The Story So Far...


Session 27

by Tom

With less than an hour to go before midnight - the appointed hour of the Foretelling - the Explorers convened in one of the conference rooms near the bridge of the Tide of Iron. Astrid returned from making her midgets in dresses, and Jak barrelled into the room looking dishevelled - he'd been hunting the Eldar that Octavius had spotted with the help of some Kroot mercenaries, though sadly with no success. After quickly comparing notes, the whole group boarded the Lightning Fury and flew to the sanitarium-rock that the Seven Witches called their lair.

Assembling in the Witches' sanctum, the Explorers and each of the other Rogue Traders they had seen were subjected to a psychic vision; only Simon was able or willing to fight free, and as a result did not receive the message.

The vision showed a planet alight with the possibility of incredible wealth. All who saw it were seized by the compulsion to own it at any cost.

As the vision lifted, Jak streaked from the room. The other Explorers and Rogue Traders left in more orderly fashion, but their egress was interrupted by a series of explosive retorts resounding from the hangar - Jak had powered up the Lightning Fury and blown out the cockpits of each other Rogue Trader's lander.

Everyone sprinted to the hangar, and the other Rogue Traders looked on in shock as the Explorers raced into the waiting door of the guncutter, then powered away. Jak voxed an apology to any Rogue Traders who had been polite, and a profanity to any Rogue Traders who had not.

After powering up the engines - causing concern for the tech-priests by giving the new and radical Explorator free reign - the Tide of Iron left dock ahead of the competition. Simon sowed dissent by asking the Footfall Field-adepts to fluctuate the void-shields between Baron Scourge's ship and that of Madam Charlabelle Armelan, then voxing Madam Charlabelle and warning her of suspected foul play on Djanko's part.

En route Astrid conducted the Ritual of Astrogation, drawing the other three participants of the Witches' vision into her perception of the Warp and the route they would need to take through it. Leaving Jak, Cornelius, and Octavius shaken, she nevertheless plotted a perfect path.

Speeding to the translation point, even Jak couldn't stay ahead of the faster ships, and the Tide of Iron arrived to see Krawkin Feckward's smaller ship under attack by an Eldar frigate. Krawkin was forced to enter the Warp prematurely after taking damage, and the Tide of Iron slewed around, preparing to catch the quicksilver-fast Eldar ship with a deadly broadside...

Session 26

by Jim

Negotiations with the Adeptus Mechanicus continued in meetings with representatives of the Lathes, the mightiest forge-world (indeed, a system) of the Calixis sector, and the Footfall Field-Adepts, the group of Tech-Priests that tend the defensive shields of Footfall. Simon met with the Lathes' representative on the hull of the Tide of Iron, in the shadow of a defensive cannon, while Octavius ventured into the Field-Adepts' meeting chamber inside one of their three cubic generatoria-structures.

All of the offers from the factions of Mechanicus were considered, for they all agreed to our terms, and it was left up to each faction to sweeten the deal in their own way. It was decided that the offer from the Field-Adepts was the most attractive, being information on the Koronus Expanse and the various parties that exploit it, based on their activities on Footfall.

The Field-Adepts also made us aware of an Explorator-Magos who wished to voyage on the Tide of Iron. Adam Coleco was met on the dock in the shadow of the ship, and an interview was conducted. It was determined that the Explorator-Magos was suitable, and he was soon given an opportunity to demonstrate his skills.

Our explorers determined that the Earle Esquire was to be the target of some petty sabotage, and tasked the Explorator-Magos with infiltrating the ship, via teleportation, and subtly enticing the ship's machine spirits to spray sewage out of every water-using device.

While on board the ship and inside the systems, the Explorator-Magos discovered and subsequently decided to extend his infiltration to the ship's Eldar Ghost Field generatorium. After fooling a roving guard team and their security servitor (with the remote help of Octavius via a servo-skull), the Explorator-Magos was able to enter the generatorium and examine the device for a few moments, before being noticed and discovered by the technicians. He planted a homer and was teleported out, along with a chunk of cogitator console, while Octavius' servo-skull evaded detection in the locked-down generatorium. Octavius deactivated the servo-skull, which remains dormant, until such time as Octavius re-activates it...

Session 25

by Jim

Despite the best efforts of a gang of mutants and scum hired by Krawkin Feckward (the best effort turning out to be decidedly below par), our explorers attended the auction for invitations to the Foretelling at the Obsidian Emporial, along with many other Rogue Traders and nobles of Footfall. They made their bid (of the hand of St Augustus, sealed in a stasis field, which will point the way to the greatest of treasures when the stars are right) towards the end of proceedings, noting the various bids made by others. All of the Rogue Traders present at the Liege's party were there and their bids were accepted, as well as some unfamiliar Rogue Traders which Simon and Octavius recognised as Madam Charlabelle, Lady Sun Lee, Abel Gerritt, and Hadarak Fel. One of the rejected bids was also noted by our explorers for future investigation - the location of a wrecked battle-cruiser - bid by one of the Free Captains. On the way out, Simon was sure to make a point of thanking Feckward for the 'entertainment' earlier that evening, in reply to which the shifty captain only promised a more impressive showing next time.

After the bidding, negotiations were begun with various factions of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Factol Castus of the Scintilla Mechanicus was met on board the Tide Of Iron, and was considerably awed by the two offers our explorers made - a deal on mining and exporting Ilyrium from the Grace system, plus salvage rights to the crashed explorator vessel, and rights to investigate the archeotech city on Captain's Choice. Negotiations concluded with the representative offering a favourable deal, with indications that political pressure could be brought to bear on the Skorgulian Mechanicus regarding their claims to equipment on our ship.

Session 24

by Jim

Our explorers continue to mingle and match wits with other great powers of the Koronus Expanse being entertained by the Liege of Footfall, Tanthus Moross. They made acquaintances with a not-unfriendly rival in Jeremiah Blitz; a bullish and brusque military-sort in Baron Djanko Scourge; and a quite unsettling character in Lord-Captain Krawkin Feckward, who revealed to them his desire for something he referred to as the "Dread Pearl", an artifact of which no-one else present was aware. Also they spoke briefly with Liege Tanthus Moross. Also at the gathering was Juliana Kassandora, whom the explorers treated as they might a man who made straight for the pâté de foie grox canapés, polished them off and then proceeded to belch their unique bouquet back to the room for the remainder of the evening: completely snubbing him, though in truth he did not appear to recognise them.

It was Jeremiah Blitz who explained to the Explorers the reason that so many Rogue Traders were here on Footfall: they were here for the Foretelling of the Seven Witches, an event that happened every few years and which invariably lead to great treasures. The ten rights to be present at the Foretelling, he explained with good-natured amusement, were to be auctioned off at the Obsidian Emporial in 48 hours.

The next day, Astrid invited Jubilus Xan'Tai, the other of the navigators present at the party (with whom she did not speak), to lunch. She quite overwhelmed him with her present of honey-braised mech-sparrow, and her magisterial manners. They parted having agreed to remain in correspondence, as much as possible for individuals aboard Rogue Trader vessels.

Also that day, the explorers engaged in some trading, acquiring several items, and sent word to the Bonded Emissaries of the Adeptus Mechanicus to open negotiations regarding the incalculable value of the Warp-beacon at Captain's Choice, and the Illyrium in the asteroid field at Grace.

Session 23

by Jim

Following our Explorers' lavish and exceptionally stylish party, the best party 'on' Footfall, in fact, the group received an invitation to a party hosted by the Liege of Footfall, Tanthus Moross.

The group accepted and they began a leisurely trip through the Footfall longshore. On the way, they were set upon by a bunch of drunken lowlifes, and the loading servitors they controlled. They and their metal minions were of course dispatched without a moment's thought by our Explorers, some of whom found it quite an amusing distraction. Our Explorers also perused the mean and ramshackle markets, although any hope of finding goods of quality was, of course, vain. Still, Lady Crimson purchased some tea and cake, and Octavius purchased a quantity of Amasec of varying and considerable questionableness regarding their vintage. During the journey they also noticed the passage of a hooded figure who impressed Octavius as decidedly sinister, having the grace of an eldar, and were accosted by some rogues who were attempting to disguise themselves as Administratum Oeconomica port officials, looking for "docking fees". They were dispatched as adroitly with words as were the drunks with weapons, leaving with threats about just who it was who controlled the port's defence turrets.

At the party, our explorers talked to Lord-Admiral Bastille the Seventh, a rather stiff, standoffish gentleman, but never-the-less friendly, in his way. A trade deal was proposed, where the Admiral was to arrange chartist captains to fly the routes between Adventure World and Footfall. Though apparently not impressed with the suggestion, the Lord-Admiral delegated the discussion to his seneschal, Mister Saul, of whom Octavius proved the better wordsmith in the initial talk and secured a future meeting.

Session 22

by Jim and Tom

In which our explorers travelled back to Footfall, and upon arrival, partied. The party took place in one of the Tide of Iron's lifter bays, under the gaze of the trepanned (and now cleaned and impressively-underlit) Gargant, light and heat provided by a line of lifters burning off their plasma drives. Food of deadly repute was consumed by the Explorers, and only a few after-effects were felt, greatly impressing all the guests. Our Explorers socialised with representatives of a small number of Footfall's factions, including the Kasballica Mission and some especially useless agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Since most of the Footfall elite were here, Octavius and Simon took the opportunity to agree some trade contacts.

Meanwhile, Jak got very drunk and struck up conversation with some Kroot, who for some reason he found agreeable. It's possible that between his ramblings and their xeno-twisted Low Gothic, some arrangement was made for them to come to Adventure World to play the Great Game - hunted, and hunters. It's also possible that he's hired a small group of them as mercenaries.

Astrid, sadly, had a bad case of Warp Eel cramps as her internal geometry temporarily ceased keeping all of her blood inside of her veins, and was forced to retire to the Medicae deck for much of the party.

Session 21

by Jim

Inside the hostile palace-fortress, our explorers were met with deadly automated defences, but none proved a match for any of them and they were unimpeded in their search for their mysterious foe. They located cogitator terminals but even Octavius' wits were matched by some malign intellect that controlled the palace systems. Immediately afterwards they were set upon by a horde, nay, a tide of spider-servitors. After they were defeated, our explorers found the lift and ascended to the top floor of the complex.

There they found a level invaded by vegetation. The rigours of the planet's tempestuous weather had wrought irreparable damage to the lavish decoration, and nothing salvageable was found. There followed an altercation with some native mutant savages, who climbed up the lift shaft and came lolloping toward our explorers, giving our Lady Crimson ample opportunity and reason to exercise her ocular talents.

It was then decided by Lord-Captain D'Ralier that enough leniency had been afforded this place and its ceaseless antagonistic behaviour, and that diplomacy would continue from the bridge of the Tide of Iron.

Our explorers left on the Lighting Fury, and after another unanswered communication attempt, Lord-Captain D'Ralier gave the order for continuous lance fire upon the complex. When the bombardment ceased, thirty-seven minutes later, the terrain feature created was named by the Lord-Captain "Lake Victory".

Session 20

by Jim

With a planet of abandoned palace-cities to loot, the crew set to work. During the exploration and survey of Chorda's world by Lord-Captain D'Ralier's ground forces, a strange signal was detected attempting to penetrate the Tide of Iron's cogitator systems. Its conspicuous and insidious nature prompted an immediate invesigation by our explorers, and they descended toward the planet in search of its source in the Lightning Fury. They found an ancient palace-fortress, much like many on the planet, which was the source of the signal, but its controller responded to communications attempts with weapons batteries. An orbital lance strike was called down close to the city, allowing the imperturbable Jak Xanatov to penetrate the missile screen and void shields and touch down on one of the higher landing pads on the palace.

Cornelius Yorke and Octavius D'Ralier descended from the Lightning Fury to open the hanger doors, and our explorers entered the palace - avoiding the emplaced servitor gun-turrets.

Session 19

by Tom

The Explorer's grand entrance was only slightly dampened by what they found inside the throne room: faded tapestries and carpets once magnificent, and no sign of life except the large cyber-throne dominating one end of the room, in which sat ensconced the mortal remains of Rogue Trader Aspyce Chorda.

Chorda had long ago given up mobility in favour of survival, his sessile throne cyber-sutured into all the palace systems. Simon opened negotiations, and it soon became apparent that Aspyce was close to death. The warp storms had ruined the world, the city-palace populations degenerating into feral cannibalistic mutants over time, despite the adaptation of Chorda's vessel's Geller field extended to the whole planet (and the same field which had disrupted the Explorer's sensors).

Chorda warned that hostiles were approaching. Heretek factions warred for control of the planet and had long targeted him, and now with his life failing he could not keep them out of his city. Forewarned, the Explorers planted a limpet-mine on the throne room doors and concealed another beneath the carpet.

The precaution was to prove extremely wise, as through the door burst a monstrous cyber-tech abomination, as massive as a dreadnought, armed with lascannon and power fist, the heretek-priest's head still visible atop it. The first limpet-mine's detonation damaged the thing, and rather than risk a second explosion the heretek scanned for, found, and obliterated by las the second mine.

Bolt shells from Cornelius, Octavius, and Astrid pattered off the mechanical armour, and a squad of robed tech-cultists pushed into the room - only to be handily despatched by Octavius' bolt shells and Jak's casual frag grenade.

Meanwhile Simon's plasma was having a little effect, and Cornelius was baiting the tech-monster before darting behind the throne-room's pillars - which were destroyed moments later by lascannon blast. Having had quite enough, Simon D'Ralier charged the mech-beast, struck three ringing blows with his power fist, and tore the heretek-priest's mechanical spine from its armoured shell.

With that little matter dealt with, negotiations with Chorda resumed. With his life failing, Chorda agreed to sign over everything to Simon on one condition: that the name Aspyce Chorda never be forgotten. Simon agreed, and with his last energy Aspyce transmitted to the Tide of Iron a dense info-packet which later turned out to contain a contract which indeed handed over the system to the D'Raliers - and Chorda's own Warrant of Trade, besides.

Session 18

by Tom

The Illyrium asteroid field represented an extremely dangerous barrier - a barrier that Jak, nerve-filaments thrumming to the power of the ship, scoffed at and threaded the five-kilometre mass of the Tide of Iron through with nary a whisper of destructive grav-shear.

Scans showed the planet rumoured to be inhabited by Aspyce Chorda to be devoid of humanoid life, though it was a wet, temperate jungle in the main, dotted with heavy structures. A transmission from the largest structure, vox-only, purported to be from Aspyce Chorda her himself, and he invited the Explorers down to talk, one Rogue Trader to another.

Suspicious - of the pict-less transmission, the strange field interfering with scans, and Aspyce's manner in general - Jak set the Lightning Fury on an autopilot approach to the planet (a flight that would take several hours from the high-orbit Tide) while the Explorers used the teleportarium to appear instantly in one of the other structures on the planet.

The structure was a palace-city, built for expatriate nobility settling Chorda's world to escape the Imperium. With no power and no inhabitants, the Explorers found little to engage them, and after rifling through a few rooms returned to the Lightning Fury via the teleport homer kept aboard.

Following the landing beacons, the Lightning Fury came to rest at a platform near ground level to find no welcoming party and semi-functional blast doors juddering open. Spurning this approach as a possible trap, and unacceptably rude besides, it was decided to reenter the Lightning Fury, use the missiles to blow out the roof of the palace and descend into the throne room by grav-chute.

Session 17

by Tom

A combination of calculation, sensor-interpretation, and brilliant flying brought the Tide of Iron within reach of the fleeing Eldar vessel. Scans showed it to be small, and unlikely to be warp-capable itself. In order to close the final distance without giving the wily warpcraft-using xeno a chance to react, a daring plan was concocted: an immediate and very short-range jump through the Warp, exiting on top of the Eldar position.

Lady Astrid performed the fast and necessary astronavigation, and the Tide exited the Warp as its macrobatteries opened up with everything they had, saturating the area the Eldar ship was in with titanic las-beams and mega-shell explosions. Cornelius, at the gunnery command, reduced the enemy ship to a cloud of expanding gas.

Congratulating themselves on a job well-done, and officially naming the canny short-range jump 'The Crimson Manoeuvre', the Explorers settled the Tide of Iron after the sudden leap and plotted a course for the system of Grace, where the Mechanicus investigative mission wanted to investigate their mining operation that had fallen out of contact. Repairs and replenishments would have to wait.

The journey was a long one, and fraught with danger. What should have been weeks felt like many months of warp travel, stranded aboard ship with the quiet scratching of etheric entities at the Geller field a constant accompaniment. Eventually, tired and haggard but no less determined, the Explorers charged the ship through a warp-tempest to pierce the veil and exit, finally, in the system of Grace.

Resetting the astrochrons revealed that only a few weeks had passed in realspace - a small blessing after the arduous journey. Initial scans of the system showed a massive spherical asteroid field surrounding a number of inner planets, and strange gravitational readings. Consultation with the Mechanicus mission aboard ship told the Explorers that there should have been a mining operation in evidence, though the fate of that was soon discovered: an Explorator vessel, the size of a battleship, crashed and flattened against an enormous asteroid in the field.

The asteroids themselves - made of the rare and incredibly rare mineral Illyrium - were generating wildly fluctuating and powerful gravity fields, and it was surmised that the warpstorms that had held Grace cut off from contact with the rest of the Sector for so long had caused some error which made the mighty ship fall prey to these fields, smashing it. Scans, and investigation with teleported servitors, showed a strange void within the vessel where there should have been interior bulkheads, but the dangerous gravity fields made a sustained salvage attempt, or even a quick looting run, inadvisable.

Without the stabilising effect of the arcane technology of the Mechanicus, their gravity-bridge had collapsed, leaving no safe route through the asteroids to the planets within - supposed to be home to the planet settled by the retired Rogue Trader Aspyce Chorda...

Session 16

by Tom

While Jak made contact with the ship and arranged for teleportarium rescue from the featureless tunnel he and Simon found themselves in, Cornelius secured Jax who was proving quite reticent.

They reconvened aboard the Tide of Iron. Octavius and Astrid shared their findings about Jax' work: he had been directing and modulating the beam of warp energy within the spire, trying to use it to transmit a message. The message bore the same tell-tale signs of Eldar encoding which had alerted the Explorers to Jax' wrongdoing in the first place.

It occurred to the team that the Eldar guards must have come from somewhere, and so Jak began frantically scanning the planetary system while the others headed to the Interrogatorium to have a pointed word with Jax.

Jax was, under the tender ministrations of Cornelius, most forthcoming. He views his association with the Eldar as a clever business choice, and he owned up to harbouring an Eldar ship - home to an Eldar Warlock, his contact with the xenos, and the four warrior bodyguards. After the questions Simon offered Jax a deal to think about while he remained detained: work for D'Ralier, and keep his life.

After a conference with Maliss by holocaster, a deal was struck: Maliss, who had grown tired of the extra complications of the Orks and strangely-empty city, would forfeit all claim to the world and any archaeotech so found there. In exchange, he would wait to make some essential repairs and then leave - taking Jax' now-captainless ship with him.

Having tracked the escape trajectory of the Eldar ship from Jax' frigate, the Tide of Iron lumbered after it under Jak's expert hand, determined to catch and stop it.

Session 15

by Tom

The Explorers faced off against Jax, both standing on a mesh walkway over a void pierced through the centre with a massive column of glowing energy. The rogue trader ignored them, however, frantically working at the console he stood behind; his indifference was soon explained by a sudden hail of shuriken from four Eldar Dire Avengers hidden under xenotech cloaks.

A bloody battle followed - Simon looked sure to be torn to gobbets by shuriken, but somehow Cornelius was able to charge the offending Eldar warrior flat, ruining his shot, before hurling him over the edge and into the ravening energy beam. Simultaneously a battle of wits resolved itself, as Jax worked feverishly on the archaeotech systems with Octavius and Astrid fighting against him from the control room. When the two of them managed to block his every move and with three of his xenos guards dead, Jax made a break for it.

Pressing a small control device against the wall, the solid surface rippled and became an escape portal. Simon unkindly grabbed Jax's legs and lopped off the arm with the device, while the final Eldar warrior fled through the opaque but permeable wall, pursued by Jak.

With a burst of speed borne of hatred, Jak managed to run down the last Eldar and slice off its leg in a shower of blood. Simon quickly followed, and after a quick examination of the Device which Jax had used, the wall-portal was shut... leaving Cornelius, Octavius, and Astrid in charge of the battle scene and of Jax' prone form.

Session 14

by Steve

Suspecting treachery, the crew take the Lightning Fury down to the city, landing in the plaza outside the tower. They speak to the Skitarii sergent on duty and discover that Jax went into the tunnels below the edifice some time previously, accompanied by a squad of troops. With the assitance of a tech priest, Octavius joins with the machine spirit of the traitor's shuttle and determines that Jax is somewhere in the central levels of the tower. Never ones to take the long way, our brave heroes fly up to the tower's roof and rappel down through the hole they blasted previously, followed by Skitarii squads teleporting down from the Tide of Iron.

The tower's strange composition renders scanning beyond the confines of their current level impossible, and so the crew search floor by floor, finding ancient lab complexes sure to be of great interest to the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Arriving at a level that is powered, the first that they have encountered, the team tread cautiously. Heavy bulkheads cover rooms warded with ancient sigils that Octavius translates as warnings against hazardous equipment within, and the presence of backup generatoria. Fearful that attempts to breach the doors by force might alert their quarry, they head on down finding great machines and a warehouse, apparently dedicated to processing the strange ores that create the wondrous material of the tower, and then producing sheets of it for manufacture.

Reaching the lowest level at which Octavius' scan determined Jax might be found with no sign of their prey, the Explorers decide that he must be on the generator level and so return, eager for answers. The ancient codes and input system of the door controls momentarily stump Octavius, and Simon applies mighty Imperial technology to the problem, blasting the doors asunder with a rain of blows from his power fist.

Always concerned for safety of his colleagues and betters, Cornelius takes point, stepping through the breach in the bulkhead into a corridor beyond. Peering through a window he sees their quarry and quickly ducks down, signalling to the others. Creeping forward past the window to the corner ahead Cornelius looks round and spies three battle servitors, equipped with heavy bolters and the xenotech power sources that the stowaway units on the Tide of Iron carried. As before a number of servo-skulls accompany the hulking brutes.

A furious battle ensues, hails of high caliber bolt shells temporarily pinning several of the crew, whilst answering fire shreds the lead servitor. Unphased by the enemy fire Jak uses Cornelius' grenade launcher to provide a smokescreen, and deftly despatches the two servo-skulls with a double shot from the House D'Ralier plasma pistol. He and Simon then advance through the smoke to engage the machine-men in melee.

The guards despatched the brave quintet chase after the elusive Jak, cornering him inside the tower's core where the pale beam of pure warp energy lances upward. They catch him just as the presumed traitor manipulates a control console across the other side of the open shaft.



Session 13

by Jasmine

The Explorers turn into a long, dry sewer system and find themselves staring down an Ork War Boss, several Nob Boys and a handful of Orks under their command. The Explorers opened fire upon the War Boss, only to find their bolt shells did little damage to his superior Ork armour.

Simon and Cornelius charged the War Boss, Cornelius undertaking the brave and questionably wise task of attaching a limpet mine to the War Boss' armour. The task was completed successfully and finally the armour was penetrable.

With help from Maliss, Octavius, Jak and Astrid, the War Boss and its accompanying party were vanquished, leaving the Explorers with the spoils: an excellently crafted set of the War Boss' armour, which Simon and Jak have discussed displaying on the Tide of Iron`s bridge.

Following their return to the ship, contact was established with Maliss and an officer from Jax's ship, and the Explorers shared their latest information. Soon after, the combined brilliance of Octavius' scanner manipulation and Astrid's warp sense detected strange modulations in the warp beacon on the planet. Octavius determined possible Eldar elements to the transmission as well as Imperial codes and traced the origin of the signals to Jax's ship. After making discreet inquiries it transpired that Jax was somewhere in the city...

Session 12

by Tom

With troops sweeping through the Gargant, and organised ground forces coupled with orbital bombardment and air support routing the Orkish foot troops in the city, lifters quickly descended to attach mag-clamps and lift the Gargant bodily through space to stow in the Tide of Iron's hold.

The Explorers oversaw the fighting until the core of the city was safe enough for some looting to take place. They turned their attention to the massive central spire, and flew via Lightning Fury to the roof, hoping for an easier egress than the scorched and formidable front doors.

Sadly they were thwarted, with no entranceways visible on the roof. Testing via auspex and guncutter showed that whatever the tower was built out of, it was stronger than Imperial admantine; eventually a plan was devised whereby a section of the roof was teleported away, allowing access to the interior of the tower... although, finding it to be a maintenance room, the Explorers immediately became bored and pursued a new venture: scans having revealed tunnels criss-crossing the city, they made a risky teleport directly into them with their accompanying Skitarii.

They quickly found long, empty tunnels that seemed to follow crystalline structures within the planet's core, though the crystal itself was hidden. Following the tunnels, they reached the centre of the city and looked up directly into the central spire, which at its base held a massive, pulsing crystal which shot a coruscant beam of energy directly upward; gantries circled it on the interior of the tower, all the way to the top.

It was pure Warp energy, the Astrid realised as its presence began to beat on her mind; and so it was decided to sell it to the Mechanicus and the Explorers went to find the Ork Warboss instead. They managed to triangulate his position by vox-waves, and moved in through the long-dry city sewer system.

Session 11

by Tom

With the whole messy buisness of the Maw of the Void dealt with forever, the Explorers turned their attention back to the Orkoid planet of Captain's Choice. Further scans revealed that the polar jungles were heavily infested; it was decided that Jax and Mallis would turn their guns on the vegetation and set it alight, destroying the jungles and burning the Orks.

Meanwhile, Simon enacted his plan to capture the whole Ork Gargant that was stamping around the city: first using the ship's lances to score enormous ditches that the Gargant - or any other Ork vehicles - would be unable to cross, effectively hemming it in and cutting it off from support of the milling Ork hordes. Then, under cover of the storms whipped up by the climate imbalances caused by the burning poles, the command crew took the Lightning Fury accompanied by several lifters of armsmen and dropped out of the sky; a volley of krak rockets dropped the power fields surrounding the machine long enough for the Wierdboy Pylon to be exploded off and the crew - less Jak, who stayed to pilot the guncutter and provide support as needed - to grav-chute in through the hole.

A brief combat with the Mekboy and support grots in the gargant's brain-room left the Explorers in command of the shambling war machine; outside, the orbital bombardment and lifters of troops fell on such Orks as were nearby to be a threat, and routed them.

Session 10

by Jasmine

After battling with the warp-entity possessed servitors with the help of Confessor Rubricht, Cornelius and Octavius were left injured. The disconcerting panting seemed to have dissipated from the destroyed machines, but Astrid and Octavius continued to detect, by various means, a presence in the cargo bay at large. The heavy panting sound also continued to emanate from one of the cargo control offices above the cargo hold.

The party made their way towards the offices. The first one, despite careful checking, was found empty aside from a mug of ice-cold recaf. The second office the party came to gave off a high warp signature. In the corner, the party discovered an old man, curled up, eyes red-rimmed, unnatural and strangely dark, the source of the heavy, uncontrolled panting sound. Before any of the party could act, the man breathed, "I'm not the one you're looking for!" before his insides literally exploded from his eye sockets. The resulting fountain of gore outlined a daemonic presence of horrific appearance. Despite terrible fear of it, Simon, Octavius and Cornelius managed to dispatch the entity with much haste.

This still left the issue of whatever haunted the cargo hold. Checking the cargo manifest revealed that the crates contained a kind of grain well-liked for long void journeys because it remained alive, after a fashion, for months after being harvested - a fact which seemed ever more relevant as it was possessed, spilling from the bursting crates in a swirling, black cloud. The party decided that the hold should be spaced. Octavius contacted the bridge to relay the orders.

However, by this time the hold had filled with possessed crewmen. The Confessor, along with Simon, had gone to investigate the grain while leaving the others to watch and provide cover from the office, and were being hemmed in slowly by the zombie-type men.

Navigator Crimson used her terrible warp eye to dispatch thirty men in a blink, before Simon and Confessor Rubricht used their power fist and chain sword respectively to hack down any that came near, as the hundreds of crew swarmed into the hold and began to drag them down. The two managed to don their void suits before the hold was voided. However, the priest's hold was not as good as Simon's and he was voided - but thanks to some quick piloting by Jak, he was saved by the gun cutter.

As the cargo bay finished voiding, Simon was left with a terrible message from the entity: "It did not have to be this way, my Prince." As was Astrid, who heard: "I am the Maw of the Void. I see you, my eye that pierces, and I have come to claim my bride."

Session 9

by Tom

Regrouping after the terrible battle, the three Rogue Trader vessels - Jax sheepishly returning, his 'emergency repairs' complete - took stock of the damage and began some close scans of Captain's Choice's surface. They quickly outlined a planet wracked by the remains of partially-successful terraforming: red deserts covered the mass of the land, with thick jungles at the poles and a ring of equatorial mountains flanked by rolling foothills and mesas. They quickly found the location that Mallis' information had hinted at - a great city built on and into a sixty-kilometre-wide plateau created from a sheared-off mountain; two artificial ramps, themselves kilometres wide and long, approached the plateau's surface; scans also indicated a number of smaller, natural, valley accessways.

The region was in the throes of an enormous sandstorm which blocked some sensor readings and made visual confirmation impossible, but nevertheless the acuity was enough to reveal the ancient city, its teeming Ork population, and the unmistakeable energy signature of a Gargant plasma combustion engine, as well as the attendant shanty town which, Simon remembered, Orks nearly always built at the feet of their mighty war machines during construction.

Navigator Crimson, gazing down at the planet from an observation chamber, felt the pulsing, threatening pressure of the massed Orks and the fearful energies of Orky psykers - but startlingly something else, something unwholesome, on the ship itself. Confined to a minor area at the back of the ship, it was nevertheless the taint of a Warp entity, somehow aboard ship.

Astrid make Simon aware quickly, and in turn the command crew were pulled into secret conference. It was decided that the area would immediately be sealed and all access blocked by security teams while the Explorers - and only the Explorers, with the exception of known warrior-priest Confessor Rubricht von Helsing - investigated the source of the tainted warp-signature, and excised it by whatever means necessary.

As soon as that decision was reached, however, the whole ship lurched violently - the attitude thrusters had gone haywire and completely beyond the ability of the tech-adepts to adjust for. Jak was forced to remain in the pilot's chair to compensate for the bucking torsion, lest the ship be torn apart or flung from orbit onto the planet below.

The remainder of the group commanded security details secure the perimeter of the infected area, and went in to investigate. At once they were struck by how silent the area was - even accounting for the dreadful losses sustained at the hand of the xeno, there should have been visible crewmen, and there were none. Before long, over the vox system came a ragged, gasping, panting sound, as though of someone terrified and unable to get enough breath into their lungs; the sound was persistent and without apparent cause until some clever thinking allowed the Bridge crew to trace the origin back through the internal comms network to the second of the two overseer's offices which attended to the nearby Cargo Hold 456-B. Octavius' augur array could detect nothing apart from a strange reading of which he could make no sense - until he correlated his data and found it matched, perfectly, the horrid gasping sounds.

Deciding to ignore the crew compartments in favour of heading directly to the problem, the command crew moved along the corridor and into Cargo Hold 456-B. They stepped through the roll-door into a gloomy chamber, forty metres high but stacked to 35 metres by metal crates holding foodstuffs. As the last of them did so, the door suddenly slammed shut behind them with a rattling clang; the Explorers whipped round, only to have their attention immediately taken by the nearby Servitor Bay, and its complement of eight monotask loading servitors - which, eyes glaring red balefire, turned their heads in unity, opened their mouths, and began panting, gasping, as though choking.

Reacting quickly the group blew many away with bolter fire, but the remaining machines flew at them with unholy strength and speed, even leaping from walls of crates with magnetic boots to come crashing down. Despite the fury of the attack the machines were only servitors and could stand up to the Explorer's skill and expertise. Octavius and Cornelius suffered some cracked ribs but were largely unharmed.

Session 8

by Josh

Mallis angered the Orks greatly with his taunting, and they made haste to engage the small imperial taskforce. As they approached, Jax made a foolish move and gave away the position of the ambush. Moving to engage, their plan foiled by Jax's incompetence, the firefight began.

Cutting in close to Captain's Choice 4, Jak managed to evade the Ork frigates long enough for them to commit to attacking Jax and Mallis. The Tide of Iron planned to use the time to position themselves in the Orks' rear arc and destroy them, but one of the Ork captains spotted them at the last minute and executed a dangerous manoeuver in an attempt to ram the Tide. Deftly avoiding the Orks' attack, the Tide was forced to fire its main weapons - most ably manned by Cornelius York - on their primary agressor to devastating effect.

Beyond the gravity well of the planet, an exchange of fire was taking place - the Imperial taskforce was losing. With the huge Ork cruiser entering the sector, things were looking grim. Taking a heavy pounding, and failing to return the favour, Jax fled the field to ostensibly repair some critical damage. Fighting on, and taking catastrophic engine damage, Mallis damaged one of the Ork frigates. As he was doing so, he plunged out of sight into the gaseous interior of CC4 - presumed lost.

Jax's flight and Mallis' sacrifice were not for nothing, however. During the fight between the frigates, the Tide was able to manoeuver freely and land devastating blow after blow. The first frigate suffered a disabling hit to its engineering sections, destabilising it's warp drive causing a small warp-storm to spawn - the next was hit so hard it shattered into a million pieces, hulked.

Realising their mistake, the Orks turned and engaged the cruiser, making good account of themselves. The Tide suffered moderate damage before seeing off another of the frigates.

As the third frigate was destroyed, the Ork cruiser engaged, firing a massive barrage of macro shells, pounding the Tide in an attempt to soften it for a blast from its massive central cannon. Taking a number of macro hits, the Tide was hit by a blast of coruscating energy, which arced off surfaces and exploded consoles throughout the ship - when the energy finally dissipated, the ship emerged miraculously unscathed. From that point, the Ork weapon seemed unable to hit the vessel.

The fight continued, with the remaining frigate and the cruiser taking a pounding from the Tide, and reciprocating, before Mallis' ship erupted from the atmosphere of CC4 and distracted the frigate. Taking the opportunity, the Tide rounded and destroyed the RCS system of the cruiser causing it to careen out off the field.

The remaining frigate was quickly dealt with, and the cruiser hunted and destroyed - its build meaning that it could only return fire in its forward arc, but had no way to turn without its RCS.

The Rogue Traders emerged victorious, with five frigate and one cruiser kill to their credits - but with massive damage to their hull and crew.

Session 7

by Tom

Having taken bloody vengeance on the small-minded idiot who had slighted Octavius and provoked Simon, the insertion party lead by Jak and Cornelius took the lift to the top floor where, in a bunker under the observation dome, they found the hideous mutant leaders of House Gaul and exploded them with bolter and power weapons.

Unfortunately Jak started to feel a little strange, and - as it turned out - fell prey to vast quantities of weaponised aerosolised Frenzon that was circulating the air system. This lead him to take a squad of Skitarii and go on a red-mist rampage through several areas until he fell unconscious.

After a period of recovery in the medbay, both Astrid and Jak were ready to act again, and after a quick bidding war to sell off the newly liberated House Gaul assets the Tide of Iron was on its way, accompanied by the Jax and Meriss ships. Thanks to a perfect course set and flawless execution by Navigator Crimson, the flotilla arrived at the co-ordinates within a week, and there was much rejoicing.

Initial sensor sweeps indicated the presence of crude xenoform ships, which Jak and Simon identified as Ork vessels. On silent running, the Tide of Iron coasted out from behind the moon they were using for shelter and got a better look: five Ork vessels of various size, though none as large as the Tide of Iron herself.

After a brief discussion, the D'Ralier and Jax missions stood waiting in ambush behind the moon, while Meriss took his frigate and blared out a challenge to the Orkish vessels - which took the bait and began powering toward the well-set trap...

Session 6

by Gareth

After waiting a while to see if Jak re-appeared on his own, the Explorers concluded he might be in trouble, so used the sensors to locate Jaks comm-bead. Finding him trapped in a small cell deep in the Gaul asteroid, a plan was formulated!

The Arch Militant was dispatched to recover Jak by clandestine means. As soon as his safety was assured, the Tide of Iron swung into action, targeting the Gaul family's two frigates Justified Paranoia and Carmichael's Wrath. The smaller vessels were caught off guard by Jak's stunning piloting - Carmichael's Wrath nearly snapped in half on the Tide's prow, while Simon lead a teleportarium fire-blazing party to the Paranoia's void shield generators.

The Frigates tried to fight back valiantly, but were badly outgunned, out massed, and unable to capitalise their manuever advatage in the face of Zanatov's expertise. A text-book broadside lead by Yorke hulked the damaged Wrath, assuring the Paranoia's surrender (at least, once her Commander had been permanently relieved by a much smarter officer).

With that, the lord Merchant opened a hail to the Gauls, to negotiate for the return of the already-rescued Jak. Unfortunately, they didn't want to negotiate, so the only remaining fun to be had was to storm their base.

Jak, Cornelius and Astrid took a small squad of Skitari and proceeded to blow things up, until Astrid was injured. Astrid has returned for medical attention via Teleportarium, and Simon is considering joining the away party with a few thousand troops.

Session 5

By Gareth

With the party over at port Wander, the Tide of Iron moved on into the Koronus Expanse, looking for riches and adventure!

Navigating the maw was dangerous, harrowing, but ultimately successful thanks to Lady Crimson's skill, though the Tide's idiosyncratic engines delayed our arrival a full two months.

Upon re-establishing a time-signal, we decided to wait for our Rogue Trader friends to arrive, intending to go bomb some orks before messing about with the mining operation in Grace.

Our first stop-off was the interstellar junk heap known as Footfall, where some punks tried to scan us so we pointed macro-cannon at them and laid plans to steal and/or sell their ships. While considering the details, we laid on supplies, got the men some R&R to make up for the voyage through the Maw, and attempted to buy some expensive things to go on the mantlepiece. Then Jak got drunk and woke up in a cell somewhere.

Session 4

by Tom

With the threat assessed and the largest concentration of illegal combat servitors destroyed, it was a simple matter for the Explorers to lead security details in cleaning up the rest. The journey to the forge world of Skorgulian was uneventful, and once the Tide of Iron arrived Adeptus Mechanicus crews set about repairing and refitting the once-crippled ship. During the weeks this took, the Explorers took the opportunity to recruit some Skitarii-brand crew from the forgeworld orbitals and to leverage some personal equipment out of the technophile Adeptus - significantly, the Lightning Fury was fitted with force shield technology, making it EVEN COOLER.

Examining the newly outfitted Tide of Iron, the Explorers found everything was shipshape (arf arf), and - to their surprise - the Tech-priests had even seen fit to install a hallowed archeotech device, the revered Teleportarium. The Sunsear laser batteries installed at Scintilla were augmented by Mars-pattern Macrocannon Broadsides, and the prow was made fearsome with the addition of a battery of lance weaponry.

Eager to be off, the Explorers set course for the only place they knew they had to go: the Koronus Expanse. The warp journey was uneventful and short, and the Emperor was roundly praised in the lower decks, and soon the Tide of Iron pulled into Port Wander, the last Imperial outpost before the chaos of the Maw and the Expanse beyond.

The first thing that was decided was that there should be a party, and since nobody else was throwing one, it was down to House D'Ralier. A thousand invitations were sent out to all the nobles, officers, and merchants of the Port, and the function deck illuminated in dazzling 3D display by modified tenebro-maze holoprojectors.

In brief: Jak got drunk and made a date to go grav-surfing with a member of House Meriss; Simon more usefully managed to wrangle out some details of xenotech trading in the markets, and arrange a profitable detour or two as well; Octavius assessed the worth of those merchants in the Port who might be willing to trade in things not strictly permitted under Imperial law; and one such merchant was invisibly detained by well-commanded security crew aboard the Tide of Iron for further questioning.

Session 3

by Tom

The new ship parts were fitted over a few days, in which members of the command crew took care of some minor business: overseeing repairs, recruiting capable voidborn crew from a number of different Scintillan orbitals, getting the paperwork in order, or finding out that they'd been shunned by their House Nobilite.

The warp translation was relatively straightforward, the journey taking less time than was anticipated. The Emperor was roundly praised, at least amongst most of the crew.

Shortly after tranlating back into realspace after the journey, Jak noticed a number of anomalous energy signatures moving in one of the depressurised, sealed sections of unrepaired internal hull. Simon took this as an excellent opportunity to prove to the crew that he was a worthy captain, and so after contact with the first security detail sent to investigate was lost, decided to go himself; Jak went without question, Octavius went along to protect the D'Ralian interest that Simon represented, and even Astrid, feeling the need to exercise after being cooped up for the voyage, loaded in her inferno shells and tagged along.

Suited up and on the alert, the Explorers investigated the airless part of the ship where the signatures had been located. Energy interference from venting plasma conduits prevented vox-communications over anything more than a couple of metres.

In the silence, the Explorers found unknown servo-skulls and combat servitors infesting the section, some of which were armed with forbidden Eldar xenotech weaponry and, it seemed, power sources. In the mute battle which followed, four combat servitors were destoyed - with a great deal of aid from Cornelius Yorke, arch-militant and bodyguard to Kavanagh who had been trapped by sealed bulkheads while on his way to the bridge. Minor wounds were sustained by some of the Explorers.

Retreating to a less exposed location with less electromagnetic interference, the command crew debriefed Cornelius, and prepared to vox through to the crew to see how many anomalous power signals remained...

Session 2

by Gareth

Aboard the ship, the group was met by the crew, or most of what remained. The ship had suffered immense damage to all sections from weapons of both Imperial and Eldar design. The gundecks were lost entirely, 2/3rds of the crew were dead, the bridge had had to be rebuilt entirely en-route, one of the sheild arrays was offline, acres of hull plating was lost... the whole thing was fragged.

An asshole Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus came aboard, concerned about the House's 'carelessness' with the holy relics of the Omnissia. After some discussion, lies and negotiation, he was talked into helping with the ship's repairs in return for the following conditions: Those parts provided and fitted by the Admech would be done for free, but would remain Admech property until the house proved 'worthy' of them. The Adeptus Mechanicus would have the right to bid on all Xenotech found as well as Archeotech, should the D'Raliers choose to sell said items. The Adeptus Mechanicus had full salvage rights on what remained of the D'Ralier fleet at the Sekrit Meeting Place.

Details of the 'contract' are to be rendered in Legalese at the shipyards at the nearby shipyard of Skorgulian, where the work will be completed.

While emergency repairs were finished and the ship took on supplies, the group put it's money, connections and luck to work, acquiring better sensors for the ship, and fitting the gundecks with some Sunsear batteries, hopefully discouraging would-be pirates in case the ships' journey to the forge world wasn't uneventful.

Session 1

By Gareth

Attempting to broaden his cousin's social horizons, Simon took Octavius to meet Jak at the Gilded Dragon. Before the D'Raliers could leave the office Astrid Crimson arrived, seeking Simon to arrange transit to the Tide of Iron on it's return. Simon invited her to the meal as well, ostensibly to 'interview' a pilot (Jak).

Following the meal, the four agreed to meet again at a party organised by Lady Maragor, where there was schmoozing, drunkenness, and eventually a lawyer.

The lawyer Guildstein brought a big ol' datapad which needed Simon's signet and genecode to activate, and a message to Octavius that the firm, (Guildstein, Guildstein & Guildstein) could no longer represent house D'Ralier. Shortly thereafter, a message was received from the office, saying that men had come and taken lots of documents with warrants.

While the datapad worked away ominously, the party was gathered and we all returned to the office to see what's going on (Simon damn-near kidnapping the Navigator, bringing Astrid along on the sole basis that she was still contracted to the House).

As we flew to the office, the datapad pinged, informing the party that Simon D'Ralier was now Lord Merchant Simon D'Ralier. The house charter had passed to simon, meaning that not only was the old Lord dead, but so was everyone between him and Simon, including Simon's Brother.

Unfortunately, there was little time to mourn, as the office was in uproar: the Administratum had ceased huge amounts of information, claiming that House D'Ralier no-longer controlled it's off-world assets. then, against all expectation, the Tide Of Iron arrived in-system. As it pulled into orbit assisted by Naval tugs, the group made their way to high orbit to meet it.