Flagg

WH40k: Rogue Trader RP

Yep, interested.

40K: Warlords

Ok, will have a post to move this along by the end of this week. So if you want an intro before then, get typing!

Gotham City: A Myth Retold

Gotham: A Myth Retold

Summer Night in the City

Ten seconds outside the artificial cold of the casino and I was already drenched in sweat.

Summer in midtown, sticky and stifling. Loud with sirens, car horns, cat calls, distant screams, the blare of a police radio from an undercover's open window.

I wasn't drunk as I stepped out of the Emperor's Lounge, my checking account down two grand and change, but I wasn't sober either. I was in that sweet spot before nausea sets in. Seeing everything a bit more sharply, as though for the first time. I looked around, observing my city like a stranger would. To the West, the polluted haze over Lake Oriab glowed dull crimson as the day gave up the ghost. The sunset was obscured somewhat by the crooked skyline, old neo-gothic buildings silhouetted in black by the fading light. To the north loomed the broadsword shape of the Wayne Building, windows blazing, dwarfing its rivals.

No stars came out as the sun disappeared. Night wasn't dark here, it was dim orange: ground-light reflected back from the city's shroud of smog.

I turned and walked south on Amnesty Blvd, hands in my pockets, head down, eyes on the sidewalk, occasionally glancing ahead if an alleyway was coming up- best to be careful, even on Amnesty on a busy night. Panhandlers held out cardboard signs scrawled with sob stories and lies. I ignored them, fucking jobless junkies. I ignored the hookers too. And the rentboys.

All I wanted was to get to the Copperhead and keep drinking till I couldn't walk anymore or the sun came up, whichever came first. Tomorrow was Wednesday, my day off, and I liked to spend those sleeping off the night before. I turned off Amnesty onto Cassilda, the Y train rattling along the elevated tracks above me. A cluster of punks stood in a semi-circle next to the station stairway, giving me tough-guy eyes. Wannabees. I ignored them, stuck a cigarette in the corner of my mouth and went fishing for my lighter.

"Hey baby," one of them called out after me, some white kid with dreds and dumb tattoos. I swear to God this city was getting more crowded with freaks each year. "Whatchu doing out all alone tonight?"

I watched them cross the street and come for me out of the corner of my eye. I sighed. It was always some fucking thing. There were four of them. Dreds was the biggest, but they were all too skinny. Dope fiends don't eat well.

They spread out slightly, tried to surround me, and the first one to make his move was dreds. He came at me from behind, tried to grab my arm.

I broke his at the wrist. He screamed and scrambled backwards, but by then two of his friends had closed in on me- one landed a punch before I could pull out my knife. I went down- but gracefully, fifteen years in the GCPD meant I knew how to take a hit. Rolled out from between them, towards dreds, blade out. I grabbed him by his broken arm, wrenched it behind him, pushed my knife to his throat. I held him from behind, facing his friends.

The other three paused, eyes wide with idiot shock.

"Well?" I said.

"Please..." wheezed dreds, and I threw him to the ground.

They were stupid but not that stupid. All of them ran for it, including my new friend, holding his lamed arm up to his chest and whimpering as he staggered off into the night.

My phone buzzed. I didn't recognize the number.

"Yeah?"

"Hello, Sarah." said a voice I knew, harsher than I remembered, "We need to talk."

Hey! I've had a quirky idea playing at the back of my mind for about awhile now. The idea of this RP is to re-imagine the Batman mythos, heavily emphasizing all the gothic and pulp horror influences that always gave color to the setting and characters. In effect, I see this RP being a bit like the Dark Knight movie meets True Detective meets... a fever dream.

The idea here is that we will use the batman story for inspiration, and the general gotham setting, but we will not be bound by any of the 'canon' or official characters. We can reimagine everything and anything we want about the mythos- indeed, we don't even need a 'batman', just a dark vigilante seeking justice or revenge set against a corrupt and lovecraftian city and a caste of strange villains.

Thoughts?

40K: Warlords

Will give this a nudge later in the week. Just want to allow anyone who's still lurking a chance to post an intro.

40K: Warlords

Hey boys and girls,

Just a reminder that the writing standards for this RP are Advanced. Please make sure your posts meet the guidelines RPG uses to define advanced. If you're not writing up to the level the RP requires, I'll send you a PM.

40K: Warlords

@Flagg Dude, that was some Dan Abnett type writing! Nice.

Now a question; how would you feel about a Daemonic army? And, if allowed, what would we be looking at in terms of numbers etc?

If not allowed...well...Not allowed.

@Jbcool

I...probably would allow you to do it, but I'd need to see the sheet. Send me what you have in mind and we'll talk numbers.

Oh and thanks for the overly kind words- Abnett is fantastic.

40K: Warlords

Just to be clear, folks, you can post what your characters are doing "now" (imperials- arriving at/preparing for defense of pontius, chaos- subduing Dis, preparing for invasion of pontius) or what they've done in the lead up to the invasion. Just make it clear in your post whether its present day or a flashback.

40K: Warlords

OK team, the IC intro is up! Please note that everything that occurs there takes place one month before the start of the RP.

If you are imperial forces, you will begin the RP on or arriving on Pontius Secundus either as part of von Ravenstein's forces, part of Inquisitor Nox's reinforcements that just braved the Warp Storm, or as evacuees from Dis.

If you are Chaos, you are mopping up the final vestiges of resistance on Dis and preparing for the invasion of Pontius Secundus.

@Fallen Muse and I will develop sectors of Pontius and maybe a map which will be posted in the second post below the OP in this thread, so you can get of sense of the planet you will be invading/defending and decide what you want to do. Ideas and suggestions on that score are welcome.

ALSO- to everyone who would like to join or is still working on their sheets, we are still WIDE OPEN for business. Take your time.

40K: Warlords

I came into a place void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest.

- Pre-Imperial Fragment

One Month Ago....

Celestine V, Palace of the Governor

The Great Hall was filled with the noise of many aristocrats at dinner: the low buzz of gossip exchanged in cultivated accents, explosions of laughter too high pitched to be sincere, the tinkling of porcelain and crystal, orders barked to servitors for more wine.

The venue, it must be said, was grand. The high domed ceiling of the chamber was frescoed resplendently with scenes of Saint Plutus' defense of Stygia against xenos and mutants. Below this, tall windows looked out on the palace grounds, manicured lawns blooming with golden flowers and adorned with clutches of red-leafed gavo trees, all bathed in the orange light of the evening sun, slipping behind distant mountains.

The occasion for the feast was the birthday of the Governor Subsector's favorite niece, Athanasia, who turning fifteen had at last become eligible for marriage. Thus, the great and good from across Seleucis- and even a few from beyond the subsector- were in attendance.

To marry into the family of von Ravenstein was to join one of the most powerful dynasties in the Segmentum Pacificus, one with an ancient, and extraordinarily lucrative, alliance with the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The young lady of the hour sat in the center of the head table, fidgeting uncomfortably in the voluminous frills of her dress. Her mother, Agrippina von Ravenstein, sat to her left, her face caked in white makeup that clashed horribly with the bulky black metal augmentics protruding from her head in a tangle of snaking wires and cold, glowing optics. She was in the midst of an animated discussion with Cardinal-Governor of Ptolomea, whose chins were busily multiplying as he frowned.

The Governor Subsector himself sat to his niece's right. A short man, not quite fat, balding and sallow-skinned, dressed in a black military tunic devoid of medals.

Konrad von Ravenstein did not look much like the most powerful man in the room, let alone an entire sector. He did not look like a subduer of worlds, like a man who could have done what he was said to have done- engineering the defeat of the greenskin king Durkash the Toothsome, or quashing the Kandlemas Rebellion in only six days, or defeating the Overghoul of Travosk in an ugly war of attrition.

He did not, in short, look much like a warlord.

His only striking features were eyes, bright green and sly as they wandered over the hundreds of guest assembled in his Great Hall, and a magnificent mustache, black but flecked with grey.

The Governor was seated next to a rather grotesque Magos of the Mechanicum, whose ragged red robes bulged and writhed as metallic tentacles slithered beneath them. The techpriests cared little, usually, for birthday parties of aristocrats, almost as little as aristos wished them to attend. But form demanded they be invited to a gathering of such significance, and respect for the careful alliance between Celestine and the forge-world Serpens demanded that the invitation be accepted.

The Magos slurped horribly with withered lips and prosthetic probisci at a bowl of nutrient broth. Lord von Ravenstein sipped his wine and watched his guests.

Outside, as the last light of day sank behind the jagged horizon, there was a flash of bruised purple in the darkening sky, followed by another, and another.

The Great Hall fell quiet as heads turned to the windows. There were gasps. A woman screamed.

Something was wrong. The sky was wrong.

Auroras of bright blue and arcs of violet energy swirled across a sky filled with sinister and unrecognizable stars.

The Magos beside Ravenstein blurted something in techno-cant and spilled his broth all over the tablecloth. Young Athanasia clutched at her mother, terrified.

Lord Ravenstein took another sip of wine and stood, slowly, as his House Guard burst into the room, a captain making straight for him.

"My lord," said the guard officer, "We have word from-"

"Not here," replied Ravenstein. Under his breath he murmured, "None of these people are to leave the palace without my express permission."

"Yes my lord."

Ravenstein signaled for the Magos to join him as he stode from the Hall, in which the cries of shock and dismay were becoming increasingly hysterical.

***

Dis, Hive Ollianus, Level 3001, Victory Square

Those bits of sky which could be seen between the shadowed spires of the hive were filled with smoke and fire and the huge black silhouettes of the Archenemy's ships.

The noise was unbelievable. Screams, explosions, gunfire, the impact of orbital fire that shook the immense hive to its foundations, all set against the city's emergency klaxons blaring on endless loop.

RETURN TO YOUR HAB-UNITS. AUTHORITIES ARE RESTORING ORDER. MARTIAL LAW IS IN EFFECT. RETURN TO YOUR HAB-UNITS. DISOBEDIENCE IS A CAPITAL OFFENCE. OBEY THE EMPEROR. RETURN TO YOUR HAB-UNITS.

Arbitrator-Sergeant Vigo reloaded his bolt pistol. He was standing at the base of a statue of one general or hero or other, and had orders to hold the Square until the last truckloads of aristos and upper-hivers could make it through to safety. The PDF- those parts of it still following orders, at least- were abandoning Hive Ollianus and making for Hives Antenora and Bolgia, which were reportedly holding out well, still protected by void-shields.

Vigo wondered whether he'd live long enough to be part of the counterattack that retook Ollianus. At this rate, he doubted it.

"They're coming again," one of his men shouted, and the arbitrators under Vigo's command locked their shields as boiling torrent of lunatics and hive gangers erupted from a side street into the square. Gunshots rang out, powermauls crackled once more to life, and the battle was joined.

Where were the transports?

A PDF fighter, its engines burning, cartwheeled suddenly through the air above Victory Square before crashing into the Hive. Dust and debris showered Vigo's men and heretic mob alike. He was thrown off his feet by the blast.

Blinded by smoke and swirling dust, deafened by the cacaphony around him, Vigo struggled to sit up. Dimly he realized that the blaring klaxon had changed its message. A garbled, shrieking monotone had replaced the mechanical woman's voice.

THE NAMES OF THE WARP ARE A BILLION AND ONE AND ALL ARE DEATH TO THE EMPEROR. FEED THE GODS OR BE THEIR FOOD. THE WARP IS DEATH AND SALVATION. BOW BEFORE IT. FEED THE GODS OR BE EATEN IN TURN.

Vigo pulled himself to his feet.

Around him was nothing but fire and swirling darkness.

***

Celestine V, Palace of the Governor

The command center beneath the palace was a long, vaulted chamber of marble and brass, like the nave of a cathedral or the bridge of a warship. Servitors and adepts were joined intimately with cogitator consoles on both sides of the central aisle. They were typing frantically, blurting bursts of data-cant to each other as information poured in.

Governor von Ravenstein stood at the apse, surrounded by officers, holodisplays of the sector flickering before him.

"...astra telepathica is describing a warp storm of unique intensity, engulfing five systems-" said an officer in tacticae uniform, reading rapidly off a data slate, "and we have word from arbites on Dis. The planet is being invaded. PDF is under attack by traitor forces- including astartes- and it seems there is a large number of defections among planetary populace and soldiery. The planetary governor- they say he has likely joined the heretics."

"Lord Varod has joined the Archenemy?" asked Ravenstein, raising an eyebrow.

"He is not replying to arbites queries, but his palace has not fallen, and PDF units under his command are reported to have sacked the planetary inquisitorial fortress."

Lord Ravenstein turned to the Magos who was standing a little outside the circle of military men.

"I will need you to return to Serpens, and convey to your fellow Magi the gravity of what confronts us. Without the armies of the honored Mechanicus, I cannot defend this subsector. Your world and ours will fall. I need the Magos Dominus Xo, and his legions."

The Magos bowed deeply, and shuffled off into the darkness of the command center without speaking.

Ravenstein turned back to his officers, "If Dis falls, where can the Archenemy strike next?"

A man in an admiral's uniform replied, "The Navis Nobilite has just completed their analysis, my Lord. The most stable warp-route would take them to Pontius Secundus. From there, the Archenemy could strike the rest of the system."

Ravenstein produced a cigar from his tunic and lit it carefully. He took a puff, his green eyes tracing the holograms of planets revolving before him.

"Pontius," he said, almost to himself.

***

ASTROPATHIC COMMUNIQUE

- CLASSIFICATION LEVEL: CRIMSON -

YOUR EYES ONLY

Commander,

At 0400 hours this morning, sidereal, a major warpstorm enveloped the Seleucis Subsector. Communications with planetary governments there have been patchy, but the intelligence we do have paints a grim picture. The Hive World Dis has fallen under attack from traitor elements: heretical Astartes and Sororitas arrived on planet just as the warpstorm struck. By the time you receive this communication, the planet is expected to have fallen.

The Governor Subsector, Lord von Ravenstein, has assumed direct command of all forces within the subsector and conscripted all planetary defense armies directly into the Imperial Guard. Ravenstein is fortifying the industrial world of Pontius Secundus, which lies along the only useable warp-route to the rest of the subsector. But Ravenstein is outmatched by the numbers and resources of the heretics, and Tacticae predicts defeat if he is not reinforced.

Commander, augurs suggest a brief break in the Warp storm in ten days time that will afford Imperial forces an opportunity to enter the Seleucis Subsector and rendezvous with the defenders. You and the forces under your command are ordered to reinforce Ravenstein on Pontius Secundus and ensure that the Seleucis Subsector does not fall.

In His Name,

Antiochus Nox, Inquisitor
Ordo Hereticus

40K: Warlords

@Flagg There is a distinct lack of Chaos here...

Mind if I chime in with my Orgasmic Host?

@Jbcool

With a name like that, it's hard to refuse. Jump right in.

When do we begin?

@Legion-114

Hopefully tonight. My IC intro post is...getting out of control.