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Dark Heresy VOIP Campaign

Started by precinctomega, April 26, 2010, 10:17:53 AM

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MarcoSkoll

And I think this is a moderately accurate version of events on Levongard so far:

~~~~~

Our primary mission objective is a man known as Bloodfist, a rather violent criminal with ties to the Xenos cold trade.

At the start of the adventure, we have a few changes to the cell: Ernst, Novus and Sir William are transferred to Saber cell, joining Etris, Lupus and Lt Tallin (new NPC).

Our cell is designated Regis and is now formed of Alyx, Guilliman, Pelagius, Doyle and the new Zarkov Khan (Pyrokinetic) and the NPC Miklos Verner (Naval Armsman), all somewhat under the command of Overseer Bayev.

~~~~~

Day one, Landing:
We're briefly introduced to Port Hope. It's a settlement near the planet's primary spaceport, and more advanced than everything (save a Mechanicus presence on an island in the southern hemisphere) on the planet... although that's not saying much.

Given it's late in the day, we're directed to our quarters in the Grand Librarium opposite the Warden's compound and try and get some sleep.

~~~~~

Day two:
Unfortunately, our primary contact in our investigation, Warden Eli Black is missing.
In the attempt to find him, we're introduced to his colleague, Warden Hans Brix, who pin-points three likely informants: Jax Felderik (a blackmarkeeter), Armando Hoffman (on off-world imports trader) and Petra Novalon (an ex-Warden).

We head to the Drunken Skyjack, a regular haunt of Felderik, but it is blown apart by an explosion as we arrive. We can't investigate the burning building, so we rush off in search of the others, in case there's a co-ordinated attack.

At Hoffman's warehouse, we discover six dead workers, and extract Hoffman from the building at speed.
However, he is fine (if confused and distraught) and we investigate further. The corpses are all relatives (and visibly so), and have been knifed by an expert, who broke in and then escaped by loaken (vaguely the local equivalent to the horse).

We then progress to find Novalon, who rents a room in a inn-house across the city. However, we don't find her there, so aside from a brief investigation (and lunch), we head back to the now extinguished Drunken Skyjack.

We meet Warden Amy Torrence, who's investigating the scene. She's recovered the remains of a crate of explosives, of the same type the Wardens use, and it has an identifiable serial number. There is also the out of place corpse of a Farcamp native, a settlement much further down the continent.

We follow up the serial number and find it's from a Warden's shipment of which half went missing, and which was originally handled, two years after her dismissal, by Petra Novalon.
We challenge the Warden's commander, Evangaline Barbarigo, over this, who is originally very obstructive, but we eventually nail down the missing half of the shipment to 100 lasguns, 300 power cells and 10 crates of explosives (although get no answer about why Novalon was involved, other than Barbarigo's insistence she is to be trusted).

~~~~~

Day Three:
Most other cells have been dispatched from Port Hope at this point, a positive thing, as there's minor rioting on the west side of town.

The wardens, however, have turned up a lead - an unusual number of Farcamp natives in the town/city's Grand Bazaar. We investigate the bazaar (generally getting very lost) but eventually manage to follow some of these Farcampers to a small store within - "Hoffman's Imports".

The Farcamper collects a small package from a worker who's visibly very similar to the six dead workers from the warehouse, and then leaves the Bazaar. We split up, some following the Farcamper, a couple staying to talk to the worker (who then attempts to shoot Warden Brix and is killed in the ensuing shoot-out).

The Farcamper is trailed to a building where a major argument is taking place on the first floor - although it's not completely clear, we manage to pick out various names: Hoffman, Novalon, Felderik, Black, Wexman (Bloodfist's second in command), Bloodfist and Brix are all named

Brix informs us (when he arrives) the building is a former Warden's safehouse. Although he doesn't recall details, we get a very accurate floor plan from Alyx's auspex and launch an assault, one end from the building's stairs, the other via a first floor window.

Via the window end, we discover one of the arguers was Novalon, who immediately after our attack starts, shoots one of the two men in the same room before the other, who turns out to be Wexman, shoots her, barges past Alyx (using her climbing gear to shoot in from outside the window and leaps onto a nearby roof.

At the stair end, several Farcamp natives are shot, including one with bionic implants (important because this is a world barely even in the industrial revolution despite off-world investment) and Pelagius accidentally finds another one of the missing crates of explosives by shooting it.

Alyx and Doyle make chase after Wexman, who eventually makes a tumble into a market stand after Doyle shoots him. We recover a package from him, which contains an unknown piece of xenotech and take him (and the one surviving Farcamper) in for questioning.

Questioning starts with Novalon, who we believe might be most co-operative. After a little persuasion, she drops various details.

She's Eli Black's intimate partner (although claims not to know where he is). She's been working (unknowingly) for Bloodfist's organisation for about two months, taking on a couple of minor hits - but after Black started his investigation three weeks ago and put the pieces together, she claims to have been sabotaging various things from the inside; The dead six workers at Hoffman's compound were her work, and also, although unintentionally, the bombing at the Drunken Skyjack. She shortened the fuse on a bomb, but rather than exploding out of the way, the Farcamper supposed to deliver it had stopped in a pub for a drink along the way.

She knows relatively little of Bloodfist's organisational structure, because it's highly cellular and hard to get a grand picture for.

She explains Barbarigo's trust as an incident on an old warden investigation, and also cautions us that Black was uncertain about Brix's loyalties. We agree that she'll be released following our interrogation of the others, in case that raises further questions.

We attempt to interrogate the Farcamper (thinking he'll be less resistant than Wexman), but get little but crude ranting about the "Father of the Rock" and "Glory to the Saviour, the Rock shall flourish again" before Zarkov's attempts to use his pyrokinesis to better persuade him... and completely overcooks it, leaving us with a charred corpse. He is ejected from the interrogation rooms and sent to go and secure the compound gates (now undermanned because the morning's riots have now grown to cover large parts of the city).

Wexman is resistant and tells us little of use beyond that that they are keeping to the planet's technology level in transporting items (primarily using the railways).

By the time we've returned him to his cell, the riots are approaching a critical level, after a talk with Brix (who'd been re-tasked in co-ordinating the riot control), Bayev and Fairfield (the co-ordinator for the other half of the Inquisition cells on the mission), Zarkov proposes some terrifying psychic trickery to break up the riots and is (for some reason) permitted to try. Pelagius thinks it's a good idea to go with him. Alyx thinks it's a bad idea, but thinks letting him go on his own is worse.

Various psychic magickry happens and we break up some of the rioting (albeit not exactly in a slick fashion before) we have to go and rescue a member of another cell who'd been sent out to help quell the riots but been overrun.

We save her, but then there's a bizarre vox transmission ("Clean slate is a go, the rock shall rise") after which there's an explosion and the Warden's control comms go dead. We return to the compound, which has been attacked, killing Novalon, Verner and nearly Bayev too, as well as freeing Wexman.

Eli Black is found dead, in plain clothes, near the exploded armoury.

We eventually piece together the absence of Brix and four other Wardens: Maxwell, Boone, Morris and Telgar. Talking with Bayev, we conclude all five are traitors and are told that she's actually been in contact with Black since the first night - everything so far has been a ploy to try and discover the traitors that Black suspected were within the Wardens.
Unfortunately, there'd never really been preparation on either side; we weren't ready for them to show themselves and neither were they, leading to a very messy exit.

We know that Wexman, Brix et al. have left via train, and agree that our best lead is all the links to Farcamp further down the continent.

However, it's the early hours of the morning, so we decide we have to rest instead.

~~~~~

Day Four:
We can't dawdle a whole lot longer, because we're apparently coming close to flood season, at which point Farcamp gets separated by fast flows across surrounding plains, so we head off via train, taking an extended journey to a station called Basin. We're accompanied by Warden Torrence (from the Skyjack explosion), who seems most knowledgeable about Farcamp.
We get lucky amongst all this and Commander Barbarigo pulls in a favour from an Earl Penfield to let us use his personal carriage.

~~~~~

Day Five:

Our first change is at a station called Brugal.

We talk with the station-master to have our carriage transferred to get us to Castle Ferso, and learn that our quarry too has been through there (apparently with papers marked with the seal of the local king).

As we leave his office, we're met by several of the King's guard, under the command of the treacherous Boone, who orders them to attack. Between luck and a lot of psychic flame, we survive that... and then several dozen other nearby guards see some off-worlders and their witch killing their mates. So we end up huddling behind station buildings and trying to block the approach of the guards with an incendiary wall, shouting bonkers plans at each other.

Eventually we agree Alyx is going to sneak around behind them and use a krak grenade to blow a hole in one of the water towers (this being a steam railway), drench the flintlock rifles they're using and then request they sod off.

This mostly works after Alyx uses details of her true identity to spice up the threats being made. (More or less "I'm a member of an important trading house who's client to your lords, what do you think your rank will be if my grandfather hears about this?", in the process omitting that she's not on great terms with Gramps at the moment.)

They leave, we have lunch and then get on our next train.

~~~~~

Day Six:

We arrive at Castle Ferso. The station master agrees to the transfer of our carriage, and the night-time master's assistant tells us he saw Brix and Telgar (I'd add that we have pict-captures of them all).

Our train leaves for Castle Polvan, but the journey gets cut short at Avoria because of a landslide further up the line. We can apparently get across the large lake and get another train on the far side, and someone (Doyle, maybe? I forget) actually ends up sighting Warden Maxwell leaving on the back of a ship.

Pelagius and Doyle get into a tizzy and hire a rapid ship to chase them down (I've a list of names here, I think this ship was "The Lady Mother" under Captain Samson), but Alyx isn't prepared to run off without the others, so they rush off on their own while she goes to go get the others...

... and they then get a separate ship (Insightful, Captain Merrigan), albeit a slower one, and actually bother to take their luggage on this one.

Up ahead, and now late at night, Doyle and Pelagius catch up with the other ship (Think this is the Southern Wind, Captain Torbis), shoot the tackle blocks and attempt a boarding. They find Morris and Maxwell onboard, killing the latter and knocking the fomer out, but Doyle dives into an unsecured room and gets himself shock-mauled, leaving Pelagius isolated on the top deck.

He pulls Morris up to the rear deck, hacks up some of the rigging with Morris' sword and then signals to the Lady Mother to pick them up. He then waits for the Insightful, which does soon catch up with the stationary ships.

They conduct a slightly more organised boarding, ascertain that the crew are being coerced, clear out the remaining goons, help rescue Doyle and recover the gear/belongings of the traitors... which includes a large crate which contains 50 of the missing lasguns.

We transfer this stuff to the Insightful, and leave the crew of the Wind to patch up their damage...


~~~~~

... and that's about as far as we got. Probably about midnight leading into day seven.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Van Helser

Oh no, Hans Brix!

I am free for Skype tonight, and tomorrow after eight thirty. Anyone available?

Ruaridh

MarcoSkoll

I'm not busy any nights at the moment, although I am on a boat trip around North West England, so a usable mobile internet connection is not always assured. I'll be at sessions if at all possible, but the "if at all possible" part is occasionally in doubt.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Heroka Vendile

I'll be online monday evening.

Hans Brix is actually named after Detective Sara Lunds 2nd boss in The Killing scandi-noir TV series, Lennart Brix – whose motives were vague when the audience first met him.
It's all fun and games until someone shoots their own guy with a Graviton gun instead of the MASSIVE SPIDER.
The Order of Krubal
Rewards Of The Enemy

Heroka Vendile

I have a meeting at 7 monday night, don't know when it'll finish.
It's all fun and games until someone shoots their own guy with a Graviton gun instead of the MASSIVE SPIDER.
The Order of Krubal
Rewards Of The Enemy

Van Helser

Wee heads up that I want be around this evening.

Ruaridh

Heroka Vendile

As I feared, I cannot do this Sunday - or at least wouldn't be able to show up till 2pm at the earliest, but have family up so probably busy in afternoon as well.
It's all fun and games until someone shoots their own guy with a Graviton gun instead of the MASSIVE SPIDER.
The Order of Krubal
Rewards Of The Enemy

Van Helser

Let's stick to Monday evening then. Dave, you good?

Ruaridh

MarcoSkoll

I'm no socialite, so the only times I'm ever busy at the moment is normal working hours, Tuesday evenings and occasional weekend events (although my weekends may be getting busier next year), so Mondays are never a problem for me.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Van Helser

Tomorrow or Monday for the next session?

Also, I read through the text conversation after I left on Monday and see Rich is thinking of a new character. I'm wondering if a new character might be the way I go too, as it's been so long since I controlled Ernst. I'll put something together today for approval.

Ruaridh

MarcoSkoll

Either day is fine for me, but as far as I know, we haven't reached a full conclusion about when we'd meet on a Sunday.

Quote from: Van Helser on September 20, 2014, 11:31:08 AMI'm wondering if a new character might be the way I go too
Alyx'll be disappointed. She liked Ernst, someone on her sort of level - sensible, capable and cultured.

At the moment, she's really lacking conversation prospects. Guilleman keeps to himself, Zarkov is mad, Doyle is crude, Pelagius isn't really in her good books at the moment, she doesn't trust Katia and she's only just met Torrence.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Stormgrad

Today or tomorrow either is fine but both me and Ruaridh are on now if anyone is just fancying a chat

Heroka Vendile

apologies chaps, forgot to post on saturday to say i'd be out all today. I'm also busy this Monday evening at very short notice, so there's that.
It's all fun and games until someone shoots their own guy with a Graviton gun instead of the MASSIVE SPIDER.
The Order of Krubal
Rewards Of The Enemy

MarcoSkoll

Well, if Euan's not about and chaps fancy something this evening, I could theoretically reboot the short Rogue Trader plot of mine that got aborted a single session in, at least if Rich thinks he's got a viable character. (I know Ruaridh expressed some interest in playing Allerod again).

It's supposed to run about three or four sessions, all set on what I think is one of the best ships I've ever written. (Playing to the slightly tongue-in-cheek side that 40K used to have, rather than the DARK AND GRIM GRIMDARKNESS it's turning into).
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Heroka Vendile

Sorry sorry sorry.
I completely forgot about today, literally just remembered as I sat down at the computer just now. I don't even have a good excuse, I was just watching the F1 then doing some stage set building that could've waited till next weekend.
It's all fun and games until someone shoots their own guy with a Graviton gun instead of the MASSIVE SPIDER.
The Order of Krubal
Rewards Of The Enemy