The Order of the Infinite Way, pt. 6: Session 4 Plan/Recap

Session 4 Plan

On the way back from the underhive, have the acolytes cross the bridge again. They will be attacked by an armored aircar with a mounted heavy bolter. This group was sent because of the witness to the raid, who fled. That person is involved with the Mythrux family, and is trying to send the investigation in the direction of the criminal underground.

Inquiries may suggest that it could have been either Sapphon or Willian Bellhouse. But this isn't true. Yes, the weapons were supplied by Bellhouse, but this is House Mythrux all the way, and on Alize Mythrux's orders.

There is a driver, a gun crew of two, and three passengers, all armed with bolt guns. One of them has a rocket launcher with HE anti-personnel rounds. If one of the gun crew is killed, then the other guys can jump in to help.

Armored Aircar Stats

Movement: top speed 250 km/hr

Armor

While the car is open on top, it provides good cover (AP5 below mid-waist. If something hits legs, use AP5. If it hits body, roll d10. 1-5, it hits the armored side of the aircar; 6-10 it hits NPC.

Assume they are all wearing storm trooper carapace (AP 4) and have 12 wounds.

Crew

Pilot

Gun Crewmen

Heavies

Name               Class   Range             RoF                 Dam                Pen      Clip     Rld      Special

Heavy Bolter      Heavy   120m                     –/–/10                  2d10 X                   5              60           2Full       —

Boltgun                  Basic      90m                       S/2/–                     1d10+5 X              4              24           Full         —

Missile LauncherHeavy   120m                     S/–/–                    2d10+4 X              4              Blast (6)                1 Full *

Session 4 Recap

 Some days you just don't have it in you to game for hours and hours. We ran a pretty short session this time, probably about 3 hours, tops. However, three significant things happened.

 In the aftermath of the capture of Ferrus D'Angelus (traitor acolyte to Dorothea Senjak) and his new mistress, Steffi Krueger, the party had to go uphive to return to their vehicle. I used it as an opportunity to set up an ambush at that fateful bridge, where they'd been attacked by Krueger in the first place.

 I guess the setup was a bit obvious, because I asked them how they were approaching the bridge. These are experienced gamers, so they twigged to the trap pretty quickly, especially with my clumsy introduction. Gonna have to work on that a bit.

 When they reached the bridge, they could hear the whine of an aircar, just below the bridge. As soon as they'd started to cross the bridge, it popped up: an armored aircar (as described above).

 The combat surprised (not sure how) all but Kevin's character. They baddies turned out to be Scum in guard style armor, and well armed at that, with a heavy bolter, a rocket launcher, and boltguns for each of the fighting types.

 They all fired, and managed to wound a couple of Senjak's bodyguard. Kevin returned fire, to little effect. The armor and the toughness of the opponents, along with the cover provided by the aircar, really cut down on the damage they were taking.

 That, of course was until the party decided to toss a couple of grenades into the aircar. The car backed off a bit, and the guy fired the rocket launcher, but only got a chance to do so once. It missed high. The baddies fired at the party, but rolled very, very poorly, and mostly wounded the guards. Pitiful performance by them, seriously.

 I really should have had another group come into play, but I didn't. I hadn't set it up that way, so it didn't feel right simply to say, "Well, fuck it. I'm god here. Here come more baddies." It's not how I roll. That said, I think I really, really need to do something drastic to even scratch the party at this level. They're all really tough, and I'm not even really challenging them. I think maybe some meditation on what to do is in order. This campaign was designed to be extremely challenging, so it's gonna be. I just have to find a righteous mix of brute force, subtle traps, and weirdness. And more critters that induce Fear effects. Yes, definitely more of those.

 After the battle, the inquisitrix made sure everyone was able to move, and then swept off with the prisoners to her three levels of the spire where they are based. The PCs followed, hoping for the much-anticipated torture of Ferrus D'Angelus. What would happen to Kruger, who could know…

 In the end, though, I gave them a chance to learn something about their inquisitrix. Inquisitrix Her Grace Dorothea Senjak is a cold, cold enemy, and wastes no time in dealing with enemies when she has a chance, even when those enemies (or maybe especially when those enemies) were trusted allies, like Ferrus D'Angelus, over whom she had labored so long. She'd undertaken to have his mind returned to sanity, for which he left her service in favor of Krueger. Perhaps Ferrus never really wanted to be sane in the first place. Who knows? But Senjak was not about to let him get away with it.

 The prisoners were taken to a room deep in the flat. It had two chairs made of a silvery metal, with restraints built in. They sat on several layers of plastic sheeting. There also was an interesting machine positioned nearby., to the side of where Krueger was strapped in. Both prisoners were also gagged, and could make no sound beyond grunts

 She said something like the following to Ferrus:

 Oh, Ferrus… what to do with you? I'm so disappointed that it's come to this. You had such potential! You could have been a legendary interrogator… but you were too passionate about the work, always caught up in your own designs, always trying to extract pleasure from the pain of others. And at the expense of the work, too, more's the shame. In the end it was your downfall, the path you blazed toward your ultimate corruption. I know you probably think I am like you, that I'll spend time torturing you for my pleasure. No. That's not my way. Goodbye, Ferrus. Perhaps you'll serve the Emperor in death better than you served Him in life.

 And then she drew back his head and very efficiently slit his throat, his unblinking, lidless eyes going dead almost instantly. There were no tears, after, nor any real reaction by Senjak. She simply wiped her knife on a rag, and replaced it in its sheath.

Ferrus may return as a servitor at some point. I'm not yet sure.

Then Senjak turned to Krueger, her black eye lenses with their golden Aquila and Inquisitorial Rosette symbols making her aspect predatory, almost insectile.  "Steffi," she said, "your time has come at last. They say I’m to turn you over to the High Lords of the Inquisition, alive. You will be that… just barely."

 She gestured for the machine to be brought forward, and turned to her acolytes before proceeding. "Let this be a lesson for you," she said. "Some enemies are too dangerous to trifle with. Take care of them quickly and efficiently, and leave display and posturing out of it." Then turning back to position two metal cups against the temples of Krueger's restrained head, continued. "This is how we serve the Emperor: We leave NO enemy with another opportunity to corrupt the Empire." She reached over and closed a large knife switch on the machinery, which glowed with a blue-purple light, as Krueger tensed for just a moment and then relaxed, her face losing all expression and her body voiding itself.

 Senjak checked Krueger's pulse and breathing, then turned back to the acolytes, smiling. "And your other lesson," she observed, "Is always to follow the orders of the High Lords of the Inquisition. You must, however, show good judgment in how you do so. Always act in ways that you know are best for the Empire, for the High Lords are only men. You serve the Emperor, who is a god, and for whom we must be willing to sacrifice anything."

 And that's where we ended. And watched a really, really, really horrible movie that Jason brought. It was a Riff Trax thing called Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. It rivals Birdemic as the worst film ever made. Seriously, it was terrible, pointless, and painful. Thank god the Riff Trax crew was there to put it all in perspective. Still, I may never be the same.