Defensive Psykers [MIGHT]: +2d to fight anyone who is using combat psykers against you.
Pleasurable Kiss [TERRITORY]: +2d to raise Sovereignty
Tunnels and Bunkers [TERRITROY]: +2d to defend if attacked (using your secret bunker)
Kelermorphs [Influence]: +2d to unconventional warfare (doing it)
THEDIAS PRIME
Penal Colony
KNOWN COMPANIES
The Reformed Math of Saint Thepselion
The Thedesian Defense Front
I knew we should have had her hand intel over to the Arbites or something instead, but I was too focused on the whole Khornate mess to think of a plan.
The report had come in as Shexia tapped her fingers on the desktop, her eyes narrowed. Her efforts had been spun wildly during this week - to get the Pure into position, the cultists readied, to move in and start to collet Korine. She wanted to be there when she was turned, the idea filling her with a warm delight. She also was fairly sure that-
The door opened with a click.
She lifted her gaze.
"Lot?" she asked, as her armsmaster walked in, his face impassive. Unreadable. Even. "What is it?"
"Report on the Korine situation," he said. "She's gone. Vanished into the night."
"Shit," Shexia hissed.
"There's something else."
The three words ticked inside of her brain. She lifted her gaze, frowning. "Yes?" she asked. Her finger started to rub, gently, on the golden ring on her left finger - a ring she had worn ever since she had become an interrogator. Her thumb slipped along it just so, gently caressing the pure, unblemished gold. Lot's rough face was craiggy, weathered, and he was looking at her with the same stupid passivity he used for every situation. His carapace armor glittered and his hands were clasped by his front.
"The new men, you said we need order'd up, hmm?"
"The local doorkickers, yes," Shexia said.
Lot looked right at her.
Shexia felt a cold twitch in her belly.
"Shite," he said, softly.
Shexia didn't know what twist in her features, what tiny expression betrayed her. She lifted her hand, clenched her fist, and fired the Jokero needler directly at Lot. Lot grunted as the needle slammed into his arm. He hissed, his other hand already drawing his blunt, deadly inferno pistol. He yanked his needle free, the bright blue veins of the qindar venom shooting up his neck. He hissed, his eyes flashing, his hand struggling to lift the inferno pistol. The venom burning through him should have stopped his heart.
But Lot always was a tough bastard.
Shexia grabbed her drawer, yanked it open, drew the bolt pistol with the stalker rounds, lifted it, aimed, and with a shockingly soft whthump put a bolt shell into Lot's mouth. His head came apart like a fruit, smashed and blooming outwards. Blood flecked the desk and splattered her face, her arms, her hands.
Lot fell, his body twitching as the venom continued to work on his nervous system.
Shexia lowered her pistol. Hoarfrost collected on the windows as she breathed slowly, trying to remember the strictures, the wall in her mind that kept the door between her and there closed. Closed up tight.
I have...I have a few minutes.
A few minutes to...
To what!?
--- We're in personal character mode! Shexia has a corpse and a company of Inquisitorial agents around her. They will notice this. What does she do?
[ ] Call in Yolanda, bring the cult in to take the place by force as quickly as they can, while she sabotages within.
[ ] Try and frame Lot for being fallen to Chaos - pin the Maleovlent and the kidnapping on him.
[ ] Leave. Get to your sisters first, and for the first time in months, simply be safe.
[ ] Write In
Fun fact: Shexia gets +3d for her passion, her duty, and her craving, which is to do a good job, to the cult (she lost her old duty) and her craving "yolanda's approval" - you really did a number on her, huh?
Lot gets 2x6, Shexia got 3x5, Shexia's Jokero microneedler hits his arm, doing 3k, which is enough to inject the venom.
The qindar venom kicks in with a 3x9 set - the major effect (immediate death) kicks in, but Lot can make a Body+Vigor roll to try and kick that down to the minor effect: He gets a 2x10! He is still alive, but the minor effects kick in: He can take no actions for the next 5-Width rounds, which means that Shexia has one round to grab her bolt pistol, one round to aim, one round to called shot to the head, getting 2x10, which does 3s/3k to the head, which has only four health levels, so that's 2 free-floating shock, which becomes 1 killing, which slaps him to 4k, which makes him QUITE dead.
...you guys are SUPER lucky I re-read the how resisting venom and poison works, I thought his 2x10 would just...no sell the venom, nope! It just downgrades it one step. In the original rolls, they both managed to kill each other with a rapid fire exchange of highly damage attacks, Lot lost his head and Shexia her left arm and most of her torso. So, glad that didn't happen!
[ ] Call in Yolanda, bring the cult in to take the place by force as quickly as they can, while she sabotages within.
[ ] Try and frame Lot for being fallen to Chaos - pin the Maleovlent and the kidnapping on him.
Being an Influence action, our 1 Influence and 4 Treasure to their 0 Influence and 0 Territory. Mechanics wise I read this as succeeding automatically.
Getting the data-slate to her lover and her sisters in the cult was actually fairly difficult, considering the sensitivity of the information and how grave Annaelsa, her sage, and Lot considered it. She didn't mind admitting that she agreed with them entirely - even as a new member of the Sisterhood, she found what she had discovered quite alarming.
Outright framing Lot for Chaos: right out. Trusted member of the team, one of Shexia's inner circle. If Lot is compromised, so is Shexia. Moreover, he's just not the type.
Framing Lot for trying to kill us, though...well, that's not even a lie. It's more the reason why he tried to that we need to confuse--and the key word here is confuse, because we need people pointing fingers away from Shexia more than we need them focused on Lady Mark's disappearance.
Being an Influence action, our 1 Influence and 4 Treasure to their 0 Influence and 0 Territory. Mechanics wise I read this as succeeding automatically.
5d, since they're at -2d from having already rolled gather info!
EDIT: also, it just hit me, there should be more mechanical incentive for the run: If you let her run, she'll become an asset buffing your company! I think +2d to espionage actions.
Okay two options
1. Attack Yoland. We've rolled uncon warfare previously so our might dice are limited but our treasure is still strong 5. Shexia Lackey only have 2d from their Might 2 and 0 territory not counting Shexia sabotage penalty. Our probably to win is high but the consequence is risky.
What happen if we successfully defeat inquisition? Will we able to subsume inquisiton with our recruitment or will they just become another part of our organization?
We need a strategy here but I don't know what.
2. Lackey Influence so far have rolled 3 time their influence is exhausted around 0 and territory is 0 but their 2d suspicion probably means they still have roll may even be increased suspicion.
Our influence is still around may be 1 or 2 with full treasure we can 6d not counting plan or write-in. Our chance is still high but lower than Open Attack.
We need some plan for this. What do you guys think?
[ ] Try and frame Lot for being fallen to Chaos - pin the Maleovlent and the kidnapping on him.
-[ ] We need a convincing story of evidence and motive. With MM destroyed its territory are in disarray The Sisterhood can easily sneak in evidence of Lot involvement in MM to strengthen Shexia cover. We also know how the true kidnapping happen so we can fabricate convincing evidence of Lot involvement more easily. With easy scape-goat found Lot will be the target of Lackey paranoia. Fabricate the story and evidence of Shexia in the cusp of finding Lot chaos conspiracy for the the kidnapping and MM to secure the motive of Lot risky attack.
EDIT: also, it just hit me, there should be more mechanical incentive for the run: If you let her run, she'll become an asset buffing your company! I think +2d to espionage actions.
May be also weakening Inquisition? may be one Inf or Sov Loss of leadership and Lot will be devastating. Will it be rolled? Though the asset only itself will be great and generous.
[X] Leave. Get to your sisters first, and for the first time in months, simply be safe.
-[X] Burn your office on the way out. Ensuring reduced capacity for the inquisition and cover for the run in disarray & confusion.
[ ] Try and frame Lot for being fallen to Chaos - pin the Maleovlent and the kidnapping on him.
-[ ] We need a convincing story of evidence and motive. With MM destroyed its territory are in disarray The Sisterhood can easily sneak in evidence of Lot involvement in MM to strengthen Shexia cover. We also know how the true kidnapping happen so we can fabricate convincing evidence of Lot involvement more easily. With easy scape-goat found Lot will be the target of Lackey paranoia. Fabricate the story and evidence of Shexia in the cusp of finding Lot chaos conspiracy for the the kidnapping and MM to secure the motive of Lot risky attack.
It's better, but again: Lot was in Shexia's inner circle and also just not the type. I'm not sure it'd be believable, particularly to Annaelsa, the other member of the inner circle...
Which means we need to expedite her Kissing somehow.
I'm going for either an attack or a frame up. Just because it's probably the best tactical choice if only to prevent them from getting a signal out. We cannot let people know that the Sisterhood is still alive. Faking our collapse the second time is always harder and it wasn't easy the first time.
We've already got a decent plan for the frame up so…
[ ] Call in Yolanda, bring the cult in to take the place by force as quickly as they can, while she sabotages within.
- [ ] We did get some local cultists in, send out the beacon for both them and the rest of the Sisterhood to come in fast. Use Lot's "betrayal" as an excuse to scramble our retinue and position them so the cult can jump them fast and with minimal casualties. The Magi should help to keep everyone confused and scrambling until they walk into a disadvantageous position.
[ ] Call in Yolanda, bring the cult in to take the place by force as quickly as they can, while she sabotages within.
- [ ] We did get some local cultists in, send out the beacon for both them and the rest of the Sisterhood to come in fast. Use Lot's "betrayal" as an excuse to scramble our retinue and position them so the cult can jump them fast and with minimal casualties. The Magi should help to keep everyone confused and scrambling until they walk into a disadvantageous position.
Though I'd suggest not making any specific accusation as to who Lot is working for. Just 'He tried to kill me, something is in the offing, everyone get into crash positions'. A too-detailed story right on the heels of killing Lot could make people suspect a setup.
EDIT: Really what we need to pull this off is to get everyone panicking, cutting contact and running for their safe houses...which Shexia has already betrayed to us, and where we will be waiting.
Which suggests we should start assassinating Lackies, like, now. Preferably by puppeting other Lackies.
It's better, but again: Lot was in Shexia's inner circle and also just not the type. I'm not sure it'd be believable, particularly to Annaelsa, the other member of the inner circle...
Which means we need to expedite her Kissing somehow.
There's always brainwashing/mind control. If we managed to do it to Shexia, I have to think that a sufficiently determined Chaos Cult could do something similar to Lot.
I do have an idea for how we can sell it. Shexia can use biomancy to fake some mutation on Lot's body. She's spent enough time with our biomancers to have picked up a thing or two. Sure, his head's been blown clean off, but I have to think that it will take a bit before cellular death is complete. Hard to argue with incontrovertible evidence like mutation.
Edit: It won't take much. A small patch of mutated skin that looks like a symbol of the Ruinous Powers should be enough to do the job.
In fact, @DragonCobolt, does this work as a write-in?
[x] Call in Yolanda, bring the cult in to take the place by force as quickly as they can, while she sabotages within.
- [x] We did get some local cultists in, send out the beacon for both them and the rest of the Sisterhood to come in fast. Use Lot's "betrayal" as an excuse to scramble our retinue and position them so the cult can jump them fast and with minimal casualties. The Magi should help to keep everyone confused and scrambling until they walk into a disadvantageous position.
Honestly I just want to wrap this plotthread right now.
@DragonCobolt
Can we have Shexia's asset ability as one of the things we can get from slurping up the =][= section instead of a point? Unique abilities are nice and flavorful.
