Session 41 (1,000 xp) - Epilogue

"What is the terror of death?
That we die our work incomplete.
What is the joy of life?
To die knowing our task is done."

Acolytes: Meghera, Drake, Luther, Cato.

The Acolytes go through one more gate, and end up on Dusk. Here they meet an old crone of great power, the one who gave Haarlock the answers he was looking for to change his fate.

In exchange for Meghera's eyes, she reveals to the Acolytes that to stop Haarlock's coming they must destroy the last gate they came through. The Acolytes return to the gate, and they set a few explosives at the gate. The explosion does not destroy the black posts, but awakens ancient horrors from the warp: an horde of bloodletters charges the Acolytes!

The sky darkens, as the Tyrant Star approaches, and through the gate a dark traveller can be spotted. Meghera is mortally wounded by one of the daemons, and with the last drop of strength she crosses back into the gate, between Reality and the Warp, and detonates all the grenades on her body.

The gate explodes, and when the dust settles, there's no trace of Meghera or the deamons. Up in the sky, a screaming face appears on the surface of the Tyrant Star, then it dissolves. Haarlock has been stopped.

The Calixis sector has been spared the return of a dreadful tyrant... but there are still many dangers and horrors besieging mankind from all sides. Will the Acolytes still have the strength and sanity to face whatever awaits them on Dusk and beyond?

The Emperor protects.

Kort Luther

"There is no substitute for zeal"

Adept, Void Born

Luther was part of the medical staff on an Imperial warship. His search for knowledge led him to perform experiments on corpses that bordered on heresy, and he decided to leave before attracting too much attention.

He joined the Amaranthyne Syndicate, where his studies of the human body and mind unlocked his talent psychic powers. On the icy planet of Mara, he realized that the woman leading the Syndicate expedition was in fact a Slaught, and he decided to part company with his previous employers.

Session 40 (200 xp)

"Through the destruction of our enemies we earn our salvation"

Acolytes: Meghera, Drake, Luther.

Drake, lost in the labyrinthine halls, hears a voice shouting for help. Investigating, he meets Kort Luther, a former member of the Amaranthine Syndicate, and a skillfull medic. Together, they eventually find their way to Meghera.

There, they recover the gray psalter, strangely unharmed by the recent implosion. With the psalter, and guided by the ghost of Nostromo, they reach the Blind Tesseract. By activating the Tesseract, they access the past and the future, as they relive Haarlock's tragedy, and experience the possible outcomes of Haarlock's defeat or victory.

Session 39 (200 xp)

"The wise man learns from the deaths of others."

Acolytes: Meghera, Drake, Lazerus.

The Acolytes follow the guidance of Nostromo, but even the ghostly navigator cannot find the right path through the madness of Mara without one of the grey psalters of Haarlock. While they wander the icy halls, they encounter Inquisitor Herrod and his retinue of Tyrantine Cabal's Acolytes.

The Inquisitor orders them to stand down, and offers a temporary alliance, but the Acolytes do not trust him, and a gunfight starts. The Acolytes kill Herrod and his retinue.

They reach an impossibly vast cavern, where weird clockwork devices can be found. Lazerus manages to decipher the information contained in them, bringing him one step nearer to understand the riddle that is Haarlock, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Miss Book, and her Amaranthine Syndicate mercenaries. The woman carries a gray psalter, and it's set on taking the keystone and Nostromo from the Acolytes.

Unwilling to give up, the Acolytes attack, but soon find out that Miss Book is a a Slaught in disguise. With her xeno technology, she brings the Acolytes on the edge of death, until Lazerus notices that she also carries some sort of explosive device. While he keeps her attention on him, Meghera shoots at the device from a distance.

The device, an antimatter imploder, goes off, annihilating everything and everyone in a 25 meters radius...

Party XPs

Last Update: Session 41

Meghera - 11,900 xp

Drake - 11,500 xp

Luther - 11,200 xp

Cato - 10,200 xp

Session 38 (200 xp)

"The wage of negligence is utter destruction."

Acolytes: Meghera, Lazerus, Drake.

On their way to Mara, the Acolytes are attacked by ground-air rockets. They crash-land on Mara, their guncutter damaged beyond repair, and the pilots dead. Up above, the remains of destroyed starships tinge the sky with red.

They reach the Ice Station where they face a team of mercenaries working for the Amarantine Syndicate. As they delve deeper into the Station, they find trace of recent passage: apparently they're not the only ones hunting for Haarlock's secrets.

The Acolytes and the Jannissaries make their way through the labyrinthine compound, hoping to keep their sanity as they encounter warp manifestations, and the victims of the madness permeating the dark, icy corridors.

In one of the upper chambers, they meet a mysterious, creepy man claiming to be Haarlock's Navigator, Benhamin Nostromo. The ghostly figure offers to accompany the Acolytes in their quest, for only with his help will they be able to navigate the shifting, warp-ridden corridors of the Ice Station.

Eventually the Acolytes reach a huge generator room, where savage and crazed Pilgrims of Hayte have taken residence. The slaughter that ensues triggers wild psychic phenomena. Astropath Silinus, one of the members of the expedition, seems to be particularly affected by the weird influence of the place.

Session 37 (500 xp)

"The traitorʹs hand lies closer than you think."

Acolytes: Lazerus, Drake, Meghera.

The Acolytes find Marshal Skarmen chanting heretical spells in between two dark mirrors, one whole, the other missing the last fragment. Trapped in the mirrors, a daemon struggles to free himself. Skarmen attacks the Acolytes with warp powers, but is defeated and killed. The Acolytes break both mirrors, and take the shards with them.

Sinophia Magna is deep into civil war, as the Acolytes make their way to the star-port. There, Spectre Cell 17 is waiting for them. As members of the Tyrantine Cabal, they mean to slaughter the Acolytes, and make sure Haarlock's secrets die with them. The Acolytes are unprepared for the attack, and only manage to survive thanks to the help of the daemon, who seals a pact with Meghera and Drake.

After defeating the Cell, the Acolytes return to Haarlock's Folly, and place the mirror pieces backs into their frames. As the mirrors repair themselves, the daemon is free. But he chooses to escape to the Warp, for he fears the return of the Traveller.

Before leaving, he tells the Acolyte to seek the Blind Tesseract, where Haarlock is supposed to have found whatever he was looking for.

* * *

Thanks to the Acolytes efforts of the lastest months, the Inquisitorial Conclave has identified the location of the Blind Tesseract on the planet Mara. They're entrusted with the full power and resources of the Inquistion to travel to Mara and end Haarlock's doom once and for all. A squad of Maccabian Jannissaries is assigned to them for protection.

They travel to Mara on the warship Sigillite's Word, but when they exit the Warp outside the orbit of the frozen planet, a full scale battle is ongoing, and they also fall under attack. The Captain does his best to get the warship as near to Mara as possible, and allow the Acolytes to escape the battle on their guncutter.

As they leave for the void, the Sigillite's Word is engulfed in flames.