Breeching the Defenses of the Plaguefather: An Examination
Like all of the core territory of the Chaos pantheon's gods, it is beyond doubt that the Plaguefather's Garden has a vast array of formidable defenses, in addition to being nestled deep within the foul being's domain. Thus, successful completion of the coming mission may very well hinge on how well those participating in it are prepared to face the specific dangers of that realm, as well as how well their strategic approach meshes with both their own strengths and weaknesses in addition to the relative strengths and weaknesses of the defenses and minions of the Plaguefather.
Unfortunately, due to the extreme risks involved in Divining the area in question, as well as the scarcity and value of Diviners capable of directly exploring it, first hand accounts are limited to brief glimpses of extremely small fragments of the Garden, far short of the sort of comprehensive information on the layout or the specific defenses needed to either develop tailored countermeasures or to make a detailed tactical plan for the infiltration. While this certainly limits amount of direct preparation that is possible, the information gleaned from these glimpses has confirmed that the Garden does at least contain similar dangers to the rest of the Plaguefather's territory in the Warp, if vastly scaled up—thus confirming that the standard preparations and countermeasures against that foe will remain relevant. It is of great importance to note, however, that said glimpses are not comprehensive enough to rule out the existence of modes of defense unique to the Garden.
As specific details of the defenses in place have been exhausted, it is time to step back and identify what we can of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Plaguefather's creations, as while specific details of the defenses in place are unknown, they will likely share the same general characteristics as the rest of his creations. This is further reinforced by our current understanding of the Plaguefather's nature—as while he creates countless new diseases, they are all separated by distinction in the specifics rather than real difference.
The first class of strengths and weaknesses are those intrinsic to what the Plaguefather and his creations are. Characteristics that they can no more voluntarily change than a human could voluntarily decide to be a fish. While correctly identified intrinsic characteristics cannot be changed, though, it is important to note that the certainty of these is limited by our ability to correctly identify a characteristic as being intrinsic to them—to use the prior example, while a human cannot decide to be a fish, they can decide to swim.
As ongoing work by Saint Lin is highly likely to vastly expand our understanding of the intrinsic characteristics of the Plague God, as well as increase the confidence in said understanding, detailed examination of intrinsic strengths and weaknesses would be premature at this time. However, going forward it is important to note that based on our current understanding of one of his primary domains being Stagnation, it is likely that any active defenses will be relatively weak, whereas passive and reactive defenses will be strengthened—an observation that has been verified in other territories defended by him.
A second class of relative strengths and weaknesses are those based on historical experience. While the gods of Chaos are notoriously slow to learn from their experiences by human standards, as well as possessing vast blind spots relative to even the dimmest of sapient mortals, the sheer weight of experience derived from countless millennia of war have both driven the development of and greatly influenced the shape of their myriad defenses. While strengths and weaknesses developed and highlighted through this process lack the certainty and immutability of those that spring from their intrinsic nature, it is nonetheless reasonable to assume them to remain true for unknown defenses and countermeasures without evidence to the contrary.
First among the circumstances dictating the growth of the Plaguefather's defenses is, of course, the eternal war between him and the forces of the Lord of a Change. While a constant state of low-level skirmishing to outright war exists between all the forces of Chaos, baring the most exceptional of circumstances, has lead to defenses honed against each style of threat, this does not mean that the defenses and the experience countering are equally balanced. The degree of enmity held by the forces representing change for the forces representing stagnation, and vice versa, has ensured that each has far more experience fighting, and devoted far more of their defenses to countering, their respective opponent.
Unfortunately, this means that while the Plaguefather's forces have little aptitude towards the divinatory arts, their measures against hostile divination have been honed to a razor's edge simply to prevent the Lord of Change's minions from exploiting their massive advantage there to its fullest. Although it may seem like repeating the obvious, do no underestimate the relative simplicity or lack of flair in the Plaguefather's many defenses—they conceal their lethal effectiveness and reliability.
Of course, while the general anti-divinatory defenses are strong, they are specifically designed to counter the forces of the Lord of Change, whose behavior profile is substantially different from our own. Thanks to recent revelations about the intrinsic nature of both the Lord of Change and its forces, it is possible to at least in part predict the form of the countermeasures for a given specific weaknesses or intrinsic characteristic to be exploited, and thereby better avoid them.
First and most importantly among the intrinsic characteristics of any minion of the Lord of Change is their ambition. The desire, the raw need to reach beyond their grasp, never satisfied with their current lot, underlies their every action, and the forces of the Plaguefather have doubtless learned to exploit this to its fullest. Be very cautious of overextension in any manner—it is behavior they have come to expect from those that dare trespass, and tantalizing secrets are carefully arranged to draw the ambitious or incautious in ever further, until all hope of escaping with their bounty is lost. The defenses in place are not designed to blow through your shields in one fell swoop once you are detected, instead they will bog you down while eating away at you at an ever-increasing pace. Do not tarry too long even in a seemingly undefended area, for though there is just enough gold scattered among the dross to seem worth sorting through, the true purpose is to delay those blinded by its shine while the many reactive defenses of the entire realm spin up to further heights.
Another important characteristic of the minions of the Lord of Change that the Plaguefather's defenses are tuned to handle is their sublime mastery of intrigue and stealth, for their ever-present need to reach beyond their grasp is constantly forcing them to face down those they have no hope of attacking directly. As the Plaguefather's forces have abysmal inherent skills on this front, though, rather than attempting to match stealth with hunters and plotting with counter-espionage, a different direction is taken. Detecting and hunting down interlopers directly is unnecessary when every breath they take invites in the ever-present disease, trickery is impossible when the forces are too simple to fool, and backstabbing non-existent when none desire to supplant another. While his minions will certainly attempt to hunt you down should they detect you (most frequently due to simple passage being enough to disturb the careful equilibrium of the Garden), the spore and disease filled air and the bog-covered ground are their main defense against those that sneak. Responses to diversions are either predictable but nearly useless or almost random—similar in many ways to Orks. And unlike Orks, they lack any motivation towards infighting.
Final among the types of dangers in the Plaguefather's Garden are the circumstantial. These are further divided into those dictated by the immediate distribution of his forces at the time of infiltration as well as the random if impermanent hazards of the Warp. While these are all but impossible to predict with any certainty, there are still specific things to be cautious about. First among these is the inevitability of traps left by the Changer of Ways. While the Plaguefather himself largely avoids traps in the traditional sense due to the ability of his primary enemies to co-opt or avoid them, over the course of their unending war innumerable traps have been scattered by the Changer to aid his forces and impede his foes. It is also important to note that among said traps may be traps specifically tailored to our forces, as underestimating its planning abilities have been the downfall of many a Seer.
Second among these circumstantial dangers is the effective environment in the Warp. While anything from storms to currents are possible, it is unlikely that so great a perturbation would be allowed by the Plaguefather so close to the core of his domain. Another possibility of note, however, is the unceasing war in the Warp heating up—either due to chance, successful actions of friendly Seers, or even 'helpful' actions from the Changer of Ways to aid in our humiliation of his rival or for reasons of its own. While chaos of this nature creates opportunity, the possibilities are far to numerous to delve into in this work.
@Durin omake
