In the Crush of the Hive, Part 2

With a hail of autopistol fire, Sham cut Dark down, then grabbed the bigger man's autogun and turned it on the rest of the ambushers. Cortez leapt from his hiding place and supported Sham, preventing the thugs from rushing into the alley. Meanwhile, Lupus used his psyker powers to escape his pursuers, and Dorn escaped to summon aid. Modesty fled the scene in terror.

After driving away the ambushers, Sham discovered something horrific in Dark's belongings - an Inquisitorial identity card. Dark was an Interrogator! The acolytes dragged Dark's body back to their cheap hotel and stashed it next to Rig's corpse. They also destroyed the body's features so it could not be identified. A message was waiting at the hotel for Rig, inviting the acolytes to dinner at the Amaranth Palace.

The team stopped off at the inquisitorial fortress to scrub up and to confirm that Dark was indeed a member of the Inquisition. Dorn also contacted They then proceeded to the Amaranth Palace, where Lady Maris Amaranth questioned them extensively. She asked after her missing servant, Rig, and about the acolytes' knowledge of the Illuminated Brethren. She mentioned that Drake's deceased acolyte Falco questioned her mother a few years ago.

During the dinner, Dorn received a reply from Drake, ordering him to pull the team offworld.

Rather than accept her invitation to attend the upcoming Basilica ceremonies in the Amaranth family chapel, the team headed back into the city. At the cheap hotel, they discovered that everyone was dead and the bodies were gone. There were signs the Mushers had been there and left a booby trap to kill the acolytes. Meanwhile, at Modesty's apartment, Sham found signs indicating that someone was plotting a riot at the Basilica...

The Tainted Dream

A year before being sent to Constanthus, Cortes, Lupus and young Sham were sent to investigate xeno taint on an agricultural world. They traced a series of mysterious suicides to a travelling merchant, who had been peddling alien 'eggs' from a Rogue Trader, Faris, who visited the world a year before. The mayor's wife had been mutated by addiction to the drug contained in the eggs, and had transformed into a xeno horror.

Learning this was complicated by accidental exposure to the drug, which sent the three investigators into a surreal hallucination. Moments before killing themselves, they fought their way out of the alien dream and were able to return to the mayor's palace and slay his wife with his power sword.

Report on Investigations on Acreage (3)

Following a disturbing encounter with an animated corpse, the acolytes followed the corpse-collector to a warehouse by the docks, where an eccentric old man was collecting corpses. The investigation turned violent, and an ill-timed grenade caused the warehouse to collapse, severely injuring all but Alaric. The acolytes retreated to the castle to recover from their wounds.

The next day, they discovered that Prince Olcan and his retinue had fled the city, leaving a hastily-promoted Brandic in command of the defenses. Defeat was inevitable. An emissary from the Rhozeia faction visited the castle and offered safe passage through the siege line.

In the Rhozeia camp, they met with ex-Imperial Guard Tholos and Archduke Ollard, Olcan's cousin. Ollard attempted to poison the inquisitors within minutes of meeting them; when that failed, he turned an artillery piece on them, forcing them to flee back to the ruined city.

Following the sewers from the collapsed warehouse, the acolytes discovered Ollard in conference with a pair of xenos, identified as 'Slaught', the Maggot Men. The team attacked and slew one Slaught, at terrible cost to themselves. The other alien escaped. They captured Ollard, who offered to treat with them, but Alaric refused all attempts at compromise and cut out the Duke's eye...

In the Crush of the Hive

Upon arriving at Constanthus Hive, the acolytes are met by Rig, an aide of Lady Marith Amaranth. He brings them to Gassy's Bar in the deep hive. There, Scam spots a woman named Modesty who is covertly observing the group. He insinuates himself into her confidence, and learns that she is working for a man named Dark who assigned her to watch the acolytes.

Meanwhile, a man in the bar was killed by an assassin working for the 'Mushers', a myconid farm guild. The blade was tainted with some mushroom poison or spore. Ignoring this crime and summarily executing the assassin, the team followed another lead - subliminal messages in the tapes playing in the bar. This led them to a blackmarket dealer named Hodde, who told them that the disks were often recycled, and that the data was not always fully erased. Many of the disks dated back to the Illuminated Brethren. Two further leads presented themselves - a man in the Hippodrome named Thaller and scavengers in the underhive.

Dorn visited the Inquisitorial stronghold, where he learned that many of the records relating to the Illuminated Brotherhood had been removed by Falco, a former aide of Inquisitor Drake who was killed in action on Constanthus.

The acolytes decided that Rig had betrayed them to Dark. They confronted Rig, who threatened them with the wrath of Lady Marith Amaranth, but they forced information out of them. He had informed two people of their arrival - one was a man with a cybereye, the other was someone in the Inquisitorial stronghold.

They then moved to capture Dark, but were interrupted by several armed thugs...

Transmission from Inquisitor Drake to the acolytes

Acolytes,
I have reviewed the information retrieved from Breaker. It appears to be connected to a heretical sect that flourished here some three hundred years ago. The Illuminated Brethren held that the common man should be educated and taught to read the Imperial Scripture, and that debate and discussion were a valid path to understanding. Laudable as these goals may seem to some, the Brethrens’ goal was to spread heresy and dissent.

The Illuminated Brethren were shattered by the Inquisition two centuries ago, but splinters of the sect continue to endure on some worlds. The documents you found suggest that connections between these shards are being re-established. We must act now to cut the head from this revenant.

Three courses of investigation present themselves.

Primus, the retrieved document mentioned that ‘Vant’ is ‘close to opening the basilica’. The Illuminated Brethren had a sanctum on the Hive World of Constanthus – they may have returned to that place of power.

Secondus, Breaker was recently visited by a Chartist trade-ship, the Blessing of St. Gustavius. The same vessel was at Constantus two hundred years ago. If there are Illuminated Brethen on board, they may have spread their heresy to Carric.

Tertius, there are few enough Adeptus Mechanicus in the subsector. The renegade of Mars must be known to the other tech-priests. Their fortress world at San Valuso may be an excellent starting point.

Choose your path and take the Ocula Imperatus immediately. Brook no delay - I wish to contain this outbreak before it grows.

Drake

++End Transmission++

Report on investigations on Acreage (2)

>SECURITY SEAL ENABLED.
>COMMUNICATION FROM INTERROGATOR RAIS TO INQUISITOR GRUMAIRE.
>SUBJECT: Report on investigations on Acreage (2)

The platform came under attack by a flotilla of vessels under the banner of Rhozeia, one of the two warring heirs to the Governorship. Most of the acolytes avoided significant injury, although Alaric was struck by incoming fire several times. Thondor secured a ship that brought them to the mainland.

There, guided by the swamp-dweller Eklo, they rested in a swamp-folk village for a night before making their way to Olrankan. Using a letter of introduction obtained on Emperor's Island and their seal, they obtained entry and spoke to Prince Olcan, who promised to aid their investigations.

While waiting for Prince Olcan's seneschal Kirith to find the document that had been responsible for calling in the Inquisition originally, the acolytes began to investigate.

Verbal and Thondor went down to the edge of the siege, as eye-witnesses had reported bodies vanishing from the field of battle.
Quint found a corpse-collector's cart and followed it.
And at the castle, a sniper attempted to assassinate the tech-priest with an energy weapon...

The Passing Of The Barque of St. Anbas

>SECURITY SEAL ENABLED.
>COMMUNICATION FROM INTERROGATOR SCYTHIA TO INQUISITOR DRAKE.
>SUBJECT: Report on investigations on Xaladros
As per your instructions, I dispatched four acolytes (sanctioned psycker Lupus Wolsey, Arbiter Cortez, Lionus and Adept Praetus Dorn) to search the offices and home of one Sebastian Carric, recently arrested on charges of conspiracy and heresy. Carric made his home in the city of Breaker, near the great graveyard of ships.

On being discovered by the cult, the team took refuge in the wreck of the ancient freighter Barque of St. Anbas. They dealt with their pursuers, only to discover the cult was actually operating out of the wreck and had somehow activated the ship's ancient engines. The acolytes fled the ship, which began to collapse. A huge rust cloud engulfed Breaker.

I arrived from Hemonite later that night, in the company of Tech-Priest Gristus, who had divined that the cult were attempting to reactivate the ship's Warp-space machinery. A team composed of the Tech-Priest, the acolytes and some servitors re-entered the wreck to lay the ship's spirit to rest. Everyone within the ship was dead, but the acolytes did recover the remains of a 'renegade of Mars' as well as a decoder talisman.

Applying the decoder to the documents from Carric's house, I discovered several disturbing notes, which I pass onto you by secure courier.