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[Cheesecake]

With the giddy Administratum clerk manning the archaeotech vehicle, the warband begins their drive to the mid-levels of Hive Desoleum. The anti-grav skimmer definitely elicits more than a few looks, most of them envious. Your Subtlety has been decreased. You find you can easily overtake the choking traffic that clogs the hive by simply rising higher than everyone else.

Within less than an hour you arrive at your lodgings. Tarkhal couldn't help but go just a bit faster, but none of the Sanctionaries seem to want to tangle with such important people. The lodging is a high-class hotel optimized for off-world traders or nobles wishing for a quiet getaway where other nobles rarely go.

A clerk greets you outside the door and falls on his knees. "We humbly welcome you to the Euphorian. Please, we are at your disposal."

Servitors appear, ready to take your belongings, if any, to your individual rooms. You are paid for a night and a day's stay. More will require requisition tests, or some other way of convincing them to let you stay.

[Caellath]

Tarkhal had the skimmer float very close to the ground, hopped down from the pilot's seat and respectfully offered a hand to help Tesera down. "Lady." It was already time to get their cover working, and the preacher was supposed to be the richest person between them.

He let the servitor carry his belongings but followed the metal-man still after helping Tesera down, waiting for the moment they'd be left alone so he could call Gar and begin installing the brazier on one of the unused backpacks with him.

[Aseaheru]

 Gar waits until Teresa disembarks, then oversees the servitors as they set about the task of carrying everyones belongings to their various rooms, while taking the opportunity to study the servitors in action. He then heads for the various rooms, checking the security of each, before heading to his room to marvel at the comforts of it and to prepare his equipment, waking Little Joe and cleaning his various firearms.

[GiglameshDespair]

Aelia made her way off the vehicle. The sudden lifting and dropping of the grav plates had been mimicked by her stomach.

Once again she found herself leaning against a nearby support - this time the landspeeder - for a second, gulping and trying to keep her gorge from rising. It takes her a second before she straightens up once more and follows mutely to the rooms, handing her backpack and chainsword to a servitor.

[Twinwolf]

Tarkhal had the skimmer float very close to the ground, hopped down from the pilot's seat and respectfully offered a hand to help Tesera down. "Lady." It was already time to get their cover working, and the preacher was supposed to be the richest person between them.

He let the servitor carry his belongings but followed the metal-man still after helping Tesera down, waiting for the moment they'd be left alone so he could call Gar and begin installing the brazier on one of the unused backpacks with him.

Tesera takes the hand, and steps down. She seems a different person than she had been on the ship. An air of nobility was practically tangible around her. She says nothing to Tarkhal, fully in character as a disdainful noblewoman. She hands off her gear to the servitor.

[UXLZ]

Eizen remains silent and disembarks the ship, trailing behind Tesera. His job was to guard, not speak.

Stupid guards.

[Caellath]

Tarkhal led Tesera to her room but the acting had its limits when no one was watching, of course. The scribe doubted anyone would accept dressing, bathing, grooming and feeding the preacher, and he heard that was the kind of thing nobles expected from their servants.

After the warband's belongings had already been properly delivered to each person's rooms, Tarkhal returned to the land speeder and parked it in the garage before returning to the rooms and lightly knocking on Tesera's door. "Hey, remember we have a backpack for you. You should light the brazier just before we get into the manse or when we begin asking questions, for the dramatic effect." he said, giving her the backpack with the brazier of Saint Roberto in case she appeared at the door.

Then he got back to his room and went on to check his items, as well as attach the red-dot laser sight to his plasma pistol. He was so excited about getting to drive a land speeder he even forgot about his other passion, recaf, and wound up not drinking a single cup of it. The accommodations were in fact too good for someone like him, who had grown used to his simple quarters inside a ship.


With that done, he went around knocking on the door to everyone's rooms. "Reunion in my room, we have to plan something quick." Tesera had a micro-bead so she could hear the plan without getting into his room - that'd be strange for their cover - so he just whispered through her door to turn the comm-bead on in case she hadn't it working. He left the door to his room unlocked and waited for them, the place almost the same as everyone's except for his large backpack close to his bed. He was good at keeping things orderly.

[GiglameshDespair]

Aelia opened the door cautiously, relaxing a fraction - even if it didn't show in her body language. She nodded and followed him to his room.

"What's the plan?"

[Aseaheru]

 Hearing the summons, Gar grumbles, packing his weapon cleaning kit and the yet-to-be cleaned weapons in a small box and heading into Tarkal's room, where he plops down in a corner and resumes cleaning. The spirits get angry when they are not clean.

[Sirus]

Elodie carefully stored her flak armor in her room, due to its bulk. The others would provide a more obvious show of force; she could go for a slightly more subtle approach. She met up with the others.

"So what now? Can someone remind me exactly what our cover is?"

[Aseaheru]

"I am under the impression that our cover is that we are the servants of a minor noblewoman, to be played by Tesera, but what excuse to gain entrance to our objectives home I do not know. Perhaps a distant relation, here to visit? Also, someone please remind me to obtain or construct a signal jammer next time we have a meeting like this. While I am responsibly sure that we are not under surveillance, I cannot be certain with the tools I have at this time, due to lack of tools. A scanning unit, or a servoskull with that equipment, along with the tools necessary to read the results, would be useful. I already have plans to assemble a new servoskull, based on one of the patterns from home."

 He then pauses in his cleaning, to look around the room once more, before continuing on.

 "Of course, why this noblewoman would travel in a Land's Speeder is beyond me, unless she was a rather... odd character."

[GiglameshDespair]

"It is no doubt expensive and impressive to others. Perhaps that is reason enough."

[Caellath]

Tarkhal glanced at Aelia and was about to ask her to make sure her comm-bead would transmit what was said there to Tesera's room when he realized something. "...I still do not know your name. And you are the other person with a micro-bead, correct? May you please turn it on so this may be relayed to Tesera?" After making that request, the scribe cleared his throat.

"The intended cover - unless something better is brought up - is that Tesera is a Ministorum preacher of noble birth and some importance and we are her retainers. The first part seems to be true enough, so we just need to exaggerate it a bit and act like servants instead of fellow acolytes." He paused for a moment. "The excuse we may use to try and gain access to the noble's house is that we were sent by affiliates worried about his health and who believe he might be under grave mental, physical and spiritual danger due to one of the many items he acquired. We may say we suspect it might have been laced with xeno trickery or worse and affirm it is our duty to save him and protect the household from further harm. We could try to use one of his relatives' names, but I suspect they could call said relative and our story would go down the vents. Keeping things vague and pressing might work out better, and few servants would dare defy an important-looking Ministorum officer."

"Now, we can either go straight to the nobleman's manse or have someone ask around the Upper Hive for a while. What do you think? Heading straight to the manse as a group would fit our cover story better since if any of us is seen asking questions before we head to the noble's estate then our motives could be questioned."

"Of course, why this noblewoman would travel in a Land's Speeder is beyond me, unless she was a rather... odd character."

"Well, very rich people use those and arriving on foot at a noble's manse could be seen as something strange for a well-off persona. I know for certain some Rogue Traders have them in their ships. I am... not sure if they are common in Desoleum due to the availability of other similar, slower grav-autocarriages for the extremely wealthy, but it does match the cover story of an outworld noble." He explained. Of course, he had always enjoyed grav-tech - grav-vehicles included - but he made the acquisition thinking it would work well with the cover. Despite all the happiness it gave him, Tarkhal was even prepared to sadly return to walking if investigations in poorer areas of the hive were necessary.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

I'll assume Eizen is here, brooding and playing with his piercings.

And remember Tarkhal isn't a perfect Throne Agent. I'm not playing him as a super-spy since the group is composed mostly of new players and a super-stealthy way of playing is more likely to make the game sputter and die in our circumstances. I'll try to keep conspicuousness and in-your-face actions balanced, with a preference towards the former. For example, we should avoid exposing our allegiance as acolytes, and wearing appropriate clothing and avoiding shootouts is preferred. At the same time extensive legwork, investigations, disguises, infiltration and scouting before we make our moves may cause boredom, specially due to how the PbP pace works, besides raising our chances of failing due to the party's composition so we should keep those toned down unless necessary.

[GiglameshDespair]

Aelia raised an eyebrow and clicked on her comm-bead as requested.
"I am Sister Aelia. As the tech-priest has said he cannot ensure our privacy, perhaps I shall leave it there.
I agree we should visit the Manse first. Depending on the results of that, we can decide our next move."

[Twinwolf]

Tesera listens to the conversation, ready to move.