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The rest of the night passes without incident, the party keeping a watchful eye until the sunrise. Remounting in the flatbed, they begin the bumpy ascent course.

From time to time the relic of a truck would break down, necessitating a brief stop, but apart from that it ran smoothly. By mid-afternoon the party was well into the hills.

All of a sudden, Wolfe pulls the truck over. A half second later, all of the acolytes are whispering to eachother about something they saw. Under a rocky outcrop about 100m to the right side of the trail, there is a shadowy figure. No details stand out at this distance, apart from one.

Its shadow is pointing directly towards the acolytes. And the outcrop above him? Its shadow is directed the opposite way...

Aristarchus' eyes flutter into the back of his head, one hand gripping his staff, the other slipping to the deck of cards concealed in his robes. "There is a psychic disturbance around that shadow. It is vitally important to whatever is happening on this planet. We must investigate."

Disembarking from the truck and drawing their weapons, the party approaches the psychic apparition. They scale a slope on the way, Ailessa falling down in an ungraceful tangle of robes, collecting Legius on the way down. Neither of them were injured however. They dusted themselves off and rejoined the group on the top of the hill, just beside the outcrop.

It was gone.

In short order Silvanus shouted the rest of the group over. He had discovered a large pictograph of a bird grasping a skull through its eye holes with its talons. Further investigation revealed that it hadn't been painted on, it had been burned.

Aristarchus fanned his hands into the sign of the Aquila as soon as he laid eyes on the symbol, whispering "Throne...". He would not be drawn on his reaction, however, and soon ordered the party back to the truck to complete their journey.

[GM's note; Everyone noticed the shadow, and then Ailessa and Legius failed their Climb test, but passed the agility test to avoid damage. In the case of Ailessa, passed by 1. I had everyone test Per, and Silvanus passed the best so he found the clue. No one passed the test to quiz Aristarchus on what the symbol meant. If you want have some banter, I'll bring us to Stern Hope tomorrow evening real time]

"I am going to have to take some time to study heraldry and symbology later..." Ailessa muttered to herself, not recognizing the syjmbol. Still, it would be a while before she could study that, and so she focused on trying to not get separated from the group. Who knows what else lurked out here?

Somehow Kiern hadn't noticed these little earbug things before, but as he begins realizing there are conversations occurring between people who aren't within range of eachother, he catches on.
"Hey, where'd you all get those things?" He asks to no one inparticular.

OOC: Motyak, just a reminder when it comes up, Kiern is Hivebound and suffers -10 survival tests, and a -5 on INT testss when he's in open spaces with no walls and/or ceilings. Basically when he's not in an urban area, bit you may wish to judge the rule differently as it states 'when out of a proper hab'. Just so you are aware.

[Microbeads are pretty modern in the Imperium - I don't see why Kiern wouldn't have heard of one. It's basically a little radio that's so small it can sit in your ear.]

OOC: He knows what they are, he's just never had the thrones or the need for one, he's a gritty outlaw from the cesspool of humanity known as. a hive. Not sure if this was something given to us, or if we're all supposed to have bought them. His surprised reaction was simply because he didn't realize everyone else had them, as it would've been useful knowledge.

[You know what? Gaius doesn't even have a microbead. Neither Assassin nor Scum characters start with one. I don't know why I thought Gaius did. Disregard my actions that assume he does.]

[GM's note; Only Ailessa and Legius have them in the party, for whoever is interested]

As night fell over the plains, the battered old truck coughed its way towards the gates of Stern Hope. At last the party sees light glimmer ahead, growing brighter until you can make out some sort of settlement centred on a board hill. You continue until your path is barred by a wall of crudely piled up stone and black flint. Watch fires burn along the top of the wall and you see numerous weapon barrels along its length. As you get closer, a set of heavy wire-mesh and steel gates open a crack, allowing a tall cowled figure, rifle across his broad back and axe resting on his shoulder, to emerge and wave your vehicle to a stop. Urging compliance, Aristarchus orders a stop.

"No sudden moves acolytes, lest you wish for the journey to end here."

Once you are on the ground the cowled man approaches you and glares at the party members one by one. He seems to consider your faces for a time, before executing a deep, fluid bow and announcing "Welcome servants of the Emperor, you are free to enter this township of Stern Hope"

The gates swing fully open, and Wolfe urges the truck past the gate guard and on up what appears to be the main street of the township. Weaving through a mess of tents which roughly line the dirt trail, they make their way towards the cathedral.

A strong voice makes itself heard over the noise of the engine "Ho, Aristarchus. Welcome to Stern Hope." A shadow detaches itself from a deep pool of darkness beside one of the tents. A smiling, heavy set man in the dark robes of a monk approaches the now stopped vehicle with a shuttered lamp in his hand. Grinning at the acolytes and throwing them a wink, he introduces himself.

"Greetings pilgrims. Such faith and preparation is admirable to see. You are the help that the abbot has sent for, yes? Truly we are not forgotten. I'm Brother Lamark, one of the churchmen of this mission. Welcome to Stern Hope-the abbot awaits your pleasure at the priory in the morning. He sends his regrets that he cannot meet you sooner, but he is currently occupied by his flock. And a man of the Emperor must always tend to his flock, lest he allow his ministrations to fail to uphold the Emperor's light. Is that not correct, good sister?" He directs the truck to the side of the road, and the party dismounts.

He greets Ailessa with a bow to honour a fellow member of the Ecclesiarchy, before shaking the hands of each of the acolytes in turn. "Did you have any trouble on the way here?"

Returning the bow, Ailessa responds with a slight amusement in her voice: "No trouble worth worrying about. There will always be struggles in serving the Emperor for we are but mere mortals, but none of us were injured-- so our struggles have not yet truly begun, hm?"

"Well hoy there to you as well, when will the abbot be finishing up with his flock, or is it an open attendance kinda thing, maybe we could stop in and hear the good word? Person'ly I'm feeling like I could use a good word and some protection from the Emperor at the moment, fer I'm not too fond of the things that seem to be wandering yer desert out there."
Kiern makes a slightly fumbly sign of the aguila over his chest, and then puts a hand against his chest and briefly grasps something hanging inside his shirt.

[GM's note; An apology, I will update on Thursday. I have an exam today (Saturday), Monday, and Thursday, so I'm sure you can sympathise. But then I'm done uni for 3 months so....win.]

[GM's note; Now that exams are all done I will be updating this tomorrow evening, thank you for waiting. Sorry for the massive interrupt. I'll give you all a day to question townspeople and then we'll move on again and try and get momentum back. Again, I'm really sorry for exams getting in the way]


"I'm sorry sir, but the Abbot is attending a sick girl and her family. He asked me to greet your party in his stead when you all arrived. We arranged accommodations for you at the Crying Clota, our guest hall and an inn of sorts. Not much, but far and away better than a tent." Lamark replies. Leading the way, the party follows him to a rickety two story building. Taking his leave, he melts back into the shadows of the tents.

"Well, time to bed down for the night acolytes," says Aristarchus "Ailessa and Legius, Wolfe and Silvanus, and Kiern and Gaius. Two to a room, that is all this place can accommodate. If Abbot Skae arrives before dawn, send him my way if you please. Some of you may wish to have a talk with the locals, hmm? Be wary if you wish to walk about outside. Remember that there are no moons orbiting Iocanthos, so the nights are near pitch black.

Kiern attempts to locate a flashlight or lantern before stepping out to find some locals to chat with. He's not too keep on the surrounding dessert still, and far from restful at this point.

[GM's note; I'll let you explore if you want, a hint would be ask around the camp people (+10 Inquiry test) about information and rumours]

Ok I have a question, because of all my interruptions with uni this seems to have lost its momentum, with only JMZ and very occasionally Mel and Jack posting. Do we want to just call it? Or are you happy to keep going despite the so far lack of smoothness.

[ooc: Perhaps we could start over? I dunno honestly, I've kinda lost the mood for the game :/ same with alpharius' game, although he neverstarted.]

((I just don't think there's much Gaius can do, at the moment. He just quiety sits around, sharpens knives and cleans his gun. Posting that every time we move to a new place doesn't really do much. Gaius' strong suit is protecting the investiagation characters in combat.))

(ooc: been working a lot, sorry. I enjoy the game but it got a little stagnant with the long delays, maybe if we van get the vibe back now that you'll be around and updating more often)

((I've been working 60 hour weeks lately, and Legius is built more for combat then investigation, so I'm not doing a whole lot when we move from place to place to place for several posts in a row, like Jack))

Ok so we have 2 people who think its done (Mel and I) and 3 who want to try to pick it back up. I guess it is decided then, we'll try to get it going again....after I go away to an island for a week with no internet access. To be honest, I didn't expect the PbP to take as long as it does, so I thought it would be done before the crunch of exams and what not. Oh well, onwards (soon)

I'm not saying I want to continue in this fashon. PbP is far to slow a way to do it, especially for the combat-oriented PCs.

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
I'm not saying I want to continue in this fashon. PbP is far to slow a way to do it, especially for the combat-oriented PCs.

Ah. Then it swings the other way, to 3 vs 2 in favour of calling it. It is a shame, but I have to agree that PbP, especially when the GM (me) is unreliable, doesn't work. Sorry guys.

Well then, thanks for the attempt Motyak, was fun.