Blackstone Fortress - 1st Expedition

Janus Draik is a Rogue Trader – one of the bold pioneers tasked with expanding the borders of the Imperium. The Blackstone Fortress is one in a long line of claims this explorer has made for the Imperium – and a source of invaluable archeotech and artefacts for future ventures.

The Blackstone Fortress is filled with treasures of ages past – and the Navigator Houses are interested in getting ahold of some of these. Espern Locarno is a sanctioned mutant tasked with rediscovering cargos which belong to his house by ancient right – as well as technologies to refine the ill-understood processes of warp travel.

Hailing originally from the now-shattered Craftworld of Biel-Tan, Amallyn Shadowguide has travelled the webway for centuries. For her, the Blackstone Fortress represents a possible way to save her dying home and to make Biel-Tan whole again through the strange technologies within.

Like many Kroot, Dahyak Grekh is a mercenary, working for the highest bidder. The Kroot mercenary code of honour is key to him – for it is through loyal service that the Kroot may consume new genetic material. Through eating many unfortunate inhabitants of the fortress and thus assuming their memories, Grekh has learned much of the mysteries within…

On Precipice the four explorers find each other and band together, their common cause to explore and plunder the Blackstone Fortress, each for their own reasons. They quickly determine that none of their reasons conflict with each other, and can see that their abilities could complement each other well. Together than plan their first tentative foray into the fortress. Entering through the renowned Stygian Aperture, they disembark their small transport craft and search for one of the maglev transport chambers that run through the fortress.

A little embarassed, the explorers return to the maglev chamber, which activates and returns them to the chamber just inside the Stygian Aperture. Feeling rather successful after their first adventure in the fortress, the explorers return to Precipice with their gains. Unknown to them, they also carry back with them a spindle nano-virus. It eventually infects all of their personal spacecraft, disrupting systems and causing facilities to malfunction. It it noticed almost immediately when it shuts down the systems on Janus Draik's ship Vanguard, preventing him from attempting any potentially lucrative commerce while on Precipice.

The other exploers, however, are able to put their time on Precipice to some good use. Amallyn Shadowguide uses the Labyrinth Decryptor on her ship Steed of Mathurir to examine the group's clues, gaining valuable additional insight into the layout of strongholds. She also trades some of the archeotech she had found for a powerful exodite kris. Dahyak Grekh tries his luck in a combat pit on the Kroot ship Kravv’cha’to, but is defeated and does not profit from it. He does, however, take out a contract on traitor guardsmen, as he expects to continue running into them often. Espern Locarno spends some time on his own ship Traveller using his psychic abilities to prepare a temporal loop, which he can use to bend time in the event some unrecoverable disaster strikes.

After their brief respite, the explorers reunite to return to the fortress, emboldened by their fairly successful first adventure together. They believe they have gathered enough information to locate one of the fabled strongholds, but aren't sure they're ready to try attacking one until they've gained a little more experience within the fortress.