The Great Divide (Dark Heresy IC)

[LCP]

Samael nodded to the guardsman.

"Killer's been here," he reported, speaking into the microbead as well as to Lepidus and Thirty-Seven. "Door bolted from the inside, secret entrance from the adjoining unit." He motioned with his thumb towards the hole in the wall, for the benefit of the two with him. "Found a casing by the window, forge world mark. You think you could identify it, Ms Mouse?"

[UncleWolf]

Mouse nods to herself when she hears the voice on the bead. "Perhaps. Copy it and bring it to me. Or describe it to me. We'll see then." She subvocalizes before turning to the psyker, leaning in to whisper. "Watch the audience as he speaks, look for any that are uncomfortable or never look away from Nathaniel." She offers a wry smile. "If I don't miss my guess, he may go on about Heresy among us."

Once said, she looks at the knight in shining armor, the sparkling shield tantalizing her. She reigns in her curiosity.

For now.

[Destro_Yersul]

Severus and Mouse:

Spoiler

Show

Taking up positions near the side of the great hall, the acolytes watched the last of the miners file into the cathedral. As they took their seats the junior cleric closed the large doors, shutting the congregation inside. The knight with the shield took up a sentry position behind the workers, and Nathaniel began to speak.

"Brothers and sisters," The cleric began, "I know these are troubling times for us all. The events of the past few weeks have not gone unnoticed, and I assure you, that this is a test! The Emperor is testing us all, to ensure that our faith remains strong in the face of adversity, our minds remain pure, and our souls walk the path of His light! We must not falter, for the Emperor does not tolerate weakness in his subjects. He demands that we work hard, every one of us, to supply His armies with the tools they need to protect our glorious world from the predations of those who would see him cast down!"

"The Emperor's armies could not exist, however, without you." He pointed out across the hall, sweeping his arm across the pulpit to encompass the entire gathering. "You are the backbone of the armies, the honest hardworking men and women who fight their battles not on the field, with the soldiers, but here at home, against a different sort of enemy. The taint of Heresy must be stamped out wherever it festers, the mutants and unclean turned away, and the witch burned before he can poison our souls with his lies! These are the enemy within, my brothers, and they cannot be allowed to gain footholds on our world. They are sinners against the Emperor, every one of them. If they should be allowed to work their foul agendas, they would see us all cast down and broken, our armies scattered, our world overrun. They would see every one of you dead or worse! That, that is why you must report them. Let the Emperor's light clear your vision of lies, that you may see the truth for what it is, and point an accusing finger at the mutant, the traitor, and the heretic. Find them wherever they lurk, and do not allow them asylum amongst you! For has it not been said that he who is complacent in his duty is as much a heretic as the heretic he shelters? Do these words not ring true?"

Nathaniel had the entire congregation's attention, now. He raised his arms, beseeching them to be vigilant. He leaned forward, bellowed his words to the masses and let them echo through the hall. The preacher was a true man of the Emperor, far from the nervous sounding cleric they had met not so long ago. Here, he was in his element, and Severus found himself getting swept up in the sermon. Truly the Emperor's light was upon this place.

The Mouse, however, was still glancing about the cathedral, looking for those who seemed out of place. The knight in the corner was still staring at the preacher, his helmet unmoving, his shield held loosely at his side. Several of the miners listened with what appeared to be more than rapt attention as well. When the sermon drew to a close, with a last plea from Nathaniel for the miners to turn in anyone they suspected of committing heresy, several of them shuffled up towards the pulpit. The doors were opened once again, and the rest of the workers began to file out...

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

During the sermon, she'll slowly drift closer to the Knight, but still acting a bit like she's paying attention. By the end, she should be next to him. She'll wait until a few miners begin to leave before speaking quietly to him, using the rest of the likely conversation as cover. "I take it you are one of the Baron's men?"

[Calimos]

Severus - still scanning subconsciously for any distinct emanations linking any of the miners with psychic activity or residue from the Immaterium, slowly approached the miners who have moved towards the pulpit, in an attempt to be close when they'd confess anything of importance to brother Nathaniel.

[huyche]

With nothing more left to learn from the location, the Krieger made his way back to cathedral. Perhaps his presence will be of use there.

[Destro_Yersul]

Severus

Spoiler

Show

Severus moved towards the podium, his mind sweeping across the mass of workers. Here and there was the tiniest flicker of psychic potential, not even on the level of a nascent psyker. These were normal men and women, normal humans, who registered only as tiny candles as opposed to the mighty fire of a true psyker. As he neared the small group, he heard the leader of the miners talking to the cleric.

...nothing to confess ourselves," the man was saying, "but we fear..." He glanced back at the knight by the doorway, to whom Mouse was conversing. "We lost two more today, just vanished into the mines."

"I were right next to Jael when he vanished," one of the others put in. "One o' the lamps had gone out, an' it were dark down there. He were right behind me, but by the time I got the lamp relit, he had just gone."

"Bring back the Emperor's light. Chase out the darkness. It's only gotten worse since Sister Mira stopped coming to see us." A pleading note had entered the miner's speech.

Nathaniel nodded solemnly. "The Emperor knows that you work hard in his service. The Emperor protects. I will have some charms made up for you, that you may carry Him with you into the darkest parts of the mines, and know that His light will pierce the darkness before you."

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

With the miners filtering out past them, Mouse caught the armoured man's head shifting slightly back and forth, watching the workers leave the cathedral.

"I am sworn to Baron Telleran, yes," he replied, never taking his eyes off his charges. "You are not a citizen here." It was a statement more than it was a question, something the man clearly knew to be fact before he spoke it.

"From whence did you come, then?"

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

The woman gives a bit of a wry smile. She liked the man's serious nature. "Where I come from does not matter. All you need to know is that it's from further away then you'll be comfortable with. And I'm here to look into the matter of a woman named Mira. You know her." She says, also a statement of fact. First, this knight is obviously someone is is well-trusted and important. Even if Mira hadn't chosen to get to know them, which would have been a foolish move, he's undoubtedly have heard of her death, and is likely investigating it.

[goblinpaladin]

Spoiler

Show

Lepidus rubbed his hands together carefully. "Interesting. Man downstairs says he last heard activity up here a week ago, and had nothing else to say about 'him'; the miner." He peered around the small apartment.

"I propose we have the inhabitants of this block detained in order to identify future suspects. I am also not convinced that they could be so ignorant of their neighbours' sedition."

"In the meantime, there is little else to be discovered here."

[LCP]

Samael & friends

Spoiler

Show

"Detained," said Samael, raising a solitary eyebrow. "Do we have the manpower for that? I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile."

[Calimos]

As the psyker walks towards the group of miners talking with Brother Nathaniel, his mind reaches deep into the Immaterium, seeking to utilize a small portion of its limitless energies to improve the disposition of those hard working imperial citizens towards him, in an effort to make them talk to him more openly and entrust him with the severity of the situation that threatens their integrity and wellfare, sharing information that could perhaps point to the right direction in Mira's murder investigation.

Then he gets close, looming over the miners, bowing to Nathaniel slightly.
"Well said brother. The grace of the Emperor is evident upon you and you speak words of righteousness and comfort to all those who need them. It has been a great privilege to hear your sermon".

He turns to the miners and greets them warmly.
"It is good to see that the citizens of the Imperium struggle to maintain their faith and gather in the cathedrals and temles to pray to Him-on-Terra and listen to the words of His servants. I couldn't help but notice though, that a shadow of fear and uncertainty hangs above you as the mist hangs upon the mountaintops. And this I want to alleviate. I am a servant of the Emperor as well, one that travels among the stars to watch closely the perils and dangers that threaten its flock. It is most unfortunate that sister Mira has departed from among us but we are here to ammend this situation.

Please lend me a few minutes of your valuable time and tell me of the situation inside the mines. Tell me of those strange circumstances that led to the dissapearances of your friends and co-workers. Of anything strange that you might have noticed in there and please tell me if those unfortunate events have occured in a specific place or in different places over the past. We are here to help you, me and my associates, to push back the darkness and bring the Emperor's Light in this place. But to do this I need your cooperation. And the first step of it is to talk to me, to tell me in detail of all those bad events".

OOC

Spoiler

Show

Rolls for Invocation and manifesting Trusting Aura in the OOC thread.

[goblinpaladin]

Spoiler

Show

"Detained," said Samael, raising a solitary eyebrow. "Do we have the manpower for that? I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile."

Lepidus licked his lips slowly, rubbing his hands together. "Hm. Surely the ecclesiarchy or the ... what was the term for the local overseer? Baron? Have means to store prisoners."

[LCP]

Samael

Spoiler

Show

"And do we want to tip our hand to them?" asked the assassin, quietly. "They could be suspects."

He looked down at the floor, as if staring through it at the peasants below. "These people are serfs. I doubt they're going anywhere."

[Destro_Yersul]

Severus

Spoiler

Show

"Thank you, Severus." Nathaniel bowed as well, speaking a few last words to the miners. "I shall have the charms ready for you by tomorrow. Emperor be with you." That said, he scurried off towards his office, and the psyker found himself alone with the group of miners.

"Yes, lord." The leader of the miners bowed before Severus, his associates following suit. "My name is Garm, lord, and well, I felt something must be done. Our Lord Telleran tries to take care of us, and the priests here as well, but they can't be everywhere at once. Please, sit down, we wouldn't want you to have to stand for too long."

Gesturing to the pew, the man waited for Severus to seat himself before continuing. "Sister Mira, she was a kind soul, lowering herself to go into the mines with such as us. Since she stopped coming, though, we've been having even more losses. Before, it was worse than normal, but not so bad as to worry us and prevent us from doing our holy duty. Now, though, it's one or two people in a day. The worst part is that we never see or hear anything."

The miners with Garm nodded, their eyes flicking about the hall. They seemed nervous, though about what the psyker couldn't be sure. The presence of light from the windows, at least, seemed to be relaxing them somewhat. He got the impression that talking about this would be far worse in a dim enclosed space.

"It's the darkness, lord." Garm lowered his voice to a whisper, glancing about with all the rest. "The lamps down there, they go out sometimes if they run out of fuel or a gust blows them out. We have to relight them ourselves. But it's always when it's dark that it happens. Nobody and no-one's vanished from lit parts of the mine, lord. The darkness comes for us, whenever and wherever it pleases."

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

"Knew her," the man corrects. "Though not personally. She went into the mines frequently, to preach to the miners. It was a noble effort, and it kept productivity up, so we allowed it. I met her once or twice, and I saw her on my posting, but that was the extent of our interaction."

Lepidus, Samael and Thirtyseven

Spoiler

Show

As if in mockery of the assassin's words, the door below them slammed shut. Stepping quickly outside, Lepidus and Samael looked down at the three serfs Thirtyseven had seen earlier. All three were trudging off down the street in the direction of the cathedral. "Shift rotation," the tall one explained to the guardsman as they passed him. "We need to go to the mines."

The old man Lepidus had spoken to, however, seemed content to stay put. The door to unit #4 remained quite firmly closed.

[goblinpaladin]

Lepidus nodded slowly to Samael. "Very well then. In the interests of keeping our profile small."

[huyche]

Consumed with momentary concern over the risk of losing this one lead (What if these miners were to disappear during this shift? That would be a setback he let happen), Thirtyseven presses his hand to the micro-bead and reports in the same emotionless tone: "This is Thirtyseven. Will follow the aforementioned serfs to the mine and get the guide show the section where miner Krell had gone missing. Might need assistance on-site to cover more ground. Whoever wishes to come along - lose no time, will be passing by the cathedral soon. Over." Then orders the miners to stop.

He addresses the younger miner: "You are to lead me to the area where Krell had worked."

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

She nods, listening. "Have you spotted anything suspicious as you were investigating her death?" She asks. It was a bit of a gamble. There wasn't a way to know he looked into it, but seeing him here, she figures he's the resident Knight and would have likely been one of the ones at the fore.

[LCP]

Samael & co.

Spoiler

Show

"Well, if it's on our way," shrugged Samael, following the Kriegsman. He was happy to let the soldier take the lead. The man had been strangely quiet... and a man you didn't know was a weakness.

[Calimos]

Severus looked at them, kind heartedly, since they seemed to have suffered a lot, remembering his own fears of the darkness lurking not in the world but in deepest recesses of his mind and soul, before the Emperor's Light came and washed all fears away, giving him a purpose in life and a service to fullfill.

He took a moment to subvocalize a message via his microbead to the rest of the team.
"Good. I'm trying to get some information from the miners as well. If you wait a bit, I'll join you. Most important clue is that those abductions take place in the dark parts of the mine. Beware of the darkness and bring lamp packs".

Then he turns to the miners.
"I see. And I assure you that the Emperor has heard your prayers, has seen your tribulations and has sent His loyal servants to assist you. Tell me please, which parts of the mines are those where the dissapearings take place? And do the dissapearances happen at the same place or in different ones as well?
Also, have you ever noticed any other miners acting strangely or perhaps suspiciously before or after sister Mira had come to visit you? It is quite important to remember, so please try to. You are assisting the Emperor's work here."

[Destro_Yersul]

Severus

Spoiler

Show

"It's nowhere in particular, lord. People vanish all over the mines. Only requirement seems to be darkness. As for suspicious..."

"We should tell him, Garm." One of the other miners looked worriedly between Severus and the leader. "I think we can trust him, and he says he's from the Emperor himself."

Garm nodded, looking up at the psyker. After a quick glance at the man in armour standing by the door and talking to mouse, he spoke. "Suppose we should. Some of us have been, well, grouping together. We're not supposed to, but we thought there'd be some safety in numbers. We had to scatter every time one of the inspectors came, and when we got back together there'd always be someone missing. Please, lord..."

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

"Nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the bullet holes. Those are quite strange." The knight started suddenly, as though realising what he'd just said.

"I don't think I should discuss the details of the investigation with you," he added. "It's still ongoing and you have not yet provided any credentials."

Lepidus, Samael and Thirtyseven

Spoiler

Show

"Yes, sir..." The miners slowed their pace, though they didn't completely stop. "But please, let's move quickly. We really can't miss the shift change, sir."

The small group of miners and the three acolytes started moving down the streets again, snow falling lighly around them. Other groups of miners had emerged from their homes as well and were moving towards the central square, while a handful of others moved in the opposite direction. They reached the cathedral in silence, and the group stopped. "Are we waiting for more people, sir?"

[Calimos]

Severus

Spoiler

Show

Severus listened intently to the miners, recognising the agony and fear, conflicting with serfdom traditions and imposed regualtion, evident in their face and their words. They were beginning to trust him though, this was a good sign, and Ms White was apparently carrying out her duties remarkably, keeping the Guard away from them.

He leaned over them, the expression of a kind man extending his protection and serenity over troubled people wrought upon his face, and nodded.

"You need not worry. I am a servant of the Emperor and I understand your fears. It is only understandable that you should band together to avoid the encroaching dangers lurking in the darkness. But what you say is important. Please, describe that inspectors. Were they sent from the baron? Were they accompanied by armed guards? Did you hear any mention of their names? And what exactly were they inspecting, you as workers or the minerals excavated?"

[huyche]

"The rest of you are free to go. He," grenadier motions towards the young man with his lasgun, "is going to stay here for a while."

Thirtyseven messages others via the comm link: "It is time."

[goblinpaladin]

Lepidus reached out a hand, catching a piece of snow. He rubbed the melting ice-water between two fingers, staring at the 'flake as though it were something truly, truly alien. Xenos, even.

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

After a moment's hesistation, Mouse takes out an Administratum ID and shows him. Her name is shown as Elizabethal Kronus, but it's fully legit. "I have been assigned to the case. Call me Mouse."

[Destro_Yersul]

Severus

Spoiler

Show

"They watch everything. Us, the ore. They're the Inspectors. The Baron uses them to make sure we all perform our duty in meeting the ore tithes. Him over there..." Glancing back at the knight, Garm hesitated. "They're all like him."

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

"I see." Scrutinising the ID for a moment, it became clear to Mouse that the knight had never seen one before. He looked from it to her and back again, and then handed it back. "Talk to Captain Mithras. Only thing I can tell you is that the people here don't have guns."

Lepidus, Samael and Thirtyseven

Spoiler

Show

"Alright..." Not wanting to defy the guardsman, and not wanting to be late, the two older miners started off down the street, leaving their son behind. He watched them go, then turned his eyes to the ground and avoided looking at anyone.

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

Mouse takes the card back and nods. "I understand that, but I would appreciate if you could tell me what you did have." She says with a gesture at the shield with a slight smile, obviously interested.

[Destro_Yersul]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

"This is a mirror shield. They're made only for the elite, and have to be specially crafted from stained glass. I don't know anything about their production, and I couldn't tell you if I did."

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

The Mouse nods and files away that piece of information for later. "And where would I find your Captain? And who should I say is referring me to him?"

[Destro_Yersul]

Mouse

Spoiler

Show

"He'd be up in the castle, unless he's gone on another inspection. Excuse me, though..." Walking away, the armoured knight calls out to the small knot of miners talking to Severus.

"You lot! Mass is over, get back to your homes! Tired workers can't work worth frak, I want the lot of you rested when you go back into the mines."

[UncleWolf]

Mouse

Mouse gives a nod before going to wait near the entrance for the psyker.