Christopher

I guess Dhorz would be talking to himself for a while. Shouting too. Is there a word for flirting with death and oneself at the same time?
 
Because judging by this part I think I know who he plays:
"Sister Dominque: The Emperor guides my hand.
Roland the Rat OoC: That sounds so wrong.
Sister Dominque OoC: It's hard to give up sexual innuendo. Really, really hard.
Vin OoC: That's what she said."

Downtime between jobs - for one thing we have to get Inkubus' lung cloned and replaced, after that Ancient Horror stabbed him through the chest with one of its pointier appendages.

Felix: Look on the bright side - you'll be able to quit smoking while your new lung is healing up.
Inkubus: That there is crazy talk.
Titus: He's still got one good one.

There is a minor glitch during recovery - a seizure provoked by an abreaction to the medication, but the surgeon assures us their will be no ongoing consequences.

Felix: No need to warm up the malpractice lawyers then.

Felix: You'll probably want him out of here unless you want him to harass the nurses. More.

Too late. By the third day he's somehow talked five of the nurses into bed, at once. At least the pay-off from the Elementals job (before they sent the vampire after us) is enough to pay all the medical bills AND give us a very tidy profit on top. Time to go shopping.

Warhammer: I need to get some C12 explosive.
Felix: We can't get you any C12, but we can get you half a six-pack of C4.

Greenlight's: It's urban camouflage.
Felix: What, neon and chrome?

And since we're all Adepts or Mages (even though we do nothing to advertise the fact) we may as well take advantage of the fact and set ourselves up as an Initiate circle. Much argument ensues, even about the circle's name.

Felix: We can always confuse people and call ourselves the Bastards of Carnage.
Inkubus: That's the thing - the name only has to have meaning for us. We could call ourselves the Happy Pink Flufflepuffs.
Felix: *wince* I'm having enough problems with the way you keep calling me Bubbles.

Labrat: The Five Metas?
Felix: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

We'll have to meet regularly - doing so assists each other's efforts at improving themselves.

Felix: And is an excuse for a good meal.

Plus, if we're going to be working together we need to improve team spirit.

Felix: Movie Night!

Inkubus: We don't accept legitimate mages, this group is for Shadowrunners.
Felix: :/ We don't accept 'legitimate' mages?

Inkubus: We treat others with professionalism and courtesy.
Warhammer: I have a problem with courtesy.
Greenlight: We ARE criminals.

Warhammer wonders how much head armour he can wear on the street without attracting untoward attention.

Felix: You could always get a bulletproof touk and pretend to be Canadian.
Inkubus: *facepalm*

We decide on a name for the circle.

Inkubus: The Set-Up. 'A Human, an Orc, a Troll, an Elf and a Dwarf walk into a bar'
Greenlight: I keep forgetting you're human, Bubbles. But then I don't really think of Aztlans as human.
Felix: *bristles*

But he doesn't say anything. After his various comments about not being able to tell trolls apart, he probably deserves that commentary of his family's origin on the far side of the Rio Grande. Anyway, all healed up, Inkubus wants to make sure he's still the uber-stud he was before, and now he's got a few more tricks up his sleeves to really impress the ladies.

Felix: I don't think the purpose of our Initiatory Circle was so you can Get More.
Inkubus: None of you lot are girls.

And it's during the aftermath of such an evening that Inkubus gets a call. Crawling out from under the pile of willing wenches, he discovers it's his Fixer on the videophone. Apparently another entertainment-related job has come up, and word has got around about how well the team handled the Elementals affair. Presumably the word of what happened AFTER we got paid hasn't. Either way, the Fixer is a bit distracted by the scene behind Inkubus. Apparently the client asked for Inkubus, because his insider knowledge of the Seattle entertainment industry will be useful.

Fixer: 'Interesting piercing'

Felix: Well, it is the Seattle music scene... I wonder if there are any Grunge Mages out there.

Inkubus texts everybody with instructions for the meet with the client. Bound spirits and Felix will watch over the meet-up, just in case it's a Admiral Ackbar. This might seem suspicious, but we DID murder a music exec last month.

Inkubus: Keep weapons light.
Warhammer: I'll leave the rocket-launcher at home

Inkubus is reluctant to leave the sweaty pile on the bed too soon.

Inkubus: I'm still celebrating.
Warhammer: Need back-up?

Titus: Shadowrunning isn't a hobby, it's a profession.
Inkubus: Except for Bubbles.
Felix: Hey!

Either way, the client wants to sabotage the promotion of some new junkfood, called Ambergel. The plan is to meet the simsense star Euphoria who is in Seattle as part of the promotion, and keep her so busy with clubs, parties, etc that she misses all her appointments for the next three days. The client has even arranged a house we can use to keep her on ice.

Client: She has reasonable security on her hotel room.
Greenlight: Reasonable compared to what?
Felix: We remember the crocodile.

The client leaves, and we promptly start brainstorming ideas to get her out of the hotel and off to somewhere we can keep her busy. Perhaps take her up to a nice cabin outside town?

Felix: I'm thinking an anaesthetic aerosol spray and a remote control hang-glider.

Felix: If we want to make sure she doesn't just sneak out a window, how about we hire a boat and go on a scenic tour of the Pacific Trash Vortex?

Felix OoC: I'm sure the biggest problem with the boat idea is that it'll screw the plot.
GM: The cabin idea will screw the plot.
Inkubus OoC: Let's hope it doesn't work then.

Inkubus does feel a little uncomfortable about using his seductive talents in a professional basis again.But he has to admit that it IS a good way to approach the problem, just like it had worked with the Elementals last month.

Inkubus OoC: It's not that I see everything as a nail, it's the game - it keeps giving me nail-shaped objects to hammer.

Inkubus: I'm starting to feel like a prostitute.
Felix: *sings* Gigalo, Gigalo, Gigalo!

Felix: If you're feeling uncomfortable, imagine how the rest of us feel being your team of wingmen.

We do, in fact, go with Felix's boat idea. Euphoria's bodyguards don't care either way, since they get a free boat ride out of it too and we haven't actually threatened Euphoria. Labrat poses as the hired motor yacht's skipper, Felix will be the ship's cook, and the other members of the team are all aboard in one guise or another, as Inkubus' 'employees'. We do get a phonecall on the second evening, however, asking well the hell we are - nobody has showed up to the client's safehouse yet. We tell him we haven't needed it, since the clubbing and boating plan is working so well. We may or may not learn later that by coming up with this scheme, we have completely borked a major magical conspiracy, and they're scrambling to adapt to the changed situation. The change they arrive at is to fly out to our yacht in a helicopter, disable us with a bazooka, sic a notorious international Mage assassin on us, and kidnap Euphoria. The conspiracy has no idea what they're letting themselves in for. Felix is too busy preparing the breakfast trays to notice the attack until it's well under way, nonetheless.

Felix: What's going on?
Greenlight: Look up!
Assorted firearms: Bang! Bang!
Felix: No, the cantaloupe!

(Weldun, Inkubus' player, has been toying with a large transforming Millennium Falcon toy why all this has been going on - he strikes a problem.

Weldun: How do I detach Chewie from Han? Because right now Han's head is up Chewie's arse.)

A rocket propelled grapnel is fired into the yacht and a figure is sliding down towards us, even as the helicopter and bazooka operator behind him are being hit with an assortment of amusing hexes ('hooray for auto-pilot' they would say, if they were going to live more than a few minutes). The figure plummets as the line is severed, then comes to a halt in mid-air.

Felix: ...
Inkubus: ...
Greenlight: Fuck that noise!

Still, the attackers clearly weren't expecting the hail of magic, rifle fire, etc that they got as a welcome gift. Neither were Euphoria and her bodyguards, who were somewhat alarmed when everybody started pulling assault rifles out from lockers, or fire arcane energies, and bringing a helicopter and a flying man down, all in twelve seconds. Felix suggests we throw the sinking helicopter a life jacket, so we can honestly say we offered SOME assistance when the Harbour Authority arrives to investigate

Felix: I didn't say rescue them, just throw them a life-jacket.
Greenlight: ONE life-jacket.
Inkubus:They'll have to get real friendly-like. Let me get my camera.

Greenlight: I shot that guy in the face
GM: Wilhelm scream, splash

At least having all those firearms stashed away makes sense. Even without the risk of pirates, there's paracritters to worry about.

Titus: These things have cleared cargo ships of people.

Inkubus attempts explanations to the pretty but somewhat clueless Euphoria.

Inkubus: I'm a Mage. So?
Felix: The cook is a Mage.
Greenlight: You keep a highly competent crew
Inkubus: Not every Mage goes into security work
Inkubus: He's a Mage butler - it's the new fashion in England. *whispers to Felix* I'll make it up to you.

Still, the payout is generous. We gleefully count our credit go home, and continue our more ordinary lives. We don't know it yet, but rumours about us are already spreading in the Shadowrunner community. That mage we shot out of the sky was bad news, and we still managed to take him down legally, AND offer 'assistance' to a helicopter in trouble afterwards.

Inkubus: NuYen, not Karma. I did not just earn 23,000 Karma.
GM: You just Ascended.
Greenlight: And then you had sex with the dragons.
Labrat: All of them.
All: At once.

Felix: Tell Greenlight and Titus to bring eggs.
Warhammer: I'll bring two, but they're mine.

Inkubus: We're going to get a reputation. How do you keep doing this shit without breaking the law.
Titus: Well we did start that gang war.
Greenlight: And no-one can prove it

Of course, if we ever do have to flee town we have a limited number of options (purely because there's only a few places the publishers have expanded enough for a comprehensive campaign). Best to stick with non-lethal weapons for the time being.

GM: It's either here or Berlin.
Warhammer: Berlin? That's good, I like Russian.
Labrat: German.
Inkubus: ... Russian?!?

Titus: What would a gel-round for a shotgun be?
Inkubus: Bean-bag round.
Felix: Picture it - SPLAT! Right in the face.
Titus: I'm picturing gel miniguns, now. 20 seconds firing and it looks like a mad paintgun battle

Shadowrun : Total Eclipse Pt 3
 
Another session I missed, which was inconvenient to put it mildly, since our team of mages and adepts-for-hire were off to thwart a major summoning, and Felix was just as inclined towards revenge against the backstabbing music exec Eclipse as the rest of the team. As we'd expected (pessimism is a wonderful thing) the exec in question had defenses, and one of those defenses was his associate Lupus, who was indeed a werewolf. The other was his elven bodyguard, who did his best to prove that a bow and arrow can make short work of a bullet-proof jacket. Happily, Greenlight's panicked running around in the bushes made him a difficult target.

Titus: Combat senses! AKA supernatural paranoia!

Also, the team makes the happy discovery that heavy metals - specifically, lead - inhibit werewolf regeneration, especially applied in sufficient quantity after the aforementioned werewolf has been drop-kicked into a tree by the team's troll leg-breaker/accountant.

Titus: Is it prone?
Greenlight: After punting a wolf into a tree, one presumes it doesn't find gravity to its liking.

Inkubus is what will be called a 'Metal Mage' in later years - metal as in the musical genre. Indeed, it was his connection to Seattle's music scene that got us the original job. Thus, when he summons an air elemental to assist with the team's stealth ...

Greenlight: Spirit of Air Guitar?

Unfortunately, the band that Eclipse is using as part of the ritual to summon the demon Twilight have already started playing.

GM: A low-flying flog sweeps in -
Titus: Oh my.
Labrat: Sounds kinky.
GM: Low-lying fog!!!

Eclipse already has the band under mental compulsion to keep playing, and throws a force-done over them to prevent us simply stunning or shooting them. Happily, the dome doesn't stop the team going after Eclipse himself. Our sniper Warhammer is still rather irked about the werewolf, and the vampire earlier.

Warhammer: I WILL snipe you, bitch! Even if it takes every bullet I have!
Greenlight: But your Edge!
Warhammer: Fuck that! Daddy needs to live!

The Spirit of Air Guitar's assistance does prove helpful - the film crew and security ostensibly there for the music video don't see a thing even as Labrat lobs concussion grenades in their direction. And the force dome is not proof against a maximised Orgy spell.

GM: *facepalm*
Greenlight: Penetrating on many levels.

The bandmembers start gyrating in all the wrong ways, and sound like a garage band on amateur night. Unfortunately, it's still enough to at least partially invoke the spider demon Twilight, who resembles nothing more that Captain N's Mother Brain pasted onto a spider's body. With a Mohawk haircut, because 80's.

Still, could be worse.
 


It's also pretty much immune to anything the team are packing, so it's just as well they're still effectively invisible. But it would have been handy, to say the least, if the team's spirit-binding expert - Felix 'Bubbles' Bethke - was actually present.

Titus attacks! And his sledgehammer bounces off the thing like a squeaky toy.

GM: This is why I wanted Drhoz here tonight.

Greenlight frantically tries to lure it away from the various unconscious bandmembers and other snack food, while Inkubus tries to learn its True Name so he can sic the Spirit of Metal on it.

Titus: Astral cockpunch!

Labrat, the team's rigger, has been feeling a little left out of all this hand-to-claw combat and magical shenanigans, and decides to apply his own speciality - ramming the team's SUV into it at high speed. That Titus is currently trying to get the unholy spider demon into a headlock is unfortunate, but the troll will probably survive being run over.

Labrat: I hate spiders. Hold on, I'm getting the shoe.
Inkubus: Well, the SUV is vaguely shoe-shaped...

It's unfortunate that Inkubus and Warhammer are both still in the vehicle when Labrat squashes Twilight between the bull-bar and one of the filmcrew's trucks. Titus gets out of the way. Inkubus' torso doesn't, and one of his lungs becomes intimately familiar with a very pointy outflung limb. After Twilight evaporates back to whatever magical dimension it came from, Warhammer manages to patch up the gaping puncture with Medi-gel.

Warhammer: And now you're a Twinkie.

Thus the band are rescued, nobody likeable or nominally an 'innocent bystander' died, and the team goes home with everything that isn't nailed down, and Eclipse's unconscious elven bodyguard, who they strip naked and release back into the wild in Seattle's red light district.

Elf: Why is there a tag in my ear?

Didn't she already had weaponized cleavage? Or is this a case of "there is no overkill"? 

Anything past 3.11 is the work of Chaos Worshippers. 

"Your name is in the mouth of others. Make sure it has teeth!" 

...nothing more, nothing less. 

Most. Badass. Teacher. Imaginable. 
I see the Seventy Maxims are strong in this group

Missed a session of Black Crusade, so Jrska's input in the first part of this report is limited. No doubt she was taking advantage of the post-battle chaos in the Ragged Helix to acquire various shineys no longer needed by their previous owners. Such as a Beguiling Gem, which worn as a necklace will give her weaponised cleavage.

Aladar's player, prior to roll: *Muttered sentence*
Cassius' player: what? Laxatives what?
Aladar's player: blacks are tens

To reduce the odds that the Warp entity acts up at a most inauspicious moment, Cassius feeds his staff-bound demon a soul.

Cassius: Now don't say I don't get you anything.

Cassius decides that now is the time to hunt down that alien psychic beacon and attendant pre-Horus Heresy Ultramarines, somewhere Spinward of what is now the Calixis Sector. Although there's no need to rush - instigating trouble en route will hone our skills. Describing warp travel, en route -

Cassius: They've gone to Plaid.

Returning to the Thirteenth Station, and after donning the guise of a Chaos warship and paying a toll of human souls to the blockade fleet, the Chains of Judgement encounters the 'asteroid belt' of human sacrifices floating in space.

GM: You'll need a cleaning crew after this.
Aladar OOC: *Makes Windscreen wiper swishes and squeeky noises*
Cassius OOC: Nah, we'll just use the Sunsear laser batteries.

Having used the warp currents of the Thirteenth Station to fling us off into the Imperium, the first thing to do is switch the chameleonic hull back to Imperial allegiance.

Cog OOC: First thing we do is change the desktop
Cassius OOC:Back to Windows classic, none of this heretical Windows 8 S!@#

And once in the Imperium, our ship's appearance makes it easy to browbeat a passing Rogue Trader into handing over up-to-date (if admittedly incomplete) star maps, if he knows what's good for him. Sure, the real Inquisition will hear about us imposters eventually, but there's so many horrible, horrible things we can do between now and then.

Cassius, who has been somewhat irritated that his minion is more notorious than himself, has been carefully undermining her status by given her gifts. After all, anybody that requires a patron is clearly of lower status.

GM: The most passive-aggressive in-party conflict ever.

Jrska has her own theory about his lack of infamy.

Jrska: My lord, may I act as Devil's advocate?
Cassius: You may.
Jrska: Your reputation as the Scourge of Leman's Solace, and Bearer of the Doomwind, is all very well, but I fear our peers in the Vortex will ask 'Yes, but what have you done lately?'

Jrska's brother Prince Pseudanor may have the aftermath of a coup attempt to deal with, but at least he was smiling again when they saw him last.

Jrska: I cheered him up with a good long pegging.

En route to the Spinward Margin of the Calixis Sector, where the Sevarian Dominate has declared independence of the Imperium, and the Imperium is predictably attempting to stomp the planets flat. We're more interested in what sort of trouble we can cause on the way. At least the fact our ship looks like an Inquisitorial vessel means we can sail right through Imperial systems without anybody daring to pay us much attention. We do get a good look at the defences of the system as we go through - valuable information, in the right hands.

Cassius: 'That matches an Inquisitorial transponder, and they're telling us to naff off. Naffing off, sir!'
Jrska: 'Curiosity is Heresy'

Cassius has a way of discouraging them from spending fuel to get a closer inspection of our ship - appending each transponder ping with an apt proverb.

Cassius: 'Waste is Sin'

Cassius: I looooove the Secutor-class ships.
Jrska: I'll try to get you one for your birthday, my lord.

We do pick up an ominous signal as we're on the way out, however. Cassius grabs a random crew member and slips headphones on him.

Cassius: Put it through the headphones
Crewmember: There's a sort of droning, sir
Cassius: I just needed to see if your head exploded.

What it actually is, is an Ork fleet breaking out of Warpspace, and looking for a fight. We have time for a few comments about Ork psychology and biology while Cassius decides our next move.

Jrska: feh. Orks don't have any appreciation for the finer things in life.

Cog: How well do Orks get on with Chaos?
Cassius: They don't even get on with other Orks.

Aladar: How would you feel if you were sentient fungus?
Cog: I think I'd feel pretty good about myself

Cassius decides to send the Imperial defenders in the system a quick heads-up about the incoming war fleet, then does something bold but suicidally insane - dive the Chains of Judgement into Warpspace via the rift the Orks just opened. The crew scramble to obey, praying they can get the Gellar Fields warmed up before the deamons of the Warp swarm to eat our eyeballs.

Jrska: Will we open fire on the Orks as we pass, my lord?
Cassius: Why? That might weaken them. We are not allies of the Imperium. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy.

We don't even have time to crank down the shutters that stop us gazing unprotected into the Warp. Most of the crew are merely terrified out of their minds at the sight, and suffer no more than the usual psychoses and loss of sphincter control. Aladar, however, lives up to his reputation ( and rolls 150 on a d100 test ).

Jrska: You... Useless... F**k.

GM: You came throughout it without any mental traumas.
Jrska: No additional traumas beyond the trauma of being Aladar.

Cassius manages to keep the crew at their posts through simple intimidation and lots of shouting.

Cassius: The warp is scary but I'm right here.
GM: They have a force-field protecting them from the Warp...
Cassius: And they don't have a force-field protecting them from me.

Of all the places the jump can take us, we arrive in one of the Fringe's Forbidden Systems, where automated defenses pause in their endless bombardment of the planet below, in order to tell us to fuck right off.

Auto-systems: This system is under Inquisitorial quarantine.
Jrska:
Cassius:
Auto-systems: Leave immediately or be labelled heretics.
Jrska: *Snicker*

We bluff the battle stations into thinking we need to pause here for repairs, and determine which of the crew we need to cull. Fairly standard practise, even more so on Imperial vessels.

Cassius: Blood doesn't make a good lubricant.
Jrska: It does for Khornate war engines.

We demand an situation report from the stations, and press on. The next destination is even more fraught - a system where an entire fleet of Loyalist space marines are currently gathering. It's the Millennial Wardens (a fleet-based chapter Weldun invented and played in the Deathwatch campaign, although he's playing a renegade Storm Crow in this one) who are scholarly, highly intelligent, and even worse for us, regularly work alongside the real Inquisition.

Cassius: The Storm Crows are a fleet-based chapter with incredibly bad luck. Wherever they go there's a disaster.
Cog: Sounds like us.
Cassius: *glares* Not that they respond to disasters, they just happen wherever they go.
Cog: Again, sounds like us.

GM: A space marine's voice comes over the box. You all know what that sounds like.
Jrska: I've been taking Cassius' orders long enough. Although generally there is more shouting involved.

The Wardens are politely forceful - their scans of the Chains of Judgement have revealed no blatantly Chaotic features - continent-blasting weapons powered by tortured kittens, that sort of thing - but they do recognise the alien origin of our chameleonic hull. They quite want a closer look and demonstration. Cassius and Jrska hasten to find some reason to keep them from coming aboard, so they won't discover the mutant crew, or little things like the temple-slash-bondage-dungeon Jrska built in the chapel. Eventually she convinces the increasingly suspicious marines that it's for their own safety.

Jrska: You are Space Marines, and we are reluctant to expose you to possible corruption. Unlike our own acolytes, who are by definition expendable.

Arch-Magos 'Father': They are being exceptionally inquisitive.
Jrska: More so than us, and we've got the inquisition ship .

But Jrska's talented tongue persuades them to limit their study of the hull to the outside of the hull, as well as offering us resupply of food, fuel and volatiles, which was becoming a problem.

Jrska: Wow. Talk about Refuge in Audacity - a shipful of mutants, cultists and traitors, turns up to a space marine fleet and says 'right, give us stuff'

The Millennial Wardens take the pursuit of knowledge very seriously - in their Hall of Ancients, they consult the chapter's many Dreadnoughts for advice on past events and future strategy.

Dreadnought: Today's lecture will be about the Assault on Garrus VII.
Marine: Sir? I have always thought the official account of that assault was exaggerated.
Dreadnought: THUMP. I WAS THERE. Do you dare argue with me?

The Marines are persuaded to send us an up-to-date starmap, too. Where to next? A Shrine World dedicated to one or more of the Imperium's innumerable saints has a certain appeal.

Jrska: I'm going to re-read one of my favourite books - 'The Lives of the Saints'. I find it very inspirational. Look at this one for example - 'Flayed alive with a belt sander'. See what I mean?

Jrska: I've got very fond memories of shrine worlds. One of my best outfits was made by some nuns on a shrine world. Sorry, I misspoke - made *out of* some nuns on a shrine world.
Cassius: *sigh*

Plus, there's the claim that the Sisters of Battle have never ever fallen to Chaos, which is a challenge to our ingenuity and evil.

Cassius: Maybe you can find some Sisters Repentia and teach them they have nothing to repent.

Jrska: Let's demand 600 of their most pious warriors.
Cassius: Let's not. No more treats for you until you're finished the tasks at hand.

Eventually we decide that turning up at one of the temples of seclusion, where such battle-nuns retreat when dealing with crises of faith, and posing as suspicious Inquisitors, will be an ideal way to seed corruption across the entire planet. Hie thee to a nunnery!

"You can never have too much dynamite."
 
"On the contrary, there are times when you can have too much dynamite."
 
"Like when?"
 
"When you are on fire."

This looks like a good place for this quote. 
 
Spoilered for language.
 
 

Kent Rigil
 
Some mytological creatures also appear as Team and this team is composed of two Centaur's.
Kent is also know as the "White Stallion", as typical for a male horse he loves being the center of attention. His powers arethat of a brick with fast movement speed.
His mate and partner is Rigil, aka the "Yellow Flash", a female speedster Centaur.
 
Originally they were are trio together with Proximus - aka "Red Dwarf" - a rare case of dwarfism among Centaurs. He has longelivity and firepowers and wears a red costume.
However due do a unrequitted love to Rigil and Kent's annoying "top stallion" behavior they "lived themself appart" and he now gallops his own path.
After he left the herd, the other two joined the Dynamic Duos.
 
 
Note: Based on the whole Alpha Centauri System (A, B and Proxima Centauri)

Lunar space elevator

Maxim 1 - Pillage, then burn.,
It's not surprising that the Maxims work well for Shadowrun.

Maxim 1 - Pillage, then burn.,
It's not surprising that the Maxims work well for Shadowrun.

Villian with a nasty knife attacks the brick. Who hits him with a largish vehicle.
 
Player "He brought a knife to a van fight"

Quotes from Owlcon - part 4
 
Drama Dice 2.0 "Team Maximum: Little Girl Lost"
 
Team Maximum is the Justice League of their universe. That level of power, but without the squeaky-clean image.
 
The core members of Team Maximum
El Bombastico: the toughest man in the world, Em's husband
Em: a powerful witch, El Bombastico's wife
Ghost: the deadliest man in the world, ex-special ops with high-tech gear
Mach: the fastest man in the world, a flying speedster
Madame Raven: the supreme sorceress
Fox: the world's greatest shapeshifter
The Imagineer: the world's smartest man, wears nano-crystalline powered armor
 
While selecting characters.
Player: "Em has a signature spell called 'Find MacGuffin'."
 
El Bombastico and Em have a daughter. Loki kidnapped her.
El Bombastico: "I'm going to shove my boot so far up Loki's ___ that he's going to be tasting shoe leather for a year."
 
The daughter's trail led to Asgard. Loki's trail led to Earth-616. The core members followed the trail to Asgard.
 
Asgard was shielded and ready for war. The group opened a small hole in the shield and snuck through. Em used her illusions to disguise Madame Raven as the Enchantress. Em disguised the rest of the group as normal Asgardians. Madame Raven made the illusion look more complete by charming two valkyries. The group used the disguises to reach Odin's throne room unopposed.
Em: "As we walk into Odin's throne room, I'm going to drop the illusion."
Mach: "Why not leave it up and try to fool him?"
The Imagineer: "We will be facing Odin, on his throne, at his center of power."
Madame Raven: "There is no illusion powerful enough to fool him."
The Imagineer: "That's his thing."
 
The Imagineer, Mach and Fox were of Atlantean descent, so they decided Odin would be more receptive to having them speak on the group's behalf. Fox assumed a large, imposing, regal, draconic form for the meeting.
The Imagineer: (to Odin) "Odin All-Father, we apologize for this intrusion into your domain, but we do so only under the utmost duress. The daughter of two of my companions was stolen from them, and the trail led here. As a father, I'm sure you understand the lengths someone would go to to protect their own child."
Loki: (stepping out from the shadows behind Odin's throne) "Father, they are telling you lies...."
Fox: (interrupting) "I see you have a serpent too."
 
Loki: "If what they are saying is true, then why have they weakened our defenses and allowed our ancient enemies to attack?"
Loki paused. Nothing happened.
Loki: (yelling loudly) "Why have they weakened our defenses and allowed our ancient enemies to attack?"
Sounds of battle erupted outside. This was followed by an explosion as Surtur, king of the fire giants, smashed through the wall of the throne room.
 
El Bombastico, Mach and the Imagineer forced Surtur out of the throne room, off the bridge and into the lake.
GM: "Surtur is standing in 20 feet of water, but he's 50 feet tall."
Fox: (describing actions) "As I stalk out of the throne room and onto the bridge, my scales shift to a silvery-white color."
GM & various players (ooc): "Oh my god. I don't believe it. He's a white dragon."
Fox blasted Surtur with his frost breath, leaving Surtur's legs pinned with ice. Surtur was alive, but ashen-skinned, with only a few small flames still flickering around him.
Fox: "Surrender ... or die ..."
Fox inhaled. Surtur surrendered.
 
Loki fled the throne room during the battle. Afterwards....
The Imagineer: (to Odin) "Hopefully we have demonstrated that we are not your enemy. But we cannot leave without my companions' daughter."
Odin: (nods) "Follow me."
Em: (quietly) "I'm glad he didn't say, 'Walk this way.'"
 
The group caught up to Loki in the vault and rescued El Bombastico and Em's daughter from him.
Daughter: "Mommy! Daddy! You came! I missed you!"
El Bombastico: (sweetly, to daughter) "Look away honey. Daddy has some business to attend to." (not so sweetly, to Loki) "Prepare to taste some boot leather."
Fox: (cheerfully, to Loki) "Bend over and cough."
 
If Loki was in Asgard, why did his trail lead to Earth-616 ... ?

Quotes from Owlcon, part 2
 
Champions 3rd Edition "School Holiday"
 
Some supervillains and mercenaries took over a local junior high school. Strike Force was called in to rescue the students and faculty.
 
GM: Theron
 
Strike Force roster
Phosphene: teleporting martial artist
Lightrune: flying brick, can manifest an energy sword
Plasma Ranger: energy projector
Shadow Walker: ninja
La Panthere: enhanced human martial artist
Sammael: shapeshifter with 4 distinct forms (monkey, hawk, gorilla, allosaurus), uses a neural whip
 
While players were picking their characters...
Player: So, Night Walker is kind of like a ninja?
GM: No. He's exactly like a ninja.
 
Plasma Ranger jammed the mercenaries' radios.
Phosphene: "They're playing your song."
 
Sammael: (switching to gorilla form) "I'm a gorilla with boobies."
Phosphene: "I need to scrub my brain with bleach."
 
Strike Force quickly dispatched the mercenaries guarding the larger group of students and teachers. A smaller group of students and teachers was being held in the basement cafeteria by the supervillains and more mercenaries.
 
Supervillain roster
Denier: demon, leader
Briareus: 4-armed brick, unintelligent construct
Flare: fire projector
Sliver: martial artist, also used flechettes
Scanner: mentalist
 
As Phosphene teleported the members of Strike Force into the cafeteria's kitchen, the supervillains began to suspect that something was going wrong.
Flare: "Sliver, Briareus: go check out the gym. There's a problem upstairs."
Lightrune: (yelling from the kitchen) "No there's not."
 
Denier: "Impudent mortals! You will pay for this!"
Plasma Ranger: "Do you take credit?"
 
Sammael, back in gorilla form, slashed Denier with her whip. Then she turned to the mercenaries and made an exceedingly lewd gesture.
Sammael: "Who else wants a piece of this?"
Phosphene: "I need to scrub my brain with bleach ... again."
 
Lightrune slammed his fist down onto Sliver, knocking her out and cratering the floor beneath her.
Phosphene: "You knocked her into the sub-basement."
Night Walker: "There is no sub-basement."
Phosphene: "There is now."
 
 
Night Walker's player had forgotten to take his ADHD meds ... and talked non-stop.
Sammael (ooc): "You're the noisiest ninja I've ever met."

The plan : help that Imperial starship out of the Vortex, so they'll unwittingly feed information back to the forces of Chaos - i.e. Us.

Doing so, however, means using the Thirteenth Station, the only safe route in and out of the Screaming Vortex, and even then most Chaos ships sacrifice a few hundred slaves before they dare. Over the centuries, the frozen corpses have become something of a nuisance. The blockade fleet that patrols this side of the Warpgate is a nuisance as well.

Aladar: So what am I flying and what am I shooting?
Cog: You're not flying anything.
Jrska OoC: And you're not shooting anything because Jrska cut your balls off.

Cassius' ploy - Lure the fleet away from the gate, while our new 'friends' sneak past, silent running. We'll be towing the hulk of that raider ship we shot up too, so the prospect of an apparently Inquisitorial ship, with something no-doubt valuable in tow, should be irresistible.

Of course, we also have to repair the Imperial ship, strip the raider, and pull off our stunt, without anybody , including our own mix of mutant and deluded Emperor-worshipping crew, figuring out what we're actually doing. Tricky, given Cassius' winged mutation, disturbing psychic aura, and the need to work closely with the naive Imperial captain.

Jrska: Not as disturbing as me. And then there's the drooling noises whenever the captain is around and I'm there.

At least Jrska has something to distract her - brainwashing that Space Marine Dreadnought.

Cassius: I gave Jrska a challenge - break someone who is immune to sensation.
Jrska: That's OK, I'm watching chick flicks with him. Non-stop. For days on end.

Cassius: Jrska - I want you to select the prize crew for the raider. I want them competent, and loyal. A proportion of them are allowed to be worshippers of Slaanesh.
Jrska: ... 100% is a proportion...
Cassius: Not more than 1 in 10

Aladar van Rijn attempts to make himself useful, by getting some neural upgrades from the ships' Magos-engineer. He phrases it in a way that would make Slaanesh proud.

Aladar: I'm plugging myself into Father.
All: ....

He remains useless. The opening move of the Cassius Gambit nearly stalls the engine and almost tears the hulk free of its tow chains.

Aladar: Why are there four pedals when there are six directions?
Cassius: Why do you insist on flying the ship when you're no good at it?

Happily, the rest of us can offset Aladar's failings, by intimidating, cajoling, and exhorting the crew into working harder.

Aladar: Why do you keep calling it extorting the crew?
Jrska: Because I'm making them do stuff

Even then, there are limits to what we can achieve, even as we run rings around the blockade's formidable raiders, and start earning the attention of the hulking and extremely formidable cruisers.

Jrska: No matter how fast I beat the drum, they're not going to turn the ship any faster.

Aladar: The engines cannae take it, Captain!
Cassius: You weren't raised by the Adeptus Mechanicus - you don't know that ancient prayer

But it works ( apparently Aladar can remember how to pilot a ship if Cassius threatens to flay him alive ) and the Chains of Judgement retreats into the Vortex, and that delectable captain and her ship make a successful dash for the Thirteenth Station. No doubt the blockade's admiral will carry out a few disciplinary executions.

Back to Jrska's brother's lair in the Ragged Helix, where we discover that some of his supposedly loyal minions attempted a coup. There's considerable damage, but at least the traitors were driven off. Cassius is annoyed by this evidence of Chaos' unreliability.

Cassius: I make a point of not screwing people over until they've screwed me.
Jrska: ... Interesting phrasing, my lord.

Some of the survivors suspect it was Jrska's arrival that prompted the coup - a more important question is who egged it on? Leading suspects include Seyr the Bereft, who we acquired that Tyrant's Cord for months ago, and Gray the Mercenary.

Cassius: I don't buy it. Gray has always been like me, an honourable -
Jrska: So he was acting out of character, my lord?
Cassius: ...True.
Aladar: You think he was mind-controlled?
Jrska: No. I'm implying that his persona of an honourable mercenary may be just that - a persona.

Cassius: For some reason you're earning more infamy than me, and I don't know why.
Jrska: Perhaps it was the thing with the penguin, my lord.

But there we had to leave it for the session, after helping with the clean-up and acquiring a few more shiny things from the piles of wreckage. We still have to get more weapons built into the Chains, too. Perhaps something powered by that vault-full of tortured human souls?

It has been like this since before our ancestors evovlved. We just never really saw it before.

The Schemer and Black Velvet
 
The Schemer does not look like or dress like a villain. Trainers (sneakers), jeans, leisure jacket, t-shirt or shirt make up his usual attire and so he can be taken for a normal citizen. His power comes from his brainpower and his ability to concoct schemes. This did leave him at a disadvantage as employers could then try and kill him, rob him or take advantage of his lack of offensive/defensive powers. So he turned to The Exchange looking for a partner in crime. The Exchange gave him several prospects which he began whittling through. Some were too greedy, some too reckless (more interested in a fight) and some too cumbersome (they were too large or their equipment was too bulky and would not allow quick get aways). And then there was Black Velvet. She was a minor level brick and martial artist who needed experience with the Underworld's big players. And just what The Schemer needed. Athletic but strong enough to carry him. Not too arrogant, overconfident, greedy or psychotic. The Schemer arranged a meet and proposed a five job deal. If they came out of ok, he would look to make the arrangement permanent. What won her over was when he asked her to 'Be the Shego to my Drakken'. The five jobs did not go completely to plan but The Schemer pointed out they had both survived, and although one of the jobs had not paid off the employers had not had the chance to kill them which had been their goal. The police had been been waiting to catch the two of them and their employers and The Schemer was able to use that as the excuse not to meet up to get their share. On the basis of a 78% success rate the two have been a duo ever since.
Black Velvet is a caucasian brunette in a black top, skirt, combat gloves and boots. And no they are not dating.
 
One down, six to go

Played my first game of Firestorm Armada this weekend. Was a close thing - my Aquan fleet eventually managed to take down the enemy flagship and kill their admiral, but not before they'd disabled mine, boarded it, and kidnapped my own fleet commander.
 
."We shall rescue our beloved leader! We shall not let him languish in the hands of those air-breathing human scum!"
"Hey! Humans serve on Aquan ships as well!"
"Aqualungs don't count - you're good humans. Do a trick and we'll throw you a sardine."

Male. Female. Both. Neither. And 'other' of course too.

Aboard the formerly-inquisitorial ship the Chains of Judgement, where there are many ways to occupy the long months of travel, and distract Jrska from the way Aladar isn't her slavishly devoted plaything anymore. We can search every inch of the ship for the Inquisitorial Rosette formerly worn by the Inquisitor that caught us, and who subsequent got turned into a deamonhost, reduced to ashes, and used as trade goods. True, it likely has built-in defences against misuse. But that shouldn't stop hereteks that aren't afraid of things like AIs, and quantum cryptography - let alone the kind of people who are unbowed by the laws of reality.

Jrska: I reject your reality and substitute my own

Jrska: Since Chaos has no interest in laws, including Child Labour Laws, let's go find some young children. They can fit in the small spaces. 'Put your hand in there kid. Don't worry about the hissing'

One possible hiding-place for the rosette is in the decks beneath the Reclamation chambers, where leftovers from the cyber-conversion process go.

Cassius: I'm thinking zombies.
GM: Just a minute, I want to make a note here...
Jrska: Did somebody just break Rule 1?

Eyeing the various bodies on the meathooks.

Jrska: Well, I like somebody who's well hung.

Cassius has plans for that space marine dreadnought we acquired. But it requires mentally breaking the occupant first.

Jrska: Pity you and your blood-brother's enhanced physiognomy includes drug resistance. I was thinking curare - imagine not being able to move, or even blink, and a nice full-length mirror overhead, while the tech-adepts perform surgery on your internal organs.
Cassius: You are aware that that is the kind of thing that happens to Dreadnoughts every day they aren't actually in combat?
Jrska: Yes. Like I said, it's a pity he's a space marine. We'll have to save it for some merely

Jrska's part-time minion, Adept E, is overseeing the usual operations on the reclamation unit.

Jrska: Wotcha, E. Vivisected anybody lately?
Adept E: No. Nobody has died. It has been very... Dull.
Cassius: Forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't vivisection mean you don't have to wait until they're dead?
Adept E: *cheers up*

It turns out that there are entire lost decks below, that are somehow being filtered out of the tech-priests' perception. No wonder they couldn't find the rosette down here.

GM: There's lots of reclamation tech down here, but none you're intimate with.
Jrska: Intimate with technology?
Cassius: Intimate with a reclamator.
Cog OoC: There's the tag-line for this episode
Jrska OoC: Cog! Stop humping that television!

The lights are still working down in the Black Holds, but Jrska ensures they have more.

Jrska: The more the merrier. I don't want to see a stone angel at the other end of the corridor, and the lights suddenly go out.

There's conveyor belts and automated rotary saws, grinding machines, and more, between the Reclamation deck and the furnaces. We, predictably, are on a metal gantry high over the churning machinery.

Jrska: Will this take our lord Cassius' weight?
GM: And the bolts snap, plunging you into the machinery below.

Cassius and his mutant advisor are promptly seized by the various amputator mechanisms and whisked off towards the furnaces. Cog and Aladar cling to the roof and plan a rescue attempt.

Cog: Did you bring your jetpack?
Aladar: I always bring the jetpack!

Jrska OoC: I really should have some witty line as I plummet here, but I've got nothing.
Cog OoC: I like going down on things but this is ridiculous?
Jrska OoC: ...
Cog OOC: It was the best I had.

Aladar: I sweep in to rescue Jrska.
Jrska: He still loves me!
Cassius: Not that he shows it often.

Hooked actuators and whirling bone saws hack away at Cassius and Jrska's armour, despite their efforts to get off the conveyer.

GM: You get the impression this conveyor was designed for people that weren't completely dead.

Cassius: Hit the off switch!
Jrska: What safety switch? This is the Imperium, they've never heard of safety. They don't even have safety rails.
Cassius: The 'oh my god-emperor the conveyer belt has gone mad, we're going to lose this entire quota of bodies, quick hit the off switch' switch.
Jrska: 'First, fill in this form'

Eventually Cassius loses patience and just blows the machinery apart with his bolt gun.

Cassius: Occasionally, brute force is the appropriate response.
Jrska: Isn't that the Imperium in spades?

Cog: Lord Cassius, I've shut all the trash compactors on the detention level.

Cassius: The damage and the fact I'm two bolt-rounds down is on your head.
Cog: At least I stayed upright.
Jrska: I take a few steps away from Cog.

Cog: What kind of adventuring party doesn't have rope?
Jrska: If you want a ten foot pole, then you should have brought a Slaanesh Marine.
Aladar: .... I just got that. Ew.

But there are still more corridors choked with churning machinery - no doubt there are off-switches, but it's likely that anybody who knew where there are has been dead for centuries. Aladar's ineptitude undoes most of Cog's efforts at getting past.

Cog: Stop helping!

Jrska: I can't charm the machinery out of the way. Pile-driving is a thing, but doesn't apply here.
Aladar: Oh god, now I'm picturing a Slaanesh tech-priest.
Cog: 'I'll give you an oil change'
Jrska: Lube job.

Cog: Who designed this?
Jrska: The Imperium. Occupational Health and Safety is heresy.
GM: The Imperium is good for death trap technology.
Cassius OoC: I keep flashing back to the chompers in ...
Jrska OoC: Galaxy Quest?
Cog OoC: 'Why do we even have this?'

Cog: I found a doohickey. What does it do?
Cassius: It do... Hickey.
Aladar: It's a kissing machine?

Cassius sends Jrska off to break the spirit of the dreadnought's barely living occupant.

Jrska: I'll take a picnic hamper and tell him all about my life. In excruciating detail.
Cassius: You know the best thing? I just got Jrska to try and seduce a corpse.
Jrska: *sings* Neeeeecrophilia.

The doohickey is a Stryxis personal phase reality shifter - very useful, since it makes the bearer effectively invisible. If she can break Cassius' former chapter-brother, Cassius has plans.

Cassius: Stealth Dreadnought!

Of course, why would the late inquisitor even have had foul Xenos technology on board in the first place? Clearly he was of a somewhat radical bent.

Jrska: Given the Navigator is a mutant and the Magos is a heretek, I'm detecting a theme here.

This hypocrisy just adds to Cassius' disgust with the Imperium. Happily, a chance arises to exercise this disgust - distress calls from an Imperial transport lost in the Screaming Vortex. The broadcast was unwise.

Jrska: A distress call is a good way to attract predators.
Cassius: It's also a good way to attract predators into a trap.

As it turns out, the transport has already attacked, disabled, and currently being boarded by reavers unallied to Jrska's brother. This makes both ships fair game, especially since we can sweep in in our erstwhile Inquisitorial ship, blow away the pirates, then 'rescue' the Imperials.

Jrska: We want to get close enough to wave at them through the portholes

On the respective dimensions of the three ships

GM: It's longer but thinner.
Jrska: I prefer longer and thicker.

The reavers must be rather distracted by their boarding action, since we close to point-blank range without trouble, and launch a missile broadside that devastates the completely unprepared reaver ship.

Aladar: Surprise, bitches!

Cassius orders us to come round, so we can send our own murder-servitors and mutants-at-arms to finish the raiders off, or at least force their surrender, prior to accepting the gratitude of the Imperials.

Aladar: Aw, I wanted to ram them
Jrska: Since when were you a top?

Consider the raiders, when they looked out the window and saw an Inquisitorial ship and a metric fuckton of missiles just off the starboard bow, followed by fires and decompression and murder-servitors.

Raid leader: Five minutes ago I was having such a wonderful day!

We also get a bonus - some hidden machine spirit in the Chains of Judgement's data systems has observed us coming to the rescue of an Imperial ship, apparently concluded that the Inquisition is still in control, and unlocked a hidden safe in the bridge - we have the Rosette! Which Cassius promptly dons and boards the other vessel to intimidate the survivors. This confuses the captain - not least because it's a space marine wearing it, but then bossing everybody around and accusing everybody in sight of foul heresy IS entirely in character for an Inquisitor.

Captain: Are you not servants of the Emperor?
Jrska: *Snrks at the phrasing* Correct.

Jrska is wearing the Stryxis device - the space marine is hard enough to explain, why bother explaining a mutant as well? Cassius announces that the entire loyalist crew are going to be mind-probed for signs of heresy, and that all relevant documents and data-slates be brought to the cargo hold for a Concludium. Essential, vast piles of paperwork will be shuffled, until some truth is reached.

GM: So you have your crackpot conspiracy board spread out over an entire cargo bay?

Not that the truth is important - since Cassius' plan is to escort the Imperial ship and it's captain back out into real space, and have them act as his intelligence agent.

Although there is one problem with having her work for us, and her thinking she's working for the Inquisition. Her combination of good looks and innocent naivety is strongly provoking Jrska's lust. Just as well she passed that last test back in the Ragged Helix, and is actually capable of deferring a pleasure.

"You say you had to duck out in the middle of Dr. Kiloblast's attack on the offices of the Daily World?  To return an overdue movie rental?  (pause)  Okay, seems reasonable."
 
"You're a freelance photojournalist who somehow always gets pics of Arachno-boy.  Including pictures that look like they were taken upside-down from up in the rafters.  (pause)  Wow, what incredible luck and photographic skill you must have!"
 
In each case, Daydream Believer simply stood off to the side and smiled at a job well done.
 
Debbie Verlander has been a mentalist since she was a teenager.  She can't read minds, or create mental illusions, or make people follow her commands.  She can, however, make people believe that what they're told (no matter how unlikely) is the God's-honest truth, and can also make people ignore the seemingly obvious.  Of course, as a teenager this came in very handy, and helped Debbie avoid a lot of groundings and other trouble from the 'rents.  However, it didn't help her at all when she was nearly killed by falling debris during a super-battle at the local mall.  Only the quick actions of Quarterflash saved her from getting squashed flat.  Unfortunately, his mask was ripped loose and he was knocked unconscious by falling debris.
 
As the villain escaped, people gathered around, snapping cell phone pictures and video of the fallen hero.  Debbie thought quickly.  He had saved her life, and now it was her chance to save his.  "Wow, it's a good thing the real Quarterflash was around!" she said.  "This kid in a homemade Quarterflash costume tried to save me, but the real Quarterflash saved both of us!"  She pointed toward the other end of the mall.  "I think he went that way!"  As everybody looked away, she helped a stunned Quarterflash get to this feet and spirited him away before anybody could begin asking questions.
 
Ever since that day, Debbie knew that her powers, though not impressive, could help others continue performing heroic activities without fear of reprisals.  She took the name Daydream Believer, letting people speculate that she can create mental illusions of some sort.

Kepler rises from the ashes!

Cassius has certain views about his subordinates, the other PCs. But Cog is a puzzle.

Cassius: Jrska, the Degenerate. Aladar the Fop, Rold the Attack Dog, Batholomeas the Dandy, and then there's you, Cog. I don't have anything for you. You're just around, doing your job.

Cog has been thinking about inventive applications of his medical know-how. In particular, biological warfare. With the aid of Nurgle, Chaos god of plague and decay, he should be able to come up with some really interesting pandemics.

Jrska: I'll help you with the rituals - I'll dress as a sexy nurse.

But on with the situation in Surgub, on Q'sal, where the rulers are busy and the lesser sorcerers are plotting. One of them has hired us to kill a rival. Even if this wasn't a planet dedicated to Tzeench, God of Change, this is an obvious set-up for a double-cross, and it only waits to see how many layers can be added to the plot.

Jrska: I'm certain there's a quadruple-cross planned, at least.
Cog: We'll probably find out they're working together to have us killed.
Jrska: How much do you want to bet the Stylite wants us to kill somebody else, and THEY want us to kill the Artifex?

And of course, there's the new PC 'Bartholomeas Jones' who claims to be on the run from his own marine chapter. We don't believe this, but will play along for now.

Jrska: Let's keep him at arm's length - Rold's arm length, preferably holding that soul-eating daemonsword of his.

Jrska: Think the Stylite will hire us to kill the Artifex, or just kill us?
Cassius: Flip a coin, basically.
Cog: It'll land on its side, given where we are.
Jrska: Or turn into a banana.

Perhaps we can find a way to complete the exact wording of the contract, if not the spirit.

Jrska: They do call an orgasm a little death... Maybe if i give the Stylite lots of orgasms?
Aladar: You'd need at least a thousand. You couldn't do it in the time we have left.
Jrska: I take that bet!

And of course there's the matter of the murder weapon, a daemon-sword crafted by the Artifex. None of us are willing to carry it, since daemon-weapons are notorious for seizing control of their bearers, and half of us already have other weapons that would get jealous.

Jrska: We'll let Aladar carry it - he's obviously incompetent, no-one will believe he's a threat.

Of course, we're debating all this in front of the Stylite's servant. No point trying to conceal it in a city of sorcerers, so talking openly at least lets them wonder if it's a triple or quadruple bluff. And Cassius and no doubt the Stylite have been scrying the permutations of the future anyway.

Jrska: You got any input on this?
Cassius: 'Here, carry this weapon that's been programmed to kill your master. Tell him it's a gift.'
GM: The servant's mouth is sewn up. It wasn't before.
Jrska: Silver wire sprouted from his lips.
GM: Q'sal is good for retconning things like that.

One of the city guards 'accidentally' drops a message from the Fourteen Factors - they want BOTH the Artifex and the Stylite dead.

Jrska: Quadruple betrayal then. But the big question is will the Factors let us get away alive afterwards?
Cassius: I'm wondering that myself.

Cassius' divinations revealed that the Stylite's disciples are the biggest complicating factor in whatever is about to go down. The Stylite doesn't seem to like them much either, as he screams and rants at the crowd of fiercely debating acolytes milling around far below his floating platform.

The Stylite: Why don't you all just fuck off!
Disciple: But what does he actually mean by that?
The Stylite: Get off my lawn!

There are a few more genuinely cryptic utterances collected and endlessly analysed by the crowd.

The Stylite: The black moon rises!
Jrska: 'Beware the Ides of Banana.'

We also find out what the Stylite used the hologenerator for - he's made his tower invisible, to discourage visitors. What now? And how to deal with the Stylite, if it does come to combat? Cog suggests we acquire a Pariah from somewhere, to cancel out the sorcerer's magic. Slight problem with that plan - those psychic untouchables are anathema to all psykers.

Cassius: You bring a pariah anywhere NEAR me and I will find WAYS, I will invent whole new fields of torture, just for you.

Jrska distracts the crowd, climbing up to straddle Rold's shoulders and address the multitude.

Jrska: He should be glad we're both facing in the same direction.

Cassius, Aladar and Cog sidle past towards the invisible tower. Jrska takes advantage of the somewhat ridiculous Khornate crest on Rold's helmet, after she's finished convincing the disciples to go harass the Artifex instead.

Jrska: I tap him on the helmet and steer him by the bunny ears over to where I can enjoy a packed lunch.

Aladar's player: I've been rolling bloody well this session.
Cassius' player: What did you just do?!?
Jrska's player: He's broken the universe.
Aladar's player: Oh... I just jinxed it didn't I.
Cassius' player: Thou shalt not summon the daemon Murphy.

The Stylite opens with a sorcerous attack to confuse Cassius, which at least resolves the question of whether or not we're going to negotiate. Cassius responds with excessive violence, and the psychic combat escalates, both using precognition to avoid each other's attacks, and each using every erg of power at their command in increasingly suicidal retaliation.

Aladar OoC: Your mind is filled by the eternal question 'what is one half of a pair of pants'

Cassius: I use Psychic Scream.
Jrska: Ow! He hates the noise already!
Cassius: I know >

Meanwhile, Cog is searching the basement for the hologenerator.

Jrska: 'Where does this extension cord go?'

Eventually, the Stylite's head vanishes, and so does Cassius, although the later is due to an attack of Chronological Incontinence. The rest of us have our own problems - Aladar is trying, and failing, to fight off daemonic possession, AND slavery to the Artifex' sword, and the entire tower is collapsing as the sorceries holding it up unravel.

Aladar OoC: Oh god, he was a load-bearing Boss

This is where things get weird - after Cassius reappears, and the rubble settles, we find Aladar alive and well. And we've all forgotten that the sword was a daemon-weapon. Or that the Artifex insisted will kill the Stylite with it.

Jrska: How did you survive that?
Aladar: I... Don't.... Know.

Jrska OoC: The daemon in his head and the daemon in the sword reached an understanding - one controls his body, the other controls his sword arm. And the daemon in the sword is saying 'drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword'

GM: There's no sign of the guard showing up. Funnily enough.
Jrska: They're probably off dealing with the riot at the Artifex's forge XD

Cassius invites all the bystanders to get looting, on the condition they help him find the hologenerator. Jrska then intimidates the bystanders into bartering over what they find, which irritates Cassius.

Cassius: I said that what they found, was theirs.
Jrska: Yes, my lord. And now they can trade with them.
Cassius: *grabs Jrska by the throat* But if they're busy trading with you, THEY'RE NOT WORKING FOR ME *hurls her over the rubble pile*
Jrska: *sailing away over the pile* My apologies, lord.

Aladar also find the Stylite's soul-vault.

Aladar: I found his wallet.

Cassius decides that now would be a good chance to get away from Q'sal. Preferably hiring the mercenary Gray to transport the enormous hologenerator (and sizeable soul-vault) up to our ship, in return for that cremated Inquisitor's ashes Jrska's been holding on to, 100 slaves, and a favour.

Jrska: The Factors want both the Stylite AND the Artifex dead.
Cassius: I don't care
Jrska: So this is a sextuple betrayal.
GM: .... Jesus. *Headdesk*
Jrska: You have to admit that is absolutely typical for a Tzeenchian planet.

Cassius: We need this transported up to my ship, on the condition that nobody, and that includes your crew, finds out what it is.
Gray: Is this going to endanger my ship and crew?
Jrska: I can't see any way it can - as long as you don't find out what it is.

We get the hell out of Dodge, having backstabbed not only the Artifex, by failing in our mission to kill the Stylite with the appropriate weapon (and then avoiding the sudden and inevitable betrayal afterwards), but the Factors as well, by failing to kill the Artifex. Cassius doesn't care - he thinks they were all morons anyway, and now considers the entire planet expendable.

Cassius: Add this planet to the list.
Jrska: You don't need no Stupid Evil.
Cassius: I'm starting to see myself as a force for evolution.
Jrska: Extinction's Angel, my lord.

( RPG system notes - two important characteristics in Black Crusade are experience points -d'uh - and corruption points. As PCs accrue corruption points, they also earn the 'gifts' and actual rewards, from the Chaos Gods. Aladar's player spends his points on the talent Cold-hearted, which makes him jaded, dispassionate... and immune to seduction. It also gives him enough corruption points for a 'gift', and though we don't know it yet a number of his organs have been replaced by daemonic mechanics. Which explains the cold-hearted neatly, but still leaves Jrska pissed off and disturbed by his failure to respond to her attentions.)

Jrska: You've changed... I don't like it.

Jrska: I brought fresh gerbils!
Aladar: Gerbils?
Cassius OoC: 'Again?'

Cassius' player suggests a few more improvements for Aladar.

Cassius' player: We need to up your armed combat skills, and implant you with a Halo Device. Then he'll be a pirate ninja robot alien zombie. In space.
Aladar: Well, my motivation is immortality.
Cassius' player: And Quick Draw! Cowboy.

Cog's been having ideas too. Even if he does invent something epidemiologically interesting, he'll need to get it into the population. Jrska's interest in recreational pharmacology suggests a way.

Cog: You could talk them into trying anything.
Jrska: I know. It IS my mission to bring sex, drugs, and rock and roll to the Imperium.
Cog: Yes. So, if I add my disease to the drugs... and to the addiction treatments...
Jrska: Ecstasy cut with anthrax.

Lydia Bascome is Memphis Belle, a flying brickette who is more than a bit of a daredevil.  And isn't too concerned with property damage, much to the TN governor's dismay.

A (almost) whole decade ago the ESA launched a Spacecraft called Rosetta whose mission is to land on a comet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_%28spacecraft%29
 
Today, after 5 Solar Rotatios, was the day it was sheduled to wake up after the final 100 day Hibernation cycle:
http://www.universetoday.com/108254/wake-up-rosetta/
 
It did:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2014/jan/20/rosetta-comet-chasing-spacecraft-wakes-up-esa-live-blog