Holiad's 2012 Summer conclave

[Holiad]

2012 Summer conclave-The thing-that-should-never-have-been vs the criminal underworld.

Introduction-
Since the summer conclave would be themed around an investigation of the sinister criminal network of Kaade Macks, I decided that my rogue acolyte, Racol, would fit in best as a main character, attempting to take advantage of the situation to build a network of influence after his near-capture at the IGT by inquisitorial agents. He would be aided in his endeavours by the unusually short and bearded mercenary Kaernfels, the servitor Spare Parts, and the corrupt and cowardly Munitorium official Ji-Ken, who was almost certainly supplying arms to several branches of the Kaede Mack organisation.

GAME ONE-Search for a contact
For the first game, my warband, consisting of Racol, Kaernfels and ji-Ken, would be seeking out a possible traitor offering valuable information about the Mack network. Unfortunately, inquisitors Lyra Rhodes(Marco Skoll), and Alexandus(Ryan), were also after the same contact, and it quickly became apparent in the early actions that I was the only warband lacking either an auspex or psychic detection. Luckily, neither proved reliable enough to give their warbands an edge, and all three parties found the contact at around the same time, who promptly began waving his guns around in a panic. Rhodes and Alexandus, in no mood to parley, began shooting at each other, and Racol attempted to use this to persuade the contact to follow him as the only party not shooting, but his powers of persuasion failed him, or maybe it was that giant mutated arm that made him less than convincing. More effective was the decisive action of Rhodes' guard veteran, who seized the contact and began dragging him forcefully away. Rhodes as also doing better in the firefight, inflicting severe injuries on Alexandus and his allies, while return fire succeeded only in hurting the contact. Kaernfel's cut-down stormbolter went wide of all targets, While Ji-Ken had retreated from an early encounter with Alexandus and was bravely covering their avenues of retreat. At this point, the game ended with the contact firmly under Lyra's control, decisive action having won the day against dithering and negotiation.
GAME TWO-The vault
I was GM for this game, with Inquisitors Lyra Rhodes(MarcoSkoll) and Ramirez(Adrian) both seeking the location of a hidden vault of acheotech. Starting on opposite corners, Lyra's party split up, Rhodes heading forwards while a battle sister skirted right and a commissar to the left. A giant lightning bolt splits the air, prompting both Lyra and Ramirez to close to investigate, while one of Ramire's zombie colleagues decided to run towards the pretty light. Further lightning hit close enough to scare Lyra into seeking cover beneath the central tower, while Ramirez approached from the other side. Seeing a zombie running for them, Rhodes and the commissar both challenged him with open guns, to which it responded by running  right past them, mind still on the pretty lights. Ramirez, meanwhile, spotted the battle sister as he reached the door to the central tower, inflicting a severe leg wound before his target got the chance to duck into cover. As Ramirez's colleague finally realized he was under attack and charged the comissar, who defended herself ably with a chainsword, Ramirez moved round to confront Rhodes. Unfortunately, claiming to be an inquisitor isn't so believable when you're a rotting zombie, and the meeting quickly degenerates into a close quarter brawl. Rhodes seemed to gain the upper hand by disabling Ramirez's sword arm, but in a heroic feat of endurance Ramirez seized his fallen weapon in his off-hand and dealth a lethal blow to his rival's head. Meanwhile, the battle sister looked up to see a third zombie sneaking across a roof towards her, and attempted to dispatch it with a quick frag grenade, but the explosive bounced off the roof, exploding harmlessly in the nearby woods, coinidentally next to the concealed entrnce to the vault, which she had run past earlier.
So, neither warband had discovered the vault, but Rhodes was substantially the worse for wear. Luckily main characters can recover from small injuries like beheading, so she would soon be back on her feet and seeking revenge.
GAME THREE-Another contact
In this game, my characters woul be meeting with, and attempting to secure, another supposed traitor to the Mack network, as was Inquisitor Thordis(Arvin). Racol was the first to reach the contact, crashing through the woods followed by the dull form of Spare parts, with a reluctant Ji-Ken bringing up the rear.  Refusing to come until the area had been secured the contact slipped away as a daemonhost floated through the trees, woodland freezing in its wake. A shot from Racol's cutting laser barely grazed it, but in a surprising moment of heroism Ji-Ken found the abominations weak spot with his bolt pistol, a round tearing through the monsters chest and putting it out of action. No sooner had it settled than shots rang out at Racol as the rival inquisitor circled before charging. As he charged to meet the new threat head on, he found himself unexpectedly lacking support, with a long-range shot to the leg sending spare parts sprawling, and Ji-Ken abandoning him to try to persuade the contact to accompany him. The fight goes badly, with a deadly blow from his adversaries force-sword slicing into his unarmoured leg and leaving him unable to stand, triggering a beserk frenzy. Slowed down by the injury and having to get up, spare parts was unable to assist, espescially after being hurled away by a psychic impel attack. While impressive, his heavy stubber proved far too inaccurate to be a major threat, and the occasional hit failed to do significant damage, although Thordis did take cover behind a tree. Ji-Ken, meanwhile, had encountered the third member of Thordis' party, and come off worse in the firefight, having his bolt pistol knocked from his hand and running for cover behind a building. Sneaking back round, he was just in time to see the contact shoot his rival in the back, but on emerging from cover was shot in turn and knocked flat, though his carapace armour saved him from serious injury. Lying on the ground stunned, he saw the fleeing contact brought down by a shot from Thordis' ally.
So, the game ends with most of both warbands and the contact they were fighting over on the floor in various stages of bleeding to death, Racol in particular hanging on to conciousness by a very thin thread due to the true git rule. Apparently, this counts as a mutual victory, on the grounds that the contact had no intention of aiding either party, but was instead out to wreck both of them, and that he had succeeded in grand style was of secondary importance to us having figured this out.
GAME FOUR-The solar flare station
Which led to the final game, with Racol's information having led him to a mysterious station capable of controlling the system's solar flares. Trailed by Kaernfel, Racol made a beeline straight for the controls at the centre of the station, with Ji-Ken taking a more cautious route round the side, bravely protecting against the possibility of a flank attack. Reaching the central building, Racol found himself challenged by a guardsman claiming to be an inquisitorial agent, and sent him ducking for cover with a blast from his cutting laser before entering the control room. Following up, Kaernfel spotted an armoured giant advancing, overlooked by a mutant on a ledge. Opening up with his stormbolter, he inflicts a severe arm wound on the giant's relatively unarmoured, but also unused, left arm, and blasted the mutant into a thin red mist(alas, poor NPC, and not even wearing a red shirt). The return fire proved more accurate, sending him ducking back round the corner with a leg wound, and the guardsman took the opportunity to enter the control room, just in time to witness Racol's cutting laser removing the 'abort' button from the control panel. Opening fire with a shotgun, he hit Racol twice in the same leg, once more sending him sprawling to the ground, wandering if it might, after all, be wise to wear armour. Ji-Ken readied a blind grenade, but before he could throw it was attacked by another mutant. Hastily dodging backward, he dropped the grenade, then ran away through the cloud of smoke before turning and firing shots into the cloud, unaware that his assailant, confused, had run the other way and been felled by a stray ricochet from one of his comrades. On the floor in the control room, Racol mustered his psychic powers and struck out with deadly force, opening several deep gashes in the guardsman's flesh and causing his adversary to pass out from the pain. Kaernfel's fight with the guardsman's boss was going worse, with a further round from his storm bolter having missed its target completely, and multiple blows from the monsters power fist felling him. Hurriedly patching up his leg, Racol attempted to take up the fight, but after two missed shots from his cutting laser and a failed risky action roll that saw him fall down the control room stares left him prone at his adversaries feet having done no harm at all, it was once more left to Ji-Ken to save the day, blowing away the remnants of the  giant's left arm and causing it to retreat, leaving the station under Racol's control. On the main table, either despite or because of the solar flares now flooding the battlefield, anti-Mack forces succeeded in destroying the arcane piece of technology seemingly at the heart of the network, causing the network to crumble throughout the Carthax sector(or has it....)

With control of the solar flare station and the contacts accumulated, Racol is well-placed to take advantage of the splintering of the Mack network to build a power base of his own on its ruins, compensating for the loss of resources resulting from his estrangement from the inquisition and letting him continue his lamented master's work.
Summary
Well, a fun series of games, with a few truly epic moments, in particular the duel between Lyra Rhodes and Ramirez. Racol struggled somewhat from his unarmoured nature, espescially comined with a tendency to get hit in the same leg twice, but with True grit was able to take a lot of punishment without quite going out of action, and dealt out some heavy damage at times in return. Kaernfel and Spare parts were both heavily handicapped by the inaccuracy of any weapon with a better fire rate than semi-3, but since an accurate storm bolter would just destroy anything it was aimed at this doesn't feel like much of a problem in Kaernfels' case. Spare parts, on the other hand, could certainly do with a rethink of his ranged weaponry, or else some sort of bonus.
Ji-Ken was a lot of fun to play, with his cowardly actions adding a welcome extra dynamic to games all too often dominated by brave and relentless warrior-types, and also proved quite useful, with a well-placed bolt pistol shot felling a few enemies, and his cautiouos approach to conflicts sparing him the debilitating injuries his braver comrade's racked up. Plus, he looks pretty dashing running away.