Wait! It's dangerous out there, take two!

"I would ask the same of you!!! If we wanted you dead you would be!!! We however do not know if you want us dead!!!"

"Let's at least try to find that out on our own, shall we?" Karitoss sends his servo-skull down into the cavern, his mind impulse unit receiving a real-time visual and aural feed from its augurs.

The servo-skull descends into the cavern network scanning and relaying pict-recorder vision directly to Karitoss' heavily augmented cortex. In hues of yellow, brown and gold Karitoss can make out that fifty feet down crude and archaic cables run along the sides of the caverns powering light sources hung at regular intervals descending into the planet. The servo-skull continues further but the techno-psychic link is weakened by layers upon layers of stone and dirt. Karitoss can barely make out the beginning of an underground network supported by reinforced metal walls and humanoid frames lurking further down those halls. At this point the feed is so obstructed Karitoss has to recall the servo-skull or let his artifact go haywire down there.

"So what's it going to be Enginseer and Choirmaster? Do we go down to see them or root them out with lasguns and soldiers? Personally I'd like to talk to them. I'm very curious about why they're here and how long they have been, but either of those means could get that information."

"I'm tired of all this yelling, let's go down for a peaceful meeting," Karitoss says as his servo-skull returns to his side. "It would appear that fifty feet is an optimal range for a clear view. We'll proceed slowly down the slope, and I'll keep my servo-skull that far ahead of me. If the natives show any sign of hostility I will know in advance."

Desilco shrugs and says "Good enough for me. My throat is starting to become irritated from yelling so much. Probably should bring ten or so men with us to be safe."

Desilco, Karitoss and Joachim gather ten of Desilco's elite guards and step into the cavern. Treading slowly and using Karitoss' techno-psychic connection to his servo-skull the party has awareness of every corner of the caves within a small radius. Forty feet down the party can make out the ambient lighting of tunnel lights spotted by the servo-skull previously, at this point the servo-skull has gone far enough into the cavern to see darker skinned humans milling about cramped metal corridors. There is one guard at the beginning of the corridor complex and he possesses some sort of firearm.

Desilco steps forward and raises his hand in greeting and says to the guard "Hello I am Lord Captain Desilco of the Equinox, Rogue Trader of the Imperium of Man. I am here to speak with your leader"

The guard wears a poncho like garb crafted from at least seven slices of xenobeast hide and his firearm resembles a rifle but has a far more crude appearance. In the face of thirteen armed people the guard trips and falls from surprise. He gets up and hollers "Who tha' mother-fuking fuk is Deesilko? Wha' tha' fuk you wan with our gangfather?". The guard has his firearm pointed at in the groups direction but at no one in particular.

The gun looks kind of like this

Desilco frowns at the man pointing the gun at the group and raises his hands in a nonthreatening manner. He then says "Whoah there my friend I am only looking to have a nice friendly conversation with your leader. We are merely trying to discover the cause of the maelstrom around this planet."

"Wha' maelstrom? mmm, I can lead you ta the gangfather but you can't be bringing all those gatzmans. Five bros tops man."

"Oh come now, surely we couldn't pose much of a threat to you inside your own home. But I understand your position so why not allow seven of us to come? Surely that won't be too much trouble for all of you tough rugged types to handle?"

Charm trained fellowship 50

"Ey now cannot do that for you. Leave the other gatzman behinds if I am going to take you strangers to the gangfather."

Desilco shrugs and says "Very well if we must."

He then turns towards the bodyguards and says "Alright it looks like all but two of you will be staying back. Don't get into any fights with the locals here. Remember we're here to get to the bottom of what's going on here and to possibly bring this planet into the imperium so try not to shoot them"

He then goes back to the guard and says "After you"

"Ahright lets move out. If any of you try get lost in our home you might not come back. N' I don't mean that with any threats, this place is a doozy to get around if you're outtaheres. Follow me then."

The guard starts ambling down the metal corridor at a slow pace. The halls are cramped and stuffy and abundant with humans all too tan for underground dwellers. Regardless, none are armed nor threatening and the party continues down through the tunnels. The nameless guard leads you through labyrinthine pathways and past countless identical doors and identical corners and abruptly stops.

"Gangfather's past this door sirs." The door requires a little bit of effort to push open before you get through. Inside the first detail you notice is a heavy smog assaulting your lungs and eyes. Smoke fills the room and casts a minor haze over every object and every person in it. There are at least a dozen people in this fifteen by fifteen meter room and they are all seated in small circles of three or four around gambling tables. Each person is male and bares complex tattoos covering their backs and with shaved heads. In the middle of the room an older man following the same dress code sits on a throne of pillows breathing in the smoke with great breaths. Before anyone speaks you notice the smoke seeps into the room through vents at the top of four walls.

The older man in the middle asks you "What you want with us?"

Desilco approaches the throne and gives a courteous now before saying "I am Lord Captain Desilco, Rogue Trader of the a imperium of Man. I have come here in hopes of discovering the cause of the static field and maelstrom surrounding this planet. When we found out there were other humans on the planet we thought it best to ask those who have already been here for some time."

"What mailstorm?"

"The one who's focal point is visable from the entrance to these tunnels? The giant black vortex that reaches up into the sky? You haven't seen it?"

The gangfather raises one thick eyebrow lets out half a cough and replies: "Yea our holy darkness. Who be these Rogue Traders and Imperium of Man?"

Desilco straightens his posture and feels a slight bit of pity for the poor souls of this planet who have never heard of the Emperors greatness and purity

"The Imperium of Man is the galactic empire that spans the stars and is ruled over by our glorious Emperor and holly Terra. As a Rogue Trader I am His authority in the unknown and uncharted areas of His empire."

"Never heard of him so he for sure doesn't have authority here boy."

The various skinheads sitting around their gambling tables glare at you from the corners of their eyes.

Desilco looks over to Higs and whispers to him "Poor poor bastards"

He then claps his hand together and says to the man with a smile "Well lucky for all the people on this planet we've managed to find you and hopefully we can start bringing you all supplies and support. After all there is no need to go at it alone in this lonely universe and the aid we could offer could help everyone immeasurably. Of course first before we do that we'd have to get some information on what is the nature and cause this holly darkness of yours"

Karitoss nods to the gangfather. "As a gesture of good faith, I'd like to offer my services as a tech-priest. Do you possess any ancient or arcane machinery that has broken down or is otherwise unusable? I could take a look and potentially devise repairs."

The old man raises a faint eyebrow and replies: "A magician of the machines huh? Yea we could use one of you. If ee' can work the broks towa we would do any cooperations with you ... Rogue Trayduh."

"It would be my privilege to do so," Karitoss answers, checking his multi-tool. "Lead the way."

"I like the red man. He puts himself to use quickly. Shrugga and Ulderman will take you by foot." He raises and waves towards two tattooed men at a table who get up and start ambling to the exit of the room.

As Karitoss makes to leave Desilco pulls him to the side and tells him "Be careful with this lot. I don't know if they're straight up lying or just never leave the underground to have seen the maelstrom. Either way see if you can't get anything out of them"

"Will do, captain," Karitoss acknowledges, and follows the "tatoed" men out.

The tattooed men lead you through the labyrinth of metal plated slums. Along the way the denizens of this underground city keep their distance from your group. Perhaps they have already spread ominous rumors about you or perhaps they are more afraid of your subterranean guards than of you. Nevertheless, you follow the tattooed men to an exit. They garb themselves in layer upon layer of cloth until they only vaguely have a human outline. They start talking to workers posted near this exit about preparing for a week long trip to the tower.

[I guess we're all going to the tower?]

Desilco approaches one of the tattooed men and says to him

"If we are to travel to this tower by foot for a week I would at least offer the use of our transport ships to speed up the time of travel. They would allow us all to get to the tower safely and hastily avoiding any dangers along the way"

The enforcer turns to Desilco and speaks: "Whats a transport ship that goes over land?"

Desilco thinks to himself for now the second time "poor bastards" but says to the man

"We have at our disposal magnificent machines capable of swiftly carrying us to our destination without the need to worry about any of the predators on the land and with several times the speed. Not only that our transport is among one of the finest and flown by one of the most capable pilots it has been my pleasure to know" as he says this last part Desilco gestures to Tristan

Tristan, many miles away from this conversation, has the slightest impression that someone has just fed the fire of his pride. He goes back to polishing the control panel of Fortuna, every now and then wondering how the rogue trader is doing with his "diplomatic" mission.

Desilco voxes to Tristan to pull in his ship and gives details on the mission while Tristan arrives. (i.e. that the local planet dwellers will lead Karitoss to a place of interest with some obscure goal in mind.) After a brief waiting period the Fortuna lands with all its magnificence. The local planet dwellers are initially startled beyond belief but suspend their disbelief and follow Desilco and his motley crew onwards. Tristan asks for coordinates to set off to but the gangfellows can do no better than point with their fingers and give detailed descriptions of hills and bends far too small to resolve with human or augmented eyes from up high in the Fortuna. After a few hours of frustrated discussion it finally becomes clear, the "broks towa" is the center of the maelstrom. How will you proceed from here?

"It seems we've returned to the original subject of our curiosity. Let us proceed without delay."

Sky shuttles the group as close to the source as he deems safely possible and finally lands in the descending portion of a massive crater. The machine spirit of the Fortuna goes wild upon landing, her augury systems seem to have resolved a certifiably imperial signal from the source of the planetary shroud. It raises Karitoss' curiosity, though the Fortuna recognizes the signature as Imperial a thorough analysis of the beacon codes reveal them to either be impossibly ancient or outright xenos.

The others take a moment to look to the basin of the crater with magnoculars and glean more about enigmatic source of darkness. They make out a silver tower 30 meters in height. It thins out as it goes from the bottom floor to the top and there only appear to be windows at the very top. Even from this distance the Rogue Trader and his advisers can make out large statues of perched birds around the base of the tower.

"Lord Captain, I have a bad feeling about this one. What equipment did your guard bring? Do we have any scouting drones we could send in through those top windows?"

Desilco looks at the tower admiring the construction and wondering about its nature (rolled on Roll20). After a few moments he looks at Karitoss and says to him

"Perhaps you would be able to work your machine magic to have your servo skull scout from above?"

(I imagine our men have a mix of lasguns and autorifles?)

Valarius employs the knowledge under his command and can tell with certainty the tower was not made by xenos hands.

(Your men carry a mix of lasguns and projectile guns)

"Of course." Karitoss sends his servo-skull up to the top of the building to see what's behind those windows.

The servo skull floats up to the top of the tower with the feint humming of its levithrusters. Karitoss sees through the servo-skull's eyes as it nears the windows. The windows have hefty rusted locks in multiple locations (some wonder why so many locks on a window when at best only three are actually securing this third floor entrance) but there are sizeable cracks in the panes and the servo skull can likely break its way in. Of course if any malicious forces reside in the halls of this tower they may be alerted by the sound of breaking glass.

"Time's up, let's do this!" Karitoss thinks to himself, but does not say out loud.
[Servo-Skull used Break Window!]

The skull crashes through the window and after it takes a moment to readjust its hovering Karitoss can see an array of very alive machine spirits running lines of machine script across their communication screens. It might be possible to make out the script via servo skull. Other the screens not a single moving machine or living soul can be seen in this room.

Meanwhile, Tristan has stayed back in the Fortuna and sees the signal representing the tower start to behave abnormally. For whatever reason the noise associated with the locator signal in the tower is starting to spike.

"Hmm, seems like something's getting you worked up, Fortuna. Let's see what we have here..." (rolls 75 with 44 scrutiny).

What does the broks say? [Be a script kiddie]

While Tristan is unable to decipher the strange noise-like signal coming from the tower Karitoss focuses his mind and directs the servo skull closer to the panels so that he can read the text on them.

The text is written in techna-lingua but the sentence structure is foreign to the explorator he does his best to translate the content of the screens to more common wordings of these ideas and litanies.

"SHROUD FIELD OPERATING A$ DE*U*&T LEVELS. R#PEAT()NG @ELF MAINTENANCE PR0CES$. IT!$ATING F^R 1444455^&432416 ITER%T!ON."

One of the other monitors projects a mostly empty energy gauge.

"It seems to run on some form of electricity," Karitoss declares. Nobody understands the reference, so he admits it was his poor attempt at humor.
He inquires of the natives "Do you know what the broks towa is supposed to do when it's working?"

The tallest thug of the bunch responds to your question:

"Tau-sand years broks towa possessed en holy room tha could been used fer all sort good things."

Karitoss directs the servo-skull to further explore the room for any doors or exits.

The servo skull floats towards an open pair of sliding doors. Past the doors is a small room, no more than 8 feet wide and 6 feet long. Decrepit red banners hang down frin the walls. Behind the damage to the banners and static of the visual relay Karitoss can barely detect that an emblem is printed on each banner. On the inside of the wall separating this room from the previous one is a panel decorated with numbered buttons and a shattered glass panel. This room is an elevator.