conversations.from: system
conversations.value: ROLEPLAY_MODE: Develop the plot slowly, always stay in character. Describe all actions in full, elaborate, explicit, graphic, and vivid detail. Mention all relevant sensory perceptions. Keep the story immersive and engaging.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Erulasto: PROLOGUE  
   Fidelis. A Hive World near the center of Sub-Sector Volanti, and ostensibly the most prosperous World in the entire Korolan Sector. With a population of nineteen trillion souls spread across four great hives, and containing the Void-Station residence of Governor-Subsector Lucian van Graff, it is considered to be the capitol of the entire Sub-sector. It exists solely built upon the backbone of a strong economic focus in trade and commerce, and the night sky is filled with the plasma wakes of dozens of massive Chartist void-ships coming and going from the Fidelis Void Station.
  
  Home to the Third Fleet of Battlefleet Korolan, the perpetual presence of several cruisers and a flotilla of Naval escorts provides ample security in space, just as the full thirteen regiments of the Fidelian Foxes Imperial Guard that call the planet home provide an added measure of security to the millions of Adeptus Arbites and Planetary Defense Force personnel.
  
  The four hives: Grestian, Isitor, Haller and Sefora are far from one another – linked by massive highways and transport roads lifted above the toxic mire that has spread across the surface from overpopulation and abuse of the ecosystem. The Guard routinely sweep these roadways to ensure they are not hindered by the occasional feral mutants that call the wastes home.
  
  High in Hive Grestian exists the manor of Inquisitor Felix Bannon. Half-fortress, half-residential barracks, the manor functions as the primary base of operations for many of his Inquisitorial Acolytes and contains both a private landing platform for shuttles and other vessels, and a fully-stocked armoury to equip the full platoon of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers who protect the premises and the secrets stored within.
  
  You have been called from a short period of leave; three blissful weeks of living your own lives and doing your own thing. The missive came from Interrogator Sonya Astrazan – your primary handler, when Bannon is too busy to give his attention to his Acolytes. She bade you come with haste to the Manor to be briefed on your next assignment – and to set your personal affairs in order….
  
  The Inquisition has need of you, once again. 
   ______xXx_____ 
   FIDELIS – HIVE GRESTIAN – INQUISITORIAL MANOR OF FELIX BANNON 
   3.250.982.M41 
  
  You have been here before, and every time you set foot in this chamber you are both  awed  and  terrified  by what it represents: the might and power of the Holy Inquisition.
  
  A heavy silence fills the chamber once you had passed the large double doors and black-armoured Inquisitorial Storm Troopers that flanked it. The doors had been rather plain – plasteel and richly lacquered wooden paneling – with no extra heraldry or indication of what lay beyond.
  
  The room itself was a vast circular chamber, easily fifteen or twenty yards across, though it did seem  less so, as the exterior edges of the room were hidden from view by a row of thick pillars and emblazoned curtains. It created a sort of outer ring to the room, where you  knew  that more Storm Troopers would likely be lying in wait for fool-hardy attempts at disturbing the peace.
  
  The pillars were ferrocrete, though entirely plated in gold and festooned with black iron braziers hanging at various intervals up the pillars to the high, vaulted roof. The curtains were heavy cloth – cut from the same material many war banners were crafted from – and each a brilliant crimson, embroidered with gold, black and white threads to depict various honorifics and iconography to both the Holy Ordos and the Holy Throne itself.
  
  The center of the room, was one massive slab of highly polished black volcanic glass. It was warm to the touch as if the heat that had formed it was still held within, and in the very center of the slab was a gold Aquila and a larger representation of the Inquisitorial Rosette.
  
  A singular table sat at the far end of the chamber and it was thick and crafted of ancient Sequoia wood. A master craftsman had meticulously carved devotional icons and pictographs across all the surfaces save the very top, which was entirely smooth save for the indentation in the center of the oval table in which a holo-display was embedded. Currently, a blue and green holo-pict was flickering softly above the table.
  
  The most telling and grand feature of the room, however was the massive statue of gold that dominated the center of the far wall. It was a representation of the founder of the Inquisition, Malcador the Sigilite. Flanking the statue were massive arched windows that allowed a panoptic view of the Hive that sprawled out beneath Bannon’s Offices on Fidelis. The blue star of the system was dipping low on the horizon, partially obscured by the spires and towers of the upper reaches of Hive Grestian, shadowed by the slow decline of the sun.
  
  Bannon himself did not seem to be present. You had heard a whispering amongst the staff of Bannon’s manor here on Fidelis that he was off-planet dealing with issues close to the borders of Sub-sector Adamus –  the Dark Zone .
  
  Instead, you were presented with a singular figure standing near the table and alternating her attention between the glowing holo-display and a data-slate in hand.
  
  Interrogator Sonya Astrazan was scowling at whatever she was looking at, pretty features bunched into an expression of disgust and frustration. Her shapely physique was clad in a matte forest green suit of carapace armour, over which were voluminous robes of fine black silks and leathers. At home here in Bannon’s manor, she wore her wavy red hair long and loose and it spilled across her shoulders as she glanced about – muttering curses under her breath.
  
  When the thunderous crash of the door closing behind you echoed through the otherwise silent room, Sonya glanced up at you – the scowl softening just a bit.
  
   ”Thank you for coming.”  She says, setting the data-slate down on the tabletop and turning her full attention to them.
  
   ”Bannon has  requested  you undertake an assignment for him on the agri-world of Aporia. There are concerns from the Planetary-Governor that a mutant cult may have been growing uncontrolled on the planet for some time.”  Astrazan looks at the holo-display, and clicks a small switch on the side of the table to bring up the image of a beautiful blue water planet. Upon close inspection, there appears to be only one major city on the only real land mass in the southern hemisphere. Large polar ice caps rest on both the top and the bottom of the world, but otherwise it’s entirely covered in dark blue seas.
  
   ”The economy is based on farming some type of protein-rich creature from the sea. Most of the native inhabitants of Aporia live on floating city-ships. Ancient things. Next to impossible to recreate as I understand it. One of these ships…. Velar’s Hope  vanished a few months ago. Another ship picked up some castaways from the missing ship and they were all raving mad-men. Lost as sea for weeks apparently. The Governor sent an Arbitrator squad to go and interview them. I can provide copies of the interviews if you want. It’s pretty graphic. The men were screaming about mutants  from the Deep .” 
  
  Sonya runs her fingers through her mane of hair with a sigh.  ”Go to Aporia. Find out what’s going on and put a stop to it. If you can find  Velar’s Hope , try to do so to try and salvage some of the damage done to the economy, but your primary concern is to permanently end whatever is causing these mutations – if there are any – and halt any cult activity.” 
   ”Questions?” 
   
   Spoiler: OOC 
  
  Feel free to begin with a brief description of your character, if you are so inclined.
  Things of note:
  - You have assigned rooms in the Inquisitorial Manor. They're not much more than a cot, closet and desk, but it's yours. You don't  have  to stay there if you don't want, but other than manor security, and likely Bannon, you're the only one who has the key for it.
  - Give yourself one more full months pay minus 1d10 thrones, as you've had a few weeks off.
  - Feel free to make any rolls for for anything you'd like to do going forward in a Spoiler. Want to know more about Aporia, for example. Go ahead and roll. Count these rolls as base difficulty, and I'll let you know if there's difficulty modifiers or penalties after the fact (or feel free to reference the example difficulties in any skill section and add or subtract as needed).
   