Rogue Trader

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

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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.

1st May 201824th August 2023

Meanwhile, on the Bench: Battery Lord Kimbal

This week’s MOTB is the third party member of House Patroneus’ elite staff, after Lord-Militant Hyde and Explorator Eutropius. They form the senior officers, advisors and bastard-hard combat group for Aoife Patroneus, the head of the rival Rogue Trader family to our own Orthesian Dynasty.

This is Battery Lord Kimbal, Master of Ordnance on board the flagship of House Patroneus, the Banshee. Although he has the highest honorific of Master of Ordnance and controls every weapon on the ship, he prefers his old title of Battery Lord from his time serving as master of a single battery of macrocannon.

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

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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

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

17th April 201824th August 2023

Meanwhile, on the Bench: Explorator Eutropius

On last week’s MOTB we had a look at Arch-Militant Hyde, the first of Lord-Captain Patroneus’ crew and the rivals of the plucky Orthesian Dynasty. This week we’re looking at the second crewman, Explorator Eutropius.

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

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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.

10th April 201824th August 2023

Meanwhile, on the Bench: Lord-Militant Assamar Hyde

As our Orthesian Rogue Trader game gathers momentum, my eyes have been cast to counterparts of our seemingly unstoppable group of Explorers.

Where many of our players already have personal rivalries, either due to their backstories or in-game run-ins that have developed into feuds, none of them will have the same resources as a full-blown rival Rogue Trader Dynasty – House Patroneus.

A few weeks back I found myself dry-fitting odd parts of my bits box that didn’t have any other home – half a Commissar Gaunt, the overcoat from the Scions box set, that sort of thing. House Patroneus had already been established as rivals in name only by this point, why not add some flesh to those bones?

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

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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

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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.

The monolith in the centre of the ruins, but imagine the ruins expand across the continent. (artist unknown – pinched from the internet)

9th March 201824th August 2023

Orthesian Herald: session 5 – The Flickering Eye

Previous: Session 4 – Welcome to the Nomads
Next: Session 6 – The Beast with the Broken Back
First: Session 1 – The Unbroken Resolve and All Those Who Sail Therein

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Navigator Mahd’Naz sends the translation estimates back to the Captain – 8 days in the warp to the Gangue system through calm warp currents to find the fabled treasure ship, The Rightful Remit.

The warp shutters roll down over the viewports, emergency lumens wash the bridge with a crimson glow and everybody lights their incense. As the Unbroken resolve hits the warp translation point, it fires a single defiant salvo from its macrocannons as unreality opens up and swallows the little ship whole.