Chapter 1: Into the Maw

[Flax]

Like so many before him, Lord Captain Reberiah Mezanti has come to Port Wander to travel into the Koronus Expanse in search of trade, profit and most important of all, glory. Perched on the edge of the Calaxis Sector, in the far reaches of the Drusian Marches, Port Wander is the gateway to the Koronus Expanse and the vast untamed void beyond. The station itself hangs massive and silent in the baleful light of Rubycon II, surrounded by the shattered remnants of ancient asteroids and serviced by a flottilla of Imperial vessels both large and small.

Upon their arrival, Reberiah and his landing party have been greeted by several formal envoys and salutations from both the Imperial Authority and other Rogue Traders, welcoming the Mezanti dynasty to port and honoring Reberiah's right to passge. This kind of reception is one he has grown used to and is no less than would be expected. However, one vox message stands out and demands the attention of Reberiah and his entourage. Recorded in House Mezanti's personal cipher, the message is from a man who calls himself Orbest Dray. He says he has been waiting a long time for a member of the family line to return, and carries a message and a gift from Reberiah's great-grandfather. He would meet with Reberiah as soon as he has docked at a specific location in the Court of the Dead; Port Wander's vast markets. It is a matter, he says, that promises great glory.

[tiaexz]

Hephaestus came alongside the Lord Captain, dressed in a long rust red cloak, typical of the techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the hood shrouding his face from view. While larger than the typical human due to numerous machine rites, his presence was very minimal. Only remarkable feature was the quiet humming of his servo-skull, as it glided around the area. Pleasantries were not his forté and he wasn't expected to do any, as the envoys demanded the attention of the Lord Captain who was relishing the moment.

The final message did show some promise, Hephaestus patiently examined the surroundings with his servo-skull for anything of interest while he waited for the Lord Captains' attention.

[zim]

At times Reberiah was annoyed at the show that his position required him to put on. A tall, slim man with dark hair, his ornate carapace armor and light grey xeno pelt cloak made him instantly stand out as he left the ship, leading those that had come for the spectacle of seeing a rogue trader (some for the first time in their lifetimes) right to him. Still, he couldn't complain. he'd been taught early on that fitting other people's expectations of a successful trader often made the negotiations much easier, and thus far that advice had served him well.

Reberiah weaved his way through the crowd, shaking hands and politely putting off requests for meetings. After assuring a young adept of the Administratum that he had brought the medical supplies last requested but that he should speak with the ships Seneschal about the price (which just may have gone up a bit due to difficulties in warp travel on the way to Port Wander) Reberiah managed to make his way to a small clear spot long enough to review the vox message he reviewed again.

He turned to Hephaestus and Corazon, smiling. "Just when I began to think the trip here would be a wash an opportunity appears. I take it we're all agreed that this is worth checking out?"

[Flax]

The statuesque woman at Reberiah's side wore her light carapace armor like a second skin and cradled casually a hellgun of remarkable craftsmanship connected to a large power backpack by a bulk of wires. Only her head was exposed and it revealed a tanned woman scarred by scores of battles with a stare that had the occasional side effect of sending shivers down the spines of people who met it. Her hair, dirty blonde, was carefully braided in dozens of small braids ending at shoulder length. Akin to carefully woven strands of prayer beads covering her head, they each ended wrapped around some strange memento or trophy, be it an alien looking tooth or a small piece of debris.

At her Lord Captain's words, Corazon, utterly bored by all the fawning of the show before them, emphatically nodded.

"Aye." Was all she said, though her tense demeanor indicated her feeling on the matter.

[tiaexz]

Hephaestus nodded in response to the Lord Captain. The servo-skull glided back towards to the group, taking a position off the left of Hephaestus' shoulder.

[Flax]

After finishing with the envoys, the small party makes it way to the Court of the Dead. The market is crowded and filled with the stench of humanity. In this lower section of Port Wander, the Rogue Trader and his entourage clearly stand out, their attire and bearing setting them apart from the common traders and citizens. When they finally meet Orbest Dray, they see an old man, seeming to be no more than another scrap-picker. Nevertheless, he quickly produces an old Mezanti dynasty seal and recites of service marking him as a servant of the Mezanti line.

"Emperor be praised!" He rasps. "I had nearly lost hope that a Lord Captain of House Mezanti would make port here. Yet, never dared I imagine it would be you in person who would come my Lord."

There is a certain edge to his voice during the last sentence.

"I have something for you, something that I have been entrusted to keep safe since the time of your great-grandfather. It pertains to the long lost treasure ship, the Righteous Path."

[tiaexz]

"I am not familiar with that vessel", Hephaestus commented, "though, I believe we should inquire for further details, this being obviously finds it very valuable. It might possess archeotech or more material riches which the Lord Captain would be interested in."

[Flax]

"No need to go off on inquiries, Sir. Pardon me for saying, but I would not have wasted away into old age waiting in this... place, if I held only the name of a ship." He huffs, shaking his head.

"Before we get into that, let me tell you of the Righteous Path and you will then see the value of what was entrusted to me...

Over two and a half thousand years ago, during the time of Drusus and the great Angevin Crusade, the stalwart forces of the Imperium were sweeping across the region of space that is now the Calaxis Sector, pushing the enemies of the God-Emperor before them and bringing the light to worlds lost for centuries to darkness. Among His servants was one named Lorcanus Ryn, a great warlord and free captain, filled with bloodlust and greed but also an unwavering faith in Drusus and the God-Emperor. At the helm of his grand-cruiser, the Righteous Path, he was the scourge of a hundred worlds, carving out a bloody path before as the crusade conquered world after world.

One such world was Krystallian. Recorded as the 73rd world brought to the light of the Emperor by the crusade, it was an ancient colony of man had long ago fallen to the heretical worship of false gods and the teachings of treacherous prophets known as the Talisar. Covered in glittering cloud temples, raised by the Talisar to the glory of the Myriad of Faces, it was a world of immense wealth and blasphemous grandeur. It was, however, no match for the might of the Imperial armies led by Lorcanus Ryn. The warlord descended on Krystallin, filled with the righteous wrath of the Emperor, sweeping away a thousand years of civilization in three days of fire and blood. When the killing was done, and the corpse counters began gathering up the detritus of war, Lorcanus Ryn marvelled at the riches he had won. Never before had he seen such naked wealth; temples packed high with artefacts of rare and wondrous make, statues gilt with gems and glittering with gold, and shadowed vaults of forgotten and forbidden archeotech.

Here, the story varies from teller to teller. Some say the wealth of Krystallian was more than rare metals and precious stones, but that its people were also a prize; bred from a stock of pure genetic material and spared from centuries of warp-taint, they were bundled into stasis coffins and taken away to be trained as elite warriors or highborn servants. Others whisper that Krystallian was settle during the Dark Age of Technology and still harboured devices from that time within its cities and temples, secrets worth more than the raw mineral wealth or combined populations of a hundred worlds.

Whatever the form of Krystallian's wealth, Lorcanus was not content merely to sample it, nor did he trust his fellow crusaders to carry it away. So he set about filling the Righteous Path from stern to ram. He tore out gun decks and launch bays, marooned thousands of his crew and stripped away the vessel's innards until she was bursting with plunder. The warlord then vanished into the warp and from the pages of history.

Over the centuries there have been many expedition to find the Righteous Path. At the time of its disappearance, members of the crusade quested after the lost vessel. Later, free-traders, adventurers and Imperial servants have all tried to find its resting place. Many believe the vessel is lost forever, sunken beneath the tides of the warp or smashed to pieces and scattered across space and time. Krystallian, however was rumored to have once existed on the trailing edge of the present Calaxis Sector, only a short span of light-years from the Maw. This has led some old void-farers to speculate that Lorcanus Ryn and his ship were caught in the tides of the storms that plague the Koronus Passage and dragged out deep into the expanse."

He becomes nostalgic.

"I did not believe these theories at first, but all that changed on my last voyage aboard the Emperor's Testament, a vessel belonging to Vos Karlorn and part of Eztast Mezanti's fleet, my Lord. I was a deck officer back then and during a terrible expedition we were caught in a violent war storm and blown far off course. After we came to rest in a strange and uncharted system, the ship's astropath heard a faint message, a cry for salvation from a lost Imperial vessel. At first, we believed it was from the rest of the fleet, but we quickly realized it was an old message, an echo in the warp the astropath called it, hundreds if not thousands of years old.

When it was examined we discovered just what we had stumbled onto; an astropathic marker from the fabled treasure ship the Righteous Path. As a loyal member of your dynasty my Lord, Karlorn did not choose to pursue the treasure ship there and then and so returned to Port Wander. Months passed and there was no sign of Eztast Mezanti or his fleet. So Karlon vowed to return to the Expanse and find him. Not willing to risk the map in the Expanse, Karlorn entrusted it to me before departing, telling me I should keep it safe until he returned with Eztast. Yet, neither of them returned.

That was over one hundred years ago and I have been waiting ever since to discharge my duty, to give this tale and the map to the Righteous Path's grave to one of Eztast's heirs."

As he finishes, he pull out a small sealed stasis casket from his grubby jacket and hands it over to Reberiah.

[zim]

Reberiah handles the stasis casket carefully. "The Angevin Crusade? My own ship saw action then. Officer Dray, many a man has gone in search of lost ships such as this and never returned. All had what they likely thought were fool proof leads. Is there something about this map that marks it out from the leads that led so many to their deaths?"

[Flax]

As Reberiah takes the small casket, he notices it is inscribed with the Mezanti seal. It seems to sense the Rogue Trader's lineage instantly and opens itself to reveal a smooth black rock.

He has little time to ponder on the rock as he notices sometime from the corner of his eye. As he looks up, he spots a psyber-raven swooping down towards him and Corazon next to him, already shouldering her hellgun to fire at the creature.

(Reberiah and Corazon have a half action to act before initiative.)

[zim]

Reberiah curses and draws his archaeotech-laspistol.

[Flax]

Corazon's hellgun spews forth an intense las beam which clips the birds left leg and burrows itself in its underbelly. Still the psyber-raven keeps on its course, diving on to Reberiah and snatching the black stone from the small casket.

With the discharge of the hellgun, the crowd begins to panic, pushing against each other and running in every direction. Shots ring out as three men in long coats open fire on the small party from different directions. Surrounding the group and from a range of about thirty meters, their shots are obscured by the crowd as one woman takes a round destined for Hephaestus. Corazon's shooter misses completely, but unfortunately for Reberiah, the last man lands a lucky shot. The autopistol slug, surprisingly, bores through the light carapace armor and lodges itself in the Lord Captain's lower abdomen.

(Corazon deals 8 points of damage to the psyber-raven)
(Reberiah takes 6 points of damage)

[tiaexz]

"Vultures, typical.", Hephaestus pulls out his boltgun and begins returning fire at the three new arrivals, using available cover, to his advantage.

[zim]

Reberiah grunts as the shot hits him. "They're just a distraction" he thinks as he sees the raven flying away. Praying that his companions manage to take out one or more attackers he aims carefully at the bird and shoots.

[Flax]

Hephaestus' bolter shot misses, losing itself harmlessly in the panicking market.

Reberiah aims his ancient weapon at the thieving psyber-raven and fires, hitting the creature's right wing and searing the metal plates there. Its wing begins to malfunction and it drops 3 meters away from Reberiah, dropping the coveted stone and struggling to move itself on the market ground.

Corazon moves to her Lord Captain's side, to provide cover from incoming fire and turns her powerful hellgun upon the men shooting at them. The hellgun's intense las beam is intercepted by a hapless man, running him through before grazing the arm of one of the gunmen, who seems unaffected.

The assailants continue to fire their autopistols. Two shots meant for Corazon go wide, on of them nearly hitting the stalwart woman, while the slug aimed at Hephaestus misses its mark.

(Corazon deals 0 damage to Gunman #1)
(Reberiah deals 5 points of damage to the psyber-raven)