...into the fire - Chapter 2 - IC

++++ Charnel House 17 ++++

Finding a quiet spot where one the supporting pillars comes down in a secluded alleyway you easily make the climb up on to the overhead conveyor. The hundred metre crawl along its length to the charnel house is uncomfortable in armour, but passes without incident. A peek over the side shows the guards oblivious to your presence.

The conveyor enters through a heavy plastic curtain and into the ‘welcoming hall’ of the warehouse where the dead are prepared before storage. Bodies choke the hall, some already prepared for storage having been painted in a preservative paste but some also rotting where they’ve been abandoned perhaps since the charnel house was locked down. The vile chemical odour mixes with the smell of decayed flesh to make the place almost unbearable. Your eyes sting, nose tingles and the stench catches at the back of your throat. Fat flies lazily crawl and fly over the corpses.

Beyond the welcoming hall are some offices and the vast halls where the dead are stored. All seems quiet, from where you are there are no signs of workers or enforcers.

"Smelled a lot of places... This is the worst." Severine mumbled to the others with her as they surveyed the charnel house. She wasn't really sure what they were looking for, or what would be an indication of what Slim's group was looking for in this building, so for now she just kept an eye out for anyone who seemed to be searching for stuff down below.

"We could try and reach the offices, that may have what they were searching for?"

++++ The Bar ++++

Donna’s leap on to the bar and the offer of free booze did indeed attract attention. While the gangers hang back initially, they do watch the patrons gather around to get their drink, the small commotion also draws the attention of the Red Wake who were outside. Once most of the local patrons are served the gangers congregate around the bar and get their drinks, the smallest of the six downs his and then looks up at Donna “Fanks fer da drink. Heared dat some mercs were n de area; dat must be you right?” While only pushing five foot and a half feet the ganger looks mean and solid; his face a mess of scar tissue, disfigured and twisted by some injury making speech difficult.

Lokar watches Donna jump up onto the bar and totally gets a good look at her flanks.

He then turns to the scared shorty, and while looking the man in the eye the young and cocky feral reaches out with his funky fungas brew and chinks tankards with the pitbull of a man.

Yes, I'm a merc, an' this Fancy Lady here is my Boss. Lokar looks to the High Borne Lady, 'Merc Boss' Philomena..

Philomena nods at the disfigured ganger. "Meenacea Sturn," she says, giving the man her cover identity within the Black Veil. She doubted these thugs had the means to look them, but it paid to be careful. "My people and I have some temporary work to do around here and we'd rather do it without ruffling any feathers. I hear this is your gang's turf. I'd like to speak with someone to negotiate a mutually profitable arrangement."

She looks up at the drinking locals. "As you can see, we like to provide for our friends."

++++ The Bar ++++

The scarred ganger regards each of you for a moment, before nodding his head at Philomena "Dat depends on where yer plannin' on doing yer work and whos you after?" it seemed like a statement as well as a question. One of the gangers red faced and fat downs his free drink but the rest stay alert, not agreesive but ready if this conversation went south.

Two fungas brews in and with another in hand Lokar gets bored with the grown up conversation and looks about the bar for games where he can assert his manliness.

Philomena eyes the ganger appraisingly. It was possible the Red Wake had dealings with the Buzzards and would rush to warn Tallow. However, playing her cards too close to the chest would only result in immobility. Besides, it might even help them if Tallow laid low. It would give them more time to sabotage Slim's investigation.

"We're looking for Max Tallow," she says, paying close attention to his reaction. "Do you know him?"

++++ Charnel House 17 ++++

As you open a door leading into the office space you're assaulted by an even stronger stench of ripe  decaying flesh... you walk into a scene of utter carnage. The walls are spattered with blood and visceral fluids, the ground littered with tangled limbs of mutilated bodies. The dead have clearly been moved by either the enforcers or by the inquisitors people, evidenced by drag marks through the blood on the floor. Its seems like all of the bodies were dragged away from the centre of the room where the concentration of blood is the greatest.

There are at least two dozen dead.

+++ The Bar +++

Lokar looks around for something of interest but the patrons at the bar were mostly watching what was going on with the the lady speaking to the Red Wake. A few of the locals had slipped out likely not wanting any trouble if anything did happen.  

The ganger nods at Philomenas question "Yer I know of him. Had dealin's with him before. What yer be wanting with that snake?"

"Well... This looks like an execution to me. All the staff here, all the workers. What do the two of you think?"

Severine stepped inside and shut the door behind them all once they had entered. She picked her way through the space, trying to avoid the larger pools of blood so she wouldn't leave boot prints, and searched for any evidence they could use to identify what the inquisitor was looking for here, and why they'd seemingly executed the entire crew of this warehouse...

Rolls:

As she searched the area and looked over the bodies, Severine gave a resounding 'humm' as she noticed little bits of information. "Nevermind! 8 of these died a while ago, those ones, you can still smell the chemical on them... No cogs on those. The other 12 died 5 days ago, before our Inquisitor arrived." She stepped over and gestured to those ones, pointing out each to her companions. "It looks like they tore each other apart - bare handed. None of these people should be strong enough to do that but... Hm. All of those have cogs. Except this one here, better quality clothes, he's missing his. You can see the little spot around its neck where the cog would have been."

"We want to sweep him off his feet and take him away from from his troubles," Mina says with a grin as cold as a blade.

"Help us find him, and you'll never have to deal with that snake again. You'll even earn yourself a nice finder's fee."

Philomena spoke and Lokar's ears pricked up, he expected her to prattle on for hours but here she was being direct, he was both impressed and worried, given her clear frailty. Faining his continued boredom he looked behind the bar for something reflective, a dirty mirror, a bottle, anything to get a sly look at the pit bull of a man, he would be the first to go..

Damiel moved with practiced grace over the conveyor, flipping himself over the side once they had entered the Charnel house. He immediately drew his cloak over his mouth and nose, stomaching a wretch from the stench. A nod to Severine was the only communication he was willing (or able) to give as they made their way to the offices.

Damiel looked upon the carnage and muttered through the fabric of his cloak. "By the throne that's a lot of blood. Tore each other apart? Well, if there was any doubt about demonic influence we could lay it to rest with these folk." He begins to look about the office space, "Come on, let's take a look around. This may have been some sort of ritual gone wrong, or right, but there are still the rumors of an underhive entrance here. Felyx, do you think there's any access to camera recordings here?" Damiel does his best to avoid the areas where the viscera may make his step a bit slippery, moving through the scene as best he can in an effort to locate the entrance to their perverted temple.

+++ The Bar +++

The short ganger looks between each of you again, perhaps weighting you before reaching his decision “Yer need to speak to the boss then. You know of the town of Gantry in the under hive? I can guide you there if you make it worth my while.” It seems like he isn’t the guy in charge but at least the leader of this group, perhaps some lieutenant of The Red Walk. He was clearly trying to make his profit now.

+++ Charnel House 17 +++

You scower the warehouse of the Fayne brothers, its seems like you've the place to yourselves with the enforcers focused on guarding the exterior. After awhile longer over looking the carnage you start to feel slightly uneasy, a scratching at the back of your skull. As you widen your search aware from the massacre the feeling lessens.

Mina chuckles. "Very well, we can pay for your services as a local guide." She spends some time haggling with the ganger until they settle on amount. Once that's done, she arranges for a future meeting to travel to the Undercity, with enough time to reconvene with the rest of her team and for the short thug to arrange the parley with his boss.

With the arrangements made, she rejoins Lokar and Donna. "We're done here. Finish your drinks and let's head back."

Looking to Philomena the young feral fights his ego and plays his part. Yes Boss!. he says with all the earnest respect he has, then, as ordered, downs his third fungas brew.

Work done he grabs another brew for the road, from the hand of the the smallest man within reach.

Felyx felt naked, metaphorically, without Servitor II at his side. Or, more correctly, under him like a faithful steed. It was obviously impossible to bring the mechanical angel along as hush-hush was the name of the game. He understood the logic of it, but this was a new sensation.

Is this the feelings they're always speaking of?

He brushed it aside as they moved into the Charnel House. He smiles at the initial scene in the Charnel House. It was exactly as he expected, and as such he already had his filtration plugs in his nose. To him, it smelled fantastic. It paid to be prepared.

His hot shot las, mounted on his shoulder, moved gently with his head. It followed his gaze, a deadly third eye.

At Severeine's question, he began searching for cogitators, logbooks - digital or analog - anything that could potentially provide a modicum of understanding as to what had happened here...

Gentle Reminder:

+++ Charnel House 17 +++

Clearing away some viscera splattered across the access point Felyx plugs himself into the cogitator in the office space. The security protocols were nothing to mention and easily bypassed. The information within was unfortunately dull; basic employee information, data on numbers of cadevours processed and other tasks related to the functions of the warehouse.

Auspex scanning reveals similar results although perhaps a little more interesting; the chemicals used to embalm the dead were carcinogenic, nothing to worry about with occasional exposure but it would be reasonable to assume that many workers would succumb to related diseases.

If there was anything else of interest here then Interrogator Slim had taken it and distrubed the scene to a degree that it was hard to discern any other clues. You were already aware that the Fane brothers were nurgle cultists anyway. The question was what would be Slim's next step from whatever they had found here.

++++++++++

It was time to regroup and find out what the others had found so you all head to yout tower block hideaway.

Severine was more than okay with leaving the charnel house and returning to their little base. She wasn't entirely sure what was gained from this whole expedition, but she was never the ideas person - that was for Lady Philomena and the others to figure out. She was here as divine muscle.

The walk back was quiet for her, mostly spend watching over their shoulders for hints of danger or pursuit.

++++

When they returned back to the tower Severine's first step was to check in on Philomena and make sure she was alright - while keeping a Lady's need for decorum in mind of course. In her way.
My Lady, it's good to see you're all back and safe. Did you find anything useful? All we found was corpses - not surprising for a charnel house, I guess."

She smiled a bit, trying to lighten her own spirits for whatever would follow. She liked to be in a good mood.

Felyx felt frustrated at the lack of results from their outing. The pieces of the puzzle didn't fit yet, and for some reason he thought they'd have made more progress by now, even though they'd only begun.

He sat with his back ramrod straight, gently stroking Servitor II's bicep.

"Were to finding many of the corpses. Cogitators fucked clean. Nothings left to be sucked out. One anomaly."

Felyx spoke to everyone and no one all at once.

He knew he was being paid attention to, so he let his finding hang in the air for just a moment. He stopped stroking the servitor and looked to the others quizzically.

"The fluids for the embalmings used were carcinogenic. Long term fucky-effects to those exposed. Wondering if cult was trying to make more corpses? Using the corpses to making the more corpses?"

Felyx hoped someone else had some insight. He jacked into his trusty Servitor to boost his processing power and began scanning his memory data banks.

There has to be something here...

Lokar smiles at Felyx's comments.

You were sifting through blood and death while we were drinking and laughing with our new 'friends'. Better luck next time bud.

The former cultist takes a moment to consider this new information.

Where I come from a grizzly cene like that would normally be the site of some dark ritual or such, no way to know without a scorc, er, psyker present. As much as I like Philomena's company should we split up again, I think one psyker per team would be a good idea..

Felyx's dead eyes bore into Lokar.

"On the contraries, you were siftings through the soon to be bloodied and deads, while I was laughings with my new friends... Bud." His mimicking sounded almost like passable Low Gothic.

The thought of all of the corpses being his friends brought a smile to his face. There were so many brain stems there to collect, but they weren't Felyx's kills. It wasn't right.

Felyx nods at Lokar's logic. "I am to agreeing with that."

Begins stroking Servitor's bicep again.

Philomena graces Severine with a quick reassuring smile, before putting on her mask again. "We have secured a meeting with the Red Wake's leadership, as well as one of their members to guide us in the underhive." She smooths down the folds of her cloak, then grimaces at her gloves in disgust. She retrieves a rag to wipe them on.

"Lokar makes a good point. Next time, we'll be in different teams. Perhaps one of us could have discerned what the Interrogator was looking for at the Charnel House. We should probably stick together for the meeting tomorrow, but after that, a team could be dispatched to the Charnel House again. Lokar should go. After all, he is the daemonology specialist," she says, please to have an excuse to avoid stepping foot in that horrid place.

"I am not sure if the massacre there was the doing of the cultists - It might've been Slim. Especially because of the missing cogs - if they wanted access to things, Slim or the cultists I suppose, stealing those cogs would be the way to do it right? Not exactly higher clearance than Inquisitor, but as a disguise it might help them."

Severine paused a moment, thinking everything over that she'd seen. Maybe she had judged the area a bit too quickly, there might have been more to see there if a Psyker had been present..
"Also - I don't know why this hadn't crossed my mind before - those bodies in the charnel house, they had been dead longer than Slim has been in the hive. And they looked like they tore each other apart. Almost like the embalmed bodies rose up and killed the staff in the plant." She shrugged. Severine had heard of a lot of strange things, but that seemed like a stretch even to her. Maybe the others wouldn't.
"Maybe one of you should go back, My Lady, to see if you can spot any psychic traces?"

Lokar looks surprised as Severine speaks.

So you're not just a ruined pretty face, you've also got some smarts on your shoulders. Interesting, there is a good chance we know where Slim is going next. She could be useing the cogs herself, or following someone else who took them before she got there.