Rereading the chapter, I finally (lol) noticed the many references to a coven backing the kabal.
@Faith can we assume that, if the need arises (and with a ceasefire in place, which it looks like it'll definitely be), we could contact the Opal Blade to ask them to put us through to the Haemonculi behind them so we could negotiate with them for something? (Or just act as intermediaries Ig if Tenyl doesn't want any deals happening without his knowledge...)
I know it's an extremely long shot and a bad idea, but if we mess up dealing with say Nids badly enough, that could be an emergency option.
[X] Ceasefire + 1-time use of the Opal Blade <> 1 Calalya action, 1 Veldris action in unspecified future turns.
I absolutely adore that this is basically an Quest original version of the Dark Crusade/Soulstorm campaign, from the perspective of the Eldar and with the Nids subbing in for the Tau.
I absolutely adore that this is basically an Quest original version of the Dark Crusade/Soulstorm campaign, from the perspective of the Eldar and with the Nids subbing in for the Tau.
Turn 10 the Adeptus Sororitas arrive because somebody needs to protect the shrine worlds and burn heretics.
Turn 12 a Tau expeditionary fleet arrives after flying through a warp rift by mistake and have no idea where they are.
Turn 15 three companies of the Blood Ravens chapter arrive, look around and scream: "By the emperor! Not again."
@Faith can we assume that, if the need arises (and with a ceasefire in place, which it looks like it'll definitely be), we could contact the Opal Blade to ask them to put us through to the Haemonculi behind them so we could negotiate with them for something? (Or just act as intermediaries Ig if Tenyl doesn't want any deals happening without his knowledge...)
"I like Persona 5 a normal amount. It does not control my life. It is not an addiction. I do not have a problem." Faith lied, as easily as she breathed.
Winning Vote [X] Ceasefire + 1-time use of the Opal Blade <> 1 Calalya action, 1 Veldris action in unspecified future turns.
The telepathic conversation you have with Veldris is brief and decisive.
You cannot afford more enemies, and if they're going to be here regardless, they may as well be allies. At least, of a sort.
"In return for the cessation of violence between yours and ours, you the support of my Seers - our wisdom and our foresight shall be shared with you. I will accompany you on this... errand, as you see fit, and our forces will aid one another in battle, once apiece. I find these broad terms agreeable."
"Excellent!" the Archon grins a grin that does not reach his eyes. "I am glad we could prevent any... unnecessary hardships between us. If we are agreed upon the general terms, shall we delve deeper into the details now?"
You share a glance with Veldris.
"Why don't we break for lunch," you offer instead. "And discuss the details thereafter?"
The Archon nods. "A feast to celebrate the spirit of cooperation, before we finalise the arrangement? Very well, then!"
The Archon and his party had not been quiet, the previous night, about their appreciation for masterfully cooked aeldari cuisine - they had not elaborated on their prior arrangements, but you presumed they had been subsiding on some form of more basic rations for the duration of their expedition thus far. And as expected, they seem more than willing to embrace the hospitality of Yau-Fenni once again.
The meeting disbands, moving out of the larger hall and relocating to one of the vessel's less grant chambers, albeit one none the less suited for a formal business lunch, as it were. A smattering of chefs and servants pile in swiftly, plying the various groups with foods of all sorts.
Per your instructions, many fanciful dishes are distributed amongst your guests, and those dishes are joined by great platters of finger food, made from some of the rarer and more exotic ingredients to be found in Yau-Fenni's pantries. Fruits and vegetables from the homeworld, fish from a planet whose oceans boiled thousands of years ago.
Rarer and more exotic is relative, of course - Yau-Fenni itself has no great shortage per se, and supply runs through the webway are far from impossible. But they are the kind of meals that the drukhari would muster for fanciful events and to draw the attention of rivals or greater powers, to show that they too bear the wealth and the resources of the old homeworlds.
They are certainly not the kind of meals an average Commorrite would enjoy as finger food, and your guests are most certainly taking advantage of their presence here.
At one point, you catch the Archon giving you a steely glare from across the room, and you know, immediately, that he knows what you're doing. You give him an ever-so-subtle nod, assuring him that you know that he knows what you're doing. His eyebrows dip into the slightest frown, and he turns away.
Even when the luncheon eventually concludes and the various parties make their way back into the meeting room, it takes several hours more and no small amount of bartering back and forth to finally settle on the details. With the somewhat mysterious errand as a complicating factor in the equation, some of your Seers are concerned about ensuring the deal is as equitable as possible, but given the key points of the deal have been arranged and that material wealth is by and large meaningless for you, your council ultimately concludes it doesn't really matter if the drukhari are pulling ahead in terms of raw value, such that it is, and you ultimately settle upon an arrangement neither your advisors nor the Archon's find entirely disagreeable.
In addition to the obvious mutual military aid, the drukhari have offered up a few of the more replaceable elements of their arsenal, including schematics for some weapons which, whilst not necessarily superior to your own, Tenne believes could still be of interest to the Bonesingers. It is true, you acknowledge, that the drukhari made off with a relatively greater share of the Old Empire's technological supremacy than many of the Craftworlds, and that there may be some merit in the designs provided, but more realistically you suspect Tenne just wants them to join her already gargantuan list of contributions to the Twilight Theatre.
They also offer up some small tidbits of intelligence they had gathered of the Parulax Expanse, although unfortunately little of it extends beyond the body of knowledge the Corsairs and your own observations had already provided.
What you offer in return is less blatantly militant - particularly as they cannot make use of much of your own technology, there seems little value in handing it over. Instead, you offer to them several hundred samples from the Birth of Light's gardens - itself only a microcosm of those found aboard Yau-Fenni itself, but still a great bounty of the sort of exotic wealth that can be very difficult to acquire in the Dark City. And given its much more 'authentic' nature, compared to the Dark City's largely vat-grown foodstuffs, you have no doubt it will become quite the fanciful status symbol for the Opal Blade once they return.
With the last details nailed down, the Opal Blade largely appeased, and an arrangement to avoid pointlessly shooting each other finalised, the Archon and his cohort eventually bid you farewell, and slip back into the Webway, returning to their own sequestered hideaway, wherever that is.
Idrakon makes a token effort to trace their trail as they go, but it doesn't take them long to depart through a temporary webway tunnel, one opened from outside the webway, and they disappear from the Wayseer's sight like ghosts sinking into the shadows. "They have their own ships, then," the Wayseer tells you, as the runes around the Webway Gate slowly fade, and the shimmering golden gate vanishes. "Not far from the Expanse. Perhaps lurking in the dark between here and the neighboring sectors?"
"That would be befitting of their usual methods," Autarch Veldris nods. "They're likely running intelligence operations just as we are. They'll wait until they have a better idea of the situation - or rely on our own intelligence, perhaps, before they enter the sector proper. Especially now they have some basic knowledge of what is to come."
You nod in agreement. Were you in their position - safely beyond the reach of the sector's Imperial presence, not particularly pressed for time nor concerned about any specific planets within the sector, you might have done the same, waiting and watching before determining the safest or easiest place to establish yourself. Alas, leaving the Birth of Light and the rest of your fleet so far from Menelyth would be disruptive to your work, and the task before you is one you cannot afford to fail for some slight benefit to your convenience or safety.
"And what of the Archon's errand?" asks Veldris, as he turns to face you. "What does he have in mind?"
"Nothing absurd, I'm sure. For all his posturing, he knows he is not the one with the upper hand in this exchange."
"Nothing absurd does not mean nothing dangerous," Veldris points out.
"A fact of which I am keenly aware, Autarch." You turn to him, and offer a reassuring smile. "My Seers and I will convene tomorrow, and endeavour to seize the answers we seek from the Skeins of Fate."
Beside you, Idrakon nods. "I am concerned by their mention of the Great Devourer though," he admits. "It would do us well if we could avoid engaging them directly - let the mon'keigh suffer in our place. I'd not like to be dragged into conflict so their Covens can claim a Hive Tyrant, or such nonsense."
"They didn't seem to know of the Devourer's approach before we mentioned it," Veldris notes. "So it's unlikely that their little errand is going to involve them."
"Fortunately," you agree. "At any rate, we shall find out tomorrow what exactly it is they want."
The whims of fate can be difficult to understand at the best of times. The nature of the readings you are attempting certainly does not make things easier.
It's a simple enough matter to look into the future and find situations where the Opal Blade may call upon yourself or your warriors to aid them, in accordance with the pact you struck, but the circumstances under which they do so are vague, with a frustrating tendency of changing completely every time you revisit the vision.
It is an understandable issue. No matter how much you, and your fellow seers, attempt to still your minds, you know your own involvement in the affairs of the Parulax Expanse is not over. The further into the future you glimpse, the more potential changes could occur and ruin all semblance of order to be found in your visions.
The details change. The specifics of time and place are different. The foes you face and the battles you wage. Nonetheless, you do see commonalities.
There are two battlegrounds, two missions for which he seeks your aid. Which mission is handed off to you and which is handed to Veldris tends to vacillate, but the objectives remain the same.
The first of the Archon's favours is the theft of Necron technology, to be found somewhere in the blackstone halls beneath Yerrasa. What he wants there is a mystery to you, with his future self never seeing fit to reveal such things within the scope of your vision, but the battles you see are not the grinding wars of attrition to be expected fighting through a Tomb World - they are the daring and rapid strikes of a force that knows its objective, and wants simply to seize it and leave as swiftly as can be managed.
The second task the Archon seeks your aid with is proclaimed to be a straightforward heist, but its nature is less clear to you - the treasure to be seized is sealed within a holy vault buried far below the greatest cathedral in the sector, and though its protections pale in comparison to the Vault of Menelyth, the wards and blessings that turn away daemons and warp-taint prove equally effective at driving off your own sight.
Archon Tenyl is looking to acquire ancient technologies from the Necron Tombs of Yerrasa, and from the holy vaults at the heart of the Silver Citadel on Muran, and intents to enlist the aid of Yau-Fenni's forces to achieve those objectives.
Without your intervention, Archon Tenyl will invoke his use of the Yau-Fenni Warhost in Turn 4.
Without your intervention, Archon Tenyl will invoke his use of the Seer Council in Turn 9.
After hearing your tale, Veldris stands, very slowly, from his desk.
"It's... not ideal," you admit, as he turns an utterly unimpressed glare upon you.
"No," he agrees, in a tone that suggests he very much wants to grab you by the shoulders and shake you like a ragdoll.
"But it's workable," you continue, undaunted. "In fact, if the Archon is going to commit to an attack on Yerrasa regardless... we could take advantage, focus our other forces upon Yerrasa as well. He's aiming to strike before they fully awaken - combined, we could deal enough damage to prevent them from ever fully awakening."
"We could," the Autarch acknowledges. "Have the orks lead the charge, our Warhost and the Kaballites seize key points, and the Corsairs provide support and escort for anti-planet munitions... assuming there's nothing else that needs doing."
"Well, yes."
"And according to your visions, this will be around the same time that Her servants arrive?"
"...Yes."
"Not ideal, indeed."
Whooo, sorry about the long delay again. On all levels except the physical, I have done nothing but play Persona for three weeks.
Next update will cover what your buddies Archenne and Darkrippa have been up to whilst you were playing petty power games with the Archon.
Muran Enemy Forces: Muran Gargoyles Regiment (Astra Militarum) Enemy Strongholds: The Silver Citadel (Astra Militarum)
The center of Imperial control within the Parulax Expanse...
The Silver Citadel is ... a formidable city-fortress designed to repel all but the greatest of invasion forces with ease. The nobility believe (and preach) that it was founded by one of the mon'keigh demigods - our archives suggest that they made this up for clout, but it is nonetheless an incredibly effective defensive installation.
How big of a force do we have, exactly? I didn't think we'd ever be in a position to assault a functioning Hive-Fortress. I wonder if Archon is biting off more than he can chew.
This is, annoyingly, two turns before they were due to awaken and right when we'd probably have liked to pointing Chaos and the Imperium at each other.
This means we basically have two choices for turn 4; either we go all in on removing one of our enemies from the board - Orks, Corsairs, Warhost, Opal Blade. Or we do the bare minimum and focus elsewhere, but accept that the Necrons will be active far faster than we'd like.
This is, again annoyingly, the turn after the Nids arrive. This is when we should be trying to ensure maximum thunderdome and the distraction isn't welcome.
Turn after the Nids' arrival, we probably could use them as a distraction for us. The first one, though... Try to keep building up the Orks now for a massive attack on the 'Crons, and let the Imperials face Chaos with only an occasional subtle message for assistance?
Ok, I am glad that we got some info on what the Archon wants from us.
The heist on the cardinal world was something I expected but him poking the Necrons is unexpected, at least for me.
I guess the strengthening of our ork allies and preparations against the tomb world become paramount for the foreseelable future. We may ease the heist by weakening the defenders of the spire before turn nine by further sowing discord and disrupt the training of the local garrisons.
Turn after the Nids' arrival, we probably could use them as a distraction for us. The first one, though... Try to keep building up the Orks now for a massive attack on the 'Crons, and let the Imperials face Chaos with only an occasional subtle message for assistance?
Sounds good to me, fighting Necrons is what the Orks were originally designed for, and letting the Imperials clean up their mess will keep them very busy.
How big of a force do we have, exactly? I didn't think we'd ever be in a position to assault a functioning Hive-Fortress. I wonder if Archon is biting off more than he can chew.
So Darkrippa is the muscle of couse, Calalaya and Tenyl are the planners, Archenne is the driver and I imagine Big Mek Zapeye would be the explosives guy.
Tenne could be the research assistant and how good is Veldris at acrobatics?
[X] Plan Parlay and Preservation
-[X] Calalya and Veldris
--[X] Prepare a formal Reception for the Archon and the Opal Blade and meet with him for negotiations on neutral ground.
---[X] Tell him we are here to prevent future harm for our craftworld and seek no quarrel with him, in fact we would very much like to form a mutually beneficial partnership with him. After all, the entire subsector is about to become one giant free-for-all and somebody who can see the future would be good to have in your corner then.
-[X] Archenne
--[X] Leave the Unadich system, and if there is time leave misleading evidence for cold trade contacts pointing at the Omniria and Geosichire systems.These false contacts warned the Corsairs of the impending attack.
--[X] Attack the Cantoa Armoured Regiment in transit.
-[X] Darkrippa
--[X] Pressgang the Orks from Gatovi into service. Smash a few skulls.
-[X] Messages
--[X] Warn the commerce raiders and pirate contacts of the Corsairs in the Geosichore and Brondich systems that imperial forces are about to ruin their days.
---[X] Should they decide to fight, transmit doctored data that suggest cold trader, heretek and genestealer activity in Omniria, Geosichore and Tossi's Star.
Archenne
"There they are," a Corsair called, looking over sensor readouts with glee. "Engines hot and signals blaring."
"Fat targets, ripe for the slaughter," another laughed.
Baroness Josene's voice cut across the bridge of the Call of Revelry, clear and commanding. "All ships, close to Pulsar range. Maintain holofields and IFF scramblers."
The Corsairs needn't have bothered.
Perhaps Imperial naval warships, with the more sophisticated array of sensors and targeting systems necessary to engage meaningfully at the extreme ranges demanded of space battles, could have picked up the telltale hints of the Corsair's vessels, gliding silently through the void, but the logistics transports carrying the Cantoa tanks were not warships, not graced with such powerful sensors, and would have required a blessing from the Emperor himself to detect the Corsairs before they reached weapons range even if they hadn't had their holofields up.
Unfortunately for the mon'keigh zealots of the Cantoa Armoured regiment, the attention of their god was evidently elsewhere, and the Corsair strike group was able to close to their effective range without eliciting even a hint of a response from their targets.
The first sign of aggression was a volley of pulsar lance beams, the shining blue laser beams cleaving through the void and the thickened armour of the transports with equal ease. Two ships were stricken immediately, engines flickering and internal lights dimming as key infrastructure was pierced through and set ablaze.
The second volley, fired as the Corsairs pulled closer, consisted not just of lasers but of the charged plasma bolts of the Starcannons as well, and those high-powered weapons tore gaping holes wherever they struck, boiling away the armoured plates and flash-vaporising anything unfortunate enough to be caught on the other side.
So fierce was the intensity of the volley that one of the targeted transports simply exploded, a new star blooming into life for just a moment as fuel reserves or power supplies went critical. A second soon followed, as the Corsairs unleashed their ancient might upon the transports.
The mon'keigh were quick to retaliate, but the transport's guns were almost decorative in their effectiveness, as they lashed harmlessly at the void. Microlance beams played across wraithbone plating without leaving even the tiniest of scorch marks, and cannon rounds tore through holographic decoys and illusory ships before careening into the black without effect.
Another volley brought low another vessel, its engines violently detonating and hurtling the now-uncontrollable husk towards Apipiri. Two more were mauled by the Corsair's fire, laser lances carving up gunnery decks and plasma bursts annihilating internal systems in brilliant blasts of heat and light.
Suddenly, the black void took on a decidedly magenta hue. Across the command deck, daemon alerts and warp taint warnings sounded.
"Baroness Josene! Warp breach!" one of the corsair crewmen called, quite redundantly. "Imperials! From the fleet we avoided at Bitoliv!"
The Corsair's head whipped around. "The Machine Cultists?"
"No, Navis Imperialis!" the mariner called. "They're facing the wrong way but they're well within engagement range! Should we switch targets?"
The Baroness looked across the tactical map. Three of the cumbersome transports had been effectively destroyed, perforated by so many laser lances and plasma blasts that they were no longer singular husks but rather expanding clouds of debris. Another two were crippled, internals dim and engines failing, bleeding atmosphere and crew to the gaping holes torn in their flanks. The other half-dozen transports were by and large intact, with only slight scarring or scorching from singular hits.
Corsair Prince Archenne, at her side, made a subtle gesture towards her with one hand. Your call.
Josene looked over the map again, and ran some mental calculations.
"Do it," she decided. "Send the bomber wings after those transports and deploy Darkstars to counter any Imperial fighter launches."
The hum of energy flowing through the ship shifted slightly as it twisted in the void, the rest of the strike group turning alongside it. The transports fell away from view as the stars spun past on the viewscreen, the disorganised Imperial fleet coming to take their place
As her crew had noted, the Imperial navy vessels had come out of their warp transition at a poor angle, and their formation was a mess, a problem they would not be able to quickly resolve as they reoriented towards the Corsairs.
"Six volleys," the Baroness estimated, watching the Imperials rush to reorient themselves under fire. "Then we depart."
The Kolan Corsairs were able to intercept the Cantoa Armoured as they began their descent to the surface of Apipiri. Though several transports were able to escape destruction and many of the crashed ships harboured survivors, the regiment has been severely wounded by the strike and left stranded on Apipiri until a relief force can arrive. With their firepower greatly diminished, pruning the local orks will be a longer, and bloodier, task.
Patrol Fleet Parulax Primaris was also caught unawares by the corsairs after a poor warp jump left them out of position, and suffered damage across the fleet from alpha strikes before the Corsairs denied them a pitched battle and retreated.
Darkrippa
"Wow. Dat'z just... sad, dat is," Snaketeef uttered, staring down the scope of his shoota.
Unnecessarily, as the meeting they were observing was less than two hundred metres away, plainly visible from their vantage point in the rocky crags.
"Deez boyz wuddun know da definition of a good krumpin if it punched 'em in da face," Zapeye said sadly, shaking his head and returning his attention to his git-finda. "I'll look an see if dere's more boyz somewhere else."
The site before them was indeed depressing. Some seven hundred boys, wearing tattered clothes of scaly animal hide and wielding nothing more dangerous than large or sharpened (or large and sharpened) rocks adhered to weighty sticks or lengths of bone. They formed a rough circle around a wooden tower barely ten metres high, atop which sat a puny campfire and a flag barely worthy of the name. The ork holding the flag was, by Darkrippa's expert reckoning, a two-bit runt with delusions of grandeur, being neither larger nor, seemingly, any more intelligent than his cohort, or he would have started building his base in amongst the crags and not out in the open where he could be easily annihilated by the wings of Fiyta-Bombas Darkrippa had in reserve, waiting for the signal.
It was also the largest and most active waaagh the git-finda had been able to pick up from orbit. Its leader was, as far as Darkrippa's pirates could tell, the greatest Warboss the planet's lowly runts could muster - no more brutal or more cunning than the scrawniest squig-brained idiot on Darkrippa's crew.
Grots excluded, of course.
"Yup, dis iz still da biggest waaagh around," Zapeye confirmed, looking up from the git-finda screen. "Wot'z da plan, boss?"
"Want me to take 'iz 'ead off?" Snaketeef offered, giving his rifle a nudge.
Darkrippa shook his head.
"Nah. We'z gonna go down dere and I'ze gunna -"
Darkrippa paused. He looked at bulging muscles of his exposed arm, which was thicker than the torso of the Gatovi warboss. Then he looked at the enormous double-barrelled plasma shoota at his hip, which probably weighed about as much as the Gatovi warboss. He considered the length of chain wrapped around his shoulders, and the myriad choppas and single-shot blastas hanging from his belt, and the relative power disparity between himself and the so-called warboss, the scrawny, almost-naked runt yelling about how great he was from the top of his tiny, pathetic lungs.
Darkrippa sighed.
"Nah. Ain't wurf it. We'z gonna go down dere and Snaketeef's gunna krump dat git warboss, and den we'ze gunna drag all da rest of 'em wot don't complain back to da ships."
The Kommando in question nodded, grinning widely and reaching for his cleaver.
"Wot about da ones dat do complain?" This was a bit of a redundant question, and Stoneskull realised as much the moment the utterance left his mouth. Fortunately for him, Darkrippa kept him around for his exceptional combat potential and his incredible aptitude for catching bullets so Darkrippa didn't have to, rather than for the quickness of his wit, and so the mind-bogglingly stupid question was taken in stride by the Kaptin, who offered the 'Ardboy the only response any ork worth the title would ever accept.
"Krump da gits."
Darkrippa and his Hull Smakkas successfully overran and conquered several dozen of Gatovi's larger warbands, causing their own numbers to swell. The influx in new blood has yet to seriously pay off, as many of the new boyz are underequipped and inexperienced, but this is considered by all parties to be a problem that will rapidly solve itself.
