Filthy Xenos Adventures in Space

And so the player characters spend the duration of the voyage resting and recuperating after a arduous period aboard the station. During the transit there are no serious occurrences and Quintilus assures everyone that the course has been thoroughly checked for any warp storms or the like. After only ten days you all receive an alert that the destination has been reached and that all hands should prepare to exit the warp. As Quintilus sees to the departure sequences the Tanorum exits the warp safely at the edge of the desired solar system. One hundred and twenty days have passed in real space but you have arrived at the planet of Plaxus. As you undergo your approach you detect a large ring surrounding the planer, approximately 25% larger than Terra (how you know the size of Terra nobody knows), composed of metallic components that you believe to be scrap metal.

Lae'orenar asks, "Do we have enough control over the Tanurom to run a scan of the ring? Aten wants to determine if the metal is suitable to use for all the new consoles and wiring."

"It's scrap metal. Likely not designed for use as consoles and machinery and if it is it has probably been damaged beyond use." Desilco answers

"'Perhaps debry from the WAAGH?' Firsa muses from the bridge. 'Would you like us to accompany you to the surface Dubshredda, or do you think you can handle it on your own?'"

"I'm sure that Dubshredda can handle himself. In fact, I would be surprised if he wanted to be seen consorting with 'pointy ears' and 'tin heads.' It would probably bring up all sorts of disparagement upon his leadership potential. I am anxious to begin travel."

"'Alright then, we'll drop off happy o'l Dubshredda and be on our merry way.' Firsa donates as many shuttles as she can spare to land Dubshredda and his boyz. If it takes multiple trips to get them all down, she'll have Tanurom stay in orbit until it's all take care of.

[Seeing as you only have one atmospheric landing craft it will indeed take a long time to convey all 5K boyz. It's about an hour round trip for the shuttle to load up boyz, drop them off, and come back with each shuttle carrying on average ten boyz. It will take you five hundred hours to convey all 5K boyz]

Aten suggests allowing the orks to engage in their natural instincts and create some roks. By his calculations, obtaining and constructing these primitive ships would take less than a week. We could send out some of my necrons with anchors and line to drag in the materials. Or perhaps we could fashion some sort of net to capture larger asteroids to use as a base."

"'Hmm, I don't like the idea have hanging around the site of an ork invasion for a week. I'm willing to spend a day or two helping Dubshredda get his boyz down there, but I'd like to be getting on our way again soon.'"

"The odds of an ork ship capable of posing a serious threat to the Tanurom interfering with us is unlikely at best. Even though our main weapon systems are offline, we still have the services of finest pilots in the galaxy, in some of the finest fighters and bombers available. We should be able to strike down any ship quick enough to discourage their approach. After all, why bother with a ship in orbit when there is a WAAAGH!!! in progress on the planet below?"

Dubshredda organizes his boyz and makes crude roks to send his forces down to the surface (I'm doing this under the assumption that it doesn't kill 70% of the boyz, just interrupt the action if that is the case).

Indeed the boyz go about collecting scrap from the ring for a weeks time. Over that period of time boyz begin descending down to the planet in roks to make room for those being made. During the week a couple of small craft come poking around but are scared off by your fighter craft. As you prepare to leave the planet after Dubshredda himself goes off you can't help but miss the big fella'.

[Dubshredda will transition to solo adventures]

"Firsa bids Dubshredda goodbye. Hopefully they will get to dance together again soon...

'Quintilus, chart a course for Solemnance. It's time to pay an old friend a visit.'"

Quintilus sets the path towards the desired location of Solemnance. He alerts you all that it shoudl take fifteen days of travel in the warp and that he plotted ways around any warp storms and other things along the way. As you enter into the warp Quintilus gets a general idea of the position of the Astronomicon relative to you an you all get under way.

As you all go about your business in the ships corridors during the initial stages of transit you can't help but feel a sense of foreboding. Seven days go by without any trouble and you all have time for your personal indulgences. On the eighth day, however, you receive a message to come to the bridge. Apparently objects believe to be ships ave been detected floating nearby in the warp.

"Captain Firsa, I am uncertain as to the current limitations of our vessel. Are we able to carry out a scan of these objects?"

Scans go out at the nearby objects and they read as an Imperial transport class ship

"Ah, this should not be an issue. Let us pass the ship by. There are too many dangers in this uncivilized form of transport for us to risk an attack, especially when we have no weapons capable of damaging the vessel. We should continue and hurry to our destination."

"'Let's not be too hasty to let an opportunity pass us by, Aten. For all we know, they could have information about one of the items on our list, or more realistically, supplies to help with ship modifications. Do the scans give any indication as to what they're transporting?'"

"Perhaps you have spent too much time travelling in the safe passageways of the Webway. The Warp is, quite literally, the most dangerous place in the galaxy to interact with other ships. For all we know they are all already possessed by daemons, hoping only to tear the flesh off your biological bones. In addition, we must remember that, even should they not be under the sway of the forces of Chaos, they serve the False Emperor. His proscriptions on dealings with xenos are quite specific. I believe it goes something like this, 'Suffer not the xenos to live.' Perhaps if our ship were at full fighting capacity I would feel comfortable approaching them. But now, with our main weapon systems disabled, and our small craft unable to leave the safe confines of the Runecaster, engaging with this ship could prove to be a deadly mistake."

"'Oh Aten, you're no fun. Can't we at least do a thorough enough scan to find out what they're carrying? It could be something really juicy.'"

A basic auger scan (all you can manage) shows you that the vessel contains massive amounts of cargo.

"'Firsa sighs, disappointed. 'Given that we don't know for sure what we'll get out of investigating the ship more personally, I have to conclude it isn't worth the risk. Come along fellows, let's get back to going where we're going.'"

Deciding not to go for possible loot the Tanorum continues its journey through the warp. Later the next day Frecka asks what the commotion was and when told she is extremely relieved to hear that the venture wasn't risked. The days go on into the next, and then another, and then another until it becomes the fifteenth day and you haven't arrived yet. Thinking nothing of it you all continue to buy your time and eat away at your food stores. Then another five days go by, and ANOTHER five days go by.

"Having grown bored and complacent, Firsa steps onto the bridge in her sleeping garments. 'Quintilus,' she yawns 'are we there yet? Why is this taking so long?'"

Quintilus, who looks to be doing his best not to show revulsion at your figure, calmly says "The warp is fickle, Captain, it does not always work to our advantage. I fear the currents of the immaterial may be working against us."

"'Blah blah warp blah immaterial blah. Are we going to get there before Borges dies of old age or not?'"

"At least this ship is supplied for its full crew of 30,000," Aten muses. "Even if we are trapped here in the Warp for a whole year, we should have enough food to keep you organics alive."

He thinks for another moment, then adds, "If we are in such a situation, would it be possible for us to exit the Warp early? We may not want to spend too much time in its corrupting influence."

As if on cue sirens begin blazing on the bridge. All around you the air begins to distort and the whispers begin to become much louder and more frequent. You hear Quintilus whisper under his breath "Emperor help us the geller field is failing."

"'By the Illunivar family seal, this from of travel is just full of surprises.' Firsa sighs longingly, 'If Baravyn were here, I could just ask him to work with Tanurom to figure out what was wrong. Well Quintilus, you seem fond of the warp, what do you suggest we do? If need be, I assume we can exit the warp and work through repairs in real space with relative safety.'"

Quintilus hurriedly makes his way to the decks consoles, pauses, and realizes he doesn't know how to use them and their lack thereof. He turns back to you and says "An emergency exit is highly advised. Exposure to the raw powers of the warp will drive anyone mad!"

"'Too bad we have to leave then. In my opinion, people are far more interesting with a slight touch of madness.

You heard the man! Time for a hasty exit into wherever our good friend the warp has chosen to send us!'"

Firsa appears to already be suffering from heavy madness if she's considering a dimension that wants nothing more than to kill you and torture you endlessly her "friend." Anyway, with great haste the Tanorum makes an emergency departure from the warp. As you exit you emerge into the brilliant light of two stars and take a moment to give a sigh of relief for escaping the hellish realms grasp. As quick as your fears left you they return however as the ship begins to suddenly shake violently and a quick analysis indicates you're caught in a gravity tide!

"'Harlequins in a haystack! Where has all this action been the past forever days? Thank the stars we didn't exit straight into them!' Firsa draws her sword and points with dramatic vigor. 'Aten, start cracking on those gravitational solutions immediately. We need repairs on stand by to patch up any damage from the tidal forces. Depending on how responsive the infinity circuit is, I may just have to pilot Tanurom myself out of this mess.'"

"Gravitational solutions?! My mind may be machine, but I am not capable of modeling gravitic flux in an environment with no known parameters in any reasonable amount of time. I will hurry to fix any damage."

Aten goes first to the Runecaster, to try and see what caused the sudden failure. He also gets ready to fix any damage that may be caused by these gravity tides.

With pressure mounting everyone leaps into action ready to act after days of boredom. Firsa herself takes command of the Tanorum and despite the difficulties of piloting a voidcraft without a full crew manages to use the ships momentum to carry them out of the gravity well. As everyone checks for damages Aten works on restoring the runecaster to functionality and in a weeks time after thoroughly checking he believes he has found and fixed the problem.

"Captain Firsa, I believe I have fixed your runecaster. if only you Eldar used Gauss Deflection Fields. They are much more reliable than your current protection. No matter. Perhaps we should determine our current location before we return into the warp. After all, as you Eldar say..."

Aten then transitions into Eldar for this next section, "Are you sure we should not travel through the Webway? We barely made it out in time. We cannot afford to spend years in dangerous transit."

He finishes with a return to High Gothic. "What a delightful saying."

"'Firsa raises an eyebrow, then barely suppresses a laugh. Oh Aten, don't be so coy. You should speak freely, you're not scared of the humans are you?

Young Aten suggests we travel by webway. I admit, I'm not keen on handing out webway portals to humans willy nilly, but I suppose a connection between wherever we are now and a little planet in the halo stars can't do the eldar much harm. Step aside Quintilus, Captain Firsa is on the job!'

She steps up to the console and cracks her knuckles. 'I'm sure navigating the webway is just as easy as the books make it sound. It's a good think I had lots of spare time in the hospital wing.'"

Aten is surprised, due to Firsa being the one who recommended keeping knowledge of the Webway secret from the humans. He chalks it down to Firsa's customary madness which has probably been exacerbated by her exposure to the Warp. For the rest of the trip he will focus on his book and do everything he can to prepare for the upcoming mass renovation.

Firsa rushes to about trying to plot a way through the Webway. It's only after a half hour she realizes one critical issue: there's no Webway portals near here. Quintilus stands arms crossed and after seeing your barely contained embarrassment he raises one of his hands sarcastically and says "Well?"

"'Uhh, you'll have to excuse me, I've very new to navigation. I remembered steps two through five as outlined in The Webway Traveler's Companion but forgot the all important step one: find a webway portal. Now then, you may proceed with guiding our warp travel' she finishes with a curtsy, blushing just a little."

And so the warp transit continues. It takes 60 days in the warp in total to reach Solemnance with another fluctuation in the runecaster but luckily this time you land in deep space with no hazards nearby. It's been 2.6 years in realspace since you left. Upon arrival at the system you begin receiving hails from the planet and can detect fifteen space craft in orbit around the planet.

"'Hail Solemnance! This Captain Firsa of Tanurom and I seek an audience with Phaeron Tranzyn. I come bearing good news on our mission and a request to help further it.'"

"Greetings Eldar Captain Firsa. Tell me, are you sure you haven't come to blow craters into our planet? If you wish to speak to the Phaeron I'm afraid you will have to wait for quite some time. Our esteemed lordship is away from his throne for the time being and his domain is currently being watched over by Overlord Vitola." answers Overlord Zandrick who is looking, as always, to have both of his arms."

"'Firsa whispers to Aten, do you remember this Overlord Vitola? Is he the one armed guy?'"

"One-armed Zandric is the only Overlord I am aware of with a single arm." Aten tries to recall everything he knows about Overlord Vitola.

"You recall everything I've already told you about these individuals."

"All you apparently remember is that she chopped off Zandrics arm at one point. Clearly your memory must be regressing."

"Ah, but your simple human mind has forgotten that Aten has," and here Lae'orenar pauses to consult her character sheet, "+10 on Common Lore: Necrons, as well as the Infused Knowledge Talent, which gives him an additional +10 on Common and Scholastic Lore tests where he is already trained in the skill."

Lae'orenar then gracefully rolls some dice, and continues speaking as they spin. "So, rolling against a 61, and getting a 38, I get 2 degrees of success, assuming there are no bonuses.

"Of course, apparently Vitola is quite an important Overlord, if she stands to the right hand of Trazyn himself and can cripple Zandric with impunity. There probably would be some sort of unknown modification to this test."

Indeed you dig through the recesses of your locked memories unlocking every one that you find pertains to overlord Vitola. You recall how she used to be the leader of the Nefru dynasty who rose to her position through guile and political maneuvering. When she attained leadership of the dynasty she led it into so many battles that the majority of its forces became broken and unrecoverable. As a rising lord you had stayed stalwart in support to your dynasty during the initial stages of he War in Heaven but the plotting of other lords got you caught in the fray and she... she... KILLED YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY BEFORE YOUR EYES!!! SHE CUT THEM TO RIBBONS WITH HER BLADE AND HAD THEM FED TO WORMS AFTER THEIR CORPSES WERE DESSICRATED!!!

Suddenly you begin to suffer from a head splitting pain that even your necrodermis body can't help to filter. Sparks begin flying from your joints as you are overwhelmed by the memories of bloodshed. You see yourself standing before you fellow lords in front of the biofurnaces as they march on and Vitolla laughs maniacally telling you of your grim fate as you will be given a serfs body and forced to serve her for all eternity. Only the Silent King gave you the freedom from your families murder when he severed the command protocols but your slow awakening has prevented you from remembering them until now. THE ABSOLUTE HORROR OF ALL YOUR MEMORIES!!! THE BLOOD!!! THE GORE!!! THE WAR!!!