From late May to mid September... long break between games! But such is the lot of the married-with-children gamer.
Brief Reminder of the Cast of Characters (all rank 6 as our last session)
Remington Sabras - Rogue Trader and Bearer of the Sabras Warrant
Tyrion Sabras - "The False Man", vat-grown clone of Remington, also a Rogue Trader
Explorator Lucius - Servant of the Machine God and Chief Enginseer
"Cadian" - Arch Militant Head of Security and Chief Gunner
Stark - Void Master Helmsman of the Ordained Destiny and crack pilot
Key NPCs
Quintus Aleene - Ships Navigator
Yerevan the quiet - Ships Astropath
Arakasi - Ships Steward and Seneschal of the Sabras Dynasty
Inquisitor Vownus Kaede
Connavar "The Giant", Claymore-wielding warrior
Honsou & Michiko, Oathsworn Assassins
Anyhow, we finally had a follow up session, with the explorers plus their inquisition 'allies'(??) infiltrating the Narco-Spire on Footfall to root out the source of warp corruption infecting the flow of drugs into the Calixis Sector. Initally, they made easy progress, using the 'hiding in plain sight approach'. The weakest gangs inhabit the lower levels of the spire and each assumed that this heavily armed group were simply on business with one of the more powerful tribes higher up in the hab block. Eventually however, they were challenged by a mob of slaught-crazed gangers, with an Ogryn or two thrown in. They handled them quite easliy, but their cover was blown.
They spared the last tribesman left standing and he immediately tried to strike a bargain with them - He told them that, up to about a year ago, the various larger Narco-tribes had been equals and co-existed relatively harmoniously. However, around that time, an individual know simply as the Alchemist arrived - supposedly from Dusk in the Calixis Sector - and assumed control of the Night Kin (the Dusk expat faction in the Spire). Slowly, the leaders of the other tribes either swore service to the Alchemist or had unfortunate 'accidents', until this mysterious individual was the effective lord of the Narco-tribes.
In return for his tribe (refugees from Naduesh) being spared in any fighting, their prisoner would use his knowledge of the spire and access to bio-key controlled elevators to aid the explorers in getting to the Alchemist without having to fight through thousands more tribesmen. The team were wary of a trap, but thought the offer was too good to pass up. It was a simple task for Lucius to override control of sections of the internal building security monitoring systems to ensure that their passage was unnoticed and they were able to reach the 76th storey of the spire without incident.
From here to the Alchemists suite of chambers on the 80th floor however, would be much trickier. The Inquisitor's pet assassins took out the first few guards in silence, allowing the group to ascend to the 78th floor unimpeded. Then, as they moved across the atrium balcony towards the stairway up to 79, with the assassins leading the way, Honsou's head exploded in a red mist of brain and bone! They had been spotted by a sniper on the next floor up. Lucius and Cadian returned fire and took the gunman out with ease, but now the entire upper spire was alert to the intrusion and closing on their position.
At this point, the explorers played their trump card... A regiment of mercenaries standing buy in assault boats in the launch bays of the Ordained Destiny . Remington gave the word and within moments the group could hear the impacts as the Shark Assault Boats smashed into the sides of the spire and disgorged the entirety of Artemiev's Free Company into the interior. This would keep the vast majority of the Narco-Tribesmen occupied while the team could concentrate on the Alchemist himself.
The party fought their way up the last two stairways and landings through a horde of Night Kin tribesmen. There were a couple of close calls, with the explorers having to wade through lots of suppressive fire and, at one point, Explorator Lucius taking a direct hit from a Krak Grenade... though the sight of him shrugging it off and returning fire significantly disheartened the resistance. The party reached the 80th storey, which housed the largest drug processing factory in the complex and the private chambers of the Alchemist. Cadian snapped off a spectacular burst of fire to take out a heavy stubber nest and the party finally stormed the Alchemist's chambers!
The inner rooms were like some sort of demented mix of art studio and abbatoir, with braziers, alien sculptures and half flayed corpses littered about the chamber. In the middle of it all was a robed figure, with wild hair and beard and crazed eyes. Cryptically, he greeted the intruding group as if he was famililar with them... then started to incant something over the largest of the Braziers. The party immediately opened fire, lashing the figure with plasma fire... which barely seemed to dent it! As the Alchemist completed his incantation, his body warped and ripped, eventually shedding the meat like a molting insect - revealing a Greater Daemon, the same beast whcih had ambushed the explorers in the bowels of Port Wander years before!
A titanic battle ensued, with Lucius badly wounded by the Daemon's summoned minions, and Connavar, Inquisitor Kaede's companion slain in hand-to-hand combat by the beast itself, before the combined firepower (and willpower) of the group destroyed it's corporeal form, once again banishing it back to the Warp... for now.
And that was where we finished up, more to come, hopefully without the same wait as last time ;-)