Turn 2 Thread

[The GM]

Ermete Falco is dead. His head has been smashed in and ripped apart by Sergeant's Graves tearing blades, and where once there was a young, attractive face, there is brain matter and broken skull. But the wych wants the victim's heart, and either Callum or Graves must cut it out for her. Then, Sauda will do as Callum asks, and the Compact can move forward to crush the Grand Makuu of the Imperial Swaad.

Who cuts out the heart?

[In addition to finishing up the first Secondary Objective, you can now begin work on another Secondary Objective. Which one will it be?]

[The GM]

Callum cuts out the heart with cheery precision.

"That went well," he mutters, mostly to himself.

Doing his best to conceal the heart, Callum makes his way back to Sadaka to present the Wych with her prize.

[Please see above for mechanical questions.]

The heart is still slowly beating by the time Callum cuts it out, distended arteries spewing blood and staining the heretic's sleeves. Though he takes some effort to wipe off the worst of the gore with his handkerchief, all Callum can manage is to stain the sleeves deeper. 

[Callum gains 1 Infamy and 5 Corruption Points.]

When Callum and Graves return to Sadaka to give Sauda the heart, the wych is delighted, cackling somewhat madly. The way through Sadaka was surprisingly uneventful, given the bloodstained pair: it seems that the browbeaten villagers of Sadaka are used to bloody strangers, and know better than to intervene. The streets gather shadows, and those shadows gather further darkness. This place is truly cursed, and giving the bloody heart of Emerte Falco to Sauda is unlikely to help.

Sauda potters about her grimy hut, upsetting occultist charms as she prepares a cooking pot with strange ingredients of flowers, herbs and local animal organs. She smiles at Callum with blackening teeth, and asks what is it that Callum wants her to do. She speaks in the tongue of daemons, and Callum can feel his form shifting as the gods give the pair a fraction of their attention.

[Callum has crossed 10 Corruption Points and so is mutating! His options are the following:

Bestial: Callum adopts the physical appearances and mannerisms of a certain animal. He loses 1d10+5 Intelligence, 1d10+5 Willpower, but gains 1d5+1 Strength.
Blood Substitution: Acidic or otherwise dangerous blood runs through Callum's veins. When he suffers Blood Loss, one randomly determined character within 1m (i.e. close combat) must take a Difficult (-10) Agility Test or suffer 1d10 Impact Damage.
Blasted Senses: The raw power of chaos takes one of Callum's senses. He is unable to use one randomly determined sense, but gains Heightened Senses for another randomly determined sense.
Warp-Touched: The touch of chaos leaves Callum with a different perspective. He gains a Mental Disorder.
Warpsight: Callum no longer sees petty things like faces and details, but instead sees the souls of those around him. He gains +10 to Awareness Tests, but -10 to Scrutiny Tests.
Wreathed in Chaos: The warp so infuses Callum that it seeps out of his very pores, dark energies coiling about his eyes, nose and mouth. He gains +10 to all Interaction with worshippers of the Dark Gods, and +10 to Intimidate Imperials.

Which does Callum choose?]

[Stonebreath]

[Callum chooses "Wreathed in Chaos.]

[I am confused on Secondary objectives, would you like me to devise a new one or select an existing one to focus on.]

"Sauda," begins Callum, grinning like a knife. "I would like for you to ensure that the Makuu no longer receives food and supplies from this village. Once you do that, I would like for you to join me, that we might work together in common cause."

Callum visibly savours the sensation of mutating, as he feels a step closer to having the power he needs.

[The GM]

[You need to select an existing one that can now be completed.]

The wych grins back, continuing to stir her ingredients into the pot. She tells Callum that once she is through, the Makuu will indeed no longer receive food or supplies from the village. There is something disturbing about her cackling certainty, but Callum cannot parse through to the true implication of her daemon-words. Dark wreaths of power begin to spool from his eyes and mouth, a true indication of Callum's growing influence before the gods, and Sauda begins to chant and howl, holding Falco's heart aloft as if presenting it to the ceiling. The occultist charms begin to fly about, ripped from their hangings to form a whirlwind of braids and rope that whips the flesh, centring around the wych and her dark ritual.

Halfway through the ritual, Callum begins to recognise what it is. It is the opening of the veil, the plunging of Sadaka into a cursed, nightmare space between reality and immaterium. He has heard of such things being enacted - dark spells that disappear the entire village's population and leave nothing but a ghost town in its wake - but he has never seen what happens from the perspective of those within the village or the ritualist. It is said that they live, elsewhere, in a space beyond spaces, and that the greatest of worshippers move between these cursed spaces like wraiths, but much of this is conjecture and rumour.

Does Callum intervene or does he let the ritual continue?

[Stonebreath]

Callum lets the ritual proceed, he is somewhere between enraptured and terrified and he cannot look away, let alone interrupt. He joins in Sauda's laughter, keen for examples to be made to the Loyalist fools up at the Makuu.

[I pick the Villa Von Klossner objective ]

[The GM]

The chanting grows to a terrifying crescendo, the noise drowning out the sound of all else but the ferocious, ethereal storm. Mists begin to coil from under the doors, the village begins to scream unearthly screams, and the very ground trembles and shakes. The voices of daemons fill the air, whispering at the very edges of reality and Callum's mind. All plantlife in the room withers and dies, filling the air with the musk of dank decay. And then, at the culmination of the ritual, there is a cataclysmic blast emanating from Sauda. Callum dodges its force, and Graves is protected by the wall from outside, but the wych is left smouldering, naked and cackling madly.

A terrible silence falls over the village of Sadaka. The spools of white mist continue to form, and steps leave scorched footprints on the ground. It smells of damp, and every movement is sluggish, as if in a dream. Slow moans begin to echo from the fog, the occasional sound of muffled gunfire, and the screams of things that cannot be human.

Sauda absentmindedly puts on another set of robes and begins gathering her things. "Where go we?" she queries, matter-of-factly.

[Callum gains 4 Corruption Points but temporarily suffers 1 Willpower Damage. Graves gains 4 Corruption Points but temporarily suffers 4 Willpower Damage.]

[Stonebreath]

Callum grins at the sound of carnage outside. He offers his cloak to Sauda before standing abruptly.

"Let us go to the Villa Von Klossner," he almost sings with malicious intent.

"We are going to go there and liberate the minds of its occupants and I would like for you to help me."

Callum goes on, explaining how he shall seek entry to the Villa using his charm and wiles, doing his best to pass off Sauda and Graves as his eccentric retainers.

[The GM]

The wych smiles broadly, chuckling to a joke only she understands or perhaps even hears. The charms now still, she pushes through them and leads Callum and Graves into the new Sadaka. What they see is almost maddening, and the pair of heretics, unprepared, struggle to disguise their fear.

A dry fog has descended on the village, heavy and thick. One can only see a few metres ahead of them, but when arriving near a building, it appears as if sloughing off the mists in greeting. In the ethereal fog, sounds are muffled but echo: distant screams of pure terror, anguished howls, gunshots and... voices ripped from things that should not be. There is a palpable sense of wrongness that Callum and Graves just feel, the permanent mind-haze of someone who knows they are dreaming, but cannot control the dream. This is no place for the mortal living. This is no place for mortals at all.

A young girl, sobbing and panting, staggers from the gloom into view before Callum and Graves. Things move behind her, and she collapses at Graves' feet, hugging his legs and begging him to protect her. Atrophied things of darkness and shadow, fang and claw, begin stalking from the fog. They have been hungry for so long, and they need to feed. 

[Callum and Graves are at -10 to all Tests this Encounter due to Fear. We are in combat, so I need to know the basic strategy the heretics employ (defensive, aggressive, find cover, retreat etc.), as well as key objectives (get away, destroy the threat, protect individuals etc.).]

[Stonebreath]

Callum and Graves attempt a fighting retreat out of the village.

"W-we need to move... the f-forces here are too untamed!" shouts Callum as he attempts to withdraw, obvious fear lacing his voice.

[The GM]

Graves responds the quickest. Without hesitation, he spins out his bolter and opens fire, blowing apart the cloud of darkness to give Callum and Sauda an opportunity to retreat. The things descend on the child at Graves' feet, dragging her away into the darkness to the sound not dissimilar from a circular saw making its way through flesh and bone. Unmoved, Graves begins switching weaponry and running after the man he is bound to defend.

The three run through the mists, the sound of monsters and hell about them. They run until they should be out of the village, but in the mists they must have taken a wrong turn, or run the wrong way, for they seem to have barely made progress. The monstrous cloud descends before them, and Graves dives in with his chainswords, once more scattering them like a torch in the darkness. They reel away from his cutting blades, giving Callum and Sauda another chance to make it through and get out of the cursed village. 

But then they descend once more.

Callum winces in fear as he hears the sound of his comrade grunting in pain. There is the horrendous noise like a saw struggling to get through solid metal, that grows louder and louder, but Callum and Sauda can see the edges of the village, and perhaps that horrendous thing will not pursue them past those invisible bounds. By the time they reach it, Graves is alongside them both, bleeding from a myriad of small cuts, but very much alive. 

They leave the bounds of Sadaka, and the mists rise up as if to swallow the cursed town back into darkness. The things that attacked disappear, and fortunately do not venture forth from those bounds to pursue the small group. Howls of pain and anger echo in the fog.

Callum catches his breath, but realises that even having left Sadaka, something is very wrong. There are still ethereal mists gathering in shadows - though it is lighter - and his movements still feel strange and dreamlike. They are caught in a shadow between realities: between real-space and the immaterium, and this place is the home of monsters desperate to feed once again. Do they press on to where the Villa von Klossner should be?

[Graves has lost 2 wounds and gains 2 Corruption Points, whilst Callum gains 3 Corruption Points, for abandoning the child.]

[Stonebreath]

They attempt to press on to the Villa despite the horrors they have witnessed.

Callum will attempt to charm his way through, either lying or spinning a sob story about the recently destroyed village to get his way through.

[The GM]

Pressing on to the Villa von Klossner, it becomes more and more apparent that the wych's spell reaches beyond the bounds of Sadaka. The ethereal mists continue to cling to pools of shadow, every movement is undertaken with a dreamlike level of detachment, and though the sun should have risen, there is a perpetual, low gloom that defies night or day. Callum realises that the ritual was cast on more than the village: it was performed on those that were standing within it. Callum swallows his fear as he realises that he and Graves are caught between those realities, in a place that is not quite the warp, but is not quite reality.

The Villa von Klossner rises out of the mists, dispelling the fog as the group draws near. There are no signs of mercenary guards or indeed anyone to talk to, the gardens are dark and lifeless, and the mansion leers over the heretics as they walk closer. The distant sound of lilting laughter carries from an open window, from which emits a warm, glow light. It reminds Callum that he is oddly cold in this place, and he feels drawn to this illumination and the heat within.

[Stonebreath]

Callum makes his way inside, cautiously. He does not use stealth, though. He is going to attempt to use his wits and charm to make his way inside and, if possible, find whoever is in charge.

[The GM]

The door is unlocked, but Graves has to force it seemingly against waves of mist and shadow. No one had responded to the knocker, and when the door is pushed open, fog rolls back to reveal a stately entrance hall. Darkness coils about a mezzanine, the stairs crafted from blighted sandstone. Busts of noblemen and women leer at the pair, casting long shadows that dance slightly against some unknown illumination. 

The sound of their steps are swallowed by the mists that gather about the floor, concealing their feet. Graves glances to Callum, afraid. This is not the Villa von Klossner that the sergeant had scouted out, but Callum seems more curious than anything else. He makes his way towards a light beneath an ornate door, from which the lilting laughter continues to spill forth. He opens the door with the briefest of pushes.

Inside is a grand banquet hall, emblazoned with candlelight. A long, thin table covered in decaying, fine foods stands in the centre, boasting ancient silverware and crystal goblets. Two young adults, a man and a woman, fornicate on its centre, writhing among the rotten food and moaning in dark abandon. They are clearly nobility - wafts of sweet perfume mingling with sweat. And yet, it is not they that consume Callum and Graves' attentions. Around the table, dancing in a traditional waltz, are ghostly figures. They wear ancient finery, covered in dirt, bedraggled and filthy. Their faces, though patrician, are rotting, and their eyes have been eaten out by maggots that still spill out from their ethereal forms. 

It is too much for Graves, who breaks down, tearing at his flesh with fear. Callum ignores the sergeant, calling out to the figures, but they do not respond. He calls out again to the fornicating nobles, but again they do not seem to notice. What does Callum do to get their attention?

[Graves has developed the Slaaneshi Mental Disorder of Secretive. He gains a +5 bonus to resisting giving information to interrogators, but must pass a Difficult (-10) Willpower Test to answer the simplest questions, or pass on information in conversation.]

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