Session 13: Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole

Now that we have all the parts of the key, I suggest that we move on and place it in the socket that fits its cog shape; however, my compatriots wished to investigate the Sanitorium. As this is a group effort, we obviously had a discussion about it. During this conversation, a dark voice whispered into my ear, "How long until they betray you, too?" At that very moment Braxton jumped back in horror. As I suspected, the Dei-Phage was whispering in my ear trying to sow the seeds of decent and madness in me. I know his game as I've seen it play out with my fellow acolytes and will not be deceived. Though, if not for the fact that Goldie was by my side, I don't think I could have such strength. This cemented everyone into believing the best course of action was to explore the Sanitarium, thus we headed through the Naive to the door.
 
The Sanitorium was secured by weather worn boards and thus Yarn was able to easily open the door. Given that we've seen horrors at every corner in the forsaken place, we were all prepared to fire upon whatever came at us. So it was with little shock that we saw horrific mutations emerge from the cells that lined the narrow hallway. They believed that Koronath was coming for them. Once they realized that we were not Koronath and also not a member of the Hekate family, they enraged. Arath and I opened fire, but our weapons did not connect. At that Veck proceeded to burn the hallway, but these monsters were unfazed. They lashed out at us, two the monsters attacked each of us. Well not so much attacked so much as attempted to attack us as they were non-corporeal. This being their last act, and a failed one at that, caused them to dissipate.
 
With the "threat" dispatched we were able to explore the wing further. No surprise, there were several desiccated corpses that appeared to match the forms that we saw earlier. In the last cell there was a message written on the wall and an image of the Dei-Phage inscribed on the back of the door. The room at the end of the hallway was a room of horrors. I'm guessing this is where the people were experimented on resulting the the mutations that threatened us.
 
With the Sanitorium explored, it was time to assemble the key and open the door. My compatriots are extremely paranoid, and thus I volunteered to open the door. Veck looked uneasy, but still handed me the key. Braxton wanted to set a bomb in the area with me. They were arguing about where they were going to stand and what they were going to do so I just placed the key into the slot. I understand that they wish to be cautious and Braxton relished the opportunity to blow me up, but I believe the longer we dwell in this cursed place, the more our sanity will wane.
 
As expected, the key opened a passageway that led us to a deep chasm. Veck used a grappler to scale down to the bottom and we all followed one by one. This new room was quite different from that of the Haematite Cathedral, it screamed Mechanicus. I imagine that Veck felt a bit of comfort with that, but that feeling probably didn't last in this place. At the bottom we found a door that tried to open, but the door was rusted and was unable to open completely.
 
We found a map with descriptions that had been warn down. Using the letters visible we could surmise which rooms are which. We were able to discern where the Armory, Generator Room, Cogitator and the quarters were. Our first stop was the Armory in hopes of finding some supplies. We were able to resupply our pistols and rifles and Veck was able to also refuel his flamer. In addition, we found three haz-mat suits that we brought with us.
 
Our next stop was the Generator room. The sight in the generator room was a disturbing one. There was a black substance scaling the walls and the panels. It seemed like a dark corruption that even Veck was uncomfortable around. Inside we found two doors and a control panel. In the center of the room was a shield of some sort that I believed was protecting whatever was behind it. After examining the control panel, Veck determined the contamination didn't infect the machine spirit of the control panel and he could open the doors. He opened the maintenance room, which contained a servitor. The servitor was also not corrupted, so Veck activated him to see what his purpose was. The servitor walked into the room and stood inactive. Veck was about to press another button, and I suggested that we shouldn't open the shield. I then told him that it was most likely protecting what was behind it from the corruption. He agreed and he and I said prayers to our respective gods and he cleansed the room with fire. We herd a slight howling that quickly faded as the corruption was cleansed from the room.
 
With the room cleared, we could safely open the other doors. Veck made the observation that the shield most likely contained the generator and that this was the time to wear the haz-mat suits. As there were only three suits, one of us had to stay outside. Braxton bravely volunteered to stay outside while the rest of us stayed with Veck. He opened the shield and as expected there was the generator, completely dormant. Suddenly a lift from below brought up four power cells and the servitor came to life. The servitor changed out all of the power cells and then returned to his closet, his task completed.
 
The underground Mechanical building came to life with lights coming on, and elevators beginning to rise and fall. It was surprising that something so old was still operational. At that Veck opened the other door, and behind it was a war room filled with old maps and a communication device in the back corner that projected an aquilla. The maps were so old that touching them caused them to disintegrate. I asked that pictures be taken of anything of interest along the way, and this definitely was of interest.
 
After we had thoroughly investigated the war room attached to the generator room, we headed off to the quarters. There we found a corpse with a vox recording. The corpse was none other than Zanatov, the Rogue Trader mentioned in the trophy room. Turns out he was actually working with Inquisitor Devayne investigating the Hekate family and the strange occurrences surrounding the Haematite Cathedral. He spoke about pretending to be Tauron Hekate and a cypher. He felt he was being corrupted and unable to complete his mission so his best option was to put a bolter round through his head. I'm oddly drawn to this weapon. It feels as though it holds the wrath of the Emperor himself, so I will keep it for now and add it to my other bolter pistol that we found. Perhaps I will get formal training in these weapons, but I digress.
He continued on speaking about agents of the ruinous powers, men who hide among the flock of the faithful. I'm guessing this is in reference to the corrupt Ecclesiarchy which I have first hand knowledge of. Turns out he build the black sepulcher; however, these agents took possession of the land and built a cathedral to shield it from the sun. Ironically this is the gilded cathedral, the brightest spot on Barsipine. I knew something was uncomfortable wrong there.
He has charged us with finding this black sepulcher and decoding the proof that his Inquisitor entrusted to him. But he also mentioned this machine we are in as a gift from his friend Magos. Hopefully we can discover how to use it and decode the proof before we all go mad in this foul place.
 
Before we could even contemplate how we were going to go about this, we heard a voice over the coms calling us. What is this voice? How did it know we were here? And what will be waiting for us when we do find it?