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[Caellath]

Tarkhal was taken a little off-guard, being inquired so directly after the priestess had acquiesced to his proposal without any questions. He wasn't foolish enough to create an elaborate story when his actual reasons were good enough, however. "I know hives can have less lighting than a vessel's dark cycle depending on the place you are in, and that the faithful may be hard to distinguish from the mass of footsloggers." he began explaining. Interrogator Marin had given him an idea of what was expected of them whilst serving the Ordos.

"We might have to gather information and plunge into darkness, so my intentions are heading to the cathedral and finding appropriate braziers and symbols that might help us both vanquish darkness and get truthful answers from any Emperor-fearing citizen down below via displays of our allegiance. Of course, anything more overt might have to remain stowed away until the time is right, but it seems appropriate." He completed.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

Tarkhal is thinking about the Brazier of Saint Roberto and Devotional Iconography backpack/armor upgrades and the Brazier of Holy Fire melee weapon, all from Enemies Within.

[Cheesecake]

In the midst of your conversations, a courier with a rat-like build and face scuttles into the room. You had not seen him until he spoke, his voice a garbled mess of static instead of a natural sound. His mouth does not move at all when he speaks.

"Greetings, Acolytes. You are scheduled to deploy on Hive Desoleum under the Inquisitor's command. His numerous acolytes are deploying as well to stymie the myriad heresies brewing within the Hive. You are but to combat one of them." He stops for a brief moment. You can hear mechanical whirring as the courier receives further commands.

"The Hive's upper levels, home to the elite and the noble, are reporting more and more gruesome deaths. Items have been found with the corpses; our savants presume they are xenos or archaeotech of origin, but they are most definitely heretical. The nobles are concerned, and have collated the deaths, the items, and the erratic behavior the dead nobles portrayed before their demise."

More whirring and beeping. "A noble called Lans Guljian has exhibited these same behaviors. Your task is to investigate the deaths and possible connections to any illicit artifacts, determine if they are potential dangers of a wider nature, and terminate their distribution. Recover and contain any items uncovered, lest they corrupt others."

Suddenly, the courier's vox-caster switches off, and he begins to speak of his own accord. "Carry the Emperor's Light. Please deploy as soon as you are ready, though you may wish to explore the Flagellum a bit, and I will guide you. I advise you hurry. Also, you may wish to seek accommodations in Hive Desoleum, and that may be arranged through me," he begins, but faces the floor, "though with some difficulty. I am at your disposal, Acolytes."

[Twinwolf]

"What are the behaviors exhibited by this Lans Guljian? Do you have an image of him?"

[Cheesecake]

"Lans Guljian has exhibited behaviors identical to the murdered nobles. Secretive, easily-angered, protective, obsessive. His family has complained of the extravagant spending he has done in the past four months, and he locks himself in his study and is never to be disturbed."

The courier procures a dataslate from somewhere in his robes. On it is a picture of Guljian. The man is aging, though the use of make-up and chems seem to give him a wrong sort of youth. He wears a powdered wig in the image, and he wears the garish clothing of all nobles.

"This is an image from half a year ago. He might have changed his appearance. However, we have no reason to suspect he has even left his study, let alone his manse. It is located at the lowest level of the Apex, the residences of Hive Desoleum's nobility."

[Caellath]

Nobility. Tarkhal sighed and went over his plan, now changed into one of being inconspicuous via conspicuousness. "Since we are heading into an area where the wealthy dwell, I suppose the more impressive we look the less attention we will draw to ourselves." he mused, staring at the man's powdered wig and extremely garish clothes - that was the kind of thing he would rather never be forced to wear, a symbol of status or not. "We need at least one of us to have clothes like his, and the rest needs better cloths to appear at least dignified enough to be retainers."

"Does our most respectable Inquisitor Barbarossa Benedict intend us to be overt in our approach or subtle? Alternatively, are we free to choose how to best deal with these matters? And may you lead us to this fine ship's cathedral?" he inquired whilst gesturing to Alicia and Tesera as well as himself, his too-formal wording a reflection of the several missives he wrote. He was familiar enough with the design of imperial ships he was willing to bet he'd find the way there on his own, but maybe their "employer" didn't want them walking around on their own for now. "I can provide my experience with paperwork and ship-wide requisitions to help us acquire accommodations in the hive. I believe we should try the Mid-Hive first, what do you think?."

[Cheesecake]

"Does our most respectable Inquisitor Barbarossa Benedict intend us to be overt in our approach or subtle? Alternatively, are we free to choose how to best deal with these matters?"[/color]

"He grants you autonomy, as long as you keep your faith in the Emperor and in him, and all you do is in service to the Emperor."

"And may you lead us to this fine ship's cathedral?"

"Of course. Follow me when ready." The courier waited for Tarkhal and possibly the others to follow him out the door.

[GiglameshDespair]

She frowned at the wig and the garish clothing.
"I believe I will permit one of you others to wear such clothing."

When gestured at, she nodded, showing she would follow to the place of worship.
"I shall follow."

[Caellath]

The voidborn smiled for a moment. "Excellent. Would you know whether the Unspoken Oath is still docked or at least orbiting the planet?" the scribe asked the courier hopefully, his question followed by another as soon as the first had been answered. "And is there a vox system I could use to arrange our accommodations and possibly our new clothes slash disguises down in Desoleum?"

[UXLZ]

Eizen pops the index finger on his right hand. This sounded like it was going to be irritating.

"My expertise is not in social situations, is it possible I could pose as a guard of whichever one of us dresses as a noble? I'd rather not head out without my armor..."

[Aseaheru]

 Gar looks up for a moment, speaks, then settles back into his trance.

"I would be unsuited to act as a member of the high class, and would like to note that any questionnaires from even a minor person of power would, to use a phrase, 'raise a few eyebrows'. I suggest that whatever we do, we have a small section operating quasi-independently for operations concerning low-class individuals. Of course, my suggestion may be flawed due to lack of experience concerning ground-born."

[Twinwolf]

Tesera sighs.
"I'll do it, since it seems doubtful any of you would be used to presenting yourselves as nobility." she says.

"And yes, I would like to visit the cathedral before we leave." she says, ready to follow.

[Caellath]

Tarkhal shook his head at Gar's suggestion before leaving with Tesera and Aelia to the cathedral. "We should not split up unless it happens to be necessary. Since our talents lie in different areas, stretching ourselves thin is asking for annihilation at the hands of criminals or heretics."

"Tesera may act as our high-born employer while we are to be her retainers and bodgyguards, and we can have clothes with obscuring hoods or headgear to keep our identities safe in case we have to investigate somewhere else. We can state we have been sent by someone who is genuinely worried about the nobleman's situation; sticking to half-truths is probably better than outright lying... I might stick to the back if you do not mind, I am afraid I am slightly unused to ground-walking." The rough outline of his plan was quickly presented, the young shipborn not being a social butterfly but certainly having the brains to come up with ideas.

[Twinwolf]

"I only hope the women's clothing is not so garish. Even back home there was nothing that bad."

[UXLZ]

"Do you think we'll be alone or having a more senior officer joining us for the mission?"

It seemed odd to send a mere group of Acolytes after something like this. Still, if there were operations occurring all over the planet it probably wasn't so strange.

[GiglameshDespair]

"Alone. If we fail, we would be considered unworthy as Acolytes and in the Emperor's eyes."