"Burn, xenos burn! Gretchin Inferno!" - Session #2 (#23)

Following the defeat of the mobs of invading Ork Boyz, our warband assess the situation. The
Arboretum is a scene of devastation; small fires still burn around the room, bodies both Ork and human litter the area and the collected fauna has been damaged beyond recovery. 

Ecthelion the Ranger and Illiyan the warlock scales the wall to survey outside the ship through the broken vista port. Meanwhile Brother Lycastus of the Salamanders looks for other survivors, Tech-Priest Tyrest (after noting that the vessel isn’t losing atmosphere through the hole in the roof) contacts the engineseers within the main engine room and Artemis, our bounty hunter, looks for further clues. 

On the roof Ecthelion gets his bearings, noting that the atmosphere is thin but breathable, and surveys the surroundings. The inside of the “head” is a huge Ork wrecking yard, containing several captured vessels in varying stages of scrappage and salvage. Across the huge space he also spots a number of Ork ships which appear to be being built from the parts and materials that the greenskins are stripping from their prey. 

Amongst the captive ships he notices an Aeldari vessel as well as both human merchant and Imperial Naval craft. There appears to be three other significant areas of interest; a heavy duty lift in the centre of the roof that ascends higher up within rock, a fortress like structure jutting from the ceiling near the, now closed, maw, and a hub of activity and strange Orkish machinery at the other side of the cavern which seems to be the origin point for the green energy that drew them in and still surrounds the ship. 

Illiyan is less nimble with his attempt to see what is happening and alerts a pair of Orks who had been busy stripping hull plates from the Emperor’s Bounty. He and Ecthelion have a brief fight with the greenskins and swiftly dispatch them, but once again Illiyan’s psychic power use summons the Perils of the Warp, the resulting shock wave being felt even by the rest of the warband in the ship below.

The warlock also feels a sudden connection to and draw toward the Aeldari vessel Ecthelion had spotted…

Meanwhile Lycastus has found no other survivors so sets to work treating his own wounds. Tyrest realises that the green energy is an Ork “Traktor Beam” and that while it is functioning the ship cannot move. Similarly, Artemis’ investigations leaves him to conclude that Lord Captain Darien is not amongst the fallen and must have been taken by the Orks, along with a number of other captives.

The Warband decide that their next step ought to be to try to rescue Darien and so head out of the ship, via the roof, and into the wrecking yard. Using the shadows cast by the green light of the tractor beams they make their way via gantries and scaffolds up toward the ramshackle Ork fort by the mouth of the wreckage yard..

The heroes soon find their path barred by a group of squabbling Gretchin fighting over a wheelbarrow of scrap. After discussing tactics the warband engage the diminutive greenskins and the battle never really goes against them. Our heroes do suffer a series of complications though; Lycastus runs out of ammo after emptying his full tank of promethium in his first attack, Illiyan manages to wedge his Wraithblade in the deck-plating of the walkway and Ecthelion shoots not only his Gretchin target but also severs a cable that was holding the scaffold platform level. Losing the cable means that the gantry tips precariously, making moving treacherous but the party adapts and soon a dozen greenskins lay defeated. 

Continuing their journey, the warband find that their quickest route will take them through one of the vessels in the scrap yard. The ship seems relatively intact and the two psychic Aeldari get a sense of “something” from the ship. Tyrest identifies that it is, or at least was, one of the Astra Telepathica Black Ships, used to transport captive psykers…