Darkness has taken you, leaving you endlessly falling into an empty oblivion without sight or sound. moments flash briefly into being and fade again; a cold iron table and bright light above you, the mocking voice of a child, the reeking stench of beasts and raw meat, weightlessness, the hammering of great machinery, and finally, fetid black water oozing beneath you and chill winds stirring foul air.
You wake slowly to find yourself paralysed in cold darkness, your voice silent and your body as limp and useless as a rag doll. You are helpless to act or speak, or evne hold your thoughts together, but you can hear the ragged breathing of others in the dark telling you that you are not alone in your fate and feel the bone-deep ache in your limbs confirming that you yet live.
Sickly-green lamps flicker on in the walls, and a dozen figures appear, wading shin-deep through rank waters toward the cold platform on which you and the others tangled forms hang. They wear ragged cloaks over dark body armour, and their faces are covered by grotesque animal masks fashioned from glittering metal and stitched skin. each mask is different, one a hound, one a serpent, another a swine and so on, while the leader wears the gilded visage of a Jackal with crimson teeth.
Chains are released and you are dumped into the ice-cold filth of the water with the others, all equally helpless, heaped up like a mass grave for the living. Each of you is swiftly and perfunctorily examined by the masked men like livestock in a market. The Jackal Mask barks a curt order, and he and the others back away swiftly into the darkness.
Frost creeps across the walls, and the waters beneath you grow cold as the grave, as from the darkness a human-shaped, spike-studded metal cabinet comes into view, pushed along by two stunted and misshapen figures. Another shadowed form, tall and lean, hangs back at the edge of sight behind them.
Horror is heaped upon horror as the iron cabinet opens to reveal the severed head and mutilated torso of a young woman floating within a column of unearthly light. The woman's eyes snap open and cruel white light floods out. you feel the stabbing claws of a vile force invade your mind with its polluting touch as you and your fellow captives finally find voice enough to scream.
The force withdraws suddenly as the iron cabinet snaps shut. A silver-clawed hand rises from the darkness and indicates three captives in turn. The misshapen figures lunge forth and drag them screaming into the darkness where theye are abruptly silenced.
Mercifully you are not among them.
The light fades and oblivion takes you again.
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Prisoners of who you are unsure you finally awaken groggy, drugged, beaten but all in all able to stand on your own two feet and comprehend what has happened.
You all look around and there are a total of 8 people in what appears to be a caged pit you are locked inside. The room is extremely loud with the sound of metal banging on metal and the stench of rotting meat fills the air.
One of you attempt to climb the cage but it is futile. After some time you hear the distant sound of some form of animals growling coming from one of the ventilation shafts attached to the cage. It grows louder and louder every second.
Some of you grab some bones scattered on the ground as makeshift weapons. The grate lifts up half way from where the sound is coming and it gets louder and the smell becomes even more foul. Above you notice a man appear with a Heron Mask and he stands there ignoring your pleads.
Suddenly you see the monstrosities burst up toward the great and your sanity is checked as some of you flee in fear and some faint out completely. Those of you who are able to maintain your courage stand your ground as one of the beasts makes its way into the cage sniffing out it's first prey.
The battle was fierce and several people fell but so did 2 of the Xenos creatures. When the man in the Heron Mask had his fill of watching the fight he moved to a control panel and shifted some switches dropping the escape ladder into the pit. He vanished back into the darkness once this was done.
The remainder of the prisoners escaped up the ladder leaving the Xenos creatures to feast on those already fallen. Up top they looked around cautiously and found a body laying near the control panel with his head nearly severed and a note with a dagger attached to the control panel.
The prisoners collected the dagger and whatever weapons the dead man had on him and made their ways through the labyrinth they were prison to. After some time they heard the familiar sound of the Xenos creatures coming from behind and they started to make haste which caused an insecure location of the tunnels to collapse behind them blocking off the path which they came.
They eventually made it to an open room with a may laying dead with a bowl of blood in front of him and a makeshift totem made of crude materials. The group examine the room and found a dataslate and was able to access the data within but not before one of the members who was a Psyker sensed the warp around him with a Psynscience roll and an Unbound Spirit struck out at him.
None saw the spirit except for the Psyker and quickly informed the group what was happening and the one who read the dataslate realized this as well and they began attacking the totem. The spirit came corporal and tore into one of them but was to slow as the totem was utterly destroyed casting out the spirit back into the warp.
+-----------------------------------------------------+
"If there is nothing else to be gained here I say we take the fresh tunnel and keep searching for a way out. Make sense to the rest of you?"
Auraxus hectare his axe waiting for a reply.
Illidan Nods agreeing to Auraxis plan then fix his gaze to Hunntar. "Hey Buddy looks like you took a direct hit there. Would you like me to see to those wounds? Just a bit of warp energies will heal that right up.... or destroy us all your Call."
Huntarr shakes his head at the Psyker.
"I'll be fine. Save your power to use on the enemies. Let's get out of here before that thing comes back. Or something worse..."
If Huntarr sees an exit from the room, he'll move towards it.
"I do not want to spend another minute in this place that we don't have to!" Woman speaks strangely, its almost like she's just learning to speak.......
She starts to make her way to the hallway to try to get out
You cautiously make your away out of the room leaving the totem and body behind you looting what you deemed valuable.
The passages ahead are much the same as those you have passed through earlier. The noise of metal banging on metal is so loud that it makes your movements easier to conceal (No move silent required). The stench is so foul but your body has become accustomed to it that you barely recognize it any longer.
She takes lead!
Awareness Test
EDITS:
"I will pull on the damn hatch the rest of you cover me".
Strength Test
As you make your way through the passages you spot an access hatch that appears to be rusted. This is the first hatch you have noticed since you escaped the cage.
She would like to cautiously check out the next area.....
Illidan gets his weapon ready "I have you covered..."
Woman thinks Illidan should check on Michael Santos' status!
Auraxis Aurilious RIPS the hatch off with great ease. As the hatch opens, a breeze of chilling air hits you all. The inside of the duct is dark, only a little light falls down from high above. Hand and footholds line the side adverse to the hatch in easy reach and it appears to head to an upper level.
"Anybody got a light? I am willing to go first if no one else is."
"I will take point." slowly and quietly
"I am going to scout ahead down the original path set before us just in case this job in the duct does not workout favorably" Moves as cautiously as possible
Huntarr draws his gun and leans against a wall so that he can look in both directions as well as being prepared to fire into the hole, as necessary.
The woman jumps up into the duct and begins to climb up followed by Auraxis Aurilious. The chill winds pierce through your skin as you get higher up. This must be some kind of air cooling vent of some sorts. When you reach a certain point the duct splits to two sides one going toward a spinning fan which is obviously the source of the chill winds and the other leads further into darkness. The duct opposite the fan leads to you an exit hatch which appears to be another area of this compound.
Illidan wielding his weapon continues on down the passageway to scout up ahead and sees more passageways zig zagging much like the others they came through previously. It is unknown what lies ahead unless you keep going.
Huntarr keeps an eye out watching both directions prepared for whatever may come.
Awareness Test
Awareness test: vs. 35
You both move closer to the hatch which drops down to the upper level you made your way to and hear what sounds like 2 men talking to each other. You can not see them through the hatch grate but based on the voices it sounds like they are wearing masks and are a few meters away from where the hatch would open.
Illidan turns around and sprints back to the Duct.oO(There isn't anything up that way but more zigzagging... better to stick together then be picked apart)
Auraxis motions to the female to head back the way they came.
She heads back down to the previous room.
"What do we do? I vote for a distraction, followed by me gutting them!" A fire seems to grow in her eyes.....
"We need to keep one alive for questioning".
"FINE!!!!" Woman turns her back to Auraxis, very annoyed!
Huntarr you hear someone running toward you from the direction Illidan went and you take aim but hold when you spot the man that escaped the cages with you. You both look up in the duct and can see Auraxis and the woman up in the duct as they worked their way back shivering from the cold air blowing on them.
"Find anything?"
Huntarr lowers the gun to point at the floor, but he keeps it ready to fire, in case they aren't coming back alone.
"There isn't any up there but Zigzagging passageways. Wouldn't venture to far into enemy territory alone. Any Luck with this Vent?" Waits for the two in the vent to come out
"There is a pair of perps next to another access hatch perhaps 30 meters up the shaft. Woman here wanted to take them both but we need one alive to figure out what the hell is going on around here. Much as I hate to admit it she is better with her weapon and you with your gun then I will be with this axe but I will appear to be the bigger threat so I will go in first. The rest of you concentrate on let's say the perp on the left then together we'll bring down the guy on the right hard and get some answers. Sound like a plan?"
Huntarr merely nods in response.
Acknowledges the plan to be sound and gestures in agreeance.
The prisoners all agree with Auraxis plan, albeit the woman was a little reluctant with keeping one of them alive they all move up into the cold ducts and make their way to the hatch that leads down to where the two men were talking.
Her would like to get behind one of them and take them out as fast possible.
Auraxis trurns to Illidan whispering "Can you open this access panel?"
Initiative
Surprise Round Action:
Auraxis will charge at the one on the right with his axe.
Weapon Skill
I will attack the one on the right also. Swift attack
"There is a pair of perps next to another access hatch perhaps 30 meters up the shaft. Woman here wanted to take them both but we need one alive to figure out what the hell is going on around here. Much as I hate to admit it she is better with her weapon and you with your gun then I will be with this axe but I will appear to be the bigger threat so I will go in first. The rest of you concentrate on let's say the perp on the left then together we'll bring down the guy on the right hard and get some answers. Sound like a plan?"
Illidan nods as he moves into position. "get ready " Illidan whispers back and opens the hatch as quietly as possible not to alert the guards. (Initiative)
Huntarr pointed his pistol at the two masked individuals as soon as he hopped from the vents. He held his fire unless either drew a gun or the woman failed to eliminate her target.
Illidan opens the hatch at delicately as possible and the woman jumps down first and lunges at the man on the right followed by the rest of the team.
Both men are wearing Feudal Breastplate with chain axes attached to their hips and boars head masks. They are both caught completely by surprise!
Behind the 2 men appears to be some kind of access elevator.
I want to use the blunt side of the axe.