WARHAMMER 40,000: ROGUE TRADER: FALLEN SUNS (40k roleplaying on the farthest frontiers)
- Thread starter DragonCobolt
- Start date
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, FUCK. My confidence that we could take on Vall in a fleet action suddenly seems woefully naive. @DragonCobolt Are our Eldar pals willing to share how many Eldar ships might, theoretically, be available to contribute here? From the Crow Spirits and Craftworld Kaelor, respectively?
For now, I'll try to break down the relative merits of each option:
[ ] The Screaming Vortex and Q'Sol - and see how badly they hate Vall as well.
I liked the character from there and would be quite interested to see more of DC's take on Q'Sol from a narrative standpoint. From a pragmatic standpoint, we established their idea of naval scale is tiny compared to ours, and I'm thus deeply skeptical they've got anything that can stack up against any of Vall's line ships.
[ ] The Dread Pearl and her webway gate. Warpstorm or no, we will use her.
I'm honestly not clear on how this would even be helpful. DC, can you comment?
[ ] Kaledor herself.
Almost certainly the largest possible source of reinforcements, but they're very likely to be reluctant to spend Eldar lives and ships on saving humans. If we could plausibly pitch them on reclaiming Lu'Nusad that might improve matters, though.
[ ] The Void Dancers' Roil - we shall find a second Passage straight to Purgatorio or die trying.
Hazardous, and I'm not sure what this would buy us besides a different place to die. DC, could you comment here as well?
My best idea for a plan prior to answers on some of the above is something like:
[X] Then we shall not face him...at the Maw. Set course for...
-[X] Kaelor herself.
-[X] Compose astropathic messages to Q'Sol, the Navy, and any other Rogue Traders you think you might be able to reach. Tell them all that if Vall isn't stopped now, he will take the entire Expanse and likely the Calixus Sector with it, and they will lose everything. Say that you are assembling a coalition to bring him down, and promise that you will be committing everything you have to it yourself.
--[X] "It is only in extremis that faith and valor are truly tested. Just such a test is upon us now. The Faceless Lord sails for the Maw, with every reaver in the Expanse gathered behind him and the weapon he has spent so long searching for as well. If he is not stopped now, he will take the Expanse itself, and all others who dwell within shall lose everything. And from there, I fear the forces he has gathered will enable him to claim the Calixus Sector itself next. You know my name, and if you know of me you know I would not speak of such things lightly. House Scourge shall devote everything we have to stopping Vall, and we are assembling a coalition to fight alongside us. Join, and stand with us in glory as we smite the wicked to spare the innocent. Abstain, and for a hundred, no, a thousand years you and your descendants shall be left to look aside in shame when asked where you were when the Faceless Lord came to smother the light. I look forward to seeing you beside us."
--[X] Ask Balthazar to lend the Inquisition's imprimatur to your message (well, maybe not to the one for Q'Sol) if he is able and willing.
I'll write up some more fluff for the message if this plan still makes sense after the QM responds.
Edit: Actually, I need to go to sleep. If the vote is still open when I check tomorrow I may revise then depending on the response.
For now, I'll try to break down the relative merits of each option:
[ ] The Screaming Vortex and Q'Sol - and see how badly they hate Vall as well.
I liked the character from there and would be quite interested to see more of DC's take on Q'Sol from a narrative standpoint. From a pragmatic standpoint, we established their idea of naval scale is tiny compared to ours, and I'm thus deeply skeptical they've got anything that can stack up against any of Vall's line ships.
[ ] The Dread Pearl and her webway gate. Warpstorm or no, we will use her.
I'm honestly not clear on how this would even be helpful. DC, can you comment?
[ ] Kaledor herself.
Almost certainly the largest possible source of reinforcements, but they're very likely to be reluctant to spend Eldar lives and ships on saving humans. If we could plausibly pitch them on reclaiming Lu'Nusad that might improve matters, though.
[ ] The Void Dancers' Roil - we shall find a second Passage straight to Purgatorio or die trying.
Hazardous, and I'm not sure what this would buy us besides a different place to die. DC, could you comment here as well?
My best idea for a plan prior to answers on some of the above is something like:
[X] Then we shall not face him...at the Maw. Set course for...
-[X] Kaelor herself.
-[X] Compose astropathic messages to Q'Sol, the Navy, and any other Rogue Traders you think you might be able to reach. Tell them all that if Vall isn't stopped now, he will take the entire Expanse and likely the Calixus Sector with it, and they will lose everything. Say that you are assembling a coalition to bring him down, and promise that you will be committing everything you have to it yourself.
--[X] "It is only in extremis that faith and valor are truly tested. Just such a test is upon us now. The Faceless Lord sails for the Maw, with every reaver in the Expanse gathered behind him and the weapon he has spent so long searching for as well. If he is not stopped now, he will take the Expanse itself, and all others who dwell within shall lose everything. And from there, I fear the forces he has gathered will enable him to claim the Calixus Sector itself next. You know my name, and if you know of me you know I would not speak of such things lightly. House Scourge shall devote everything we have to stopping Vall, and we are assembling a coalition to fight alongside us. Join, and stand with us in glory as we smite the wicked to spare the innocent. Abstain, and for a hundred, no, a thousand years you and your descendants shall be left to look aside in shame when asked where you were when the Faceless Lord came to smother the light. I look forward to seeing you beside us."
--[X] Ask Balthazar to lend the Inquisition's imprimatur to your message (well, maybe not to the one for Q'Sol) if he is able and willing.
Edit: Actually, I need to go to sleep. If the vote is still open when I check tomorrow I may revise then depending on the response.
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Given the odds here, kinda sad that these ships disappeared, not that it was a huge difference.
This looks good. (Although I've forgotten completely where Kaelor is.)
[X] Fayhem
[X] Fayhem
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You asked the navy to protect Purgatorio, remember? Furthermore, your planet does have orbital defenses, as many prosperous colonies do!
Em's approximation does see something you have missed: the ship he saw was roughly four times the scale of a fighter or bomber, with "mini-lances" of similar accuracy and damage, albeit in an impossibly small scale. A small fleet of them could sweep the skies clear of fighters like a scythe cuts grass…
There's vast caches of eldar tech there, which can be activated - including potentially more Ghost Ships. Also the webway gate there could guide you past the great storms, to somewhere more tactically advantageous than fighting at the Maw.
They haven't vanished! They're at port wander, since you didn't have time to purchase them. Also, Kaleor is the local non evil craft world!
- Location
- USA
Sounds good.
[x] Then we shall not face him...at the Maw. Set course for...
- [x] The Dread Pearl and her webway gate. Warpstorm or no, we will use her.
- Location
- East of Sun, West of Moon
[X] Fayhem
But a shoutout to @Sir_Travelsalot for an absolutely rousing speech, 10/10 would die for the God-Emperor of Man.
But a shoutout to @Sir_Travelsalot for an absolutely rousing speech, 10/10 would die for the God-Emperor of Man.
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
OH. Yes, that makes much more sense then. And it would be objectively hilarious to fend Vall off with his own stolen orbital fortress.
Ooh. That is an excellent point.
Oh damn, okay.
Thank you for all the replies DC, that was all super good info.
On balance I will still stick with heading to Kaelor, since I think that Em's Diplomancy can be applied to greatest effect there. Q'Sol would also be a good spot for that, especially with DC's clarification as to what they could contribute, but I suspect they're still not quite as punchy as the Eldar are IF we can convince the space elves to commit. So I won't be mad if Q'Sol wins, but I still favor Kaelor personally. We also already went to the trouble of picking up the ability to speak Eldar, and have capitalized on that effectively already.
DC, we took webway gates from the meeting-spot to where we expected Lu'Nusad to be. Would our Eldar compatriots be willing to share the likelihood that we might be able to access a webway path to Purgatorio if we head towards Kaelor now? I'm asking because it would probs be helpful for our astropathic rallying cry if we could tell people where to meet up for this coalition we're saying we're assembling. If that isn't actually something we need to determine right now then that's fine too.
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Chances look poor, becuae the webway is rather tattered here.
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Yes! However temporal sheer makes that extremely risky. Say one group gets becalmed for six days! Just six days? That's almost three months in real space. Now you have the advantage of Valls fleet having the same time fuckery…but…
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm, this is a good point. We might be able to chance splitting off the Acheron and the Pax Imperialis though? They're both subline ships that are pretty fast, so they should be about as well-equipped to actually reach somebody as we could hope for, and if either or both of them don't make it back in time it shouldn't reduce our total strength by TOO much. I dunno that they'd actually be better at diplomacy than just an astropathic message would be without detaching a member of our core cast to accompany them, and that I am NOT willing to risk.
Hmm. Hmm. DC, I don't expect a definitive answer here because I don't think we'd know for sure IC, but in general terms would we have a sense of how hard it is for astropathic messages to get through versus physical couriers in the Expanse? Asking because if we'd have grounds to think it would significantly increase the odds our message even gets there then then it might be worth splitting off those two subliners, but otherwise probably nah.
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In general, astropathic messages are faster but less convincing, as it's basically a telegram going "PLEASE HELP, STOP" - their information density is real low and the responses take time...it's not great. An properly chosen envoy can get way, way, way, way more done.
- Location
- USA
Wouldn't an agent of the Inquisition like, say, Balthazar have...codes, I assume...that can convince people that a message is indeed genuine, regardless of information density?
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
This is the Imperium we're talking about. It'd be a miracle if said codes were the same across even a Sub-Sector, let alone a vast frontier like the Koronus Expanse. Besides which, Inquisition ciphers would not be particularly secure if they were common knowledge.
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Oh yeah, definitely, but that wouldn't be super effective to Kaelor or Q'soll! ...or, lets be honest, most Rogue Traders...
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Overwhelming Fayum Victory!
I need a BUNCH of rolls for the transportation to Kaelor, since at least some of it is going to be in the Warp!
- Location
- USA
🎲
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- He/Him
When in doubt, YES!
You gotta auger the route, enter the route, find the astronomicon, navigate, then roll twice for each encounter, then roll to evade the encounter, then leave the Warp, then...
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is it too late to split off the two (proper) subliners to carry envoys to Q'Sol and... um, the Navy probably? Either that or trying to make the rounds to some of the bigger Rogue Traders who would like very much not to lose the Expanse, like Winterscale and such.
Edit: wow, some definite swings between pretty good rolls and not-so-good rolls so far.
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Nah, sure! It's not too late!