“103.M41 got off to a terrible start for the Pius Lament, one day in particular, shortly after the ships arrival at Port Wander was just one disaster after another. The small, unassuming little man who asked to see the Lord Captain turned out to be an ‘Heraldus Imemor’ traveling incognito with dispatches from Adeptus Terra itself, a noteworthy event but not particularly tragic until his body was found some hours later with the brain surgically removed. In theory there was no way whatsoever that the man, or the brain could revile anything of the messages he carried after performing his ‘Rites of Oblivion’ but, subsequent events do make me to wonder.”

“Following the visit, the Lord Captain was keen to resupply and get underway as quickly as possible but things seemed to conspire against us, 20 tons of promethean were pumped into the wrong tank, not a lot but enough to contaminate several thousand tons of potable water which had to be jettisoned and the tank scrubbed before it could be refilled. Meanwhile there were unexpected glitches with the paperwork and docking fees going missing. A rupture in the primary loading tubes cost 17 lives and several tons valuable machine parts but could have been very much worse and then a badly off-course, unmanned tug drone sheering off the starboard secondary auspex array, if not for the quick thinking of a couple of ratings, it could of been the primaries as well but these two heroes had the presence of mind to retract them into the armoured battle sheathing, saving maybe a week of repairs and a good deal of expense.”

“The real tragedy though was after Garu, our master of whispers got wind of an STC for sale at a secret auction, Ferus 108422e, our enginseer and Blake our high factotum set off with a small escort to see if it were the real thing and acquire it at any cost, turned out to be some sort of hoax but on the return journey their high-speed transit pod was somehow diverted into a dead-end maintenance tunnel while still at high speed. Surprisingly some survived, three of the escort made it back for a long stint in the Hospice, I believe one of them is still there, and Ferus 108422e made it but was badly damaged and the Mechanicus recovered him for ‘repair and upgrade’.”

“We got under away eventually, but without an Enginseer or High Factotum and not until two days after the ‘Emperor’s Glory’, the ship of another Rogue Trader. That also seemed to frustrate the Lord Captain, but then, he died six days later, inexplicably murdered by some of the ships guard servetors. The whole crew is in turmoil right now, with talk of curses, and dark Gods and who knows what else. It’s a good thing Lady Searlait was on board to see us safely to Stones Throw, that’s all I can say.”
This message was last updated by the player at 22:31, Fri 14 Apr 2023.

A brief summary of chapter one and the events leading up to it, with apologies for repeating myself.

For the events that occurred at Port Wander before the game started, please check msg #5 above. Although there is little or no evidence it is thought that Galvin Vexel, Rogue Trader and Lord Captain of ‘the Emperor’s Glory’, a Lunar class Cruiser, is responsible for all the misfortunes listed there.

The Pious Lament arrived at Stone’s Throw two days after the Emperor’s Glory and found three other Rogue Trader vestals, as well as a small ship of Adeptus Terra, already in orbit. The investiture of Searlait Saoirse as the new Rogue Trader was pushed through at the fastest possible speed by powerful interests and the other Rogue Traders had gathered for the occasion. During the event Searlait meets an Adeptus Terra agent tells her that Lord Harington was on a mission for Adeptus Terra and that she was expected to complete that mission, the details of this mission were provided later.

Near here there is a large, torus shaped warp storm known as the Sink Hole, it appears as if material is continuously falling into the central hole. The stars and systems seen through the hole do not match those seen by looking around it and no one who entered is known to have returned.

Last year a planet emerged from the sink hole and found a stable orbit around a nearby star, this planet, seems to be ‘Gelron’, an industrial world that was thought lost over twelve hundred years ago in the Fordoom Sector, on the far side of the empire after its star went nova. Records indicate a plan to save the planet had been devised, though what that was is unclear, however, it does seem to have worked to a certain extent. It is known is that the plan involved the great manufactorum that orbited the planet. The value of reclaiming an entire forge world for the empire is incalculable, but it pales to insignificance in comparison to a full scale orbital manufactorum. The mission is to investigate and reclaim the planet, and or the manufactorum for the empire assuming one or both are still viable.

Searlait also met an Inquisitor who strongly suspects that Galvin Vexel is responsible for the happenings at Port Adventure and Lord Harringtons subsequent death at the hands of his own servitors. The inquisitor had already intercepted more than one attempt on Searlait’s life. The Inquisitor does not know what the mission is, but does know that Vexel has found out and that if he gets there first it would not be in the best interest of the Empire, therefor he had managed to impose a series of delays on Vexel, and oblige him to stay on Stone’s Throw for the investiture, so negating the gains he’d made up to now. The inquisitor has embedded a small team onto the Pious Lament to investigate the details of Lord Harington’s death, he also warns Searlait the Vexel is suspected of being in league with Xenos forces.

The lord Captain has had a meeting with her rank 2 officers, the 1st Officer, Alexi Talionus, the High Factotem, Vormav and the Enginseer Prime, Jak Tesler. I bugging device was discovered as the meeting started, the mechanism implied that it had to be deployed and retrieved by someone aboard the ship to be of any use. During the meeting Vormav revealed that his predecessor had been embezzling quite heavily and that he is thought to have had an accomplice aboard the ship. He also reviled that the ships Twist Catcher had concerns about the lack of activity amongst unregistered aboard ship, it seems like they have been disappearing in quite large numbers.

Meanwhile, the Enginseer Prime and the new Exploritor are investigating part of the ship that has been sealed off for millennia.

The Lady Captain conducted other interviews in which she learns that the previous Warp guide is still here, but has not left his room since leaving Port Adventure and that the astral choir is seriously depleted. The High Factotem does a bit of trading, the Chief Chirurgen gets to know the ship and most important patient, the 1st Officer and Master at Arms get to know their forces and the captain’s new bodyguard settles in.

The Master of whispers reports from the surface that he has located an astropath who had fled from the Emperor’s Glory, and also that Lord Vexel was preparing to leave orbit. Orders are passed to prepare the Pious Lament to also leave orbit while the Choir-Master Telepathica is dispatched to see if she can recruit another astropath from the planetary choir in very short order. This she does with the help of Vormav greasing certain palms, but bas delayed in doings for long enough for a sniper to get into position and make the return journey a little more interesting. Meanwhile the Master of whispers also retrieved the astropath from Vexel’s ship, though he to met with opposition in doing so, and the Astral Choir has gone from three to a very healthy five people.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 09:54, Sun 10 Mar.

The Emperor’s Glory, in conjunction with Eldar Corsairs, had been working against the Pious Lament for most of a year by this point, they had infiltrated and Eldar agent on board who was able to come and go via a modified ‘web gate’ it had installed, but only at close range to its mother ship. This agent had recruited and indoctrinated a good number of the unregistered and supplied them with incendiary bombs acquired by Master Fesian, before he jumped ship on Stone’s Throw, these were placed around the ship in strategic locations but most were discovered before they were due to go off.

When the Lament emerged from the void it was into a carefully planned ambush and at the same time the indoctrinated unregistered made a well-planned attack in the Auspex Fin to blind the ship and render all it’s weapons ineffective, meanwhile one of the Eldar ships, while cloaked, moved in close enough for elite troops to use the teleport homer that the agent had planted on the bridge with the intention of wiping out the command staff.

The ships Navigator was able to see through the cloaking on the closest Eldar ship and direct a broadside that seriously damaged the vestal, taking out much of it’s drive and weapons capacity, the ship continued with its plane to get boarders onto the Lament, but now was unable to leave without becoming a sitting target. Meanwhile the Emperor’s Glory and the other Eldar ship, assuming the Lament at least partially disabled, closed in to complete the capture, unaware that the assault on the bridge and the assault in the Auspex fin had both failed due to the individual prowess of the senior crew and the training and quality of the basic troops.

The Eldar agent, who had been inhibiting activities in the Auspex fin by snipping at the troops, made an escape back to the main hull of the ship but on reaching the web gate found it smashed to bits as it had previously been discovered by the Chief Chirurgen, he was traced back to that location by the Twist Catcher as instructed by the High Factotum.

While people moved to secure the temple where the damaged Eldar ship had breached the hull, the Master of Ordinance, under direction from the Lady Captain, had drawn the other Eldar ship in with a few stray shots, designed to make them think that their schemes had worked, then blasted it out of existence with another broadside. The Emperor’s Glory, which was closing in from the bow, realised that the Lament was not the sitting duck it had hoped for and began turning, either to bring a broadside to bare or to flee, perhaps both, however, in spite of its greater mass, manoeuvring is what the Lament does best and was able to turn and present its own broadside. Damaging the Emperor’s Glory and rendering it’s return fire ineffective.

Currently The Emperor’s Glory seems to be fleeing and the intruding Eldar have been neutralised, there are eight prisoners, including the one apprehended on the bridge. There is a large hole in the hull above the Temple which leads to a crippled Eldar ship, currently clamped to the back of the Pious Lament. Losses have been light but there is a lot of collateral damage that needs attending to.
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This message was last updated by the GM at 22:33, Fri 14 Apr 2023.