The fall of the Inquisitors

Thank you Xanthis for that...interesting report.

Naturally, I was slightly surprised that my cadre returned with an Inquisitor as a captive. I say 'slightly', since sadly it's not too surprising that other Inquisitors are involved in this heresy.

While the cadre was away, I managed to solidify my relationship with Inquisitor Al-Zubai. I now trust him pretty far, and we have shared a lot of information that could have us both killed if revealed to others. And I most definitely need some allies in the Cabal as well, I cannot do this alone.

So naturally, when my cadre dumped the heretic Inquisitor in my lap, I contacted Al-Zubai. After some discussion, we agreed that we would interrogate him according to Inquisitorial procedure on one of my holdings on Scintilla. I won't go into detail on how the interrogation is conducted, suffice to say it starts out rather mild and gets increasingly shall we say, more unfriendly.

As befits a traitor and heretic, Inquisitor Caragere cracked after a relatively short while, during stage 3 of 9. Naturally, my supreme interrogation techniques certainly helped as well. We learned quite a bit from the broken man:

• Caragere was recruited by Ferran Ghast
• Caragere himself recruited Inquisitor Jagatai (the one on the Drusus)
• Is an Istaavian
• The Brotherhood and the Istaavians involved in the heresy views the Tyrant Star as the greatest trial ever to face the Empire, and thus also the greatest opportunity ever. 
• The heresy is building a star portal, with the intent of gating the Tyrant Star into our world. 
• Eldar technology is needed for the portal, particularly their gates
• The portal is constructed on a populated planet in the Halo Stars
• The Tyrant Star is a big forge world, populated by 'an ancient race'. It resides in the Warp.
• The leadership of the Heresy consists of 4 Inquisitors (Skane, Caragere, Jagatai and Ghast), plus Vestra (the cleric) and Cinderfell (the fallen Noble)
• They plan to gate the Tyrant Star into real space next to Scintilla
• The Amaranthine Syndicate is controlled by an "entity" - the Heresy is not sure what, but they believe it to be a Slaught (same race as Bron)
• They do not trust the Logicians, but are reliant on their knowledge. They seek to ressurect the Dark Magos found on Phagir to avoid working further with the Logicians. 
• The ressurection will take place underground on Orelendel's Tomb. They need the body of a strong Tech-Priest to put the soul of the Dark Magos into. 

I briefly discussed how we should handle Caragere with Al-Subaai.We agreed that we would hold me further until we could decide what we should do with him. If he happened to have an accident during this, such as cutting his own head off while shaving, that would indeed be must unfortunate.

Meanwhile, the fallen Inquisitor (may the Great One devour his Soul) had started getting worse and worse nightmares and talking in his sleep. Sham recorded this and played it back to Gallia, who informed us that it was a form of Demonic...something was obviously happening to him.

We decided to interrogate him further. I joined Al-Subaai, his interrogator and Gallia, with Sham and Dekko as backup. I had an uneasy feeling and told everyone to suit up in full battle gear. Shortly after the interrogation started, Caragere started grinning maniacally, then glowed a hideous green. Al-Subaais interrogator was hit by ...something emanating from the foul being, and mutated into a foul Chaos blob of some sort. Caragere also changed, growing spines, claws and twisted features.

The battle was fierce, but short. The mutated Inquisitor used dark sorcery to hit Dekko with skull-like rays, but luckily the Emperor was good and protected his humble servant. Gallia did what Gallia does (Drusus Guide Her) and almost cleaved the former Caragere apart in three quick strikes. A double shot from my bolters finished it off. The former interrogator was dispatched quickly. Once again, Light prevailed over Chaos.

In the aftermath of the battle, I was able to regain my bearings and recognize the dark bolts used by Caragere. They originated from ancient writings, and represented the work of a demon prince named Marabas, the Changer. He only granted use of the power to his most loyal servants. Naturally, we could not help but shiver at the connection between the Heresy and this demon prince. Is he (or rather it) behind it all? It seems too coincidental that only Caragere would serve such a powerful being.

I discussed our further plans with Al-Subaai. It was agreed that he would research Marabas further, while me and my cadre traveled to Orendell's Tomb. There we would first investigate and then take action based on our findings.

Before we did that though, it was time to face Van Vyugens and his heresies. Gallia gracefully agreed to lead the work with his repentance, provided he agreed. Al-Subaai, myself and Gallia faced him together. I bluntly told him what we had discovered, and he all but laughed in our faces. He dared compared whatever minor transgressions against the Creed I have committed to his own. Laughable of course, there can be no comparison. He even threathened to 'prove' to the Cabal that I was just as much of a heretic as he was.

In the end, he actively denounced the Creed, pronouncing it a 'historical artifact that stands in the way of progress'. I was appalled. I would never have guessed he had spiraled so far down. After a while, he agreed to come peacefully if he was allowed to finish his current experiment, which would take three days. Stupidly, we agreed. Personally, I must admit I did it for selfish reasons. If he would come quietly, chances of political costs for me lowered significantly. And in the end, without political capital our fight to save the entire sector would come to a grinding halt.

We kept tight watch on Van Vyugens. Sham reported that Noldus was doing something 'fishy'. We confronted him, and he admitted to transporting books and other items out of the main lab into a secret storage room. There was also a vox caster in this room. Al-Subaai killed the pathetic weakling in the room. Meanwhile, Van Vyugens had bent down to pick something up from under his lab table...and disappeared. We arrived back (no vox coverage in the storage room), and discovered a trap door. It lead to a door with absurdly high security - even Dekko said he'd need at least a few hours to bypass it.

Disgusted, we rushed to the bay and asked if Van Vyugens had left the station. He had not. But apparently, he controlled a separate space port...zero points for guessing where this was located. To confirm, Sham and Shab flew out in the cutter from the Legacy. Sure enough, there was a primitive dock located conveniently near Van Vuygens' lab. They recognized the signature of the ship as the Halo, owned by a chartist captain. Strangely enough (...) this same captain had ties to the Amalthine Syndicate. A mere coincidence, I'm sure. At this time, I contacted one of the vice admirals I knew best and asked that they dispatched a ship with orders to shoot down the Halo as soon as it was clear of Bastion. He hesitated a bit, but didn't balk at executing the order.

Right then, Al-Subaais cadre voxed us and told us that Van Vyugens' lab was compromised. Ogryns with heavy weapons, and a mysterious dark human figure commanding them, had entered the lab through the same trap door the crazed Inquisitor had left through. One of them was killed, and the two others fell back, unable to contain the huge man-beasts.

I was contacted by a furious Anton Zerbe, who wondered what in the name of the Emperor was going on. I briefly told him about the incursion, and was given charge of controlling the situation. With the help of the station's trusted Astartes, the Ogryn were chased out of the lab. We blew the door to access the space dock, and were just in time to watch the Halo fly away. I contacted the Navy, which blew it and most of the escape pods out of the sky.

Thereafter, we played mop up. I'll make a long story short and say that we tracked down all the pods, finished off House Carnius which apparently cooperated with Van Vyugens, but without finding the traitor. Afterwards, Scarlet used her network to try to track down the captain (which we presumed accompanied VV) and the elusive Inquisitor. After a while, she got an interesting offer through the usual shady channels. The captain offered to give up Van Vyugens, dead or alive, in exchange for his passage off Scintilla. We agreed, and got Van Vyugens neatly delivered in a crate, dead. And thus endeth the tale of the erstwhile Xantite.