Dark Heresy Red Wake part 3

The Feast of Welcome in a giant hall filled with factious nobles continues and the plot thickens. We approach the Lord Regent of Malfi; Fafsa Bellasco. While many smaller noble families have their own religion, it seems that Fafsa is working to bring them all together under one roof, in this case literally. This move; consolidating religion and politics, will probably give Mafli greater power generally, and weaken the lesser nobles. This, however, is speculation on my part.

We spent nearly half of our gaming session essentially pumping the Lord Regent for information regarding the various nobles and their squabbles, before blending back in with the crowd (as much as possible). Oddly enough, a minor noble approached our Vindikar Assasin calling him out on a duel. Chuck (our assassin) promptly declared, "I shoot him." After which he rolled a 2d10, got a bonus d10, and rolled high enough for a righteous fury (essentially a critical strike). Think of our assassin's handgun as a silenced Desert Eagle and you get the idea. The minor noble's head was no more. All of this, mind you, at point blank range and with amazing speed and dexterity. In fact, no one actually saw Chuck commit the murder... except the one person who sent him over to draw us out. Ahem.

After smoothing things over with a hurried and overworked Deacon Ensor, who happens to be in charge of nearly everything superficial, we encountered a Lady Cheska Duquesne, AKA Helena Nefram. It was she who sent the noble over in what we assume was an attempt to get a read on our abilities. She had set up the entire situation to see how much of our hand we would expose. Apparently, everything.

An interesting discussion ensued, wherein our party is informed that there have been many other, more highly qualified people, up for the religious leader who disliked the pomp, only to be passed up. We were interrupted by a brief thespian performance causing a stir. It was conducted by people loosely affiliated with the Pilgrims of Hate. This is a group we have tangled with successfully before.

As you can see, this game is heavy on diplomacy and is set in a rich world. I admit to not reading the books as perhaps I should. There have been many nights where much of the important content glides peacefully well above my head as I wait for the next demon to fight. It is what it is, and seems to get more political and less action-oriented month by month, especially after essentially converting to Ascension. I enjoy this game because I'm role playing with good friends and I'm learning a new and complicated system, but sometimes I hanker for a Kobold head to bash in.