It has been a long time since I last used this blog and, while the Blackmouth project continues to grow, very little of it is in a state ready to share with the world.
And yet I wish to practice my writing and posting it here, where it can be seen and read, forces me to complete projects and work through the difficulties and stressors that stymie so many of my past attempts to create.
So I will be posting stories of other characters from other TTRPGs here under the tag and category Other Stories. I hope someone reads them and enjoys them 🙂
This is a collected list of the odd terms Morwyn has used in her journal or in RP sessions, along with any known or implied meanings.
Agyamut-ka(Old Ones?) – Written about when discussing the source of Cormund’s magic and the appearance of beings from the Astral Sea
Ama– Appears to be a name of a being of veneration. Thanked for a dreamless night after fighting aartuks and Cormund’s bandits for the first time.
Amahanam Iduth – Appears to be an object of veneration or worship. Invoked for protection of Szabina.
Arrathag– Written about the rod of stone that cursed Reane’s wife. May be an angy epithet.
Azah (butterfly) – Nickname for Lishan.
Bhakiir– Nickname for Vivian.
Enzidh– Nickname for Hatsuko.
Harzu thimir– Said to Lishan and Charlotte when asked about her past. Means something similar to ‘I don’t know’ but not specifically.
Izi-guth– Written about burning aartuks.
Izisakh– Nickname for Nitra Glizzy.
Irelum– Nickname for Erissin Minn.
Kul kusura udmeda– Written about the saving of Gryffa from the farmhouse destroyed by aartuks. Seems to be expressing approval of wise or honourable action.
Mirskazisu –Used to refer to the snake-horse Selesnya.
Namirska– Nickname for Bridiyya Saxus.
Ninna –Nickname for Leera.
Nusir innakh– Said in admiration when Lishan, Hatsuko and Erissin’s complex relationship seemed to be brewing to romance.
Rahag kuthuu. Thi sah kathar – Angry words written as she wrote about Charles Zp’pt’s “On the Question of Gender” and felt herself falling into Rage.
Wasu-im– Some part of her Rage, the name she uses for both her metamorphic abilities and the deep well of anger that fuels them.
Attempts at stealth and surprise failed. Ironic, only things worth merit in this broken child-fort ruin were the locks on cages. Freeing Nitra-izisakh raised alarm and the hunt became a storm. Most children-playing-bandits were too dull-witted to fight, but numbers were on their side and some were still capable of violence.
Lean rogues with fiery whips and brutes with fists of arcano-steel burned and battered Lishan-ninna, Charlotte-zaazi and I before they fell to arrow and needle-precise blades and shadow claws. Still hurt. A lot. Ribs broken. Only anger and adrenaline kept me standing, alive but sharper and keener than before. The Rage swirled under my skin, clawing to get out with new ferocity.
Cormund duelled with Hatsuko-enzidh and Erissin-irelum and Lishan-azah. Good, three women teaching the brute man the flaw of his lies in the only language he understands. His maul was brutal as he, left bloody bone-cracked wounds with each blow. Azah nimbleness and shining new shield kept her safe. Enzidh was made of iron and silver, almost breaking the maul on her tenacity.
Stole Cormund’s eyes from him with a weave of moonless night. He grew new ones that hung in the air like spoiled fruit and hurled baleful magic, but it was not enough. Scythed and carved by enzidh‘s wind-grass sword, finished by zaazi‘s nimble stroke. He died as he lived under the shadow of that soulkilling book, worthlessly spitting impotent hatred. Good. Should burn his body before the venom poisons the soil.
Remaining bandits surrendered or fled with his death and the storm ended. Found our breath again. Wounds tended and healed. Discussion was had about what to do with those taken. They should be checked. Victims of Cormund and the venom of that book must be found and saved. The rest go to the winds. They fed on the weak, let them be weak. Fate will decide if they live or die.
Met the cause of the foolish children’s dull-wittedness. Bridiyya Saxus. Tiny dragon lady, the one who traded the cursed rod to the sickened wife in Brolko. She poisoned the bandits’ food and stole their wits, then burned some with lightning as we fought the rest. Explorer of history. Could not speak a common tongue with most of the pack, but Nitra-izisakh translated. She knew of the tunnels beneath, ruins and secrets. The place where the Small God lies? The hunt must go there, cut such tumours out of the world’s flesh.
Erissin-irelum and Hatsuko-enzidh had a true reunion. Old lovers beautifully reunited. Tension with azah. Words lead to charm and truths and yearning bubbling forth like fresh blood. A marking of sorts – not a wedding, not yet – as Erissin took both enzidh and azah as her own in a ritual of dominance and love, with ribbon and knife and arcane power. Marked them as hers and wound the skeins of their souls in her hands. Felt warm and charmed by the display. Good to see such bright moments even in a dark place of ruins after a storm.
Took the chance while gathering the remains of the dead to collect materials from my kills. Something to remember this storm by. Somethings to remember this pack for. I have ideas for what to make.
After a rest we descended into the darkness beneath the broken fort, guided by Bridiyya-namirska. She spoke of tombs to great dragons beneath the earth and the fool children had spoken of Cormund finding ruins under their fort. Likely the same.
Tension lifted along the way. Azah and Zaazi refound connection. Relieved that the pack is coming together. Am unused to spending much time with others. It is pleasant but it hurts when they fight. They asked about the words, could not explain that they are my thoughts. Other words get stuck like bones sometimes, choke me when I try to speak. Azah asked of my past and I told her of the silver light and seeing my face. Don’t know why I did that. The butterfly is charming but promised now. And tension remains. Who was I Before?
The Tomb of Burrathix the Sky Sailor
After a great chasm we found the tomb. Bridiyya-namirska named it the resting place of Burrathix, the Sky Sailor, a great blue dragon. It was pretty in a haunted way, but the tomb was empty. Nothing. No remains. But we were not alone.
Something was lurking above us far beyond any sight except Leera-ninna‘s keen eyes. A wet voice burbled in our minds, afraid to come out until weapons were put away. Convinced it to come out with directness. No harm intended, just curiosity. It did not feel like a threat. It was Cormund’s patron, the small god he found beneath the world and gained power from, and it was not monstrous but piteous, lonely and sun-starved and hungry.
The being – Ky’trrix – told us everything in exchange for a promise to get it out of the cold tunnels beneath the earth. Poor creature only offered Cormund power because he promised it freedom. It was disgusted by his hate and venom and upset that he had never completed his duty. So I made the promise. No cages.
Ky’trrix, piteous and lonely
Ky’trrix had been sent to the area to break the structures of society by a manticore being more than a half-century ago. It had found the tomb and the remains of the dead great dragon, had eaten them and had grown too large to leave. So it had been alone down there for decades until Cormund found it. It just wanted out, to feel the sun on its skin and drink cider and eat normal food.
Bridiyya-namirska will use magic to shrink it enough to leave, and it will help her find another tomb to a dragon-god as apology for eating her sacred treasures then flee to its home beyond the moons before the Aartuk find it. Not the small god I expected. It wished to eat crackers, not souls or terror or manflesh. Not all agyamut need be burned from the world. Not all ‘monsters’ are monsters.
I will think about this as I sing this tale to the moons tonight.
Personal Journal of Essiala Ariathia Sorjiik den Morgenstern ban Vor'cle, Navigatrix Primaris Encryption Sigil: Vor'cle-HEXAMATIS-3920.numinous Vessel: Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis, rogue-trader of Dynasty Void-ghast Location: Damaris System, Koronus Expanse, halo-Segmentus Obscurus Date: 3.408.816.M41 Thought for the day:By the manner of our death are we judged.
The first wave of Ork vessels have crashed upon the bulwark of our warhips and been broken. Gloriosa Lux and the mighty Aegis, accompanied by the system ships Temerity and Gothon struck two vast ork roks and their escorts from the void, sending them to burn to ash in Damaris’ atmosphere. The valiant Aegis stood firm under Lord Captain Locke’s command, weathering multiple strikes from the crude Orkish weapons and dealing savage damage to the Ork hulks. Temerity and Gothon flew and fought like raptorans, their machine spirits shining bright as true voidcraft as they engaged the foe.
Amid this contest of champions the lion’s share of valour was rightly claimed by Gloriosa Lux herself. The keen guidance of our helm and ferocious gunnery burned the heart from the Ork vessels, even as our valiant Lord Captain personally lead raid after scything raid deep into the heart of those lumbering behemoths.
Reports flowed in from local space as we surveyed the orbital space now strewn with the shattered wreckage of Orkish folly. The Ork had been routed all across the battlespace but victory was not absolute. A single rok had breached the defences commanded by Lord Blitz, battered and broken but still sturdy enough to weather landfall and disgorge its green horde onto Damaris’ soil. Disappointing but unfortunately expected, our defences were spread thin and the ork tide vast beyond counting.
Even as the fleet and the stalward Bulwak held back the oncoming tide, the war on Damaris began in earnest. Orbital fire cauterised the worst of the horde while the planetary garrison showed courage and discipline far greater than anyone could have expected from them.
The next assault came struck without warning. I and the other navigators aboard the void-craft around the planet had been observing the deep system to ascertain the location of the Ork redoubt. The intense radiative flux from the Caeruleum-Gigans primary angered the machine spirits of our augers, streaking their hololith displays with jagged storms of data ghosts and impeding even my best efforts. We were able to determine that at another wave of roks and escorts were descending into the gravity well but they were calculated to be at least 018 standard from engagement range. Then a tremour in the immaterium stirred my True Sight and collision alarms began to blare.
External augers showed ork warships directly ahead, still steaming with the volatile unrealities of the Immaterium. The suicidal xenos had made a suicide dive transit deep into the gravity well of the system. One of their vessels had not survived the manouevre but three more, battered and scarred but ready for war, turned their guns on our fleet. Once more our skills overcame brutish alien muscle. Noble Gloriosa was wounded by the beasts but survived to stand across their wreckage due to the exceptional skills of the system-ship Temerity, once more proving that at least some on this fringe world have true Imperial mettle.
The surprise attack rattled even the brave defenders of Damaris. If we could not locate and strike back at the ork redoubt then we would forever be on the defensive against the brutes. An effort was made to use the wake of the Ork transit to trace the location of their base in the outer system, with a mad plan of making our own surprise assault in kind. Him on Terra favours the bold but I fear that boldness is beyond even His blessings, for the brutality of the Ork assault had churned the Immaterium almost to the point of an aetheric storm and immediate Class.IIa resanctification measures were implemented to protect Gloriosa and impeach Him on Terra to protect us in times of strife.
It was amidst these preparations that contact was made with another party to our war. An aeldari vessel was descending toward Damaris, weapons idle and transmitting a message offering assistance against the Ork horde. Lord Captain Void-Ghast was rightly hesitant to treat with the perfidious xenos but felt that the direness of our situation was great enough to simply speak with the creatures. If matters of treachery occurred, we could simply strike them down. A single aeldari frigate was no match for our defensive fleet.
An arrangement was made to meet in the wilderness of Damaris, far from the threats of Orks and potential misunderstandings, and perhaps for another reason. Deep within the unsettlingly verdant forest of wild Damaris lay strange ruins, evidently xenos in origin and similar to aeldari structures in their wide curving lines and crystalline decoration. The aeldari arrived before I could complete my examination of the structures, but I have included a full pict record of the structures for the examination of sufficiently sanctioned xenographers.
The aeldari made a capable pretense of negotiation. Only one spoke, identifying itself as Bhaine Dhûn of the Craftworld Kaelor and stated that an ork victory on Damaris would set matters in motion that would threaten his home. To that end it offered us information, knowledge of a location where the ork warboss would be in 018 standard without the full protection of his fleet, and a promise that the ork would not be slain unless we saw its head taken from its shoulders. This is obvious aeldari perfidy. These xenos do not help us unless it is in their interests, but the information provided offers a chance we did not have before. A counter attack is possible and the war may be won.
Addendum: Additional Data
I have included a full holopict recording of the aeldari datavault and all of its contents. It appears to be an extremely advanced astrograph of the outer planet Skadi and location where the Ork command vessel will be located. Full containment protocols have been followed to prevent any contagion from xenos datagheists.
I have also included a full record of Lord Void-Ghast’s negotiations with the aeldari, including his “dance of thanks” and the aeldari weapon he has acquired.
Wrote too soon. Sleep and rest called but there were still threads to follow, picked up by the pack before I met them. Halfling woman – Reane – sought help, her wife sickened and curse-poisoned by encounter with a rod of twisted stone from an arrathag hole beneath the sky. Rrrr, more agyamut-things from beyond the moons? Some other tumour in the worlds flesh to be cut out and burned out?
Too hurt to chase down such prey yet. The halfling woman offered shelter to rest and sleep and strengthen before the hunt. Kind soul. Hatsuko-enzidh cooked for her and for us, a broth of meat and mushrooms and aartuk. Very hot, lit a fire in our hearts, but a good fire. First meal eaten with anyone in too long. Since last with Szabina. Thoughts of her kept sleep away, so spent moonrise sitting under starlight, sketching the night and remembering her. I miss her smile. Amahanam Iduth watch over her until we meet again, so I may share tales of this pack for her.
Sleep came eventually, but no dreams. Thank you, Ama, for peace amid the chaos of people. The pack sharpened their claws with new steel and bright magic before setting out, armed with shining cobalt and cunning swords and potions to heal the dying. Wise. We go to hunt fool children and ruins where cursed stones are found, both in the same direction. Did Cormund find his small god in that place? Too many coincidences.
The hunt was peaceful. Good to be away from Brolko and its two-legged herds. Good to feel the wind and the quiet, smell the scents of stone and life. Still too much energy, the fire from last night burning inside my skin. Kept my hands busy carving, pouring fire to shape bone into a gift for one who made me laugh. Charlotte-zaazi was curious about the carving. I gave her the snake-shape I made walking to Brolko. Felt right, her smile was bright and sharp as the prairie-serpent I saw resting on sun-hot rocks a tenday ago. The carving is not as pretty as her, I am no delicate artist, but the heart shone through.
Then Lishan-azah decided to try to play magpie and steal the gift. Foolish little butterfly trying to flit into things without a care. The Rage stirred. It was nothing. Foolishness. Yet echoes of the Rage lingered and I could only think of harm, the half-carved shape left unfinished until the storms of mood clear away.
Erissin Minn, fugitive elf
We found the camp of the foolish children, playing at big bad bandits. Weak walls and shoddy structures, poor sentries and poorer alarms. A child’s idea of defence. Strange mounts outside but no guards saw us approach. Too focused on a thorn-dragon slumbering on the remains of one of their walls, each shooing the others to poke the creature. Foolish children…
Took advantage of their mistakes to find the shape of the place. Found two prisoners – Nitra Glizzy, feisty fiery goblin woman recruited and chained by the bandits, made to make their pyrearms and now seeking to escape; and Erissin Minn, elegant elven woman known to Hatsuko-enzidh, who freed herself on seeing enzidh and greeted her with sharp words, a slap and a kiss. The wolf is ever-charming. Lishan-azah‘s winter paleness turned summer-crimson at that.
One sentry was brought down by silent blade and silent lightning, and we stand ready to strike. Then I saw the book. Books. Many copies. Charles Zp’pt’s “On the Question of Gender”. Crimson acid is in my veins and searing me. Thoughts of those sad eyes from my dreams seeing it and finding toxic false joy within. I hate it. Too weak a word. It needs to be flensed away. Burned. Excised.
Rahag Khuthuu. Thi sah kathar…
no. breath. do not fall to Rage now. breath.
How many others are like the girl back in Brolko, soul-broken by this book only barely free? How many more have been broken by Cormund and his lies? How many like the dream-sad eyes? No. I cannot think of them now. Not now. Save who I can and burn the one who brought this hateful, soul-killing thing back into the world.
Personal Journal of Essiala Ariathia Sorjiik den Morgenstern ban Vor'cle, Navigatrix Primaris Encryption Sigil: Vor'cle-HEXAMATIS-6184.malacant Vessel: Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis, rogue-trader of Dynasty Void-ghast Location: Damaris System, Koronus Expanse, halo-Segmentus Obscurus Date: 3.398.816.M41 Thought for the day:Only by His sword is Mankind saved.
I must apologise for my delays in completing this journal. These last cycles have been laden with much activity and preparation for war and I be brief in this record for the ork vanguard is approaching within battle range.
Magos Shard, the planetary leader of the Mechanicum upon Damaris, offered his holy knowledge and techno-insight into the incident in the Enginarium. Following a deeper examination of Gloriosa’s burning heart, he expressed suspicion that the message was a subtle manipulation of her machine spirit, intended to manipulate us in turn as a regicide player does a pawn. A most concerning idea, made infinitely much worse by the magnitude of beings that could accomplish such a feat. At the Magos’ request I will not record the name he spoke or commit it to mnemovault, merely record it as =][=.X.A.41-287.’DECIEVER’ for the benefit of our Good Friends.
The remaining time before the arrival of our foes was consumed by preparation. Voidmines have been placed at the system’s Mandeville point to blunt any assault that may descent from out-system, and mercenaries have been recruited to supplement the meagre planetary levies.
Helm Mistress Petriam showed her naval mettle and drilled the command chamber crew to perfection, while Lord Captain Locke forged our meagre gathering of vessels into a squadron worthy to face the Ork. Master Katsuhiro recovered well from his augmentic implantation and was swiftly briefing General Dante and the planetary levy on how to face and defeat the orks, though I am still hesitant of their chances if the beasts make planetfall. None of them have fought a true xenos foe and know the ork only from the earnest but unhelpful words of the Imperial Infantryman’s Primer.
My own time was spent in recuperation and healing, retraining myself to use my hands correctly and disciplining one of my Tertiaries for deigning to comment on my condition. As they will insist on using their words for idleness and insubordination, then they shall learn to exist withough them. If Tomaris proves themself worthy of speech again by the end of this voyage, I will return his capacity for it in the hope that he uses it more wisely.
The first threads of attack began .001 ago with an unseasonal and inexplicable meteor shower. I cast the Emperor’s Tarot and found threat in the unknown skeins weaving around us all, and so roused the command crew to action. There was understandable consternation at this disruption of rest so close to war, for all know that orks are brutish and stupid creatures incapable of great cunning.
I was right to do so. For, within an hour of the meteor fall, word was raised that an outpost near the crash site had gone dark. The planetary miliary was unable to respond with sufficient haste and it was felt meritorius that the leaders of the defence should take this moment to show their mettle. So, Lord Captain Void-ghast, Master Katsuhiro, Mistress Petriam and myself landed at the site with a squad of hand-picked armsmen at our back.
Pict-record of an Ork fought at the Outpost
The outpost was too quiet. Its walls were holed with precision weapons and its bunker guns silent. The orks did not rampag through the ruins, firing and looting and fighting as their brutish kind is wont to do. Instead they skulked in shadows, faced painted in lurid purples, waiting to strike from ambush and using suppressive volleys of fire to cover close assaults. These were the strategies of the professional soldier rather than the brutish xenos.
Yet for all this primitive cunning they were no match for our fire and sword. I did not realise how inexperienced our Lord-Captain was until this moment but he came through his baptism of fire and blood with a measure of glory. He cut down one of the beasts with plasma fire while Petriam sundered the another with her power-sword and Katsuhiro shattered the remainder of them in a hail of bolter shells . For my own part, I had forgotten how tiring it was to exert the full force of my gaze, even against a single target, but I was also able to modulate my True sight to allow only the fringes of power to stretch forth like a corona in eclipse and so ensnare one of the orks so it could be cut down like the filth it is.
Our examination into the fallen bunker was cut short by a detonation, for the beasts had sabotaged the site. With no orks remaining on the planet and injuries in need of chirurgical attention, we returned to Gloriosa Lux to consider what we had seen. If the Emperor had not protected us, the ork demolitions would have sent us all into His arms, and the Damaris’ defence would have been decapitated. Concerns of treachery or espionage were raised and will be investigated. The razor of Hanlon may dictate that incompetence is more likely than malice, but incompetence in the face of the enemy is sinful and must be cut out.
Adjunct entry Date: 3.398.816.M41
We have sighted the enemy – Roks accompanied by Onslaught-class raiders – unsubtle but dangerously effective weapons fit for the crudities of the ork. Gloriosa and all her complement stand ready for battle. None may be allowed to make planetfall.
Simple pict-record of Ork Rok and accompanying escorts
May Him on Terra grant us strength to sunder these brutes.
Brolko was trouble like all towns are. Too many people in one place and the world curdles.
Took the woman – Gryffa – to a healer, but did not get a chance to find flower for wife’s grave. Raised voices, even more raised than most, in the town. Large orcish man on a snake-horse steed. Pretty creature, beautiful fangs, chained by a saddle and burdened by his bulk. He was shouting at an orc-blooded old man with sheriff badge, extorting fees from him and the town. Felt my teeth lengthen at the reek of his oily pride and stinking cruelty.
Hatsuko-enzidh spoke. Complemented the pretty mirskazisu with shining scales. Demanded explanation, sought discussion. Strange, she could not understand the orc’s intentions. Cormund, the orc, refused her words, insulted the sheriff and enzidh. Others emerged from the shadows. Cormund’s pack, wiry and stinking of confidence and youth.
Battle began with the grass-wind blade. Swift and brutal. The sheriff was struck down by the snake-horse that rampaged and struck all around. Leera-ninna evaded its venom to rain her falcon-arrows down on foes. Hatsuko-enzidh duelled blade to spell on rooftops with Cormund and two knife-fighters. Lishan-azah played fox to bandits and scattered them with divine dread. Charlotte-zaazi fought precise and keen, nimble and merciful. Vivian-bhakhiir stalked the fringes and made prey of would-be ambushers. And I fell into the Rage.
So many sounds and hurts in quick succession. It rose within me with fury I have not felt in a season, but I gripped it in my claws and never slipped beyond the wasu-im. My howl wrenched consciousness from some of the prey. Another tried to stab me. Succeeded in stabbing me, though I felt nothing at the time. I saw enzidh stumble for a moment in her duel and I lashed out. Claws of deathfrost moonlight tore the air and bled Cormund, scattering him into sand and ash and the stench of curdled starlight.
Selesnya the snorse, showing her fangs
His pack shattered and fled. Some were caught and ensnared. Others escaped. My Rage was spent with Cormund and I remember little. There was a knife in my side, bleeding stopped when it came out. Enzidh and Ninna found the mirskazisu, saved her. Very kind of them. Poor thing was beaten, mistreated, afraid. Selesnya is her name. A pretty name for a pretty creature. She wanted to be free, to hunt prairie dogs and not be fed on rats.
Charlotte-zaazi called Cormund a warlock, with magic taken from the Old Ones. He may not be dead, stolen back by his master to safety or punishment. Agyamut-ka – Old Ones – another sign of intrusion from beyond the moons. A bad wind, or the reason for the skeins and the grass-wind sword dreams? Time will tell. I will listen to it.
The taken bandits talked. Youths seeking freedom from the chains of this nowhere town. Respectable dream, poorly achieved. These were some of the missing people, disappearing piecemeal over years, caught in Cormund’s pack. None had his power, taken from a secret place in the caves they lair in. With a secret god he did not share with them. Another intruder to be hunted?
They will find guidance by helping the town they hurt, and give the sheriff a purpose and a pack of his own. Deputies in service until a better path found. Its a chain but they made it themselves. And one found herself, though was denser than a wyvern’s egg. That pain in her eyes felt familiar, like the face in my old dreams. It does not matter. She will become herself and her friend. Her companion? Something more? She will help her on her new path.
Tomorrow we hunt the small god and its shadows. Tonight I will sleep. I hope I do not dream.
RPG/Campaign: The Southern Seven (Homebrew D&D 5e Variant)
Morwyn mac TĂre is a wanderer in the wild-places between the cities of Zelucellia. She is a standoffish and solitary woman, driven by strange dreams and the enigmatic magics of the moons, and preferring her own company to so-called civilized people who are ever quick to reject her feral nature.
Her full backstory lies below.
Collected Morwynisms: A list of the odd terms she has used, along with any known meanings or references that may explain them.
The Southern Seven
Hunting the Hunters: Morwyn joins a band of adventurers facing otherworldly foes in a burning farmstead, including a face seen in her dreams.
Wayward Youths: Trouble flares on the return to Brolko as bandits arrive in town, armed and hellraising.
Desert Fires: The band follows a trail of banditry and curses east, and Morwyn finds something that stirs old and hateful rage.
Eyes in the Storm: Violence erupts, old loves are renewed and secrets are found beneath the earth.
Tresle shone in the palm of the Storm last night. The viridian dreams were strong as starlight, sharp with fresh blood and ashen skies. Good omens that the quarry was close.
Came toward Brolko from the wilds. The proper ways. Quieter. Less words and two-legged herds. I dislike traveling Kavones in this season, too warm and bright, but haste was needed.
Smelled the blood and smoke on the wind long before reaching it. A farm burning, fields in ruins. Others were there. Four women, one scented of wolf and elflight. They clashed with strange things. Octopus plant-things that spat barbs and caught prey in endless tendrils.
Decided to join the fray. We fought and won, killed the plant-things. They burned well, izih-guth. Some injuries, no survivors.
Hatsuko-enzidh – I am sure she is the wolf-elf – was swift as in dreams, cutting plant-things apart with blade of grass and wind. Leera – night-elf, distant and cold as stars – ferociously skilled ninna with arrows like falcons snatching prey. Lishan – many-hued azah-elf – iridescent magic like starfall. Charlotte – elegant artificial girl – nimble and sharp and precise as needles. Another joined the struggle, a large panther that mauled and fed on the dead plant-things. Lucky. I was only able to taste one burned morsel, too sweet and too vegetal.
Plant things are called aartuk, wanderers from the great astral seas beyond the moons. Thinking plants still burn well.
One survivor of aartuk before we arrived. A woman. Lishan-azah granted her mercy. Wise – kul kusura udmeda – the farm was her territory, ruined by violence and honoured by saving her. Also in the farmhouse was a small dog, nervous and afraid. Hatsuko-enzidh talked to it, truely talked to it – how marvellous! – it came out and told us all it knew. I got to pet the dog. It was cute.
Also in the house was a dead creature, stranger even than the aartuk. Charlotte-zaazi knew what it was once Leera-ninna regathered the parts. A beholder-kin called a gazer. Another alien thing from beyond the moons. The pack say that the aartuk must have tracked it here. Impressive hunting skills to track prey across the stars, worthy of respect. What threat brings alien hunters to Kavones? What is this pack hunting?
Travelled with them to Brolko. The little dog said that the injured woman’s wife was there. Good. She can help her rouse and recover from her harms. Talked to the pack on the road. Learned their names, and that the panther was a person as well. Vivian-bhakhir is comfortable as she is. I respect that, almost envy it though I prefer my own claws to hers. Such purity of existence, not caught living between two worlds.
We reached Brolko and found the wife’s grave. I should leave a flower there for her and reward the dog for good service.
I will travel with this pack for now, until I know why the skeins of dreams have drawn me here, to them and this place.
Personal Journal of Essiala Ariathia Sorjiik den Morgenstern ban Vor'cle, Navigatrix Primaris Encryption Sigil: Vor'cle-HEXAMATIS-7197.terpsichore Vessel: Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis, rogue-trader of Dynasty Void-ghast Location: Damaris System, Koronus Expanse, halo-Segmentus Obscurus Date: 3.364.816.M41 Thought for the day:In faith lies strength, in knowledge lies power.
As I venture to transcribe my experiences upon Damaris, I find myself compelled to offer my sincerest apologies to the reader for the lacuna that once again impede the continuation of this narrative. I will not delay your reading any further and will explain in greater detail in an appendix below.
Lord Kapak’s gala was finely appointed as any I have encountered so far from the light of civilisation. It was an earnest attempt at opulence and distraction from the Ork horde drawing ever closer, filled with what I must assume to be extravagant examples of local decor arranged to compensate for the limitations of such a provincial world. Amidst the adornments, the delicate and fragrant frost-flowers particularly caught my eye, though I do not think many groundlings could appreciate the complexities of ultraviolet patterning across their petals. The orchestral-servitors, meticulously arranged, was the most exquisite that I have yet encountered in any world in the expanse.
While our Lord-Captain dallied in a youthful affectation of fashionable tardiness , my companions – Helm-Mistress Petriam and Master-at-Arms Katsuhiro – endeavoured to acquaint ourselves with the people and mores that constituted the thin veneer of Damaris’ upper echelons. Although the invitation to the gala extended to the entirety of Gloriosa Lux’s command council, the absence of other officers and functionaries from the ship was conspicuous. Though I would have preferred to join them in remaining shipboard, away from the scrabbling politics of groundlings, I am a child of Vor’cle and the demands of propriety insisted upon my presence to represent the House in this farflung bastion of the Imperium.
My companions embarked upon the task of engaging with the luminaries of Damaris, the better to weld them into a unified front against the ork horde. I have included full details of discussions in an adjunct mnemo-vault, but they can be sumarised thusly.
Lady Orleans of the Starweaver, circa 816.M41
Mistress Petriam spoke at length with Lady-Captain Orleans and gathered that the captain of the Starweaver has some degree of disagreement with the ecclesiarchal dominance of affairs on Damaris. That is understandable when the planetary governor has descended so far into excess that he cannot command his own world’s defence, and something that must be remedied if the planet is to survive beyond this present danger.
Master Katsuhiro engaged with General Dante regarding his intentions and plans for the defence for the world. While the general is proud of his troops and is evidently capable, that capacity is tempered by his station and upbringing. A planetary general who has crushed menial insurgencies and fought raiders is not an officer of the Astra Militarum, forged in the fires of Schola and war into the iron that will be needed to save Damaris. More concerning are the general’s obvious desire to take the governorship for himself, his seditious opinions of Imperial institutions and his past encounters with Drukhari, with whom he shows a disquieting familiarity. A Damaris under the rule of General Dante would fall swiftly from His Light into the depths of apostasy and perfidy, and need to be aggressively brought into Compliance once the Expanse is fully claimed.
Lord-Captain Locke of the Aegis
I endeavoured to make the acquaintance of Lord-Captain Locke of the Imperial Cruiser Aegis. She is a Captain both skilled and heroic, who should by now in her career be commanding a squadron or even entering the lower eschelons of admiralty, but that rise is blunted by a willingness to bend orders to save the lives of Imperial citizens, even if it may lead to the loss of her own ship. This iconoclasty is an ill-fit for the iron-clad strictures of the Battlefleet but heroes have their uses. If she lives through the fires of Ork invasion I think she would be a fine asset to be cultivated by the House or our good friends.
Eventually our noble young Lord-Captain made his arrival with fervour, pomp, and an unfeasible number of hats. He seized the attention of the whole gala and made a marvelous speech that laid open claim on his right to command the defence of the world. He is young and inexperienced but there are signs of fire and steel under the silk of his past. I think that, in time, he may yet become an excellent leader of men, for his exuberance and forthrightness swiftly won the hearts of the listeners. I suspect many were glad that someone else was willing to take responsibility, while others are willing to acquiesce to the magna fortis of a Rogue Trader whose warship sits in orbit above their heads. Even Lady Orleans was willing to accede to Lord-Captain Voidasghast after a discussion over their intentions for Damaris after the invasion was repelled.
As the gala waned into the nocturnal hours, an unexpected arrival from Quinn Claritatem, our Choir-Master Telepathica, necessitated our premature departure. Whilst communing with the Machine Spirit of Gloriosa Lux, our Enginseer Prime had recieved a message relayed from the ship herself, warning that our quest to defend Damaris was futile and remaining in the system would lead to our doom. The unusual nature of this message and the dire portent it demanded immediate attention, so we returned with haste to Gloriosa Lux to discuss this matter with Enginseer Prime Sin Logarithmica.
This discussion lead to our presence in the primary enginarium when Enginseer Prime Logarithmica attempted to commune once more with Gloriosa Lux in an effort to gain further information. It was an auspicious honour to be present in the heart of such a venerable craft as Gloriosa Lux, but one that became strange and uncertain as an event occured that I do not have the full vocabulary and knowledge to describe. It was akin to the experience of integration with the ship via a Navigation Helm, yet without wire or impulse-link or the protective balms of unguent of ritual. We all experienced a raw and intense sensation of traveling through the void, in combat and under great threat as something vast and unseen that presently lurked behind the Ork horde instead assailed us directly. It was a harrowing experience, one I do not wish to repeat and which will leave deep scars on the psyche of those untrained in maintaining a barrier about the self.
I was not as unaffected by the vision in the enginarium as I initially assumed. The experience appears to have hetrodyned with my gene-gifts and stirred a secondary awakening earlier than I anticipated. Examination by House-bonded medicae-adepts reveals osseous carcincrementum on all primary digits. Analgesics are minimising my discomfort and the process should be complete within 2-3 sleep cycles, but I will not be able to use my quill or other instrument without difficulty until the growth is complete and I can retrain myself in their use. I am forced to resort to an amanuensis-servitor until then.
Ongoing osseous carcincrementum on all digits. Coloration due to internal bruising.
I have also begun to experience changes in my True vision, wherein slivers of the immaterium are visible even in realspace. I believe these are the skeins that Morthandus den Eisenstein wrote about in his M35 treatise, though I am unsure if the perceptions I am experiencing are spatial, temporal, or immaterial. I will report more fully once my gifts stabilise.
Personal Journal of Essiala Ariathia Sorjiik den Morgenstern ban Vor'cle, Navigatrix PrimarisEncryption Sigil: Vor'cle-HEXAMATIS-7197.terpsichore
Vessel: Gloriosa Lux Misericordiae Imperialis, rogue-trader of Dynasty Void-ghast
Location: Damaris System, Koronus Expanse, halo-Segmentus Obscurus
Date: 3.361.816.M41
Thought for the day:Through the destruction of our enemies we earn our salvation.
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I must apologise to my reader for the incompleteness of the remainder of this record. The disruption of my post-transit rituals, compounded by the unwholesome intensity of the local gravity and disruptive glare of the Caeruleum-Gigans primary of the system were deeply draining for me. I have endeavoured to maintain as full a record as possible. Please see adjuct vox-cords taken from trusted sources and personal vox-mnemovaults as supplement for these written records.
Our arrival in Damaris has not found any Ork presence within the system, the Xenos forces are yet an estimated 036 standard away from first contact. Instead we found a woeful lack of valorous human unity among the defenders of Damaris. Where one fleet should have been arrayed to support the planet’s defence station (designated ‘The Bulwark’) in the defence of the world, there were at least three scattered and disconnected squadrons of ships who were not even in vox-net with each other. In addition to the system defence ships were the vessels of two other Rogue Trader dynasties and a light cruiser of Battlefleet Calixis. While I trust in the valour of Gloriosa Lux, resolute allies against the foul xenos threat are always valuable.
The Bulwark and ships over Damaris
Arrayed in orbit are the Ordained Destiny, a redoubtable cruiser mastered by Lord-Captain Jeremiah Blitz, of who I sadly know little save for his name; the Starweaver, an elegant and nimble frigate of the Orleans dynasty whose warp-guide with whom I have corresponded in the past; and the potent imperial warship Aegis.
There were extensive discussions with the local traffic-master on our arrival that I was not fully privy to. I had begun my post-transit rituals within my private chambers when such communications occured, but reliable sources informed me of their content. Despite some technical difficulties, a vox-cord of which I have attached to this log for posterity, our noble Lord-Captain and his entourage were invited to meet with the planetary governor to discuss the defence of the system against the orkish forces. I was roused from my post-transit rituals with what I can only describe as immodest haste to join a strategy meeting and to descend into the bowels of the gravity well to meet this planetary noble.
The journey to the governor’s palace was enlightening, including the revelation that our Helm-Mistress was as competent at a groundling vehicle as a true vessel. I believe that I misjudged her skill based on her facade, and I will keep a closer eye upon her in future.
The groundling city was quite impressive and suitably arrayed in Imperial decor and faith. Evidently Damaris was been brought into the Emperor’s light soon after the Koronus Expanse was opened to exploration. Many well-crafted statues of saints both great and local were on display, perfectly maintained despite the provinciality of the planet.
We arrived at the governor’s palace as a heated argument was taking place between noble defenders come to aid Damaris in its time of need and the local commanders of ground forces. One among them, the Lady-Captain Orleans of the Starweaver, appears to have an insalubrious personal history with our own Lord-Captain, or perhaps with the Voidasghast dynasty. Perhaps something connected to the actions of our noble Lord-Captain during the warp transit to Damaris, or perhaps another osseuous gathering within his chambers.
Our arrival was sufficient excuse for the governor, the peacockish Lord Belkan Kapak, to finally exert his Emperor-granted authority to quell the discord. We were brought into a private audience with Lord Kapak, where he and Lord Voidasghast socialised over what I suspect was some local-varient of obscura, and we were formally welcomed to Damaris. And invited to a gala tomorrow. Words cannot approach the capacity to express my deep and unabiding lack of interest in such a groundling function, but I shall attend and express the nobility and grace of House Vor’cle to the very hilt of my ability.
For now, though, I may finally rest. I offer fervent prayers to Him on Terra and all his Saints that this may be a dreamless sleep.
I have addended all details gathered thusfar about Damaris and all notable figures – including Governor Kapak, Captain Locke, General Dante, and Lord-Captain Orleans – in a secure mnemo-adjuct for later perusal by House and Friends.
