WARHAMMER 40,000: ROGUE TRADER: THE CITADEL OF SKULLS (Roleplaying on the Farthest Frontiers)
- Thread starter DragonCobolt
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi Fantasy
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Nah, I've made a point of only reading up on rules-related info for these quests and steering clear of setting/plot info the characters wouldn't have yet. If I'm curious later I do actually have all the Black Crusade books (thanks, Humble Bundle), I just haven't put much of a priority into reading them because All Evil All the Time is a very... let's say, situationally appealing mood for me. And lately things have been dark enough already y'know?
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
Of course. The only people who would disguise themselves badly as space marines and do actions that make no sense for a space marine are the Alpha Legion!
And yes, being unsure of how much of BC's lore is in play is why I didn't immediately side with the Khorneflake. (Which, to be fair, if it was pure 'canon' Q'Sal as described in Black Crusade, a reaction of "Oh fuck, shoot her now" is not only understandable, but very reasonable.)
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Can somebody who's voting for it explain what the benefit of keeping our identities obscured is? I've been thinking about it and I can't really see it. She already knows more than enough to blow our cover with the locals, so she wouldn't gain more of an ability to threaten us by knowing that.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
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.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We're learning about Q'Sal (DC version) and gonna need a chorm check
Rall that chorm!
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Alright, here goes nothing for exposition.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It does!
CHAPTER FOUR: A Den of Inequity (1.7)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"We cannot work together on anything," you say, keeping your helmet on and your voice low and masculine. "Until you tell us more about where you're from."
"...Gods, you're new, aren't you?" Q'uiren says, shaking her head. "Okay. Fine. Q'Sal is a world on the third manifold-nexus of Empyrian-Materium Nexus 9081 by our classifications, but most of the other polities have unfortunately decided to call it the..." She sighed. "Screaming Vortex." She rolled her eyes.
"The Screaming Vortex is one of the Koronus' barrier warp storms," Em says, quietly. "A minor one."
"What is a third manifold?" you ask.
"Third manifold-nexus. Uh, think of it like a LaGrange point, but for concepts. Balanced between tidal forces of conceptualization and ideation that create currents in the Empyrian. We're situated just so to take advantage of recursive self ideation - uh, that is, we think a thing is true about ourselves hard enough and thus, it becomes retroactively and recursively and self sustainingly true. Kind of like priming yourself with confidence, on a physical-macro scale!" she smiles, cheerfully. "But we're stable enough that the RSI can be kept in check, if we were too deep, then it'd be really easy to get into branchiation and concept sheering and destructive causation-loops. That's how you get Chaos Gods, and you don't want more than, like...any of them." She shrugged. "But, eh, what can you do about stuff that exists atemporaniously and retroactively since both the beginning of the universe and a pre-determined ideation loop?"
"Is it bad that makes sense?" Ryia asks. "I...I just want to check, that it is bad I am halfway understanding this."
You...think you got it. The world was in the Warp, the Warp was a realm of imagination, and they were...at a midway point, where reality was stable enough for continuity, but malleable enough for that to be a useful thing for them to use. Okay.
Terrifying, but okay.
"Anyway, Q'Sal. Uh...population seven billion, four continents, ten oceans, a few really nice archipelagos. We live in arcologies to keep the ecosystem intact after the Big Oops back in the 30th. Um, that's by our calendrics, not whoever you are, because I don't know who you are, or what year system you use, so, you know." She shrugs. "Primary export is foodstuffs, industrial products, high technology, entertainment media, primary imports are raw material, exotic materials, with a steady strand of immigration, though a lot of immigrants have to go through acclimation periods on our lunar colonies. We have to weed out refugees with, like...real...no offense, real fucking sociopathic monsters."
"Which god do you worship?" you ask. "None?"
"We did try a god-construction programme, but...it...turned out that it's actually really hard to have a god without having a godlike figure to focus your desires onto, and the whole thing blew up with a bunch of Slaaneshi extremists took a block in Tranor hostage..." she shook her head. "My mom was there, you know. She retired, afterwards. It...was too much for her to take, and it's why I didn't want to get into E-SAT."
"E-SAT?" You ask, not even trying to sound gruff now, you're just shocked to your core.
"Oh, uh, Exigent Security, Assault Tactical. They handle Exigent Concept breaches, where a chunk of ideation branchiates into our level of the Empyrium. You know, having a nice normal day then some big red dog thing bursts through the wall to kill your biokinetic girlfriend while she's showing off for some kids." She blushes. "N-Not that I speak from experince. I wish I had a girlfriend."
"Do you always talk this much?" you ask.
"I mean, I'm just giving you the tourist broucher, Mr. Not A Sorcerer," she says, shrugging. "Plus, the manual says humanizing yourself in the eyes of your captors makes them less likely to murder you or torture you or rip yoru soul out and use it to run an EACV!" She pauses. "Exigent Armored Fighting Vehicle."
"A daemon engine," you say, quietly.
"I mean, if you want to be fucking silly, sure," she says, rolling her eyes.
"I think using the entire alphabet is pretty absurd myself," Em says, sounding like he's trying not to laugh.
"That's what I keep telling the REMFs, but they tell me to TIUWC!" Q'urien says, then laughs. "Uh, TIUWC - Take it up with corporate. And, uh, REMF-"
"We have that one too," Em says, actually laughing now.
"Tell me about this Expeditionary Force - is it Q'Sal's navy?" you ask, trying to not like her. But...Emperor's blood, how could you hate someone cheerfully giving the tour spiel with a lasgun at her back and three space marines glowering at her, while dressed in cloth and armed with a flashlight?
"No, the EPD is our unarmed surveying branch. We've got small, fast ships because we design entirely for operation in non-Materium locations. This is actually the first time I've been out of the Empyrian fully...gotta admit? Not a big fan. Our ship's half the speed, the cloaking device doesn't work, radiation is everywhere, my PD-901 is at half power for each setting, my communications are spotty as shit, and I'm basically only going to get teleported out if I get away from the shields and the jammer they have set up here." She sighed.
"Your ship has no guns?" Ryia asks, sounding awed and horrified at once.
"...no..." she sighs. "The EPD is the fleet we sent out of Q'Sal orbit because ninety five percent of our stellar neighbors would respond to a heavily armed and armored Q'sallian warship appearing in their space as a declaration of war. We have no treaties. We have no allies. We barely have trade. Our neighbors hate us, and to be honest, we hate a lot of our neighbors because they're fucking psychotic!" She flushed. "I...okay, getting emotional, sorry. But they're almost all stuck in the same fucking RSI loops that made the four gods, repeating on a humanoid scale. But a humanoid scaled RSI leads to bad, bad, bad places. You've seen this place. You've seen what Vall is up too. And...that's...why I'm here. Our operatives have determined that he is looking for a Precursor weapon and building up a fleet big enough to rival even the Self Defense Fleet. If he plans to invade Q'Sal, we need to be ready for him. And...we're the biggest target!"
She pauses.
"...or, like, he could be attacking the, uh...the Empire...of..." She paused. "Was it the Empire of Earth? Empire of Terra?" She frowned. "What was the human homeworld called again?"
---
What do?
[ ] Interrogate her more on what she's heard of Vall's plans
[ ] Interrogate her about her ship and her allies, for example, how to contact them
[ ] End interrogations and prepare for the return of the others (they must be coming back soon)
Also...
[ ] Keep yourself Obscure
[ ] Reveal Identities
"...Gods, you're new, aren't you?" Q'uiren says, shaking her head. "Okay. Fine. Q'Sal is a world on the third manifold-nexus of Empyrian-Materium Nexus 9081 by our classifications, but most of the other polities have unfortunately decided to call it the..." She sighed. "Screaming Vortex." She rolled her eyes.
"The Screaming Vortex is one of the Koronus' barrier warp storms," Em says, quietly. "A minor one."
"What is a third manifold?" you ask.
"Third manifold-nexus. Uh, think of it like a LaGrange point, but for concepts. Balanced between tidal forces of conceptualization and ideation that create currents in the Empyrian. We're situated just so to take advantage of recursive self ideation - uh, that is, we think a thing is true about ourselves hard enough and thus, it becomes retroactively and recursively and self sustainingly true. Kind of like priming yourself with confidence, on a physical-macro scale!" she smiles, cheerfully. "But we're stable enough that the RSI can be kept in check, if we were too deep, then it'd be really easy to get into branchiation and concept sheering and destructive causation-loops. That's how you get Chaos Gods, and you don't want more than, like...any of them." She shrugged. "But, eh, what can you do about stuff that exists atemporaniously and retroactively since both the beginning of the universe and a pre-determined ideation loop?"
"Is it bad that makes sense?" Ryia asks. "I...I just want to check, that it is bad I am halfway understanding this."
You...think you got it. The world was in the Warp, the Warp was a realm of imagination, and they were...at a midway point, where reality was stable enough for continuity, but malleable enough for that to be a useful thing for them to use. Okay.
Terrifying, but okay.
"Anyway, Q'Sal. Uh...population seven billion, four continents, ten oceans, a few really nice archipelagos. We live in arcologies to keep the ecosystem intact after the Big Oops back in the 30th. Um, that's by our calendrics, not whoever you are, because I don't know who you are, or what year system you use, so, you know." She shrugs. "Primary export is foodstuffs, industrial products, high technology, entertainment media, primary imports are raw material, exotic materials, with a steady strand of immigration, though a lot of immigrants have to go through acclimation periods on our lunar colonies. We have to weed out refugees with, like...real...no offense, real fucking sociopathic monsters."
"Which god do you worship?" you ask. "None?"
"We did try a god-construction programme, but...it...turned out that it's actually really hard to have a god without having a godlike figure to focus your desires onto, and the whole thing blew up with a bunch of Slaaneshi extremists took a block in Tranor hostage..." she shook her head. "My mom was there, you know. She retired, afterwards. It...was too much for her to take, and it's why I didn't want to get into E-SAT."
"E-SAT?" You ask, not even trying to sound gruff now, you're just shocked to your core.
"Oh, uh, Exigent Security, Assault Tactical. They handle Exigent Concept breaches, where a chunk of ideation branchiates into our level of the Empyrium. You know, having a nice normal day then some big red dog thing bursts through the wall to kill your biokinetic girlfriend while she's showing off for some kids." She blushes. "N-Not that I speak from experince. I wish I had a girlfriend."
"Do you always talk this much?" you ask.
"I mean, I'm just giving you the tourist broucher, Mr. Not A Sorcerer," she says, shrugging. "Plus, the manual says humanizing yourself in the eyes of your captors makes them less likely to murder you or torture you or rip yoru soul out and use it to run an EACV!" She pauses. "Exigent Armored Fighting Vehicle."
"A daemon engine," you say, quietly.
"I mean, if you want to be fucking silly, sure," she says, rolling her eyes.
"I think using the entire alphabet is pretty absurd myself," Em says, sounding like he's trying not to laugh.
"That's what I keep telling the REMFs, but they tell me to TIUWC!" Q'urien says, then laughs. "Uh, TIUWC - Take it up with corporate. And, uh, REMF-"
"We have that one too," Em says, actually laughing now.
"Tell me about this Expeditionary Force - is it Q'Sal's navy?" you ask, trying to not like her. But...Emperor's blood, how could you hate someone cheerfully giving the tour spiel with a lasgun at her back and three space marines glowering at her, while dressed in cloth and armed with a flashlight?
"No, the EPD is our unarmed surveying branch. We've got small, fast ships because we design entirely for operation in non-Materium locations. This is actually the first time I've been out of the Empyrian fully...gotta admit? Not a big fan. Our ship's half the speed, the cloaking device doesn't work, radiation is everywhere, my PD-901 is at half power for each setting, my communications are spotty as shit, and I'm basically only going to get teleported out if I get away from the shields and the jammer they have set up here." She sighed.
"Your ship has no guns?" Ryia asks, sounding awed and horrified at once.
"...no..." she sighs. "The EPD is the fleet we sent out of Q'Sal orbit because ninety five percent of our stellar neighbors would respond to a heavily armed and armored Q'sallian warship appearing in their space as a declaration of war. We have no treaties. We have no allies. We barely have trade. Our neighbors hate us, and to be honest, we hate a lot of our neighbors because they're fucking psychotic!" She flushed. "I...okay, getting emotional, sorry. But they're almost all stuck in the same fucking RSI loops that made the four gods, repeating on a humanoid scale. But a humanoid scaled RSI leads to bad, bad, bad places. You've seen this place. You've seen what Vall is up too. And...that's...why I'm here. Our operatives have determined that he is looking for a Precursor weapon and building up a fleet big enough to rival even the Self Defense Fleet. If he plans to invade Q'Sal, we need to be ready for him. And...we're the biggest target!"
She pauses.
"...or, like, he could be attacking the, uh...the Empire...of..." She paused. "Was it the Empire of Earth? Empire of Terra?" She frowned. "What was the human homeworld called again?"
---
What do?
[ ] Interrogate her more on what she's heard of Vall's plans
[ ] Interrogate her about her ship and her allies, for example, how to contact them
[ ] End interrogations and prepare for the return of the others (they must be coming back soon)
Also...
[ ] Keep yourself Obscure
[ ] Reveal Identities
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
How sure are we that she isn't lying through her teeth and/or trying to pull a mindwhammy on us? (Probably of Indecisive Mollusk flavor)
I do not trust anything or anyone who comes from the Warp.
I do not trust anything or anyone who comes from the Warp.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You want to roll a scrutiny check?
- Location
- USA
[x] End interrogations and prepare for the return of the others (they must be coming back soon)
[x] Keep yourself Obscure
[x] Keep yourself Obscure
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You can take one from the Kriegers! But it's possible that Q'urien has a communicator!
- Location
- East of Sun, West of Moon
Well done, @samdamandias!
Let's do this.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
This is an interrogation. Feels like it should be a given that we would do that.
bookwyrm
Doom of Public Libraries
- Location
- Wichita, Kansas
I mean non-Daemonic Warp entities exist as partially Realspace predators like the Enslavers and spectral energy beings like the Astral Hounds and just plain weird shit like the Wyrd-spirits of Fenris, but ever since the Three became Four the real juice for Empyreal power comes from Daemons. Anyone doing something as crazy as constructing their own god-bomb like Q'sal apparently was is on some like Drukhari Dark Muse level shit, and just like the blight of Commorragh a lot of that almost certainly has to be built on some level of Daemonology and Warp Sorcery. My bet is that the Daemons are broken down and reprocessed through Daemon Engines into new energy fields and Warp emanations, turned into something on the spectrum in between the Elemental Djinn and the Hashut Forge-Daemons of WH Fantasy, with a whole bunch of DOOM UAC references.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In my defense, I'm also a very bad GM!
But yeah, your scrutiny check gives the result of you're not sure if she's telling the truth or not.