"May the God-Emporer protect out souls! What do you mean with, they are alive? Are they trying to kill us, like the fool on the table? Do we need to destroy them?" My shock maul starts to crack in my hand, out of paranoia of a foe I cannot see, I drew him and activated the energy rune.

Actually this is the first time Astaroth really looks concerned. The danger is obvious, but still there is too little data to analyze, little to form a coherent long term-strategy... and it looks like the clock is already ticking.

-Is there a way to track them down? Block the link? Determine its origin?

>>Tick tock, Astaroth.<<

-Does it want to be freed from the body or it likes it there?

>>Tick tock.<<

He shivers, and rubs the bridge of his nose for a bit, before slowly climbing back to his feet and busying himself with straightening his robes and cloak out to calm himself somewhat. He then clears his throat and says: "These are, hem hem, xenos devices. They do not have...machine spirits, yes? So maybe, maybe, they aren't, gah, devices at all...", he then glances nervously to Ashtaroth and adds: "I think it likes it there. It likes it there far, far too much..."

"Can you contain it? Is it dangerous? See to it, that it does not inflict any harm! I will try to find a box...one with thick walls..."

I hurry through the room, looking for a lockable container, preferable one out of steel. While I do this, I do not let this thing out of my sight. If one of my colleagues needs my help, I try to assist them.

You find a tool box full of surgical devices. It's made out of metal, but looks as old as the Emperor himself.

Scab blinks rapidly, then dips his head slowly and takes his las pistol from the holster at his belt, pointing it at the xenos device:

"I, hemhem, don't know if this one is...dangerous alone, but it's, yes, yes, transmitting, which is very, very bad. If they have, hem, others, they are transmitting, t-too. We only need, mmm, one to trace the signal, we should, I think, yes, neutralise the rest. With the arbites' permission, mm, of course."

I love the way players freak out whenever anything remotely Cthulhu esque happens

((He's an imperial psyker who knows full well how dangerous the warp and xenos are, and that the combination of both is really, really bad for your health. AND he failed his fear roll. Why wouldn't he freak out? ))

"Scab, wait! There is no they! We have just this one artifact. I share your desire to destroy this foul thing." Bitter severity grabs the upper hand and my sense of duty takes over. "Our master ordered us to take all artifacts in our custody, not destroy them. I will help you dispose of this thing, but only if it is absolutely necessary. You have to be clear in your mind for me to believe you. Do you understand? Shake off your fear, harden your soul with the doctrine and love of our God - Emporer. He protects your soul, but you must stay strong and believe."

With the last words I grab Scab at his arms and look him deep in the eyes filling his field of vision to block possible emiting influence of the artifact.

Then I look to Astaroth. "Do you feel anything like Scab? Might it just react with the touched? Can you find evidence of the dead being a psyker?"

Small drops of swat are forming on Astaroth's forehead, as this is way past what a normal autopsy should look like by now.

-The tissues remain warm, no doubt due to artifact's influence. I might try to remove it from the corpse, hopefully both severing the link and disrupting the access to the body.

You gain 1 human brain for your inventory Also, the brain rapidly cools off and the artifact "shuts down" for lack of a better term. All of the emanating warmth and energies are silenced... for the moment at least.

Scab furrows his brow, then shakes his head vehemently. "No, nonono, no evidence of that. It could be anyone. And worse...it came because of my, gah, auspex, not because of anything else I did!" He tries to emphasise the last point, still pale and wide-eyed from his rather traumatic experience. "It is d-d-dangerous to man and machine!"

"Good, then let us destroy this vile object. I do not see any further benefit, it can give us. We have now the affirmation that it is evil. For me, that's all I need to know!"

I look through the room nervously, searching for something with high alcohol, machine oil or spare promethium to burn the thing.

"Maybe we should not burn it here right away...we still want to maintain our cover. As the mortician said, their is no file yet..so this..." I point vague in the direction of the arifact. "will not be missed. We can then later decide whether we destroy it or give it over to the custodians of our ordo."

I take some long instrument and push the artifact into the tool box, which I then close fast.

"May the Emporer protect my soul."

Standing up, I look concerned to my colleagues.

"A rather unlovely start for our investigation. Can you get any more information from the dead? If not I would propose, we leave and take care of ..."

My foot hits against the tool box.

Yeah, you guys pretty much found everything here.

"... the one still carrying this accursed device and not ending up here.. yet. But if that thing knows we're out for it I assume we waste no time finding the man. His contact will be our best lead to him".

Scab looks a bit queasy at the autopsy; even with his throne-wrought education, there is little that had prepared him for the sight of real blood. He mumbles something incoherent after a few seconds of staring, once he fully realises the corpse's condition, which sounds suspiciously like "glad I didn't have lunch today" and glances to the tool box, ponderoulsy fixating it and turning his mind away from the carnage and towards solving problems. He then checks his auspex, to see if the signal it had picked up is still stored in the databank and can be properly tracked once within the device's range.

"Yes, yes, just, hemhem, checking to see if it saved the signal", he murmers, while tapping through his sacred technology's interface. "Do not mind, mhm, me, I will just follow along."

"Then let us leave and get rid of this Emporer-forsaken thing. Our next target is the noble Lans Gulijan. I recorded his adress. Astaroth can you think of an inconspicuous reason to gain an audience? I guess that getting an audience will take some time. We can use that to get additional information about him and his family."

I pick the toolbox cautiously up and am then eager to leave.

As the Acolytes file out of the precinct house they are hailed by a lean man in his early 20s. Upon reaching the Acolytes, he strikes what he fancies a roguelike pose, ensuring that his twin autopistols are clearly visible. At closer inspection, the man is handsome, but his subtle air of cockiness is off-putting to those not so easily impressed.

"Good to meet you. I'm Caradoc," he says gesturing toward the weathered armor on the breast of his black bodyglove. "Seems your employer is my employer for the moment."

"Um," he stammers upon seeing the imposing figure of an Arbites in the midst of the party, "will he be remaining with us?"

-----

Pleasant to meet you all! I am Kylie, and I have already spoken with Frosty71 about joining this pbp game. Additionally, the information regarding my character is below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2aeiizes93uc2mj/Caradoc.pdf?dl=0

inb4 Caradoc

"Just like me, he is a man from a noble family. I might try and ask for an audience using my family name, claiming it as a matter of utmost importance."

"Yes, that seems like a good idea, Astaroth. Do you want to try this blank or shall we get some intel before you try to arrange an audience?"

Then I see this lean man, he seems to be rather...lax...I don't like lax people. A good citzen should always be serious, especially an acolyte of his holy inquisition. I answer, while getting closer:

"Identify yourself and prove your claim to work for our ...employer...", my hand wanders down to the shock maul, just in case...

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Hi Kylie

pleased to meet you and welcome!

Question about pbp: when will fate points regenerate?

The smallish, bald psyker flips his hood back over his head as they leave the building, his gaze drifting briefly from where he's still fiddling with his auspex, before focusing back on it and muttering: "Yes, yes, greetings in the emperor's name."

A few seconds later, he perks up and offers the newcomer a bright smile: "Ah, forgive my, hemhem, distractedness. A pleasure to meet you. I am Scab."

((Welcome to the group, dood!))

Caradoc is visibly shaken by Ferro's gruff reception but retains his jovial demeanor.

"Ah, Ferro I presume! No, no proof of my claim save my own good word and the thrones in my pocket!" he says with a winning smile. "Mister Pluvius' emissaries assured me that I would be in good company with your party."

Oblivious to his breach of etiquette regarding a Holy Inquisitor, Caradoc turns to the psyker, "A pleasure to meet you Scab! You seem quite a charming fellow."

-----

For what it's worth, I'm new to Dark Heresy, so any advice is welcome.

We'll do the fate point stuff when we do the experience points stuff. I'm mostly going based on changes in scenery and major events, if that's any helpful. I think the party has increased to a good enough size now, so there should be enough manpower now to handle the adventure without too many player deaths

"Hmpf, it is not mister Pluvius. You call him by his title or another title appropriate off his rank." Against my inner instincts and probably distracted by the cargo in my left hand, I judge that Caradoc has no reason to pretend to be an acolyte and it is unlikely he would have the knowledge of our location, the nature of our mission or our master's name.

"And yes, I am Ferro Septimus. Do you have any specific orders?"

------

Well, first of all: don't worry DH is quite a simple system and from my now 5 pages long experience of pbp it is more role-playing oriented. If you want to do something, you have all the time to look it up or ask...everybody posts here at least once a day till now^^

Are you just new to DH, to RPG at all and/or the 40k-verse?

Oki doki, just me being curious again. You can simply tell us anyway^^

Scab puffs out his reedy little chest,then offers a deep bow. With fresh cheer in his voice, since he seldom was received all too well due to his profession, the shock from before seems momentarily forgotten, as he replies with: "Why thank you, hemhem. Very nice of you to say so, indeed!"

He glances at his auspex again briefly, and turns another dial, before looking up again and in the round. Caradoc's question then pits his attention fully on Caradoc once more.

((Depends on the PbP, really. When we did something called "Invasion of the Damned", it was one humongous battle with short interludes where our chars were just too tired to do much . But yeah, usually, RP oriented!))