The Bowels of the World

Overview

This is an alternative nexus location for the Lure of the Expanse adventure.

In it, the explorers discover the nexus at their next stop is missing. When they come to hunt for it,
they find that what they thought was a quiet gas giant conceals a vast living artefact from the Dark
Age of Technology, a planet-sized humanoid being. The nexus is somewhere inside it, so they’re
going to have to find a way in.

M-K10/d - a history

Deep amidst the Heathen Stars lies an unremarkable system, labelled as M-K10. Contact was made
by an outlying part of an Explorator fleet several millennia ago, but nothing of note was uncovered,
so it didn’t deserve anything as time consuming as a proper name.

The system itself is relatively barren – a large orange star, its light too weak and dull to provide any
of its orbiting bodies with proper life. There are six planets in all, two tiny chunks of ice in deep orbit,
three near-molten balls of common metal in very close orbit, and a huge blue-green gas giant half
way out. The gas giant has an unusual combination of nitrogen, oxygen, CO2 , and methane that
would ordinarily make it able to support primitive life, but various trace elements are there that
keep the gas totally sterile.

This giant has twin rings of frozen methane and rock debris around it, so it’s at least quite striking.
But none of the minerals or elements detected are anything but cheap and relatively worthless.
There’s nothing here that couldn’t be picked up more cost-effectively close to Footfall.

It was originally in the rings of the gas giant, the planet designated /d by the fleet, that the Eldar hid
one of their nexus temples that portrays a part of the route to the Dread Pearl. Even they could not
foresee what would come next.

There’s Life, Jim

Some forty years ago, however, the gas giant was picked as the perfect location for a heretical
experiment. A Magos, an expert in biomancy and genetic manipulation, arrived here in his Secutor
class monitor-cruiser Fit For Survival. Biomagos Axonander Neulos was the name of this bio-genius.
His particular aim, funded by a rogue tendency established on holy Mars itself, was to create the
perfect lab for the study of virus weaponry.

Using technology that would certainly be counted as heretical, he manufactured a series of cloning
labs in a zero-g environment. In these, he sought to create a viable strain of giant stem cells, free
from the constraints of gravity.
He created stem cells on a scale nobody thought possible – each was larger than a human being, a
swollen blimp of inch-thick membranes and football-sized nuclei. From these stem cells, human
tissue could be grown on an inconceivable scale. You could watch them in action, if suitably
protected in a modified void suit. No more wasting time with microscopes in the lab – modifications
could be made directly, the results recorded and then reverse engineered to normal-size cells.

The inevitable conclusion of these experiments was to grow a batch of the stem cells to full maturity.
Neulos’s cells would thrive in the atmosphere of the M-K10/d gas giant, whose sterile blend of gases
could provide all the building blocks for organic life as well as providing a huge, clean lab space to
work in.

Starting on a tiny lab station hanging inside the planet’s soupy atmosphere, he closely monitored the
progress of his cells as they grew into a city-sized foetus. The lab supplied processed atmosphere
and nutrients through a mighty series of bio-pipes as the gigantic baby grew. And grew. And kept on
growing.

Nature’s Largest Miracle

In time, the foetus reached full maturity – a modified human, of sorts. Larger than the largest hive
cities, this Bioworld (as Neulos named it) dwarfs even the living ships of the Tyranids. It swims in the
atmosphere of the gas giant as though in a warm bath.

The Fit For Survival was dismantled and rebuilt into a laboratory complex, linked round and inside
the creature’s head like a huge gas mask – partly to keep toxic methane out of the creature’s lungs,
but also to act as a base for entering and exploring the creature, and also as a way of feeding it the
myriad tons of vat-cloned meat the station generated to keep it alive.

In order to keep this monstrous creation placid and docile, it became necessary to pith it, i.e. remove
the higher parts of its brain surgically. Part of the skull was even hollowed out and used as a deep
lab, allowing direct access to the cardiovascular system of the titanic being.

In the height of his skill, Neulos used Bioworld as a living lab. Using appropriately bio-engineered
giant bacteria and viruses in strictly controlled tests, he and his team could directly observe the
actions of the body’s immune system against invaders. The sterile atmosphere made for perfect lab
conditions outside the creature, with no micro-organisms to disrupt the investigations. It was of
course necessary to use specially created anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent the creature rejecting
the Skull Lab and the surrounding life support array, but such is Neulos’s expertise in bionics that this
is no problem.

No ailment that Neulos could introduce to his creation was powerful enough to fight off the man-
sized white blood cells that attacked them. Spewing torrents of antibodies and acids, every
megabacterium he could engender was defeated. His team learnt an amazing amount about the way
the body works, and their medicines grew ever stronger.

All this, however, was before the arrival of Gustriculo.

Grandfather’s Footsteps

A few years ago, a small raider vessel dropped out of the warp in system. It launched a small
transport craft and then departed. As this gun cutter arrived at the Skull Lab, it unloaded a most
unexpected cargo - Dusk Raiders space marines. At least, their heraldry proclaimed them as Dusk
Raiders, a long-forgotten chapter with a dark past.

Obviously ill, these marines contacted the lab begging for help. Some mysterious affliction was
decimating them, they desperately needed Neulos’s expertise in immunology. They were welcomed
and told to dock. But even as the station airlock’s routine scans began picking up dangerously high
levels of unknown contaminants, the Dusk Raiders showed their true colours.

Under the command of their sergeant, Gustriculo, the marines cut their way through the airlock
doors before the automated sterilization procedures could complete. Neulos was horrified as his
guests started cutting down any technicians who tried to impede their progress. Their true colours
were revealed – Plague Marines!

As though they already knew every inch of the lab, these toxic crusaders made their way straight to
the Bloodsub dock, where specially designed submersibles could carry scientists into the arteries of
Bioworld. There, they unleashed a toxin so virulent that even Bioworld struggled to contain it.

Neulos was instantly fascinated, forgetting about the plight of his lab as he monitored the progress
of this disease from his heavily isolated central lab. And even more so when Gustriculo voxed him
directly, explaining his mission and why he had come. Grandfather Nurgle had plans for Bioworld.

The instant this treachery became clear, the rest of the station’s crew rebelled, doing their best to
overthrow Neulos and his guests. But these were scientists, not warriors, and they were hopelessly
outgunned. The Skull Labs were damaged in the ensuing fight, much control over Bioworld lost, but
the traitors ended up sole possessors of the lab.

Neulos didn’t go down without a fight, however. As fascinated by the new disease as he was, he was
no chaos renegade. A heretek, perhaps, but he’d always intended his viruses and cures to be used
for good within the Imperium. He managed to seal Gustriculo and his men inside the central lab
areas, even as the lethal plagues the Death Guard brought with them wreaked havoc through the
station.

Bioworld Now

None of the original crew of the Skull Labs have survived the mix of awful diseases Gustriculo
unleashed save Neulos himself. Even he is gravely ill, slowly dying as fungi grow through his liver and
guts. But he has managed to keep the Plague Marines in quarantine, trapped in the centre of the
labs.

Inside the Skull Lab, Gustriculo is still trying to find a way of allowing the gift of Nurgle’s Rot to
overcome Bioworld. If he can do this, he’ll instantly have the largest Plaguebearer in existence!
Neulos has been working on a number of powerful drugs that will help prevent this coming to pass,
reinforcing the lab security systems and even allowing him to direct the immune system army of
Bioworld to an extent. He has, unfortunately, gone completely insane in the process.

The Skull Lab is encysted and under constant siege from the huge white blood cell creatures from
Bioworld, which are desperately trying to destroy the source of the infection. These wandering
protoplasmic blobs ravenously attack any organic life they find, although the lab security systems are
mostly keeping them at bay.

Bioworld’s immune system is ravaged, the huge body clearly ill, but it has not died. The life support
systems that keep it alive still function, but barely. Now it flails at random through the skies of the
gas giant, starving, insane and with a deeply damaged and child-like mind, but too strong to die.
Occasionally, it breaches the atmosphere in its agonies, flailing an arm or a leg out through the
surrounding rings and clutching a fistful of ice and rock back down with it.

In one such spasm, the Eldar Nexus was dragged inside the planet’s atmosphere. There, whilst
chewing on one of its titanic fingernails, Bioworld managed to swallow the nexus whole! It survived
the process, barely, constantly regenerating its structure deep in the acidic conditions of Bioworld’s
stomach.

If the explorers are going to get close enough to read it, they’ll have to get inside the creature
somehow. The Skull Lab is the best and safest way to do this, but obviously not without its own
perils.
Part One – The Eye in the Clouds

Translation

The adventure will begin with the Explorers arriving in the M-K10 system, translating back into real
space at the edge of the star’s gravity well. They’ve got about two days’ of travel (depending on the
speed of their ship) before they’re in decent augury range of the gas giant they’re expecting the
nexus to be on. They know the co-ordinates to head for, and the big grey-green gas giant, M-K10/d is
definitely the place.

The explorers can use this time to further whatever personal projects they’ve got going, or if you
want to add in an encounter using one of their rival Rogue Traders or some passing xenos, this is a
good moment to do it. If you do, keep it fairly low key, something the Explorers can deal with quickly
and effectively.

It’s Watching Us!

Once they’ve reached orbit, the explorers will doubtless call for augury of the planet in some way.
Roll a challenging (+0) scrutiny+detection test for whoever is operating the augur arrays here.

A straight pass will reveal the physical composition of the gas giant (CO2, methane, various common
allotropes of nitrogen and hydrogen, trace minerals) and an unusually high concentration of micro-
organisms in the atmosphere. There’s nothing much of interest in the twin ice rings round the gas
giant.

Passing by one degree or more, though, will give whoever is operating the scanners a glimpse of the
horrific head of Bioworld through the cloudy atmosphere! The bloodshot eyes of the giant are
staring straight up at the ship, the rings of arcane bionics that feed and protect it from the planet’s
atmosphere resembling a spiked metal halo. It’s like looking at a diseased god, the ravages of its
illness clearly visible – a terrible sight. Perhaps the sonar also picks up a monstrous heartbeat, or the
creak of great lungs – whatever you feel most ominous.

If a crew member performed the task, they’ll leap back from the terminal screaming, and need
sedatives in the infirmary to calm down before giving a garbled account of what they saw. If it’s an
explorer, Bioworld seen in this way has the Fear (2) trait.
Hungry?

If they don’t pick it up on the augurs, Bioworld reveals itself in a more spectacular fashion. There’s
nothing more terrifying than seeing a monstrous hand, pitted with boils, reaching out of the gas shell
of a planet to ensnare your ship!

Bioworld is so ponderous, however, that there’s little actual danger unless the explorers are very
slow off the mark, or if they panic.

Anyone on the bridge will need to make tests against Fear (2) as all the warning claxons for
imminent collision start sounding, and the light of the sun is partly blocked by the huge hand
reaching out for them.

The crew will panic, of course, and it could take some difficult command tests to get them back to
their stations, or to avoid morale damage to the crew (around d5 if you’re feeling mean). But unless
something goes really wrong, they’ll be able to manouver out of the way.

If they fire on Bioworld, it will quickly retract, although it’s just too big to hurt badly. The scale of this
creature is preposterous, larger even than the largest void-capable ship. Each joint of its fingers is a
couple of kilometres long, so as powerful as ship weapons are, they don’t really hurt it much. You
may also wish to stress they’re trying to destroy a unique being that could be priceless in the right
hands!

Next Moves

Once they’re aware of Bioworld, they can scan and prepare a report. The sheer size of the creature is
beyond anything ever encountered by an Imperial vessel, but more perplexing is the presence of the
structure round its head. It’s like some terrible orthodontic brace, connected into the tissue and
bone by massive adamantine struts. They look like scaled-up bionic implants, and good scanning will
reveal their nature - a huge rebreather and set of damaged feeding tubes linked to automated
cloning vats of unique design. The explorers will also be able to pick up the metal installations of the
Skull Lab inside the head.

Bioworld is clearly sick, though – massive boils the size of towns cover its skin, which is inflamed and
ravaged. There are grey rivers of pus streaming across the surface here and there, as well as
submerged lakes of dark matter barely visible through the skin.

The explorers will also detect the faint but familiar trace of the Nexus coming from somewhere
inside its bulk.
 Psychic Torment

If anyone attempts to make psychic contact with Bioworld, they won’t

get much sense out of the poor, tormented creature. It suffers from
terrible brain damage, and isn’t really capable of coherent thought.
Alas, something of that size can still generate a powerful empathic
field, loud enough to deafen an unprepared psyker. The visions of pain
and hunger that any psychic contact with Bioworld unleash act as the
Terrify power with a psy rating of 9, enough to break a weak mind.

There’s still power in the labs, with at least one partly functional airlock that a gun cutter or lighter
could land at. The other airlocks are either clogged up with organic matter or lack power.

Impacted in one bay is a badly damaged Arvus lighter. Detailed scans or flybys of this will reveal
some unusual iconography on it – the chapter sigils of the long forgotten Dusk Raiders. Appropriate
Arduous Lore tests (e.g. Heresy, Heraldry, Adeptus Astartes) might reveal that this chapter
subsequently became the infamous Death Guard, and ring a few alarm bells.

Either way, the discovery of Bioworld is an important one that has huge ramifications for trade here
– the Explorers gain 50 achievement points.
Part Two - Injection
The explorers will need a plan of attack. The station does not respond to vox, so they’ll have to make
their own way in.

Once they’re ready, they’ll need to take whatever landing craft they feel is most appropriate and
head for the functioning airlock. The atmosphere is a thick soup that leaves any ship spattered with
streaky organic matter a little like pale seaweed. It disintegrates or slides off as fast as it hits, but
gives the impression of flying through a storm of damp toilet paper.

The airlock is just under Bioworld’s left ear, amidst a thicket of mangy hair. It’s also partly
surrounded by a clotted scab that blocks the docking arms. The scab isn’t particularly tough, but
neither are the age-weakened docks! Shooting the scab away is perfectly acceptable, but requires a
Hard BS test to avoid damaging the infrastructure beneath. Every degree this test is failed by makes
the subsequent piloting test to dock one step harder than it would be otherwise. Failing this will
result in collision and the destruction of the airlock.

The best bet is to get out and manually break away the brown crust that blocks the airlock. This will
take time and any appropriate equipment, but is otherwise straightforward. An alternative approach
might be to clamp on to an alternative airlock (Challenging Scrutiny+Detection test to find one) and
try and restore power (Hard Tech Use), or even cutting through the skin. Either way, once this is
done, it takes a Simple Piloting test to connect up to the airlock and deliver boarders.

Explorers trying to burrow through Bioworld’s skin are asking for trouble. Although it doesn’t do
more than cause the creature an annoyingly painful itch, its solution will be to scratch! The explorers
will get a vox warning from their ship – “It’s probably nothing, Lord Captain, but I’m definitely picking
up movement, you said to keep you informed.” This should be their cue to stop and get out of the
way fast!

If they ignore this warning, allow their work to continue for a while, but then a huge finger will
emerge from the dense clouds and pulverise the area. Any docked small craft will be flattened, any
hovering craft will need some pretty impressive flying (very hard, representing the sheer scale of the
finger) to avoid a 6d10 impact along with a d5 roll on the vehicle crit table. Any diggers on the skin
will get crushed unless they can come up with a pretty impressive plan of escape – they need to burn
Fate Points to survive.

Inside

The corridors beyond the airlock are in a miserable state. Sealed void suits or rebreathers are vital in
here to avoid picking up some contagion or other – anyone exposed to this atmosphere risks this
(see the sidebar ‘Library of Contagion’). Huge flecks of dust drift in the air from wheezing vents,
parts of the floor and walls have been exposed to some kind of powerful acid, and the lights flicker
off and on at random. Now and again, the echoes of autogun fire can be heard, as the automated
security systems fight off Bioworld’s invading immune cells.
Although it’s clear this was some kind of scientific establishment, the place is in disarray. Mostly
through the effects of years of neglect, it would seem. But here and there, a Difficult Search test will
reveal the scars of las and bolter fire on the walls.

Augury will reveal dangerously high levels of microbes in the air, but also that the lab’s life support
systems and security systems are both functioning to a degree. Power spikes can be detected in a
lower level of the lab (the Bloodsub bays) and in a remote and isolated central core, possibly a
command centre. Both are a good two hours travel through a warren of smashed-up labs.

Library of Contagion

The atmosphere inside the lab is a deadly haze of diseases.

Anyone exposed to it, breathing it in or getting holes in
whatever protective gear they’re wearing risks catching
something really nasty, and should make a Difficult Toughness
test for every full half hour they’re exposed. Don’t flag up the
risk of disease for the explorers too much, they should have
already picked up on the risk from the diseased appearance of
Bioworld. If they take their helmets off, they deserve what’s
coming to them!

The effects won’t kick in for a couple of days, by which time

they’ll probably be off Bioworld. At that point, though, they’ll
start taking a d10 wounds unmodified for toughness or armour
every day until somebody manages to cure them with a Difficult
Medicae test. Even after that, they’ll need to make a second
Difficult Toughness test or lose 5 points of Toughness
permanently. Make sure you give this an appropriately grisly set
of symptoms – coughing up blood, huge open ulcers, etc.

Keep track of which characters have picked something up –

unless the explorers think of quarantining them when they
return to their ship, they’ll quickly spread the infection on board.
This can devastate crew morale and numbers, losing the ship d5
of both every day until successfully stopped. This will require a
Taxing Investigation challenge, with potentially dire results for
failure! Of course, the Rogue Trader can quarantine a whole
section of the ship or expose it to the void. See the rules for fires
on p223 for suggestions on how to handle this.
Anyone tapping into the security net will discover that there are multiple gun turrets and remote
servitors still active, as well as a network of sealed bulkheads. The cogitator powering this is a very
old design and will impose Arduous penalties on anyone trying to interface with it. This penalty can
be reduced by a successful Hard Forbidden Lore (Archeotech) check, with each degree of success
reducing the penalty by one step.

There is no trace of the original occupants of the labs – roaming

megaphage cells have long since dealt with any organic material in
here. Most of the equipment is trashed or incomprehensible, but
anyone with an appropriate background would realise these were
extensive medical labs designed to examine microbes. Every hour
spend on Challenging Search tests will allow explorers to find
medically-themed equipment at the GM’s discretion, although failing
these tests will turn up deadly megaphages instead (see appendix).

Rejection

If the explorers are willing to risk moving through the lab complex while the security systems are still
active, they’ll be mistakenly identified as megaphages and attacked. You could throw a group of
servitors armed with flamers and shock gloves at them (use the profile for a servitor drone on p376
of the rulebook – these have been hastily repurposed from their original tasks by Neulos rather than
being full combat servitors), or have nests of twin-linked autogun turrets (see appendix) open up on
them as they try to cut through a sealed bulkhead. Either way, it’s a difficult and arduous trek to
their next location.

If they turn the security systems off, however, they’ll be throwing the lab open to attack from
megaphages. They’ll encounter their first taste of these horrors at some point on their way down –
one is a good start, but add another each time they run into more.

Whatever their final destination, it’s a Simple Exploration challenge to reach it and takes about two
hours.

The Bloodsub Bays

If the explorers head for the Bloodsub bays, they’ll descend via a series of lifts and hatches to the
overhead gantries. Below, they’ll see a huge hangar-like room, not dissimilar to the cargo bays of
their own ship. A maze of narrow walkways hangs above twelve huge dry docks, each with a power
field erected across the bottom. Five of these docks have a vessel sitting inside them, something that
looks like a small, deep crimson, tear-drop-shaped submarine. A sixth bay contains a wrecked
bloodsub, broken and hulled. The entire room echoes to the powerful thrub of Bioworld’s
bloodstream, imposing a -10 to any auditory-based Awareness tests whilst in here.
The power fields in some of the bays are a little faulty, and occasionally flip off for a second or two.
This allows the high-pressure blood on the other side to surge alarmingly upwards – the explorators
will be able to see the huge, sofa-sized red blood cells bumping against the walls of the bay,
surrounded by pale yellow serous fluid. But they can also see a few Megaphages roaming the bay
floor –more if they’ve turned the security off.

If the security is on, there is a group of full battle servitors (standard profile on p376 of the core
rules, armed with shock gloves and flamers) on patrol. Their route is pre-programmed, so sneaking
past shouldn’t be too hard (especially with the covering noise of the heartbeat). Then it’s just a
question of requisitioning a sub to reach their destination. But their progress will be watched by
Neulos– see the sidebar for how he’ll respond to intruders.

If the security is off, the explorers will attract an increasing number of megaphages as they try to
activate a sub. Run this as an escalating battle, aiming to keep the pressure building as they try and
fend off a swelling hoard while the sub preps.

Prepping a Bloodsub takes some time. The cogitator arrays that get the subs ready for action take
twenty minutes to complete cycling, although they’re easy enough to use (Challenging Tech Use or
Security tests set them going). The sub hatches are heavily locked, and there’s no way of getting into
one until the prep is done short of blowing a hole in the sides. You can use this time to throw
Megaphages or the servitor patrol at the explorers, or allow them a bit of breathing room if they’re
already cut up.
Magos Neulos

One of the greatest minds of his generation, Neulos is marked as a renegade thanks to his
experiments on the human genome. Since losing the bulk of his lab and almost all his research
to the predations of the Plague Marines, he’s become increasingly erratic in his thinking. He’s
also slowly dying of an appalling fungal infection of his guts. Curing it would take advanced
treatment, which he might be able to get in his lab.

He’s now a little insane. Indeed, his appearance will do little to put any suspicious explorers at
ease – he’s clad in a number of stained and discoloured robes, and his machine-enhanced body
is a rusty mess. Small clouds of dirty smoke puff out of his joints as he moves, and his skin,
where visible, is filthy and inflamed. Worse, he’s taken to counting the seconds of his survival in
a rasping monotone whenever he’s not actually speaking, an unnerving tally that might remind
you of a Plaguebearer if you’ve met one. He’s up to 157 796 342.

However, Neulos actually remains loyal to the Emperor. He’s sadder and wiser than he once
was. He still rails furiously at the injustice of being made a heretic, but he might admit that some
things are better left alone.

If the explorers have turned off his security systems, he’ll confront them angrily as they’ve
risked letting the Plague Marines out. Backed by his patrol of combat servitors, he’ll be a
dangerous foe. He’ll still give them one chance to explain and the option to help him take back
his lab, although he’ll definitely meet force with force.

Otherwise, he’ll watch for as long as he can and try and work out who these people are and
whether they will help him. If they approach a Bloodsub or fight off a Megaphage, he’ll
approach them to parlay; if they attack his patrolling servitors, he’ll be hostile.

He wants is the destruction of Gustriculo and the chance to then examine the latest batch of
virus, L4DD/9x, to prepare a cure for it. He also needs access to the central labs in order to try
and heal himself, but he won’t want to admit he’s ill, he thinks he’ll seem weak. This may make
his requests seem suspicious, as he won’t say why he wants to get in there so badly.

His aid will come in the form of properly identifying them on the security grid, and giving them a
proper briefing about what to expect in the bowels of Bioworld. He can even prep and pilot a
Bloodsub for them, which will take half the normal time and save the players having to make
their exploration challenge to navigate the bowels, as he knows exactly where the temple is. He
can also provide 5 doses of cellular repellants, spray-on chemicals that cause anyone using them
to be invisible to Megaphages for 10 minutes.
Skull Labs Central

The explorers may decide to investigate the central command centre. This is where Gustriculo
continues his dark experiments. He’s currently deeply involved with incubating his latest virus,
L4DD/9x, or Necrotizing Sarcophage. The monitoring is so involved that he’s oblivious to new
arrivals, unless they’ve done something stupid like turn off the security systems.

If he’s still unaware, the explorers can reach the fortified entrance hatch to the central lab without
additional challenge. It’s set in the floor of a large chamber, and has been sprayed repeatedly with
iodine, giving it a streaky brown rusted look. There’s also what could be a protective hexagram
scrawled on the floor. It’s Neulos’s attempt to ward the hatch, although it’s completely ineffectual.
But it definitely looks like someone’s gone to some effort to seal this place off.

The security systems here are isolated from the rest of the complex here, and can’t be accessed.
Bypassing the hatch requires a total of six Difficult Security checks; if any of these are failed by three
or more degrees, or if anyone begins cutting or attacking the hatch, a trio of twin-linked heavy bolter
turrets will pop out of the ceiling and begin firing until destroyed or until the room is scoured of life.
Neulos can provide a code for it, though, if the explorers are intending to go in and deal with the
Plague Marines.

Beyond the hatch is the source of all Bioworld’s misery – the labs of Neulos, converted to a veritable
factory of disease. Gustriculo is here, labouring for Nurgle. See sidebar for suggestions as to how
he’ll respond to the intruders, but in essence once this hatch is open, the players will bump into him
at some point, as he’ll certainly head for the Bloodsub bay to finish off Neulos and let his virus loose
on Bioworld.

If they manage to destroy Gustriculo, then the options of reclaiming the lab are now open to them,
and should be worth 175 achievement points. But if Neulos is dead, subtract 100 points as much of
the labs secrets will be lost without his expertise.
Gustriculo

This sergeant of Nurgle’s chosen marines is the last survivor of his combat team. The rest have
either succumbed to wounds received as they seized the labs or been killed by security systems
or giant immune cells since then. Gustriculo is a in a good humour, for all this – he knows he has
all the time in the world to continue his sacred task, perfecting an unstoppable virus.

The huge count of micro-organisms in the planetary atmosphere is down to his activities – for
the last few years, he’s been learning the controls in the lab so that he can pump newly
fabricated diseases into the lab vents or straight into Bioworld’s body. It’s a matter of time
before he gets Nurgle’s Rot to take. In fact, it’s a miracle this hasn’t happened already. Perhaps
Bioworld, as a miraculous product of the science of Mars, is afforded some of the Emperor’s
protection in some way.

The champion is totally confident in his own prowess. In fact, a Rogue Trader is an opportunity.
Uniquely, Gustriculo’s appearance is relatively unscathed by his illnesses, which are mostly
internal. From the outside, he looks like a rather battered Dusk Guard Space Marine in antique
armour. There isn’t really much to identify him as Death Guard, which is unusual.

His plan will be to plead ignorance of the entire Horus Heresy, claiming his battle barge was lost
in the warp and washed out here. He alone of his men survived the plague that devastated
them, and he’s used the lab here (set up by a heretical renegade trying to devise foul viral
weapons) to try and find a cure. Now he has! And if the explorers will help him defeat the
heretek and then return the cure to Imperial space, they’ll be rewarded by his chapter’s
masters.

All just about plausible – all lies. The phials he offers will be filled with his latest virus, the lethal
L4DD/9x, and are extremely fragile. Anyone trying to open them or mishandling them in any
way will effectively unleash the equivalent of a virus torpedo (see Battlefleet Koronus p8 for
ideas) in their vicinity. If they let him on board their ship, he’ll be releasing phials all over the
place as quickly as he can!

The dilemma for the players is clear – do they trust the wretched, wheezing Heretek whose
security system has probably already tried to kill them, or this apparently genuine servant of the
Emperor and his generous offers?

The only flaw in his lies is that he won’t refer to the Emperor in any way, as the name is painful
to him. Canny explorers may spot this in conversation. If called out, Gustriculo is more than
willing to fight. He’s a very dangerous foe, so wise Rogue Traders may try and plot ways of
tricking him into a trap or dealing with him indirectly. Depending on the power of your group,
you may well want to let these succeed, he’s quite capable of wiping them out if they’re
inexperienced!
Part Three – A Voyage of Fantastic Discovery
Once a Bloodsub is prepped and everyone’s on board, the pilot simply hits a release button to be
dropped into the bloodstream. Stats for this unusual vehicle are given in the appendix, if you’re
using the rules in Into the Storm. They’re designed to be able to navigate around inside Bioworld
safely, and have a set of powerful defences designed to help protect against the huge body’s
immune system or any rogue bugs.

They’re fairly easy to pilot, following a rather antique but recognisably standard Imperial pattern.
However, the conditions in the bloodstream are pretty dangerous. The flow proceeds at several
hundred miles an hour, and for a rookie pilot, it’s tough not to end up embedded in a vein wall! The
Bloodsub will be flung around in turbulence as it makes its first entry, and whoever is driving it will
need to make a Challenging Piloting test to prevent everyone being flung violently around. This
inflicts Ordinary Toughness tests on everyone on board, otherwise they’ll be stunned for d5 rounds.
If this includes the pilot, the sub will almost certainly crash unless someone else can stabilize it!

Once they’re the right way up again, the explorers simply need to plot a course through the body to
reach the depths of the stomach and the nexus. This will require the sub making a few transits
between body spaces using its burrowing abilities, but for any explorer with medical knowledge,
plotting a course shouldn’t be too hard.

This counts as a Taxing exploration challenge, except that Navigation is a useless skill unless anyone
has spent points in Navigate Giant Human Body! Instead, the Medicae skill can be used as an
equivalent.

If this gets botched, i.e. the explorers end up needing twelve or more degrees to pass, they’ll have
spent so long wandering about that the Bloodsub will start getting dangerously low on fuel. They’ll
need to return to the Skull Labs and dock immediately, or risk ending up trapped deep in Bioworld
with no power. Alternatively, run a combat with a Gigaclast instead – these even larger immune
system cells are a real threat to a Bloodsub (see appendix).
Obtaining the Reading

Once they reach the stomach, they’ll be able to get readings on the nexus. The wraithbone structure
is partly damaged, but has lodged itself into the side of gut wall. There, the wraithbone has begun
anchoring it into the tissue, although at the same time, the tissue is trying to grow over it and absorb
the temple. As a result, it’s only partly visible, a portion of the base poking out of a grotesquely
swollen mass in the side of the gut.

The map is located inside the upper storey of the temple, but the Bloodsub won’t be able to get
them inside. It’s too big, and lacks digging tools powerful enough to break wraithbone. Worse, its
protective electrohull makes it impossible to take a psychic reading through. The explorers will need
to suit up and make the trip themselves.

This is extremely hazardous! The stomach is a powerfully acidic environment, and anyone with a
breached suit will be digested in short order. There are two specialised wetsuits with rebreathers in
the sub’s diving bay. These protect from acid; they also come with a combi-weapon, an all-in-one
shock prod and biopsy scoop called an Endodermal Puncher (see appendix) built into the arm. For
most other diving gear, though, every ten minutes spend in the acid soup will reduce the armour
points of whatever is worn by one. Anything reaching zero is temporarily useless, and will require an
Upkeep Test afterwards to avoid being permanently destroyed.

It takes about five minutes to swim up to the map chamber, which has the standard appearance of
any of the nexuses, and five back. Making the reading takes ten, so most suits will just about be able
to take it (providing the reading goes well). Alas, it’s never that easy.

Megaphages are constantly attacking the inside of the temple. The interior is full of craters, with
megaphages lurking inside, chewing on the walls. They’ll emerge to attack anyone entering the
temple. There should be two for each explorer entering the temple (more if they’ve already
encountered a lot and are covered in pheromones). Moving about will require Agility tests to
represent swimming through the stomach juices, which are at least clear enough to see through
fairly well.

Most weaponry is not well adjusted for firing whilst submerged in acid! Endodermal Punchers will
work fine, as will any melee weapon with a power field. Anything else risks being dissolved. All other
weapons (unless the explorers come up with cunning solutions) count
as being Unreliable whilst in the stomach conditions. If they jam during
this time, the explorer will need to make an upkeep test after combat
or risk having his previous guns turn to digested sludge!

If you’re feeling particularly vindictive, or they’ve somehow romped

through everything so far, you could drop a Gigaclast on the waiting
Bloodsub, just to keep the pilot entertained.
Rest and Digest

Once they’ve got the reading, the explorers can make their way out however they like. If they want
to pilot a Bloodsub to the skin and get picked up, that’s fine, but might need an exploration
challenge to find a route. If they return through the Skull Labs, they may well find more megaphages,
ramped up security or even the horrible masters of Bioworld, depending on what you feel they can
swallow at this point. But they’ve got what they came for, and should be fairly free to leave,
depending on what other plans they’ve got to profit from their amazing discovery.

There are many unique resources that Bioworld could provide, and you should reward creative
thinking on the part of your players. Most of them, however, require the assistance of Neulos if they
are to be viable. A few suggestions are appropriating the cloning vat technology that feeds Bioworld,
to feed your entire crew with limitless suspicious-but-nutritious pale brown meat; taking samples of
the many diseases in the central labs as weapons for the Imperium; capturing Megaphages for the
beast markets of the Koronus sector; perhaps even setting up a new scientific mission to the gas
giant. Whatever they decide, play them out in whatever way seems best to you and your group’s
style. Achievement points could be in the region of around 300 points.

Experience points

Establishing any kind of long term profit from Bioworld: 100xp

Getting through the labs without deactivating the security systems: 50 xp

Defeating Gustriculo: 100 xp

Restoring control of the Lab to Neulos: 100 xp

Capturing a phial of L4DD/9x safely or getting an unbroken sample to Neulos: 100 xp plus 75
achievement points
Appendix

Megaphage

Each of these immune system cells acts both as forward guard and sentry, rushing into breaches of
the body, attacking intruders and raising a powerful pheromonal alarm to attract its colleagues.
Resembling a huge flaccid sack of yellowish slime, they move like amoebas, slithering and changing
form with horrible ease. They can spray acids or thresh with heavy rubbery pseudopods.

WS BS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel

45 05 50 45 (8) 58 05 60 50 01

Movement: 5/10/15/30 Wounds: 30

Skills: Awareness+10, Climb +10, Contortionist +20, Silent Move +10, Tracking +10
Talents: Cellular (*), Dark Sight, From Beyond, Regeneration (3), Strange Physiology, Sturdy, Toxic,
Unnatural Senses, Unnatural Toughness (x2)
Size: Hulking
Armour: None
Weapons: Caustic Spray (as flamer, 20m; S/-/-; 1d10+4 E; Pen 2; Never needs to reload; Toxic
instead of Flame) or Pseudopod (Melee; 1d10+5 I; Pen 0; each hit releases cellular attractants – see
below)
Special:
Cellular – Megaphages move with all the benefits of being crawlers but none of the penalties. They
can also burrow effortless through Bioworld tissues.
Don’t Like It Up ‘Em – Every time a Megaphage is hit by a shocking weapon, it must take a
Challenging WP test or flee from combat for one round per degree of failure.
Cellular Attractants – every time an opponent is hit in close combat, there’s a 10% chance of a new
Macrophage being drawn to the area and attacking that combatant in the following round. This is
cumulative with each subsequent hit to a maximum of 50%)
Neulos

This Magos is a shadow of his former self. Wracked with a foul fungal illness, his mechanical
implants puff clouds of spores, he’s streaked with rust and congealed oils, and hides his
poisoned body under several layers of filthy, ragged cloaks. He constantly mutters numbers
to himself, counting the seconds of his survival. Worse, his self-improvements will mark him
as a mutant in the eyes of many, less progressive Imperials.

WS BS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel

35 45 30 45 30 55 35 40 20
Movement: 3/6/9/18 Wounds: 23
Skills: Awareness (per), Chem-Use (Int), Common Lore (Machine Cult, Mutants, Tech, Xenos)(Int),
Dodge +10 (Ag), Drive (Bloodsub)(Ag), Forbidden Lore (Archeotech) +20 (Int), Logic +10(Int), Medicae
+30 (Int), Pilot (Voidship)(Ag), Scholastic Lore (Beasts, Chymistry, Philosophy) +20 (Int), Speak
Language (Low Gothic) Int, Secret Tongue (Tech) (Int), Tech-Use +20 (Int), Trade (Chymist) +10 (Int)
Mutations: Feels No Pain, Tough Hide
Talents: A Machine of Flesh (3), Basic Weapon Training (Universal), Binary chatter, Chem Geld,
Concealed Cavity, Electro-graft Use, Feedback Screech, Luminen Charge, Luminen Shock, Master
Chirurgeon, Mechanicus Implants, Mechadendrite Use (Utility, Weapon, Medicae), Meditation,
Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Nerves of Steel, Prosanguine, Resistance (Poison), Rite of Awe,
Sonar Sense, Technical Knock, Natural Armour (2), Iron Jaw
Armour: Tough Hide (2 all), Good quality enforcer light Carapace armour (6 all)
Weapons: Assault stubber with toxic shells (100m; -/-/6; 1d10+4 I; Pen 3; Clip 200; Rld 2 Full; Storm,
Toxic), 3 Choke Grenades, Power Axe (1d10+7 E; Pen 7; power field, Unbalanced)
Gear: Electro-graft, Electoo inductors, Respirator Unit, Cyber-mantle, potential coil, cranial circuitry,
Medicae and Utility mechadendrites, Vox implant, Augmented Senses (sight)

Security Turret

These tough little contraptions are very hard to spot before they deploy. Little more than a pair of
guns linked to a targeting cogitator, they fire relentlessly until running out of ammo. In the Skull
Labs, they’re usually deployed in pop-up hatches, arranged in groups of three with overlapping fields
of fire.

BS WS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel

45 0 0 30 n/a n/a 50 n/a n/a
Wounds: 20
Talents: Rapid reload, strange physiology
Armour: 10 AP
Weapons: Either twin-linked autoguns (90m; S/3/10; 1d10+3 I; Pen 0; Clip 30; Rld 2 Full; twin-linked)
or twin-linked heavy bolters (120m; -/-/10; 2d10+2 X; Pen 5; Clip 60; Rld Full; twin-linked, tearing)
Gear: 3 clips of ammo in drum
Gustriculo

With thick black hair and a perpetually amused expression on his swarthy face, Gustriculo
could easily be mistaken for an ordinary member of the Adeptus Astartes. He is clad in dull
white power armour of very antique design. The entire right arm is crimson, as are both
shoulder plates. His insignia is that of the long vanished Dusk Raiders, a skull on crossed
lightning bolts. This is a deliberate piece of subterfuge – Gustriculo is masquerading as one
less tainted than he actually is. Beneath his armour, his frame is wracked with metabolic
illnesses, but his constant cheery optimism makes him seem far less sick than he is. He is, like
any Plague Marine, at once obsessed with death and illness and quite blasé about both.

WS BS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel

53 43 45 (10) 55 (15) 40 30 30 45 25
Movement: 5/10/15/30 Wounds: 36
Skills: Awareness (per), Command (Fel) +10, Deceive +10 (Fel), Dodge (Ag), Forbidden Lore
(Daemons, Warp) (Int), Intimidate (S), Literacy (Int), Speak Language (Low Gothic) (Int), Survival (Int),
Swim (S), Tracking (Int)
Talents: Astartes Weapon Training, Crippling Strike, Fearless, Hatred (Loyalists), Heightened Senses
(Sight, Sound, Touch), Jaded, Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Swift Attack
Traits: Dark Sight, Size (Hulking), Stuff of Nightmares, Toxic (1d10), Unnatural Strength (x2),
Unnatural Toughness (x3)
Armour: Astartes Power Armour (Body 10, all others 8)
Weapons: Astartes Chainsword (1d10+14 R; Pen 4; Balanced, Tearing), Astartes Bolt Pistol (30m;
s/3/-; 2d10+5 X; Pen 5; Clip 12; Reload Full; Tearing), Astartes Bolter (100m; S/3/-; 2d10+5 X; Pen 5;
Clip 28; Rld Full; Tearing), Plague Knife (1d10+10 R; Pen 2; Toxic)
Gear: 1 bolt pistol mag, 1 bolter mag, 5 phials of L4DD/9x – may be thrown as Toxin grenades, but
he’s not proficient with them
Special: Garrulous – Gustriculo is over-talkative, and must take a Hard WP test to avoid giving up
information when asked. He’s also addicted to drinking samples of virus, although this is unlikely to
come into play often in the game. Beneath his armour is the Mark of Nurgle, and his corruption level
(100) may be detected by certain psychic powers.

Gigaclast

Gigaclasts correspond roughly to a T-cell in a normal human body. Somewhat larger than a Land
Raider tank, they appear as translucent, purplish, jelly-like protoplasms. Their external membranes
bristle with hooked hairs and protein spikes, through which they can excrete acids and enzymes.
Their internal structures can be seen clearly – pulsing sacs of fluid and fat, and the huge black spiky
mass of their nucleus.

Type: Gargantuan Cell

Tactical Speed: 18m/20 AUs
Cruising Speed: 40 kph
Manoeuvrability: +20
Structural Integrity: 20
Size: Enormous
Armour: All 15
Carrying Capacity: Nil
Crew: Nil
Weapons: Acidic Pseudopods (requires an opposed Piloting test to get in range and deploy, each
degree of success it beats the target by inflicts d10+2 damage with Pen 5 as well as a 10% of
attracting a second Gigaclast to the fight next round. This chance is cumulative with each hit)
Special Rules: They aren’t really vehicles at all, and move instinctively through the fluids and tissues
of Bioworld. Due to their unique internal structure, critical damage against them is always halved,
and will need alternative narration! They are also immune to crashing damage whilst inside
Bioworld, and can move as easily in blood as any other tissue. They also have the same don’t like it
up em rule as a Megaphage, so can be driven off by shocks.

Bloodsub

Slightly longer and slimmer than a Rhino APC, this aquatic vehicle has a reflective ceramic exterior
made up of polished tiles, each crimson in colour. The bows of each ship are heavy with folded
manipulator arms, medical augury probes, mechandendrite arrays and burrowing equipment. It
otherwise resembles an ancient Terran submarine. Their holds can carry an array of exploration
equipment, as well as a few extra observers, who can watch the fascinating surroundings through a
row of portholes. This is especially exciting when the surreal creatures of Bioworld attack your sub.

Type: Intracellular Submersible (unique)

Tactical Speed: 20m/22AUs
Cruising Speed: 45 kph
Manoeuvrability: -10
Structural Integrity: 25
Size: Enormous
Armour: Front, sides 25 rear 20
Carrying Capacity: 5
Crew: Pilot
Weapons: 8 Biopsy probe needles (3d10 + 10, look like huge missile-sized harpoon torpedoes, fired
by anyone in the observer bay), electrohull (2d10 damage to anything hitting the exterior)
Special Rules: These subs are specially designed to move through the giant tissues of Bioworld. They
use extending spatula arms to push through groups of cells, allowing the sub to leave a blood vessel
and burrow. Doing so halves the speed of the sub temporarily – make a Challenging piloting test.
Every degree of failure results in one round of slowed movement. The electrohull can be turned on
and off by the pilot; while it’s on, psychic communication with the outside world is virtually
impossible.
Endodermal Puncher

Built into the right arm of the specially adapted wetsuits Skull Lab science crew would use for trips
outside their Bloodsubs, these machines can be used either as an electrified prod to discourage
cellular attack or needle launcher firing 12” hypodermics to obtain biopsies or inject toxins. Either
function may be used in a single turn, but not both. It’s quite possible to remove them from the
wetsuit and use them separately, but they’re effectively a xenos exotic weapon either way. A single
reload clip for the needle launcher is built into the back of the gun.
Needle Launcher – SP basic weapon, 10m range, RoF S/-/-, 1d10+4 R, Pen 3, Clip 3, Reload half, toxic
or tearing (choose when firing)
Shock Probe – 1d10 I damage, Pen 0, shocking
Weight 3kg, Almost Unique.