Session 1 - Shattered Hope

In our first session, we played through the adventure Shattered Hope. On your way to training on Scintilla, you were diverted to Sepheris Secundus, to investigate the Gorgonid Mines. You entered the mines and encountered mutants, former men twisted by the Antithesis Stone. You terminated all the mutants you encountered, and destroyed the Antithesis Stone with a well-thrown grenade.

Imperial Guard Encampment
Each of you have been recruited by Lady Olianthe Rathbone as acolytes of the Inquisition. You each met Lady Rathbone briefly and were placed on a freighter together, bound for Scintilla, the capital world of the Calixis Sector. There, you are to be trained by the Inquisition. Along the way, your freighter is contacted by Lady Rathbone. A situation has come up on the mining world of Sepheris Secundus, that only your group is close enough to resolve in a timely manner. Normally, fresh recruits are not thrown into an investigation like this, but Lady Rathbone sees it as a way of testing her recruits before wasting any more effort on your training.

It seems there was a recent uprising among the miners, which was put down by a platoon of Imperial Guard. Once the Guard had secured the area, they ventured into the Gorgonid Mines, to ferret out any survivors. Accounts are murky, but there were many casualties, and the commisar sealed the mines until the Inquisition could investigate. Due to the essential nature of the mines to the sector, the matter needed dealt with as soon as possible.

Once landed on Sepheris Secundus, in the midst of the Imperial Guard encampment, you encountered a Corporal Schmendt. The Corporal was in the assault on the mines, and has not been lucid since. He will not stop raving about eyes, tentacles, third eyes, and blood. You also meet Commissar Nihilius, who gives you a little more information about what you're dealing with. The rebels were members of a cult called The Brotherhood of Malice. They believed that the only relief from their miserable existence was death, so they sabotaged key installations on the planet in an attempt to bring an exterminatus order down on the planet. When the rebellion was put down by the Guard, papers were found that described arcane rituals. These appeared to be older than the Brotherhood of Malice, and could possibly have been remnants of an older group that were discovered by the Brotherhood.

The Commissar escorted you to the seal over the entrance of the Gorgonid Mines. He gave you a map that directed you to The Shatters, ther area of the mine where the anomaly was believed to be centered, and wished you luck.

The Gorgonid Mines
With little trouble, you traverse the portion of the mines that lead to The Shatters. You saw evidence of seismic activity disturbing the tunnels, but you saw no sign of Chaos or heretical activity. The Shatter is a different story. You see blood all over the walls, piles of human corpses, heads, etc. You also encounter mutants. In an abandoned room, you find a miner named Rat. He claims that he had nothing to do with the rebellion, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He hid in the room while the fighting was going on outside. You decided that Rat was too much trouble to be left alive, so you executed him on the spot. Moving on, you terminated several more mutants, twisted forms of former Guardsman, until you encountered the Antithesis Stone. This was what was causing the mutations to occur; a large crystal that touched the ceiling of the tunnel. When you saw it, it manifested a Plaguebearer, a creature of the Warp. After dispatching the plaguebearer, Seraph threw a grenade at the Stone, and cracked it into pieces.

With the Mines cleansed of any dark influences, you ascended to the surface to the praise of the guardsmen above. Your freighter was still in orbit waiting for you, so you re-boarded, and headed for your Inquisition training on Scintilla.