With visions of their imminent destruction at the hands of Calligos Winterscale weighing on their minds, the Hos Dynasty was understandably perturbed and in need of support regarding their new certainty that the upcoming fight would be worse than they prevented. For once luck was on their side as Jeremiah Blitz was in the area and ready to trade with the Hos Dynasty, willing to trade a salvaged and re-purposed Rak’Gol vessel to their Dynasty since as he put it, the technology was so bad not even the Mechanicus would salvage it. Still, every gun helped, and the sale was made. In the wrap-up talk, Blitz re-affirmed that he was unwilling to join the fight against Calligos Winterscale.

Though Captain Hos was upset by this news, Blitz went on to say that he held nothing against his fellow Rogue Trader, which was why he was not going to go along with Lady Sun Lee’s offer to pay for the theft of the In Purgatio Lumen. Wishing him luck, Blitz departed the Svard system to resume profit, leaving the Dynasty to discuss the possibility that they had yet another enemy to deal with… before realising they had another another enemy to deal with. A disturbing chant from the outer system repeating “Blood for the Blood God” in thousands of voices over the vox system was being broadcast, a noise that both Navigator Maturinus and Astropath Eckhart realised meant that they were due for a visit from the disciples of the Blood God.

Their nascent Navy mobilized in order to meet this new front, and the superior forces of the Hos Dynasty managed to seize control of the Void battle early on. The Chaos vessels, though packed with powerful weaponry, seemed more focused on boarding and personal attacks than powerful long-range bombardments, and the combined strategy of the Hos Dynasty managed to keep them subdued. Rather than face defeat, many of the vessels began self-destructing in an attempt to take as many Dynasty vessels with them as possible, doing large scale damage to the bulk of the fleet.

The Lumen itself closed with what was tentatively identified as the Chaos warband’s leader, and managed to deal severe damage to it. As the crew fought off increasingly powerful and demonic boarders, the vessel was whittled down by their mighty lance and it eventually lay defeated. With it incapacitated and (hopefully) not self-destructing, the Dynasty decided to board it and attempt to salvage this powerful Cruiser for their own purposes. Once on board, they were confronted – completely unsurprisingly – by its Herald leader. She quickly incapacitated Maturinus and Eckhart’s psychic powers proved no match for her Daemonic protection, but all her martial skill fell to Sarvus’s space marine enhanced constitution and Zacharya Caine’s relentless onslaught.

The Chaos warband was defeated and three vessels were theoretically salvageable, but the designs were so abnormal there was no proof as to how it could theoretically be done. Eckhart proposed that they turn the three vessels into Fire Ships, but Captain Hos proposed that they instead attempt to sell them to the Stryxis for their own purposes. Also the bulk of Svardic production would have to be focused on getting their own vessels repaired and battle-worthy for Winterscale’s invasion.

With this threat dealt with, the group then revisited Farseer Anaris for another vision of the future. Hos, Caine and Eckhart were willing to brave the trip into the future, the others refusing for personal or spiritual reasons. Hos attempted to focus on the end of the invasion, where he saw himself facing down Calligos Winterscale with the latter being triumphant and gloating over his captured force. Svard was shattered and Winterscale was offering to either let him flee the Koronus Expanse and never to return, or to face him in single combat, a battle that Hos was sure to accept… before the vision faded.

Eckhart tried to focus on a future where he would find and intercept Winterscale’s fleets, but found in his vision that his recon force was increasingly frustrated by not being able to pin down the staging point, having visited all neighbouring systems without success. Every visited system appeared empty and there seemed to be no clues, but there were persistent sightings of a mysterious void ship stalking them in the void. As his vision ended, the ghost ship again appeared in front of him, and opened fire on his vessel.

Caine had a vision of a fierce battle in the Lance control room, with fires and crews reacting to boarding actions which he threw himself into. As the battle was joined his vision faded, but not before he realised the attackers were not human. Putting together clues from this vision as well as his own, Captain Hos theorized that Winterscale was as confused as anyone as to the source of the mysterious jamming. He realised that the boarders were a race known as the Morgauth, and that the jamming technology was consistent with a race called the Sheed and he finally had an explanation for part of the situation. In the midst of the conflict between him and Winterscale, a coalition of Xenos would strike in order to take revenge on the Imperium. A tenuous theory perhaps, but solid enough that he believed he could recall Lord-Admiral Bastille VII to system, as though the aged Admiral would not fight any Imperial forces, he would be more than happy to slay some Xenos on their behalf.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this chaos and despair, with enemies closing in on them from all sign, Zacharya finally published the first of his pulp adventure novels: Courage of Caine formed the first of what he had dubbed the “CoCaine” series, and it was proving a surprise hit with the Svardic population. Settling in with this delightful romp of adventure and blatant facsimiles of their own characters, the Dynasty enjoyed a communal read and celebratory parades with their victory. It would be the last moment together they would ever enjoy.

With Warsphere Shek in orbit around Inti and evidence of Magos Stein’s apparent perfidy in negotiating with the Xenos, the Hos Dynasty had no choice but to attempt to intervene in this tense situation. Under close observation from the Xenos, and with their support vessels still days away, they were forced to proceed to the surface under threat not to return to the In Purgatio Lumen until the situation was dealt with.

The research facility on Inti was heavily battle damaged and littered with the body of dead Kroot, but few human defenders, human or servitor, could be found among the bodies. The superior eyesight of Sarvus’s body picked out some scattered Kroot patrols that were guarding the Dynasty members, but they kept their distance from the main compound. Maturinus and Eckhart confirmed that there were no bizarre psychic phenomena present among either force, leading for Captain Hos to approach the main compound and request entry.

Greeting him were a small squad of creatures that were tentatively identified as human, but only just. Maturinus immediately suspected some sort of heretical mutation, but the creatures politely greeted the Dynasty and bade them come inside to meet with the Magos who would explain the situation. Stein herself had felt the pressure of the situation, but was still confident in disarming the situation. The Xenos above had come to her in order to barter for a cure for a genetic disease introduced into their populace through unspecified means, which she had agreed to do so in exchange for access to their research materials and a promise of protection upon success. Her true motivation was to procure the key to stabilizing DNA integration to complete her hybrids – humans implanted with Xenos organs in order to enhance their abilities.

The Magos had been successful in creating these augmented humans thanks to the multitude of creatures available on Inti, and felt she was close to success, but her Kroot subjects had all died and she was unable to procure more. When queried about the cure for the Kroot mutation by the Captain, the Magos happily revealed she had cured that degradation or else her experiments would never be able to proceed. Shocked that this situation seemed unnecessary, the Dynasty ordered the Magos to turn over the cure so the Warsphere would leave, but Stein refused to do so – saying she would not be complicit in the heresy of curing a Xenos race. Oblivious to this hypocricy, she revealed that she was attempting to turn the cure into a slow-acting virus that would accelerate the mutation and destroy the Warsphere, but without subjects she needed more time.

With the Dynasty stymied, they attempted to negotiate with Shek to provide more test subjects: an action that backfired when their Shaper ordered the Warsphere to descend upon the planet, and a massive host of warriors emerged in order to provide a test pool, and to guard the Dynasty and Magos to ensure there was no more betrayal. Under close scrutiny, the Magos resumed her production with Captain Hos’s assistance and the pair managed to accelerate both the cure and the poison. When it came time for delivery, the Dynasty debated psychically through Eckhart’s mindlinking whether or not they should betray Stein and win over the Xenos, but ultimately at Maturinus’s urging decided to continue the plan to kill the Xenos and allow Stein to continue her research to create advanced soldiers.

With the Warsphere apparently cured, they left to “find” themselves, and promised to return to fulfill their bargain little realising that they had signed their death sentence. Returning to Svard, the Dynasty organised their assembled fleet to await Winterscale and study their next move. Fortunately they had assistance with the arrival of Farseer Anaris, who proposed an elaborate ritual to attempt to project the consciousness of the Dynasty into the future so that they could study a path their were on to better determine their next action in this war. Sarvus declined as his soul had been tossed around enough, and Maturinus’s scoffing could be heard into the void, leaving only Eckhart and Hos to view the outcome of their actions.

Hos found himself presumably at the point of the invasion, as he was on the bridge of the Lumen being tossed around violently as they were in a fierce void battle. Their communication and augury systems were jammed and unable to function, and no intelligence could be apparently gathered from this disturbance. Void Mistress Nichols was unable to provide an explanation as the Winterscale fleet was too far out to reach the Dynasty, and when he demanded Maturinus accelerate them out Hos was informed by a confused Nichols that Maturinus was dead. Putting aside his shock, he began ordering the crew to scan harder, resulting in a desperate and confused revelation that it was the Svardic forces that were opening fire on them, and dominating their fleet as the vision faded. Meanwhile, Eckhart was trapped in a Witch Cage forced to watch the destruction of his forces while his captor – Krawkin Feckward – gloated at their downfall.

Confused and threatened, they returned to Svard to plan their next move. Unfortunately while away, Maturinus and Sarvus had found that Navigator Ember Nostromo had returned to happily point out that their suspicions were correct, and that it did appear that somehow Erasmus Haarlock’s fleet was behind all of their troubles, but not the Rogue Trader himself. Satisfied that their “alliance” was at an end, she thanked them for her help, and made it clear that any further assistance from her would require future negotiations. Even Hos balked at these negotiations, and as the Dynasty attempted to force her to leave, Maturinus lost his patience with these negotiations and attacked the heathen Navigatrix. Slaying her, her body dissolved into a viscous slime onto the carpet, and shortly one of her nearby attendents began to contort and change shape into the Chaos Navigatrix again. Realising that as long as she had bodies she was effectively immortal, the Dynasty opened fire on her and all her attendents, killing them and reducing them to ash.

With her bodies destroyed, the Dynasty briefly exulted and ordered a search orf the system for the Monarch of Whispers, but were interrupted by a vox message from a very angry Nostromo. She informed the group that their impudence means they would get what they deserved when her pursuer arrived. Cutting off, the Dynasty was forced to wonder what new threat was coming their way… as far off in the system’s outer cloud a new fleet emerged from the Warp…

Negotiations with Ember Nostromo were hardly how the Dynasty wanted to spend the day, given that they were still flush with their spoils from raiding Maleziel and that the defense forces of Calligos Winterscale were bound to catch up with them eventually. Nonetheless, a Grand Cruiser piloted by a Navigator sworn to the Chaos Powers has a way of forcing your hand in the matter.

Perhaps a strange fortune shone on them, for she seemed quite amenable to talking and securing an alliance against their so-called “mutual foe”. Captain Hos and Navigator Maturinus met with the Chaos-touched Navigator while secreting Astropath Eckhart under the care of Arch-Militant Caine as they knew that Nostromo was interested in him most of all. The conversation was confusing and self-contradictory, but Rogue Trader Hos eventually realised that the Navigatrix was afraid of the legendary Erasmus Haarlock, or at least forces belonging to him and suggested she investigate this avenue. Nostromo eagerly agreed and quit the ship, before threatening that she would return at the earliest opportunity.

With the Monarch disappearing into the Warp, the crew made back to Damaris and unthawed Anastasia Chorda, welcoming her back to the Imperial fold and non-cryogenic life. The young heir of the Chorda warrant was surprised that her sister was missing without being confirmed dead, and cautiously asserted that without the Warrant there was little she could offer. Apparently Aspyce had frozen Anastasia so that the latter would take over the dynasty upon the former’s passing without the hassle of an immediate war of succession. Without her position being clear she was unable to swear her unbridled support, but she was grateful for the rescue and remained behind on Damaris to “review” the situation and see what help she could provide without weakening herself.

Turning the Fallen Hand over for repairs, the crew happily switched back to the In Purgatio Lumen and spent a little bit of downtime in Damaris acquiring new information and, in the case of the Rogue Trader and Seneschal Sarvus reassuring people that they were in charge and not to waver in their dedication. Before heading back to Svard they made the decision to stop in at Inti and perform the same sort of morale boosting as well as checking in on Magos Isabella Stein as the Captian noticed that her personnel recruitment greatly exceeded what could be thought of as reasonable.

Meeting the Magos in orbit around the fauna planet Inti Tertius, she apologised for the increase in “resource expenditure” as her experiments had proven more hazardous for a period, but that she expected the needful deaths to reduce from this point forward. Sensing that she wished to be left alone, the crew made for their flora planet of Inti Quatrus to meet with the personnel there, who seemed equally enthused and receptive towards the Hos Dynasty, but mentioned that they had been denied visiting Magos Stein’s research facilities on Tertius for several months now, and the Magos herself had not left. Despite all the signs of something going wrong, Navigator Maturinus passionately insisted that this was a threat that could wait, and the crew departed for Svard.

In orbit around their home base the crew found both Magos Commodore Gnothis Trannarch had arrived to answer many incoming messages from the Rogue Trader, especially concering the possibility of war. Though grateful for the Rogue Trader’s many contributions, he expressly forbade intruding on the private territory of Magos Haugaard as that would be intruding on Mechanicus domain, although thankfully he had extracted a similar promise regarding Winterscale and Inti. Although he had received several promising leads from the Hos Dynasty, their unfortunate lost time in the Processional of the Damned cost them five years of inactivity, and the loss of the opportuniy on Zayth particularly rankled.

Swearing that he would redouble his efforts, the Dynasty debated heading to Zayth to attempt to raise themselves up in the eyes of the Mechanicus, or conduct raids in Winterscale’s territory in general, but a chance comment about the loss of reports from Magos Stein continued to percolate inside their minds until they decided the mysteries had to be answered and broke for Inti. Before leaving however, Fist of Dorn had arrived answering Hos’s summons, and he managed to broker a deal where they would focus their efforts on the more piratical sectors of Winterscale’s Domain in an attempt to stir up trouble in exchange for several promising mining contracts in the Calixis Sector.

Heading back to Inti, the crew emerged with a distress call from Quatrus, and ominous silence from Tertius. In their absence, a Kroot Warsphere had arrived in orbit and began assaulting Magos Stein’s forces. Confident in his ability to parlay with the mercenary Xenos, Captain Hos extracted a truce and attempted to learn the truth from the Kroot on board. Apparently Magos Stein had contract herself with this Warsphere to address a plague among their members, and the Xenos had run out of patience and come to exact vengeance. Chillingly, the Xenos battle reports revealed strange, possibly mutated humans of extreme lethality defending the research base below, and the Warsphere decreed that either the Hos Dynasty bring them Magos Stein dead or in chains, or else they would have to contend with the wrath of the Warsphere on top of all their other problems…

The capture of the freshly renamed Fallen Hand marked more than a victory over the Fel Dynasty, it also awarded the Hos Dynasty a wealth of information about the workings of Calligos Winterscale, and offered an opportunity to potentially eliminate Winterscale in a pre-emptive strike. Astropath Eckhart and Arch-Militant Caine were both in favour of taking their cruiser, passing themselves off as Hadarak Fel and getting to the Emperor’s Vow, eliminating it in one fell swoop.

Before any plans could be firmly established, Lord-Admiral Bastille VII entered the Svard system, intent on uncovering the truth behind the Rak’Gol world the Dynasty claimed to have discovered, and eliminating it in the name of the Imperium. Though Captain Hos debated joining this single fleet in a PR move against Winterscale’s aggression, the Lord-Admiral resisted such overtures, claiming that a fleet needed only one leader. Thus surprisingly everyone involved, Captian Hos signed over his fleet at Hemelshot to command under Bastille, with the exception of the Under Wry Beginnings. Bastille was insistent that he would not raise arms against a fellow Imperial, even one as distasteful as Winterscale, but nonetheless Hos gave orders for his fleet to rendez-vous at Hemelshot, and then proceed to the Rak’Gol colony world.

The Fallen Hand made way for Foulstone and to rendez-vous with the Fallen Hand there, before heading on to Lucin’s Breath for their execution strike. Though the Fallen Hand made good time to Foulstone, other vessels did not have Navigator Pazzano guiding their vessel. The days ticked on, and though Captain Hos and Seneschal Sarvus made good work decrypting Hadarak Fel’s private notes, the days ticked on without the transport arriving.

Finally rather than waiting, a decision was made to abandon this plan and instead head to Maleziel as Fel’s notes indicated that there was a prize of great renown there. Arriving and managing to pass themselves off as Hadarak Fel was simple, and reconnaisance and investigation didn’t take long to realise that the prize was the scattered remnants of the Ventan Iron Hounds, the institution they had so recently crushed and had declared renegade by the Inquisition in Port Wander. Identifying the warehouse where the items were being processed, the Dynasty used their brand new Teleportarium to sneak into the building.

Though a number of challenges faced them, the infiltration went well, and along with convincing a scientist to join them rather than die at Winterscale’s hands, they managed to recover a large number of cryogenic pods that the Hounds were keeping for leverage over various figures inside the Imperium. Apart from some nobles whose debauchery exceeded the norm, a few renegade psykers tagged as “Emergency weapons”, and several Navigators including one from the “lost” house Nostromo, they most importantly found the pod containing the sister of Aspyce Chorda that they had recovered so many years ago from Grace. Making off in their teleportarium, the Fallen Hand broke orbit, and responded to requests to return for a security investigation with a Warp-enhanced boost of speed to clear the range of their orbital defenses.

Chorda’s sister was left in stasis for the time being, and the Dynasty made for the edge of the system in order to return to Svard and regroup. Moments before the Navigator made for warp, proximity alarms blared as a Grand Cruiser had emerged from the Warp, literally directly in the path of their Cruiser. Navigator Pazzano recognised this as the vessel belonging to the heretical renegade Navigator Ember Nostromo, who ordered the Dynasty to surrender or be destroyed.

Naturally responding this with their usual defiance, the Fallen Hand opened up on the Grand Cruiser, and the Dynasty led a team with the Death Bastards over to the Monarch’s bridge, where they were confronted with Chaos iconography and yet another raging lunatic on the command throne with an axe Their blasphemy proved no match for the Hos Dynasty, but even with their death the vessel continued on unabated, apparently unconcerned with the loss of their senior crew. Planting the demolition charges and awaiting a beamout from their vessel, the group was confronted by foul, sorcerous tongues issuing from the speakers that seemed to burn their very soul.

Destroying all internal communications, their next intrusion came from Nostromo herself asking them to open the bridge so that she and her friends could communicate. Sarvus attempted to set a bomb that would kill the Navigator when the doors opened, but before the trap could be sprung, the bridge’s sealed doors opened revealing the Navigator, and a sextet of summoned daemons at her side. A fierce battle raged, with Eckhart confronting the Navigatrix personally while the remainder of the Dynasty fought the daemons’ mind control powers and managed to send them back into the Warp. Their teleportarium finally whisked them back to the Fallen Hand where they witnessed the “destruction” of the enemy bridge.

Although the battle was far from over, instead of a furious countervolley from the Monarch of Whispers, communications were again issued from Nostromo indicating that she had recognised Eckhart, and that she wished to talk of an alliance against their mutual enemy. Information that Eckhart could not corroborate, or even make sense of…

In its time, the Hos Dynasty had accomplished great things: It had liberated entire systems from Xenos and the Forces of Chaos, it had made alliances and it had colonized new systems to serve its purposes and, in time, the Imperium at large. Their deeds were becoming the things of legend, but as with all things in the Galaxy that they lived each victory came at the cost of a terrible price of blood. The simple truth was coming out: The Dynasty could not continue to lose tens of thousands of people in battles at this rate, not without changing Captain Hos’s plan towards press-ganging as Svard and Damaris had both been taxed to the limit, Inti was being used as a research centre and already accounted for most of the volunteers from Footfall, and Bannack had just been put to the lance of the Lumen in order to combat a daemonic threat.

Delving into the ancient records of Silence, the Captain discovered mention of several feral worlds that, to his knowledge, had not been claimed by other Rogue Traders – at least not publically. Deciding to follow these leads, he set course for a star system known in his records as “Hemelshot”, in order to investigate the rumours of a potential lost colony of humanity occupying that world. The route to this system was already mostly charted, as it was relatively close to the Labrek system. Setting course, Maturinus’s flawless journey through their charted expanse brought them back to the system of the cooperative Xenos so recently visited by the Dynasty, and one whose fate at the hands of the Dark Eldar was still unknown.

Though most of his senior crew were against the idea, the Captain insisted on once more making tentative approaches into the syst3m, and seeing if there were any survivors, or at least things that he could salvage. Opening the vox in search of survivors, the first few days were greeted with silence, and when they reached the outpost where they were previously welcomed they found only a ruined hulk for them to moor at. As they considered turning around, a pair of Labrek transport vessels desperately hailed them calling for aide, while a Dark Eldar Cruiser appeared on long-range scans closing the distance.

The Captain attempted to parlay with the capricious Xenos, despite the urging of Caine and Eckhart to flee the system immediately. Their intuition was regrettably correct, as not only were the Eldar unwilling to negotiate with the Dynasty, the two Labrek vessels dropped whatever Xenos-based illusion they were using to reveal that they were a pair of Dark Eldar Raiders rapidly closing on the Lumen’s position. Calling for a full battle alarm, standard battle procedures were adopted, but the pincer maneuver coupled with the superior firepower of the Dark Eldar quickly devastated the Lumen, and left their ship on the verge of hulking. With no alternative possible, Navigator Maturinus frantically threw the ship into the Warp in a desperate effort to escape their imminent destruction, and the Labrek system was hastily abandoned.

The warp journey was violent and dangerous of its own, and the need for replacement crew was never made more dire as over two-thirds of the ship had been heavily damaged in the attack, and coupled with residual fire damage almost half the crew lay dead. Emerging from the warp in a dead sysetm, the Navigator re-calculated his position and got the Lumen back on course for Hemelshot, the need for replacement crew now more dire than ever. Fortunately his peerless skill was up to the task, and despite the difficulties faced by the ship, they did indeed arrive in orbit safely.

The system of Hemelshot was indeed what the notes they had retrieved had indicated: A verdant world, that seemed to be able to sustain a large human population that had massed on a single, large continent. From orbit, there was one major city that was long since devastated by war, and preliminary flyovers found a large number of coastal settlements, as well as no sign of any great technology opposing them. Landing with a heavily armed party, the Dynasty were surprised to found that although primitive, the Natives themselves appeared to adhere to the Imperial Creed, bowed to the Emperor and knew of at least the rudimentary basics of the Imperial Truth. The source of their knowledge was shown to be some ancient tomes that appeared to be millennia old, and taught a more secular version of the Imperium than what had previously been shown.

These artifacts appeared to have come from deep inside of the ruined city, which the villagers told a myth of how it had been destroyed long ago by demons from above, and that the demons still dwelled there, killing any who dared approach. Though the village they visited, and several villages after that, seemed more than willing to become servants of the Hos Dynasty, the majority of the population still lurked around the cities, and believed that the ruin itself could be retaken by the demons. Unwilling to let any easily killable demons keep them from money, the captain left Atticus in charge of converting visiting each coastal tribe to convert them to their cause, while they would make contact with the jungle tribes, and then retake the city to win them over.

The first half of their plan went swimmingly, and it wasn’t long before a well-armed Imperial party began depositing guncutter-carried troops into key areas of the city to secure its locations. The city itself was of an archaic, but recognisably Imperial design, though long since dilapidated by time. Rather disturbingly though, as they approached what was most likely a run-down Governmental palace, Eckhart detected a strong psychic signature sweeping over the group, and then zeroing in on Captain Hos and swiftly reading the Rogue Trader’s mind. The Astropath lacked any way to break the connection, and after a few tense minutes the mind withdrew, leaving no trace of its presence, nor when Eckhart sent a return scan any mind indicating where it could have come from.

The Death Bastards, though depleted by their excursion to Bannsack, were the only Platoon sent to accompany them as they had the most experience dealing with Psychic threats. As they approached the city, they were met by a being initially thought to be a mutant, before he hailed in a loud, clear voice that he was a Space Marine, and required evacuation by all loyal forces of the Imperium for he and his brothers. Further information was scarce, the Marine only indicated that he was on a mission sanctioned by the highest levels of the Imperium, the Dynasty was not permitted to know their duty, and they required transport off of this planet with their cargo uninspected or impeded with in any way.

Eager to please, Navigator Maturinus happily offered his private Navigation sanctums for their use, which seemed to satisfy the marines. Nonetheless, Eckhart’s scans still could find no trace of the psyker who had previously scanned them, and the existence of such a Psyker was evaded by the Space Marine, saying that he would answer no questions, as secrecy was to be held in paramount. All told there were only 6 Marines, but Eckhart was reluctant to probe further as he strongly believed there to be a lurking Psyker who could detect this perfidy. Although Hos was eager to agree, the remaining condition galled him: The city and its surrounding environs were to be destroyed from orbit, killing tens of millions of feral humanity in a fiery holocaust.

Though the coastal villages were to be left untouched, the knowledge that they would lose whatever secrets the city held as well as commit a literal genocide was too much for Caine and Sarvus to accept, while Eckhart no longer trusted the entire planet and said they should burn it all, Marines included and look for another alternative. Atticus and Maturinus were more than willing to agree with the Adeptus Astartes, and eventually persuaded Caine to their point of view as well. Captain Hos was forced to back down, and the Marines were brought on board, with their unknown cargo. With that, the beautiful forests of the planet were put to the lance.

Fortunately, Atticus had done his work well and the Dynasty had more than ample volunteers to fill its holds, and more waiting an eager return to their Imperium. Lacking profit, but gaining personnel was more than enough for the time being, and with the taciturn Marines under heavy guard in the Navigator sanctum, the Lumen set off on a return journey to Svard.

While deep in the hold, an unseen Marine began a plot that would threaten to tear the Dynasty apart…

With the defeat of the Slaugth, the Dynasty’s power and reputation had been solidified, and the Inquisition was reluctantly forced to retract its investigation and audit of the Dynasty’s finances, gradually returning them to their full strength. Staying at Port Wander to complete installation of their new archeotech plasma drive aboard the In Purgatio Lumen, Captain Hos was instrumental – as well as public – in restoring order following the insurgency caused by the Ventan Iron Hounds. Before departing for his burgeoning empire, he instructed Sarvus to remain behind and attempt to claim as much of the Iron Hounds’ finances as possible, especially paying attention to the cryo-stasis sister of Aspyce Chorda that they had handed over all those years ago.

Although Astropath Eckhart was concerned by the single unaccounted for Slaugth, neither he nor Maturinus could detect whether or not this creature had stowed away on board the Lumen, but the crew was left on high alert for any unexplained disappearances. Upon return to Svard, a tour of the Hos Dynasty worlds was proposed in order to remind everyone that they were back and in charge. Their first stop was the newly settled (to them) world of Bannack, an Agri-World designed to feed their burgeoning empire.

One easy, well-charted warp journey later, the Lumen arrived in orbit and then announced their presence, intending to deliberately delay as long as possible their arrival so that there would be less time to sweep things under the rug. Fortunately even panicked, the Dynasty was greeted with a hastily-arranged but well performed rendition of Men of Hos, and Governor Vandisse was eagerly, if not happily, on hand to tour the outskirts of the world.

Suspicions were raised as to the possibility of smuggling and embezzlement, and after the initial tour and dinner Captain Hos personally oversaw the investigation into the records of the planet’s production schedules, aided by the Adminstratum representative Quiana Fenoff. It was clear there was some sort of malfeasance going on, but any further investigation was curtailed by a sudden outbreak of sickness among most of the planet, including Eckhart and Maturinus. The hive was quickly put into lockdown, and a quarantine was initiated.

Quickly suspecting poisoning, the Captain ordered his own troops and food brought in from above, although understanding that none who entered could be allowed to leave before the crisis was finished. The Ship’s Priest Atticus Kern, as well as the local preacher Marcellus Freelon tended to the wounded and put those out of their pain as best they could. Despite their best efforts though, a cure could not be synthesized or determined, and people gradually succumbed to the illness – starting with the Governor himself.

The time for mourning was brief though, as the bodies that fell soon rose up again to feast on the living. This was not as terrifying as first thought though, as their decayed and dessicated bodies were unable to penetrate the thick armour of the Adventurers. Their deaths seemed to fuel some sort of bizarre ritual, as much stronger and horrific creatures rose up from their decaying remains, which Atticus identified as belonging to the Chaos God Nurgle. These newly risen daemons were no match for the powers of Navigator Maturinus, who easily banished them back to the warp with contemptuous ease.

Now declaring the city lost, the captain evacuated his crew, as well as Priest Marcellus who showed no signs of the worst of the plague, and ordered an orbital bombardment of the city. Administator Fenoff agreed with the wisdom in this, and triggered the emergency safeguard instituted by Magos Isabella Stein – a chemical and explosive sterilization of the city before the lance fire obliterated the area.

Unwilling to trust that the situation was cleansed, the Captain ordered a return to the area to verify personally all threats were gone – a wise decision as in the midst of the hunt a new figure rose up, clad in the armour of the Death Bastards, but radiatin g astrong and malicious psychic presence. A spreader of disease, this creature single-handedly incapacitated most of the platoons, and nearly single-handedly killed the Explorers before barely being banished back into the Warp through their firepower. Sadly the fight claimed the life of Priest Freelon, so there were no survivors of the main city of Bannack.

Despite the massive loss of life, the plague was nonetheless halted and the bulk of the planet appeared unharmed. The crew of the Lumen proceeded up to the orbital station for decontamination, and once they were cleared of further contamination by the plague, reflected on their losses and prepared to move on with their now tainted victory tour…

GM Disclaimer: Yes I’ve been bad about some Adventure Log posts. These are just my notes on the session so that when I find the time to do a full write-up I can, otherwise you may use these as your references.

Session Summary

• Tanthus Moross saved, and communicates with party through unknown control of one of his female servitors.
• Sylvia Locke remains safe, remains confident in the Dynasty’s ability to weather this crisis.
• Dynasty decides to investigate Adeptus Mechanicus shrines in Footfall to gain intelligence as to how the cultists seized control of facility, and who built the daemon engine.
• Mechanicus Adepts confess plot was conceived by Vladaym Tocara, provide Dynasty with transponder key to allow their guncutter in and out of Footfall.
• Jequin Hos and Astropath Eckhart move to storm Footfall with small strike force, disable defenses, allowing ships to enter unimpeded.
• Cultists have slowed in Footfall due to natural attrition. Death rate still extremely high.
• Defenses have been set up by Hadarak Fel which are apparently keeping order. One pocket of remaining cultists exterminated. The rest revealed to have ceremonially sacrificed themselves rather than face capture.
• Hos remains to coordinate rescue efforts. Remaining Dynasty sent to Mechanicus shrine to retrieve more information, and realisation that daemon engines still unaccounted for.
• Eckhart and Navigator Maturinus imprisoned with Mechanicus personnel. They are revealed to be dead, and only an artificial consciousness.
• Zacharya Caine and Artifex Felicis taken to the source of the corruption, identifying itself as an Irradial Cogitator
• Device admits plan was to cause confusion and panic to distract Rogue Trader vessels, and take control of assembled fleets remotely, installing itself in their databanks.
• Eckhart and Maturinus free themselves and incapcitate the mechanically augmented members of the Dynasty, then manage to destroy the Cogitator.
• Hos makes executive decision to not reveal Mechanicus corruption to preserve alliance with Magos Commodore Trannarch. Lumen remains in system to aide in recovery.
• Upon trying to exit, unknown Xenos device throws them into Processional of the Damned.
• Dynasty is sad.