This is the third scenario in the Vile Secrets of Vulcoth campaign for Warhammer 40,000. Inquisitors Greyfax and Ostromandeus of Ordo Hereticus have questioned the staff at Vulcoth's central production facility, and they've determined that Chief Ellisar is a person of interest. As the Imperial representative of the facility, it's Ellisar's duty to ensure that it's running at full capacity, so whether the problem is Ellisar himself or someone on his crew, the failing is ultimately entirely his.
In this misson, the Inquisitorial Agents enter the facility's central building and search for Chief Ellisar in hopes that he can explain the recent shortfalls.
Inquisitorial Agents
There's limited space in the building, so the Inquisitorial Agents aren't taking their full force initially. The 2 Inquisitors decide to bring along just the essential investigative team and a token bodyguard detachment:
- Inquisitor Greyfax (Warlord)
- 1 Adeptus Arbites Judge Dyer
- Inquisitor Ostromandeus (without Stentor-I 52)
- UR-25
- Navigator
For the sake of appearance, they also have the ratling twins lurking in the shadows:
- Rein and Raus
And just in case they're needed, the space marines are in Reserve:
- 1 unit of 5 Deathwatch
- 2 Servitors
Setup and special rules
This scenario uses Boarding Action terrain to construct 3 distinct rooms. When the Inquisitorial Agents open a door to a room, I roll 1d3 to reveal the contents of the room:
- Chaos Space Marines
- Loot and Fellgor Beastmen
- Loot and Fellgor Beastmen
- Loot and Traitor Guardsmen
- Loot and Traitor Guardsmen
- Chief Ellisar and Chaos Space Marines
When Chief Ellisar is discovered, all other Enemy units immediately reveal themselves and attack, if they have not already been discovered.
When a Hero Army unit controls a Loot marker, I roll 1d6 and then remove the Loot marker. On a 5 or 6, the Hero Army gains 1 archeotech part (for the purposes of the Crusade rules).
Because no enemies exist on the battlefield until the Inquisitorial Agents open a door, the Inquisition has initiative.
Round 1 and 2
For the first 2 Rounds, the Inquisitorial Agents walk briskly (with Advance moves and everything) to the first door. Rein (or is that Raus?) positions himself on an elevated platform to get a good vantage point on the nearest 2 doors.
Round 3
Because the Inquisitorial Agents are about to open the door, I felt like I should roll for initiative. I'm not sure I needed to, but it felt wrong to just let the Inquisition to surprise the room's occupants after a game session of interrogating staff followed by 2 rounds of strolling through the halls.
Right or wrong, the enemy army wins initiative and the game master opens the door. I roll a 4 on a d6, which means there's a group of 5 Traitor Guardsmen in the room, and they attack immediately. The leader shoots Inquisitor Ostromandeus in the face, dealing 1 damage. The lasgun guys shoot but Inquisitor Ostromandeus saves. The guy with the flamer holds back, hoping to get lots more people in a shot (the existence of doorways again change the game!)
The melee guy runs up and attacks Inquisitor Ostromandeus with a club. He misses entirely, but actually his main purpose was to block the Inquisition's entry. Too bad for him, because although he manages to block 1 of Inquisitor Ostromandeus's attacks with a Power Sword, the other 2 attacks get through and cut him in half. Access denial denied.
On the Inquisitorial Agents turn, the Navigator forces a Battle Shock test on the Traitors. They invariably fail, so no Stratagems for them this round.
Judge Dyer and Inquisitor Greyfax kill 2 guardsmen with lasguns. UR-25 kills the leader guardsman. Inquisitor Ostromandeus cleaves the flamer guardsman. There are no more guardsmen in this room, so Inquisitor Ostromandeus opens the lootbox the guardsmen were trying to conceal.
He finds the Icon of Intolerance. Should he die, he is instantly resurrected on a roll of 2+ on a d6. He returns to the battlefield (not in engagement range), with all Wounds restored. In addition, all enemy units within 6" must take a Battle Shock test.
Technically the Icon of Intolerance Crusade Relic only works for a model with the Puritan keyword, which you earn through Battle Traits. I'm not using Battle Traits for this game, so I'm letting the relic apply regardless of keyword matches.
That's 1 out of 3 rooms. The Inquisition moves on to the next room.
Round 4
For the next room, the Inquisition rolls a 6 on a d6, which means they're about to encounter Chief Ellisar.
It turns out that Chief Ellisar is a Rogue Psyker (I'm using the Sorcerer data sheet for him because it's in the Chaos Space Marines codex and a Rogue Psyker isn't), and he's been secretly watching the Inquisitorial Agents as they search the building. The baddies roll high for initiative this round, so Ellisar is revealed on one of the platforms along with all of his minions. The battlefield is immediately populated with Fellgor Beastmen and Chaos Space Marines and another group of Traitor Guardsmen.
The Traitor Guardsmen choose to Move but not Advance, preferring to stay hidden for this round. Or at least, they think they're hidden. Actually Rein or Raus is just above them and can definitely hear them coming.
The Fellgor Beastmen move out of the room they were hiding in and make an Advance. They make a lot of noise and fire bullets in random directions, hitting no one.
The Chaos Space Marines (2 Legionares and a Chaos Lord) crash out of the room the Inquisition was heading toward. Their bolter fire easily takes Rein (the one on the ground, not the one up on a platform).
The Chaos Space Marines Charge into UR-25 and the 2 Inquisitors. The Chaos Lord kills UR-25 with his hammer, and one of the Legionares deals 1 Wound to Inquisitor Greyfax.
Chief Ellisar fixes an Infernal Gaze onto Inquisitor Greyfax and deals 1 Wound, but she easily succeeds on a Leadership test and avoids D3 Mortal Wounds as a consequence of being hit by his Psychic Attack.
On the Inquisition's turn, the Deathwatch hears all the mayhem from within the building, and are quick to provide support. They burst through the doors and kill 3 Traitor Guardsmen in the hallway with a storm of bolter fire, and decapitate the remaining 2 with their chain bayonets as they Charge past. The ammunition servitors trail along behind.
Navigator Espern Locarno quietly takes cover around a corner, but peeks out and causes the Chaos Space Marines to take a Battle Shock test. They fail, so they can't use Stratagems this Round.
Judge Dyer tries to take out a Chaos Space Marine, but the Chaos Space Marine's armour holds up. Inquisitor Greyfax has the same results.
Inquisitor Ostromandeus, however, bears a Power Sword and slices right through the Chaos Space Marine he's fighting.
Last but not least, Rein or Raus (the one that's not dead) gets Chief Ellisar in his sniper rifle's scope. His gun has Anti-Psyker 4+ because of Inquisitor Greyfax's influence, but for that to be a benefit he needs to roll a 4+ to Wound. He rolls a 4 to Hit, but only a 3 to Wound. Exactly the opposite of what he needed. Chief Ellisar is unharmed.
Round 5
In a standard mission, this would be the final round, but some early rounds were eaten up by Movement as the Inquisition walked through corridors, so they don't really count. And anyway, this is narrative play, and I want to see how this ends. I'm willing to play beyond Round 5, as necessary.
Bad news for the Inquisition: The baddies roll high for initiative. The good news is that the Chaos Lord's plasma pistol misfires with a 1 to Hit, so Inquisitor Ostromandeus might survive another round.
The Fellgor Beastmen fail a Leadership roll to spot the Space Marines around the corner, so they rush toward the visible fray between Chaos Space Marines and the Inquisitors. They get a shot in as they run, after which Inquisitor Ostromandeus has 1 Wound remaining, and he's staring down a Chaos Lord just itching for melee combat.
Chief Ellisar targets Inquisitor Greyfax with witchfire, but it fails to cause damage, and furthermore Greyfax easily passes a Leadership test and doesn't take any of the extra Psychic damage that the attack could have imposed.
The Chaos Lord and Fellgor Beastmen. The Chaos Lord's dæmon hammer crushes Inquisitor Ostromandeus, dealing 6 Wounds in just one attack.
But wait, what's that over there? It's Inquisitor Ostromandeus back on the battlefield, thanks to his newfound Icon of Intolerance. He's 6" from the enemy, and boy does he look intolerant!
Can the Space Marines save the day? On the Inquisition's turn, the Deathwatch turns the corner but can't open fire for fear of hitting Inquisitor Greyfax. So they Charge instead, and slaughter 2 Fellgor Beastmen and a filthy Heretic Astartes.
Judge Dyer circles around and takes a shot at Chief Ellisar, dealing 1 Wound. Rein chips in and uses his one demolition charge in an attempt to take down Ellisar. Unsurprisingly, shooting a grenade into Ellisar's body does indeed remove him from the battlefield.
The resurrected Inquisitor Ostromandeus, thirsting for revenge, charges the Chaos Lord. The Chaos Lord is only Tough 4 but he's got Invulnerable Save 4+, so even Ostromandeus's Power Sword is unable to get through his armour.
Round 6
Initiative is tied, so the Inquisition goes first. The Chaos Lord has been untouchable so far, but now he's surrounded by Space Marines and 2 Inquisitors. I'm hoping he can't hold out against a barrage of attacks.
Chain bayonets gnashing like grinding teeth, 4 of the 5 Space Marines on the battlefield strike out at the Chaos Lord. He's able to deflect 4 hits, but 6 hits strike true and take 4 of his 5 Wounds. Inquisitor Ostromandeus makes his attack and gets 2 hits in. The Chaos Lord rolls 2 critical fails on his Save, and is out of action with -1 Wounds remaining.
Greyfax and a Space Marine remove the last 2 Fellgor Beastmen, and the battle is truly over in just 1 round of overtime.
Post-game administration
This was a fun narrative scenario that worked as well as I'd hoped it would. I love a dungeon crawl with randomised rooms, and it worked really well here.
This scenario also shows just how much Warhammer 40,000 you can play using the Blackstone Fortress box. Every enemy group, and several of the heroes, are miniatures from that game:
- UR-25
- Rein and Raus
- Navigator
- Fellgor Beastmen
- Traitor Guardsmen
- Legionaries
- Chaos Lord
And in a pinch, I could have used Janus Draik as an Inquisitor, and so on.
I think the boxed games from Games Workshop are some of the best assets available. It's fine to buy model kits to build specific armies, but if you want variety and flexibility, I think a boxed game (for either 40k or Sigmar) is the way to go. What amazing resources to have.
Inquisitorial Agents
The army gains 1 XP for the battle. I'm awarding Rein (or Raus?) the Marked for Greatness bonus of 3 XP, because one of them took out the Mark.
- Greyfax: 5 XP
- Navigator: 5 XP
- Rein and Raus: 6 XP
- Everyone else: 3 XP
Vulcoth
This army is set to change with each scenario, so I'm not tracking XP for it.
Next battle soon
The next and final scenario reveals who and what trying to get off-world ahead of the Inquisition.