Writing

15th June 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 13 – The Glaw Estate

Previous: Session 12 – Blood and Gin
Next:Session 14 – Voidbound Anew
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

Last time on the Herald, our players landed an incursion force on the storm-wreathed world of Cilice Prime, stole a Taurox pulling the universe’s last known supply of Cilice Gin, leveled an estate with its guns and psychically commanded an army of cannibal abhumans to fight itself. They were left with a few more marks on the map, a full tank of gas and a compulsion to loot.

15th May 201824th August 2023

Meanwhile, on the Bench: Celestine Wharf game board

The Celestine Wharf of Syracuse Magna (courtesy of FFG)

It is 1pm in the afternoon on the Celestine Wharf. It is raining, and the river carries the strong sense of mould. This man-made dead end of foul-filmed water is shadowed by the close press of warehouses from which loading spars spill their rusting chains to water at high tide.

The docks here are long unused and its bays are crammed with rusted cargo barges, while its warehouses are reputedly the haunts of dregs and gangs.

You had spotted some scum unloading cargo from an armoured motor-skiff on the corner of one of the docks. Questions turned to threats, and when the team’s face draws a hold-out dueling pistol worth more Thrones than the entire cargo of the ship, avarice overcomes the thugs.

At the boiling point of the exchange, you hear a deep guttural roar from around the corner of a warehouse.

“WHO’S ASKING QUESTIONS ON MY WHARF?”

11th May 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 12 – Blood and Gin

Previous: Session 11 – Secrets of Cilice
Next: Session 13 – The Glaw Estate
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

After last week’s initial incursion onto the surface of Cilice, Captain Orthesian is glad to have a full complement of players once again. With a second incursion planned, and some first hand intelligence gathered about the locals, the players board an Aquila Lander (with the Junior Astropath Fez, Alyss, Felicity, Thud and Oggy-bong) and make their way down to Port Van Arkiel once more.

5th May 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 11 – Secrets of Cilice

Previous: Session 10 – Storm-wreathed Sins
Next: Session 12 – Blood and Gin
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

Storm-ridden Cilice Prime is circled and shrouded by swirling clouds and hurricanes. Beneath the storms, the peaks and valleys of Cilice’s jagged surface form a stark, beautiful landscape that was once dotted with the proud structures of a colony founded under the authority of Rogue Trader Van Arkiel.

There are is very little life recorded as native to Cilice bar its simple fungal life used in the production of Cilice Gyn. Continual gales carry the harmless spores far and wide amidst lightning and frozen hail.

28th April 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 10 – Storm-wreathed sins

Previous: Session 9 – Claws in the Dark
Next: Session 11 – Secrets of Cilice
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

In the last exciting installment of the Orthesian Herald our band of dashing explorers had just seen off a minor warp incursion in the underdecks of the ship, assisted by the courageous actions of a few humble armsmen. What better time for a spicy meme.

20th April 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 9 – Claws in the Dark

Previous: Session 8 – The Hatchling Worlds
Next: Session 10 – Storm-wreathed Sins
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

Last week our Explorers received an icy reception down in the underdecks of the ship…

13th April 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald 8 – The Hatchling Worlds

Previous: Session 7 – A Brother’s Calling
Next: Session 9 – Claws in the Dark
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

The Explorers are in Telasco’s. It is early evening, and the din of the day shift has died down and the burble of the night-goers has begun.

You are in a red velvet booth sharing a bottle of Blood Sands wine from Imperial space. Through the iron lattice-work floor you can see the bustle of the Pit several storeys below you, the heat and odours of a day’s hard commerce wafting up beneath your feet, but drowned out by the perfumed finery of the rich and powerful who swan about the central dancefloor of Telasco’s

Telasco’s is unusually busy for this time of the evening, and the usual coiffured, amasec-swilling regulars who prop up the bar have been ushered away to their own booths.

It is the last day of repairs on the Unbroken Resolve, and your tech-crews report ready to cast off at first shift – they are good to go whenever you give the order.

8th April 201824th August 2023

An Interrogator Calls: Tales of Onus

Lightning bleaches the purple sky a milky white. The squat iron domes of Complex Priscilla weather the storm outside. The Administration of Kreato sit around a conference table, overlooking the Complex from on high. None of them look at the spectacle of nature ravaging their facility – their eyes are on the outsider who stands at the head of the table.

6th April 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald: session 7 – A Brother’s Calling

Previous: Session 6 – The Beast with the Broken Back
Next: Session 8 – The Hatchling Worlds
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

Laden with loot and buoyed up from their first successful adventure, our Explorers cast their gaze back to the stars to determine their next heading.

30th March 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald: session 6 – The Beast with the Broken Back

Previous: Session 5 – The Flickering Eye
Next: Session 7 – A Brother’s Calling
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

+++++

Last time on the Orthesian Herald, our band of brave Explorers had fought off hordes of ravening Orks on the dead alien world of Gangue Prime to try and find the next piece of the map to the fabled treasure ship, the Righteous remit.