Cocooned in the safety of its Geller Field, the Pious Lament worms a convoluted course through the shoals and reefs of the Immaterium, guided carefully by Cennet and her team and powered by the thundering warp drives under the auspices of Jak Tesla.

On the bridge, the numbers in the in four foot nixie tubes above the Mechanicus balcony, and repeated throughout the ship, inform everybody that it will be fourteen days, eleven hours nineteen minuets and forty eight, forty seven forty six seconds before the ship re-enters real space.

[5 blank lines suppressed]

Please may I have WP tests from everyone
.

As they launched into the warp Searlait stood at her throne watching the display as it ticked down. After a half-hour she stood up and informed the first officer that they had the bridge and retired to her quarters as the warp jump headaches start.

 When conflict raises its ugly head, one should listen to the Arch-militant and when politics are afoot, the will and whim of the Trader is of course, paramount but in the course of travel through the Warp, the Navigator rules all and their close second is the Explorator, which is why Jak sees precious little sleep over the first few days of the journey.

 Warning messages and alarms are his meat and his music and each day-shift sees him travelling to a new part of the vast and ancient hull to pray and labour at the Geller shrines which are in quiet but unmistakeable revolt - perhaps amongst the most serious of possible threats that could occur to them while they travel through the Immaterium and whose failure could mean worse than the death of every soul aboard.

 Needless to say, while he works he's also attempting to diagnose what manner of fault could be causing the near-revolt from such well-loved and venerated spirits.

 ---

A good test! Jak's going to be doing some modelling - given what seems to be happening, he's going to see if there's any pattern to the mass movement, any way of localising it even momentarily.
 00:32, Today: Jak Tesla rolled 5 using 1d100.  Willpower Test.

Gregory's face is grim as he is briefed on the situation in the black holds. While he is glad that the nascent psykers haven't caused nay problems, he knows any untrained psykers are a potential security risk; and not the kind of security he's trained to handle. After sending a messenger over to the Choir to request an audience, he closes his eyes and groans.

"Peaceful and boring, peaceful and boring, that's all I ask, o Master of Mankind, make this trip a peaceful and boring one..."

He then sends a request to the clergymen aboard for a priest and several lay brothers to pray over the psykers in the hope that the Emperor will bring them faith, focus and purpose. WIth luck, it'll also ward off any malign influences from the powers of the Warp.

OOC: WP Test

12:46, Today: Gregory Asgard rolled 83 -- 4 degrees of failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 40.  WP test. – 4 degrees of failure

Aiiieeeeeee
This message was last edited by the player at 08:56, Mon 15 Apr.

Hadrian was of all things quiet as could be expected of the spook of the crew. If there was no need for him on the bridge of the ship or in a meeting of some sort he was seen all over the ship. Some days he is seen serving drinks at a point of congregation for the crew. A few times he is seen cleaning various parts of the ship in well used coveralls and a even more used belt of tools. A few rare times he is even seen in the deepest parts of the ship pest hunting.

All very visible and all some what helpful. As often as he was seen gathering his own information on the ship, he was a bright bit of bait to look at so others who are the real information collectors could get the real pulse of the crew on the ship.

15:15, Today: Hadrian Herric rolled 76 -- 2 degrees of failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 50 ((76)).

The Navigatrix, seasoned as she might be, was faced with a more difficult time than anticipated as variables were derived and compounded within the carefully charted course of the vessel. The presence aboard serving only as a further divider of their focus as she was faced with minding the vessel and trying to precisely locate this brooding, unwelcome and most assuredly unhallowed presence aboard. The concern quietly eating at her as she considered and reconsidered the arduously compiled calculations, course, and interpretation of the myriad charts that she and her kin had access to. Was there something she had not accounted for? Was there some failure of procedure or ritual that had proceeded translation? Was there something worse than that? There were far too many questions, far too many undefined variables, and so she did the only thing she might do and draw a shallow... ragged breath and focus upon the matter and course ahead.



Bleh.

19:46, Today: Cennet Melek Shiraishi rolled 76 -- 1 degree of failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 57.  Willpower. – 1 degree of failure

This message was lightly edited by the player at 23:54, Mon 15 Apr.

Faith is just heading down to the chapel to pray for the souls of the choir when she runs into Gregory. A quick exchange of information later, she learns that the unsanctioned psykers in the black holds at the head of the ship are acting up, hence the need for divine intervention. Despite his protests, Faith ends up telling Gregory that there seems to be a vast psychic presence in the ship; not hostile, but perhaps a little bit... angry? It's been bothering the choir members, and she suddenly realizes that perhaps it might have been riling up the unsanctioned psykers too...

As she falls to her knees before the shrine to Him-On-Earth, she fervently prays that the Emperor's Light will shine on the Pious Lament as it does on all mankind...

OOC:

10:55, Today: Faith rolled 64 -- a simple failure using the Warhammer Test system with a target number of 61.  WP test. – a simple failure

It took a bit of time to get all the data in but his job was to keep an eye on the crew. Not just from slippery threats but to help keep a pulse check on the staff. So he sent along his report once complied to Searlait.
~~
This message was last edited by the player at 02:06, Wed 24 Apr.

Despite being busy visiting the lower decks of the ship Harmonia still manages to review enough of the paperwork that crosses her desk to approve Gregory's request for more direct interaction, sending the most reliable of her many minions to see to the problem.

The ship plunges on through the immaterium while onboard life goes on almost as usual, the count down is at nine days, twenty three hours, eleven minuets and seventeen . . . sixteen . . . fifteen seconds.







.

As the vessel sails through the warp, a little too roughly for Searlait's preference but then again, her preference is to not be at warp so what can you do. Shireen has warpmares most nights, getting no more than a few hours of sleep at a time, the screams she gives while awakening always brings Searlait running, weapon in hand only for it to be a false alarm of crawling bugs the size of canids or the ship suffering some catastrophe leaving them all to suffocate. During her working hours the lack of sleep shows, she is always seen with a recaf or other caffeinated beverage in hand and dark circles under her eyes, and to many, she seems a lot more snappy.



Early in the voyage she makes her way to the staterooms used by the Xenos and inquires if they, with their sense closer to the Immaterium if they notice anything additionally untoward.

 Jak by contrast, appears to be utterly insensate to the fluctuating nature of the Warp and its intrusions - and can often be seen stalking about the halls of the vessel incanting psalms to the Omnissiah, checking in on shrines and upbraiding local adepts and mechwrights for inappropriate or sloppy purity seals and incense-burning... Spreading as he does so a certain degree of aggressive normality which hopefully quells fears even as he's carrying an assortment of sensor gear around with him, which in due course he takes - unhappily - to the vessels Astropath, hoping for her counsel upon a matter which is, in fact rather outside of his purview.

 Which is probably why he has no idea that they're carrying some portion of the Imperial Tithe from their last destination - something which would at least shed light on what he's been detecting.

 Locating her in the ships Shrine - and performing a brief, but heartfelt benediction to the Emperor-as-the-Deus-Mechanicus-Personified he approaches their Astropath "A matter has arisen which touches upon your expertise rather than mine. Have you time for discussion?" - and assuming a 'yes' he lays before her their discovery that there's something in the ship with them, fluctuating like crazy, impossible to localise and difficult to predict.

 Yay.

Faith is roused from her quiet recital of Admonitions Against The Empyrean (Scholastica Psykana Press MCMXCVII Edition)by the techpriest, and she doesn't need to be psychic to know that his presence in the Temple-Shrine is akin to an octopus crawling out of the oceans to chat with a mountain bear about the weather.

In other words, things must be really frelling bad for him to be here.

She listens to his explanation and her face grows grimmer with every word.

"I have heard that powerful aetheric manifestations can interfere with technology... I believe an Empyrean creature is the source of your sensor fluctuations. It is impossible to localize because the entity in question is massive, so it appears to be everywhere at once. Fortunately, it is not hostile - otherwise a few sensor glitches and nightmares among the choir would be the least of our worries - but it seems to be upset about something. I had been hoping to draw on the Emperor's might to protect us from its fitful thrashings, but it seems that will no longer suffice. I believe we must inform the Lady-Captain of this together, and then I shall endeavor to try and communicate with this entity, to see if it can be placated, driven off, or slain."

Faith has the feeling that any confrontation with this creature will be like a lone Guardsman squaring off against a greenskin Waaaagh!, but there seems to be no alternative to it.

"Please walk with me," she says, as she leads Jak to find the captain and repeats everything she just told him to her.

Paranoid, sleep deprived, and plagued by nightmares. For all the power and prestige, the lot of a Navigator was hardly one to be envied as the Navigatrix contemplated the depths of the Empyrean Sea once more. The dull echoes of Master Levi's screaming madness dulled only by the thickness of the bulk heads and the deliberately installed sound baffles that ensconced the navigation chamber. Both to keep the more distressing of noises contained and to support the often sorely tried focus of the Navigator engaged in the name sake.

That every sensation but her preternatural awareness of the vessel through the arcane interfaces of the Navigator's and the potent chymical cocktails that coursed through her atypical anatomy only contributed to the stress of the situation rather than alleviate it as it typically did under more ideal circumstances. There was nothing else for it, though, in Cennet's mind but to endure and to mind the shadows that warped and twisted in every direction around her as shapes formed, nearly rose, and vanished back beneath the encircling corridor of deepest ocean. Held only at bay by the thinnest bubble of real space that any chance collision or malfunction could tear away in a moment. A set of circumstances that she was all too uncomfortably aware of for the fact that she felt perpetually watched and the sensed presence remained forefront in her mind.

The second stretched to minutes, then to hours, then to days before blending into an almost meaninglessness. The contextual nature of time in real space retained only by the aggressive utilization of alarms and other such measures arranged for with the various watch captains of the House Guard and other servants. All to ensure that she and Sheridan continued their now doubled shift rotations to account for their junior's lamentable infirmity. An infirmity that Cennet could only offer quiet prayers to Him on Terra that it would not be a lasting stint of madness. Far too soon to be so struck down before the passing of even the first century of his life.

 It is true that investigation of psychic phenomena is a matter considered to be bordering upon the heretechal and actually manufacturing or tinkering with the patterns of devices that wield or manipulate psychic phenomena actively crosses that boundary (save for a small number of extremely well warded and closely watched adepts in very specific places), so there's precious little reason for the ships Explorator to come and speak with the Astropath...

 ...which makes the matter every bit as uncomfortable as she feared.

 He does however, seem amenable to trying to resolve the problem, announcing a helpful "Of course." as they go in search of their captain, remarking as they do so "The psychic mass appears to be shifting inside the confines of the Geller field that protects the ship, which argues against this being some vast and singular warp-beast... Unless we have in some fashion encapsulated a smaller piece of a larger creature. I cannot immediately conceive of a means of evacuation such an entity which is even remotely safe. Are you certain of its scale?"

Faith considers how best to phrase her estimation of their unseen nemesis in a way that Jak can understand. He's an intelligent man, no doubt, but this does not seem to be his wheelhouse.

"In my estimation, it is like a large ornamental fish released inside a too-small tank, constantly swimming around and looking for a way out. As in, it is not here now, but perhaps the nightmares and auspex malfunctions are traces of its passage. As for how this fish-entity got in in the first place, it might have been simple bad luck, or a flicker in the Gellar Field, or perhaps even an accidental invocation by a nascent psyker. It is said that every psyker has a gateway to the Immaterium in their minds, and untrained ones are like an unbarred portal that anything from the realm beyond can exploit."