SpaceThe hulk of a merchant ship drifts through the void like a gutted corpse. The hull is riddled with gouges from macro-cannon fire. The soot-covered letters on the side spell out a sombre name: Finger of Sorrow.
YOUUse the augurs to examine the ship.
SpaceThe ship is devoid of vital signs. Life support systems have long since failed. Cold, darkness, and silence fill the wreck of the Finger of Sorrow.
YOUUse the augurs to examine the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDispatch an expedition.
SpaceA squad of enforcers and Tech-Priests put on their void suits and dock with the ship. The vessel is empty except for the frozen and desiccated corpses of the crew. Some retain human features, but others are easily recognisable as genetic aberrations. They have been dead for centuries.
YOUExamine the logbook at the bridge.
SpaceThe Finger of Sorrow was a common merchant vessel. The log records its travels along many of the trade routes of the Calixis Sector. The last entry states that the ship departed from Port Wander on the border between the Koronus Expanse and the Calixis Sector. The Tech-Priest notes that the protocols for undocking from the station were not followed, indicating either a hasty escape or blatant disregard for the covenants of the Omnissiah.
YOUExamine the logbook at the bridge.continues where this line first appears above
YOUSearch the hold.
SpaceThe hold is empty, apart from a few open containers. However, careful examination points to three opened service hatches that bear claw marks. Venturing deeper into the service tunnels, the enforcers find three empty nests with chunks of purple chitin and dried traces of dark slime that has eaten through the metal panels. There can be no doubt that Genestealers once lurked here.
YOUExamine the logbook at the bridge.continues where this line first appears above
YOUSearch the hold.continues where this line first appears above
YOUInspect the cabins.
SpaceMany of the cabins have become tombs for the bodies of the crew. They asphyxiated when the ship's life support systems failed. One of the enforcers notices a cache marked with the symbol of a fanged serpent with a sharp tail and three clawed limbs. The cache contains an amulet and a miraculously preserved diary.
YOUExamine the logbook at the bridge.continues where this line first appears above
YOUSearch the hold.continues where this line first appears above
YOUInspect the cabins.continues where this line first appears above
YOURelay the contents of the diary to the flagship.
SpaceThe diary was kept by one of the missionaries of a Genestealer Cult. According to the entries, this cult secretly spread throughout much of the Calixis Sector, although the author does not mention any specific infected worlds. He recalls with reverence "the promised land, the cradle of faith, salty as the tears of righteous martyrs." The author's branch of the cult had settled on Port Wander Station, the last threshold between the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse.
SpaceThe cult grew and gained followers among the workers and the poor, and even managed to infiltrate powerful trade guilds. However, their plans fell apart when the Genestealer's Kiss was granted to an unworthy candidate. This oversight led to the discovery of the cult and a bloody purge. The author of the diary recalls with horror and sorrow how many of the pureblood children of the Star Saviour perished in the massacre.
SpaceThe story ends by chronicling the escape of a small group of heretics who managed to save three purebreds and steal a merchant ship under heavy fire from the station. They narrowly navigated the Maw, but the ship's damage was too severe. "The three phalanges of the Finger of Sorrow," the pureblood Star Children, fell into a long sleep and became dormant. Meanwhile, the cultists humbly watched the ship's life support systems fade away one after another. In the last lines, the author welcomes death in the name of the Many-Armed Emperor with solemnity and elation.
YOUExamine the logbook at the bridge.continues where this line first appears above
YOUSearch the hold.continues where this line first appears above
YOUInspect the cabins.continues where this line first appears above
YOURelay the contents of the diary to the flagship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.
SpaceThe enforcers plant melta charges at key points on the vessel, and the explosion rips the Finger of Sorrow to pieces that are obliterated by strikes from the macro-cannons.
end of branch
YOUDestroy the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOURelay the contents of the diary to the flagship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUInspect the cabins.continues where this line first appears above
YOURelay the contents of the diary to the flagship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUSearch the hold.continues where this line first appears above
YOUInspect the cabins.continues where this line first appears above
YOURelay the contents of the diary to the flagship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.
SpaceAn all-out barrage turns the Finger of Sorrow to space dust, forever erasing its sinister secrets from the history of the Koronus Expanse.
end of branch
YOUMove away from the ship.
SpaceThe ship watches you silently with the dead visors of its augur systems.
end of branch
YOUDispatch an expedition.continues where this line first appears above
YOUDestroy the ship.continues where this line first appears above
YOUMove away from the ship.continues where this line first appears above