I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Heralds of the Siege , book 52 in the series. Heralds of the Siege is an anthology, consisting of several short stories, and I'm going to review each one. The Painted Count is the eighth short story in the book, written by Guy Haley.
By now, I'm picking up on the pattern that this book's job is, in part, to fill in the little gaps between books. And like several stories before it in this anthology, The Painted Count is sort of a catch-up tale meant to get all the playing pieces into position for the big finale. I think there's a spectrum of how much a story serves as "historical documentation" and how much a story can be enjoyed as a short story with next to no prior knowledge of Warhammer.
This story, I think, is almost in the middle, leaning only a little toward historical documentation.
Gendor Skraivok, also known as the "painted count" due to his ancestry and traditional use of war paint, has discovered a sentient weapon. To look at it, it's just a boring old sword. He knows it's calling to him, though, and so far his response has been to attempt to destroy it. He's melted it down, thrown it out of an air lock, shredded it, but no matter what, it's back with him the next day.
When not trying to lose the daemon sword, Skraivok spends much of his time scheming to take over the Night Lords legion. The problem is, Captain Shang is also scheming to take over the Night Lords.
Shang throws Skraivok into a literal maze dungeon, and so the bulk of the story is about Skraivok wandering around trying to get out of the most over-engineered brig ever constructed. To get out, though, he finally comes to terms with being part-possessed by a daemon sword. Wielding it at last, he emerges from the maze, kills Shang, and takes his place as Captain of the fleet. His destination is the same as ours: Holy Terra.
I enjoyed this story, even though it definitely serves mostly as documentation to get a fleet of Night Lords to Terra. Realistically, I didn't need to read this story to understand how and why the Night Lords show up on Terra in the end. But it's an entertaining story. It's got a space dungeon and a possessed sword. It feels like something straight out of D&D or Blackstone Fortress, so I guess I'm predisposed to like it. It's a good one.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.