"She's One of Ours, Sir."- Rogue Trader IC

[Askaris]

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Does anyone else have any equipment stashed away or other brief business to attend to before heading off to meet Dray?

EDIT: Things are moving on on Friday, geddinere.

[emi-chan]

"Pardon me, Captain, but I must leave you for a short while to gather my equipment. I shall be back shortly. Please leave a message for me if you decide to move on to the ship, and directions would be handy- I don't know where it is." With a flash of two of her eyes and a quick smile, Keris leaves.

[vampire2948]

"I don't recall anyone of that name. I should be able to find something in our ship's memorybanks on the name with some time." Novia replies.

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So... do I roll a Knowledge (Obscure Names) check? Or similar?

[emi-chan]

Keris returns a short while later, she clutches a bag bulging with charts and stange navigation devices. "All set." She grins. "Still meditating over this Orbest character? What a puzzle."

[Askaris]

Novia:

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The name Orbest Dray does appear in personnel manifests in the Naval database archives you've managed to obtain, in your research of the Zvarro line. However, that does not tell you enough. Make a Common Lore (underworld) check, to see if Dray is affiliated with any criminal groups, brave or foolhardy enough to attempt to con a rogue trader. Better safe than sorry.

Akadia comes back through the doors a short time afterwards, lugging a duffel bag over her shoulder. She briefly stops off at the bar, collects her drink, then walks over, dumping the bag with a grunt.
"Didn't want to strap the armour on outside; people tend to get ideas when you walk into a bar in full carapace plate," she says by way of explanation, loosening the drawstring and pulling out a visored helmet. "He hasn't tried doing flyby's on anyone, has he?" She continues, plopping her headgear askew on the servo skull as she continues pulling out equipment.

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OOC: Sorry for the lateness of this, Friday was a bad evening.

[PanNarrans]

Clearly lacking the caution of Akadia, Tristram returns in full carapace armour, helmet up, with a bolt pistol and elegant power sword swinging at his hip.

He stops at the bar and pays for his recaf before joining the party. He walks with an easy, rolling gait despite the weight of the armour.

''Only honorable to settle my debt before strolling into danger.''

He quickly disassembles, checks and reassembles his bolt pistol. It's an uncommon design; a chunky revolver rather than the more normal magazine fed model. Only seven of the eight chambers are loaded, so he slides a bolt home.

Red Cortez and Jakov Zvarro:

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To your experienced eye, he looks clumsy in the armour and sword. The preening popinjay probably practised walking in that getup in the mirror, but he doesn't look like a fighter.

[Captain_Pants]

Jakov drains the rest of his drink, pushes himself to his feet, and makes his way around the table.

"Very good, chaps! Let's be on our way, then. A wondrous career lies ahead of you now, my good fellows, what! Novia, do let us know if you procure any information about this chap before we get there. Otherwise, crew, forward march!"

With this, he strolls briskly through the bar door ahead of the rest of you. It seems he's all too eager for his first job.

[Askaris]

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WE ARE ROLLING. On a related note, Vampire, could do with that roll soon; Novia's been having difficulty finding the relevant information (as might be expected, for the scummy underbelly of Port Wander are not known for their well organised personnel files), so it's taken a while to arrive.

Clad in armour plate and clinking with various items and weapons, your group cuts quite a striking swathe through the densely-packed humanity milling about the Court of the Dead. A few urchins look at your group with interest, hoping perhaps for a few coins (begged or filched, whichever's easier for yer, guv'ner); they rapidly lose interest upon seeing your highly-proficient weaponry, and outright run when Red comes around the corner. As you progress towards the meeting point, you find the crowds thinning, the roar of the haggling of thousands of merchants fading to a murmur. Here, while there is still much activity on the deckplates, there is an air of seclusion. Whether it's more than an air or not remains to be seen.

From the shadows, a tattered figure approaches, greyed hair unkempt and long, beard ratty, and clothes so worn you have difficulty discerning what the original material was, in between all the patches. Unlike every other vagrant who has glanced at the group, he walks straight towards you, a slight limp in his left leg. Before you can tell him to be on his way (or shoot him, depending on your preference), he produces a seal, bearing the crossed chainswords and Aquila of the Zvarro family.

"Captain Jakov Zvarro and party, I presume?"

[emi-chan]

Keris turns her attention to the ragged man, aware that her own clothes are worn (though diligently repaired from when she first received them from the academy.) She inclines her head and waits to hear more from the stranger, on her back her bag of scrolls grows heavy and she is impatient to move on.

[Captain_Pants]

"Indeed, sir, that is we. Captain Jakov Zvarro, attending as per your request."

He pauses to properly take in the raggedy gentleman before him and, after evaluating him for a few moments, looks a little hesitant.

"...Of course, pardon my saying so, Sir, but you look as though you have fallen upon particularly hard times. I trust you are Orbest Dray, Esquire?"

[Askaris]

The vagrant's shoulders slump, sighing with relief. He remains silent for a moment, then rips off a surprisingly crisp salute.

"Yessir. Orbest Dray, ex-deck officer of the Emperor's Testament, at your service. Apologies for the lack of dress uniform, but waiting a century for someone to turn up wreaks Hell on your savings." You can hear a hint of bitterness in his voice at this point, but he recovers himself quickly.

"Besides, in amongst this lot-", He gestures expansively at the assorted grime-encrusted traders, "-Gold braid'd look a bit conspicuous."

"Anyway, best get the reason for this meeting out the way quick; don't think anyone's been tailing me, but no sense wasting time. If some of the Rogue Traders 'round here heard about this... well, your career as one might end a bit quicker than you might've hoped, shall we say?"

He takes a moment to scrutinise the rest of the group.

"Then again, with the firepower you lot are carrying..."

[PanNarrans]

Tristram takes position four feet behind and to the left of the captain and observes, his face turned to Zvaro rather than Dray.

[emi-chan]

"Then again, with the firepower you lot are carrying..."

Keris smiles, she agrees with the Orbest. Together the group are powerful, skilled -even elite, and with a ship they can do many things. But already she is concerned that a member of the group might seek personal gain, rather than the good of them all during a crisis (which might be her fault if she navigates incorrectly) She nods to Orbest, wanting him to continue.

[vampire2948]

Rollin' to find more information about this Orbest Dray.

(1d100)[65] 44 to beat.


Novia pokes the ships memory till it reveals to her what she wishes to know, assisted by Walter, and tea.

[Askaris]

Novia:

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You can't find anything conclusive; you don't think he's a pawn of any of the major criminal gangs of Port Wander, but whether or not he's an independent trying to con you is another matter.

Dray begins to relate his story.

"Like I said, I was an Officer on board the Emperor's Testament; You might have heard of her sir, given that it was your grandfather who captained her. Must've been just into my twenties at the time..." He trails off for a moment, then remembers his audience.

"Anyway, I'd been on board the ship for a few years, got to know some of her funny ways, one of them being the way in which the vent covers would rattle if something was about to go wrong; almost like she was trying to give us a warning before things went to Hell. Well, these vents started rattling, but seemed like the old girl wasn't quick enough; we hit one helluva warp storm, came out of nowhere, Navigator had no idea how we hit it, and I'm inclined to believe him; you don't get onto a Naval cruiser if you're going to frak up, frankly. Either way, we end up in the arse end of nowhere, so naturally, after dealing with a few mutinous curs and starting repairs, we tried to work out where the hell we were."

"Then things get strange. It's a week or so afterwards, and the Astropath approaches the Captain, wanting to talk to him in private about something that's been niggling him since we arrived. A few hours later, the captain gives an address to some of the senior officers, and then THEY start telling their subordinates. After going through a few layers of ship hierarchy, the news finally reaches my deck."

"The Astropath had been... hearing, I guess is the right word, this distress signal, very faint, coming from somewhere not too far away. At first he'd thought it was the rest of our fleet, but after listening to it over the week, he'd concluded it was far too old, hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, an 'echo in the warp' he called it. Unusual, certainly, but not too out of the ordinary. No, the strange bit was that the ship identified itself as The Righteous Path. The legendary treasure ship."

All of you have heard stories of The Righteous Path during your travels around the sector. A ship owned by the warlord Lorcanus Ryn, a pious yet avaricious man, filled with the looted treasures of the planet Krystillian after it was purged in the name of the Emperor. The story goes that the man marooned thousands of his crew and stripped out entire gun decks to create more room for treasure, and then took off into the warp, never to be seen again. The kind of story told in fairytales, and about as believable. Dray notices your expressions.

"Now, I can guess what you're thinking at this point, mostly because I thought the same at the time. I'm willing to trust that the Astropath knew what he was talking about, but whether or not this distress call was genuine, or just a bunch of pirates preying off an old voidsman's tale, I don't know."

"Why not?" Akadia asks, raising an eyebrow beneath the visor. "I mean, even if it might've been pirates, why didn't you go take a look?"

Dray glares at her. "Because we were on a naval ship girl, and we were SUPPOSED to be heading out to Tranch to drop off a few regiments of Guardsmen. We COULD have gone after a legendary treasure ship and gotten court-martialled as soon as we got back to port, or we could follow the orders we'd been entrusted with and do our damn duty." He exhales, seemingly to calm himself down, and continues.

"Now the Captain, he had two loyalties; one to the Navy, and the other to his family. Way he saw it, it was his duty to the Navy to deliver the troops, and his duty to his family to acquire that ship, if it was there. So he compromised. He got the Navigator to make a mnemolith, a kind of psychic map, of the area where the distress signal was emanating from. Then we plotted a course to Tranch, dropped off the troops and did what we had to while in orbit, then came back here. Still don't know why he picked me, but the old Captain told me to remain here with the map until a member of his family showed up. At the time, I thought it'd be a short wait, then a grand old adventure." He looks Jakov straight in the eye.

"I still don't know about the grand adventure, but I've been waiting here for the best part of a century. Your grandfather died during the greenskin incursion over Naduesh, and the Testament went down with him; everyone I knew got to go down in that blaze of glory, while I was here, waiting. All I have now is duty, and this-"

He pulls out a matte-black cylinder with a small reflective patch a quarter of the way down, reminiscent of a thumb scanner.

"The Captain put the mnemolith inside this thing; gene-locked casket. If anyone had tried to force it open, they would get a tube full of ash for their trouble. Only blood relatives to the Captain are able to open it." he hands the device over to Jakov.

"And now, I'm done. I've told you what I know, and what's in that tube; if you want to act on it, or just throw it away, that's your business. Frankly, I'm glad to be rid of the damned thing." You can hear the bitterness creep into his voice now, a century's worth of anger venting like a pinhole-leak in a hull.

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If you want to ask Dray questions about The Righteous Path/himself, or open the casket, feel free.

[emi-chan]

"Well, if we can get that thing open- I would be happy to look at it." Keris reaches for the device."Do we know any of his relatives?"

[Captain_Pants]

As Astrianna reaches for the cylinder, the captain's voice interjects from behind her.
"Madame Keris, I believe Mr. Dray intends for the device to be handled by myself. I do not begrudge your eagerness- in fact, it is rather refreshing to see your good self possess such enthusiasm- but I am afraid I would like to study it myself, so as to avoid any unfortunate happenings. I do apologise, but Mr. Dray's comment about its contingencies has me a touch on edge. Not to worry, not to worry, your abilities will no doubt be required for what lies within, what?"

He moves around her and gingerly lifts the device from Dray's hand, holds it up to the light, and rotates it slowly between his index and middle fingers and thumb.

"Mr Dray, if I might be so bold," He muses, "Trust that I mean you no disrespect or ill will, and speak simply as a man with caution on his mind, but how may I be certain that you are telling the truth about who you are, what you have witnessed, your involvement with my family and, indeed, that this device is not leading my good ship and her crew to a gruesome fate of your own conception?"

[PanNarrans]

Tristram listens with one ear, but still studies the captain's reactions rather than trying to gauge the truth of the tale. Lost ship... pirates... treasure map! This ought to be fun.

As the Navigator oversteps her bounds, he suppresses a smirk.Well, that'll be a convenient distraction for whatever the rest of us try to get away with.

[Askaris]

Astrianna:

Dray raises an eyebrow.

"I'm still here, you know. In any case, given that my family are all from Scintilla, I haven't seem 'em since I signed onto the Testament."

Jakov:

Dray stares at you; you notice that his eyes are somewhat watery.

"I'm in the Naval manifests, I've shown you the seal your grandfather gave me, what more do you want? I've told you all I do know, and I've given you the damn tube I've been waiting a hundred bloody years to be rid of! If I was going to send you off into a bloody meat grinder now, I'd have gone and joined some other crew all those years ago, used that map for leverage, and be sitting on a pile of dishonest gold about now, instead of this craphole!"

"But I didn't. I WAITED. One HUNDRED years. Because that was my duty, and if there's one thing you get from Naval service, it's a sense of throne-damned DUTY!"

He breathes heavily, fighting back tears. You appear to have touched a nerve.

[Captain_Pants]

Jakov lowers the cylinder, and looks at the poor, broken man with sympathetic eyes.
"My good man, I meant no offence by it. I apologise most sincerely. My memories of m'grandfather are few and far between, it must be said, but I believe your loyalty tells me everything I need to know. You were an honest, loyal voidsman, Mr. Dray, and I daresay m'grandfather would be proud of your devotion to his last request."

He steps forward, and places a hand on Orbest's shoulder.

"You have gone above and beyond your call of duty, and it is plain to see that it has taken its toll on you. I believe I would owe it to Grandfather Zvarro to extend this offer: If you so wish, you are welcome to join my crew, serve under my command, and should the contents of this casket lead us to good fortune, you shall be compensated in full for your troubles. What say you, hmm?"

He smiles warmly, attempting to put across the impression that Dray's acceptance would please him greatly.

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Charm check: 1d100=1

[Askaris]

Jakov:

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Well, I think that's a success, to say the least.

Dray looks down, shoulders heaving. He wipes his eyes, and places his hand on your other shoulder.

"Thank you."

[Red Cortez]

Red watches the exchange and frowns slightly, hands never leaving the hilts of concealed weapons. Treasure sure is appealing, but something about this man seems off, surely no man could be that loyal? Regardless, she would keep a keen eye on him to ensure he would not cause any harm to the crew, or rather no harm to their search for riches.

"Mr Dray, in your time waiting, would I be right in my assumptions you have investigated The Righteous Path? We have all heard the tales, but surely if what you say is indeed true, you have more information about this legendary ship?"

[Askaris]

Red:

Dray answers, his voice somewhat subdued.

"Hard to make good guesses out of legends, but I did once do research about the planet it got it's treasure from. Krystillian, they called it, run by some heretical prophets calling themselves the Talisar. It was an old colony, which makes some people say it's full of archeotech; I remember someone else speaking of the population themselves being about as pure human as it was possible to get, and thus worth a fortune for the right buyer. Of course, the man who said that was a Magos Biologis, so he might just have been doing some wishful thinking."

Akadia seems to be paying close attention, now that archeotech has been mentioned.

[Captain_Pants]

Jakov strokes his beard pensively, then waves a hand dismissively.

"Well now, this is all very intriguing. A real adventure, what! I do so hope to make Grandfather Zvarro proud, and I'm sure he would be quite beside himself to know you are with us, Mr. Dray."

He straightens himself up, holds his head high and raises his voice to its most authoritative tone.

"Now, crew! We are to return to the ship and discuss events. Make any preparations you feel necessary, and then come to the bridge. Madam Cortez, my dear woman, would you be so kind as to escort Mr. Dray to his quarters? His bunk shall be located next door but one to yours. Mr. Dray, you are welcome to use the washroom and make your way to the galley. My ship is your home for the duration of your stay with us.
Madam Keris, I would be so very grateful if you would come directly to my cabin. Mr. Dray, please join us when you feel you are ready. We will be attending to the business of this most intriguing casket.
Madam Ephrael, I would like any information you can gather on the Righteous Path. Legend, myth, rumour, even the most implausible tales. There must be a nugget of truth amidst the dross, what? Have it ready by the time of our departure, if you please.
Madam Ramirez, Mr. Macharius, I hardly need tell you your duties. Make ready for flight, chaps!"

With that, he retains his most respectable posture and marches towards the docks at a brisk pace wearing a satisfied little smile.
Ah, he thinks to himself. To be a leader of men once more. On the honourable Zvarro name, I swear to do right by them, to lead them to greatness and glory. And by the Emperor, I will.

[PanNarrans]

Tristram turns sharply on his heel to follow, letting his steel toe click on the deck and his half-cape swish satisfyingly. As the group proceeds, he tries to strike up a conversation with Red Cortez.
''So, you use power armour? I can see the benefits in your profession, but I never could get along with it myself. Augmented movement or not, it dulls my reflexes.''

[Askaris]

Everyone, roll a perception check (roll under perception stat, please remember to say what the values of both the roll and your perception are.)

[emi-chan]

Glad to have been invited by the Captain to discuss the casket, it seemed he valued her opinion, and although she had been warned several times about striking upon adventures with vessels and not clearing it with the academy, Keris could not help but be reassured by the captian.

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Perception 37: 45 [/url]

[PanNarrans]

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Perception 41: (1d100)[56]

[Captain_Pants]

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per 31, rolled (1d100)[53]

[Askaris]

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Akadia, Perception 32; 52.