Along with the dress clothing were some more instructions. It seemed that Deacon Cornelius would be presiding over the ceremony, and that this would take place in the capitol city of Prospect. It should be a quick mission, only a few days long at most and after that we were to report back here for more orders.

It wouldn’t turn out that way….If only I had known…

The travel went without a hitch, but during the flight I wanted to check up on Cú. We all met on the observation deck to view the world.

Every inch of the world was slate grey. It would have fit a hive world or a forge world but this world wasn’t nearly as developed. It seemed the rocks had a grey quality to it, the buildings, everything. I couldn’t explain it, at a glance there seemed no cause at all.

That distraction aside I approached Cú. I was hoping my slightly drunken rant would have gotten through to him.
“How are you feeling Cú?”
His response was a glare, cold with a hit of sadness. He didn’t answer me he just willed me away.
“Same? Alright.” I let him be. This man fought a carnasaur with his bare hands a few weeks ago. He was the one I looked to for strength and now he had none. I knew nothing of where he came from, but I knew it was alien to my world. All I could do was work with what I did know. Hopefully I could break him out of it eventually.

When we landed we were greeted to wonderful sounds, sights, and a man. He quickly introduced himself as Davien.

“You are the representatives of Saul correct?”
Cú responded quickly “No I thought we were the circus preformors.”
I shot a quick glare to the massive man. Tearing things in half was his area of expertise. It seems being a delegate was something totally unknown to him.
“You’ll have to excuse him”
“No problem at all”

Davien and the world at large had a very easy going attitude. There was music, the city was well lit. Crowds were cheery and happy. There was almost no skull iconography and festive masks were on a good deal of its inhabitants.

This was a funeral world. What was going on here?

>no skull iconography
>Funeral world
>40k

As we were walked we talked. It was really the first group exchange since Uriel joined us.

It went as well as you can imagine

This cannot end well...

It all started when we walked past a ship being unloaded of bodies. Lupus broke his usual silence to make his joy of the grim known. “Maybe those are our friends from Strank.” He smiled at his own joke. Uriel smiled too. Cú, Rip and I weren’t fans for different reasons.

Cú was the first to voice his opinion “They’re in denial”
“I doubt they are in denial, it’s a funeral world after all. It could just be moving on, you should work on that.”
Adding that last part wasn’t the best way to improve his mood on retrospect, but Emperor as my witness, it felt good.
“On my world you do not forget the dead. You do not move on. They can’t come back if you forget them.”
“You’ve seen the dead come back to life?”
“Yes”
“…Am I the only one who hasn’t?”
There was a pause, and then Uriel said all I didn’t want to hear “It would appear so Arbities.”

These people were freaks
“Well it’s not as if the entire population of first colonist are just going to re appear by us consistently thinking about them Cú.”
“Well call me a stubborn barbarian then.”

Davien was talking to himself, giving a tour no one was listening too.

Oh shit i actually get on while Duskwood Hearts is going.

I must say, this is one of the stories that i look forward to reading in the archives, along with DD.

Also, ive based a culture in my DnD game that im DMing off Cu: their warriors are sealed into a ritually made suit of armor, with full steel face masks. They carry stone weaponry, mainly axes, that causes horrible bleeding wounds. They rage for battle, yet are incredibly stealthy. Their clans home is a marsh.

All in all, this story is the goddamn bomb-diggity. Keep rocking!

“The grey color is a quirk to the soil due to the many ores found thought this world. We used to be a mining world. When all the ore was taken away, all we were left with were empty mines thought the planet-”
“Perfect for graves” Cú stated the obvious
“Yes, That’s actually the story here.”
“The Imperium is good at disposing and creating dead bodies”
“What warzones did you come from?”
“The kind you wish you didn’t walk away from”
Davien smiled and went on with his tour, and we went on not listening.

“We should have left that planet in ash.”
“You’re not helping Uriel”
Still, besides the disagreements, this world had a good effect on me. Everything was bright, cheery, and the smell. By the Emperor I could smell all the wonderful food. Having just come from the nauseating world that was Strank, it was indescribable.
“I like it here”
Lupus seemed more focused on that nagging feeling we all had. “They are strangely happy”
Cú however, felt the same as he did before. “They are disgracing the dead. It’s a cruel mocking funeral dirge they play”
“It’s coping”
“It’s denial! When your world burned did you smile to comfort yourself”
With that I was done talking to the savage from Dusk, but Lupus and Uriel were not.
“You just disgraced the man’s home world for one that was not your own!”
“I cannot stress enough that they were heretics”

Shit. Was not alerted to the thread. I'm here now tho. Reading then replying.

I guess this'll just be a sort of "And then hear it all from other pov" deal...

>>12799620
Thanks man. Really, and this is no offence to you Cú, but the tribe is cool, but kinda odd in the world of 40k. They would be really cool in D&D though. Hope your game goes well

Anyway Cú just got online so there will be a pause as he writes up stuff

>>12798995

>If I am to present myself as a potent, skilled, and wary warrior, then ceremonial garb which would preclude my being fully armored or bind my sword arm is out of the question. I rectified the Inquisitor's error by modifying the coat I was sent. The material was simple, useless fabric of little strength and no protective quality, so I discarded the sleeves.

>>12799119

>It would seem the world we were now sent to would be mercifully somber. I'd had quite enough of noise and feverish, thoughtless action to last me one hundred lifetimes and I wanted nothing more than silence.

>Silence would not be what I found there. Even as I gazed down at the nearing planet, I could hear it. This world was not white enough, but its unfeeling, ashen grey boiled with a hidden malice all the same.

>The white, barely hidden, covering every speck of land on the planet. Its quickening, hammering heartbeat diffused, distorted as it reached my ears in its hungering haste. A low, terrible humming, roaring, buzzing sound, spitting the feel of death out at me even as we approached to land on the surface.

Joseph voiced his concern, but I would not lie to him, nor would I worry him further with the truth. I waited silently for him to leave.

>>12799269

>Without the keening of a single woman, with not one broken-hearted brother, father or son. There were so tears, no solemnity, no sorrowful reveries.

>Death was a gaudy, gluttonous festival of denial and aloofness.

>If this is the reward for the greatest servants of the Imperium once gone, then I'd rather die its foe.

>>12799527
>>12799744

>The lover of knives seems to find naught but humor and casual joy in the thought of hundreds of fatherless sons and hollow-eyed widowers.

>The animal seems to accept all this as some sort of terrible gift. To it, the deaths of many are a cause for serene, pious reverie. In its eyes, I can see it. It is pleased... comforted by what it sees here.

>Joseph is slipping. I've not known the man for long, but if the fate of his home hurts him as it does, then he has grown far more numb since then. I just hope it can stop.

>The girl... She's just a child, she holds the greatest promise of maintaining her humanity. If she becomes a beast like us... then I will have failed.

>What happened on Strank will never happen again. Not to any place where my blade hand is found. I will not allow it.

With that there was silence. We had arrived at the hotel and were shown our three rooms. It would be two to a room. Cú would have a room with his wife. Uriel would be rooming with Lupus.

Son of a bitch

Still, for the moment we were all in the center room, what would be Cú and his wife’s. The only problem is, there was no Cú.

“Uriel, where is he?”
“He appears to be in the ally Arbities”
The ally? What was he doing?

I headed down there quickly, and without a word.
Sure enough there he was setting down his gear.
“What are you doing!?”
“I’m going to sleep here tonight.”
“Look, I understand you’re not in the best of spirits, but right now I don’t ca-“
“No, no, It isn’t that. I just feel it is too ironic to wrap myself in a sheet not unlike a funeral shroud after-“
“I don’t care what excuse you’re using. We are here to be an honor guard, representatives of Inquisitor Saul, no one is sleeping in a fucking ally!”
There was a pause and then he begain to repack. “Yes commander.”
I went back inside and slept, praying tomorrow would go better than this current trend.

It got worse. Far, far worse.

>>12800423

>I wanted no part of this sick world's hospitality. I would take the cold honesty of an earthen bed over the offerings of a world which celebrates the death of those they love.

>Joseph would have none of it... I am a warrior; a man of honor and so bound to my word. I called him commander and so he was. I relented.

I awoke to loud music. It seemed a celebration was kicking off outside but I wasn’t quite ready to wake. Suddenly there was screaming and I darted up.

Rip was peeking up from the foot of my bed and looking right at me. Screaming, she was just screaming.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?”
“I don’t know!”

Cú burst through the door, his massive blade chained to his arm and wearing only slacks. Scars covered his body.
“What’s going on?”
“I heard music so I started singing!”
Singing? Is that what she calls singing? Emperor give me strength!
Cú relaxed and laughed as he walked away.
“Well he laughed, I suppose that’s a good sign.”
Rip responded by clapping with joy and bouncing in place
“You are so strange”
“What’s normal?”
“Good point”

replace all allys with alley

I am a fucking moron

>>12800574

Rip screams to sing? Im imagining feedback like what you get when you put a mic near its speaker...shit, that would be horrible to wake up to.

>>12800574

>Leave it to the girl to ruin a perfectly good nightmare. That ridiculous, unstoppably hopeful joy reminds me of Aoífe. I'll need to introduce her to Rip when I see her ag-

>If I see her-

>I will.

>I will.

Aoífe...

I will...

Davien met us in the lobby and told us that there would be a feast later today that we would attend, and then tomorrow around mid day we would get on a train that would take us to the Havlock family tomb. We had the day to ourselves and he recommended enjoying the festivities. I took him up on that offer.

There was much to see and do. Really, compared to Strank this was a dream. I wanted to try my hand at a few games, but unfortunately, dreams have to end.

There was a scream that only a few of us heard. Rip and Uriel were off. Knowing how Uriel is, I quickly followed as I heard a commotion start.

Several people were lying in the street in pain, but with no wounds. I knew instantly this was the work of Uriel and told her to stop. She replied that they were the ones fleeing from the scene and the cause of the original cry. We got them together and I asked what was wrong.

All they could muster was a sheepish finger towards the church. I opened the door and there was the body.

Murder on a funeral world.

I asked the witnesses who this man was and the answer I received was Talis, the local confessor. He was a kind man who would redeem all who asked for it. Why would anyone kill such a man as this? The fact that no one was seen entering or exiting only worried me more.

Rip was as quick as I was and determined the priest’s body to be fresh. I told her to examine the wound as Lupus and Cú went off searching for whoever did it. Uriel was left with the witnesses, but she followed my orders and just watched them.

A note lied near the body of the priest.
“Those who sold their divinity to beggars shal only know death this Holiday”
Rip then informed me the wound was created by a power blade.

This was bad, political murder and with a weapon reserved for the elite.

I wanted no part in this. We were here to be a honor guard not solve a murder.

The local authorities seemed equally distressed to find me there. It seems that they too expected me to take over the investigation but I shocked everyone when I gave them the data and pictures we had taken before gathering the others to depart.

Rip was dead set at solving this case, and the others seemed to have their hearts in it as well, but I informed them we learned all we could, and this was not our job.

>>12801105

>I was not at all convinced that the Inquisitor had not sent us here with the knowledge of some simmering unrest.

>Now I was sure we were emissaries in title only.

>Wherever my blade can be found, I swear that what happened on Strank will not occur again. As a member of this team, I had lost my senses as a hunter, but no more. I recorded imagery of every single inch of ground near the scene. I took note of all conceivably relevant information. Nothing is going to escape me.

As fate would have it the time had come to go to the dinner. Our ride there was luxurious but silence gripped the group. Truly it was hard to go from festivities to investigation and then to a fest, but it’s what we had to do.

The banquet hall was grand beyond anything I could have never imagined. Soon we were seated, and Cornelius, the man who would be in charge of the ceremony tomorrow as well as one of the Deacons of this world, began a grand speech.

I wish I could tell you what he said, but this was the first time quality food had been placed in front of me in a long time. Others were eating as well but the food had a hold over me that it did not have for the others. It was the best food I’ve ever tasted, maybe because of how poor the quality of food was on Strank or maybe their chefs were that good. Either way I was enjoying myself and Cornelius began to greet people from table to table.

I noticed that one of the nobles he greeted was Volpus Havelock, one of the last men left from the withering Havelock line, and relative to the man we would honor tomorrow. I wasn’t able to pick up any other names as Cú pestered me as to why the nobles had other men sample their food. I told him it was to check for poison, but in a setting like this it was more a force of habit than anything. Still, I didn’t see the man touch his plate after that.

When Cornelius came to our table I told him I had matters to discuss with him and he agreed to meet me in another room.

>>12801360

>I decided to make the foolish assumption that I am an unwashed, brain-addled savage work to my advantage. An idiot is far from a threat, and so gathering information would be a great deal simpler without wary eyes on me.

>I was not about to start shoveling likely poisoned food down my throat like a hapless royal making some green assassin's job easier for it. With that thought, I looked to the nobles in the hall. Without fail, they were all employing either a taster or electronic equivalent. I stupidly asked Joseph the meaning behind their behavior in order to call his attention to them without voicing a word of suspicion.

>I then took up "sightseeing", exitedly taking all manner of images with my magnoculars and, showing them to Katherine. I must have appeared to have been positively blown away by the majesty of this dining hall in comparison to my mudball of a home.

In this room were two sororitas, obvious guard for such an important man, and I quickly got down to business.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news at such a feast but Confessor Talis was murdered this morning.”
He didn’t seem surprised. “That is quite unfortunate. Was it done with a power blade?”
“…yes, yes it was.”
He sighed and shook his head “They have been happening each time this festival rolls around. All with the same type of weapon and all with the same note “those who sold their divinity to beggars shal only know death this Holiday”. What a bother.”
This behavior bewildered me. “These happen every time?”
“Oh yes, I think this marks the 7th victim.”
“…Perhaps you should get a guard for your confessors?”
“Nonsense! You have any idea how many confessors are under my branch? These men are all well funded and they can take care of themselves.”
I was lost, with nothing to say
“Well thank you for bringing this to my attention Arbities, but I have guests to entertain. Do enjoy yourself.” Just like that he was gone, and my gaze found itself on the Sororitas.

Wait a second, no, no way. I knew one of them from the Schola! I simply looked at her, shocked when she took notice

Just some clarifications and stuff that was kinda glossed over...

The Holiday they are talking about is the Eve of the Emperors Ascension. On most other worlds this is the day that they give up their tithe to be taken off world, here it is when most of the dead come in and the celebrations are somewhat Akin to the "Day of the Dead" in mexico.

The PC's are in a Hive Like structure, though not of the same magnitude, the planet has no breathable atmosphere.

Also I don't remember him saying that this happened every year :P

>>12802180
well not every year but every celebration. Whatever comes first

>>12802281
I don't think he said every celebration either

But whatever its a minor detail.

>>12802281
>>12802305

I thought it was the last 7 celebrations had had murders like this occurring.

Also, don't shit up this thread, broskis, clarify this shiz on the faecbook.

>>12802388
I'd hardly call this shitting up the thread man. Not like anyone talks during these anyway

“What are you looking at-Joe? Is that you Joe?”
I nodded “Yes it is”
“It’s been quite a while since the Schola. How have you been?”
“Well I’m an acolyte of the Inquisition now, but my comrades…I could spend the next few days describing their insanity…how have you been?”
“I’ve rose in the ranks of the sororitas in service of our God Emperor. My sister here swears by the purity of the flame but I prefer the kick of a bolter.”
“So I take it you’re still a frigid bitch?”
“Depends, are you still a sackless wimp who works with scum?”
I smiled “Good to see you Betty”
She returned the expression “Good to see you too Joe.”
“So, what do you know about these murders?”
“We suspect it might be members of the waylight vigil. They are the ones that primarily deal with the dead and were silver masks over their faces.” I had seen these men when we got off the ship, but I thought nothing of them. “There isn’t any proof though and it could be anyone with a grudge against the way the clergy does things.”

Damn, for the most part that was another dead end. With nothing else to really talk about I took my leave. “Well I got to head back, you two watch yourselves with these murders. I doubt that would help your career if Cornelius died.”
“And you watch who you talk to. I doubt it’d reflect well on Saul if you stuck to your habit of talking to the gutter rats.”

With that I left. I imagined she and the other sister were having quite a conversation about how much of a bitch she was to me in the Schola. Still it’s nice to have contacts in a place like this.

I would talk more but i know shit all about DH...i could talk/stat the guys in my DnD campaign or something if you REALLY need someone to talk during the thread...

We keep silent as its story time but we are here.

I sat back down at the table which was now mostly empty. Karen ate her meal quietly as Cú took all sorts of pictures. Looking for the others I saw Rip at a table talking with another techpriest, while Lupus was talking to Uriel across the room for…some reason. “I wonder why Lupus and Uriel are over there-”
“I’m right here Arbities.” The voice came from her vacant chair. The version standing with Lupus mouthed the words spoken to me. “Those two gentlemen are talking about “heresy hiding in plain sight”. Either they can help us find heretics to purge or they have a warped sense of heresy and must be purged. Lupus intended to listen in on them and needed a cover”

I was talking to a fucking chair.

“I’ll just go over to talk to them.”

I sat down and the two shut up. “How are you doing friends? Joseph Evens” each of them shook my hand as they introduced themselves as Mont and Doyal.

I started to get some small talk going when suddenly they said they needed to depart. It was quite suspicious, but at this time everyone seemed to be leaving too. Lupus followed them out and I think Uriel followed them too but with her powers I could never be sure.

Rip informed me that the techpriest told her about a man named Alrec. This man deals only in power weapons, and would be attending the mass. We could speak to him tomorrow while on route.

Finally we would have a lead.
>to be continued

>>12802493
>>12802537
It's cool bros. I'm well aware the Duskwood heart readers are the strong silent type. Just bringing it up is all.

Anyway cheers for this Duskwood Hearts. More or less as long as the others (average about 7 pages in word) but took alot shorter to post!

I'll write up a NEXT TIME ON right now.
And no me and Rip did not have sex. I was referencing when she yelled at me in the morning. I mislead you because I am deep and good at writing and shit

>URIEL AND LUPUS GET IN DEEP SHIT
>ALL ABOARD THE COAL TRAIN BABY
>TRICKERY, AMBUSH, AND PSYKERS OH MY!
>SOMEONE BURNS A FATE POINT. PIC RELATED

bumped for any that are interested in a read, archived, and I'm going to hit the hay.

Goodnight all, see you next week anywhere from 7pm on

Bump'd like the Fist of the North Star.

So, morning time viewers, all optimistically estimated 2 of you, any comments or questions about Duskwood Hearts or the characters or really anything?