelry was, Grablek that he had bartered for years ago with another Red Corsair, who had told him in turn that the thing had been crafted by the arcane science of alien hands and was a personal force field generator.

 

A day later, despite his displeasure at committing such skulduggery, Ukalegon surreptitiously presented Grablek with two bolt pistols of astartes manufacture, again in the same room as their initial meeting. The little man’s eyes had positively lit up with unfettered avarice, but when he reached into his shirt to grant Ukalegon his boon he hesitated for a moment, reluctant to relinquish the protective talisman. Sensing his trading partner wavering in his resolve, Ukalegon had placed a hand on his great knife and growled at the human to conclude their business and hand it over, or else. Needing no further encouragement, Grablek grabbed the leather thong he wore the thing upon and hastily handed it over to the hulking astarted, and quickly snatched up the two bolt pistols, secreting them away within his voluminous overcoat.

 

“Pleasure doing business with you, guv’! Be seein’ yous…”

 

He bowed and ducked out of the room and disappeared, leaving Ukalegon to turn the strange trinket over in this gauntleted hands for a time before slipping it into a belt pouch and departing to rejoin the others.

 

+++

 

Klaxons blared as Brimstone shook again. He had to hurry. This was a poor time to be caught unarmoured…

 

Hagga and Baraduk’s voices crackled over the microbead in his ear, and it occurred to him to weigh in while he ran.

 

+Hagga! I am on my way to gather my war-plate! I will rendezvous with you shortly!+

 

OOC: thanks GM for allowing me to redo my Infamy Test for a different item altogether…

 

Acquisition:

Item: Refractor Field (very rare -> ex. Rare -30)

Craftsmanship: Good (-10)

Quantity: 1 (+10)

Total mods: -30

 

Trade:

Item: Legion Bolt Pistol (+30)

Craftsmanship: Common (+0)

Quantity: 2 (+0)

Total mods: +30

 

Infamy Test: INF14 + 0

 

D100: 09 success

Edited February 13 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

Hagga:

 

Hagga Str test: 71 +10(Routine) = 81, Roll: 61, Pass

Eska Ag (Dodge?) test: 35 +10(Routine) +10(Dodge+10) = 55, Roll: 32, Pass

 

 

The sudden rush of dust and debris burst from the refectory portal and clattered against Hagga's warplate, dirtying and scratching the silver blue paint. Eska showed remarkable animal cunning, ducking swiftly behind her master's armoured bulk to shelter from the deadly cloud.

 

[FabiusV4lcoran]

Atesh: 

 

Atesh's assessment of the situation was interrupted by the violent tremors.  He grabbed Mukta and ducked back into the tunnel looking for a reinforced area to stand under.  Having spent his entire life on Crow's Eye (never again would he refer to his home-world by the Imperium's name unnecessarily), he knew nothing of gravity regulators, nor had he time to attain any method of vox communication.  

 

He asked the Great Changer for guidance, closed his eyes, and hunkered down.  Perhaps when the corpse-:cuss:ers had banned him from space travel, they had been doing him a service.  The irony made him chuckle as he feared pondered his favorite color of flame.

Edited February 13 by FabiusV4lcoran

[Mazer Rackham]

Obadiah/Hagga:

 

You are saved by your superhuman reflexes, but it is not over. The ribs of Brimstone are creaking. It is time to move.

 

Brimstone:

 

The situation intensifies. Vox-chatter and panic-strewn binharic cant soak the airwaves as tunnels collapse. Poorly propped saps to explore mineral deposits, haphazard cuttings, undermining of other seams and rebar-stanchions. The delving of the previous owners has proven to be a honeycomb of disaster.

 

The whole of Brimstone shrugs, as it sheds the shackles of the Imperium. Perhaps that is not lost on you. The ball of rock vents precious gases into space, released from burst veins and pockets of treasures long exhausted. Haunted, forgotten places collapse, or fill with rubble as mighty forces shrug their shoulders.

 

Brimstone begins to spin a little faster. The forces at play are the most basic, yet utterly powerful as centripetal force grips a little harder.

 

And above it all a voice, cut with culture, if a little burred by the accent of the poor fools who succumbed to the perversions of the Xeno-form over their own flesh thrums with sadistic relish over station-wide vox.

 

+Do I have your attention now? Was killing my family worth it? You stole our home, but now it will be your grave.+

 

The message ends with an abrupt screech of a human being having untold things done to them.

 

GM: Brimstone is under terrific force, and must be stabilised, quickly. However, this is easier said than done. Damage Control stations exist on every deck, as one would expect, but Substation 12 is four decks down from the main control functions deck (Ops, Comms etc yadda yadda).

 

GM: The Actual Substation is a power recycling unit, which regulates the power fed to the gravity regulators - you can see this has caused a cascade malfunction. Baraduk will have sent this information noospherically to all Players via comm-beads, HUD's etc. Rendezvous points to mount containment and assault have been included.

 

GM: Due to imperilled gravimetric balance, all Players who are wearing 6AP or more on any location have their AB reduced by 1. Players who have 6AP on more than 2 Locations, have their AB reduced by 2. The Machine Trait counts as armour for purposes of damage reduction - so it counts the same for this. You should refer to the Core Book for Narrative Time Movement.

 

GM: Queries and shouting in the OOC as per.

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Name corrected.

[FabiusV4lcoran]

Atesh

 

Atesh's dataslate chirped with new information and he praised the Changer.

 

"It looks like the lords are setting rendezvous points for this...uh...whatever's happening.  Let's hoof it and show our use to them before we end up jettisoned with the other garbage," he said to Mukta, and took off for the closest containment point.  He might not understand what's happening, but if he wanted to continue then his next steps were obvious.

Edited February 13 by FabiusV4lcoran

[Lysimachus]

Hagga:

 

He'd been right. The voice proved it. This was surely the cult's endgame scenario, a final vengeful strike to wipe out Brimstone with its conquerors. However, logically that meant that the hybrids would have committed everything they had left to ensure the plan's success. That created an opportunity. An opportunity for the Corsairs to cleanse the asteroid of every last remnant of the enemy…

 

…if they could survive this attack. He looked to Obadiah, who had rolled from the refectory a fraction of a second before the ceiling had fallen in. Hagga offered his arm and pulled the other Astartes to his feet with a grunt of effort. The Mantid weighed much more than he should have done.

 

“Let's go. Those genestealer scum will have put every warrior they have left around that substation, they can’t let us in to fix whatever they've done. We can kill them all.”

 

As they moved away, Hagga heard Ukalegon's voice over the vox.

 

"Glad to hear it, brother. We will need you."

 

 

 

Edited February 13 by Lysimachus

[Machine God]

Kraggan:

 

The target was Sub-station 12 and it was four levels down, planted to the Noospheric data. The increase in gravity was a slight hindrance as he rushed onwards.

 

 

 

 

 

[Xin Ceithan]

Placeholder

 

(Rakash reacting to alerts, heading out ) 

[Mazer Rackham]

Brimstone:

 

Across the vox, sporadic contacts are coming in. Damage Control teams are reporting doors blocked, fires in climate control rooms, smashed caesium supply tubes leaking radioactive waste, and forcing diversions.

 

++ WARNING, WARNING: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED. WARNING, WARNING: STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY IN SECTORS 11 ALPHA, 21 THETA, 25 IOTA AND 14 OMICRON APPROACHING FRANGIBLE DESTABILISATION ++

 

GM: We are still within the first 'Narrative' Round (ie most folks have posted). During the Second Narrative Round, the Gravity increases. All Players suffer -1 AB, Players with 6AP on one Location suffer -1AB and must Test Toughness (+10) to Run. Players with 6AP on two locations or more take -2AB and must Test Toughness (+10) to Run.

[Lord_Ikka]

Crux'as

 

The rumbling and shaking broke Crux'as out of his studying/meditation. Alarms blared and the vox rang with information and orders. He calmly put on his vac suit, settling his weapons about him. He had grabbed a pair of frag grenades from the armory and more ammo for his pistol, but declined to augment his weaponry any further. His sword and the stub revolver torn from the Xenos cultist were enough for him; he was a planner and conniver, not a fighter. 

 

Time to move, downward. He would meet up with the others as they all converged on the substation.

 

Watchers of the Weave, guide our minds and bodies.

[Mazer Rackham]

Cyrandras Rakash:

 

@Xin Ceithan ONLY:

Spoiler

Willpower: 50

I am assuming Unfettered: +15 = 65

D100: 65, exactly..!

 

You have trouble detecting the precise location of the 'leader beast' or 'brightest soul' due to the quantity of Noctilith lodes around Brimstone. You gain more of a feeling of after-images of its presence. There are 1D4 = 3 locations he has recently inhabited, and could be at any one of them.

• The Substation
• The Gravity Regulator room
• Strata Sub-Deck 22a (A floor below the command centre/ops room).

He is connected to webs which clog into the shadows of the tunnels. Overall, you detect above the deep hunger of his alien race, the bitter burn of vengeance. Now that, you can relate to most of all....

 

[Xin Ceithan]

Rakash

 

[ partial  placeholder to fill in mythical mumble jumbo later]

 

Closing his eyes for a moment, the Sorcerer selected what was still glamorously labeled a “Squad Channel”:

 

+++ Be advised that I was able to narrow the presence of the Xenos wretch to the following locations…+++
 

He blink-clicked the icons , vision still blurry with ephemeral afterimages

 

+++  This Substation here, the Gravity Regulator room obviously and here, Strata Sub-Deck 22a,  below the operations center.+++
 

Pausing for a moment, he added

 

++ I’ll make my way to the nearest location from my approach and keep you updated+++
 

Cyrandras stopped, grunting, getting his bearings to figure out the shortest route in the mess of the crumbling moonlet.

 

Meanwhile, he opened another channel.

 

+++ Cyrandras Rakash to Dredge.

As you may have noticed, we have a bit of a Situation downside. Move to a safe distance and have craft ready for interdiction or recovery operations.

Rakash out.+++
 

He pressed a groan through this lungs. This should be a routine procedure but operations at Brimstone had just again proven to be … 

 

Another rumble and rain of debris shook him from his ruminations.

 

He gave the nervously wobbling ServoSkull an encouraging nod.

 

”Right. Let’s get this over with. “

Edited February 14 by Xin Ceithan
Added IC Element

[Lysimachus]

Hagga:

 

Str 71 +10(Routine) = 81, Roll: 77, 1DoS +4DoS (UnnStr4) = 5DoS

 

Technically, thanks to UnnStr(4), that raises Hagga's Ag Bonus back above its normal value… I assume the Str test can only bring it back up to its normal value at most…?  

 

The Executioner hurried along tunnels, fighting against the increasing gravity like a swimmer struggling against a current. Suddenly the tide turned, working with him rather than against and he hurtled forwards for a few bounding steps, nearly bouncing against the tunnel ceiling.

 

++Nice work, Sorcerer!++ he roared. ++Huntsmaster, I would suggest caution, your location may be a target! Can we leave your forces to check the level below you? Brother Obadiah and I are approaching the Substation. Someone check the Regulator!++

 

 

 

Edited February 14 by Lysimachus
Added grav Ag boost narrative

[Mazer Rackham]

GM OOC: If your roll takes your AB over starting value, so be it! The dice decide - however! You must narrate the sudden lift. Why this is happening...? Only the Sleeping Gods know...the laws of physics as your perceive them do not seem to be...consistent...

 

Rakash:

 

+Dredge copies, lord!+ You can hear the hustle and bustle of ready action alarms as the sluggardly crew moves to obey. +Tallia, stop barfing over Jang, and get the bloody engines spooled up!+

 

Hagga:

 

Sanguine tones coat the reply from the Corsair Huntsmaster.

 

+Baraduk, here. Command centre is under attack. We are resisting.+

 

Bolter fire cracks in the hollow static as the channel cuts.

 

Crux'As:

 

GM: Make an Opposed Perception or Difficult (-10) Psyniscience (if you have it) and post the result below.

 

 

Ukalegon:

 

GM: Make an Opposed Perception Test and post the result below.

 

Edited February 14 by Mazer Rackham

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Perception Test +0

Per39

D100: 67; 2 DoF

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

Spoiler

 

GM: I kid, I kid! You're fine!

 

Spoiler

Also GM: No, seriously, you're ed...

 

Initiative, boyo.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14 by Mazer Rackham

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Initiative: 2D10KH (Lightning Reflexes) +Ag5

10 (2, 10) + Ag5 = 15

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

Enemy Init Higher - goes first.

 

Surprise Round (Per failed):

 

The ventilation grille-plate beneath your forefoot suddenly erupts beneath your boot, cleaved into several ribbons of sprung steel, it smacks around you in a confetti wrap, sending you tumbling. Your impression if something brutish, bestial, hunched. A knot of muscle and slavering jaws, of rending claws and the ropey sinew to use them.

 

Round 1: Action

Withdraw (Move).

 

GM: You go flying, no time to evade (Surprise Round) but at least you can control your landing. AG (+0) or (+10) if you have Acrobatics. Otherwise you go prone. Either way, when you turn around, the beast is gone, leaving only a steaming, ruined vent above a darkened pit.

 

GM: There's only you an me, so it's I-go-You-go.

 

Edited February 14 by Mazer Rackham

[A.T.]

Xerxes:

 

The damage was too far to reach, but the Brimstones systems were interlinked and work could be done to salve the machine spirits from afar for as long as those links held.

 

But Xerxes thoughts were drawn to other matters. It seemed so obvious now that in his desire to establish himself amongst the rest he had overlooked the true potential of this place, xenos gravity generators that could perhaps be used to usurp the techniques of the lathes.

 

A pity that this opportunity to see such devices more closely must be set aside but the effors of others closer to the threat would aid in preparation for his future work.

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Kill or be killed, no time to think. Ukalegon landed hard but pushed himself to his feet, his chainsword readied in a defensive posture and started backing away from where he presumed the gene-stealer to be lurking in the dark. The horrid things were preternaturally quick and he did not have the benefit of his armour, his second skin. This was the real test of a warrior.

 

He grinned insanely to himself as his system was flooded with adrenaline and his twin hearts quickened to a blistering stacatto.

 

Kill or be killed. Winner takes all. The ultimate test.

 

Acrobatics Test: Ag51 + 10 - 10 (Poor Crafted Armour) = 51

D100: 66; 1 DoF

 

Half Action: Stand Up, presumably

Half Action: half move in direction Ukalegon was previously moving, backing away from presumed location of monster with chainsword at the ready, though we are apparently somewhere else now...

Edited February 14 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

GM: OOC we're on the way to the workshop to get your wargear, no? Takes more than a single bus stop. You're one good run away from the warplate.

 

No immediate attack comes. Hissing steam and the snap-crackle of broken electrical conduits are the symphony of the cosmos for next few moments. Lights flicker on and off, fooling with your depth-perception, albeit a mortal man wouldn't even discern shapes. The genescience of your Occulube keeps you from being befuddled.

 

GM: Make an Awareness (+0) Test to detect the vile Xenoform.

 

 

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Ukalegon knew he was close to the workshop but also knew he would be a fool to turn his back on the alien. He peered into the gloom searching for his assailant.

 

Awareness Test: Per39

D100: 26; 1 DoS

Edited February 14 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

GM: Good Pass, but not enough!

D100: Enemy wins by 4 DoS

 

Surprise Round:

 

The ceiling panel above your head crunches down you literally like a ton of bricks, with all the force of the beast behind it. It flattens you, hammering down on your shoulders, clawing with harrowing strikes, saliva splatting the back of your head in thick ropes, but those vile, vicious limbs are as tangled in the steel detritus as much as you, and causes only superficial damage. It is clear however, it was looking to disarm you...

 

Actions: Leap Up, and vanish.

 

It leaves you covered in dust, and the glitter of filtered particulates from whatever insulation it chewed through, sticky slime coating your neck and pate.

 

[ ] Ukalegon

 

Edited February 14 by Mazer Rackham