Saint-Saëns was an unremarkable planet, part of a string of systems that had existed in relative peace for several centuries despite their proximity to the Maelstrom. Saint-Saëns (Tithe grade: Solutio Secundus) was an especial jewel of the sector, an ancient world that had served the Emperor for over four millennia. The ruins of pre-Imperial ruins dotted the more civilised places, nestled within the proto-Hives and bustling horizontal cities clustered along the world's river-analogues and alkaline oceans.
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Vicchièneche, a chief city
Note the early Imperial ruin, c.700M38 |
The oligarchical Triarchy maintained the ancient ruins in the interest of history and culture; some wild places were left intact, the better to reflect the glory of the emperor (and allow for the feudal lords' hunting). Saint-Saëns was a place of peace and beauty, a rarity in the grim darkness of the Imperium of Man.
In the early years after the Great Rift, the world fell into fire and doom. The Death Guard had come.
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| plague zombies pour from the industrial district |
My first game of 9th Edition! My
old friend Camille has been working on a Sisters of Battle army for a few months now and we finally got around to organising a game. We decided on a mere 25PL to get a better grip on the rules - and a good thing to, as this still managed to take four hours. I need more practice!
I brought my
Death Guard; a mass of poxwalkers and squads Naaman and Joab were led by Xiv Bellringer and the Spear of the Yellow King, a fell sorcerer and cult incubator. The Death Guard were of the Wretched plague company.
Camille's list included the Canoness Camille herself, a squad of seraphim, retributors and battle sisters, as well as a pair of assassins. They wore the robes of the Martyred Lady.
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| Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Joab leads four brothers around an old tower |
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| Sisters stalk the wreckage of Vicchièneche |
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| Sisters squad Gwyneth |
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| Repentia howl their prayers, goaded by Canoness Camille |
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| The two patrols meet... |
The mission was
Outriders, rolled for randomly. We decided just to stick to the primary objective rather than messing with secondaries; we'll probably do things more properly next time.
The Spear of the Yellow King was using his bleak magic to transform the remnants of the lay workers in this ancient industrial district into swarming plague zombies. Canoness Camille led a scouting party to identify the approaches of the fallen Astartes and came across the nightmare artist in his grim work...
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| Naaman leads his men among the rotting baseline humans |
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| Repentia leap foward! |
Camille got first turn and spent it actually playing the mission. They sent their death cult assassins around their left (my right) to capture a second objective. Their Repentia surged forward to distract the bulk of my forces, while the Retributors circled around their backfield.
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| Gwyneth leads her sisters through the fresh ruins |
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| The Spear drives his rotting charges forwards |
In my turn, I pressed the plague zombie horde forwards. The Spear blasted the self-victimised women with Curse of the Leper, while simultaneously blessing the zombies with unholy vigour. His spells spilled out of him, channelled by the fetish given him by daemonic patrons; many sisters fell before his eldritch wrath. The Yellow King be praised! Mortarion be praised! ALL HAIL
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| oh how low ye have fallen, sons of man |
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| "See them, brothers! Slaves to a dead god, while ours lives!" |
The marines all also pressed forward, because I forgot about Camille's Seraphim
like an idiot.
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| Canoness Camille exhorts the Repentia |
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| cam-servitors distorted by the flux of warp energy |
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| plague-riddled forms infecting Vicchièneche |
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| Camille leaps atop a stack of crates, shouting hymns of praise to a corpse |
In Camille's second turn, the Seraphim swept down from the broken skies above the city, the curves of their angelic jetpacks screaming. Fire poured from them into the Bellringer's bloated body, bolter shells blowing chunks from his horrifying form as melta fused his dolorous bell.
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| the dead close in |
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| 'Mortarion,' they whisper, dead throats moving |
The Repentia carve into the plague zombies, hacking several of them down. Alas! The pox-riddled living dead care not for their skin, their organs, their limbs, and they bring down the suffering sisters. The sisters' chainswords rend flesh even as their own skin changes colour, their lips stretch into horrible grins, their blood thickens. Their corpses rise, flesh sloughing and brains rotting; they turn on Camille.
Camille's power sword, borne by seven saints and blessed by the holiest blade-servants of the Triarchy of Saint-Saëns, sings as it smashes through the living dead - but she is only one woman, and there are many children of the plague gods here...
..and yet she survives, the blows of the zombies turned aside by some miracle of her powered armour - and then! holy Emperor! the Spear himself turns his bleak power upon her, shattering her very bones inside her holy armour. She falls, crushed by the black magic of the gods of eternal, chaotic growth.
The Spear, thinking his nemesis slain, turns his green/black gaze onto the sisters of Squad Gwyneth, melting their flesh with the Curse of the Leper; the plague zombies prepare to move forward.
and then! another miracle! Camille claws to her feet, power sword humming electron-blue, her halo golden and radiant in the light of the Ever-Living Emperor, Him on the Throne!
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| "I will crush you myself, child of a dead god." |
Snarling in burbled frustration, the Spear slams himself against the Canoness, his ritually impaled armour glowing with bone-rot and yellow madness. And yet! His corrupted spear is turned aside by the tech-miracle of the Omnissiah Transcendent, Him on Terra!
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| but the plague zombies' numbers are near-endless... |
Alas, despite this clear evidence of the Emperor's intercession, Camille is brought down by the endless hordes. Her now-shattered body rises from its ruin and lurches forward with the rest of the horde...
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| "Die, traitors!" |
Elsewhere, the Seraphim level their pistols at Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Naaman and his squad. They down one of the fallen post-humans, but the dark gods have their own ways of interceding, and many of their shots go wide...
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| For the Emperor! Purge them! |
The Retributors level their holy weapons upon the zombies, their brainless servants loading and re-loading the heavy flamer. Their seemingly endless fire almost annihilates the zombie mob - a single plague zombie remains, but Camille's broken body has at least been purged of the neurovirus. She lies still, at last.
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| die |
Pict-captures of the remaining events of the skirmish are rare. Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Naaman's squad level their bolters and plague belcher at the skirmishing Seraphim; with the help of the dark gods (seven prayers of wonder! three chants of joy!), the veteran sisters are annihilated.
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| "Rise, servants. We have work to do." |
The Spear of the Yellow King turned his vile magicks once more upon the Sisters of the God-Emperor. Despite their faith shielding them, his black magick was able to liquify their flesh within their powered armour, murdering them without mercy.
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| The surviving Death Cult assassin locks her sights on Naaman |
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| Gwyneth leads survivors in a final attack |
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| The charging Assassin is brutally hosed down |
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| a damaged cam-servitor captures Gwyneth in the moments before her death |
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| the Spear prepares a final spell... |
Every sister who entered the area this day was killed, most directly as a result of the sorcery of the Spear of the King in Yellow (hail! praise!). Despite this, they had actually achieved their objectives, taking and holding most of the points of interest.
= = =
This was a fun game; it was great to catch up with Camille and finally play a game after all these years. My only regret is giving the Spear the relic Torrent of Putrefaction. The extra D3 mortal wounds basically every single time I cast a psychic power was far too powerful at such a low PL game. Nearly all of my kills came as a result of psychic shenanigans, which is just wildly unfair.
Made up for a bit by the facts that I failed nearly every armour save and also forgot to actually play for any objectives, meaning that I had lost the game by the end of the second turn, but I still feel a little bad.
Can't wait for the next game! Camille and I are thinking a 1000-point game. I wonder if I can fit in any daemon engines...
Thought for the Day: The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Imperium.
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