GM Hector's Rogue Trader: The Warpstorm Trilogy (Inactive)

Game Master LordHector

Pilot: Spacecraft is for the big-ass ships with crew, so transports and raiders up.

As it so happens, because you blasted away some of the detritus, the Pilot check became Easy (+30).

Up close, the Emperor’s Bounty is in bad shape indeed; large rents score its hull, and its bastions and bulkheads are pitted and worn by months of unshielded exposure to the void. There are, however, a faint glow from the drives and a shadow of light spilling from the vista dome of the bridge, indicating that the vessel’s plasma reactors have not gone completely cold.

You are able to find a void-lock situated along the hull without too much difficulty, and make a hard seal against the hull. Faint amber runes indicate that there is still an atmosphere within the ship, and you can proceed without full void suits should you so choose. When the seal is broken, a blast of stale dusty air streams into the lock, carrying with it the dry taste of old death. At this point, you are free to search the vessel.

I recommend we stick to void suit protocol Lord-Captain. We're at the mercy of what could be a failing life support or possibly even sentient life using it to easily kill us. Until we've investigated fully, I suspect relying on the Bounty's atmosphere is too risky.

Alessaunder checks the status of his exceedingly rare and ancient Hellgun, hefting it into both hands as he follows the Lord Captain out of the shuttle- allowing him to take the first step on the ship as per ancient traditions and the contract that had been made. He is wearing his cameoline cloak and when he stands still, seems to shimmer and look further away than he truly is.

Do ship light sources appear to be functional?

BEFORE OPENING THE LOCK!!!

The pilots voice echos through the interior vox.
"Void Suit check! Make sure your scrubbers are working and you have seal patches. Voidlock opening in 3 minutes."

"Wigeon, you are in charge. Keep the lock closed and the vox channel open. Let me know if you see, hear, or feel anything strange. I be back soon."

In the lock: "Well captain, now we see how loyal your crew is. A couple of broadsides and a new excellent pirate vessel is at large in the Kronus."

"Allow me and the men to take point Lord Captain Militant, it is after all what we are here for."

Ludicus holds up one hand to assemble the men, ready to move out as soon as the order is given.

Remember the Lord Captain has to be the first to set foot on the vessel Ludicus. Letting the men and you go first is against a pretty sacred code of tradition (as well as, our contract to allow us to search the vessel INSISTS he has to go first).

Haha, of course only AFTER he has claimed it. Then it will be our job to keep him alive so we can return and do the paperwork. Or rather, for YOU to do the paperwork Mr first officer.

Silas tries to lighten the mood.

"Men, the Writ requires that I set foot first on the prize. This not a slight on your courage but a nice bit of legal technicality."

"We all get shafted sometimes hahaha"

"After you Lord Captain Militant. Let us make this legal, and then we can get to work and earn our pay."

Ludicus turns to the men that was brought along.
"As soon as the "technicality" is taken care of, you two will fan out to the left, and you two to the right, I will be on point and you will follow my lead."

Ludicus draws one of his boltpistols, making ready to advance once the ceremony and pomp is well and truly done.

At least we are not going to sing the 108 hymns of readiness and vigilance before advancing.
Some things ARE better in civilian life.

Vorgen dallies onboard the cutter as the others enter the wreck. One of the riskier parts of entering a ruin is the beginning. Strain on old gravitics and vibrations on long still deckplates can cause sudden dramatic failure. Only rarely granted. Evem more rare on military craft that tend to be rather overbuilt. But a cautious voider is a living voider as the saying goes.

Vorgen will enter last and make sure the voidlock is closed and communication with the cutter is still functioning. he is carrying an emergency pack over one shoulder.

Regulorum makes ready to disembark impatiently waiting for the "requirement" to be fulfilled so he and Pip could get to work on the true damage and functionality analysis.

Yosarni lingers towards the rear of the group, happy for the others to move forwards first. His pistol remains stowed, though he has his staff in hand to use as walking stick.

As you make your way intot he Bounty, one thing becomes apparent: while the plasma reactor is obviously still active, the whole ship is on minimal power. This means that the galley-lamps along the corridors cast only a dim light, leaving the chambers and walkways in shadow.

Ludicus will proceed to act as point man, flanked by two troopers on each side and about one meter behind him.
As his mind begins to adjust to the shadowy illumination, a signal is sent to his augmented eyes which cause the artificial pupils to dilate until he sees the corridor as clearly as if it was bathed in sunlight.

Navis Yosarni follows the others at the back with Vorgen. He is fidgeting with the hand that does not grip his metal staff. Inaudible outside his void suit, but Yosarni is humming tunelessly a child's nursery rhyme as his two normal eyes flitter this way and that...

Vorgen cycles the void lock and verifies we have vox communication with the cutter.

Over Vox:"Wigeon, come in."

Noting the dim lighting Vorgen kneels and pops open the emergency pack and removes the glow tube. Glow tube has 1d5 hours of juice. Not sure if you want me to roll it or if it is a secret.

"This should help." vorgen activates the light as he closes and reshoulders the pack. "So Silas, to engineering, the bridge, or do you want to check the life sustainer first?"

"We shall head for the bridge."

"Just remember to keep a tight formation so we can support each other. We don't know what else is inside here."

Eyes narrowing at the sign of low power, Regulorum examines a galley lamp close by the hatch. Low power wasn't too unexpected considering, but rather curious nonetheless. "(Pip, run a scan of the atmosphere and power readings,)" Regulorum squawks to the servo-skull.

Pip can be heard clicking and beeping away inside his plasteel bubble at Regulorum's request.

How's the gravity in here, Hector, sir?

Any chance Regulorum can glean any information based on the appearance of the interior and the way the lighting is functioning? Is it steady, pulsing, surging, flickering? Etc, etc. Here's a roll just in case.

Common Lore (Tech) Int 45: 1d100 ⇒ 1 Uh, I may have just wasted an epic success, lol. I sure hope I can get something for this. :P

The gravity is normal.

As you proceed towards the bride, you notice that scattered throughout the vessel are the dusty, shrivelled bodies of crew members and servitors sprawled on the decks and slumped over controls. With weapons still holstered and no signs of violence, the corpses don’t readily reveal just what killed them.

As they pass by the bodies, Ludicus will briefly retrieve one of their weapons and check if it is still work, if it has been discharged and what type of arms they were employing.

Yosarni begins to mutter to himself under his void suit, but does not activate the vox to broadcast his thoughts. Dead ones here and no sign of that which killed them... this is not good... not good...

@ GM Hector, in what state are the bodies?

@Ludicus: Ship's crewmen, not fighters. No guns on them or spent ammunition.

@Silas: That'll require a Challenging (+0) Medicae test if you're looking to know how they might've died. Otherwise, I'll only say that they appear to be shriveled up.

No one here has Medicae trained and its an advanced skill. i suggest we move on. In your last post you mentioned weapons still holstered DM, so there's some confusion/contradiction I think. Or its the Warp messing with Ludicos.

Master at Arms, tampering with the dead bodies of the ship's crew is unlikely to yield much information and could potentially expose you to all kinds of horrors. Lets head straight for the bridge, where we are more likely to find answers.

Alessaunder will hover close to the Lord-Captain.

Ludicus is taken aback as he suddenly sees a quite different corpse in front of him, and the lasgun he was about to examine is no longer present.
"I fear we may have underestimated the danger here First officer, I was reaching for a weapon to examine...but now I see there is none...
This...is as foul warpcraft as ever there was..."

Shaking his head one more time to clear any residue of whatever it was that tampered with his vision, Ludicus one more takes point and resume moving ahead.

That was...unpleasant...I wonder if I made a mistake admitting what happened, I would not wish them to think me weak of mind.
...
No, it is better that they are warned in advance.

@Ludicus: Ship's crewmen, not fighters. No guns on them or spent ammunition.

@Silas: That'll require a Challenging (+0) Medicae test if you're looking to know how they might've died. Otherwise, I'll only say that they appear to be shriveled up.

Shriveled, but without any visible wounds, yes? If yes then I can conclude decompression.

My bad. I've been slightly sleep deprived. Fortunately I've only got till Friday of this. They have basic stubbers. And yes Silas, that's a fair assumption.

As you explore, you discover that much of the vessel is sealed off by imposing pressure doors, including most of the lower decks and reactor levels. These doors are encrusted with dust and glowing with scarlet runes, indicating toxic atmospheres or vacuum beyond.

Eventually you successfully make you way to the Bounty's bridge. The bridge is a disquieting sight, littered with bodies and blanketed in dust. Unlike in the rest of the vessel, there are signs of conflict here. Bulkheads bear las burns and bolt shell impacts, corpses are twisted in violent death, and spent casings are scattered across the deck.

Stepping over the fallen corpses of the ships crew, you ascend to the command plinth and the foot of the Lord-Captain’s throne. At the base of the throne lies what must be the remains of the captain himself, broken and contorted, wires and tubes roughly severed or torn free from their housings. In his place atop the throne, a man in the robes of a Navigator sits, his head bowed, apparently dead. Curiously, the man’s hood is thrown back, revealing a strange metallic worm-like device attached to his forehead where his third eye would be.

Yosarni moves into the chamber and up to the dead Navigator sits. Poor bastard... poor lucky bastard. he thinks as he takes in the scene. Without touching he looks at the man...

Common Lore (Navis Nobilite-Int) 42 base: 1d100 ⇒ 82
Forbidden Lore (Navigators-Int) 42 base: 1d100 ⇒ 1

...taking in the iconography and state of the body, trying to ken if it all adds up, and what House the Navis was from.

Any visible mutations?

It is unusual that the Navigator sits on the Lord-Captain's throne. This along with the signs of battle and the ominous words of the choirmaster makes me very nervous.

Silas, his usual paranoia acting up, draws his sword and pistol.

"Be on your guard. Weapons at the ready."

Silas points his prized duelist pistol at the worm-like device. Could this be the 'worm' the choirmaster mentioned?

I assume that we are still maintaining voidsuit discipline.

Ludicus turns to the crew that was brought along and begins to relay orders in a brisk military fashion.
"You heard the Lord Captain Militant, I want you four to establish a perimeter around the entrance to the bridge, make a barricade of what you can find and keep watch over the corridor. Nothing sneaks up on us, understand?
Jump to it!"

As the Master-At-Arms supervised the perimeter, the First Officer paced slowly around the room. he eventually settled beside his Lord-Captain, scrutinising the worm-like device and gesturing to the Navis to add his expertise to the mystery of the navigator's corpse.

1d100 ⇒ 29 TN35 Forbidden Lore (Archeotech), 1 success

Enginseer Prime, see what systems you can activate. Perhaps someone made a log of what happened.

Yes we are definately maintaining void suits.

Following the others and mainly interested in keeping out of the way for now Vorgen is the last to enter the bridge. Noting the las burns and bolt impacts and having seen only shotguns carried by crew he begins to look around for the missing weapons.

Checking the bodies and likely places the weapons could have fallen.

Suddenly the Navigator’s head snaps up, and he regards you with empty dead eyes! All of the portals to the bridge seal, crashing down with pressurised hisses. Then a baleful crimson glow begins to build around the worm.

Yosarni is still looking carefully over the seeming corpse when the head snaps up and to attention. Scrambling backwards as an instinct he barely avoids ending up on his arse.

Ludicus head snaps up in surprise and he looks around.
"Maintain positions until you recieve further orders."

Regulorum begins to wander throughout the bridge inspecting various consoles and displays. His head snaps around in irritation at the presumptious tone of command from Alessaunder. Narrowing his eyes, he says,

"Must we maintain these ridiculous formalities even here?" Regulorum shakes his head and attempts to assess which systems are online and which essential systems are not. Gesturing towards Ludicus' men without looking in their direction, Regulorum continues, "It is highly doubtful these men would be foolish enough to speak of any informal discussion between officers. You surely don't believe you actually need to tell me my duties, First Officer. Save the commands for those who are truly incompetent. I will also reiterate that plainspeak is much better in these circumstances, and surely our previous familiar affiliation warrants it. Regulorum or Reg or even Bast are acceptable. I can imagine many situations when uttering the phrase Enginseer Prime or Magos Explorator will take much more time than you will find you have at your disposal."

Tech-Use (Int) 45 vs: 1d100 ⇒ 17 = 3 degrees of success

"Ah! It would appear..." Sentence pending roll result description.

Regulorum emits a low static burst, and his servo-skull Pip hovers closer to the body of the dead Navigator and emits a small beam of light which begins to zip back and forth across it and the strange device attached to its head as Pip begins to scan. Regulorum continues working with the controls and trying to find ways to reactivate those currently inoperable.

Trade (Technomat) (Int) 45 vs: 1d100 ⇒ 40 = Success

Suddenly, a high-pitched noise comes from the servitor drawing Regulorum's attention. The body had moved, and the device on it was beginning to glow...

Regulorum's eyes are immediately drawn to the device, and he begins to sort through his memories for anything related to it.

Forbidden Lore (Xeno) (Int) 45 vs: 1d100 ⇒ 48 = Failed, but I do have FL (Archeotech) +10 which would succeed in case that's more appropriate.

** spoiler omitted **

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Suddenly the Navigator’s head snaps up, and he regards you with empty dead eyes! All of the portals to the bridge seal, crashing down with pressurised hisses. Then a baleful crimson glow begins to build around the worm.

Note that in relation to the throne Silas is a few meters away from the 'corpse', which should make the distance within 'short range'.

With the calm of a duelist, Silas does not hesitate and shoots the worm.

Initiative if needed. 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10

BS 45 (without modifiers yet)1d100 ⇒ 10

Wrath Plasma Pistol: range 40m, rate 1, damage 1d10+8E, Pen 6, Clip 8, Special Overheat, Accurate

Since the pistol was already pointed at the worm prior to the 'event', would Silas benefit from the 'aim' action modifier?

GM, if the attack is a HIT and I receive plus modifiers, then we can determine later how many degrees of success Silas achieved.

"What the?"

Vorgen turns towards the captain's throne, bolt pistol in his hand before the echoes of the plasma thunder fade. The las pistol he was examining clatters across the floor forgotten at the voidborn kneels in firing bosition beside one of the corpses.

Yes indeed, Initiative checks are in order. Also, Regulorum, you realize very swiftly that in order to restore power to the ship, you would need to reactivate the ship's core cogitator. You also make a startling discovery in hat you cannot detect any trace of the ship's machine spirit within these controls.

Silas, feeling very uncomfortable about the device on the Navigator's head, already had his pistol trained on the thing. Pulling the trigger, a blast of super-heated plasma blasts from the barrel before traveling a very short distance to the device on the Navigator's eye. Just as it is about to come into contact with said device, some form of flickering shield can be seen absorbing the energy of the attack away harmlessly.

Everyone else should roll Initiative and make their actions for this turn.

For those not in the know, initiative is 1d10 + AB (agility bonus, which is the first digit of your agility). A few other things can apply, in particular those of us with the Paranoia talent get +2 to it.

1d10 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16 Initiative

Are we posting out of order for it to be wrapped up together at the end of the round? That gets pretty messy IMO.

That's how I've had it done in the other PbP's I've done here. I'm comfortable with both ways of doing it. Would you guys rather I post the Initiative order and you all declare actions, which I'll wrap up at the end of the round. Advantage is you don't have to wait for the person who's going before you to post before you can. Disadvantage is that it makes it hard to plan your actions based on what the others are doing.

Or would you guys rather I put up the initiative order and you guys post in that order. Slightly slower, but makes combat a little clearer as to what is going on. Also, I'll get a map up of this room shortly.

Either way in the future I'll probably end up rolling your init for you. speed things up a little bit.

I doubt anyone is going to top that init roll so without further ado...

Round 1 Action-

Its a Halo Device! Alessaunder exclaims in surprise. A Xeno artefact.

Seeing his old friend the Lord Captain's shot proving totally ineffective, Alessaunder tries a different tactic- aiming his Hellgun carefully at the head of the dead navigator instead and firing a single shot, with the intention of blowing away enough flesh to detach the device from the poor soul's corpse.

Using the called shot action, so it automatically hits the had if I hit rather than rolling to determine hit location. This incurs a -20 penalty.

1d100 ⇒ 4 (+30 Point Blank Range, -20 Called Shot) SUCCESS

1d10 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 Energy damage, Penetration 7

initiative 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7. Action as posted upthread. Draw bolt pistol and wait for a target. Drawing the pistol is a free action but I do not know what kined of action to call waiting for a target.

Holding is exactly like it sounds, waiting for a specified amount of time or a triggered event for you action to go off. In your case, Vorgen, I'm assuming you mean a target other than the Navigator. In this case, you'll hold off on you action (in this case an attack) until the trigger (a target appears) presents itself. If that hasn't happened by the end of the round, the action is wasted.

Alessaunder puts the barrel of his hellgun directly to the head of the 'dead' Navigator. The recoil is far more than what you're used to, and when you look back at the navigator you see that the same flickering crimson shield has once again rendered you attack ineffective.

Initiative Order:
Alessaunder - 16
Yosarni - 15
The 'dead' Navigator - 14
Silas - 10
Regulorum - 8
Vorgen - 7
Red Shirts - 7
Ludicus - 6

I am after my troops, oooh the humiliation...

"Hold fire, keep your watch up!"
Ludicus trusts his men to watch his back, and instead turns to observe the goings on.

holding action for now.

It's fairly clear that we're facing a force field generating enemy that shrugs off point blank shots from plasma pistols and hellguns with ease. I am open to new ideas like a strategic advance to the rear.

At this point it would be important to find out if there is a breathable atmosphere in the bridge. Else we would suffer serious breathing problems once our voidsuits are breached in any way like say in a melee. And gosh that thing should have suffered multiple hits already!!!!

Yosarni sees that their First Officer's weapon was ineffective and so does not see the point in drawing his own. Moving out of the line of fire he holds his staff before him defensively.

Half action move out of the way, half action to ready staff.

You know that the atmosphere is breathable on the ship. And yes it should have, but for some reason, it hasn't. Good for it, bad for you. Characters with Scholastic Lore pertaining to legends, the occult, or the Tactica Imperialis can make a Challenging (+0) Test as a free action to recognise what's going on.

Twisting cords of warp energy writhe out from the device on the Navigator’s forehead to dance among the dead. A second later, the corpses begin to stir.

Next is Silas's full turn in the Initiative order, followed by Reg and Vorgen who along with Ludicus can alter their actions in light of their opponent's actions.