Capitulus Decum: The Belly of the Beast

In the nightmare future of the 41st millennium, Mankind teeters upon the brink of extinction. The galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by ravening aliens, and threatened from within by malevolent creatures and heretic rebels. Only the strength of the Immortal Emperor of Terra stands between Humanity and its annihilation. Dedicated to His service are the countless warriors, agents and myriad servants of the Imperium.

Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game based upon the universe of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000. The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is a dark, gothic future where the Imperium of Man is beset by dangers within and without. In Dark Heresy players take on the roles of Acolytes of the Inquisition, aiming to uncover and combat the enemies of mankind, be they aliens, heretics or mutants!

Run by the Grand Inquisitor Vardaen
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RorytheRomulan
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Pax Macharia: Against All Odds

Post by RorytheRomulan » Sun Oct 04, 2020 12:40 pm

"That is good. That cold spot, in the cathedral. I can't help but wonder if there are more surprises within the Titan. Stay wary." She moves toward the room beyond the one which houses the Chair to check it for thoroughness' sake. If all is well, it may at least provide a better view of the TItan's advance.

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by Vardaen » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:50 pm

Renik bursts into the chamber panting, "What have you done?" You almost forgot about the man. He holds the doorway in both hands, "By the God Emperor we are doomed!" There is fear in his eyes, but sticking out of his pocket on his vest is a stim pack of the unused Frenzon.

Damien comments on how there are voices. That's true, but as he realizes that he realizes there are NO voices, no anything, he can't sense you even standing right before him. A great void is falling over the area as the Titan rises up. It's almost like a tsunami, for the moment ever sense is being sucked away -- with the great fear it may come crashing back like a tidal wave.

The titan stands waist deep in the ocean, the shards of the cliffside that encased it sinking away on either side. With full view of the Titan’s surroundings from the bridge, the power of this machine becomes clear. The vast ocean and endless shoreline feel small and conquerable.

At first you mistake the screeching for a the wail of metal on metal. Its source darts across the main viewport before stopping to hover directly in front of the Titan. It is a robed figure, massive feathered wings holding it impossibly still in the air. Dwarfed by the Pax Macharia, it is none-the-less massive, large enough to crush a battle tank with its fists. It turns its long neck to look directly into the chamber. A name resounds through the mind of all present. None can mistake that this... this is the Dei-Phage made manifest before you.

The Pax-Macharia speaks again “Crewmen, Battle Stations. Man the cannons.”
40K-Dei-Phage.jpg
40K-Dei-Phage.jpg (61.34 KiB) Viewed 1799 times
Just a reminder you have some of this you collected on the Bridge.

Frenz on (Drug)
A generic name for a variety of combat drugs most often used within penal legion units. Once administered, the subject becomes fearless and fanatical in combat. A character using frenzon gains the Frenzy talent and also gains immunity to Fear. A single dose of frenzon lasts for 1d10 minutes.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by Grimbold » Tue Oct 06, 2020 8:02 pm

Haxtes looks around for the battle stations. He might have a file stored somewhere in his brain that gives a basic outline of the crew disposition on a titan.

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RorytheRomulan
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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by RorytheRomulan » Thu Oct 08, 2020 2:42 am

It is difficult to describe the mix of feelings within me when I saw the dai-phage. Fear, for I am no son of the Emperor. Hate, for the creatures which had a hand in my father's death. Both tempered my anger. We had a Titan, but we were not legion. I sought every advantage available to annihilate the creature in our way, like the drugs of penal combatants we had recently acquired, while next to me, our psyker stood still.

Merica fiddles with her weapon for a second, playing with the notion of putting Renik down for the sake of cohesion, but cooler heads, albeit high in temperature, prevail, and she relents. "For the love of the Emperor, take your stim and get to the guns!"

She notices Damien standing there like a lump. She searches for a spot to place the injector on Damien - perhaps shifting the glove and rolling back the cuff of his bracers to find his wrist, or going right for the neck and collar if she can find a safe spot - and forcibly injects Frenzon into his system. "Let's tear that thing apart!"

She rushes to find a vacant gunnery position. Producing another Frenzon dose, she looks at it in disgust before self-applying the dose as she sits in the chair. This is one of the good drugs, Sister; the Emperor's Wrath in a tube.
I wasn't actually planning to shoot Renik, and I don't know if his character is coming back, so I apologize for any perceived rudeness OOC. Fellowship to get him to do as I told him to do: take his dose of frenzon and join us in the fight. If player is returning, no need for roll, he can decide for his character.

Inject Frenzon into Damien, then find my own gunnery seat and inject myself with a dose.

Talent: declaring Pure Faith now, in advance of a daemonic psychic power targeting Merica. Not to resist Fear, though. I have that taken care of with drugs :)

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by ManWithDoor » Sun Oct 11, 2020 1:22 am

Damien was more frozen in surprise than true fear, but the rush of the Frenzon wipes that away in an instant. "For the glory of the Imperium! For the Emperor of Mankind!" He raises his Staff in defiance, marching up to the front of the viewport. "Your time has come, foul demon. Your end is nigh, for all that defies the God-Emperor must be destroyed!"
Invocation Check to power up whatever Psyker stuff I pull next.

Ever since the fun of the first adventure in this Campaign, I've been investing in any method to reduce my chances of getting screwed by Fear. Went into the final boss fight and never got to do anything, since I kept failing that Fear check. :P So while I don't get the Auto-Win of our good Techpriest, I do have Unshakeable Faith (re-roll Fear). And if I get mentally assaulted, I have Strong-Minded (re-roll), Resistance: Psychic Powers (+10 bonus), and Hexagrammatic Wards on my armor (another +20 bonus, and some ability to actually soak Warp damage).

I'd say "Bring It!" but I'm not interested in getting one shot-ed in the head because of pure hubris. Lol.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by Vardaen » Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:50 pm

Renik stabs his arm with the Frenzon and his eyes go dark, "FOR THE EMPEROR!"

You steel yourselves with the Frenzon and Faith.

You seek to man the canons, and look around the bridge, even as the Dai-Phage swoops out of view of the view port. All of the panels go dark, save one, and you race to it and look, as the shouts of the Pax-Macharia continues to repeat, "Man the Cannon! Man the Cannon!"

The vid screen clearly shows the great canon atop the Titan, built into the Cathedral itself. Then a map appears, dotted lights, you must leave here, and return to the Nave, and the main Quake Cannon there!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by Grimbold » Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:34 pm

"We must go there." Haxtes says, memorizing the map and then hurries on his way out.

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RorytheRomulan
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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by RorytheRomulan » Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:26 pm

My veins hissed as the serum of penitents entered my body. A mere heartbeat later, I could feel it. The millisecond event horizon, my hand still on the injector as the needle depressed into my wrist, when I had just enough sense to realize my senses were leaving. Every strand between the gaps of my thoughts sped them toward one desire: Kill. For the love of the Emperor, kill.
It all becomes clear. That was no anti-aircraft, not an exterminatus-class weapon, but an armament of the Titan itself. Or this is what Merica would have realized, were she not overdosing on glorified bathsalts.

"To the cannon! To victory! The Emperor will not suffer our failure!" She charges in behind Haxtes.

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Pax Macharia: The Dei-Phage

Post by ManWithDoor » Wed Oct 14, 2020 5:35 pm

Knowing that Haxtes will unerringly guide them on the most efficient path to the Quake Cannon, he bows one last time to the Pax-Macharia itself, making the sign of the Aquila and praying that the Emperor watch over the soul of the Titan. Whether or not the Mechanicus are correct in that there is a blessed machine spirit which inhabits this vessel, or the spirits of those Princeps which still fight on, it does not matter. The Emperor knows all things, and he knows his own.

Having done all he can do, he sprints after Haxtes and the others, trying to shepherd Renik along to where they can do the most good.
Rule Number 12: "A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."

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The Dei-Phage: Librarium Nox

Post by Vardaen » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:59 pm

The group races out of the Bridge, and heads BACK to the cathedral nave high above. You head out into the central gear housing to make for the spinal column and the ladder that will take you up up up. Or at least that is the plan....

Where before the central Gear Chamber stood, now there soars a towering Librarium wreathed in flame. Endless bookcases reach up to the impossibly high ceiling, containing thousands upon thousands of books. The entrance behind you is gone, replaced by another bookcase that, like most of the bafflingly vast Librarium, is on fire. Blue and pink flames ripple across the floor and the surfaces of the bookshelves. Scraps of burning paper fall in a smouldering rain and the air is almost too hot to breathe.

Someone stumbles through the flames towards you, blazing from head to toe.

“Speak its name!” the burning figure gasps. “Speak its name and… and…” With that the figure falls to the ground, a guttering, charred remnant.

The flames coalesce in the heart of the Librarium to form a vast winged figure composed of multicoloured fire floating in the centre of the room. It reaches out a claw, and a bolt of flame, like a comet, hurtles towards you.

Some of you grab at your eyes, the shock to your system is dramatic. You are someplace wrong, WRONG, it is, you are there, but you should not be. Damien struggles but pushes the insanity of it away even as Mercia draws on her holy training to resist. Haxtes, an emotionless machine seems hardly to notice it. Renik is not so lucky, and he grabs at he eyes and claws at them. As he is distracted the comet like bolt of fire slams into him and he is wreathed in fire screaming and howling for a moment before he drops to the floor like the guttering corpse that ran out to meet you.

His mind is full of profane words, mad prophecies, and the threats of fates too hideous for a human tongue to speak before his burnt corpse stops twitching.
So startling is this transition into this hellscape that you each have to make a Challenging Willpower Test

This is not Fear, so the Frenzon doesn't help.

Damien: Rolled 98 Fail + Strong Minded ReRoll: 20 Success

Merica: Rolled 99 Fail + Spend Will Power for Pure Faith to avoid gaining Insanity/Corruption for the encounter.

Haxtes: Rolled 34 Success

Renik: 70 Fail = 3 Insanity and Corruption
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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