Report on Investigations on Acreage (6)

At Rhozena's palace, the acolytes discovered that Kirith had been murdered by Jharag, an old friend of Tholos and an ex-Imperial guard officer. Tholos attempted to persuade them to issue an Exterminatus order, but the acolytes grew suspicious and examined him for signs of xenotaint. A Slaught attacked, but was driven off.

In Jharag's house, they found an alien egg. The techpriest Alaric examined it, triggering another Slaught attack. They fled, and one of the Slaught sacrificed itself to repair damage to the egg. The acolytes tracked the xenos into the wilderness, and destroyed the taint with fire.

The Watchful Angel arrived and collected the acolytes. Inquisitor Grumaire rewarded them each with a copy of St. Balaric's Commentary on the Libram Omnius Xeno, a classic text on the alien taint. They were also permitted leave to refit and recuperate before their next mission.

Eye, Tooth & Claw (2)

The acolytes escaped the Musher ambush via a back alley. Cortez, Franz and the techpriest Malthus circled around to attack the Mushers. Franz was able to slay several with a mysterious blade of xeno design before falling into a chasm, while the bolter of the techpriest sowed death among the mushroom cultists. However, there were too many, and when the renegade Techpriest Lazarus joined the fight, the acolytes were forced to retreat.

They were brought back to Outremer, where Drake ordered them to prepare for the chase of the Blessings of St. Gustavius. First, though, they must return to Constanthus, as an agent has just revealed the location of the traitor Falco.

Eye, Tooth and Claw (1)

The acolytes travelled to the outlying town of Candletown, where they found thousands of strangely preserved corpses buried in the fields. These were being scooped up by automated shuttles from the titheship. The acolytes stopped this harvest of the dead, and discovered that an 'Auriel' within the Administratum was responsible for ordering the fields around Candlemas to be harvested.

The titheship carried the acolytes to Hive Constanthus, where they were debriefed by Interrogator Scythia. They met with Malthus the Techpriest once more, and were given new orders by Drake - they were to search for the trader Fritz, and all the relics he brought from Outremer. Most of these relics were shards of the ancient Marine base - others were relics and religious curios. The investigation led to Thallier, the great merchant of the Hippodrome. He gave them the address of the hotel where Fritz was staying.

Dorn learned from Baron Carlos of Outremer that Fritz was traveling to Constanthus to meet with a buyer named Falco! The trail of the renegade acolyte was hot once more.

After watching a psyker ork branded with the Illuminated symbol slay the Ogryn Othar (who was wearing the teeth once given to Lupos Wollsey), the acolytes proceeded to the hotel, where they were ambushed by mushers once more...

Report on Investigations on Acreage (5)

The inn proved to be inhabited by deserters and madmen. During the night, the piles of corpses in the fields outside the inn began singing, which provoked a weird reaction in the wounds suffered by Hastus Quint. Black alien tendrils danced inside his flesh in time to the singing of the dead. Alaric managed to wound one of the tendrils with a knife, but this caused the song to change, and soon after the inn was attacked by cloaked figures.

The attack was driven off, and Alaric was able to remove the other tendrils from Quint. Meanwhile, Verbal and Thondor destroyed the nearest corpse-pile, which seemed to disrupt the eldritch connection between the dead.

The acolytes reached the capital city and immediately sent an astropathic message to Grumaire. They then went to intercept Kirith at Princess Rhozena's palace. As they arrived, a shot rang out...

The Clockwork Moon (3)

Uller ordered his gun-servitors and acolytes to kill the inquisitorial team. Fortunately, the group were too close to the Magos for the Titan to open fire, but a hail of autofire from the machines severely wounded many of the team. Dorn was able to reach the shuttle and call for aid from the Oculus Imperatus.

Lupus Wosley drew on previous unsuspected reserves of psychic power and lashed out with electricity. Metal melted and flesh caught fire in the fury of his wrath. While the rest of the acolytes fled to the shuttle, Lupus opened himself up completely to the Warp...and something came though.

The Oculus Imperator blasted open the airlock, and the shuttle flew out. The Inquisitorial vessel jumped away just as the Guardian of the Moon opened fire.

* * *

Blasted and broken, with her navigator dying, the Oculus Imperatus limped through the Warp to the nearby world of Testament. For six months, she was buffeted by warp-storms and dark powers before tumbling into realspace once more. On Testament, the acolytes made contact with several potential allies, including Jermais, who claimed to be a friend of Drake, and the mysterious trader Twocoin. They discovered that Gristus the Techpriest had visited the outlying regions, and that these regions had once been the lair of Illuminated cultists.

Under the shadow of a storm cast by the arrival of the tithe-ship, they set off into the wilderness.

The Clockwork Moon (2)

Pursing Tantoblin, the acolytes travelled to the lifeless world below, and entered a vault of stored machines. In the depths of the vault, they discovered Tantoblin trying to use a warp engine to open a portal to the Empyrean. He held the stolen corpse of Magos Vulcan, the foul root of the Illuminated corruption. The intrusion of unnatural energies reanimated Vulcan, and he implanted a device into Sham's head. This implant allows the acolyte to sense the presence of other parts of Magos.

The psyker Lupus was able to seal the warp breach, and the team returned to the Clockwork Moon, only for Malthus the Techpriest to accuse Lupus of heresy. Lupus invoked a power and disabled the gun-servitors, but was unable to escape. The team were able to calm Malthus down...then Sham revealed his implant, and that he could sense the corruption of Vulcan within Magos Uller...

The Clockwork Moon

The acolytes returned to Outremer, where they reported to Inquisitor Drake. He was unimpressed with their failure, but with the growing crisis on Constanthus, he was forced to spare them. All of them were punished with agony boxes; Scam and Lupus both excelled, and Lupus was entrusted with the acolytes' one prize from Constanthus - the Eye of Cius Amaranth.

The group then travelled on the ship of Imperial Courier Tarit to the Clockwork Moon of San Valuso. There, Magos Uller-Gamma4 allowed them access to the archives. A priest called Tantoblin was assigned as their guardian. In the archives, the acolytes uncovered several clues. Many years ago, Magos Vulcan passed on his cybereyes, one to the navigator of the known heretic vessel Blessing of St. Gustavius, and the other to the Amaranth family. Other components from the monk's body were installed into other Techpriests, including the traitors Lazarus and Gristus.

Meanwhile, Lupus was taken by Tantoblin to have his teeth replaced.

One of these investigations triggered a defense mechanism, and the team were attacked by a robot, who set the archives on fire. They fled. Tantoblin and Lupus returned, and Tantoblin leapt into the flames.

Returning to Magos Uller, the team voiced their suspicions. Uller spoke privately to Techpriest Malthus, and found that the records relating to the monks who were given relics from Vulcan's body had just been deleted. While the two priests conferred, the rest of the acolytes were surprised to be attacked by Lupus's new teeth. Battling off these bizarre tiny machines, the acolytes realised that Tantoblin was the traitor.

A quick search revealed that he had vanished from the Clockwork Moon, but was still somewhere in the system...

Report on Investigations on Acreage (4)

Rallying themselves, the acolytes fought off both Duke Ollard's men and the Slaught-animated zombies in the tower, and questioned the heretical duke some more. He spoke of a 'summoning' and claimed that the Slaught had shown him a truth beyond death. He was killed for his corruption by xenos. The acolytes attempted to convince Ollard's men that their lord was a heretic, but only a few heeded their words.

Fleeing through the sewers, the acolytes took refuge by the docks. Alaric tended their wounds, and discovered that Quint's belly was puckered with strange marks from where the alien touched him. Meanwhile, war engulfed the city once more. It seems that word of the duke's heresy had spread, and now the Rhozeia-loyal forces were fighting each other. Verbal made his way to the camp of the ex-Guardsman Tholos, after attempts to reach him by radio failed. Tholos had indeed turned on Ollard's allies, and arranged for the other acolytes to be rescued.

With the duke's confession that Prince Olcan's seneschal Kirith was an ally of the xenos, the acolytes decided to travel to the capital city to intercept Kirith and use the planet's Astropath. They asked Tholos for aid, and Alaric was alarmed when Tholos let slip that he knew the xenos were named Slaught. The group departed in an armed carriage.

Crossing a land of dead men and charnel fields, they came to an inn...

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...

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.

Report on investigations on Acreage (1)

>SECURITY SEAL ENABLED.
>COMMUNICATION FROM INTERROGATOR RAIS TO INQUISITOR GRUMAIRE.
>SUBJECT: Report on investigations on Acreage (1)
Master,
following reports of a death cult on the feudal world of Acreage, I dispatched four acolytes (the assassin Verbal, the spy Quint, the barbarian guardsman Thondor and the tech-priest emissary Alaric; see attached documents of verification and sanctification) to investigate. After having them blessed by Thurman, the Watchful Angel docked with the lander of one Hetter Brum, who brought the group to the spaceport of 'Emperor's Island'.

Agents report that they learned of the ongoing conflict between the two princesses of Acreage, Rhozena and Rhozia, and how their vassals are respectively holding and besieging the city Olrankan in the swamp. While Thondor tried to find a guide among the swamp-folk, Alaric visited the agent of Rhozena in the city and acquired a letter of introduction to Prince Olcan of Olrankan. The other two visited the agent of Rhozia, only to find his tower abandoned.

The shelling of Emperor's Island began.
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