Dark Heresy: The Oremor Affliction IC

Game Master Rookseye

On the agri-world of Oremor, at the very fringes of the Malfian sub-sector, acolytes of the Inquisition and their allies must confront a sinister conspiracy that threatens to shake the very foundations of the Calixis sector.


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The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3 Lift Lobby

Savalos, Uriah:
Just a quick question for clarification. Were Uriah, Einhardt, and Bothle going on the same lift to the 7th floor as Savalos, or going up separately? Or were they staying in the lift-lobby?

Hissing into his microbead while standing in the corner of the large caged lift, Savalos strains to listen as Ivaanov quickly replies:

<<<The floor appears to be comprised of a sizable wing of luxury suites, ninety-nine in number, the suite you have indicated is on the very end of the southern wing. Preliminary scans of the corridor show very little activity. A handful of cleaning and maintenance servitors and a few patrons; largely unremarkable personages, either exiting or re-entering their suites from the lift-lobby. I regret to advise you that as there are no picters in the suites themselves, I cannot remark on their occupants or contents. I will have Kaltos scan the concierge sub-system data-loom while I monitor to see if there is anything in the lodging or registration documents that seems amiss or ambiguous.>>>

Kaltos, this can be done through your electro-graft linkage with a successful Ordinary [+10] Tech Use test.


The Oubliette

Test is unsuccessful, Ryuk.

Ryuk descends along the curve of the massive, cracked dome for several more steps, watching as Vincent and the new stranger, Launce, quietly converse while walking well ahead of him. They are about ten meters from the strange metallic skiff, and he about ten meters more behind them when he hears what sounds like a loud rustling coming from further up the dome near the jagged scar in its surface. It steadily increases in volume as he stops to listen, a whispering susurrus of many movements at once, and it is not until he sees the fibrous fungoid stalks growing out of the crack from within beginning to tremble that he realizes the peril is very real.


Male Human Outlaw

I would think Uriah, and Bothle should stay in the lobby, and Einhardt should go up a seperate lift.


Male Human Savant Militant (Rank 4)

I believe we were staying and keeping an eye out for people following and/or watching Savalos.


Ivaanov, Techpriest wrote:

The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3 Lift Lobby

Kaltos, this can be done through your electro-graft linkage with a successful Ordinary [+10] Tech Use test.

Assuming the bonus for using the grafts are already caculated Tech use 44+10=54 1d100 ⇒ 77 sigh not making many rolls here.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3 Lift Lobby

Einhardt discreetly separates himself from Uriah and Bothle, moving through the press of patrons toward a lift neighboring the one Savalos just used to ascend. Boarding it with a raucous group of wealthy Upspire youths, he dips his head ever so slightly from the back of the cage in a subtle signal to Uriah before the gate closes in front of him.

**************************************************************

At that very moment, seven floors above, the grille-work gate retracts from behind the intricately-whorled, smoked-plas safety shield, and Savalos allows the handful of fellow patrons to step off first in the plushly carpeted corridor beyond. Muted golden light from a series of glow globes tethered with elegant chains to ornate ceiling fixtures provide a diffuse illumination that seems positively dim compared to the garish lights in the Luminous Antechamber.

Thul had ample time to assess his fellow occupants while riding up in the lift, but nothing about them seem outwardly suspicious. Just tired patrons of the casinos below, the bloom of their former elation diminished substantially by their financial losses.

In an unanticipated whisper of memory he recalls his father was fond of using the expression, 'the house always wins'. A truism, for certain.

Stepping out into the long, wide corridor, the acolyte looks in either direction and sees that the guests have already disappeared into their rooms or turned one of the corners to the adjoining hallways. Glancing at the elegant gold-leaf plates affixed to the doors, 713, 715, he can see that room #779 lies some ways down the hall to the left.


<<<Unfortunately, Kaltos is unable to access the registration data-loom from our present location, it is in a separate partition from the those accessible from the security subsystems cogitator hub.>>>

Uriah again finishes scanning the lift-lobby, whose crowds never seem to diminish, such is the steady flow of people to and from their rooms in the lux-suite tower. Bothle gamely tries to control his nervous fidgeting, wringing his hands behind his back where he stands next to an elaborate wall fresco depicting Orcut VII hive silhouetted against the midsummer sky, ocean waves shown crashing against the shores of the rocky estuaries at the base of the steep cliffs upon which it sits.

It is obvious the woman wanted something with Savalos beyond what her apparent vocation implied, but what?

His razor-sharp intuition suggests to the psyker that perhaps his fellow acolyte has not been entirely forthcoming with him on this matter.


Male Human Outlaw

I move slowly and carefully down the hallway toward room #779 with the keycard in hand. I adjust my furs to give me easier access to the weapons I have stashed within them. While the lighting is brighter, and the occupents richer it somehow reminds me of walking down the hall of Aebena's Fab. I take notice if its as silent a place as her Fab was or if I can still hear the signs of life in these halls.

All the while I consider the woman Mollene. Who is she? And how does she know me?


The Oubliette

A waft of unwholesome air, fouler even than the redolent miasma that already hangs over the Oubliette prickles Vincent's nostrils. He turns to find its source, and his gaze goes past Ryuk to the edge of the ruptured prison they walk upon. At first he thinks he sees nothing, but then his eyes alight upon something hunched and misshapen, like the deformed arm and shoulder of a small, vomit-colored child scrabbling at the edge of the jagged scar. Finally finding purchase, it pulls itself up by the ungainly limb to reveal a malformed face, smiling an idiot smile from a ear to pointed ear, its maw half again the size of its head, filled with needle-sharp teeth.

It giggles, and with a rush of scampering, flailing limbs, a dozen more clamber up over the edge.

As they scuttle down the slope of the dome, some even losing their balance and clumsily rolling toward Ryuk, easily a hundred more scuttle from the depths to replace them, hopping awkwardly over the lip of the rent, shrieking and caterwauling madly as they come.

Vincent, Ryuk, please attempt a Frightening (-10) Fear (WP) test, then declare your actions.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3, Seventh Floor

Savalos turns another corner, continuing down the interminable corridors on the seventh floor. He hears the chime of his microbead tone in his ear, immediately echoed by another ding over the open link, apparently ambient sound from Sgt. Einhardt's own lift arriving on the floor. His no-nonsense voice follows:

<<<Right behind you, Thul. Corridor is empty, I'll follow at a distance. Keep me apprised.

Still seeing nobody in the deserted hallways, Savalos cautiously continues on, coming around another corner. He stops short. Mollene stands near the end of the corridor, leaning against the darkly paneled wall, inhaling deeply from a lho-stick, her leg provocatively propped against the elaborately carved baseboard by one stiletto heel. Smoke, blue-grey like gunsmoke, floats toward the muted glowglobes chained to the ceiling, like a weary ghost unable to find the afterlife.

Seeing you, she flicks her long-lashed eyes in your direction, before turning to enter the adjacent room and closing the door soundlessly behind her.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3 Lift Lobby

Uriah nervously watches the crowd, his own hands kneading one another in the folds of his robes. He waits for Savalos' transmission a knot building in the pit of his stomach. Bothle makes to say something next to him, then thinks better of it, and feigns admiring the fresco instead.

Uriah, please make an Awareness test.


Fear (Willpower) 1d100 ⇒ 24

Ryuk's memory contains some of the most horrifying images in creation, these deviants does not come close to cracking Ryuk's sanity.

"Defend yourselves!!!"

Seeing as these beings have faces, hence, eyes, Ryuk recalls a trick that would make it impossible for them to find him.

Distort Vision (8; free action 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Rook, can Ryuk still manifest another psychic power?


Ahmazzi wrote:

The Oubliette

Vincent, Ryuk, please attempt a Frightening (-10) Fear (WP) test, then declare your actions.

"Bugger, I was afraid of that."

Willpower 43 - 10 = 33 : 1d100=94

Fate Point Reroll: 1d100=30

Vincent starts running towards the exit.

"Follow me!"


The Oubliette

Both Fear tests successful, Fate Point deducted from Vincent. Ryuk, good call, the power manifests perfectly.

Following Vincent's gaze, Ryuk turns and then shouts a warning, seeing the Papa's Children cresting like a wave of cackling putridity over the lip of the scar in the dome. Succumbing to instinct, he stops, standing his ground and channeling his inner will, his eyes flickering a sallow yellow, looking back and forth wildly before alighting on a point ten meters to his right and a good distance further up the curve of the dome.

Vincent, unable to tear his eyes away from the tide of screeching daemons pouring out of the crack, somehow keeps moving toward the anti-grav skiff parked near the edge of the sphere. Risking a glance back over his shoulder at Ryuk, he screams for the one-time prisoner to follow, but the addled man is no longer where he stood a moment ago, now much closer to the swarm of horrors. Dozens of them halt, their rheumy yellow eyes, half-mad with hunger swiveling this way and that to see how he has stopped so close to them. Seemingly baffled by this turn of events, they banter back and forth with one another in squealing, infantile cries before moving forward as one again, leaping toward the clone, and engulfing him.

His breath catching in labored gasps as he runs, Vincent sees a trio of long-legged, horrifically bloated hopping things bounding in great leaps amid the tiny daemons. He catches a glimpse of a jagged, rotten hunk of horn and a staring red eye rimmed with weeping puss before sagely deciding to look forward from this point on for the sake of his sanity.

Unbelievably, as he turns around, he spies Ryuk sprinting beside him for the long skiff, where the tech-priest Launce is even now frantically twisting dials and activating levers to awake the device's machine spirits. A frustrated chorus of squealing and mewling from behind is replaced with the drumming sounds of hundreds of tiny, clawed feet pattering against the metal dome as Ryuk's duplicity is discovered, and this only makes the pair run with even more urgency.

Both of you please attempt Agility tests to successfully outrun the nurglings and reach the skiff. Because of the success of Ryuk's bait and switch, the test is Easy [+30].


Male Human Savant Militant (Rank 4)

Awareness Test(50)1d100 ⇒ 13.
Made it by 3 degrees.


Agility 1d100 ⇒ 14

"Run!!!"


Male Human Outlaw
Ahmazzi wrote:

The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3, Seventh Floor

Savalos turns another corner, continuing down the interminable corridors on the seventh floor. He hears the chime of his microbead tone in his ear, immediately echoed by another ding over the open link, apparently ambient sound from Sgt. Einhardt's own lift arriving on the floor. His no-nonsense voice follows:

<<<Right behind you, Thul. Corridor is empty, I'll follow at a distance. Keep me apprised.

Still seeing nobody in the deserted hallways, Savalos cautiously continues on, coming around another corner. He stops short. Mollene stands near the end of the corridor, leaning against the darkly paneled wall, inhaling deeply from a lho-stick, her leg provocatively propped against the elaborately carved baseboard by one stiletto heel. Smoke, blue-grey like gunsmoke, floats toward the muted glowglobes chained to the ceiling, like a weary ghost unable to find the afterlife.

Seeing you, she flicks her long-lashed eyes in your direction, before turning to enter the adjacent room and closing the door soundlessly behind her.

Seeing her lean against the wall waiting for me before disappearing into her room. Reminding me of an Alpha female inviting a prospective male Alpha into her lair. It reminds me of an age old saying passed down by generations of men. There is nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned. I can't say why, but its the feeling I got. It still nags at me that she was able to identify me out of the crowd so quickly. And how silent this place is compared to the noise below. The ordeal on the stairwell still fresh in my mind as the scar is fresh on my face. My questions will be answered soon enough, or I will be dead...

Hearing Einhardt over the Microbead I reply. "Affirmative."

I follow down the hall. Making sure the keycard matchs the number on the door.


Agility 40 + 30 = 70 : 1d100=80


The Oubliette

Ryuk, test successful. Vincent, test failed.

Vincent has time to think that for someone who has spent most of his natural (unnatural?) life inside of a septcell only a few meters wide, Ryuk is remarkably fit. He quickly outpaces the older and less physically gifted senior clerk, bounding down the steepening slope of the dome. Trying to keep pace, Vincent stumbles and before he can right his balance, he falls forward from his momentum and begins to tumble down the curve of the dome, unable to arrest his descent. He flails desperately for purchase from the ribbed support welds or any of the countless silver-headed rivets that protrude from the dome's skin, fearful that he will tumble right by Launce and the waiting skiff to the edge of dome and the septcells ringing its base.

Vincent, please attempt a Challenging [+0] Agility test. You have one more shot to arrest your fall. If he so chooses, Ryuk may forgo arriving at the skiff (and his one round lead on the nurglings) ahead of you to reach back and grab you as you tumble by with a successful Ordinary [+10] Agility test of his own.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3, Seventh Floor

Savalos examines the key-card again, the numbers staring back mute and sinister for their eerie significance and sees that they match the small plate on the center of the door. 779. An elegant ward reader, silver with a dim roseate light for the card-guide is flush with the wall to the right side of the doorway.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3 Lift Lobby

Awareness test is successful, Uriah.

Still scanning the lobby for anything out of the ordinary, Uriah's gaze happens to fall on a trio of men clad in inexpensive dress attire at the edge of the crowd, standing in a darkened alcove similar to the one where he first saw the smile girl staring at Savalos. He immediately recognizes two as the acolyte's shadows from the Luminous Antechamber, but cannot make out the unidentified third, who they obviously are deferring to, as he has his back turned at the moment. They appear to be taking direction from him, nodding deferentially to each words he says, as he gestures to various methods of egress from the lift lobby.


Male Human Outlaw
Ahmazzi wrote:

The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3, Seventh Floor

Savalos examines the key-card again, the numbers staring back mute and sinister for their eerie significance and sees that they match the small plate on the center of the door. 779. An elegant ward reader, silver with a dim roseate light for the card-guide is flush with the wall to the right side of the doorway.

Trusting that everyone is in position, and knows there job. I swipe the keycard, and enter. Time to see how this dance goes...

Over the Microbead: "Entering"


Ahmazzi wrote:

The Oubliette

Vincent, please attempt a Challenging [+0] Agility test. You have one more shot to arrest your fall. If he so chooses, Ryuk may forgo arriving at the skiff (and his one round lead on the nurglings) ahead of you to reach back and grab you as you tumble by with a successful Ordinary [+10] Agility test of his own.

Agility 40 : 1d100=75


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Lux-Suite Tower #3, Seventh Floor

Savalos slides the key-card in and hears Sgt. Einhardt rasp in his ear over the microbead,

<<<"Acknowledged, I'm just around the corner if you need me.>>>

Stepping over the tall doorway's marble threshold, Savalos finds himself in a sumptuously appointed sitting room, with dark Unduz shellwood paneled walls, a massive desk of black marble and stainless steel, and deep-pile carpeting of a neutral sage hue. Glowglobes suspended from golden chains drift about on preordained paths along the ceiling, lending a soft, tranquil lighting to the suite. Internally illuminated glass pedestal stands and bookcases flank the doorway to either side, adding to the dim light, filled with curios, objets d'art, and row upon row of bound books and dataslates. After a few paces the room widens, descending into sunken lounge area complete with burgundy colored maulchups leather sofas and intricately embroidered settees. A multi-tiered, oval-shaped caffeine table of thick glass banded with graven gold rests in the middle of this wide space, and a large, flat pict-screen, presently turned off, dominates the recessed wall to the right. A wrought iron spiral stair ascends to an overlooking balcony encircling the lower rooms.

Mollene stands with her back to you next to an ornate, triangularly-shaped liquer cabinet in the lounge area beside the huge staring black eye of the pict-screen, pouring herself an amasec from a slender smoked glass decanter; a double by the looks of it.


The Oubliette

Agility test unsuccessful.

Vincent continues his head over heels tumble down the curving dome, unable to arrest his descent.

Just waiting to see if Ryuk will attempt to stop you with an Agility test of his own, Vincent.


Male Human Outlaw

I study her, and my surroundings. Its one thing to hold a facade in public. Its another behind closed doors.


Sav, please attempt an Awareness and Scrutiny test. Getting late here, so we'll pick up the encounter again tomorrow after the rolls.


Male Human Outlaw

Awareness Test (1d100=6)

Scrutiny Test (1d100=10)

I don't know if its they way the dress accents her figure, or the perfume she is wearing that is so disarming. But it is having the opposite effect. My senses are racing over every detail of imformation around me. Escape routes incase someone comes bashing through the door. Her posture, is she relaxing, or can I see the subtle tension in her back. Even the way to holds, and sips her drink. It all can tell me if this is a trap.


Ahmazzi wrote:

The Oubliette

Agility test unsuccessful.

Vincent continues his head over heels tumble down the curving dome, unable to arrest his descent.

Just waiting to see if Ryuk will attempt to stop you with an Agility test of his own, Vincent.

As Ryuk sprints back, he searches his memory for any edge against these 'things'.

Common Lore (Dusk Folklore) 1d100 ⇒ 67

Forbidden Lore (Warp) 1d100 ⇒ 97

But it seems the effort is futile, so Ryuk just moves to grab Vincent.

Agility 1d100 ⇒ 45

Ryuk however is ready with the sharp end of his sword.


The Oubliette

Ryuk, Lore tests failed, Agility test is successful.

They are the Papa's Children, and all he knows is that they are ravenous, and that is enough.

Stretching out as Vincent tumbles past, Ryuk arrests his movement with one corded arm, easily lifting the older man into the empty bed of the grav-sled. As Launce finishes the rites of activation, the antiquated vehicle lurches into movement, coming level and righting itself once it lifts off the slope of the dome before ascending ever so slowly. The screeching, disconcertingly gleeful chattering of the teeming swarm of daemons draws closer and closer, but the trio are well above the surface of the dome by the time they reach the spot where the sled once rested. Unintelligible imprecations are followed by spatters of phlegm, bile, and filth hurled by the frustrated daemons denied their meal, and the companions cower down below the raised lip around the edge of the sled to avoid being struck.

Vincent sighs in relief, but his rational mind knows that thanks to Ryuk's timely rescue, the daemons were never close to catching up to them in time. Had he tumbled the rest of the way to the septcell rim of the dome however...

The senior clerk is musing about how the close calls in holovids are always so much more dramatic than mortal perils of reality when something very large slams with tremendous force into the side of the sled, immediately tilting the load bed downward at a steep pitch, nearly capsizing the floating skiff and tossing he and Ryuk off. Scrabbling for purchase, the pair look back to see a bulbous, misshapen, toad-like creature clinging with sucker-covered forelimbs to the very end of the sled, struggling to pull its twisted, pustule-covered hind legs on to the back of the vehicle. Its hunched back is a grotesque bulge of warty nodules, weeping sores, and horrid, still-born limbs and faces of the smaller daemons melded with its own flesh. A wide, bloodshot, pus-weeping eye rotates wetly in its scaly socket to face the two of you, the yellowish, half-rotten nub of horn upon its head scraping discordantly against the side rails of the sled as it turns to face you. Opening its absurdly wide maw, a great lolling tongue, yellow and black, twitches from within, a stench like rancid cheese and and a privy pit wafting out from within its noxious innards. A sound that is half croak, half wet belch announces its gluttonous hunger.

Please roll Initiative.


Initiative 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12


Initiative 1d10=6 + 4 = 10


A Plague of Toads
Round #1
I will forgo the usual Battlemap for this encounter, as the sled is just over two meters in length, and about a meter and a half wide at its widest. There really isn't anywhere to move to in this case.

Conditions:

  • As there is really nowhere to hide from the plague toad scrambling up the flat bed without leaping from, or falling off the skiff, Vincent and Ryuk will have to rely on their reflexes (Dodge and Parry) to keep from being hit. They currently stand between the daemon and Launce who is desperately trying to level off the skiff despite the newly added weight at one end.
  • The encounter begins in melee.
  • As the skiff is pitched rather precariously at downward angle on the bed side due to the bulk of the gluttonous daemon, all melee attacks that miss by 20 or more require a character to make a Challenging [+0] Balance skill test to keep from falling down (fail Balance test by 2 or fewer degrees) or falling off the skiff (failing the Balance test by 3 or more degrees).
  • The skiff initially starts at a height of six meters above the multitude of nurglings swarming upon the surface of the Oubliette dome. Each round that the plague toad remains on the skiff, it loses 1 meter of height due to its burdensome weight. This loss of altitude can be negated by a successful Challenging [+0] Pilot (Skimmer) test by Launce, whose skill is 38, which will be his default action each round unless he is attacked by the toad.
  • At the start of each round, the toad will attack a random opponent. Choose which of you, Vincent or Ryuk, is in the 'Guard' position in the bed of the skiff at the top of each round, closest to the monstrosity. Launce and the 'Rear' positioned character will be attacked by the toad on random roll of 1-3 (Launce) 4-6 (Rear Combatant) on 1d10. This will be 7-10 (Guard Combatant) and higher odds to the character closest to the toad.

The Plague Toad is loathsome and inherently wrong to look upon. Both of you, please roll a Frightening (-10) Fear test by rolling a Willpower characteristic test.

Rolling Initiative for Launce, 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13.
Rolling Initiative for the Plague Toad, 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13.

Initiative Order:

13-Launce
13-Plague Toad
12-Ryuk
10-Vincent

Current Altitude:

6 meters....and falling!


The Oubliette

The young, oddly smirking tech-priest finally loses his composure as the vehicle jolts and the brackish horror flops about on the end of the listing skiff. Vincent's constantly working mind posits how his panicked shouting is clearly quite out of the expected norm for the typically unemotional reactions of his Adeptus Mechanicus ilk.

Launce, Pilot (Skimmer), 1d100 ⇒ 41, failed. 5 meters left.

The anti-grav generators strain and squeal with an awful grinding sound as the skiff begins to drop.

"Get it OFF! GET IT OFF, OR WE'RE ALL DEAD!"

Please choose who is Guard and who is Rear for this round.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Suite #779

Sav, Awareness test is successful. Opposed test against your Scrutiny test was: 1d100 ⇒ 27, so your Scrutiny test was successful by 1 degree.

Savalos looks past the smile girl, somehow keeping an impassive expression despite his Underhiver's awe at the staggering opulence of the room. The high balcony around the perimeter of the room above is empty of threats as far as he can tell, with two closed doors opening off the elevated mezzanine. There is only one door other than the entrance he came through that opens from the right-hand wall of the spacious lower room; a large double-door in a shadowed archway that almost certainly serves as a connecting door to the neighboring suite.

When Mollene makes eye contact with you, she takes note of you looking past her toward the other exits. There is a flicker of indecision, quickly masked, whether through her acting talents as a smile girl or something else you cannot say.

Lifting the slender flute to her lips, she sips her amasec, leaving a faint smudge of black lipstick across the rim. Her kohl-rimmed eyes are still the emotionally empty, vaguely condescending ones that met yours across the lift lobby, but there is something else there as well. You are absolutely certain she is nothing close to the typical foolishly naive Uphive call-girl, quite the opposite, in fact.

Her voice is silky and but with a harder edge beneath; deeper than you would have thought given her lithe build.

"A refreshment?"


Male Human Outlaw

I smile as she offers the refreshment, but politely decline with a gesture.

"Perhaps later."

Not use to upper class pleasantries. I continue knowing the clock is running.

"You have a sharp eye to spot in me a crowd from that distance. Who cued you in that I was coming...?"

First test.


Willpower 1d100 ⇒ 12

I'll take the Guard position

On my turn

Spoiler:

(Free Action) Distort Vision 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Attack 1d100 ⇒ 29

Damage 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Suite #779

"Suit yourself. Forgive me if I still wish to imbibe, it has been a trying day."

Hearing your question, Mollene looks down into her drink, losing herself in the dark fluid, before coquettishly looking back to you and taking a second sip. The thin smile fades, replaced by pained lines on her face as the barely visible tracks through her alabaster cosmetics become noticeable in the dim light, suggesting that she has been weeping recently, or anguished over something. Her voice hitches slightly when she continues, a very human frailty that seems out of place for her jaded
demeanor and callous sensibilities. You find sympathy for her plight stirring in you despite your suspicions.

"Srina did. But I fear what this may have cost her..."

Tears well in her eyes, and she looks down, placing the flat of her hand against her forehead. Great, quiet racking sobs shuddering through her slender frame.


Male Human Outlaw

Seeing her cry I soften a bit.

"Drinking is fine. Just don't think its the time. Need to keep your wits. Expect we don't have long before your door comes crashin' in. Too many eyes watching here."

Still hard to trust her change in disposition. But I do like Srina, and know the risk she took in the Gearbox talking with me. If she's in trouble I wonder if the P.I is already dead. Damn shame.

"So tell me what Srina told you, and whats become of her."

I look for something to hand her to wipe away the tears.

Talking with this one is like playing cards. Hard to tell if she is for real, or if this is a bluff. Is she a Queen of Hearts or a Queen of Spades.


The Oubliette

Rolling for the plague toad's target, 1d10 ⇒ 2: Launce.

Raising the razor-edged spar of silvered warding material like a machete, Ryuk ducks as a retching sound from the daemon-toad's maw sounds, followed by a filthy brown tongue shooting out with the speed of a hurled spear, spraying gobbets of rank phlegm and bile all over the skiff and its occupants. It just misses Vincent, arcing over his shoulder toward the tech-priest.

WS = 35, 1d100 ⇒ 14, a hit.

Turning at the last moment, Launce instinctively tries to duck out of the way, but the ropy tongue coils around his upper arm. Whatever redolent toxic filth coats it quickly begins to eat through his robes.

Dodge = 37, 1d100 ⇒ 72 failed.

Agility test to avoid Snare and being Immobilized, 1d100 ⇒ 32, succeeded.

Damage is 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4, with a Penetration of 3, 1 point is deducted for Launce's AP, and the rest is absorbed by his TB.

The dripping tongue quickly tightens around Launce, yanking his augmetic arm free from the controls and causing the skiff to list suddenly to the right.

Ryuk's Fear test is successful, attack is a hit.

Ryuk's reaction is instantaneous, focusing his mind he wills it to be still. The psychic ward causes the single, rheumy eye of the abomination to roll up blindly into its warty head. He then slices down with the cleaver-like section of silver, easily severing the rubbery tongue, kicking the section flopping at his feet away like a slimy, writhing snake.

Ryuk inflicts one Wound of damage to the plague toad.

Vincent is next.


@Ahmazzi, please note that Ryuk has activated Distort Vision.


Willpower 43 - 10 = 33 : 1d100=29

Drawing the Sliver of Calyx, Vincent stabs the blade towards the vile monstrosity.

Weapon Skill 24 - 20 + 10 = 14 : 1d100=84

Balance 40 / 2 = 20 : 1d100=32

The skiff's violent descent throws him off balance at the last minute, and he slams against the railing before landing with a sickening thud on the skiffs floor.


Ryuk wrote:
@Ahmazzi, please note that Ryuk has activated Distort Vision.

Duly noted, Rad.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Suite #779

Mollene makes no effort to hide her tears now, the eye make-up running down in ink-black tears over her powdered face. Even crying, consumed by the rush of emotion, her face remains a strangely impassive mask, as if she is not allowing herself to feel the pain.

She refuses the the handkerchief offered by Savalos, raises the flute to her lips to take another sip of amasec, and then thinks better of it, setting it compulsively down atop the ring of perspiration that has already formed.

"She told me you were looking for me. She told me why. I...I let her know I was willing to help. She said she would try to get word to you again, but Leprade, well Leprade has ways of finding things out. She never returned. I'm afraid for her now. Leprade is not a forgiving man."

She looks you in the eye again, and you begin to realize, tearful reaction or no, she made of far sterner stuff than most smile girls. She is jaded, but not hedonistically, no something else...something you cannot quite place.

"Now let me ask you. Why are you looking for Leprade?"


Male Human Outlaw

Giving her a nod like she passed some judgement from me. I stare her in the eyes like I am trying to peer into her soul.

"Judgement has already been passed on Leprade and his men. If he harmed Srina there will be an accounting."

I pause for a second when she asks why I want Leprade.

"I need information from him. Then I want to see him dead."


A Plague of Toads
Round #2
I will forgo the usual Battlemap for this encounter, as the sled is just over two meters in length, and about a meter and a half wide at its widest. There really isn't anywhere to move to in this case.

Conditions:

  • As there is really nowhere to hide from the plague toad scrambling up the flat bed without leaping from, or falling off the skiff, Vincent and Ryuk will have to rely on their reflexes (Dodge and Parry) to keep from being hit. They currently stand between the daemon and Launce who is desperately trying to level off the skiff despite the newly added weight at one end.
  • The encounter begins in melee.
  • As the skiff is pitched rather precariously at downward angle on the bed side due to the bulk of the gluttonous daemon, all melee attacks that miss by 20 or more require a character to make a Challenging [+0] Balance skill test to keep from falling down (fail Balance test by 2 or fewer degrees) or falling off the skiff (failing the Balance test by 3 or more degrees).
  • The skiff initially starts at a height of six meters above the multitude of nurglings swarming upon the surface of the Oubliette dome. Each round that the plague toad remains on the skiff, it loses 1 meter of height due to its burdensome weight. This loss of altitude can be negated by a successful Challenging [+0] Pilot (Skimmer) test by Launce, whose skill is 38, which will be his default action each round unless he is attacked by the toad.
  • At the start of each round, the toad will attack a random opponent. Choose which of you, Vincent or Ryuk, is in the 'Guard' position in the bed of the skiff at the top of each round, closest to the monstrosity. Launce and the 'Rear' positioned character will be attacked by the toad on random roll of 1-3 (Launce) 4-6 (Rear Combatant) on 1d10. This will be 7-10 (Guard Combatant) and higher odds to the character closest to the toad.

Initiative Order:

13-Launce
13-Plague Toad
12-Ryuk (Under Effect of Distort Vision)
10-Vincent (Starts round Prone)

Current Altitude:

5 meters


The Oubliette

Steeling his will against the mind-eating horror of the repugnant toad-thing, Vincent gamely tries to aid Ryuk, but almost loses his life instead when the skiff nearly capsizes as the daemon attacks Launce. Somehow, when he falls to the ground, he manages to hold on to the Sliver of Calyx, but it is a near thing. Gripping the rusty, t-shaped tie-down closest to his hand on the rim of the sled's bed, he tries to pull himself to his feet before he slides into the monster's stinking maw.

Launce waggles his crimson sleeve once, twice, three times, and finally shakes the acid-weeping coil of tongue free. His augmetic arm beneath still smolders, but he ignores the pain and turns his attention to righting the skiff.

Pilot (Skimmer) = 37, rolling test, 1d100 ⇒ 19, success.

Pushing the throttle forward while intoning a benediction of acceleration, he manages to level the skiff off somewhat. The anti-grav generator chokes out cloud of black smoke, the pained whirring of the machine spirit quiets, and you begin to rise again.

Kicking out of over the void with one of its long, misshapen legs over and over again, the toad-thing finally finds purchase on the tail of skiff and manages to push its bulbous body further on to the bed of the vehicle. Its weeping eye rotates grotesquely this way and that, trying to focus on Ryuk again. Half-crawling, half-hopping it waddles obscenely forward, adhering suckers on its forelimbs slapping wetly against the scuffed metal. Its huge, filthy jaws open, revealing rows of yellowing, broken teeth. It lunges forward to bite.

Rolling target, if it results in Ryuk, it attacks the 'false' doppelganger of Ryuk that stands right beside the genuine article, who presently is invisible. Rolling: 1d10 ⇒ 1, Launce again.

WS = 35, 1d100 ⇒ 42, a miss.

The creature snaps at the skiff's pilot through what it perceives as an open space next to Ryuk. Instead the daemon snaps forward where the psyker actually stands, and Ryuk smashes the flat end of the silvered-spar into its face, causing it to recoil from the sanctified metal with a violent shake of the anti-grav sled.

Ryuk is next.


The Gran Pallazzar Casino, Suite #779

Mollene looks past Savalos, her eyes far off, as if remembering something.

"It seems we have that much in common at least."

She crosses her legs, sliding back into the chair.

"I don't doubt that Leprade has given you ample reason to want him dead; after all, he has wronged so many, this comes as no real surprise to me. Even so, however heartless a man is, they confide in their lovers, even when nothing resembling love is part of the equation. Leprade has confided in me. He speaks of his rivals and those he perceives as enemies, yet I have never heard him once mention one such as you."

She fondles one earring absentmindedly.

"Who are you then?"


Distort Vision 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

Attack 1d100 ⇒ 89

Ryuk remains silent ever aware that he should avoid giving the daemon a clue as to his whereabouts.

I don't know if there's enough circumstance bonus to make that a hit....


Male Human Outlaw

"Cause he doesn't know me. Figured Srina already told you who, and what I'm about?"

Figured its plain as day with my tattoo's and furs right in front of her. Curious that Srina would mention my intent, but not my name. I tap the microbead seeing if the Sgt is still there.

"As for cause of killing him. He harbored the Eviserator, and worked with it for his own gains."

"So what words did Leprade whisper to you in between pillow talk?"

I stop short from completing my thought. Wondering if she knew than man she shared a bed with made pacts with a Daemon.

"In reality we should get out of here. If he got Srina, then he is using you as bait for a trap."

I check my watch to see how much time has passed.

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