Timestamp: 5.033.998.M41

Location: Solomon system, Markayn Marches, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, in orbit above the Departmento Munitorum hive world of Solomon

Body: The fickle currents of the warp have ensure that what should have been a trip of two weeks perceived/four weeks real have turned into the odd conjunction - your navigator Erasmus has rarely seen the warp so becalmed - of eight weeks perceived/eight weeks real. Giving you ample opportunity to train security teams, rest and recover, and plan ahead. There was also a New Year's Eve celebration, but even with a navigator and an astropathic choir aboard it is hard to track time accurately when in the warp, so you probably celebrated it a few days early. No matter. What IS of grave concern is that the auction is starting in just three days. In that time you have to locate Marr and arrange for access to the House of Dust and Ash. There is no time to loose.

The Tricorn is going on a semninar and leaving their cogitators at home. Vox-access only. They will be back on Sunday.

Please refrain from heretical activities during that time.

Timestamp: 6.866.997.M41

Location: Acreage system, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, being briefed by Soldevan

Body: Haxtes' meets with Inquisitor Soldevan in a most unusual location - within the bowels of the eldar assault vessel. The Inquisitor seems to think this is the most private are in the entire fleet. He might be right. He sits across from Haxtes, separated by enough air that any sudden attack would take time to reach him. Pragmatically paranoid. He's pretty hard to read. Not in an inhuman fashion...its just hard to guess what he's thinking.

"It has been a while Haxtes. A while indeed. When last we met I let you go on a hunch. Let us not pretend; I know that you know that I know who and what you are. So as you might infer from that - I am not so puritanical as my reputation would have me be...not a radical by any measure...just accustomed to the realities of the galaxy. Enough so that I gladly seek what lore I can to better combat the enemies of Mankind - but not nearly as much as to use their heretical ways against them. That is a prerogative of my station.

Which brings me to my point; you are not an Inquisitor, you do not have that prerogative. And yet here I find you, and I am left wondering - haw you taken nothing to heart? I had a hunch that you perhaps had the seed of greatness within your soul, but when I look upon it again...it is still lost in the dark, is it not?

If I were to ask you, here and now; 'do you hold faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind', what would you answer then? Feel free not to reply - this is not an interrogation...but if you gave the wrong answer I would still have to put you down. So here you are, still the heretic. Tancred and his radical ways...his crew might accept such deviancy. Indeed they seem to relish the borderline, the insane and the slightly corrupt. But there will come a time of reckoning...

But I digress. Why is it that you cannot bring yourself to His side? I am aware of your rather harsh childhood and your conditioning...but that is no excuse. You are what you choose to be, no more, no less. And if you would continue along the path laid out for you by the Veiled Hand...I must say I'm disappointed. You could be so much more. By the Throne, if it is the blood that you crave, you need look no further - there is no god more terrible and bloody-handed that the one that I serve. No master more harsh or unforgiving that the God-Emperor of Mankind!"

He pauses.

OOC: Since this is a campaign log/blog I'd rather post it here for people to read and enjoy.

Timestamp: 6.871.997.M41

Location: Acreage system, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, preparing for the next mission

Body: The Day after the party Haxtes summons the members of Globus and Tancreds cadre for a team meeting. When all are there Haxtes intends to inform them of the new mission from our inquisitors.

Timestamp: 6.861.997.M41

Location: Acreage system, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, following the destruction of Orlankan

Body: With the xenos threat ended its is time for regrouping and planning ahead. Not all the slaught vessels were destroyed -  some punched through the Navy blockade and disappeared in a fashion that would have made the Eldar proud. One of the frigates - the Absolution of Malfi - has been heavily damaged and cannot leave Acerage system before repairs have been affected. So Soldevan has decided to remain on station here until a Munitorum repair convoy from Solomon can arrive. Besides, he needs to look into planetary affairs - see if there are more aliens present.

A sort of victory celebration is being held aboard the Maiden. It's the smaller ship, but she IS a Rogue Trader's vessel, and thus more suited to that sort of activity than battle-damaged frigates or Astartes cruisers. Soldevan is here. Some of his staff. Trempan too - out of coma, but still in a wheelchair. All the acolytes - and the newly promoted Explicator Haxtes Guilliman - are present. Along with Navigator Erasmus and two Marines - Kaminsky and Ivanov. Ranking officers from the Navy are in attendance. Rogue Trade Jax. There is food and drink. There is even a small 8-woman orchestra. The music is pleasing to the ears and the girls to the eyes. Quite the combination...

This is the XP total for Maggots + Twilight, plus some odd bits and ends from previous Chapter 1 adventures.

---

Parsifal - 200 XP for his passive NPC 'prelude' play, starting with the end of Rejoice and up through Shades.

Jebediah - 450 XP for his prelude play and active contribution to adventures.

Maxi - 600 XP for his participation in Maggots, plus some decent role-play.

Haxtes - 925 XP for his participation in some of Maggots and all of Twilight, plus some quite decent role-play and character-building.

You are down 1 FP each (except Parsifal). Jeb for heroically giving his life to prevent the eldar from fleeing. Haxtes for his heroic death against the warp-tunnel-generating gholam. And Maxi for his heroic stand upon the stairs of the Cathedral.

---

Haxtes also got hold of some xenos-tech from the Twilight eldar (covered already in a separate post). Then there was some looting on Emperor's Island - the Slaught are after brain tissue, not baubles. So if you want you could add some odd bits and ends from there - just remember that it was a small backwater outpost.

---

You'll have time to recover physically before embarking on the next major story arc, which will take you, if you accept Soldevan's 'request', to the Departmento Munitorum owned planet named Solomon.

There will also be time for Xerza's astropathic message to arrive, confirming Haxtes promotion to Explicator (it's a junior rank - if Acolytes are enforcer sergeants then the Explicator is their watch lieutenant if you will).

---

The Maiden has taken a bit of damage from the fight with the Eldar raider. She's still void and warp capable. Emergency repairs undertaken by your two resident tech-priests is quite sufficient for that. Solomon should be an excellent play for further repairs...seeing as it is the main Imperial supply point for the entire sector.

The Maiden has lost quite a bit of crew to the Eldar attacks - the two gholams in particular carved up quite a bit of non-combatants. Might be a good idea to take on some survivors from Orlankan - Lt. Rabalias and the rest of his platoon could replace the lost armsmen while less maritally inclined characters could be press-ganged (offered a new life) as ratings. Plus you have several officers, tech adepts, some armsmen and quite a few ratings that you rescued from the Brazen Sky. Enough to bring you out way ahead of you pre-battle position.

XP awards from this adventure will be combined with those of Shades on Twilight. The Maiden has secured quite a bit of loot from Orlankan - payment for the guns and such. You got almost everything agreed to - and some of it in the form of native artwork and jewelry. To the right factor it could net a nice bonus.

Dette ble i grunnen bare dumt - rart det skal være så vanskelig og bli med å lage en god historie. Mulig det er blogg-formatet som ikke er helt godt, men det var verdt å prøve det. Det krever en god del GM-innsats for å drive kampanjen fremover og akkurat nå kan jeg ikke se at jeg får så mye i retur. Nok en gang kan det være blogg-formatet må ta en del av skylda, men alternativet har jo vært å ikke spille... Unasett har jeg ikke tenkt å bruke mer tid på denne kampanjen - i alle fall ikke i denne omgang. Hvis det er ønskelig kan jeg godt lage en oppsummeringspost - begge eventyrene er egentlig over - for å trekke sammen trådende, samt dele ut XP og div loot.

Timestamp: 6.853.997.M41

Location: Acreage system, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, following the eldar attack

Body: Years of substance use (or maybe abuse) coupled with some residue of anti-toxins have saved Jeb from massive organ failure and certain death. That and pious living. He's out of med-bay and directing a through search of the Maiden - you know that there is at least one of the blasted eldar loose on one of the engenarium sub-levels. The area hasn't been used for many years and is bereft of the usual sensor clusters. So you have to do it by hand. So far you've lost two men, but you get the feeling more will follow.

On the bridge Haxtes is sitting in the Captain's chair, graciously lent to him by his brother. Tubes and shit are hooked into him, feeding him vital nutrients and blood and helping flush his system. Molochan's old gun drone is hovering over his shoulder, loaded not with ordnance, but with various medical supplies. It's quite a sight. But you have other concerns. You have finished your recovery run, picking up 241 survivors from the Brazen Sky, including two bridge officers and some skilled warrant officers and ratings. A valuable addition to your depleted crew. You've also had the opportunity to space no less than three dark eldar that you've also picked up - capturing them proved...impractical...so you settled for the next best thing.

You've tired to reach Maxi on the ground - but failed. Orlankan has been on the far side of the planet for a long while now, so that's not so strange. But while you might not reach the shuttle directly, you should be able to reach Emperor's Island. They have powerful listening system, probably also with orbital relays.

Now you face another challenge, however, and have been forced to postpone further investigation. Auspex arrays have detected a large warp footprint - consistent with four large vessels exiting the warp in formation. Close military formation. You are currently tracking them as they accelerate in-system from their jump-point. Four unknown black void-ships...friend or foe?

I've made an overhaul of the Categories - especially when it comes to Adventures. It should be much easier to look up a particular piece of the story arc now. Not all categories have contents yet, but they will once I have time to go through all the posts and assign them new tags.

Timestamp: 6.851.997.M41

Location: Acreage, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Late evening, sun descending towards the horizion, soon they will walk again

Body: They came from somewhere, from the sky-mill perhaps or beneath them, or possibly the swamp. But came they did, in the aftermath of the battle. They walked the fields of the dead, stopping to gather something from time to time, or to put an injured enemy out of his misery. Scenes such as these are not uncommon on battlefields - once the fighting is over the scavengers come. It's part of the circle of life, death and decay. You all knew they were out there, so you returned to the city and put out sentries and then you hoped it would all go away. A good thing that the battle was so one-sided, or you would readily have left your own injured out there too...

Come dawn there were no more screams. The mists and gunsmoke that had wreathed the battlefield were gone. They were gone. Only the dead remained. Come dawn you found hope once more.

Then the plague started. A strange deliberating illness that afflictied seemingly at random. Leaving its victims weak and in agony, but alive. All in the span of a single day. Perhaps one person in five have been so affected - but there may be more, only they are not yet showing sympthoms.  Now darkness is coming and you know they will too, and there is nothing you can do.

Maxi has also contacted the disease, but unlike the locals he's not succumbing. He can feel a fire buring in his body, but other than a mild fever it appears that his body can handle it.

XP will be handed out once the adventure is actually over - same with Maggots in the meat :-P

If anyone wants to pick up some Eldar gear they can do so (just be sure not to hurt yourself on jagged edges and poisoned surfaces ;-) You can't really use it effectively without the correct Specialist Training Xenos gear talent (which only Haxtes has). But I'm not stopping you from picking up things.

Haxtes got hold of: One weird whistle-like thingy from the beast-handler, one fully functional splinter rifle, a neuro-whip from the Archon, several 'mags' of crystal core ammo, some of it toxic (both agonizer and terminator types), assorted vials of poisons and antidotes, plus some other other odd ends. It's hard to tell exactly what everything is - the Veiled Hand used some of the same gear, but it was not truly Eldar gear, but adapted Eldar gear. This stuff might work the same way, but its easily recongizeable as being xenos.

Ah yes, several of the corpses also carried a symbol much like that of the Serrated Query as amulets (and the Archon took great offense when Haxtes suggested he was a slave to the Serrated Query).

We have now reached the point where we left of - PbP play can now commence.

Be nice to nice people and the GM will be nice in return...

Timestamp: 6.851.997.M41

Location: High Orbit, Acreage, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Aboard the Maiden of Golgenna, trying to wrap things up

Body: Your actions may indirectly have saved Acreage. Even as you fly the shuttle back to the Maiden - good thing that they train Interrogators to operate these things - you note that the auspexes indicate that the hulk is breaking up. Aboard the Maiden Jax confirms - the hulk is breaking up sufficiently for a large part to miss the planet entirely. Other sections will be deflected by gravity and athmosphere. There will be some ground strikes, but not anything at the cataclysmic level. Good for Maxi! The hulks ultimate fate is uncertain, but the central core looks like it will slingshot around Acreage and plunge into the sun. A fitting tomb perhaps.

You could all use some time in the medi-bay. Trempan and Haxtes in particular, but Venus has some borns and lacerations and Jeb suffers from multiple puncture wounds and the after-effects of the Eldar toxins. Only Parsifal is relatively whole, just bruised and battered - clearly the God-Emperor watchers over him. Haxtes has things to do and places to be - if he hasn't died yet he'll live a while longer. So he settles for Parsifal and a large medi-kit. Sergeant Forden is out there, possibly aboard Trempan's shuttle. Then there is the brazen Sky unaccounted for. And of course the Eldar had to come from somewhere - unless they walked through space that is. Haxtes is very adamant - if ANY ship tries to approach the Maiden he is to be notified and the Maiden is to stay well clear of it! He then makes his way to the astropathic choir - the late Interrogator Castilas was so kind as to invite aboard the three commercial astropaths from Emperor's Island. Now Haxtes sends a message back to Mistress, informing her of recent developments. THEN he reports to the medi-bay...

You really should try and find a qualified medicae...the ones you've got now aren't really qualified for advanced procedures...I mean, you've got a real navigator, an astropatich choir and an eight-woman orchestra - but no certified chirurgeon...we all know Haxtes dislikes doctors, but for crying out loud! :-P

Haxtes is forced to strip down, is cleaned, swabed, stitched and generally patched together. Then you get a couple of bags of blood and nutrients hooked into your system to replace what has been lost - and to help flush various toxic residues from the system. No sooner than he's covered in bandages and wrapped in a greenish robe the call comes in from Jax - they have picked up a singal from the Brazen Sky. Jeb looks over at Haxtes, sees his determined look and gets up to follow him to the bridge...

Btw: Trempan will live, but for now he needs to remain under medi-care. Venus is up and about. Same with Parsifal.

OOC: Disregard any parting remarks from the PnP session - it was getting late and we needed to wrap things up - this is the official starting position. Happy hunting.

Timestamp: 6.850.997.M41

Location: Acreage system, Josian Reach, Calixis Sector

Situation: Fleeing the space hulk

Body: Haxtes slips inside the Black Ship. He emerges inside a great dark hold. Old cages and chains are readily visible and cells line the walls, many stories high. Behind them are more rows of cells. Hundreds of them. And to the fore - and aft - more holds like this one. Thirteen all told, as there are in all Black Ships.

The girl is there. She is not alone. They start showing themselves. First only a few, then more and more, until there are hundreds. Surrounding Haxtes. They are all clad in the same worn, grey robes. Many carry the stigmata of mutation. Others bear the marks of chains or physical hardship. Psykers each and every one of them. Unsanctioned psykers, dead some 600 years. They are, perhaps understandably, not very pleased at seeing a member of the Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition...

Before they can fall upon Haxtes and tear him apart they are halted by a powerful voice. One of their number steps forth and commands them to stay their hands - by the power invested in him by the God-Emperor. He turns out to be Crovus, former Imperial preacher, psyker and Black Ship cargo, something of a leader for the ghosts, and completely in denial when it comes to the real reason for him being here. He knows he's on a Black Ship, but he's deluded himself into thinking he came here to preach to the heathen and the witch. He doesn't understand he HE is a witch. Nor that he - and they - are as dead as they come. They are the ghosts of psykers trapped here, unable to find their way to the realms of the dead.

Haxtes listens to his ramblings and eventually manages to explain that he and his companions are here on behest of the God-Emperor, to bring the hero Adorjin and her mighty blade to rest among other heroes and earn the accolade she so well deserves. The other ghost are not happy, but they won't gainsay Crovus, and quietly fade - presumably to brood and plot the deaths of you all. And so the rest of the team is allowed aboard, seeing only one 'ghost', that being the physically manifesting Crovus. Several members of the team, names need not be mentioned, become visibly unsettled when they finally realize he's not a person - but something from the beyond...

As you search through the ship it becomes apparent that the ghosts, Crovus included, are loathe to go aft. They freely range through the fist eleven holds, but never approach the two rearmost. Except the girl. She's there again. Pointing out the way through the ruined ship, taking you into the twelfth hold. Then she is gone.

A voice speaks, but there is no one there:

"They never come here. Except her and me. Nor do they really venture into the other parts of the ship or outside - they are bound by tradition. They were prisoners in life. In death they remain so. Most are quite insane. And all fear in this death what they feared in life. They fear the agents of the Inquisition. They fear the righteous judgement of the God-Emperor. But above all they fear that which lies within the 13th hold.  Even when it is but a shadow of existence they fear it, the daemon Nekaybraianon, nemesis to my Mistress, Daemonhunter Adorjin."

There is suddenly a man standing before you. Clad not in grey tatters, but in fine emerald and black robes, sewn with gold and pearl, bearing the symbols of the Imperium and the Inquisition.

"You do believe in daemons, do you not? Perhaps you are even authorized to know of their existence? I see you are not Malleus, but some favored servants of the other Ordos are sometimes trusted...no matter. I am way past caring about such trifles. Daemons are. Eat it up and accept the fact.

I am, or was, Ishatan Vogel, scholar and psyker, Inquisitor Adojin's chronicler and most enduring companion. I take it that you have come in response to my signal? It was not easily accomplished, so I would hate to learn that you stumbled upon us by accident...no?"

Ghost or no this one is clearly more sane that the others, at least for the moment. And he's still psychically active in a way the others are not. You're pretty sure he could kill you - and you would be unable to harm him in return.

"Come with me to the thirteenth hold. Only I hold the key to its vault doors."

You follow him over.

"The reason I mentioned Daemons is this - there is a particular powerful and vicious specimen inside. A prince of daemons if you will. It's quite dead now of course. Not merely banished back to hell, but utterly and irrecoverably annihilated. It can still be quite unsettling, however..."

With that the seven seals on the thirteenth vault open and the mighty doors swing away to reveal...darkness and cold.