Idyll Heresies [IC]

[Wiz]

Xanthia peruses the paper carefully, "It seems to be a cipher listing all his customers. The last listing seems to be 10k Gland, Dispatched to K, 1200 Terrac, 5000 thrones..." She frowns, "Nothing seems familiar there." She taps the paper against her hand, pondering. "He had 1500 Thrones in the briefcase... if he was paid 5000, that means 3500 went elsewhere. He dispatched 10k or kilos of Gland - which I assume is code for the Idyll, to K - whom I assume is a customer. It's likely the approximate 20 kilos we see here is what's left of his stock after this purchase. Meaning he's already distributed the other 70 kilos, perhaps to the other people on this sheet."

[LCP]

Taking the letter, Pius read it with a quick, intent eye - pausing, he read it again, as if to be sure. A dark expression crossing his face, he handed it to Quint.

"Very well. This can wait, for now."

He turned as he heard Xanthia's report.

"A customer buying ten kilos? Sounds more like a secondary dealer to me." He frowned. "If seventy kilos have already shipped, I don't like our chances of running them all to ground. How many customers are there on the list?"

He paused.

"Twelve thousand Terrac... is that an address? You'll excuse an off-worlder his ignorance."

[Saldre]

Xanthia:

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The only purchase for "Gland" is registered under K, for 10Kgs. You do remember Quint mentioning some Idyll missing from the room itself earlier, before the harrowing experience with the Tic: the rest was scattered about the room when Hack fired his shotgun at the Swarm.

On the other hand, the mention of the address refreshes your memory and you realize what it means: it is in-fact an address to a certain hotel you know for a fact to cater to slumming nobles. It is not completely implausible that you may even have visited it yourself one day.

[Bowerbird]

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Ah I see now, my name wasn't on the initial spoiler so I ignored it :P

Finding the packs familiar Hack stops fiddling with the Pict Recorder and examines them.

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I'm not too sure what to roll here..

[Wiz]

Xanthia looks at the paper again. "Wait. This is the only listing for Gland. It must be a different product than the Idyll... I think the Idyll was mostly scattered about in the room, anyway." She pauses, considering Pius' words. "I think you're right... it is an address. A hotel for Nobles who are slumming... I've been there once or twice." She looks thoughtful, "K might be having a party there, which would explain the amount, and this stuff in the safe... maybe this is the Gland?"

[Saldre]

Hack:

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You open one of the packs carefully and immediately realize that they are: explosives. Lots of them. These demolitions charges have been carefully safeguarded by Prim for some reason.

[OOC: I wont require a roll for this, at least not this time, mostly because its only contributing the confusion and I would like to resolve that.

You recover up to 20kg of explosive material, that when placed appropriately could probably blow up an entire building.]

[Bowerbird]

Hack sets the pack down carefully, "These packs are not drugs, they are explosives. Enough to destroy an entire building. I do not know why this man had them safeguarded so carefully, but I do not like it. If this "gland" refers to these packs then we have another problem, with 70 kilograms of this substance someone could cause a lot of havok."

[Chucho108]

Cipher

Holstering his laspistol, Cipher squeezes the bridge of his nose, trying to knuckle out the coming migraine.

"Well this was an unpleasant surprise. Here I was hoping that this wouldn't require to much effort. Might I suggest we make tracking down this witch our primary concern, his presence suggests things are far worse then simple drug trafficking and I must admit I find this attempt on our lives to be quite...offensive, both on a personal and professional level."

Poking at the remain of the swarm with a foot Cipher has an uneasy look on his face,

"Might I suggest when this ordeal is over or if one of you has access to the right equipment that these corpses as well as the entire building be put to the flame? It would be prudent to remove the taint of Chaos, in case our mysterious friend returns to hide his tracks."

Looking towards Hack and Loken he puts a small smile on his face,

"As for you two, I suggest you try and stay away from any further injuries. There are...consequences to using gifts from the warp too frequently and it would be unfortunate if either of you were to be harmed by my attempts to mend your wounds."

[Bowerbird]

Hack looks up from examining the pack, placing it carefully back down, "I am capabe of mending my own wounds, I require no power from the Immaterium. As to destroying this building, there are enough explosives here to destroy this building if placed correctly, though I believe that will draw a great deal of attention. Whoever this witch is, he may already have the remainder of the explosives, which is far more than we have here, if Xanthia's assumptions prove true."

[LCP]

Pius shook his head.

"Whoever did this might still be nearby. The sound of an explosion would let them know we were on their trail."

He looked round at Quint. "Do you have any way to contact the Precinct House? This place needs a flamer team."

[Wiz]

Xanthia shakes her head, "I'm sorry if I confused you, my thoughts are often jumping ahead of my speech. The figure of 70 kilograms sold was based on the idea that someone had bought 10 and here was 20... but that was assuming it was the Idyll. We were told his last shipment was 100 kilos of Idyll. We had no information on the amount or even the existence of this explosive... which I assume is neither Idyll nor this Gland." She pauses, "Unless, of course, that there was some other misinformation from higher up that trickled down to us. Unless it was 100 kilos, not of Idyll, but of explosive." She frowns, "Here's my real question though. I could understand hiding an illegal drug in a safe... but why hide explosives in a safe? I can't imagine why, unless the reason for the explosive... the thing meant to be blown up... would draw far more legal reprecussions than simple drug dealing."

[Saldre]

Everybody:

Quint nods, it seems he does actually have access to the an Arbites Bureau: It will take him some time to get them mobilized. He'll have to head down there himself, and it's quite far off.

Seeing as Pius has leadership experience, he leave him in charge of the cell.

He reminds everybody of two things:

One) There are ten Kilos of Idyll missing, taken by the courier.

Two) A Sorcerer of some sorts has visited Prim, killed him and has probably stolen some Idyll as well.

Most of the Idyll was inside the crate, along with Prim's body: he had probably just opened it when he was killed. The Explosives, well, I guess he wont be needing those anymore: might as well take them.

The rest of the mission consists with hunting down the courier, the sorcerer or visiting the address on that paper. The courier and the sorcerer are, like Pius had said, probably still nearby: they could not have gotten very far. Maybe someone outside has spotted something?

Either way, He will meet up with you after he's taken care of the building. In the meanwhile, keep in touch using your comlinks.

He nods to Pius and the squad, then turns and leaves the building, making his way into the streets towards the nearest Arbites Station.

Pius:

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[OOC: Up to you where the cell goes next.]

Everybody Else:

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[OOC: I am sure your suggestions are welcome, especially if you want to volunteer to handle one aspect of the investigation in particular. Keep in mind the inherent dangers that come with splitting up.]

[LCP]

Surveying the filthy room, Pius seemed to come to a decision.

“Whatever warp-spawn perpetrated this crime could have gone in any direction, and we have no transport. However, if I had to guess where they’re going, I’d say that there was a good chance it was to deal with the possessor of the last ten kilos.”

“Hack, if you can extract an image of the heretic from the pict-recorder's log, that should be transmitted to the Arbites Bureau. Loken and I,” he said, a trace of distaste lingering in his voice, “will take the demolition packs. The last thing we want is some underhive undesirables getting their hands on a bundle of high explosives – or the Arbites flamer team setting them off.”

He gestured toward the Idyll scattered on the floor.

“We push a few crates in front of the door to this room to stop any wandering thieves getting their hands on the Idyll before the Arbites arrive, and then we head to twelve thousand Terrac. Whether the sorcerer is there or not, it is our duty to prevent any further spread of this filth,” - he gestured again to the Idyll - "and to bring whoever saw fit to trade in it to justice."

[Wiz]

Xanthia nods, turning off her air supply and removing her mask. "Whatever you say is fine." She glances at the Idyll, her thoughts not obvious on her face. I think it is a mistake to trust others to do our job for us, we should destroy the Idyll, not turn it over to others and assume it will get done.

[Bowerbird]

"Understood, I shall begin extracting any relevant data from this terminal. I am also trained in the handling o explosives, I will take them and keep them safe, and can set them if the need arises." Hack begins working at the terminal, transferring data to his dataslate.

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Tech-Use: (1d100)[94]

[AssassinKing]

Loken rolls his eyes a little bit as he heard the news about goin with the commisar. This is gonna be one hell of an journey.

[Chucho108]

Cipher

"Do not take this the wrong way, Commissar Valdemar, but I believe it would be prudent to follow the fellow who left shortly before we left. It would seem that the witch responsible for Prim's state is the kind to cover his tracks, leaving a potential witness alive would be unprofessional. The witch will not have had enough time to kill him just yet, if we hurry we can get to him before the witch, or failing that, get there while the witch is busy cleaning up."

[LCP]

Pius raised an eyebrow.

"Do you think you know where he went, then?"

[Chucho108]

Cipher

"Not as such, but I rationalized that one of our number should be able to track the fellow's movements. After all do we not boast an Assassin, a Techpriest, and yourself, a Commissar as members of our merry little band?"

[LCP]

"If we were in the open field, I would agree. But this is a hive city, and the man has had an hour to make good his escape. He has a dozen means of flight at his disposal and a population of billions in which to vanish. All we have is his name, and the address of Prim's last customer - which may be where this man was headed with his goods. Heading straight there certainly offers us a better chance of heading him off in time than asking after him at every street corner along his route."

Pius paused.

"And if he fails to appear, then we can at least interrogate whatever degenerates were trading with Venkateswaran about this missing courier."

[Chucho108]

Cipher

"Perhaps you are right, I just felt that following after the fellow would be the easiest way to track down the witch, but you are in charge of this operation, and have more experience in the matter, so feel free to do as you feel necessary."

[LCP]

"Then we make for this 'Terrac' as fast as possible." Pius looked down at the scattered Idyll with reluctance. "Much as I am loath to leave this stuff just lying about, an uncontrolled blaze could set the whole district aflame, and we don't know where Prim might have left more of his explosives lying about. We can only hope officer Quint makes good time."

[Saldre]

Idyll Ecstatics:

Your group exists Prim's lair, having recovered several leads. Xanthia takes the leading, making her way to 1200 Terraceton Suites, a relatively successful hotel known for both the privacy and anonymity it accords its guests, while remaining one of the higher class establishment in the Underhive.

Again the crowd is in constant motion as people go about their business. Nighttime has fallen and the crowd is filled with all manners of people: from groups of youths looking for something to do, to the vagrant scum searching for his next fix. They mingle and mix, each of them engrossed in their own business, knowing better then to intrude upon others activies.

A mere five blocks away from Prim's house, in-front of a darkly lit alley, something catches your attention.

[OOC: Perception Test to see if you notice something, or if you walked by too quickly to care!]

All those who succeed

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You cant help but notice that the crowd of people has thinned around this particular alley: though you can hear people bickering inside, so this does not surprise you at first. Until the smell hits you: a repulsive gust of wind, caused by the intermittent activation of some airing mechanism for the hive, gushes out of the alley and surrounds you.

Immediately you realize it is the same odor you have had to endure when you had opened the door to Prim's room. This time however, you are ready for it: it does not even faze you.

[Wiz]

Xanthia reaches under her robes to the position that anyone who's watched her knows she's got her hand on her Trinity Consecrator. She hisses, "That smell... from the alley. Same as in Prim's room!"

[LCP]

Pius' hand crept towards the grip of his laspistol, his nose wrinkling at the vile stench.

"It looks like we might have found our witch," he said, grimly. "Or the scene of his latest crime."

Drawing the weapon, he flicked the safety-catch to 'armed', looking across to Xanthia and Cipher.
"Scan the alley," he said, stepping to one side. "And you, psyker - I don't know how you did it, but you sensed those things before. What do you sense here?"

[Saldre]

[OOC: Having amazingly succeeded a rather difficult perception test, if you factor in quite a few things, you guys manage to to hit....]

Idyll Pursuit!

Everybody:

A quick glance reveals that the mouth of this alley is barely illuminated by the
phosphorescent glow of the nearby streetlamps. Mist hangs in the air like a miasma. Though the passage itself is straight enough, it offers neither clear nor clean progress. Five meters inside, a blue bio-hazard waste receptacle dominates one of the walls, standing a good two meters tall, three meters wide and four meters deep. Its closed lid is connected to either

building by a complex snare of half meter thick trash delivering umbilicus pipes. The system has not been properly maintained, and through three sizeable rends in storage unit's lower half bleed waste fat and half digested foodstuffs, the consistency, color and texture of day old vomit. Overhead pipes leak translucent coolant and clear water into a puddle-pool filling
the garbage strewn ground. Currently five meters in diameter, the pool is slowly growing because a film of filth and clotted hair blocking the sewage grate prevents any reasonable outflow.

There is something floating near the grates, but you can't quite make it out from where you are: you'll need to walk into the alley to make out what it is.

[Wiz]

Xanthia puts on her multimask and activates the photovisors and infrared scanner as well as the rebreather. She draws her consecrator and makes sure she has fresh clips in all three holders. She looks out for any of the telltale static that might indicate another swarm, as she scans the alley slowly.

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After rolling a 1 for a +3 effect awareness roll, do I need to roll another?

[Saldre]

Xanthia:

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You can spot several moving humanoids figures skulking deep inside the alley-way. You detect at least three, as a corner cuts your vision. Though they seem to be surrounding something you cannot make out what it is.

You can hear them bickering, but you too far to hear them. You cannot detect any swarms though, or Plague Tics (or anything else that's alive for that matter, like say stray animals: no doubt they have driven off by the potent smell).

Zooming in on the puddle, you see a ruptured transfusion sac: brown flakes you recognize as Idyll have spilled from it and now float on the dirty water.

The alley extends a mere ten meters further. Though you can attempt to sneak inside, the puddle will hinder your movements and the sounds of splashing water may betray your presence.

[OOC: Nope, that's pretty much everything you can see from the entrance! Like i said, if it wasn't for those perfect rolls, you guys would be at the Terrace by now :P]

[Chucho108]

Cipher

Drawing his laspistol, Cipher attempts to minimize his profile while opening his mind to sense if there are any distburances similar to the swarm or ticks in the general area,

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Psyniscience: (1d100)[52]
Threshold: 34

[Saldre]

Cipher:

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Having already attuned yourself to their psychic waves, you find it much easier to sense the presence of the horrific creatures encountered earlier on.

Though you cannot detect any Tics around, you do a detect a minor (almost insignificant) spark of activity coming from around the corner.