Coscarla Part 1 (Brief)

You arrive at the spaceport on Scintilla at the arranged time having been recruited by Faalen Shyhawk a few days before.  You follow his directions to Dock 12.

You are met by Faalen, a short, portly man dressed in an extravagant style with a purple beard and dyed green hair.
“Ah greetings friends,” he spreads his arms wide in welcome; “you will meet in time but first allow me to introduce you to the Hubris of Mankind!”

A Tall woman dressed in a flowing gown of red silk walks up behind the pompous rogue trader a shock maul in her hands and applies it to the shorter man’s neck.  He falls to the floor twitching “I am Ophelia Crow, Interrogator, and you are retinue 219 of Inquisitor Wroth, allow me to echo the sentiment of welcome.  Now quickly on board there is much to do and little time. You,” she points to Lucien be so kind as to bring Mr Shyhawk on board, the rest of you find a berthing chamber, then you are free to explore the ship, peruse Mr Shyhawk’s stock or converse with myself or each other. I will be in the conference room you will all meet me there without fail in one hour. “

With that she turns the thrust exhaust of the idling engines catching her dress as she boards the craft.

You are directed by a group of servitors to deck 13 of the ship, usually left empty on many imperial ships as a naval superstition, but instead of blank bulk heads you find, comfortable suites, complete with living quarters, training areas, libraries and armouries. Each has a name etched into a brass plaque. You find you respective quarters and a small parcel neatly wrapped in each.

(Micro bead, data slate, hand written list of cyphers and codes, 100 throne gelt)

Your servitor informs you a meal is waiting in the dining room, but you are free to do as you wish until the ship arrives at Tranch.  

***Break for questions***

You arrive at Tranch, a hive world much smaller than Scintilla; heavy smog hangs in the atmosphere. Interrogator Crow summons you to a docking bay, oddly bereft of any of the ship’s crew before you is an Aquilla lander, covered in Inquisitorial heraldry.
“Board, we are late” Crow’s only order is terse and her stress is obvious.

***Brief description of journey, allow for free talking, arrival at grav terminal***

You board a grav train, again curiously empty, all of you silent still not sure of your fellows. The train stops at a large administratum building. (Garreth can identify – House of Mori).  You are greeted by a pale man in a long white coat, an official looking badge on his. Crow nods a greeting, her distaste obvious.

“Greetings Acolytes, I am Medicae-Interrogator Sand and you are the new blood, are you not? Worthy additions to our holy war? Well we shall see, far be it from me to doubt my betters’ judgement, eh?

“Well to the matter at hand. I represent the Holy Ordos of the Imperial Inquisition that we all serve. Inquisitor Wroth has called you here to assist us in the investigation of a matter of interest that has recently and unexpectedly come to light.

“Oh, yes, for your information, you are now in the depths of the Templum Mori, the house of the dead where the Lords Prefecta Mortem hold court and the fallen and the lost of the great city are named and counted. It will not surprise you then to know you are here to view a corpse, I doubt it will be your first, but it is, shall we say, quite singular!”

***questions***  (interrupt with below)

“Now if you will kindly attend and pay heed, I will take questions afterward. (Crow mutters under her breath)

“The body has been positively identified as that of one Saul Arbest, male, 23 years of age, hive worker, unskilled labourer certified. Formerly of the Tantalus Indenture, registered habitation: chamber 6/23 stack 717# Coscarla Division, southern zone, Hive Sibelius.  (another mutter from crow)

“Subject found dead on the midhive transit rail (that you have just travelled on) three days ago as the car returned to the main depot. Preliminary examination at the scene suggested death by drug overdose. Post mortem performed by the biologis forensic, however revealed certain anomies that necessitated our involvement.

“The cause of death was in fact total systemic failure brought on by tissue rejection of an implanted synthetic graft organ. Said organ destroyed his central nervous system while attempting to overcome the immune response. “ (Crow “Get on with it Sand)

“In short this crushed the life out of him from the inside.  *holds up organ*

“What’s it for? Unknown, but my opinion would be, in a word, ‘control’—neural and synaptic override, perhaps worse.

“There were other grafts and surgery of a less singular kind also; one lung replaced by a concealed storage cavity, possibly for his use as a courier. Also, one optic nerve removed, skin flayed from his stomach, I’ve no idea why. His system’s awash with alchemic traces, clotting agents, pain-immune and the like.

“The surgery was expert, but by the lesions and tissue stresses, I doubt any care was given to whether or not it was painless. In fact, by the damage to his vocal cords, my guess was that he probably screamed as long as he was able to.

“But this little monster is what concerns us. Oh, you don’t need to know the genelore or the Omnissian edict, just that this is not only illegal, it is forbidden, it is heresy. Merely tampering with this kind of dark tech is enough to warrant a death sentence from the Holy Ordos, the Arbites or the Mechanicus.

“And I’m sure that you, as well as I, am wondering how such a rare and vile thing ended up wrapped round the spine of some anonymous habprole from the dusty end of the stacks.  (Crow – Mutter)

“The man has no prior criminal record, he was rendered invalid by indenture—laid off if you will, some sixty days ago now and was reported missing thirty two days ago by his sister, one Lili Arbest, resident of the same habstack. More than enough time to get himself into all sorts of trouble, I’m sure you’ll agree. These grafts are no more than eight or ten days old at most. We have nothing else on him.

“This is to be a shadow investigation, no open official involvement and no notification of the local authorities, and no one knows he’s here either. Coscarla’s down hive, so a covert approach will draw far less attention than a boot through the door, and be far less likely to kill any leads to our heretic.

“Find out why and where if you can, better yet, find out how. Best of all, find out who is responsible. Go with the grace of the God Emperor, oh and additional samples would be a blessing if you can procure them.”