Shattered Hope

From Lexicanum

Sepheris Secundus

The acolytes, consisting of the Tech-Priest Geziel; the  Cleric Plax; and Rabalius the Psyker were dispatched to Sepheris Secundus by thie Inquisitor, Gaius. Accompanying them to providing security were Mercutio and Silvanus formerly Imperial Guardsmen. Also with them, to exercise his particular talents, was Zaddion.  Sapheris Secundus, an important mining world, had recently been the scene of an uprising which had been suppressed by the Imperial Guard, however the Guard’s Commissar had found evidence of chaos-taint on the world and sent for reinforcements from the Inquisition.

Arriving on the frozen word, they quickly made contact with the Guard. While Sergeant Raynard led the majority of the group to meet the Commissar,  Plax remained behind to see what she could find out from the Guardsmen. She found little other than something bad had happened in one of the mines, and one of the survivors – Corporal Schmendt -  was chained in his tent, his mind completely shattered. Plax attempted to interrogate  the unfortunate corporal but his mind was too far gone.

The others were taken immediately to see Commissar Nihilus, who had little further information other than that he’d sent several squad into the mines after rebels taking terrible casualties and bearing reports of mutants and even daemons in the dark. Immediately he had order the entrance to the mines sealed and summoned the Inquisition. He advised the party that he would arrange to have the seal removed in a hour. He also extended an invitation to them to visit the Quartermaster to get some additional supplies.


While Silvanus and Zaddion went to the quartermaster, Rabalius went straight to the sealed mine entrance. The others, meeting up with Plax attempted to get more information from the Guardsmen, to little effect.

Shattered Mines

Arriving at the sealed mine entrance the rest of the group caught up with Rabalius, who was standing patiently waiting, some distance from Commissar Nihilus. At the group’s arrival Nihilus gestured to the waiting beast-handlers who spurred their charges into drawing back the huge stone seal that blocked the entrance to the mines. It took nearly thirty minutes for the massive seal to be removed far enough to allow the group to enter the darkened mine.

The group entered cautiously, led by the two former guardsmen Mercutio and Silvanus. The mine entrance seemed fairly clear and apart from the single body of a guardsman who’d been left when his comrades fled there was little sign of the horrors that were supposed to be down here. Switching off some of their torches to preserve their power supplies, the group headed into the darkness of the mines, weapons at the ready, their way lit only by Mercutio’s glow-lamp .

They proceeded through the eerily silent mine for some time, following the main track till eventually they came to where something had caused the passageway to slip downwards and away three metres and opening a chasm between. Although the climb seemed straightforward enough, Silvanus took the precaution of tying a rope to himself before clambering down then across the gap to where the passageway continued. The guardsman made it easily and untying the rope from his waist gestured to the others to follow. Silvanus, who came next also had little difficulty, however Geziel, who came next, slipped on the rocky surface and fell. Plax, holding on to the rope, strained to hold on – Zaddion attempted to grab the rope to help, but overbalanced and fell over the edge! Fortunately he managed to grab a hold of Geziel on the way down, leaving the two of them suspended in mid-air. Plax, staining against the load called for Rabalius to help her, but the psyker (not being the physical type) proved more of a hindrance. Down below, Silvanus (though nearly falling himself) managed to help the two stranded climbers into the passageway .

Once everyone had regrouped in the lower passageway they moved on, ignoring various side passageways, the remainder  of the journey was without  further incident save when the party had to jump over a another gap and Geziel and Rabalius managed to hurt themselves in the fall. Eventually they reached the rusted doorway to Subsection XII – also known as “The Shatters” according to the graffiti daubed on it.

The door opened on a scene of carnage, dried blood and gobbets of flesh still denoted where a number of people had died as they took in the scene a horrific figure emerged from the darkness – a hulking figure horribly mutated in the remnants of a guardsman’s uniform. For a second – horrified by their first sight of Chaos – half of the party froze in shock as the slobbering creature charged towards them swinging its mighty slab-like arms towards Silvanus.

As the creature attacked, the acolytes rallied and sprang into action, Silvanus and Mercutio drew swords and Plax her hammer. As they attacked, Zaddion mover around and started firing at the mutant, while Geziel too took pot-shots. The pathetic creature was swiftly despatched. A search of the area revealed its lair where it had been feasting upon its former colleagues. In a locked room nearby they found Rat, one of the surviving miners, out of his mind with fear. Telling him to wait there of their return, they left him some food and moved on – deeper into the Shatters.
 

The Chaos Stone

The few remaining fluorescent lights gave an eerie glow to the corridor as Silvanus led the way onwards gagging slightly at the foul air in this sector; behind him Zaddion shone a torch over his shoulder into the areas in darkness while Geziel followed nervously, clutching at her staff. Coming to an intersection, Silvanus quickly scanned both corridors to the left and right and though he spotted something moving in the darkness. As the acolytes began moving down the passageway to the left, Zaddion thought he saw a momentary pinkish pulse of light coming from somewhere in the direction they had been heading .

As the corridor they were following emerged into what looked like some old mine workings, Silvanus was proved right as three mutants sprang out of the darkness. Unlike the one they had met previously, these mutants were armed and they began firing at the inquisitors. While Zaddion illuminated them with the torch, Silvanus fired a three-round burst from his las-gun, quickly dropping the first mutant. Another mutant made his way round to attack Zaddion and Geziel, but a fusillade of bullets drove him back – straight into Silvanus’s path and another burst of las-fire from the guardsman’s gun. The third mutant was quickly purged as well and Zaddion recovered their weapons, thinking they might be useful. A quick survey of the area showed that these passageways led deeper into mine workings – so the acolytes decided to head back to the inhabited area .

Moving father up the central passageway a corridor to the left had two doors before terminating in a T-junction. Zaddion opened the first door – only to gasp as his senses were swamped by a rush of chemical fumes. The room was a storage area for Promethium and one of the huge tanks had burst spewing its pinkish fluid across the floor. A second lather a gibbering something that might once have been human launched itself at him! Silvanus, realising that firing weapons here would be extremely unwise, as there was probably enough promethium stored here to blow the entire mine complex to kingdom come drew his sword and engaged the loathsome abomination as it crashed into Zaddion its preternaturally longs arms flailing  and clawing at him.  Zaddion drew his notched blade and slashed at the creature, and then Geziel joined the fray - sweeping her tech-priest’s staff down with a fearsome blow on the creature’s misshapen skull, crushing it instantly and sending it to the foul embrace of whatever god it now belonged to!

Barely pausing for breath, Zaddion quickly sealed the door to the fuel storage area, and opened the door opposite. Opening the door, it was apparent that something profoundly awful had occurred here – flayed, sliced and chewed body parts of an uncountable number of people were arrayed in chaotic patters about the room. Zaddion, unable to bear the sight, tuned and fled from the room. Geziel stood rooted to the spot in shock and horror and even the hardened guardsman Silvanus fell retching to the floor. 

Once recovered, they shut the door and moved on into what was obviously an accommodation block. Several more mutants were purged here and Geziel was able to restore power to this part of the complex and was then able to coax the machine spirits in the air purifiers back into functioning, immeasurably improving the quality of air and removing some of the stench of death from the area. Having restored fresh air, the acolytes decided to rest in one of the dormitories and tend to their wounds and eat some rations.

After resting for some time, the acolytes moved on, heading in the direction of where Zaddion had seen the pinkish glow. Moving through a complex of tunnels, they arrived at the source of the glow. In what, judging by the abandoned machinery was recently opened mine workings - a huge obelisk of lavender crystal thrust through a crack in the earth. It glowed and pulsed with an unearthly evil pinkish glow. As if it could somehow sense them, a pulse of more powerful light streamed out towards them. For a second the inquisitors could feel the warping pull of chaos pulling at their minds and bodies – but secure in the blessing of the Emperor, they managed to shake off the effects. The crystal shuddered as if in anger at being thwarted and suddenly with a shimmering pulse, disgorged a hideous sight in front of the acolytes. It was a daemon, a loathsome Plaguebearer.  Zaddion and Geziel seemed rooted to the spot by the appearance of the daemon, but Silvanus managed to fire off a burst of las-fire, before the fly-swarmed daemon closed, it’s rusty butcher blade swinging in an arc towards them.

At this Zaddion seemed to snap out of his shock and began emptying his shotgun into the daemon. As the demon continued to battle Silvanus and the still shocked Geziel , Zaddion continued emptying his weapon into the daemon. Eventually running out of ammo, he dropped his shotgun and, grabbing the stub revolvers liberated from the mutant miners began firing with them. Eventually the daemon could take no more punishment and collapsed dead before its body folded back into the Immaterium.

For a second everyone stood and caught their breath, but the crystal obelisk pulsed evilly again and another flood of chaos washed over them. Silvanus, unnerved by the encounter with the daemon fled, Geziel stood looking in shocked horror as the power of the warp shifted and twisted the flesh of her left arm, replacing it with a loathsome wriggling tentacle. Zaddion keeping his presence of mind, took out one of the fragmentation grenades given to him by the quartermaster and lobbed it at the obelisk. The huge crystal stone shattered and broke in the resultant explosion, it’s loathsome pinkish light fading to darkness.

Once they had recovered their breath. Zaddion and Silvanus looked pityingly at their comrade, who still stood staring in shock at her new appendage. After a moment Zaddion offered to try and remove the chaos taint, to which Geziel readily agreed, however with only a serrated combat-knife as a scalpel and with little knowledge of the arts medicae. Ufortunately it proved not possible to remove the taint from her, and, in an act of mercy, her comrades administered the Finis Rerum, the Emperor's Peace.

Returning to the surface, the surviving acolytes reported back to the Commissar who was not a little surprised at their survival.