Marya Somnatia
Marya Somnatia
Marya is a young up and coming diplomat in training. She jumped at the chance to work with the Inquisition and has been chomping at the bit to go on her first assignment ever since.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
A tall young lady with a slender build, Marya looks more likely to hit you with a book than with a sword. But don't let her appearance fool you as she is more than capable to defend herself, just don't expect her to stand on the front lines.
Body Features
The young lady is obviously female as she has been blessed by the Emperor with feminine features.
Facial Features
Marya's long straight dirty blonde hair frames her face well. She has piecing ice blue eyes that draw you into a trance. Though the color belays happiness, there seems to be a sorrow hidden behind them. Her lips are shaded as though she has just eaten fresh red berries and her cheeks have a natural warm glow to them. Her smile is warm and friendly, when she smiles that is. The girls natural beauty is rarely hidden behind make-up, unless the occasion demands it. If asked why, she simply remarks, "I've got better things to do with my time than paint my face for someone else's enjoyment." Given you're more likely to see the back of a data pad then her face, it's probably a good use of her time.
Identifying Characteristics
Her eyes are mesmerizing and once you've seen them, you'll never forget them.
Physical quirks
Her nose is almost always in a data pad as her thirst for knowledge is never quenched.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Marya is a bit of a mystery as she keeps to herself. All you know is that the Inquisitor vouches for her and that should be good enough for you.
Education
Marya is a bit tight lipped about her education. If you had to guess, based on her secretive nature, she was a student of the Schola Progenea and isn't very proud of it. She wishes only to serve the Emperor and find her place in this world.
Employment
At this moment in time, she finds herself in the employ of the Inquisition and where that takes her, Emperor only knows.
Accomplishments & Achievements
She's lived to the ripe old age of 19. Defying those odds!
Mental Trauma
Who doesn't have mental trauma, this is Dark Heresy in the 40K universe. If you don't have mental trauma, you are probably in a coma some where.
Intellectual Characteristics
You think that she might be smart, or at least pretends to be as she constantly reading and looking for more knowledge to increase here understanding of the world.
Morality & Philosophy
What is this morality you speak about? This is Dark Heresy, home of the definitive "morally gray" situation.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To serve the Emperor and learn a thing or two along the way
Social
Contacts & Relations
Inquisitor Lady Olianthe Rathbone
Family Ties
None
Religious Views
Belief in the one true Emperor of Man
Hobbies & Pets
Wealth & Financial state
None
Marya is a diplomat assigned to this mission to lend her "feminine touch" to the group. Trained at the Schola Progenia and then by the Inquisition, she is a mystery to those around her.
View Character Profile
Alignment
What's an Alignment, this is Dark Heresy :P
Honorary & Occupational Titles
None
Age
19
Birthplace
Malfi
Children
Current Residence
Unknown
Gender
Female
Eyes
piercing ice blue
Hair
dirty blonde
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
light porcelein
Height
175 cm
Weight
65 kg
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Session 15: Out of the Fire and Brandished a Heretic
As if finding out that all your suspicions about the man that ruined your life were true and all that evidence being destroyed wasn't enough. Now the Arbities are here to arrest us, because of course they are. I mean, it's difficult to blame them given the only witnesses to the events that are still breathing. But I'm at my wits end and I don't know if I can hold on to my sanity much longer. I'm doing my best, but I feel that my walls are crumbling and the truth is going to come out no matter how hard I try. But for now we have to deal with this idiot wearing a ridiculous hat.
I've been accused of Heresy before, this is nothing new and I've been innocent before. But now we're to meet with the High Inquisitor on Scintilla for our crimes of working for Rathbone. How funny is that? We weren't working for her so much as just trying to survive her and prevent her from obtaining more heretical artifacts. Which we did on Scintilla so this is very surprising. And then there's the Fracking Titan for Emperor's Sake. But fighting this fate is useless. This guy keeps asking us who's paying us, as if we were being paid.
Veck was uncomfortable leaving the Titan behind, as was I given it had valiantly completed its centuries old mission. As if on que, Veck's mechanicus friends came to claim the Titan and to our surprise, Veck as well. I was uncomfortable with this as he would be at their mercy and given the rumors I've heard, that could mean that if we saw him again, he wouldn't be the same. The irony is that the Arbities also didn't want to give him up. Something about not wanting to upset the Inquisition. So there was a war of words and some threats and in the end Veck went willingly with them and we were left to figure out our own fates.
We were shackled and transported to Scintilla. On the way to Scintilla we were given the opportunity to talk a bit. I told them to forget my name, my true name, so that they wouldn't be dragged into that drama as well. Once on Scintilla, we were separated and treated as the criminals they assumed we were. Luckily their attempts to remove Goldie failed as they always do. I needed him to keep me calm and grounded while I prepared for the inevitable. I wondered how the others were fairing especially Braxton as he wasn't used to these types of accommodations. And poor Arathus finding himself in another cage. And how was Yarn fairing without his sleeping pills to stave off his nightmares. And then there's Veck, the unknown situation that all I can do is pray. I pray everyday to the glorious Emperor, not for myself, but for my, as Veck would put it, cohort. My fate was sealed long ago and if the Emperor sees that my time is up, then so be it.
Some time later the trial, if you could call it that, began. It was more of a witch hunt and we were guilty by association, quite literally. Given that my mind was not in the most stable places, I forgot my place. Once I was accused I adamantly defended myself with no regard for myself. I think that in my mind I felt they were going to kill us regardless as they were looking for a scapegoat for the destruction of the Gilded Cathedral
Session 14: Face to Face with Darkness
With the strange voice calling us forward, we take the elevator down to what I'm guessing was the Bridge of what at this point, I'm assuming was a Titan. This conclusion was supported by Veck if not overly stated without out right saying it. The bridge held five seats and only one was occupied, the center seat. This belonged to the Princeps, who had passed from the mortal coil long ago. Of course I had no idea what a Princeps was, but Veck was kind enough to fill in the gaps of knowledge we had. But as he was explaining things to us, he suddenly stopped and began to shudder. Later we would discover that the Machine Spirit of the Titan we were standing in was still quite active and determined to finish his mission.
Once Veck came out of his trance, which was only a minute or two, the floor began to shake and we were violently tossed around the bridge as the Titan came to life rising from the briny deep. At that moment I remembered the words scribed in Thrungg's journal: "Hekate's champion will rise from the briny deep..." And at that moment I began to panic as I knew the Dei-Phage had been freed. The blast shield for the windows of the bridge opened and I looked around to see if the hands of the Titan were still closed. Imagine my surprise when I found two cannons and no hands. Obviously it was a misunderstanding from Thrungg, I think he meant to say "heart" and not "hand" but that wasn't important, the location of the Dei-Phage was.
Luckily, or unluckily, my concerns were justified as we saw the Dei-Phage come into view across the windows. Frantically we all waited as Veck looked for operational weaponry. And of course the only weapon that was operational was the Quake Cannon sitting in the Cathedral, what I would assume was the precipice of the Titan. The same Quake Cannon that was blocked with debris. At that moment, the Titan began to move through the sea heading towards some target. I had a suspicion of the target location, but my major concern at this time was the Dei-Phage.
Braxton and Arathus volunteered to clear the debris while the rest of us stayed in the bridge observing the situation. I felt an uneasiness and decided to take council from Goldie. Yes, yes, asking a doll for advice seems ludicrous, but we were in a lost Titan about to face a monstrous creature so I figured it couldn't hurt. Goldie pointed towards the lift directing us to join Braxton and Arathus. Braxton saw this and tried to close the doors, but luckily we were faster than the machine's mechanisms.
Luckily indeed as the moment we left the lift, the room began to shift and morph into a library with shelves of books surrounding us. All of these shelves were on fire, though the fire did not burn us. A figure of a man covered in flame ran into the room and cried out with what I assume was his dying breath, "Say his true name." At that we began to search the shelves for any clues to the Dei-Phage's true name. Our first attempts were interrupted by a fiery visage that appeared to have the same form as that of the Dei-Phage. It threw balls of fire in our direction but missed. Attempts to shoot it were fruitless.
Once we were able to compose ourselves, we once again searched the library. Three of us found books that I was able to cross reference to discover at least part of the foul beast true name. I tried to say the name, but my throat seized up and my voice was lost. Veck also tried and failed. Luckily Yarn was able to say the name and we were transported to the Naive in the Cathedral. It would appear as though the Emperor's grace was with us this day.
When we looked outside, a new horror awaited us. The Dei-Phage was performing some sort of ritual that opened a pathway allowing horrific beast to spill out of it. At the sight of this, Braxton and Arathus headed to the cannon to clear the debris. The rest of us fended off the beast that were sent to stop them. Braxton and Arathus had some issues removing the debris, so once the minion of the Dei-Phage had fallen, Yarn went to assist them. This did the trick and the cannon was now free of debris. Veck set up the cannon and directed it to fire, but it required a physical activation. I ran to the panel, under instruction from Veck, and pressed the fire button. The cannon fired, but also exploded, launching us all in various directions. We all came to our feet to find the Dei-Phage standing, singed and injured where the Quake Cannon once stood. All of us prepared for the battle of our life. I drew the bolter we found with the body inside the Titan and took aim. And then, well I'm embarrassed to say this, but I don't know what happened after that. I appeared to have passed out and come to once the foul beast was slain. My clothes were partially burned off in places and the gun was not fired as all the rounds were still in it. But that wasn't important. We were still moving and the Titan was about to make landfall.
Watching helplessly, we saw the Titan heading toward the destination I hoped and feared he would, the Gilded Cathedral. It destroyed buildings and stomped on citizens indiscriminately as it approached its target. Once there, it unloaded a plasma charge that melted the entire building so that nothing remained but that hidden below the shroud. I knew there was something off about this place, but I still felt a small bit of pain for those that died that may have been innocent.
The Titan instructed us to go down and witness the proof hidden by the black sepulcher. The device lit up once exposed to the Barsapine night sky and suddenly a video played before us. A group of people looking like members of the Ecclesiarchy were talking. They called themselves the Maledictor's Hand. They were performing some sort of ritual. They spoke about cleansing the Calixis Sector with a religious cataclysm and placing clergy in power that were from their group. Apparently this was their last gathering before setting their plan into motion. The prominent figure had his eyes on the Deaconship of the Cathedral of Illumination. He apparently was on his way to becoming a cardinal. They also talked of a secret code they would use amongst themselves to identify their members. As he was about to reveal more information when the man was interrupted by another hooded figure. Apparently the one recording this secret meeting was discovered. The Inquisitor Devayne I would assume given our previous knowledge. The man leading the Maledictor's Hand turned and revealed himself to be none other than Arch-Cardinal Ignatio, the current authority over the Ecclesiarchy within the Calixis Sector. But he was not the face that caught my attention. It was HIM. I saw him. He was there. I would never forget that face, though I had seen him aged, his cold dead eyes were the same. The anger within me swelled and at that moment the picture fades out and the pict-file was gone.
The proof of the corruption I knew existed, gone. The proof that I was not mad, gone. The proof I could use to set my family free, gone. Lost to time as the Black Sepulcher subsided to the ages. All we are left with is a destroyed "jewel" of the Barsapine system and an age old Titan lost in time and dead in the water. This will be fun to fill out a report over. I believe it's time we find physical evidence of the Dei-Phage or we might be in trouble.
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?
Session 12: The Last of the Hekate, I hope.
We entered the ballroom to find a disturbing scene. There were two long tables with 15 seats at each table. The chairs were filled with desiccated corpses dressed in fine clothing. This unfortunately was not the worst thing in this room, it was the fine food set out on the tables. Yes, I said fine food, as in freshly prepared and warm food. Given this building and this room had seen better days and that the skulleria was unusable, where did this food come from? Needless to say none of us felt the desire to eat, but Yarn's curiosity got the best of him. He decided to push one of the corpses toward the plate of food in front of it. This proved to be a bad idea.
Immediately Yarn began to scream in terror and pulled out his rifle. He was screaming, "They're me, They're all me!" I touched his shoulder to steady him and asked him to explain what he meant. Apparently, upon touching the corpse, all the them appeared to be dead versions of himself at differing stages of his life. This vision was only given to him, much like the vision of the Dei-Phage in the mirror was only given to Arathus. It would appear that someone or something is messing with us more than I originally thought. Yarn's reaction was to shoot all the corpses, and I can't blame him much given what we've been through by this point. Braxton seemed uninterested in the tables as he discovered a door leading, somewhere. Where, we are not sure. He asked that we block the door with a table and come back to it later. Odd he tried to block a door that opened inward with a table, but we obliged and moved forward with our investigation.
The next room we wished to investigate was the Scholaria. This room appeared to be not as ravaged by time as the rest of the cathedral. This was most likely due to its window and door still being in tact. There was a place for a dictation servitor but only its Dictation Throne remained. The walls were lined with certificates and honorary accolades dating back several hundred years. The surprise to this is they were all given to Gustavus. There were also some papers on the desk and some plans that appeared to be for a secret room under the oven. Odd that Gustavus would leave this accessible for anyone to find, but then again he was just that bold. However, it does seem odd that Gustavus was a murdering heretic but had received so many accolades, but perhaps that mystery will reveal itself at a later time.
After investigating the Scholaria, we moved on to the Planetarium. This place looked barely touched by time. The ceiling was still closed and there were no windows to allow the elements to penetrate this space. Hanging from the ceiling was a model of the Barsapine system with the planets being represented by skulls wrapped in colored glass orbs. Constellations adorned the walls. A simple desk and bookcase were set within close distance of the golden telescope, a work space no doubt. It would appear that my calculations of where we might encounter Konorath, the last of the heretical Hekates, was incorrect. He did seem to have a thirst for knowledge, but his thirst seemed to revolve around the stars. Yarn found a book hidden in a compartment under the telescope that was basically a journal from Konorath. Given our experiences in this wretched place thus far, we decided to bring the book in the aptly named "backpack of heresy" and leave the planetarium alone for now and moved on to the Library.
The Library was not so fortunate as the Planetarium as the windows in the ceiling had been broken and allowed the elements to ravage all the books. The entire place was a loss save the clocks that seemed to be in good working order. Well they worked but didn't seem to keep time very well, except for one that appeared to be in sync with the clock that hid the cog -shaped key hole. Seeing that this most likely wasn't a coincidence, I and Braxton took a closer look and I found a secret shelf hidden just below the clocks location. Upon opening the compartment we discovered three books wrapped in chains locking them within the compartment: a green book with a planet and two interlocking rings on the cover, a book with bronze fittings and a book covered with cracked brown leather. This collection screamed heresy, so I wanted to proceed with caution. Braxton, on the other hand, decided to throw caution to the wind and grabbed the book with the cracked brown leather binding. His face became contorted as if he was overcome by rage, but he seemed to shake it off and replaced the book. Given Braxton didn't seem worse for the wear, I grabbed the book with bronze fittings. It was another journal from Koronath talking about celestial alignments of planets with one repeating theme, a double eclipse. Calculating quickly, we were able to determine that the event wasn't due to occur for another 5000 years or so, one less terrifying thing to worry about. But we did have one last book and Braxton and I decided to play rock, paper, scissors to see who grabbed the book.
Well at least that's what I thought the plan was. Apparently it was a distraction for him to grab the book without my interference. Again, for someone so frightened by the sight of heresy, he seems overly enamored with heretical objects, strange indeed, but I digress. What happened next terrified me, and that doesn't happen easily. Braxton's face was overcome with horror and he began frantically praying to the Emperor. Simultaneously, the book dissolved into a green goo that oozed out of the shelf. Luckily Braxton wasn't in the way of this ooze and we were all able to avoid it.
I did my best to calm Braxton and bring him out of whatever trance he had put himself in, but it took a bit of time. Yarn was surprised that a book dissolving frightened me. I tried to explain that it was not the book, but the fact that Braxton was praying fervently to the Emperor. Why would this scare me you may ask? Simply put, Braxton NEVER prayed to the Emperor in front of us and it was completely outside of his character. And while I find his character brash and annoying, it has been consistent, until now. Whatever is coming after us is trying to drive us mad, of that I'm certain, but I will do everything in my power to prevent that from happening even to the likes of Braxton. I will not allow this Dei-Phage to turn my compatriots away from the Emperor's light nor will I let this darkness persist. We must end this and end it soon. But there was at least one more room we were curious about before we entered the Planetarium once more.
On our way back to the ballroom, we noticed that one of the front pews was now occupied by two corpses, two familiar corpses. The desiccated bodies of Nikea and Gustavus Hekate were propped up next to each other on the pew. Given that we watched these exact corpses disintegrate into dust, this was an uneasy sight. As a precaution, we asked that Braxton put an explosive under the pew so that if something happened, we could react quickly and hopefully eliminate the threat in one shot.
Entering the ballroom, nothing unusual had happened and everything was as we left it. We removed the table blocking the door and Arathus deftly opened the door. It's good to see he picked up some useful skills while hanging out in the underhives of Scintilla, but again I digress. Upon opening the door we discovered a stone spiral staircase leading up. Cautiously we followed the stairs up and discovered a room with a table and five seats. There was another immaculate feast laid out and there were servitors prepared to bring the next course when ready. I was very uneasy at this sight and wished to leave. Then I noticed that there were place cards at each plate with our birth names emblazoned on them.
I used this as an opportunity to try and convince everyone to leave as my name was not on the cards, and that was true, my name Marya was not on the cards. But as I was trying to plead my case to leave, Braxton and Veck began to enter the room to sit at the table. Arathus quickly acted and tackled Braxton to the floor. Yarn attempted to stop Veck, but his mechanical enhancements proved problematic for him. I joined him and reminded Veck that this was not the Omnissiah's plan for him and he was needed elsewhere. He seemed easier to guide away from the table at that point as though he was fighting whatever thrall was drawing him near. We managed to get out of the room. Yarn quickly threw in a grenade to destroy the place and we all ran down the stairs to safety.
I was glad we had destroyed that room; however, the room was not destroyed before they all saw a piece of the odd place card on the table. The name on the card was du Languille. That name will not stop haunting me. I tried to convince them that I know nothing about why that name was there, but I was so caught off guard that I don't think I was very convincing. Luckily we were able to table the issue since we still had a heretical apparition to best.
We made the decision to leave the Sanitorium alone and to return to the Planetarium. Using the book as a guide, we asked Veck to set up the double eclipse on the model of the Barsapine system. Just as we had surmised, Koronath came forth, but he wasn't angry, more anxious than angry. I thought that perhaps I could talk to him and maybe get some answers as to what he was doing and why. Apparently I was the only person that saw this as an opportunity givenVeck, Yarn and Arathus immediately opened fire on Koronath's apparition before I could gather any information and with that, he was bested. I can't be too mad at them given our experiences in this place thus far. And as expected, the Apparition left behind a corpse with the final piece of the key and he disintegrated into dust as the other two had done.
Now that we were all on hyper alert status, we decided to use Nielson to check to see if Koronath had joined Gustavus and Nikae. And as sure as the Emperor's light shines over the Imperium of man, he was there on that pew with the other two. With that news, Braxton detonated the charge and turned the Naive into a gore covered mess. Better that then us having to deal with them again I suppose. But now we have a key, which is not completely assembled but can be. We must make a decision to move forward or to leave. I for one wish to banish this evil from the world and allow the Emperor's light to once again shine down upon his people. I will do whatever it takes to prevent the Dei-Phage from corrupting anyone else, even if that means sacrificing my life to do so. I am truly grateful that Goldie has been by my side this entire time. I don't think I would have the strength to face these horrors without him.
Session 11: The Heretic and the Astropath
This cathedral gets creepier and creepier with ever room. Taking the piece of the key from the woman's corpse caused it to turn to dust. I suspect this means something, but I'm not sure yet and there's so much more to explore. Moving on we find what appears to be the sleeping chambers of the people who used to inhabit this cathedral. Upon opening the door we saw a room ravaged by time. There was a bed that was nothing more than a broken frame and feathers, a mirror and a chest. We asked Arathus to investigate the chest and he obliged.
He entered the room and something strange happened. When he passed the mirror he saw a vision of a horrible beast with a bird head and black wings missing an arm. Surely this is the owner of the arm we found on Scintilla, the Dei-Phage. Apparently there was a secret door opposite of the mirror. Braxton found the door and proceeded to open it, by falling through it. It was rather entertaining and did relieve the tension of what Arathus told us he saw. But that relief was only brief as what we found was a tragic sight.
On the other side of the door was a bed with a skeleton acting as a sheath for a dagger. The room also had a chest of drawers. I looked through it and found a journal. Within the journal was the story of an Astropath by the name of Hadria Hekate. This explains the writ we saw earlier. My guess was that she was not only the Astropath for the Rogue Trader, but they may have been romantically involved, hence the writs placement. But that is pure speculation and the journal had other secrets to reveal. Outlined within the journal were the last weeks of her life and identity of her murderer, Gustavus Hekate. Given the time of her death was dated by Veck to be over a 100 years, this is a disturbing finding. There is an entry about a priest disappearing, which explains why the Ecclesiarchy refused to post a priest at the Haematite Cathedral and wanted the Hekate family investigated . Luckily, the journal also mentioned a secret room beneath the skulleria.
Secret rooms and heresy seem to go hand and hand now a days. Now that we knew the secret room existed, finding the entrance under the oven was simple enough. Below we discovered a den of heretical horrors. It was filled with cages and the floor was littered with heretical symbols. We found a false stone in the wall that revealed a secret room. Odd that there was a secret room within a secret room, but I digress.
We opened the door to the room and found more horrors. There were several monstrosities that appeared to random bodies sewn together in several grotesque forms. At the sight of this, Braxton went back up to the skulleria. Not surprising given his tendency to be unsettled by heretical things, except apparently daggers that cause eye bleeds. He seems enthralled by those. But again, I digress.
So here we were in this den of heretical horror and Braxton left us. Yarn and I decided to investigate further before we cleansed the place with fire. We found a loose stone in the floor. It wasn't easy to lift and required us both to remove it. The stench was overwhelming and the hole below contained the remains of the original owners of the sewn together monstrosities in the room. As the stench overwhelmed us a voice boomed from the door.
An Apparition of a man with a hole in his chest that dripped a foul ichor appeared. He or it was yelling at Yarn and I. We immediately dropped the flagstone over the hole we had uncovered. Secretly I was hoping the Apparition would dissipate, but it's never that easy. I surmised the Apparition was none other than Gustavus Hekate, but that didn't fit with all the other data we had found. Veck reacted quickly upon seeing the apparition and took a shot at him. To my surprise, the shot connected. The Apparition took offense to this and struck Veck in his leg so hard it brought him down on one knee. Suddenly, I felt a wave of fear overcome me and I was frozen in place. The feeling was only a moment as I quickly shook it off, thank the Emperor. Upon coming to my senses, I said a prayer to the Emperor beseeching him to give us strength in our time of need by gracing us with his light. It appeared to work as everyone rallied to defeat the Apparition. Even Braxton rejoined us in an effort to best the evil visage. As I surmised, the apparition was indeed Gustavus Hekate. In his hand was another piece of the key. We took it and his corpse turned to dust just like the woman in the warrant room.
I've come to the conclusion that the woman was Nikea Hekate. It would appear that the keys are bonded to the souls of the three Hekates that were accused of heresy. And given that we've now proven the accusations to be true, I'm guessing that the last piece of the key will be found in the hands of the third Hekate, Koronath Hekate. I'm guessing he is in the library given what we've discovered thus far, but I feel that we must explore more of the cathedral before we encounter him. I don't think it needs to be said, but we purged that heresy in fire once we confirmed there was nothing remaining but heresy.
The mysteries of this place are starting to unravel and the answers are giving me chills. I can't help but feel as though we are being herded to around the cathedral and the one pulling the strings is none other than the Dei-Phage. What sinister plot does he have in mind for us and will we be able to subvert it.
Session 10: The Cave, the Cathedral, the Feather and the Self-Locking Door
Well it wouldn't be a day in the Imperium without the random mob of Mutants trying to kill you, am I right? And this group of Mutants had a psyker with them, because of course they did. And surprise, surprise, they had a feather motif like every other cultist heretics we've encountered.
Braxton engaged the first target he could reach. Needless to say, it was not the psyker which was odd given his recent "reward" from Lady Rathbone. Not to mention his tendency to accuse me of, what was as he called it, I think it was "warpfuckery" or something of the sort. Emperor knows what goes through the mind of that fallen noble. But I digress. Again everyone engaged a target, but no one managed to get a shot off on the psyker before he could call forth his powers of the warp.
The world suddenly became cold, but only for a second before I shook off the foul magics. It appeared as though Veck also managed to avoid being affected by these magics. And while Arathus and Yarn were clearly effected, nothing would compare to what happened to Braxton. Deep in combat he fell to the ground unconscious. No seriously, he just passed out, from some cold. I mean I knew he was weak willed just listening to him talk, but I had no idea he was just weak minded in general. It was somewhat funny to be honest. To be fair, his suit was torn and he did begin to bleed, so the shock of that may have been the cause, but we'll never know.
Then Yarn was able to take a shot. I was a bit frustrated that he stole my target, but it was only natural that he would choose the psyker as a target as that was the real threat. I've come to expect that the least threatening looking target is the greatest threat. This lesson was also burned into Arathus and Yarn I'm guessing given their reaction to the gene stealer cult we encountered on Luggnum. Yarn, with his shiny new weapon, managed to take him down in one shot. It was a relatively easy clean-up after their psyker fell. With my previous target now down, I moved to one of the lackeys and felled him in one shot, but not before giving Yarn a piece of my mind for stealing my target.
With the mutants dispatched, the members of the Ecclesiarchy were able to "assist" us, as expected. We were then told that the mutant cultist were a normal occurrence. Information that would have been useful earlier, but the Ecclesiarchy isn't necessarily known for their generosity with information, well useful information anyways. But that handled, we were able to begin our trek to the Heamatite Cathedral. The trip was uneventful and we arrived to find a very gothic inspired building, dilapidated from time and neglect. The grounds were overgrown from neglect and a building we assumed was the groundskeeper's quarters. We decided it was best to search the grounds so we wouldn't be surprised by anything that might be lurking around.
Searching the grounds, we found the remains of an ornamental water feature that appeared to feature a waterfall. Given that the waterfall was no longer operational, we found what we assumed to be a hidden cave. Cautiously we went inside and found some decomposing corpses. Upon further evaluation by Cortana, Veck's lovingly named medical servitor on loan from the Inquisition, we were able to ascertain the bodies had been there for at least two weeks. The decayed state of the building predate these murders so the grounds are obviously not abandoned. I was able to find writing on the back wall that was etched in blood saying "Burn in a thousand hells Gusta...", it trailed off after leading to an iron blade covered in blood. Analyzing the blood reveled it to be the same blood on the wall. We searched the rest of the grounds including the groundkeepers quarters but found nothing more.
Now was the time to go into the cathedral. Cautiously we looked through the windows to see if anything was inside, but saw nothing. I was about to say we should set Veck on point when Braxton burst into the cathedral. Luckily, nothing was in the nave and his reckless actions didn't hurt us, this time. The inside of the cathedral was in as much disrepair as the outside. The pews and other furnishings appeared to be bolted to the floor, which is odd in general. But what was odder was the large quake cannon replacing the pulpit. There was one item that seemed fine though a clock that was keeping perfect time.
Upon seeing this clock, I asked someone to join me in investigating, that someone was of course Veck as I figured he could maybe figure out what or how the clock was being maintained. He discovered the clock was a facsimile powered by a power pack and was concealing what appeared to be a key hole of some sort in the shape of a cog. After exploring the entire nave, we decided it would be a good idea to investigate the rest of the cathedral, except for the Sanitarium, which was barred shut from the outside. We thought it best to leave the place quarantined off for last.
We inspected the skulleria first. Such a fancy name for a kitchen, nobles and their silly ways, but I digress. Within the skulleria we found only one thing of interest, a cookbook mentioning Nikaea Hekate. I know this name sounds familiar, but can't place it at the moment, but say nothing as I'm not sure of myself. The cook who wrote this entry knew her and didn't seem to fancy her at all. From his notes she sounded like the common noblewoman, barking orders and never happy with anything.
With the skulleria cleared, we moved on to the trophy room. The room was full of stuffed beast and there were two fixtures prominent in the room, a gun and a desk. Oh, and there was also the feather that fell when we opened the door, but I think that was on par for the creepy happenings and visages found thus far. The boys headed for the gun, naturally I instead searched the desk. In it I found a letter voicing concerns about Koronath Hekate's questionable actions as of late and was signed by Vorkas Hekate. Again my memory is jogged as Koronath Hekate sounds familiar as well. But before I could even start to think about it, Braxton was started by something.
He found a door with bloody handprint on it and as he was inspecting it the door locked from the other side. Feeling there was a threat behind the door, we rushed into the other room to find nothing, well nothing living that is. We found a large portrait of a large woman in a very unique looking dress. Below the painting was the desiccated remains of a woman wearing what appeared to be the same dress. In her dried out hand we found what looked like half of a cog. This must be one half of the key. There was one other interesting thing we found, or rather didn't find in this room. There was a glass case that had been shattered open with a plaque that said: Zanatov, Warrant of Trade indicating that the Hekate family were most likely also Rogue Traders and this was probably the source of their wealth and influence. And at that moment I remembered where I had heard those names. There were on the Ecclesiarchy acquisition list under the entry for the Haematite Cathedral there was an entry that said the following:
"Ecclesiarchal Holding #120. Haematite Cathedral. Locatd upon the Twilight Ridge
along eastern coastline. Clergy in Residence None. Assign no clergy to this accursed
place. Request Ordo Hereticus investigation into activities of Koronath Hekate,
Gustavus Hekate and Nikaea Hekate."
The pieces are starting to fall into place and now I'm worried about how Gustavus Hekate is still around. This mystery is getting creepier the farther we investigate.
Session 9: The Dark Side of the Cathedral
Our trip to Barsapine was an uneasy one. Braxton and I weren't able to resolve our disagreement on the nature of Goldie. Though, to be honest, that isn't very surprising as Braxton has had it out for me since the moment we met. That's probably my fault though as I did address him as "the disgraced noble from a heretical family". Yes it wasn't one of my best moments but I was still in the middle of evaluating Veck to see his programing directives and how easily he was manipulated. Braxton unfortunately walked in when I was pretending to have a bit of a temper tantrum, as some young teenage girls do, so he was the target of my "aggression" thus I probably deserve this ire. But that is a story for another time and place, this is the journal of our trials and tribulations as acolytes of the Inquisition.
Oh there was another interesting development with the aptly named "backpack of heresy". Arathus happened to look into it and discovered an ancient bottle of amasec within it. I recognized the bottle but was hoping that it was not what I thought it was. No it was, it was a reproduction or a reconstructed bottle exactly the same as the one I had destroyed on Scintilla. I tried to convince everyone that the bottle was following Braxton, and I think they believed it; however it may be following me. The de Languille family will always haunt me. I dread the day that I must face them again but hopefully that day will never come, but only the Emperor knows.
The rest of the trip to Barsapine was filled with an awkward silence, but uneventful all the same. We arrived at the Gilded Cathedral and were greeted by Abbott Jaretas. I played the part of the dutiful and faithful Ecclisiarchial follower as to not arise suspicion. I hate this part I have to play. They're dirty, all of them are dirty heretical monsters praying on the innocent people of the Imperium. But that again is a story for another time.
Abbot Jaretas escorted us to a banquet hall filled with fine wines and foods for us to eat. I drank water and partook of nothing. I reminded me of my childhood and I wished no further connection to it. Though it was rather funny to see Yarn's reaction when Veck began to eat with his feeding tube, at least I think that's what it was. Veck, clueless as always was trying to be the sociable creature that he always tries. It took all my willpower to not begin laughing. Yes this would normally be a grotesque scene for the average person, but I've experienced far worse and I found it more entertaining than anything else. Another reason I didn't feel the need to eat was that the "good" Abbot was not at the table with us so I could get away with not eating.
After the banquet was finished, the Abbot returned and escorted us to our quarters which were adjacent to the Library. Arathus and I decided to hit the books and see if we could discover any connections to the data pad language that we found on Scintilla. We were able to discover that there is a noble family by the name of Hekate, a direct reference in the data pad. The line was "... Hekate’s champion rises from the brine!" We looked further and discovered a holy building by the name of the Haematite Cathedral that is in the care of the Hekate family and happens to predate the Gilded Cathedral. The other haunting coincidence is that this cathedral is on the coast, nest to "the brine". This was enough to warrant a visit to the Cathedral. I also wonder if this cathedral's name is literal, but that may or may not be important
I stayed in the library while Arathus went exploring with the help of Braxton and Veck. There was one area in the Cathedral we were not allowed to go, so of course that's the first place Braxton wanted to go. They had to wait until the guard left as they were diligent in their service to the Emperor and by extension, the Ecclesiarchy. For something so valuable, the Ecclesiarchy didn't see the need to have around the clock guards. Luck for us though. We would soon discover the reason guards weren't necessary.
Below the shroud of the black sepulchre was a wonder of the past. It looked like a heavily modified volcano cannon, whatever that is, protected by a void shield. There appeared to be a control panel for the shield on the inside of the shield. Arathus threw something at the shield to see what would happen. This was a smart move as that thing no longer exist, thus the guard aren't necessary at night. This discovery was an unnerving one as this find predates this cathedral, but not the other. This solidified our decision to visit the Haematite Cathedral.
We set in for the night and in the morning we spoke with the Abbot. He provided us with transportation. I didn't want to tell him where we were going, but my hands were tied as we didn't know how to get there and how long it would take. With our transportation settled, we decided to head out for the Haematite Cathedral. But as fate would have it, we weren't going to leave right away. Apparently we would have to dispatch a group of mutant cultist first.
Session 8: The Dark Secret that Lies Beneath
So there we were staring at an arm and it's former owner. Rat decided that the best course of action was for him to wrap the arm up in his new cloak and we would decide later. Veck was anxious to use his new flamer and he did so with great effectiveness as he reduced the heretic Thrungg to nothing more than a pile of ash. It was still unsettling that he had fallen so far into the chaos. News of their masters death caused the rest of the guards on the grounds to surrender. While we had dealt with Thrungg, we still hadn't discovered the location of the museum.
We made contact with Captain Scippio and updated him on the situation.
While we had some downtime, Veck and Yarn had their injuries treated. Braxton wished to go inspect the priest again. He had the idea that the arm may have been attached to him first as the priest was missing an arm. There was no way I was allowing Braxton to wander off by himself, so naturally I followed him. We inspected the priest again to see if the arm may have been attached to him originally, but looking closer at the injury it was obvious that the priest most likely lost his arm to the dog-like creatures that we had just bested. Braxton cut a lucky break and discovered a secret door.
It opened into a huge room below the chapel lit by several Servo-Skulls that bathed the room in an eerie red glow. We immediately called over Captain Scippio and he did a sweep of the massive underground room. It appeared that the museum wasn't quite as heretical as we imagined. Captain Scippio returned and told us that he found a data pad that gave unusual readings and we should check it out. We decided to check out all the contents to determine what was actually heretical and what wasn't.
Every object in the museum had a plaque indicating it's history or significance. There were several weapons that had a historical context, but they were obviously not heretical in nature. Well the Eldar blade was a piece of xenos heretical history, but other than that, there were several gifts of the Omnissiah making Veck very happy. Honestly, I felt like I could hear him singing a happy song through his cogitator. Braxton discovered an old bottle of amesec. I read the plaque and saw that it was from the most heretical noble line I know. I took the bottle from him and smashed it on the ground. Then we discovered some books. One of the books was a holy book, so I took ownership of it. The rest made me feel uneasy, so we decided they were most likely heretical.
We then found the data pad that Captain Scippio had discribed. Veck was able to safely decrypt it and read the contents. It was Thrungg's journal of events from the last week or so. It appeared that Thrungg was not alone in his heretical journey. Also his heretical actions were not limited to Scintilla. He mentioned "a temple of gold with a heart of coal". This had to be a reference to the Gilded Temple on Barsapine. He also mentioned Dei-Phage, who was the original owner of the arm that Thrungg was wearing. He also mentioned that he had "taken care of Skrivus" as Skrivus apparently got cold feet and returned to the light of the Emperor. Thrungg had his dogs eat him. The way Thrungg decribed Skrivus as a "more refined meal" for his pets leads me to believe he was another noble mixed up with this heretical plot. Reading these entries illustrated how far Thrungg had fallen from the grace of the Emperor's light. A sad fate for anyone. There was some doubts, but the thrawl of this Dei-Phage was too strong for Thrungg to resist.
With this new information we decided it was time to destroy the dark books found in the museum. I warned that it might be difficult for us to destroy them ourselves, but Veck wished to put his flamer to good use once again. Burning the books did cause the room to become unbearably cold but with persistence they were destroyed. Braxton wished to destroy the rest of the contents of the museum using explosives. Very Braxton indeed, but everyone believed that the best course of action. And with a press of a button the contents of the museum were buried as the chapel collapsed on top of it. Now we had to decide what to do with the arm.
Braxton was fearful of retaliation if we didn't return the arm to Rathborne, but Veck and I were against this idea. I made the suggestion that we contact the Inquisition on Scintilla and have them take the arm. They agreed to come and get the heretical article. A transport arrived with the investigator that I had spoken to over the coms. He was escorted by two women in power armor that were later identified as Sisters of Battle. I felt a strange connection to these women, but I wasn't sure what it was. As Rat was in possession of the arm, he was asked to enter the transport. I joined him as I was the initial contact. One of the Sisters of Battle addressed me as "sister". I had been called sister by one other person recently, Inquisitor Tyler Christoff. At the time, I figured it was his roguish attitude and nothing more. But now this woman, this woman whom I feel a connection with has also called me "sister", why?
I approached the Sister of Battle and addressed her as sister and asked her why she called me sister. She seemed to avoid the question and said she spoke out of turn. Rat witnessed this exchange so he may mention it to the rest of the group, but I hope he will keep it between us two. The interrogator came back with a lock box and asked us to place the item in it. I took the arm from Rat's Cloak and put it in the box. Again I felt the cold sensation that I felt with the daggers on Luggnum. The interrogator confirmed that the item was heretical and we went on our way. While we were finishing the investigations on the grounds, I remembered that I wanted to try and decipher the papers we found on the priest earlier.
I was successful in translating the document and it's contents made my blood boil. They were sermons that had been altered to slowly convert the parishioners from the light of the Emperor to a heretical plot. I insisted that we keep the documents as proof of the church's indiscretion. Everyone wanted to burn them, but I placed them in the backpack with the data pad that Rat was carrying hoping to use them later. It was almost impossible to find proof of this kind and it was to valuable to destroy.
Shortly after wrapping up things on the Thrungg Family grounds, we received a communique from Rathborne. She instructed us to go to Barsapine and investigate further. No surprise given the info we gained from the data pad. We were to meet up with a contact there and dig deeper into discovering what the situation was with this Dei-Phage and discover just how deep this plot decended.
We were able to resupply our normal gear before heading out for Barsapine. You would think the journey towards Barsapine would be a quiet one, but then again nothing is quiet when Braxton is around. I was confronted about Goldie again. Apparently Goldie had visited my cohorts on our journey to Scintilla. Due to the hurried nature of the trip and the circumstances of our previous engagement with Lady Rathbone, it was decided to not confront me with this information. Braxton apparently still believes Goldie to be a heretical item and has now convinced Veck that Goldie might be harmful as well. This is of course proposterous, Goldie is a doll, a trinket that gives me comfort and has given me comfort for most of my life. But they don't understand that, how can they? None of them knows the horrors I've endured and the horrors that still haunt me. But that is a story for another time, at this moment I was being attacked by Braxton once again for having a doll, though his claims are concerning.
It would appear that Goldie visited each of my compatriots during the first night of our journey to Scintilla. What's even stranger is that they each saw a different version of Goldie than that of the doll I carry. Each was given a message or warning of some kind relating to the future. For Veck, it was to not be afraid of independent thought and breaking free from the hive mind influence of the Mechanicum. I can see how that would be disturbing to him as he is programmed to follow directives and that would be outside of his comfort zone. That being said, I can see he is struggling with this idea as well given the new found information about the Biologicous Magi Perdix, a suspected heretek, being on his planet conducting experiments on his Skitarii brethren. But he also said Goldie touched him and gave him a sense of calm, much like I feel when Goldie is near me. For Veck, calm is a bad thing apparently and it disturbed him more. He was also more concerned for my well being than his own and apparently threatened Goldie if any harm was to come to me. That was sweet and somewhat funny to hear from him.
Then there was Yarn and Rat. Both of them were also visited by Goldie but their experience was a pleasant one. They said that Goldie brought them a warning and let them know that they would be needed in the future. According to Yarn, it was comforting to hear he'd be alive that long. I couldn't help but give a little chuckle at that, but it was good to hear that he would be around for a longer time. Both of them said they felt a sense of calm at the end of their visit and Yarn was able to sleep soundly for the first time in a long time. Does that sound heretical? If your name is Braxton Vorr, apparently it does.
I saved the best tale for last. The tale of abuse and a sad man scared of a doll. Apparently, when Braxton was visited by Goldie, he flushed him down the toilet...twice and attempted a third time. He refused to listen and blocked anything Goldie had to say out. He was having a battle of wits, with a doll. I'm not sure exactly who won that fight, but I'm not a gambler, so I won't speculate. He was very unnerved by the whole experience and then asked if I too was visited by Goldie and I wasn't. I was totally surprised to hear all this had happened. Braxton's response: "Well apparently we're all heroes of the Imperium and you're not." Very mature response to this situation. He began to argue with me about the heretical nature of Goldie, again.
I wasn't hearing it. Goldie has been by my side since I was a child and kept me sane in a situation where most would have lost their minds. He then began talking about drugs and hallucinations. I immediately accused him of drugging everyone since he has had it out for me from the beginning. I mean he tried to get Lady Rathborne to kill me last time we finished a mission, so I figured this would be no different. Veck pointed out that Braxton would have a hard time doing this. And after some quick thought, I had to agree. Braxton isn't clever enough to drug our party without their knowledge, but there is someone that is.
Session 7: Here We Go Again on Our Own
As if barely surviving an exterminatus wasn't enough stress for us to go through, we have to endure whatever torchers Lady Rathbone cooked up due to our "infidelity" with Inquisitor Christoff. Frack that Braxton and his big mouth! Oh well, I do not fear death and will not be scared by that woman. I have faced death before and come out the other side a true devotee of the Emperor. If he feels that my time has come to an end, then so be it.
As the door was locked behind me I used this time to perform prayers and reflect on all that has happened and what place I have in this world. But before I could get too far with my thoughts, I began to hear screams of pain and agony or is it perverted pleasure? I concentrated on the voice to see if I could place it as Rat's or Yarn's voice as Veck's voice was distinctly unique, but to my surprise, these screams of agony appeared to be coming from Braxton. I'm not sure how he managed to maintain the snobby tone of his normal voice even through screaming but his voice was definitely the source. Should I feel pity for his suffering or should I pray to the Emperor his suffering isn't passed on to the rest of my comrades? To my surprise, shortly after Braxton's voice faded, my door was unlocked. I emerged to find a beleaguered but still living Braxton. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he had a smile on his face as though he had done something amazing. I was pleased to see none of the others had received this torture, only Braxton.
Now some may be thinking why would Lady Rathbone choose to "punish" the person that gave her all the information versus those that did not. Well the answer is quite simple, out of all of us, Braxton is clearly the weakest willed just based on his behavior. Torturing me would get her nowhere, which I'm guessing she already knew; torturing Yarn would have been nothing more than a day in the park for him; and torturing Rat would also be a dead end as he tortures himself on a daily basis and I'm not sure Rathbone could do worse. And that leaves Veck, well Veck would be easy to attain information from, but not without killing him outright and I'm not sure the Adeptus Mechanicus would look kindly on killing one of their own without consulting them first. Therefore, the logical choice was Braxton. I wish I could say that I felt an ounce of sympathy for him, but due to his lack of candor and utter stupidity he walked right into this situation. Hopefully he will learn something from this, but sadly I'm afraid that won't happen. Inspecting Braxton, he seems no worse for the wear given what he had been through. Lady Rathbone instructed us all to get a good nights sleep as we were going on or next mission in the morning.
The next morning Lady Rathbone provided us with our mission. Our new mission was to infiltrate a heretical noble on Scintilla and take him down and confiscate any heretical items. Why do I keep getting sent to deal with heretical nobles? His name was Bulagor Thrungg. Apparently he was caught red handed purchasing heretical items and is known to have something called the Museum of Apostasy. We were to complete this mission in conjuncture with the Scintillian Protectorate. We had a battle plan and each of us were to play our part, ours was to infiltrate the chapel and find Thrungg and his heretical museum. We left for Scintilla and our new mission.
Upon arriving on Scintilla, we were greeted by Captain Skippio of the Scintillian Protectorate. He outfitted us with gravt-chutes so that we could make our breach of the chapel from the skylight. I wasn't sure about this, but it appeared to be the best option. Soon we left and were off to the noble household. The grounds were a battleground. This reinforced Captian Skippio's plan and put me a bit more at ease. Yarn and Veck took point and the rest of us followed. I'm not sure why, but Braxton was bringing a suitcase and a briefcase with him, but it was distinctly him. As we were descending through the newly open air roof of the chapel, Yarn noticed a pair of guards and a gun-servitor at the entrance. Given that we were told the chapel would be empty, Yarn went into battle mode and threw a frag grenade in their general direction. I say that as he missed them completely, but managed to take out any cover they may have easily found. We all landed safely, thanks to the gravt-chutes, and all took cover. There was an imminent gunfight. The first guard ran to cover. The second appeared shocked at our arrival and the gun-servitor prepared for battle. Rat deftly shot the guard in cover and managed to blow off a huge chunk of the guards face. Yarn felt the gun-servitor was a larger threat and shot at him. And Veck's new servo-skull also took a shot at the guard behind cover as well. What happened next was both surprising and horrifying.
The other guard dropped his weapon and surrendered. With that you'd think that the gun-servitor would have stood down; however, he set his sights on Yarn. It opened fire and three shots punctured Yarns body and he fell over to the ground. Veck quickly reacted and had his servo-skull power down the gun-servitor and luckily was successful. With the gun-servitor deactivated, the other guard surrendered. Rat and I secured the two guards while Veck tended to Yarn. Braxton insured that his suitcase wasn't damaged. Luckily, Veck was able to bring Yarn back to his feet, though he still looked rough. Upon rising to his feet, Yarn approached the guards with a knife in his hand. I didn't think it possible, but he stabbed one of the guards to death and headed towards the other. I stayed his hand and tried to calm him. But before I could calm him completely, Braxton shot the guard. Given what Yarn had been through, I understood his response, but Braxton's was uncalled for.
While we were dealing with the guards, Veck had discovered the body of a priest and called me over to help him investigate. The priest arm was ripped off and black feathers were stuffed in the place where his arm had been. Upon closer look, the priest was the family priest to the noble house and he possessed some documents on him. I tried to read the documents but realized the wording was that of Imperial Creed and I was too stressed at the time to translate it. Braxton, being the overly confident person that he is, tried to read the document. Oh he read it, no fracking clue what it said, but he "successfully" read the document. At that moment we heard a buzzing in our com-bead, Captain Skippio was updating us on the location of Bulagor Thrungg and instructed us to get moving.
We took the documents with us, I figured I could try to translate them later. We went to the back door and Veck stopped us. He told us that he sensed there was a fire behind the door. With caution, Veck slowly opened the door and we found that the hall was on fire. We had to traverse down this inferno of a hallway to find our quarry. It was unpleasant with the smoke, but we trudged on until we came across a door blocked by a large piece of furniture. We decided to take the time to see what was behind the door. We opened it to find a young servant girl hiding behind a bunch of mannequins. I was able to calm her and discover a little information. Apparently her master had done something to his arm and he had shut her in the closet to die. I asked her where we could find her master. She told us the Menagerie and we sent her to find a safe way out. While I was calming this poor young girl, Braxton was apparently extending his wardrobe and packed his bags full of new outfits. After Braxton was done supplementing his wardrobe, we moved further down the hall to the Menagerie.
Upon arriving at the Menagerie, we found a steel door locked. Rat moved forward and happened to have the keys on him. Smart and sly, that one. As we opened the door we found a horrific scene. All the bird cages were opened and the birds were flying about fighting to try and escape the Menagerie. Their wings blotted out the sun and enveloped us in darkness. Before us stood the heretic Bulagor Thrungg, though his left arm seemed to be altered, not altered but replaced. It was a grotesque site with claw like hands with a vambrace adorned with protruding bone shards. On either sides of him stood what can only be described as reptilian dog-like creatures that appeared starving.
Bulagor Thrungg began to do what all nobles do, talk to much. He appeared to have a relationship of some sort with Braxton and his family. Why does every heretical noble we meet seems to recognize Braxton? Braxton being Braxton, insulted Thrungg's parties. But I digress. We again found ourselves in a fight. I drew my new modified pistol and aimed at Thrungg. I was more concerned about him than the hellish reptilian-dogs. Veck was more concerned with the dog-like creatures that were racing toward us. One of the creatures headed toward me, but I was still laser focused on Thrungg. Veck was jumped by one of the dogs-like creatures and was pinned to the ground. It appeared to take a hard bite out of Veck's metal exterior but the damage was manageable, or at least I thought it was given my limited understanding of medicine and the mechanicus in general. Again, I was focused on Thrungg, who was in turn focused on Braxton. On Luggnum, the nobles wanted to recruit him, here they wanted to kill him, why was I not surprised by either of these revelations? Again, I digress.
Thrungg brought his monstrous arm to bare and fired two boney shards in Braxton's direction. Braxton deftly dodged the clumsy heretical attack and focused his attention on the dogs as they were the closest threat to us and he seemed to have a desire to engage in hand to hand combat. He noticed the other dog had also taken interest in Veck and began to attack the prone target. Very smart reaction from this reptilian beast, it appeared that they had a pack mentality and were utilizing hunting skills, but also something more. I finally was able to take my shot at Thrungg and it hit mightily. Granted using Man-Stopper bullets surely assisted in the damage he received and I was willing to use these as I wanted him dead as soon as possible as he was a larger threat in my mind. The servo-skull followed suit and the heretic fell to the ground. Now here comes the interesting observation, when I hit Thrungg the lizard-dogs reacted as though they had been hit as well and their focuses momentarily changed. It was almost as if they were linked to Thrungg or the heretical item he now brandished as his left arm.
With Thrungg dealt with, we could now focus all of our attention on the dogs. Oh I did forget to mention that Braxton did try to harm one of the creatures with his silken gloves, and I could have sworn that I saw a spark of energy come forth from them. But as the gloves seemed to have no effect on the creatures, I'm guessing it was some sort of static electric shock. Given Braxton's shoe type, his ability to build a static charge would be easy. But again, I digress. Back to the dogs, we, for lack of a better term, dogpiled on them to help Veck break free from their double teamed attack. I tried to shoot the dog that was freely attacking Veck, but I missed, but by the Emperor's grace the shot went into the creature pinning him instead. Braxton, seeing his static shock had no effect, switched to using his feet, but more importantly his shoes. It seems that he received a new toy in the form of hidden daggers in the toes of his shoes. He put them to good work and landed some amazing blows to the creature. I believe he may have actually castrated it given it's reaction to being kicked. I haven't mentioned Yarn at all in this battle, and that isn't fair. He was safely staying back due to his injuries, but he still joined the fight, as did Rat. They both assisted in taking down the dogs as well, but I felt the need to detail Braxton's contribution as it was both funny and impressive at the same time.
With both lizard-dog creatures bested, we headed to Thrungg's body. The monstrous arm had detached from his body leaving behind a foul ichor ozzing from the place on Thrungg's body it was resting. Looking over the rest of his body, he had nothing else noteworthy other than some money and plain weapons. This "arm" was the only thing of interest, but what should we do with it? And where is the Museum of Apostasy? What other horrors await us in this heretical compound? The answers can only be found by venturing forth into the unknown of this heretical noble house.
Session 6: A Dark Revelation
After discovering that everyone was frightened of a doll, I decided my time was better spent praying for the poor souls of Luggnum. I was uneasy without Goldie, but praying gave me solace. I then decided to pray for each of my compatriots as well. Then I heard an odd burring sound coming from the servitor piloting the shuttle. I didn't think anything of it and continued my prayers.
Once I had asked for forgiveness and penitence for the souls sentenced to death by Lady Rathbone, I gazed out the window to witness the havoc myself. To my surprise, I noticed that our course seemed to be leading into the fleet above. I walked out into the passenger area to discover that Braxton was unconscious and Yarn was looking uneasy. He looked to me and I asked if anyone else thought we were heading towards the fleet. He agreed and we realized that our journey took an unexpected twist.
Informing Rat and Veck of the situation, we decided that it was important that we wake Braxton before boarding whatever ship we were heading towards. However, that task would take some time. Veck communed with the machine spirits to see if we could buy some time before docking. We didn't think it worked, but then someone came across the speakers and asked if we were suffering from a radiation leak. I didn't understand and thought that perhaps Veck had angered the machine spirit in some way, but Rat picked up on what was happening right away. The machine spirits reported a radiation leak to buy us some time to wake up Braxton.
This task was a bit monumental as he was drugged quite well. I asked Veck to try to shock him awake, but that only resulted in him loosing control of his bladder. There was another option. Veck had some drug that they used in the field on Skitarii called Rainbow. It was a cure-all of some sort, but I wasn't familiar with it. Rat again came to our aid and explained how it was used in a human capacity. With the side effects in mind, we decided that we would take our chances and let Braxton sleep. This decision would later be one we all regretted.
Veck asked the machine spirts to send the all clear and we were asked to dock on the Flame of Purity , the command ship of the exterminatus fleet. I felt the name was a bit on the nose, but then again, the Imperium isn't known for it's subtlety. We landed and were greeted by stormtroopers in hazmat suits. Then it hit me. They believed we were contaminated by a radiation leak so we were going to have to be, well decontaminated. This meant leaving all of our belongings behind and stripping down to nothing to be hosed off. This was uncomfortable for me as I had to assist Yarn in removing Braxton's clothing and getting him dressed and I was forced to bare myself in front of my comrades, something I wasn't ready to do at this moment, or ever most likely. The worst part for me was leaving Goldie behind as I was already uneasy with this situation.
We were given fatigues, well not Veck as he was mainly metal and his robes apparently are a part of his body, and ushered into the Lady Rathbone's office. Zavros entered shortly after us to retrieve his scanner from Veck. I requested some medical aid from him but Lady Rathbone said it could wait. She sat behind the desk and began to try and question us, but I asked her questions first. How long did she know about LuggCity? Why had she sent us there to die? And more questions with each answer.
She revealed she new about the situation in LuggCity for about 8 years and that she had sent us there to test us. When asked why she condemned everyone on the planet to die, she stated the planet was more useful as a training ground for future acolytes of the inquisition than it was as a mining world. I then asked why Jarvis wasn't spared as he had discovered the conspiracy. She said he was a dime a dozen. Then I pointed out his investigation had uncovered that the cults were around over 200 years ago, at that she regretted her decision not to spare him the fate of the rest of those on Luggnam. She was cold and calculated in her words, and the more she spoke, the angrier I became. The realization that she had most likely started the exterminatus fleet on their way to Luggnum before we had left crept into my mind as well as the fact that she gave us less than two days to uncover the mysteries in Lugg City. During my questioning, Goldie returned to me and I was immediately calmed.
Lady Rathbone confirmed that Goldie had returned to me. Again Yarn was startled by this and wore his unease squarely on his face and asked what was going on. Lady Rathbone then revealed that the source of my connection to Goldie was not one of a Psychic nature and that both Goldie and I had been thoroughly tested and that there were no warp magics involved. This didn't seem to ease Yarn but it did placate him at that moment.
She stopped my questions and asked Veck for a report of the situation. He recapped our investigation not mentioning Inquisitor Christoff as in reality, we had proof of the gene stealer cult in hand before he showed up thanks to Veck analyzing the "mutant" from the day before. His report was brief but through and I hoped it was enough to convince her. She then asked rat how we discovered the gene stealers. Funny part is that she used his name Thaddeus rather than Rat. I will say that Arath/Rat has grown leaps and bounds from that person cowering in the corner. Amazing what one and a half days in a hell hole filled with monsters trying to kill you can do for your motivation to step up. Without hesitation, he told her that we used the information gathered from Jarvis to make the connection of the mines to the gene stealer cult. Brilliant work that had documented proof.
Remember that we had discussed and agreed that we would not mention Inquisitor Christoff unless directly asked about him by Lady Rathbone. Well I believed that was the case but I had a sinking feeling in my gut that someone would break that unwritten agreement. After Arath/Rat deftly answered her question, Lady Rathbone noticed Braxton slumped in a chair and asked why. Yarn, thinking quickly on his feet, stated that he had a bit of a fright, passed out and pissed himself. All of these were in fact true statements, just not necessarily related. Lady Rathbone, displeased with his sleeping, requested that Zavros wake him by any means necessary. He decided to jab the needle , a very large needle mind you, attached to a syringe of some sort filled with an iridescent liquid directly into Braxton's chest. I don't know what was in the syringe, but he came to immediately.
Lady Rathbone began to question him and he told her about Inquisitor Christoff. Of course he did, his decision making skills have proven poor over the last couple of days, but I'd hoped he would have listened to the fact that both Yarn and Arath/Rat were in agreement that we shouldn't mention his name unless directly asked as he was not part of our mission objectives. But he told her so many things that we had left out such as the fact that he tried to retrieve a dagger from the nobles. He left out the fact that we had tried to properly and safely dispose of the previous daggers and discovered it wasn't something that could be done safely. This put Veck in an awkward position, he now had to explain that he left the other Inquisitor's involvement out because it wasn't relative to our investigation.
I'm guessing Braxton saw that Veck was uncomfortable and thus tried to switch the focus to me. He began to spout his opinions of what he thought I had said or insinuated in the shuttle in regards to my relationship to Lady Rathbone. Given that he was unconscious during the explanation that I was not a witch I was willing to forgive his ignorance in this part, but his spin on what I said was, well just ludicrous. Lady Rathbone of course asked for clarification and I gave it and that was that. She explained ONCE AGAIN that I am not imbued with warp powers and neither is Goldie.
She then went on to explain her relationship to Inquisitor Christoff. Apparently his full name is Tyler Christoff and he's a purist as she put it. He's obsessed with catching a Magos biologis by the name of Perdix. They were once cohorts and their relationship ended badly. This crusade had been going on for about a decade and we fell into the middle of it. We then asked what Ordo Lady Rathbone worked and the answer was, well vague to be honest. She apparently works for all of them or in her words, where ever she is needed. When asked about Perdix and his involvement with Synford, she stated that he was "building a better Skitarii" and only Emperor knows what that means. With all of this new information, Lady Rathbone decided that our group debriefing was concluded and sent us all to our quarters to await our individual debriefings.
This situation seems grim as Lady Rathbone was unhappy to hear about Inquisitor Christoff's presence on Luggnum and that we interacted with him. She also apparently wanted us to bring back a dagger, which was obviously not safe for us to do. But for now I am going to retire to my assigned quarters and begin to pray. Only the Emperor knows what the future hold for me so I will trust in him and his guidance.
Session 5: Damnation or Salvation, Only the Emperor Knows
My injury was beginning to affect me . Veck kindly offered to "staple me up" but I respectfully declined the offer as it appeared that my wound had already stopped bleeding. While my arm was weak, my resolve to get off this fracked planet was stronger and I ignored the pain and trudged forth. We were discussing our current situation with the mysterious Inquisitor and how best to proceed. I believe that there was an old music file that best described our situation. Something like, Genestealers to the left of me, Cultist to the right and here I am stuck in the middle with you lot I believe. The situation was quite dire as we were basically surrounded by heretics and xenos. Arath was able to determine that there was safe passage out of the back of the building and our group set forth on our journey to the Star Port is search of our salvation.
Moving slowly and cautiously through the city, we saw little signs of the war that echoed through the streets. And then we rounded a corner that cruelly illustrated the fates of those on the planet unaware of the schemes surrounding them. Two adults and two children had been ripped apart and their entrails used to decorate the streets for some perverted party. Well we believed it to be two children and adults as the only evidence we could find of the people they were before were some hands and feet carelessly flung around the street. It was a gruesome sight, one that Arath had issues handling and as he was our point position, this was a problem. I tried to comfort him by pointing out that they were with the Emperor now and that there suffering was now done, but I could see the weight of what had happened here weighed heavily on his heart. I then did the only thing I could think of that was appropriate, I said a prayer for their souls to help guide them into the light from the darkness they were thrust into. Hopefully the Emperor was listening that day as no one deserves this fate.
Given Arath's mental state, Yarn took point so that we could keep moving. We came to another building that would work well as a sneaking passageway through on our path to the Star Port. Using his adept skills, Yarn listened at the door to see if the passage way was clear. He heard whispers, but couldn't make out exactly what was going on. At this point, Veck was becoming impatient and broke the door down. This wasn't the best option for a couple of reasons. First, we were trying to sneak around and busting down a door is not a very stealthy maneuver. And secondly, we had no idea what was behind the door. Luckily for us it was a small family. A father, mother and their daughter were huddled in a corner for safety. Somehow they had managed to avoid the violence that was engulfing the rest of the city, unlike the other family or families we had encountered earlier. They were terrified and only wanted our help. My heart went out to them but before I could even say a single word, the father fell dead on the floor. The Inquisitor stated that they were a risk and that this was the best mercy we could give them and then he dropped the mother and the daughter shortly after. I felt sadness and despair creep into my mind, but I shrugged it off and reminded myself of the bodies we had found earlier. I said another prayer over the bodies and we moved on.
Moving through the streets of Lugg City utilizing stealth and a bit of luck paid off as we managed to make it almost the entire way to the Star Port without being detected. Our only visible obstacle at this point was a small patrol of around five PDF troopers. They hadn't seen us yet so we were trying to decide the best course of action to move forward. At this exact time, the Inquisitor cocked his head as though receiving a transmission. Apparently our circumstances had changed. An Imperial fleet had come into the system and started to take out the planetary defense systems . We didn't have the luxury of being cautious anymore. We had to get off this planet and now.
The Inquisitor lead the way and we began to sneak past the patrol. Using the cars and debris around us to conceal our movements, it appeared that we might make it. But it's never that easy. We had been spotted and they were closing in on us. Arath heroically began to lay down suppressive fire for us so that we could find cover and reassess the situation. I managed to find cover and draw my weapon, but a pistol isn't a very effective tool against an armored opponent. Veck, being the resourceful Skitarius he is, managed to get the car we were using for cover started and running. He and Braxton managed to fashion a mobile bomb and launched it at the PDF troopers that were attacking us. This action successfully took out four of the five troopers and gave us an opportunity to run for the Star Port.
As running was not something I could readily do, I asked for assistance from the Inquisitor. Why you may ask? Simply, I didn't wish to bog down any of my team and this ensured that the Inquisitor would stay with us at least for the time being. As we rounded the corner to the entrance of the Star Port, the city around us began to erupt. First there was another group of five PDF troopers running towards us from the other end of the street we were traversing, and the street perpendicular had a Rhino racing down it. And the "secured" Star Port was so secure that the gate was still locked. I feared this was the end, but the Emperor had other plans. The Rhino was full of survivors of the assault on the Arbities including Judge Shira. They blocked the pathway and were staving off something, but at that moment we couldn't quite see. The Judge ordered us to leave the planet immediately and bravely stood to face a foe I had only seen in the distance previously. It was a four-armed creature with huge claws. One of these monsters was enough to make your skin crawl, but the Judge and her fellows were facing two of them. The four-armed monstrosities moved at an unnatural speed and deftness that was both admirable and terrifying. They tore through the brave Arbities and their Rhino as though they were paper dolls.
Meanwhile, Arath, seeing how effective it was the first time, began to lay down suppressive fire again to slow the progress of the PDF troopers. And I'm happy to say that his idea again worked as intended. It was as though the Emperor was smiling down on us that day and saying, "Not today my child, not today." With my pistol in hand, I took a shot and managed to hurt one, but given my current state, aiming was not something I could do well and the hit, while successful, did not stop his progression. Veck tried to convince the machine spirit that was holding the door shut to open it, but his attempts were failing. Again it looked like this was the end. Through the chaos I checked in on the fate of Judge Shira. I witnessed the Judge, who was the only person left standing from her forces, bravely face off against the four-armed creatures. She managed a few good hits with her shock-maul, even managing to remove the arm of one of the foul beast, but in the end she fell like all her companions. She and the Arbities made up for their mistake of not investigating this issue sooner but it did cost them their lives. But I see Judge Shira as a hero as we never would have made it off the planet without her intervention. However, without the Arbities to distract them, the creatures were now focused on us and they were moving in our direction quickly. As if the Emperor himself had ordained our salvation, the door to the Star Port flew off and a shadowy figure emerged from the smoke and debris left in it's wake.
"Get to the ship Inquisitor Christof" the walking arsenal said as it began to tear one of the monsters apart in a hail of gunfire and who knows what else. As we entered the Star Port, I began to understand the definition of "secure" Inquisitor Christof was talking about. Everyone was dead. All the guards, the personnel, everyone, dead. And these were not mercy deaths as Inquisitor Christof had performed on the family, they were violent and harsh. But there was no time to take in these images. Braxton ran immediately to the shuttle, I'm guessing to ensure it was ready to leave immediately and to ensure he was on it when it did. That was expected given his desire to leave the planet earlier, but I could not do the same. I had to retrieve my weapon that was placed in the lockers. It was too valuable and rare to leave behind. Yarn and Veck followed suit collecting their belongings from the lockers before proceeding to the shuttle. I looked to the sky and saw the outlines of many large ships and could see the impending danger. We had to leave immediately. I bid farewell to Inquisitor Christof and the murder bot and boarded the shuttle with the rest of my cohorts and we left Lugg City behind.
This you would think would be the end of the story, but that was not the case. We began to talk. I wanted a consensus on how we were going to approach the other Inquisitor, Christof, with Lady Rathbone. I am of the opinion that knowledge is power and we should keep this information to ourselves unless asked directly about it. I believe everyone is on the same page in regards to that, but I'm not sure that Braxton will actually keep to this plan. Then Yarn asked the question I was curious no one asked before. Who was the deserter? To my surprise, Arath, or as you remember he called himself Rat, stood up and owned up to his crime. Turns out his real name is Thadeous Chromwell and he laid all his cards on the table. I was still fuming at the realization that Lady Rathbone knew what she was sending us into and basically had signed a death warrant for us all if we didn't uncover the plot. I was angry, and furious and quite verbal about it. Braxton then said some snide remark and at this point I knew I had to reward Rat for his candor and enlighten my comrades to my secret. I revealed Goldie to them and explained his peculiar habit of always returning to me. This did not go over quite as well as I had hoped. Braxton was concerned that Lady Rathbone hadn't killed me for heresy yet, but I explained that she wouldn't do that as I am valuable to her. Of course, I didn't reveal the reason I was valuable, but that didn't matter as Braxton interpreted what I said in a completely different way.
Who knew that three grown men would be terrified of an angel doll, but they were. Braxton interpreted what I was trying to tell him as the Inquisitor was incapable of killing me which I never said and tried to correct multiple times. Yarn decided to take Goldie away, with my permission of course, to see this magical disappearing, reappearing act. But given the size of the shuttle I don't believe it will happen. I'm not sure why they are so frightened by a doll that gives a young girl comfort and keeps her feeling safe? I thought that was normal? Ok the constantly coming back to me or to me when I'm in need is somewhat suspect, but Lady Rathbone has explored all avenues and not discovered a reason rooted in dark magics or heretical nature and thus why I am valuable.
Braxton decided he wanted to sleep and took a swig of a drink to help him pass out. Sleep would be nice, but as we are heading into the dark of space I am too anxious to even attempt to sleep and given the new found paranoia that my comrades have toward me, I don't think it's a good idea to drop my guard. My mind is racing. All these thoughts, these lines connecting us, it's enough to drive a person mad. Yes, sleep is not an option especially since we don't know what awaits us at our final destination. I think it's time to say a prayer for the people of Luggnum and prepare to study more.
Session 4: And Then It Got Worse...
After arriving at the Administratum, I thought it would be a good idea to have a bit of a plan of attack before going into the office. I decided to lean on Arath and Yarn for this task as I felt that I needed to pay attention more to our environment. I had prepared a rudimentary list of questions to guide them and hopefully remove the randomness of Braxton's interference. We were led to the second floor, where we were introduced to the Administratum.
A small man walking around with a shock-mace appeared to be in charge and was quite the slave driver. We didn't get the man's name but he gave us the opportunity to speak with the Adept that had recognized the "iffy numbers". His name was Jarvis, an elderly man that has been behind a desk for far too long as his ability to stand upright had faltered. Arath did an excellent job of gaining his trust. I might have been concerned about Jarvis's faculties, except that he immediately recognized that Braxton was an idiot demonstrating that he was within his right mind and had all his faculties in tact. But I digress.
Jarvis, the very adept adept, had noticed that the numbers were off about 10 years ago and reported his findings. Being the thorough adept he was, he looked further into the situation. He managed to discover that the murdering pattern actually went back about 200 years. This news was very disturbing and started to confirm some of my greatest fears. We discovered that the Governor's Noble House was hardest afflicted with about 1/3 of the murders. With the use of a gentle female touch, I was able to convince Jarvis to give us a copy of his findings. Braxton of course decided it was more important to find a good place for brunch versus more information relevant to our situation. The only benefit to this stupid action is that Arath was now understanding my frustrations with the fancy boy. Before we left, Braxton wished to have a word alone with the adept in charge. I asked someone to go with him and Arath obliged my request. What was said, I do not know, though it was probably more inquiries into lunch spots.
Given that our next stop was going to be the Governor's Palace, we indulged Braxton's desire to fill his belly with brunch. There was a small café across from the Governor's Palace so it seemed as good a place as any to make our next plan of attack. Arath, being the ever vigilant or paranoid individual he is, took point to inspect the area in order to make sure that we were well prepared for our venture into the governor's palace. This decision would have turned out to be vital in our survival of the onslaught to come.
Veck and Arath began a communication of concern over the alarming amount of PDF chimeras venturing around the city. In addition, there was a strange blue energy beginning to emanate from the core of the governor's mansion. Initially we thought this to be an energy shield of some sort, but Yarn and Veck confirmed that was not the case. This incite came at the perfect time as the windows of the café were blown out by an explosion outside. The city was erupting into a warzone. We took shelter behind our table and quickly assessed the situation. Braxton of course felt slighted that he wasn't able to finish his brunch, but after recovering from that disappointment he assisted in the assessment. As we looked carefully outside, we were able to see that the Noble houses seemed to be evacuating to the governor's mansion. With that being our original destination, we decided to "use" our own pocket noble to get a ticket to safety.
If only it was that simple. We approached a couple with a group of armed guards. Veck was very apprehensive but I stayed his hand as we needed to get into the mansion. All we needed was to get inside to safety, so I thought, so I hoped. But hope is a dangerous thing, which I should have learned a long time ago, but Emperor knows I still have hope for some reason. But again, I digress. Braxton played his part well and introduced himself to the noble couple. All was going well and then it happened. The couple recognized his family name and were happy to hear it and said "They could use someone like him." At that moment, my blood ran cold and I realized exactly what was going on with the Noble houses in Lugg City.
You see, Braxton's family was murdered under nefarious conditions and the rumor was that they were killed due to heretical activity. Of course, that couldn't possibly be true. How you may ask? Well the answer is quite simple, Braxton would not be with us if this was so. I have experience with the Ecclesiarchy, too much for my liking, but again I digress. If a Noble house is found to be heretical they are often made an example of to the masses. Nobles are considered untouchable by most people, and they too consider themselves untouchable. This is a great flaw in their knowledge, because we live in a world where the power structure is constantly shifting and any opportunity to increase one's holding on the world is taken. Fenksworld is no feudal planet, and thus the Ecclesiarchy would have not only loved to make an example of the Vor House, they would have relished and enjoyed it. And as Braxton is still here to annoy me with his childish Noble ways, one can easily come to the conclusion that his family was not found to be heretical in any way. To be honest, this is the thing that bothers me most about Braxton. Based on what I know he was loyal to his family, but openly disagreed with their actions, which while they were heinous, were no more heinous than other Nobles throughout the sector and not heretical as outlined earlier. Normally a Noble family would ostracize those that openly rebel against their goals and ways, but Braxton acts as though he's been enjoying the benefits of being a Noble his whole life. So much that he is using his actual family name despite it being a fallen Noble house. But back to our adventures in front of the governor's mansion.
So with this extra information it should be clear as to why I was concerned. At hearing the words, I looked at their clothing and saw that they too wore the feather motif and my fears were confirmed. I immediately said, "Veck, I take it back!" in a panicked tone. Braxton was clueless as to the implications of those six words, and was thrown off by the fact that Veck immediately stabbed the closest guard. A confrontation was the last thing that I wanted, but at this point, it wasn't safe for us to go with them. I saw that the guards were armed with Laz rifles and instructed Veck to take the gun. He was in a bit of a righteous rage and chose to attack using his own blade, understandable as it was familiar to him. When the scuffle began I took refuge behind Veck as he honestly was the best source of cover at the time. I took a shot with the pistol provided by the Arbities and hit the second guard. The shot hurt him, but his flak greatcoat protected him. This lack of foresight on my part would cost me as he lunged forward with a blade and sliced into my arm. To my surprise, Braxton came to my aid attempting to brawn the guard, but unfortunately, he must have been rusty and not sparring lately as the guard was able to easily deflect his attack. Veck then noticed the situation and eliminate the guard with one fell swing of his blade. It penetrated his neck and well, let's just say I was no longer only red from rage.
Meanwhile, Arath decided to join us and used his impressive skills to take out a guard in one felll swoop. I believe I heard him say something about a necktie, but I can't be certain given all the chaos. Yarn also joined us and listened to my suggestion about picking up the rifle. He took a shot and two of shots made their mark. That was all it took as the guard was shredded from toes to stern with the impact of the laz energy. There were two guards left. One guard focused his attention at Arath opening up an opportunity for Braxton to redeem himself in combat. And again I was surprised by his quick actions. He took to the air, flying deftly toward the guard kicking him squarely in the face. The guard didn't know what hit him as he stumbled backwards clutching his face. He lowered his hands to reveal a bloody broken nose. The shock of the noble landing such a strong blow was enough to allow Arath to finish him off using the laz rifle he acquired from his first victim. At this point there was only one guard left and I was a bit unhappy with the slash in my body armor so I decided to shoot him, but this time I aimed for his head. The shot was clean and his right eye was now replaced by a bullet and he fell to the ground. Only two heretical nobles left.
Given that Veck was on a mission, he went straight for the first noble. Knowing that we still needed information, he chose to overpower him. This was met with resistance as the Noble stabbed him in the face with a dagger. The dagger managed to penetrate his armored face. At that Veck stabbed him in the stomach and he fell to the ground. The other noble was killed by a skilled shot from Yarn. I tried to get some information from the heretic as to whom he served, but he didn't want to talk. Luckily he had a data slate on him that could do the talking for us hopefully. At this point we saw that the PDF that was guarding the governor's mansion started to double time it in our direction. We were about to make haste and leave when Veck caught Braxton trying to pocket the knife that was used to attack Veck. This dagger was the same as the one that caused his eyes to bleed earlier. It makes no sense why he would want to take such a heretical item especially given what happened the first time we encountered them. Was he actually complicit in his families actions after all? Well there was no time to discuss that and with the strong suggestion from Veck, he put the dagger back.
Now we were running for our lives through the streets of Lugg City. In front of us we saw a horror that made me grasp my lockbox and say a silent prayer to the Emperor. At the end of the street was a parade of horrors, three armed men being led by a being with four appendages and that was clearly not human. They hadn't seen us yet so Arath and Veck broke into a residence that we hoped was abandoned. That was not the case as we discovered shortly after taking refuge in the building. A faint glow from a loh stick could be seen on the other side of the room and a familiar voice rang out. "It looks like we've overstayed our welcome". It was the mysterious Inquisitor we had encountered earlier that day. He seemed to be communicating with someone and he relayed the information in a good news/bad news fashion. His bad news was pretty much old news to us, there was a civil war going on between the Noble houses and the gene stealer cult. Though at this point we could say that it was a chaos cult comprised of nobles, which was more accurate. The good news was that the star port had been secured. So our next move was to go to the star port with our new "friend".
There are still so many mysteries to unfurl and we have no time to do so. As I begin to feel the weight of my injuries, I wonder if we can make it to the star port and off this deathtrap in one piece, but only time will tell.
Session 3: A Rude Awakening
After retiring for the night, I found myself plagued by nightmares. I wonder if my mind will find peace before my death, but at this rate I feel as though that is wishful thinking and that the nightmares will persist until I am truly freed of this torment. But that is a story for another time as the adventures of this motley crew continue.
As I was tossing and turning falling in and out of sleep, I was startled to hear the voice of C-14 Veck across my vox. While it may seem unusual to keep a communication device on you while sleeping, I do have a bit of a paranoid streak given my past and prefer to be disturbed if something vital has occurred. You will have to forgive me as the details of the initial message were lost in my groggy sleep and I will have to paraphrase the events that proceeded his message until I physically arrived on the scene.
C-14 Veck had discovered an intruder in the common room space of the safe house. He alerted whomever was availabe to the situation, and luckily that was me. Veck being the intelligent being he is, left his vox open so that his conversation could be heard and I could help to evaluate the situation, or at least that's what I would like to believe. This person knew way too much information about Veck for my liking and I informed him that I believe he was with the Inquisition. This fear turned out to be correct as he produced credible credentials for Veck to verify. The individual was brandishing a bolter pistol at Veck as well which immediately let me know he was most likely responsible for our dead mutant.
This inquisitor was also very interested in C-14 Veck's previous post and was accusing his former master of tech-heresy and indirectly the same of Lady Rathbone. This information was interesting to me and made me take pause and reflect on the situation. Lady Rathbone was instrumental in my salvation and current security within the Inquisition, could she be a heretic like those I was with before her? The time for contemplation on this subject was shortened as I was requested to wake everyone for this situation.
As expected Yarn was on top of the situation and making ReCaff for us all, which in all reality, I was in desperate need of as the lack of sleep was detrimental to my ability to communicate properly. Arath did his normal disappearing act, which wasn't that surprising given his timid nature to change and unknown threats. I just assumed he was lurking about trying to ascertain the situation as he had done the day before. Then there was Braxton. Emperor help me for I fear that if he doesn't get himself killed, I might do it myself. He felt that the best way to approach this urgent visit was to take a shower and complete his morning ritual. While he was preening his feathers, I joined Veck and Yarn in the common space to meet our visitor face to face.
The gentleman appeared to be the same man I noticed upon our exit from the space port, so my paranoia was justified in that situation. After evaluating how much information he had on all of us by questioning him about myself, I decided that it was time to find out why he killed the mutant outside our window. He then dropped a large bomb on us. The individual that we assumed was a mutant was actually a being called a gene stealer. This revelation was apparently also discovered by C-14 Veck though he hadn't had the time to share his findings with the party at the time. I had heard of gene stealers, but wasn't as versed in them as I probably should be, but luckily Yarn and Veck were familiar with them and the implications of this discovery. Suddenly a clearer picture of what was going on in the town of Lugg City was becoming clearer.
It would appear that the miner's guild had been infiltrated by the gene stealer cult some time ago. This may or may not have something to do with the already established cult in the miner's guild but that is beyond our findings at this moment. But the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place. I believe that the inactivity of the PDF and the unwillingness of the Arbities to act on these murders is a sign that the gene stealer cult has infiltrated both organizations. This was confirmed for the PDF by our mystery inquisitor but given that our location was easily found by the cult and the only parties that knew we were coming and our purpose was the Arbities, it's fair to say that everyone is suspect at this point. This is most likely true for the star port as well so a hasty retreat is definitely out of the question, despite the pleas to leave coming from the ever brave Braxton Vor.
Given this new information, going into the mines or approaching the miner's guild would be a suicide mission. In my opinion we have a slight advantage at this point. We know what we're going up against, but they don't know we know. This means we should go about our business as usual and move forward with our investigation, just this time focusing on the Nobles and see how they fit into this Xenos infestation puzzle. But back to our mysterious Inquisitor. He gave us a lot to think about in regards to Lady Rathborne and her activities and motives. I don't want to believe it possible that I have fallen prey to another heretical plot, but the possibility must be acknowledged. And given C-14 Vecks reaction to being told he may have been subject and complacent in tech-heresy, I feel he is also a victim. It would appear that we may have more in common than I realized in that regard. I will have to speak to him about this at a later time as we must hurry to ready for our day. As the mysterious Inquisitor left, he paid a complement to Braxton. "Good thinking with the bomb on the front door" he said as he left through the rear.
I distinctly remember Braxton saying he was rigging both the front and the back door. The snake probably took the bomb and put it on his own quarters given his sense of self importance. I truly do not understand him or what he is trying to achieve. His family was murdered and he is the last of his house. They were definitely guilty of questionable actions, but that could be said of almost any Noble family in the Imperium. He is obviously uncomfortable in the role he is choosing to play and falling backwards rather than moving forwards. This fake façade is going to bite us sooner or later. I decided it was time to speak to him about how to best prevent our untimely demise due to his impulsive and reckless actions. Of course my words of warning fell on deaf ears, as expected. I suppose my issues with him go far deeper than I am readily willing to admit. I see a future I could have had and what I could have been had I decided to fall back into old habits rather than move forward with my life and leave that dark place behind me. I have a plan that will hopefully help keep Braxton a bit more controlled in his Noble persona, but only time will tell.
As luck would have it, my predictions about his actions causing us trouble came to light as we heard an explosion in the entryway. The only effective and useful contribution Braxton has made to our mission thus far, the tripwire trap he set the night before did it's job and stopped two would be intruders. I made the assumption that they were after Braxton for nefarious purposes yet discovered by us. Why Braxton you may ask? Because he's been parading around town announcing he's a Noble to anyone and everyone willing to listen. And given that Nobles are part of a murder plot that basically brutalizes them, he seems like the perfect target to not cause any waves. The two would-be intruders were killed instantly by the blast and both were unrecognizable in the face. They were wearing rather ornate clothing with a feather motif on their pants. Upon further inspection, I discovered two daggers. As I lifted them, a dark, cold energy ran through my hands and up my arms. I recognized the danger of these articles immediately, they were cursed in some manner. I instructed my compatriots of the danger they held, but their dark magics managed to overcome Braxton, and it appeared that only Braxton was affected. I looked up to him to see an unexpectedly horrific sight. His eyes appeared to be bleeding, and somehow he was unaware. Honestly I almost thought I was hallucinating as no one else seemed to be aware of the streams of blood flowing from his eyes. I was relieved to discover that I was not hallucinating and that the rest were just so fixated on the horrors at the front door that they failed to notice. Once Braxton moved away from the visceral scene, his eyes stopped bleeding. Yarn wanted to verify the connection and nudged Braxton back to the location of the bodies. But nothing happened until he again gazed upon the daggers. Now I knew that the daggers were indeed cursed heretical items.
I asked that we not leave the daggers there and bring them to a safer place. Yarn complied and grabbed the thick cloth window dressings and carefully wrapped the daggers in it so that they could be safely transported. With all the excitement this morning, we decided the best course of action was to stick to our original plan of visiting the administratum and investigating the murders further. This would have been an uneventful walk through the streets, except for the smoking cloth in Yarn's arms. Fearful of what would happen, Yarn tossed the daggers, cloth wrappings and all down a storm drain. This of course was not what I would have preferred. I felt that delivering them to a local priest would have been a better option so that they could be properly handled. But given the severity of the events of the morning, this rash decision was understandable.
During our walk to the administratum, Veck revealed that there was no physical ailments detected in Braxton, aside from the expected dirty lungs found in those that dwell in Hive worlds. I inquired how he could do such a thing and he revealed that the Magos had gifted him a device that was capable of scanning biological materials and analyzing them. This would turn out to be how he discovered that our mutant was infact a gene stealer xenos instead. This device could be handy in helping discover the mysteries of what happened that day, but it will have to wait for another time as we were to arrive at the administratum soon.
There is still one thing that bothers me greatly. While the gene stealer cult explains part of our mystery, it doesn't explain the manner of the murders. I suppose that the brutal murder of the Nobles could be a self culling attempting to prevent infiltration of the gene stealers into their families. But why are the miners being murdered in a sacrificial manner? These murders scream heretical cult activity, but why would gene stealers put their hands in the basket with a heretical cult? So many questions, but we must be careful the questions we ask as to not reveal our advantageous position. Thus I wonder what mysteries will we discover behind those heavy doors? What new links will be unraveled and will we live through the day or become sacrifices ourselves? As the door opens I'm filled with dread and yet have a sense of excitement. But only time will tell if that excitement fades and only dread remains.
Session 2: A Rough Start
After arriving at the port of entry, as expected our credentials were checked and a bioscan was performed. Our plan of "talking our way through it" appeared to be working, except Braxton has bravado and no sense of understanding how to improvise on the spot. Luckily for us, Arath stepped up and gave us a plausible reason for being on the planet and for being in the city. With some extra assistance from myself we were able to give a reasonably realistic location for our accommodations. But upon exiting the space port it was obvious that someone was taking interest in us. More so than we were comfortable with, thus rather than going directly to the safehouse provided by the Inquisitor, we meandered our way to the local accommodations and made arrangements there.
After Braxton kindly made arrangements for our group, a shady figure approached Veck. I tried to pull him away by playing the part I was forced into by Braxton, a Noble's servant/companion. For some reason, he didn't seem to understand this and went to this questionable individual. Turns out he was an illegal arms dealer, or at least claimed to be. He made arrangements to meet with us within a couple of hours. After this encounter, we all met up in a single room to discuss our plans and the situation that we found ourselves.
Here again, Braxton's bravado was a hinderance. For a Noble, he seems very unaware of what keeping up appearances means. Veck has the excuse of being a Skitarri that wouldn't know exactly what keeping up appearances means, but Braxton as a Noble, has no excuse. The situation became an issue when Braxton reserved four rooms instead of five. The assumption was that I was his female companion as was stated by the clerk behind the desk. The thought of this nauseates me as he is representative of all the things I detest from Nobility, but I digress. When I pointed this out, he apparently thought that I wished to stay with him when in fact he had forced that condition upon me as it was decided that we stay at this location rather than move discretely to the safehouse, which was what I preferred. But it would appear that the Emperor's will was in alignment with mine as suddenly a gunshot was heard outside the window of our room.
This event showed the strength of character of each of my companions. Firstly, the "dapper" Braxton ran from the room leaving the rest of us. Meanwhile, Arath offered to use his deft skills to safely investigate the situation further. This was a pleasant surprise as this mining planet offers the perfect place for him to slip into the shadows and disappear. Given his history, I can see this as an appealing proposition for him, yet he's instead utilized his unique skill set to assist us in a time of need. Yarn also stepped up to the plate by immediately looking for an improvised weapon in the form of a chair leg, when in reality he probably should have just taken my staff first. But this ingenuity was greatly appreciated and he and Veck assumed a defensive and protective posture. This was expected of the Skitarrus, but the surprise in this situation was his immediate comradery with Yarn in this situation.
The horrors awaiting outside were another story. It would appear our eavesdropper was a three-armed mutant and his assailant was no where to be seen. Once Arath gave the all clear, Yarn was able to do a further investigation. Disturbingly, Braxton wanted to have the thumbs of the abhorrent creature sliced off for "proof" of some sort. I was a bit shocked that no one understood that the murder of the mutant was more a service to the Imperium than a crime. As requested Yarn took a "sample" of the mutant and in the process soiled my staff with the foul creatures blood. Hopefully, this will come clean with a bit more work, but it was an unfortunate turn of events as this staff is part of my regalia. But with this development it was suggested that we hastily make a visit to the Arbities, which was the obvious choice in this situation.
Once we arrived at the Arbites, I once again allowed Braxton to take the lead, despite it weighing heavily on me. So you can imagine my relief when I heard the clerk state they were expected the "disgraced Noble and deserter". I was able to abandon this ridiculous façade and get to business. As expected, when we reported the murder of the mutant, it was dismissed. The only concern the Judge had was that the murder weapon was a bolter weapon as they are not common in this area. Again I was surprised by my companions decorum, well with the exception of Braxton who attempted to break proper protocol with Judge Shirah. Here I was concerned that Yarn's rocky history with the Arbities on Fenksworld would taint him here on Luggnum, but he was very respectful and asked inciteful questions with respect. But here's what we were able to discover. A
Apparently there seems to be a ritualistic pattern to the deaths, which can be classified as murders given their descriptions. The patterns of these murders are one miner murdered in a ritualistic manner and then a Noble in a beastial manner described as evisceration. As Judge Shira was describing this, I was taken aback that this did not qualify as an incident worthy of Arbities investigation, but again I digress. The interesting part about this story is that the local law enforcement was not investigating at all and the Nobles appear to not be up in arms about it, yet they are increasing their security which has now caused a shift in the deaths being slightly more miners compared to Nobles.
With more prying, we were able to discover that there is a offshoot of a Cult that pressures the miners to work harder, faster and stronger in the name of the Emperor. This could have created an in for other cultist to infiltrate and corrupt. We wished to speak with the Administratum but the individual who was responsible for the data that we were interested in speaking to had gone on his mandatory 8-hour rest period, therefore we made the decision to retire to the safehouse. Given our situation, I requested permission to have firearms with us. The Judge allowed this request with a small cavoite, we could only carry pistols as they weren't so conspicuous as rifles. Braxton asked about transportation and the Judge was able to lend us an unmarked vehicle so that we would no longer have to travel by foot through the city. With that we decided to retire to the safehouse and then catch up with the Administratum the next day.
The safehouse was nothing less than what you would expect from the Inquisition. The security system was state of the art and approved by Arath, so that allowed me to rest more comfortably. Braxton also engineered two tripwires for the front and back doors. With security being handled, we were able to explore the rest of the house. In the lower levels of the house, we discovered a shooting range. This allowed Arath and myself to instruct Veck and Yarn on proper handling of the pistols since they are slightly different from their rifles. We would have also instructed Braxton, but once again he isolated himself to his room shortly after our arrival.
Who was that mutant and why was he trying to eavesdrop on our conversation? Who was his mysterious assailant that wields such an unusual weapon for this area? Who was that shady man that claimed to be an arms dealer and was he upset that we stood him up? Who was that mysterious figure that we saw upon exiting the spaceport? The answers to these questions may never be answered and may have nothing to do with our investigation but they still weigh heavily on my mind as I try to sleep in this unfamiliar place. But now it is time to retire and prepare for the next day. I'm not sure exactly what tomorrow will bring, but I feel as though this mission will unravel more mysteries as we dive deeper. Emperor protect us and guide us through this dark time.
Session 1: An Uncomfortable Introduction
Lady Rathbone has chosen me to go on my first official mission and while I am excited, I am also terrified. The group that has been assembled is a rag tag group of individuals with character flaws that directly contradict our mission.
Firstly we have C-14 Veck, the most predictable of the group. C-14 Veck is a reassigned Skitarius from the Mechanicus. After initial evaluations, I will say he is not the average Skitarii. He goes above and beyond to attempt to assimilate into non-Mechanicus society and can be agitated if given the proper stimulation. My greatest fear with him is his devotion to his inbreed directives that he has not completely clarified with us. One thing that is not questionable is his loyalty to this mission and the directives of Lady Wrathbone and thus indirectly to the members of our group. I am hoping that I can teach him some more acceptable social interactive behaviors and he is willing to learn them as well. For the moment he seems content to commune with the machine spirits of the weapons cache in the armory aboard the ship, but I do hope he takes some time to socialize with the rest of our group so we can for some cohesive bonds.
While I required an extensive evaluation of C-14 Veck, the files of the rest of our group were comprehensive enough to not require such an elaborate ruse. Beginning with the elephant in the room that is trying to hide, Rat did have one character flaw that may cause larger issues that was not noted in his file. Rat, who I've asked to change his name to Arath for social interative reasons, appears to have an underlying distrust of members of the Mechanicus. This could cause a greater rift later as he already has a deep-rooted distrust of our chosen guardian, C-14 Veck. In addition to this slight snag, it is obvious that something else is causing him distress. Given his history, it is completely understandable that he be slightly jittery, but his attempts to disappear into the background appear to mean more. He's secretive and while I was almost successful in getting him to open up, he did shut down in the end. I've made a request that he assist Yarn in learning proper maintenance of his weapon as a bonding activity. This will hopefully help him start to come into the fold rather than remain on the outskirts of our rag-tag group. I have also made him aware that his attempts at "hiding" are actually drawing more attention to himself and he would be better off "hiding in plain sight" as that doesn't draw as much attention to yourself. Personal experience was a driving force within this suggestion, but only time will tell if he will take my suggestions or remain lurking in the spotlight of the shadows.
This brings us to Yarn. He is a very typical low born appearing individual. Rotten teeth, warn clothing, poor hygiene, and poorly maintained equipment, such as his laz rifle and his cybernetic eye, the later of which is being attended to by C-14 Veck. All of these factors are actually nothing more than a disguise of an individual that feels abandoned and betrayed. Just as Arath has issues with the Mechanicus, so does Yarn with the Arbites. Turns out his history is a dark one that involves great loss and betrayal. His parents were members of the Arbites on Fenksworld and uncovered some unsavory activities occurring in one of the local Noble houses. Long story short, he believes that the Arbites were paid off by the Noble family and his parents murdered in retribution. He exacted his revenge by murdering the Nobles, an act that still weighs heavily on him as he didn't actually have proof of their involvement. I'm inferring that from our conversation as he stated that he "believed" they were the one's responsible. I believe that he blames the Arbites lack of action for his parents death and his fall in society. As we have need of the assistance of the local Arbites, this inherent distrust could pose an obstacle.
The final member of our group has been very predictable, the disgraced Noble, Braxton. His behavior is typical of the Nobility that inhabit the Hive worlds of the Calixis Sector. In fact, it's too predictable. I'm not sure exactly what's going on with him, but at the moment I believe he is trying to hide in plain sight and failing. I haven't had the opportunity to speak with him beyond a short conversation so I will do my best to speak with him before we arrive at our destination. While he has been playing the part of the posh Noble, after a bit of teasing, he was quick to point out that he did not arrive in his dapper clothing. This was provided to him by the Lady Inquisitor. This is a behavior outside that of a Noble born and thus confirms my theory. But not all news is bad. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders and is thinking of possible causes for the increased death count even without being prompted to do so. But this lingering secret is still an unknown variable that could cause issues with us achieving our goal on Luggnum.
Overall I feel that we are destined for failure as we are now. We must strive to get past our differences and work together to discover the true cause of these deaths or we may fall victim to its source. Tommorrow is another day and I hope to continue work on creating a more cohesive group.
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