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

[Machine God]

Kraggan:

 

"He cares not from whence the blood flows. Only that it flows!"

 

The countdown initiated so he attempted to Disarm the Secondary Trigger.

 

 

 

 

 

(Full Action) Disable Secondary Trigger.
(Free Action) Spend Infamy Point:

 

CP 0-20:

 

The Heretic may add a +10 bonus to a single
Test before rolling.

INT49 +20 (Tech Use - Experienced) +10 (Combi-Tool) +10 (Infamy Spend) -30 (Very Hard) = 59. Result: 41, Pass 2DoS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by Machine God
Proper use of Infamy

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

You and your enemy have the measure of each other, and the beast a healthy respect for your prowess, as shown by it's new wariness. Still, the imperative is there: Attack, attack, attack.

 

And so it does.

 

Perhaps you can admire the purity of the sentiment, if not the vile breast it dwells within.

 

Stealer:

Spoiler

Half-Action: Aim

Half-Action: Lightning Attack

WS: D100 MISS?!

 

GM OOC:

This Stealer, right now as it flails like a loon.

Spoiler

 

 

Multi-Limb Attack: Hit

Location (Body): 15, Pen 5

 

 

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Even in the tumult of the berserk tempest in a teacup that was the birthright of Sanguinius’s get, there existed levels, in this case an island of calm clarity, the veritable eye of the storm. Ukalegon rode now within the center of that vortex, not lost yet lost to the throes of maddened bloodlust, but utterly oblivious to what was happening around him, even to the living rock which surrounded him and endeavoured to tear itself asunder.

 

His vision had narrowed to twin pin-pricks of malicious focus stabbing into the half-light of the service tunnel. All that existed was the melee, the dance, the game.

 

He side-stepped another blow and watched the hideous thing before him flail about in feral frustration, and his chainsword whipped out again.

 

 

Force Field Test (Rating 30)

Field check: 68; does not activate

 

Reaction: Dodge

Ag51 + 10 - 10 (poor craft armour) = 51

D100: 12; 4 DoS

 

Half Action: Guarded Action

Half Action: Standard Attack

WS41 + 10 (Frenzy) - 10 (Guarded Action) = 41

D100: 24; 2 DoS

Hit Location: Body

 

Legion Chainsword: 1D10+3+SB, Pen 3, Tearing, Flesh Render

10 (10 ZH, 2, 3) + 3 + 9 (SB, Frenzy) = 22, Pen 3

 

Zealous Hatred: 1d5, Cold Killer (reroll crit damage)

D5: 4 (1, 4) - Body

Edited February 16 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

The Stealer has made it's last mistake, your focused attack hewing in twain in a shower of bloody gobbets and the screeching of adamantine teeth on alien chitin.

 

The xenoform is quite dead.

 

+ STRUCTURED TIME ENDS +

 

 

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Ukalegon’s insane smile faltered for just a moment as he disemboweled the xenos and it gurgled its last and toppled before him.

 

No. It wasn't enough. It couldn't give up so easily…!

 

It wasn't enough. His enemy’s ruin had to be absolute.

 

Ukalegon, still riding the final wave of his berserk fugue state, planted a boot upon the alien’s carapace, and hacked a great wound into its back with his knife, then grasped its exposed vertebrae firmly in one hand and tore its skull and spine free with a mighty and bestial roar that reverberated down the corridor.

 

Once his higher faculties began to reassert themselves, and the wash of battle-madness and bloodlust subsided, Ukalegon remembered his purpose within those tunnels and set off again for the armoury at a run, his gory prize clutched in one hand.

 

 

 

OOC: just having a bit of fun here (do with it what you will)...

 

Strength Test: S41 + 10 (Frenzy) = 51

D100: 39; 2 DoS + 4 (Unnatural Strength) = 6

 

For reference:

 

Edited February 16 by Necronaut

[Lord_Ikka]

Crux'as

 

Turn left.  

Discretion is better than insta-death!

 

Initiative - 7 + 6 = 13

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Obadiah:

 

He ignored Hagga and his hound as the two ripped into a squadron of hybrids; he only had eyes for the Abominant behind them as the giant brute began to push its way through the throng.  His bolter settled into place, his eye expertly lining up the crosshairs of his scope right on the brow-ridges above the thing's eyes.

 

"One shot," he whispered to himself.  "One kill."

 

Spoiler

Making sure I have this right.  Autosenses allow for Called Shots as a Half Action, Sharpshooter + Deadeye Shot eliminate the penalties for ranged Called Shots.

 

 

Half-Action: Take Aim (+10) at the Abominant

 

Half-Action: Called Shot to the Head

 

BaSk: 53 + 10 (Aim) + 30 (Target Size) = 93

Roll: 71.  Hit, 3x DoS.

Dam: 7 and 4 (d10, Tearing) + 9 = 16, AP4 to the head unless Dodged.

 

 

 

[Mazer Rackham]

Obadiah:

 

The shot plants onto the target's warped, twisted head - which a single head malformed into two abhorrently dislocated halves. It tears a gash in the brow, slicing off a chunk of malformed chitin, before careening off to explode against the wall beside it. Ichor dribbles in hideous parody of human blood - for it once was human - and it fixes upon your indistinct form with all four of it's pitiful, diplocorian* eyes, and in that fleeting meeting you can discern the sheer, unadulterated agony this miscreant suffers.

 

There is no depth, nor end to it, it cannot be fully understood by even someone such as you, who has been rewritten by the ancient bio-engineering of the Emperor's own hand. Pity, is not yours to give, for such emotions run deeply and quiet in even the most humane of Space Marines, but after seeing Ukalegon's....change...and confronted with this blasphemy, the road of the damned may seem ever closer.

 

What you do understand, and where the meeting of living being exist is in the fact you recognise something within that terribly distorted gaze: anger.

 

And you seem to be the proven focus. It begins to run, heedless of the obstacles in it's way, thundering down the corridor like a muscular-avalanche, with the mighty weapon with which it is armed held out in battering ram position. A power hammer, crackling with energy, which takes all three of the mighty brute's arms to even lift it - perhaps only a warrior in Tactical Dreadnought Armour could otherwise - flares into actinic brilliance, illuminating the walls, deck and ceiling of the passageway as it bull-rushes onward in the semblance of a magrail engine.

 

The Beast:
 

Spoiler

Full Action: Run 30m

(Size + AB = Move AB 5 x 6)

 

 

+ ROUND ONE ENDS +

 

GM: @Mojake if you want to roll initiative while I work on replies? I'll slot you and the new guys in on the next Round.

 

++++++++++

 

Crux'As:

Even as you haul it as best you can in the shuddering tunnels, you hear the faint steps of an agile foot behind you.

 

'Whare can you go, traitor? Where can you go except doom?'

 

Assailant:

Spoiler

Actions On:

Half Action: Half Move

Half Action: SAB x 3 (-20, Crux'As is cheesing it)

 

Attacks:

Spoiler

1 - Miss

2 - Miss (Narrowly)

3 - Miss (Barely)

4 - Miss...

 

'Almost got you that time!' the voice calls, chuckling, as the small, yet deadly hailstones zip and zoom past you.
 

Spoiler

Attacks (cont):

5 - Miss

6 - Hit, Left Leg

Dam: 17, Pen 7 (Dodge Avail)

 

* = Astartesian, for Xin.

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Instructions, name corrected.

[Mojake]

Spoiler

Initiative:

 

Rolled: 6 (and 1, discarded) + Ab = 10

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Crux'as

 

"Can't be a traitor if I was never loyal in the first place... It is not my fault that the vetting process was flawed!"

Spoiler

 

Dodge Test 

Target - 38 - 10 (gravity fluctuations) = 28

Roll - 26

Result = Pass, barely w/no DoS

 

 

Edited February 16 by Lord_Ikka

[Mazer Rackham]

Crux'As:

 

Mocking laughter greets your riposte as you narrowly evade. Your flight takes you deeper into Brimstone. With passages going left and right.

 

'I'll give you that one, human.'

 

GM: You may make Navigation Tests to try and get back on track to your previous destination, or can it and go elsewhere.

Just shout up.

 

Crux'As/Ikka ONLY:

Spoiler

GM OOC: Had a ping from XIn Ceithan. He's busy, but has chipped in he would like to help, so I'm going to play it as though you're getting 'good feelings' about a certain direction, and then just suddenly, he's 'there'. He's been PM'ing me with chat about tracking your Assailant, so he has been on it.

 

Up to you!

 

++++++++++

 

Atesh Sapik:

 

The Stealer makes a grab for you!

Attack, Grapple

WS: 003!

 

GM: Dodge available.

 

++++++++++

 

Ukalegon:

 

When you arrive at the workshop you find the menials slaughtered. Bits of them lie in grisly red chunks, and spilled blood. The sight of it, is....is....

 

GM: Make a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test.

 

Edited February 16 by Mazer Rackham
Stealer Snuggies <3

[FabiusV4lcoran]

Atesh Sapik: 

 

5 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

Atesh Sapik:

 

The Stealer makes a grab for you!

Attack, Grapple

WS: 003!

 

GM: Dodge available.

 

 

 

Spoiler

Dodge Check: 

Agi:  33

Roll: 45

1 DoF

Atesh saw the creature rear back, and attempted, too late, to avoid the beast.

 

Atesh held his lucifer in his hand and focused on it, reaching deep into the underworld and threw a wall of force directly at the xenos horror.

 

Spoiler

Cast Force Bolt

 

Push: Psy rating + 3

WP (53) + 10 (focus) + Ordinary Challenge (10) + 5*Psy Rating (6)=  103

Roll:  84

1 DoS

 

Dangit, I was hoping I'd get enough DoS to knock him back and prone

 

Edited February 16 by FabiusV4lcoran
Edited to include my turn.

[Mazer Rackham]

Atesh Sapik:

 

You draw deeply of the wellspring, and whilst your own force is paltry in comparison, something stirs within the Deep.

 

Psychic Power Level: Push

Automatic Psychic Phenom, +10.

D100: 92.

Roll Invokes Perils...

 

+ Stand By +

Edited February 17 by Mazer Rackham

[Mazer Rackham]

GM OOC: Hate double-posting but we'll move the others on whilst we have the cliffhanger(?) Mr @Necronaut you have a WP Test to make (info above).

 

ROUND TWO:

 

GM: The third brood of Hybrids enters through the West door, as Varne emerges from the Southern entrance.

Initiative Order:

Spoiler

Genestealer Hybrids 1: 14

Hagga: 11

Varne: 10 (Player has Priority)

Genestealer Hybrids 2: 10

Eska: 9 (Player/minion has Priority)

Genestealer Hybrids 3: 9

Obadiah: 8

Abominant: 5 (Rumble rumble)

 

 

Hybrids 1: Actions

Spoiler

Full Action: Charge Obidiah

WS: Miss

Multi-Arm: Hits

Location 1 (Head): 18

Can't be Dodged

 

[ ] Hagga

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Name corrected.

[Lysimachus]

Hagga:

Out of the corner of his eye, Rykaz saw the big brute lumbering closer, infuriated by the vicious bite of Obadiah's bolter fire. It was even bigger than the mutants they'd fought at the hexagonal control tower. Now this one looked like a worthwhile kill - almost as good as the purestrain ‘stealer whose skull decorated his backpack.

 

The other pack charged at the Mantid, and then the western door started to open, revealing even more enemies. Their numbers were becoming a problem. How could there be this many of the bastards left? Why hadn't they joined the first fight for Brimstone? They could potentially have changed the whole outcome!

 

Whatever the case, they needed to finish this first batch of lesser hybrids before the latest group reached them. Or the big one. Redoubling his efforts he lashed out again at the smaller creatures, slicing a few more apart.

Aim and Standard Attack at Horde 2
WS52 +10(Aim) +10(Standard) +20(Horde) = 92, Roll: 55, 4DoS
3 Hits + 1 (Power) = 4 Hits
4 Mag Dam inflicted

 

sigh… Maybe I should have prioritised getting Swift Attack for Horde clearance…? Never mind, definitely, definitely, next time I get xp!

 

But the beasts were canny, avoiding his attacks, content to hold him up until their kin could join the fight and drown him in bodies. Smart tactic. Maybe it would work?

 

Then from the southern corridor he saw something that reassured him somewhat. The Watch Marine, Varne. Another Astartes might be enough to turn the tide… but even better was the fact that he was carrying a Proteus-pattern missile launcher.

 

That's more bloody like it.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

Hybrids 2:

4 mag Dam

 

[ ] Varne

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Willpower (Challenging) Test:

WP46 + 0 = 46

D100: 94; 4 DoF lol

 

That's unfortunate!

 

Pre-emptive Shock Table Roll (+40) (we all know where this is going)

D100: 04

 

Shock Table Score: 44

 

Edit: if that shock table score stands... Well that could have been a lot worse. At least he isn't catatonic.

Edited February 17 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

Ukalegon:

 

GM OOC: It isn't going that way... ;p

 

You cannot contain the glamour of the spilled vitae. Something monstrous inside, now so close to the surface in the frenzy, fury and fighting, by the very alteration of your genes into a blasphemy resembling the dark humours of corruption taking root in the rotten soil within.

 

You cannot contain the thirst. Your Primogenitor, the angelic Sanguinius is here nought but a blood-hallowed shade within your lusts.

 

You cannot contain yourself...and so you tear your improvised armoured casque free and drop to your knees to gorge on the hot, rich, human blood. The vigour rushes down your throat, nourishing, repairing, refocussing.

 

Behind you, as the glory of the humours renew your ravaged flesh, you hear the footfall of an Astartes.

 

Coated in gore of myriad ruddy colour; Red Corsair, Huntsmaster of the Fourth Claw, Reave-Captain of a Hundred, Desann Baraduk stands there, haloed in a strange darkling light emanating from the hilt and guard of his monstrous chainsword, Soulshear. In his hands idles an Astartes Combat Shotgun, with several mechanisms and upgrades. The brutish, baleen snout of the bonding-studded Mk V helm looks at you with emerald judgement.

 

+Are you finished?+ His tone is icy, but the curled lip on his austere face carries through the vox grille.

 

Edited February 17 by Mazer Rackham
Gore blimey, Guv'nor.

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Ukalegon turned, startled by the intrusion like a wolf having just finished gorging itself upon a fresh kill.

 

Who…?

 

Huntsmaster. Baraduk.

 

He felt a bestial growl form in his throat as the fresh gore dripped from his maw. He was dimly aware that he still clutched the genestealer spinal column in one hand.

 

Where was he? How did he…?

 

The THIRST!

 

What was happening to him?!

 

His senses cleared and he realized where he was. The workshop! By the… what had killed all of the menials? Had he…? No… Impossible.

 

Ukalegon shuddered as the last of the rich vitae, polluted though it may have been, was syphoned down his gullet. He staggered to his feet and wiped his face with the sleeve of his coveralls, smearing the drying blood across his chiseled features and the rags alike. 

 

He glowered at Huron’s agent a moment longer, then remembered he had been asked a question.

 

“Hrrnnh… quite… finished. Armour… my armour,” he rasped in response.

 

The blood had quite a tonic, almost narcotic effect upon the ex-Lamenter and he drew his great knife and sliced himself free from the blood-sodden boiler suit as if in a dream and started searching for where the priest had stowed his kit.

 

"Where are the others?"  

 

He did not receive an immediate response, but located the armour rack where his now-modified war-plate hung. The black-and-crimson colours of the Tyrant were flaking badly, and the remains of faded xanthous paint were starting to peek out between the cracks on the remaining pieces of his original suit. He was surprised to see a chequer motif with an arterial red whorl in the center had resurfaced upon his left greave, a device he dimly remembered applying himself shortly after being made a full battle-brother. Odd that it should re-emerge now.

 

He pulled on his black bodysuit and started to stomp into his sabatons, and then snarled at the Reave-Captain, “And don’t just stand there – help me!" 

Edited February 17 by Necronaut

[Mojake]

Varne

 

Following the call for support to the Command Centre, Varne ran through corridor after corridor, the dampeners in his helmet muting the blaring klaxons to a manageable irritation. Lugging his missile launcher underarm with his bolter mag-locked to his backpack, he quickened his pace at the sound of solid-projectile rounds firing ahead.

 

Bursting through the pall of smoke at the southern entrance of the damage control station, Varne skidded to a halt near a shrapnel-studded corpse pinned to the bulkhead, his autosenses cycling through threat acquisition in the red-tinted haze of smoke and warning lumens. Brother Hagga and an unknown canid-form battled a group of assailants ahead whilst Obadiah struggled to extricate himself from a frantic melee of swarming genestealer hybrids and a hulking abominant with a severe head wound.

 

Varne had fought cult insurrections several times in his service, and knew that shock tactics were the modus operandi against all of their grotesque forms in open warfare. It was clear that they were vastly outnumbered, but Hagga and his minion seemed more than capable of shearing through the ranks standing in their way. 

 

The choice was clear: level the field, maximum target attrition.

 

He'll shrug it off.

 

He levelled the missile launcher and thumbed the activation rune, sending a frag warhead screaming into the mass of bodies around Obadiah.
 

Spoiler

Action: Aim (+10)

Action: Standard Attack (+10)

 

Roll: 66

Target: 72 (1 DoS)

 

Horde 1: 1 hit for Standard Attack, +5 hits for Blast, +1 hit for X damage type, +1 for Devastating (1) = 8 magnitude damage (hopefully >25% )

 

Assuming the melee is as tight as I believe and Obi and the Abominant are caught in the blast:

Damage: 9 (2d10+2) X / Pen 2

[Mazer Rackham]

Brimstone:

 

++ WARNING, WARNING: BULKHEAD 9, 17, 25, 36, 44 IOTA COLLAPSING. WARNING: BULKHEAD 23, 56, 66, 79 OMICRON PRESSURE FAILURE. GRAVITIC REPRESSION FIELD COLLAPSE IMMINENT. ALL PERSONNEL TO EVACUATE. WARNING: LIFE SUSTAINMENT FUNCTIONS IMPAIRED. EMPYREAN DISTURBANCE SECTOR 24, SUB-DECK SECUNDUS 4. EVACUATE. COLLAPSE ESTIMATED <> INTEGER; SECONDS = 600, 599, 598, 597, 596... ++

 

Ukalegon:

 

Huntsmaster Baraduk continues to stare at you. +They fight the remaining Brood, but I am called to deal with a warp incursion.+

 

At your demand for assistance, he looks you up and down.

 

+I just did.+ He snaps the safety onto his weapon, as his voice comes to your flesh ears, and through your helm's audio receptors, and station-wide vox. +Baraduk to all hands, evacuate to the shuttle bay. Dredge has boats in the void for retrieval. Be there, or die here.+

 

+When you have yourself under control, leave or follow me.+

 

He turns and goes to whatever duty awaits him, his IFF Ping registering in your HUD.

 

Hagga/Varne/Obadiah:

 

GM: Horde is immune to breaking, Abominant is too far for Blast, but is now in Charge Range.

 

The large fragmentation warhead explodes into the melee, a huge explosive fist which scythes down the droves of half-human attackers about Obidiah's shoulders, even as the shrapnel pings onto his plate.

 

Hybrids 1:

8 Mag Dam

 

Xerxes:

 

You obtain picter feeds, albeit static-scoured of the three Marines embroiled in the combat. The Abominant is about to broach the Northern Door.

 

GM: Challenges are as previously posted.

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Name corrected.

[Necronaut]

Ukalegon

 

Ukalegon sneered after the departing form of Bararuk and spat a gobbet of sizzling acid upon the floor of the workshop-turned-abattoir.

 

Bastard!

 

He continued to hurriedly don his armour, mounting each ceramite plate with the barest of care. When it came to his tail, he was surprised and mildly amused to see that Kraggan and his work crew had formed individual ceramite plate segments to mount over the expanded body-glove, completely enclosing and armouring his new appendage, and giving him the appearance of some saurian-humanoid hybrid creature. He hung his xenos talisman around his neck on its steel chain over his plastron in the still-reverent imitation of a Death Company chaplain's rosarius and locked his helm to his belt.

 

How far he had strayed from the righteous path.

 

He stomped over to the gantry crane where his repaired jump pack was hung waiting for him and took a moment to admire the tech-priest’s work despite the urgency. Left to his own devices, Kraggan had, miraculously, managed to mount additional thrust nozzles and vectoring fins onto the unit and artfully tucked them away behind a pair of folded ceramite wings which had been mounted in the locations of the previously broken and defaced pinions. They had been daubed in black and lined with brass, and as the jump pack was lowered onto his shoulders and re-integrated with his armour, the image of a corrupted, fallen angel was at last complete.

 

And fallen he was.

 

He reattached the thick conduit hose that snaked out of his power pack to his ancient melta pistol, which he holstered on his hip, and he mag-locked his bolter and chainsword back in place. His knife slid back into its sheath on his waist, and he was ready to depart.

 

As he started to leave he grabbed a strip of leather from one of the work benches and quickly tied his newly acquired genestealer trophy, spine and skull still dripping with congealed viscera, onto his belt alongside the other polished genestealer skull.

 

Then he rammed his helm down over his head, his face still partially smeared with dried blood, and sprinted out into the hellish network of tunnels after Baraduk, following his IFF location indicator.

Edited February 17 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

ROUND 2 CONTINUES:

 

Inarticulate snarling and hissing accompanies the death of kin as much as it spurs blades and claws.

Hybrids 2: Attack Hagga

Spoiler

Full Action: AoA

WS +20

D100: Hit

Location (Right Leg): 19, Pen 2

Multi-Limb:

D100: Hit

Location (Head): No Damage (TB Arm too high)

 

[ ] Eska

[Lysimachus]

Hagga:

 

Hagga can't Evade Horde, takes 5 Wounds, now on 13/20.
Spend an Inf Point to heal 1d5(3)+1= 4 Wounds, now on 17/20.

 

Hagga roared furiously at the pitiful little abhuman monsters as they tried to stick him with claws and blades. Eska growled and hawked again, presumably readying another gout of cleansing flame. There were less of the hybrids left, making for a smaller target, but Hagga didn't duck. He was confident his armour could handle a little heat.

 

Eska:
Flamer at Horde 2
5+d5(5!) = 10 Hits
Dam 1d10(6*)+4 = 10 at Pen2
10 Mag Dam inflicted.

 

*If you want, I'll roll Dam for each Hit separately, but I noticed the missile launcher Hits were all done as 1 roll, and that admittedly does seem quicker/easier?

 

The hound coughed, and once again the chamber was lit up by fire. The hybrids screamed and clawed at one another as the burning heat washed over them. Hagga felt the temperature spike all across his armour, but somehow he knew he would be safe. Fire was a cleanser, but he was already pure of heart.

 

Even max Flamer Dam won't beat AV+TB, so should be good.

 

[Mazer Rackham]

GM: OOC @Lysimachus no that's fine, I reckon they're mostly spannered anyway.

 

Hybrids 2:

The Flame is too much, and between them and the Hagga's attack, the Horde is cut down.

Hybrids 2 are Destroyed.

 

Hybrids 3:

Losing control, the mob run into the swirling melee without attacking, heedless to try and prevent the heavy weapon being brought to bear on their beloved Anointed.

 

Hybrids 3: Actions On

Full-Action: Run into contact with Hagga, Eska and Varne (Obi is already engaged)

Cannot Attack

 

[ ] Obadiah

 

GM: Last chance to have the North Door closed, boys.

 

Edited March 7 by Mazer Rackham
Name corrected.