Editing The Guy Who Cried Grendel (section)

=== Part III ===


Okay, so Grendel and crew, after giving their report on the awesome shit they pulled off last time, got some downtime, both to go do their real jobs, and basically not have to worry about excessive probabilities for dying for a few months. Nice boring life for everyone, and a decent amount of money for working. Sounds great. But then our Inquisitor calls us in, and tells us 'Oh wait, that awesomely non-fatal lifestyle you were just living? Kiss that shit goodbye, you are going to a warzone on a hive world rumored to have a severe amount of cultists on it, and have to try and rescue an Inquisitor who may have gone insane and might attempt to kill you rather than come with you. Okay, have fun.' Shit.

Okay, so we head out to Cantus, now mostly home to potential cultists, PDF and IG forces and a shit-ton of Orks. And MAYBE the guy we are looking for. So we get a transport, and fly out, making some passes through the atmosphere (the Orks as of yet have not gotten a hold of any aircraft, so high altitude flight is mostly safe). Huh. Our pilot actually picks up the Inquisitor's distress signal. This might not be so bad after all. Except the beacon is in the middle of an abandoned hive city that the Ork Warboss has made his home. Fun. So we land well behind the battle lines, and arrange a meeting with the nearest Commissar, a Commissar Russ, and present our identification and explain our purpose here, and then ask if he or anyone else can give us some maps or potential locations of Ork forces within the city so we can try and be sneaky. We also made sure to be unfailingly polite and NEVER interrupt him, because our GM has a hard-on for the parts of Commissar fluff portraying them as being psychopathic murderers that make the army work solely out of fear. Thankfully, we get some maps, and after a bunch of discussion and thought, establish a route that should hopefully get us to the beacon without having to fight anything more than small groups of orks, to thusly avoid being made the target of a WAAAGH and thusly die.

So, we commandeer a flatbed truck, and are about to set off when two things happen:

1: Dakka suggests we 'Orkify' the truck to hopefully get past a patrol or two, which the party wholeheartedly supports, and I get to work on, and<br>
2: A small group of Sisters of Battle approach us (three) and inform us that their Legatine (or whatever the sergeant equivalent for SOB is) got orders from the Ordo Hereticus (the one our inquisitor belongs to) to give us some support, and these were the volunteers. One sister in particular stands out, since it matches exactly the fake sister cultist I had rolled up to present to the GM as a cultist of Khorne that tries to get close to Grendel, either to kill him or protect him from all non-Khorne-caused deaths.

I smile maniacally, and thankfully the other players think I am smiling at NPC helpers. Which I am, sort of.

So Nihilius is, for pretty much the first time, not an arrogant dismissive snob, as he lost a finger and got a vicious scar on his arm as a result of previously being snide to a SOB, and so presents a respectful exterior to prevent further damage. He does become even more malicious to Able, to such an extent that even Garm, someone who grew up on Dusk, thinks he is being a bit extreme. He causes a level of fatigue and five wounds of damage to Able, who all through the beatings is sobbing about how this is all a wretched mutant like him deserves, and he only calms down and heals himself after Grendel assures him of how capable he is and helpful to the party, and he heals and removes his fatigue, right as rain again....mostly. Except he rolls Psychic phenomena at the end, and gets Memory Worm. Our GM rules that Able actually forgets he got phenomena, and I (Cromwell) falcon punch Nihilius when he is about to berate him for it, so that Able actually gets to believe he just performed a chain of powers without incident, and is genuinely happy for the first time as an Acolyte. Inez d'awws, and messes his hair while congratulating him, and he beams.

Happy moment over, we pile into the now Orkified Flatbed (spikes nailed on everywhere, painted red, with barbed wire everywhere) and Grendel and the Cultist (named Benedicta) end up in the back together with most everyone. To pass the time to the city, Benedicta asks us to regale the sisters with tales of the accomplishments of members of the Inquisition (us). Grendel starts to talk, but Dakka and Hak both interrupt him and fight over who gets to tell them about all the shit they have seen Grendel do. The two maybe real sisters are most impressed, and murmur prayers of thanks to the God Emperor for so blessing one of his children to do his will. Benedicta smiles and talks about how powerful he must feel, having felled so many powerful foes in battle, to which Grendel reluctantly agrees, making her smile all the wider.

We arrive at the city, and immediately a real ork vehicle pulls up alongside us, and shouts out a challenge to a race, since they believe that their red truck is faster. Rather than responding, Dakka (the driver) guns it, and the orks take this in stride and we start to race to the city versus a truckload of orks. Nihilius finds this to be most unseemly of a noble, and tosses an entire belt of grenades into the ork truck, and commands Dakka to ram them after they go off. The grenades go boom, the orks LAUGH and Dakka does a drive check to ram them, and rolls a 2. The ork truck veers and starts flipping, and by the time it has flipped all it will, it is mostly pieces. They got an orky death, at least. Okay, so we actually get in the city now, and have to ditch the truck, so it is time for sneaky stuff. We are doing good, and several hours pass very uneventfully, until we get about three blocks from where the beacon is coming from. It is at that point an awareness test reveals something very strange: A symbol of Tzeentch on a steel wall with a giant X gouged through it by some mammoth weapon and a symbol for gork and mork crudely carved in next to it. Able gets weirded out, and rolls psyniscience. Guess what, clear indication that bad shit went down right in the direction we are heading.

We get to the beacon, and there is no inquisitor left. But then the entire building with the markings EXPLODES, and a giant ork in Mega Armor (presumably the warboss) is thrown out of the building, and nobs and orks aplenty boil out to follow him. Now what the hell could have done that? Out of the smoky rubble, an (Grendel rolls forbidden lore daemons and passes) UNBOUND DAEMONHOST floats out, clearly engorged with biomantic powers (fucking huge muscles, metal-like skin, etc. enough so it could cold clock a WARBOSS). But wait, that's not all, down a side-street boil some bloodletters and cultists (presumably of Khorne), heading into this clusterfuck. We decide to back the fuck away, as this shit looks ridiculous. The two sisters charge the daemonhost, warboss, orks, bloodletters and cultists, like good little zealots, and are EATEN by the daemonhost who now looks over our way. WONDERFUL. SCOOBY DOO, DO YOUR THING. We run like little bitches, which surprises the crap out of Benedicta, who was expecting some Grendel badassery. FUCK YOU, WE RUN. Besides, pretty much everyone but Grendel and Benedicta failed their fear test in such a manner that makes them want to run.

So, we flee, and thankfully the warboss finds the daemonhost such a damn good opponent that it bodyslams it and tries to chop it up right and proper. We do not stay to see the end, and somehow we lose Benedicta while running away. And when we round a corner, several of the cultists and two bloodletters round the corner for some HAPPY FUN TIME. Initiative is rolled, Grendel gets a one, the Bloodletters (acting as a duo) get ten. They both charge Grendel. One hits, and Grendel makes his dodge. The other hits Grendel in the head with his giant fucking axe, and we all think Grendel's story has ended. The daemon rolls two ones for damage, and Grendel gets a bloodletter axe in the face without much incident. This is the first time Grendel has ever been wounded by a daemon, and apparently that unlocks his nerdrage as when his turn comes, he announces he wants to try and kill them both. I guess the player wasn't really feeling like he would live long, so he decided to go for rule of cool. The GM rules he must make a -20 agility test to try, and then must try and hit both with a -20 to weapon skill to each attack. He rolls. 2, 2, 1. He rolls damage (GM said roll once, it is the same hit.) Rolls a ten, confirms still with the -20 penalty by rolling a 4, and then rolls ten, ten, ten, nine. Grendel just disemboweled two bloodletters in one strike.

With this event, the tide of battle turns very sharply, and Grendel and co proceed to curbstomp the cultists without major incident, and after thoroughly checking for any other pursuers, hastily grab some loot and retreat to regroup. Even when running away, Grendel decided to bitchslap Khorne. And oh so mysteriously, Benedicta shows up again, covered in gore and blood, with a glowing smile, and after being told of Grendel's feat, embraces him, blessing him for his prowess (thanks made to the emperor are decidedly absent, but most everyone is too busy trying to make Nihilius stop kicking Able for not taking a bullet that, after being dodged, hit Nihilius. He thought it very unseemly for such a noble personage as himself).

So, we are celebrating our luck, both with the combat and getting back one of our NPC 'Helpers' and getting some decent loot, and times look good. Oh wait, we only got a block or two away, and not ALL of the orks following the warboss can be engaged with the daemonhost. So right as we are getting ready to retreat a safe distance and wait for the battle to either move, change or maybe call the PDF/IG for some artillery support, a few dozen orks plunge towards us, with three nobs leading the way. This starts looking bad, but wait! The orks are rolled as three groups and roll 1, 1 and 2 as initiative, and Nihilius AND Benedicta have flamers and training in them, and both open up while everyone else unloads full auto (except Grendel, who has a revolver, and misses terribly). By the time the orks get to act, so much devastation has been laid on them that only the three nobs (two on fire) and four 0 wound orks are left. The orks just got out-orked. This is compounded by them now failing tests versus pinning and hiding while WE FUCKING CHARGE THEM. The battle is decidedly one sided (they are still on fire) and is ended by Grendel putting a bullet through the skull of the last nob (the one not on fire who had been hit the least) in the second round. We are feeling pretty awesome from tearing our way through so many enemies in such a short time without suffering severe wounds, but wait, all the noise we have made has made even more orks, nobs, and some gretchin and squigs come our way. Retreat sounds good.

So, we scooby doo ourselves out of there, and get away pretty well since Benedicta has hip shooting and while fleeing puts out some full-auto suppressive fire back at our pursuers alongside Hak and Dakka lobbing back a few firebombs, and enough foes fail the pinning test/get set on fire so as to clog the pathways for them and allow us to escape. So we regroup several blocks away in an abandoned facility, and there are enough rooms that everyone has a place to bunker down/scrounge for stuff to use. Grendel is all set to use some down time to peruse a few tomes on Orks he had gotten from some Xeno-Archivists when they came to scout him (he is still thinking on it) when Benedicta comes into the room. She starts up a conversation, asking how someone who is essentially a librarian found themselves fighting daemons and xenos, that sort of thing. Grendel explains he happened to read a forbidden book by mistake when checking it to see where to catalogue it, and had then turned himself and the book in to a local arbitrator he knew (Inez) who brought his story to the Inquisition, where both eventually got recruited. It certainly beat getting mind-cleansed or purged for knowing it. Benedicta perks up at this, and ask if Grendel can share any knowledge about it. He says it's fine for him to admit knowing it now as a member of the inquisition, and relates that it was documentation of some strange Daemon or Xenos that had terrorized Valhalla for decades before a squad of Space Wolfs came, pursued it into the nearby mountains, and the leader of them slew it in single combat. (FYI while this stuff is going on most of the rest of the party are getting field treatment from Cromwell or trying to make the location defensible)

Benedicta sidles closer, asking if Grendel thinks he might have been able to kill the beast, to which he quickly responds he finds the idea laughable. Benedicta reminds him that he has by all accounts killed things that even space marines can fail to defeat, and did so as nothing more than a man, not some genetically augmented and supremely trained super soldier. He tries to play those events off as simply being the divine emperor's protection, but Benedicta will have none of that, saying victory in battle goes to the stronger and more determined, always and forever. Grendel frowns, questioning this, as did not Benedicta's own sisters fall before Xenos and Daemons? She shrugs, only a hint of melancholy on her face, and wonders what choice would two people have in the face of such foes. She shifts closer still, and leans towards Grendel, and then proceeds to say, and I quote 

"Yes, again and again men have died fighting enemies of the imperium stronger than them, more implacable then them, and only through the strength of numbers and the strength of technology, be it the Navy or that which turns men into Space Marines, does the imperium still stand. And yet you, a lone man, as bereft of power as one could find in the inquisition, you stood against foes stronger, more fierce than you, perhaps more powerful than any servant of the imperium, and did not die. You flourish in the face of that which strikes down others, and always emerge alive and whole, and stronger for it. I question whether you are simply a man, or something more."

At this, while Grendel fumbles for something to say, Benedicta embraces him, saying that a child born of such blood would truly be a warrior and conqueror by birth, destined to crush his foes, and goes on to say it is her duty, no, her privilege to bear it, if he will serve the Imperium in such a manner (please note the GM specifically avoided having her say the child would serve the imperium, and no one noticed. Awesome roleplay). The GM has Grendel roll to resist seduction, and he rolls a flat 100. Thankfully, the GM skipped going into the act because that could have been creepy. Afterwards, Grendel tries to rationalize what happened, which is made easier by Benedicta simply stating he did his duty. So anyway, with this done, the party regroups, everyone none the wiser to what Grendel and Benedicta just did, and discuss their options. While Benedicta is still advocating wholesale assault of the Orks, the remaining Khornate cultists and the presumably Tzeentchian Daemonhost, pretty much everyone else vetoes the plan as being a suicide job. But wait, Nihilius actually says something useful! He suggests trying to rig this building to collapse via undermining key parts of the foundation, support beams etc. with both brute force and explosives. After rigging it, he suggests we attempt to lure the opposed forces into the building, exit out one of the other ground floor entrances on the other side and blow the building on top of them, thusly avoiding soiling our hands. We all love the idea, and the GM lets us start setting it up, since both Guardsmen have demolition, we have plenty of grenades, and several firebombs/flamer fuel canisters to turn the ground floor into a flaming deathtrap around our potential pursuers. We all agree that, assuming we pull this off, even if we don't find the inquisitor we will sure as hell have accomplished something.

So, some time passes, and right about as we finish rigging the place to explode in just the right manner, a slight hitch appears in the plan: The three-way fight is heading our way. Even better: there is no way for us to get to the first floor and leave before they get inside. We are trapped in a building we just set up to explode. After quickly appraising the potential to jump to a nearby building (not happening) or find some rope (none left, we used it all securing the traps), we hit on an idea. We have exactly three frag grenades left, and are on the fourth floor. If we use the grenades to blow a hole through the floor, drop down and then leap out the third floor window, we have a relatively decent chance to survive the fall. We run this by the GM, who rule we must cause at least 30 explosive damage to the floor with said grenades for this to work. We pull the pins on the grenades and drop them in a little circle we made out of rubble to prevent them from rolling around and hightail it to get behind cover, all the while hearing the sounds of fighting growing closer. BOOM BOOM BOOM 24 damage, six short. Hak spends a fate point, and his roll of 4 for damage transforms into a 9. 29 damage total. Dakka spends his only point to re-roll, and gets a critical, but doesn't confirm. 30 damage has been exceeded, and the floor caves in on the far side of the room with a mighty crash. Assuming this is going to attract unwanted attention fast, we spring up and run over, Grendel getting there first because he is sprinting like a motherfucker. We all jump down, and thanks to the short distance, no one incurs damage. Grendel pops off a few shots with his stub revolver at the window, bursting the glass just before he reaches it, so Grendel explodes out the side of the building amidst a shower of glass, gun in hand, and about eight meters off the ground.

He proceeds to start rolling agility tests to see how far he counts as having jumped down before starting to fall. HE MAKES ALL EIGHT ROLLS, and is then rolls one final test to avoid damage from the falling glass, which he also makes. Definitely a smooth exit. Everyone else is right behind him, and thankfully no one dies from the fall, but the party is re-injured (especially Cromwell and Able). A quick glance at the building shows that our flashy exit has attracted attention, and a large number of orks and cultists, while still fighting each other, start charging our way. Dakka presses the button, and suddenly, the entire ground floor (where all of the enemies are) is covered in fire, and mighty explosions begin the collapse of the building. Several hundred tons of concrete and metal descend into the swirling inferno where all our potential foes are fighting. We all fail the agility test to remain standing, and are thrown back by the massive gust from the rapidly changing nearby structure, now a giant pile of rubble. As we regain our footing, a bit worse for wear, we are still smiling, as this looks like we might have done in our foes. The thought doesn't last very long, as with a screech of grinding gears, a massive slab of concrete is hurled aside as the warboss, battered but still alive, regains his footing, and is looking right at us. We have to roll surprise (things usually don't survive a burning building dropping on them) and all fail. The Warboss pulls out his snazzgun, and unloads on us. Or tries to, but it overheats and he drops it to the ground. Before we can really do anything, two things occur simultaneously: We start hearing distant explosions but see nothing happening, and another slab of debris is pushed aside as the Daemonhost gets back up, still infused with biomantic power, and charges the warboss.

As they continue pummeling each other, refusing to budge from their final fight, we hear high-pitched whistles that swiftly grow louder, and seconds later explosions start blooming all around the city. The PDF/IG forces apparently decided the explosion we set off meant something bad had happened in the city, and decided to capitalize on it by shelling it. The way to the truck (to flee) is right through the warboss/daemon fight , and the rubble from the collapsed building has rendered any other path toward the truck a no go. We could retreat away from the fight, but it would likely double the amount of time it takes to get to the truck, and with the shelling, that could be just as fatal as trying to get past the fight, if not more so. But as we are trying to figure out what to do, Grendel announces he is charging over to pick up the warboss's dropped snazzgun, now cool again, and wants to attempt to discharge it on the ork. As he charges in, we finally hear the few aircraft from the PDF/IG forces overhead, dropping more bombs. Everyone else runs after grendel, as anywhere is better than where they are. Grendel has to roll concealment while running to be able to pick up the gun while so close without getting noticed. He succeeds. He fires the Snazzgun, and unfortunately, the hit is in the body, and Mega Armor give 14 AP to the chest. We all think his cool idea is going to fizzle, but wait! He rolls damage, and rolls TWO TENS. He confirms the critical, rolls again and gets a nine and an one. He spends a fate point to re-roll the one and gets another ten. He then rolls a nine. That is 10+10+9+10+9= 48 energy damage to the chest. Not only does he kill the warboss by blowing a hole clean through his chest with a beam of energy, he also accidentally ignites the ammunition there, which proceeds to explode. The GM rolls the blast radius, as 3m, so while the rest of the party is fine, Grendel has to worry about more damage while at 5 wounds.

BUT WAIT, HE MAKES HIS AGILITY ROLL, AND NOTHING HITS HIM. We are all feeling pretty happy for Grendel, when the GM abruptly announces he is rolling for the Daemonhost to dodge, as he was also in range. The daemonhost fails. He rolls the damage (1D10+5 X) and we all watch as he rolls a ten. After thinking for a bit, he decides that righteous fury, or something similar, should apply here, and has the daemonhost roll to dodge again as the means to see whether it is confirmed. The daemonhost fails the roll. The GM rolls damage again. HE ROLLS ANOTHER TEN. He slams his head down, and scoops up the dice and rolls again. Nine. Grendel just killed an Ork Warboss with his own gun in one shot, and killed an Unbound Daemonhost with the ensuing explosion, but came out of it without a scratch.

As we all get ready to continue running, the GM says to roll an awareness test. Garm passes, and notices a rosette of the inquisitor's on the daemonhosts remains. Well, we found the inquisitor, but no chance of bringing him back now. Garm quickly pockets the rosette as proof, and everyone hightails it, fleeing as fast as they can. Occasionally, a bomb drops nearby, and the party has to roll to avoid shrapnel. A few cuts and scars-to-be later, we are almost at the truck, when a shell strikes a nearby building, and it starts to collapse on the path. Everyone is running as fast as they can, but Benedicta got hit in the leg previously pretty hard, and can't hobble along as fast as everyone else. Seeing this, Grendel picks her up (succeeding on the strength test with a roll of ONE) and sprints along, just getting out from under the building in the nick of time. Benedicta stares up at him with wide eyes and a parted mouth, and the GM tells Grendel that his chivalry counts as a Charm attempt with a modifier of +30. He rolls a 1, seven degrees of success. The GM rolls for Benedicta to resist Seduction, and rolls a 99. In that moment of Gallantry and Badassery, picking up the wounded SoB while fleeing a city being shelled, Grendel made Benedicta fall for him (sex didn't count, that was mostly the job to her before).

They all pile into the truck and tear away, riding into the sunset (which happens to be behind the PDF/IG Camp), tearing off the barbed wire and spikes as they go. When they arrive, they are greeted by a WALL of cheering and joyous Guardsmen, as apparently some of the aircraft had had cameras on Grendel's moment, and know he killed the warboss and some monstrous daemon. The party, and Grendel in particular, are showered with cheers and thanks, and get to be the heroes of a giant party as the PDF is pretty happy that the Orks got almost completely wiped out (they are still shelling and dropping bombs, since they aren't so stupid as to not try and prevent spores from getting loose). As the party winds down, Benedicta approaches Grendel while he is away from the rest of the party, and while blushing faintly thanks him for saving her. Grendel stands there awkwardly for a moment, and Benedicta continues, asking him if he sees how he is different from other men, how the middle of a warzone seems to be his place to flourish. He responds that he doesn't honestly know, and she smiles for the first time he has seen, and asks him to simply think about what he could do if he were to embrace his talents. With that, she promptly kisses him (much to Grendel's surprise) and turns around, departing into the crowds with only a single glance back, the smile and the blush still adorning her face.

THE END

Oh yes, the Kill counter on Grendel reads as follows now:

Left Side (Daemons) :

Charnel Daemon Caricature<br>
Three Bloodletter Caricatures<br>
Juggernaut of Khorne Caricature<br>
Unbound Daemonhost Caricature (eyes everywhere, claws for hands, snakes everywhere and had scales)<br>

Right Side (Xenos) :

Beast of Solomon Caricature (mini dune worm with more scales and teeth)<br>
Ork Nob Caricature<br>
Ork Warboss Caricature (complete with Mega Armor)<br>

Additionally, for pulling off the whole 'killed a warboss with his own gun and killed an unbound daemonhost at the same time' and for killing two bloodletters in one hit simultaneously, he got:

1 more fate point

1500 XP for crazy badassery (this is in addition to the experience everone got for all the fights and building collapse and such)

Custom talent 'Fearless of Orks' (Ork fear ratings are ignored)

Grendel's Claw got upgraded for more daemon blood and putting down a few orks, and is now:

A Best Quality Mono Sanctified Knife That can re-roll a missed attack once per round against any foe, and gets another re-roll once per round against Daemons (meaning he needs to miss three times in a row to miss a daemon) and Daemons cannot parry the knife due to its extreme anti-daemon history.

And the love of YET ANOTHER planet. That makes Solomon, Ambulon on Scintilla and Cantus that all know Grendel's name and face and find him awesome.

The GM also said we will soon be having a mini session where Thorians come to investigate Grendel between normal missions, which is only natural considering the shit he pulled off.