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Meet the Cult 19: Sekrax Melgoy

Meet The Cultist is a weekly feature focusing on some of the least regarded members of a Warhammer 40k Chaos Army, the cultists. In the game they are cannon fodder or a distraction at best, yet I find examining the sonder of their lives interesting. While chronology isn’t particularly important, you can start at the beginning if you care about reading them in order.

Once upon a time Sekrax had the voice of an angel. He had a promising career as an entertainer on Poulionus, a hive world which was far enough from the regular trade lanes that it seemed the Imperium turned a blind eye to the active trade agreements with the expanding T’au empire. And if the effect of his voice hadn’t been so pronounced he might have done a tour on various T’au occupied worlds singing to Gue’vesa, betraying the Imperium in a small and fairly insignificant way; but that’s not how is story went.

Instead his performances brought money, fame, and fans: drugs and other excesses soon followed. Everybody knows Slaanesh cultists throw the best parties, and once he’d tasted the mind bending extravagances  provided by the petitioners of She Who Thirsts there was no turning back for Sekrax. Before he sang for money, and fame. Now he had a purpose; his voice a living prayer to Slaanesh that enthralled and intoxicated any who heard it.  His presence on the battlefield was usually restricted to the back lines, where his voice was piped through amplifiers and thence to a Noise Marine who used the melodious tones to fire off devastatingly distorted sussurances that were felt rather than heard and left the affected foes writhing in pleasure even as their overloaded nervous systems shutdown from the magnificent over stimulation of it.

Then, while raiding for liquor on a Nurgle infested agri-world, Sekrax’s luck ran out. Some pestilential wind passed over the his squad and whatever noxious vapour it was ruined his voice. Everyone knows that it was Zygor’s fault, but only Sekrax knows the truth; his gas mask was fine, he was just t0o slow getting it on. Initially he was too embarrassed to clear Zygor’s name, not expecting the alacrity or severity with which punishment would be meted out. Now it’s been several months, and Zygor seems to have accepted his fate so Sekrax channels his guilt into battle. His chain sword will just have to sing for him.

Many lament that Tudax joined after Sekrax had lost his voice, but the truth is recordings never could touch a live performance; it was as if the was some magic in his voice that couldn’t be captured by a box of metal and plastic.

There’s nothing to Dredd but Dredd himself.

Dael’s Adventure Part 10

Start from the beginning

We barely had a chance to exchange greetings with Mortia and Hubert before Dredd and his 2 cohorts joined battle. Well, that’s not exactly true. We were in a large room, 6 sided, but not hexagonal, rather more like a square with two corners cut out. In a big arc around the back (and sides) where the “cut outs” were was a large raised wooden and metal platform without railing or adornment. A tight spiral staircase surmounted each end of this platform so there was a sort of central area surrounded by this raised stage. If you’ve ever been in a church you might be forgiven for thinking there were stained glass windows, except these were all done in blacks and reds, and even the reds might be better described as black. I didn’t really get a chance to examine them until after the fight, which is probably for the best. I won’t describe the actual content of the pictures, suffice to say the scenes they depicted were terrifying and had I known their contents before hand I’d been much more hesitant to engage Dredd and his malefic minions.

As I said Dredd finished his monologue about how scary he was, which lacked a certain weight seeing as he’d claimed Teawrecks was more terrifying and we’d already bested the metal beast. However when Solei accepted his baleful deal to trade her presences for our previous companions, with a logic that only seems to work in dreams, she disappeared and they returned, and Mortia was evidently quite upset for before anyone could react she was calling down magic upon them. Honch moved up to attacked the heavily armored one on the left while Hubert stepped forward and tossed acid at Dredd. Vyrez judged the distance to far to reach any of them so drew a pistol and began firing upon Dredd. It took me but a second to get my bearings, and I vaulted up the stairs on the right, focusing my Ki and rolling forward to deliver 17 Fist That Silence the Tiger just as the Hexer began her incantation. After only 4 blows she reeled back and collapsed. Dredd then cast some foul magic which made everyone so afraid of failure that failing to connect was physically painful. Hubert later told me that this was called Kakorraphiophobia, but I suspect he’s making it up; that can’t be a real word. This ended up working against them as we were as able to dodge as they. Honch meanwhile had stuck to his oeuvre and knocked the other minion off the platform and then come down on top of him like a ton of bricks (or an angry half-ork, which might be worse.) For a brief period I was pretty sure that Dredd was not a person at all, but rather a suit of armor piloted by spiders. Fortunately I was unable to communicate this to the rest of the part because Mortia had put a zone of silence on us, and as it turns out this was some sort of dreadful illusion put in my head by Dredd. However with the full focus of the party on him Dredd was not able to stand up to our combined might.

Unfortunately Solei was not returned to us upon Dredd’s demise, so after a brief rest we continued on, heading to the last major landmark in the area, the Silo. We found it without too much trouble, and climbed it where we were set upon by some more ghosts and Shadow folk. We managed to dispatch them, but during the fight Honch got into a tug of war with one of the ghosts over one of Hubert’s potions and together they vanished 80 feet or more below to whatever was at the bottom of the Silo.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XVII

October ’58

The High School is finally done, but not nearly soon enough as so is the Rum Distillery, however the latter needs someone with at least a HS education to operate. Short term I think we’ll have to hire some foreign workers until we can complete our first education cycle.

August ’59

Here’s my latest money making scheme, a couple of Tobacco Farms (still under construction) and a Cigar Factory. It’s like money grows on shrubs as they say! Yet again though we need employees with at least a High School Education! This is why it’s so important to start them young. Literacy for everyone; I’m sure that will be one of my campaign pillars once the people get smart enough to demand an election. Education is a double edged sword after all.

November ’60

The newspaper is finally done. Apparently our High School is not enough and we’ll need to hire someone with a college degree, in the meantime we’ll print coupons for local businesses; this should help invigorate the local economy and make the people happy (who doesn’t like discounts?) The electrical infrastructure has also been expanding. Two apartment complexes have Air Conditioning, and it won’t be long before we can get electricity out to the mines and can really ramp up production there. Still costs keep cropping up faster than we can earn money. I don’t know when I’m going to have time to start padding my Swiss Bank Account.

June ’61

With this electrical substation in place our Gold and iron mines should really be able to ramp up production. We’ve also built a salt mine near the harbor district in order to secretly provide the Russians with salt for a perfectly legitimate purpose.

Meet the Cult 18: Zygor Honlock

Meet The Cultist is a weekly feature focusing on some of the least regarded members of a Warhammer 40k Chaos Army, the cultists. In the game they are cannon fodder or a distraction at best, yet I find examining the sonder of their lives interesting. While chronology isn’t particularly important, you can start at the beginning if you care about reading them in order.

Sekrax Melgoy had the voice of an an angel, everyone agreed. Hearing him talk or sing was ecstasy. However this not his story.  Zygor Honlock made filters for, and assembled the cults’ supply of gas masks. And the one time he screwed up, his one mistake, was in Sekrax’s mask during a raid in a Nurgle infested agri-world. Sekrax survived, but his voice was ruined by the noxious gases encountered there, thenceforth sounding like Tom Waits gargling sandpaper. As punishment it was ordained that Zygor never speak again; to that end he’s been bound with a similar punishment as Varbhor.

Like most of the cult Zygor’s biggest desire is to curry the favor of Slaanesh. Before his sentence of silence he lead a small group of cultists who’d found some ancient texts on philosophy. As such they’d devoted themselves to the pursuit of excellence, for surly the more perfect they became the greater the chance Slaanesh’s gaze would fall upon them. While he can no longer participate in the debates, he still attends and listens. In addition he is one of the best shots with a pistol in the cult, able to hit a target half again as far away as most marksmen.

Finally Zygor is also a collector; several years ago he came across an ancient miniatures game called CrimeHive. According to the rules the miniature robots and monsters would move on their own, fighting battles as directed by the players. However the ravages have time have not been kind to the sparse selection of models Zygor has found, and while most are in decent condition the electronics inside have long since corroded to the point of being unsalvageable. The are several other cultists who are willing to play his modified rules where they use measuring sticks and dice to determine the outcome of battles, but little would please Zygor more than finding some perfectly preserved pieces with functioning electronics so that they could play the game properly.

Some day soon you’ll ride a duck

Dael’s Adventure Part 9

Start from the beginning

Fortunately for us  Teawrecks wasn’t very observant and we were all able to sneak past it. We quickly decided we’d try and lure it into the elevator shaft and so I trailed it to give warning if it  came back whilst the other three devised a cunning plan involving steel cable and industrial strength mayonnaise. Fortunately the mechanical beast made it’s way back just after they’d completed the trap. Solei hanging from a rope in the elevator shaft got it’s attention and pulled herself up just in time, the dinosaur slipped on the mayo-slick Honch had prepared and then tripped over the steel cable tripwire Vyrez     had strung in front of the the elevator shaft. Or it would have worked, except Vyrez had tied one end of the wire to a barrel, and the other to the support that Solei was hanging from. The monster did end up going down the shaft but was able to launch itself across and land 3 floors down. Unfortunately it also drug the support that Vyrez and Solei were hanging from after it, and if Honch and I hadn’t been very quick to rescue them they’d have gone down the shaft after the terror.

Apparently Mayo is flammable! Who knew? Well, Honch is a cook, so I guess he did, which would explain why he lit a couple of torches and tossed them down onto the now Mayonated monstrosity, setting it aflame. Then the three of them started hurling the spikes they’d prepared as a fallback defense down at the Teawrecks. With the terror looking a little worse for wear the three of them decided to descend in the elevator with the remaining spikes to try and finish it off. Turns out it was doing better than expected and had stopped, dropped and rolled, putting the condimental fire out. They got past it, but it then leapt on top of the elevator car. I tossed the remaining Mayo and just to be sure the remains of my liberated jar of whisky on top, hoping to reignite the flames of it’s demise. Solei and Vyrez enacted some complicated plan which involved rubble and flying, the exact details of which I’m still a little unclear on, while Honch rode the elevator back up. Honch used a spike to rub sparks off the elevator cable and reset the undying thing back on fire and finally we were reunited a few floors above the beast. Solei was suggesting going back down, but I could see the elevator cables didn’t look to sturdy so I lowered the elevator back down empty and sure enough it was stupid enough to climb in, as the elevator struggled to come back up to us Honch hammered the cable while Solei cast some sort of mystical power at it and moments before Teawrecks returned to our floor to wreck us the cable snapped sending it plummeting dozens of stories to it’s destruction.

We made our way to the bottom, and were pleased to find a distinct lack of the remains of Mortia and Hubert in the rubble. However we found a magic gem, which nearly killed Vyrez, and a note that said: “They haven’t been eaten, it’s worse than that. -Love Dredd”.

Upon exiting the tower and heading to the next spire we eventually found Dredd and he offered us a terrible choice, one of us would have to trade our lives for that of our captured companions. Solei quickly accepted the martyrdom, but both of our missing companions were returned within a hairs breadth of death.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XVI

A new island, and new challenge! This time, to get our island membership in the united nations. To do so, we’ll need to be #1 in at least 6 categories. As a tropical island, growing big Papaya’s should be easy, I’m not really sure why they’d even make that a qualifying criteria, but don’t look an easy horse in the mouth as they say.

January ’54

Plans for a papaya production facility have been laid out. Oh, who am I kidding, it’s just 4 farms in a row. Probably should get some other infrastructure up whilst I’m at it. I’ve located some nice deposits of Iron and Gold deep in the island near the old ruins  and spent most of my initial money building a couple of mines out there.

September ’54

The final farm is finally finished being constructed and lo, terrible news: The UN has canceled the award for biggest Papaya! At least my people will be well fed.

March ’55

I’m beginning to think the UN has it out for me. They’ve made it difficult to get important building materials, increase the cost to build. It’s a good thing I ordered all the stuff for the mines last year.

July ’55

There’s no such thing as Bad Publicity as they say. The UN’s attempt to stymie us has not only failed, but brought support from other nations, and even God! The first two records we’re going to bust are Most Rum Drunk, and Largest population. The first should be fairly easy the second might require accepting citizenship of everyone in China but should be fairly simple as well. What could go wrong?

February ’56

Plans for our infrastructure are developing nicely; we recently had a large donation from several countries who were pleased by how much we annoyed the UN Representative.  Penultimo has come up with a great idea, and if we can get Journalists on the island we can do a better job of publicizing our achievements. I suppose we’ll need to build a Newspaper and Television station before we achieve any of the records.

February ’57

We’ve completed a Church and Elementary School. With our World Famous Papaya business starting to bloom we need to make sure we’re getting the best price for our products and to that end I think we’ll have to look away from World Records for a bit and focus on the import export business. Everything is easier to accomplish when you’re flush with cash after all.

February ’58

Education is important. Now that the Elementary School is finished, a High School has been started. The people of this island are brave, but soon they’ll be smart as well! The future is bright indeed!

Meet the Cult 17: Crucius Rokha

 

Meet The Cultist is a weekly feature focusing on some of the least regarded members of a Warhammer 40k Chaos Army, the cultists. In the game they are cannon fodder or a distraction at best, yet I find examining the sonder of their lives interesting. While chronology isn’t particularly important, you can start at the beginning if you care about reading them in order.

 

Crucius Rokha is currently in a competition with Tudax that will probably end up getting both of them killed. With there being some contention about his big kill (a Nurgle Daemon prince which was the target of a Noise Marine ‘concert’) Crucius is aiming to take down some thing big, and undisputable and so now keeps his eyes on the sky.

When not on the battlefield he spends a large portion of his free time on the firing range (assuming there is one) or hunting the current planet’s bird analogs. His marksmanship is quite exquisite and if he’d only deign to take a more effective weapon he’d probably earn some sort of boon from Slaanesh, though his perseverance with such a substandard weapon may end up doing the trick if he can ever bring down a big enough enemy.

He is also obsessed with fashion, and is the finest hair stylist in the band, however since he can’t abide a less then perfect cut and no one else can seem to do a good enough job to meet his standards he opts to remain bald and clean shaven. This leaves cologne and lipstick as his main fashion accessories; when he can find them on raids he’ll often part with more valuable loot from his share to acquire them.

Victorian London meets Blade Runner

Dael’s Adventure Part 8

Start from the beginning

While we recovered there was a short discussion of which of the remaining options to investigate, and while a few of us thought it might be worthwhile to check in with Cilla, the majority felt that pressing forward and heading straight to the park was the best option. We made it there without incident, well aside from the fact that the beautiful park had been transformed, likely by the nightmares of the city residents, into a calamity of metal, spikes and fire. Rusty steel spires pierced the the sky, which was obscured by exhaust from the multitude of oily fires gushing blood red smoke which provided an eerie flickering light.

Vyrez and Honch climbed up one of the towers to scout ahead and then they quickly climbed back down, warning us nearly too late of the return of the Manticore. This time he brought a giant animated shrubbery, apparently the official name of which was the TREE MAN FIGHTER OF THE GROUND MAN. Mortia launched a warning shot into it before it could surprise us, but it still managed to get the drop on Solei, engulfing her and pulling her inside it’s writhing mass. Whilst trying to knock it senseless, or pull her out she managed to stab me. I’m sure it was an accident though and eventually Honch managed to pull her out and finish it off with his hammer. All the while Hubert was running around providing healing droughts and Mortia and Vyrez were shooting at both monsters. Once the fighting tree was still I tried to entice the Manticore to come fight again so I could bop it on the head but instead it fled.

Solei lead us deeper into the nightmare park, though not where she intended we found ourselves in a vast, towering building full of machinery, metal walkways, and a confusing profusion of interconnected devices beyond my ken. Hubert (I think it was Hubert, I may have been a bit distracted) told me I was standing in an “elevator shaft” and once I moved out they called down a terrifyingly rickety platform which then took us up. And up. And up. After several minutes of ascending, hundreds of feet up in the tower, shadowy hands sprang from the floor, though as only Mortia was wearing a dress she was the only one caught by them. Three shadows took form, and Vyrez made short work of them with a little help from the rest of us, but before they were finished they managed to touch bare skin on both Hubert and Mortia, sapping their vitality and leaving them particularly weakened.  Thus enervated they decided to stay at the elevator to see if Hubert could concoct some sort of remedy while the other four of us proceeded onwards.

A bit more search and Honch again found a room he didn’t want to go into, which is of course were we needed to go. Inside the Diviner Dredd, most desirous of making us live up to his namesake tried to convince us that he was only the second scariest thing in the tower, we were all doomed, everything was terrible, and each time we defeated one of them the remaining ones would become even more powerful. Yet he himself dreaded facing us and fled, warning us that the true threat was menacing our erstwhile companions.

We returned to the lift only to find Mortia and Hubert absent, and as we set out to search for them we heard an arrhythmic thumping that sounded different from the machines within the structure. Seeking the source was for not until a terrifying metal monstrosity emerged from a corridor behind us. Apparently this was the Dinosaur, or some nightmare dream version of Teawrecks at least. The beast everyone keeps telling me we aren’t supposed to fight. So we’ll have to devise some other way to best it… maybe we can lure it off a cliff or something? A weak catwalk? We’ll have to think fast!

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XV

March ’61

The high school is finished, and with the arrival of a teacher from the mainland we already have two students enrolled. The middle school also only has two students so far, but the next generation well be all smartenated up and full of learning. There has been some concern about the Blimp Ride being right next door to the schools, but we assured the parents the blimps used Helium and wouldn’t explode. I’ve got someone checking to make sure the Blimps DO use Helium, and if not, how expensive it would be to switch.

March ’62

Both schools are now nearly full, and the teachers have been assured that the blimps use totally safe Hydrogen. Fortunately since practically none of them have even an elementary education we have at least a generation to fix the issue… as long as the blimp doesn’t explode in the meantime.  Tourists do keep coming to the island, even though our touristy locations are pretty minimal still.

January ’63

Our fourth mansion is finished, the second one to go up in our “historic fort district”. I’d hoped to build some nice touristy attractions here, but it is so hard staying in the black when we have to keep importing goods to process and send elsewhere. Such a pain as there is always new expansion which needs to happen I keep spending the money like it’s nothing.

May ’63

Yet again a freight has arrived with goods we can’t afford to pay for… Rather than wait possibly months for foreign aid we’ve decided to print some money. This will cause inflation, but if we can stay in the black I think it’ll be reasonable, and ultimately we just need to get to 40 factory workers to fulfill my contract with the American CEO and then I can move on to a better island! I should probably start padding my Swiss account while I’m at it, as We’ve already got half of the needed factory workers.

November ’63

Almost managed to keep in the black, but we decided to build some nice housing, specifically 3 condominiums in the harbor district. And of course project costs exceeded expectations almost immediately, not 2 weeks later and we’re back in the red again. I may just have to print some more money when right before the next freighter arrives. I mean we’re over 75% of the way to my goal… and then the massive inflation will be someone else’s problem right? What could go wrong.

January ’64

Ah ha! We did not even need to do another print run of money, the latest freighter brought in enough cash that we were able to hire a half dozen people to the newly completed weapons factory. Congratulations me!

Meet the Cult 16: Tudax Azugenn

 

Meet The Cultist is a weekly feature focusing on some of the least regarded members of a Warhammer 40k Chaos Army, the cultists. In the game they are cannon fodder or a distraction at best, yet I find examining the sonder of their lives interesting. While chronology isn’t particularly important, you can start at the beginning if you care about reading them in order.

Tudax and Crucius found a pair of antique blunderbusses while raiding the governor’s mansion on an Agriworld. They have since been competing as to who can make the best use of these large bore, but single shot weapons. Tudax as taken out the ankle actuator on a Sentinel and managed to bring down a Screamer. Crucius claim to have gotten the killing shot on a Nurgle Daemon Prince, but a squad of Noise Marines were playing a cover of “his” song Please Don’t Stop Talking at it at the same time so credit isn’t entirely clear.

When not taking potshots with ancient weaponry Tudax likes “dirt farming”, that is growing Mudwyrms, a small maggot like creature grows in rich soil fed by barely decomposing flesh. Half animal, half plant they theoretically have no upper limit to size except that  once they get larger than about 3 feet long they have to spend more time eating than they are awake to maintain size. With Talon’s help he’s been working on a version of amphetamines that will reduce the amount the Mudwyrms need to sleep so they can grow even larger.

He is also an accomplished DJ, his initial claim to fame being a resampling of the ravings of Talon her recorded during a space walk. He now carries recording device nearly everywhere, especially favoring warp travel with weak Gellar Fields for the bizarre and incomprehensible sounds. These samples can then lead to songs that induce a drug like state just by listening to them.