Session 6 Report
General Summary
The team decided to bet it all on black as it were and boldly enter Fate's Wheel after having taken care of the gaping wounds left in St. Pious from the tender ministrations of Crackmarrow. It was clear that had there been no interruptions in the fight between the two it could have gone very differently but as always the team came through for Pious in the end and helped him snatch victory and his own life from the jaws of defeat.
With Crackmarrow and Bliss removed from the board the acolytes assumed there would be little resistance from this point on when trying to get to Papa Grist, the proprietor of Fate's wheel and their current target for the contract the Spider Bride had given them. They entered through the front doors and were greeted by an empty gambling den. The group had been through here once before and the steep dropoff in business was likely their fault for killing a man outside the fighting pits.
They looked around and quickly assessed that Papa Grist would be on the 2nd floor. As they approached the well carved stairs a lasgun shot sunk deep into the wood of the stairs as they rounded the support column a the the base of the incline. The guards were on edge and not having any chicanery or guile from the acolytes. Pious thought they could take them, especially if he was able to close the distance on them, so he surrendered saying he would go and speak with Grist personally.
The guards acquiesced and Pious began his ascent holding a large knife behind his back ready to just savage the watchmen. As he neared his goal at the top of the stairs and the blade in his hand cried out to find a new home in the unsuspecting torsos of the guards he noticed through the ballistors of the steps that there were more guards waiting in a ready position at the top. An immediate change of tack, from murder to guile took place for Pious at light speed.
“Take me to your boss” was the new plan of the day. Maybe if Papa Grist died the guards would run but being outnumbered ten to one was not the way to stay alive. Pious quickly flashed the others the ‘abort/don’t open fire and get us all killed’ sign and then the group were led into Papa Grist’s personal chambers.
The inside of the room was incredibly opulent and well put together. Expensive frescos and fine items of dubious legality filled the room in a way that both said he had money and didn’t care about imperial law in equal measure. A large metal throne on a track was turned away from the team as they entered. When they were directed to halt at the end of the track the chair seemingly made of gears and levers rotated around and came towards them.
Papa Grist was in stark contrast to his casino surrounding him. His face was dirty and had dried blood on it. He wore a tattered mismash of clothing and was festooned in little idols and graven symbols. At first Magdala didn’t sense anything particularly special about this seemingly old man but as Grist scanned over them the psykers recognized the spark of the immaterium in each other. While Magdala’s spark was something of a forged and shaped ember of fire the power coming off Grist was wild, like a superheated room ready to explode when a backdraft of new oxygen was finally found.
He seemed to mumble to himself at first but as the conversation between him and the group wore on it became clear to Magdala that he was communicating with someone or more likely something else. The whispers of the keeper of secrets seemed to almost be audible in Grist’s presence. The acolytes realized that this was a no win situation though as Grist offered them a chance to double cross the Spider Bride knowing that they had come initially to kill him as a contract for the strange, no longer human, protector of Lady Melua.
Because refusing Papa Grist meant likely termination, the acolytes took him up on his generous offer to allow them to double cross the Spider Bride. Seeing he had negotiated new contract killers Grist smiled then told the party that they wouldn’t be going alone. One, because his man would help kill the Spider Bride and two, because he didn’t trust them at their word since they were willing to double cross their current patron. He motioned for his man to come forward and Ennaeus Lumenadze seemed to materialize from the shadows behind the strange mechanical throne.
The stone-faced man didn’t speak and only looked on with intense eyes and calmness like the depths of an ocean. The team left hurriedly with their newest member close behind. He wasn’t clean shaven but he obviously took care of himself. He had made a comfortable life for himself here in Xicarph but he was never not looking to improve his situation.
Pious must have picked up on some facet of this because in a somewhat reckless outburst of information he told Ennaeus everything. Who they were, what they were doing and lastly their plans to now triple cross Papa Grist. Ennaeus, never one to pass up an opportunity to profit, negotiated a better life for himself if accepted into this strange tech-priest Charo-Theta-5’s coven and even some walking around money as he grifted both Pious and Miria out of their cash in return for him going along with their plan.
The team didn’t waste much time once an accord had been reached. Ennaeus set up on a nearby roof with his trusty sniper rifle and the gang went shopping for explosives. Just before their attack a bell rang in the town signaling the progression of the carnival. Miria re-enlisted Obadiah Psalter to be a distraction and while the preacher went on his fire and brimstone style rant Magdala and Pious set the explosive beneath the balcony that Papa Grist seemed to utilize so often. The stage was set and once the old man’s chair moved him back out into the light, the die was cast.
Ennaeus’s shot ripped the milk eyed chaos sympathizers head back likely killing him instantly but the acolytes were taking no chances and detonated their remote demolitions to bring down the balcony. The dust was blinding for the members on the ground rushed into the cloud to seek out and make sure Grist was dead. Magdala came upon him first, half buried under some rubble and gave him some now otherwise superficial new holes to be sure but the plan seemed to have succeeded and the Spider Bride’s contract was complete. Now it was time to take the old psyker’s head back to the Spider and see what information and rewards would fall out.
Rewards Granted
30xp
Missions/Quests Completed
The Spider Bride's contract to eliminate Papa Grist was completed.
Character(s) interacted with
Papa Grist
Created Content
Related Reports
Miria Mildritha Scarx Haarlock
Magdala
Saint Pius the Fourth
Report Date
05 Dec 2023
Primary Location
Related Plots
Related Characters
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