Session XXXVIII: A Footfall in an Empty Galaxy - Report

General Summary

The trip into the warp and hopefully to footfall was anything but smooth. Apparently Ani's method of warding off bad luck wasn't enough to appease whatever twisted deity was in charge of the terrible dimension known as the immaterium. The Eternal perdition bucked and rolled along with the stomachs of even seasoned voidsmen as the vessel barreled through the warp.
As the travel reached a fever pitch the perdition slipped through a hole in the side of the warp lane they were trying to weather and everything fell silent and dark. When the lights aboard the Perdition reignited and the machine spirit within her venerable halls was once again roused the crew saw through the monitors a massive derelict floating unharried and quiet within the warp.
The markings along it's side were unmistakable. This vessel is a scion of the Adeptus Mechanicus the Ark Mechanicus Dawnbolt. Seeing unimaginable wealth and knowledge floating serenely in front of the view ports of the ship the crew was emboldened to act and venture out from the relative safety of the Eternal Perdition and into the warp touched and long derelict vessel. The Dawnbolt would prove to be as mysterious as she was dangerous however and would not give up her secrets freely.
After successfully attaching an ambilocal line to the Dawnbolt the active members of the command crew headed over to the ship. Consisting of Ani, Rasp, Brother Alfonse, Stig and Murk the team headed inward, cutting their way through the airlock bulkheads in order to gain access. They struggled past the suction of rushing air that guarded the interior door and quickly closed the interior airlock behind themselves, relieved to be done with the boarding action. A quick sample of the air via the auspex arrays they carried with them revealed the environment to be breathable. Taking off their void suit helmets they breathed in the stale, ancient air that lingered through the empty hallways aboard. It tasted like bone dust in their mouths and made them immediately feel the need for water only to be befouled by the cloying dry taste the second the liquid was swallowed down.
Initial readings came back negative for nearby lifeforms aboard however the crew proceeded with caution, not wanting to be surprised by anything. They found long decayed skeletons clutching giant holes in their own uniforms stained rust colored by years of slowly decomposing dried blood. Along side the dead men was the occasional large robot. These robots seemed strange. Not at all similar to the Necrons they had encountered previously. These seemed simultaneously more clunky and somehow more dreadful as the armaments these machines carried could potentially open a tank like a tin can given a clean enough shot.
The team chose to push onward and not linger longer than necessary. They made their way to the aft of the shift where they would find the large engineeriums and energy sheds that would awaken the machine spirit of the ship and restore power to the engines. The hope was to get the Dawnbolt moving again and dropped out of the warp so that they could more safely be aboard and maybe even turn the ship in for a substantial reward. The trip to the nerve center of the ship turned out to be quite dangerous unfortunately. At least one of the Men of Iron continued to function millennia later and a crazy game of cat and mouse transpired with the crew attempting to get to the machine spirit and activate the self defense mechanisms aboard all the while the warped AI of the Man of Iron continuously made sneak attacks from the shadows, tight corners, cat walks and other such hiding places available to it that it had memorized for just such a use should the need ever arise.
In the end the combined efforts of Murk and Stig with some considerable trouble to their own health were able to put the ancient machine down once and for all. Ani was blundering all over the place which gave Rasp more ammo to decry the xenos races. He was quickly distracted by the new machine spirit which he was excited to communicate with. He was able to reactivate long dormant defenses and locate the STC vault, a huge portion of the ship specifically dedicated to the transport and preservation of STC's on the long haul to Holy Terra and Mars more specifically.
Feeling very smug and confident in his own success Rasp journeyed forth towards the Bridge and STC aboard the ship. Murk and Stig weren't in the sitting around and waiting mood either; not that would necessarily realize when they were. In any case the crew gathered minus the Captain and Isaac and continued to explore the Dawnbolt. It wasn't long before more trouble began however.
Stig stumbled across some pustules in the main corridor of the ship that ran along the length of the spine. Not wanting to get his favored weapon 'Vicki' damaged in any way he brought the attention to the brain trust. Rasp and Ani of course had differing opinions of what to do though, foreseeably. Eventually the decision was taken from them as Rasp brought the offending biomasses to the attention of Brother Alfonse aboard the Eternal Perdition. It was not long before the avenging space marine appeared in full battle gear and with a hand flamer and plenty of ammo in hand. Rasp effectively got his way despite not winning the argument with his Eldar superior officer when the marine took it up himself to start burning everything that pulsated in the hallway working his way forward toward the bridge. 
He warned his adopted crewmates that this was the work of chaos, which most of the assumed already, as he continued to take out his rage against the offensive blobs. Screams and sizzles could be head from some distance as Alfonse made his way to the groups destination baking and boiling the yellowish green masses of snot like substance off the gun metal floors. Eventually he arrived at the doors to the largest manufactorum on the ship. On the other side of the massive space of the room would be the bridge and command staff quarters. He felt as though something old and terrible lingered on the other side of the door. Rasp was confident that the Space marine would be able to handle the problem while Stig and Murk prepared for  close quarters brawl but Ani had decided she was done for the time. Captain Felrider had returned and she was over Rasp for the moment so she returned to the Perdition to meditate feeling as though she needed to cleanse herself of Rasp's negativity and the chaotic forces that had been loosed upon her.
Rasp was sad to she her go and neither was Bjorn but for two entirely different reasons. Stig, Murk and Alfonse didn't even noticed as the trio were fully engrossed in the prospect of 'a real scrap', if the parlance of the Ork was to be used.
No sooner did the doors open though did Bjorn take a hefty psychic knock, badly corruption the unwitting Captain. Bjorn could feel it in his soul and he knew he needed to leave in order for the Emperor to refortify his soul. Bjorn too left the combat which hadn't fully started yet. In the room itself was an roiling and innumerable throng of Nurgle demons. The stench of disease and decay unimaginable permeated everything and even the void suits the crew were wearing was incapable of filtering it our. Just seeing and smelling what was in front of them was enough to drive common men to madness but the companions were undaunted. At the end of the catwalk running along the second floor of the manufactorum, high above the horde of demons was the upper half of Nurgle's Champion which dwarfed the dimensions of the room with it's immense size. The great unclean one spoke and the adventurers could feel sickness spread within them and the sensation of flied walking around behind their eyeballs.
Brother Alfonse was the first to show no signs of fear and charged across the open space of the room at the greater demon Stig and Murk were close behind cutting and hacking at anything that dared impede their forward trajectory and bringing up the rear was Rasp, no less daunted by the greater demon just less physically capable. In the end of the battle at great personal cost to their no longer clean souls the greater demon was defeated and the other demons were cast back into the void from the psychic shock of the Great Unclean One's death. They had wrested control of the Dawnbolt from the clutches of the chaos gods themselves and fest some of their newly acquired corruption slide off them like layers of grime being scraped off the surface. Some dirt remained but it was a marked improvement.
Not wanting to spend any more time in the warp the crew contacted Isaac aboard the Perdition and asked him to psychically navigate the Arc Mechanicus back to real space. Isaac successfully did so and hid the vessel just outside the Mandeville point on the outskirts of the Footfall system, hiding it behind some large stationary asteroids. With that the crew burned hard towards Footfall itself using its standard in system engines. Hopefully they could finally meet up with some friendly faces. It had been a while since they got to a planet and didn't expand their growing list of enemies.

Rewards Granted

• +4 xp
• 136 total xp
• Ani +16xp (previous logs)
• Bjorn +15xp (previous logs)
• Isaac +6xp (previous logs and hidden plot found)
• Murk +9xp (previous logs)
• Rasp +1xp (previous haikus)
• Stig +23xp (previous logs)

Missions/Quests Completed

COMPLETED MISSIONS

• The Milk Run (Completed)
• Murk - A tail of two Waaagh! (Completed)
• Ani - Getting past the visions of the future (Complete)
• Grasping hands from every corner of the Void - (Completed)
• Stig - The Jungles of Ash (Completed)

ACTIVE MISSIONS

• The Yve of Destruction - (Phase 1 - Complete, Phase 2 - In process)
• Bjorn - Darktide (begun - Part 1, optional objective 1 failed, Part 2 Complete, Part 3 - In process)
• Isaac - The god-machine (Part 1 & 2 complete, Part 3 - In process)
• Rasp - Children of the Machine (begun - detoured - Objective 1 Complete, Objective 2 failed, Objective 3, - Complete, Objective 4 - Paused.)

Character(s) interacted with

• The Great Unclean One
• Nurglings
• Plague Bearers
• Men of Iron

Created Content

• Nurgle
• The Great Unclean One
• The Dawnbolt - Resilient ship involved in several deployments against chaos filth at Vallor One - Ark Mechanicus vessel of the Adeptus Mechanicus
• Men of Iron

Related Reports

Session XXXVII

Campaign

Legacy of a Rogue

Protagonists

Stig

Stig

Species

Career

Militant

B 4

A 3

I 2

C 2

W 2

P 2

Wounds 21/21

Strain 13/13

Soak 8

Defence M1/R1

Murc Boilah-Krusha

Murc

Species

Career

Ork

Ork

B 5

A 3

I 1

C 2

W 3

P 2

Wounds 0/26

Strain 4/13

Soak 9

Defence M1/R1

Rasputin

Rasp

Species

Career

Forge World

Chiurgeon

B 3

A 3

I 4

C 2

W 3

P 1

Wounds /13

Strain /13

Soak 4

Defence M1/R1

Vanirach

Vanirach (Ani)

Species

Career

Eldar

First-Mate/Interpreter

B 2

A 3

I 3

C 2

W 2

P 2

Wounds 1/12

Strain 0/12

Soak 6

Defence M1/R1

Report Date

17 Jul 2021

Primary Location

The Immaterium