Rogue Trader: Between Session Thread

[Tadanori Oyama]

Gearus, how exactly is it that you came to be assigned to my ship?:

"Well, after my salvation pod was retrieved and I arrived in Port Wanderer I was forced to report to the local High Tek, protocal you know. Once he had obtained the proper information to contact my origin world I was assigned to engineseer duties among the ship yards. It took three months for Malum to send his reply from the forge world electing me to the position of Explorator, it normally takes several years of back and forth, and ordering me to be assigned to 'the first ship heading into the wasteport sector of the Emperor's luminated space'. I had already managed to... well, I will call it 'impress' the local priesthood with my methods, and they where quick to assign me to your vessel, since you registered without a Magos aboard. Of course that meant they had to promote me to Magos Explorator to get me all official. And that's how I came to be where I am today."



Were you purposely staying close to Malum to screw with him?

"That is a rather bold question, Lord Captain. To imply that I may have purposefully attempted to make life difficult for the man who was responsible for my integration into the priesthood? Magos Malum personally oversaw my integration surgeries. He personally saw to it that I had multiple errors built into my system hardware, so that I would be able to discover and correct them myself down the line. Malum was something of a hardliner.

I count is as simple coincidence that my duties tended to follow his. After all, it was quite unlikely that I would request a transfer into servitor manufacturing just as he became shipment hierarch. A curious matter of timing. A curious matter that happened to often repeated itself whenever Malum changed positions."

[nbneil]

I'm a bold person Gearus and not so naive to believe that all of your assignments were a coincidence. Tell me more about your parents. What do you mean they were progressives?

[Tadanori Oyama]

"You are free to believe as you like, Lord Captain. This is your ship, after all, and your air that I am breathing.

As for my parents I am no privalidged with the entire history of their affairs. I was a celluar lifefrom when the events which caused my father's eventual processing and my mothers relocation.

What I have come to gather from the stories which where recorded and elected to contain non-heretical thoughts my father was involved with the improper application of holy technology. He was not of the priesthood yet he somehow gained knowledge of ordained rites and intended to use them for the benefit of the Castigation citizenry. That alone made him a heretek. I believe there was no but I have no method to discover it, nor the desire.

My mother did nothing to stop my father and was herself somehow involved. Apparently it was very slight involvement because she was not condemned as my father, nor was she decried as a heretek. I was told that she spent the rest of her days in the Steel Heights, attoning. I have no reason to question that information."

[nbneil]

I didn't mean to bring up a sensitive topic. Let's move on to something more pleasant. What is your ambition Gearus? What do you want out of this life?

[Tadanori Oyama]

"Well, not being recycled was my largest drive until very recently. As long as we don't run into an Explorator Fleet with authority and order from Malum or another High Tek to detain me, I am 'safe' in both rank and location.

What I want most now is to explore for lost technology and have the joy of destorying xeno heretek."

Test Scrutiny, +10.

[nbneil]

Rolling 1d100:

(77): Total = 77

Against perception at one half + 10 = 28
I assume that is correct. I don't have it trained.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Unfortunitally your ability to read people is not able to pierce the veil of the Tech Priest's altered face and synthetic voice. He sounds like he's being sarcastic... but then he always does.



That doesn't seem right, does it? I mean, your captain of a ship, you'd think your survival would depend on your ability to read people but almost nobody has Scrutiny as a skill.

Maybe I'm using the wrong go to skill here if nobody even has it...

Awareness is a popular choice. Maybe I'll use Awareness from now on.

Neil, make an Awareness Test at +10.

[nbneil]

I take it my paranoia will not substitute for Awareness.  Regardless, I decided to respec a bit based on gameplay (if that's ok).  I've taken a TON of weapon talents and I'm not sure Quick Draw is critical at the moment.  If that's ok, then . . .

Rolling 1d100:

(42): Total = 42

against Awareness 47 with the bonus

I won't have the option for scrutiny until rank 3.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Well we're advancing to Rank 3 for the next game so maybe I'll finally have some people passing Scrutiny Tests.

Anyway, you detect that when Gearus mentions Malum he as a bit of twing to his voice. While he is speaking the truth about everything he seems to be holding back on Malum. He really seems to dislike the man.

[nbneil]

You'll certainly have your chance to discover ancient and interesting treasures, however, I ask you to hold back on destroying any xenos until I can determine their value.

I respect your commitment to the Adeptus Mechanicus, but let's speak freely for a bit.  You're not like many Explorators that I've met and my guess is equally as likely to want more than the rest of the brainwashed masses.  Perhaps that's why Malum sent you away.  You do well to hide your disdain for him.  But I can tell you don't like him much.  We are far from heart of the Imperium and his reach.  And I assure you that out here the Valkyrie is a sovereign entity, every member of my crew is under my protection.  It will be a cold day in hell before I let anyone claim dominion over my ship even the God-Emperor himself.  You're one of us now, at least I hope you consider yourself so.

So what's the story Gearus?  What's this grudge between you and Malus?

Charm +10 test

Rolling 1d100:

(86): Total = 86

 
Against a 58 Fel (unless I get another circumstance bonus)

[Tadanori Oyama]

You do get a bonus for the good dialog. Not enough to make that 86 a success.


Gearus' visual lenses alter their alignment slightly. He appears to be considering something. After a few second he turns slightly away, beginning to busy himself with a few pieces of arcane machinary.

"Whatever my... experiences, with Magos Malum, he was still my High Tek. I apologise, Lord Captain, but I should return to my functions. I must select the engineseers to dispatch to the planet surface, and there are the artifacts to analyze. The powered hammer especially is unusual. Perhaps we could talk farther another time?"



Do you play Mass Effect, Neil? If you do, your basically getting that message where you ask them if they have a moment to talk and they respond with some menial task they say needs to be completed.

[nbneil]

Yeah I get the drift. I haven't gotten the new one, but I'm hopeful.

Well since the rest of the crew is somewhat quiet, I would like to order a fly-over of the warp corrupted lands post-glassification. Basically are there any anomalies or possible lingering threats. If there is something odd, I'll have some troops investigate and report back. I want to have constant scans, communication, and fly-flyovers to make sure nothing bad happens.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Illian was pretty through with his work. Almost none of the landmass remains above water as the weapon blasts lowered the main body of the land below sea level. It resembles a collection of several dozen massive pools. The water is discolored due to the warp (and las) blasted land under it. No surviving corrupted xenos have been detected yet.

[Dawnsteel]

Well since the rest of the crew is somewhat quiet

I'm here and listening, I've had ideas but I didn't want to interject them into the awesome conversation with Gearus.  (I love that guy.)
So, more ideas:

• When we do leave, what say we leave an astropath or two here to enable communication?  To that end, should we have Carin select a couple of good ones from her choir, that she can train as a sort of listening post or emergency broadcast station?
• Can we set up some kind of satellite system, sort of an orbital AWACS?  We need notification (or warning) if ships other than the Valkyrie are headed in-system.  Note that Lorayne's approach is, "How do we tell if there's an inbound ship coming?"  Piloting or Tech-Use?  Not her thing.

[nbneil]

Sorry about that!  It was a really fun conversation.  Now I need to know more.

Ok, now in character. 

I think having an astropath on planet is prudent when we leave.  If we can spare it and can find a suitably stable member of the choir, I think that would be a good idea.  I don't intend to lose control of this planet.  The same could be said for the inbound ship relay.  Once anyone other than us knows this is here, we'll have visitors and we'll want to be ready.  Excellent work Lorayne.  If you need assistance, ask Nathan.  He's surely investigating the local lore, but he's handy with machines and electronics.  He may be able to rig something together if the enginseers are occupied planetside. 

Back out of character, are we doing any acquisitions before the next session or just ranking up our character stats?