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The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up

Investigate the Sea?

  • Yes

    Votes: 593 80.4%

  • No

    Votes: 145 19.6%
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    738
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Doomed Wombat said:
As I recall they loosened them to provide people for colonisation, dunno if they've reestablished them.
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I would be surprised. Between the massively increased trade fleet and huger amount of STC's released by Avernus and its mechanicus they should be able to support a far larger population than they ever managed before.
Couple with that the shifting geo-political climate meaning that having armies is now no longer a matter of meeting tithes and is instead a matter of life and death for the sub sector and the colonisation you've already mentioned, Midgard is arguably the planet that has gained the most in the new status quo and since in the future the trust won't stop relying on its armies then, rather as we expand and gain underdeveloped lands we're likely to find ourselves in more wars and need them more, it won't stop producing bodies.
 
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Two Alphas Walk Into a Bar.
  • Sidestory
    • Two Alphas Walk Into a Bar.​

    The man was wearing an offensively loud robe, adorned with skulls and dragonflies in equal measure.

    "Welcome! Welcome! To the greatest eatery this side of the spine! A feast for the eyes as well as the mouth! behold the mysteries of the warp!" With that, he stepped aside, showing the chief lighting a grill with a small fireball.

    "Be not afraid my fine customers! For in the city of Nogrod such arts have been made safe! enjoy your meal and the mysteries of its crafting free of fear!"

    Areatha stared at the man, before slowly turning to Ophelia, her new friend was smiling, and literally floating in good cheer. "This is not what I was expecting when you said you knew a good place to get food."

    "I'll hold your hand if you're scared."

    "You're too kind." that Aretha's tone did not literally desiccate the air was a testament to her iron control. The waiter who had been slowly sneaking up behind them coughed politely." Your table is ready if you'd come this way?"

    Areatha followed the waiter with a bemused smile. She was fairly sure the smoke clouds he was weaving through where supposed to create some sort of visual effect, it was a pity that whatever quirky flaw of the human eye it was taking advantage of was one she'd long since tinkered out of eyeballs. She was half considering borrowing someone's sight to enjoy the show when it came to an end. "Your table ladies." The man spoke, as unseen mechanisms pulled the chairs out, only to slide them back in under her and her friend. only for Areatha's chair to blink over to the other side of the table with a faint pop, leaving her floating in a cross-legged position.

    The waiter did'st so much as blink. "I apologize for the disruption fair customers. I assure you such events are both rare and harmless. Now, we have pulled your order from the ather, but some choices remain clouded. what would you like to drink?" Areatha was legitimately impressed, most people at least flinched when she blinked the furniture. he'd made it part of the show so fast she'd almost think he had seen it coming if she hadn't felt his surprise.

    "I'll trust the wisdom of your seers."

    "Very good Mam. I believe that you shall greatly enjoy a glass of Simmerow with your meal. Until our fates cross again." before bowing and stepping back into a cloud of smoke, before breaking into an impressively silent jog to be out of sight before the cloud thinned.

    "So, is there a reason you chose this place out of every restaurant in Norgod?"

    "Well aside from the fact it's one of the few places I can be sure no one will flinch at your reaction to being offered a seat."

    "Hey, that's a sacred tradition of my people your grousing about."

    Tragically, Ophelia declined to dignify her wit with a response. "I could say something about how treating pyeker abilities as something mundane shows hope for the future."

    Areatha gave her friend a level stare, the awkward silence bouncing off Ophelia's sunny demeanour like a harpoon toad off a dragon turtle." if you were making an effort to hide your amusement I might even believe you."

    "What? Just because I can melt mountains with my mind means I can't enjoy showmanship? You really missing quite a show with those eyes. The vanishing trick he's doing with the smoke was really well done."

    "You want me to tune my eyes for a show you're going to have to give me a heads up, baselining the visual cortex is a bitch and a half, and you know what happens if you don't tune it to your eyes."

    Ophelia winced at the ghosts of migraines past.

    "But, that aside, this is a very specific kind of showmanship. I'm sure we could find dinner with a show that wasn't trying to pass the performers as psykers."

    Ophilla smiled impishly, "The perverse irony of this particular performance may have been something of a draw." The confession drew swift and just retribution in the form of a roll bouncing off her nose.

    "Aren't you a little old for pranks?"

    "Says the millennia-old psyerk throwing food." Areatha eloquent rebuttal took the form of a second roll. thought this one stopped mid-air before buttering itself and floating down to Ophelia's plate.

    "I'm old enough to be eccentric, your still young enough your supposed to act mature all the time."

    Ophilala smirked. "speaking of, this is supposed to be a working lunch, so if you give me just a second..." with a faint stirring of the warp the air began to shimmer, the rest of the restaurant distorting as if it was being viewed through smoked glass.

    Areatha idly tasted the power, not quite pyromancy not quite telekinesis. "Oh nice, your distorting the air and light."

    "Yeah, telepathic tricks don't work if someone just records you. I had a friend back at the academy who spent months trying to figure out how her roommate was eavesdropping on her past her telepathic blinds. The look on her face when she finally saw the voxrecoder was priceless." Her smile was a bit wistful, Areatha decided not to ask about what happened to that friend.

    "So, assuming you weren't just showing off, I'm assuming you have some questions unsuited for the ears of mortals to ask?"

    "You're lucky I already ate my rolls, but I do have a question about the portal thing."

    "Am I going to have to explain why it's not actually demon summoning again? That was like the one talk with Lin that was annoying rather than interesting, even if I did only have to explain it once."

    "Nah, I read his report, Mostly I'm a bit unclear how this will solve the issues. We know that it's only a few demons pulling people through, but how sure are we that they won't just replace the one we're going to deal with? I mean, for example, if you obliterate the demons bothering you they just get replaced. How can we be sure that another demon won't just step up to the plate?"

    Areatha could feel an old memory drift to the surface. It felt like the recklessness of youth and the thrill of the hunt. Areatha raised an eyebrow "Just how hypothetical was that example?"

    Ophelia blushed and stuttered for a bit " Any purely theoretical, youthful indiscretions are not the point here."

    Areatha laughed, "of course, I'm sure you walked out of your trial perfectly mature, and above any such stillness." Ophelia responded with a very mature raspberry.

    "But to answer your question, despite what the dissonance would claim there are not an infinite number of demons in the warp, there is an arbitrarily large number of demons in the warp."

    "We don't know that for sure" Ophelia interjected. "The warp is a bit more forgiving of infinites than the materium"

    "Ok, there may be infinite lesser demons. but the big ones? The ones who can reach across without someone making a hole for them? Those guys exist in finite quantity" Areatha could feel the technical objection coming, and hastily amended, "Or at least they act enough like they do that it mostly doesn't matter." Ophelia nodded in acceptance, and Areatha took a moment to mentally grumble about academics and a second moment to pointedly ignore the irony as she continued her impromptu lecture.

    "So you're left with a stupidly huge, but finite number of demons. Killing all of them is about as impractical as snuffing out every star, but if you only want to deal with all of a certain kind of demon that might be doable, if it's a small enough subset."

    "So trying to kill every demon who uses swords would be futile, but killing every demon that only uses spoons to kill people would be doable."

    "Probably, though you'd be surprised how many demons will use any given implement of murder."

    Ophelia's eyebrow raised "There's a story there."

    Memories that Areatha has spent years convincing herself where just a particularly vivid hallucination tried and failed to bubble up from the corner of her mind she'd banished them to. "I don't know what you're talking about. Anyways, back to Mr sneaky portal asshole. There likely aren't that many demons capable of doing what it's getting up to, and of that small group, most of them are likely busy doing whatever pointless shit demons do when they're not bothering us. So, once it's dead there may not be a demon free to pick up the slack."

    "And the fact that we're going to leave it's remains rotting on the semi metaphorical gate can act as an additional deterrent."

    "Yep. most demons smart enough to work in the matrium are cowards at heart, they are going to hesitate to follow in the footsteps of someone who isn't coming back."

    "Unless they have the megalomania to think it couldn't possibly happen to them. Even demons that should have enough survival instinct to know better tend to be willing to assume they are smart enough to avoid what happened to the last six idiots."

    Again, the smell of youthful indiscretion, this time tinted with old annoyance. Areatha quietly resolved to look into this.

    "It's not a perfect fix. But having to Kill one of the savvier demons every few years is at least a satisfying solution. Not to mention it's taking the wiliest of the local dissonances out of circulation every so often"

    "Unless they wait until you leave to start up again, I rather doubt I'm going to be good enough to safely pull a demon through for a long time. My eyes crossed a few times reading the explanation you gave Lin. "

    "Hey, I'm always up for taking some warp asshole being cute. Give me a shout and I'll swing round. "

    "Would be able to hear me in the caverns?"

    "Man, there is not a bribe big enough to get me down there these days. Now that I can actually track my personal timeline temporal weirdness gives me headaches."

    "It's not that bad, unless you go really deep the worst that can typically happen is coming out before you go in, and it's not like anything bad happened to the guy who talked his past self out of going down."

    Areatha snorted. "Yeah, totally not that bad. Only one guy paradoxed himself into his own twin, barely any acausality."

    "Pfft, fine, if you're going to be such a big baby about causality then I guess we can expect you to be reachable if mr sneaky portal asshole jr shows up. "

    "I may need a ride though; long distance teleporting is kinda suicidal in some of the more interesting parts of the world."

    "Coming from you that's a bit of a statement. I don't suppose you could elaborate on it?"

    Areatha smiled, "What? And give up my air of mystery?" they both shared a bit of a laugh. A few moments later the silence turned awkward.

    "Ok spit it out."

    "Hm?"

    "You always get weird before you ask me a favor or a question your uncle passed along. It's a very distinctive kind of awkward."

    Ophelia shifted nervously, "Well, if you're going to be in touch anyways... would it be ok if I reached out to you to talk shop? It's been really nice to have another omnimancer around to collaborate with."

    Areatha hummed in consideration. She could tell why Opheila may feel awkward about that. She was a bright kid, but very much her junior in skill and power. Any collaboration would yield one-sided benefits, and even for the likes of them cutting through the background noise of the world wouldn't exactly be trivial. Still... having someone with a similar specialty to bounce ideas off of would be useful, even if they could only half follow along and these earnest neurotics did produce the most amusing gossip...

    "Eh, sure. try and reach out every oh let's say 10 days? If I'm free, I'll be willing to chat."

    Ophelia's smile wasn't the brightest thing Areatha had seen, but it made its way farther up the list than it should have.



    hey @Durin I made a thing! remember kids, always tag the QMin your omakes!
     
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  • Sidestory
    • random_npc said:
    right, 40k, everything has weird names. fixed. thanks.
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    Names aside I doubt even most knowledgable AdMech archeotech experts would know about sound recording method that was used for a couple decades in late M2, much less random psyker. Even in 40k voice recording would use some super advanced tech, in Trust people most likely have access to outright archeotech that records on data crystals or some crap like that.
     
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    DeusFerreus said:
    Names aside I doubt even most knowledgable AdMech archeotech experts would know about sound recording method that was used for a couple decades in late M2, much less random psyker. Even in 40k voice recording would use some super advanced tech, in Trust people most likely have acces to outright atcheotech that record on date crystals or some crap like that.
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    While this may seem true to people of the Trust these technologies in the Imperium are hardily unknown.

    Its due to the anachronistic nature of technology in the Imperium.

    While calling it a tape recorder is incorrect, the Trust having that technology due to having the whole of the admech's tech base is likely.

    Of course people in the Trust wouldn't use it of course, but Ophelia is an exception. Remember she had a lot of problems learning how to read, and had problems with data pads ect. Her preferring analogue technology as it feels more "real" would not be surprising.

    Its not a big thing, but I started thinking.
     
    Isn't a box recorder the same thing as a recorder?

    Does anyone know how the box recorder even works?
     
    I think I've found the solution to our little Vect problem in the pages of DH2: Enemies Without.
    The Sword of the Vyggh: Hidden across the galaxy are many ancient devices of terrible potency, and one such supposedly lies deep within the Stygies Cluster. Constructed many millennia ago by enemies of the Eldar, and lost during the terrible War in Heaven, it is said that whosoever controls this weapon can destroy an entire craftworld in the blink of an eye, condemning the souls within to a fate worse than death.

    Plot Seed: Amidst the excavated ruins of a xenos city, an Explorator team unearths a massive observatory, mostly intact, with a strange hololithic map of the galaxy spinning in the air within. When the controls are touched, the map pinpoints an obscure planetoid in the Stygies Cluster. When word of this discovery gets out, Rogue Traders, Faceless Traders, and Acolytes alike flock to the observatory, and the race is on to find the supposed alien treasure. What no-one knows, however, is that the treasure is actually a weapon designed to issue final sanction against the Eldar, and the mysterious warriors of Miandrothe will stop at nothing to prevent it falling into human hands.
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    We find the Sword of Vyggh and either use it ourselves or give it to the Eldar. Either way, it should at the very least help greatly in an assaulting Vect's place. That is, assuming the Sword is a thing in Embers and it's still capable of being gotten.

    1. Is the Sword of Vyggh canon in embers?
    2. If so, is it possible to acquire it?
     
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    How the fuck would we even know about it enough ti think it (or something like it) is an option, let alone look for it?
     
    Andres110 said:
    We find the Sword of Vyggh and either use it ourselves or give it to the Eldar. Either way, it should at the very least help greatly in an assaulting Vect's place. That is, assuming the Sword is a thing in Embers and it's still capable of being gotten.

    @Durin

    1. Is the Sword of Vyggh canon in embers?
    2. If so, is it possible to acquire it?
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    A few things.

    1. Isn't DH2 also set in a sector in segmentum Obscurus? Yeah Askallon is in Obscurus. So without Eldar aid we're not getting there.
    2. Why are you assuming that either Abbadon who currently controls Obscurus or the Eldar have not retrieved the weapon. And they're just most likely ones. Some random rogue trader could have nabbed it.
    3. And of course there's how do we know.

    Andres110 said:
    Greater Divination (Weapon or device that can be used to kill Vect). Ridcully can locate it as easily as if it was sitting right next to him thanks to Oracle.
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    Yeah thing is Ridcully's divination like all divination grows more potent the more specific we are.

    There are thousands of devices that can do that, tens of thousands even for a question that vague and hypothetical. Many of them are on Avernus.

    Assuming we did know of this weapon we'd be best served just passing it onto the Eldar. Beyond that its interesting, but in the same way I've just discovered Eldar can be infected by the Hive Mind.
     
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