WARHAMMER 40,000: ROGUE TRADER: THE CITADEL OF SKULLS (Roleplaying on the Farthest Frontiers)

Well, it all worked out so I'm not complaining. That was fun.

Now, unfortunately, I have missed out on most of this quest so while I was able to binge the thread marks I don't feel too confident in my role play.

As such, I'm unsure whether Tine would take the time to talk down the Q'urien given the time crunch and her audience.

Beyond that I'm leaning toward the void shields and the teleportium blocker. Unless I've forgotten something, it covers the Vault as well, right?
 
[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
-[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"
 
No, Tine, you're too female to be Han Solo.
Yeah. Obviously, she's Sana Starros.
"Much nicer paint job, no offense!" Q'urien says, in a hurry, as she - now no longer being held by the Kriegers - yanks her defense weapon free. It is a kind of wand-like device that she aims right at Ceto. Ceto's eyes widen and she springs aside as the beam that it fires zips through the air, strikes a standing piece of decorative statuary, and consumes it in a wave of greenish light. A moment later, the statue seems to shimmer, then slowly fade, bit by bit, until it is entirely gone, with nothing but a smoldering stumpy pair of legs to indicate that it had once been. "Shit she's fast!"
Huh. Some Q'Sal equivalent of an Eldar D-[weapon], I'm guessing. Scary shit!
Ceto slithers to the door, keeping her eyes on you. "You will rue the day you set foot in my master's home, Imperial dog!" She says. "I am Lady Eyruline Ceto, chosen of SLaanesh, mistress of the archives, sword-"

A sword exploded from her chest, dripping greenish black blood. She gaped down at it.

Ryia, who had moved with shocking grace and quiet precision for someone in nine feet of power armor, twisted the blade. Her helmet slit back and open, revealing her smirking face.

"She who doesn't watch her back?" Ryia asked.
fuckin SEXY
She takes 1d5-2...plus 16, for 1d5+14 for a total of 15-19 damage which I...hasten to point out is more than a fucking bolt gun does, I think
Unnatural Strength as a player ability is hilariously busted.

[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
-[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"

I like this, this works.
 
Q'urien seems more freaked out about Imperials than Chaos.

[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
 
[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
-[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"

Sure we're imperials, but we're also ex-pirates and unsanctioned psykers so don't stress 😉
 
[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
-[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"
 
[X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
-[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"
 
Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Sep 21, 2021 at 11:40 PM, finished with 10 posts and 7 votes.

  • [X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!
    -[X] "Technically, we're Rogue Traders. And since we're not within Imperial territory, it means we're exactly as we appear; an assortment of absurdly wealthy, heavily armed fortune hunters, here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"
    [X] Try and talk her down - working together's a good idea!


Roll charmander with a +30 for a good spiel!
 
CHAPTER FOUR: A Den of Inequity (2.0)
You hold your hands up, gently, and let your helmet clunk open, so that Q'urien could see your features. "Technically," you start, gently. "We're Rogue Traders."

"...you're whats?" Q'urien asked.

"We're, uh, how to explain it quickly," you mutter. "Uh, we're given a Warrant of Trade, which lets us travel beyond the Imperium, engage in diplomacy-"

"The Imperium does what?" Q'urien asks, her eyes bugging.

"Diplomacy?" you ask. "Yeah, of course we do, who doesn't do diplomacy?"

"People who have things called exterminators that explode entire planets for having a single heretic on them!" Q'urien says.

"Fucking what?" you exclaim. "That's absurd, how the fuck...why the...no, the Imperium doesn't blow up entire planets for having a single heretic on it! Shit, what do you even mean by heretic? Like, an actual Chaos Worshiper, obviously, they're going to be on trial for heresy, and if it gets proven, they're executed. But, like, that's becuase Chaos Worshipers are dangerous. You yourself mentioned how those Slaaneshi terrorists were such a problem. But, like, if you just think some kind of different thing from church doctrine, most of that's just heterodoxy. And that stuff is mostly argued out by the Ecclesiarchy and, like, unless it's actively dangerous, most heterodoxies are winked at. Like Vedism!"

Q'urien slowly peeks out over the edge of the chair. "Do you have a secret inquisition, though?" she asks. "That can do anything they want and kill anyone they want?"

You scratch your jaw. "There is an inquisition, and I don't know much about how it operates beyond the very broad basics - which is they're mostly on the watch for daemons and xenos and psychics. Which, like, daemons can come from anywhere, posses anyone, and want to do nothing more than kill everything they run into..." Q'urien nods, slightly and then steps out from behind the chair.

"S-So...you're not going to kill me?" she asks, nervously.

"No, no, honey, no," you say, laughing. "We're here to make an utter mess of Karad Vall's day. If said mess involves freeing the slaves here and glassing the staging grounds of what looks like a miniature Black Crusade while making a profit, so much the better as far as we're concerned. Seeing as how you were here to spy on the place, any recommendations for where and what to pilfer and reduce to dust before we start the orbital bombardment?"

Q'urien blinked at you, then slowly, she grinned. "I think we might be able to get something done to make the galaxy a measurably better place."

"That's what I like to hear!" you say as she steps out, then gestures you three together. She pulls out that little handheld auspex again and uses it to project a map of the local gas giant and her moons. A shimmering silver dot appeared on the far side.

"This is the Excalibur," she said, quietly. "She's a DX-901 explorer ship with a cloaking device and a 1.5 warp drive. She can get to and from Q'Sall in about three days if she drops into warp here and takes the deeper routes. What's more, she has a manifold hold - the deeper into the warp it gets, the bigger it is. We can carry at least half the slaves on this planet away if you can take down the teleport jammer! Then you can carry the other half, right?"

"We do have the logistics for carrying it, but we don't have the food," Em says, quietly. "We've got about three months of food for nine hundred thousand people."

"How the fuck big fleet is your fuck?" Q'urien asked.

"We captured some prizes on the way," you explain. "We could actually carry the slave population here away, if they didn't mind a very cramped run. It's the food we need to worry about - the food storage. We can fit in people, or we can fit in food, we can't fit food and people."

Q'urien groaned. "Ugh. What we really need is a big chunk of metal with life support that we can deploy stabilization fields around, which we can then just tow into the Emyprian."

"What about the docks?" Ryia asks.

We all turned to look at her.

She shrugs. "They're a huge chunk of metal with life support. We have enough tugs, lines, and engines to pull the fucking thing out of orbit and into the Warp. If we slap a Geller Field on it and we don't run into anything dangerous, we can pull it to Footfall. Fuck, we can pull it to Purgatorio! The outlying farms have been needing a population bump for years, they keep bitching about it." She smirks, slightly. "Besides...we were going to blow them up anyway."

You look at Em. "She's insane, right?"

"How do you think Port Wander got where it is?" Em says, dryly. "Most spaceports of that type are constructed in orbit around a Forge World and towed, usually by a Universe class. They use shallow running engines and just take decades to ensure safety."

"...does Port Wander have a Geller Field?" you ask, your eyes wide.

"Yeah," Em says, shrugging.

Q'urien is looking between the three of you. "How big is this Port Wander place?"

"Eh, it's not that big," Em says. "Only thirty kilometers."

"Thirty fucking what?" Q'urien's eyes bug. "I...that..." She sits down on one of the undamaged chairs, putting her head in her hands. "Macrostructure engineering on that scale is..." She lifts her head. "You guys are scary."

"Thanks," Ryia says.

"Okay." Q'urien says. "Those are some options for the people - but as for the Citadel, the only thing I know for sure is that the Vault of Secrets contains the best loot and treasure that Vall has collected in his reign of terror. Among that includes what Q'Sallian Intelligence believes to be the coordinates for some kind of weapon. The only name we have related to it is what that crazy snake bitch said: La'Nasad. We have no idea what it is, or its etymology."

It's Eldar, Aria says, quietly. One of those paranoic city-ships that they were building before I died. Of course people like them would have a weapon that even this pirate lord would want.

---
Fhew. That's a lot! What are your goals for...

You and the Kriegers

[ ] First step, disable the teleportation jammer and the void shields, then break for the Vault
[ ] First step, break for the Vault, secure the artifacts, then disable the jammer and void shields
[ ] Write In

And Q'urien and her ship?
[ ] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship and inform them that you need their help to build a stabilization field for the space docks to serve as transport
[ ] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship - they will take half the slaves, you'll take half and hope you get home before stores ware out
[ ] Keep Q'urien as an ally to hit the vault
[ ] Tie her up and leave her here, you still don't trust her
[ ] Write In
 
[X] First step, break for the Vault, secure the artifacts, then disable the jammer and void shields
[X] Keep Q'urien as an ally to hit the vault
 
[X] First step, break for the Vault, secure the artifacts, then disable the jammer and void shields
[X] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship and inform them that you need their help to build a stabilization field for the space docks to serve as transport
 
[X] First step, disable the teleportation jammer and the void shields, then break for the Vault

With the Manus Defiant and the curb-stomping of Inequity, we've already secured enough wins here to count the venture as successful even if we have to bug out without the Vault. So let's make sure we actually can bug out in an emergency.

[X] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship and inform them that you need their help to build a stabilization field for the space docks to serve as transport

We've done literally nothing in the past three quests by half-measures, no sense in starting now. Besides, going full Bloody Magpies and stealing even the ground that the expensive stuff was nailed onto is too funny to me not to pick this.
 
I want to keep QÚrien around for a bit though. Can't she contact her ship and stay with us for a bit.
 
[X] First step, disable the teleportation jammer and the void shields, then break for the Vault

[X] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship and inform them that you need their help to build a stabilization field for the space docks to serve as transport
 
"People who have things called exterminators that explode entire planets for having a single heretic on them!" Q'urien says.
See, this is what happens when somebody learns about 40k from reading 1d4chan. :V
"Eh, it's not that big," Em says. "Only thirty kilometers."

"Thirty fucking what?" Q'urien's eyes bug. "I...that..." She sits down on one of the undamaged chairs, putting her head in her hands. "Macrostructure engineering on that scale is..." She lifts her head. "You guys are scary."

"Thanks," Ryia says.
TFW somebody runs into 40k concepts of scale for the first time. She must think the ships she's seen are all practically battleships to us if she's that shocked by the scale, though. If she understood that a 5 kilometer ship was considered on the smaller end of military ships I think she'd be a bit less shocked that we could have a space station that's 30 kilometers across.

Or she just hasn't actually gotten a close look at any ships out here. She seems pretty naive/underinformed about the galaxy at large.
It's Eldar, Aria says, quietly. One of those paranoic city-ships that they were building before I died. Of course people like them would have a weapon that even this pirate lord would want.
To be fair to the craftworlds, it's not paranoia if the dark gods really are out to get you. They do tend to have terrifying weapons locked up in their vaults, though, so I definitely REALLY don't want Vall running around with his hands on anything like that.
[X] First step, break for the Vault, secure the artifacts, then disable the jammer and void shields
My concern with this order is that it's basically securing the artifacts, then potentially immediately leaving them behind to go somewhere else because Phi indicated we likely can't teleport them out until the jammer is down. Also, if the Vault has all of Vall's absolute best goodies it's going to be the place most locked down in this whole complex I suspect. Meaning hitting it first will be the most likely to raise a general alarm and also tip our hand as to our ultimate goal.

Hence, I think the superior order of operations is to first make sure we'll be able to actually extract the contents of the Vault before we attempt to secure them. "Securing" them and then not actually being able to take them with us wouldn't really do us much good, after all.

[X] First step, disable the teleportation jammer and the void shields, then break for the Vault
[X] Send Q'urien out to contact the ship and inform them that you need their help to build a stabilization field for the space docks to serve as transport

I'm willing to work with Q'Sal, but I don't want to send hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people to them without knowing them a little better, nor do I want to roll the dice on being able to make it home before our stores run out. Also, literally stealing Vall's docks/fortress from him on top of the ship(s) we've taken would be objectively HILARIOUS.

Q'urien is an interesting character and if there's a way to also work with her I'm game, though. Although I am a bit scared we'd just get this kid killed. She doesn't have power armor or... literally any armor, as far as I can tell. And she doesn't exactly project as a seasoned combat veteran. This is going to be very dangerous, and I'm not sure it really makes sense for us to drag her along for it.

Related to the above, are we going to be able to fit a Gellar field on the monitor Junie took and tow it too DC?
 
To be fair to the craftworlds, it's not paranoia if the dark gods really are out to get you. They do tend to have terrifying weapons locked up in their vaults, though, so I definitely REALLY don't want Vall running around with his hands on anything like that.
There's also the part where a man with seemingly a lot of Slaaneshi associates/minions gets his hands on the Infinity Circuit of an entire Craftworld. Which would be kinda bad, to put it mildly.
 
Steal all the things, I love it.
[X] First step, disable the teleportation jammer and the void shields, then break for the Vault
[X] Keep Q'urien as an ally to hit the vault
 
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