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PRIMARY SUBJECT: TOTAL XTRACTIONS PROCESSED (XP) (+Change)
(Finishing the Fight)
(Meeting the Bride, part 2)
(The Estate of Gabriel Sophano)
(Throwdown in the Fates Wheel)
Scythia is healed by the infernal warp power of the Biomancer/Pyrokine Gallus, saved from her near death experience. She awakes from her burns hearing beautiful hymns to the Emperor of Mankind …
Gallus. Dominatus. Gallus. Gallus Dominatus.
Only wait. They're not. They're to Gallus himself. The light blue hue of power covers her skin as it knits itself back together almost completely, leaving only light burn scars behind.
The acolytes share information on what Septimus Dexter, The White Scholar, told them before he was killed.
The Pilgrims of Hayte.
The Grand Conjunction.
The Festival of Tattered Fates.
The period of darkness where Quaddis is moved beyond the emperor's light.
The involvement of the Widower.
And his last words, about the Spider Bride.
Librarium Servitors enter the room to begin cleaning up the mess, and are ordered by Cortez to begin searching for volumes on the Widower or the Spider Bride as part of their research.
Scythia remembers some Legends around the Angevin Crusade, the time of Soloman and Faustino Sophano, and the Widower, who was a monster of darkness, an assassin of unparalleled skill, that no weapon could harm and no lock could bar entry.
The servitors return with a few noteworthy volumes on the History of Xicarph. In some of the earliest tales, the Widower is mentioned in the earliest tales as an enforcer who keeps the game of power as the struggle for dominance in the new imperial realm carved from the Calyx Expanse is forged into the Calixis Sector from spilling into Xicarph.
There is nothing regarding the Spider Bride.
All pages containing anything that might be related to the most recent Sophano bloodlines have been ripped out of the geneaology book. Anything that might say how many people survived Erasmus' eradication is gone.
There is a record of Gabriel Sophano and his estate, nephew of Faustino, the first one that was given power over Xicarph. At the center of his estate is a masterpiece grand Steel Clock.
The acolytes debate what to do next, search for the Heron Mask? … search for more cultists? Seek out the Spider Bride, both due to Dexter's last words, and the contract from Papa Grist?
They leave to try and find the Spider Bride in the Pleasure Gardens.
The warband of acolytes makes their way through a district with some rich stores and many well to do estates until they find an avenue that seems to head in the direction they want to go.
The estates end and a section of marble domed pavilions and courtyards change into botanical gardens where many courtesans offer many rare pleasures. They take what you can only assume are their customers up the steps into a hazy area to the end of your vision.
Some of them come up to the party, with exquisitely made clothes and the angular faces common to Calixian nobility. They speak to you in perfect Scintillan High Gothic:
Courtesan: "Welcome to the Twilight Gardens. Can I help you?"
Wollsey: I'm sorry ladies. You can't afford me.
Courtesan: Oh I'm sure it's quite the opposite. What can I do for you?
Wollsey: We're just … browsing around.
Courtesan: … Browsing … in the Twilight Gardens.
Scythia: Do you sell advice, or just y our bodies?
Courtesan: If its advice that you seek, I can take you to the one who sells it.
The courtesan near Wollsey begins to get a little "friendly", but just a tease.
Wollsey: Who is this one who offers advice?
Courtesan: Do I need to speak her name?
Scythia: You are just at the edge of her little web, aren't you?
Courtesan: Yes, I am.
Titus mutters something about this being a trap under his breath.
Courtesan: The Spider Bride accepts an audience with all comers, and if you can meet her price, then she shall give you what you seek.
Wollsey: And if we can't?
Courtesan: Then you will be escorted out the way you entered.
Gallus: Probably unceremoniously.
Courtesan: Why on Quaddis would we do that? That depends upon what you seek.
Gallus inquires about the price of the courtesan herself, but when he says that she has nothing to offer, she offers that perhaps arrangements can be made with the Spider Bride.
Titus is nervous. He watches the nobles escorted up the stairs by the courtesans, where they pass though a void shield into a beyond area where anything could be taking place. Other nobles emerge from the shield and walk back down the stairway into the streets of Xicarph. Courtesans seems to come and go up and down the stairs at will.
While Gallus, Scythia and Wollsey chat up their courtesan, Titus falls in behind one of the small parties going up the stairs and passes through the void sheild. Inside the constant light from above is dimmed into a dull twilight by the shielding. Silk pavillions and grottos, many surrounded by their own partial or full void shielding are in every direction. Before he realizes it, another courtesan has his arm and is escorting him. He quickly comes to the understanding that it would be very easy to lose ones sense of direction within this odd shifting area if unescorted. Titus rebuffs the courtesan on his arm.
Courtesan: Don't worry. I am tasked with taking you to the Spider Bride. Are your friends going to come along too?
The rest of the warband does end up following along.
Gallus: C'mon Scythia. Join us.
Scythia: I feel plenty out of place, but alright.
[GM: C'mon Maptool, you piece of shit.]
[Angus: I can see we're going to have a lot of fun making fun of Scythia.]
[Brian: Poor Scythia. ]
[Angus: Well, she is this haggard old nun. ]
[Brian: Way over her head. ]
[Angus: You know what happens to people in over their head. They burn fate points.]
[Brian: Ding Ding Ding. I got fireballed and tried to dodge out of the way but didnt' dodge far enough. I drew a weapon and did an invocation, and I parried, and I dodged, and I was dead.]
[Ando: -chuckles-]
[Eric: One fireball and a few fire bolts.]
[Player conversation continues]
The courtesans disappear back into the forest as the warband finds themselves in a large structure that must sit within the Twilight Gardens, but can't be seen from the outside. The inside is filled with columns, and is entirely dark. At the center of the structure, bathed in torchlight, is a woman in ornate red and black silk expensive clothing. She has a mask over her face that covers everything but her mouth that is made of silver and jewels. Her black hair comes out from behind the masquerade mask.
Many courtesans hover near the edge of the torchlight within the building.
Spider Bride: Welcome travellers.
Gallus: I understand you answer questions. Is this soothsaying?
Spider Bride: I know many things.
Gallus: So how does this work.
Spider Bride: The way it works is either you pay me or you do things for me.
Wollsey: What sort of things?
Spider Bride: FIrst, I will ask a question and you will tell me the answer. Why did Papa Grist send you here?"
Wollsey: To kill you obviously.
Spider Bride: I expected as much.
Gallus: (quickly interjects) That's not the real reason we came.
[Brian: I'm just thinking to myself, I coulda been that dumbass. I'm trying to bite my toungue lest I say anything and you just come out and say it! I'm so confused about how to be an Acolyte! Aaaargh!!!!!]
Gallus: Do we only get one question?
Spider Bride: Oh, I'm not going to answer anything for you yet. I already knew that. I just wanted to see how you would answer. Why are you here then? Why have you come? Tell me, shall we get on with it?
Gallus: No. We're here for questions and answers. We want to know why a criminal would want you dead.
Spider Bride: I've been … "interrupting" … his business. He's not from Xicarph. He needs to go.
Gallus: I see.
Wollsey: We have many questions.
Gallus: How much do answers cost?
Spider Bride: For you? Answers come with deeds.
Gallus (looking around at the warband) … all of us?
Spider Bride: The time has come for a choice. Papa Grist, or me. Who will it be? Either way you will make an enemy. You need to make a choice.
Cortez: Why would we choose you over Papa Grist?
Spider Bride: I don't know. Either you kill me or you do what I say.
Titus: There are other choices that that.
Gallus: We could leave.
Spider Bride: You could. But Papa Grist won't wait forever. You'll have to come back here either eventually. I'm not the only one who's been keeping an eye on you. He will come for you, eventually.
Titus, Cortez, and Wollsey examine and count the women hovering at the edge of the torchlight. They are all obviously noblewomen, wearing scanty scandalous tight fitting clothing, and unarmed. There's no obvious place for them to hide weaponry.
In warband cant
Gallus: I would ask questions.
Cortez: We'll get no answers.
Gallus: Are you sure?
Cortez: If you wish to ask, go ahead, but you are only delaying the inevitable. She is correct, we will eventually have kill either her or Papa Grist.
Wollsey: I'm more concerned with her than Papa Grist.
Cortez: The question is, kill which one gets us closer to our mission?
Titus asks Gallus to ask if she knows a way into the Sophano Palace, Gabriel Sophano.
Gallus: Do you know a way into Gabriel Sophano?
Spider Bride: Yes.
*Titus: Can you provide it to us?
Spider Bride: Yes. I have tickets to get into the palace for the Revel of Darkness.
Titus: What must we do to obtain these tickets?
Spider Bride: You must do something I want. I tire with the stuggle with Papa Grist. It bores me. I want it to be done, so I think I may give him a gift, to end things on the right note so he won't have a problem leaving anymore.
She reaches from behind her throne and pulls out a hat box out and set it in front of her.
[Brian: Filled with spiders!]
Spider Bride: Deliver him this gift.
Wollsey: And in exchange you will answer our questions?
Spider Bride: I will answer questions and provide you with the tickets.
Titus: And if we asked Papa Grist for tickets in exchange for your head in a box, could he provide them for us?
Spider Bride: He's a man of resources. I'm sure he has likely acquired some of his own. The choice is yours.
There is a tense silence.
Wollsey: Agreed. We'll deliver your package.
Spider Bride: I'll be watching.
[GM: Okay who takes the hat box?]
[Brian: I'm not touching anything you fucking lay out!!]
[Angus: I'll take the hat box.]
[Brian: Let it be known, sister Scythia picks up no objects…]
The Spider Bride's courtesans escort the warband to the edge of the gardens.
Gallus scans the hat box for signs of psychic activity, but everything is entirely normal. The warband talks about their next move, with some of the newcomers wonder if walking up to the person is a typical Inquisition tactic. As the group emerges from the last void shield, they notice a "garland" has been strung amonst the marble domes and poles of the lower Twilight Gardens where they first met the courtesans.
Tracing it back to its source, there is a man, bent over backwards in half, stuck into a spike at the top of one of the buildings, and his intestines have been used to decorate the gardens. One of the passersby mutters "The Widower's Work!" and quickly goes about their business…
Titus watches out for people following the group as they make their way back to Papa Grist's, and notices a Heron Mask among the crowd, never close, but never far. The warband gets back to The Fates Wheel without further incident.
Gallus and Cortez stay outside, while Titus, Wollsey and Scythia take off their armor and deliver the silver hat box to Papa Grist in his office.
Wollsey: We've brought you her head.
Papa Grist: Oh, joyous day, with her out the way this glorious city and all its wonders will be mine! That bitch and the new guy she has working for her has screwed me over so bad … I'm going to have my men hunt down that monster next, wherever he is.
Wollsey and Scythia slowly back up as Papa Grist takes the lid off the silver hat box, beginning to draw their weapons.
As soon as the lid comes off, an eight legged spidery robot pops out of the hat box, launches itself at Papa Grist, clamps down its thorax over his head, when it quickly closes cutting off his head with a loud clang, so that its now a spider body with Papa Grists face coming right out of the metal. His body drops do the ground instantly.
Crackmarrow (alarmed) What the fuck!?!?!? Kill these muther fuckers, they just offed Papa Grist!
(more to be transcribed)
At this point the door to the reading room burst open, and it becomes painfully clear that Titus hasn't gone back to his watchful post outside the door. Several men in Heron Masks enter, a crumpled librarium servitor falling before them.
"Sorry for my Master's little jest, but it's time for the pawn on the Regicide board to be removed. Be good, give him to us and go back to the dance, little pawns!"
The Heron Masks are removed, revealing faces and skins covered with hideous symbols carved into the flesh of their faces. Fighting starts almost immediately.
Titus charges, then dodges the feeble attacks from razor blades.
A Witch with the cultists takes control of his body with "Dominate" spell as another one unleashes a Firestorm that almost kills Septimus Dexter. Wollsey guns down a cultist with a razor blade by unleashing full auto upon him. Cortez is surrounded by 3 cultists and a Dominated Titus as Scythia is charred by bolts of fire from the Pyrokine witch. Wollsey unleashes more full auto upon the witches, killing them and releasing Titus from his spell. He goes into a Holy Rage, butchering cultists around him. The last two cultists manage to get to Dexter and kill him before finally falling themselves.
Titus evicerates the witch that dominated him, and scatters the gore of his corpse in a wide area around the fallen body.
As Septimus Dexter lies dying, he manages a few last words …
"The Spider Bride … "
But unfortunately expires before the last piece of wisdom is able to part his lips.
The group decides to start searching in the Blackstone Xenaum , which turns out to be a Museum of sorts, dedicated to showing artifacts "highlighting the uncleanliness and wickedness" of xenos civilizations exterminated during the Angevin Crusade.
Someone there mentions that they think they saw an elderly scholar dressed in white in the Chancel Athenaum.
The group manages to find this scholar, and gives him the pass phrase given to them by Karkalla before he died. He takes them to a back reading room where knowledge can be shared in private. Titus keeps watch as the discussion starts, but them Septimus Dexter asks for him to be brought into the room so that each and every one of the people can officially record the oaths they took to Karkalla.
After the records are made, carried off to some unknown destination by Servo Skulls, the White Scholar shares what he knows.
The Beast House is nothing but an unwitting pawn in whatever is going on.
He suspects, but can not prove, that the Pilgrims of Hayte are involved in what's going on. Scythia shares that the Pilgrims are a Violent and Spiteful Chaos Cult that was infamously associated with an attrocity on Malfi some time ago.
The myth of the Widower is somehow involved. The Widower, as it turns out, is rumored to be an assassin of unparalelled ability, linked to the Sophano blood line.
How are the Sophanos involved on this planet? They used to be its rulers.
What is going on? This is the Grand Conjunction, an eclipse of the sun that happens at an irregular interval every 50 to 60 years. The Festival of Tattered Fates celebrates this, culminating in the Revel of Darkness mentioned by Master Nonesuch. At this time of the eclipse of the Sun all astropathic communication is cut off and the planet "moves beyond the Light of the Emperor" for a couple to a few minutes. At this time, anything at all is considered fair game, although family vendetta and offworld Imperial Authorities might beg to differ at a later date.
The White Scholar offers to do some further research on some things when …
The rest of the journey to the Refutation district is tense. Titus keeps a careful eye on the surroundings, being especially mindful for potential followers. He is now extremely worried about the presence of the Maggot Men on the planet. What he sees instead are a couple brief glimpses of a man in a Heron Mask peering at them and following them at a distance.
Before getting to the Refutation, the glimpses cease. Some information on the Maggot Men is shard with Wollsey and Scythia, who is very interested in its implications with the scrawled messages from her father, "The Worms that Walk Will Come For Us All"
A few noteworthy structures stand apart from the others amongst the colleges and cathedral like data vaults in the district.
The Bibliotheca Antiquita is a tall round building with columns inset into the external superstructure. The silver dome on top is of the highest craftsmanship but dull with tarnish, matching in disrepair the dirt and grime visible on the masonry of the rest of the rotunda.
The front of the Blackstone Xenaeum is dominated visually by a broad flight of steps constructed from black marble identical to that of the two story portico of the main structure. A graceful low dome covers the central mass, while flanking it to either side are two circular one story wings. The entire building is created from the same black marble as the front steps.
The Chancel Athenaeum is a series of ten white marble halls connected in the middle by a large covered colonnade.
Lastly, in a central location is a drab, grey ziggurat of the Locus Prefecta, devoid of activity and life, as depressing to look at from the outside as those that continue on an endless mission of nothingness on the inside.
Scythia enters the Ziggurat, hoping to investigate it as she has others in her quest for knowledge about her fathers mad writings. Inside are many empty disused offices and a few very drunken Adepts. Tasked with cataloging and analyzing the development of the Colonies on the planet of Xicarph in preparation for its offical entrace into the Imperium of Man, they end up with nothing to do. The nothingness has driven the Adepts mad, for there are no colonies, no industry, nothing that the fief owners don't want, and so the meaningless reports are all the same. No new developments. Nothing to report.
The Locus Prefecta, Alswin Du'Landra, considers the continued funding of the position a sick joke, and in his case his assignment to the post a punishment for daring to share analysis that the ammount of men, material and industry poured into the Margin Crusade has extreme abnormalities in the sheer lack of any evidence of successes, or any returning reports of any nature. He gives them a bottle to drink, and carries on with what he was doing.
The Adpet also shares this tidbit of knowledge, it is now 172.818.M41, some 170 days after the acolytes were captured.
After resting in the everpresent light of midday, the acolytes look up into the jeweled dome overhead and realize for the first time that the sun of Quaddis is circling the brass circular structure hanging far overhead.
Gallia, Gallus, and Dorn have left early on some unknown errand with a promise to meet up later.
Wollsey, Scythia, Cortez and Titus decide to follow up on the idea that the White Scholar may be in the Refutation district, where colleges and various librariums and such are located. Not having enough money to spend on being brought the 15 kilometers in Servitor Pedicabs, the only other option is to walk there.
About 10 kilometers into the journey the group sees a small noble entourage walking briskly and purposfully towards Titus. The leader of the group is a figure dressed in a Midnight Blue cloak, decorated on the edges by golden angular symbols. In his right hand he uses a cane to help walk, made of Ebony with a Brass skull like top. His mask is bone white with sunken features.
Titus recognizes the item just before the figure speaks in a charming and delighted voice.
"Excellent, Excellent, how WONDERFUL it is to see familar faces!"
Titus and Cortez freeze in astonishment.
"I should have KNOWN that you would be here too after running into Femerous. Is Lord Sunder here too? Are you enjoying yourselves? Are you enjoying the festivities? I can't tell you how much my friends and I await with anticipation the Revel of Darkness. Such a rare opportunity to MAKE new friends!"
"You know, you just simply MUST let me have you for dinner sometime!"
Titus finally manages to find a voice, declining the polite invitation.
Master Nonesuch politely introduces himself to the new faces of Wollsey and Scythia, then goes on his way, in the opposite direction that the group is going.
The scene of Xicarph is one of unending revel. All around street vendors hawk their wares, from food, drugs, and hand weapons to medical care. Nobles indulge themselves with their entourages while other quickly go to and from where they wish to go.
After wandering some to the east and finding themselves in a cemetery and mausoleum district of the city, they return back to somewhere near where they emerged from the elevator.
Penniless after their emergence from the undercity, newcomer Wollsey sells some of their excess equipment taken from the slain slavers and scrapes together some 40 gelt. This is taken to a local gambling establishment where Titus is sent into a blood pit for sport. He isn't much to look at, so a nobody is sent up against him while Wollsey makes 3 separate bets with his 40 thrones. Titus wins handily. The second fight, which Titus does not wish to fight, is against a cyborg gladiator, whom he dispatches with one righteous swing.
This show of skill catches the attention of the proprietor the establishment, the Fates Wheel, a fat bastard named Papa Grist. He reeks of stink and sweat, a rotund beast of an underworld figure obviously originally from Malfi. Papa Grist has a problem that he would like these skilled newcomers to solve for him. He has been making a killing on Xicarph, up until recently when "local competition" has been started to put a squeeze on him.
The proposition is this: 200 Gelt a piece for killing the rival leader, a woman known as "The Spider Bride"
The acolytes decide to think about it for a bit.
When they come back a bit later, Papa Grist ups the ante before they give him their answer. He raises his offer to 1000 Gelt per person, and he will offer up some advances or loans of equipment. The group readily accepts, taking a few pairs of low quality hardened bodygloves, some pistols, a chainsword, and micro beads.
The stiff control of the elevator engages with a clunk, sending it ascending slowly upwards into a lightless enclosed shaft. A sound, not unlike the thunder on the rolling plains of Iocanthos, becomes steadily louder until the roof above you splits open.
The elevator shaft floods with hard, brilliant daylight as the platform breaks the surface and judders to a halt. A wave of sound assaults you and the clean, sweet air is intoxicating as you stare helplessly dumbfounded for a moment at the scene that surrounds you. Cheers and laughter, screams of delight and danger, music played by instrument and vox. Overhead, a bright blue sky shimmers and sparkles like an oversized jewel, lined with dark ridges that spread out and down to the horizon from a single brass sphere high overhead like the rays of a golden star.
The platform has deposited you on a raised marble dais, one of many that grace an ornate high-sized plaza decorated in lofty and opulent fashion. Statues and billowing silk pavilions line wide paved walkways that are thronged with hundreds of people in a riot of costume and color.
The people walk and sway, rush and revel, seemingly without purpose or reason; some cheer and laugh, while others seem to cling fearfully to each other and hurry on to unguessed at destinations.
Beside your platform, an ethereal-looking noblewoman clad in a blue gown of shimmersilk and an immaculate pearl mask sweeps through the crowd, her midnight-robed attendants clearing her way with iron staves, while ivory skinned cherubim swoop about her, filling the air with narcotic vapors from their silver censers. She pauses to look up at you and says,
"I say, what fun, is it a revel you are from? What delightful costumes, so decadent, so visceral. Tell me, will there be blood, can you promise me blood?"
Before you can answer, a great bell tolls and the woman turns away, and she and her retinue are swallowed up by the thronging crowd.
Surviving the Clockwork Red Cages: 600xp
Group Influence: 21
Character: XP Available (change)
The scene greeting Wollsey in the Hospital Pod is a dim red twilight of bloody horror, where a place of healing has been turned into a shrine of pain and mutilation. Every surface is splattered in the blood and gore of countless victims, human, xenos, and bestial. Surgical equipment, chemicals, specimen jars, trophies, bizarre bone sculptures, flayed skins, and tanned hides clutter the room. Strange machines throb and pulse with power while pict viewers replay static shrouded images of the chamber's past work.
The gore is too much for Dorn, who leaves and empties his stomach of the water he had just drank. Wollsey continues cautiously into the deepest pard of the pod, discovering the remains of a once powerful man in a dire state. Both of his legs have been amputated below the knee and his right arm is missing. An Inquisitorial Rosette has been crudely pinned to his chest and the left side of his face has been flensed down to the glistening bone.
Shockingly, the man somehow remains amongst the living and is resaonably lucid.
"I am Inquisitor Nazauth Karkalla!", he says in a clear commanding voice, "stand forth and show yourselves! Who are you, and what are you doing here?"
Titus, following Wollsey into the macabre scene, asks the Inquisitor if he recognizes them, for they have met twice previously.
"Yes, yes I do … now. Is all your cell here? Bring them here, bring them in here now!", Karkalla demands.
Once they are all present, Karkalla describes what happened to him.
Karkalla: "I came here following Vulpa, Marcus Vulpa, The Eagle Mask, one of their slaver chiefs, deluded fool. I followed him here from Sophano Prime, hoping to find his customers … beasts, beasts for the great entertainment… blood for the carnival … found worse … Death is my sentence on him. Purge the unclean!."
Titus: "But what about the Lion Mask? The Heron Mask? The Bull Mask?", Titus excitedly asks, "Why are we here, why were we brought here…?"
Karkalla: "Lion Mask is dead, you should know this. You blundering fools killed him on Sophano Prime when you almost ruined my operation there."
Titus: "There is a new one, Stanton Minita is the Lion Mask now."
Karkalla: "You lie… Minita is my man… loyal servant… not the Lion."
Titus: "He is the Lion Mask, he brought us here!"
Karkalla: "No… enough… enough of this… no more slander… too much to tell…"
Wollsey: "Where are we?"
Karkalla: "Quaddis, infamous Quaddis, pleasure planet, false paradise, noble's plaything, hidden world. During the Festival of Tattered Fates, a great and sinful folly of the powerful."
Cortez: "And who is in the Heron Mask?"
Karkalla: "He is a liar, a liar! Do not trust hi. The warp shines in his black soul. Did this to me… for sport, for pleasure, and to use me as bait for someone, something else, but he thought he had driven me mad, ha ha… his mistake. Fear him, stop him!"
Titus: "Why did he bring us here?"
Karkalla: "Dark omens, dark prophecy, a gathering of dark souls, the time of the Great Conjunction, an ancient evil, lurking secrets best left buried. The Heron has some cancerous plan, some malign plot he would not reveal; he needed the old blood, I think, to lure it out. Brought you all, brought the others, dush and ash, I cannot see. Blood, it always comes back to tat for them. Sophano, the old monsters, knew too much, their world then, now, and forever, whatever lies the nobles prattle. Do not forget that."
Scythia: "What of the Worms that walk, do you know anything about them?"
Karkalla: "No… nothing… they aren't real, nothing but the mad ramblings of Van Vuygens and his mad chases. Now … you are all mine, my cell, my Acolytes. Take my Rosette off my chest…"
Titus: "But … that might kill you."
Karkalla: "That will happen either way, now do as I commanded."
Titus removes the Rosette from the Inquisitor's chest.
Karkalla: "Now swear an Oath to the God Emperor of Mankind that you will see the Heron Masks plan thwarted. Swear it upon my Rosette, swear it now!"
Each of the six, starting with Gallus, swear their oath in their own words.
Karkalla: "Go … get to the surface, the city. Seek out the White Scholar, one of al'Subaai's, wasn't there when the attack happened, survived I think. He will help you… ask him… ask him what can be found in the ninth stack on Prol. He will answer, 'emptiness' if it is he… Stop the Heron Mask, stop him or this world dies, and with it how many others? how far will the rot spread? Stop it before it is too late. Burn my body, unsafe otherwise… May the Emperor make you a vessel of his wrath…"
And with that, Nazauth Karkalla dies.
The armored door of the hospital pod is flung open and the brutal figure of the Eagle Masked man stalks forth, followed by two cowering figures draped in bloodstained plastek robes and harnesses of surgical tools. The Eagle Mask turns angrily on them, and they flinch in fear.
"Damn your warp-roted hides, and damn him to hell's eye! What game does he paly here? He brings an Inquisitor here, to my domain, to mutilate and pry? And you did not see fit to inform me?" The Eagle Mask shouts.
"B-B-But master, you asked us to offer him every asistance-" The cowering Heretek pleads but is silenced as crackling metal coils lash out from Eagle Mask's band and ensnare him. The Heretek judders screaming for a few moments before slumping to the ground no more than a sack of burnt meat.
"I am no stalking prey to be staked out to lure the beast in, no matter what the Heron beleives! Find out what that mangled thing told him or you will suffer your comrade's fate!" the Eagle snarls at the remaining Heretek before, flanked by two heavily armed men in pig-faced iron masks, mounts the elevator platform and it begins its slow and rambling ascent upwards.
The nothingness of unconsciousness surrounds you and you do not know where you are. You do not know what has happened to your comrades or where they are. You do not know how much time has passed or how long you have been in this state. Slowly, your senses begin delivering bits of information. There is a gentle breeze that you feel on exposed skin, places that should be covered.
"… Whump … Whump … Whump … Whump … Whump … Whump …"
A slow rhythmic thrumming of heavy machinery can be heard nearby. Cold wet grains of sand are underneath, and your nostrils tell a story of ordure, blood, and sweet decay so strong you can taste it. Or maybe you can taste it because of the bits of sand and … other things in your mouth.
Finally, you open your eyes to find yourselves in a wide, high-sided, roughly square pit, over a dozen meters across, along with some other fellow captives. The ground is covered with moist, reeking sand and is littered with broken bones and other detritus. Set into the rusted metal walls at irregular intervals are spiked and studded iron grates of varying shapes and sizes and flickering lumen globes recessed behind heavy mesh. Some six meters above you the walls of the pit are topped with sabre-like, inward curving rusted blades and loose coils of corroded razor-wire. Beyond that is darkness from which the sounds of heavy machinery must have come from.
I cannot trust you. I can trust No One and nor should you, least of all this poor lost servant.
Your Master is betrayed as Mine was, and there are worse things waiting for us all.
Kill or Be killed – that is the way of it, there is no other truth, whether it be in these dark cages, the riotous carnival above or the jaded palaces of the wicked.
If the Widower has his way, we will all drown in the black light of hells uncounted when the hour strikes at last.
May the God-Emperor Save You or the Warp Damn You. Each as you – as we all – deserve.
Boarding Party: Surviving Worse for Wear: 100xp
Group Influence: 21 (+1)
Darkness has taken you, leaving you endlessly falling into an empty oblivion devoid of sight or sound. Moments flash briefly into being and fade again: a cold iron table and bright light above you, the mocking voice of Minita, the reeking stench of beasts and raw meat. Weightlessness, the hammering of great machinery, and finally, fetid black water oozing beneath you and chill winds stirring foul air.
You wake slowly to find yourself paralyzed in cold darkness, your voice silent and your body as limp and useless as a rag doll. You are helpless to act or speak, or even hold your thoughts together, but you can hear the ragged breathing of others in the dark telling you that you are not alone in your fate and feel the bone-deep ache in your limbs confirming that you yet live.
Sickly-green lamps flicker on in the walls, illuminating what might be your cell members in the moment before a dozen figures appear, wading shin-deep through rank waters towards the cold platform on which you and the other tangled forms hang. They wear ragged cloacks over dark body armor, and their faces are covered by grotesque animal masks fashioned from glittering metal and stitched skin. Each mask is different, one a hound, one a serpent, another a squid, a swine, and so on, while the leader wears the gilded visage of an Eagle with crimson feathers around its crest.
Walking beside the leader is a man covering his face with the image of a Lion, identical to the one torn from Count Sophano's face at the Umbraer's Hope deep bore mine.
A quick flick of Lion Mask's runic sword severs chains and you are dumped into the ice-cold filth of the water with the others, all equally helpless, heaped up like in a mass grave for the living. Each of you is swiftly and purposefully examined by the masked men like livestock in a market. The Eagle Mask barks an angry order, and he and the others back away swiftly into the darkness.
Frost creeps across the walls, and the waters beneath you grow cold as the grave, as from the darkness a human-shaped, spike-studded metal cabinet comes into view, pushed along by two stunted and misshapen figures. Another shadowed form, tall and lean, hangs back on the edge of sight behind them.
Horror is heaped upon horror as the iron cabinet opens to reveal the severed head and mutilated torso of a young woman floating within in a column of unearthly light. The woman's eyes snap open and cruel white light floods out. You feel the stabbing claws of a vile force invade your mind with its polluting touch as you and your fellow captives finally find voice enough to scream.
The force withdraws suddenly as the iron cabinet snaps shut. A silver-clawed hand rises from the darkness and indicates three captives in turn. The misshapen figures lunge forth and drag them screaming into the darkness where they are abruptly silenced.
Mercifully you are not among them.
The light fades and oblivion takes you again.
I have worked out a backstory for Mistress Captain Odelia Lall that does not impose one bit on the players' ability to customize and tailor the Sabre to their liking. This was one of my objectives with her as an NPC, actually, to make her available and have her be a character while at the same time.
It is actually more appropriate for this backstory that you take items that would be advantageous to Ordo Xenos operations both within, at the edge of, and beyond Imperial space.
Mistress Odelia Lall is very businesslike in her demeanor. She and her crew command the Sabre effectively and efficiently, taking the vessel from port to port where directed to by al-Subaai. She makes it perfectly clear that her crew and personnel are not resources for you to dispose of at will or whim. She's not rude or hostile about it, she's just very obviously not willing to risk resources or personnel on your behalf, and it not obligated to do so. She takes her driving orders from al-Subaai, or, if he transfers his authority to you, from you.
To shed a little bit of light on the arrangement, let's inject one slight slip in her professional discourse when Attilus suggests that she send personnel with Dorn and him to Port Wander due to the Sabre potentially being in danger.
"Listen, Attilus, you might think you're a big shot, parading around with that lesser Rosette, but you had better listen up and listen good. Unless you want every criminal, crook and heretic to flee and run to ground the minute word gets out that the Sabre is in system you'd better keep your involvement with this vessel top secret. Understand? This vessel might be Van Vuygens' now, but it's going to be mine someday, and I'm not going to have you mess that up by stumbling around announcing yourself and this ship as Inquisitorial to everyone this side of the Maw. This frigate is worth more to the Inquisition, and myself, than you or your whole team, and I have sworn to keep it and it's secret safe. I have orders from Van Vuygens, at my discretion, to abandon any acolyte cell that can't keep their Emperor forsaken grox hole shut. If I ever hear that you've let it slip again, I will use that discretion to protect this Inquisitorial asset. And that goes for all of you. Is that perfectly clear?"
Error Failure to Read From Imperial Archives
The long, three month journey from the Piety of Seth to the Rubycon II system where the orbital station known as Port Wander lies is arduous and stressful. Extended travel in the immaterium is never easy, but after the events on the Piety of Seth, nerves are worn thin and nearly to the breaking point when the Sabre finally drops back into realspace. The acolytes eagerly depart the ship and head to the station while captain Lall takes the Sabre for refitting at a drydock facility near Port Wander following the extended journey.
Once aboard, the team is met by Gabriel, a representative of Inquisitor Al'Subaai, who provides quarters and helps the party to get established on the station. While settling in, an agent of a different inquisitor, Linetta Res, turns up and informs Gabriel that Inquisitor Res needs to speak with her. The rest of the team is brought along to speak with the Inquisitor, who informs them that the Imperial Navy has requested the assistance of the Inquisition as xenos artefacts have been uncovered at the site of an accident on an asteroid facility near Port Wander. Inquisitor Res has already delayed her departure from the station for important business in the Koronus Expanse and asks the team to go in her stead. She will inform Inquisitor Al'Subaai of the acolytes new assignment prior to leaving and she charges the team to deal with whatever situation may arise and to investigate any and all potential leads they may uncover.
Later in the day, the acolytes are briefed on the situation by Fleet Lieutenant Sicarrius Wu, a hard-bitten naval officer with extensive cybernetic replacements. A cargo lighter lost control and collided with an abandoned Hab stack on asteroid B/002 C IV, also known as Hab 19. Though there was extensive loss of life because of depressurization, the real shock came when the Navy's accident investigation team uncovered extensive evidence of xenos artefacts and biomorphs in a ruined section of the hab stack. The investigation team was withdrawn immediately and the Navy contacted Inquisitor Res of the Ordo Xenos to take over the investigation of the accident site.
After some legwork on the station, where very little news of the crash has spread, Augustinius flies the team to the asteroid where Hab 19 is built upon and the team begins to comb through the wreckage. Augustinius discovers a crude but well supplied medicae facility with signs of potential xenos fluids clinging to some of the equipment. Gabriel uncovers a number of holding pens with burned and desiccated corpses of a number of xenoforms, confirming the Naval investigation team's suspicions. She also notes four strange runes crudely painted on the walls (see image below). Attilas sifts through the wreckage of an office facility and manages to turn up one dataslate still in working condition, though it is locked with some form of encryption. He also finds a few rooms containing bunks and crude (but effective and well-used) arms, and armor strewn about. Cortez, though, discovers a grisly sight tucked away in corner of the structure that has escaped being damaged by the crash. He finds a room with a plasma incinerator and carts and crates filled with various xenos body parts. Some are fairly shocking, showing signs of cybernetic enhancements and obvious combat augmentations.
As the team begins to reassemble, Attilus's keen senses (nice roll!) pick up sounds of movement back in the wreckage surrounding the area. Creeping over the mounds of girders, plasteel plating, wiring, and tubing, come the thick, muscular forms of many feral servitors! Clearly the impact did not kill everything in the hab and this band of ferals have come to see what they might find in the wreckage…
An astropathic communication comes in from al'Subaai as the Frigate Sabre, commanded by Odelia Lall, carries the Acolytes towards Port Wander on the far Rimward edge of the Calixis sector.
_Trusted Acolytes, I require an artifact to be acquired from the main reliquary in the grand cathedral of Port Calling on The Piety of Seth. I have attached the required codes and authorizations to this message. Please use them to retrieve said item. Bring it to me with the shipments from Port Wander. Go with His grace and do His work, as I have commanded you.
You may want to limit your team that you bring, as this is a sensitive matter.
Your Master,
The Piety of Seth (formerly known as Vantau) is a Shrine world that shows signs of having been an agricultural world in the past, before the incident with Seth. Seth was the sole survivor of a mission to cleanse a Heretical sect known as the "Sons of Drusus". Landing at Port Calling is routine. The security of this planet seems to be much less than it was on Clove where things were tighly locked down at almost all locations and parts of society.
Attilus chooses Cortez, Gallus and Dorn to accompany him. They are able to find a landing facility close to the central cathedral that Lall's Aquila Lander is able to use. Once at the Cathedral, the group is met by a droll sounding monk who informs them that the cathedral is not on visiting hours at the moment as the main festivals are not ongoing. Attilus explains that he is here to retrieve and item from the reliqary.
The monk brings the group off the main hall of the cathedral, which is impecably neatly cleaned, down some side hallways which are very much less so to a small room with an old Adept working on some scrolls with his Auto Quill.
"Excuse Me." says Attilus, garnering no reaction from the Adept.
"Ahem. Excuse Me." He repeats. After no response is given once again, Attilus rips the scrolls that the Adept was working on from underneath his auto quill.
The Adept turns and gives Attilus a tongue lashing, "You have just cost me hours of work, young man! How dare you!"
Attilus suppresses the urge to slap the old Adept, then gives him the data cube with information regarding the acquisition. As the old man sees Cortez eyeing his data screen, he turns it away from prying eyes.
"Yes. We can do this. Come with me. Do you know what you are here for? No. Of course not."
The old adept leads the grounp down an ever deeper maze of stacks, reliquaries, statuaries and long hallways until eventually he reaches a room that seems filled with many boxes on shelves. The room is roughly 10 meters square with hallways leading off in 4 major directions. There aren't any doors on the hallways, but there are nice arches and other decorative architectural elements that are very pleasing to the eye.
Cortez and Gallus stop just before entering the room, while Dorn trails behind.
"Alright. Here is what you came for. Come sign for it please."
The group is hesitant, reluctantly Attilus comes forward and signs as requested. The Adept then opens the red box that he had presented to the group and pushes a large button inside. From behind Cortez and Gallus in the hallway a large heavy stone slab with a bright gold Aquila carved into it drop from the cieling some dozen meters behind them.
"You man leave now." Says the Adept.
Attilus is perturbed, and a bit at a loss. "Where is our artifact?"
The Adpet straightens himself out, stands taller and suddenly looks less frail than he once did. From underneath his robes he pulls out an Inquisitorial Rosette. "This is a test," he states, as Adepta Sororitas show themselves from both of the side hallways. "Those who are pure and free of sin are free to leave this place. Those who carry with them the taint of corruption and the warp, however, will not leave."
"Fine, let us leave," says Gallus, who is then suddenly stopped as if by an invisible wall as he tries to leave down the hallway that the group entered in through. Cortez, though uncomfortable, is able to go farther down the hallway, and is at the Stone slab that fell from the cieling. It appears that Gallus is unable to leave.
"Do not suffer the witch to live," says the Adept as one of his Sororitas starts to move towards Gallus.
Attilus and Gallus arrive at the same conclusion, that Gallus is going to be exeucted by these people, and attack. A pair of Bolt rounds into the Sororitas by Attilus is followed by the Inquisitor chanting a series of prayers. White light pours out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. As Gallus looks at the light, he is wracked with pain and takes damage directly to his Soul (1 point ignoring armor and toughness). He retailiates with a Fire Storm that melts the Sororitas and injures the Inquisitor. Cortez finishes the Inquisitor off with a pair of blasts from his Hellpistol. The Inquisitor catches fire and turns into a charred mass before he explodes, splattering the area with charred gore. His Rosette clanks to the ground. Suddenly Cortez is overcome with Bloodlust, and is repelled from the Aquila on the floor that he is standing by. Dorn enters the hallway, stepping over the Aquila.
"What's going on here?" He says, as he notices the Rosette on the floor.
After a quick firefight with the other Sororitas from the other side hallway, she escapes with the Inquisitor's Rosette, speaking into her Vox "The Inquisitor has been killed by Assassins!" Gallus' attempt to stop her with a wall of fire fails as the power seems to be repelled by something down the hallway.
Cortez and Gallus are unable to leave the room until the stone Aquila is destroyed by Attilus and Dorn's Bolters.
The group manages to escape the maze of hallways without being spotted by more Sororitas … and leave the planet of the Piety of Seth to contemplate the killing of an Inquisitor in a Temple to the God Emperor of Mankind.
The smell of hot, wet death permeates the greasy, humid air of the small room. Glimmers of pale light flicker from a single failing glow globe embedded in the far wall, briefly pushing back the darkness to show shadowy images of macabre piles of fetid decomposing severed human heads. Drops of liquid hit the metal surgical tables in front of the lone doorway with loud plangs, splashing water onto the two neatly cleaned skeletons resting upon them. The tops of the skeleton's skulls that have been neatly removed sit next to them.
A Moritat Assassin, clad in all black, stands on top of some of the severed heads, taking in slightly labored breaths as he looks down upon the stinking necrotic ooze of what was once a man made of maggots as it drips down into the pile. A vile black cloak, similar in appearance to a death shroud and a sick, twisted, bonelike pistol are the only evidence it was ever there.
By the doorway, Gallus Mordiciotte clutches a Laspistol, white knuckles and wide eyes giving a brief glimpse into the searing scar the power of the warp has left on his soul.
The entryway door gives an audible beep followed by a clunk, indicating that someone on the outside has passed the security checks and unlocked it. Titus quickly moves into a position where he will be able to surprise anyone that enters the room.
The door slams open, and a man clad in dark carapace armor rolls into the room in a controlled combat move, then raises his Boltgun up into a firing position against his right shoulder. The man is Hiro Nakarita. Titus attacks without hesitation, his strike hits home … or would have if Hiro's hand hadn't turned into a writhing mass of maggots and caught the blade. Hiro's voice changes into an echoing low gravelly mockery of what it was as he speaks.
Hiro Nakarita: That was a mistake.
Hiro Nakarita: That was a mistake.
Titus gives a warning to his friend the Psyker as he begins to quickly exit the room.
Titus: Move Gallus, move!
Titus: Move Gallus, move!
Hiro moves to block the door to prevent the Psyker from leaving, but fate intervenes and he is just able to leave and lock the door from the other side. As the pair take a moment at the end of the hallway to gather themselves, a flat, wriggling mass of worms slides underneath the doorway, then reforms itself into a shambling mass on the other side. It pulls the shroud like cloak out from under the doorway after it, puts it on, then cackles as it disappears invisibly into the shadows.
With terror in their minds at what they've just witnessed, the pair flees upstairs. They run into Dorn, Cortez and Attilus who are sneaking around the manufactorum floor looking for their comrades. Titus tells the group urgently that they are all leaving, the Manufactorum, the Hive and the Planet with immediate haste.
Cackling echos in the dark follow them back up to the Sabre waiting in orbit around Clove.
Ando, Gallus gained 4 Insanity and 6 Corruption in the fight detailed in the bottom paragraph. This puts your IP at 9 but your CP at 10, which will cause a roll to see if you gain any odd behaviors like Titus
Titus communicates with the members of the cell in the Hovercar, telling them to move their position to somewhere closer, better able to provide support should the need arise. As Gallus comes back from the hallway door to the place he and Titus have been hiding out, noises come from the direction of the ramp up form sublevel-2 to the enginarium on sublevel 1. Voices, and heavy boots. A bank of lights at the far end of the room clanks on loudly, illuminating the various shaking and tumbling machines at that end of the level. Amidst the muffled, mostly indistinguishable voices a few words stand out.
"… search everywhere until you find them …"
The boots and voices are coming in their direction, and both Gallus and Titus decide to go through the doorway Nakarita was going through. Gallus' scans for life didn't come up with anything, and it's secured. Hopefully it will be a good place to hide out and avoid a fight. Before going down the long hallway to the door, Titus takes a peek at the first few people coming around the corner. They aren't carrying heavy weapons, but seem to be wearing security uniforms and could easily be carrying pistols of some sort.
Titus begins relaying the events to the rest of the Team in the Hovercar, when he hears an explosion, screams, and gunfire coming from the other end of the voice channel.
["Hey wait, that's us!" said Angus]
Meanwhile, in the Hovercar …
A Krak missile slams into the armored hovercar as it's making its approach to the executive parking area. Augustinius, at the helm, fails to control the vehicle and it crashes onto the roof of the Sonnegelt Manufactorum, nearly half a kilometer up in the air from the ground below. As the damaged Hovercar perches precariously on the platform it is sitting on, a modified cargo lighter deposits some soldiers dressed in all black with a "6" insignia on their uniforms.
The "Six" soldiers are deposited in two groups on two Lightning capture towers roughly 60 meters away from the building into the street. Thick 4 cm cables connect the towers to smaller similar ones jutting up from the roof of the manufactorum. On the closer tower, immediately across from the crashed Hovercar, the wire has been snapped in the crash. Onto the platform stand two soldiers, one carrying a Heavy Stubber in the Bulging Biceps of his arms, and a second one with a Plasma Gun. Onto the other platform are 5 soldiers. One soldier is standing in the doorway of the cargo lighter.
A firefight ensues. Dorn, armed with his newly acquired Boltgun, takes out the Sniper in the Lighter and the Support Gunner on the platform as the 5 Soldiers on the far side use zip lines to cross the 60 meter interval over to the Manufactorum. Bones is unable to participate due to a knock on the head. The Plasma Gun does a serious strike onto the back of the Hovercar. It's now definitely no longer airworthy. Augustinius ties to scramble up the slick roof and get to another platform, but eventually slides down and get a foot stuck underneath the damaged Hovercar (00 on a climb test). Cortez and Dorn continue to lay fire onto the 5 Soldiers now making their way towards the Acolytes, eventually taking them all out. Not before Cortez takes a very serious wound to his Left Arm (Fate Point Burned).
Back in the dark room in the sub level of the Manufactorum, the stench of rot is overwhelming. Sounds of gunfire and screams come over the vox channel then are suddenly silenced. Titus and Gallus listen, and Gallus thinks he hears something … BEHIND THEM IN THE ROOM! As they turn around, their eyes adjusting to the dim and almost nonexistent light both make out two tables, steel and sturdy. Each of the tables has a complete human skeleton on it, completely clean, with the top of the skull removed in a very precise manner. In the far portion of the room, the darkest area, is a large pile of decomposing, rotting, severed human heads. Gallus, to his horror, sees a misshapen man wearing a black cloak. He fires off a Fire Storm, which should have fired, but instead fizzles. Wait, this is a Maggot Man! And it's emanating a Psychic Null field! Gallus Collapses in Horror. (Failed Fear 3 Rolls, Faints for 1d5 turns, 4 Insanity)
Titus charges the Maggot thing, who extends his sick maggoty mass around him! (Grapple) It's Necrotic Grasp and sick Toxic secretions dig into the Death Cult Assassin. Titus struggles to free himself from the thing as Gallus lies prone and unconscious. Eventually Titus, low on wounds, frees himself and strikes at the vile creature with his Holy Blade. (27 Pen 8; 15 Pen 8; 11 Pen 4) Fresh maggots expel the chopped ones from its chest before the creature misses Titus with a grapple. Gallus pulls himself together, rises up and heals him, needing to call upon his full Psychic power to get past the Null zone of the Xeno thing. Both Gallus and Titus forget something trivial in a Psychic Phenomena (Deciding on this one still as to what exactly) Titus strikes again, (Dodge, 12 Pen 8) and the Toxic Ichor splashes on him (8 Damage ignoring Armor and Toughness) The Maggot Man fires his sick weapon at Titus which hits him in the head, making him feel as if his head is going to explode. Gallus heals Titus a second time (with no Phenomena) before Titus's blade bites into it again (Dodge, 18 Pen 8, 16 Pen 8) . Again Toxic Ichor splashes upon Titus as the thing fires its weapon at Gallus, making his chest feel as if it's tearing itself apart. Gallus decides to heal Titus again rather than himself, calling upon his full Psychic power to get past the Null field, he does the feat admirably for a third time. But there is a backlash! (Psychic Phenomena, Perils of the Warp for 1 corruption, 5 more for the specific result, total 6 corruption points) The full power of the warp courses through Gallus' body, in the shock he will be unable to call upon any further powers for 1 hour. There will be no further healing. The thing tries to Grapple Titus again, if it succeeds it could be the end of Titus! It barely misses, as Gallus fires his Laspistol at the thing (how does this work?). It absorbs the energy (9 pen 0). Desperate, Titus bites into the thing one more time. (Dodge, 18 Pen 8, 14 Pen 8) and finally the maggot xeno collapses onto the pile of rotting severed heads, a mass of dying maggots, thick toxic ichor, a sick looking pistol and a dark black cloak.
In the study of the Pharma Merchant Samson Sonnegelt, the Acolytes are offered the service of the merchant in any way necessary to get the missions done. He did, after all, give the report that started the investigation.
He is willing to do whatever it takes to help the mission get resolved so that he can be done with his inquisitorial reponsibilities once and for all.
When questioned, Sonnegelt says that he knows that Interrogator Rand and Acoltye d'Vlarath have gone back to Scintilla because he has his Shipping Manager, Andre DuCreet, make the arrangements some 4 months ago. Nakarita is at the Manufactorum because he has granted him the use of some office space in the Executive Administration wing of the compound.
The Acolytes, led primarily by Attilus, hound him, not believing him, and continue to question his motives.
Attilus at one point wonders how much of his blood it would take to know if he is hopped up on some kind of Xeno drug, and asks Titus if he would be able to take a little. Titus says in no uncertain terms that if the blood starts flowing then it will not stop. Sonnegelt is probably saved only due to the fact that the group doesn't have the necessary skills and equipment to do a proper blood workup for chem use.
Sonnegelt states that this is a good example of why he wishes to be done with the inquisition.
The Cell takes Sonnegelt up on his offer of further help, and is given access, under the supervision of Augustinus, to the entire security system of the Manufactorum.
And so the Cell goes to the Manufactorum to see about this Nakarita and talk to him. Titus is dropped off near the outsides of the Manufactorum and manages to blend into the middle managers working their way into the complex. The other Acolytes, Attilus, Augustinius, Cortez and Gallus, park the Hovervan in an Executive parking facility conveniently located next to the Executive Administration offices. Attilus and Augustinius exit first, and pass by on their way to the entrance a female clad in dark robes uncommon to the local Hive attire with an entourage, leaving the Executive suites. They make their way down to the office where they know that Hiro Nakarita has been using, following close but not too close by Gallus and Cortez. Titus is also able to make his way into the near vacinity in order to be available should things come to blows.
The wing of offices being used by Nakarita is out of the way. Used for storage, filled with junk, leaking in places with dim light offered by flickering glow globes, it's not a very heavily trafficed area. Perfect for not being seen. There is a tense moment as Attilus flashes his Rosette to prove his identity at the office, with both he and Nakarita having hands on their weapons. The situation defuses, and Nakarita puts the Boltgun he was holding back onto his desk, besides two others that are there.
Augustinius does a biometric scan of Nakarita, and it chimes in the affirmative that this is indeed the "missing" Acolyte. Hiro then describes what happened to the group of Acolytes. The Cold Guild was smuggling Xeno drugs. They managed to find a lead on a shipment coming down on a Bulk Lander onto platform 225, took on the smugglers and in a fierce firefight eliminated them all, blowing up the Lander and the platform in the process. It seems that someone knew they were coming, because the smugglers were better prepared than they should have been. Unfortunately Acolyte sikh and Tomasen were lost in the fight. Nakarita offers their Boltguns to the group and Attilus accepts, happily upgrading his arsenal with the Very Rare weapons.
Due to the potential security concerns, Interrogator Rand decided that an in person report was prudent, and make arrangements for himself and d'Vlarath to return to Hive Sibellus and tell al'Subaai personally what went down.
Nakarita has stayed behind to look for signs that they smuggling ring is still around in some capacity and take out anyone else that pops up. Nakarita gives proof of the demise of Sikh and Tomasen.
After leaving the presence of Nakarita, Cortez looks over the Boltguns for signs of … bad things. (2 levels of success) He states the weapons are okay.
The Cell goes up to question the Shipping Manager Ducreet, who was informed by Sonnegelt that there wound be "unusual visitors" and that this must be the group. This is confirmed by call with Sonnegelt. Ducreet will not, however, give any details on the "special passengers" that left for Scintilla with the shipment. If this was ordered by the Interrogator, it's not unlikely that he will not give information without coersion. He does, however, give the shipping manifest of the one in questions. He also when asked, give his terminal to Cortez for use. Cortez finds some interesting things. The shipment's weight and loadout in the system match what's expected from the manifest. There are two special passengers listed. Other information tells that Sonnegelt has a large shipment of goods for a new contract to the penal colony of Kommitzar lost to raiders a little over 2 years ago. This was covered up, and only due to new cheap sources of raw materiels was he able to manufacture a new shipment of goods and fulfill the contract. This markes the point in time that his profitability started to increase greatly. The sources of his raw materiels changed entirely, and is now at a severely reduced cost.
Some of his executives were changed right about at the same time. Ducreet being one of them. later on, it was discovered that the "replaced" executives have all met with various accidental mishaps that unfortunately cost them their lives. Such a sad, sad, tale. The workforce has been increased to deal with the increased manufacturing going on, and there has been some sloppiness in safety as well. It seems not a single day goes by without some sort of workplace accident and death.
The group decides enough information has come from Ducreet and leaves, except for Titus, who stays behind to follow Nakarita.
Titus follows Nakarita down through the Executive offices and middle management areas onto the manufactorum floor. His attempt to shadow him (1 level of success, with a fate point increased to 2) is good, but Nakarita just manages to give him the slip, and is lost on the floor amongst the workforce.
The group decides to check with the Cold Guild regarding the battle at platform 225, but in order to talk with Attilus' contact again, he will need to come armed with a promised delivery of Obscura. After making arrangements to pick up a shipment, it turns out actually to be a set up, and an Arbites Raid ensnares the Acolytes. (00 on a Search check) Attilus is forced to use his Inquisitorial creds to escape imprisonment, but with so many Arbites involved, word quickly spreads about the "Inquisitor ensnares in an Obscura raid".
Titus manages, however, while going through Underworld channels normally used for picking up contracts, to learn that the Cold Guild didn't seem to have any big battles lately. No, they are mostly hangers ons, and old small desperate operations that aren't capable of anything very big. It seems, that Nakarita was lying about the battle that cost Sikh and Tomasen their lives.
Titus is brought back to the Sonnegelt Manufactorum along with Gallus while Attilus, Augustinius, Cortez and Dorn circle the place in the Hovervan. Over days of careful following, Titus manages to track Nakarita down into the subfloor of the Manufactorum, then below that into the dark, hot bowels of the facility. At the end of a 20 metre long hallway is a door that Nakarita goes into. With him, he is taking some sort of Hovercart that is dripping blood.
Gallus uses Psyniscience and Sense Life to scan the area, but nothing seems out of place. No Psychic activity has happened here recently. Sense Life doesn't detect anything beyond the doorway. He creeps towards the door, and discovers the faint smell of rotting meat.
al'Subaai informs the Cell that they are going to be sent on a series of missions to find out what has become of some of his other Trusted Acolytes, far too many of which have gone missing recently. Subsequent missions will be delivered by encrypted messages that come with instructions as to how the results should be communicated.
The first mission will be to the hive world of Clove, in the Hazeroth sub sector. A merchant dealing in pharma products that has been associated with the Inquisitor for over a decade reported that he uncovered some evidence of a smuggling ring dealing in xeno narcotics. An acolyte, Yenxi d'Vlarath, was sent to Clove to investigate the report and was able to substantiate at least some of the findings, enough to warrant a more extensive investigation. Interrogator Theodoricus Rand, Hiro Nakarita, Sikh and Tomasen were sent to aid d'Vlarath. The last communication received from Rand confirmed that they had arrived on the planet.
A short time after the arrival of Rand on Clove Samson Sonnegelt, the Clove Pharma Merchant, made a large payment to al'Subaai, clearing him of financial obligations to the Inquisitor.
The Cell begins doing some research on things while still on the capital of Scintilla before leaving on the estimated two month journey to Clove. Augustinius researches the history of the Sonnegelt Pharma mercantile interest. It is an old establishment, one of about 5 significant Pharma merchants on Clove. There is nothing that would suggest that the family is involved in nefarious activities. The company has been fairly stable financially, with the exception of a dip that started around 15 years ago, but rebounded about 10 years ago to its previously established level. Augustinius receives information necessary to biometrically identify each of the Acolytes and the Interrogator, as well as visual references of them.
Attilus journeys to the center of trade and commerce on Scintilla, Hive Tarsus, to investigate dealing with the Sonnegelt mercantile interests. The vast majority of importers get chemicals and pharmas from sources related to Landunder in the Malfian sub sector. One, however, that he stumbles upon is expecting to receive a shipment of medical pharma good from Sonnegelt in roughly 2 weeks time. Attilus flashes his new inquisition seal and tells the merchant that Inquisitor al'Subaai or one of his representatives will be there to inspect the shipment with him when it arrives.
After about one week of investigations, the Cell leaves with the Rogue Trader Odelia Lall in her (frigate? 65 ship point) vessel. The Cell is given almost exclusive access to the vessel. Rogue Trader Lall is deeply indebted to the Inquisition, and al'Subaai's former master Inquisitor Von Vuygens in particular.
Clove is known for a branch of firebrand preachers, the Clovis Ministorum, that sends missionaries and men of the cloth throughout the rough and tumble areas of the Hazeroth Sub Sector. It is also known for being the base and partial recruiting grounds for the 23rd Drusus Dragoons, a sister regiment to the 27th Drusus Dragoons that Dorn served as a part of during the Tranch War.
Clove, being "the last hive before the edge of the imperium" is a rough place that has a lot of security and identification checks. The spaceport records and registers biometric readings from those arriving, verifies weapons permits, and has vid capture cams that cover the entire concourse. Simply put, nobody arrives or leaves via the spaceport without there being a record of it.
Attilus draws some credit from the inquisition account he has access to via his identification, and uses it to set the Cell up in some low quality living arrangements in the bad part of the Hive.
Augustinius performs research on the more recent activities of the Sonnegelt Pharma mercantile interests and find out that they have been wildly successful over the past 2 years. They have been seriously eating into the contracts and profit of the other major pharma outfits, especially over about the last 6 months. Somehow they are always able to come in just low enough to win contracts from their competition.
Attilus looks into smuggling operations on the planet, and find out that the usual band of smugglers, the Cold Guild, is losing business to the Amaranthine Syndicate. They now probably handle only about 20% of their former volume. The Syndicate is an efficient operation that is super tight knit. Once they get involved in something, they're tougher to extract than a Bore Worm. Those that work for them are also notably loyal.
Titus scouts the Manse in the Low Upper Hive of Samson Sonnegelt, trying to follow Sonnegelt and see what he does and where he goes. It turns out that Sonnegelt doesn't leave his Manse, and hasn't in some two months. There isn't any special security out front, typical Vid Capture and Biometric entry scans for Clove, similar to the other Manses in the area. Deliveries, business associates and family come and go from the Manse on a schedule that seems to be typical. Nothing really exceptional going on. He seems to be voluntarily holding up in his study, drinking Amasec.
Titus guts a working from Sonnegelt's business, and Augustinius copies the identifications for the group. The group easily gains entry to the Sonnegelt Manse claiming to be a "Marketing" group from the company. They are escorted to his Study where he is. Titus closes the door and they being questioning him. At first, he questions why another marketing campaign is needed, until Attilus mentions "Subaai" in passing. At this, Sonnegelt understands why the group is there. He wonders why more of you have been sent. Many questions are levied against Sonnegelt, who claims that his business has been very profitable, he is recusing himself to enjoy the success of his business, he paid off the inquisition to try to finally get back to normal business without adventure. Accusations of Sonnegelt working with the Amaranthine Syndicate are leveled. Gallus uses Psyniscience and Sense Life to try and detect anything odd in the study, but comes up with very normal readings. The Acolytes? Nakarita is still hanging around the Manufactorum for reasons only he knows, Rand and d'Vlarath have left back for Scintilla some time ago. Tomasen and Sikh? He hadn't seen them in a very long time. He suspects something bad may have happened to them but he really doesn't know and doesn't care to. He wants to be done with Inquisition business. Is he lying? Is he scared? Intimidation and Scrutiny don't seem to lead to any additional clues. (Rolls failed notably). The conversation ends with Sonnegelt once again suggesting the group go find and talk to Nakarita.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Let's pick up where we left off: On Jan 25, the Editorial Board pointed out that Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers already "have gladly paid millions upon millions to maintain substandard, murderous conditions in Florida's prisons." We asked, "Can they really think Ms. [Julie] Jones' budget request is too much to turn that around?"
There are now signs that both Mr. Scott and legislators are ready to take a large, and overdue, step in the only direction that responsible elected officials can go. In the proposed budget he released Wednesday, Mr. Scott includes slightly more than $51 million in new spending to help bring the prison system out of the Dark Ages where inmates have died suspiciously, deaths have been covered up and medical care for sick and mentally ill prisoners is doled out inconsistently, if at all.
In addition, the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee next week will consider legislation to tackle a prison culture that is abusive, at best, and deadly, at worst.
Lawmakers have their work cut out for them. So does Ms. Jones, recently appointed director of the Department of Corrections. In a conversation with the Editorial Board on Wednesday, Ms. Jones gave a breakdown of some of her budget requests in the governor's budget:
▪ $16.5 million to fill the 2,000 vacant positions that have severely undercut DOC's ability to inject the integrity and discipline needed to keep safe both inmates and corrections officers doing a difficult job. Her predecessor had asked for $37 million. However, Ms. Jones realized, wisely, that $22 million of that would have paid for overtime. Her $16.5 million will allow the agency to fill every "core critical" position and jump-start support programs such as drug treatment, education.
▪ $2.4 million for residential mental-health and substance abuse treatment, to enhance federal funding that will add 100 treatment beds. Ms. Jones is also pushing for "co-occurring" treatment, especially for women who enter prison with drug and alcohol addictions, fueled by mental-health and abuse issues. This smart investment can reduce recidivism.
It was heartening to hear that Ms. Jones is also planning a pilot project in four counties, yet to be selected. Inmates, upon release, can get up to nine months of mental-health treatment, therapy and supportive housing. Mr. Scott put her $2.5 million request in the budget. Given that Miami-Dade County is likely to have more mentally ill people released from prison than other counties, we urge Ms. Jones to make it one of the four pilot counties.
All this is to the good. But when Ms. Jones addresses the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Monday, she should put squarely on the table serious issues that are still missing from the conversation about improving prison culture.
First, she inherited several investigations, including the stalled probe into Darren Rainey's hot-shower death in Dade Correctional Institution. There have been no new revenues proposed to get to the bottom of any of the suspicious deaths across the state, leaving the horrifying impression that no one except grieving families wants to bring culpable corrections officers and their bosses to justice.
Second, it's time to do a deep dive into the role private prisons play in what's wrong. They get to cherry-pick the least labor-intensive inmates and, according to Ms. Jones, aren't under Department of Corrections supervision. Yes, the private companies have deep pockets come reelection time, but it's time for lawmakers, not the industry, to write the rules.


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text:
Socket Error # 10054 -- Connection Reset by Pear.
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Topic Search Topic Options
Joined: 06 March 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 4
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Posted: 14 June 2010 at 3:48pm
I have just updated to SpamFilter V18.104.22.1682 (Standard Version)
If SpamFilter tries to forward a valid E-Mail to my IPSWITCH iMail Server.
I get the following error:
Socket Error # 10054 -- Connection Reset by Pear. - forwarding to: 10.11.11.120 - message queued - firstname.lastname@example.com
From the OS where SpamFilter is running I can send out a E-Mail to the iMail Server by Telnet without any problem!
The SpamFilter Server and the iMail Server are on the same LAN (DMZ).
The iMail server log shows like this:
06:14 21:11 SMTPD(bcda0000034c04d4) [10.11.11.110] EHLO spam
06:14 21:11 SMTPD(6d500000034c04d5) [10.11.11.110] MAIL FROM:<firstname.lastname@example.com>
06:14 21:11 SMTPD(6d500000034c04d5) [10.11.11.110] RCPT TO:<email@example.com>
06:14 21:16 SMTPD(6d500000034c04d5) Session Timeout on Heartbeat: total time = 308.5625, RunState = Connected
Finally I used WireShark Protocol Analyzer to determine what happens.
The connection from SpamFilter to iMail Server is fine. The E-Mail gets transfered but at the end there ar Retransmitions and finally it breaks. Get pcap-file
Please help me!!
Edited by Markus - 15 June 2010 at 4:00pm
Joined: 06 March 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 4
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It's me again...
Finally I got the communication to work by installing Spamfilter at the same Server as the iMail Server is. Maybe the problem was something with the VM-NIC with Windows 2000 <> 2003 on VMWARE ESX? I am still interrested in a solution.
Admin Group
Joined: 25 January 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 4077
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Please see the filtered entries in your (very helpful!) pcap file. I highlighted (15:30:11) the line where SpamFilter finishes sending the email to your server at 10.11.11.120. The pcap show that the correct end-of-email sequence (<CR><LF>.<CR><LF> --> 0d-0a-2e-0d-0a) is present. There are some fragmented packets being resent after that, but the remote server never sends a "250 OK" acknowledgment that the email was received. After exactly 60 seconds of not receiving any data, SpamFilter sends a FIN to end the transmission due to a timeout. This 60 second value can be changed via the following entry in the SpamFilter.ini file:
;Timeout when delivering emails to the destination SMTP server (in seconds)
However increasing the timeout to something longer for such a small email does not make much sense. You could however check to see if your SMTP server is employing some sort of anti-spam measures itself, which may include delaying accepting emails for more than 60 seconds. In this case, you can either disable that feature on your dest. SMTP server, or see if you can exclude SpamFilter's IP from it, or try increasing the "ReadTimeoutOutgoing" value in SpamFilter.
Edited by LogSat - 16 June 2010 at 9:00pm
Roberto Franceschetti
LogSat Software
Spam Filter ISP
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text:
CHICAGO — Chicago. -- I know that some people need psychological counseling, or psychiatric treatment, and profit by it. Chemical therapy is a lifesaver. In fact, we all need some wise person we can turn to for advice. A friend or mentor can be the best psychiatrist.
Having said that, I have wondered at times why the psychiatrists or psychologists I have met often seem so poorly adjusted themselves. Why go to someone whose life is a mess in order to straighten out the mess of your own life? Some counselors seem to get into their line of work because of their need for help.
Of course, some therapists offer this as a credential. They know what it is to suffer. There may be something to that, though it seems based partly on the revivalist's claim that a sinner is the best witness to God when talking to other sinners.


text:
Year of Publication
Paper Type
Master's Thesis
College of Education and Human Services
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
First Advisor
Dr. Bruce Gutknecht
Second Advisor
Dr. Marianne Betkouski Barnes
Third Advisor
Dr. G. Pritchy Smith
A comparison of the spoken language of adolescent Black males living in three southern suburban communities was conducted. The results indicated certain trends by locale in the areas of morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics. The findings affirm the assumption that it is possible to determine likenesses and differences in the Black English spoken by Black males living in three isolated communities with a rating instrument.
Suggested Citation
Love, Jane, "Black English In A Suburban Southern County" (1987). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 132.


text:
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text:
Please join us for SheTribes' FIERCE, FUN & FIRED UP! Womens Empowerent Weekend.
Past Events…..
FGS Conference November 4, 2017 — We'll be posting additional information once we get all the details nailed down. Come back soon to find out more! Or visit the Freedom Girl Sisterhood signup page and register to receive updates.
FREEDOM GIRL SISTERHOOD CONFERENCE – Nov. 5th, 2016
Freedom Girl Sisterhood Conference
with Host & Freedom Coach Dawn Scott Damon
Lunch is on your own. Two options: eat at an area restaurant or bring your lunch. Tables will be provided at Tribes.
8 am – Doors Open, Coffee and Snacks
9 am – Praise and Worship begins
9:30 am – Session 1
11 am – Break
11:15 am – Session 2
12:30 pm – Lunch
1:45 pm – Session 3
3 pm – Closing Session
Bella Voce – September 9th & 10th, 2016
with Pastor Dawn Scott Damon
…. and Pastors Veverly Austin & Raycheen Sims
Finding Your God-Given Voice
In a time and culture where women were regarded with disdain, Jesus went out of his way to bring hope to a searching, thirsty soul. The Samaritan Woman of John 4, encountered the Living, loving Jesus at a time in her life when no one else noticed her need. The Jesus did something spectacular – He engaged her in conversation. He wanted to hear her Voice.
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Friday, September 9th – 6:30pm – 9pm
(Registration from 6pm – 6:30pm)
Saturday, September 10th – 9am – 3pm
(Registration from 8:30am – 9am)
Tribes Church
6070 Kuttshill Dr. NE
Rockford, MI 49341


text:
Super payment rules
Superannuation dates and more
When to pay super?
Each year the dates when super is payable by employers are the same:
- January 28th
- April 28th
- July 28th
- October 28th
Do I need to pay superannuation?
Generally, an employer must pay super for an employee if:
- The employee is 18 years or over, and
- You pay them $450 or more (before tax) in regular income per calendar month.
- The employee is less than 18 years of age, and
- They work more than 30 hours per week.
The Superannuation Guarantee (SG) must be paid regardless of whether the employee is full time, part time or casual, an Australian resident or here on a work visa.
Contractors who earn most of their income by providing a service to your business, might also be eligible for super contributions from you. If they are paid entirely or principally by you for their labour (they're paid principally or wholly for their personal labour and skills, they perform the contract work personally or they're paid for the hours worked rather than to achieve a result) then they're considered an employee for super purposes and, as such, entitled to super guarantee contributions under the same rules as employees.
What does 'Ordinary Time Earnings' mean?
The super contribution payment is based on an employee's ordinary time earnings which is usually the amount an employee earns from their ordinary hours of work. It includes:
- Commissions
- Certain allowances
- Paid leave
- Shift loadings
It does not include:
- Irregular overtime payments
- Performance based bonuses
- Termination payments
- Fully expended expense allowances, such as car allowances
- Reimbursed expenses
- Benefits subject to fringe benefits tax
- Jury top-up payments
- Parental leave payments
- Annual leave loading
- Accrued annual leave, long service leave and sick leave paid as a termination lump sum
- Redundancy payments
- Gratuities
- Dividends
- Partnership and trust distributions
- Restraint of trade agreement payments
- Payments for domestic or private work under 30 hours a week
Are there exceptions?
The maximum superannuation contribution base (income on which employers must pay the Super Guarantee) for the 2017/18 year is $52,760 per quarter (entitlement is assessed quarterly), or the equivalent of $211,040 annually.
The maximum Super Guarantee that an employer is legally required to contribute is the equivalent of 9.5% of a person's salary up to a maximum salary of $52,760 per quarter (equivalent of $211,040 a year). The maximum quarterly SG payment works out to be $5,012.20 per quarter, that is, $20,048.80 for the year.
Are there other types of superannuation payments?
Generally there are two types of payments:
- Compulsory Super Guarantee contributions
The mandatory contribution you make to your employees' superfunds, set as a percentage of their regular wage.
- Reportable superannuation contributions
In most cases, the extra voluntary payments made at the request of an employee out of their wage. The most common of these is salary sacrificing.
Super Contribution Calculator
Please note: The answers you get from this tool are based solely on the information you provide. Calculations are only estimates of potential superannuation eligibility and assume no change to hours worked or remuneration received and may not equate with the eligibility period for the calculation of superannuation entitlements. You must check the information you enter is correct, as we will not be held accountable for any incorrect calculations.
Need a Default Fund for your employees?
See which Industry SuperFund you can choose


text:
Clinton Pushes Plan for Tax Break
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Sen. Hillary Clinton racheted up her plan for a middle-class tax cut Monday, calling for $100 billion in tax relief.
Speaking at the Capitol Diner here, Sen. Clinton said that a typical family making $50,000 would receive under her plan a tax cut of up to $1,000 and a $3,500 tax credit to help pay for college.
The New York...


text:
Virgin starts 50Mbit/s broadband rollout
Virgin Media has upgraded part of its fibre optic telecoms network to support maximum 50Mbit/s Internet download speeds, with new broadband packages available for £51 a month including VAT.
The higher speed services will initially be available to around 1.3 million existing customers in as yet unspecified areas of Scotland, the Midlands and South London.
Rollout to the rest of the other 12.6 million UK homes covered by the network will be complete by summer 2009, said the company.
Upload speeds are limited to just 1.5Mbit/s and while few, if any, subscribers are likely to see actual 50Mbit/s data speeds, they should still get more bandwidth than Virgin's existing 10-20Mbit/s broadband packages and enough headroom for high-definition TV, film and music downloads as well as shared Internet in multi-user households.
Under pressure from telecoms watchdog Ofcom, Virgin Media recently signed up to a voluntary code of conduct designed to make sure that ISPs do not mislead customers over broadband speeds.
By moving large numbers of subscribers to the new DOCSIS 3.0 network, which supports download speeds of up to 200Mbit/s, Virgin says customers left using the older DOCSIS 1.0 network may experience fewer congestion and performance issues.
Virgin Media's new broadband service was launched by singer and 'Strictly Come Dancing' finalist Rachel Stevens at the Hospital Club, London.


text:
Dell ™ Wyse 5010 Thin Client; AMD G-Series T48E Dual-Core, 1.4 GHz, Thin OS 8.1 (DJPR5)
Item #: 901-IM12W4925IN
Model #: DJPR5
Brand: Dell
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$387.99 Each
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The Dell ™ Wyse 5010 DJPR5 thin client with 1.40 GHz AMD G-Series T48E dual-core processor offers efficient operation. Featuring 2GB DDR3 SDRAM and 8GB flash memory, this thin client offers superior and reliable performance. It has four USB 2.0 ports for connectivity. This thin client with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN, RJ-45 network and DVI connectors, allows hi-speed connectivity. It has Wyse thin OS 8.1 operating system and built-in security lock slot.
- Thin client supports a broad and diverse range of user, application and operating requirements
- Dimensions: 6.7"H x 1.6"W x 7.3"D
- Comes in black color
- Processor: AMD G-Series T48E dual core 1.4 GHz
- Memory: 8GB flash, 2GB/4GB (maximum) DDR3 SDRAM 1066 MHz
- Power source: 120 - 230 VAC, 65 W provided
- Works with Thin OS 8.1 operating system
- Security: Built-in security lock slot
- Interface/ports: one DVI, four USB 2.0, one Network (RJ-45), one headphones/microphone, one VGA, one DisplayPort
- Supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN connectivity
- Audio: Stereo
- Mountings: Vertical feet
- Form factor: Desktop slimline
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6250
- Contains power adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, keyboard, mouse and vertical feet
- Meets ENERGY STAR 5.0, EuP certifications and standards
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