The first time the group had come to Quaddis they had heard a distress call on the Charon from a merchant trader that had been damaged approaching the system. The first time they came here they considered it of no real value and left it be, however, this time the group was determined to make different choices and decided to follow up on this in case it held any significance.
Taking their shuttle they found the merchant ship had come under obvious attack by another starship. The ships markings showed that it had come from Jaces home system, and with the information they knew about the attacking fleet from the last time they were here, they were able to piece together that this ship was attacked by that very fleet, and that it was this ship they were probably following to get here.
Inside the ship they found the scene of a grisly massacre. Not only had the ship been boarded by their attackers, but during their escape it had fallen into the warp without proper shielding. Everyone who ran the ship was long dead. The distress call was automated. Searching further in the ship they found the most secure and fully powered area was a cryo storage unit. This area of the ship was the most intact as it was the most important and heavily defended. Furthermore, the majority of the occupants of the stasis were still in pristine condition.
As it turns out this ship, under the guise of a simple merchant trader, was in fact a front for the Beast House, a criminal syndicate that trades in exotic, and incredibly illegal Xenos creatures. It was on its way to Quaddis to stock up the various fighting arenas for the rich and sick nobles.
There was also a second type of stasis prisoner; dangerous men and women who were being transported to be handed over for bounties. Jace, scanning the registry found two names that he recognized, former colleagues who had helped him in his own days as a bounty hunter. They were brothers and psykers. Jace freed the Barbosa brothers, who in gratitude and friendship to Jace decided to help the group on their mission.
Once on the planet, the group knew that time was against them. They had only days before the Chaos Battleships would arrive and begin tearing up all the ships in orbit, including their ride home, the Charon.
They were careful this time to avoid the space marine, fearing that the Chaos marines unusual nature would permit him some memory of the alternate reality. Instead they focused on the task of tracking down the inquisitor. The Beast House became their primary target, and it wasn’t long before the agents of that organization caught on and began targetting the group. However, the skill and psychic power of the group allowed them to get the better of this threat.
They tracked down the White Scholar, who was an agent of the Inquisitor they came to find. He had disconcerting information however about the true dangers of Quaddis and its connection to the Haarlock legacy. The threat of the great conjunction loomed, which could consume the entire planet.
The group needed more information, and followed a trail to an ancient creature called the Spider Bride to get it. She demanded a service for her information, despite taking an interest in Zuriel. The service was delivery of a gift to Papa Grist. The gift, as the group surmised, was a trap for him, however, the information was too valuable, so they agreed to her terms. They managed to deliver the lethal gift and escape.
The bride told the group that a daemonic entity bound to the Haarlocks was using the blood of the Haarlocks to summon the Tyrant Star to Quaddis during this conjunction. Her real goal was to free the Widower daemon, whom she believed would be able to eventually free her as well. This task she gave to Zuriel, along with an amulet, which she said would grant him great powers, to be like her, only free. This event was to take place at the center of the city, in Haarlocks old estate during the largest party in a city full of revelry.
The Belasco house prepares to destroy Zuriel and Sanguino by splitting the party up to complete several key objectives. Zuriel is sent with Anastasia and a group of Belasco soldiers to hunt down the xeno drug merchant (as this was what the team claimed as their mission on the planet as a cover). Secondly a group including Sanguino is sent to ferry the space marine safely to the space port wherein he will be taken off the planet to a ship that will see him safely home.
The rest of the group accompanies Ickthus to settle things with papa grist to ensure that no more retaliation will be done.
Of course the first two are traps for the members that Blue had selected to be killed, and the third inevitably goes wrong.
During the drug cartel mission Zuriel and Anastasia are lead down into the hidden basement of Lee and Mere’s Antiques to purchase a large cache of xeno drugs under the guise of working for the Belascos. However, this is a trap, as the dealer has been informed by Belasco about Zuriel and has payed the drug dealers to perform the hit for him. Thus, at the conclusion of the deal, just before the Zuriel reaches the stairs the blast door closes, leaving him in with the dealer and his minions. Above the door Zuriel sees the sign “you are now leaving the Satis Factory”. The irony here is that Zuriel was given a fortune telling, that he would die in the merely satisfactory, which it turns out was actually the Lee and Mere’s Satis Factory.
However, the belascos and the xeno dealers did not count on Anastasias remarkable teleportation ability and she is able to enter back into the basement to help Zuriel.
During this battle Zuriel is thrust through a portal created by Anastasia and Anastasia herself is apparently killed.
Sanguino reaches the port with the space marine and goes onboard the shuttle with him in order to ensure his safe return. During the flight up however an unusual occurance takes place. A portal opens, hurtling Zuriel, near dead, into the shuttle. The warp energy released by the portal kills the pilot of the shuttle and the group look to be in serious danger. Zuriel is awakened in time, but rather than continuing up to the large spaceship, he decides to land the ship back on planet. This is a fortunate move, as unbeknownst to Sanguino and the Marine, the ship was given orders by Belasco to destroy the tiny shuttle with its occupants.
The third party planning on going to see Papa Grist takes a detour to pick up the other Belaso heir on the planet, Claire, as well as the Regent Coriophilus in order to settle the issues. This is where the shit his the proverbial fan, as the Regent is a man with near perfect recall, and is able to instantly recognize several of the members as being the rogue inquisitorial agents who caused havok during the incident at the Auction.
After making a show of calling off Papa Grist the team is brought back to the Belasco headquarters, and rounded up by Belasco guards. They are taken to the port wherein the remaining group is also rounded up. Anastasia turns up as well, despite the players knowing that she should be deceased. Everyone is securely manacled (the marine doubly so) and taken aboard a prison shuttle, which will now deliver every one of them to the inquisition (Regent Coriophilus and the Belascos are hoping that in delivering these criminals their planet can be spared the Inquisitions wrath).
However, once again fortune plays its tricks on the schemers as during the transit several Battlecruisers warp into realspace and begin firing on the vessels and defenses in orbit. The ships identify themselves as raiders of the very clan that Jace had believed he had once destroyed. Regardless, they are incredibly well armed and dangerous.
Within this confusion the group affects an escape of sorts. This entailed amongst other things, Anastasia accidentally duplicating herself, and summoning several daemons into the hold. To make matters even worse, the space marine that the group had been trying to save identifies itself as a servant of chaos, rather than a loyalist. The final straw has Blue call upon the greater Daemon Nekabraiyanon, which manifests into Anastation, destroying one of her bodies (and freeing her of the last of her precious fate points).
Nekabraiyanon destroys the soul of Sanguino utterly and warps him into a hideous servant, taking great pleasure in killing the Only pure-hearted member of this team.
In one last ditch effort to save herself and the team Anastasia risks everything to create a gate all the way back to the station.
The group arrives at the station aboard the Charon at the very moment at which they would have entered the Charon to begin the very mission they escaped from. They enter the station feeling the ghostly essences of their own past go through them, remembering that when they went to this mission this was the same feeling they had gotten, only in reverse…. Yes this hurts my brain too.
The group feels different somehow, as though they had co-opted a different version of themselves, or different reality. They have the ghostly wisps of memories of having completed their mission (rather than the total failure that it turned out to be) in another reality. They now have an option. They can let the Charon leave, in which what they just did will remain, or they can re-enter the Charon and try the mission anew, with the information that they have gathered.
The group realing from the failure they had endured, decides to re enter the Charon, positive that This time they can do better and save face.
The group arrives on Quaddis and spends their first day getting a lay of the land. They wander about the city of Xicarph and shop for items in the various markets. Blue Steel encounters a man that he knows, Tiberius Godfall, who works for Ickthus Belasco. Through Tiberius the group is invited to the party at Ickthus’ estate.
Later that night they arrive at the party. Zuriel gets into the party by giving a sample of Satis to the doorman, who runs off with his newfound wealth only to be followed by Victus. Victus follows the doorman to an alley, wherein the doorman is assaulted by a shadowy creature, which tears him entirely in half before departing as mysteriously as it appeared. Victus grabs the Satis from the corpse and leaves.
In the party Arla manages to attract several nobles who believe her to be a working girl (due to her new fur bikini) and she pummels the men into unconciousness for their troubles. Zuriel uses another vial of Satis to ingratiate himself to Ickthus Belasco and goes down to the basement labs to help divide up the doses. Blue Steel speaks with Ickthus the whole night, and helps to entertain the nobles. The group stays the night drinking and partying.
The next day the group travels north to the Arenas, in particular the Fates Wheel, where they heard that a great black market trade is to be found. In addition to making some purchases Sanguino competes in one of the afternoon gladiator matches. His skill in the arena grant him an invite to compete for greater wealth in the evening matches against harder foes.
Sanguino does in fact remain to fight later that evening and wins several battles in decisive fashion, not even sustaining a single injury. The crowd loves this display of skill and ferocity and begins chanting for him to face “The Monster”. Crackmarrow, one of Papa Grist’s enforcers makes an offer of 25,000 gelt for this battle, as well as offering to help supply them with whatever they want, in payment for having a suitable challenge for “the Monster”. After a long negotiation, Sanguino agrees.
The groups fears are made real, when not only is “the Monster” a frightening individual, standing over 8 feet tall, with incredible muscles, who needs to be blinded and bound one arm behind its back to be challenged, but it turns out this creature may in fact be an Adeptus Astartes.
Sanguino tells his fellow gladiator that he will help free him, and the two begin to make a show of their fight, secretly trying to remove the bonds on the marine’s arm. The rest of the group makes their way down below to where the gate controls of the arena are. The group kills the guards, Sanguino and the Monster meet them underground and they begin fighting off Papa Grist‘s henchmen. Crackmarrow is killed, as are over a dozen guardsmen before the group find themselves at an enpasse. They are only able to sneak one member out of the underground area before being cornered there. They choose Blue Steel, in the hopes that he could get help through Ickthus Belasco.
The remaining group uses Anastasia’s unique teleportation ability to reclaim the equipment they had to check at the door, and attempt to stall by sending her up again to negotiate. This does not go well, as she tells them that the group are Inquisition, and Bliss, the psyker goes to use his powers on Anastasia to check her story. She teleports away instead of letting that happen and Papa Grist gets desperate. He seals off the underground facility, and lets loose all of his fighting creatures to kill the group, as well as later pumping poison gas.
Help arrives just in time however, as Ickthus Belasco, with permission from Regent Coriophilus storms the Fates Wheel and frees the team.
Back at Ickthus’ estate tensions are at a high. The estate, once taken up purely for revelry is now locked down with squads of Belasco Guards in case of reprisal. Ickthus takes his friend Blue to a secure area to talk about what must be done in order to keep Quaddis free of Astartes retaliation and Imperial control. In the end he convinces Blue to help him sweep the situation under the rug by destroying the marine, aswell as handing over any members of the group that are likely not going to go along with the cover up. Blue names Sanguino and Zuriel….
In times prior to induction into the Inquisition each member of the group was seperately involved in an incident in which they came to the attention of the Other Nine. These men and women were working as an Inquisitorial Cell for the mysterious Inquisitor Ozymandias.
Some time later each member was inducted into service of the inquisition through unknown channels, and forced upon ships which would take them to their new base of operations. With little to know training or explaination they were dumped aboard the Outpost together. The Other Nine showed up shortly thereafter and gave the group a crash course in their duties and the three rules they must follow at all times. They left after an all too brief meeting and the group was left on their own.
Searching the Outpost lead to several unusual discoveries, including unheard of tech, and spacial distortions. They were not able to investigate very much however until the first mission brief arrived. They were to board the Charon and head to the Thaen Division in Hive Sibellus on the capitol planet of Scintilla, there they would receive further instructions within a designated storage locker.
The locker contained two mission packs and a small amount of supplies for the group. The first mission pack commanded them to travel to the Arastus Division; secure explosives from a stash in the Storage Colonnades; finally utilizing them to bring down one specific great stone archway within the Division.
The second brief dealt with a mission to procure a large quanity of weapons and secure them as a secret weapons stash within the Coscarla Division.
The group split ways at this point, with half the group tackling the first mission (which had a tighter deadline for completion), while the second half began to set the groundwork for the second mission (which would take considerably longer).
The missions were each a success, but the grand objective of each was still a mystery. The Archway fell within the Arastus Forums, a center of government within this portion of the Hive, killing not only many prominent political figures (including the Coscarla Grand Prefect), but also a visiting member of the Adeptes Astartes from the Lamentors Chapter. Furthermore, the Archway fell through the floor of the Arastus Division down into the Coscarla Division.
In the fallout, the Coscarla Division was left mostly unpowered, and with the Grand Prefect of the Division dead, it was also ungoverned. This lead to two other occurances: Firstly the destruction of the Archway brought not only Arbites investigators to the fore, but saw a group of Inquisitorial Acolytes sent to as well. This team, led by Reesis Ravion encountered, and was nearly killed by your group, with only Reesis left alive. Secondly, it resulted in the sealing off of the entire Coscarla Division as it was deemed too costly to repair, and no government official was available to inact any measures to save it.
The group escaped through the Underhive at the end of their mission back into the safety of the Thaen Division where they would hide out for the week remaining until their transport was prepared to receive them.
Jimmy spent the time gambling, and mostly losing and acquiring several hits of Satis, a drug to which he would become addicted.
Arla and Victus carried out two assassinations for the Thaen crime boss Draxus including a sniper kill on a man who witnesses would later say bled insects (Veemis Rammel).
Anastasia and Albia Quintella did a job for the Ecclesiarchy by tracking down the seer Enoch within the Arastus Division and later helped Zuriel in his tasks.
Zuriel tracked down a heretical text from a bookdealer named Admiral Venser and later had the man killed as a heretic, while pocketing the tome for himself. He further ventured with his teammates on the Enoch mission, and convinced the group to follow up on one of the seers prophecies.
This brought the entire group to the Four Trades in Arastus where they found a heretical group within the Seven Serpants tattoo parlour, being lead by a sorcerer named Ophidian. Despite Arla being lured into a pact with the sorceror in return for healing her burned skin, the group managed to destroy the heretic and escaped the ensuing Arbites patrol to make it back up to Thaen.
Leaving the planet aboard the Charon they became aware of the sinister method the ship uses for restocking its slave crew. It had taken aboard several groups of desperate men and women who desired to escape the horrors of their life on Scintilla.
Returning to the Outpost they found that tensions had risen between the two members of their group who had stayed behind as monitors. Sloccum, an imperial cleric, had become convinced that Greavis (an astropath) was trying to drive him insane. The cleric had spent the last several weeks within the duct-work and between floors spying on his former ally. The group managed to seemingly diffuse this situation and calm the men before their next mission arrived along with the transport that would take them there.
The ships name was The Ozymandias, an odd coincidence considering it shares a name with their very inquisitor. The captain of the ship was a young woman named Alexandra Rubio. Her rogue trader dynasty was in terminal decline, and, as she explained to the group, she had only one hope of regaining stature: Taking a dangerous forray into the auction at the House of Dust and Ash on Solomon. She lacked qualified staff and bodyguards, and so in a risky move, she propositioned the group to help her for a hefty sum of money. As their own mission would not be compromised by helping, they accepted.
The auction turned out to be a trap, set up to ensnare those with blood ties to the Haarlock Lineage (of which Alexandra Rubio was one). Many of the patrons were dangerous in their own rights aswell, including Reesis’ Group and the vile Xeno Master Nonesuch It was only through the groups tireless efforts and ingenuity that they escaped alive. During the mission Albia Quintella abandoned the group, taking Reesis Ravion’s offer to help her rid herself of her psychic affliction. The group did however pick up several new allies, including new group member Blue Steel.
After the auction the group had to achieve their mission, which was the properly timed detonation of the Sunken Ship, a mostly submerged starship within the toxic wastes of Solomon. They arrived to find the ship surrounded by PDF troopers, having been the hideout of a heretical cult. New member Blue Steel managed to convince the PDF to allow them to enter by posing as an acolyte under Inquisitor Ahmazzi. The PDF warned the group of the corruption within, and they prepared for the worst.
Within the ship they found a Daemonic entity known as Nekaybraianon which could disrupt time. Due to the sacrifice of Jimmy the group managed to destroy the daemon’s minions and in so doing also uncovered the bodies of a former Inquisitorial team, which had attemped to kill Nekaybraianon centuries ago, before the ship had crashed. Through the strange nature of the time corrupting daemon, one of the bodies was still alive. This person turned out to be an imperial Assassin who worked for the Inquisition named Sanguino. He provided the group with much information on the Sunken Ship, including the mindboggling detail that the Sunken Ship was itself called The Ozymandias. With Sanguino‘s help the group destroyed the Daemon Nekaybraianon. Although some doubt the veracity of its seeming demise, as the killing seemed far too easy, and Blue Steel’s involvment in the act appeared suspect.
As for the mission itself, several other pieces of information came to light which caused much consternation. Firstly, they learned through the PDF that an Inquisitor was due to arrive at the scene at the same time as they were ordered to cause the ship to explode. Secondly, visions were granted to them of a vast complex underneath the Sunken Ship which housed gargantuan war machines. The vision showed the machines reawakening after the destruction of the ship, and also lead the group to believe the such a destruction was inevitable.
The group chose to blow the ship up prematurely, in order to save the Inquisitor, who hopefully would then be able to rally help against the Titan war machines. They left the ship and called all of the PDF in the area to retreat to safe distances before the explosion. The group then left by shuttle.
Leaving the sight of the sunken ship the group met up with the Inoculated in Hive Wrath, previous to embarking on the mission to destroy the Sunken Ship the group had agreed to help relocate the fugitive and much of his research facility. Upon departing the planet, an Inquisitor’s ship was seen entering the system and signs of high alert had been appearing on the planets surface. Apparently the job was well done and the team upon The Ozymandias was off.
The first stop was the planet Sophano Prime a mining planet suitable for the Inoculated’s plans. During the two month long voyage to and from the planet Victus opened the The Unopened Box revealing a fist sized lump of black metal with unidentifiable properties. The Inoculated and Jace conducted various experiments to determine the properties and purposes of various items such as the The Ice Ring, objects containing the black metal and The Red Button. Anastasia and Blue Steel fell victim to their darker carnal needs and Zuriel performed dark rituals to obtain lost knowledge as well as augmented Jace with new upgrades and Arla was seen hitting on all the boys on the ship.
Arrival to the outpost was met with confusion as Greavis and Sloccum appeared to have been stuck in time. Little did the members realize that they had previously visited the Outpost uncovered dark secrets of Greavis, Anastasia and The Red Button. Unfortunately this progress was set back when Anastasia in an effort to escape the judgemental of the team, pressed The Red Button sending everyone back through time to the moment before entering the station.
Brushing off the feeling of Deja-vu the team settled on the station without incident. Jace inputted the Mission Log – Sunken Ship and found a new mission waiting. According to the date on the computer, the message was apparently from the future (more appropriately, their current time, as the station was sent back in time). The Charon was spotted entering the system, The Ozymandias left and the team shortly after departed on the Charon for the planet Quaddis.