Khanzhar cursed Anna for not being her meat shield. The Incubus was a duelist, not a brawler. A precision blade in the stage play of battle. 'Now I start to sound like a Harlequin." she thought to herself bringing her Klaive up to take the attack from the Plagueberer and return blows of her own.
Determination:[_3d6]=(2+5+2)=9
Got one success and thus why I did not want to get into melee with Plaguebearers in the first place.
Poisoned 7
With the muscular female now all but out of the fight from her wounds and the virulent infection seeping into it, that left Khanzhar in a rather bad position. While Talshi certainly could surge forward and join in the melee with his blades, his eyes were keen enough to see how the swarming flies were buzzing at the drukhari's face to otherwise hamper her strikes. She had a helmet, he did not. The sslyth was not keen to have those things buzzing his nostrils, eyes, or mouth and just, in general, found these daemons disgusting enough that he certainly didn't want to get any closer to them than he needed to.
Instead he took a breath and focused, watching the flow of the battle and timing his efforts so that he wouldn't accidentally hit his ally. When the time was right he pulled the trigger on his heavy flamer, loosing the twin stream of burning liquid in hopes of dousing both of the remaining daemons at once and finally finishing this mess of an unnecessary encounter in his opinion. Unfortunately the efforts he took to ensure he did not hit Khanzhar seemed to be just enough to foil his aim.
Spend Move Action to Aim
Ranged attack against the far Plaguebearer with the hopes of catching the closer one in the line (+1 Short Range, using Aim to remove the risk of friendly fire): [_7d6s4]=(3, 6, 3, 4, 3, 2, 4)=3=3
4 Icons isn't enough. (Enemy Defense 3 + 2 DN from Fear)
With Khanzhar's klaive going wide and Talshi's flames washing against the building instead of the daemon's, the heroes luck seemed to just be at a standstill. Flagg took careful aim and pulled the trigger, unloading her entire power pack into the two daemons in two quick bursts that shot either side of Khanzhar. Unfortunately both barrages only struck the church and left the daemons utterly unharmed, still able to menace and engage the group. One of which even seemed to feel like its work with the Drukhari was done and with a wide smile and chuckle, shambled forward towards Talshi, pulling out of a window to crawl towards him.
The group of scion's massed firepower did manage to strike the one remaining daemon that fought the Drukhari, but their weapons just weren't strong enough to deal with these Nurgle daemons, doing little more than distract it. That itself might have proved useful as it swung wide of Khanzhar and found empty air where the nimble Drukhari once was. This fight continued to drag on.
Khanzhar parried the plagued sword of the servant of Nurgle away with a precision flourish. She felt the toxins and disease of the plaguebearer working within her already. This sort of agony was not what she considered fun. Cursing in her Aeldari tongue, the Incubus returned a fateful cleaving strike against the creature.
Unfortunately for Khanzhar the daemon was just as proficient in parrying her as she was as parrying it. Though slow, brutish and cumbersome, the daemon had a surprising grace, unnatural given its grotesque form. The battle continued to stretch on, a stalemate as these things proved incredibly hard to kill. Average soldiers would likely be slaughtered already if the Scion's performance was anything to go by.
Unfortunately for Talshi, he was now in melee range of one of the creatures. The buzzing flies and foul stench assaulted his senses and, for as beneficial as his flamer generally was, he now couldn't bring it to bear. With little choice he had to fight this thing in melee and suffer through this problematic situation rather than give it a free swing by trying to pull back. Still, the sslyth was no stranger to battle and while his skill might not be quite to the same degree as the drukhari that spent her life mastering the blade he still believed he could bring this one low.
His two power swords crackled with lightning as he twisted his torso and flew into motion. Sacrificing his focus from his defense, Talshi did everything he could to try and end this abomination quickly. He swung both blades from different directions, trying to minimize any chance of his opponent to parry or avoid both of them so that at least one would strike true.
Despite Talshi's efforts the Plaguebearer managed to do something unexpected, bringing the sword up against the first blade and as it parried, shoving the larger serpent back. It wasn't enough to really push Talshi away, but it knocked him off balance for a few seconds, enough that second blade didn't come close to hitting and just cut through the swarm of flies between him and the plaguebearer. The cyclopian daemon grinned and lunged forward, thrusting its blade at Talshi, even as a barrage of fire from Flagg struck into its back, yet it seemed to ignore her as it lunged forward. Fortunately, even as the blade grazed against the Sslyth's scales, the beast seemed to lose its grip and the rotten blade tumbled free from its hands.
Flagg was cursing, having final zeroed in on where to shoot among the swarm of flies, she unloaded a heavy volley directly into the back of the beast that dueled Talshi. It should have been enough, it should have finished it... it did not and the freshly locked in powerpack suddenly flashed red and showed itself to be empty. "Throne damn it!" The woman cursing as she started reaching for her pistol.
The other scions did no better, their shots from less powerful guns unable to make a dent in the wounded daemons. Things seemed desperate right now, perhaps a little hopeless. That's when the whine of gravunits and the roar of an engine would start to echo through the destroyed gate and into the courtyard.
Theodora Tessa, radical Inquisitor and self crystalized savior of the Gilead system, had multiple cards in play. A single strike team, loud, obvious and backed up by infantry and light armor support, a reasonable approach to storm the palace. But there was no subtly and if the enemy had overwhelming defenses, well it'd turn her assets into corpses, not the ideal scenario when she wanted to interrogate the rebel lord. But an unsubtle move was a brilliant mask for a more subtle move, a flashy assault to the face while a knife was slipped in from behind. That was assuming there was a gap in the armor to slip the metaphorical knife in. That was what the second team was for.
She'd met with these, one of the Kin, an abhuman just about tolerated around these parts and a psyker-woman, untrained, bound for death before she intervened. Both were ideal scouts, and so, she gave them their mission, sent them out on a second craft bound for the besieged city. While the first team were rumbling up through to the main gate, the second team was ordered around, exploring the walls of the palace, searching for other points to enter the palace. Worst case scenario, the first team failed and this second team could slip in and extract the target quietly. Well no, worse case scenaro would be the whole palace was leveled by artillery, such a waste. Best case scenario? Well they'd meet up inside and work together from there.
That didn't pan out though, no matter what old blueprints said, the palace had been fully fortified and if there was an escape passage, there seemed to be no sign of it where the scout team could find. So the order had come down from the Inquisitor, her slightly husky voice sighing softly. "Well it would be a waste not to employ your skills still. Redirect to the front gate, you will be joining the assault team." Perhaps the pair learning for the first time, that there even was an assault team.
Cruising through the fleshy remains of the mutated gate, sliding past the disabled body of the inquisitors Rhino. Vak and Augie would witness the aftermath of a battle, corpses of heretics and traitors strewn about bunkers and trenches in a wide courtyard. They'd also spot a battle in progress, a team of scions firing into a pair of teams while a pair of xenos, a nimble drukhai and a towering Ssylth engaged them in melee combat. It was certainly a mess and it looked like the pair of scouts had their chance to make a difference to the fight.
Rolling complication just kept giving me things that didn't really make sense or else were non-applicable, so going with my own. Talshi will be staggered till the end of his next turn(1/2 speed, can't run or sprint), I don't want to stack any more meaningful penalties here.
Flagg tries to gun down Plaguebearer 3, taking a simple action to reload and movement to aim. [_12d6]=(1+1+2+3+2+1+5+3+6+4+5+2)=5 vs DN8, miss and complicate, going to use her last Wrath to reroll that(minus the wrath dice of course) [_7d6]=(1+1+1+5+3+6+3)=3 okay hits at fucking last.
Spending 1 Glory on ED to trigger her Elite Soldier Ability to add Rank to damage
Damage: 11 + [_2d6]=(4+5)=2 = 13 damage at AP -2.
Complication: [_2d6]=(1+3)=13 out of ammo. Well that's her Volleygun finished with until she can steal some ammo from the Scions
Plaguebearer 3 will swing at Talshi [_9d6]=(1+2+1+4+1+6+4+5+5)=6 vs DN 3, hit and complicate
Damage: 11 + [_2d6]=(1+1)=0 = 11 damage and inflict Posion 7(if you actually take any wounds from it)
For its complication I'm just going to have it drop its Plaguesword, losing Parry for the turn until I can pick it back up again.
Khanzhar parried the Plaguebearer's rusty rotten blade time and time again. Each time the foul warp spawned weapon touched the power field of her Klaive a rotten burning stench would emanate that even with her helmet sealed air tight she swore kept getting through. The Incubus was not having a good time, it was as if Kaela Mensha Khaine was just toying with her. Or if this spawn of Nurgle had some sort of warp based luck. Each swing had been just barely blocked or parried. It was times like this where she regretted not stealing or taking one of those Harlequin gravbelts just to get some distance and recuperate.
"That damned mon-keigh owes me a particularly screamy sort of slave after all this is done." she thought to herself. Pulling back on her blade to feint and then swing once again.
The foul daemon fell for the feint, raising it's sword to fend off the blow while Khanzhar swung the other end of her brutal xeno's blade around. She sliced into the best, cutting through its burned and rotting flesh and this time the slice seemed to hit something vital. It staggered, groaned then fell back, sword tumbling from limp fingers. The beast was at last vanquished and its body began to burn away in warp fire as its material form failed and its spirit was sent back to the warp.
9 successes vs DN 9, hits
Will inflict 8 wounds, rolling determination [_7d6]=(5+2+5+4+3+4+6)=6, takes 2 wounds and finally dies
Despite the danger Talshi managed to dip his torso low and to the right, causing the fetid blade to glance off the thick scales of his back instead of biting into his flesh. The impact was still jarring but it clearly affected his opponent more than himself as the sword wrenched free and clattered to the stone beneath them. Yes, this was an opportunity indeed. Even off balance as he was, the sslyth did his best to ride the ebb and flow of battle and instinctually brought his lower left hand up in attempt to grasp the daemon's own. If he could but hold the foul thing in place he might be able to prevent it from regaining its weapon.
His hand found its mark, gripping the grotesque flesh tightly to hold the daemon in place, but it flailed its free hand to knock his flamer onto the ground as well. A minor inconvenience in this case all things considered. In the same effort he twisted his torso back to face the daemon while his upper right arm raised its blade high and angled the blade downward in a large, sweeping motion to try and stab straight down through the creature's chest and finish it off for good.
Okay I fucked that up, it's just strength and not Athletics. Roll included for posterity but I need to re-roll regardless. You can penalize me that complication from above if you still want to.
The daemon did not expect the move, did not expect Talshi to dive in for the grab. It struggled, its corpulent form surprisingly strong as it tried to pry itself loose of Talshi's grip. It sneered up at Talshi, mouth opening wide, perhaps ready to spit an insult, or maybe even just puke on him knowing Nurgle daemons. Instead the serpants power blade came swinging down, the pristine blade singing through the air before slicing right through. The Daemon blinked its singular eye... then its face and upper torso slid away, bisected cleanly in a downward slice. The whole body of the monster began to burn away back to the warp before it even had a chance to hit the ground, leaving Talshi, and the rest of the team, victorious at last.
Sighing softly and clearly still frustrated, Flagg slowly approached the group and knelt down to examine Anna who had a bad reaction to the poison. She gestured over some of the Scion's, getting ready to pull her back to the Rhino for treatment. The woman took one glance over her shoulder and saw the incoming trike, though did not seem surprised in the slightest by its appearance, or the two individuals riding it. "Talshi, Khanzhar, you might want to go greet our new friends."
Well, that's all over and done with. Fine by me. Plenty of shooting left to do, I'd stake my watch and warrant on it.
When Vâk stops, I climb off the trike on wobbly legs. My boots land in blood; all from the heretics, it seems, or at least most of it. One bright spot. If they'd left it all to me I wouldn't have come in this way at all. Too loud, too many guns, but they've made short work of it, so they have. Suppose that's why I'm not in charge.
With my legs steady again I shoulder Lady and cross the courtyard to join the others. My eyes don't linger on the Tempestors--good men, brave men, but they're not what stands out to me. I head for the pair that do. Xenos, both, that's plain as day. A big snake, big as a young naltree, and just as thick... and one of the fair folk, if I'm not mistaken, in a suit of armor blacker than moonshy midnight. There's something radiating from her: ice, frost-fog, chill down the spine. A sneering sort of feeling. It makes my hair stand on end.
When I reach them I have to tilt my head back to look them in the faces. I'm small. A little crooked too, nowadays. This helmet's not mine, I had to scavenge it, and it hangs down over my eyes a little. "Augie." My long Tanith brogue makes it Ogg-ee. "Tellellawk. Good job knocking on the door. Sorry we missed it. Been down here since yesterday. Thought we were the only ones going in, so we did."
Of course I knew better. I saw it happen. But I try not to think about it. "And you two are?"
"Well it would be a waste not to employ your skills still. Redirect to the front gate, you will be joining the assault team"came the husky voice of Inquisitor Tessa over his comms array. Vâk sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose at this, shaking his head as he closed the comm line.
"Damned Inquisitor has us sailing to far space1" he muttered to himself. He and Augie were of the same mind on this, going through the front door was foolish and dangerous. Though the Kin would be a liar if he said there was a better way in. He and the Sharpshooter had been scouting the fortress for a day and couldn't find anything even remotely looking like a potential alternate option. Vâk sighed and shook his head before opening the comms again. "Get on umgi2 and hold on tight, your Inquisitor wants us to help knock on the front door" he called. With Augie on and holding tight, the Trike hummed to life as the Magna-coils crackled with electricity. It wouldn't be the smoothest ride, after all he hadn't anticipated having a passenger but now it seemed like he might need to consider getting another seat installed, perhaps adjusting the coils as well to handle more weight.
"That's certainly one way to describe it" he said in regards to Augie's quip about knocking on the door. Seemed like the door had knocked on them more like it. Vâk disembarked, shotgun in hand and set against his shoulder before he took his canteen off his belt, taking a sip and grunting. His augmetics ran over the party before them: a.....Tenpesty? Several actually. The armor was too advanced to be one of the Guard. Vâk liked the Guard in spite of his loathing of Inquisitors and other umgi. He was a bit surprised to see an Dharkelgi3 among them, dressed in dark armor and covered in spikes. He could only imagine what one of their kind was doing here, let alone allying themselves with the Inquisitor. Vâk didn't trust Dharkelgi, they were too tricky. He'd admit though that their weapons and technology were impressive enough, though a bit showy. Then there was the Lizardman. Big damn bugger too. Vâk took another sip and approached with Augie, offering the canteen to the Tenpesty. The contents smelled acrid but alcoholic. A rotgut of his own making using Corpse Starch and Thruster Coolant
"Well met umgi. Your Inquisitor sent us to assist. Vâk Skêyfyr" he said with a gruff and gravelly voice. He looked to the rest of the group and called out. "I brought some ammo with us if any of you need it" he offered, motioning to the bike and the various cans of ammo. Battery Packs, Bolter Rounds, ammo of all kinds it seemed. The Kin had come prepared it seemed.
1. "Sailing to Far Space" - A Kin Saying that means something is Foolish or Risky
2. "Umgi" - Kin slang for Humans
3. "Dharkelgi" - Kin slang for Drukhari
Talshi savored the flashy kill as his blade drove deep and carved a channel clean through, the ringing metal joining the crackling electricity of his blade in a symphony of slaughter that was far too satisfying for how much trouble these damnable things had been; even if their inability to feel pain dampened his sadistic glee. Nevertheless it was finally done, a battle that he remained frustrated about considering it was one they easily could have avoided. "Next time we find such daemonsss paying us no mind we leave them alone." He hissed to Khanzhar though it was about this time that Flagg pointed out reinforcements. Odd that she was aware of these newcomers and yet nothing had crackled over the vox-piece in his ear.
The sslyth eyed a lithe human and a stunty one. At least it looked vaguely human by his recollection. Both appeared by his cold gaze as if a stiff breeze would blow them over but he hardly worried too much about their long-term survival. His agreement was with the inquisitor and he would see the job through. Whether or not those sent to aid him made it back to the ship at the end of it wasn't important. He at least hoped they'd be somewhat useful along the way.
Collecting his heavy flamer from the ground he cast a glance around the courtyard before slithering forward to close some of the distance towards the new arrivals. "Assuming you are also in... ssservice to the inquisitor, we have but to enter the main structure now that this... dissstraction is now dealt with." Again he had no interest in playing leader to this little team, such responsibilities were better let for those who cared for such things, but if nothing else his drive to complete the mission was at least making him a force to try to keep the others focused. To that end he not only failed to introduce himself by name but also didn't bother to ask for their own.
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