Miasma of Pestilence: August 2015

Methuselah is an abhuman, sub-designation: Beastman. He also has the dwarfism genetic disorder, which means he has a stunted stature. He also carries the extremely rare 'Pariah' gene, which makes him effectively a psychic 'blank', with a naturally occurring sphere of 'null' influence about his person. Psykers find his close proximity to be unbearable, and will find themselves cut off from the warp and their mind powers whilst within his sphere of influence.

Sadly, it is not only psykers that find carriers of the 'Pariah' gene repellent. Other individuals find it incredibly difficult to be in the close presence of these poor wretches, but are unable to explain exactly why. Certainly in such semi-primitive societies (such as those of the sub-designation: Beastmen), for an individual such as this to survive to adulthood is rare in the extreme. Firstly, given his physical disability alone, it would be a normal cultural practice for such a creature to be abandoned in the deep wilderness soon after birth, to live or die as fate sees fit. Secondly, given his genetic 'gift', I would hypothesise that his mother would have been left severely mentally disturbed by carrying such a child to term. Even were the mother to survive the extreme mental trauma of birthing a child of this nature, how would she then be able to love and nurture him?

It is said that only other 'Pariahs' are able to easily tolerate each other's company. Although given the scarcity of this gene throughout the human population of the galaxy, the likelihood of such 'Pariahs' crossing paths is negligible. They are however a useful resource, and can sometimes be found in personal retinues of Inquisitors, where their null presence is a viable anti-psyker defence. Other applications for their unique talents have included induction into the Assassinorum as designation: Culexus.

Given the practical applications of such individuals, a delimiting device used to suppress the sphere of their null influence was developed by {name redacted} in the year of our Holy Emperor {redacted}. This particular individual has been lucky enough to be fitted with such a device after finding service in the personal retinue of Inquisitor Daubenton.

However, the previous experience of a life of extreme loneliness and rejection has resulted in this poor wretch becoming bitter and distrustful in the extreme of all but his closest confederates (Daubenton et al), who hold him in special esteem. He has been schooled, and is literate, numerate, and understands many of the societal niceties habitual hygienic practice that seem to escape the vast bulk of sub-designation: Beastman.

At the weekend, I went to Nottingham to visit my friend Tim (aka Fulgrim from the Tears of Isstvan blog - which is currently on hiatus). One of the things we got up to, asides from over-eating and enjoying a few drinks was to have a little tabletop encounter. We'd booked the Zone Mortalis themed table at Warhammer World, and we quickly devised a simple encounter using the Necromunda rules as a rough basis, and playing in a narrative style.

The table was to represent the bowels of an allegedly abandoned Mechanicum facility, which my crew were to attempt to infiltrate in order to investigate reports of some form of tech heresy. However, unbeknownst to my own Inquisitor, there was another Inquisitorial presence in the area entering into negotiations with the resident Mechanicum Tech Priest...

My crew split into two smaller teams, and began their infiltration. One team was headed by Inquisitor Daubenton, and included a mystic, a beastman with a las pistol, a beastman with a flamer, a guardsman with a camo cape and sniper rifle, and lastly a guardsman with an auspex and las gun. The other team consisted of a Tech Priest, a gun servitor and a guardsman with a pair of auto-pistols.

Tim was controlling the renegade Tech Priest, who was accompanied by slow moving battle robot, and two Mechanicum 'centaurs' (these models recently featured in a Blanchitsu article, by the way - very cool and very nice indeed!). Tim also had control of his own Inquisitor, who in a similar manner to Ravenor from the Dan Abnett books had psychically taken possession of another form, in this case a cherubim. The cherub was accompanied by a psyber-mastiff and three veteran guardsmen with las rifles.

The first few turns consisted of my crew infiltrating the complex in a two pronged attack, my Tech Priest broadcasting scrap code in an attempt to mask his movements, and override and sentry alarms and auto-defences, while my other little team infiltrated from the other flank, scanning for and avoiding sentry alarms and auto-defences. In the meantime, Tim's inquisitor and the renegade tech priest continued their negotiations, making leadership tests to see if they trusted each other.

Soon enough I triggered an alarm, which led to some distrust between the renegade tech priest and Tim's inquisitor. After some nail-biting leadership tests, they'd convinced each other that neither were responsible for the disturbance... The renegade began to scan the facility for intruders. Around this time, my own tech priest's scrap code broadcasts were detected, and the centaurs moved off to investigate. Simultaneously, Tim's small inquisitorial team moved off to investigate the traces of other intruders.

All the while, my infiltration attempts continued until violent contact between the forces was finally made...

I had set my gun servitor to over-watch. It's heavy bolter took down one of the centaurs, before jamming. The second centaur promptly ran down the servitor with it's explosive tipped lance, before proceeding to steamroller the guardsman with the paired auto-pistols.

Prior to the start of the game, we'd agreed that my scrap-code emitting tech priest would have a sphere of influence limited to the tile he was occupying, and that enemy mechanicum constructs would need to pass a leadership test or be forced to withdraw from that tile. If they passed, they would become frenzied. This led to some interesting behaviours for the centaurs, who were alternating between being overcome by scrap-code, or being enraged by it. This did result in my tech priest leading them a merry chase around the board until the renegade tech priest interfaced with the complex and ensnared my own priest with mechandendrites. We then commenced an epic battle of wills (using opposed leadership tests), as the two tech-priests tried to overcome each other through the network. Scrap-code and tech viruses were pushed back and forth until several consecutive failed leadership rolls from Tim's priest saw my scrap-code attack push through into his priest...

In the mean time, the inquisitorial forces had joined battle at a junction of corridors, and a fierce fire fight developed from a Mexican standoff scenario. The psyber-mastiff attacked the flamer wielding beastman, and a grueling contest of strength ensued, the raging hound eventually proving victorius.
My camouflaged sniper managed to knockdown one of the veterans, before the remaining beastman was iced. In the confusion, the cherub failed to control the mind of my sniper and suffered a perils of the warp attack.

The guard with the auspex knocked down another veteran with a well-placed shot from behind, and advanced up the corridor. The sniper knocked down the remaining veteran, and the cherub made a strategic withdrawal, leaving the veterans to bleed out or escape on their own. Life is cheap in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, dontcha know...

Meanwhile, the robotic construct went into bodyguard mode, protecting Tim's priest and taking down my auspex carrying guardsman (who had just given coupe de grace to one of Tim's fallen vets). My sniper moved up to a key vantage point and drew a bead on the robot.

Whilst all this action was taking place, my Inquisitor and mystic crept up on the interfacing renegade priest from another direction, causing confusion in the robot's defensive programming. It eventually decided these two new threats were greater and moved to engage, leaving my sniper free to take aim at the renegade priest...

The mystic soon met a grizzly end at the hands of the robot, who consecutively ended up being reduced to sparking scrap by my inquisitor's power sword. All the while, the renegade priest tried to purge his system of the infectious scrap-code, as my sniper repeatedly tried (and failed!) to take him down. As this was happening, the centaurs were steadily encroaching on my own tech priest. Would they reach him in time to save their master? They were only inches away from doing so, when Daubenton finally reached and struck down the renegade, bringing the tech heresy to an end.

Nail biting tense action!

Here's a few pics that turned out well: