Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

[GM's note; I'll be updating tonight at some point]

Aristarchus rose from the table and cleared his throat. "While I'm certain that the mission briefing you received from our honoured master describes in some detail the nature of our purpose here, I have had the benefit of spending a few weeks in this... unfortunate...outpost, and I have not been idle. You see, Iocanthos, for all its squalor, is near to y heart. The venerated Saint Drusus himself, to whom I have the very great honour of being distant kin, claimed this world for the Imperium, sweeping over the savages and bringing them into the light and glory of the God-Emperor. As yo know, the cathedral of Stern Hope is due to be consecrated to this great hero, and I would not see the memory off this Saint diminished by heresy and such a holy purpose thwarted by a backwoods witch or some such." He looked around, making sure that everyone was listening, before continuing.

"So, Stern Hope...the information I have been able to discover does not seem to suggest some psychic phenomena occurring there. While I cannot say, based on the muddled reports we have received, whether this is the result of some reckless, preciously undetected psyker or of something far darker, the evidence suggests that all such strangeness has occurred in or around the new cathedral. As you are aware, there have been bleeding statues, manifestations, haunting noises, sounds of scratching from the walls..." he trails off and stares distractedly a moment into space before picking his dataslate up from the smooth wood of the table, reviewing a point of data, and continuing.

"Ah yes, Stern Hope lies to the north, high in those mountains you may have seen on your way here. On a more civilized world, we would have gone directly to the outpost by air, but that's not possible here, so we have to travel by the Pilgrims' Road as they call it, a rutted dirt path would be more accurate. I've managed to secure us transport, an all-terrain flatbed, and I'm hoping one of you drives, as I've never had cause to learn. We must pass through the barren shale wastes first though, and this is not a journey to be taken lightly. The locals claim that the wastes have witnessed all of the greatest battles of Iocanthos' long and bloody past and remain to this day a favoured battlefield of the clans. No one knows for certain, but rumours claim that all manner of terrible things lurk out there, although bandits and marauders are the most likely threat, so we ought to be prepared for any eventuality. Now, any questions?" He moves to sit himself back down, but then remembers another point.

"Oh, and Varn, our lord and master has requested that you return to his side, he has need of you for another mission. You will make your way immediately to the space port and board the soon to be departing troop ship Emperor's Grace. Good luck." Then Aristarchus seats himself back down, gesturing for the party to speak freely.

[GM's note; Thank you very much for bearing with me over the course of my assignments, I'll reward you by getting you all gruesomely killed. Red won't be coming back to play this for a while, so instead of me playing Varn until he gets back, his character will be leaving us here.]

"We will find this witch and stake it. If anyone else stands in our way, may the Emperor have mercy on them, for we surely will not."
Standing, Legius shifts his pack and looks at it for a second. "I'm going to need a new crossbow"


Yay for getting gruesomely killed!!!

[How are we dealing with XP gains?]

"Very well. Will we be receiving equipment for that purpose? I am not certain how much help I will be in battling bandits and witches with my little pistol."

[GM's note; Next update tonight. Also in regards to the XP question Mel, at the end of the mission, I'll figure out how much XP you guys get. I think its better to do it at the end rather than in bits and pieces throughout the mission. Unless you have experience to the contrary?

Edit: Apologies, my brother wants to go out tonight for his birthday, so I'll update it tomorrow during the day.]

Kiern simply nods between mouthfuls of food and drink through the conversations. Then following the sister's requisition of equipment.
"New shooters could be a great benefit, but I'd greatly appreciate whatever specialty ammo you have available for my gals here. "
Pats the two weapons holstered on his hips, and then proceeds to eat more.

'Kiern. For you, and any of your fellows who wish, I have a selection of rounds. 30 'Dumdum' rounds, and 30 Manstopper shells. I also have 10 Inferno shells, blessed by a wandering Ayatani, a priest, on the ship which brought me to this planet. I bought these at my personal expense for the party, so in the Emperor's name, don't miss.' He rummaged in his pouch and it emerged clutching a handful of heavy coins.

'For those of you not willing to take me up on my offer, here are 100 Thrones. Discuss it amongst yourselves as to who will spend what, feel free to venture out into the city and then return to me in the morning so that we can set out to the plains.'

[GM's note; PM me with what you guys want from his stockpile, or what you decide on that you want to buy, and then you can head out to buy/steal it. If you want to try to nick it, talk to me. No one really seems like that sort of character, but just giving you the option. Its a very poor town, so don't expect hot-shots or power weapons or anything fancy like that.]

[ooc in spoiler.]



"I have my own supply of manstopper rounds, so I would not want to be greedy and take what another member might need. I would take a portion of the thrones, and make a tithe to the Emperor at the next possible chance."

She bows her head and looks to the others, and with a smile, suggests: "I would suggest we set aside ten thrones for the tithe collectively, then split the rest. It is always good to remember the Emperor in all of your dealings."

'Of course sister, how remiss of us to not first honour the Emperor before helping ourselves.'

Having passed the night in various states of sleep, the party awakes in the morning to find Aristarchus waiting for them, already keen to get on the move.

'My cherub overheard that there is trouble in the wastes to the north, war clans on the move apparently, they seem to be fighting each other far more often than normal. More pertinent to our mission are the reports of more evil spirits emerging. We had best be on our way.' With that, Aristarchus chivvies them out of bed, adroitly dodging the waving hands of Kiern as he flicks his pillow out from under him in an attempt to wake him, and pinching his nose at the poignant aroma of Wolfe's morning breath. Soon the party is ready to travel, having retrieved their items from their hosts, and set out to the city gate.

[OOC; I'll finish this tomorrow, sorry, its late here. Post if you want, talking about the barren-ness of the barrens or bantering or what have you]

Shortly after waking from his exceptionally restful sleep (not used to beds so fine), Kiern can briefly be seen rubbing his eyes and wiping his face into his sleeves. Followed by wrapping his gunbelts around his waist, and checking the clip, slide, hammers and chambers on his collection of pistols, a quick and well practiced process.
Once suited up and sure of his gear, Kiern steps up near Aristarchus,
"Scuse me, but I was wondering if you might have any knowhow about a fella the locals here seem to refer ta as the Crow King, overheard something about his eyes being ever-watching and wanted to see what you might know about it?"

Leading them out of the building and towards the motor yard near the gate, Aristarchus responded to Kiern's question.

"Of course Kiern, as is evident by your question, it is impossible to avoid learning something about this Crow King. Sadly, this learning tends to be limited to his name, and his eyes. One thing I have learnt beyond this, however, is that he is linked in some way to the Shale Crows. They are local carrion eaters, vile things more feathered reptile than bird if you get close to them, sharp-beaked too. Local myth has all sorts of unpleasant legends surrounding them. Hardly surprising really. They're not just scavengers either - they'll attack wounded and weak creatures. There are even reports of them attacking lost travellers. They key link between them and the crow king is that they have developed without eyes. No eyes at all. But our group is sizeable and not without defences. We will be able to cross unmolested by them." He bangs on the roof of the cab Now hurry on, there is a lot of ground we have to cover before we make camp for the night."

Reaching the motor yard, he crossed to an old, rackety, 4-wheeled flatbed truck. Pale legs flashing beneath his robe, he agilely leaped up into the back of the truck.

"Wolfe, I believe that you have experience in vehicles of this kind. If you would be so kind as to get in the cab with the good sister, we'll be on our way. Sister, I'll transmit the directions to your dataslate from mine and we can be on our way. Everyone else, lets get up and get going. We haven't the time to waste, our Lord, and through him the Emperor, commands us."

Making the sign of the aquila over his chest, the seer sits with his back to the cab and waits for Wolfe to pull the truck out. After a nervous wait while the engine coughed and spluttered, it wouldn't start. Getting out of the cab, Wolfe approached the engine block, reciting the Articles of Ignition that he had learned as part of his driving experience. Delivering a sanctioned kick to the bumper, he was rewarded with a throaty roar as the engine came to life. Returning to the cab, he pulled the truck out quite smoothly, and the party was on their way through the plains.

Gaius threw his duffel bag onto the truck's bed, climbed up after it and scooted over to the back wall. He stretched out his legs in front of him and opened the duffel, taking out the new suppressor and his unloaded autogun to mount the former onto the latter while the truck pulled out and away.

Kiern siddles up along the sidewall of the truck bed on the passenger side. Tucks a light bedroll under his rear, and attempts to find a comfortable position to endure the ride. He appears a little pale at the prospect of so much open space ahead of them. Murmuring softly to himself under his breath and keeping one hand settled loosely across the back of the grip on his revolver for comfort.

The Sister Dialogous nods, and takes out her dataslate to receive the transmission, reciting the rite of data purity that was drilled in to her at the convent. With that, she sits closer to the driver, to help him with directions to where they need to go.

"I do hope we can get through this without shooting anyone..." Ailessa says, almost as if oblivious to the fact that she was the one that opened fire first.

OOC: I'm saving this xp for now. I have something specific in mind.

Bouncing and rattling, the old truck made its way across the burning flats. A thin tarp erected over the back tray protected those in the rear from the direct sunlight, but not from the general heat of the day. Ailessa and Wolfe suffered in the cab, as without air conditioning all they had to ease the sauna like situation was to wind down the windows and flap their hands to circulate the air.

Aristarchus sighed with relief as the sun finally started to set, and banged twice on the top of the cab, signalling a stop.

The party disembarked and began to set up camp, with Wolfe and Silvanus providing security. As they bedded down for the night in the shadow of their vehicle, Gaius was lucky enough to draw first watch. It passed uneventfully, and he woke Ailessa for her shift. The night dragged on with no disturbances apart from some shale crows advancing, who shied away after Ailessa flicked a stone at them. She shook Kiern by the shoulder, the scum waking bleary eyed from his sleep and trudging to the sentry post. Just after reaching his post, his keen eyes glimpse movement in the distance, approaching the camp. He tugs the line connected to the man on last watch, Silvanus, who immediately awoke from his light sleep and woke the other members of the party silently. They fanned out into a circular security pattern, Wolfe and Legius moving towards the sentry post and the contact. Dropping down beside him, they discuss between each other what to do, calmly weighing up the situation despite the threat to the party. Do they advance on the walker, who was by now 50 metres away and could be seen to be man-sized and apparently unarmed? Or do they simply engage at range, assuming it to be hostile?

[GM's note; that's fine Mel, I've just jotted it down as unspent XP, same as for everyone else until they get back to me). Kiern was the first to pass his -10 awareness check, so he noticed it. Kiern, Wolfe and Legius all passed their fear test (bummer). Now those three have to decide what they'll be doing...]

Kiern changes the load in his stormchild hand cannon to manstopper rounds (just in case). Then re-holsters the weapon, but keeps his hand resting on the grip as precaution. turning toward Legius and Wolfe, he says to the both of them,
"let's try a nice chat first, shall we fellas?". With that, Kiern starts walking toward the figure. Once within what seems a distance at which the 'person' could hear him, Kiern calls out toward it,
"Oi, how are ya tonight?" (let's say at about 15
20 meters or so, just enough that would be heard in that range)
If during the time approaching the figure he gets any indication of hostile intentions, he will open fire. If no hostilities detected, and the figure hasn't responded he's willing to get to 15 meters, to re-evaluate the situation. If friendly and responds, maybe about 10 meters to the figure. But will keep hand on grip and guard up.

There is no response from the figure, it simply continues to trudge forwards.

As it advances closer, Kiern can make out that the figure used to be a man. Used to be. A long diagonal slash runs along the once-man's collarbone and neck, a rotting mess of flesh hanging from a tearing wound to his stomach.

The smell is truly foul, and worst of all, where the walking-cadaver's eyes once were, there was now a mess of wounds and dried blood.

It continues to advance towards Kiern and the group, its arms by its side and still making no response to his greeting.

Gaius, on his edge of the perimeter, can see nothing moving on the broad plains ahead of him, Ailessa is presented with a similar vision of emptiness. This clears the area immediately around the campsite of any additional contacts.

[GM's note; At this point, everyone is awake, but everyone apart from Legius, Wolfe and Kiern are part of the camp's perimeter security and don't have eyes on the incident. They aren't aware that it is a walking corpse or anything like that, unless one of the three who can see it want to shout that out. But then would you really shout when there is something heading towards you on an otherwise dark night? when you don't know what else is out there? If they do want to find out, they'd have to move away from their position in the perimeter and see it, but then they'll be taking a fear test as well.

Gaius passed his Per test. Jack suggested it in a PM to me, and since Ailessa was on the opposite side (And between them they could see pretty much all around the rest of it), I took the liberty of testing on her Mel, and she passed as well.]

Once he realizes what he is looking at, Kiern immediately starts backing up. Once he's back within range of Legius and Wolfe,
"It's a walking corpse... Either of you wanna try the quieter approach on this? Rather not broadcast positions by opening fire if possible, but gimme a sec to see if anyone has better ideas, aight?"
Kiern then indicates with a hand gesture that he is heading back to the party, and walks directly over to Aristarchus,
"I know fer certain, that some of these terrible lurking things,... Yeah, some of em are dead fellas wit no eyes, who smell of rot and shuffle about yer wastelands. Any stories on these fellas Arrie, or should the peeps with daggers, bats, swords and weapon silencers just plug it up right quick?"

"Hmm? Oh, they are no threat Kiern. I can't detect any psychic activity about them. It is nothing to be worried about, just deal with it and get your rest. Shoot it, stab it, whatever you please. We'll need be up early in the morning and away from this place."

With that, Aristarchus returned to his sleeping roll, clearly expecting the party to deal with the corpse and return to their nighttime routine.

Kiern shivers uncomfortably at the indifference Aristarchus is showing toward a walking corpse. He then shrugs, walks back toward the two by the corpse, turns to Legius and asks,
"think you can drop that thing with yer crossbow? Prolly the quietest way to do it would be get up close and plug it in the face.I can step up with my gals alongside ya in case it don't drop and gets riley."

With that Kiern switches out the load in his Stormchild to dumdums, and changes the clip in his autogun to dumdums as well.

"Smells like it's rottin', and don't think I saw any armor, so prolly fairly squishy."

Legius grabs his sword and crossbow, and stands there muttering a prayer under his breath as he loads a bolt into it. Turning to Kiern, he replies "I could do it, or if you are feeling fun you could take the shot and I could run up and hack it to bits, make this quicker. Your choice, I just want to get rid of it quickly"

"Sorry, but I don't shoot anything but these lovely ladies.", as he pats his pistols.
"I will try these before the ladies though".
With that Kiern pulls out the two knives he has on him, and gets within throwing range. He then nods at Legius that he is ready.

[ooc: Who else here has a microbead?]

Ailessa tries to ignore the others, and focus on her own assigned area. This is her duty, and if an emergency pops up, they're disciplined enough to sound an alarm or something... right....?

Of course they are. There is no room for doubt.

[Gaius has one. I think everyone does, as well.]

I have a microbead

Legius lifts up his crossbow, takes a bit to line up the shot, and squeezed the trigger without even realizing what he was doing. It almost felt as if the Emperor was guiding his body, and the results of his shot showed. With a quiet thud, the bolt landed in the center of the things chest.

As soon as the bolt impacted on the corpse's chest, whatever other-power was driving it's motion left it, and it collapsed to the ground as a pile of rotten meat and skin. The bolt was wedged in its spine, and was easily retrieved.

Any further questions of Aristarchus will be met with repeated instructions to get to bed and rest for the following day, and admonishments for waking him again after his initial instruction to deal with it and return to bed.

As he retrieves the bolt from the creature, Legius says a prayer, not only of thanks and protection, but also for the soul of the corpse, hoping it made it to the Emperor. He then returns to standing watch, now that he has no chance of sleeping.

Gaius finally breaks the radio silence, desperate to know what the sounds behind him are.
"W-w-what's happening? Is it an animal?

Legius stops his praying for a moment to respond "It was an animated corpse. I didn't see more, but be vigilant". He then goes back to praying and watching in the darkness for more...