[X] See if you can patch her communicator into a single channel of your microbead comms.
[X] Reveal Identities (Partially)
-[X] Indicate that our actions here are likely to hamper Vall's operation, and that if she's helpful a more enduring partnership with Q'sal is a possibility.
Idea: If she spills the beans or leaves our sight until we're done here we'll shoot her first, even if she's lying she's probably not hyper loyal to this specific batch of cultists. Exploit Chaos's own internal divisions and need to stab itself in the back.
Hard pass on pre-emptive murder of somebody we have no concrete information is a bad person.
[X] See if you can patch her communicator into a single channel of your microbead comms.
[X] Reveal Identities
-[X] Indicate that our actions here are likely to hamper Vall's operation, and that if she's helpful a more enduring partnership with Q'sal is a possibility.
Seems viable. Except I still don't see the point of keeping our identities secret.
Because while she's caught on to us not being Thousand Sons, she hasn't figured out that we're not Chaos Space Marines of some variety, of whom at least two are Psykers of likely not-inconsiderable power. And if she spills on not being Thousand Sons, at the moment it's just her word as a captured Q'Sal spy against ours. Maintaining the ruse becomes a lot more difficult if they start demanding us to take off our helmets.
She, uh, picked up on a LOT of specific concrete tells, actually. We really don't want anyone squinting too closely at Tine's impellers and realizing they aren't actually bolters, for instance. And if they start doubting our identities I can't really imagine why they wouldn't demand we take our helmets off, whether they have specific knowledge of who we might be or not. It's kind of one of those extremely basic measures to take.
Also, aside from any of that, the Vallites thinking we're Chaos Space Marines trying to infiltrate them under a false guise would if anything provoke a response of even more overwhelming violence. If you're a paranoid asshole and you think you're being infiltrated, you will try to kill or capture whoever it is. If you're a paranoid asshole and you think you're being infiltrated by fucking Space Marines, you will bring EVERYBODY to try to kill or capture them.
In other words, them realizing we've been lying to them about who we are but still thinking we're CSM would be more likely to make things worse for us than better. These are not the kind of people who would go "sure, they've been lying to us and entered our stronghold under false pretences, but maybe it's for a good reason that won't be harmful to us! let's still give them the benefit of the doubt guys."
On the flip side, Q'Sal has clearly identified humans engaging in Chaos shit as being very likely to result in very, very, very bad places. CSM are well known for being heavily engaged in Chaos shit, almost by definition. So establishing for her that we aren't CSM would make it appreciably more likely that we could get positive results from attempting to cooperate with her, if that's possible.
In summary, there's no actual upside to her thinking we might still be CSM even if we're not Thousand Sons, and there is a potential downside. Ergo it makes the most sense to come clean about who we actually are.
[X] See if you can patch her communicator into a single channel of your microbead comms.
[X] Reveal Identities (Partially)
-[X] Indicate that our actions here are likely to hamper Vall's operation, and that if she's helpful a more enduring partnership with Q'sal is a possibility.
[X] See if you can patch her communicator into a single channel of your microbead comms.
[X] Reveal Identities
-[X] Indicate that our actions here are likely to hamper Vall's operation, and that if she's helpful a more enduring partnership with Q'sal is a possibility.
"It's Terra. The Imperium of Man." You pause, then murmur to your lovers, privately. "I want to keep the interrogation up, but we don't know when the others are coming back."
"We can patch her into our private vox..." Em says, his voice guarded. "A sign of trust, without going the full way. That might keep her mouth shut when the others come back."
"And she can then hear all my witty rejoinders," Ryia says.
You give a slight nod, then turn back to Q'urien. "Can your communication system be patched into our private vox?"
"Well, uh, sure," she said. "It's multispectral, and your computer architecture can't be that out of step, you're using power armor, we have power armor back home..." She sounds a bit uncertain, even as she speaks, while you gesture to the Kriegers. They let her go and she very slowly reaches for her silvery box, opening it and pulling out what has to be the smallest looking auspex you've ever seen in your life - fitting comfortably in her palm like an egg of silver metal, which she squeezes to pop it open. The auspex whirrs as she holds it up to the side of your helmet, ignoring the fact the Kriegers all tense at the movement. Q'urien sticks her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, then pulls the little auspex back, looking at it. Her eyes boggle. "What the fuck are you using for your communication system? I...good Gods, this thing is the worst laid out, incomprehensible double backed over logged system I've ever seen in my life, it's like you're running an operating system built from scratch ten thousand years ago and modified non-systemically ever since, it's a nightmare."
"Hey!" you say, feeling the cringing upset of your machine spirits. You put your hand on the side of your helmet. "It works."
"For you, maybe," she says, tapping at her auspex, then frowns. "Wait...no, I've isolated your carrier wave, but your encoding quality is garbage..."
The door starts to open then.
Q'urien hastily pockets her auspex, then whispers under her breath - and her voice comes through your microbead, sounding like it's been scrambled and shouted out of a well at the same time. "Okay, uh, what now?"
The Kriegers, at your gesture, go back to grabbing her as the door swings inwards and revealed that Havelock and the daemonette had returned...with a third. This woman...is...
Your face prickles and you stand up straighter as she slithers in.
For she has no legs. She has a snake's tail, slippery and organic and purple, smoothly molding to her hips. Her skin is dappled with pink and purple scales, and a set of four muscular arms spread from her body, with swords strapped to her backs, and a tome held in her left lower arm. Her eyes glow with malevolent purple flames and her tongue is long and dangerous as it flicks the air.
"I present to you, the Lady Archivist, Euryale Ceto!" the damonette says, bowing low, gesturing expansively to the snake-human hybrid.
Havelock is looking very annoyed, considering how he is holding a massive collection of torture tools like some wandering beast of burden.
Lady Ceto hisses. "Havelock...Cruentia..." she says. "Are you aware that these are three imposters?"
"Th...they what?" Havelock stammers.
"If these are Thousand Sons...if these are Space Marines at all, then I am a Ssssssssister of Battle!" she hissed, rearing up. "WHO ARE YOU?" She pointed a finger straight at you. "AND WHY DARE YOU SPIT IN THE FACE OF KARAD VALL!?"
--- What do?
[ ] Fuck it, open fire!
[ ] Write in an explanation
Euryale Ceto rolls her forbidden lore check: 11, getting her 4 DOS
For she has no legs. She has a snake's tail, slippery and organic and purple, smoothly molding to her hips. Her skin is dappled with pink and purple scales, and a set of four muscular arms spread from her body, with swords strapped to her backs, and a tome held in her left lower arm. Her eyes glow with malevolent purple flames and her tongue is long and dangerous as it flicks the air.
We seem to have successfully lured all the officers here into one room, might as well. That'll be one optional objective done, and the other two are why we came down here in power armour.
"If these are Thousand Sons...if these are Space Marines at all, then I am a Ssssssssister of Battle!" she hissed, rearing up. "WHO ARE YOU?" She pointed a finger straight at you. "AND WHY DARE YOU SPIT IN THE FACE OF KARAD VALL!?"
My apologies if I mischaracterized you, then. That's how it read to me since it seemed like you were saying that if she left our sight we should immediately flip to trying to kill her, which seemed a bit extreme to me. If I misread that then my bad.
For she has no legs. She has a snake's tail, slippery and organic and purple, smoothly molding to her hips. Her skin is dappled with pink and purple scales, and a set of four muscular arms spread from her body, with swords strapped to her backs, and a tome held in her left lower arm. Her eyes glow with malevolent purple flames and her tongue is long and dangerous as it flicks the air.
[X] Write-In (in what Tine imagines a sexy Malfi spy sounds like): "Finally someone notices! You know we were allowed to just walk into the palace all the way from the outskirts?! All we had to do was chop in half one of those pups you have prowling around and your men escorted us to your front gate- and worst we were able to pull off the classic double-infiltration gambit right in front of your faces! Really you should be thanking us for testing your defenses now before those damn corpsers do the same. Here, our contract is right here-
-[X] Write-In: THEN open fire!
[X] Write-In (in what Tine imagines a sexy Malfi spy sounds like): "Finally someone notices! You know we were allowed to just walk into the palace all the way from the outskirts?! All we had to do was chop in half one of those pups you have prowling around and your men escorted us to your front gate- and worst we were able to pull off the classic double-infiltration gambit right in front of your faces! Really you should be thanking us for testing your defenses now before those damn corpsers do the same. Here, our contract is right here-
-[X] Write-In: THEN open fire!
[X] Write-In (in what Tine imagines a sexy Malfi spy sounds like): "Finally someone notices! You know we were allowed to just walk into the palace all the way from the outskirts?! All we had to do was chop in half one of those pups you have prowling around and your men escorted us to your front gate- and worst we were able to pull off the classic double-infiltration gambit right in front of your faces! Really you should be thanking us for testing your defenses now before those damn corpsers do the same. Here, our contract is right here-
-[X] Write-In: THEN open fire!
You scoff. "Finally someone notices! You know, we were allowed to just walk into the palace all the way from the-"
"Die." Ceto's fingers clenched and an invisible band of force wrapped around the arms and chest of your armor, squeezing so tight that the wind was rushed from your lungs. You lifted up and off the ground as the whole room shook, rumbling and groaning as if a localized moonquake was hitting this one part of the Citadel of Skulls. As dishes clattered to the ground, the damonette giggled and laughed, sprinting towards you as you were dropped to the ground, crashing down right next to Em as he tumbled to the ground. The only consolation you have is that Havelock has fallen as well, his torture tools tumbling from his arms. You crash onto your back and skid a few feet away as the damonette sprang up onto your chest, holding in one hand a shimmering blade of weeping green toxin and...well, her other arm ended in a razor sharp claw.
"Peeling time!" she sang as her sword slashed across your chest and rasped along your arm, her claw snipping at you. "Tough!" She sounded annoyed, like you had just insulted her or cheated at a playground game.
You flexed your arms slightly.
The bands of force around you shattered, becoming visible the moment they snpaped, chains of blue-white light flaring away from you as Ceto gasped in shock and the damonette blinked as you grabbed onto her left horn and smashed your right fist into her face. Her nose crunched, her eyes screwed shut and her head snapped back as she clutched at her face with her hand, dropping her sword with a clatter to the ground. "Fucking BITCH!" she howled.
Behind you, you heard the rattling clunk of Ryia drawing her crossbow and scrambling to her feet at the same time. Havelock was trying to get up - but then a bolt exploded in his chest, his shoulder and his head in a rapid whirr of cocking and firing. As his upper torso turned into a spray of red mist, Em shouted through the vox: "Let the Q'sallan go and shoot that thing."
The krigers who had been holding the gaping Q'urien dropped her and swung their rifles free as Ceto snarled and hissed. Before they had even opened fire, she had already started to blurr to the left, so that the stuttering pulses of their hellguns bit into the wall behind her, leaving behind smoldering red craters. As she dodged, Em finished getting to his feet and drew Lightning, his power sword, and took the daemonette's head off at the neck. Black blood gushed into the air as her slightly shocked face went tumbling away and you shoved her back, watching as the hideous mutant Ceto whipped around the corner, smashed past the fireplace, and ended up looming before you and Em, her shoulders smoldering, her chest steaming from several glancing shots.
"Enough, FALSE space marine!" She leaped forward, smashing into you and bringing her swords up and slashing down. The sound is not unlike a series of pots and pans hammering into you as she slashes and cuts, and you are wreathed in eldrich flames as she screams. "DIE! DIE! DIE FOR THE DARK PRINCE OF PLEASURE!"
You grunted, then grabbed onto your witchblade, drawing in a flash. Your sword and Ceto's blades lock, power fields crackling as the purple flames sweep along your armor and you stand, forcing her back onto her slithering scaly hide. As sparks flare, her eyes widen and you shove her backwards. She hisses. "Impossible...impossible, it cannot be..." she says, looking at you - and you can see that the flames have burned away the paint, leaving your armor gleaming and most unadorned with anything save...the truth.
"Much nicer paint job, no offense!" Q'urien says, in a hurry, as she - now no longer being held by the Kriegers - yanks her defense weapon free. It is a kind of wand-like device that she aims right at Ceto. Ceto's eyes widen and she springs aside as the beam that it fires zips through the air, strikes a standing piece of decorative statuary, and consumes it in a wave of greenish light. A moment later, the statue seems to shimmer, then slowly fade, bit by bit, until it is entirely gone, with nothing but a smoldering stumpy pair of legs to indicate that it had once been. "Shit she's fast!"
Ceto slithers to the door, keeping her eyes on you. "You will rue the day you set foot in my master's home, Imperial dog!" She says. "I am Lady Eyruline Ceto, chosen of SLaanesh, mistress of the archives, sword-"
A sword exploded from her chest, dripping greenish black blood. She gaped down at it.
Ryia, who had moved with shocking grace and quiet precision for someone in nine feet of power armor, twisted the blade. Her helmet slit back and open, revealing her smirking face.
"She who doesn't watch her back?" Ryia asked.
Ceto's teeth bared. She hissed, gurgled, burbled, and blood dripped down her jaw. "He...will...you...La'Nasad..."
Her head sagged forward.
She slumped from the blade and blood begins to puddle under her chest.
Then Ryia slams her sword into her head. Then she decapitates her, cuts off each of her arms, slices off her snakey bottom, and begins to kick each into the fire with a methodical chopping motion. "Just making sure," she says, while you turn to the Kriegers, directing them to the doors. However, as they take their positions to keep watch, a vox crackles - it was one that had been dropped by the Lady ARchivest. You picked it up and from it came a confused, concerned sounding voice.
"Lady Ceto, this is Lt. Abraxis, we detected a strange disturbance in the conference room, is everything all right?"
You adjusted your vocodor, trying to up your timber and sibilants. "Yessss," you hiss. "Minor pssssychic disssruption from interrogation of a captive. We're fine here. WE're all fine." You pause. "How are you?"
"G-Good, my lady!" Lt. Abraxis says. "We shall no longer waste your valuable time!"
It clicks off.
"THAT WORKED!?" Ryia exclaims as you grin.
"We have only an hour, maybe two, before servants find this and we cannot hide all the bodies," Em says, gesturing to how the fireplace was already stuffed with snake-woman corpse. "We..." He pauses as you, Ryia and he all at the same time become aware that Q'urien is hiding behind a huge stuffed chair, peeking out, gripping her weapon in a white knuckle grip.
"S-...Stay back!" she whimpers, looking terrified.
"What-"
"You're Imperials!" she says, pointing her strange weapon in a vague you-ish direction. "I-I've heard all about you, stay back!"
You hold up your hands, gently, then glance at your family.
--- What do?
[ ] Leave her here and make for the Vault of Secrets
[ ] Leave her here and make for the void shields and teleportarium blocker
[ ] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
[ ] Write In
Ceto uses PSy Crush, pushing with a +4, on Tine! She rolls a 60 on her focus power test, getting 3 DOS! She also causes an earthquake, forcing everyone in 28 M to make a +10 AGI check or be knocked prone
Daemonet passes, Tine fails, Ryia fails, Havelock fails, Em Fails, the Kriegers succeed!
Tine makes her Toughness check against Ceto's 3 DOS and gets 3 DOF and does 11 damage, which is soaked but Tine is grappled!
Damonette leaps onto Tine and cheerfully begins to slash and claw at her! Since tine is prone (+10), and grappled (+20), the ambidextrious damonet gets a hit and a hit! Tine cannot parry, so she has to take the pounding: 11 (pen 4) and 15 (pen 0) which amount to nothing
Tine makes a half action break free check and rolls a 2! This gives her 9 DOS (she gets a bonus DOS from her unnatural strength) so she effortlessly throws off the 6 DOS that Ceto rolls. AS her other half action, she is going to bonk the damonette on her head with her bare hand: 49 is a hit! The Damonette tries to parry, gets a 69, fails! She takes 1d5-2...plus 16, for 1d5+14 for a total of 15-19 damage which I...hasten to point out is more than a fucking bolt gun does, I think. Anywho, she rolls a nat 5, so that's a RIGHTEOUS FURY! And that's another 5...and then a 1, so that's...25 pen 0 impact damage to the Damonette's head, reduced to 17 by her supernatural toughness, for a total of 17 damage, which brings her to -5 wound and stuns her for 1 round!
Q'urein is still being held
Ryia gets to her feet, draws her crossbow, and shoots Havelock: She rolls a 4, which hits him square in the chest, the chest, then the head using semi-auto-bursts, and he rolls a 76 to dodge. So, he takes 13, 17, 9 damage! Pen 5! So, it blows through his armor and does 9, 12, 5 damage, bringing him to -5 and then -10. He asplode!
Em orders the kriegers to open up on Ceto and let Q'urien go (half action), then quickdraws Lightning and rolls a 24 against the Daemonette while still prone (this still hits, despite penalties. She has no more reactions, so his called shot to her head hits! He rolls a 17 damage, which is reduced to 9 damage and brings the Deamonette to -A Lot and decapitates her!
Kriegers open up: 14 hits in total with their hellguns! She dodges a shocking five of them, but that's still 9 hits doing (with her TB factored in) 6, 3, 2, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 damage, bringing her to 9 wounds!
Ceto, more furious than anything, uses a full action to lightning attack + off hand strike on the only target near her: Tine!
She gets a 2 (hit), 62 (hit thanks to hulking and prone), 4 (hit), 43 (hit) and tine flubs her parry: 11, 10, 12, 14, 12! (Pen 7 for the first four, Pen 5 for the last one.) Tine takes, in total, two whole damage.
Tine draws and slashes and Ceto parries using a FP (2/3)!
Q'urien draws her defense weapon and blasts Ceto with it: She gets a 19 to hit, but Ceto dodges (barely) with a 44!
Ryia charges and swings! Ceto gets hit from behind with 21 (!!) damage that is FORCE DAMAGE! 17 damage post normal toughness, bringing her from 9 to -8 wounds! She manages to make the toughness check to avoid dying, but she loses 9 toughness permanently, and takes 6 fatigue, which knocks her out! And then she fails hte bleed test. So, she basically shouldn't have bothered.
Tine makes a -60 Deception check...12! SHE MADE IT!
