LogYuriRT1-2011/02/03-Jason-1

Game log for the 2011/02/03 session of Rogue Trader: After the Gold Rush, as taken by Jason

The session opens with the GM asking us to make Toughness rolls. That can't be good, and sure enough, Jotham Lentillus, Victrus Karellius, and Livienne Corvus, along with several members of the crew begin to feel under the weather. Over time the sick begin to feel notably poorly, and by the time we reach Port Wander, several crewman have died. The Lord Captain orders a full sweep of the life support system to try to eradicate the contagion. The sickness spreads fastest on the lower deck, amongst those who did not visit the planet. That suggests that contrary to our initial theory, it did not come from the planet. Opiter Castus calculates that infection came from near the skin of the ship, low on the hull - near the water tanks. Opiter recommends spacing the infected ratings, just to be sure. Chief Chiurgeon Elisabet Undynne says the disease spreads with unnatural slowness, suggesting some sort of controlling power. Jotham's rites, though performed with considerable fervor, cannot eradicate the disease.

The Lord Captain calls a meeting of the senior officers and suggests that we may have picked up a demon plague in the Warp. Navigator Simoon suggests that he and Astropath Holt walk the ship using Psyniscience. Marneus approves, and suggests that the two split up, each taking a security party with them, so as to cover the maximum possible amount of ground. Bors goes with Lucius and Marneus goes with Jahazer. Marneus also orders the members of the Astropathic Choir to form additional parties.

Their search turns up traces of the Warp moving around, but they have trouble finding anything concrete. Then suddenly they move into a new compartment and find it full of dead bodies, horribly dismembered, with their parts stacked like cordwood. The officers can take it, but the fireteam break. Jahazer notices three sets of bloody footprints leaving the compartment - funny-shaped footprints. Some sort of icky fluid - bile? - has been splashed on the bodies and the bulkheads. Marneus orders Jotham to make a team of walking infected and cleanse the room.

Opiter has a good relationship with some medical professionals in the port, so he makes a call. His Mechanicus friends agree to send over some Magos Biologis teams.

Jotham and his team put on voidsuits to try to limit the contagion and spread beautiful cleansing fire. Entering the compartment, Jotham gulps, but his faith in the Emperor allows him to maintain his calm and enter the chamber. Fwooosh! We then collect and space the ashes.

Lucius' crew have an uneventful few hours, although he catches an occasional trace of Warp, or hears a sort of chittering noise. (The Others? Hard to say.) He warns the team that subtle bits of heretical energy surround them, which predictably has some small impact on morale. As they near the water tanks, Lucius realizes that there's definitely something alive down there... making weird skittering sounds. As they approach the compartment in meat space, the noise gets clearer. Bors asks someone else to open the hatch for him, so he can blast whatever's inside with his heavy bolter. As they open the door, the lights pick up a veritable carper of something toothy and horrible. Bors calls for grenades and opens fire with his heavy bolter. Heinous violence ensues. The violence pisses them off and they rush the hatch. Luckily the Armsman at the door has some sense and slams the door shut in the daemons' teeth right after the rest of the team throw their grenades.

They check in with Opiter, who tells them how to get out of that section of the ship, allowing Opiter to seal it off and then vent it to space. As they retreat, Bors and Lucius realize that the daemons have gotten into the intra-deck machinery spaces. Other officers begin to head for the infected zone. The Captain orders Condition One throughout the ship. Jahazer and the Captain try to follow the footprints and find that they begin to pick up some "stench", which grows stronger as they track down their quarry - a scent which, combined with the large size of the tracks, suggests it must be something much bigger than Lucius' mouths full of teeth. Marneus asks Livienne to requests specialist assistance from the station. She manages to attract the attention of the Inquisitors, who quarantine the ship and board it. Whups. Our reputation in Port Wander may have just taken a major hit.

Yeah, the ranking member of the Ordo Malleus in Port Wander comes aboard with a bunch of Arbiters and goes over every little detail of ship's operations he can find, looking for any little thing he can blast us for. We must be punished for interrupting his game of Skull Polo. Of course, Livienne has to try to protect the ship's rep despite being sick, which has to interfere with her mojo somehow. Opiter explains that he can't unseal the sealed sections of the ship, making it impossible for him to meet with the Inquisitors, or for them to come down below decks.

Marneus and Jahazer's team hears screaming, and they go running toward it. They find some sort of thing hacking the crewmen in the compartment to bits. Asked to describe the thing, the GM explains that it looks pretty much like a Plaguebearer. They're wearing butcher's aprons, splattered in blood. Jahazer flinches in the face of such Warp evil and hesitates. The Armsmen go all to pieces. One of them vomits on Marneus and then tries to cut Marneus up with a sword, but Marneus parries. Another one goes for Jahazer, but Jahazer leaps aside and turns his Lidless gaze upon it, to no effect. Marneus' foe misses him, but Jahazer's covers him in horrible, caustic, disease-ridden vomit, causing him no small discomfort. Jahazer one again avoids the followup attack with the Plaguebearer's sword and once again tries the Lidless Stare. This time he catches it square and puts a mighty zap on it, stunning it for three rounds. Normally that would also give it a little insanity, but we all agree Plaguebearers don't care. Marneus' foe once again parries his attack, but it can't manage any offense of its own. Jahazer, seeing that his foe has been stunned, draws his bolt pistol and executes it. Unfortunately the next one catches him with so much vomit that it kills him outright. He falls to the deck, covered in flaming Warp vomit. The shock of seeing his Navigator bite it scares Marneus so badly that he picks up another Insanity point. After giving the matter its due deliberation, he turns and runs away, a lot.

The Inquisitors have forced Livienne to give them full access to our comms, so she and they just heard Jahazer melt and Marneus run for it. The Inquisitor demands Marneus' presence on the bridge immediately and orders his Arbiters to arrest Livienne.

Marneus runs into Victrus' group and orders them to follow him. He then turns to lead his new team back into battle.

Lucius feels the disturbance in the Warp when Jahazer dies.

As Victrus arrives, he sees the daemons doing their thing, and in short, he is afraid. In fact the fear freezes him in his tracks and drives him a little insane. Luckily his fireteam have been hardened by their experience and don't run - they form a firing line and let loose. A couple Armsmen get badly hurt and accomplish nothing. They may be out of their league. Victrus overcomes his fear and blasts the crap out of one of the daemons with his bolt pistol, getting his Righteous Fury on and absolutely obliterating it with head shots. The Armsmen dutifully continue firing, and this time their mass lasgun does some good, although they can't do the sort of crushing damage that a bolter can.

The remaining officers and kill teams head toward the Captain but run into four more daemons at about 50-60m range. Whups! Lucius faints. Jotham orders his men to open fire. Sadly they miss. Opiter fires his bolter and puts two rounds into a Plaguebearer, which certainly wakes it up. Bors deploys his notorious heavy bolter and kills one outright, then walks his fire onto the next one and blasts it right back out of the compartment. Jotham uses his flamer and sets one of the daemons on fire. Bors' fireteam miss their shots. Bors fires his heavy bolter again and jacks up another daemon. Jotham's armsmen miss. Opiter hammers his target and makes it regret getting out of bed. Bors' armsmen shoot the previously knocked-back daemon in the head, hurting it and cooking off one of its ears. Jotham sets the remaining daemon on fire, and then armsmen kill it. Clearly, if you must fight daemons, it's good to bring a platoon of armsmen with you and meet them at long range.