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Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.
The hidey artefact is itself probably at least somewhat daemonic, considering that things that interfere with psychic stuff also interfere with the pillar.

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SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




Grognan posted:

We don't have the training for that yet :ohdear:

actually we do based on what lowell said in irc

:getin:

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Im seperating game mechanics from lore. So, your toon can do Techsorcist stuff, but you get the 'official package and recognition' at Titan. Otherwise everytime you leveled Id have to interrupt the tempo of the story to go to your graduation ceremony :D

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.

Tomn posted:

Wait, why are we assuming Devries is under demonic attack? Wasn't it stated that the hidey artifact Amacita gave to Devries has some long-term effects on the mind?

We've had a case study in the long term effects of the artifact walking around since we first return to the beast as a lowly acolyte. It doesn't speak to the user or give them disturbing dreams. To the addict it is comforting.

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




this dude called us Mech-Deacon, and so that is what he expects

Does he expect a kill-team led by an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, who is also a Techsorcist/Magos, who recently got knowledge and capabilities to specifically deal with this poo poo?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



k, Ive been asked to do a minipost for scanning. Give me a few minutes and youll have more info.

Scanning

Binary little whispers went through the electronic cords. Anything that was awake, you could listen to, anything that was asleep, you could awaken. In seconds, you could see every interior camera and security sensor in the building.

Except... you weren't picking up anything. Nothing? Nothing. No internal cameras. No internal sensors. Not only had they been turned off, but the wires had been physically cut. Apparently they had decided that any security such as that would aid you more than them? You'd never seen anything like it. Who would turn off all their electronic defenses before an attack?

Cautiously, you stretched out your mind. Auspex and Psyocculum. It ran through the spectrums, radar, sonar, lifesigns, biometric, anything that might give you an advantage.

Firstly - there were no daemons. Your sensors were quite clear on that. Beyond that .... two life signs. One sickly, and drugged. The other, perhaps a nurse-technician?

Assuming they weren't messing with your sensors in some way, of course.

Loel fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Jun 8, 2015

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN
Where is our servoskull swarm?

Ralith
Jan 12, 2011

I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn't for your misfortune
I'd be a heavenly person today

SerSpook posted:

this dude called us Mech-Deacon, and so that is what he expects

Does he expect a kill-team led by an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, who is also a Techsorcist/Magos, who recently got knowledge and capabilities to specifically deal with this poo poo?
Narrative convention dictates that he prepared what would have been an overwhelming weapon against a Mech-Deacon, which will be just about evenly matched against us now.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
You know, come to think of it...I'm not going to say that this is definite proof that Devries isn't demonically possessed, but while we've been focusing on all the ways Devries has been an annoying prick in our side, have we considered what we've been doing to Devries?

We screwed with his operations on the planet, knocked off a segment of his troops and some kind of clone-body-double (I don't imagine those grow on trees), got ourselves arrested by an Inquisitor and STILL managed to fight a proxy war against Devries that stalled his operations thanks to some last-minute cake fuckery, and then not only do we come back alive from the Inquisition we seem to have come back stronger than ever and have forced him into hiding on a rock in space.

Sure, we hate Devries. But by now, surely he's got just as much cause to hate us as well - with the added sting of being quite clearly on the losing side right now as well. Enough to drive anyone somewhat unstable, isn't it?

Edit: I mean, he's basically stuck in the Furherbunker at this stage, hoping for the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg and shooting up with whatever he can get his hands on.

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




Hmmmm.

Very interesting scan results. Presumably Amacita and caretaker?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Deadmeat5150 posted:

Where is our servoskull swarm?

Still on ship, it would be tricky to maneuver them through space.

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.
Two likely scenarios: Devries has already left and the two in there are meant as bait, or his last resort is being hidden by the Pillar of Suln. Either way I suspect the two souls that we can see are Amacita and Commissar Errandboy.

Indicate likely warp interference, time to wear the hair nets.

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN
We have two mechadendrites specifically designed to help us with this poo poo.

Drill a small hole and use our optical extension to take a look around.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Alternative possibility: Devries went mad and started mass terror purges that eventually ended in everyone except the last survivor and nurse coming out alive, whoever it is.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Actually, come to think of it, Lowell, how long ago was that tech-priest binary message?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Tomn posted:

Actually, come to think of it, Lowell, how long ago was that tech-priest binary message?

Probably within 2 weeks of their arrival, it looks like he put effort into hiding it.

I do want to toss out the other fan theory we had http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3657951&pagenumber=203#post446130790

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
We have time on our side.

Back off and pile drive our servoswarm into a weak spot and swarm scan everything we can.

If he's going to blow it he'll blow it and all we lose is a unchanged of replaceable skulls. If he's not we'll have confirmation we called his bluff and can crush him with situation specific Intel.

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer

Outrail posted:

We have time on our side.

Back off and pile drive our servoswarm into a weak spot and swarm scan everything we can.

If he's going to blow it he'll blow it and all we lose is a unchanged of replaceable skulls. If he's not we'll have confirmation we called his bluff and can crush him with situation specific Intel.

That works for me.

By the way, which of the threads generated the robotica avatars? It's been so long I've forgotten.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Itll take about 12 hours in game to fly away, make suits for your skulls, and bring them back. The current build is VERY low profile, so you did minimum energy signatures.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

LowellDND posted:

Probably within 2 weeks of their arrival, it looks like he put effort into hiding it.

Hmm. Do we know when exactly Devries moved in?

I'm seriously starting to think that when we get in there all we'll find is a pile of bodies, Devries mad and babbling, and Amacita stuck on auto-pilot keeping him alive, possibly mad herself. Maybe a few automated defenses, though, so we shouldn't have our guard down.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Tomn posted:

Hmm. Do we know when exactly Devries moved in?

I'm seriously starting to think that when we get in there all we'll find is a pile of bodies, Devries mad and babbling, and Amacita stuck on auto-pilot keeping him alive, possibly mad herself. Maybe a few automated defenses, though, so we shouldn't have our guard down.

He bought the place a few weeks after the ship arrived, with the message ~2 weeks later. Whether he went in, or is still there, is unclear to the fact that he turned off all the security systems.

Which is really kind of bizarre actually.

Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.
Hair nets on. Attempt to contact tech-priest but only if we can do so without giving ourselves away. Continue with the mission.

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.
Worst case scenario, DeVries has been in contact with our friendly stowaway Chaos Marines. If so, we could be moving into an ambush of rubric marines. Given that they're soulless he wouldn't have to disguise them with the Pillar of Suln.

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger

Deadmeat5150 posted:

If we space Alpha Deck we won't be able to run the ship. Remember most of the posts on the bridge and around Alpha are hereditary, they are probably the only ones who know how that station works.

Aren't all the hereditary positions actually living in enclosed containers on the deck?

I blinked and missed a bunch.

We cannot trust most scans because that artifact. Isn't that right? Our Psider caps mitigate that? Do they work on remote scans, or just the stuff we come into contact with?

So far we don't know if Devries is here or not. It's not just a trap. We have been baited here. Remember all our options for how to deal with the asteroid if we thought Devries was here? Those are all his options once he knows we are here. We are meant to find Amacita.

Is orbit around the asteroid secure? He can destroy the asteroid and if we survive we will have to pay. He won't have to in any case. What is our extraction/exit plan?

Part of the problem is that Devries doesn't care about anything at all other than his own growth (mutation) and survival. This makes it hard to threaten him or effectively bait a trap. If he does care about something I don't think we really know what it is.

Actually, he probably cares about us. We are probably the best bait for any trap. We need to turn this into our trap, with us as bait. I am not sure exactly how. Accepting negotiations might be a first step. I don't think we would care at all about honoring any terms agreed upon, and neither would he. He must therefore have some sort of leverage planned. Negotiating will at least reveal the first layer of that. Secondly we need to figure out both his escape plan and where/how he has moved resources, since he will have all that in place. It's possible his escape plan is to kill or strand us here and take the ship, but that seems less likely now and him having abandoned his forces there seems at least a weak signal that he is relocating. It's his MO I think. He is basically just a sort of thief.

Also, what have we decided about the previous Lord-Sire? Didn't we think he had staged his death and was essentially watching for something? How we would handle the inquisition thing?

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
I'm fairly certain that the asteroid is a horrible terrible thing for any number of reasons wrapped in a shell of radio silence.

Don't be anywhere near it when it gets unwrapped. Knowledge is the key to our success; slowly, cleverly know everything then zerg rush with overwhelming force is our pathway. Let's not get over confident and be wiped out in an explosion of rigged Cyclone missiles/home movies/mother love bombs.

Oasx
Oct 11, 2006

Freshly Squeezed
I am really nervous about us taking a physical part in this, combat wise we don't add that much, and the place could very easily just be rigged to explode, or worse.

Skellybones
May 31, 2011




Fun Shoe
Hey, we did piss off a slaaneshi daemon that swore revenge, and this guy is a huge hedonist who was already a heretic. The two could be related in some way.

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

Scout if we can, accept negotiations

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



The Darkness

Finding an entrance wasn’t difficult - the place was honey combed with grandoise windows and doors, and the security systems were turned off. Not just turned off, wires cut and systems torn out. If you weren’t sure you were the first here, you’d think some commando operation had cleaned out the place before you got there. All in all, very strange.

You mulled over whether to keep your masks on - the sound of the rebreathers might give you away, but they would protect you from any surprise chemical attacks or explosive decompression. You considered your gear and the bulk of it, and decided the sound wouldn’t be significantly more. Rebreathers it was.

The gravity was standard enough once you got inside, although it oriented weirdly from the center. If you felt the need, you could try a different approach, a different avenue, but for now, one was as good as another. And what you were seeing… was darkness. You hadn’t even noticed it at first, until your Retinue mentioned it, but the place was utterly black, lit only by the dim stars in the distance.

And inside, the lights, the cameras, the electronics, all torn out and undone.

Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.
Proceed, with caution.

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

oohhh shiiittt

keep going! fuk da police!

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
Make a mental note about how much the damage costs. If we do wind up letting Devries survive we should make it a point of sending him the bill

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.
Keep on moving, slow and quiet. Can't let a little thing like the darkness stop us.

Seriously though, I'm kind of stumped on the destroyed electronics. I can think of things that might do it, but none that make sense in context.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Something I think we need to consider: What does Devries want, and what has he been doing to get it?

Let's take a look at his actions since getting on board the Beast. Wrangle marriage with Amacita, get married into the Family, gain the right to jockey for the position of Lord-Sire, cultivate links with Alpha Deck and the gangers, all pretty standard stuff for an ambitious dude who thinks he has an angle on becoming a Rogue Trader. So far, so good.

Then Siadwell happened. Devries was apparently planning SOMETHING at the wedding, but judging from his surprise Siadwell wasn't it. Then we further derailed his plans by marrying Fabian, thus giving our followers a figure to rally around. And so, for a time while we were sent off to the trial, he was stuck in a war against Fabian and the Kriegers while further developing his links on board ship. Again, so far, so good, still an ambitious figure but one with a fight on his hands.

But then...what? He started auctioning off the Family's effects - for what reason we do not know. He bought an asteroid base, one that he knew we'd be following up on. He started getting mentally unstable - dosing himself up more than he already was, and apparently worrying his tech-priest with concerns for his sanity. And he started doing this, if I have my timeline right, before it was entirely clear whether we'd emerge from the trial alive or dead. It's an odd break from his previously fairly standard if devious and cunning tactics. Can anyone see the pattern or the logic to these new actions, or figure out what they're working towards?

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



He started renting the house before you came out, but sold the Sage after you got out. Make of that what you will.

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.
A provocation is my takeaway there, but it's not like we could've simply ignored him anyway. Of course it's entirely possible he didn't want her being chatty about what questions he asked, or what stories she told.

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

You know what doesn't like lights? CAVE THINGS


You know whats the opposite of tech? PSYKER THINGS

ITS A CAVE PSYKER THING ITS MOTHER :tinfoil:

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Honestly, I'm still banking on the "Devries has gone mad" thing. What started as a simple precaution ("Cut the electronics, she'll get more use out of them than we will") has ended up as sheer paranoid obsession, tearing out electronics root and branch because Ohone might be hiding within them somehow, foiling him and threatening him with every glimmer of silicon.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree
Uhh. Shoulda sent in a bunch of servitors and poo poo to probe first damnit

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Waci
May 30, 2011

A boy and his dog.

Tomn posted:

tearing out electronics root and branch because Ohone might be hiding within them somehow, foiling him and threatening him with every glimmer of silicon.

To be fair, this is pretty much correct.

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