Entry 1 - how to find a black cat in a black room... even if your DM claims there are no cats left in the whole universe
At some point during his illustrious career every inquisitor faces a situation when he just can't find a foe to exterminate. It might be that the enemy He was pursuing managed to escape, or He may become bored ferreting out some insignificant cult... or it may even be that a lazy DM didn't bothered to think up an adventure (perish the thought). Whatever the reason, if you ever find yourself in such a situation, despair not!
A little bit of occult scrutiny, and soon you'll notice the universe around you is teeming with heretics of all kinds. The question is just how to find them. Listen then, to the tale of inquisitor Maligas (and retinue) and learn how he uncovered a terrible sector-spanning conspiracy... which never existed
It all began with a rather tedious task heaped upon my great master (lord Maligas) by lord inquisitor Stattford. Maligas - a decorated veteran of Ordo Malleus, scourge of daemons, killer of planets, butcher of sorcerers (and a proud owner of Fellowship 9) - was ordered to "fetch a book". A book, of all things! Now some of you might think it was some arcane tome of great significance, guarded by a warhost of daemons led by dreaded Fateweaver or Anggrath himself. But no, it was nothing more than a boring tale of some long forgotten Imperial Saint wannabe's life, and it was guarded by a single sorcerer of Slaanesh. Worse yet, to get to this book great inquisitor Maligas had to overcome not deadly enemies or devious riddles... but to suffer the indignity of working with imbeciles of the Holy Ordos. Inquisitor Zarkov, inquisitor Gerhardt, lord-inquisitor Stattford of the Ordo Hereticus and lord-inquisitor Morgan of the Ordo Malleus... each and every one of them, it seemed, dedicated their lives to annoying and insulting my master.
It was there and then that I first began to harbour private doubts about the sanity of our employers. The Holy Ordos were supposed to be wise, but they were behaving like morons. First sending my master on a wild goose chase to an arse-end of Marian sector, only to tell him when he actually got there that the very object he was hunting for (a whole book, no less!) was in fact stored in an inquisitorial vault. Then, when he reached the vault, it was conveniently looted, and it was a wild goose chase once again... And every time we tried to catch our breaths, to take a look around, to actually burn a heretic deserving to be burnt - like Zarkov or Ravion noble families, or a corrupt coterie of Imperial archbishops - inquisitors appeared out of the woodwork, spewing threats and obscenities. The first of these neanderthals - inquisitor Zarkov - was soundly beaten by my lord Maligas, and sent back to the Holy Ordos on his knees, wailing in terror. But then came Gerhardt and Morgan and Stattford, and slowly we despaired to see reason in their actions.
It became increasingly evident to us that something was terribly wrong in the Marian sector. And so I - holy father Praevus, follower of the blessed Recongregator creed and a humble servant of inquisitor Maligas - compiled all the evidence we had and, armed with the sacred knowledge of numbers and their meaning (simply put, with SL: Numerology well into nineties), set myself the task to tear down the veil of confusion and secrecy and to expose the truth of all that transpired in the Marian sector to my master.
The basic assumptions were simple:
1. We knew that a great daemon of Slaanesh was due to be brought back into this world (kind of a 'great quest' of the game session), so the number 6 (six) was in the ascendance and had to looked for in all the numbers.
2. We've gathered some hard evidence, including a list of suspects and suspect planets. They all were somehow complicit in the daemon's approaching return, and so their names had to had some significance in the grand scheme of events.
With these two truths in mind, I began my work.
First, I updated the Marian sector map, writing down all the suspect planets on it and then connecting them by lines. And these planets were eleven, but three were obviously false leads. A hereitc born on Innocentius III was post-humously relocated to Santus Primaris , which clearly indicated the forces of Chaos had no interest in this world. Norhok and Nostor were also to be ignored, because they lay on a false fifth axis, not truly connected to the Eightfold Star formed by other eight planets. Yes, the number of truly relevant planets was eight (8), and imagine my horror when - once connected - they formed the dreaded Eightfold Star of Chaos. Once I had drawn the lines of the Star, it became evident that 16 more worlds were bisected by the four axis lines. 16! Twice the number 8, so the final amount of tainted planets became 24. Thrice the unholy 8, which meant my calculations were true.
I then took a closer look at the names of the four principal axis worlds. Ordinarily one would like to translate all the world names, but in this case four was enough, because 4 is on one hand half the cursed 8, and on other hand - the logical next step of the number of suspect worlds, which started with 8 and ended with 24, or thrice 8. So half-eight and four times eight is both the Alpha and Omega of the cycle, and so it is enough to look at four principal suspect worlds only.
And just what did I saw when I've taken a look?
The number of Ispiy was 78, or 13 times 6, and 13 was in turn a unity of 7 and 6. Two 6 and a 7. So this world is twice cursed by She Who Thirsts, which means it is a world important to our investigation. The loose number 7 has no relevance in this case, because it represents not the Great Father's gaze but merely the number of other worlds lying on Ispiy axis on the Eightfold Path.
The number of Xeth is 57, or 5 and 7, and 5 and 7 give us 12, once again twice the number of She Who Thirsts. Also 5 represents the number of stars bisected by Xeth axis of the Eightfold Path, and 7 is the number of habitable planets around those stars. One might object that there are only 4 stars and 6 planets on the Marian sector map, but for those I would say there must be the fifth star and seventh planet, because the combination of these two figures once again give us the recurring 12, or twice the cursed 6, and that means this elusive planet is real and is the actual birthplace of a daemon - a daemonworld yet hidden from the righteous eyes of my master.
The riddle of Asitorius axis was a real nut to crack. The number of Asitorius was 131, and the sum of its figures gave us 5 - a false number, equivalent to the "fifth wheel of a cart". But then I take another look at the map and finally understood. And so I took the sum of figures of the number of Nostor (101), which lay on the false fifth axis (on which Asitorius' number 5 pointed), but was not touched by the Great Architect of Fate like Norhok (which number was 81, or 9 times 9). And then I digged up the name of heretic born on Asitorius - one named Mallear , whose number was 62. And by combining all the figures: 5 for Asitorius, 2 for Nostor and 62 for Mallear, I got the number 69. 69, or 6 and 9. 6 for the curse of She Who Thirsts and 9 to represent the ever-scheming hand of the Great Architect of Fate, who tried to conceal the truth of Asitorius from me. 9 was also the 6 inverted, and so is gave us two 6's once again.
After that, the question of fourth planet - Santus Primaris - was an easy one. The number os Santus Primaris is 197, and the sum of its figures is 17, which is also the planet's number cleansed of the deceiving 9. By adding to it the numbers of all the six (!) heretics born on this world, and the number of the one who was before them, and the number of the one who died for them, I got the number 739. The sum of its figures is 19, and 1 we must substract, because it represents the Primaris (or First, which is also "1") part of planet's name. So the pure number of Santus is 18, which is thrice the number of She Who Thirsts. But there are two planets in Santus star system, and just as we substracted 1 from the planet's number must we now substract one of its 6's. Ans so the final count is twice the cursed 6 for the fourth time.
Four time two 6's gives us the total of eight 6, which means a single caress of She Who Thirsts per each of the eight axis worlds forming the Eightfold Star. A truly chilling discovery.
So, after confirming in such a way once again that my research is true, I proceeded to uncovering the identity of the one who shall be the daemon's vessel. It was clear to me that this person must also be touched by Slaanesh, which meant I had to look for a person whose name would yield me the pure 6.
The first one I suspected was one Larim Ravion , for his number was 132, which gave me clean 6. But then I realised my error, for Ravion was not a relevant part of his name - a House name. And if we consider names Larim and Ravion separately, the sums of their numbers' figures would be 8 and 16, and 16 is the sum of 7 and 9. So, there are three cursed numbers in Larim Ravion's name - 7, 8 and 9, but there is no 6, and that means this one is clearly abhorred by She Who Thirsts.
And so I looked further... and despaired. Because there was indeed a second person, which name gave me the number 123, and that number also produced clean 6. And the name I speak about was Stattford , and the man known by such name held the title of the lord-inquisitor of the Marian sector Ordo Hereticus. I didn't believed it at first. Lord-inquisitor was beyound suspicions of heresy and daemonancy, he was to be a shining example of Humankind's purity! Surely, my calculations took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. They had to be wrong. They just had to be! A lord-inquisitor would never be a heretic!
Lord-inquisitor... The number of Lord is 49 and the number of Inquisitor is 151, and the sum of the both numbers' figures is 20, which is thrice the cursed 6 plus 2. And 2 is merely the number of lord-inquisitors operating in the Marian sector. And the number of another lord-inquisitor - Morgan - is 68, or 6 and 8, which is 14. And 14 is twice the cursed 6 plus 2. And so we have two lord-inquisitors, once (Stattford) and twice (Morgan) cursed by She Who Thirsts, and three loose 2's: one from each "lord-inquisitor" title and one from "Morgan" name. And three times 2 give us yet another 6, and so the total number of 6's for both lord-inquisitors would be 4 (one for Stattford. two for Morgan, and one for loose 2's), and 4 is the number of principal axis worlds lying on the Eightfold Path.
And so the terrible truth is out: lord-inquisitors Stattford and Morgan are seduced by She Who Thirsts and are plotting to resurrect her terrible champion to unleash it upon the unsuspecting Marian sector. And there is only one man who knows the truth - inquisitor Maligas, the one threading the proud path of the Phaenonite.