Hi, brand new member here and this is I guess a running aftermath from the sessions of the campaign I'm running

Incidentally, this will become relevant later, are autoguns really supposed to be so potent against large crowds?

Anyway

My group consists of a Psyker, Scum and Tech priest. Didn’t want to do a campaign any of them could get spoilers for so I wrote my own module (It sounded like such a simple idea) so here’s a rough outline of sessions 1

Group wakes up tied to metal chairs getting a briefing from a robed servitor, the servitor is sending them to an Agri world whose output the whole sector is dependent on (Dreah) recently the planets exports have dropped through the floor, this is concerning the inquisition. The disposables (Team name) are being sent off the inquisition books posing as an administratum investigative team to find out why.

Group receives briefing without trouble leaves the room and finds out there on a luxury transport ship heading to Dreah, the party decide to mingle with the passengers including the merchant owner of Voss Interstellar Shipping, who runs most of the shipping on Dreah and Arbiter Judge Toskin, who is also with a small force or arbites to see if the drop in food is being caused by heretics. Consistent schmoozing by the tech priest and the scum bag them both vox frequencies with the merchant being very chatty, happy to see them and wanting their blessing and consideration for several local shipping contracts.

Shortly after the conversations are done the transport lands in the central starport city on the planet and the largest bit of civilisation on world. Que immediate shopping spree…. The scum auctions off his autopistol and 1 clip and notices he got a DAMNED good price for it and that in fact arms are selling like hot cakes. The group decides that lodgings in the city are too expensive so make their way to a waystation town where the food exports first started dropping.

They arrive at the town with little event, it’s a small town reminiscent of ancient terran Wild West towns with the exception of the large warehouse complex near the town. Upon arrival the locals seem highly disinterested and doped out of their skulls, after getting lodgings the scum goes to the saloon to enquire about the chem trade assuming logically the overuse of chems is doping the locals dropping productivity. This proves not to be the case as he purchases a dose of the chems the locals are using, its slaught… not known for rendering users docile in the slightest. The psyker also decides to hit the saloon after noticing the inn keeper they are staying at feels…. Wrong (Psyniscience) walks into the saloon tries the same trick… and just about makes it back outside before vomiting profusely for a solid 5 minutes… there is something Very wrong with the locals.

This mini investigation leads both the psyker and the scum to the same conclusion. There’s something being shipped in that’s messing with the locals. While their doing this the tech priest is going over the shipping logs they were provided with by local administratum. So the psyker and the scum independently try to break into the same compound from different angles, Psyker uses chameleon and tries to walk through the front gate, with no stealth skill whatsoever, bashes into the barricade and barely evades the guard who is pretty sure that was not just the wind, she makes it to the warehouse building and shoots out a door lock with her las pistol, making sure to use sense presence to make sure no one was close enough to hear the shot. She makes it to the deserted warehouse office and swipes a number of data slates.

MEANWHILE

The scum patiently waits and watches guard rotation before cutting a small hole in the fence and crouch running toward the warehouse. Rolling an 87 for the stealth check in which he is untrained… Alarm goes up, the psyker, still invisible dives under a desk to hide while the scum bursts into the dark office, they try to recognize each others voices by playing marco polo, and both fail their perception tests so still don’t know they are both in the same office…. The scum goes into the main warehouse and spots an open container containing a small amount of chems and a shitload of military hardware. He promptly steals an autogun and 5 clips before diving into the next room as the guard burst into the office. The psyker is still under the table as the scum ends up in the guards barracks, which is currently empty, so grabs a uniform as the sarge walks in, blags that he is a guard heading to patrol and spends the next 21 hours assisting the guard patrols searching for himself before he can get away….

He psyker bolts as soon as the guards leave the office and slips you the same way she slipped in banging into the same barrier… again tripping up a guard as she runs off, still chameleoned (Sustained power tests have been taken throughout this insanity) And makes it back to the room they rented with the slates she stole for the tech priest to go over.

Turns out Voss Interstellar has been shipping less chems lately and more military grade firepower as the data slates from Voss and the administratum don’t match up, the weights and frequencies are correct but the manifests are different, what was officially farming equipment, is actually a metric ton of lasguns and auto weapons with enough ammunition to start a small war.

Upon hearing this both the scum and the priest want to pursue the weapons, while the psyker reminds them their job was to find out what was causing the problem, the guns are just being supplied they still don’t know why or if it is relevant. After turning over the data slates to the arbites like good little boys and scoring extra credit with the judge, the group decides to goto one of the farm steads that supplies the waystation with food to send to the capital.

Something Gribbly this way comes.

Incidentally, this will become relevant later, are autoguns really supposed to be so potent against large crowds?

Autoguns are kind of ridiculous, and are probably the most efficient weapon in the game. Ammo is dirt cheap, full auto makes hitting a breeze, and the damage is quite acceptable. It will make mincemeat out of anything that isn't absurdly heavily armored. There are better guns, of course, but for the cost and availability, autoguns are definitely up there.

Perhaps more to the point of your question, the auto-gun is basically an assault rifle. Put an assault rifle on full-auto and randomly spray into a crowd and you will do some damage. Pretty much all full-auto weapons are effective against crowds.

What he said. The joys of autoguns are many are the power level you're playing at. Normal humans with 10 wounds, 2TB, and often no armor are in a world of hurt.

That said you might want to use the rules changes from Only War, where full auto is a -10/semi +0/single +10. Just to sorta balance that out a bit. Even then they're still murder, but not out and out death incarnate.

So, our brave heroes finally focused on the task at hand, sally forth on grox drawn cart to investigate the first farmstead where production dropped off. Upon arrival the psyker attempts to use hoodoo vision to see if something is wrong nearby (Psyniscience) and promptly vomits on the scum in his stolen Sunday best. As the cart draws them through the farmlands they come across a barrack block/mess hall for the farmers and a communication hut. The Scum steps out to meet two shotgun armed stoned guards who refuse to let him poke around but DO let him wash up before wandering off. Headless of the guards the Tech priest and Psyker decide to go on a wander, the Priest to the communication hut and the psyker to go and quiz a farmer or two. The priest finds the comms equipment in disrepair from lack of use and the psyker finds unresponsive farmers digging holes and pretending to farm the same spots endlessly…

But the scum, oh the scum, upon washing up decides to check the mess hall out. Well the stench hits him first, that and the enormous hole in the floor leading underground. On top of these revelation he can hear the guards coming back, so our intrepid Scum decides on the only sensible course of action, he goes to hide in the meat locker. Instant WP check as he sees hooked butchered human carcasses in the meat locker. The scum shouts out loudly in surprise, drawing in the guards, using the meat locker door for cover begins a fire fight. The Tech priest and psyker hear the gunshots. The priest goes racing to the incident and the farmer that the psyker was trying to talk to stops and begins walking towards the commotion. INTENDING TO STUN THE FARMER the psyker swings what is now known as the brain staff into the back of the farmers head, one confirmed crit later the farmer no longer has a head and is permanently “Stunned”

One comically bad gunfight later in the kitchen, the tech priest vaporised a guard’s head with a las carbine and the psyker critted the other killing him with one shot to the leg with her staff again. The Tech priest is now looking at his own metal staff as if it’s some kind of super weapon and wonders if his is also imbued with the Emperors divine wrath… So the hole in the ground has been steadily hissing louder and louder, the scum points out they don’t really have the resources to fight this right now and the group decides discretion to be the better part of valour and steals a farm vehicle to escape. Tech Priest gets on the ole vox to the Arbite’s who he surrendered the data slates over to earlier and has kept on fairly good terms with. The panicked conversation is enough to bring the arbites judge and a small strike team to the waystation to find out what the hell is going on (The conversation included the heresy repeated ad nauseum). Upon returning to the inn our intrepid heroes booked lodgings at the scum explains to the judge the situation backed up by recordings the Tech priest has been making under their guise as adepts from the administratum. Halfway through the conversation the inn keeper unloads a concealed shotcannon blast into the judge. The carapace armour laughs and the accompanying arbites liquidate the inn keeper in such spectacular fashion the group takes a WP check for it.

Que a call of Cthulhu moment as the whole turn goes feral and charges the inn. This is where I argue the effectiveness of autoguns although admit a rookie mistake of giving the PC’s waaaaay too much support for this horde fight. The horde is easily fought off allowing the judge to call in reinforcements to head back to the farm and deal with this once and for all. The group are deputized to accompany him and given a flak vest each…. The arbites sweep the farm fields with gunships before landing and securing the outside of the barrack block, our intrepid heroes, the Judge and 2 arbites with heavy stubber descend into the depths.

I should point out here that on their previous trip here the Tech priest had inquired as to what the comms equipment was powered by out here and I replied a barely man portable promethium generator, this will be important later on… so the sweep of the tunnel goes as expected your usual tension, expecting monsters everywhere ect, the psyker tries to sense life to find which tunnels to take leading them to an ominous corner. The chucks a stolen stun grenade around the corner and the arbites follow. The intrepid groups is met by an 8 foot tall mechanicum augmented genestealer complete with cogwheels and mechanicum skulls. I swear in one of the best displays of roleplaying from a guy who hasn’t RP’d before and doesn’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of 40k the Tech Priest fails his WP check and screams at the top of his voice “TECH HERESY!!!!!!!!” and promptly runs his ass back the way it came in desperate urgency to get ahold of that aforementioned promethium. One arbiter runs with him the other gets eviscerated by the mechastealer the scum and psyker hold and open fire on it as best they can. Again I went easy on this bit, treating the mechanicum implants as more of a downgrade to the stealer then an upgrade. The Judge bravely charges the stealer, I’m assuming he’s going to die heroically. He stuns the damned thing with a headshot from a shock maul….

The psyker headshots the stealer with her las pistol knowck off half his health…

The scum, at point blank points his autogun at the stunned stealer and holds down the trigger till the bad thing goes away…

Meanwhile 2 arbites are holding the Tech Priest down as he is trying to pour promethium down the tunnels to cleanse them in fire….

During the cleanup of this affair the group discovers that the genestealer apparently was dropped off by some kind of adeptus mechanicus stasis pod though the locks have been cut through with a keen razor edged weapon as opposed to just opened. Mission accomplished the group head back to the city, leaving the judge to call in enough arbites to clean up the problem know the threat has been identified it’s time to send the report to the boss and clock off. Or not. Deciding the pod from the ad mech probably factored into this genestealer cult and somebody had to have altered it they stop by the adeptus mechanicus enclave in the city. Time for cogboy to shine!!!

To Be continued

The Shining of the Cogboy

So the Mechanicum district is in a bit of disrepair what with half of it being abandoned and moved into by local vagrants a lot of the disused manufactorums are now slum blocks for the desperate and taxis won’t go near the area with a bargepole. The groups unpleasant walk is distracted however when a lithe tall figure opens fire on them from high above a rooftop, the groups return fire shies the enemy away but the scum is wounded fairly badly so the group make better speed for the enclave. The cogboy does play the smart card here when he gets to the mechanicus enclave. He pretends he can’t speak binary. See the Cogboy is only 19 and didn’t grow up on a forge world so he has very little in the way of distinguishing tech parts (For a mechanicum anyway) so speaks to everyone in gothic so he can over hear when the mechanicum speak binary. Blagging entry, bed and board in exchange for a sample of what shot the Scum and information about the tech heresy (The leading Magos sends an orderly to DEMAND the remains from the arites straight away in binary) and the group retrieved the sharp flat disc that hit the scum earlier. Never one to leave well enough alone and unsatisfied with the lack of forthcoming assistance from the mechanicum the group decide to make for the nearest elevator and go a spying. After a little maze solving they make it to a 6 ^th sub basement of the enclave and are presented with two large doors, both with inquisitorial seals on them. Deciding to leave well enough alone, they’re about to leave when one door opens revealing the magos and his travelling circus of sycophants and guards. The psyker thinking fast goes invisible and hides in a corner while the others are taken by a furious Magos for interrogation.

While tech guard scour every part of the enclave except where the psyker is, the psyker looks around seeing examples of forbidden xeno’s technology, inquisitorial seals and several data slates which she promptly swipes. The interrogation goes poorly with neither PC willing to blow their covers or rat out the psyker. As the aforementioned psyker attempts her escape toward a recently landed arbites vehicle (Dropping off the Remains the Magos had Demanded) she walks right into an arbiter, the two recognize each other from earlier, he cuffs her and puts her on the transport then delivers orders to the Magos that the prisoners are part of an ongoing arbites investigation and are to be handed over immediately. The party is reunited at the now less temporary arbites precinct where the arbites are gearing for war. The judge having decided that while their actions may have saved the planet the investigative detail are a political nightmare having received orders from both local government and protests for adeptus mechanicus ordering for the prisoners to be returned post haste. It’s time for our intrepid heroes to leave. Luckily information retrieved from the mecha stealers pod has given them co-ordinates to where the pod should be returned to and in theory where it came from. Being granted passage off the planet the group proceed to an airless moon where there is an apparently hidden ad Mech research base.

One rough ride on a dodgy freighter later and some interesting EVA manoeuvres they find the entrance to the research base, upon opening the large airlock door they are hit in the face by floating bodyparts of priests and servitors having being cut to pieces and gaining some insanity from yet more jump scares. This is mainly the Tech priests ride as they go around the outpost restoring power and trying to find out what happened and what the base is for. The centeral atrium has an enormous hole cut into the floor revealing darkened chambers below while the main level is a total mess, the communication room is a swamp of mangled limbs and wires, every screen is smashed and the only machine still functioning is eerily absent of any machine spirit whatsoever. The supply room has been obliterated and is open to space while the barrack room is empty. The priest manages to get environmental controls back up and running as well as power and after avoiding the obvious as long as physically possible the group descend into the giant hole in the floor. The Scum and the psyker rappel down, the Tech priest just jumps, taking 4 wounds for the trouble.

The Chambers most apparent anomalies lay in the vacancies where 3 stasis pods should be, quick on the heels of that is the 4 ^th pod that instead of being missing, has a massive Mechanicum augmented Ork Warlord in it. By this point I think the Tech priest is willing to forswear religion and mans up deciding to get to the bottom of this madness. Quizzing the terminals yield troubling results there were supposed to be 4 pods, 3 are missing and have not been flagged for deployment, each pods contained and experimental exterminatus level enhanced bioweapon, the tyrannic life form they already encountered on Dreah, the Ork warlord in the Tank, an experimental artificial alpha level psyker and a heavily augmented feral xenos species. Further investigation speaks of a self destruct mechanism built into each one and that should the mecahnicus implants be rendered inert the internal reactors on each prototype are programmed to overload other sights included the medical bay where the augmentation surgeries took place and hatch in the roof of the medical bay. The group were then interrupted by the airlock to the base opening and pressurizing.

I confess another mistake here this mini boss was also too easy.

The eldar outcast from earlier that attacked them en route to the enclave was back to finish the job, at least that’s until the invisible psyker tripped the eldar with her stick of the Emperors Divine Wrath sending him sprawling at the feet of the scum with his thrice damned fully automatic autogun. There wasn’t enough left of the body for me to accurately describe that it had once been an eldar….

After the excitement the Tech priest found that the hatch led to an inquisitorial Aquilla lander with a functioning distress beacon which after a few days he was able to get to send a signal to the inquisition to come and pick them up. Their inquisitor sent another servitor to conduct communication with the group who were given a disgruntled pat on the back for finding the base and uncovering the genestealer cult before being relocated to the inqusitor’s orbiting battleship to be briefed on their next job which would probably entail hunting down the remaining tech heresies this radical base had birthed as well as finding out how why and when they had pissed off the eldar…

Next time, were off the Malfi!!

I should elaborate why these posts came one after the other the sessions were done two weeks ago but I got a bit lazy with the AAR, that’s us up to date for now, next session’s on Tuesday….

Excellent game, thanks for sharing. This inspired me for my own game/story.