Evervigilant 72 (Session 0 before redux)

WarthogDriver — 3/16/2025 1:08 AM
(Context for the Seer we went to investigate in the desert)
<Vigilant_GM> It is here that in an impossible, ethereal form, you catch the broken glimpses of the Seer's past.
<Vigilant_GM> Unholy communion between the Seer and the powerful, now banished, presence in the chamber, are regular. You are able to catch windows of thoughts, intent, planning.
<Vigilant_GM> You observe as, through the Seer, the Tzeenchian warp creature's influence spread across the wastes. The nomadic tribes, the outcast wanderers, all united under the usurped ideology of the Ecclesiarchy's opposition to the decadence of the nobility.
<Vigilant_GM> Tampering with other sites accessible through the canyon system, warding mechanisms were sabotaged, allowing for the psychic communion to extend far beyond. Years of coordination, of avoiding the nobility's purges, of looting the war scarred wastes after the myriad battles fought in an obscene sport-like way. The shattered visions culminate in a present that yet exists in the past;
<Vigilant_GM> the purging of the tzeenchian form the epicenter of a call to action; a screech across an unreal dimension that is answered by an equally powerful call from within the apex of Juno's spires.
WarthogDriver — 3/16/2025 1:19 AM
An uprising of the lower hive is initially dismissed as a banal matter, and the Vigil is sent to crush it. When the revolt becomes more headstrong than anticipated, the Grand Army of the Sovereign is deployed to assist, adopting heavy-handed tactics seen as brutal even by the standards of previous crackdowns. When the Basilica of Valerius Risen is stormed by a Vigil/Old Blood force to capture/kill "rebels" who sought sanctuary in its hallowed grounds, Arch-Cardinal Harus makes a stand. What results is a massacre that Harus cannot forgive. Shortly thereafter, Harus uses his preaching to call for all the faithful to rise up against the Nobility, sparking the beginning of a civil war as factions and sub-factions align and realign. Harus and the "rebel elements" of the Ministorum are pushed out of Vesuna Regis altogether, and the faction begins wandering the wastes in search of support from outcasts and any who would answer their call. Blackhall is "invited" to join against the Arch-Cardinal, but when it refuses to make its stance known, it falls under siege by the Old Bloods. Its defenses are battered, and the positions on Lucien's Scars are isolated altogether.

Emerging from the canyon system the Throne Cell find that approximately 3 months have past, despite only having experienced a couple of hours of exploration. Attempting to restore communication with forces on the plateau they learn that Guljian's new headquarters had been placed under siege.  Due to House Guljian failing to align themselves in the civil war, the forces of the Hive Nobility had moved against in the absence of the head of the house.
WarthogDriver — 3/16/2025 2:45 AM
The high level of preparation that had gone into fortifying the plateau and heroic actions by Throne-Cell Cordius-Primus had prevented the siege from making a major breakthrough, but it had to be broken.

Baird took over command of the defense, restoring morale to the Maccabian forces. Unfortunately the attackers had dug in too deeply to make Karpath's gun runs effective. However strategic raids undertaken by Almarax were highly effective at breaking the cohesion of the attacking forces and eventually the siege was broken enough to allow resupply, sourced from the Anzaforr Dynasty. Maccabian forces were left at approximately 80% strength after the ordeal.

The next two months are spent regrouping, with House Gulijian's forces restored to full strength, meanwhile the Juno Grand Fusiliers are recalled to Juno to bolster the Charolingians, conducting operations across the wastes and conflict spreading to the neighboring hive. It is an experienced and well-armed/equipped regiment. The Outcasts show their hand, and begin their own full-scale warfare. Inquest shows that rallied in opposition to the Charolingians, they have now aligned with Harus. Although he may have his suspicions he doesn't know their true nature, and arriving battle pilgrims join the combined forces.

~5 Months

Voidships from chartist captains, mercantile houses, and Battlefleet assets are called in to assist and disrupt off-world reinforcement of each opposing faction. With the full defection of some noble houses seeking to dethrone the Privy Council, the Arch-Cardinal's cause receives a much-needed reprieve. Off-world support becomes exceedingly difficult without aligning with a faction.


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Tywin Lannister — 11/11/2024 9:57 PM
IT IS THE 41ST MILLENNIUM...
Tywin Lannister — 11/12/2024 11:12 PM
As the Askellon Sector's primary warp routes begin to collapse before the swelling Pandaemonium, corruption and conflict within its very heart threaten its fall. Juno, the Sector capital, descends into savage warfare among factions intent on the total annihilation of their foe. Cloaked in the trappings of imperial institutions and ideology, each asserts an unforgiving mandate to exterminate the Emperor's enemies, and calls for aid from the Sector capital have thrown the worlds of Askellon into total disarray.

Voidships answering the call from the Charolingians, those aligned with Lord Sector Charlotta Anastasia XX, engage in open warfare above Juno's atmosphere against the Congregationalists answering the Ecclesiarchy's call to holy war against the corruption of the ruling classes. Thrice have blockades been emplaced only to fall to the opposing faction, voidship remnants scarring Juno's wastes in displays of unimaginable violence for its inhabitants to behold.

Along the western edges of Lucien's Scar, a canyon system spanning a thousand kilometers or more along Juno's wasteland, a holdout unaligned faction keeps its foothold against overwhelming odds. Earthworks, makeshift stronghold positions made up of vehicles salvaged from the unending skirmishes across the wastes, and the occasional relief from supporting Rogue Trader captains as-yet unaligned in their own allegiances keep this solitary faction in the fight. Its only foothold on Vesuna Regis, the world's capital city, is reachable by a vulnerable and eternally harassed stretch of road set up by combat engineers of the Maccabian Janissary contingent loyal to General Guljian. It is Guljian's own estate, Blackhall; a small fortified town in its own right, that serves as the headquarters for the nobleman and his unaligned faction.

Yet beneath the cacophony of war, whispers of truth are hidden. Far from the lunatic Lord Guljian is said to be for his hopeless, stubborn, resistance, it is through his sisyphean operation that the Emperor's judging eyes can see the truth. Interrogator Thomas Baird, the man known as Guljian, leads the shadow war fought beneath the surface through the tireless work of the Throne Agents serving in his inquisitorial cell.

Months of complex, dangerous, and often deadly work have uncovered a web of corruption implicating the Sector's leadership, and key figures in the Adeptus Mechanicus, in a plot to summon and harness the power of xenos gods worshipped in Askellon's pre-imperial past.

The Throne Agents benefit from little guidance: Inquisitor Mortem's last missive to the cell spoke of a link between the growing warp storm and the growing heresies across the Sector. The psychic shriek carried to the ends of Askellon upon the banishment of a daemon at the hands of the Throne Agents, he believed, had been answered by something deep within the Pandaemonium. Since then, the Inquisitor has made no attempts to make further contact, and no pleas for his guidance or assistance have been answered.

With the imminent threat of total collapse of the warp-routes linking the Askellon Sector to the Imperium at large,  they will soon have to make a series of impossible decisions for themselves, and the countless souls facing the warp stranglehold, with or without their master.
Tywin Lannister — 3/16/2025 12:12 AM
Phases of Escalation:
1) Emergence: An uprising of the lower hive is initially dismissed as a banal matter, and the Vigil is sent to crush it. When the revolt becomes more headstrong than anticipated, the Grand Army of the Sovereign is deployed to assist, adopting heavy-handed tactics seen as brutal even by the standards of previous crackdowns. When the Basilica of Valerius Risen is stormed by a Vigil/Old Blood force to capture/kill "rebels" who sought sanctuary in its hallowed grounds, Arch-Cardinal Harus makes a stand. What results is a massacre that Harus cannot forgive. Shortly thereafter, Harus uses his preaching to call for all the faithful to rise up against the Nobility, sparking the beginning of a civil war as factions and sub-factions align and realign. Harus and the "rebel elements" of the Ministorum are pushed out of Vesuna Regis altogether, and the faction begins wandering the wastes in search of support from outcasts and any who would answer their call. Blackhall is "invited" to join against the Arch-Cardinal, but when it refuses to make its stance known, it falls under siege by the Old Bloods. Its defenses are battered, and the positions on Lucien's Scars are isolated altogether.
Tywin Lannister — 3/16/2025 2:37 AM
2) The Recall: The Juno Grand Fusiliers are recalled to Juno to bolster the Charolingians, conducting operations across the wastes. It is an experienced and well-armed/equipped regiment. The Outcasts show their hand, and begin their own full-scale warfare. Inquest shows that rallied in opposition to the Charolingians, they have now aligned with Harus. He doesn't know their true nature, and arriving battle pilgrims join the combined forces.
Tywin Lannister — 3/16/2025 4:07 AM
3) Void Mobilization: Voidships from chartist captains, mercantile houses, privateers, and Battlefleet assets are called in to assist and disrupt off-world reinforcement of each opposing faction. With the full defection of some noble houses seeking to dethrone the Privy Council, the Arch-Cardinal's cause receives a much-needed reprieve. Off-world support becomes exceedingly difficult without aligning with a faction.