Dark Heresy Spirebound: Prologue

Spirebound was initially the catchy (in my mind anyways) name I came up with for what was supposed to be a one-off Dark Heresy 2.0 game. I had run plenty of online games in the past and just before Spirebound I had managed to convince a group of people, some of which had serious reservations about playing a game entirely online, to try a different one-off game using Fantasy Flight's RPG Only War. It went far better than I had expected, and convinced us as a group to start another one as Acolyte Investigators for the Emperor's Holy Inquisition using the Dark Heresy 2nd edition rules. Since it was only supposed to be a one-off and we were all pretty sick of the usual low level just starting out stuff (me especially) we decided to have the game be about seasoned veterans, starting at a very high XP level and with extra gear. I attempted to make a high-stakes adventure to match, and thus Spirebound was born. The following prologue is very similar to the one the players themselves received, other than the character introductions. For reference, the game was run entirely text-based through Roll20, which is my favorite way to run online games, and the tales you will read following this prologue are only ever so slightly embellished or cut down in places for the sake of readability. Additionally, any of the amazing custom art you will likely see was created by one of my players who is an incredible artist. You can see more of her work at https://spessmenart.tumblr.com/

Now with all that out of the way, lets set the stage

Our group of hapless heroes were an Acolyte cell in service of Inquisitor Caspiel Rex of the Blessed Ordo Hereticus, operating generally autonomously with jurisdiction in the Gothic Sector, Segmentum Obscuras of the vast Imperium of Man. Having served him well across many worlds and many investigations, they had gotten used to a certain routine of completing an investigation, reporting their success via Astropath (faster than light psychic communication for those of you new to 40k) and then receiving new assignment within a month before moving to the next area.

Caspiel Rex had a reputation for his investigative methods. He was a master of disguise and subterfuge, able to assume new identities flawlessly and on the fly to blend with his surroundings and infiltrate near any social group, resorting to brute force only when absolutely necessary. He had a vast network of informants all across the Gothic sector in all sections of society and walks of life which he exploited ruthlessly to root out insidious cults and traitors, as is the mandate of his profession. He also had a reputation among his peers as a bit of a radical, preferring to turn weapons of the Dark Powers of Chaos against their fell masters rather than destroy them. (this was mostly due to the characters my players made, but since it was only a one-off I wasn't disallowing them from much)

It may seem like an odd look for a master of disguise, but his face is about as plain as they come and the strange metal brackets around the crown of his skull are always hidden beneath a prosthetic or wig. At this point in the chronicle he didn't have that metal hand, however.

He was equally secretive and distant with his Acolytes, often communicating through obscure data-drops or coded messages containing whatever information he had about their next assignment. Indeed our brave party didn't know much about his personal activities or even how many other cells he had active, and generally only saw him during important meetings in the massive Gothic Sector Inquisitorial Palace on Port Maw, but this latest job was an anomaly. After clearing out a number of warring cults from the Imperial world of Trasis Primaris they had heard nothing from him at all in a span of three months, until an unusual package arrived for them. But before we get in to that, let's meet the cast.

In no particular order, we first have Caesar Morroe. Caesar was a highborn noble of good breeding, and had thanks to his lineage secured an officers commission in the Imperial Guard, commanding lowborn soldiers of his homeworld. Unfortunately for Caesar, he was not very good at it, and ended up getting a good lot of them massacred due to a combination of poor commanding and combat paralysis. He likely would have faced some serious repercussions for this in the way of "friendly fire" and a formal review, but as it turned out he was actually quite good at many aspects of investigation, and ended up uncovering an insidious plot within the ranks of the commissioned officers of his regiment entirely of his own volition. This just so happened to coincide with Inquisitor Rex's own investigation, and Morroe was offered a new job. The horrors of his first command fresh in his mind, he readily accepted. Morroe is slightly naive due to his privileged upbringing, and can often be buffoonish or overzealous, but has undeniable skill at charm and an eye for detail which both serve him well.

Next up is Deimos Maypax, the PC who really forced Rex's concept to full Radical. Maypax was an unsanctioned psyker who had been used as a daemonhost by a shadowy cabal of chaos worshipers as part of a much greater plan. A combined effort between the Ordo Hereticus and the Ordo Malleus ended up rooting out the group before their unknowable plans came to fruition and wiped them out, exorcising the powerful demon that had taken roost in Maypax's mind. Rex took Maypax, promising to exterminate him after a routine interrogation. Rex found a truly penitent soul and powerful psyker in Deimos, and instead opted to turn him against the powers he so unwillingly served. As a footnote, Maypax was created as a gimmick character to see just how many psychic mishap and perils of the warp rolls could be had in a single adventure.

The second of our two psykers is the enigmatic pyromancer known as Yarrow. In contrast to Deimos, Yarrow was a sanctioned psyker and had used his formidable fire conjuring in service of the Imperial Guard. His face had been horribly marked with burns, forever scarred by the fire he simultaneously mastered and hated, and he had taken to wearing a feudal-style plate helmet at all times to hide his deformity. His tour with the Guard was a brutal affair under a vicious murderer of a Colonel, and was forced to take part in atrocities against the occupants of the planet that made up the warfront. When an incidental investigation caused their paths to cross by chance, Yarrow offered his services to Rex in exchange for a way out. He got his way out, but secretly vowed to one day kill the Colonel who had made his life a living hell.

At the other end of the spectrum is Alcyone Saboris, former Tech Adept with the Magis Biologis. Born and raised on a Mechanicus Explorator fleet, Alcyone was indoctrinated into the Machine Cult of Mars at a young age and developed an unhealthy obsession with human augmentation, especially of the brain, which got her a serious dose of disapproving scrutiny early in her training. However an elder tech priest with the Magis Biologis recognized her potential and took her under his wing. Her fascination did not wane, and her immaculate record of augmenting Skittari warriors was marred by her occasional "experiments". This included an incident wherein she took a warrior she had saved from the Feudal world of Caen the fleet had been salvaging ancient technology from and operated heavily on him, changing his musculature to be grotesquely massive. However even her mentor could not protect her when one of her "Neural Augmentation" experiments drove a Skittari commando completely insane and sent him on a rampage. Facing excommunication and execution, once again Inquisitor Caspiel Rex arrived at the pivotal moment, offering a way out in exchange for service to the Inquisition. It is not known exactly how he secured a deal with the Explorator Fleet's head Magos, but he ended up leaving with Alcyone and her loyal augmented bodyguard, Tancred Bram.

Tancred Bram is a man out of time. His homeworld of Caen was a feudal world, assimilated into the Imperial fold by Adeptus Mechanicus fleets that discovered great stashes of ancient, valuable technology deep below its surface and began to excavate it several hundred years ago. This was interrupted when a massive warp storm opened right near the planet. Caen was cut off from the Imperium, ruled by medieval feudalism and the dwindling remnants of the Machine Cult. The baleful influence of the warp storms corrupted the human form, causing wanton mutation and resulting in hordes of mutants assailing the remaining kingdoms in mighty warbands. Purity of human form and reverence of the few remaining machines were venerated as the highest ideals. Tancred Bram was born into Caen as a minor nephew of a noble family and lived a life of conflict, first as a professional boxer and then as a warrior-knight when the roving hordes of mutants united to threaten the kingdoms. Around this time the Warp Storm subsided, and an AdMech Explorator fleet once more arrived on Caen to claim its secrets. This time of return was not joyous for all, however. Tancred's family linage was found to bear corruption and mutation of the warp, cleverly concealed by the family's Patriarchs, and all were put to the sword. Tancred, found to be clean of mutation, was spared the headsman's block in light of his military record and was instead cast out, casteless and disgraced. That is, until once of the great machine priests from beyond took him in and offered him a greater purpose, ascendance to the realm above and a chance to escape the curse of his own tainted bloodline. Alcyone bestowed upon him his almost horrific augmented musculature in one of her more successful experiments. He learned the lessons of the Machine Cult quickly due to his upbringing and became a stout bodyguard, still clad in the gleaming plate armor of his homeworld. He has taken to serving the Inquisition well, both keeping Alcyone safe from harm and pulverizing mutants and traitors with his massive gauntleted fists

An earlier sketch of Tancred Bram

Last and possibly least of the group, Sinric Allone is a scoundrel and ne'er do well. It is unknown how exactly he ended up in the employ of Caspiel Rex, he certainly was never willing to talk about it, but most assumed he was offered the position as an alternative for facing the consequences of his own misdoings. Sinric is a silver tongued liar and wealth of information, as well as being a skilled gunman with absolutely no inclination to fight fair. He has also been known to antagonize Caesar Morroe, and the two have a rivalry that only occasionally interferes with their work.

Phew. That was a bit of a novel, but I feel like it is important to see all the characters as we all saw them at the beginning of this little escapade. As the game was started at high level, each of them was incredibly skilled in their niche and pretty good in a fight. 

Anyways, after languishing for a period of three months with radio silence from their boss and no other contracts in sight they finally got a message, but it was not what they were expecting. An ornate box was anonymously shipped to the Governor's palace where they were residing, one side badly scorched but bearing a ciphered code phrase marking it as priority intelligence. Rather than a congratulations and the usual detailed dossier on their next target, the box contained a single scroll bearing the sentence "Draxis Hive Primus, forbidden acts among the highborn. Gears in motion, must be stopped. Arrangements have been made." and nothing else. Draxis was a hive world in the Gothic sector, but none of them knew exactly what to make of this exceptionally vague directive. Regardless, the next day a perplexed messenger arrived to inform them that arrangements had been made for them to shuttle offworld and board a voidship bound for the very same Hive world mentioned in the missive. 

The last piece of information they received were a set of cover identities hidden in their lower decks quarters aboard the voidship, as well as impressive looking invitations to an exclusive Gala hosted by the planetary governor of Draxis, Albertus Tarnell in his vaunted palace in the Hive Spire. Caesar was to play the part of a decorated Imperial General with a grave medical condition that forced him to retire. Yarrow and Deimos were to be his astropath and soothsayer respectively, Alcyone was his attending Magis Biologis to carefully monitor his health, Bram was his bodyguard and Sinric his layabout dilettante younger brother. The plot was set, and at the game's earnest beginning the party was on board a shuttle to the Hive's spire, dressed in their cover costumes with only the vaguest idea of what it is they were even supposed to be investigating.  

For any of you who somehow managed to make it this far, thanks! Expect the first actual part of the story in the next week or two!

[One Year Later]

Hey part 1 is actually up now, read it here!