(Edited by Marco Skoll)
This is the thread for the forum's semi-official Dark Heresy group, run via VoIP. Should you be interested in joining us, drop us a line - we've had people from all over the world join us.
Original post follows (originally, the group was intended to be a one-off meet, so the first few pages are now redundant and most of what follows after probably won't make sense out of context. If you want to join us, feel free to ignore it all and jump to the end):
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EDIT - See Page 2 for further details.
At the Spring Conclave I briefly mentioned the idea of having a Dark Heresy campaign day in Bugman's at some point later this year. The idea would be to run from 10am to 6.30pm through one or more DH campaigns, trying to fit in as much excitement as possible in 8 and a half hours.
Please post here if you're interested in principle. I'll then work out a suitable date and interested parties can then decide if they can make it. We might run it near Christmas in the slot usually occupied by the GT, or in the Oct/Nov area, although Ruaridh "Van Helser" Dall is going to run an Autumn Conclave at about that time and I don't want to detract from participants in that event.
Generally speaking, I'd GM a group of up to four. If we get more than that, we might split off into two groups with two GMs.
R.
As I said on Saturday, I would be very tempted to come down for this.
The dates for the Autumn/Winter Conclave are a bit up in the air. When I spoke to the Warhammer World staff they said they weren't booking into September/October until nearer the time. Thought it a bid odd as I thought we couldn't run the IGT in December due to them being booked up... May have to wait until the summer before I can get a confirmed date.
Ruaridh
I made the booking for the IGT (and Spring Conclave) through the events team rather than through the WHW staff. The impression I got is that some weekends are designated 'free play' and can't be booked in advance until close to the time (and the WHW staff deal with these). Other weekends can be booked a long time in advance (by going through the events team), but these are mostly taken up with corporate events and tournaments - hence the very limited options I had for the IGT.
I'm a 'maybe' for DH - in the past I was never a big fan of RPGs, but I wouldn't mind giving DH a go seeing as I've bought all the books!
I'd love to play but there are two caveats:
1) I've only played DH once before and don't own the book. However, i should be able to buy it, and i have played a lot of DND as well as a bit of world of darkness and call of the cthulhu.
2) I'll be at uni by then, and if i get into my first choice, there are rather strict restrictions on leaving the city. However, lecture/tutorial schedule permitting, if it's on a weekend I should be able to make a day trip.
So yeah, i'd like to go. It's just an issue of being able...
I'd be interested, but my problem is the fact that I am reaching the end of uni now and am about to go out into the big bad world of employment (hopefully), so I've no idea where I'll be or my availability.
Quoteif i get into my first choice, there are rather strict restrictions on leaving the city.
Sorry? So
you pay
them to educate you and
they tell
you where you are and are not allowed to travel? Hm... That would be an interesting tribunal.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on May 05, 2010, 10:00:38 AM
Sorry? So you pay them to educate you and they tell you where you are and are not allowed to travel? Hm... That would be an interesting tribunal.
I dont't think it's as bad as all that, but i have heard, for example, that technically you're only allowed to go home for one weekend per term (IIRC). Having said that, they will be notably short terms (just very busy ones...).
Also, as an update, I ordered the DH core rulebook off amazon, so amazon's delivery schedule permitting i shall soon have the book and be able to read up on the system.
I have to admit that it would make a pleasant change to have a group of players who actually know the rules.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on May 07, 2010, 02:43:46 PM
I have to admit that it would make a pleasant change to have a group of players who actually know the rules.
R.
Depending on the date, and any deadlines I'm dealing with at the time, I might be convinced to attend. I think it's safe to assume that I'm familiar with Dark Heresy and its sister games :)
Not sure I want to GM a game with you in it, Nathan! ;) You'd be pointing out all my mistakes.
R.
That's how I feel when GMing a game of Inquisitor that you're playing in! ;)
You'd have thought I'd have learned the rules by now... :-[
You can always distract me with new minis, Dave. I don't have that protection in Dark Heresy!*
*That said, here's a secondary question: for people who are thinking of attending this, whenever I get around to organizing it, would you prefer a miniature-based campaign with maps and battle boards, or a purely P&P campaign?
The plan is to run through a series of short-ish adventures and see how far we can get in a single day.
I would start with a campaign of my own devising that basically tells the story of how the Acolytes some to the attention of the Inquisition. This would then be followed by a number of published campaigns, including Illumination, Maggots in the Meat and Purge the Unclean**, but with significant plot-changes to ensure that those who've played those games before find them as unpredictable as possible.
There would, of course, be no charge to participate, but I would expect players to take turns in providing me with fresh cups of tea in order to keep my larynx in working order.
**SWMBO, little attention as she pays to the games I play, pointed out that this would make a brilliant name for a character: "Purge, the Unclean".
R.
Well, chances are that if I'm coming I'll build a (28mm) model even if he's not used - I find that the process of making a model is a good way for me to develop a character.
That, and I have an enginseer model who I bought for parts for a 54mm model, but who I like and was planning to convert and paint and he'd make a good DH character...
Quote from: precinctomega on May 08, 2010, 08:38:16 AM
Not sure I want to GM a game with you in it, Nathan! ;) You'd be pointing out all my mistakes.
I'm more tactful than that; I've played in a few games where I knew the system better than the GM; I provide advice where necessary (to keep the game moving; nothing slows down the game like the GM having to look up a rule), but otherwise have the good sense to keep my mouth shut. In most cases, rules details are less important than the events they're depicting. I play RPGs frequently enough to know that all the knowledge behind my face isn't strictly necessary to enjoying a game.
I use my powers for good. Well, unless I'm GMing, in which case, "you b******" is taken as the highest of compliments.
Quote from: precinctomega on May 08, 2010, 09:08:18 AM*That said, here's a secondary question: for people who are thinking of attending this, whenever I get around to organizing it, would you prefer a miniature-based campaign with maps and battle boards, or a purely P&P campaign?
I personally haven't used miniatures in an RPG for years, and while I will use sketch maps, I don't tend to use boards and models and the like in my games unless I'm running or playing D&D 4th edition (where they're pretty much essential). Doesn't mean I won't try if bringing miniatures is the common consensus, though.
QuoteI would start with a campaign of my own devising that basically tells the story of how the Acolytes some to the attention of the Inquisition. This would then be followed by a number of published campaigns, including Illumination, Maggots in the Meat and Purge the Unclean**, but with significant plot-changes to ensure that those who've played those games before find them as unpredictable as possible.
That's a good thing; I've run all those adventures. I'd be wary oif Maggots in the Meat, as it's not an easy adventure to get right when running it, as the tone varies quite considerably based on what you're aiming for as a GM. If you PM me with any questions you have about the adventures (to avoid spoiling those who've not played them), I can provide advice in this regard.
In about 4 years of roleplaying, i've only ever played one campaign where we used real maps and minis, and we gave up on that half way through because it was slowing us down a bit.
Having said that, I can definitely see the merits of using maps and minis, in that it gives a better idea of sclae and distance.
Essentially, in a long winded way i'm saying that I'm happy either way, but if we do use minis, I'd definitely prefer it at 28mm scale, seeing as I have so few 54mm models and they're rather more expensive. Apparently Amazon actually dispatched my DH core rulebook last night, so i can expect it at some point during this coming week.
Using minis would mean generating a character beforehand, and I'd prefer to turn up, randomly generate a character, and then get on with it! Though I suppose having a couple of fairly generic 28mm models wouldn't hurt...
Ah, this may come from my lack of experience with DH; are characters normally randomly generated, or player created (or GM created)? All the RPGs I've played before have either been run with player or GM generated characters (or pre-created characters from campaign books), but never random character generation.
Would we be generating our own characetrs (either by planning or randomly) or would we be using GM-generated characters?
In the interests of getting as much playing done as possible, I was intending for players to generate their own characters, ideally in the course of a Skype or telephone conversation with me, before the event.
I'm quite happy not to use a tactical map, as I've never done so before. I do like players to bring minis, though, because I have a system whereby, if a player wants to talk "in character" they touch their mini (calm down at the back! - "I'd have to touch my MAXI!" Etc etc). Saves a certain amount of confusion. It can also be helpful to set a scene on a sketch map ("You're here, here and here. They're here, here, here, here, here and, oh yes, right here, behind you, because you failed that Awareness test earlier...").
R.
My copy of the rulebook arrived today; it's a lot heftier than I remebered. I've had a brief look through and it seems fairly straightforward - i'll just have to familiarise myself with the particular quirks of the system. Still; I've got a decent idea of what kind of character I'd like to play.
Anyway, what this basically means is that if this game is organised, it's now quite likely that i'll be able to play (pesky university things permitting).
I'm having a slow old day at work and my mind's started wondering - a dangerous thing!
Any thoughts about a date for this yet Robey? I've been reading through Ascension recently and it's piqued my interest in all things Dark Heresy again.
Ruaridh
A date may have to wait a little longer, for now. I'll contact WHW and find out days when they've not got much on, as we want things to fairly quiet. Then I'll check with SWMBO to see if I can get a leave pass for a Saturday.
R.
No worries Robey. Just hoping there's still sufficient interest to warrant a trip down south.
Suppose I could use the time to actually settle on an archetype to play. I don't want an action orientated character, but that still leaves three or four classes to choose between, and they're all so attractive!
Ruaridh
Right.
1) I'm now working on a unique one-day Dark Heresy campaign, set, not in the Calixis Sector, but the Carthaxian Sector!
2) I'm looking at November.
3) I was pondering moving the venue to somewhere closer to me. I realize this would be inconvenient for Ruaridh - but everywhere's inconvenient when you live in the Highlands. How would anyone else feel about coming to Cheltenham for the game?
4) Aim is for five people. As mentioned, the plan is for a one-day campaign. But by "one day" I mean "starts at 8am, finishes at 10pm". I'm going to look into arranging something with a local B&B if anyone needs that.
R.
As long as there's good transport links from an airport somewhere in the vicinity getting to Cheltenham wouldn't be an impossibility. I won't let living in Inverness prevent me taken part in an all-day Dark Heresy extravaganza!
Ruaridh
EDIT: but I am on holiday in Egypt from the 6th til the 20th of November. Limits my chances even more!
I can't attend due to teh Atlantic, but I have a random thought about minis/vs. non-minis.
If you are at WHW, I'm sure they would prefer if you use minis and a tactical map since their business is ostensibly to sell miniatures, and not game systems. Selling books is Fantasy Flights job, not so much WHW.
I've never played Dark Heresy before but have given all the books a read through and really like the ideas. So if you didn't mind a novice and the date fits around my dissertation work I'd definitely be interested, and I am only in Bristol term time so pretty close!
Also would you be able to create characters using any of the books or limited?
Rob
@VanHelser - I'm flexible to accommodate the enthusiastic.
@Easy E - In Bugman's they couldn't care less, as long as you're eating and drinking. They have board games on the shelves there, including Chess and Risk, as well as Chaos in the Old World, the Horus Heresy board game and Shuuro.
@Shannow - Bristol? Ideal. I think Saussure's there, as well. And Greenstuff Gav's in Bath, too. As far as characters go, participants would be expected to either phone or Skype me ahead of time to develop their characters. I'm flexible to integrate all sorts of different archetypes, but be aware that the Carthaxian Sector doesn't contain characters unique to the Calixis Sector (like the Chaliced Commissar, for example).
R.
Hello, I'd be very interested in this. I'm not really too familiar with the game mechanics, (I find it very hard to retain the ins and outs of the game without actually playing and getting to grips with it that way) but I have the book and would be able to create a character easily enough. I played AD&D a lot so after watching people play for a while I should be alright with it. (hopefully)
Also Im near Yeovil in Somerset.
-Tim
When would we need to have a skype chat with you PO? I'm very up for it, but would like to get a character sorted before mid september as I have a lot of free time till then :P but thats just my preference and I can always mnake time! Should I PM you my skype address?
Rob
Go ahead! Maybe we could have a chat and I could interview for my Hobbycast (http://precinctomega.podbean.com), too?
R.
Thanks to Shannow, we now have our first player character organized, and a very mysterious and interesting character he is, who finds himself en route for the strife-wracked depths of the Carthaxian Sector.
We also have a date sort-of-fixed: Saturday 27 Nov 2010. I'm still hunting for a suitable venue, but I'm looking at a rather lovely pub on Cleeve Hill, offering commanding views, excellent food and drinks on tap from 10.30am until 11pm. So, coincidentally, those are also the times I'm looking at for the start and finish of the adventure.
Dark Heresy: Bleeding Stars will throw our unwary PCs off the course of their more-or-less-innocent lives, into the laps of the Inquisition and deep into the heart of one of the most momentous conspiracies ever to have been hatched in ten millennia.
I still have four spaces available (and two reserve spaces), so if you're up for it, all you have to do is call me on Skype. If you have a character sheet handy (available free from Fantasy Flight Games) that would be ideal. If you also have your own copy of the rulebook, that would be even better. If you have access to it, then origins from the Inquisitor's Handbook are allowable.
R.
Ah cruel fate! Just today found out that my girlfriend's work's Christmas do is the 26th of November, so it looks like I'm out. Stupid 800 miles(ish) between Inverness and Cheltenham!
Ruaridh
Ah, sweet tragedy!
The date may yet change, as there's a possibility it's going to clash with my fostering training. But I'll know within the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled!
I've got two strong contenders to participate, so far. That leaves three open spaces and two reserves to be filled!
R.
I've never played Dark Heresy, mostly because I've never really been able to talk enough of my gaming group into the idea, but it seems that every day I'm getting increasingly tempted to order an assortment of the books...
(All times in 24hr clock)
OK, the loose plan is to kick off at 1030. Location will probably be the Rising Sun Hotel (http://www.risingsunhotel-cheltenham.co.uk/). Anyone coming by train who arrives before 1000 can prevail upon me for a lift from the station as long as I know when you'll be arriving. I'll be the one sitting beside a plasma cannon, so I'll be easy to spot.
There are ten chapters, each one taking approximately an hour to play through and, allowing for comfort breaks and lunch, business should be concluded by 10pm.
Just a reminder: I've got two participants, so far. I'd love to make this a Conclave exclusive, but if I've not got anyone else on board in the next couple of weeks, I might have to throw it open to some other communities.
R.
Well, as per my suggestions above, the temptations ended up too strong, so I've just been very badly behaved and ordered a copy of both the Dark Heresy rulebook and the Inquisitor's Handbook.
So, as and when those arrive (tomorrow, if Amazon aren't lying to me), I shall peruse the contents. Should I find them to my liking, I'll come and poke you.
And what that means is it's looking horribly like you're going to end up with a horde of totally inexperienced players... ;D
That's fine. You'll have a pretty inexperienced GM, after all!
My campaign, The Bleeding Stars, is coming along quite nicely.
R.
I should be able to make it - I should be between writing assignments by then, so nothing to consume my weekend.
Which means, amongst other things, that there'll be at least one person experienced with the game...
Well, my books did indeed arrive yesterday (at 8 o'clock in the morning...), and I've been reading them on and off. Bit different to the systems I've used before, but I should get the grip of it quickly enough.
I'll go over them more thoroughly before I come and pester you about character creation (for fear of making a total fool of myself over something I've missed), but I've already got an idea or two running through my head.
Anywho, I've now read the rulebook through a couple of times and I think/hope I've picked enough grip on the basics to start thinking about character generation. Not too worried about when, although it'd be good to capitalise on the current creative impetus I seem to have.
I do have a Skype account (not that its ever been used ::)) and that's probably better for me than the phone. Shall I PM you the username?
I live a county up from Cheltenham. I'd be quite interested in showing up (even though I've not played DH before)
Well, if N0-1, Marco and Jamas can make it, that will fill the open slots, leaving two reserve slots for latecomers.
Please search for me on Skype as "precinctomega" and I'll add you as contacts. Then we can sit down at some mutually-convenient time and devise characters. I've already got one Scum and one Tech-Priest. Not that this will necessarily prevent you from taking on the same character type, if you want to. That's just in case you want to pick something alternative.
Only basic career paths are allowed, although origins from the Inquisitor's Handbook are also permitted. Careers and origins are largely up to you, but I'll exercise the GM hammer if necessary.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on August 31, 2010, 03:31:29 PMPlease search for me on Skype as "precinctomega" and I'll add you as contacts.
Done. And as for my username... don't ask how I got it.
I probably won't be able to talk until Thursday, as I'm currently away and on a mobile (and not terribly reliable) internet connection, but after that should be fine.
QuoteI've already got one Scum and one Tech-Priest.
Works for me. I've already put down a few notes on my two preferred ideas (hey, I figured that if I don't use them here, I may have the chance to use them later as characters for Inquisitor or a fiction), and neither is either a Scum or Tech-Priest.
Ironically, for someone who has such a heavy interest in engineering, Tech-Priests aren't a class I'm particularly interested in. Perhaps it's that parts of their thinking are too alien for me to really like them as a concept, but other parts too familiar to feel like I'm really roleplaying.
Added you on Skype also.
Anything that I need to do in the meantime?
Well, if you've not got the core rules, that would be a good investment. And you should print off one or two blank character sheets from the FFG website - make sure you have them handy when you Skype me.
I've got MarcoSkoll added to my contacts. What was your username, Jamas Orian? I've not spotted your incoming request, yet.
I'm having a lot of fun with the campaign design. I'm writing it out long-hand, and in full. So once we've played it, I'll put the campaign up on the Precinct Omega website (which should have an all-new look by then!) for anyone to download. I'm brushing up on my recollection of the rules for injury, fatigue and recovery, because I suspect I'll need them! :D
Oh, and has anyone seen DH rules for starvation anywhere? I've designed some of my own, but it occurred to me that there might already be some.
Worried yet? ;)
R.
Sadist.... :P
Asteconn is my username.
What's the FFG website?
This is the FFG website. (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/)
More specifically, this is the file you want. (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dark-heresy/pdf/dh-charsheet-light.pdf)
OK, I've got three characters done, now - a tech-priest (of sorts), an assassin (of sorts) and a scum (of sorts). All three of the players so far have done a really good job of thinking outside the box for their characters and their origins and it's unlikely to be obvious to anyone who the others are (even the tech-priest), so extra XP will be given to players who conceal their true nature best from the other players!
R.
Looks like a good location, really looking forward to this :)
I too am looking forward to it. However, I have a nagging fear that my character will die absolutely horribly half an hour in.
Also, while I'm here... I am still working on the more detailed write-up of my character background. I'll try and get it to you in the not too distant future PO, but I've got a helluva lot on my plate right now.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 12, 2010, 02:40:41 AM
I have a nagging fear that my character will die absolutely horribly half an hour in.
I know how you feel...
I must say, this rulebook is rather detailed!
So far I've picked a class, done some rolling and written a few lines of rough background.
I do feel as if I'm drowning in information a little mind you.
Shall I send you what I have scribbled so far?
And now we can add an Imperial World Guardsman to our roster...
R.
I'll get a character sorted asap; I've just finished another manuscript for Rogue Trader, I'm running a Rogue Trader campaign, and I'm planning a Deathwatch campaign to start this week, so I've been a little snowed under recently.
I'm happy to play most things available, am extremely familiar with the rules, and have all the books thus far released, so it shouldn't take long.
Yes, it'll be interesting having someone like you there, Nathan...
R.
Alas, scheduling conflicts blight me once again - big new project due to kick off next month, which impedes the time I have to spend doing things like travelling across the country to game.
Annoying, but such are the sacrifices I make to get my name in print...
Welp, there's an empty chair at the game.
Anyone want in?
R.
Just to be sure, are we all still on track for this? Have we still got enough players?
I'm still good to go - working on finishing background and sorting a model. (Working in 28mm feels tiny. Tiny and wrong.)
As a bit of a downer, if I hadn't missed that last update, I might have been able to recruit one of my mates to the cause (I recently found out the cheeky git has been playing). We're probably a little close to D-Day for there to be much chance of that now - but I can at least try to see if he's interested if we are still down players.
Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?
Pink Floyd lyrics aside, I had kinda expected an answer by now...
Sorry, sorry. Meant to post yesterday.
At the moment, we've only got three players and I would like to find a fourth at least to make it worthwhile. I'm digging around my local scene to see what happens. I'll give you an update no later than Wednesday.
R.
I'll be emailing the relevant parties. We have only three bodies for this event, and whilst it would still be feasible, I'm inclined to think that it isn't worth the expense some people would be incurring to attend for such a minimal number. So, with regret, I'm going to postpone this to another date, TBC.
R.
I did receive the PM, but I'll respond here too.
Perhaps with a change of date, we might be able to get some of the people who had scheduling conflicts back on board.
And like I said earlier, I do have a mate I could try bothering if we can't turn up enough spare people from the forum. Nice enough bloke - occasionally crops up on other forums, although not a very regular poster on them.
I agree with Marco. :)
With enough notice, I'd like to think I could be involved. Postponed for a couple of months perhaps?
Ruaridh
Having negotiated with She Who Must Be Obeyed, I'm looking at running the adventure as a Skype conference for about 1.5 hours per session once a fortnight, starting in the New Year.
Now, going over VOIP, it is possible to download dice-rolling software so that everyone can see it, but I'd prefer to just go for an honesty system, because I think we're all grown-ups.
R.
over skype eh? that sounds like a fun idea.
Something like Google Wave would be a good companion to be using at the same time - a unified place where everyone can see and edit session and campaign notes, a list of objective reminders, etc, etc.
That is, if it's still running when/if you were to do this, Google have muted that Wave may be taken down at some time unfortunately :(
If you can all get an IRC client - I know of a server that has built in dice rolling.
Skype would definitely suit me. I think I should just about be the only Ruaridh Dall on there. I'll get on with designing a character...
OK, new plan.
This is the plan: every other Thursday evening from 1930 to 2100 starting on Thursday 6 Jan 2010. The sessions will be short, so play will be fast and furious. Dice rolls will be based on an honesty system.
This is the bonus feature: once we've played through my introductory campaign, we're going to be joining Fantasy Flight Games's playtesting teams (I've agreed with Ross Watson that the group should find its feet and establish its ability to meet consistently before we join in), so all participants will have to sign NDAs.
We'll be playing Rules As Written as much as humanly possible, so where a result can be randomly generated, unless there are good reasons to the contrary, they will be randomly generated. Players will be expected to provide written feedback - a paragraph or two - on each session before the next session to be included in the group's general feedback.
If you want to get on board there will be five seats and two reserve seats. Look me up on Skype. First come, first served and the three for the original day that got cancelled get the first three seats (so there are two left, plus two reserves unless any of the others decide to step away).
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on December 04, 2010, 04:55:10 PMThis is the bonus feature: once we've played through my introductory campaign, we're going to be joining Fantasy Flight Games's playtesting teams (I've agreed with Ross Watson that the group should find its feet and establish its ability to meet consistently before we join in), so all participants will have to sign NDAs.
I will have to excuse myself from joining, then - as I freelance for FFG, were I to join this group, there's a chance I'd end up in a position playtesting my own work, which would be something of a conflict of interests (I can't really expect to be impartial regarding my own work, can I?).
Still, it's good to see that Ross got in contact with you, Robey.
colour me interested, however I definitely cannot do the 6th Jan as I will be away on holiday. I guess it would depend on whether you would prefer experienced or non-experienced RPGers as the reserves, as I am the latter.
The campaign is designed both for less-experienced players and for players to join the action after its starts - however, you'll have substantially less choice of characters if you join late. In fact, you're likely to be given an NPC as your PC.
However, as we're only going to do 1.5hour sessions, it's unlikely that we'd be too far into the action after the first session.
I've discovered another group doing a VOIP campaign and have been invited to sit in on a session to see how it's done.
R.
Did this ever get off the ground?
Well, I guess we'll find out this Thursday...
Oh yeah, if this is still going ahead, there's a slight change I'd like to make to my character's equipment, if that's alright with you PO. I'm about to drop a PM in your inbox about the specifics, but you probably know that by now.
It's still on! We'll have a technology test and introduction this evening, if I can get hold of everyone.
7.30pm. Skype. precinctomega. If you want in, call me - I've contacted the three people I know for sure were wanting to do it, others are welcome either to join in, if time allows, or to listen - if they behave themselves! There are bound to be some tech challenges, so this evening is to iron them out and only have some play time if the opportunity presents itself.
R.
First session happened and went pretty well I thought.
I deliberately kept things short to ease us all into the swing of things, and ended the evening's events at a point that will make it possible for anyone else who wants to join us to do so next week. After that it will still be possible to join in at various points, but you will have to accept an existing NPC as your player character.
If you want to jump in, PM me.
R.
It seemed to go well to me - it's the first VOIP RP I've done, so I've got no point of reference, but it seemed good.
Anyway, I've just finished going over the Skype recording and transcribing the basic details for later reference - given it's a fortnight between sessions, I'm planning to keep a set of notes to help keep me up to date with everything. (Going over it again to transcribe it will also help my recall.)
I'd be happy to make the notes available to others if they want (as long as they don't complain about my guesses at spelling words I've heard only across VoIP) - if it helps keep people up to speed and save time on recaps at the start of every session, that's great.
I think Google Wave was suggested as a possible way of maintaining a campaign record (which would be pretty perfect, as everyone could make corrections/additions), but all I know of Wave is that it's being turned into other things. Any suggestions?
Also, I will forward you those character notes Robey, just as soon as I've neatened them up and filled in a few of the blanks...
EDIT: Oh yeah, one other thing. The recording I've got seems to imply that I'm sometimes quite as loud as I think I'm being. Was I hard to hear at times, or is it just lying to me?
You were recording that? Cool!
I'll look into Google Wave. Not sure what they're doing with it at the moment.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on January 07, 2011, 12:21:32 PMYou were recording that? Cool!
Yeah, it's a fairly simple plugin that makes an MP3 file of the conversation for me. Kinda useful for someone who fails to take notes as they go along.
Anyway, the transcript is now up on the Wave, so anyone who needs to refresh their memories can do so.
Just a quick note to remind players that we are on for Thursday, 20th. We should be joined by two new players which will make the game full for now.
Others are welcome to listen in.
R.
Severe apologies to all the players who had to tolerate the replacement GM last night - he's only been in five sessions of DH so far and had all of two hours to write his first script for the game. (He also sucks at doing character voices.)
Normal service will hopefully be restored next fortnight.
To give context so this doesn't read like Robey is some sort of antagonist - he had a schedule problem and forwarded his session notes to Stormgrad, but the group as a whole voted to delay so Robey could GM it himself. So instead I ran a session I had started writing when Stormgrad started getting worried that the e-mail with Robey's notes had been lost in the system.
The notes did arrive in time, but I had most of a session written by then. So hopefully my "winging it" provided an entertaining enough two and a half hours.
Huge thanks to Dave for stepping in. The upshot is that my preparatory notes for the next session are unusually well fleshed-out.
@radcount - you now need to delete that file I sent you. No reading ahead!
R.
big thanks to dave who ran an entertaining session in lieu of Robeys regular service it was fun and i get the feeling i might be using the autopistol more (point blank range + Full auto = lots of death). In Regards to Robeys notes, an incredibly well written session that im whole heartedly looking forward too playing in. I deleated them last night robey but it does seem good
Quote from: precinctomega on March 18, 2011, 07:18:17 AMThe upshot is that my preparatory notes for the next session are unusually well fleshed-out.
Well, it should also save it needing to be done when you publish the campaign notes (I think you were talking about that, anyway).
On a DH note, I've been looking at the Errata - and I wish I'd looked at it before. I may have to buy Unremarkable now it's a Rank 1 Talent for Assassins.
(And I am so using my Hunting Rifle more, with those new rules for "Accurate".)
I will be speaking to all those involved on saturday (hurrah) but im planning on running a RT campaign via skype on the alternate week to robeys there will be 5 places and first dibs go to the guys from Robeys DH game however Rich Lampitt has already told me that he wont be able to make it so that currently leaves 1 open space
Those of you interested please send me a forum PM and i will get back to you either tomorrow or sunday (2 guesses as to why im unavailable on saturday)
so far Marco has told me he would like to be involved and i would idealy like to get started 3 weeks from today at 19:30pm gmt which puts us starting at aproximatley the 17th
I would love to do an RT campaign but sadly my evenings are already over-full. I was hoping that someone (Dave?) might take over my Thursday night for the next adventure and let me pick up a PC.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on March 24, 2011, 09:53:33 PMI was hoping that someone (Dave?) might take over my Thursday night for the next adventure and let me pick up a PC.
I don't mind GMing (although the people who were in last week's session can tell you I need practice...), but I'm not quite sure what you mean by that.
- I run the next session and you use one of the current NPCs?
- After the Holy Blood adventure is done, I run the next set of adventures for our protagonists? (Which could be a problem if there are any details I need to know as the GM, but am yet to find out as a player and will have to subsequently "forget".)
- After the Holy Blood adventure is done, we start a second set of PCs which I GM?
Well im just sketching things out now and the alternate thursday idea was just a thought but if people want to say a different night in the week, Ive already worked a brief overview of a story split into about 13 parts and each part should take 2/3 sessions to cover, Lots of space and ground based combat and plenty of trade and negotiation as well as a dive into the criminal underbelly of RT.
3 out of the 13 parts tho are easily worked through as ive designed them to run as background endeavours that go on while your off doing your other doings.
@MarcoSkoll - Either a or b.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on March 26, 2011, 06:43:45 AMEither a or b.
I can roll with either of those.
I am on the rusty side with RP GMing, but what you don't practice...
Hello peeps! This is going to start off sounding like a total tangent, but bear with me.
I finally got totally fed up with my old graphics tablet, so I invested in a new Aiptek 14000U (seen in all its glory here (http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/CIMG1878.jpg)).
And I now wish I'd done it months ago! It's a magnificent piece of tech. Twice the pad dimensions, crazy sensitivity and precision, faster response and smooth as a whistle. Okay, it's not a Wacom, but this baby doesn't give much ground to their Intuos4 L, and that costs four times what this does.
However, there is one problem. I've got out of practice recently, so combine that with new electronic wizardry to get used to and I'm going to need to get some tablet time down before I can properly get back on with the art for Dark Magenta.
My plan for that is to turn my hand to immortalising the group's characters in a similar manner to what I did for Alyx. (http://fav.me/d3db3n9)
Now, I've already got some references for Etris (and a WIP can be seen here (http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/EtrisWIP1.jpg)), and I've badgered a description of Novus out of Stormgrad, but my transcript's descriptions of Ernst and Guilleman are pretty vague:
- Ernst: Male Cleric, mid twenties. Wiry build. Around 1.75m and 65 kg. Brown hair, tanned complexion, appears to have been suffering elements for a while. Wearing tatty pilgrim's robes.
- Guilleman: Slender and gaunt. Male Guardsman. (Okay then, very vague.)
I could just guess a lot, but if either of you'd like something a bit more representative, I'm gonna need some descriptions about things like their features (e.g. shape of the head/jaw/etc, some idea of facial features and any "oddities" of body, etc. "Looks rather like *insert name here*" will do) and equipment (e.g. the style of their boots, any trinkets they carry, what their clothes look like, etc.).
I can make adjustments later on if something's totally wrong, but I'm not planning on investing that much time into this...
Don't you have some other art to work on as well... ;)
OK i
I have 2 spaces for this, still open
i think i have yes's from Rauridh and Euan, and i know i have one from Marco, who is the first from the group to sit and generate a character with me - anyone else willing to travel from the carthax sector out past serenity outpost into the wild depths of the Velgorth expanse just drop a reply in here and let me know
Indeed, I do have other art to be getting on with - but, as I alluded to in the third "paragraph", I'm horribly out of practice. With all the work on NPC guard, vehicles and Katlien's warband, I've not touched anything more than a couple of rough sketches in the last two months.
So, in short, I need to get my hand in again and learn the nuances of a new tablet before I get back to messing up the DM art.
~~~~~
Also, what I forgot to mention earlier... I'm heading away on the narrowboat for about three weeks, starting this weekend. I will have a mobile internet connection, so I should be able to avoid missing any game sessions, but I can't 100% guarantee I will have a connection on any given night.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on April 07, 2011, 04:55:06 AM- Guilleman: Slender and gaunt. Male Guardsman. (Okay then, very vague.)
5'9", 65kg, slender, ruddy skinned, red hair, brown eyes, 22 years old, aquiline nose, former agri-worker (so a bit weatherbeaten).
Equipment wise he's got a laspistol, lasgun, shotgun, a belt of shotgun shells, knife, woodaxe, guard flak armour & uniform. All his equipment should probably look used and second-hand.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on April 07, 2011, 02:56:51 PMguard flak armour & uniform.
Any particular style? Imitation Cadian, one of the other regiments or just some kind of random free for all?
you'd probably be better asking Robey/Lampitt as he's from the same world as Etris. If in doubt I'd say classic cadian shoulders & helmet with current body armour.
That makes it easy then - I've got some of Lampitt's drawings of Etris for reference already.
Sorry, bad news. My laptop is now so unstable that I cannot hope to use it meaningfully for drawing, Skype, anything.
It's been bad previously, but the graphics driver just crashed 7 times in 4 minutes, half recovered, then axed the computer totally. Right now, I'm using what little life is left in it to back it up. I hope.
I'm away, so I have about zero chance of fixing or replacing it for some time. I may be able to borrow one of my parent's laptops for Skype, but it's not a certainty.
EDIT: No, it's even worse than that. My dog got tangled around my external hard drive power cable while I was trying to back the computer up. After impact with the floor, now it's dead too. Which includes my last good backups.
2nd EDIT: Can Robey and Shirley please send me backup copies of my character sheets to my email, because the hard drive failure now means I couldn't get them off my computer, even if it did stay stable for three minutes.
Eek! Bad times. You could get a HD caddie and mount your old one in it to strip out files onto whatever replacement machine you get (if it comes to that).
*Borrows father's laptop*
I think the laptop's hard drive is still solid (and it had better well be, it's a top notch Western Digital), so I should be able to rip what was on it to a new machine. The external drive however - I think that's utter toast. It's making noises it shouldn't be, and unless it's the only possible way to get my data back, I'm not about to shell out the cost of a recovery. There wasn't that much on it that wasn't on my laptop - backups and some large folders of video. (And given that much of the video had been acquired by completely and unquestionably totally legal and above board means, I'm not sure I would want people rooting through it anyway.)
It was a three and a half year old laptop, and while it is still covered by a four year warranty, I'm not sure it's worth sending it back. They didn't fix it properly last time, and it's still ancient in computer terms. So I'm considering a new one if I can source the money for a shiny new one.
However, it was not a sudden death. As the machine has been going for weeks - months even - I had anticipated this possibility (not the smashed backup drive though) and brought lots of putty and my tool set. So I'm not going to be completely at a loss for stuff to do over the next three weeks, and there should be a decent pace of modelling - at least for a while.
Well, that last session marked the end of the first PrecinctOmega adventure. Which means I'm taking over, right as our Acolytes fall into the hands of the Inquisition.
Because of the time I've had to prepare, I should be able to continue the sessions from next fortnight (Thursday June 9th).
I'm assuming that PO can forward me all your character sheets and background, so the rest of you probably won't need to do anything but turn up again. Do try and be there, because we've not had a full house for months.
Well on the 7th of june i will have internets installed in my new flat and as of then i am back full time and will try and get my RT game running possibly
I haven't yet got through any stuff from PO - I have just emailed him to remind him, but if people want to send me through up to date versions of their backgrounds and character sheets, then it would be welcomed.
While I'm here, take this as a reminder that our next session is Thursday 9th June (i.e. the Thursday four days away), when we will be starting at our usual time of 1930.
Now, given our low attendance in recent weeks, I imagine a few people are a bit lost as to what's going on. Don't let this put you off turning up. I'm going to try and write up the story so far from my (unfortunately incomplete) audio notes and put them up on the Wave - but even if I don't get them all done in time, I will probably be doing a summary at the start of the next session anyway.
Thursday will see me awaiting my visiting mother, but I'll be on from 7 or so. May need to disappear at the drop of a hat about 8-8:30 depending on how quickly she gets from Edinburgh to Inverness...
As for the current state of Ernst, I'm not sure what all went down in the final session, so Robey will probably know best. I heard an insanity point was garnered thanks to Ernst - you're welcome, everybody!
Ruaridh
Quote from: Van Helser on June 07, 2011, 10:04:03 AMI heard an insanity point was garnered thanks to Ernst - you're welcome, everybody!
Sanity is for the weak!
ok so internets have arrived along with a lovely young man from virgin
Quote from: Stormgrad on June 07, 2011, 01:58:38 PMa lovely young man from virgin
That sounds like a euphemism ;)
Thursdays aren't really working out for me as well as I'd hoped. The main reason for my various absences (aside being in england) is that I've been coaching kayaking most Thursday evenings, and it so happens that the time schedule we've gone for this year hasn't been particularly helpful for me being online at a good time.
In fact probably 50% of the time I have been there has been because the coaching session has been cancelled by bad weather/etc.
So yeah, this Thursday I'm having to act as head coach again and take the beginners down a river, so don't expect me online at all until 9.30 at the earliest. =/
I'd be interested as a spectator (and a DH GM) in a summary of what's happened to you guys so far!
Well, we've just begun a new adventure and, as a few of our regulars have become irregulars, there might be some PCs up for grabs (I defer to (a) the players and (b) the new GM on that, though).
In the first adventure (Bleeding Stars) the players met up as all of them happened to be travelling from Iracadia to Carthax in the cramped and stinking Hold 13 of ancient chartist vessel, the Holy Blood, which happened to become subject to an alien infestation by shapeshifting monsters.
The PCs managed - with a good deal of coaching and prodding from the GM! - to catch the aliens unawares in a devastating ambush, seizing control of the ship's bridge and plunging the ship into a terrifying emergency Warp transit, alerting local Inquisition forces that quickly took control of the situation.
In our new adventure (no idea if it has a name), Dave "Marco Skoll" Fincher has taken over as GM and teamed the PCs with a more experienced acolyte (me) to lead an investigation into a possibly-heretical smuggling operation. We've devised our plan and completed a list of the resources we think we will need to complete it. I'm just compiling our "shopping list" for the Inquisitor's approval.
R.
Theoretically, our next session is this coming Thursday, the 23rd. (Which reminds me, I've not actually got that email yet...)
I say "theoretically" as this assumes I'm not so occupied in trying to get things done for the Summer Conclave that I completely forget to come and run it.
... on a completely unrelated note, has anyone ever run a DH game while sculpting before?
Unless the weather gets worse than it already is at the moment, I won't be able to make this Thursdays session as it'll be the last open water training for my current crop of beginners.
New reminder. Next session is Thursday July 7th - which, as I write this, is still just about tomorrow.
lol well ill be there tomorrow just to shout out tho anyone interested in a ROGUE TRADER RP has exacctly two weeks to get back to me as of the 7th first game session will be the 21st
21st? That'd put it on the same Thursdays as the DH sessions...
skypage
but ok the wine i have had this evening maybe a major imparement
Well, today involved drugging a nobleman, a PC knocking themselves out, a character being groped, the use of fate points to open an air vent and an entirely serious use of the statement "passed by seven degrees of success".
It's going well, I think.
and i missed it again! I don't even have an excuse, I just plain forgot entirely. Probably doesn't help not having been on here terribly often lately.
Well, I can institute e-mail reminders on Wednesday nights if people need a better reminder than this thread. I'm looking at you, Mr Turned-up-on-the-wrong-week-asking-what-time-it-was-starting.
Any chance of a new addition? To either the Rogue Trader or DH games?
Id really rather not take over an existing character, but Id gladly take any career path the group needs.
I'm already juggling 5 players for the DH campaign, which - for someone who's quite a rusty RP GM - is quite enough for me to cope with right now (despite a full house being quite a rare thing).
Also, as I'm only running it temporarily so Robey can be a player for a bit, adding players isn't really my decision to make.
However, I think Stormgrad has only got 3 players for his RT adventure (I know there's Rauridh and me, and I think Euan is also hoping to be part of it) so he would probably quite welcome another.
Nice, id definitely be up for that. What career paths are in the crew so far?
Also any interest in the Black Crusade chaos oriented RP?
I'll be playing an Arch Militant, and Rauridh a Navigator.
If you've got anything in mind, it's worth saying that the crew is already turning out to be somewhat shady.
My character has two genetic fathers, and Rauridh's character isn't far off sprouting tentacles from his nostrils.
Sounds good to me, the shadier the better ;D. I think Id choose an explorator with an unhealthy interest in the forbidden/xenos side of things...
Hello Welcome, sorry I haven't replied sooner in answer to your pm I'm hoping to get the number up to 4/5 so if your still interested then id love to have you and id really like an explorator so if your available to skype sometime my skype name is radcount feel free to add me
Ok Im in! Excited too:)
Ill get working on some initial bits and then maybe we could skype tomorrow or the next night to confirm things? Explorator is a definite though.
Thanks for including me
Anytime is good for me ill just leave my skype on if im at the laptop and i can drop out of whatever im doing to nail down the details with you, now where is Euan hiding
Krestan just to say i got your skype request
I should be there this Thursday. Also, I'll speak to you (Stormgrad) on Skype re Rogue Trader.
R.
For anyone who's forgotten, our next session starts half seven ish this evening.
Roger that.
Ruaridh
im available
happily, it just struck me that today was thursday! So I shall be around tonight at long last. Alarms set to remind me and everything!
Quote from: Stormgrad on July 17, 2011, 05:11:38 PMnow where is Euan hiding
I should probably refresh myself with the Rogue Trader archtypes seeing as I've put zero thought into this so far XD
well the first session is going to be more chat going to let the guys in on the ship design and generating the charter so (rauridh) if your not present dont worry
OK FIRST SESSION OF OUR NEW ROGUE TRADER VOIP IS TONIGHT
19:30 GMT, we still have a space, Krestan im still waiting on your character sheet and Euan im still wanting to just chat to you about it if your interested
ok all sent over. Not 100% complete, but im working on him now to get him done. New to RT so please bear with me :)
*releases the bear*
Right... this is the break down from the RT session tonight:
The Rogue Trader's (sorry, I don't know how to spell his name, so I'm not going to embarrass myself) warrant is from the Age of Apostasy, and was issued as part of the sector's recovery from the schism that came about at that time.
It gained quite considerably infamy in its earlier life and thus fell into disuse for a great many years. Nonetheless, it retains ties to some of the great merchant houses of the Carthax sector, although the recent in-fighting within the family has done nothing to recover these connections.
Final profit factor is 38, after the penalties for associating with the malcontents he's finding in the hive of scum and villainy inappropriately called Serenity Outpost.
~~~~~
And the ship:
"Hazeroth-class Privateer"
Speed: 10
Detection: +22
Armour: 15
Space: 35 (Used:35)
Manoeuvrability: +26
Hull Integrity: 32
Turret Rating: 1
Power: 45 (Used: 43)
Weapon capacity: Dorsal (Mars Macrobattery), Prow (Jovian Missile Battery)
Total SPs: 44
Essential Components:
Hull, Jovian Pattern Class 2 Drive, Strelov 1 Warp Engine, Emergency Field, Single Void Shield Array, Armoured Command Bridge, Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer, Voidsmen Quarters, Deep Void Auger Array.
Optional Components:
Prow Mars Pattern Macrocannons, Dorsal Jovian Missile Battery, Augmented Retrothrusters, Armour Plating, Munitorium, Crack Crew (40)
Complications: Rebellious, Temperamental Warp Engine
It now needs a name, a class (it's just similar to a Hazeroth) and some background...
thank you for doing that Marco the name is open to suggestions preferably something taken from the background of the Carthax Sector, the originator of the one that gets picked will receive an extra 50
xp, those that attended last night (robey included) can also add 50 xp to there character sheets
I'm not sure the Carthaxian Sector has much "old" background - there's the story of its rediscovery during the great crusade, but other than that, M30-40 are largely unwritten. Late M41 and early M42 includes some events that are part of the background of contemporary characters - but most ships would be far older than that.
As such, if you wanted to tie it into Carthax Background, it would take the creation of new background.
You might get to tie it into something like one of the worlds in the sector, so maybe something like "Jewel of Solemne" - which is the only Forge World I can remember in the sector right now.
Alternatively, you could just have something that sounds like its a rock band:
- Undiscovered Darkness
- Sanctuary of the Heavens
- Frontier Contender
- Righteous Tribute
- Might of the Wayfarer
Also, some actual songs from my music collection:
- The Razor's Edge
- Last of the Wilds
- Lux Aeterna
- Metal Heart
- Tempus Vernum
Or some Latin proverb:
- Imperator Mihi Vires ("My strength comes from the Emperor")
- Ex Fide Fortis ("Strength from Faith")
- Crede Imperator ("Trust in the Emperor")
- Omnia Causa Fiunt ("Everything has a reason")
- E Tenebris ("Out of the darkness")
My favourites from that are probably "Sanctuary of the Heavens" and "Ex Fide Fortis" - possibly also "E Tenebris". Come off the tongue quite easily, and have the right vibe.
~~~~~
Also: Oops, listed the weapon mounts the wrong way around. Imperial ships normally have their torpedo/missile bays at the prow...
i should of been more clear, i ment the name of the ship's class
Well, then...
~~~~~
Solemne-pattern Vanguard
First produced in late M.37 under the direction of Magos Narven, this class is considered a disrespectful hybrid of the Cobra with the less wide spread Breyde class by many, but it nonetheless filled a vital role after the Mapian famine, one of the more considerable internal crises recorded in the Carthax Sector.
In 837.M37, shifting weather conditions on the Agri-World of Mapia had provided a normally tolerable crop parasite (known to the Adeptus Biologis as the Xenos Mapia Adiunctus Rodere, but colloquially known as "Zeet beetles") with exceptional breeding conditions. The resultant loss of foodstuffs was on a colossal scale, and the planet both failed to make its yearly tithe and retain sufficient resources to repair its production.
Between the Adminstratum's refusal to reduce the planet's tithe grade, and the incompetence of the planetary Governor at the time, Santtu Roplenien, the planet's resources were overstrained for 17 years. The worst of the crisis was marked by Roplenien's assassination in 849.M37 (unknown killer, but suspected to be local).
His off-world replacement, Julius Carnnia, quickly refocused efforts and launched total war against the pests. Putting his life on the line by paying only the merest pittances of tithes, he managed to recover production to acceptable levels in only five years, despite the extensive malnourishment deaths during his predecessor's reign.
However, this was not the end of the problem. During this 17 year period, particularly during the dramatically reduced exports of the last half decade, the shortage of resources coming from Mapia had lead to a dramatic rise in piracy. The fall off in pirate activity that was expected after the planet's return to production never came.
A number of battleships were assigned to protect shipping, but it was impossible to protect every convoy, and the pirate vessels would simply retreat to wait for easier prey. Presented with this problem, the Solemne Forge worlds were tasked with the production of ships which could hunt down and destroy fleeing raiders.
The solution was Magos Narven's "Vanguard" class. The first of which, "Patriot's Will", was completed in 865.M37. With both incredible speed and manoeuvrability, there are few human vessels capable of outrunning a Vanguard, and even fewer capable of hiding from its powerful long range auspex arrays.
It also has little want for firepower, with its large magazine providing sufficient munitions to tear apart lighter ships in only a few salvos.
However, the Vanguard has fallen out of favour in recent years. Aside from the design's lack of complete acceptance, they have proven less than wholly reliable as they have aged. Their relative lack of armour also means they cannot serve well as battleships in the Imperial Navy - while some were retrofitted with additional armour, this was at best a partial solution which limited their manoeuvrability and internal space.
As such, most of those not destroyed by being dramatically outclassed in battle were retired from military service, finding their way into the hands of Inquisitors and Rogue Traders alike.
~~~~~
How about that then? I know it's got some name-checking from planets from my own background, but I figured if there was only a chance of it being used, I might as well expand my own "canon".
I want to call her "The Compulsion of Fate", known affectionate to her crew as just "Fate".
She is an antique Azathoth-class light trade vessel of the type sometimes called a "privateer" or "raider". Now under the command of Rogue Trader Captain Bron Alessaundr, she has served for several generations in the trade assets of the Alessaundr noble clan of Carthax's Hive Gorgenast. The clan itself owned only four vessels, of which Fate was the second largest, but had long-standing (and ruthlessly enforced) exclusive options on as many as a dozen other chartist vessels.
In the deal struck with his genocidal older brother Kurt, Bron claimed the Fate as a condition of accepting the offer of the ancient family Warrant. In doing so, he forced the previous captain, Amelia Locke, out of her position of command and into retirement. The move was not unpopular with the experienced crew who had suffered under Locke's brutal regime for several decades, but made a bitter enemy out of Locke herself. Whilst, in theory, Bron has left Locke far behind him on Carthax, he knows that she will be his brother's loyal hunting dog if Kurt ever decides to send another ship out to eliminate the thorn in his side. Bron has his own spies keeping an eye on Locke, but with his destiny awaiting him beyond Serenity Station in the Velgorth Expanse, he remains torn between the quest for his own destiny and the perpetual watch for knives in the dark...
The Fate herself fell into the hands of the Alessaundrs when the Warrant Bron has claimed was last exercised under the command of the legendary (in the Alessaundr clan, anyway) Zeus Alessaundr, who led an endeavour to rid the formally-uninhabited system of X15-492, on the outer fringes of the Carthaxian Sector, of a dense armada of pirates and smugglers, human and xenos, who were terrorising the local shipping routes and causing mass starvation of a number of Imperial worlds. Although the planets in the system were officially un-named, Zeus Alessaundr led a daring espionage mission, posing as the survivors of a harried renegade fleet, into the system to discover the pirates' stronghold in the inner asteroid belt - a pre-Imperial space station of remarkable proportions and forgotten technologies that its inhabitants called "Fate Station".
When Alessaundr returned at the head of a fleet of Imperial battleships and hand-picked allies, the system itself fell quickly under his control but Fate Station proved impossible to overwhelm with either numbers or firepower. In the end, Zeus established a seige enclosure around Fate Station, using his influence and contacts as a Rogue Trader to establish colonies on the various worlds of the Zeus system (as it was now known) to support the maintenance of the seige for what turned out to be more than twenty sidereal years.
At last, Zeus himself led a small mission to determine the fate of the occupants of Fate Station and found the whole place entirely empty, with no indication of where the previously millions of occupants had gone.
Fate Station itself was claimed by the Adeptus Mechanicus and vanished into the clutches of Mars, but one of the pirates' fastest and most notorious vessels, an Azathoth-class light trader, was claimed as booty by Alessaundr along with an enormous bounty paid by the Mechanicus in Thrones and favours.
Zeus himself was exhausted by the Compulsion of Fate, as the action became known, but he named the new ship in its honour and set it to work in his clan's trade network while he retired to the vast estates on Carthax that his wealth had acquired for him.
In this role, the Fate has proved itself in both transport and escort duties, running interference missions against the ork invasion of 313.M41, but all its commanders have reported an apparent rebellious streak running through the ship's very substance that seems to hark back to its previous life as a pirate vessel, free to run among the stars and wreak havoc upon its enemies.
Once more in the hands of a Rogue Trader and unleashed upon the Velgorth Expanse, who knows how the Compulsion of Fate will respond to a new life of adventure and freedom?
R.
I like both backgrounds a lot, great work. Therefore maybe a merging of the two would be best? I must say I prefer the name Solemne class Vanguard though. So we could keep the background for both by just switching Azathoth to Vanguard no?
Also I dont really like the 'compulsion' part. I do like the 'of Fate' part though. Maybe these might fit;
action
brush
contention
encounter
engagement
onslaught
ravage
contact
struggle
agitation
contest
...of fate
Im partial to 'contention' and 'brush' myself
While I like the background, "light trade vessel" doesn't entirely sound like this ship - what with the generous array of firepower and all. We had to explain why it had a Deep Void Augur Array (which you picked) after you left, which meant it turned more military than trade.
As Kresten says, the two stories are not incompatible though. It could be a Vanguard class that found itself drawn into an ambush and captured by the pirates it was meant to be hunting - ever since, it has rebelled against its crew in disgust.
It was then retaken as part of the "Compulsion of Fate" (although I do prefer Kresten's suggestion of "Contention"), although it yet rebels at its now impure purpose.
Although, I'll go with whatever, provided it makes enough sense.
I'm easy on the class and designation, but the point of "The Compulsion of Fate" is that it's deliberately ambiguous: it could equally refer to the putting of pressure on Fate (as was intended in the actions of Zeus Alessaundr) and to the placing of pressure by Fate on another party (as is intended to be implicit in the life of Bron Alessaundr, driven by Fate to the role of Rogue Trader).
The name is also intended to be an homage to Ian M Banks's "Culture" novels in which the ships are autonomous AIs who make up their own (often convoluted and enigmatic) names.
R.
Ok Im going to wade in here, It was once an Imperial Light Raider Assigned to escort a convoy but was boarded and captured by pirate forces. - Solemne Vanguard fits for this
Robeys Background pretaining to how the ship came into his family's possesion stands - its a brilliant bit of backstory and the whole pirate theme fits well with the over arching meta campaign
I liked the name Compulsion of Fate when i heard it and upon robey explaining this i think where going for it, Unless Rauridh decides to chime in
as for the xp - ill be sending those getting it a message via skype
I have been reading with interest and would like to throw my weight behind Robey's vision. I'm also wondering if I could grab you on Skype earlier on Thursday Shirley? I'm more than likely going to be in a tent near Cape Wrath when the next RT session is due to play. If it's possible to do something on my ownsome could we take a run at it on Thursday afternoon?
Ruaridh
I could probably make myself available earlier on Thursday if there's going to be an RT mini-session.
yeah certainly mate I have a little something in mind that we can do so if you want to do a quick session just Us then im fine with that
Cool. I'll try and be online at about 4.
Ruaridh
I might be able to join that, at least for a period.
R.
ok ill work something up i have a few ideas for what to do with rauridh as for the rest of you ill work on something
Good evening gentlemen, this is your reminder that there is more Dark Heresy tomorrow, at the usual time of exactly just after about seven thirty ish.
Prior warning: There is a possibility of tech problems on this end, as I will probably be using my laptop with its suspect repairs.
So I just came across a recommendation for this site, Obsidian Portal (http://www.obsidianportal.com/), and all things considered, it may well be something that'd be really handy for our RPs. What with everything already being done online, a central hub like this might be useful, especially now that we're up and running and thing will presumably slowly expand and become wider-ranging, this means we don't all have to have our own set of notes and it's better than GoogleWave, which we've sort of stopped using anyway.
It's a possibility at least that i thought worth putting out there and I've only heard good things about the site.
Here's what Common Lore (Carthax Sector) has to say about Pharos Station, the little corner of the galaxy from which Clepsydra hails.
~~~~~
+++ Accessing database +++
+Query: Pharos Station
Once called Diokles Alpha Station, Pharos Station is a non-orbital environment set up in the first few centuries after the Carthax sector's rediscovery. Ten kilometres across, and quite capable of housing a hundred thousand, its original purpose was to serve as a waystation for exploring the Dioklesian nebula, a supernova remnant that was considered a possible source of many rare elements.
However, in testing their theory, the Explorator expeditions discovered a far more terrifying truth – several ships were lost before it became clear that proximity to the nebula could cause terminal cascade feedback in Gellar fields. Capable of overloading such fields in mere moments, the Dioklesian nebula remains one of the most hazardous warp anomalies recorded in the Carthax sector.
Many theories for this effect were proposed, but were never proven due to a lack of volunteers to test them. Ultimately, the specifics were irrelevant, and Diokles Alpha was re-purposed as a warning beacon intended to warn the unwary Navigator from the region.
To this day, only the most foolhardy ship's captain will approach what is now known as Pharos Station from anything other than the galactic north.
It was only a few centuries after these developments that Pharos Station began to become what it is today, considerably more than solely a lighthouse. Its position in the sector, relatively close to major trade routes, yet hazardous enough to not idly approach gave it both resources and privacy, a valuable combination of virtues.
Now of little interest to the Carthaxian Explorators who had once set it up, it was easy work for political machinations to see the station change hands. History does not record the name of the faction that so desired the station, likely through deliberate omission, but their intent lives on.
Through the last few thousand years, Pharos Station has become known as the home of many of the finest Genetors in the Carthax Sector - a fact that owes no small amount to the extent of their experimentation.
For hundreds of generations, almost a full 12% of the station's inhabitants have been directly genetically engineered, with another 93% of the remainder selectively bred from them.
The knowledge they have been perfected for their roles means that many Pharosians have a major superiority complex, a fact only exacerbated by the rarity of their contact with others – few willingly go to Pharos, and few Pharosians ever leave.
That they keep mostly to themselves is much to the relief of outsiders, who seldom want anything to do with those they see as racist demi-humans (and in the eyes of some, little more than blasphemous abominations against the human form).
+Data stream terminated
~~~~~
You see, now it'll be all clever like your characters actually know about it.
character reference for the RT campaign.
Amphro Hawkblood
Death World / Scrapegrace / Renegade (Recidivist) / Press-Ganged / Endurance / Arch-Militant
Grew up a tribal hunter on the great grass plains of Vartno Wano. Despite the beautiful vistas the grasslands are populated by all sorts of deadly creatures both small and large.
Aged 15 his tribe was forced to move into Gromp Hut, planets only city by three years of extreme drought across the great plains, droughts which continued for another six years.
Falls in with criminal crowds, small time stuff mostly, first as muscle, then as brains once accustomed to city life.
Following several disastrous engagements for the Imperial Navy against Ork pirates, Admiral Lucretia Ranagoe targets the out-of-the-way Vartno Wano as the perfect target for a massive press ganging operation to restore the drastically reduced numbers of naval ratings in her ships.
Over a thousand arms-men, supported by a contingent of Arbites, spread throughout the cities slums (now bursting with people escaping the droughts) taking every man they found. Needless to say violence broke out all over the place as thousands and thousands of people were forced into the bowels of the Navys warships for a new life of cruel toil. Hawkblood fought alongside those that resisted in the beginning, seeing many friends die and families sundered before himself being captured.
Almost of decade of service later, now serving as munitions crew on board the small Navy escort "Chalice of the Emperors Magnificence", Hawkblood was one of the leaders of a mutiny of both ratings and navy personnel against their commanding officers. The mutiny successful, they handed the ship over to the large pirate raiding fleet which had been blockading them for three months. It was during this action that he acquired his elaborately engraved twin bolt pistols from the ships Lieutenant, a dandy of a man who'd never fired a shot in anger, who Hawkblood pummelled to death with his own officers cane.
Recognised for his combat skills and for being the only mastermind of the revolt still breathing after the fight to capture the bridge, Hawkblood was brought into the inner circle of the pirate leader, a renegade navy captain by the name of "Sun Reaper" Tullarin. Hawkblood served on the pirate captains boarding team for a few years before he had a major falling out with Tullarins' brother where they pulled their guns on each other. The captain intervened at the last moment and allowed Hawkblood to leave the ship alive at their next stop - Serenity Outpost.
Hawkbloods ultimate aim now that he is free once more is to rise high enough in rank or infamy that he may one day meet Admiral Ranagoe and exact revenge for what she did to his people. He knows it will be a slow process, but he will willingly confront all obstacles in his path - for his homeworlds interpretation of the Creed states that the Emperor guides your every decision to help you reach your destiny - and rising up to prominence on the coat-tails of a Rogue Trader is as good a way as any. Before the Emperor gives him this golden opportunity however, he must simply survive whatever challenges come his way.
Well, if we're posting PCs background, I suppose I should contribute. Here's the story behind Bron Alessaundr:
As the youngest son of the Lord Alessaundr of Carthax (the youngest of 9 brothers), he expected little from life but to be left in peace to enjoy his studies, which were esoteric and wide-ranging, occasionally touching upon matters the Imperium might prefer him not to know. Had fate let him be, Alessaundr may well have fallen from grace to become the sort of corrupt noble that so often becomes an irritant to the Inquisition. However, he always had a sense that things might not continue indefinitely as they were and paid the same careful attention to the lessons of his family weapons masters as he did to those of the family savants and administrators.
His instincts proved correct, but it was sheer chance (or the Emperor's beneficence) that he survived fate's strike when it came. The fifth brother, Kurt, less willing than Bron to be simply ignored for the rest of his existence, executed a brilliant decapitation manoeuvre on his male relatives. Bron was absent from the family conference, lost in astrographical studies and some notes on the proper positioning of warp transit points, when Kurt's bomb exploded. His mercenaries quickly moved in, finishing off the wounded survivors with little challenge.
In some cultures, Kurt Alessaundr's move would have been reviled. But in the stratified environment of Carthax's Hive Purgatur such ruthlessness was applauded by all but one: Bron. His relaxed life had been shattered and, by Pugatur inheritance law, he was thrust into the spotlight as Kurt's heir with all the entitlements that involved. But Kurt, having committed all to seizing complete control of the family's immense wealth, was not content to bequeath to Bron his entitlement. After staving off some half a dozen assassination attempts, Bron concocted a cunning solution and offered to exchange his share in the inheritance for a single ship from the family's fleet.
Hopeful that his brother would either disappear or quickly kill himself, Kurt was delighted to agree. But Bron proved a canny merchant, claiming and exploiting dozens of charters to build a remarkable fortune in his own right. Kurt's response was as canny as Bron's had been. He offered Bron the family's hereditary - but dormant - Warrant of Trade in exchange for his portfolio of charters. Bron knew he would never be safe on his own vessel if he refused, and in any case he had already had a taste of the potential prestige such a Warrant might offer him. After consulting a party of his most trusted advisers, he took Kurt's offer and headed for the distant edge of the Imperium. But as long as he lived, Bron knew he would be a thorn in his brother's side that only death would remove. He has already become adept at spotting and dodging (or eliminating) his brother's many agents, but he is still reluctant to leave the safety of his bridge or his private quarters except where the rewards justify it.
I'm working on a portrait that I'll post just as soon as I can get around to scanning it.
R.
I will post more some of Clepsydra's background at some point (as opposed to just the brief about her home station) but I'll need to condense it down first.
However, here's a half complete picture I was drawing. (http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/ClepsydraWIP1.jpg)
~175cm, ~60 kg, Type II skin, red-brown hair, green eyes. Voidborn. Her accent when speaking Low Gothic is a hybrid that is hard to pin down, with fragments of pronunciation and dialect from several Carthaxian planets.
The pistol-thing in the image is "Athena", a heavily butchered Accatran pattern lasgun cut down to a length where it can be used as a sidearm. It can unfold (by virtue of a collapsing stock and foregrip) into something that handles like a longarm when necessary.
I will also use this opportunity to remind players that our next session is on the coming Thursday 18th at the normal time of 1930.
However, please bear in mind that I am on a narrowboat and using a mobile internet connection, so my connectivity is not entirely reliable and I may miss or drop out of any session without warning.
I should be good for Thursday night, with Havelock Lupus ready to dig deeper into the identity of our mysterious smuggler.
R.
Speaking of smugglers, here's Bron Alessaundr, Rogue Trader Captain of the "Compulsion of Fate":
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/237/1/c/captain_bron_alessaundr_by_precinctomega-d47ru6c.jpg
Apologies, but I just can't seem to get my scanner to do a good job with my sketches. I probably need to use something harder than a 4H...
R.
It's Bron Blessed!
Actually, given we've got a character called Hawkblood, I'm starting to wonder if I've wandered into a twisted version of a camp 1980 sci-fi movie.
Looks like we're all doing show and tell at once eh? Because i'm no artist, I was bored and spent my lunchtime mucking around in Hero Machine (http://www.ugo.com/games/superhero-generator-heromachine-2-5) trying to figure out how I pictured Hawkblood.
I got a bit carried away and have created him at the three key stages of his life - when the droughts struck in his teens (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/theonlymisterme/Dark%20Heresy%20and%20Rogue%20Trader/screen-capture-2.jpg); when, having moved into gang crime, he fought against the Navy press-gangs on Vartno Wano in his early twenties (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/theonlymisterme/Dark%20Heresy%20and%20Rogue%20Trader/screen-capture-1.jpg); and finally his appearance now in his late thirties (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/theonlymisterme/Dark%20Heresy%20and%20Rogue%20Trader/screen-capture.jpg), aboard the Compulsion of Fate.
Unfortunately hero machine doesn't have any barbaric enough looking whips to look like a grox whip, aside from that pretty pleased with the outcomes.
The Sossari system is the ancestral home of the Sossarian Sub Sector, one of the last tracts of space to be claimed for the imperium in the conquering of the Carthax Sector. It's home to two habitated worlds, Sossaria Primus and Secondus.
Sossaria Primus is the Capital world, A Hive world it has 4 great hives,Majoris and Minoris two vast hives on one Continent stand at opposite ends of a vast desert wracked by the ocean on one side and the desert winds on the other. Polar Outpost 78 started as a mining expedition now it is simply known as Polar a hive that is drilled into the ice mountains of the planets northern polar region the final hive, The Flotsam is just that it started as a collection of Floating Habs since that time it has turned into a vast floating city that travels the worlds ocean visiting the other 3 hives periodicly.
Majoris sits eastward of the Main continent it sits on the very precipice of the world facing out over Sossaria Primus's vast ocean it is the Administrative seat of a whole subsector and nearly in its entirety the hive is given over to that task. if you live in Majoris your either a administratum clerk or there to provide service to them be it resturants or security right to the grand Cirque De Sosar which provides the wealthy lords with entertainment. Halfway between Majoris's overhanging Hive skirt and the ocean below chiselled into the sheer cliffe sits the Black Mausoleum, the Sub Sector offices for the Inquisition only accessable by flier landing into the cliffe face hangar it is one of the most feared buildings on the planet yet hardly anyone see's it. Local legend has it that the Inquisition will reach up from below the soil and drag the damned underground, indeed the Black Mausoleum actually has 2 of the Ancient and Vast Termite Sub Terranian Transports. It Appears that the locals are right the inquisition is indeed ready to strike from beneath the soil if it needs to.
At the westward end of the main continent sits Minoris actually far bigger than Majoris it is the industrial heartland of the world, if you need it then its made here. Home to the Traders and the manufactoriums its vast spire is clouded in noxius gasses and nearly constantly drenched in acidic rain, it is also home to the planets Largest space ports, Its Main exports are actually Fliers of all shapes and sizes from small utilitarian speeders to small space going shuttles and interceptors.
In the Northern Polar Region, Polar hive is burried deep into the glacial mountains of one of the worlds most inhospitable regions it exists solely due to a unique ore that can only be found in the ice mountains mettalurgists say its due to the exreme physical preasures of the polar region, if you live in the Polar hive then your life is likely to be bitterly cold and opressivley dark and your probably A Miner or an administrater
Flotsam, is the large floating hive, its actually really a massive oceangoing vessel with many houses built upon its back it floats around the world stopping at the other 3 hives, workers on Flotsam process the water cleaning it and making it Drinkable any algae or ocean life is turned into a slimey green paste. Not only is this paste edible and nutritious but its also good for sealing leaks in a ships bulkheads.
Sossaria Secondus exists for one reason, to feed Sossaria Primus the Entire planet is given over to Agriculture its City farms are huge and every scrap of ground is given over to food production, the people there live aboard vast monolithic harvesters, the 2 kilometre long Machines ply the city farms harvesting turning over and replanting Gene modified crop. Space on the machines is at a premium so fairly regularly new guard regiments are formed in order to keep the population at a suitable level. The Largest of the Harvesters is known as AgraNaught, and is the only true city on the planet moving along at a ponderous pace it has been expanded and provides the planets only starport, it is now the size of a small hive city, with the main focus being the administration and control of the planets agricultural output aswell as performing that agricultural work itself.
The Sosar Belt is the only other notable feature of the system, But travel there is strictly prohibited as its the main staging grounds for the Space Marines of the Emerald Knights Chapter its vast mineral resources worked by serfs and servitors of the Marines to provide the raw materials needed for there forges the empty asteroids have been turned into habitation and training grounds for the marines
That fluff has a "Mortal Engines" feel to it, what with the floating/moving cities. Not a bad thing by any means - those books always had something of a 40k feel to them, what with the class stratified cities, ruthless ruling classes and schizoid technology.
Finally, a cut down version of Clepsydra's background:
~~~~~
Zeta-8, currently identifying as Clepsydra, is a Pharos Station Warden, part of the military force that assures the safety and security of Pharos. Like most of her peers, she was not naturally conceived and was instead vat-grown from the spliced genome of other members of the division.
Females are rare amongst the Wardens, as this measure is normally only taken when one of the fathers (as an obvious side effect, few Wardens have a mother) possesses a genetic flaw that would become recessive or nonexistent in homogametic offspring (In Zeta-8's case, deutranopia). The effect on the end result, given that the subject will eventually have their reproductive system chemically suppressed, is seen as relatively trivial by the Genetors at the genevats. The ranking Wardens are known to take a less favourable view on the matter.
Sydra herself is part of the Advance company, a small group which comprises less than one hundred of the ten thousand Wardens.
Bred for self-reliance and initiative, these Wardens are the only Pharosians who are ever regularly off-station, serving - when the station has need of such things - in the roles of bodyguards, scouts and bounty hunters. They are also the only few in whom independence is cultivated, for such traits are seen as a threat to loyalty to the station.
Unlike the soldiers of the Defence companies, who lived entirely militarised lives through a chemically accelerated youth, she was raised at a more natural pace by whichever of these “soldiers” (for while their roles vary, it is hard to collectively describe them with any other term) that were on the station at the time. She saw relatively little of her actual parents, although she still keeps the bolter casing her father Kappa-19 gave her - now carefully drilled, recut and hinged to hold her hair in its ponytail.
Her education, taught as it was by those who had seen a great deal of the galaxy, was relatively wide ranging, covering not only the expected combat topics, but also the basics of Imperial culture, deception and, importantly, Low Gothic – the language is not spoken aboard Pharos and their own convoluted and esoteric construction of a language deliberately serves as yet another difficulty to overcome in trying to steal the station’s secrets.
Her fascination with star-gazing dates back to these early days, staring out at a cosmos she had been told so much about but could not yet explore.
It was many years before she was escorted on a number of minor missions, and later allowed to carry out solo operations.
Overall, she proved successful enough that her genetic material was nominated as a possible source to replace a number of recent losses. As a result, she has a half brother and daughter.
Her most important, and most recent, assignment was with Captain Svolto of the Aquila Excelsis (one of the few ships that made supply runs to Pharos Station). While the captain had served for a long time, his motives and loyalties were increasingly in question, and the station wished to further investigate them.
As one of the youngest of the Advance Wardens in service, Zeta-8 was chosen so as to provide a believable alibi – that she was to accompany Svolto as part of her training.
Agreeing to the hefty payment the station offered, he took her aboard; but having already guessed her purpose, they were no more than a few days from the station when he put his own counter-scheme into action.
He made arrangements for her to be quietly reassigned to one of the ship’s medicae wards, excusing it with a story about the crew stealing from the stimm lockers. Left with relatively little choice in the matter, she had to concede.
Her social nature, inoffensive manner, neutral accent, technical expertise and willingness to aid the medicae lead to a quick integration and development of a rapport with most of the levels of crew in her section. It was during this time she first took the name of Clepsydra, taking a more natural sounding name after one of the regions of the Dioklesian nebula.
She also took part in the defence against a pirate boarding action, her implanted genetic instinct for defending others coming forth when she placed herself in the way of enemy fire to save several voidsmen.
About 11 months into the ship’s journey, four of the largest and bulkiest guards on the ship appeared in the armsmen’s barracks, and lead her to the viewing deck where the captain was looking out over the hive world below. Here, he began to explain the situation. He knew exactly why she had been sent here – but she did not.
Gesturing out of the window, he explained his task for the station. He had been ordered many years ago to “disappear” anyone he could find and deliver them to the Genetors. The specifics were unclear to him, but he doubted it was for anything other than guinea pigs for their genetic experiments.
For the last ten years, he had been increasingly plagued by attacks of conscience, and for the last six, he had set up arrangements on several planets so he could fill his holds with only the worst criminals each could muster, and had been setting up an array of contacts.
However, his cause was almost at an end – a botched rejuvenat process had left him in the advanced stages of several cancers. The ship would soon fall to his only son, who would show few of the same mercies.
But he had been watching Sydra’s interactions for most of a year now, carefully probing her character. He believed that with her selfless and sociable nature, she could serve as his legacy in his cause, bringing down the station from the inside. If she would rather turn him in, then his imminent death meant he would lose little.
Several months later, on her return to Pharos Station, she presented a report to her masters that condemned Svolto as a traitor to the station. Leading a group of Wardens to the Captain’s quarters, they found he had committed suicide, but a search of his quarters found a data-slate listing his conspirators.
Zeta-8 immediately nominated herself to continue the hunt and bring the remainder to justice, a request that was quickly granted, her masters applauding her fiery dedication to the cause.
Now free of the station, it allowed her to put their true plans into action – to find Svolto’s contacts and use their help to topple the station. Preferably without the station finding out those particulars.
Several months in, her search lead her to Serenity Outpost. However, from there, things went somewhat amiss…
~~~~~
Okay... cut down by my standards. I mean, it's barely more than a thousand words.
She's a rather noble character for the 41st millennium, but I thought it'd be fun to have someone with a strong moral code that could bring them to loggerheads with the kind of brigands that Rogue Trader was likely to attract. (And we seem to have those aplenty...)
Of course, with all that in mind, Bron's crew assignments become somewhat ironically underinformed - putting the genetically engineered bodyguard in charge of his armsmen, and the former armsman in charge of his bodyguards. :P
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 26, 2011, 03:09:43 PMOf course, with all that in mind, Bron's crew assignments become somewhat ironically underinformed - putting the genetically engineered bodyguard in charge of his armsmen, and the former armsman in charge of his bodyguards. :P
This is however incredibly typical of the daily errors of the Imperiums vast organisations ;)
And of course Hawkblood's motivations mean he is perhaps the most interested in Bron's survival and success from the off, hoping to ride his coattails to fame and the opportunity to enact long-awaited revenge on a certain Admiral.
Well, that depends on how you think of an error.
Bron's decision is logical enough based on what he actually knows. The strange void-born woman might have pulled him out of the way of gunfire in the bar, but the big bulky death worlder is a more visible deterrent.
For someone who's quite so paranoid (although justifiably) about being attacked, assigning his personal bodyguard before other crew positions is pretty much what you'd expect.
I'm prepared to run with it - it's Bron's ship, and situations rather conspired in a way that means there's not much reason for him to decide to assign the roles differently. That doesn't mean it won't bite said Lord-Captain in the rear later, as this falls completely outside Sydra's former training/experience, something he'll probably start to realise with time... ::)
Of course, this is all entirely OOC, as IC Sydra hasn't explained who she is much more than saying she was working as a Bounty Hunter.
Whether anyone has even recognised she's a Pharosian yet is questionable - it's possible to tell from the emblem on the shoulders of her armour (although it's not in my earlier picture) and her "hybrid" accent (the form of Low Gothic spoken by the Advance Wardens has been learnt/copied from the variants of hundreds of different planets, and all blends into one), but most people who know about Pharosians at all try to avoid meeting them to the extent they know so little about them that they wouldn't realise when they did - which in itself is rare, with so few allowed off station.
(As a final note, Sydra's hardly disinterested in keeping Bron alive. She has her own vendettas for which powerful allies would be very useful...)
I've been running the DH a while now, so I'm going to have to ask everyone to forward me the latest copies of their character sheets so I can make sure my copies are up to date - or equally, vice versa. (Robey, you don't need to, I've got yours from the other day.)
My email should be on my forum profile, or somewhere amongst the buttons under my avatar.
...now, where did I put that house version of the mass combat rules?
Well, another DH session done. I'm still cringing at the pauses where my thoughts won't turn into words, although I would like to think those are becoming slightly less frequent.
Dont volunteer to do anything that could result in you rolling dice cos if you fluff it up Marco will make you suffer
I'd say I'm very lenient about how much I make you guys suffer, given that plans from the last session included:
- "Ernst hides in the bar owned by the people looking for him."
- "We'll follow the Rhino by having Etris hang on to the side of it to give directions."
- "Why doesn't Guilleman try stealing another car?"
I thought we were just being suitably cinematic :P
Complete with Italian Job homage with our new found GrimdarkTM armoured Mini.
With regret, I'm going to have to miss tonight guys. I'll catch up with y'all later.
Ruaridh
Super early advanced warning!!
As some of you may have seen on facebook, I am now stage manager for an upcoming amateur production of Wizard of Oz. As it happens I am also graphics designer for all promotional materials AND a committee member of the club.
Therefore the 13th and 20th Oct I will quite probably have to miss and the 27th Oct and 3rd Nov I will definitely be missing (in-situe rehearsal and show week).
Please don't kill Guilliman/Hawkblood when I'm gone ;)
Not I that I won't possibly manage that by myself before then.
Given that October 27th is only two days before the Autumn Conclave (and I'll be heading out on the Friday to save my normal sleep deprived commute), it is possible I may have to miss running that session anyway - well, assuming I'm still running it then. I don't know how much longer it'll take you - depends on which parts of the plot you come across and act on.
That would tarnish my thus far perfect attendance record, but with you being elsewhere, Robey being on holiday then, and with two of the remaining three being possible attendees at the Conclave, I won't exactly feel like I'm cheating people out of their geek time. Still, only a maybe.
Whelp, it seems Clepsydra has become the unofficial tech-adept of the group. Unfortunately, given that the three actual techpriests we brought with us are dead, that means that repairing the generatorium before the warp rift tears itself open is down to me.
Tell me again why I thought that an AdMech related background was a good idea?
In better news, it turns out that "Weapon Master (Basic)" is pretty damn awesome.
Stay tuned for our next episode "The Return of the Lift Music"
Ah. That reminds me, there may be a serious virus going around the Tertius hive of Ismene. Oddly, only psykers with fate points suffer any effects, everyone else is merely a carrier.
Hello, you've probably ended up with a whole mess of e-mails as the result of a messed up attempt at sending around an e-mail reminder. Kindly ignore them. That is all.
Did I miss much tonight then? Did the warp beasts see defeat? Sorry I didn't give notice tonight, kept forgetting to say I had a meeting to be at.
Nope. As we were also short a Robey, we were a bit short of players for what Shirley had planned, so we just spent a couple of hours talking about what we'd been doing recently instead.
yeah i had something spectacular planned and to be honest i dont think the other characters deserve to miss out, On another note if people are reading this then hurrah because theres an opening in the group if anyone wants to join in
well as I previously warned, don't expect to see me in the skype sessions for another 4 weeks now, what with all the show rehearsals I have to attend. I'll definitely be back in action by the 10th Nov though.
On that note, I am officially calling off the 27th of October session.
It puts the first black mark on my attendance record, but we're going to be least two players down anyway that week, and two of us (maybe even three, depending on Shirley) have got to make journeys across the country the next day.
DH will however still be on this Thursday (13th October), and will return on the 10th November. I'll be 23 the day before that, so you can all wish me a late happy birthday when we kick off again.
Just stumbled across this (http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/tamiya-mini-cooper-1275s-24039-p-9842.html). I dare someone to include a grimdark version in their IGT 2012 scenario :P
... I am sorely tempted.
The 1:24 scale could be good actually. 1:32 tends to look a bit dinky compared to Inquisitor models, probably because of the "heroic" bulk and the little bit of height the base adds.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on October 11, 2011, 12:48:02 AM
Just stumbled across this (http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/tamiya-mini-cooper-1275s-24039-p-9842.html). I dare someone to include a grimdark version in their IGT 2012 scenario :P
A scenario about a daring ground-car chase following a robbery on a shrine-world, featuring a huge flight of steps as an obstacle perhaps? It could be called 'The Istvaanian Job'...
I'm not sure Shirley is watching this thread, but any chance of Rogue Trader this week? We've missed out on two sessions now...
yeah rogue trader tonight
May be a bit late tonight - currently having dinner at the just about in-laws'.
Ruaridh
Show's over now so I am free for whatever now.
well i believe comming thursday is our DH Game
Finally finished that drawing of Clepsydra (http://fav.me/d4gcj66) I was working on months back.
And I think that's the first non-sketch pen and paper artwork I've completed in over a year. Not quite as pretty or neat as the digital stuff, but it hangs up on the wall better.
Rogue Trader Tomorrow night
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/4968-Rarelywinter
When you've got 8 minutes, give it a watch. Both for the 40k references and the uncontrollable D&D roleplaying group. (note that there's a stinger after the credits; and that you should look at this comic (http://thingsmycathates.tumblr.com/post/12783510630/imperiumofman) after watching.)
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on November 17, 2011, 11:20:16 PMuncontrollable D&D roleplaying group
Looked pretty normal to me... which I guess does mean pretty uncontrollable.
Mind you, at least they were only naming a dragon rather than having the tech-priest give a name starting with H to each individual autocannon round in each magazine.
On which note - and given I recall Sydra is acting Master-of-Arms - Forenz (spelling?) is
so forbidden from the ship's armouries when we get back up to the Compulsion. He might think that it's terribly good fun, but I'm not sure who else would.
Well, that's the first time I, as a Gamesmaster, have had my players nominate an NPC for roleplaying XP.
If anyone is interested the RP is reaching a point in near future where im able to take on up to 2 more bodies for the RP if anyone is interested please say so here or send me a pm
In case people are Interested we do not have an Astropath, Seneschal, Void Master or an Explorator
Google have announced that Wave will become read-only on 31st January 2012 and will be turned off on 31st April 2012. Not that we've really used if very much since the start, but thought it was worth bringing to everyone's attention.
Not unexpected. Part of the reason I stopped bothering was that I knew Google were taking it off the air at some point and didn't really want to get to the point where we were relying on it.
Anyway, I assume we have an RT session tonight?
Yes Very much so, RT Tonight Email just went out
Euan brought up a fair point today. We're heading into the Candlemas season, so there's a fair chance we're going to have people visiting their relatives on Cadia, sipping amasec and watching Inquisitor Who (feared enemy of the Necrons) on the holocast.
I'm expecting the next DH session (next Thursday, the 8th) to go ahead, but the session after that would be on the 22nd.
So I can plan ahead (and rather than asking during the next session and having no-one checked the answer), who is expecting to miss the 22nd?
I think I'll miss the 22nd. I'll be visiting some relative or other I'm almost certain.
Ruaridh
Fair do's.
While I'm here, a heads up. I'm on yet another computer - although this one actually has some more guts, I'm still putting it together, so there is the possibility we'll get to Thursday and I'll have some teething issue.
Given that getting the internet to work took seven attempts at getting it to accept the drivers, then giving up, formatting the hard disk clean and reinstalling Windows, this is not impossible.
Double posting, but what the hell...
A nice side effect of new computer is this one actually has the poke to run Photoshop! Ergo, I finally got around to finishing that drawing of Etris: http://fav.me/d4i1qx1
The other characters will be on the way - with the caveats I'll have to find the descriptions I had (Etris was the easiest to start with as Lampitt had some drawings of his own) and that it's not top priority.
Ok, so I have Rauridh's Character sheet, if i could get a copy of clepsydras and Amphro's sheet
Ok guys, RT Tonight is a go
It's inevitable Clepsydra is going to be looking for an increase in firepower at some point.
Now, I could always fall back on trying to find a Bolter, but if Stormgrad will go for it, she might look for one of these instead:
~~~~~
Solemne pattern Boarding Hellgun
During the production of the Solemne-pattern Vanguard escort class, attempts were also made to provide armsmen with improved weaponry for the inevitable boarding actions.
While developed from the basic pattern of the Voss Hellgun, the two classes are however easily told apart:
- A heavier, cooled, barrel design developed to allow extended vacuum combat by offsetting the lack of convective cooling - this improved cooling also allows an increase in maximum rate of fire, vital in aggressive boarding combats.
- A second (bullpup) magazine well, designed to eliminate the need for the bulky backpack power sources that were impractical in close quarters combat. In the cases that ship board combats would last longer than the main power-cell, the user could quickly switch to the reserve power-cell to continue.
- Multiple fixture points to accommodate the use of auxiliary attachments such as underbarrel shotguns or chain-blade attachments.
However, early trials showed the increased weight of the weapon, while not a major issue in zero-G combat, was impractical in normal gravity. The design's fixture points did allow the use of suspensor studs, but this was prohibitively expensive for mass production.
As such, early examples of Solemne Hellguns are exceptionally rare, and the pattern as a whole would likely have remained a footnote but for the Ilithyian war. Due to a shortage in the required production of hellgun capacitor backpacks, the demand for a hellgun that could make use of lasgun power-cells without the threat of unexpectedly running out of ammo mid-firefight resulted in a rapid resurgence of the design. With the additional bonus of the heavier stiffer barrel marginally increasing the weapon's range, it is now produced across many hive worlds in the Cuir Subsector.
Basic; 120m; S/3/5; D10+4 E; Pen 3; Shots 15; Rld Full; 8 kg; Rare (in or near Cuir subsector. Very Rare elsewhere.)
The Solemne pattern automatically comes equipped with a fire selector and two magazines.
Due to the more awkward bullpup location of the second magazine, it takes twice as long (2 Full) to reload.
~~~~~
A bit more characterful and fluffy than just a bolter - particularly as Amphro's already got one of those himself.
To complete the story of my absence last night (aside from internet connection problems), the vet diagnosed Charlie with Rage Syndrome this morning.
It's a very rare neurological condition in Cocker Spaniels that can cause sudden aggressiveness that the dog neither has control over nor will remember. While occasionally anti-epileptic medication can reduce the problem in some cases, it is ultimately incurable.
While a much loved dog who never actually intended any harm to anyone, he was no longer safe through no fault of his own and we had to make the decision to have him put down.
Very sad, but the only alternative - almost constant muzzling and a complete destruction of his quality of life - would have been completely unfair on him.
At the very least, we are lucky enough to know that the reason and be able to remember him as a dog that was incurably ill, not one that was willingly violent.
I'm really sorry to hear that, Marco. You have my sympathy.
As Stormgrad has just reminded me, we have a space going in our sessions, given we seem to have lost one player's interest and Robey has had to withdraw (at least for the time being) due to other commitments.
There's probably going to be a few sessions Van Helser is going to take the DH over for, as he's expressed interest to give him something to do while his arm is in a sling, and I don't know exactly what's going to happen after that (possibly/probably me again), but for the DH at least, you can expect to start in the region of 3000 XP/Rank 5 and a fair few equipment upgrades.
As far as classes, we've presently got a Guardsman, Cleric, Assassin and Psyker - and I think we'd all welcome the diversity if any new recruit were to opt for something a bit different, but we're not that strict about it.
You'll need to ask Stormgrad about the specifics of the RT, but I'd guess a low Rank 2 start. We're already running two Archmilitants and a Navigator along with a GM controlled Explorator and Voidmaster (and there's also the Rogue Trader Robey was playing, now hiding in his quarters due to a paranoid breakdown), so while it's probably best if you give either the Arch-Militant or Navigator careers alone, things should be good otherwise.
It's every Thursday at 1930 over Skype, with Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader on alternate weeks.
I think it's worth noting that the Dark Heresy Skype sessions have run with what I think is fair to call some success for over a year now. We have unfortunately worked down to a strong core of 4 people that are still capable of meeting every week on Thursdays 7:30pm till 10-ish (now alternating DH and RT), with room for more to join us.
Even if someone is only interested in joining just the DH or just the RT, they're very much welcome and strongly encouraged to try it out, no matter your level of experience with either system.
Having such compact fortnightly sessions does mean that we've only just now reached the end of adventure #2, but such is the nature of the beast. We've learnt a number of lessons for making things run better and faster (never split the group in two!) in the future though, so we remain full steam ahead.
Our slightly sluggish progress is partly down to an overly sprawling plot concept from me as well as the issue with splitting the party (it basically meant running two simultaneous stories, and made running a session hard if we only got a turnout of two, both in different groups).
The plot will likely speed up in future.
I'd add that it's also nice to have the gaming chat that usually precedes the session, although this time does often include me waxing lyrical about Infinity.
Would that I wasn't working either on Thursday evenings or on Friday mornings, else I'd join you in a heartbeat. Heaven knows how I'm even able to snatch a few minutes to post now.
It'd have to be checked with everyone, but it might be we could shift the day around if it had a chance of netting us an extra. (We ran on Monday this week to get further from the IGT and Ruaridh's shoulder surgery.)
Thing is, with only four of us these days, it gets a bit light on players if someone has other appointments.
In theory if we were to change evening, for me it would have to be a Monday (or Saturday or Sunday, but those two are much more likely to have last minute late evening plans made that clash).
Kayaking Tuesdays 8-10, Amateur Theatrics & Pub Quiz Wednesdays 7-10/12, Scouts on Fridays 7-10.
If moving to Monday night gaming bags us a couple more participants I would have no problem with a change. As I'm about to begin a new adventure next week, new players will be easy to work in at this point.
Ruaridh
I'm fairly sure your all aware that I'm available any night of the week that you choose.
Did you get my email rauridh?
And RT on thurs as you plan on what your going to do with your evidence of heresy
I did thanks. It all looks okay to me.
As for Euan and David's character sheets...
Ruaridh
I've sent an email.
Apologies in advance for messing things up by telling you I'm not playing the character you thought I was.
In response to the last session's comments about me "and female characters", the obvious solution would be to run a Deathwatch game - but after some thought, I fear the results of that could actually be worse...
I was simply making the observation that if there's a strong leading lady in a given RP around these parts, it's likely that you are responsible. I wasn't trying to suggest that there's anything bad about it.
In fairness, we have seen the likes of Silva*, Frost, Lyra and (most recently) Riley performing very strongly in recent years...
*Yes, I'm aware Silva wasn't exactly the leading lady when I last encountered her, but that was primarily because of Alice. If Alice had instead been an Alistair, Silva would have fitted the "female lead" position very nicely.
No, I think I probably do "have a problem", given that I write about twice as many female characters as male ones. Not sure what said "problem" might be, but I'm sure armchair psychologists could make up all kinds of excuses to use the word "Freudian".
Mind you, I can at least be fairly confident I'm not misogynistic. Unless I'm in really deep denial.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on May 25, 2012, 10:07:03 PM
No, I think I probably do "have a problem", given that I write about twice as many female characters as male ones. Not sure what said "problem" might be, but I'm sure armchair psychologists could make up all kinds of excuses to use the word "Freudian".
Mind you, I can at least be fairly confident I'm not misogynistic. Unless I'm in really deep denial.
Hmm. To date, I can't think of many female characters I've written at all. Over the period of time I'm actually willing to count (as my writing before that was just bad), I think I've used:
-one female lead (Alice, who's going to be split up into two different characters, for the simple reason that I want to preserve her as a character while separating her from the idea necessitating her creation)
-maybe four female supports (Rosheine who barely counts, Rowena who managed to straddle that transition gap between bad writing and okay writing, Michiru Amamiya who I used and killed off over on 40KO, and possibly Tyra in the near future depending on whether she survives Defiant Echoes)
-one female antagonist (an Eldar Farseer, also over on 40KO, though in this one's case she ended up defaulting to Heroic Neutral (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeroicNeutral) once the Bigger Bad (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BiggerBad) showed up)
By way of comparison, in Defiant Echoes alone, I've used:
-one male lead (Andreas, oddly enough)
-at least one male support (Haines, probably Barkley/Ravion/Holst as well if Herald, Necris and Octavian don't return to reclaim their characters)
-several male antagonists (Zagan, Goruvich, the Ancient)
-one antagonist that prefers to identify as male but ultimately isn't bothered or constrained by such things as gender-identity (Agares)
If anything, I need to balance it out more...
I've used female characters in RPs before, but they've been neither player-characters nor GM-characters. That said, there would arguably be no plot to one particular RP were it an all-male cast...
On a side note at least David does not go to the lengths of using a voice changer and if we did run deathwatch at any point I would pretty much make it mandatory that you rolled a sister using the rules from blood of martyrs
Oh dear. That's even worse than what I imagined. Probably hilarious though.
Quote from: Stormgrad on May 28, 2012, 04:09:49 PM
On a side note at least David does not go to the lengths of using a voice changer
If you're referring to that bit last week where I gave a crappy impersonation of the Ancient (who really is just a Khornate Dalek stuffed into a Dreadnought chassis), that was done using my own vocal chords. I wish I had a voice ring modulator, or any skill with Audacity, as that way I could A) sound convincing B) let Dave in on it too :P
nah, Lampitt used one a couple times early on in DH - worked pretty well, but sounded a touch metallic
Of course, the reason the others stopped me trying to do the voice for my girl characters "in character" was that was entirely my own vocal chords as well and I kept losing track of my pitch because I couldn't hear myself with the headphones on. Maybe I'll subject you all to it again sometime.
Anyway, now to disappear before anyone asks me why I know transexual voice techniques.
I have to nominate that last session as one of our very best since we started. Plenty of good roleplaying (even if my IC suddenly went totally OOC at the point my brain finally managed to put the pieces together - thank the Emperor for my note taking), my dice rolls were completely on form and Gregor's housebreaking was hilarious!
EDIT: Not to understate the amusement of Mrs. Stanleck finally getting to have her way with Novus.
Gregor was definitely no cat burglar!
I think we're all getting to know our characters better and getting properly into character with them now. Makes for a good GMing experience I must say!
Ruaridh
Quote from: Van Helser on June 01, 2012, 11:22:36 AM
I think we're all getting to know our characters better and getting properly into character with them now.
It'll probably take me a fair while yet, with DH anyway, although I've got a fair understanding of Novus already (better than I do of Stirling, which embarrasses me somewhat) and am well on the way to understanding what makes Alyx tick.
Rogue Trader... not so much, as I've had one session to go by :P
I don't think anyone has yet worked out what makes Alyx tick.
You obviously weren't there for most of this, but I've been making cryptic hints that she's not who she seems pretty much since the start. I could list them all, but I think that might make it a bit too easy.
In that case I guess I'm on the way to understanding what Alyx wants us to think makes her tick... right? :P
I'd say you're hearing the ticking, but are yet to work out the why.
EDIT: I just realised we missed out on a chance for an "Ernst didn't know he could break his face" line. (In-jokes that Koval won't get.)
Best session yet eh? Must've been cause I was out getting drunk on Thursday night :P
I'm sure the retelling of events in my absence will be interesting.
Our Things someone should really make list now includes "The Master of Ferrets", joining the Grimdark Mini Cooper and... I'm sure there's at least one other, but it escapes me.
The Hover Espace? The Primarchs band with Dorn on vocals and Guilliman on lead guitar (taking centre-stage like Tony Iommi did with Sabbath)? It must've been one of those two.
No, it predates that.
But both the "Hover Espace" and "The Horus Hear'Say" would be interesting.
Finally people start listening to the hints I've been putting around about Alyx's identity.
Also, "Accurate" weapons are brutal when they get a good hit roll. The extra damage for enough degrees of success - damn.
Stirling's background as resident nurse to the Korvestans is coming together...
Indeed, much background is coming to light. I think I actually need to go and read up on the specifics of mine though, given I wrote it back in 2010 and I've not had to use a lot of it this far.*
Same thing with the grapnel gun and drop harness - I've been lugging those things around since session 1, unused until last night. But I did finally get to play at being Batman. (Shame I couldn't save Stirling the climb as well, but Alyx hasn't got a chance of carrying someone else. She's tiny**)
*I'm sure you've got theories on who she actually is. And they might be right.
**Height is its own odd roleplaying challenge for me. I'm so used to being taller than most people that I frequently mess up my mental picture of scenes as a result.
Hey guys i know that its been a few months since you sent a shout out for anyone wanting to get in on these skype games but I was wondering If i might be able to get in on the action at some point. I know im new to the game somewhat and completely 'fresh off the boat' to this forum but im really eager to start playing some INQ RP, and there dont seem to be anyone locally. I'd happily take on a discarded character or make my own ( I have a teleporting assassin in mind currently...)
what say you?
I think we could involve another player without upsetting the applecart numbers-wise, but we are about halfway into the current DH adventure. The RT adventure isn't quite so far advanced though. With a bit of fudging I think I could get you into the DH adventure. The RT adventure is Rich's baby, though he may be along shortly...
What sort of character were you thinking of playing in DH? At the moment we have an Assassin, a Guardsman, a Psyker, an Adept and a Cleric, all about level 3-4. Filling in the gaps in our spread of archetypes (Arbitrator, Scum, Techpriest) would be desirable but not an absolute necessity. The world we're currently on is an Imperial World (a fairly low tech Agri World), so the whole spread of archetypes would be available if he/she is a citizen. By pure chance we're about to enter a city that's full of off-worlders, so there is potential for meeting folk from elsewhere.
Ruaridh
Quote from: almundis on June 29, 2012, 09:28:42 AM( I have a teleporting assassin in mind currently...)
As it happens our resident psyker has become something of a teleporting-assassin type. As Ruaridh says though, if you can commit to the Thursday night schedule your more than welcome to join in.
Do you access to the DH rulebook and/or any of its supplements? By no means essential to joining, but helpful to know.
Well at the minute I am visiting my folks in france and wont get home until tuesday evening. But i should be able to get my hands on a copy of the book when I get back to blighty. As for a class, I'm not sure. Quite like the idea of being some kind of hive scum but offworlders might add a bit of spice.... so in short no idea :) but I'm certain that once i start having a read through the DH book all sorts of wierd n (hopefully) wonderful ideas will start forming. I'll do my best to get some kind of character done and emailed by weds so you can have a look at it an decide if anything should be added or taken away.
As for the thursday night thing, i have just finished uni for the yea`r and am unemployed for now, so time is a commodoty i have ;D
Hive scum would have to be an off-worlder, given we're on an Agri-world.
Regarding character choice, and I know I should be less selfish than this, as the group's current assassin, I have to say I'd prefer it if I didn't find myself competing against the teleporting assassin concept. There's not many opportunities for me to be a sneaky bitch as it is.
I won't veto it, but you'd probably integrate better if you weren't competing for the role of an established character. Scum would be fine though.
Whatever you do, it would be worth discussing a few of the basics through with our GM (or one of our veterans) first though.
It's going to be almost impossible to run up a viable ~4000 XP character with no play experience - from scratch, you simply don't know which skills are the vital ones for your character, the ones that should exist in the group as a whole (and probably already do) and which are less needed.
4000? Stirling started with 2000, so I'm gonna petition bonus EXP if we're slinging numbers like that around.
Almundis, keep in mind that Dark Heresy and Inquisitor are two completely different systems with different foci. You basically start off right down the bottom of the pile as something like a Guard conscript or low-end ganger. Powerful stuff exists largely in the realms of a different system, although there's potential at higher levels to improve, to the point that Dark Heresy: Ascension sees things like Storm Troopers or Death-Cult Assassins. So if you're used to Inquisitor X And Friends running around doing their bit as they would in Inquisitor, you'll probably have to lower your expectations a bit.
That said, I'm not against you jumping on board -- far from it, the more the merrier -- but I would like to be sure that you're aware of what 40KRP actually entails, as I've run enough games where people have been turned off by the fact that they're not all-powerful from the word go, and have to earn all those awesome abilities the hard way. Usually it's the guys that pick psykers, although I've seen some rather put-out assassins as well who didn't see that "actually, you're good enough for someone to want to use your talents, but you're not actual Inquisition material just yet".
Ruaridh -- incoming PM
I can only remember how much XP Alyx has (at present, 4300 + 50), but I know she's the most experienced character - having the most punctual player* means she's always been there to collect her XP (although I couldn't get in on the RPing XP while I was the GM).
It will be that the other characters aren't quite so well off for XP, but I can't remember how much less. So maybe you should ask Ruaridh if you can have some more.
*To the point that I've missed (or, rather, had to cancel) ONE session since the start, and that was because my dog had just had a violent fit and the internet kept crashing anyway. Even when boating around the canal network, I've logged on via mobile broadband.
don't worry i'm not expecting to throw a space marine in the mix. As a bit of an fti i have played in a variety of rpgs, most of which based on whfb, hbosted on asrai.org and druchii.net. No point RPing a god character. I'm even happy to start from the base exp (which for now ill assume is 2000xp?) and go from there. Imight be a bit sluggish off the go but i generally pick stuff up quickly (in a non-arrogant way)
and as for the scum (not wanting to tread on another assassins toes, i know far better than to risk the needle gauntlet :) ) I was thinking a vagabond stowaway, particularly handy with a blade and an abid cigarillo smoker/ but as i said, i will come up with fleshy details once i have a proper review of the DH book.
\
side not: having done a bit of research into the 40krp the main difference to =][= is that there is a more stringent set of rules on what you can take as equipment but ive never been `a power gamer, hence why my dark elves still lose with the new(ish) book :P
Well, just going from memory, we already have:
-Alyx, our group's assassin, who has expensive guns but whose stats, Marco informs me, favour being up-close
-Novus, a psyker, who also happens to be a teleporting assassin
-Stirling, my former Officio Medicae adept who seems to have made a niche for himself as both the group's driver* and the group's medic**
-Guilliman, a Guardsman who knows how to read a map as well as shoot people
-Ernst, our cleric, who has an unfortunate habit of getting his face broken
*A pure coincidence that I also happen to be the group's pilot in Rogue Trader.
**I just realised that with my latest skill purchase, I'm now rolling for Medicae tests at +40...
hey just a lil update, due to some silly flight bookings i wont make it home until weds evening now, so if it's ok ill start next week as i wont really have time to get ahold of relevent texts and bone up on your story so far. hope thats ok n all. Though i might still join in on the skype an watch you guys play a round if thats ok?
There shouldn't be any problem with having you sit in. This week's session will be the Rogue Trader game, though. Dark Heresy is next week.
As for the story, I shouldn't imagine that getting as up to speed as your character would be is going to be difficult - they're unlikely to have heard more than rumours of the weird murders and perhaps of our unsubtle exit from Fire Valley.
Certainly you wouldn't have heard anything of our previous adventures (despite our frequently unsubtle approach, our Inquisitor specialises in cover-up operations).
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on July 02, 2012, 06:42:47 PM
our Inquisitor specialises in cover-up operations
Much to the dismay of no fewer than
three of mine :P
Hello Hello hello, god im slow not having my own laptop has really dented my conclave time.
Anyway your more than welcome to join in for rogue trader if you can think of a character concept and get the basics to me via email ( lamb.stormgrad@gmail.com ) before thursdays session we can do some pre game fleshing out of your character.
The RT group already has 2 Arch militants (1 more intellectual the other is just a huge brute, Void Master, 2 Tech Priests (both Npc's run by me) and a Navigator. so really another Void Master would be ok (hey need lots of people to push all the buttons) or any of the other careers also if you have a copy of into the storm you can take alternate origin paths from there at no xp cost the group generally consists of miscreants and those on the fringes of imperial society.
Taphos - Former Imperial Navy Pilot that has since gone AWOL, Ships Pilot/Master of Ordanance
Ampharao - Arch Militant huge brute of a death worlder that was part of a mutiny and now serves as Bron Allesundr's Personal Bodyguard also Master at arms
Clepsydra - the other Arch Militant more of a thinker, Currently the defacto XO and tends to deal with the day to day operation of the ship
Allerod - The ships Navigator on a desperate quest to secure the future of his house via procreation by any means (Yes his a Evil Rapist) in spite of his houses's failing fortunes (yeah his also horribly mutated)
Forenz - Doesn't really perform a function on the ship due to the entire crews distrust of him, His absolutely mad Rescued during the groups first real adventure after 2 months where he resorted to eating human flesh that had been tainted by the jaws of demonic creatures
Nikoli - Recent addition to the group Another tech priest (forenz is the other) Emissary from a Forge world that seceded from the Imperium after the whole Velgorth Sector was sealed off due to intense warp storms, Also has close links to the Astra Viperia and still very much Mechanicus
So that gives u an idea of the other personalities feel free to pm me here or preferably email me using the address above and ill get back to you as soon as i can
hey guys! managed to get both the dark heresey and rougue trader books an suppliments.
@stormgrad: would love to get involved in the RT game as well, will get on generating a character after sitting in on tonights game.
otherwise I was just wondering about any bonus xp or thrones (im currently using the 400 base ad randomly generated incom from the core book)or if i should just start the games a couple levels behind everyone else (no skin off my back as i like a challenge) also my housemate saw me looking over the books an was also interested in getting involved if there's some extra space?
otherwise i just need to know the skype addresses we'll be using (mine is christian-smith) and the gm for DH's (marco skoll?) email address so I can send over my character sheet for review.
hopefully speak to you guys tonight :)
It's only Dark Heresy where you start off pathetically weak with no money. Rogue Trader practically gives you 4500 pre-spent EXP and tells you to spend another 500 to get onto Rank 1.
If you can get on skype now we could work something out before tonight's session
Quote from: almundis on July 05, 2012, 05:51:10 PMalso my housemate saw me looking over the books an was also interested in getting involved if there's some extra space?
Unfortunately, I think that might be too much. VoIP RPing isn't as able to handle as many players as around a table, so while five players and a GM is manageable, I think six would start to drag.
Quotethe gm for DH's (marco skoll?) email address
It's Van Helser, at present. PM him for it, I'm not sure which is his main address right now.
@Stormgrad: While I'm all for getting him into the group, let's not rush him before he's had a chance to give the rulebook a good read.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on July 05, 2012, 06:34:54 PM
VoIP RPing isn't as able to handle as many players as around a table, so while five players and a GM is manageable, I think six would start to drag.
I recall being the sole VoIP player during a Dark Heresy campaign run by a mate at uni. Multiple people trying to speak into one mic was pretty horrendous, although that might have just been my mate's crap laptop trying to handle a crap uni wireless connection.
I think we numbered seven plus GM.
I would like to point out that Clepsydra is not as racist, self-centred or possessed of a superiority complex as she was blathering at Forenz.
To the contrary of her lies, she's taken steps to fit in (Clepsydra is only an affectation*, she's really "Zeta-8") and is far more self-sacrificing and empathic than her makers ever wanted her to be.
Her character sheet actually has "Act heroic, preferably thrillingly so**" written on it.
Also, I think I may need to try and buy her a decent power sword. We appear to be at a shortage of them. Plus, she's the frakking captain of one of the ships in a Rogue Trader's fleet now*** - she should have a suitably awesome weapon or two.
* From an OOC perspective, chosen to sound it could be someone's name, but be something that also recognisably wasn't.
** Thrilling heroics are the best kind of heroics.
*** This makes me wonder. While we'd agreed that her voidborn background (and our then lack of a PC voidmaster) meant she could branch out into some of the Voidmaster advances if it was justifiable, perhaps (given our now lack of a PC Rogue Trader) we should change that to letting her branch into the Rogue Trader advance tree. If she's somehow become the captain, she rather needs access to some of the skill set now.
EDIT: That said about her vanity, I've long wanted to have her try to fit into the classier side of Rogue Trader life. What's not funny about shoehorning a born and bred (literally so) soldier into Edwardian-style dress and having her try to fit in at a nobleman's ball?
Seems it's not even that unlikely, given we'll need to get nobility interested in our next endeavour.
Quoteblathering at Forenz
So that's how you spell his name? I'd assumed Firenze, but there we go.
Taphos is quite correct, by the way, in that he doesn't have the faintest clue what Forenz is banging on about. However, I don't think Taphos has come to like him at all over the, err, month or so that they've known each other, so he'll still want to vent Forenz's head -- preferably
after getting him angry through personal insults and publicly dismissing him as a gas bag (yes, I know Taphos was swearing a fair bit at first, and making threats, but he'll probably do that before making a reasonable judgment anyway)
Quote from: Koval on July 06, 2012, 06:50:49 AMSo that's how you spell his name?
That's how
I spell his name, I'm probably wrong.
My book of notes just contains vaguely phonetically written names. For example, the (former) lawman of Fire Valley is variously referred to as Mc/MacDonner, Mc/MacDonag(h) and I think McDoaner is in there somewhere. One of them may even be right.
Forenz Talor for those of you interested in the spelling
MacDonagh, though I'm picturing him now as particularly low grade kebab from McDonald's. McDonner indeed...
Ruaridh
Considering Novus did his teleporting psyker assassin thingywhatsit on him, I'd say "low-grade kebab" is probably being kind to him.
---
Medical notice; my jaw muscles have been unusually and uncomfortably stiff/sore/uncooperative for quite a while now, and it's highly likely I'll end up slurring a few words during the session through no fault of my own. Talking is really hard at the moment, which makes my job a tad difficult as I have to do a lot over the phone. I'll be watching how it goes, and if it doesn't improve I'll probably have to type rather a lot. Or maybe go see a doctor.
Well dont bother with your amazing accents as it will make understanding you easier (tho not normally a problem with stirling)
might i suggest some poppy-based tea, its very good at loosening muscles and dampening any pain. Worked wonders when i fell down the stairs.
Unfortunately, you've just suggested something to which I'm probably allergic (poppy seeds make me very ill, so I'd rather not chance it with some other poppy derivative)
Although I'm now talking even more like a retard at the moment, I think my face is loosening up a bit. It's like when you've been smiling for too long and you suddenly stop and your face aches -- it's a persistent version of that, but slowly improving.
A few things:
- Given how key a location Iracadia is, its sector should be named. I think I implied it was the Kamalian sector as part of the "The Saint" fluff, nicking the sector name from the "Succession" contact cards (Inquisitor Klopas' card, I think). If no-one has any objection, we can stick with that?
- Alyx is really hoping that Kyrillos and Diamanto (no, the other PCs don't know who they are) aren't at Marr Imer's ball. Perhaps not very likely - but given Marr Imer's Iracadian heritage and the kind of places you'd find those two, a lot more likely than Alyx wants it to be.
I suspect Ruaridh's probably not that evil though. It would result in carnage on a plot derailing scale, plus I think he's planning on something rather lesser in scale and probability with Marr as it is.
- Must remember to see if we can get a fix on Kroia Justice again.
It being somewhere is better than it being nowhere, and the Kamalian Sector seems about as good as anywhere at the moment :P
Well, as far as I know, there's no fluff for the Kamalian sector beyond Inquisitor-Savant Klopas' contact card: "An Inquisitor of immense mental capacity sent by representatives of the Kamalian Conclave to oversee the Carthaxian succession period."
We can infer it neighbours the Carthax sector and that there's some sort of rapport between the two Inquisitorial Conclaves, but that's about it.
As such, it doesn't add much, but it gives us a sector name (somewhat important, as it's naming the home sector of some of our protagonists), and gives the Kamalian sector some more background.
...this sort of reminds me, in which sector is Madavakos located? :X
My assumption is Carthax - nothing was ever said about us being in a different sector. Which corner of it though... that I don't know.
RT is on this evening
I know this is short notice but i dont feel well have been feeling sick since after lunch and im not in the frame of mind to do RT this evening
Among other things, we discussed my various characters' feasibilities in Inquisitor as opposed to 40KRP/fluff*, and added a class of teenage biomancers (complete with exasperated tutor) to the List Of Things Someone Should Really Make.
*At the moment, it's more likely I'll resurrect an older character I've not used for a few years than bother making existing characters work outside the realms of a straight RP. I'm apparently very good at making characters that are either too big for Inquisitor, or would be neutered by how it works.
Just as a note for Rich and a general reminder, I will be away on the Thursday 2nd and 9th August.
Generated using the EVE Character Creator:
Horatio Stirling (http://i50.tinypic.com/2vrudxt.jpg) (full body here (http://i47.tinypic.com/rig3yc.jpg))
Alden Taphos (http://i40.tinypic.com/2iaqyyx.jpg) (full body here (http://i49.tinypic.com/2j9vz9.jpg))
EDIT: I've just realised that Stirling is extremely good-looking for an Adept (although the huge coat is actually part of his equipment in-game). I may redo him so that he looks a bit less like a film star, although that would mean deleting and remaking him from scratch.
Mind you, he's the Korvestans' personal on-site nurse/chief of security/butler, and he's only in his late 30s -- I dare say he's either very well looked-after, or is otherwise better able to look after his own health than a good many people on his planet.
Speaking of Stirling, I've been cooking up some ideas for my participation on Thursday :P
Don't worry, he'll start getting a lot less pretty once people start shooting at him.
And to be honest, that's not that unlikely when we head to Marr's ball. Alyx reeeeeeeally shouldn't be going anywhere near Iracadian big-wigs. (Mind you, it was that or let Novus go, and that'd be guaranteed to end in gunfire.)
We could let Ernst go, but then the risk would be that he gets his face broken. Again.
The latest after action report: If Ruaridh is planning on the next session being the finale... well, two things:
1) I'm now a lot less certain Kyrillos and Diamanto won't turn up, because carnage is basically guaranteed anyway.
2) Any thoughts on who's taking over? I have potential ideas, but I've also nominated myself for a possible Rogue Trader storyline, and I'd really prefer not to be running both at the same time.
I remember putting my hand up a while back, but if anyone else has ideas then that's also fine, especially seeing as I'm a recent entrant.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on July 27, 2012, 01:02:07 AM
The latest after action report: If Ruaridh is planning on the next session being the finale
I checked last night during the Skype, he isn't, unless we all die horrible deaths of course - our characters I mean.
Quote2) Any thoughts on who's taking over? I have potential ideas, but I've also nominated myself for a possible Rogue Trader storyline, and I'd really prefer not to be running both at the same time.
I'm not aware of anything being arranged yet. Rich has also invited me to take a stint with RT, though for my sanity such might be better waiting till November as I'm just going to get busier and busier in the next three months. I'd be willing to run DH instead though, as I've no real plans in place for RT yet but have a few well-formed ideas more suitable for DH.
We are entering the closing stages of the adventure, but I don't plan to end things next session. That may be taken out my hands by the characters getting belligerent of course...
Ruaridh
Well, even if it's not immediately close to an end, it's probably not a bad idea to work out where things are going afterwards.
If needs be, I can probably resurrect a mini-adventure idea if I had to cover any intervening time between the adventures though (and might actually quite like to).
In any case, I'm okay with either Heroka or Koval taking over.
I'm happy for Euan to jump in in front of me as well -- it still somehow feels a bit odd with me GM'ing when I've not been through a full-length adventure yet.
Unfortunately, I may have difficulty making it online tomorrow... or potentially for the rest of this holiday. I know tomorrow isn't such a big deal, as we're going to be too short of players anyway, but I'll be really fed up if I have to miss several weeks.
Thing is, my laptop is still not working and the one I'm borrowing from my mother is currently refusing to install Skype. So no promises, unfortunately.
If I lived anywhere near you at the moment, Marco, I'd loan you my netbook which I believe has Skype installed. I'd give you my old laptop were it not for the damn thing missing a D key and smelling of burnt plastic whenever I switch it on -- you'd probably think it rather insulting -- but again, the problem is getting it to you.
Just thought it worthwhile enquiring if I will have a full house for next week's session (barring Euan, who's accounted for)? Just Joseph and I made it online this evening, and I wanted to check who can get online next week. If we're down another body, I think I will hold off running the session until we can get back up to a full complement. I should still be online next week though for another bit of general game chat regardless.
Ruaridh
Apologies for my absence tonight, but as the latest news was it was to be a non-session anyway, I had to take the pragmatic view that trying to argue with a computer trying to get Skype working wasn't a very productive use of my time.
I may have to take to some extreme measures (Seeing as Skype is available on Linux, I'm considering setting up the machine to boot Ubuntu from USB and thus outright bypass the problem), but I should be able to get online somehow.
Unfortunately, my attendance is rather less assured than I wanted it to be, seeing as it's dependent on my brother's co-operation. And right now, he's not being the most helpful.
Charm test? What is it that's gone wrong?
The issue is that I was going to use my mother's work laptop for Skype, but unfortunately, it's not properly recognising her user account, and it's locked down so most things can't work in the temporary user mode.
However, my brother is an administrator on her school's network... so he can use any other user account, but he's insisting it won't work. (Despite the fact I'm fairly sure it did the other day - and it would take three minutes to check.) He's also unwilling to let his laptop be borrowed for the evening.
But I think I've managed to get my father to agree to lend his laptop to the cause, so I can probably still attend. Likely not going to be able to hang around for much pre/post game banter though.
At least that's more than you had before, right?
Yes, before anyone asks, I do have an absolutely atrocious memory, to the point where if you keep me talking for long periods of time I'll have forgotten what I was talking about a long time before I get to the end. (As happened twice when talking to Immer.)
Hopefully nobody minded much that I was effectively using Blather (EDIT: which Stirling does actually have) the whole time I was out and about :P
I am much the same. Thoughts in my head which suddenly fade or fail to translate into words.
With that in mind, I'd probably benefit from thinking ahead about how Alyx is going to deal with Janathan next session.
Possibly by poisoning him? :P
More's the point, I wonder how we're going to deal with Unthank Remar -- Stirling's probably trussed him up quite nicely with his bandages, but it won't be all that long until he's awake again. (On such a note I'm still trying to hammer out some decent background for Stirling, as Fire Valley never struck me as the sort of place that would have a medical school.)
Yes, but as you (and possibly Stirling - although Alyx may have a lie to feed him) may have guessed, Alyx might not have been entirely honest when she said she didn't know Janathan.
And the whole reason she's in this mess is that she's not actually a very good assassin. Not necessarily as regards her ability to kill people, but her willingness and how her emotional attachments affect it.
Janathan, unless he panics her again, is probably not at any great risk of Alyx killing him.
As regards Remar, it did sound a little bit like the Pistachio Grievers might have already done something regarding him. But if it happens they haven't, Alyx has an idea that could be quite fun.
Hey folks, I'm back for holidays.
If I've got my calendar right, I believe we are onto Rogue Trader again this Thursday?
In any case, it looks like I will be AWOL from 7.30-9.30ish due to show commitments, but will hurray back ASAP.
Just like last year my Thursdays will get busier closer to showtime in early November, but I'll be around for the most part in the next two months, much more likely to miss several evenings in October.
HELLO ONE AND ALL
so i have a confession to make i have become increasingly depressed over the last month i intend on going to the doctors about it sometime in the near distant future but i dont really feel up to running rogue trader at the moment. In fact for the most part i just want to hide away from the world at large (including you guys) i find it difficult to participate in DH with the gusto that i used to show and enjoy the fact that if i want to be relativley quiet and not say much i can and i actually draw confidence from that and it helps however its not possible for me to do that if im running RT and so i think that for the moment im going to be postponing RT (only for a few weeks) until i feel more mentally up to doing it
That's okay, Rich. I'd definitely recommend seeing a doctor sooner rather than later -- I know someone who had depression a while ago and he felt exactly the same as you do. Hopefully you'll be on top form again before long.
I'll be on Skype anyway if anyone wants to join me.
Rich,
Sorry to hear you're not yourself. Speaking to your GP is definitely the right thing to do. Don't worry about RT!
Ruaridh
Hope things improve for you soon Rich.
In other news, I'm gonna miss tomorrow night as well - big planning meeting for scouts I need to attend. At this rate it'll be nearly two months since I last showed up!
I, too, am sorry to hear about your depression.
Even if you're not up to running RT, it could help to join in with the DH if you are able, as my father's period of depression taught me a lot about how important socialising (as unappealing as it might sometimes seem) is to overcoming a depressive state. However, all sensible disclaimers like my not actually having any formal medical or psychological training apply here.
~~~~~
In other news, have we had that knife fight to see who will GM next yet?
Euan hasn't been around for me to challenge, which is a shame as I recently bought a brand-new stabbing knife. Y'know, for, er, stabbing.
Did events on the Horizon Eventus (or whatever it was renamed) get wrapped up in my various absences?
As for a knife fight, I'm sure I could get a couple felling axes from the storeroom at my scouthall to make things more interesting :P
But seriously, are we talking RT or DH, as there was talk about both going on before I went away.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on August 22, 2012, 11:21:54 PM
Did events on the Horizon Eventus (or whatever it was renamed) get wrapped up in my various absences?
No, we're still sitting on a fifteen-minute timer before the Eventus Horizontum enters the Warp and takes us with it. Considering that was two months ago it's almost on Dragonball Z levels of time-dilation.
QuoteBut seriously, are we talking RT or DH, as there was talk about both going on before I went away.
We're talking about Dark Heresy, I think, as Marco already called dibs on Rogue Trader.
Re:DH it sort of depends when Ruaridh wraps up – if it's prior to mid-November (which I think is very likely from what he's said), then it's as well that I don't take over GMing as it'll mean several missed weeks in a row.
I was referring to the DH, but I guess the RT is a question to be asked too. I think the original plan was for Stormgrad to run more story and I'd fit mine in somewhere in a while, but if he wants a break from running games, I'd be willing to move up that schedule.
Not that I've really got my notes for that adventure sorted out yet.
RT being Rich's baby so-to-speak, I have no problem with suspending activities for a while.
By no measure am I trying to sound impetuous - but should Rich want to play some RT but not have to go to the effort of running it, then that offer is still on the table.
Oh, so that's where the bodies went...
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 23, 2012, 09:52:28 PM
Oh, so that's where the bodies went...
... you've lost me.
Actually... now you mention it, I'm not sure we do know where Guillemann has gone. Perhaps we should start looking for you.
Hope you can join us a week on Thursday Euan - I hope to wrap this adventure up then. I'm looking forward to the in character reveal of just what has happened to the bodies heading Guilliman and Novus's way from Alyx and Stirling.
Ruaridh
here's hoping. I may be in need of one of those 5-minute long "previously on X" montages that americans like to put in front of series finales.
In character from Guilleman's (I'm still not sure of the proper spelling) perspective:
~~~~~
You entered via the docks, got a bit lost in some of the corridors, then Novus managed to bluff one of the servants into believing you were extra help hired for the ball and got you shown through the servants' corridors until you reached the big tower.
Found Magdelana Corvestan (very much alive) sleeping in a lavishly decorated bedroom (Novus warping through the locked door to let you in). Guilliman puts his hand over her mouth, Novus gets her to stop panicking by mentioning you're were there with Stirling (although he's of course in the ballroom at this point). She's somewhat surprised at Stirling's involvement, then explains that she ran away because she knew her father was planning to give her away to Immer in an attempt to save his fortunes and being a teenage type decides to throw the spanner in the works. She's insistent she's going to be the mother to Immer's children.
Novus consents to leave (not really having much motive to force her at this point)... at which point she decides to try and stab Novus, so he clouts her one, knocking her out.
At some point afterwards, Alyx will have voxed Ernst to hand his microbead to our lawman (I have some difficulty remembering his name, beyond that I think it starts with C), who had a conversation that will have given him an expression that will tell you he's heard things he really rather wouldn't.
~~~~~
You'll get told what happened to Alyx and Stirling when we meet up with you. What they're happy to tell you, anyway.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on August 26, 2012, 11:09:59 PMour lawman (I have some difficulty remembering his name, beyond that I think it starts with C)
Campbell Zorich.
I did finally remember it, but only by checking my notebook. I can remember most of the others after at least some thought, but his name just refuses to be remembered, no matter how many times I have to look it up.
You'll have fun with some of my NPCs' names then, whicm nay be rather unfortunate as all of the pre-named ones are fairly significant to some or other degree :P
There's a reason I write a hell of a lot down when RPing. I've got half a notebook's worth just for the adventure Ruaridh's been running.
This session involved trying to save some loyal Administratum adepts from some crazy assassins who were about to start murdering an awful lot of heretical nobles.
However, their main personality trait was being utterly dull. So while Koval and I were a little bored (our characters not being in that scene - Alyx had insisted that she and Stirling rescue someone else), we started filling in their panicked dialogue:
Marco: "Oh no. We're all going to die. That would be terrible."
Koval: "If I die, tell Brother Agrius I said hello."
Marco: "I calculate we only have a 8% chance of survival."
Koval: "You have been remiss in your litanies of numerological accuracy. I have calculated a 7.69% chance of survival to three significant figures."
Marco: "Saints above. I have failed to carry the 1 in the name of the Emperor."
Given it's often difficult to get in any dialogue not directly driven by the plot, I've found a few minutes to write this to fill in some of Alyx's now slightly less mysterious past. The venue is, of course, the back of our escaping boat.
~~~~~
"Janathan.", Alyx addressed the expensively dressed man leaning over the back of the boat. Whether because of the engine noise, roar of the ocean wind or sheer shock, he didn't respond.
"Janathan.", she stepped closer, speaking louder. This time he turned his attentions away from the sea below, turning his head to look behind.
"I think you've thrown up anything you might have eaten by now. A lot of what you drank too." , she extended the ornately patterned glass clutched in her hand.
"Poison?"
"Water. I hope. The boat is a bit disorganised."
"Frak."
He took it anyway, rinsing out his mouth and spitting the mouthful into the waves.
Alyx, joining him leaning on the handrail, watched up at him as he did, genuinely intrigued by the emotions laced through his expressions.
"I know that look." she commented after a few moments of this, "It's about how I felt when I heard about Castor. But I'd prefer it if you didn't reward the efforts to save you by trying to drown yourself."
"What's the bloody point? WHAT'S THE BLOODY POINT?", he roared it again, hurling his glass into the ocean. This bold attempt at movement wasn't taken well by either his still inebriated state and the pitching deck, and they conspired to bring him crashing to the deck.
"I should make fun of you for that.", Alyx glanced back over her shoulder, "But I'll save childhood vendettas for another day."
"Give me your knife.", he groaned, "It's not fair."
"No."
"Bitch."
He slurred the line somewhat, rolling over onto his back.
"You're drunk, I'll let that one slide - once.", she added.
"Why not?"
"Because, Janathan Brannon Darius Pirgo, I know you better than you think. You're more confident and committed than this. Case in point - you knew it was me in the ballroom, and you weren't going to take no for an answer."
"Confident? You... I was terrified when you threatened me."
"That... that is because you don't know me. Why do you think I ran from Iracadia in the first place?"
The nobleman started to form an answer, but Alyx cut him off.
"Don't answer that. I don't want to hear the lewd suggestions the Pasquet would have the other families believe. It's nothing like their lies. I'd known him three years - we met at the Geneval Spire High Ball in Oh Eight. I couldn't kill him - I knew him."
Twisting around, she sank slowly down the rails until she was sat next to Janathan's head. She pushed his cheek towards her, looking into his eyes.
"I'm still not sure what I'll do if I see him again."
There was a long pause, emotions twitching behind the eyes set into her pensive face; until she blinked, allowing some fragment of another thought to stab out to the sea air.
"Sorry about the psyker's questions. Castor stretched my ability to trust people to the limit. Beyond the limit."
"You'd trust a witch?"
"That one specifically? To do the job? Yes, I would. To be subtle about it... no. He's a bit like a grox in an archaeotech vault. But he's beside the point. You... you. I think the Emperor had you here for a reason."
"Then he hates me."
"Easy on the heresy! No, I can't imagine anyone better suited than you and... well, that bureaucracy over there...", she gestured at the cluster of grey robed Adepts. "I may not have been part of the family's business, but I know a very little of the basics of intra Imperial trade."
"What the hell has that to do with me?", confusion fluttered across his expression yet again.
"The head of the biggest trade syndicate on the planet and most of his conspirators are very dead. The planet won't make tithe unless someone is willing to step into the breach. So, Mr Pirgo - are you willing to do the Emperor's work?"
Last hostile NPC has a profile, now I just have to give Fabian some lines and come up with some names for three friendly NPCs and we're all set.
Fabian, huh? Probably should have guessed that one sooner.
This may be my just-crawled-out-of-bed state talking, but Fabian is not hostile. :P
My router's misbehaving. It keeps resetting itself at random, so I end up with about a five minute window of internet, then a five minute window of swearing as it bugs out.
We've spent long enough on the phone to tech support to have worked out that it's a problem with the router itself, and that it's largely unfixable without replacing the whole unit. So we are. There should be a new one coming on Wednesday, but in any case I'll let you all know on Thursday whether or not we'll be running -- at the moment I'd like to say "yes we will" but if not, I'll try very hard to post and say otherwise.
I'm sure at the very least we'll give you till 8-ish to show up before deciding you're a no-show, after all we spend as much time nattering as playing sometimes anyway.
On a similar note, I was wondering about our scheduling; with RT paused for now (hope you're feeling better again Rich), what would peoples thoughts be on shifting DH to weekly instead of fortnightly? We essentially did just that this week and have all committed to a weekly schedule of skyping since RT originally kicked off anyway.
Obviously if folks feel they want a couple thursdays back to themselves for now, or if the current DH GM (Joseph in this case) requires the fortnightly schedule to give time to write up the next stage then that's fine by me.
Just thought it worth raising as it would, among other things, compress the number of weeks each investigation takes IRL. Relatively speaking resulting in faster story and character development (and less chance of forgetting NPC names and plot points one week to the next) - even if it's just up until Rich feels up to returning to RT.
Quote from: Koval on September 15, 2012, 06:49:04 AMThis may be my just-crawled-out-of-bed state talking, but Fabian is not hostile.
No, that wasn't what I thought. I was just saying it should have been more obvious that Fabian would be involved, given that it's established that he and Rhodes are allies and have actually traded agents before.
As for the router, I can't blame you for an absence. We had a very similar issue earlier this year that forced me to miss GMing a session (the fact that our previous dog had also suffered his second major fit shortly beforehand didn't help either), which eventually turned out to be down to the fact that the signal strength arriving through our broadband cable was about a hundred times higher than the modem was designed for and had basically fried the thing so it was constantly rebooting itself.
As for speeding up the schedule, I'd not mind getting to game every week again, as a fortnightly schedule can be a little sluggish (particularly if we have to miss a session due to people having other commitments). If we could kick things up to every week until the Rogue Trader is ready to run again, I'm sure I'd enjoy it.
And I'm sure you guys would end up getting saved from a lot of the monologuing that I tend to launch into when we have just the extended chat session.
~~~~~
Also, I've remembered that I sent Van Helser notes on Alyx (or as now has been revealed, Lady Leveque - although I think her true first name still evades the other characters) that I don't think made it to you Koval, so I'll be forwarding those through shortly.
I guess I probably need to think about what equipment upgrades Alyx might be looking for as well, but I'll muse over that and send it through separately. (I think she might at least be on the hunt for a more combat practical pistol than she currently has, seeing as her revolver is short on capacity, and her compact laspistol bounces off most things.)
I think it's stabilised itself for the moment...
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on September 17, 2012, 11:44:21 PM
I'm sure at the very least we'll give you till 8-ish to show up before deciding you're a no-show, after all we spend as much time nattering as playing sometimes anyway.
How kind. :P
QuoteObviously if folks feel they want a couple thursdays back to themselves for now, or if the current DH GM (Joseph in this case) requires the fortnightly schedule to give time to write up the next stage then that's fine by me.
The campaign itself was written about two years ago, so aside from this "fourth area" (I did say Classic BioWare Formula, right?) that I didn't end up using and have to rewrite, everything's more or less in place. I've toned down a couple of encounters, though, seeing as none of us are Toughness 40 Unnatural x2 Arbitrators, carrying thunder hammers, or building anti-materiel rifles from a coat hanger and an old circuit board.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 18, 2012, 04:35:41 AM
Quote from: Koval on September 15, 2012, 06:49:04 AMThis may be my just-crawled-out-of-bed state talking, but Fabian is not hostile.
No, that wasn't what I thought. I was just saying it should have been more obvious that Fabian would be involved, given that it's established that he and Rhodes are allies and have actually traded agents before.
Fair enough.
QuoteAs for speeding up the schedule, I'd not mind getting to game every week again, as a fortnightly schedule can be a little sluggish (particularly if we have to miss a session due to people having other commitments). If we could kick things up to every week until the Rogue Trader is ready to run again, I'm sure I'd enjoy it.
And I'm sure you guys would end up getting saved from a lot of the monologuing that I tend to launch into when we have just the extended chat session.
I take it that's that settled then? :P
QuoteAlso, I've remembered that I sent Van Helser notes on Alyx (or as now has been revealed, Lady Leveque - although I think her true first name still evades the other characters) that I don't think made it to you Koval, so I'll be forwarding those through shortly.
Cheers.
QuoteI guess I probably need to think about what equipment upgrades Alyx might be looking for as well, but I'll muse over that and send it through separately. (I think she might at least be on the hunt for a more combat practical pistol than she currently has, seeing as her revolver is short on capacity, and her compact laspistol bounces off most things.)
You don't have to worry about that. :P
Quote from: Koval on September 18, 2012, 06:55:50 AMI've toned down a couple of encounters, though, seeing as none of us are Toughness 40 Unnatural x2 Arbitrators, carrying thunder hammers, or building anti-materiel rifles from a coat hanger and an old circuit board.
Lucky us.
As far as weapons, I can't imagine that Alyx is likely to upgrade too dramatically damage-wise from where she is at the moment, given a bigger rifle would be too heavy for her and chain/power weapons aren't actually very subtle for an assassin.
Like I've said, she does want a more impressive pistol (or two), but melee wise, the only upgrade I can think that she'd be interested in over her mono-sword would be whatever equivalent to a Lathe weapon could be rustled up around Carthax. (I've used "Hale weapons" on a couple of my characters - there's a heap of fluff behind them, but it's actually quite lengthy, so I'll spare you it for now).
QuoteYou don't have to worry about that. :P
Now I'm worried about why I don't have to worry about it.
You'll have to wait 'til tomorrow to find out, in that case, as revealing why you don't have to worry would be a bit spoilery.
double
Just to confirm, we are ON tonight, because my internet appears to be behaving.
triple
Achievement Unlocked: Down Payment (10)
I've changed the planet's name around a little bit -- the name is Aurvol. Pronounced the same, but spelled slightly differently.
The ship Fabian's given you is about 400 metres long (and still looks like a very plump bird), although the roughly-100m³ of habitable space you've got is still more or less what you get. There's the gaming table in the main room, the bridge (more like a very large cockpit, as it happens), an arms locker (in a closet) that's got about twenty lasguns and a few pistols with plenty of charge packs each, a store cupboard with enough ration packs for ten people to last two months, ten sleeping capsules (http://thetravelhawk.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/capsule_hotel.jpg?w=300), some obligatory chemical toilets, and Fabian's very kindly furnished you with a reader-slate rack so you've got something to read on the way there.
It doesn't yet have a name, though this is deliberate -- it's a stealth ship and doesn't benefit from having one.
Enginseer Ragnan Knell has brought servitors with him to keep the ship running and to do the actual piloting; seeing as servitors don't need to eat or sleep that often, it made the most sense given that the ship itself is tiny. Fabian's also loaned you two Navigators from House Vorclee -- originally it was going to be just the one, but then I remembered that even a Navigator can't manage several solid days of constant work without a break somewhere along the way.
Marco -- Fabian's mention of the Ordo Perditus was deliberate, as I doubt the party (Alyx possibly excluded) knows a great deal about the Inquisition's internal organisation, and they've met Lyra so they've at least heard the name before. Fabian, in any event, is more eager for it to stay relatively in-house than have it outsourced fully to the Malleus or Hereticus. If bringing up the Perditus causes problems, let me know.
Using the Perditus shouldn't be a problem - adding in some more back history for them isn't a bad thing.
Also, if the ship has no name, you risk me calling it the "Savage Chicken", because I read far too many webcomics.
~~~~~
As far as the internal factions of the Inquisition, Alyx really knows pretty little. Her familiarity with the name Perditus, last night, was down to having fleshed out a few of the details of what had happened during the "training period" Ruaridh had allocated before our last adventure. (Novus' progression to "Grammaton Cleric" - Not the actual title, but I do think that has Grammaton in it somewhere... - was at least partly RPed, but it was left rather up to others how their version of events went.)
I decided that somewhere amongst the events, there had been at least some meeting with Gala, who being the kind of person she is, responds to reading Alyx's full title - which, at its most ridiculous, details her relationship to the family patriarch (her grandfather), naming him and her father in full (who both have four forenames and in her grandfather's case an extended honorific) for a total of 27 words - with as long winded as she could make her own name, which she does mostly by adding "Inquisitorial agent under Inquisitor Lyra Joandra Rhodes of the Ordo Perditus Carthaxian" seeing as the rest is just "Cymone Regin".
(Alyx was not hugely impressed by this joke.)
Alyx never really got any big explanation for that beyond perhaps guessing something from its High Gothic root (but she was at least paying attention), so last night added some more context for it.
She's using what chances she can to sound "in the know", because she's got a bit of gambit going to get the people they're assigned to stop omitting things because they're dumbing the details down or think it's beyond her pay-grade - which, if it works, snowballs as she can then con her next handler a little more convincingly. Her hope here is that being a little better informed might make the difference between life and death.
This kind of thing is sort of second nature to her - being a noblewoman, subtle suggestion and manipulation are something she's seen a lot of over her years.
This makes choosing which rank she'll take next really difficult - the Freeblade option plays a lot into her nobleborn side, but:
a) she's not really all that keen to play this up, seeing as the other characters mostly don't know.
b) probably not going to go great, as it's a Fellowship based upgrade tree, a stat she's not great on and can only upgrade at exorbitant expense. (And on a 4th wall level, a bit useless, given Ernst would still be better than her and thus taking the tests for us.)
c) the Death Adept choice works too - given her circumstances, martial prowess is not going to go amiss.
In any case, I should probably buy her things like Charm and Deceive, even if its through elite advances, as it does have some tie in to her identity.
~~~~~
As for Alyx's current assessments, she's a little anxious about the ship Fabian has lent them (but would be even more so if she knew her assessment of its value is short by several orders of magnitude). The implications of the sheer level of resources he's investing means he's one or more of:
- Totally insane
- Highly overconfident in, or overestimating, our ability.
- Really desperate.
None of those things are a good sign.
~~~~~
I shall also add that we're not great with our shopping trips. That was sort of "Oh yay, we get to buy things! Uh... who actually needs something?" It didn't help that what was in the package Lyra sent Alyx meant that half of what I had previously been musing over became highly redundant.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 21, 2012, 12:14:54 PM
Using the Perditus shouldn't be a problem - adding in some more back history for them isn't a bad thing.
Fair enough.
QuoteAs for Alyx's current assessments, she's a little anxious about the ship Fabian has lent them (but would be even more so if she knew her assessment of its value is short by several orders of magnitude). The implications of the sheer level of resources he's investing means he's one or more of:
- Totally insane
- Highly overconfident in, or overestimating, our ability.
- Really desperate.
None of those things are a good sign.
Not 1, a little bit of 2, and not 3.
The reasons he sent Gorgon Cell at all were A) because I'd already had the character sheets sitting there for ages B) because you weren't around to investigate when he got the message, and he's going to value trust from Lyra more than trust from Hesh. Given that Fabian had command of Hesh's cells only due to Hesh being indisposed, and given that Fabian doesn't really do "remote cells", it's highly likely that Fabian wanted little to do with what Hesh had landed him with, but neither could he just ignore an obvious threat.
The fact that Fabian's message to Dionysus amounted to "I need Team Six*" didn't help much, admittedly (not least because he didn't clarify why he needed you until after you were on your way to Port Alcis), but the point remains that he'd rather have sent you than Gorgon Cell. The reason he's dropping such a ridiculously expensive ship on you, therefore, is because it's several shades faster than anything you've yet encountered -- while I doubt the characters (aside from Alyx) will know about Gorgon, Fabian's motive is "get these guys over there before Gorgon screw something up".
(As for why Fabian hasn't gone anywhere himself, the answer has something to do with a certain blonde.)
QuoteFabian's motive is "get these guys over there before Gorgon screw something up"
Does sound like he's a teensy bit desperate then, if that's his motive!
Granted, but he's not desperate from the "you're the only ones that can do X" point of view, and he's certainly not desperate enough to either come with you or do it himself.
Having been the one to suggest the weekly schedule it's already biting me in the bum, as previously warned most of October's Thursdays will be busy for me, but it's starting early.
Basically, I'll miss this week's (the 28th Sep); along with the 11th, possibly the 18th and definitely the 25th Oct; plus the 1st & 8th Nov.
After that it's back to regular service (apart from 20th Dec when I'm in france).
On the one hand it's money, but on the other it's still a shame. If I've got my numbers the right way round, though, you'll probably have Gulliman back in time for Scenario #4 and everything after that, as well (presumably) as bits of Scenario #3 and the Oh Crap moment depending on which way round everyone else wants to do the scenarios.
I've just realised that I neglected to mention the fact that I'm off on holiday in a couple of weeks. I will miss the 11th and 18th of October for sure as I will be on a small Hebridean island in a cottage that won't have a tv, let alone broadband. As Euan's missing those days too (possibly), perhaps making them DH free may be an idea.
Ruaridh
Okay, that shouldn't be a problem, we can just write off those two sessions and probably resume on the 25th. That means Euan will probably be joining us again for the start of Scenario #3. Keep in mind, though, that I'm using "scenario" here to refer to the different mini-plots in different areas on Aurvol -- I've mentioned the Classic BioWare Formula several times now -- so while we're still going to be having sessions as normal, a scenario may well span across two or three.
"money"? Ha. As if.
I stage manage for a local amateur group, of which I'm also a committee member, so no payment. Plus only the 18th, 25th, 1st & 8th are due to the show - this week I'm gonna be stuck in glasgow till late, and for the 11th it's in the middle of an activity week I'm taking some of my scouts on.
In that case I misunderstood, but in any case I hope you have a good time.
I don't think I need it just yet, but could you send me an updated version of Gulliman's character sheet after the session on the 4th please? I'll need to know how to use him in your absence.
double
Dave, do you recall many of the weird timey-wimey doodads we had between us and Gorgon Cell? I've forgotten how long ago Fabian said he'd received the original message -- I want to say seventeen days ago at the time the first session took place, but I don't want to just blindly assume when you've been taking notes :P
EDIT: To recap the end bits from last night, you found an Inquisitor Dessel (who's not yet told you her first name) in the crashed fighter, and a message that's completely different to what you originally received.
Seeing as all the characters would be seeing this, and seeing as we left off roughly when the data-slate (about iPhone sized) got passed around, I'll put it up.
The Emperor shall call us to judgment. The first strike of His hammer will signal the beginning of the end. For nine days shall the world know prosperity and great trials, and the righteous will know the fruit of their labours revealed before them, while the wicked are overtaken by the hand of darkness. The Nine shall awaken when the Assembly is complete, and the blood of all mankind shall stain the field in defiance of the Old Beast. At the end of days the fires of Hell shall rain from Heaven and set the skies and the earth aflame, and all shall be reduced to cinders and ash in His name.
Also, Enginseer Knell seems to have two personalities -- his annoying slow-voiced one that he uses to talk to people, and his slightly quieter, more introspective one that uses the Royal We. This isn't really plot relevant, but I felt I'd at least clear that one up now.
17 days, plus the 5 (subjective) days for our actual transit.
In an objective time frame, that's probably not very long, but given the random nature of warp travel, Alyx's lie seemed plausible enough*. Better than "We're here to stop you screwing up", in whatever case!
*Although perhaps slightly well-informed about warp transit. But she's got something of a talent for observation and recollection (read: Marco actually uses his notebook) to the point I'm not far off wondering whether I should chase down "Total Recall" as an elite advance, and with her past, that she might have picked up on that kind of information somewhere is not too big a stretch.
So I wasn't far off after all. :)
While I'm here, this (http://i48.tinypic.com/2i6ymi0.jpg) is Inquisitor Dessel (http://i50.tinypic.com/33b1efc.jpg) whom we managed to shoot down and then rescue within the space of about twenty minutes last night. I'll do a mock-up for Greensail tomorrow.
EDIT: It's tomorrow (http://i50.tinypic.com/67mslg.jpg) so here's Terrance Greensail (http://i47.tinypic.com/34yv3tx.jpg).
It struck me last night, are we planning to adjourn for 9pm so we may go and enjoy the return of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hePpPP8vpkk) tonight?
Eh. I felt Red Dwarf trailed off a lot through the later series, and Back to Earth didn't re-assure me that it had much more to offer.
However, I can't make the decision for others.
~~~~~
Now for a different question - who the hell is it that Terrance Greensail reminds me of?
Dessel, at least while she's doped up, reminds me somewhat of how Gala has been turning out in my head.
Also, I found a way to use the Sleight of Hand I bought! Whether petty theft proves a good spend of 200 XP remains to be seen - depends on how useless the coin I stole is.
Considering that they revere Thrones like some sort of holy artifact, "very".
Alyx isn't expecting it to be of (much) monetary value, instead perhaps an informative one (but obviously not hugely so).
However, thoughts are certainly turning over regarding the acquisition of currency that won't draw attention every time it's used.
I had some very unfortunate ideas for why Thrones are so highly regarded on Aurvol, although the only unfortunate thing about these ideas is that we won't get to act on them until the 25th.
However, there's a reason they're A) valuable and B) legal tender.
just to confirm that I will not be around tonight and that you won't see me skyping again till 15th November.
That's fine, I'll make sure to update you with all the gossip when you do get back.
double
Hopefully we'll have Ruaridh back this week for a session. Maybe? I've been brewing ideas like a madman making moonshine in his shed...
New for "The list of things that someone should really make (TM)" is the Tea-Urn Servitor.
Good news is before we even begin construction of the Tea-Servior, we now know of one defect that would most definitely warrant a product recall...Demon possession! :P ;D
You're alright if it's the tea servitor. It's not covered on the toast servitor though. (http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2004-04-09/comic/meet-the-crew/evil-lurks-where-you-least-expect-it/)
Very clever that! It pays to read the "fine print". ;)
I have this awful feeling I'm going to be crawling through a very large earthen tunnel sometime in the future. I don't know why but my curiosity always gets the best of me. I must know were the "homeless servitor" came from. :P
I hope the next two weeks fly by so we can find out.
josh
Quote from: Quickdraw McGraw on October 26, 2012, 01:54:24 AMI have this awful feeling I'm going to be crawling through a very large earthen tunnel sometime in the future.
Alyx has an awful feeling she's going to have to join you.
*Rolls dice*
Hmm, an 11 for her Wp test. She might just about agree to that - it seems the initial shock has worn off a bit. Might have been the chance to get a good bath. (This is a character quirk I've been kicking around for a while, but thus far without an owner. So maybe.)
I should add, I hate fear tests. Both of my RP characters have a bad habit of failing them - despite the fact that Clepsydra is actually supposed to be a strong willed genengineered soldier.
The "tunnel" is a more or less vertical drop, so not so much crawling as abseiling.
double
While I was on the train this morning I felt that the "Maxine" thing from last night needed a bit of clearing up.
Basically, Inquisitor Dessel is the current iteration of a character I've since developed a bit further from her previous several incarnations, and each of those has been called Maxine. Most recently prior to Dessel, I had a character called Maxine Delgardo that, at the very least, was predictable in her craziness -- you could at least count on her to find everything amusing (and to start flirting with everybody she met, a la Jack Harkness). This version is probably about the same level of crazy, but more infuriating :P
As a result, I kept referring to Dessel as "Maxine" in my notes for this campaign, so that I could keep track of the character's evolution. I've also referred to Carvolye and Greensail by names of older iterations as well, but those older names haven't had any reason to come up (Greensail, notably, is not a psyker, and Carvolye's no longer on NPC status).
So now I'm scouring Behind The Name for other M names.
EDIT: While I'm at it, the "what on earth" stuff was very deliberate, as Bishop Aleksei Venware informed you of the distinction between "Earth" (which is how the locals know their own planet) and "Emperor's Earth".
I'm back in play again as of this week :)
I expect a full run-down of everything to have happened in my absence :P
What point were you up to? I can't remember what we were doing when you were last with us.
we were in the cathedral having chatted with a priest - in the first settlement we reached.
Right... well, checking my notes:
~~~~~
The chat with the Bishop (who we later found out was called Aleksei Venware, to add to our collection of people with the same name) continued for a while.
The "Cataclysm" which Zaan had saved the people from was described as falling stars, large meteors, believed to be the rise of hell... sort of the classic fire and brimstone apocalypse scenario.
Zaan is supposed to have stopped the rising panic and infighting by reminding the people of their faith, and the Apocalypse passed those protected. The saint generally restores civilisation (a list of cities: Mazelvis, Aberash, Tysole - although probably misspelt) and is "carried back into heaven".
This is about 1100 local years ago (the local year being longer, this doesn't conflict with the 2000 year date we already had).
There's apparently a collection of Thrones in the grand cathedral at Aberash. The coins of the saint, while holy relics, remain legal tender as to not disrespect their nature.
The bishop leads us to the tea house nearby, where our various less pious allies are already drinking tea and eating cake.
Except it turns out the answer to my question as regards whether this was the "special" cake (such as one might find in the Netherlands) turns out to be "why not?".
Interrogator Greensail ends up a little bit the worse for the wear as a result of the newly rechristened "space cake".
The Bishop suggests the Cartographer's shop as a good place to go if we want to get a better idea of the lay of the land and the general nature of the city.
The planetary governor in the "Big white house" is Veneris Hall III, apparently less pious (and thus less popular with the bishop) than his forebear, Hantor.
At which point, we get interrupted by some kind of cross between a tramp and a servitor (with literally burning eye sockets and quite an odour), standing menacingly over one of the noblemen in the cafe, reciting various loops of "They are coming, It is coming, We are coming, They are coming and they are here".
We're not very pleased about having tea time interrupted (either that or Carvolye decided to get noble), so a general fight ensues. Dessel shoots Trooper Carvolye in the back with her bolt pistol (well, more wings him) in the mess, slaps Stirling (I think it was Stirling) for trying to stop her doing it again, but is finally talked down by Ernst. Guilleman comes in handy rescuing the somewhat catatonic Greensail, Trooper Rhommel sets it on fire with an Inferno round.
The burning "thing" issuing its dying statement of "You are nothing, you have been found wanting" involves Alyx nastily failing a fear test and running out.
Ernst puts the burning corpse out by ripping a tea urn off the wall (passing his strength test, yet again!) to dowse it.
Alyx finally collects herself and comes back to help "clean up" - which mostly involved suggesting that someone else wrap the corpse in a tablecloth and carry it out.
Our "rear" exit (heading for the hotel that Dessel apparently bought out every room in) has Alyx find the sewer entrance the thing came up through. She steals Carvolye and descends to investigate - very unwillingly given her earlier shock, I add, but as she's the character trained and equipped for tracking things through dark tunnels, she didn't have much choice.
It's left claw marks where it's climbed all over the walls and ceiling, so she tracks its path quite easily. We reach a door after a few turns.
Alyx carves a hole through its rotten wood quite easily, but sees nothing but an opposite wall. Fortunately deciding not to have Carvolye charge the door down, we open it to find there's no floor in the room. There should have been, but it's rather absent, apparently eaten away by a organic looking tunnel leading straight down.
Alyx declines to go further at this point, so we return to meet with our companions (and have a bath, Trooper Carvolye with his rubber ducky. I decided a stormtrooper's rubber ducky was probably like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-1VXej7wbQ).)
We get the debrief from Knell on the servitor thing. It's got some sort of glowing, arcane and likely tainted power supply and its blood has hardened (likely post mortem) to a rubber like substance - apparently, its life span after being turned on was probably measurable in hours.
It was variously described as a failed attempt to create a False Man or a golem (fortunate, then, that this was a DH game, not an RT game, as 'Sydra wouldn't have taken so kindly to such terms).
Alyx later got visited by Gerald Blacksail (no relation to Greensail), the nobleman from the tea house (who'd apparently tracked us down through Dessel's weird purchases and one of his disgruntled acquaintances that got kicked out). We got a quick run down...
- The upper classes in general have been assailed by weird events, although not necessarily the same.
- The city Tysol has apparently gone missing/is deserted (I'm not sure which, I think it may have been conflicting reports).
- And there's a burning city (mirage) near Mateselvian.
We were invited to a meeting of the Philosophical society, provided some measure of discreetness comes into play (i.e. leave certain individuals behind, probably a good idea not to turn up in full combat gear...), such that we could talk with some of the nobility about the matter.
Oh, and Blacksail's daughter apparently has a thing for Guilleman (handsome guardsman that he is)
~~~~~
I think that's the most of it. We've not had too many sessions, as Ruaridh has been away a couple of weeks as well.
Other news is we've gained another new recruit that Koval found on 40KO, Benis. He'll be playing a high ranking arbitrator, at least for the moment.
To clarify, the city names are Matselvis (in the rather unimaginatively named region of Matselvium), Aberash (you got this one right), Vauntevillia (where you are now) and Taesol (and the real OOC reason there are conflicting reports about it is because I was doing it all on the fly and my notes were all over the place)
Oh dear, I'd completely failed to realise I was transcribing the several spellings in my notes (which are written fast, not well) across into the posts.
I will be back online tomorrow too, and I don't expect to be missing any sessions up until Christmas (for the time being at least). I do have to fit in a run and dinner after work finishes at six tomorrow, so may not quite make a 1930 start however.
Ruaridh
I guess if we're talking availability up to christmas then I should note I'll be away on the 20th Dec, our last before Christmas. I'm assuming that much like last year we may well not start back again till the 10th January?
Depends on whether anyone wants to restart earlier, I suppose. I'll still be here, but other people will probably have other ideas.
As much as I would be the type to ignore my family to go and play imaginary soldiers, I have been assuming we'll probably skip several sessions around Christmas and New Year again.
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate fear tests? At least I only got a 23 this time. (Considerably better than 'Sydra's record 149...)
And this one's only Fear(2) as well -- I've got things coming that have Fear(4) :P
Oh great. Auto-fail time.
Shoulda bought more Willpower advances :P
I have got the first Wp advance on my "to buy" list, but beyond that, they get expensive fast. I think Alyx is just going to have to hope that none of the other characters get too judgemental about her wetting herself in terror. (Although, fortunately for her, I don't think fear based incontinence is actually on the shock table.)
Well, at least I've got ideas about how she's going to go mad.
Weapons Koval wishes he hadn't given Alyx: 1x MkIV Laspistol with laser sight.
It's a bit of a sticky wicket. Accurate weapons, with what is essentially a random number of D10s of damage, are rather unpredictable as far as their effects on a fight. Sometimes they're the same as a normal weapon (if you recall the fight with Immer, it didn't help Alyx's Fatebringer much)... then with the next shot, they'll stop a tank.
My best suggestion is to house-rule the errata on the "Accurate" trait to do D5s of extra damage, rather than D10s. It keeps the feel that the weapon can drop a tough target with the right shot, but is considerably less prone to those daft extremes.
Tempering the power of that pistol should save several headaches. The monsters won't need re-statting, there'll be fewer anticlimatic fight scenes, it'll make the overall balance of the group fairer and there'll be a bit less collateral damage - seeing as Energy criticals include "Target immolates and runs wildly setting things on fire" and "All the target's ammunition explodes".
Mind you, Alyx was throwing out mega-crits all around that session. Even the sword fight ended with her bisecting her opponent.
I had every intention of giving you the pistol, but it's your call.
For what it's worth, Righteous Fury did not help, and neither did giving the dragon / Masked Men only ten wounds each. This was mostly so that I could keep the numbers fairly simple for Ben, although MODIFIERS EVERYWHERE probably still confused him. :P
There was some luck with some very high end damage rolls that then went righteous, but even doubling the dragon's wounds would have still put it on Critical 9. Because it was the arm, its high and unnatural toughness might have allowed it to survive that, but it would still have been fish in a barrel at that point.
If you don't mind, I think downgrading Accurate to adding D5s is better in the long run. It can still land sharpshooting hits to take lots of wounds off armoured targets (particularly as D5s do still count for Righteous Fury chance), but it's going to take more luck to put them down in one.
And yes, I do realise I'm an roleplayer sitting here saying "No, this +5 sword is too much. Can't we downgrade it to a +2 please?", but imbalance just isn't fun all around.
Okay, works for me, although successive GMs may have to re-evaluate.
I can't imagine that our later GMs will find issue with their combats not being dominated by a character with a 3D10+6 pistol. Accurate was underwhelming in its initial version, and is horribly overpowered in its errata version - trying to balance around it is ridiculous.
~~~~~
I imagine the next session may include an awkward explanation to Greensail about why one of his stormtroopers is dead from a philosophical meeting. But I guess that depends on whether the space cake has worn off.
Alyx is also going to want to talk to Ernst. At least, she told me she wanted to. Unfortunately, I've forgotten exactly what she said it was about.
Uh, Greensail's going to be making a Toughness test for that one -- in either case he'll probably be out 'til morning, but if he fails he'll be spewing his guts up. (If he passes, he'll simply be very hungry.)
D10+2D5+6 looks uglier, but whatever, it's all for the better. (We hope.)
If that's how badly he's coping with it, it seems it was a gorram good thing I avoided the cake myself. (We're really not doing well with our high ranking individuals, given one giddy Inquisitor and one stoned Interrogator.)
Yeah, mixing dice types is ugly (which may be part of the reason they didn't do it to begin with), but I'm using the D10s and D20 out of a poly-set as the extra D10 anyway (it's easier than finding actual D10), so the dice I've been rolling it with are all distinct anyway.
He did eat a lot of it!
So to summarise the choose-your-next-plotline bits:
Over in Matselvis, Master Kay's Fantastic Phantasmagorium Emporium has apparently seen an increase in traffic after the sudden appearance of a "burning city" in the north. You have a fairly concerned* contact in the form of Setar Shess**, a baron with far too many watches, whom Gulliman got to know over a game of bridge.
In Taesol, everyone's disappeared, which means that an entire city is easy pickings for looters and local indigens. Setar Shess may also be of some use, as this affects his shipping business.
You're also aware that there are Orks massing south of Aberash, and Maj. Virginia Chase has attempted to recruit Gulliman as an officer because of his commanding, compelling manliness. Unfortunately, her social skills are pretty dire, but she's a decent enough contact.
The political trouble the Governer's in is still just talk at the moment.
Oh, and Dessel is finally sane! I admit I came up with the autopilot excuse on the fly (because I decided that turning her sane would make a change from "insane talkative loon") but she's potentially going to be useful. Or not. Depends on what you guys get up to.
*Concerned about the burning city, not so much about Master Kay -- Shess just thinks he's a weirdo.
**Unfortunately, the Count Matselvium was killed at the Society Hall, so you can't exactly go to him.
I may well have more of your plot-hooks in my notes, but I wasn't fully able to go through the book last night. I was a bit busy.
I also can't remember which ones I gave you aside from the ones I've mentioned, so I'm not going to spoil the surprise much further. :P
So it looks like I'm going to miss (or be very late joining) this weeks session. Then as I said I'm away to France next week so will also miss the final one of the year.
Bon voyage Euan, we'll try not to get Gulliman thrown in the cooking pot. :)
Greensail must still be on the space cake. Apparently, the Aquila is being pursued by an airborne masked man. (Mostly due to the fact the conversation went from talking about the aircraft to talking about its pilot without any mention of that change of subject.)
I made the "Is it a jan'kan? Is it a Thunderhawk? No, it's a flying daemon servitor" joke, but I realise that was a missed opportunity to get one of my favourite movie lines in, so you can have it now:
"THIS. IS. NOT. FLYING. THIS. IS. FALLING. WITH. STYLE."
Yeah, that was my fault entirely, although it was pretty funny. :P
I've worked out a fix to the plot-related muck-up -- the solution has rather fortunately presented itself in those other tribes Martock mentioned.
... the other thing that's just come to mind is that -30 intelligence roll! It's the only time I've ever been disappointed to "only" roll a 02 on a D100 percentile roll - just missing out on the 1% I needed.
(Tell the truth, given how awesome that roll was, I probably should have the following scene with a few pieces falling into place after things had been pointed out to her, rather than being as uninformed as she was.)
It may be worth instating the Pass On 01-05 rule from Inquisitor.
It's safe to say that Alyx's trust of Dessel has sunk even lower. When Madeleine's not a loon*, she's suspiciously over-informed...
*And Alyx isn't even entirely convinced that wasn't an act.
Yep. There is a reason for it.
Alyx was giving the benefit of the doubt, seeing as Dessel hadn't been doing anything too suspicious. Shooting at the Aquila when it arrived at least had some justification to believe we were hostile - and while it might be a bit odd that an Inquisitor could have fits of doolally, Alyx can't actually argue that it's that unusual to be a bit out of it after a major crash.
However, now she is doing things that are wildly out of place.
Actually, as an addendum to what I said about chainswords... I still think what Alyx would most favour would be a Carthaxian equivalent of a Lathe sword*. After all, it is a lot more suitable for a sneaky assassin than a chain-weapon.
But even with her standing, I'm not sure she'd be all too familiar with such rare commodities.
*I did develop fluff for Hale blades, based on rare elements from and the unusual properties of the nebula 'Sydra would (sort of) call home. Although, being as the Dioklesian nebula is impassable in the warp, it has to be traversed at sub-light speeds; the results are fraking expensive and rare, because it takes specialised ships decades to make the necessary journeys.
Again, there is a reason.
Purely as food for thought, re. Equivalent To Lathe Blades; Minos Epsilon can make some pretty sweet melee weapons, but A) their main focus is on guns B) they don't tend to produce "mundane" blades*, so the closest you'd get to a Lathe/Hale Blade from Minos Epsilon is a very nice shock-sword with the discharge generator taken out.
*"Bounty for bounty; the mere hand-tools of the unenlightened are beneath our notice, but through our beneficence, these mundane objects transcend their base origins and become the blessed artefacts of the Omnissiah. Such is our duty, our service, and our reward."
QuoteAgain, there is a reason.
Alyx still wants to know it, no matter how "good" it may be.
QuoteThey don't tend to produce "mundane" blades
A sharpened piece of metal is certainly basic, but it's what feels right for Alyx. A chain or power sword would be more killy, but seeing weapon selection as an integral part of a character's personality, I'm not really happy going off on complete tangents.
Alyx might be open to changing her melee weapon for something that was still lightweight, agile and (importantly) stealthy, but they hardly fit those criteria well. On full consideration, I think chainswords are probably out. Power swords... maybe, if it was high quality*. They're not exactly stealthy when turned on, but they do at least still work as mundane blades while turned off.
*Her upbringing has made her rather discerning about her possessions and equipment. Not only because a noble should expect the best, but because she was trained as a killer since youth.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on December 22, 2012, 04:17:51 AM
QuoteAgain, there is a reason.
Alyx still wants to know it, no matter how "good" it may be.
Wait and see. ;)
QuoteQuoteThey don't tend to produce "mundane" blades
A sharpened piece of metal is certainly basic, but it's what feels right for Alyx.
Which is why I pointed out that Minos Epsilon wouldn't be of much use the second time round.
Yeah, well - you know me; I'll ramble about anything and everything.
So when should we reconvene? 3rd or 10th of January?
My vote would be for the 3rd, seeing as I haven't any other commitments - but if we're going to have just two players all over again, I'll wait.
Following discussion over Facebook and other media, we appear to have a majority-vote in favour of reconvening on the 3rd.
Occasionally, there are times where you want to fail a Willpower test. Only occasionally.
... which are inevitably the rare few I pass with multiple degrees of success.
NPCs are being thinned out, by the way -- I think I'm down to three friendlies.
Alyx is a little too self-important that she was going to tolerate that kind of disrespectful attitude and underhand behaviour, even if Dessel is an Inquisitor.
Still, she did mean her closing "Emperor be with you" - although with a bit of the 1984 style "The Emperor is watching you" in there.
All in all, a polite farewell seemed more 'Alyx' than yelling "If I see you again, I'll shoot you in the face" (although that might well have been in character for Novus).
Well, we've already established that Dessel's a bit of a quixotic fruitcake. And she will, of course, be showing up again.
Exactly when and where is not really for the characters to know, but I will leave you one clue: Tattoos.
If the line "Ernst has failed his strength test" isn't a harbinger of the apocalypse, nothing is.
Mind you, he certainly did go a long way towards redeeming blowing that two year streak - that's the first time I've seen a priest use sporting equipment to one-hit KO two armed opponents consecutively.
Yes, and I suspect that this won't be the last time we see sporting equipment used in combat. (In fairness to the Matselvians, I think they just ran out of swords and couldn't be bothered to find more.)
It also won't be the last time we see Master Maksim Kay, although I think you've added another entry to your List Of Reasons To Throttle Koval.
Quote from: Koval on January 11, 2013, 06:29:20 AMIn fairness to the Matselvians, I think they just ran out of swords and couldn't be bothered to find more.
Imagine being the convict that drew that particular short straw. Being thrown into gladiatorial combat, only to get passed whatever the local equivalent of a cricket bat is.
QuoteIt also won't be the last time we see Master Maksim Kay
Seeing as we actually went there to find out what the hell he's up to, leaving it at the stage we were at would seem a little insufficient.
Alyx kinda wants to know what else he has in his freakshow, and stop him adding any more masked men to it - she thinks she has a reason Kay might buy for why it's a bad idea, even if he doesn't believe in the supernatural.
(Although, being more cynical/genre savvy than her, I can't help but suspect that we'll be at loggerheads anyway.)
But I think what she'll want to open the next session with is a talk about the implications of the items she spent this last session hiding, particularly after a certain choice of words on Kay's part.
And you'll probably want to close the next session by throttling me when you see what I've got lined up. Clue: "There is no work of art without a subject"
In the interests of avoiding having something that rambles, I'm stripping out one of the plot arcs, but it's your choice as to which one I strip out -- and yes, there will be consequences in either case :P
There should be one, maybe two more sessions in Matselvium before we get that far, though. Really depends on how you deal with Master Kay.
I've also stripped out a boss encounter as it's entirely irrelevant, despite the encounter in question providing one of the most entertaining fights for my group at uni.
Well, I know Alyx would think the Governor is the more interesting matter. She knows Orks are belligerent and doesn't quite see how the...
...Alex, Alyx, Ernst, Guilliman, Horatio, Novus, Ragnan, Ser William...
... eight of us would contribute notably to a large scale war. Our skills in a fight will be a bit "drop in the ocean", and our leadership abilities will be a bit hampered by most of us not actually speaking the local dialect.
(Mind you, Euan had an interesting call last week. If there is loads of materiel that can be recovered from the crashed ship, then that could change the odds if we can pull off teaching the "how to use a lasgun" crash course.)
But the war is the one we have an invite for - or at least Guilliman does.
Mind you, as has been revealed, we do have nobility on hand - bluffing ourselves an invite to talk with the governor isn't impossible.
Well, you already know that the planet has guns -- Sir William has his shotgun, after all -- though judging by what Kay's been keeping in his stock room, which let's be honest is a hell of a lot smaller than a voidship's armoury, the main concern with finding materiel isn't going to be finding it so much as transporting it.
It does however depend on what happens with Kay and what sorts of dreams you have in the meantime -- I've still got a good one lined up.
Quote from: Koval on January 21, 2013, 03:15:44 PMWell, you already know that the planet has guns
Well, yes. We haven't been deified (or lynched) for our magic death sticks. (Even if ours are a bit more advanced.)
But as I'm assuming the army is packing no more than bolt action rifles (seeing as the planet has been described as Victorian era tech-wise), lasguns would be a huge boost to their firepower.
Quotethe main concern with finding materiel isn't going to be finding it so much as transporting it.
I'd suggest Ernst took a strength test, but who knows what will happen now!
Alyx's best suggestion: Hope some form of lighter survived the crash as well as the lasguns.
See, now that you've said that, I'm going to immediately say "no", just to get you to think about it some more -- if it had actually come up in-game, I might not have had time to think about it properly, and would've had to make a snap decision that might not have made sense. This way, we don't end up potentially spoiling the surprise and solving a problem before we arrive at it :P
Fortunately, she has a second best suggestion. But she says not to tell you this time.
Okay, I'll admit the combat dragged on a bit, but that's partly because I didn't suddenly want to kill the entire party so I had to tone the Daemon down a tad mid-session. 20 damage to Ernst's leg is still fairly powerful (even though I gave him faith-armour) but five Overbleeds of Force Bolt with the extra knockdown effect is arguably much better than five Overbleeds of what would've been Fire Bolt. Rest assured that we shouldn't have too many more huge fights.
And you blew up another building! We're turning into a right little demolition crew.
QuoteOkay, I'll admit the combat dragged on a bit, but that's partly because...
The major issue is that Games Workshop never really figured a way to do this kind of combat mechanics fluidly, as is evidenced by the RPs and Inquisitor getting clunky at times.
Running through a fight in either system at any real pace takes everyone being on the ball and some serious organisation.
But I will concede that it's not an easy feat of rules writing, either way. Detailed results takes detailed rules. (Hmm. I need to kick off a discussion about Inquisitor 2 at some point. I've got ideas that need discussing.)
~~~~~
On another note, Alyx doesn't have the slightest idea what the many great and terrible things (or words of that approximate order) the daemon was accusing her of are supposed to be.
There's some petty theft, property damage and a lot of killing in self-defence - but for an assassin, she's rubbish at actually committing to anything that could be called "murder". Her sins are all pretty tame by the 41st millennium's standards.
Clepsydra would be a different matter... after all, where Alyx is getting paid back for doing the right thing, 'Sydra is trying to make up for having done the wrong things.
Nobody ever said the Daemon was necessarily sane. Or getting its tenses right (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TimeTravelTenseTrouble). It's a giant eye that's basically its own crystal ball, so it could've seen things that Alyx hasn't even done yet. It could also be trying to screw with you.
As for the combat mechanics, that's probably more FFG's fault than GW's.
Quote from: Koval on January 26, 2013, 06:43:22 AMAs for the combat mechanics, that's probably more FFG's fault than GW's.
Given that Dark Heresy was written by Black Industries, the Black Library RPG arm, before it was licensed to FFG, and has had to retain those same basics in FFG's reprints, I don't think FFG are really culpable in that respect.
Fair enough, but Black Industries wasn't exactly a high-profile subdivision of GW so it's not strictly GW as a whole that's at fault either, more like just the people at Black Industries.
It may, however, be best to leave this one at the door.
Crazy trippy dreams everywhere! Alyx probably suspects a lot of things now about Dessel and the Daemon.
For those of us that weren't here: post waking up, Alyx found a (slightly charred) page of one of those books we destroyed last time. One side of the page was a perfect mirror, but the other side turned out to be quite disturbing -- instead of a flat sheet of inky blackness, Alyx saw what can best be described as a charcoal drawing of three people: a man, a woman, and a small child.
The small child happened to be the small child that's been popping up at various points -- Gulliman would recognise her.
The man was Master Kay.
The woman was none other than Alyx herself.
Cue speculation as regards the Daemon's interest in Alyx. The safest option, of course, is that it really enjoys screwing with her head (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MindGameShip). And just about everyone else's.
I think Alyx is more concerned about what the others think of the daemon's fascination with her than the fact she has a daemon fascinated with her.
That's probably because she's rather ignorant about Chaos, beyond the principle it should a) be destroyed and b) not be trusted.
Quote from: Koval on February 02, 2013, 06:51:32 AMOne side of the page was a perfect mirror
Was that actually in the plan when I made that guess, or was it thrown in as a "Why not"?
It was actually a "Why not?", as the notes I'd drawn up dealt only with the one side of that page. Sir William didn't initially have a harem, either.
I'm generally free and easy with truly harmless gap-fillers. :P
Yes - I've noticed how many of my stupid suggestions you've incorporated. Who can forget the infamous space cake?
It made perfect sense at the time and, as you've discovered on multiple occasions, the setting itself is actively taking the mick.
Owing to compulsory overtime this week and next week, I might be a bit late this week. And mildly irritable.
So we've just seen what happened to Zaan Kamnik. We've also found Dessel and the source of the astropathic messages. Don't expect Dessel to be as forthcoming as Zaan was.
Zaan's ship, for whatever it's worth, was a Sword-class frigate called the Watchful Eye.
Quote from: Koval on February 22, 2013, 07:49:09 PMDon't expect Dessel to be as forthcoming as Zaan was.
Alyx isn't expecting co-operation; still, she seldom seems to be without an idea - and this time is no exception.
It wouldn't be entirely appropriate to discuss exactly what that idea is until next session, but whether she'd actually be having that idea does depend on what's in the Cemovad logs.
If you could, I wouldn't mind a brief synopsis of those messages (e-mail me, perhaps?). The key points Alyx would be interested in would probably be:
- final entries from all the logs 13 years ago (looking for clues as to why they all cut off)
- gist of Dessel's messages since that 13 year cut-off
- anything notable from 2 years ago (i.e. around Dessel's incarceration)
- what exactly those messages have been since then...
It probably would have been her reading material on the journey back from the Cemovad*, so I rather need to catch up as a player (and it'll save time on the next session).
*It's going to take a bit more than reading on a flight to give her motion sickness. She's a veteran of space travel, after all.
To clarify, those Corruption points you gained yesterday may only be temporary provided you do the right thing(s) later on.
It was a radical call on Alyx's part, I'm sure, but it ties right back into the reason she's here at all. She sees too much good in people, which combines with an excess of conscience (at least for an assassin).
I thiiiiiiiink that even accounting for further derailment, we should have one or two more sessions, plus a debriefing, before I get to hand the GM'ing reins over to Euan.
I forgot to mention last week that due to a canoe club AGM (and being a coach and committee member of the club), I'm likely to miss 90% of this week. Might be back in time for the tail end of the session, just depends.
If there is just the one session left, then due to a skiing holiday I will not really be ready to take over on the 21st. I'm pretty happy with the overall plot I've got setup, just need to go back and tidy/trim/etc the first act to better suit the overall story now.
Bon voyage, although I should point out that the "debriefing" will probably be a session in and of itself, based primarily on how Ruaridh did the debriefing from the story he ran.
A debriefing is somewhat dependent on how many of us are still alive and sane after our little encounter, of course.
I'll be surprised if there isn't at least one of us in the corner of Fabian's office going 'wibble' - or perhaps 'whoop whoop whoop', in accordance with our "Why not Zoidberg?" policy.
So, one death and two burnt Fate Points, and I didn't even drop its full Psy Rating on you.
How kind. It wasn't far off going a lot worse though, seeing as how many people were circling the plug hole of critical damage.
That said, I think Alyx's misfortunes amount to a couple of minor bruises, slight burns and the messed up hair movie women tend to get instead of actual injuries (http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/underworld-wallpaper53.jpg); possibly suspiciously uninjured given the daemon's previous fascination with her.
Oh, and for the sake of those who didn't hear exactly what was said, the name Alyx shouted out was "Lady Astraea Eris Megaera Amphictyonis Eunomia Leveque". So now you know what she's actually called.
But I think it's only Ernst who might recognise the significance of that name - or indeed why she was hiding it.
(As I think I've said before, it's all to do with a grimdark take on Shakespeare).
Link's broken (403 Forbidden).
Darn it. I have referrer headers turned off on my machine (the server isn't then told what page you were linked from, so the typicial anti-hotlink method doesn't work). Copied and re-linked to my Photobucket.
Short version, Kate Beckinsale looking dishevelled in Underworld - one of the influences on Alyx's original design. Not, however, a suitable actress to play Alyx, as Beckinsale's half a foot taller than the diminutive assassin.
Fairy snuff.
But yes, for the most part I think the worst Alyx had to worry about was being slightly singed (compared with Knell who got incinerated, Novus who narrowly avoided being decapitated, and Dessel who managed to suffer a fractured all of her bones).
Of course, now you have to deal with a Giant Laser Of Death that's managed to set all the clouds on fire -- to make matters simpler, this shouldn't involve much combat.
EDIT: I said this last night, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it -- what you decide to do with Dessel determines how the story ends, and will affect your Corruption points.
Dealing with the laser is slightly complicated by the departure of our resident Tech-Priest, of course.
As for Dessel... well, Alyx has two possible answers to that problem, but they'll be up for discussion next week.
So the schedule for the next canoe course I'm running has been finalised and annoyingly the outdoor sessions have been put on Thursday evenings. Fortunately though they normally run about 6-7.30pm, so we may well be looking at 8/8.30 starts once that gets under-way, but it'll only be for about 8 weeks. Certainly We'll have the usual 7/7.30 starts to begin with, but once we get to late April the course will have started.
Well, at least it isn't showtime. :P
Apparently, Ernst passing a strength test on a 03 has a minimum safe distance of 63 miles.
Bottom line is, Fabian's hugely impressed with how you performed, considering that what he'd thought was a search and rescue mission (with Greensail as your objective) turned into an Armageddon Event.
He's less impressed with Beyev cutting in, but he can't do anything about that :P
Out of character note: The Daemon was essentially multiple Heralds and Lesser Daemons of Tzeentch forming a gestalt consciousness and, for want of a better term, an "undefined" single entity that wasn't quite anything at all. Which is why it was one thing, and nine things, and halfway in and out of the Warp, all at the same time.
Two notes:
1) I'm happy to put together another one-shot adventure for Euan's absence this Thursday, should people be interested.
2) I'm also willing to see if the Rogue Trader game can get moving again. I haven't yet contacted Rich on the matter, as I'd like to know whether people actually want it to have it restart before I get all the planning done.
If people would prefer that we just kept the Dark Heresy games at their current pace, then I guess that's how it'll be.
I think, given our sometimes leisurely playing pace, that DH really gains from the weekly sessions.
If you want to run a one-shot that's fine.
A couple people need to email me the latest versions of their characters still.
A one-off story would be fun Marco, but I promised my wifely a date night Thursday. I'll see you all next Thursday as Grizbain. :)
I do miss playing Allerod, but I think Euan's right regarding sticking with the current schedule. A one off this Thursday would be great, but I am going to be public enemy number one by missing next Thursday. My folks are coming up to visit and I can't ignore them for the evening!
Ruaridh
Right. Well I'll cook up some DH for this Thursday then.
Bit of a shame that the RT is stalled, but I guess that gives me the excuse I've wanted to get Clepsydra into model form (her design is one of my favourites) and onto the table. Not sure exactly how that will work fluffwise (particularly if RT does one day return), but then ETYHBTIAL if necessary.
I might do the same with Taphos, in that case.
So it's looking likely that 8.30 will have to be the start time (for me at least) from the 18th onwards.
Also there's a chance, I won't know for sure till monday/tuesday possibly, that I cannot make next Thursday either. Which means the 18th may well end up my first session as GM.
Half eight starts shouldn't be a problem for me, but finishing an hour later as well won't be good for my work schedule. Would 2030-2200 gaming sessions be possible?
Also, I move house at the end of this month. Hopefully I will be able to get a new internet connection set up rapidly after I move, but if I seem to disappear off the face of the earth, that's the reason why!
Ruaridh
8:30 starts won't be a problem for me either. I will be available the 11th & 18th but I'm traveling the 24th-25th to see an ailing grandmother who lives a thousand miles away. She's as physically fit as any 90 year old could be but she's having moments of senility and they are getting worst fast! :(
So I may not be available the 25th and 2nd.
8.30-10pm should work fine if we hit the ground running as soon as I get online really.
Also I still require character sheets for Ernst & Wilhelm.
I'll get Benis to email me an up-to-date version of Sir William's character sheet, so I can pass it onto you.
Sooo... I may have misinterpreted the schedule for the kayaking course, it basically rules Thursday evenings out for me entirely.
The only other weekday evening I'm consistently free is a Monday.
It's that or either I step out for the ten weeks to let someone else GM, or we take a 10-week hiatus =/
What're peoples thoughts?
I'm good with Mondays, if others are.
(I know we did run one session on a Monday at some point. Might have been the one just before the 2012 IGT and Ruaridh's arm surgery.)
Mondays are fine with too. I need to rework my scheduled so I may not be available this coming Monday as I need to know a week in advance.
I'm cool with Mondays as well, though I do hope the Thursday sessions resume as normal once the kayaking's finished. It gives me something to look forward to towards the end of the week :P
Does this mean, however, that this Thursday's being completely nixed? I could still go for a night of banter if you guys are cool with that.
I second Koval's last question...
Quote from: Koval on April 10, 2013, 06:05:43 PMDoes this mean, however, that this Thursday's being completely nixed?
Rogue Trader! ;D
But but but what about I-forgot-what-Euan's-character-is-called? What happens to him?
Nooooo, nameless Arch Militant! Why? Why!?
Quote from: Koval on April 10, 2013, 07:06:51 PMWhat happens to him?
Amphro Hawkblood has suffered an unfortunate accident involving Allerod, two tubes of
Emperor's TeethTM brand dental hygiene product (the future may be Grimdark, but your smile doesn't have to be!) and a space gnome. I'm sure we'll see him sooner or later.
Speaking of which, did you ever work out a way around the Hanging Final Session of the last adventure?
Very vaguely, but like I said before, it's not something I was going to put too much effort into or bother Rich about unless I knew something would be happening with it.
"It Never Happened"? :P
I should probably have said in the earlier post that while it turns out I can do this Thursday, I've a very busy day and want to try and re-write the opening scenes to work better with how I've laid out the rest of the adventure before we get stated – I don't think doing the changes off the cuff tomorrow night will work very well.
I will be around this Thursday... unless something crops up unexpectedly!
I should add that Monday's are pretty much out for me - it's date night for me and my good lady!
Ruaridh
Hmm. I was wondering what your availability would be...
Well as I said I cannot do Thursdays for the next ten weeks or so.
And with both Ruaridh and Ben unable to do Monday evenings, I'm wondering if it'd be better for me to just drop out till July and let someone else GM an adventure on Thursdays as normal.
Thoughts?
Oh dear...
That's an option, I guess, Euan. I could advance ideas I've got up to a playable standard fairly sharpish, but it probably wouldn't be ready until at least next week.
Alternatively, as a bit of a wild card suggestion (and as I already joking mentioned it), I could arrange RT for the Thursdays (with the DH possibly still running on Mondays) until the schedule is ready to return. That would however mean a lot of arranging, between trying to find Rich and the talk with our players who don't have RT characters.
Well I'll be on for a bit of banter in any case. In fact, I'm on Skype right now :P
Right.
Thinking through the revelation that Quickdraw has now booked himself into Mondays and we therefore have two missing players from both timeslots. This means we have a maximum of three at each, with some players who sometimes have to miss due to work anyway (maybe four if you count myself).
Now, as I said last night, it might be possible to run a game for each timeslot, at least for a while. That might be Rogue Trader for one and Dark Heresy for the other.
However, it occurs to me that it would be possible to do Dark Heresy for both, using it for a split party mechanic without the issues we had trying to run it all in one session. (And, if I were really really clever, have both pertain to different parts of the same story).
That would mean that Koval, the one player (other than myself) who can actually make both sessions, would probably need to adopt a new character for one of the split parties, which isn't perfect - still, it's an idea that won't require putting one group of the players into the unrelated story of RT or shaft anyone on XP.
Any thoughts?
(Whatever happens, it's probably not going to be ready for the coming session(s) though. Just bear that in mind.)
I'll take care of Novus if need be.
That's one possibility, but what I've got in mind will allow the introduction of a different character if that would more take your fancy.
I've already got to account for Grizbain and Turlough anyway, it's not a big deal to figure one more character.
We may already be dealing with enough "different" just from having Turlough.
Whatever you'd prefer. Of course, voting is still out on exactly what people want to do at the moment.
As for my perspective - well, much as I would like to return to Rogue Trader, I'm guessing double Dark Heresy will keep the momentum better until such a point as we're all ready for Thursdays again and Euan can run his story.
I like the sound of that Marco, be a fair bit of work on your end I imagine though, but it does sound like a good solution – although how readily Quickdraw can swap his work schedule back around in a couples months time I wouldn't know.
Considering how much I've sort of gubbed up taking over as GM, I'm happy to bounce ideas with you next week for the wider structure of any adventure (obviously me knowing or helping create the fine details would defeat the purpose in playing).
With both Turlough and Grizbain having established relationships with Overseer Katia Bayev (and each other) that were significantly structured to lead straight into my campaign, my core recommendation would be to confine the adventure to the space station I believe we're currently aboard and the planet below (if it orbits one). Meaning it can act as a good "while we're waiting for transport, this also needs looked at".
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on April 17, 2013, 01:11:15 AMI like the sound of that Marco, be a fair bit of work on your end I imagine though, but it does sound like a good solution
Neat, another vote.
It probably is going to be a bit complex, but I'm getting ideas.
Quotehow readily Quickdraw can swap his work schedule back around in a couples months time I wouldn't know.
Probably more easily than changing it back again just after having just made all the arrangements to change it.
However, whatever the answer is, the unfortunate truth is that it's one thing to be making concessions while we've got two people who can't make Thursdays but it's less workable to be making concessions for just one player.
QuoteWith both Turlough and Grizbain having established relationships with Overseer Katia Bayev (and each other) that were significantly structured to lead straight into my campaign, my core recommendation would be to confine the adventure to the space station I believe we're currently aboard and the planet below (if it orbits one). Meaning it can act as a good "while we're waiting for transport, this also needs looked at".
If I remember correctly, Port Alcis is a stand alone station. And, seeing as it's Koval's brainchild, I'm wary of writing too much of it for a story.
What I have in mind would probably involve a stop along the way. Perhaps the warp travel equivalent of a train or plane change - we're more likely to be travelling commercially than privately, as the Inquisition can't have private or commandeered ships for running around every last group of agents.
And as warp journeys can take days or weeks in real time, one might imagine that a changeover wouldn't be too hasty a process.
From there, we have a reasonable justification to use a new setting, but still fit it within the previously planned timeline.
But if necessary, I did briefly introduce Interrogator Regin (better known as "Gala") for the one-shot the other week*. (The justification there was that she'd been meeting with Fabian in Lyra's stead - she mentioned there'd been discussion of our team, but that probably wasn't the core reason for their meeting. Likely far more important and secret things).
I wouldn't feel
too guilty about suggesting that she had taken the liberty of 'suggesting' an alternative route so she could borrow the team along the way.
I imagine Bayev might not be best impressed, but ultimately Gala is effectively second in command to Inquisitor Rhodes**, so it is sort of within her remit.
* It didn't come up, but she does have a DH character sheet. Which, amongst other things, includes a +30 bonus to cooking.
** This reminds me. Regarding the question of putting the team in the hands of a more 'neutrally-owned' character than Rhodes, an alternative short of reassigning the team to another Inquisitor would be introducing another Interrogator/Overseer/Arch-Master/etc for Inquisitor Rhodes that we could collectively write.
Put the team under them in the hierarchy, and then other GMs can be more confident about having the boss in the story if they want.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on April 17, 2013, 03:03:15 AM
If I remember correctly, Port Alcis is a stand alone station. And, seeing as it's Koval's brainchild, I'm wary of writing too much of it for a story.
It's sort of a standalone station. Admittedly it isn't orbiting a planet (because I have no idea of the physics involved when there's a major space station orbiting a planet that itself is orbiting
two suns), but it is within the Dioskor system, and close enough to New Gemini itself that there's a steady flow of traffic going through/past it.
QuoteWhat I have in mind would probably involve a stop along the way. Perhaps the warp travel equivalent of a train or plane change - we're more likely to be travelling commercially than privately, as the Inquisition can't have private or commandeered ships for running around every last group of agents.
And as warp journeys can take days or weeks in real time, one might imagine that a changeover wouldn't be too hasty a process.
Well, Fabian did have to call in a considerable number of favours to get you the Savage Chicken -- doing it too often would indeed get a bit old.
Having said that, what about having part of the adventure take place on the ship on which you're catching a ride?
QuoteBut if necessary, I did briefly introduce Interrogator Regin (better known as "Gala") for the one-shot the other week*. (The justification there was that she'd been meeting with Fabian in Lyra's stead - she mentioned there'd been discussion of our team, but that probably wasn't the core reason for their meeting. Likely far more important and secret things).
Makes sense, given that we've established the two to be on fairly good terms. If such a thing exists in the Inquisition.
Quote** This reminds me. Regarding the question of putting the team in the hands of a more 'neutrally-owned' character than Rhodes, an alternative short of reassigning the team to another Inquisitor would be introducing another Interrogator/Overseer/Arch-Master/etc for Inquisitor Rhodes that we could collectively write.
Put the team under them in the hierarchy, and then other GMs can be more confident about having the boss in the story if they want.[/i]
Having a second Interrogator sort of invalidates one of the reasons why Alice ended up being palmed off to Fabian, but aside from that, another lower-ranking operative should work just fine. I rather like it.
Quote from: Koval on April 17, 2013, 06:36:14 AMAdmittedly it isn't orbiting a planet (because I have no idea of the physics involved when there's a major space station orbiting a planet that itself is orbiting two suns)
Complex and weird. Predicting orbits with more than two significant gravitational masses is difficult.
Four body systems can prove themselves stable if the effects of various of the bodies aren't too large - see Sun + Jupiter + Earth + Moon (which has been stable for over four and a half billion years) - but they would get more complex when the effects of various bodies gets more significant (as a second sun would be).
However, while my intuition is that it wouldn't be naturally very stable - at the very least, it'd be likely to have a fairly eccentric orbit - it could be made feasible in the long term by moderately trivial station-keeping. Of course, moderately trivial becomes still becomes very significant when trying to manoeuvre the equivalent of a large city in space.
QuoteWell, Fabian did have to call in a considerable number of favours to get you the Savage Chicken -- doing it too often would indeed get a bit old.
That's not exactly the first time favours have been called in to get an Inquisition vessel to assist us either.
Although, that said, Inquisitor Skoll turning up was originally planned to lead into a short Rogue Trader cross-over* that had to be written off when Rich and I couldn't get the schedules to line up well enough.
*The plan was that the RT group would have assisted in a space battle to get several strike teams (of which the DH group was one) aboard a traitor ship that had managed to run the Ilithyian blockade.I suspect the ultimate reason would be it was the favour Lyra could pull in at the shortest notice* when it turned out the party would need a hot extract.
*Not surprisingly, seeing as there's some unknown factor about the Ynys that means while its warp travel doesn't appear to be all that fast in "on-board time", it suffers little to no time dilation in the warp - and therefore takes a lot less real time to travel.QuoteHaving said that, what about having part of the adventure take place on the ship on which you're catching a ride?
I'm not sure quite how that would easily integrate.
QuoteHaving a second Interrogator sort of invalidates one of the reasons why Alice ended up being palmed off to Fabian, but aside from that, another lower-ranking operative should work just fine. I rather like it.
Well, I'd actually recommend a rank of non-specific position in the hierarchy anyway, such that they could be overruled or overrule others as was most plot convenient and retain command as long as we want/need even as our character's own ranks progress.
Interestingly I was imagining that Bayev was coming to the tail end of her "grace period" as a newly promoted Overseer, having proved effective but ultimately stymied in her first operation in the rank, the coming events on Levongard are her second chance to prove herself fully capable of the task.
So having another more experienced/established Overseer replace/order her around would work just fine.
Making the interim investigation something that goes on mid-journey to Levongard sounds like a good idea – plus Bayev can be busy "off screen" the whole time doing research and planning for Levongard, while this other Overseer steps in to borrow the group briefly while they wait on their transfer.
I think I'd still default to Gala for this particular operation - and there's no question about her rank; she's already established as Rhodes' Interrogator. (Don't worry - while she will probably be an active NPC, she's not going to just overrule all the PCs).
It makes a bit more sense than introducing another character at this point - and as she's already an established character of mine, she'll be less prep work. Trying to let everyone have their creative input into who our new boss is inside a week is a schedule for which the word "hectic" would be an understatement.
I do agree that using Gala would be easier, though I do still wonder whether the "collaborative character" might be an option for a longer-term project once we're suitably far into Bayev's mission.
EDIT: My internet's becoming rather unstable again, so I'll have to play it by ear tomorrow.
I didn't mean to imply the idea should be shelved - it's definitely an option for the future, and in the long run far more convenient than the current situation. However, in the short term, it's not really possible to properly implement in time.
I may be a bit later than normal to the session. Not that it makes a huge difference to how much gaming we'll get, I'm still writing the adventure.
To the contrary to what was said last night, I had enough leaps forward with the overall plot during my thinking this morning that I will hopefully be in a stage where I'll have enough of the story to do at least some of a session on Monday.
The advantage of that is it's the session with all the relevant players for the new PCs and NPCs, which should allow me to insert characterisations for them when I have to redo the intro on Thursday (assuming we actually have enough people to play on Thursday, unlike what would have happened last night).
Loose details of how to expect things to go so far are probably that Alyx, Ernst, Sir William and Pelagius Turlough (Koval's new character) will be running through a more political side of the plot on Thursdays; Guilliman, Novus (under Koval's control, for now) and Doyle Grizbain (Quickdraw's new character) will be assisted by Gala in running through the more "on the ground" side of the plot on Mondays.
The sooner everyone can send me up-to-date character sheets, the better.
EDIT: Whoops, not all of you have my e-mail. Take the spaces out of "Marco Robert Skoll", guess what the suffix might be for a dot-co-dot-uk hotmail address, then put it all together.
(I'm guessing that crawler bots aren't smart enough to figure that out and use it to send me yet more spam. Yet, at least.)
Just to clarify, will we be doing anything this Monday? I'll be online if you fancy a bit of banter.
I was indeed referring to this imminent Monday.
It might not be that long a session, as some of the precise details of the overall plot and setting are still in development, but I have rough details for most of it now. (And hopefully I'll have more of it written by tomorrow, too).
I'm sure I'll be forced into plenty of improvisation along the way anyway.
Hopefully that all went reasonably well and I didn't have to contrive things too much to split the party.
... or drive you potty with all my pre-scripted description sections. I never quite know whether I'm hitting the balance between too much description and not enough description.
Anyway, see those of you who are around on Thursday, where I'll do the first half of the session again. And for the second half of the session you'll get to find out more about what backstabbery is going on in the politics of the Maedan High Spire.
Or at least you will if I've finished writing the notes for that section. While I've got the basic plot structure sorted, I had to start from scratch last Monday (night) and hadn't even got the core of this idea sorted before Friday morning - so I'm rather writing at nineteen to the dozen trying to make sure details are in place in time!
Oh, yes things I believe everything went well. I wouldn't worry so much about your methods of delivery, it's the content that of coarse the most important part. :)
I dunno. Even if the actual underlying story might have been the same, it would have made quite a difference if I had just described the Maedan High Spire as "totally bling, innit".
(Ideally, my delivery of the narration would be in the tones of someone like John Hurt, Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen, but my impersonations are generally awful).
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on April 23, 2013, 05:39:27 PM
I dunno. Even if the actual underlying story might have been the same, it would have made quite a difference if I had just described the Maedan High Spire as "totally bling, innit".
Funny. :P But I'm confident in the belief you wouldn't have been satisfied giving us that description. However in my own mind I did jazz up the description of the hotel I found us. With more color in the form of graffiti. But of course it's gone by noon the next morning thinks to the tireless work of city custodians ( servitors). ;)
If people do want to propose such details as we go, I'm open to suggestions. Occasionally I will have to say no... sometimes because it conflicts with a relevant detail, sometimes just as a red herring so you don't assume a "no" means it's relevant, or sometimes just because I'm a git.
So completely the opposite to the "why not?" approach, then :P
I wouldn't say that. It is mostly a "why not" - I'm just building in more of a disclaimer for the times when my answer has to be "because X".
It's unlikely that minor details are likely to conflict with the main plot, but there are ways in which it could happen.
My internet connection's been a bit spotty lately -- don't be surprised if I have even more trouble getting on than usual.
Revised version:
My internet connection's been flipping out constantly over the past couple of days -- don't be surprised if I can't even get onto Skype tomorrow.
Hi all.
Writing this at work while I have a chance. I think my participation is going to have to officially end for a few weeks. I am knee-deep in boxes at home ahead of moving house next week, and I don't know how quickly I'll get broadband set up in the new place. I suppose the timing isn't as bad as it could be, being that I haven't participated in this new adventure at all yet and hopefully won't be holding anything up. Do as you please with Ernst, with the caveat that his cassock must be bitchin' at all times.
Ruaridh
can't get online for more than five minutes at a time, no gaming for me tonight
Quote from: Van Helser on April 25, 2013, 05:59:08 PMI think my participation is going to have to officially end for a few weeks.
Ah. I'm afraid that timing is actually pretty awful.
Sort of throws a huge chunk of the plot out of the window if I'm not going to reliably have enough players to run a session on Thursdays (seeing as Benis isn't always there).
In fact, it may even necessitate a complete re-write, seeing as the Monday and Thursday plots were interlinked and taking that context out would make it just sound like I'm pulling all the various reveals and complications out of my arse.
But with Koval as a second absentee, I guess there wouldn't've been a session tonight anyway.
It's a shame, but probably can't be avoided. Hope the move goes well, Ruaridh.
And there goes the internet. Again.
I may be arriving a little late again on monday, but should be online for 8ish
Fair enough. I'm not expecting Quickdraw on Monday, but I am happy to work with two players - and, indeed, anticipated it. It's when we have only one player that it's a bit of a problem!
Internet going screwy again, maybe it'll fix itself by tomorrow?
EDIT: Internet's still going wibbly -- probably won't be online this evening.
EDIT: Internet is very wibbly and the tech my dad spoke to agreed that the service we're getting is unacceptable. We're off more than we're on and I'm typing out posts, then waiting for a two-minute window in which I'm actually able to use the internet. Will keep you updated.
double
We're getting an engineer out tomorrow.
EDIT: It's not just us -- there's someone else on our street having the exact same problem as us, and it's affecting their phone and TV as well.
We didn't have Euan, and Quickdraw couldn't show up until late, so you didn't really miss anything.
You might have a problem like we had last year - the signal strength was too high, so the modem kept overloading and resetting itself. We haven't really had a problem since it was attenuated.
It was actually a fault at the exchange -- they'd plugged us into a card that had already had four reported faults attached to it. According to the engineer, we've now been plugged into a different card.
Here's hoping that's fixed it!
It looks like next week will be the old gag of "the GM has to play his PC arguing with an NPC". Not that me talking to myself is unusual in our sessions.
It's better than "Koval has to make up random garbage", at least -- especially seeing as you need to get some notes together for what this guy's got to say! :P
Yes... apparently I've got to write up stuff on the fashion of the Maedan high spire, seeing as I had no expectation that the characters would be going in search of high class tailors/designers.
But that's probably not too much of a problem - I at least have some experience in the area. (What with my character designs).
The interesting bit is going to be whether I can adopt different voices for each of the characters and swap between them reliably.
See relevant PM.
The PM has been seen.
I may respond in kind, but there are elements of it that will definitely be more interesting to address in the session.
Sorry, really big storm took out my electricity. :'( Everything was going so well too.
So, it seems I can throw enough enemies* at you that you'll consider running away. That's what I find as a GM - RPers need a big hint when you want to encourage them to think about things other than the direct approach... but whenever they don't take the direct approach (for whatever reason) they'll concoct a plan involving a dirigible, two ducks and half a tonne of explosives.
* Entirely out of character, I will say the force is not actually company sized (not that company sized is that precise**), even if I did sorta "accidentally" mention that. Can't blame me for a bit of misinformation if Novus messes up his perception roll.
(They are still definitely very much numerically superior to you though. Just not quite that ridiculously so).
** But, when it's me talking, you can probably assume I'm using something approximating British army organisation.
I'll just point out (again) that gas explosions do tend to leave buildings rather less than stable (and/or on fire), so expect at least that corner of the building to cave in a bit. I used to know a lady in Liège that lived in a block of flats where there was a gas explosion, and not only did the building itself end up partially collapsing, it also affected the adjoining buildings and meant a whole street had to be closed off. I also tried to help this lady find a new place to live, but she ended up on the other side of the city courtesy of some state program.
Picture references are here (http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47191000/jpg/_47191245_jex_584777_de35-1.jpg) and here (http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01567/LIEGE_1567559c.jpg).
My point is that unless it's really sturdy (though seeing as Novus meltabombed part of the wall, it's going to collapse a bit anyway), that building is going to have worse things happen to it.
Quoteand not only did the building itself end up partially collapsing
... five hours later, checking the Beeb's article. I wouldn't consider that a guarantee that you'll (literally) crush your enemies.
I'd say the raging fire is more useful, as it'll make it difficult for them to confirm whether you were in there or not before the Arbites turn up.
(Of course, getting caught or spotted again at this stage would pretty much negate that advantage).
Yeah, the explosion happened in the middle of the night, and I slept through it; the building came down while I was getting ready for work, and I still didn't hear it*. So naturally I had to take a few detours when I did actually go in for work. (I didn't find out what had happened to my colleague until quite some time later.)
Back to the game -- I'm not saying the collapse will be instantaneous, but it will be an inconvenience for anyone that's still in there when it does go, and the fire's still going to be dangerous if it's not controlled (and may even cause the collapse to happen slightly faster. I don't know.)
*That said, I was on the other side of the city centre at the time.
hey, looks like I'll be missing this monday unfortunately, got a production meeting for this years savoy show.
Josh has excused himself as well, so that's probably a negative on the next Monday session then.
Hello chaps! This is a heads-up that next week (that being the one containing the sessions on the 24th and 27th) is my old school's end-of-year concert, which traditionally the old hands go back and join in with. This means I'll be a bit busier than normal next week.
It will be fine to excuse myself from some of it for our gaming evenings - but I only really want to do that if there'll actually be something going on, so can I be kept properly appraised of people's attendance as much in advance as possible please!
At present, I am assuming Monday 24th will be going ahead, but that Ruaridh and Ben will continue their absence from our Thursday sessions and the session on the 27th will therefore not be.
Additionally, I believe Euan is getting towards the end of his youth drowning sessions, so we will probably be looking to re-adjust our schedule sometime after the start of July. I suspect this will be reconvening on our traditional Thursday timeslot.
Hi all
I am back online at long last, though with bad news concerning any future involvement with Dark Heresy - I am planning to take up rugby again, and the training nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays. This Thursday is the pre-season meeting, and then training begins the following week. I'm also away to France for two weeks on holiday between the 8th and 22nd of July. With some regret, I think I am going to have to retire Ernst from PC duties.
Now, there is a fairly considerable chance that I'll find my body isn't up to the rigours of playing rugby after such a long time since my last involvement and I'll wreck my newly repaired shoulder again, in which case I may come crawling back! If I find myself not training for whatever reason I hope I'd be welcome to sit in on a session or two?
Ruaridh
Sorry to see you go, Ruaridh, but I hope you enjoy yourself on the rugby pitch. :)
Actually, thinking about it, in a way Monday is year-round the most available evening I have. Literally the only thing that sometimes clashes is the odd committee or production meeting, whereas Thursdays become busy both during canoe courses and Oct-Nov around show time.
I mean, as we've already got 4 of us available Mondays, if Ruaridh can make it as well it'd save Josh from having to reorganise his work again to get back to Thursdays. I believe Benn is completely unable to do Mondays (?), which is a shame, but for the strength of the group I would put forward the motion that perhaps Monday should just be made the de-jure night going forwards.
I'm entirely happy to permanently shift to Mondays if it works well for other people.
As far as Ben, I think things had been said that he might have some Mondays free around this sort of time, but I really don't recall the specific dates.
Quick heads-up, I'll be appearing a bit closer to 7:30, possibly even 8 this evening, as I've got an interview tomorrow and need to make sure I have everything ready.
Ruaridh- Well, I'm sorry our time in Dark Heresy was short but I hope you have a good time with Rugby and it treats you well. Crack a few skulls for us...politely of course. ;D
Josh
Right, as I said, pretty much all of that session had to be improvised, as there's absolutely naff all about an under-city or hidden mutant civilisations in my notes.
However, I decided I'd give you a 25% chance of there being access to some form of under-city or catacombs and the dice came up 18.
Then when you started asking about any outcasts living down there, I decided there'd be a 20% chance of there being mutants in that immediate area and that came up 17.
So it turns out my dice are utterly rubbish at messing up your plans.
It's also a little known fact that mutants LOVE chocolate bars. ;)
I'm highly likely to be pulling a lot of overtime this month. I'll still show up to sessions, but I might well appear closer to (or indeed the wrong side of) 8pm for a few weeks. I'll try to spin it so that I can go home at a sane hour most evenings, though.
Duly noted. Hopefully we can still get a couple of decent Thursday sessions in while Benis is available, but gods know how much I'm going to have to condense the plot-line to get the core details I wanted to fit in.
Good news though is that I mostly know what this gorram dress is going to look like.
Oh, and as an aside, it'd probably be best if Alyx doesn't find out that Novus and Doyle have been having arguments about which of them gets a chance at her.
She doesn't exactly like either of them, so her response might be poorly received. :P
As it's not my intention to play as Novus forever, that's probably for the better as Pelagius has a better chance of keeping the peace. Granted, he wouldn't say no if asked, but he's not exactly a testosterone-addled idiot like Novus is.
Quote from: Koval on July 04, 2013, 06:26:51 AMGranted, he wouldn't say no if asked
Relationships for Alyx aren't an impossibility (although not necessarily with Turlough), as I don't pretend my female characters don't have a sexuality*; I'm neither homophobic enough nor fixed on the "a woman who wants sex is a slut" cliché.
*Well, some of them don't. Clepsydra, being a vat-grown soldier, had such biological urges chemically suppressed for example.However, Alyx has pretty big trust issues after her last relationship - her interest in men certainly won't include those as demonstrably untrustworthy as our resident arrogant psyker and larcenous midget.
Well, that was interesting. Turlough crashed the grav-sedan, Bayev apparently has Alyx's measurements*, we ordered a very expensive dress**, went to a party, saw a man on a rooftop, then got caught in a panicked mob.
Next session: Ernst grabs a nearby large ham and fights his way out of the crowd.
* Although on reconsideration, I think we knew that before. Rhodes supplied a wardrobe for several of the characters at some point, so their measurements are presumably on file (although I suspect Alyx's figure has probably changed slightly from when those measurements were taken).
** I'm not yet sure what Gala will think of that expenses claim.
Afraid to say I've been roped into a committee meeting this coming monday. No idea when it'll be done by, but canoe club ones tend to drag on a bit.
Do you know if/when you'll be free on Thursdays again, mate?
Indeed. If you're around (and Ruaridh isn't), I can throw Ernst at you. Or have Ernst throw something at someone, anyway.
Also, for those who weren't there, here's the (incomplete*) dress design that some git (:P) decided was going to be part of the plot:
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/Alyx-V2_8d_800.jpg)
I'm reasonably happy. It's not pure John Blanche type material**, but it's got some of the WH40K trademarks like corsets and aquilas mixed in with various 16th century European fashions, which has a decent aesthetic for Imperial high society.
In any case, it's a pretty expensive dress - at the same cost as a plasma gun, I'm not sure any other single item owned by the PCs is more costly***. Mind you, seeing as putting Alyx in a dress seems to be turning into a recurring theme, it's probably not the worst investment.
*The final version will have more patterning - at least on the skirts, if not the sleeves.
** That would need a lot more bionic mutilation, extra skulls and some outdated weaponry.
*** I can say that some of Gala's equipment is dearer though. She has a pretty expensive bodyglove and right arm.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on June 22, 2013, 07:17:33 PM
I mean, as we've already got 4 of us available Mondays, if Ruaridh can make it as well it'd save Josh from having to reorganise his work again to get back to Thursdays. I believe Benn is completely unable to do Mondays (?), which is a shame, but for the strength of the group I would put forward the motion that perhaps Monday should just be made the de-jure night going forwards.
Unfortunately Monday remains no use for me either, as it is date-night with my other half.
Ruaridh
Just a heads up for the group, I'll be flexing my Inquisitoral muscles Monday the 22nd (Jury duty). So I'll have to miss that play date.
Josh
@Ruaridh: Sad to hear it. We'll miss our herculean preacher.
@Josh: Noted. Depending on the exact details of Euan's committee tomorrow, that could still give us two sessions for what I assume is going to be a lot of whoopsie going down though.
~~~~~
Also, pop quiz. I've been trying out several designs for the skirts on this dress, but a lot of the ones based on fancy Tudor-era patterning almost feel overly cluttered.
I've already sort of (accidentally) made, through the lining of Lady Riemann's cloak, this kind of patterning feature in the fashions of the Carthaxian nobility though:
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/Alyx-V2_8g_1024.jpg)
Does it work, or is it just not fancy enough or fail to match the styling of the torso?
Also, you'll see why I was talking about hobbits on Thursday. The Photoshop file is in layers, the base layer (which is a not very dressed Alyx) doesn't include footwear and shoes haven't been added to any of the dress layers yet.
What footwear is still up for debate. High heels of some sort would be a classic and 40k-ish option to go with an ornate dress, but I think she's almost proud of her five foot nothing stature and probably a little too wary of how often she has to run away in a hurry.
(Mind you, if any of the PCs could run in heels without doing an ankle a mischief, it'd be her).
Perhaps not her normal long combat boots, anyway.
Mind you, my aunt did wear combat boots to her wedding. I'd say we're a strange family, but she's not actually a blood aunt.
I'm assuming that something like this (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41o5X6xeyeL.jpg) is out of the question. :P
Less so than you might think, actually.
Okay... when Ernst retires, he needs to get a job in riot control.
He's now turned another wild mob into a pious congregation.
Here's an alternative script for if Gala's Blather/Deceive rolls had gone less well:
Gala: Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.
Sgt: What happened?
Gala: Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
Sgt: I'm taking my squad down.
Gala: Uh, uh... negative, negative. There's a fire down there now. Give us a few minutes to put it out. Large fire, very dangerous.
Sgt: Who are you? What's your name and number?
Gala: Uh... [knocks the Sgt out] Boring conversation anyway. NOVUS, WE'RE GONNA HAVE COMPANY!
However, it didn't come to that. :)
Right everyone - one more reminder.
I'm heading away around the canal network soon and will be relying on both a mobile broadband connection and the goodwill of whichever family members I can borrow a Skype capable device from in order to run sessions.
This will mean some sessions may be missed and I'll be trying to keep the remainder timely. Apologies for that in advance.
If I look like I'm going to be absent, I will try and keep you informed, possibly via texting/phoning Koval, but I can't necessarily guarantee that either - some of these places are pretty "middle of nowhere" in terms of the cellular signal available (despite my phone and the 3G dongle being on different networks).
I'd offer to post you my spare laptop if I knew how soon "soon" is going to be. It works (I hope) and should have Skype.
"Soon" is a value that has varied between last Monday and "Maybe Tuesday sometime, but we've still got to cut the grass, repair the hot water tank, etc". Generally, it's slipping backwards.
Still, I should stress goodwill isn't necessarily so much about a device being available (we should have two laptops with us), but not having to moor up too early, not using up all the internet credit and not wrecking the boat batteries*.
* Our boat's battery bank isn't really designed for running multiple laptops throughout an evening**. Lead-acid batteries are done no favours by running them below half-capacity or so***.
** Given that aged laptops often don't go to the trouble of staying charged for as long as our sessions sometimes run.
*** Still, we are now running mostly LED lighting, so not being in the dark is a commodity that's dropped from being multiple amps to just fractions of an amp.
Right - I'm here, and appear to have a pretty good connection... so expect a session.
However, we're heading out to the pub now, so I may appear a little later than normal.
EDIT: Right, I'm here now, and wondering where everyone is...
Sorry, it's a bit last minute but I maybe a little late for the game this evening. Please don't wait up for me I'll be along shortly. Thanks.
Josh
... I too hope to be there, but will definitely be at least a while longer. We've arrived where we were hoping to moor, and there are no places, so we'll have two locks to go up to find a space. We may be able to start by eight o'clock if I can get a connection.
Right. Hopefully things have turned out well enough for a narrative I mostly contrived while I was taking a shower and had to do a lot of adaptation around missing players, but it looks like we're closing on next Monday being in-character discussion of how things should be handled and wrapped up. I'll probably leave full details of the central dilemma for Alyx, Bayev and Pelagius to reveal on the night.
I'll probably be posting a short side narrative here at some point soon - stuff that, in character, would be the GM talking to himself, but is nonetheless important to address.
As an aside, if any players are looking to acquire new gear (preferably not more dresses), I advise having your shopping lists ready.
Short version: Next week will be the last session of this story. Euan, get ready to take over - if you need to discuss any details with me, feel free. (Although I don't imagine you will, one space station rather than another isn't a huge change to the start of your narrative. But I imagine most of us will need a reminder of your plot introduction though!)
At the moment, I see three options forming in Pelagius' mind:
1) Both of them
2) One, but not the other
3) The Harrens
Well, if you've not got just one option in mind, I can be content in having managed to get across the situation despite having had to re-write that entire half of the plot* fairly on the fly.
I might have had to ham some of the personalities up quite a lot... or a lot of a lot... but at least they came across such that the conundrum I had set up wasn't missed**.
*Ultimately, it was really the core of the overall plot, but the need to split the game into two different schedules meant I could give the other characters a different part of the story more suited to their more "aggressive" skill sets. Originally, I had planned the story-lines would be more interactive, but that became difficult after a slipping Thursday schedule meant lots of playing catch-up.
I wrote the overall plot structure at short notice and under unusual circumstances, and then you guys kept weirding it up (if you'll believe it, there was absolutely nothing about dresses in my original draft***), so you'll have to excuse the rough edges that may have showed up at times.
**Unlike last time, where the refugee smuggling was supposed to pa bit of a moral dilemma, but the characters didn't see past that veil and approached the situation more bluntly.
*** Still, I like to think I rose to that challenge quite well, actually managing to show you the dress in question. If I ever actually stop dawdling over my art, I'd quite like to do a narrative with drawings of all the main NPCs, but that's probably unlikely.
It should be noted, Pelagius has expressed a distinct preference for option #2, but I'm well aware Sir William would rather go for #1 (and so, I think, do Alyx and Bayev, unless I've gotten that completely backwards).
Well, Alyx probably has the most direct experience dealing with the internal quarrels of nobility - and funnily enough, her attitude to them has not improved over the last two years; her opinions are mixed and somewhat personal.
As for Bayev, I have her pegged as something of an analyst type (based on the initial introduction Euan sent me), so she'll actually be supplying an evaluation of the various risks associated with all the various possibilities, including some you haven't thought of yet.
Sooo... fun fact, I now can't actually do this Thursday or next Monday.
So you can rule me out of the Rogue Trader mini adventure, or the start of it certainly.
And we'll also roll back the start of me GMing to the 30th.
Hmm. If you're missing on Monday, I'm almost considering using it as one-off to secure Cadence Company's officers, but I'm already phenomenally busy with modelling for the end of the month and trying to get a half functional framework to test some Inquisitor 2 rules.
I'm really not sure I can do anything like that.
Sorry to hear it, Euan, but real life comes first -- and I'm sure the Dark Heresy game will be well worth the wait.
Also be aware with plenty advance notice that I won't be around for the 28th Oct and 4th Nov either. So we'll get 3 sessions in prior to a mini break, then things will run normally up till christmas when we tend to play it by ear a bit.
Clepsydra's plan: Attempt to hit a ~200m diameter hostile landing zone (occupied by an unknown number of enemy forces with ground and air defences) by falling from low orbit with only a void suit and grav-chute.
I cannot see any way this can possibly go wrong.
Skarkon is likely to provide you with better void-suits than the ones you currently have. The ones she's giving you are a Selenite-pattern equivalent, with the added impellor units*; this is primarily because I have absolutely no idea what kind of void-suit you own, and I know Calivar and Skarkon don't have void-suits on their own gear lists. I simply know that you and Silon have void-suits (without knowing what kind they are).
You will be able to land safely**, so no worries there.
*Which will almost certainly help a bit when it comes to landing, as although the grav-chute should be able to do its job... well, better safe than sorry.
**The fortress' defences*** notwithstanding, mind you. Incidentally I may randomise where you land.
***Having now checked, it's very safe to say that these defence lasers are capable of troubling ships in orbit, if they know the ships are there.
It's just the standard "void suit" as it appears in the armoury - although it has previously been established that whatever Sydra's got brings a full void kit with it, so has various tether lines, grapples, clamps and sealant patches. And she knows how to use said kit - she is void-born, after all.
(I've long wanted her to have a fight in a ship's corridor in zero gravity - it wouldn't be exactly like that scene from Inception, but it'd still be damn cool. And she'd do quite well for it, with that racial bonus to moving in zero or low gravity).
QuoteWhich will almost certainly help a bit when it comes to landing, as although the grav-chute should be able to do its job... well, better safe than sorry.
We'll be fine. I've checked the falling table, and falls stop doing more damage after you're more than 25 metres up.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 20, 2013, 10:49:11 AMI've long wanted her to have a fight in a ship's corridor in zero gravity - it wouldn't be exactly like that scene from Inception, but it'd still be damn cool. And she'd do quite well for it, with that racial bonus to moving in zero or low gravity.
Be careful what you wish for.
Hang on here.
My plan involves diving a hundred thousand metres to engage enemy forces on which we have only five pieces of intelligence...
1 - a garbled transmission from people that didn't yet know they were under attack
2 - their forces are (or at least were) sufficient to overcome the defences of an Inquisition fortress and its complement of 100 stormtroopers
3 - they are technologically capable of operating that fortress and blocking any transmissions
4 - they are hostile
5 - they know we're coming.
... whose stolen fortress houses unknown Inquisition secrets, has weapons that can intercept landing craft and resides on a permanently dark, airless world with at least four miles of clear line of sight in every direction?
And you still don't have enough ways to screw with the plan? Dang, talk about demanding GMs.
~~~~~
Actually, now I've said all that, I think Clepsydra's the only one of my characters who'd actually come up with that plan. It doesn't really fit anyone else.
Actually, I just thought it was a cool idea, and while I have problems with the Inception thing being labelled as "zero gravity" (not by you, by everyone on Youtube that thinks that that's what zero gravity means...), there are things I could very easily steal from that.
sounds a bit like the attack/resuce on Vulcan in the Star Trek movie reboot :P
Sort of, but my budget didn't stretch to a Narada stand-in. :P
<seanconnery> Our situation has not improved. </seanconnery>
From our starting team of one Inquisitor, one abomination against nature, one bounty hunter and five Stormtroopers, we are down to one abomination, one hunter and six corpses. And the abomination took 23 wounds in the opening fight.
Still, she's still fighting and moving, at least after some first-aid*, so I do have to give credit to the immoral hereteks who made her - they built her pretty damn tough.
*Although her complete disregard for her personal modesty in the process of doing so probably weirded Caravar out a bit. But that seems right for her - she's an engineered soldier with a chemically suppressed libido, so she's used to a lack of personal privacy and wouldn't really have the context for those social taboos.
Clepsydra is rather hoping there are actually any survivors from the other teams (although I'm rather sure the PCs in those teams will have survived), because otherwise this is going to be one rubbish attack.
Rest assured, I will not pit you against six things at once in future encounters given your current state.
Right. So now it turns out that the Inquisitor's quite the biological abnormality too, although more than a few rungs down the scale.
I guess Sydra is one of quite a small minority of people in the Imperium who'd be used to the kind of thing that's going on here... actually, to be honest, she probably should have reached the conclusion sooner, but such was the consequence of trying not to let my OOC knowledge influence things.
Although you yourself probably know what's going on, Sydra (and everyone else) will have to wait until next week to find out exactly how much of an aberration the Inquisitor's supposed to be. :P
Maybe she's not got it quite right, although I think it's fair to say that Clepsydra is personally familiar with the kind of thing going on here. Vat growth, accelerated growth, replicae and engrammic implantation were pretty standard (although not necessarily universal) fare on Pharos Station.
~~~~~
Anyway, on the note of what I said last night about giving Sydra a musical theme, I've perhaps got E.S Posthumus or Clint Mansell in mind. Either has the risk of making her sound like a movie trailer, but maybe "Arise" from the former or "Death is the Road to Awe" from the latter.
Alyx, on the other hand, has long already been decided for - Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni, although which season and movement depends.
Pop quiz, gentlemen. I've been slowly getting the current version of Alyx drawn up, but can't quite decide nail down the design of her body-glove.
I've got these designs of the chest/shoulder plates done up (numbered #1-6 in normal reading order):
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/Alyx-V26cmontage.jpg)
They're generally more "form fitting" and gender specific than I normally like to design armour (I'm a strong believer that armour is for protection, not looking feminine), but the narrative has previously established this body-glove as something that can be worn under other clothing without being too overt (even before she had the exact fit modified).
#2 is actually the first try (not sure how they ended up in this order) and probably the most sensible, but I dislike the lines of it.
#1 is an adjustment to fit natural contours better. However, it draws attention in the wrong way, I think.
#3 is trying to compromise between 1 and 2
#4 is generally the same as #3, except changing the shoulder rather than collar plate. It looks like it might have issues articulating the shoulder.
#5 is an adjustment to #3, splitting one of the plates to get rid of the hard angle there.
#6 is #5 with the plate splits moved around a bit.
The last two are probably my favourites, and I might go with #6 or split the difference between them, but maybe you lot prefer one of the others.
I know all sort of have a slightly Eldar look to them, but that's something of a natural consequence of trying to design armour that isn't overly bulky and has low profile plates.
My first thought was also "Howling Banshee", for what it's worth.
I think #6 looks most feasible.
Yes, well, I heard similar things about Eldar for the design of Frost's armour (http://fav.me/d2bg0c5).
Each was actually based on very different concepts, but what people think Eldar armour is like is pretty damn wide - so getting a gap between Imperial and Eldar design is difficult.
Really? I don't think Frost looks like she's wearing Eldar armour at all...
Yeah, although I forget where it was said - this was a point at which I posted my art on several different forums.
Truth be told, Frost's armour does have some similarities to Eldar armour, being a hybrid of mesh and carapace armour designed for mobility; still, the technology is all human (if not necessarily completely legal).
A slightly fuller, although still WIP, picture of Alyx. I'm hoping it will change size if it is clicked on.
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Artwork/WIP/Alyx-V2_6f2_900.jpg)
Technically, her bodyglove actually comes with an armoured hood as well, but it's being left off for the sake of artistic licence.
On the other end of the scale, she probably wouldn't wear her cameleoline most of the time either, but I thought it'd be fun to add anyway. (As I was explaining, the Photoshop file is a mess of different layers over the same base pose, so adding or removing layers is easy).
Plus also, one dataslate log:
~~~~~
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7723.ae/2 +++
Levongard, Landing Day.
I cannot precisely date this log. I believe it to be early in Decimus 013.M42, although this is difficult to confirm as I have yet to see a time piece on this agrestic world that I trust to have conformity to imperial standard time and my chrono is still to recalibrate itself.
Once again Inquisitor Rhodes - or perhaps, in this case, Overseer Bayev - has made further modifications to our team structure.
I cannot say I am completely sorry to see Novus transferred to Saber cell - the lack of his arrogant manner and rash decision making will not be a loss to our effectiveness. His occasional otherworldly insight and luck are more regrettable departures from our team, and in some ways, I feel one of the most dependable elements in my life of the last few years has been removed. A dependability that included a guarantee that he would say the wrong thing at the wrong time and persistently get on my nerves, but a dependability nonetheless.
Ernst's religious wisdom, impossible charm and herculean strength are all losses for our team, however - and on a personal level, I am feeling the absence of a fellow Iracadian by my side more than I might have initially imagined. We may never really have discussed home all that greatly, but it was a tie to sanity.
This leaves only Guilliman of those I first met on the Holy Blood. There are few I would sooner have covering my back in a fight (even if it seems he sometimes needs the same in return), but he is no great conversationalist, so I am left trying to find someone amongst our newer team members to provide any actual social content to this assignment.
I have had longest to familiarise myself with Pelagius Turlough.
Given that one of his earlier acts during our last mission was to assume the identity of a team member he knew we had recently lost, I cannot credit tact as one of his virtues. I am also fairly sure I would prefer not to know the motivations behind a man with no evident medicae training reading those portions of my records.
I have yet to see how he handles himself under severe pressure and his driving skills seem to be a game of chance, but he does, other than that, seem to be an able agent - his research did strongly benefit our last investigation, and he seems generally observant and learned.
Doyle Grizbain is possessed of questionable morals; limited personal hygiene; extensive appetites both cibarious and carnal; and a great many other things - more specifically, those which should not belong to him.
Fortunately, I think he has stopped attempting to steal from within the cell, so we shouldn't find ourselves at any great danger due to misplaced equipment, but he is still consistently thieving from others. The exact quantity of Commander Barabarigo's stationery about his person at this moment is probably considerable.
However, if those very numerous personality flaws can be put aside, it seems there may be a certain charm underneath, if the numerous tattoos of his various sexual conquests have any truth to them.
Zarkov Khan... I can only assume that someone somewhere believes our cell requires a loose cannon, although this time we have been assigned a pyromaniac rather than a narcissist.
I have had little time to familiarise myself with him beyond that it is clear than most of his waking thoughts relate to an intent to set something, somewhere or someone on fire. That may be a virtue should we find ourselves in combat, but it doesn't contribute to either his investigation and conversation skills.
And I have heard nearly nothing out of Miklos Verner, to the point it has been easy to lose track of whether he is even accompanying us at any given moment.
Only time will tell how our team now serves, although going from three allies I had a history of trust with to only one and a number of individuals who I don't know from Thor, nor they me, may simply cause us to fall apart.
To the mission, a man known as Bloodfist. Three of our allies seem to have direct quarrels with Bloodfist, so provided none are traitors in Bloodfist's employ, I can assume their dedication to the mission.
Our primary Warden contact on this matter has disappeared. Given the timing being only two days before our own landing, I doubt this is a deliberate choice on his part. Back on Iracadia, we knew our ships were in-system days before they reached orbit - even with this planet's low technology, Warden Black likely would have known we were shortly due to arrive at the time of his disappearance. Even if he did not, disappearing with all his notes and not a single message left is not the act of a competent lawman.
We now have several mysteries to solve.
The death of Jax Felderik. We have a potential lead to investigate via the corpse that appears to be from south west Farungo - a settlement called Farcamp, if my interpretation of Warden Torrence's accent serves me well.
But to address the munitions crate, I am brought to Commander Barbarigo, one of the two women who have my attention in all the wrong ways.
Assuming that someone of her experience and standing is neither incompetent nor ignorant - the Inquisition does not ignore a matter because they are told to - why did she draw attention to that weapons shipment? A simple answer would have caused us to gloss over any potential illegalities or poor decision making, but her obstructiveness made it something we would notice.
If she was genuinely trying to keep attention off the shipment, she is a fool. Else, she is attempting to manipulate us. I dislike both options.
She mentioned "His Lordship", and the shipment being lost in the mountains. Checking the planetary maps, unless the terms of address for local nobility are particularly abnormal, I am unable to see which "Lord" would have required a shipment to be sent via the mountains, rather than via land or sea. Again, I dislike the options.
The other woman I mention is Petra Novalon, who appears to be a former Warden who Commander Barbarigo removed, yet also apparently trusts with her life.
She is presently not to be found, although apparently also not presently in the Commander's employ. She is probably my main objective to find at the moment, given her whereabouts are unknown during the time period where Jax Felderik and several of Hoffman's workers were killed.
Doubly so as she was the individual responsible for the half of the weapons shipment which provided the munitions for one of these killings. Adding in the description of her as a general purpose gun for hire with a tendency for widespread collateral damage, Barbarigo's vouching for her doesn't seem to be adding up to much at the moment.
Armando Hoffman is the next element of interest. The question of six dead workers on his premises does beg question, but he seems the least likely to be suspect in this situation - he does not need to break into his own offices, he seemed genuinely shaken and the timing gives him a decent alibi for the death of Felderik.
But, things are seldom as they seem, so he will remain on our watchlist.
The question of where we go next exists. It is late in the day as I write this, so little more can be achieved this evening.
The possibility exists of Ms Novalon returning to the Pikeman's Halt, or of trying to delve deeper into Warden records - although the records I wish to see might well require forced entry.
May he on Terra provide me the wisdom to proceed.
Ave Imperator.
+++ ENTRY 7723.ae/2 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7723.ae/2+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A FINE MIND IS A BLESSING OF THE EMPEROR - IT SHOULD NOT BE CLUTTERED WITH TRIVIALITIES +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
Looking good.
If you're wondering why Barbarigo was a little inconsistent, it's because I was pretty much ad-libbing half the session due to deciding to make a plot change on the fly that meant you would probably end up speaking with her, something that wasn't in the original plan at all :P
I guessed that was a likely cause but "I don't trust the Warden Commander" is rather more suitable for an in-character mission log than "I don't think the GM had notes for this part".
Well, there was quite a debate going on there.
Clepsydra found herself on the outnumbered side - but vats of clones are a normal thing for her and she's quite prepared to treat people of unusual origins as people.
Calne was a digital half-copy uploaded into the wrong body? As far as Sydra's concerned, so what. Really, the only argument that swung it was the realisation that was an existence Calne wasn't happy with. (Unless she misconstrued that threat of violence).
Overall, she's not pleased with a mission outcome that saved nobody and similarly not pleased with almost no survivors from the landing team...
... but she doesn't regret having tried anyway. Unfortunately, she's a hero.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on October 11, 2013, 04:27:14 AM
Calne was a digital half-copy uploaded into the wrong body?
Sort of. Calne was indeed a digital half-copy, but the only reason her body was "wrong" was because those were originally carbon copies of Skarkon -- they'd been surgically altered to look like Calne.
The problem was simply that Skarkon was still about 25 years away from having actual Calne copies, so she had to modify her own.
QuoteReally, the only argument that swung it was the realisation that was an existence Calne wasn't happy with. (Unless she misconstrued that threat of violence).
I should imagine that hearing it straight from her boss (and creator) would've been a deal-breaker for Calne -- in that respect Skarkon is fortunate that the daemon showed up when it did.
Not that Calne wouldn't have gone postal on the Inquisitor had she survived the daemon encounter.
Quote from: Koval on October 11, 2013, 07:10:46 AMSort of.
Still, it works for Clepsydra. Being an engineered project of black science makes you a bit more open to that kind of thing.
Thought I'd mentioned this earlier, turns out I hadn't -- I'm starting a new temp contract on Monday, but this time it's far enough away that it'll most likely take me ages to get home.
So it's likely I'll be arriving closer to 8 than to 7:30 for some time.
Well, remembering that...
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on September 19, 2013, 11:54:23 AM
Also be aware with plenty advance notice that I won't be around for the 28th Oct and 4th Nov either. So we'll get 3 sessions in prior to a mini break, then things will run normally up till christmas when we tend to play it by ear a bit.
... we'll probably be missing about four sessions anyway.
In any case, I'm sure I'll be able to entertain people until you get there this week with the shopping list Alyx would like to acquire before heading further across Levongard.
Mostly, the list relates to hoping that local shopkeepers will recognise the word "soap", but there's also a couple of things she's hoping can be bribed from the warden's quartermaster.
I appear to have forgotten that, although I equally have no idea how long this contract's due to last -- it'll definitely affect the next two weeks for sure.
I don't think I'll even be on Skype this Thursday -- I'm likely to be busy most of the evening.
Works for me. I'll be helping my parents on a short boat-trip over the next few days anyway.
The collected lists from last week and previously of prisoners, etc. so you know exactly what you have to hand leading into your questionings/interrogations in a couple weeks time. You may well want to pull from other notes you have, but this is just to list a reminder of the definitive items of evidence collected.
Warden Compound detainment cells
Arnst Wexman – injured
Petra Novallon – injured
Farcamper man – injured
Warden Compound morgue
Jax Felderick – killed in the Drunken Skyjack bombing
Marcus Lowes – headshot with shotgun by Novallon
1 Augmented Farcamp man
3 Farcamp men from safe house (including the one who transported the package)
1 Farcamp tavern bomber – horrifically burnt remains
6 of Hoffman's warehouse workers
Hoffman's Grand Bazaar store clerk
Itemsof possible interest
Revolver & purse of 50 Thrones found on Hoffman's clerk
3 lasguns (from Farcampers at safe house)
remains of 2 explosives crates (Drunken Skyjack & safe house)
the Package (10 inches long, 3 inch diameter, black, ceramic looking, shaped like half a horse shoe, heavy, smooth surface with wires protruding in various places)
Other Notes
Lowes was a local low-life, a Port Hope native in his mid thirties he had a history of getting in trouble with the Sheriffs, by luck alone he'd never been imprisoned at a time when the Mechanicus had come to empty prisons. He had 2 flintlock pistols and a knife.
Wexman had 2 autopistols, a collapsible power glaive, very advanced bionic legs, chest and arms light carapace armour under merchant garb and a coin pouch with 20 Porties, 15 Grams, 30 Thrones.
Novallon had a shotgun, an archeotech laspistol, boot knife, sword, flak vest, good quality tunic and trousers and a coin pouch with 20 Porties.
The Augmented Farcamper has extensive but not terribly good bionic implants, mostly sub-dermal, Warden mortician believes it to be some sort of full-body charging conduit. The man has also had the rear part of his brain replaced with bionics. The mortician believes the work was probably done by a heretek rather than by any member of the mechanicus with resources. Aside from these implants, he appears to have be utterly unremarkable.
The 6 warehouse workers and the store clerk all have facial traits that would appear to make them related, Hoffman has already confirmed the warehouse workers were all related.
If anyone's interested, the current body count is 13 civilians (all victims of the tavern bombing, so far) and 14 NPCs.
A very belated next log entry:
~~~~~
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7728.vs/1 +++
Levongard, day two.
The Emperor smiles on us. A lead relating to a number of Farcamp natives seen around the Grand Bazaar in Westmarket proved genuine.
We tailed one to a small store belonging to Armando Hoffman, observed him doing business and tracked him back to a building further south in the area. Brix reports this as a former safehouse of the Wardens around five years ago. The timing here is suspiciously close to Novalon's departure from their services.
Although, as I recall Pelagius noting later, it probably would have been possible to find the safehouse based simply on the colour their language was turning the air. Subtlety did not seem to be one of their strengths.
We conducted an impromptu assault on the building, complicated slightly by Pelagius inadvertently detonating a store of explosives in the process, but it otherwise proved successful. We recovered Petra Novalon in the process, injured but alive. She has a lot of things to answer for.
We need to determine the present nature of Commander Barbarigo's bizarre relationship with her; potentially account for it as well. The insane degree of trust she seems to place in Novalon may lead her to interrupt our questioning.
But for her own sake, she had better not have known of Novalon's involvement in this operation.
Perhaps of greater long term value, the individual who attempted to flee across the local rooftops before he was apprehended by Doyle and I is Arnst Wexman. Given his apparent degree of bionic augmentation and his not inconsiderable head-start, I am not unproud of having matched his pace.
To quote the mission briefing, Wexman is believed to be Bloodfist's second in command. This seems plausible, given the extensive cost of his bionics, although we must accurately determine his importance to the operation.
If true, then we have a very valuable resource at our disposal here. With any luck, we shall be able to get something chrestomathic from him.
It also eases my concerns about this mission to an extent. The organisation will be weakened by the loss of a major lieutenant and I am not dramatically cowed by their level of security, both information and physical, if this is that demonstrated by apparently one of their best.
For the sake of record, the names of Lowes, Hoffman, Novalon, Felderik, Black, Wexman, Bloodfist and Brix were used, and mention was also made of the explosion at the Skyjack and the dead workers at Hoffman's compound being part of cleaning up their messes.
This absolutely confirms Bloodfist's involvement and very fortunately implies the situation that they themselves do not know where Warden Black may be.
The absence of mention of the Inquisition is also worth of note. As of yet, our involvement in this may be unanticipated. However, Brix has mentioned the possibility of internal leaks within the Wardens. This has a high likelihood of compromising that valuable secret, so we should not assume that Bloodfist will remain unaware of our presence in the situation. He will quickly take note if we have indeed captured his chief lieutenant and the latest of his trinkets.
Lowes was previously unknown to me, although Brix has confirmed him as one of the five bodies we took from the Safehouse. He is described as a persistent offender, although he has avoided having spent enough time in the gaols to have been taken to Sudvan. Seeing as these visits from the Mechanicus Envoy are approximately yearly, it would seem his crimes are of a petty nature.
Nonetheless, I wish to read the records the Wardens have on him. If he has been working for Bloodfist for any length of time, the specifics of his crimes may be valuable information.
He was after all important enough that Novalon's first thoughts during our assault was to ensure he was dead; It seems trust is in short supply in their operation. Wexman made similar efforts to eliminate Novalon, an important detail we should remind her of should she seem to have any remaining loyalties.
I am left to wonder if there are any offenders similar to Lowes that may also have been absorbed into the operations on Levongard. Perhaps Pelagius might find searching their records a source of entertainment; he certainly spent enough time in the Braggand house's records on Maedai.
A similar matter is the extensive recruitment of Farcamp natives; Pelagius's hypothesis that the artefact may have importance to them is of potential merit, but I want clearer answers on what and why their involvement is.
And lastly, we have to make the apprehension of Hoffman a high priority. He is failing the Emperor in either his purity or his diligence if his business has any involvement with Bloodfist's operation. That is, if his guilt has not already led him to flee.
Ave Imperator.
+++ ENTRY 7728.vs/1 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7728.vs/1+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: BE GRATEFUL OF YOUR MASTER'S FAVOUR +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
~~~~~
In summary, the big questions Alyx has are:
Novalon: What was she doing there? Did Barbarigo know about it? What is her current relationship with Barbarigo?
Wexman: Anything we can get from him about Bloodfist's operation and his importance to it. Also, anything about the artefact.
Farcamper: Why and how are you working for Bloodfist? Does the artefact mean anything to you? General questions about weird cyborg dude.
General Warden enquiries: Lowes' record. Other potential lowlifes that might be involved.
Hoffman (once found): Is he incompetent or a heretic?
I'm afraid the grilling of Wexman will have to wait a week as I just found out I have a meeting I have to attend on Monday evening.
I think Alyx is hoping that it won't be another grilling. In fact, Zarkov probably won't even be allowed in the same building this time.
Two things:
Firstly, don't expect me on Monday the 9th, as that's the day of the funeral. It's not impossible I may show up (although late), but not probable.
Secondly, another one of Alyx's log entries (which despite falling strongly into re-cap territory, often rather help me to spot potentially important details):
~~~~~
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7732.kd/4 +++
Levongard, day two, entry two.
This will primarily be interrogation notes from those we actually managed to interrogate.
Petra Novalon was our first subject, as I suspected she would probably be most cooperative, and we started with a civil, although firm, questioning. She needed some convincing that we could be trusted, but she put up relatively little resistance to our questioning after that point.
If she can be believed, she has been Eli Black's intimate partner for the last year. Unfortunately, this did not translate into knowledge of his location, or at least not a willingness to tell us.
She has taken a few jobs from Bloodfist's operation over the last two months, a number of deliveries and contract killings. The two deaths she could name with certainty were: Gambis Morrison, a bookkeeper, now buried under Fort Heldrake and the skipper of a tradeship from Tevlis, now at the bottom of the harbour.
Three weeks ago, Black started his investigation into Bloodfist and put together the pieces of the puzzle. She claims to have been acting as a mole in Bloodfist's operation since that revelation, observing and disrupting where possible.
The bombing at the Drunken Skyjack was indirectly her responsibility, a fuse deliberately set short to ensure that the package didn't reach its intended destination, a location within Helgan Park. A fair plan, rather flawed by the courier being in a packed location when the explosives went off.
She also killed six of the large Cookson family, allegedly traitors within Hoffman's trading operation slipping.
I am prepared to believe their guilt, given the facial similarities they had to the clerk in the grand bazaar who handed over the artefact.
She apparently does not know too much more of the structure of Bloodfist's organisation, but did identify a number of warehouses in Portshead. This would seem to say that the organisational structure is cellular, individual units all working relatively independently of each other.
This is both fair and ill news. The scale of his operation remains obscured to us, but an organisation so mired in a lack of communication will be sluggish and slow to react.
She also made mention of Brix as our ally; while she sees him as the natural choice to assist in finding Black, she noted that neither Black or herself were certain of his loyalties.
The deeper connotation of this is that she has to ask. She may know that Bloodfist has planted moles. Evidently, any information on this case must be kept particularly clandestine.
We have presently agreed that Petra will be released. Her story is consistent enough with the facts that she is either telling the truth or lying brilliantly; and if it's the former, she seems to be more trusted by Black than Brix is, so I believe she is of more use to us if Black can contact her.
She is also still in Barbarigo's favour, so far as we can tell. (For the sake of future record, Petra explained this situation as having saved Evangeline on a mission many years ago).
She is being guarded by Verner until we are convinced we have no further questions for her, although that may well be tomorrow.
Our interrogation of the live Farcamper, Lee Rivers was considerably shorter. We got only credal quotations from him (crude references to "Father of the Rock" and "Glory to the Saviour, the Rock shall flourish again") before Zarkov proved himself to be as much of a loose cannon as Novus ever was, incinerating him in a pretence at an interrogation. Actually, at least Tristar had talents for the cryptaesthetic.
He seemed somewhat amused by it, but the only thing I can be grateful for was that I believe Rivers was the least useful of our captives and we may yet get something from his quotations alone. Either the grand Librarium or members of the Wardens may have clues to what the Father of the Rock might be, although his death has turned a half hour interrogation into a several hour endeavour.
It reminds me somewhat of the doomsday predictions from Aurvol, although I can see considerably less credence in these. Unless Bayev has been extensively lying to us, Bloodfist is not suspected of warp heresies.
Nonetheless, it could be of worth to have a wych study the artefact in depth for warp taint, if I can find one I trust.
Zarkov was not permitted entry to our interrogation of Wexman, something I am glad someone agreed with me on. He was instead kept busy with assisting with compound security, in order to replace the Wardens sent to deal with gang violence that had escalated into riots in Portshead, Westwall and Monger's Bay.
Wary that these riots might be a ploy on Bloodfist's part to weaken compound security, we commenced with the interrogation as soon as possible.
He was not particularly talkative, even after Bayev and Turlough hitched the high voltage portions of an oxygen processor to his spinal interface. A four hour interrogation told us relatively little that wasn't insults or information we already knew or could guess.
He has told us little of the grand scale of the operation, the purpose or nature of the heretical technologies he is transporting or of Bloodfist's exact whereabouts.
I am not sure I believe that he is ignorant of these things if he is as important as he claims to be, even with his only relatively recent arrival on the planet, although intentional ignorance is possible. It does fit with Petra's claims that the organisation is broken up into cells, and is odd only truly in that it is he who is ignorant.
All that he has confirmed is that they are keeping to the planet's technology level in transporting items, primarily the railways, and named a number of side ventures in the form of public houses, arenas and bookkeepers. (The last should lead us to investigate Gambis Morrison further).
It was not until after we had closed the first stage of interrogation and our discussion with Warden Brix, in charge of co-ordinating the riot control, that the possibility that these riots were a cover to destroy evidence in Portshead came to me; a revelation almost certainly too late to do any good.
Despite my desire to retire to sleep, the pacification of the city has been deemed of an extremely high priority. Overseer Fairfield has dispatched most of the combat ready agents that could be spared, despite the risk to the overall operation.
Turlough believes Khan is also suitable for such duty, although Emperor knows why, and he is being dispatched to the north-east part of the city.
But I refuse to allow that lunatic to run loose with his witchcraft, not less than five hours after he cremated one of our leads. He will not be going unwatched.
Ave Imperator.
+++ ENTRY 7732.kd/4 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7732.kd/4+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: THE ROAD TO PURITY IS DRENCHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRED +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
Just a heads up I'll be missing in action tomorrow as well. :(
Actually, on that note, it looks like the timing might work for me to arrive about our normal start time of 8 o'clock - it's a bit up in the air dependent on who's around, how much traffic there is though and changing back into less formal attire.
However, I'll still be sending through that character sheet anyway.
So, looks like we're reconvening on January 13th.
Which gives us four weeks to think about how we're going to get ourselves out of this little mess.
Pelagius' current thoughts involve getting someone to punch him in the face a few times so that he looks like he's been in a bit of a fight, and then, while everyone else hides in what was the station master's office, pretending to "shoot" Zarkov with a flintlock so that he can pose as Warden Boone "executing" the "traitors". (Coincidentally this is roughly when the Wall of Fire would come down, thus serving the purposes of his deception.)
He'd then approach the King's Guard -- whether he's got Warden Torrance with him at this point is up to Euan -- and "politely ask"* them to stand down and move along.
*For certain values of "ask" and "politely" that include a forceful demand to sod off.
Worst case scenario, Pelagius gets shot, the rest of you have time to make yourselves scarce.
Hmm.
While Alyx is presently peeved enough with Pelagius after his recent behaviour that she wouldn't object to a plan on the basis of saving him from being punched in the face, she's not sure the Guard are shooting at us because Boone told them to. Making an assumption of at least marginal intelligence on his part, he knew where we were going to be for (or at least "in") a few hours.
Trying to attack six well-equipped Inquisition operatives (and a Warden) with twelve musketeers is pretty stupid.
Doing it when you know you'll have a hundred more musketeers in two minutes... that's very stupid.
So her best guess is that the other soldiers aren't acting on Boone's orders, they're shooting at the crazy off-worlders who just incinerated their squad mates with witchcraft - and either don't believe or don't care that we're Wardens.
Also, if they are working for Boone, there is always the possibility that they know what he looks like.
~~~~~
Alyx's current thoughts are to disarm all of the King's Guard simultaneously, then formally request that they go home with their tails between their legs.
Step one of her plan depends on a few assumptions about the layout of the terrain, but it's at least feasible. Particularly if we play either the A-Team or the Eleventh Doctor's theme in the background when we do it.
I'll fudge make a map of the station layout during the holidays, as well as a transport map of Farungo.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on December 17, 2013, 06:03:48 PM
she's not sure the Guard are shooting at us because Boone told them to
I'm also less than sure about the infantry company that Zarkov is delaying, but I'm fairly sure the first squad were operating under Boone's orders.
QuoteMaking an assumption of at least marginal intelligence on his part, he knew where we were going to be for (or at least "in") a few hours.
Trying to attack six well-equipped Inquisition operatives (and a Warden) with twelve musketeers is pretty stupid.
Doing it when you know you'll have a hundred more musketeers in two minutes... that's very stupid.
This is what makes me wonder whether Boone and the infantry company knew about one another, seeing as how Boone was quite happy to go up against us with just those twelve guys. And given how stupid it is not to wait for that company given that we weren't going anywhere for several hours, I'm guessing Boone was either very impatient or unaware that the Guard would get their act together and assemble a company that quickly.
QuoteSo her best guess is that the other soldiers aren't acting on Boone's orders, they're shooting at the crazy off-worlders who just incinerated their squad mates with witchcraft - and either don't believe or don't care that we're Wardens.
That's exactly what Pelagius is thinking, minus the bit about the Wardens -- even assuming that Farungo doesn't recognise the Wardens' authority per se, the soldiers (or officers) might at least know that they're Messiger law enforcement. So if Pelagius-as-Fake-Warden-Boone comes up to them and tells them that the "witch" has been terminated, that's got to mean more than some random civilian saying so.
QuoteAlso, if they are working for Boone, there is always the possibility that they know what he looks like.
I wasn't assuming the infantry company were working for Boone. On the contrary, if he's made himself known to the entire company-and-a-bit, and still gone ahead with just twelve only to receive an explosion to the face, then as you said, that would be a truly stupid move -- and I'm currently working on the assumption that Boone was only mostly stupid.
The other option is that Pelagius poses as himself and approaches the Guard as Warden Turlough, thus getting around the Boone thing. As another alternative, get Torrance to do it, as she's the only genuine Warden around here and probably knows more about Farungoan codes of conduct than we do.
QuoteAlyx's current thoughts are to disarm all of the King's Guard simultaneously, then formally request that they go home with their tails between their legs.
Step one of her plan depends on a few assumptions about the layout of the terrain, but it's at least feasible. Particularly if we play either the A-Team or the Eleventh Doctor's theme in the background when we do it.
Would this involve Zarkov or not?
Quote from: Koval on December 18, 2013, 08:38:12 AMI'm also less than sure about the infantry company that Zarkov is delaying, but I'm fairly sure the first squad were operating under Boone's orders.
Seeing as he specifically ordered them to shoot us and we hadn't yet done anything except talk to the station master, I'm going to say that "fairly sure" is a bit of an understatement.
Quoteeven assuming that Farungo doesn't recognise the Wardens' authority per se, the soldiers (or officers) might at least know that they're Messiger law enforcement.
Wardens are "the ultimate lawmen on Levongard, each is a representative of the Governor and by extension the Administratum".
So, technically, Wardens have authority anywhere the planetary governor does.
But "however they receive no protection from their master if they overstep the bounds of reason. The inexperienced Warden can end up being publicly lynched". And I think that's rather what's in the process of happening here.
QuoteWould this involve Zarkov or not?
Somewhat to Alyx's regret, it'd be a lot better if it did.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on December 18, 2013, 12:56:06 AM
I'll fudge make a map of the station layout during the holidays, as well as a transport map of Farungo.
Then I will PM you a question regarding the particularly vital details sometime later on.
In game speech...*
"That wall of fire won't hold them for very long. They can simply walk around it." -Zarkoff said to the group.
Doyle, listened to the others shouting out ideas. He thought as quickly as he could, to add input into discussion before Zarkoff set off another firestorm potentially making things a lot worst!
I've got it! I've got it! -yelled Doyle.
A few eyes averted towards him.
"We are goin' ta STEAL that train!!! I've always want'd ta pull off a train hist an' now I've got me chance!" -Doyle said pointing at their train, jumping up and down excitedly.
A few of his companions stood staring at the rattling with mouths unhinged.
"Have you lost your mind, Doyle!" -yelled Pelagius.
Aye, an' it's all Zarkoff's fault tooo! Go big or go home, I always say. -grinned Doyle.
"At this rate, we'll be going home in a "Pine Box". -Pelagius said cynically.
"This could work, Pelagius! We need a train intact an' we can'ta 'fford ta fool around with these guard-clowns fer the next 3 hours! Who's ta say the other train will even stop when they see the destruction at the station?
I'll sneak back aboard the train. That's after all what I'm best at! If the conductor can'ta be convinced ta operate the train, I will! We have Zarkoff then torch the station. It'll be the distraction wee need! The bigger the better, Lad! The Rail-Switch shouldn'ta be tooo hard ta operate. It's either right here at the station or back down the track a wee bit." - explained Doyle.
*Sorry for the terrible spelling but Doyle has a very high pitched and thick accent.
josh
Two bits of waffle from me, waiting for our return next week. I don't yet know if Euan's vetoing my crazy plan though, so it may be that little comes of the second passage:
~~~~~
Earl Penfield's carriage, previous day:
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7738.si/7 +++
Levongard, three days after landing.
Last night was an ill one. Verner, Novalon and Black are all dead at the hands of Wexman and the traitorous Brix.
Menza and Bayev avoided the same fate by only the grace of the saints.
I did at first apportion blame to Grizbain, wandering from his post, but I realise may only have joined the list of the dead or wounded had he been there.
It is Bayev who holds the responsibility for this tragedy; she has been deceiving us since the first night, withholding that she has known exactly where Black has been all along. All in the name of a mole hunt that has cost our mission dearly.
Our being unprepared has allowed the traitors to escape and sent several loyal servants to the Emperor before their time. And while Bayev has some of the core leads from Black's investigations, his greater understanding of the case could have been invaluable.
If nothing else, it might have quieted Turlough, who repeatedly insisted that Wexman and Brix could have taken to an alternative destination.
It is a possibility, but one I do not see fit to entertain while faced by stronger leads. It seems to escape him that investigating every last village and estate is time we do not have when the rain season may be only days from flooding the plains around Farcamp.
Sense was eventually knocked into our adept and the decision made to head for Basin, a small settlement around ten kilometres on the other side of the plains from Farcamp.
Barbarigo has pulled in a favour, borrowing Earl Penfield's rail carriage for our journey. This seems unexpectedly altruistic compared to the mood I would expect her to be in today, but I am not complaining. Aside from the smell my companions brought with them, these are the most tolerable living conditions I have seen since we left the Maedan High Spire.
We are accompanied by Warden Torrance, who has been explaining what she can of Farcamp as she recalls it.
They are comparatively unrefined even by the standards of this world, living in housing carved into rock faces and notoriously hostile to off-worlders. Charming.
May the Throne watch over us.
+++ ENTRY 7738.si/7 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7738.si/7+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WEAKENS THE WILL TO ACT +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
~~~~~
Brugal Station, Present:
"The plan would be better if we can leave here as something other than wanted fugitives." Alyx interjected.
Doyle's grin stayed just as wide.
"They 'aven't seen us properly. We'll be fine - they won't know who ta look fer!"
"But Bloodfist's men do, Doyle.", Pelagius responded, "Boone convinced a dozen men at this station that we had something to do with the rioting in Port Hope. There'll only be more willing guards at the next station if they think we started the fight here too".
"Also, Rhodes will have my entrails if I let you take out major rail infrastructure.", Bayev added, "We're supposed to be here to help the planet's development."
Alyx nodded:
"And, on a personal level, I'd sleep a little more soundly if the plan had fewer murders."
"You are an assassin, aren't you?", Zarkov asked.
"Aye, but we ain't paying her!", smirked Doyle, "She hasta be paid ta kill people."
The remark earned him a rather angry scowl from the assassin.
"Emperor's teeth.", Torrance visibly flinched as a musket ball took a chunk out of the wall near her, "I'm going to die while the Inquisition have a domestic argument."
"It seems normal for this cell, Warden.", Pelagius said, his cynicism still undented.
The ratling was somewhat more put out by this point, and returned Alyx's glare.
"Well, maybe you've got a better idea then? Huh?".
"Possibly. We might be able to disarm them. It depends on the station layout...", she risked a glance out of her cover, trying to take in the angles, "... how much manoeuvring we can do and what munitions we've got. And... throne dammit, I think I've left my grenades in my trunk."
She got a few looks from the others.
"Oh, come on... I'm not a big person. I can't carry everything everywhere."
Shrugging in response, Guilliman unhitched a grenade from his webbing: "What do you need?"
"In short, 'what have you got'."
"Perhaps my talents could be of use?", Zarkov offered.
"Regrettably, I'm counting on it."
Apologies one and all but I shan't be appearing tomorrow night due to an emergency committee meeting. Hopefully we can finally get rings going again on the 20th!
Dave, the plan you pm'ed me sounds workable, I'll have a map of the station (and the Farungo rail network) for you all next week.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on January 12, 2014, 09:43:52 PMApologies one and all but I shan't be appearing tomorrow night due to an emergency committee meeting.
Well, darn.
QuoteDave, the plan you pm'ed me sounds workable
<mrburns> Excellent.
</mrburns>I guess it's only really the first half of Alyx's plan, but the second half doesn't have to worry about Schrodinger's map and is fairly interchangeable.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bjwzssu2mei74kf/Levongard%20pack%20v2.pdf
updated campaign pack with Port Hope & Globe maps updated/altered, as well as adding Farungo rail network and station map
Assuming I'm reading the station map correctly, the Emperor likes us a lot. The station master probably won't, but to hell with him. ;D
As a general note for scale reference with the Farungo map. The north-south length of Farungo is equivalent to the western seaboard of the USA (minus Alaska) or the north shore of Germany to the southern tip of Italy.
The 27th Jan will be on as usual, but advanced warning, I don't know when I'll make it on the 3rd Feb – I've a meeting at 7 that'll probably mean I won't be home till 9 or so. The 10th Feb might be the same again and the 24th Feb and 3rd March are right out the window.
Hmm.
I may see if I can put together a short Rogue Trader plot to fill the gaps then, although I make no guarantees.
I can't guarantee I'll be around tomorrow evening. :(
EDIT: Turns out, I won't be. Sorry about that, folks.
There's a good chance I won't be there Monday. works kind of backing up. Sorry guy's.
hey folks, I'll be there this Monday after all, but will instead be absent on the 17th March.
Great! I'll be looking forward to seeing everyone there. ;D
Still going to be away sorting stuff out this week, but I will *try* to be there for the 10th.
Duly noted.
I should say I have something else I could be doing this Monday evening, so I may have to make my excuses if we think the session is unlikely to run (such as, without being funny, relying on Graham remembering to turn up).
Right, a summary of events for Koval:
I took charge of Pelagius for the ship boarding, as Alyx was still elsewhere.
Intimidate and Deceive tests came up short to convince the crew we were at the head of a superior force, but we did manage a parley... at which point Morris appeared, with Maxwell (the medic) in tow. Unsurprisingly, they don't want to come quietly, and gunfire quickly starts (again).
Morris spends most of the fight with things in his eyes - firstly Doyle's condiment grenade, secondly Maxwell's brains (which probably explains why Maxwell is not fit to be interrogated) - and is eventually incapacitated.
We scuffle with a couple of lasgun armed crew (although why they had lasguns is unclear at this point), who are eventually put down.
The door to the captain's cabin opens, Doyle runs in - and gets zapped with a shock maul. The door is slammed behind him.
Locked out onto the upper decks, but apparently ignored, Pelagius drags Morris to the back deck and searches him (Warden ID, aged pict-capture of unknown woman, coin pouch with 12 grams & 12 porties, Flintlock pistol and a straight sabre) while he contacts Bayev - inevitably getting sworn at.
Not having seen what happened to Doyle and unable to do much except get captured himself, he cuts much of the remaining rigging with Morris' sabre, signals Samson's ship (the name of which I've forgotten again), gets Morris across to it, climbs across himself and instructs them to withdraw to a moderate distance, waiting for the rest of the group to catch the now crippled ship.
Hey guys, it looks like Monday is shaping up to be a really long day. I'll be late to say the least. Sorry.
I'll drop in to say hello but it's up in the air at the moment whether I'll feel like doing any gaming.
as previously mentioned I will not be there tonight – and I've now discovered I'll have to miss next week as well.
Regular service will resume on the 31st, although I might be missing the 7th May.
sorry if I'm mucking folks about, but I am now available this week (24th) again.
It's unlikely I will be -- I've got an interview tomorrow that's far enough away that I don't think I'd make it back in time for the session.
So for the American in our audience, we've moved onto daylight savings now which means we'll be on an hour earlier than before.
That said, however, I need to go meet someone tonight at 8pm, but should be home by 9pm, if not before.
Sorry guys I'm not going to be there tomorrow. Have a great week! :)
It's once again extremely unlikely I'll be here the next couple of weeks (though surprisingly *not* because I've been feeling like crap). I'll keep you guys posted as and when I'll be able to rejoin you.
no worries lads, I'm not available tonight either.
Well I'll be there, and I'll be using the opportunity to say things behind all of your backs.
Hey guys, I've been trying to come up with another way but I can't get home early enough to play and handle all of the added work on my plate. I'm going to have to bow out for the time being. I'm looking forward to this fall/winter already, where work normally lightens up. But my wallet is very happy about the busy schedule. So there isn't much else to do. Sorry.
I just want to add for those who may not be playing our game and following this tread. The last year and a half has been a blast! These three guys are considerate, patient and know how to bring the excitement of 41st to the game!
Josh
Quote from: Quickdraw McGraw on April 08, 2014, 07:44:26 PMI just want to add for those who may not be playing our game and following this tread. The last year and a half has been a blast!
Marco told me a little about it on the train journey up to WHW for the Eramus Affair - my memory (of that entire 24-hour period) is a little addled, but the strongest priest in the multiverse sticks out as a memorably hilarious point.
Sounds like a good solid group, and a great campaign.
That's a shame Josh, but by all means money has to come first, I'm actually surprised how relatively smoothly things have actually gone with the time zone issues.
Quote from: TheNephew on April 09, 2014, 03:40:54 PM
but the strongest priest in the multiverse sticks out as a memorably hilarious point
Yes, when Ernst rolls a natural 03 everything within a 63-mile radius takes note of the fact. :P
If you want to join in, Nephew, all you have to do is ask :)
I think the check Dave mentioned as being particularly impressive was punching the spine out of a carnifex or Imperial Knight or some such similarly near-titanic Bad Guy.
Ernst is in full-time beast-mode, it seems.
As for joining, I thank you for the invite, but as it stands, Monday is the only night of the week I don't have a regular thing booked, and I quite treasure being able to fold up on the sofa and not concern myself with things for the evening.
Also I'm flakey as all get out and tend to forget these things all too easily.
But perhaps in the future.
Ey up. Although it's not likely, I may appearing a bit later than normal today.
Sorry, forgot about tonight! Bloody bank holiday throwing me off.
Unfortunately I won't be available next week either due to apparently being nominated for a community award of some sort, the presentation of which is next monday evening.
Uh sorry guys, last minute scout leaders meeting has been called for monday evening, won't start till 8 and will probably run till 10.
And then on the 12th I've got another committee meeting.
All my evenings are jam-packed these days, so it's not even like there'd be a better time or day.
Although a thought has just struck me, what would peoples opinions be of Sunday evenings as a possible option in the future?
Correction, the my meeting will be at 7.30, so there's a chance it'll be finished by 9 and thus a slight chance of getting a short session in if folks are around to do so.
quadruple post!
I am busy Monday evening, once again. Sorry chaps.
Well, I'm canal boating again.
So I can attend sessions, but it's convenient if I have advance warning one way or the other.
I've just realised I failed to even check if anyone was on for the last two sessions.
Sorry if I messed anything up by not being there, I've been rather thrown by how patchwork things have been for the last while.
It's not an issue dave, I've been busy the past 6 mondays in a row now!
Speaking of which, while my mondays should remain completely clear over the summer, it will become an frequent issue again come September, so I against raise the question of what peoples thoughts are of changing to a Sunday evening instead?
Sundays are mostly alright for me - I'm occasionally away at full weekend Infinity events and doubtless would be on a train on the corresponding Sunday evening, but I don't have any regular commitments.
The only evening I presently have a commitment for is Tuesdays (and if we moved to another day, I might fill Mondays with a local wargames club instead).
shock horror, I have nothing on tonight, so if folks are around we can have a session! Joseph can you give Graham a reminder?
Hello chaps. Can anyone tell me if the chances of a game tomorrow are good, as I have an invitation to a concert rigging in the evening I'd rather not turn down if nothing's happening "here".
sure thing dave, go to your concert, I've also been asked if I could lend a hand somewhere this evening as it happens
Right, I tried a recruiting run on Facebook, with no luck. I may try further afield if no-one else is having any fortunes.
I'm thinking I'd like to get back on board. I get back to the country next week and will have a pretty open schedule until I find a job. What night are you meeting on currently?
Ruaridh
Currently Mondays. Sundays might be a possibility though; the move had been discussed, and while I think it was Graham who had an issue, we haven't seen him (or an explanation) for a few weeks.
that said there won't be a session as such this coming Monday as I am away on camp, but if you're both around I imagine dave can fill you in on the adventure so far.
Moving forward, Sundays probably would be the easiest. In the short term, Mondays will be okay, though I'm not back in the UK until the 23rd, and Monday 28th is right out as it's my wife's birthday! I'll work out a time once I'm back in blighty.
Ruaridh
Given there's the adventure I ran that needs covering too, I think I'll do at least that one as a text summary here - I'm more likely to provide something intelligible if I've proof-read it first (rather than just trying to summarise my completely disordered notes on the fly).
A not-hugely-short summary of the Maedai Political Crisis:
We had initially been told we were heading for Levongard (for Euan's plot), but I brought Interrogator Regin (aka "Gala") back from a one-off I'd originally run to fill in a free session and had her hijack things by diverting the team's transit so they could be put to work for a political crisis brewing on Maedai.
Lord Governor Julius Braggand's health was giving up at the age of 267, and de facto control had been passed to his son, Marius, and nephew, Livius.
Unfortunately, through a mix of arrogance, incompetence and the machinations of the other noble families (the Harren and DeLanka familes) vying for the governorship, things were starting to come apart at the seams.
So we're transferred to Maedai on a transport called the Divine Resolution. The shuttle ride in introduces the characters to "The Maedan High Spire" - an orbital station (and anchor for one of the planet's orbital elevators) that serves as a hugely ostentatious demonstration of the planet's ship building prowess.
From a distance, it vaguely resembles a cut gem implanted into golden jewellery - and that's fairly true, with huge diamond panes held together by a lattice of gilded struts serving as an indescribably expensive window to the stars for the Maedan elite. The interior is much the same - the air is completely free of the taint of machine oils and there is a unique standard (at least on the upper levels) for "poverty" where even the street musicians are finely dressed.
Just to make everything more complex though, as the characters pass a news-cryer loudly lectures the passing crowds on the kidnapping of the Governor's daughter, Aeliana, during her duties on the planet below.
The party is split down the middle (a deliberate choice to let people attend on different days), with Overseer (Katia) Bayev, Alyx, Sir William, Pelagius Turlough (Koval's new Adept) and Ernst being left on the high Spire to sort through the politics and Gala, Doyle Grizbain (Quickdraw's ratling scum), Guilliman and Novus (in the hands of Koval) heading down to the planet to recover the daughter.
~~~~~
The Spire team fairly quickly ascertain that it's approaching the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension (or, at least the date it's celebrated locally), and decide that the celebrations (featuring all the levels of Spire society) make for a good cover to get themselves closer in.
They concoct Alyx a cover identity as Alastriona Shura Lehti, a noblewoman from New Gemini with a taste for big game hunting (with her bodyguard, personal preacher and valet), and approach one of the Spire's high fashion designers, Agapetus Gernot, to commission an expensive dress.
~~~~~
The ground team at a similar time crash the Arbites investigation of the kidnapping site, headed by Judge Andreon Lucax, making much more blatant use of their Inquisitorial authority.
The attack was on a convoy of three Rhinos as they travelled through a hab district. There's little remaining evidence of the attackers (with only Palace Guard corpses at the site), but they discover through various investigation and some psychic voodoo that there's a missing corpse - the driver of the rear Rhino ("Stigr Hughan") was a mole, and is (now) completely missing from the Palace's own records.
They investigate the scene for a while longer, picking up some notes from the lead Judge about anti-governmental factions (the other noble families, a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the Administratum, as well as the "Dark Sun" terrorist group) and local mercenary contractors (Cadence Company, Cataphractan Defence and Dragan Unit).
Novus then contaminates the scene with blood rain shortly before they're attacked by a group in Arbites uniforms, one of whom they take alive enough to psychically interrogate. He's very mentally bleary, but they manage to figure out that he was a member of Cadence Company, under contract to "Hjensen Fabrication".
While the Dark Sun cult has frequent links with arms manufacturers like Hjensen, they instead choose to go straight to Cadence Company, and attempt to take out a contract to have Judge Lucax kidnapped.
~~~~~
At a similar time, the Spire team go about researching the histories of the various local families, as well as the word on the street.
While Julius is popular with the people, Marius (the son) is considered violently arrogant, Livius (the nephew) is considered a well-meaning incompetent, the Harrens are money centric and the DeLankas are largely taken to be self-centred tossers (to the point their dethroning is usually due to wild civic unrest). There's a lot of high level back-stabbing (some of it literal) between the families.
~~~~~
Back on the planet, the ground team somehow manage to get their contract accepted, and return to their rented accommodation. Fortunately, they bother to stay up on watch, because a very large force of well armed and armoured troopers turns up in the night.
They inflict a few casualties, but they realise they're wildly outnumbered, so Novus blows up the building and they escape into the undercity.
There's a bit of an altercation with some abhumans, but they eventually make their way out a safe distance away, have a bad night's sleep in an alleyway, and recontact the Judge (who has not been kidnapped).
This leads them to be pretty suspect of Cadence Company, so they make demands to meet the planet's Lord Marshal, and fairly soon after do - while grumpy to have been disturbed during major preparations for feast days, he grants them a pretty high level of support in pursuing Cadence.
Deciding a direct assault on a major mercenary company is out of the question, they're directed to Judge Tatiana Celeste, part of a more covert division of the local Arbites, and between they make plans for infiltrating Cadence Company's headquarters to access their cogitators to see if they have any information on the kidnapped Duchess.
~~~~~
On the spire, they meet with Gernot again to confirm designs (and Alyx's measurements) and sort everything out for the dress to be manufactured (on some very complex and ancient machines scattered around the workshop) over the next few days. It's agreed that the final design will include armoured fabrics.
They then proceed to the first feast of the Ascension. Held directly in the Governor's grounds (even with the growing security risks, tradition demands it), this serves the "lower" classes of the High Spire.
We get fairly suspicious about the security arrangements, then Livius (the Nephew) appears on one of the balconies to make a speech... and gets hit in the shoulder by a sniper on a nearby roof.
This causes instant and total panic in the crowd (rolling something like 95 on their WP test). People are being crushed, everyone is screaming... and then Ernst happens.
I forget exactly what I rolled on his Fellowship test, but I wouldn't have been surprised if for just a brief second the entire mob had seen a vast figure in golden armour standing behind him...
This frees up Alyx to chase after the sniper and Pelagius and Sir William to rush for the (rented) grav-sedan. Alyx does a fair job at keeping up with the sniper until he misses a jump and Sir William can get out of the sedan to apprehend him.
Of course, the regular Arbites turn up fairly fast. Fortunately, the cover identities Pelagius and Bayev ran up are robust enough that they believe them, and Sir William (supposedly being an Arbitrator reassigned as Lady Lehti's bodyguard) is invited to assist with the interrogation.
That turns up that our sniper too is working with Cadence Company...
~~~~~
... where, down below, the ground team are starting to break in, disguised as tech-adepts (and Doyle as some form of vat grown minion).
They get as far as the cogitators before they trigger an alert by smashing up the surveillance down there. They manage to transfer a large amount of data before Novus messes up his psychic tests a couple of times in a row and ends up body-swapping with both Gala and the one of the mercs sent to deal with the alert (who he then blows up with his own grenades).
All hell generally starts breaking loose. Doyle takes the air vents to see if he can outmanoeuvre the guards, but the non-Ratling individuals need to take the less surreptitious routes (and lots of shooting commences).
Fortunately, Doyle finds the main control room and inflicts enough damage there to make the attempts to find the party a lot less co-ordinated. (And ends up completely by fluke taking out the elite guard squad. If I recall, he righteous furied one, whose grenades and ammo all go up simultaneously).
Still, a bad move by Novus during the escape puts him out of commission, and he has to be hauled the rest of the way to the roof, where the Arbites drop in via land speeder and whisk them all away.
~~~~~
Above, the Spire Team have been contacted by Livius (the Nephew), who summons them to the Gubernatorial palace.
They're directed to a drawing room, where Julius (the Governor) happens to briefly stumble in while they're waiting, looking for brandy (and initially mistakes Alyx for someone else).
They do then meet Livius (whose intelligence isn't all that much above the level of "Prince George" from Blackadder the Third); injured and increasingly desperate, he's heard about the off-worlders via an Arbites report, and figures they're probably less likely to be a mole than anyone local, and uses his limited grasp of authority and inter-nobility politics to try get the PCs to check things out.
Naturally, the offer to go snooping around in the Palace Guard's records is not turned down, and Pelagius and Sir William have several hours snooping around in the archives.
They confirm the earlier mentioned tampering, and between this and several discussions with the Colonel of the Guard, determine that the security for both the convoy and the feast had been sabotaged (with deliberate weaknesses and under-competent members of the guard assigned to the various jobs.
There's also a large budget hole where ex-members of the Guard were still on pay-roll, leading to about 16,500 Thrones being filtered off. They trace most of this back to one scribe, Nor Felinus, who confidently justifies his actions as having been correctly passed down the chain of command (or so it seemed/he claims).
Amongst this all, they do lots of beefing up of the security for the main ball (a much more exclusive ceremony than the earlier feast, open only to the highest rungs of society, including the other major noble families) a few days later.
~~~~~
The ground team...well, Doyle uses the evening to try romancing Gala - and apparently doesn't do a bad job of using the Arbites canteen to cook dinner or being a charming gentleman.
Over the next few days, they decrypted enough of the stolen data to be pretty sure Cadence Company know where the Princess is. They miss the incomplete co-ordinates in the decryption, but instead manage to get enough clues by breaking into Cadence Company's vox transmissions, and track it down to a location in the undercity.
They launch something of a two-pronged assault, the Arbites serving as an above ground distraction, and the PCs (joined by an Arbites, Koenig Mallens, instead of Novus) go in via the undercity. They get into an initially rather easy fire-fight with the mercs there, but it very quickly ramps up - as they later realise, the mercs had started out using blank ammunition, looking to fake a firefight (and had been caught off guard by actual live fire being traded).
However, they find the Duchess, slightly surprised at the nature of her rescue, and high-tail it above ground, pursued by several considerably better armed mercs.
They eventually emerge on about the second or third floor of a building, overlooking a dockside. Gala takes the option of using her size and concealed bionics to throw both Doyle and the Duchess from the building to the relatively safer quay.
Those still stuck on the upper floors are however fortunate, because they'd sent the Arbites above ground, a speeder patrolling the perimeter turns up. This one however has heavy weapons - the pursuing mercs have a baaaaddd day.
~~~~~
At a similar time, the Spire team are making final preparations for the grand ball, checking against various avenues of attack - guests are invitation only, making sure guards are intelligently deployed against any intruders, ensuring the flack cannons on the perimeter are active against aerial intrusion, and being given the low-down on the various poison snoopers used to ensure that the food cannot be poisoned.
They've picked up Alyx's fancy new dress, and take to the ball. They're treated to more examples of Marius' intolerance and Livius' incompetence along the way, and meet various guests.
Another one of the guests mistakes Alyx for someone else... then we discover who she's been mistaken for, because I decide to introduce Kyrillos and Diamanto Leveque (older brother and sister, twins) to the party. As you can imagine, Alyx disappears very fast.
Anyway, shortly after, both Marius and Livius are poisoned. With some luck, and the assistance of the Governor's personal Hospitaller, both are stabilised, but the PCs have to go off and find out how it happened.
While investigating the kitchens and questioning the staff, Pelagius makes the deduction that the poison snoopers may not detect exotic allergies, and eventually works out (after consulting aid of Sister Berenice) that the Braggand family have a severe reaction to a spice called Deujakkan.
It's not common knowledge, so between the list of people who'd know and questioning down the scribe who ordered it, the prime suspect ends up being Lord Governor Julius Braggand himself.
They confront him in his personal chambers (where Alyx catches up with them again). He's fairly calm about their arrival (although he's consuming large quantities of brandy, it's not for his nerves), even after having deduced them as agents of the Inquisition.
He's open to questioning, and largely sets out the whole thing as in the interests of his people.
As he's dying, he'll soon be succeeded - and his son is violently arrogant, making him both unfit to rule and an awful continuation of the family line.
His nephew, while technically not directly in the line of succession, was enough in the way (particularly with his current status as Regent) that taking him out of the picture would ensure minimal complications. (And it would have been suspicious if he hadn't been a target).
His daughter Aeliana, on the other hand, was his choice of successor, much more competent and level-headed. As a result, he had several of the palace scribes divert a large quantity of funds with which to stage a kidnapping to have her safely "out of the way" until an equally staged rescue. Blame the whole thing on Dark Sun cultists, done.
His hopes were removing his son from the equation would further the future of his family and the planet.
They don't get a whole lot more out of him than that though, as they discover that he's poisoned his own brandy.
A big regrouping occurs (although Alyx disappears for a while before they leave the palace. The others suspect it has something to do with her brother and sister), and they discuss the various options for governorship - Marius, Aeliana, the Harren family, the DeLanka family or indeed something else.
They vote against trying to plant the other families, but decide Marius has to go.
They cook up a chemical agent that'll retrigger the allergic reaction in Marius, and under the cover of attempting to assist his recovery, manage to spin a line to Sister Berenice that lets them inject him with it while he's in the palace medical wing.
It functions as planned, removing him from the equation (and somehow managing to convince Berenice that it was a failed attempt at healing him).
Shortly afterwards, the Arbites return Aeliana to the Palace, now faced with becoming the new Lady Governor of Maedai.
While the PCs have no further time before their transit to Levongard, Gala stays behind to try and further stabilise the situation. (And, at some point, I'll update people on how it's going).
And that's it up as far as our transit to Levongard, which I'll expand upon at another time.
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.
Oh no, Hans Brix!
I am free for Skype tonight, and tomorrow after eight thirty. Anyone available?
Ruaridh
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.
I'll be online monday evening.
Hans Brix is actually named after Detective Sara Lunds 2nd boss in The Killing scandi-noir TV series (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0826760/?ref_=nv_sr_2), Lennart Brix – whose motives were vague when the audience first met him.
I have a meeting at 7 monday night, don't know when it'll finish.
Wee heads up that I want be around this evening.
Ruaridh
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.
Let's stick to Monday evening then. Dave, you good?
Ruaridh
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.
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
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.
Today or tomorrow either is fine but both me and Ruaridh are on now if anyone is just fancying a chat
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.
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).
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.
I'll take it that the trebuchet missed then.
Remember the clock change! Extra hour in bed!
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6980035/Farcamp%20in%20distance.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6980035/Farcamp%20elevation%20%26%20plan.jpg)
It's occurred to me that whole affair was probably one of the most drawn out intimidation attempts in the history of Dark Heresy. And didn't actually feature any Intimidation rolls.
We did get a decent bit of "good cops, bad cops" going though. Although "good cops" is relative, being as one of them was Kaldar and Alyx had at one point (although I don't think you were there when I admitted this OOC, Euan) been about two seconds from shooting the Baron in the head.
(If he hadn't been suitably scared as she asked whether he'd let things lie, she would have. Killing him then and there seemed way more sane than trying to use him as a human shield and then dragging him to Farcamp).
I will be at an Infinity event in Exeter at the end of this month and will thus not be around for the session on the 30th.
sorrysorrysorrysorry
No excuse, especially as I was writing up some extra bits just yesterday! Just completely forgot. Don't be afraid to send me a txt reminder if it happens again.
A text would indeed be more efficient than a trebuchet (it's a bit of an engineering challenge to hit Scotland from here), but I don't actually have your number. Although I guess Ruaridh might.
As regards the scale of the Farcamp diagram, I've just had a look at it and scaling the whole thing to 400m long means most of the buildings are only about 3 or 4 metres wide, which is pretty tight even by the standards of Amsterdam's famously girth-spartan canal houses.
Something more like a kilometre long would make it a little less cramped, I think.
4 meters is wide enough for a door and bay window :P
I've fallen a long way behind on this, so here's four of Alyx's log entries, starting on Landing Day + 4 (or Day 5, if you consider LD to be day 1), following the ambush at Brugal.
If I can, I'll try and better keep up with this in future. Even I learn things about Alyx from what she writes.
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7742.qr/3 +++
= Levongard, LD + 4 =
Treacherous fiends! Wexman and his abettors set a trap for us as we made our first change at Brugal. A singularly ill executed trap that only came close to succeeding at all through Khan's over-exuberance, but a trap nonetheless.
Boone was left in their wake, and formulated the hasty plan of attempting to ambush us with a small number of the local king's archaically equipped guards, rather than gathering force in fuller might. He and his ambush were almost trivial.
Of course, I again find myself cursing Khan, possibly the only psyker in the Imperium with less self control than Novus. The matter might have been dealt with quietly if he hadn't spectacularly incinerated a large portion of the station and thus sent the literal entirety of the King's forces in the vicinity of the station on to a witch hunt.
As if he had never been warned that a Warden's authority has limits, we found ourselves staring down the barrels of a hundred muskets.
Fortunately, I have the sense that eludes this walking ignition source, and managed to save us and our mission from his impetuous behaviour.
Evading the attentions of the musket company, I managed to ascend the signal box behind them, and breach the water reservoir mounted up there, drenching their temperamental flintlock weapons.
This provided ample opening to spin the company's captain a threat about Leveque financial and political might.
He had no way to know of my ill favour with grandfather, so he dispersed his company, disgraced. I feel somewhat cheated that I won't be able to witness his blustering when he has to explain the incident to his superiors.
And rightly so. His obstinacy cost the life of a loyal servant of the Emperor. I have my own forgiveness to find for that, but it was this blithering idiot of a captain that forced my brutal approach.
Following the incident, Doyle found us lunch of a sort before we left. Not very lavish but, by some miracle, I believe he paid for it with his own money.
I am grateful that our next train delayed as little as possible. The growing attentions of the local populace were becoming increasingly unwelcome, particularly as I suspect some were kin of guards Khan had incinerated.
The tactics that Wexman has taken so far are concerning and sickening in equal measure. Not because I expect to see this tactic used again (although I will be ready for it if he tries), as he will either hope us to be dead, as Boone apparently had no manner by which to relay his success, or will know us to be wise to his treachery, but because of his apparent lack of morality. He shows little concern for his co-conspirators, which potentially makes him the most dangerous of the heretics we have encountered in our duties to the Inquisition so far.
The willingness to sacrifice others for personal gain also reminds me of Castor in the worst way. But perhaps I can hope for the chance to exact revenge on them both for their betrayals.
+++ ENTRY 7742.qr/3 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7742.qr/3+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:INTELLECT IS A MASK FOR TRAITORS +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7746.ke/5 +++
= Levongard, LD + 6 =
Fortunately, I managed to maintain a decent separation from last night's farce, at least until I was actually in a position to safely rescue it.
It is marginally miraculous that Doyle and Pelagius suffered as little as they did in their ill-advised haste to chase after Maxwell on their own (in spite of my insistent tone and demands that we gather the others before making pursuit, I would add), but even then I would have wanted no share of it.
Obviously, I have heard most of the details second-hand, but what is clear is that the pair of them decided to launch a two man boarding action against a vessel containing an unknown number of hostile individuals and then managed to exacerbate that lapse in judgement by getting split up.
However, the end results demand I credit them with at least some success. We have after all recovered Morris and two of the palace guards alive, along with half the contingent of stolen lasguns.
Thanks to Khan's efforts in Brugal, Morris is the first time we have had the opportunity to interrogate a Warden as a traitor, so even the lack of information has often been informative.
Like Petra warned, it seems their organisation is heavily compartmentalised. Each individual, Wexman perhaps excluded, seems to know very little about what others have been up to.
As such, beyond a confirmation of exactly how much of a headstart Wexman enjoys over us, Morris was only able to provide a summary of his own activities. These seem to be largely petty assassinations, although without being able to investigate them all in depth, it's possible there's a far grander pattern than Bloodfist simply tying up a few loose ends.
The most dire revelation was that his recruitment into the Wardens (along with the now deceased Maxwell) was overseen by Wexman. These renegades were concern enough when we believed that they had been bribed, corrupted or coerced, but the implications of Bloodfist having been planting moles for years are almost beyond comprehension.
That we have even more reason to question the loyalties of every warden we meet is obvious, as is the integrity of the infrastructure supporting our operation.
But I now have questions about how accurately the Inquisition has judged the scale of Bloodfist's operation. It may even be too big to cripple even with Bloodfist's death, if indeed Bloodfist is even the mastermind here. The compartmentalisation makes me question whether this may just be but one wing of an even greater conspiracy.
This is too much for me to have fully considered yet.
- Note: Torrence thus far seems stable. She has had several opportunities to compromise our operation, but not visibly taken any of them. Nonetheless, she will have to be watched all the more closely, particularly as her local knowledge makes her a lynchpin in this operation.
There seems a similar circumstance in the palace guards. To a man, the rogue group seems to have been recruited from off-world (although a mix of worlds) through the authority and brutal coercion of a "Lady Von Wellhaven".
This is not a name I can ever recall having heard, even in passing. That would mean more were we back in Kamal, but even so, the names of many of the Carthaxian gentry have passed the lips of my family over time.
The lack of noble credence sounds staggeringly similar to the egotism of the Inquisition. While Bayev doesn't claim any knowledge of a Lady Von Wellhaven amongst the ranks of the Ordos, the possibility is little weaker for it. Inquisitors are nothing if not secretive.
- Note: Members of palace guard seem to be being coerced by threats to immediate family members. Details of how is unclear, but if true, this gives them a motivation that will make them very dangerous and hard to reason with.
Better news comes from Fairfield. Port Hope is finally in some semblance of stability, albeit at cost, and he has also learned that the Engineering Corps has arrived in system earlier than anticipated.
My hopes of sophisticated transport are now a little less in vain.
+++ ENTRY 7746.ke/5 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7746.ke/5+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: DYING FOR SOMETHING IS GREATER THAN LIVING FOR NOTHING+++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7751.ey/8 +++
= Levongard, LD + 8 =
Wexman is sending messages. Incredibly foul messages that reinforce his willingness to betray any and all.
The sight of the butchered and hung corpses of the sheriffs who had once been by his side is somewhat difficult to dispel from my mind, but that is doubtless the point. The meaning of the words "Honour your debt" is rather clearer for the context of being carved in human flesh
My trepidation comes not from the sight. It is that the message was intended for us. I am not beyond considering it a deception, but the implications if it is not are no less than that someone amongst us is too familiar with Wexman.
If they are, may the Emperor take pity, for neither I or Wexman will offer any.
+++ ENTRY 7751.ey/8 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7751.ey/8+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: FEAR IS THE MIND KILLER+++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7754.jd/3 +++
= Levongard, LD + 9 =
I'm reaching my limits. This situation was vaguely stable when I had control, but our latest "allies" (insofar as any element of the Wardens can be currently considered trustworthy) seem to have skipped the section in their handbook that their authority offers them only transient protections from the wrath of the populace.
We encountered the pair after their equipment showed up on my auspex when we arrived.
- Vadraz Talor, Tech-priest. Seems to specialises in cyber-constructs and tactical analysis. Sufficiently skilled to fix the damage to Bayev's arm.
- Tychus Cain, possible former Arbitrator in riot division. Seems to specialise in answering the door half naked and manhandling figures of authority.
I think both have probably let the protection their armour offers against the primitive local weapons go to their head. If this delusion cannot be shaken off by the time Bloodfist inevitably opens the doors on his full armoury, things will go poorly. A xenotech dealer of his apparent wealth and connections cannot possibly possess nothing more lethal than lasguns.
But to their immediate transgressions. They have no social graces whatsoever. The Baron may be corrupt, but no more so than the less savoury parts of any truly successful noble house. In truth, such dealings were probably more legitimate than those of my own heritage, although grandfather would never make such a mistake as admitting such things to the law. Not without at least seven legal adepts present at the time.
I might perhaps have been able to negotiate with the Baron, given my own standing, but their attempted kidnap instead left me strongly considering the possibility of simply killing him before we left the compound.
It never came to that, although it would have been no less alien in the world of the gentry. My own past proves that.
We eventually parted with the Baron no worse than scared, although I will be deeply endebted to the Emperor if our path does not have to cross with his again. If he finds the nerve to be properly affronted, he could now be very dangerous.
But now to the point that should have been most important. The Baron was convinced on first sight that Bayev was the "Lady Von Wellhaven" the palace guards mentioned before.
I was initially concerned that she might actually have been, but circumstances quickly proved to not fit. The Baron last saw Von Wellhaven around a month ago, but that would have been during the time we were on Maedai and our first meeting on Port Alcis even further in the past.
This raises significant concerns all the same. Even with the compartmentalisation of Bloodfist's organisation, it seems beyond conceiving that Wexman cannot know of this. Is it even a deliberate ploy on his or Bloodfist's part?
This is another matter that I will need to think on.
Smaller trivialities of the day are our other travelling companions.
Sir Ethan Rothman is presently riding alongside with his valet, apparently both undertaking a pilgrimage to Farcamp on behalf of Queen Lena of Sarossit. The idea that other outsiders are seen around Farcamp is slightly welcoming. Although Bloodfist is doubtless already prepared for us, it will make our own arrival slightly less conspicuous to the natives.
And sitting opposite, we have Slade Kaldar. He is clearly voidborn, but that alone struggles to describe his lack of charms. His build is such that despite standing at least twenty centimetres taller he can weigh little more than I do, and his manner of speaking is unfiltered by any social grace.
He seems more likely to be a worry. He has, between the barrage of insults, shown signs of competence in his role, and I cannot quite shake the feeling that he may have a part to play in events to come.
However, I'm not entirely sure which side I'd rather he were on.
+++ ENTRY 7754.jd/3 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7754.jd/3 +++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: HERESY GROWS FROM IDLENESS+++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
Well, ouch! That's her first heavy injury in two and half years - and the following tumble can't have restored any of her pride either.
Although, much as Ruaridh commented (I don't think the rest of you were there at the time though), there was still a bit of a difference between the ~12,000 XP Alyx and the ~1,200 XP Slade when it came to a brawl.
Mind you, we've proposed the idea that the original characters may be turning into veteran agents who will be expected to guide newer recruits before - and I think actually getting to explore that is going to be interesting.
On a distinct but still game related note, Rich has apparently followed me on Twitter. Haven't had the chance to speak with him yet, but it seems he is at least around.
Right, I've sent Rich an e-mail about our dates over Christmas. I don't know whether he'll be around tomorrow...
... but what I can say is that I won't be around on the 25th of January, due to another Infinity event.
There is also theoretically an event on the the 12th of April, but as it's just the Sunday rather than the entire weekend, I'm doubtful whether I'm going to that one. It's five hours on the train each way, which is fair enough for a two day event, but when it's a one day event that also means missing Dark Heresy, it's a bit less palatable.
Session tomorrow at one?
Ruaridh
I'm hoping so.
However, as I say above, I won't be around next week.
yes yes, full steam ahead
Well, that didn't go well.
Alyx has some of a plan for how to get out of this. Or, at least, a plan that might get her out of this, but I'll work with her over the next fortnight to see if she can extend that to the rest of the group. And/or make it a less grim plan, because it's not actually very tasteful.
I dunno the GM nearly killing 2 of the PCs seems like a good start to the 5th year of play :P
New log entry! Hooray!
> User: Leveque, Astraea
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 7757.ke/2 +++
= Levongard, LD + 10 =
As I long suspected, the Inquisition have always had their hand in this. No-one else could possibly have had the arrogance.
All because of their fickle ways and hidden conflicts, Bloodfist has never been more than the ghost of a dead man, I was centimetres from being disembowelled, Khan is beyond all help except the Emperor and I cannot speak for the fate of Doyle or Pelagius.
Those of us who have survived are now reporting to Inquisitor Zara Cairnholm, who seems to be the ultimate authority for the pretentious Lady von Wellhaven and the treacherous Arnst Wexman.
So our allies cannot trusted. We are injured and exhausted. Our objective is heretech that should be destroyed rather than defended. We are inadequately equipped and prepared for these circumstances.
But yet, I choose to stay, rather than leave my allies. Self-sacrifice in place of self-interest. The Astraea Leveque who fled Iracadia four years ago must already be long gone. Where did I become someone else?
No. This is no time for my introspection. There will be enough of that from Katia. If she cannot bury it under discipline, then it will need to be buried under barked commands. Her compliance or annoyance will be equally effective as a diversion from self-contemplation.
From there, if we survive the Emissary, then we separate from Inquisitor Cairnholm as soon as viable. There is no Bloodfist to kill, and destroying the organisation we are now presented with is an unsustainable change in mission parameters.
+++ ENTRY 7757.ke/2 ENDS +++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 7757.ke/2 +++
+++ PROCESSING +++
+++ COMPLETE +++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: THE EMPEROR'S MERCY IS NEITHER TO FORGIVE NOR TO FORGET BUT TO ACCEPT +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
Well, things are going better than expected.
That's still not exactly well, given we've run out of booby traps, Slade has been fumbling grenades (and losing his shotgun), Tychus has had to make a full retreat, Alyx only has one fully charged laspistol cell left, our Stormtrooper allies have been dropping like flies and the enemy have found the rear entrance.
But given Slade and Tychus are comparatively inexperienced and most of the group aren't trained or equipped with any assumption of large scale combat*, the bar wasn't exactly set very high.
* Alyx is an assassin - she's supposed to eliminate specific individual targets, not whole armies!
~~~~~
Anywho, it's occurred to me that Roll20 has an LFG section on its forums (it also has a player directory that can be sorted by game, but I suspect this will include a great many inactive players).
If we plan to keep using the site (and I do have to say a shared map does make the game a lot easier) , we might be able to pick up some recruits that way. (Although our game still being 1st Edition might be an issue).
If that's of interest to all (or most), I can try and do some of that poking around.
And as a final aside, I'm now pretty content with the latest house ruled version of the accurate trait. Significant, but far less absurdly over the top than the official errata and also relatively simple.
just a heads up that I may be a little late tomorrow.
Got a rough ETA? I was hoping to catch most of the Ireland vs England match tomorrow. Kick off is at 3.
Probably won't be online today. Mother in law will be round for Mothers' Day lunch.
Ruaridh
sure thing, means I can watch the F1 :)
not available this sunday chaps due to a regional scout leaders conference
I may be a little late this afternoon (not that I'm sure anything will be happening), as I have just been "invited" to assist on a shopping trip.
just to say i'm away this weekend again
Sorry, I think I completely failed to warn anyone about my absence on Sunday - some Morris dancers kidnapped me to play music for them for a May day folk weekend*.
*Rather importantly, as it turned out; it was a busy event and a lot of the time the dancers were struggling to make out our melodeonist and drummer over the noise made by other sides (or nearby pubs). Normally I swap between a variety of instruments to mix and match harmonies, but a lot of the time I had to stick with my cornet, simply for the volume.
Is there likely to be anything going on tomorrow? I'm guessing not, but I've been asked if I can assist with something else sometime in the afternoon and I need to know whether I can or can't.
I would guess no?
Nothing planned game-wise. We should try and get online next weekend though and try and hammer out if we are going to run a new adventure. If anyone else is reading and wants to play some Dark Heresy over Skype on a Sunday, say so!
Ruaridh
Dependent upon when on Sunday you do it, I might be tempted to return. Be advised though that my schedule's a bit out of whack at the moment and I'm going on holiday fairly soon, beginning the first weekend in June, so I won't be settled down again properly 'til a couple of weeks later.
I think the time is probably open to consideration. We'd picked an early afternoon start in order to co-ordinate with Josh, but he has other commitments these days.
(Possibly the day too, I think Euan's schedule may have changed since we made the decision to move to Sunday).
Alright, but assuming things stay as they are, when on Sunday do the sessions run?
We officially start at 2pm, but that has drifted earlier or later depending on people's other commitments.
I'm not available this sunday.
My availability is limited for the next three Sundays, I'm sorry to say, so I'm not certain I'll be around for all/any of them.
However, now the IGT is behind us, I should be available for forum/PM/e-mail discussions of a new set of characters if anyone wants?
hey, I know I've been a no-show since we wrapped up the Levongard story - and indeed I will be a no-show again this weekend.
So from Dave's comment, is the consensus to start from scratch with new characters then? The older ones were at the capping out point really, so that's fine by me. Will we stick with DH1 or be trying out DH2?
I think we ought to stick with DH1 as that's what we know and it's worked so far.
We hadn't completely confirmed anything, mostly because we needed to check with you, but yeah, we were discussing starting with some new characters under a more radical Inquisitor. Not completely from scratch, mind - probably about Rank 2 or 3 to actually get them into their groove a bit.
I think my vote would also be for DH1 - it saves relearning the rules or faffing around trying to import things from old sourcebooks, and there was vague talk of being able to have established characters cameo from time to time.
Let me know what you guys decide on viz. rule set and EXP -- I'm still technically unavailable.
Though just as my two pence on the matter, since a normal starting character has 400 EXP at creation, I think if we're going to get the ball rolling but still be lowbies, we'd need about 1000 EXP -- that will give us free run of the Rank 1 and Rank 2 tables and ding us into Rank 3 for the next time we get EXP.
New characters under a Radical Inquisitor was my plan for taking the reins for the next campaign. I think 1000 exp is a fine place to start as it does allow for a bit of customisation prior to kicking things off. DH1 is my choice for rules. Haven't had a look at much of DH2 to be honest.
Character creation and the intro to the campaign can probably be thrashed out over email if the next few Sundays are a no go. A private Facebook page is pretty helpful too, as info can be dumped there to be read by others at their convenience.
What date shall we aim for for the first adventure session? Sunday 5th of July? I definitely can't do the 19th, and the 26th is probably out too.
Ruaridh
Sounds fair as far as XP. I'm thinking of going with an Adept this time - which is going to be a harsh gear change from a Rank 8 Assassin when we inevitably get into a scrap, but I guess that's half the point.
Any thoughts on starting equipment? I'm entertaining thoughts of starting with a bionic arm (as hoping for an appropriate injury in play is a long shot, and I'm not seeing the character as a enough of a technophile to do it without an injury), but I don't want to blow too much of my starting XP and/or Throne budgets over the matter.
I too would like to know what starting equipment will be like, and starting Thrones. Would we perhaps be allowed one piece of unusual equipment our Thrones don't cover? Nothing game breaking like a plasma gun but in the case of one of the characters I'm drawing up, he's got a bionic hand* and the closest I can see is a bionic arm (at 1000 Thrones which is understandably way more than the starting budget).
*Which in total fairness the character has had for a long time and has been referenced before here on this Conclave.
I am not too fussed about Thrones and equipment restrictions, especially with things like bionics. If it seems reasonable I'll be happy enough. A brace of bolt pistols, a meltagun and power armour on the other hand...
Ruaridh
Hooray then - that deals with a few of my concerns*. I'll throw together some concepts over the next while.
* One issue I have across many/most RPGs is how hard it is to build a character who already has some history. It's part of my love for Inquisitor, which breaks the trend and lets you start in medias res. So it'll be good to have some flexibility with some quirky souvenirs** and the like.
** I can only hope I can think of a charm that's half as effective as Alyx's - it evidently really is the bullet with her name on it, given her spectacular talent for avoiding injury.
As said before, I don't think I'll be able to attend this session, but I may try and wrangle next Sunday - I suspect that by then, I may just want some time off from being a volunteer stage hand.
But nonetheless, I've been thrashing out my character. So far I've rolled a hive-world* adept, and am strongly considering blowing half my starting XP on a toughness advance to start with a decent stat there - Adepts don't get to buy Dodge as a skill until about Rank 5, so I suspect I'll appreciate being at least
* As we're sticking with Carthax, I'm thinking perhaps Ismene, as one of the options for an Adept's starting skills is "Resistance(Cold)", which would fit the planet's chilly climate. (Certainly, I gave it to Gala, who hails from Ismene, although she started life as a blizzard walker from further down her hive).
I'm also trying to write a story that'll move Alyx's story into its next chapter, but I won't make any promises about when that'll be with you.
I won't be attending today's session. I just got back from America and I will need the rest of the day to recover.
If others are available, I'm thinking about skiving off from the show get-out to come and discuss things on Sunday, as this character is starting to come together in my head, and I'd like to negotiate some tweaks to my starting skill set to closer fit the history I'm starting to see for this character.
A summary of what's in my mind so far is that the character is a historian who penned and illustrated various tomes that cut a bit too close to the real truth. Great as far as a Radical Inquisitor might be concerned, but it also lead to the attentions of a particularly zealous cult.
This "altercation" with the cult I think would lead into the bionic arm I had in mind, the implantation of which might even be/have been the Inquisition's opening offer.
So I'm thinking about pushing around exactly which lore skills she* has, perhaps throwing in an "Enemy" penalty or two and maybe a generous starting dose of insanity points depending on how traumatic I eventually decide to make the cult's attentions.
* Let's be honest, I was always going to end up playing a woman again.
I will be available for an hour or two on Sunday. Does 1300 suit?
I am planning on putting together a PC for myself too, which I will hopefully get a chance to play if we continue this campaign beyond this first adventure. He will lurk in the background while I am GMing. I have a couple of ideas, but want to wait and see what you three decide to bring to the table.
Ruaridh
1300 should be fine, but I'll check the exact details of my skiving off first.
Quote from: Van Helser on June 25, 2015, 08:24:26 AMI am planning on putting together a PC for myself too, which I will hopefully get a chance to play if we continue this campaign beyond this first adventure.
Well, even if it was slightly intermittent, we kept our first campaign going for four years, so I'd be surprised if this one didn't last into the second adventure.
I'll be there. We can discuss which of my characters is most suitable.
i will probably be a no-show
Got some character discussion with Joe and Dave earlier today. We have a guardsman and an adept ready to be put to work by our mysterious lord. I will probably be bringing a tech priest to the sessions as my PC.
Plan to start the adventure on Sunday 12th of July, with next Sunday available for any last minute planning.
Does the date suit?
Ruaridh
12th and 19th will be fine, 26 July & 2nd Aug I will be away.
British f1 on telly today, so I'll be a no show.
Notes:
- Next session on 9th of August.
- Heat up cat.
Tobin's mind cleansing evidently turned him from a bit of a drip as he was in the Twin Arches into a really snarky git. This will be fun!
Well, on that note, we'll probably find that Rosaline's personality will drift around a bit while I nail her character down.
I'm going to have to get things like Alyx's cynical voice out of my head, because Rosaline is supposed to be a more cheerful personality. (Although she's probably a darker person when push comes to shove; while it was buried under a lot of verbal pessimism, Alyx was actually somewhat idealistic, and had the skills to deliver on her conscience).
Oh, and because a full name didn't come up during the session, it's Rosaline Xenati... and no, I'm not yet sure how that's going to be pronounced*.
* But then, it took me a while to decide whether my Cuir sub-sector was pronounced "Kwire", "Kwear", "Sire" or - as it finally was - "Sear".
Confirming I will be around for tomorrow's game. :)
Quote from: Koval on August 08, 2015, 03:15:24 PM
Confirming I will be around for tomorrow's game. :)
Frak, I completely forgot to heat up the cat.
Aiming for a 1pm start tomorrow.
Sorry guys, can't do tomorrow. The exhaust fell off my car tonight and I need to spend tomorrow fixing it for the Monday morning commute. Hopefully next Sunday is good?
Ruaridh
I believe I'm good for the 23rd, but I'll be with the boats on the 30th and I don't know whether I'll have the time or connection to join you.
I won't be able to make it today either.
I can't do the 23rd Aug or the 6th Sept
Shall we pass on this Sunday and aim for the 30th? If you think you can get online David?
Ruaridh
Possibly.
The issue with the boats is normally that there's no such thing as a stable mobile connection when you're moving - but we'll be at an event (and stationary, or so I've been told), so there's at least a reasonable chance at a suitable connection, but I won't really know until the time.
Tomorrow at 1300 good for everyone?
Ruaridh
Works for me.
yup
I should be available - I have a reasonable connection!
Sorry, I'm going to have to be a bit late (hopefully no later than 2) - there's been a bit of a scheduling faux-pas where a coterie of musicians have been invited onto the boat for a lunchtime session, which is going to make trying to have a call with you rather difficult!
My parents never remember when my gaming is... ::)
remind me, is there a session tomorrow or not?
As far as I recall, yes, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
There should be. I'll be there at least.
Yeah, I'm planning a session for today. It's time to decide how to bring the Church of Terran Brethren down!
Ruaridh
Current dates:
- 20th Sept: Probably
- 27th Sept: No
- 4th Oct: Probably
Sorry guys! Something's come up today that needs my attention, so I'll either be late or a no show. I should be around on the 11th though.
That's alright. Let's postpone the session. I was going to suggest moving the time slot for the next few weeks for the selfish reason that I'd like to watch the rugby as we hit the quarters and semis. Is 1000 on a Sunday too early? How about a midweek night?
Ruaridh
sunday mornings should be fine for me, if anything perhaps slightly better, blocking off the early afternoon every week can be a little awkward sometimes.
I may have a problem with some of the coming Sundays at any time during the day, as I'm needed to help move boats sometime this month. I'm not sure exactly when I'm on the boat and which days we'll be moving (at the moment, the calendar is downstairs, and I'll wake people if I go and check it), but I expect there will be at least some clash.
I need to call off tomorrow's session folks. I have a really bad cough and cold and need to try and save my voice for the working week.
Ruaridh
I can try to make it to tomorrow's session, but I am on the boat and will be probably be moving (dependent on what time we've decided we'll be at), so I can't guarantee a stable internet connection.
Are we looking at a morning or afternoon session here?
morning suits me tomorrow and next week due to afternoon rehearsals. Then the 1st I'll be busy with a get-in and the 8th I shall likely be with post-aftershow party hangover.
This morning preferably as the rugby kicks off at one.
Ruaridh
Well, it seemed to me that my connection remained reasonably good, and I didn't have to be called away to work the boat too much, although I certainly can't guarantee the same for future attempts.
Good to get back to the game, although I have to admit the slightly choppy schedule of the last few weeks made it a little difficult to get back into Rosaline's head.
(Still, I did more or less get to that somewhat dark morality eventually. Alyx would have been downright appalled by some of what Rose was suggesting and/or doing. Killing militia for their uniforms? That's not nice...)
Can't recall if we were planning a session this morning? Euan mentioned an impending hangover - was the night of causation yesterday?
Ruaridh
Further up the page Euan lists the 1st and the 8th as dates he can't do; I don't know about today.
yeah, today was entirely my bad, it just completely slipped my mind and indeed, the next two Sundays are no-goes (certainly the morning of the 8th - might just about make an afternoon session that day, but no promises).
are we on for this sunday? 10am again?
Sunday works for me. 10am suits, but would be happy to start later if folk want.
Ruaridh
Can't make it tomorrow as I've just been informed of a pretty urgent issue requiring my attention. Kinda need to be on-call the whole time...
No problemo. Let's postpone for a week.
Ruaridh
Fine by me, as you may notice from the time of this post, I have been failing to fall asleep for the last 4 hours, so possibly wouldn't have been awake or talking sense by 10am anyway!
So we get organised early for next week, shall we say 1300?
Ruaridh
sorry I missed today, I messaged the Skype chat from the phone app to see if anyone was around, but it seems like it's completely out of sync, as opening Skype on my desktop now I can see you were all online and chatting when I sent that, but it never appeared (despite the phone app still insisting mine was the only comment this morning)
I've just realised that with our shift back to the afternoon, I've got a clash with something else I'd planned for tomorrow. It's slightly short notice, I know, but is there any chance we could move to the earlier time this week?
Tomorrow at one suit everyone?
Ruaridh
Forgot to let you know I've actually got family visiting this weekend so probably won't be able to put in an appearance, yet again!
Tomorrow is probably the last session of the year, if we want to go ahead?
Euan, we have moved the story on while you were busy. The team successfully blew up a Haimona ammo dump and pinned the blame on the Van Burgs, drawing the Haimona militia into attacking them. The team then sought out Bishop Charisteas to aid Ulyses Rifling's invasion of Haimona territory while their defenders were negotiating the Van Burg minefield. Charisteas got the team to lead a crack squad into the Duke's palace, but treachery was afoot. Charisteas didn't want the truth of his involvement in the coup to come out, so had instructed his squad to wipe out the team. Fortunately the ambush was unsuccessful, in part due to Techpriest Wynn getting righteous fury two rounds in a row.
Ruaridh
So that's how you spell his name...
Next session should be January 10th, folks, and I am preparing some contact cards (thanks Dave). Expect to see allies, companions, enemies, and many more!
Is the plan to pick things up tomorrow?
Ruaridh
Yes it is! 1pm tomorrow afternoon :)
I trust it's not a huge problem by the way if I use one of your planets, Ruaridh? If it is, it's a simple enough name change to use one of mine.
That's what they're for. Barely any of them have little more than a name and a two paragraph description. Plenty of room for continents, cities, ethnic groups...
Ruaridh
I am going out drinking in Glasgow and staying there overnight, I may or may not wake at a time that will get me a train home before 1pm.
Just to confirm that this Sunday's session will be at the earlier time of 10am.
I may or may not make it this weekend. Won't really know till late Saturday as it'll be weather dependant!
I will be hungover but present. 'Mon Scotland!
Ruaridh
Given I have thus far failed to fall asleep, I am not necessarily certain I will be awake and/or coherent at the prescribed time. I'll have to tell you (or not tell you) later.
Do feel free to get started between you if I'm not around.
Owing to sleep and hangovers the next session will be on Sunday 21st Feb. I just checked and there is no rugby that day so we'll return to our normal 1pm slot.
Afraid I have to bail on this sunday.
Given how you often spend your weekends, I can't but wonder if that's literal:
(http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy3/MarcoSkoll/Miscellaneous/6322367755_e20a7194a3_z.jpg)
I will be there nonetheless.
It may however be prudent to leave the next two weeks out as a just in case measure, the 6th because it's Mother's Day and I don't know if anyone had plans, and the 13th because of the rugby and I'm fairly sure it will end in beers.
So here's what the coming weeks look like:
March 6th: No session
March 13th: Morning session (10am)
March 20th: Afternoon session (1pm)
dunno about anyone else, but my family have never done anything to mark mothers/fathers day.
Plus I'll be able to regale you all with stories from being in the live audience for the new series of ROBOT WARS on saturday afternoon ;D ;D ;D
And no I wasn't canoeing on Sunday, I was in fact at the Model Rail exhibition in Glasgow with my dad, first time I've not been away the last weekend of Feb in about 8 years.
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on February 29, 2016, 11:52:30 PMdunno about anyone else, but my family have never done anything to mark mothers/fathers day.
Ruaridh said he might be with the in-laws. It's also possible my family will suddenly announce we're going to see my grandmother, as that's the kind of thing they do.
QuoteAnd no I wasn't canoeing on Sunday
Fair enough.
(I would have loved to have used a picture of the time I was bailing water
into a barge*, but alas, no-one took one).
*Slightly convoluted story. We were having work done on one of our canal boats, and the place we used uses a modified barge (I think it was originally from the Manchester ship canal) as a sinking dry dock. It's a good idea when it works, as once it's pumped out, the gate at the end leaks a lot less water than in a regular dry dock. However, the pump for sinking it again packed up (and it being our smaller boat, the whole dock was floating very high, so the end gate was entirely out of the water), so I and one of the welders ended up with buckets and ropes bailing water into one end until the gate lip eventually went below the water level (at which point, it sank in bloody fast).
Wife has now confirmed we do have plans for next Sunday with her mum, so I can't make it along unfortunately. By all means though if you three want to progress with things I am happy for a session to go ahead.
Ruaridh
made plans as the session was already cancelled.
Robot Wars was great fun ;D
I'm gonna have to cancel today's session too, guys, as I have had a persistent headache for a few days and it's been giving me no end of trouble. :( It's not quite into migraine territory as I'm not properly crippled, but it's bad enough to distract me from the session and I don't want to subject you to that.
Get well soon. I will probably still be online for general hobby chat later this morning.
Ruaridh
assume we're on for the normal time tomorrow?
Yes we are.
Currently, the next session is scheduled for the afternoon of the 17th April.
Unfortunately, when agreeing dates, I missed that I already had commitments on the 17th.
I'll see what can be wrangled, but I may have to be absent.
Alas, I can't be available on the 17th.
That's entirely on me messing up my schedule though, so feel free to push ahead without me.
Not pushing ahead. I would like everyone to be there for the next couple of sessions, which will mean a hiatus 'til May 1st as I am travelling on the 24th.
Well, to be particularly difficult, I may not be able to do May 1st either; there's a folk festival that weekend (although there is a chance that we may not be doing the Sunday. It depends on who'll be looking after the dogs).
Let us know nearer the time.
do we want to consider a change of day/time?
If we moved to weekday evenings, my only availability is Mondays.
otherwise am happy to delay till 1st May as I will likely be busy this sunday.
The good news is that unless something dramatic happens, I will be available for the 1st May.
The bad news is that if we should want to change days, my Monday evenings are already spoken for - that's my gaming club night.
Just a quick reminder that we should be going full steam ahead tomorrow at 1pm as normal.
Sorry to have to call off so late - I thought I'd have a couple of hours between garden work and celebrating my mother in law's birthday, but that window has slammed shut.
Ruaridh
That's fine. Currently am thinking of either tomorrow (as it's a bank holiday) or more likely, the 8th.
Looking to Sunday, I have some carting around of my missus and her sister to do. I don't have to leave the city, but will have a couple of 30-45min periods while I'm out and about. They are approx. 12 - 12:45, 1:45 - 2:30, and 4:00 - 4:45. Would a morning or evening session suit everyone, or a 1pm session with a couple of breaks while I go driving Miss Daisy?
Ruaridh
A morning session sounds more sensible to me, but I could probably do evening as well. A choppy afternoon session sounds less appealing.
Sure, let's shoot for 10am but start fairly promptly.
10am sound fine
Hi guys,
I have a headache that's stopping me from sleeping, and even if I didn't I have a really bad sore throat and no voice. All seems to have flared up within the last twelve hours. So I'm afraid we have to push this back yet again.
I wonder if this is a cursed venture.
Our cell has the Black Spot! Hope you're better soon. Would it be possible for those with better notes than I to do a wee rundown of where we were last session? There was more inefficient communication from Alpha that Wynn failed to decipher and some violence. We have the Commissar in a poor state, and we've tried to use the church as a base. Aside from that I am unsure of what actions we were going to take.
Ruaridh
Assuming we're on for Sunday. I'm in Glasgow tonight but should be home for 1 tomorrow.
We should be!
Right... it's now my turn to run something. Having been thinking overnight, I think I can possibly wrangle at least the start of something by Sunday 22nd (this Sunday), but I'll have to get back to you on that one - partly because I might not be happy with it by then, partly because I'll be on one of our canalboats and don't yet know whether I'll have a sufficiently good mobile connection for a Skype call.
Anyway, whenever it's starting, I'd appreciate up-to-date character sheets, plus any equipment requests. You should all have my e-mail address.
... and if we have any interest from other players who wish to join the group (we could do with an extra member or two), feel free to PM me!
Tomorrow you will get to meet Tobin's replacement. Fair warning, she might evoke memories of characters Graham has played, but only because that's kind of how she came together gear- and character sheet-wise. :P
Mug shot (http://oi40.tinypic.com/2m2esl4.jpg)
I may be a little late today, we're doing the final removal of furniture from my grandparents house, shouldn't take long as there's only a few things left to go.
Just a reminder that I will not be around tomorrow.
I've been working on the assumption that there is no session this week, as I think we'll be missing two of the four of us.
Are we a go for today? I can't remember.
Ruaridh
I think we are, however I learnt yesterday that I'm out for a family lunch at 12.30, so may not be back till 2 or so.
Pexir session 1 notes:
Summoned by the Inquisition, the cell is are put on route to Pexir (Carthax Wiki Page (http://carthax.wikia.com/wiki/Pexir_III)) aboard the "Vindicated Passion".
They are met aboard by a new handler, Urban Schröder (appears to be physically in his 60s or possibly early 70s, but is well built. He is patterned with the scars and bionics of an abnormally long career as an Inquisition agent). Once the cell closes on Pexir, they are briefed on the mission.
~~~~~
The mission is in two stages. The primary stage is the retrieval of a casket lost by active agents of Sierra cell - no known survivors. Casket is approximately 50cm by 40 by 30 cm and is genelocked to Sierra cell's prime operative: Vin Latko. Contents of casket are unknown - Sierra cell were largely on vox silence, so the present stage of their mission is unclear.
Current intelligence gives a very high probability that the case was lost to the Razor gang in the depths of Hosz hive, as they are currently making considerable arrangements in "the Black Cave", a notorious smuggling den in the underhive.
The gang leader is Nikolai "Edge" Vratislav - a nose that has been broken too many times, two deep gashes over his left eye, a short mohawk, numerous facial piercings, but no visible tattoos.
Current strength of gang is believed to be about 30-50 members. No clear figures, as gangs tend to minimise contact with authorities.
The Razor gang is currently believed to be in "alliance" with Liteka gang and Poeker clan, but their current enemies are unclear.
"Edge" himself is believed to have close relationship with two working girls: Paraskeva Fabian & Milena Lilianan
The Inquisitor's network has no other dedicated investigation cells available on Pexir (hence why the player cell is being brought in), but limited support on ground may be available from certain contacts in extreme circumstances.
Given the fate of Sierra cell, the cell is strongly advised to avoid revealing its status as Inquisition agents whenever possible.
~~~~~
The cell is a few days later deployed to Pexir by a bulk passenger shuttle that can be described as "Standing room only". They arrive on level 174 of Hosz hive, are quickly shooed/shoved out of the shuttle and get a brief view of the surface of Pexir as the shuttle bay doors seal. (A reasonably pleasant looking low-level jungle, although often made inhospitable by extreme weather conditions).
Moving out into the city proper, there is a considerable "traveller's market" built up around the shuttle bay - a plethora of stalls seeking to profit from hungry arrivals (with considerably more pleasant food than what has been served on the warp voyage), as well as rentable accommodation.
At the far end of the market, a clearer view of the city is possible - while there are massive arcing support structures to hold up the colossal weight of the hive, the city is not delineated into domes in the same way as Hive Primus or its ilk. The space is fairly "open" by the standards of a hive, with ramps, roads and bridges that allow free access between levels (which appear to be somewhat arbitrarily numerated, as there's no strict boundary between what's one level and the next).
The transport in Hosz hive (or this region, at least) is primarily galvanically powered ground vehicles, with occasional grav-capable vehicles skipping over the flow of traffic.
Various of the new arrivals that came with you are nearby being loaded onto what is broadly a cab-less flatbed truck with seats laid out in the rear, evidently as some form of public transport.
Dose accesses a data-port, and manages to locate a nearby Mechanicus complex, but is rejected by the security protocols when he tries to find out more.
Gaenor approaches one of the various "tourist guides" and with a hefty bribe (by the guide's standards anyway) gets a considerable selection of maps (two parchment, and a data crystal accessible by slate).
~~~~~
EDIT: Session 2 postponed, due to headaches and absences.
More session notes. If you think there are any glaring errors or omissions (even as the GM, I sometimes forget what's happened!), tell me.
~~~~~
Pexir session 2 notes:
The team rents a room around the Level 174 shuttle bay, in order to serve as a base of operations on at least a temporary basis.
A discussion on potential approaches to "Edge", his gang and the casket raises a number of possibilities.
Edge might be got to via his favourite working girls, or by posting/adding to a bounty on his head (with several less than legal propositions around how to fund that - robbing banks or criminals). Plans for acquiring the casket revolve around the auction - winning, rigging or sabotaging the auction, or capturing it while it is on the move to or from the Cave.
The team then take one of the mag-elevators to investigate the gang's territory (largely between Levels 40-50) and the Black Cave (level 37), arriving at the closest stop, Level 47.
Their investigation starts from the most reputable drinking establishment they can find in the region, The Rusty Cask. Here, they search for a relatively gormless gun-for-hire, and find Jarek Novak, offering him a retainer to keep himself drunk rather than busy.
In looking for more details on the Black Cave, they get no immediate answers, but after a few minutes are delivered a written message telling them to meet at Street 15728a. They begin to make their way there, but notice they're being followed by six very well armed and armoured thugs.
~~~~~
Pexir session 3 notes:
The thugs catch up with the cell. Seemingly having mistaken the cell's inquiries in the pub as a sign of gang affiliation, the thugs attempt to kidnap the cell.
However, the cell's microbeads are then wired into by another party, a female using the alias V. She provides a distraction by severely stunning the thug's leader with a rifle shot that cuts through his helmet and left cheek. The cell then flee down an alleyway, throwing an incendiary grenade to block off the exit.
They are then cut off again further ahead by two of the thugs, who badly wound Maya before they are gunned down. Trying to avoid the main fight, Dose and Rosaline have a brief incident with an angry guard dog, before Dose runs into an officious Arbitrator (who, in an attempt to ascertain what is going on, got attacked by the aforementioned guard dog).
Maya flees the main fight when the well armed/armoured thug leader arrives; he then badly wounds Gaenor with a bolt round before V appears from behind and impales him. Maya and Rose then have a brief exchange of fire with an autogun wielding thug before he backs off up the corridor, shortly afterwards leading to an exchange of fire with V, who fatally shoots him in the chest with a high-powered laspistol before disappearing.
The Arbitrator briefly questions several of the cell, but ultimately decides there is nothing of significance he can charge them with (or perhaps realises that he's outnumbered) and instead busies himself with arranging to have the several bodies cleared up.
After he leaves, V then reappears. Now they have a clearer look, V is a fairly small woman wearing cameleoline. Her face is largely hidden. V successfully guesses from the mis-matched mix of probing off-worlders that they are an Inquisition cell (which Gaenor then inadvertently confirms), also showing clear disdain for their (perceived) incompetence for running into a group of "snatchers".
Angrily, Gaenor attempts to fire on V, but in the close quarters, V evades and brings a blade to the Guardswoman's throat before continuing (mentioning her own inquisition involvement and the presence of another cell). When V removes the blade, Gaenor makes several threats and attempts to attack again, but is tackled by Maya. This proves to be the last straw for V, who simply leaves during the scuffle.
There is then a general argument between Gaenor and the rest of the cell about whether that was the right way to handle the situation, regardless of how condescending V may or may not have been. Eventually, Rose has enough of Gaenor's dismissive swearing, and shuts up the argument by insisting they return to their mission. They proceed to Street 15728a, but during half an hour of waiting (as Dose and Rose do their best to patch up the wounded members of the cell) they are not approached by anyone.
Concluding that the message was likely either from the now-irritated V or a trick by the thugs, they begin a search of the wider area.
~~~~~
The next session is currently set for 10th July, due to absences next week.
Also, after failing every single dice roll all game, Dose rolls natural 2's consecutively as he uses his new medicae mechadendrite to heal first Maya, and then Gaenor (though accidental amputation may have crossed his mind...).
Ruaridh
I maintain that V needs to get over herself and pull the stick out of her backside. Gaenor's reaction was entirely appropriate for the character.
A fair point, Ruaridh, I've edited the healing into the notes.
On the note of V, and this is off the record, she wasn't deliberately intended to divide and irritate the cell to quite the point as to have the Tech-Priest considering wilful medical malpractice, but I wasn't exactly expecting the cell to fall in love with her either.
There are reasons as to why she responded to you the way she did - both relating to her character and the overall plot, but whether or not you figure out any such specifics remains to be seen.
just woke up with a headache guys, and these things usually last all day, so don't count on me being there today.
...and a quick reminder that I'll be travelling this weekend. See you on the 24th?
That means we won't have you or Ruaridh, so yes. I'll try and have a summary of what happened in last week's session* before then.
*We pushed ahead a bit, as I didn't want to miss this coming session too and thus leave it a full month between sessions; Don't worry, no opportunities to shoot V in the face were missed, although that is because there weren't any opportunities...
Its probably cheeky since you guys have been playing ages and have big detailed shared histories but... When your next campaign starts would their be a slot open?
Im really struggling to find a RPG group that's interested in the same kind of intricate plot focused stuff I am ao... Um yeah.
Ben/bethan/jedi
Absolutely - we're always open to new players. The group has had about a dozen players through its run, including from as far afield as Florida and Israel, but it's only Euan and me who've been involved continuously*. (Ruaridh was in the group at the very start though, but he took a break for things like getting married).
* Well, almost. I've missed a couple of sessions since we started. As in literally two. :P
We're not even so far embroiled in the current story that a new character couldn't be introduced at this stage; we've had a few players join mid-plot before.
Quote from: jediknight129 on July 15, 2016, 01:59:25 AMbig detailed shared histories
Well, our current characters don't have an over-abundance of shared history, as we only started with this cell about a year ago, and not all of the characters have made it.
There's quite a few stories from our previous cell (many of the more entertaining ones revolving around either Ernst Udet or Novus Tristar) and our infamous "list of things" (our list of in-jokes, born of our sillier ideas), but they're not immediately vital to joining the game.
Awesome, and all I need are a competent net connection some sort of voip program and a couple of D10 right? As for a character iv got a couple somewhere. I don't currently have a copy of the DH book if that's an issue (I was more drawn to rogue trader personally)
Quote from: jediknight129 on July 15, 2016, 03:32:20 PMAwesome, and all I need are a competent net connection some sort of voip program and a couple of D10 right? As for a character iv got a couple somewhere. I don't currently have a copy of the DH book if that's an issue (I was more drawn to rogue trader personally)
The systems are largely compatible in their core rules*, but the character creation and advancement are somewhat askew to each other. Rogue Trader characters start at a minimum of 5000 XP with fairly decent equipment (boltguns, carapace, etc), which is a little more than our present DH cell is currently at - at the moment, around 3500 XP, with equipment closer to flak armour and shotguns. However, I have the DH PDF, which I won't feel too guilty about sending you if you need it (given that 1st edition is now an OOP ruleset and you've already got most of the core rules in the RT book).
* The only major differences are how psychic powers and money work, as well as RT having all the space mechanics. Most of the rest is minor errata, but we of course have a couple of house rules to get used to as well.We use Skype (and occasionally Roll20, an online RPG tool, if we need to use maps), but we'll probably also want to discuss your character and how we include them via e-mail too. I'll PM you some contact details.
Thank you hunni.
Id really love the pdf actually. My DH copy went back to the society bookshelf at the end of the year I left uni as a leaving gift to the soc.
Do I need to download anything for roll20? Also um... I tend to use a vpicevhanger via skype for a couple of reasons. 1. My natural voice has some problems that skype tends to enhance. (a slight vocal slur) more audible via VOIP than in person. Reason 2. Is... Erm complicated. Just putting that out as not a warning but it may sound not what u expect.
Thanks again hun!!! Yet another reason I love the conclave community. Im... Iv wanted to ask for an invite for ages but iv never been brave enough.
Quote from: jediknight129 on July 16, 2016, 01:58:00 AMDo I need to download anything for roll20?
It's in-browser; although it uses something like Flash, Javascript and/or similar, I don't recall it needing any non-standard plug-in.
QuoteAlso um... I tend to use a vpicevhanger via skype for a couple of reasons.
We've had people use them before (generally to voice a character of the other gender); some of the programs have been thinly veiled dubstep machines*, but if you think it'll help make you clearer, that's fine by me.
* To cut through our in-jokes and obscure references, "dubstep" is our jargon for the call breaking up or distorting.
I now have an image of a Magos in a flat billed baseball cap stood with a imac 40000 plugged into a set of decks spinning records with a mechadenrite. Thanks for that.
And in my case its more trying to voice a person of the right gender if that makes sense but yeah. If it's not great I'll kill it and use my real voice and try too make sure im understandable. Its a pain as the mic picks up my vocal slurs and sliding between words much more than IRL. Plus I tend to... As im speaking not so much mumble as lose control of my voice and it gets awkward m.
Slightly later than it should have been, a summary of Session 4, including an expanded list of the V-related deaths you were investigating:
~~~~~
Dose attempts to find more about the mercenaries:
- He finds they were "snatchers" (a colloquial name for bounty hunters). The locals appear to mostly positive about the snatchers (although possibly to avoid being seen as siding with the gangers). Dose notes that the locals who are less vague about the gangs seem to be more neutral to both the snatchers and Razors.
- Coincidentally, a local also mistakes his questioning for having been about the "obscured figure" climbing the rooftops near where the cell were ambushed. Investigating the roof himself, Dose finds a spent rifle casing (by stumbling on it!). He can't identify it himself, but Maya later identifies as it as a 7.62x63mm cartridge, most often used in high powered sniper and hunting rifles; the chambering is not in common military use.
Maya primarily seeks more information about the Black Cave:
- A hooded bar patron quietly informs him that the auctions are at midnight at the end of the month (currently 15 days away).
- An older gentleman muses that the Razors having apparently recently murdered an Enforcer investigation team seems unlikely - "They're troublemakers, but that's more trouble than they'd make".
(Dose reasons he may actually have been referring to Sierra cell).
- Local children, seeing Maya searching, ask if she was looking for the brown-haired woman in the "shadow cloak" who left to the north. Maya briefly investigates, but finds the trail is far too cold to follow, particularly knowing so little about V's modus operandi.
The cell also see the corpse removal crews cataloguing the mercs and their gear.
The cell decide to follow the lead of the mercenary crew, and try to see if they had any association with the local Enforcers. They go to a local lock-house, and meet Enforcer Piotr Tesar who (after determining that the bloodied individuals on his doorstep aren't an immediate threat) helps them identify the merc leader as Gavrail Macek. He doesn't however seem overly fazed or surprised by either the reported incident or Gavrail's death.
Given he has something of a new opening in his "workforce", he lets Maya register as a new bounty hunter (being deputised is not strictly necessary to bring in bounties, but provides some benefits).
Armed with their new paperwork, the cell attempt to investigate local morgues for any clues as to anyone else V may have killed recently.
They find a records of a number of individuals killed by high-powered sniper rifles, and eventually filter that down to a list of 13 they are reasonably confident (based on correlations in the wounding and the victim's apparent identities) were probably killed by V.
Of the list, three individuals have been identified as known bounty hunters:
- Dominik Kaloyanchev. Age 52. 178cm/68kg. Solid build. Usually only took a few bounties per year, but was known for his focus on high risk targets, as well as his very high success rate. Records show use of a cameleoline bodyglove and a suppressed precision boltgun (latter not found at scene)
- Alexandr Bukoski. Age 28. 184cm/77kg. Average to athletic build. Found at scene with 7.9mm hunting rifle. Corpse recyced.
- Pavlina Raine. Age approx 37. 158 cm/48kg, wiry build. Off-worlder. Had a reputation for inhumane captures on live bounties, using a needle rifle loaded with an excruciating paralysis toxin derived from the bark of the Pexiran Yillaw tree. Weapon was found at scene.
Bodies 4 through 7 are also believed to be also be mercenaries or bounty hunters:
- Male, mid-30s, 189cm/82kg, fit build. Bionic left forearm. Wore modified Cadian guard armour, had several overcharged lasgun packs (weapon not found with body).
- Female, late-30s, 167cm/61kg, slender build. Two parallel scars, approximately 2cm apart, on right cheek. Carapace breast plate and helmet, six 30-round magazines of 7.2mm expanding ammunition (no associated weapon found), 9mm revolver. Corpse recyced, no picts.
- Female, mid-20s, 181cm/70kg, athletic build. Pexirian mesh-weave armour. Found with a 11mm calibre stub-auto with reflex sight, and two shock batons.
- Male, late-teens to early-20s, 182cm/70kg, wiry build. Quilted flak armour, combat shotgun with variety of standard and special use ammunition. Corpse recyced, no picts.
Corpses 8-11 are known gangers.
- Stefan Karol. Age 44. 190cm/87kg, slightly overweight. No fixed gang affiliation, but a known weapons smuggler. Found with two 10mm autopistols in shoulder holsters.
- An unidentified male, approximately late-20s, 184cm/71 kg, slender build. Shoulder marked with the "rosebarb" tattoo of the Thorn gang. Heavy facial damage, apparently as a combination of original injuries and subsequent decay/vermin.
- An unnamed male, early-20s, height 179cm/78kg, muscular build. Was found with a snakeskin-style jacket, a possible link to the Gorgon gang, and matches descriptions of an individual reported as involved in gang violence. Corpse recyced, pict-captures available.
- An unidentified female, early-30s, 173 cm/64kg, healthy but not athletic build. Has piercings in the style of the Razor gang.
Individual 12 (male, late-20s/early-30s, 192cm/89kg, muscular build) is also suspected to be a gang member. He was found with a powerful but low quality autopistol (an uncommon civilian side-arm, but also an unsuitable mercenary weapon). Unlike most bounty hunters, he was not wearing armour.
The 13th individual is unknown. Male, aged between 25 and 45, 172 cm/60 kg, faint signs of extensive scarring. His recorded possessions include a custom long-las, bodyglove, high-grade auspex, in excess of 500 Throne Gelt in mixed coinage, and an encrypted data-slate.
As an apology in advance, I've hit a plot writing hurdle and may have to keep Sunday's session shorter than usual. I'd rather not rush in with a half-baked answer to the problem, as it could write the story into a corner.
If I remember correctly, Euan's off today as well? Might it not be more beneficial to take the opportunity not to run the session, but instead to get more plot written up for next week?
I didn't particularly want to delay the session while I was available, but if I'm being given leave to, then I'll be around in case anyone should need to discuss anything, but we'll delay the next session a bit.
Delaying is okay with me if it means the next session we do runs to its full potential. I will be around this afternoon though.
Ruaridh
marco are you around to sort out rolling up Tallulah?
As we didn't have a session last week, we didn't plan when our next session would be. My working assumption is this Sunday, but a head count would be appreciated.
Should be around tomorrow.
Ruaridh
I do not think I will be here -- my housemate surprised me with visitors so I'll probably be busy entertaining them.
I am indeed back this weekend.
Il br around depending on this blasted Microsoft heretek and scrapcode firmware
Right, session 5, from 24th July:
QuoteOpting to further investigate "Thirteen", the cell trace his records to the specific morgue he is stored in.
After a somewhat bungled arrival, Dose manages to bluff himself as a new addition to the autopsy teams, and gain the team as a whole entry.
Investigating the latest arrivals as a precaution, most appear unimportant (knife wound to the gut, 2x short range stubber shots, one lasburns, two blunt force trauma and three seemingly of moderately natural causes) other than one who seems to have been run through the chest with a monomolecular sword:
- Nadejda Bozen. Female, Age 37, 180cm/72kg, average build. Known mercenary. Carapace breastplate, autogun loaded with armour piercing rounds. Found in the NW quarter of Level 42.
Thirteen's corpse yields no particular revelations; shot in the head from medium range with a high powered 7.62mm sniper rifle.
The team then attempt to recover the dataslate from amongst Thirteen's effects. With Maya and Gaenor noisily making a show of investigating Thirteen's long las (Solemne pattern with replaced trigger group, high power charge pack, range finder sight, lightened barrel and generally high workmanship. One power pack down by about three shots), nobody seems overly concerned about Rose taking the dataslate.
Attempting to decrypt the slate takes some hours, and yields only partial results.
Amongst the first things to decrypt is a short file, created around 12 hours ago (as compared to Thirteen having been deceased for over 48 hrs). Dose elects to read it out loud:
" If you find this at all, I'm doubting that it's your short tempered guardswoman who'll read it first.
As you saw, I found you with no great difficulty. My actions are however far more altruistic than this corpse would have been, had he found out who you were.
I advise that you watch your back rather more than you did earlier. Know that I, at least, will be watching it too, even if it is solely to find out who slides the dagger in."
As other files yield decryptions, they appear however to be secret tongues mixed in with Low Gothic.
Several appear to be addressed to or from "Josef Stuare", potentially Thirteen's name or alias, and suggest he may have had a bolthole in the north-west of Level 39.
Included amongst the files are detailed maps (although not necessarily completely accurate) between levels 20 and 60.
While many of the files are identifiable as assassination orders, ranging over a period of some months, none seem to mention their targets by name - instead identifying them through code-names and pict-captures.
Centaur - a bearded older male, chemical burns to left side of face,
Angel - middle aged female, file implies she was a Flick Metal singer.
Phoenix - Mechanicus adept, undefined gender. Appears to have been an expert on anti-agapics.
All seem to be closed, apart from one; "The Lock", seemingly associated with "The Key".
Through his description and immediate proximity to Thirteen's death, the cell identify "The Key" in the same morgue as Thirteen - a male of middle age, approximately average build, short brown hair and dressed in clothing that manages to be somewhere between civilian and off-duty military.
His personal effects included a lascarbine, a number of keys, approximately 100 thrones in amounts of off-world coinage, and a dataslate that appears to have auto-purged on his death.
This does not yield any direct clues as to where "The Lock" may be, so the cell proceed with identifying the exact location of the Black Cave.
With around 76 hours to the auction, they definitively define its location, in the East of the hive.
As with last week, the entire month of August is being taken up by guests -- one of last week's visitors is staying here for a few weeks so I may well be out and about with him. Sorry!
is today actually happening?
I believe today is happening, although it will depend on how many people show up in Skype.
That said, I have to give an advance heads-up about 28th August. I may be unavailable on that Sunday, but I don't know for certain yet.
Also, a broadly accurate write up of last session:
QuoteSession 6:
Having determined the location of the Black Cave, the team scout out the surrounding area, exploring both main and side streets in depth.
They put together several possible escape routes as part of a contingency plan, and from the general layout of the area come to a conclusion that the Cave itself likely has smuggling passages that lead up/down from/to lower levels.
The area appears to be somewhat gang-neutral, the Cave seeming to be almost a power to itself amongst the slum warfare, or at least mutually accepted by the conflicting factions. A few gang graffiti can be found, but most of them are old, faded and inconsistently placed.
Security is not overt, and there are no surly and well armed thugs guarding entrances, but several individuals in the area have the bulky and slightly lumpy appearance of wearing body armour under their clothes, or voluminous coats that could conceal carbines or sub-machine guns.
The area scouted, the cell decides to further explore their options for retrieving the casket from "Edge" and elects to return to Enforcer Tesar to ask questions.
His advice for trying to claim the bounty on Edge is "Don't" - the Razors are a comparatively large gang,
He too thinks that the rumours about them taking on an Arbites investigation team are unlikely, as many of the laws the gangs break are local laws that the Imperium-wide Arbites tend not to enforce.
Instead, most control of the gangs comes from Enforcer sweep teams, which sector Marshals call together on occasion to make a show of force against gangs that are overstepping their boundaries.
The local such Marshal is Oldrich Yanko - based in the sector's central lock-house on Level 50, when he's not exploring his aspirations for a promotion further up hive by rubbing elbows with the well to-do up there.
The cell propose that he could potentially be motivated into trying to add the capture of a dangerous criminal to his resumé and return to their bolt-hole.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, Tallulah Belle, (a mentally conditioned Adeptus Tacticae infiltrator whose recall conditioning was activated two days ago by the assassination of her handler, suppressing/locking her implanted cover). She retrieves her emergency supply cache and heads to the drop-box on Level 127 (mid-hive-ish) mentioned in its instructions.
After watching the drop-box for some time, she sees no-one suspicious and retrieves its contents - two handwritten pieces of paper: one for an address in the underhive and the other instructing her to visit Tymon Ciril, a mid-hive tailor. The code phrase "Have the silks from Mapane come in today?" is given.
She chooses to visit Tymon first and, after giving the code phrase, is directed into a back room.
Tymon knows little of the exact details of her mission, but after she has identified herself properly and explained the mental locks that have activated as part of her recall conditioning (a failsafe to prevent her being interrogated if captured), provides a small genelocked box around 5 cm square. He speculates that it contains some form of pre-programmed trigger.
When opened, it contains rolled parchment with the phrase "The wolf hunts only before midnight" written in specific cursive; this trigger breaks down part of the recall conditioning, allowing Tallulah to start to regain her memories of her mission (an investigation into IG arms shipments going missing and turning up on the black markets) and cover identity ("Kaja Romano", an offworld arms dealer). The parchment, in proper spy style, then self-combusts.
Due to his own implanted conditioning, Tymon cannot directly provide any information about any other agents, other than to mention that the last few weeks have seen him as an emergency contact six times, a normally very rare role.
Choosing to press on with the mission, Tallulah continues to the lower-hive address, which proves to be the cell's hideout. She elects to knock, and after indentifying herself and willingly disarming, the cell cautiously allow her in.
After talking for a while, they come to the conclusion that she is "The Lock" that was mentioned on Thirteen's dataslate. (She does her best to identify picts of the disfigured remains of "The Key").
Although Gaenor remains somewhat suspicious of why Tallulah's drop-box contained an address for a bolt hole they've had for only a few hours (studying the writing, Dose thinks the notes may be written by different people), the cell concede that she may have some relevance to the mission (at least once more of her memories return) and choose to keep her under their watch.
Session ends with approximately 72 hours to auction.
you made me sound more composed than I was to be fair but thanks again hun
The session notes aren't intended to be quite that comprehensive, more a reminder of general plot details (as much for me as for you lot).
Anyway:
Due to several likely absences, including the GM, there won't be a session on the 28th of August.
Euan has also said he won't be around on the 4th September, but if there are no other absences, I'm content to push on.
SO... I may have a major timing clash imminent. The director for the next amateur show I'm stage managing has had a change of job that means the only full-cast rehearsals she can make are the Sunday afternoon ones – which run 2-5pm – and are therefore the most sensible one for me to be at as well...
On the plus side personally, my Wednesday evenings will be free for a change.
When will this date change happen Euan?
May be an idea to start planning a new day and time.
Ruaridh
Kind of immediately? The first Sunday rehearsal is this weekend.
As for alternatives - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday evenings are the best options personally (at least for the next 6 months).
Monday evening isn't any good for me, as that's (when I can make it) the local gaming club evening. Tuesday evenings are folk band sessions.
I believe Ben has limitations on Wednesday and Sunday evenings (or at least that's what he said when I was scheduling Skype chats with him to talk over his character).
Possible suggestion: We've sometimes done Sunday mornings? If we pushed it earlier, would that keep it away from the show rehearsals?
Sunday mornings would be possible for me
Fairly flexible for the time being, though tomorrow morning comes too soon to get the usual routine changed.
If you can do a session tomorrow morning don't let my abscence stop you.
Ruaridh
Notes from Session 7:
QuoteDiscussing, the cell decide not to engage the local enforcers in a purge, at least at this stage - its failure would limit their other options.
With the cell deciding that Tallulah can at least be partially trusted, they swap notes on V, Thirteen and the broad details of their own missions (at least as far as Tallulah's suppressed memories have started to return), trying to build up a bigger picture of the apparently hostile forces that have been targetting Imperial agents.
Tallulah has, under the programmed cover identity of Kaja Romano - allegedly an agent for the (fictional) wealthy buyers "Orion" and "Andromeda", who have been hinted to be Rogue Traders - been trying track down a supply chain leak in the Departmento Munitorum, weapons that seemed to be disappearing onto the black market.
While not a direct link to the casket the cell are trying to recover, she proposes that some of the contacts she's built up this far might have an in with the Black Cave - the "business" partners Ilia Bartosz and Mikula Kriz that she was working up to negotiating a sale with. (Up until the point that her handler's brains were blown out, seemingly by Thirteen).
Ilia seems to think he is both more handsome and less seedy than he actually is, although nonetheless proves to be the senior partner, partly because of his better connections.
Mikula is somewhat more professional and more modest, but doesn't seem to have quite the same ambitions.
Agreeing to go along posing as various experts/purse holders/etc in Kaja's entourage, the cell head to meet the pair. Tallulah is greeted over the comm-panel of their small warehouse by a jovial Ilia, who sends down Mikula to let her in. After something of a discussion about her new friends, they are permitted in.
Tallulah presses on with her own objectives, convincing Ilia to provide a wider range of materiel than previously demonstrated/displayed (such as heavy weapons), before introducing Maya as another agent of her employers, seeking an item of opportunity (saying that she/her employers would consider it a personal favour if Ilia could assist).
In a brief (if slightly off-putting, with Ilia's cloying familiarity) conversation, Maya convinces Ilia to provide details of a contact at the Black Cave - Vladek Maximilian - and the cell leaves the warehouse to plan their next move.
Session ends with approximately 61 hours to auction.
any progress on a time/date shift? are we moving to sunday mornings?
I haven't heard from Joseph yet, but I think everyone else is at least provisionally available for a morning session.
No exact time has been quoted yet, but I'll propose a 10 o'clock start (unless we really think it has to be earlier).
I could do 10am on Sunday. It's not ideal but I don't foresee any massive problems.
In other news this coming Sunday should be alright.
a reminder that I won't be available this sunday regardless :)
I can do tomorrow morning.
Ruaridh
Sorry, completely forgot I'd failed to post here:
No session on Sunday 11th, as family plans have been completely reorganised at short notice.
(Short version: My parents would normally do a boating event on the 2nd weekend in September, but the boat's dry docking has taken longer than anticipated - hence, they can't be there, so this has given the family an opportunity to do a folk festival that we normally can't do because of a clash).
I should be available again on the 18th, and propose that the session time is moved to approximately 1000-1300 in order to fit around Euan's stage rehearsals.
If anyone has any objections, please tell me.
Due to several technical issues and absences, today's session has been postponed.
The next session should start at 1000 on Sunday 25th September. Please notify me if you won't be available.
Next session: Sunday 2nd October, 1000
No session: 23rd October, Ruaridh & Euan absent.
Debatable: 6th and 20th November.
Are we having a session tomorrow morning? Jo is away.
Ruaridh
I am no longer away although I may be reduced to text only again.
I'm very sorry to have to bail on this at such short notice, but I'm absolutely shattered.
I've had a very busy last few days (with no less than three folk events to fit in) that I've pulled myself through despite a lack of sleep and having halfway through it all seized some muscles in my neck or my shoulders or something (but whatever I've done, it's going to make getting a good night's sleep a lot harder).
Between exhaustion and having lost the spare time I thought I'd have today to other things (like desperate attempts at sleep, rather than preparing things like the maps you wanted), any session I tried to run tomorrow would probably be very poor (and quite possibly involve sleep-deprived and improperly-prepared decision making that could detract from the overall story), so with considerable regret and profuse apologies, I'm going to have to postpone the session.
It is possible I might show up later in the morning to chat, but I'm really not in a state to be running a coherent session. I know that's unfortunate with us missing next week too, but I hope to see you all again on the 30th.
I am no stranger to neck and shoulder issues so I share your pain. Rest up, so we can reconvene on the 30th.
Ruaridh
Can anyone who can see the group reply to the message I left? Had a total BSOD on one machine and I believe it's connected to a bug on Skype (last thing I ran was a series of updates causing a terminal registry issue)
1-1 chats are unreliable and group chats I know one of them is working others I can't be sure on so anyone who can help would be awesome also just double checking next session is next week yes?
Sorry, I've been busy with other things all day - we were always skipping this week due to Ruaridh and Euan absences, so I hadn't anticipated that me being elsewhere would be a problem. Again, apologies.
Checking the group, I can see your message "Anyone that can see this can you text me [number removed for obvious reasons]", which is timestamped (on my end) 10:37.
(I can text you tomorrow if you desperately need, but I'm totally unable to provide any reasoned thought or tech support help tonight - it's been a fairly tough and exhausting day for me).
As far as the next session, it is indeed next week, the 30th.
All I needed was some sort of confirmation that it was seen as currently I'm sending messages but in 1-1 chats I don't receive replies and they disappear into the ether on both Skype for of and Skype mobile
Group chats are clunky at best but I should have a fix soon (my loaner iPhone 5s only maintains a connection whilst Skype is an open front screen app which is somewhat irritating)
And I'm... Currently thanks to the pic failure I don't actually have access to a copy of Ms Belle's character sheet.i know you do just need to confirm it has the last sessions Xpa on. (I should I believe have 200xp accessible to spend)
Sorry, should have posted this before - I believe both Euan and Ruaridh are absent, so I'm not expecting to run a session this morning and may well be sleeping in.
In the event that I'm completely wrong about the turn-out, Joseph should have my mobile number (or, at least, he certainly used to), so feel free to give me a call.
I am around this weekend once more
I'm going to be home with a working computer I'm so bloody sorry it's been such a [EXCOMMUNICATE]ing nightmare recently.
Sorry, should have updated this before: If people are available on the 27th, I'm *not* busy that day (the commitment I thought I had is actually on the Saturday), so I will be available to run a session.
... if you even want one, given the mess you got yourselves in last time.
(I will however accept creative plans for how you intend to not get murdered by the Cave's security).
Well, the suggestion is that the scenario is not unwinnable at this time.
I am in Glasgow late tonight and due to difficulty arranging a ride home will be staying over. Will try to get back home asap in the morning, but don't be surprised if i'm late.
Update: I will not make it today due to transport delay.
Maya's only strategy is to beat a retreat until out of sight, then get the hell out of dodge asap.
From last weeks discussion, I don't believe we were likely to have a session tomorrow anyway, but I've been not long ago informed that my uncle will be arriving here early tomorrow, so I don't think I'll be available. Sorry to spring that on you at such short notice.
As far as other dates:
I am available on the 11th, but can confirm I am not available on the 18th. I will also take the liberty of assuming that the 25th and 1st are probably out.
What do we look like further into January? 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th?
No worries.
I am not available on the 11th, but am happy to let the session continue in my absence.
January 8th would be the next available one as things stand for me.
Ruaridh
So um are we running today?
As of yet, I don't know. All I know is that Ruaridh isn't available, I have no idea if we're missing anyone else.
I'm seeing family, sorry. I'm definitely free the next three weekends but I gather the 18th is a busy day for Dave, the 25th is Christmas Day so no session, and the 1st is New Year's Day so we'll probably have a hangover or two to contend with.
Is January 8th good for people?
Jan 8th sounds fine to me. Have a good christmas all!
Hope we've had a good Christmas, Hanukkah, and new year.
Are we resuming on Sunday? If so could we get a wee recap Dave? Wynn had just terminated a goon for performing an illegal operation I think.
Ruaridh
We should be resuming on Sunday.
You may have to bear with me a little though, as I will be fairly tired. I've been very busy over the last few days, and Saturday is going to be at least as draining too.
Anyway, as far as a crude recap of Sessions 8 to 12:
QuoteTalullah heads off briefly to check her drop-box again, time the remainder of the cell use to plan their meeting with Vladek Maximillian.
They contact Vladek via his comm code, and arrange a meeting later that day, and are directed to meet in a warehouse to the south-west of the Cave.
Wary of the meeting, they choose to try and get the attention of V, in the hope that she might provide support in the event that the meeting goes sour. Without any particular plan for how to contact her, some of this involves Gaenor shouting at nearby rooftops.
Their arrival at the warehouse (largely turned into a slum) is underwhelming, with Vladek not immediately appearing. As they come to realise that a number of the "squatters" are actually Cave personnel observing them, Vladek shows himself and takes them to the meeting proper, in his office in the Cave. (Someone, I forget who, notes that near the end of the trip, he triggers some sort of concealed button under a small ledge).
The Cave has numerous armed guards, some even equipped to a level equivalent to Imperial Guard Stormtroopers.
Despite Dose's attempts to insult Vladek by dismissing the large armoury displayed across the back wall of his office (on the basis that it had no blessed las-weapons), Vladek agrees to allow a viewing of the casket.
The viewing area seems to be separate from the main vault of the cave, as it is a relatively wide and entirely unfurnished room in which only the desired item is on display. This part of the building is heavily reinforced - Talullah estimates that the doors to the viewing area alone would require a heavy melta charge or several minutes with a lascutter to breach.
The casket is supplied with the hand of (you presume) Vin Latko, the leader of the MIA Sierra cell. Upon unlocking the casket, it is found to contain a data skull - a servo skull optimised for the bulk transport (and delivery) of data.
Vladek refuses to allow the skull to be accessed or purchased separately.
During the walk through other parts of the Cave (much of which comes across as a seedy but exclusive club), Maya recognises Marek Broz, a known Razor ganger, from a bounty posted at the local lockhouse - they speculate that he is the handler for the casket.
Upon arriving back at their bolthole, the cell finds a micro-bead left on the main table, complete with a handwritten note: "Probably better than shouting at rooftops". During the ensuing conversation with V, she confirms that she is working for an Inquisitor (although other than an idle use of "she" as a pronoun, gives no further clues to the Inquisitor's identity), is not the only member of her cell in the hive, and is investigating the mass disappearance of Inquisition operatives within the hive - Sierra cell is but one of the missing cells. At least 17 agents have gone missing over a three month period. She claims to be watching the cell's back, even if it may only be to see who sticks a knife into it.
Eventually, V grows tired of Gaenor's insults and the conversation terminates.
The following day, the cell start to follow up two of their leads - Marek Broz and the as-of-yet uninvestigated smuggling tunnel network.
They start their search for the tunnels at "Naasman's Wares", a small shop selling underhive salvage - based on their earlier scouting of the surrounding levels, this area was hard to map. As Dose confuses the somewhat naive shopkeeper by deliberately misidentifying several items as far more worthless than they actually are, Gaenor breaks into the upper floors of his shop. Her search recovers some paperwork written in what appears to be a local dialect with various codewords sprinkled throughout - while she can tell it refers to a less than entirely legal deal, she cannot immediately translate it.
She trips loudly on the way back down the stairs, startling Naasman, who proceeds to start slinging a mix of threats and buckshot at the cell. He is fairly quickly cremated by Gaenor's inferno shell.
However, he seemed to have called several friends to the party, as the cell come under attack from a number of well armed soldiers coming up from the back areas of the shop. Withdrawing, they are ambushed on several sides by well armed mercenaries, but eventually manage to finish the fight in a general store a few hundred metres to the north.
At this point, the cell choose to execute any surviving mercenaries - they have seen the cell up close, and allowing them to report back to their masters could compromise the mission.
I will not be around this week. My internet broke and I'm using my housemate's phone to connect.
I am back online, but for how long, I wonder...
Just a quick reminder that I won't be here on the 19th (parents visiting)
There won't be a game session on the 19th, as Joseph and Euan have both made excuses, and Ruaridh won't be joining us for the foreseeable future. (I'll leave it to him to reveal why, although some of you will already know, and others will be able to guess).
In that case, can people please confirm availability for the 26th February and 5th March?
I'm no longer available on the 26th either (grandparents visiting)
I've had to book myself onto a 1st aid course this Sunday as mine's expired and I have to have it in time for my 5 year review as a Scout leader in mid March.
5th March I am fine for however, although I will need to leave sharpish around 12:30
Well, that means I'm the only one who can confirm my attendance for the 26th, so that's now officially cancelled too.
I should be okay for the 5th, but the 12th will depend on whether the "Golden Aegis" event does get booked for the 11th. (If it does, I will probably be asleep throughout most of the 12th).
Ooooookay - can I have a head count for many players I will actually have on Sunday?
At the moment, I am anticipating that there will be no game on the 12th, as I'll almost certainly still be asleep on the morning after Golden Aegis.
I'll be here.
I will be there, possibly a little late/hungover, but I'm out with friends in my town so I'll at least be home rather than in Glasgow in the morning.
I will also need to leave 12.30 sharpish at the end.
how're we looking for this Sunday (19th)?
No problems on this end (at least that I can remember).
Just a heads-up that Skype's been down for at least the last 14 hours -- depending on whether it's back up and running on Sunday we might have to use an alternative platform. I've got a Mumble server that I'm not using, for example, so we should be able to use that if Skype's still down.
Alternatively there's Discord if you guys are interested.
I'm going to be on the narrowboat and moving this Sunday, so will have an unreliable connection.
This will probably mean I'll need to postpone the session, but I'll try to make an exception if I know all of you will be there (but I've a feeling tht at least Euan is uncertain).
The 9th? I'll be travelling that day so I won't be there.
I should be around on the 16th though.
reminder: I have family visiting again this weekend (cousin this time). I'll be back to business as usual next weekend!
I am available once again this Sunday for a session.
The session will have to be kept quite tidy on time, as I have a commitment in the afternoon. (It's St George's day, so lots of folk events are going on).
I don't know if that'll be enough to wrap up this plot, and I won't be available at all on the 30th (May Day weekend, so same logic as above), so we may not get everything wrapped up until the 7th.
Apologies, I've just checked my calendar - I will also not be available this Sunday. However, I think I'm in the clear for both the 14th and the 21st*.
* Although that is the day after the IRE event, for that weekend I'm staying half a mile from Rickmansworth Underground station, so I barely have to fall out of the door to get to London (compared to the several miles of walking and multiple hours of sitting on trains I have when travelling to Nottingham from home); I shouldn't be suffering from my normal event fatigue.
that's handy as I am potentially staying in Glasgow overnight on Saturday which would likely make me late home on Sunday morning.
Update: I'm a muppet - I'm not available on the 14th. Although I won't be at a wedding that day and won't be hungover (given I don't drink), I'll be coming back from a wedding.
The 21st should still be doable though, although I really don't know about the 28th. May just seems to be full of things that demand my Sundays. (My calendar does mostly look free for a few months after that though).
I assume we're still on for the 21st as planned?
Yes. Although it is the day after I'm doing the IRE event and I might be a little hoarse, I should at least be conscious - getting to and from Dark Sphere is so much less wearing for me than getting to WHW. (This weekend, I'll get to leave the house at nine thirty, not five or six).
Hey guys sorry iv been out of the loop on here so we are on for today right?
You'll have to put up with me being slightly hoarse, as I was GMing all day yesterday at Dark Sphere, but yes, we are on for today.
hey chaps, don't think I'll be able to make this Sunday. Not had a chance to polish up my notes for the new campaign yet anyway.
On the other hand, I *can* now make this Sunday. (I was originally supposed to be moving some narrowboats, but since then we had a gearbox seize on us and the boat is going nowhere until someone more qualified looks at it, so I won't now be busy).
So I could run a proper debriefing session to finish off the story I ran.
slight change of plans, I am now 50/50 on being available in the morning. I think if we stick to the debriefing anyway that's probably best.
Sorry guys i was meant to be back home this morning but rampant cheating meant they needed me onsite today at the event :( I'm home now with net, would be interested in what happened sorry i missed it.
Our handler admitted that the "Sierra cell" who had lost the casket didn't actually belong to our Inquisitor, but instead a rival.
The servo skull contains a number of encryption keys and protocols used by this rival's network. Normally, the skulls would self destruct after they were lost, but in this particular case, it failed - and so, Sierra cell's demise represented a significant opportunity to compromise the rival's transmissions and operations. (The codes will with time be replaced, but this still represents a significant advantage).
"Sykora" (real name unknown) was a high ranking agent of this rival (possibly even an Interrogator), and was assigned to get the skull back. This lead to the deliberate targeting of Inquisition agents that could potentially compromise its recovery. (This was what happened to Tallulah's handler, and was what V and her cell had been assigned to investigate).
Our handler reasoned that Sykora's plan had been to simply bid a very large amount on the skull and walk out with it under heavy guard (a couple of squads of stormtroopers). Theoretically, this was a less risky and conspicuous plan than attempting a direct assault on the Black Cave to retrieve it, but Dose's hack completely messed the plan up, so he had to resort to violence.
The other thing we discovered is that V's real name is "Madam Leveque"; this is something that means nothing to the characters, but in terms of the whole meta-plot, she's the assassin I played in our last cell. (To give her her full name, "Lady Astraea Eris Megaera Amphictyonis Eunomia Leveque" - although she was more commonly known as "Alyx Paige" by the other characters.)
Are we on for this week? :)
Well, I won't be around this week (I might have already said that, but just to be sure...), but the rest of you are free to enjoy yourselves in my absence.
hi chaps, sorry can't do today, massive to-do list
Can I assume we are on for the 18th then? :)
should be :)
I should be there tomorrow, but forgive me if I am late and/or tired. The last 36 hours have been pretty much packed, so I may not have recovered properly in time.
I may be the same, as i am slightly drunk tonight.
I will be late tomorrow, not sure when.
I'm not sure I'll be able to make it today as I feel like I've been run over by a bus...
Also, definitely can't do the 16th or 30th as I have family visiting both days :-\
16th now out for me too, so next session is the 23rd, then the 30th I won't make, so back again on the 6th Aug.
Sorry I missed this week, slept in due to lack of sleep during camp this week. On again as normal next weekend.
barring any unforeseen absences, we are on again tomorrow morning.
I'm afraid I can't guarantee my attendance, and may have to leave at the drop of a hat.
My brother managed to turn his ankle into splinters a week ago (read: multiple fractures and a dislocation), had to wait several days for the swelling to go down enough for surgery, and is due to be discharged at some point during the day on Sunday.
As I'm currently the only member of the family who's allowed to pick up anything heavier than a coffee mug (aside from the ankle, there's a hernia and a sprained shoulder), I'm on call to be a porter whenever he is discharged.
I've slept like absolute crap and I am dealing with a fair bit of stress right now. I apologise, but I don't think I'll be able to attend today's session.
To clarify:
17th: I think Euan is unavailable but please do correct me
24th: I won't be available this week (house move)
1st: I also won't be available this week either
I am here today, got a lift home from Glasgow last night
And like an idiot I failed to notice this :P
well no one else was there as I had been quite vague about whether or not I would make it back on the Saturday night or not (which I did)
Reminder that there is no session on the 24th as I am away on camp.
I am currently available for 1st, 8th, 15th & 22nd Oct and unavailable 29th Oct & 5th Nov.
I believe I can be there for all of the 8th, 15th and 22nd. Still moving house this weekend and travelling on the 1st though.
Dave & Bethan, how would you be set for tomorrow?
I'm not sure Bethan checks the forum very often, but I should be available.
As a heads-up, I will probably have to leave the session early tomorrow. (Not sure exactly how early "early" will be, but likely before 1).
I'm afraid I won't be around today (AGAIN) as I need to keep myself free to sort out furniture sales.
Turns out I will definitely be unavailable this Sunday.
I don't recall whether others were also off.
Do we know when everyone else will be around for sure?
I believe everyone was good for tomorrow, however I am then absent for 3 weeks (back on the 19th Nov)
With Mother of Mercy this Saturday, who all is likely to be around and compus-mentus Sunday morning? Other than myself.
I will be Mother-of-Mercying, but I think I'm the only one and even then I'm hoping to still be available on Sunday.
My routine for events is a bit more refined than it used to be. I still end up somewhat sleep deprived on the day (caffeine helps), but I'm now taking later trains (more sleep), catching the tram (less walking) and taking antihistamines (so I don't lose my voice by the end of the day), so I tend to recover quicker.
Sorry guys - I've been trying to log onto Skype for three-quarters of an hour now with no success. Seems the service may be down, at least from here.
As an alternative to Skype, have we considered Discord? You can add a dice roller, and different channels within the group so all the reference materials can go in one place, all the OOC can go in another, etc etc.
I'm open to trying other software.
It is now many years since we started, and while Skype was a fair choice before, it's not necessarily the right program to use any more - it hasn't exactly proven the most reliable software.
(Also, I've just realised that now I'm an admin, I can update this thread so the first post explains things and it hasn't got comments about Page 5 in the title).
FYI I won't be there this weekend, away skiing with scouts on the 18th and busy running a show on the 25th.
While I don't know my exact schedule for the 25th yet - I believe I will be done before dinnertime, so an evening session would be feasible.
I apologise profusely. Somehow things this morning ended up like a badly written sitcom - I managed to sleep straight through one alarm, my tablet somehow got stuck in camera mode and its alarm didn't go off at all, and my phone somehow ended up fully charged but entirely off.
Hello everyone.
Had a IRL chat with Euan yesterday and the subject of joining back in came up. Weekends are unfortunately right out as they're family time, but if there's any interest at all of switching to a Monday evening, I would be available.
No worries if it isn't suitable.
Ruaridh
I have no issue with Monday evenings, personally, but I recall it being an issue for someone else. I'd need to read up and check.
Reminder that I am not there this week (25th) and cannot do the evening as I had originally suggested.
A move to sunday or monday evenings would work for me.
As an advisory, I won't be available tomorrow -- I've got family visiting (allegedly).
Right folks, today was a complete no-show so I am officially saying we need to ditch Sunday mornings as things have just gotten worse and worse recently with attendance.
Whether we relocate to Sunday evenings or Monday evenings is dependant on what suits most.
I also think 1 or 2 fresh faces would help things - ideally someone that's play dark heresy before, or at the very least is well-versed in 40K.
As I commented on Skype (because I actually was there), the problem with Monday evenings for me is that it's also the local game club night.
I don't go to the club every week, but it is a direct clash.
My turn to be a no-show again, as I'm back at my parents' place for the weekend. As it's Mother's Day, we're going out. Sorry guys.
Given that I have plans for another plot after this, this doesn't exactly help my candidacy for that at all.
I could possibly do Sunday evenings, but I haven't played DH since before it was officially released, so a bit of handholding may be required
That's great to know Charax, I've other commitments that mean we might have to stick to Sunday mornings until we get into May, but we might make the move slightly earlier, either 8th/15th April.
I've had no response from emailing Bethan, but I will be there tomorrow morning for the session chaps.
On that note, try to remember that the clocks are going forward an hour tonight. (e.g. One hour less sleep).
To confirm, sessions have now changed to Sunday evenings, running approximately 7pm-10pm.
The next sessions are the 8th & 15th April, followed by a 2 week break(22nd/29th), then back again for the 6th & 13th May. The 20th May will be also be out due to LGT/travel fatigue for those going.
8th and 15th, 7pm. Noted
What are the rules/limits on chargen? may as well get some stuff done beforehand
In advance, I should warn that if I'm around at all on the 7th May, I will be late (and probably equally tired), as I will be returning from a folk weekend.
Quote from: Charax on March 26, 2018, 07:33:46 PMWhat are the rules/limits on chargen? may as well get some stuff done beforehand
Take all of this with a massive pinch of salt, as I'm not currently GMing, but:
- I think most of the characters are hovering in the region of 6000 XP spent and an extra 1000 XP banked up at the moment.
(We've got a fair bit saved up because we generally try to avoid buying upgrades unless it fits with the story. Buying a BS upgrade after a major fight would be one thing, but suddenly becoming an expert medic while at a party with nobility would be another).
- We currently have a Guard, Adept, and (ex) Infil-traitor* as PCs, and a Scum and Tech-priest as NPCs.
The Scum is Euan's character, currently NPCing while he GMs the adventure. The Tech-priest used to be Ruaridh's character before he had to withdraw for real life reasons, and we've kept him around because we find his inability to comprehend pronouns funny (also, we needed at least one character who was allowed into the men's toilets for clandestine meetings with contacts).
You'll need to talk to Euan (Heroka) about specifics and how you can be fitted in.
* A custom character class I wrote for Bethan to use. We looked at the assassin and scum careers, but they're actually really short on any skills for bluffing and manipulating until you get up to rather high ranks, so I wrote something new with more of a focus towards that end of things.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on March 26, 2018, 10:57:41 PMwe needed at least one character who was allowed into the men's toilets for clandestine meetings with contacts
Just don't expect him to share a bath with any drunken nobles.
well, I'm all set, PC's a religious Arbitrator with a pimped-out shotgun and a focus on investigation (because of course) and tanking
Just waiting for someone to add me :P
Sorry folks, going to have to bail on you today.
The scheduled break for the next 2 weeks (22nd/29th) is still happening, then back again for the 6th & 13th May.
This is a courtesy reminder that if I am around on Sunday, I will likely be late, tired or both, as I will only just be returning from a folk weekend.
hi folks, sorry to prolong the break in sessions, but I've simply got too much on this weekend and can't be around Sunday evening.
Next weekend we should finally be back properly.
reminder that tonights session is going ahead as normal.
See you guys tonight! heads up that I won't be around on the 3rd, I'm in Spain
Sorry for my unheralded absence - I've been moving narrow boats, and between a three kilometre tunnel and an Indian takeaway, I just wasn't free to join you.
(Apologies, I really should have given you a heads up that I might not have been available, but I've been fairly distracted by final prep for the London GT).
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on May 13, 2018, 10:53:59 PM
between a three kilometre tunnel and an Indian takeaway, I just wasn't free to join you.
All important question: what did you have?
As I mentioned in the chat, won't be around on the 3rd :( but if at all possible I'd like to have Dorn do the followingduring combat:
- Inject a dose of Stimm. That shot to the head HURT
- Semi-auto combat shotgun burst to the blinded guy on the floor
Have fun! gutted I'll miss it
sorry chaps, having to call off tonight's session, next weekend will also be off as I have a meeting to attend. Reconvening 24th June.
tomorrows session is still good to go.
July 1st session is going ahead as normal. I'm hoping we can wrap the arc during the summer, mostly depends on tangents or any attendance issues. (Also means whoever is GMing next should be arranged)
A general reminder of the lay of the land IC:
The team have just identified Chief Naval Commissar Sorcha Sachavo, filmed on security footage meeting Goldsmith at Ballymarrs Pharmacy and leaving with him the last day he was seen.
The team wants to press charges for the disappearance of Goldsmith onto Giaus Steinberg, Saul Richt & Commissar Sorcha Sachavo.
Contacts, Favours & Alliances
Bloody Anna – 60 lasguns for alliance, bloodpact sealed
Lady Chartist Haimona (Holy Blood) – offer of assistance
Captain AZ-390 "Goggles" (Royal Guard) – bribed to look the other way during pharmacy job
Lady Celia Jenson-Salistein (half-sister to the Duchess) – contact card / good impression
Jerimiah Saul Quintus (Quintus Securities) – contact card
Saul Richt (Blue Hawks) – Angels Kiss business proposition
Gaius Steinberg (Steinberg triplets) – Angels Kiss business proposition
Ill-will
Madam Rose – banned from her premises
Roughar - executed by Bloody Anna to seal bloodpact
Afraid I won't be around -- cannot focus on anything today. :(
Summary of last week session:
Box text!Quote"Exact dates for the early centuries of St Torrian's Rock are impossible to find. Some obscure sources go as far as to suggest the earliest colinisation comes from before the Emperor's holy light reached Carthax, but such claims are only espoused by the fringes of archival expertise.
What we can say with certainty is that that first written contract for the Imperial Navy to make use of docking facilities was co-signed by Lord Sector Argento Galvan & a rouge trader whose individual name is sadly lost to history, but believed by well-read scholars to have been a member of House Allrath, an ancient but now extinct line explorers of some distinction.
It is only from the signing of this contract and it's sucessors that true stability comes to the Rock, attracting traders and a rapid growth in population and influence. Nine great households have ruled over this evolution across the centuries, each eventually being supplanted by another through politics, bankruptcy, marrage contract or death.
Yet the ninth of these great houses, Hake-Salistein has lasted the longest in this pinnacled place of command, approaching their 18th century of masterful control of both politics and trade upon the Rock.
This unrivalled position of power has also in part been upheld by the Naval contract signed by the first Duchess of their bloodline, ensuring all her heirs a naval rank of Vice-Commodore and a measure of cooperation in the security and future development of St Torrian's Rock."
Excerpt by Lady Olivia Molgaard, curator of the Royal Museum of St Torrian's Rock, from the Historians Foreward to The Histories and Bloodlines of the Noble Families of St Torrian's Rock,compiled by Trademaster Diago Acard
The team has presented their case and evidence to Mockingjay in full. In his usual emotionless manner, he does congratulate you for having scoped a wide range of connections and identified a likely outcome of our missing Commissar.
He orders the team not press the suspects yet and gives you 24 hours downtime while he considers the next step.
What the team learns during 24 hours downtime:Nothing humans have discovered in 40,000 years travels faster than gossip. Word is the Ascencion Eve riot cost the lives of an inexplicably high number of Royal Guard. Aparently more than five times the number that would normally be expected to perish in such a large, violent and prolonged unrest. Rumours of revenge killings and people settling debts during the riot are rife, but most locals believe even those would never expand the royal guard deaths to such numbers. The most common rumours you overhear are of people pointing the blame to one or other of the private security firms being respsonsible, with just about every private military company on the Rock called a suspect in one rumour or another.
Mockingjay orders half the team to investigate the Royal Guard death rumours by meeting their contact Jeremiah Quintus; while the other half are to infiltrate the Navy Base disguised as Regulator officers and try to determine if Sachavo is a rogue individual, or if there is something more systemic going on with Angels Kiss.
Rose, Dorn & Maya go for Naval investigation. (players present last week)
Tallulah, Dose & Gaenor go for Quintus investigation. (players not present last week)
Team Navy sought out various senior members of staff at the Naval Medicae Schola, and have since moved over the Naval Command are currently waiting outside Commodore Osmani's office, for an unbooked appointment.
Upcoming sessions:
22nd July: yup
29th July: nope
5th Aug: 50/50 will know nearer the time
12th Aug: yup
19th Aug: nope
26th Aug: yup
Update: can confirm I'm good for Sunday 5th now
5th Aug: yup
12th Aug: yup
19th Aug: nope
26th Aug: yup
hi guys, sorry but i'm going to cancel tonight, still tried from a week of camp and haven'y had a chance to prepare properly for the session. Next week is still good to go. Sorry for the short notice.
26th of August is probably a nope for me, I'll be in Nottingham
I will try to be in attendance to try to avoid another session being missed, but the journey back from Nottingham managed to end up resoundingly on the list of the worst train journeys I've ever had, and it's taken a lot out of me, so I might be a bit subdued.
Sorry folks I think I'll have to bail on tomorrows session.
Hi guys - can't remember if we were supposed to be on for tonight, but I'll be late at best; I'm coming back from a trip, and the A5 is closed, the M1 has had an accident, and we're still trying to figure out the best route. Try to be there as soon as possible, but don't expect me there on time.
Reminder: Next session is 30th September
We face a new quandary. Doctor Who is now sundays from 6.45-7.45pm. Everyone still happy with 7-ish for 7.30 start of RPing?
I don't mind recording DrWho and watching after.
My attendance this week is in question due to unexpected family things, but in general, I'm alright with watching it later if we actually start on time.
On which note, I think this might be a prime opportunity to make ourselves that little bit more punctual in general. If we say 7 but actually we don't start until gone 8, A) we'll have missed Doctor Who anyway and I'll be annoyed, B) that's another hour of gaming time we could've made use of, so the sessions could go on for as long as they're supposed to. Remember, this is something to which we've all said "yes, I'll do this", and recently I've been sitting there wondering where everyone else is.
Is there a better time than 7pm on a Sunday that works for people, and lets us all be there to enjoy a full session?
I'm perfectly happy sticking to 7, and actually starting at 7 would make a nice change. I have no special attachment to watching Dr Who live
Likewise if there's another time/day people want to move to, I'm game, but given we've had shakey attendance (and start times) even at our current slot,and this slot was supposed to be *more* convenient, I'm dubious about changing it
In the meantime sessions are continuing to start at 7(ish).
The basic summary of the last session was that the team made contact with Snake eater over the vox, and have decided to scout out the Royal Museum for any mercenaries they can steal uniforms from to then attempt... something regarding the mercenary command post.
Mercenaries have been encountered and a gunfight is ensuing.
There is also a taxidermy warthog on a trolley.
I feel you are somewhat underplaying the tactical importance of Warty the Warthog
Quote from: Heroka Vendile on October 08, 2018, 08:02:37 PMto then attempt... something regarding the mercenary command post.
I believe "something" was summarised as "chuck in every grenade we've got". However, circumstances have changed such that a slightly different plan may be viable...
QuoteThere is also a taxidermy warthog on a trolley.
I still think it looks more like a puma.
Hey guys, I won't be able to make it to this week's session. :(
If memory serves, Dave won't be there either?
I could potentially be there, but I'd be late, probably no earlier than about 8:30.
~~~~~
Anyway, I've finally got down to actually putting (roughly) what Rose looks like into a picture - or at least how she would look, once she gets her frakking key necklace back from that damned harlot.
The bionic probably needs some roughing up for a more 40k look, but I'll need longer to figure out that retexturing work.
(https://i.imgur.com/YW2VMZt.png)
And yes, she is capable of being cheerful, it's just that most Inquisition work isn't particularly conducive to it (and for that matter, nor is Gaenor). There's not many of my characters who are capable of approaching the idea of being shot at by heretics with any particular cheer - and one of them is basically immortal.
Euan - I've just sent through Rose's latest character sheet to your email (MSN, if that's the right one? But it seems to be the only one I have).
I hope to join you at around half-eight, but that may vary wildly.
Tonight's session is cancelled guys, next session is the 11th
hi guys, i'm afraid i'm still cream-crackered from show week (and after show party) and won't be running a session this evening. I'll be back for the 18th though.
How is it that our historian, rather than our spy, is the one who mastered at the Jedi school of mind tricks?
Admittedly, she didn't quite manage to fast talk us out of trouble at Madame Rose's, but I still figure I'm going to have to buy Rosaline "Blather" after all this...
~~~~~
To try and copy in what I remember, the 16th will be our last session for this year (and hopefully wrap up Euan's plot). After that, we're expecting to miss the final two Sundays of the year (although Bethan has offered to do character/downtime discussion for her upcoming plot).
I think there might have been mention of some possible absences on the early weeks of January, but I can't remember exact details.
That's how I remember it too, assuming we can wrap up tomorrow. we do have a tendency to get sidetracked
Might be worth having a chat about moving to discord for Bethan's campaign? we seemingly agreed a few weeks...months? back that we're all a bit sick of Skype
I figured that as I might not be around on Sunday (although I hope to be merely late rather than entirely absent), that I might as well write up some thoughts on the dilemma that Rose is finding herself in.
~~~~~
> User: Xenati, Rosaline
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 8857.qr/7 +++
It is becoming painfully clear that this mission and its predecessor have taken a heavy toll on the psyche of the team.
Tallulah was my first major experience of a mind-blanked individual, as although there were some signs that at least some form of the process had been carried out on Maya, it showed little outwardly. It is with the curse of hindsight that I realise both of them were deceptive examples.
A tactful description would be to say that Tallulah was less than fully coherent when we first met, but she did with time appear to resolve into a sane and grounded individual - something that harshly conflicts with Lady Ramona now hypothesising that Tallulah's entire psyche may now have devolved decades back to her adolescence, leaving her in the traumatic outbreak of the "Fulcrum" affair.
I will observe that Ramona didn't communicate how she came by that information, given our lack of direct reconnaissance; my assumption is that it is either a method or side-effect of attack on this kind of psychological conditioning.
Certainly, that seems to be consistent with Maya. Over the last few days, it seems that anything that triggers any form of familiarity is triggering mental breakdown. My best hypothesis at this stage is that our encounter with Veer's daughter compromised her conditioning, allowing her former self to seep through.
It's hard to not feel sorry for her at this stage. We've had our differences, but we have spent years together now, and she is quite possibly the last of our original team, given the extent of Dose's injuries (and certainly better conversation). I'm still in no hurry to forgive or facilitate her intrusive narcotic habits, given the severe setbacks they have caused, but I am beginning to understand why she might choose to lock herself in a chemical daze.
Gaenor is rather more of a mystery. One possibility is of course that our lord and master simply has a penchant for using imprinted individuals, but I feel there is more to it than that.
Perhaps I speak against that option only for the sake of believing that I actually know myself, but her breakdowns do appear very much more focused, strictly related to specific phrases, and her episodes, while apparently hallucinatory, do seem to leave her herself. Not that the incident in the Inquisition facility was positive.
Dorn currently seems to be the only member of the team who is mentally stable, although it would be a generous overstatement to allow that to imply that he is a rationally functioning human being.
For someone who has apparently read our dossiers, and for whom at least a basic comprehension of the motivations of others should be a core occupational skill, it beggars belief that he has yet to understand why I might not be particularly forgiving about waking up with an armed man standing over me.
His increasing piety also concerns me, for the same reason. I have been on the receiving end of blind faith before, and Arbitrators are not known for leniency in their actions; how long before he decides that some fraction of what I know might be heresy?
These are poor allies in trying times. What I wouldn't give to have Rivian alongside me.
+++ ENTRY 8857.qr/7 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 8857.qr/7+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: SO IT WAS, SO IT IS, SO IT EVER SHALL BE. +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
More log entries:
> User: Xenati, Rosaline
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 8862.dg/2+++
Escalation would seem to be the word.
For one, we had already encountered several individuals who should have been psychically inert yet displayed considerable power - Veer's daughter and the "triplets" at the Astropathica facility.
The near simultaneous discovery of one of Lady Ramona's aides and the traitorous Civitas Enforcer both adds to and complicates that. There is a pattern emerging, revolving around pendants of a sort.
Although those we recovered from the Triplets were more innocuous, the latest two are clearly both darker and more potent - and, worryingly, engraved by individuals in some form of attempt to wield them in the Emperor's name. Given that even our brief examination showed that they are irredeemably tainted down to their very metal, not by people overly possessed of good sense.
A particularly ominous fact is that these also appear to be dedicated to specific of the Dark Gods - so far, seemingly the plague god, worn by Ramona's aide, and the blood god, worn by the enforcer.
This implies the existence of at least two more, dedicated to the gods of pleasure and change. The possibility of these two alarms me considerably more than the two we have already encountered, as their powers are liable to manifest in the form of insidious manipulation that our team's fragmented psyche is in no state to resist.
(However, it is my understanding that the Inquisition's mind-blanking procedures include chemical castration, so it is possible Maya may be able to resist certain manipulations).
This brings us on to our next escalation. Dorn made a recommendation that we should query the Lady's seneschal regarding equipment for countering any possible psychic foes, at which point we were presented with an amulet and two drug doses.
The amulet for now has been given to Dorn; as it was described to us, it can suppress the power of psykers in a close vicinity, and he is our most trustworthy close quarters combatant.
The drug is definitely the more concerning of these items. I have heard of this chemical before, although I am certainly not supposed to have - even knowing of this chemical has been considered borderline heresy since its use by an apostate cult in an attempt to "touch the edge of the Emperor's consciousness".
What I am prepared to admit knowing of it is that it draws heavily on the user's faith, and potentially in extreme cases amplifying it to a level where it borders on the kinds of manifest miracles associated with living saints and the Adepta Sororitas. The outcomes are however not pleasant for those of weak or misguided faith.
The irony of Dorn's faith being a powerful asset only shortly after my last log entry berated him for it is not lost on me. That doesn't however mean I trust it.
Beyond that, it appears that the recovery of Tallulah will be only the beginning of this matter, not the end. Lady Ramona now seems unsatisfied with merely the recovery of her asset, and fully expects to pursue the Fulcrum in order to prevent it falling into anyone else's hands.
The largest escalation of all though seems to be that she seems to be trusting us, and perhaps out of more than sheer desperation. While it is very much apparent she is not telling us everything, she has still said far more than I was expecting her to about several matters. One point that particularly surprised me was that rather than simply refusing to divulge information on "Silvertongue", she specifically noted that she wasn't permitted.
It doesn't need to be said it doesn't bode particularly well for the truth of the Fulcrum, when even a Lady Inquisitor cannot speak of it without the consent of a wider cabal or conclave, but I will draw a certain comfort from being in a position where we finally seem to be a valuable resource to an Inquisitor.
+++ ENTRY 8862.dg/2 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 8862.dg/2+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: LIFE IS NOT MEASURED IN YEARS, BUT BY THE DEEDS OF MEN. +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
And now there is actually a reasonable interlude for her to be making log entries, the latest of Rose's thoughts...
> User: Xenati, Rosaline
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 8865.rx/5+++
We have Tallulah.
Physically, there are no apparent signs of significant trauma - nevertheless, with evidence that crew on Shadow attempted to sexually assault her, a more thorough medical is obviously a priority.
Mentally, she is very much the worse for wear. As Lady DeGascoigne suspected, she has seemingly regressed to a state at the start of the Tilkisian civil war.
Fortunately, she has been reasonably trusting so far. Unfortunately, this is in spite of our ragged appearance; hardly the spitting image of the Moroan scout regiment we are claiming to be associated with.
This is suggestive of a particularly fractured mental state - likely some form of hallucinatory or dream-like state in which any inconsistencies are overlooked in the greater narrative. However, if we are fortunate, it may be that part of her trust is due to recognition of us on a subconscious level.
Trust however is otherwise in short supply.
Gaenor underwent a protracted dissociative episode, with a crescendo of recklessness and ultimately directly attacking me when I challenged her. With little other choice, forced sedation was required.
Although potential strategies have already been discussed with Lady DeGascoigne, any continued role in this cell will mandate significant improvements and no modicum of contrition.
Sister Taratha has not improved upon that. Despite starting with an arrival well timed enough to border on being one of the miracles that the Sororitas are famed for, it cannot be said that the overall experience of experiencing the Sisterhood in action for the first time has exactly met with their reputation.
She at least appears sufficiently distressed by her actions that I will for now refrain from registering any formal complaint with Lady DeGascoigne. The Inquisitor will doubtless have words anyway simply based on what is said at the debriefing.
We are fractured. The physical trauma can probably be mostly healed. It may result in some bionics and unsightly scarring, but it will not keep us down. Our unity however is in the cesspits.
We are not a team. With the foes we are now facing, that needs to change.
+++ ENTRY 8865.rx/5 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 8865.rx/5+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: VIGILANCE IS THE BROTHER OF TRUTH +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
Figured it was time for a new log entry:
> User: Xenati, Rosaline
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 8891.bd/3+++
As the painkillers have now fully kicked in, this will be one of my less formal mission logs, but there have been enough developments over the last two days to merit a speculative assessment rather than merely a factual record of events.
Although Gaenor's outbursts have been unfortunate, she seems to now be trying to make efforts to keep herself under control. She seems to have accepted the assertion that the Fulcrum is the greatest threat. She is still prone to impulsive behaviour - after all, she is still Gaenor - but is responding more to reason, and does not seem to have had any more of her hallucinatory episodes, despite high levels of stress.
Tallulah is now distinguishing her current persona as "Tallie", although what that persona is does again seem to be shifting. In some moments she seems wrong-footed and uncertain, in others she oozes confidence to the point of recklessness. I probably need to talk with her on the latter matter, as she showed a provocative lack of discretion in how she spoke to Gaenor yesterday. Aside from any personal relationship I hope to recover with her, she is still the only one of us who has certain mission critical details (although I'm still uncertain to what extent she is unwilling to pass on that information, and to what extent she is unable).
Taratha has been withdrawn and quiet. She's apparently now fasting, despite the fact we will not have an abundance of food once we land on Tilkis. It would seem this is in protest against the circumstances on this ship.
I've passed on what I feel she needs to know about the mission. Or, more accurately, what I think she would actually be happy to know. She seems to accepted this - but then, of all of us, she takes the concept of blessed ignorance in the most literal sense.
Maya, I have hardly heard from. I've occasionally passed an auspex past her room to make sure that she is alive and well, but you can almost see the stink of narcotics wafting from under the door. It's no great surprise that she has managed to entirely miss this evening's excitement.
Lionus has probably been the most confidence inspiring over the last two days. He has remained very much on task, despite the unorthodox practices aboard the ship, despite the fact that they must offend his belief in the teachings of both the Ecclesiarchy and Imperial law. Perhaps not overly surprising, given that specialising in operating without support must require the pragmatic and adaptable, but nonetheless welcome.
What did however surprise me on that matter were his apparently candid statements regarding the team. He has at other times seemed almost resentful of being expected to work alongside others, but now seems to be taking anything that threatens the safety of the rest of the team as bordering on a personal insult.
Still, like Tallie, he probably also needs to be somewhat more cautious about what he says around Gaenor.
Outside of this, we have the prospect of mission escalation.
It was somewhat evident this was the case as soon as Lady DeGascoigne mentioned that "V" would be involved.
It hasn't escaped me that this affair is actually the second set of attacks on Tallulah by Inquisition assets who had a large amount of insider knowledge.
Clearly DeGascoigne has investigated that link. At barest minimum, she must have concluded that V had no part in the conspiracy, but it's not hard to imagine that she was recruited for having previously frustrated this plot.
I had hoped to probe her on the matter, but that's now looking doubtful. Unsurprisingly, she remembers that Gaenor attempted to shoot her on their first meeting, and with news of Gaenor's more recent outburst having now made it to this part of the ship, she's been very much on her guard about what she says.
That doesn't really leave anyone else to discuss the implications with. Tallie remembers little of it (although doubtless her godmother has passed on some information, so I may pursue the matter anyway), Maya is unconcerned with anything at the moment, I am not keen on putting Gaenor more on edge, and neither Lionus or Taratha were present at the time.
And it seems unlikely we are going to get the advantage we wanted. Someone having been able to infiltrate this ship with the specific intention of assassinating Tallulah again can only relate to members of the Inquisition with insider knowledge. Staying ahead of our enemies is looking increasingly difficult.
Of an indirect concern to mission escalation is Jax.
I don't have reason to believe she is a threat herself, but it is theoretically possible we could face similar mutations on Tilkis. Obviously, I'm not of a mind to discuss such things with Gaenor, but a strategy may need addressing with Lionus - as and when I can think of a way to phrase it that won't give any passing crew members the idea that we're planning on attacking the first officer again.
All in all, these are not concerns I wanted to have to handle during the last week of comfort we will be seeing in months. I suppose at least it's unlikely that tomorrow's dinner will end up as a stuffy and tedious affair, although hopefully that will be down to this ship being somewhat unorthodox than because of acts of violence.
We'll have to see.
+++ ENTRY 8891.bd/3 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 8891.bd/3 +++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WEAKENS THE WILL TO ACT +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++
New personal log from Rose:
> User: Xenati, Rosaline
> Passcode: ********
+++ PASSCODE ACCEPTED +++
> Command: Commence new text log
+++ STARTING ENTRY 8903.dy/7+++
We have now seen our enemies contrive to get at least two assassins on board a ship that does not appear on any official records. An asset which Lady DeGascoigne specifically requisitioned from outside her own organisation.
Tallie suggested that the connection might have gone through DeGascoigne's corrupt seneschal. I doubt this. Inquisitor Lords are not known for their incompetence or complacency, and had there been the slightest hint that the seneschal could have known about these arrangements, the proper response would have been to alter the plans or, at the barest minimum, have notified both us and the ship to be on our fullest guard.
Nonetheless, the leak is obviously at a high level. It is fairly easy to rule out our cell itself, the command crew of the Ynys Mon and Signum cell for having had much more viable ways to sabotage this operation. That leaves primarily further traitors in DeGascoigne's operation, traitors in Rhodes's operation, or lesser ranking crew on the ship.
We can do nothing about the first two. The third is potentially actionable, but unless they choose to make a more direct threat of themselves, the main damage is already done. As we cannot prove where the leak was, we can only now assume that our enemies know the full plan and have done for some time.
If the enemy knows your plans, you change your plan.
The rendezvous for supplies would be the most obvious target for an informed enemy, as it places us at a specific place where we must positively identify ourselves. We will need to decide whether to press on without these resources, or whether we can turn any enemy's attempt to our advantage.
I suspect we need to risk the latter; it will leave us better equipped, most importantly regarding what the enemy does know about our strategy.
The other obvious hazard is that if any threat knows or has guessed our destination, they will already have forces on the ground looking for Tallie. This was always a possibility that made using her status a risk, but now we are aware the enemy is directly targeting her, anything that involves her publicly revealing her identity is a last resort.
Obviously, it's something that will have to be discussed with Lionus when possible. Tallie's advice may be useful, but will need to be considered with caution. While she's unquestionably capable, she has also been rather more overconfident or even reckless of late. It's perhaps not quite what I expected when DeGascoigne warned that her behaviour could become callous, but I can see how they might be linked.
A repeated loss of identity is hardly going to create a person who has healthy long-term goals or a sense of living with the consequences of their actions. While I am not one to tell an Inquisitor Lord how to act, I do wonder how often DeGascoigne has actually witnessed Tallie under circumstances like this. I don't get the impression that she would be likely to be in a high-risk situation with her goddaughter shortly after a mind-wipe. It is even possible that we have a unique perspective. Infiltration agents don't normally work closely surrounded by a team.
In any case, it is something to monitor carefully.
+++ ENTRY 8903.dy/7 ENDS+++
> Command: Encrypt
+++ ENCRYPTING ENTRY 8903.dy/7+++
+++ PROCESSING+++
+++ COMPLETE+++
> Command: Log off
+++ COMMAND ACCEPTED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: TO FAULT THE EMPEROR'S WORD IS AN ACT OF SEDITION +++
+++ SYSTEM LOG-OFF +++