The Mallus Compliance (Space Marines in Warhammer Fantasy - Chapter Master/Empire Building)

[FractiousDay]

Turn 4

Another year passes. With the aid of the Mechanicum and Galaxia work seems to speed along, structures going up for the newly arrived and landed personnel, as well as medical and spiritual care given to the wounded of the orbitals.

The Chapter Master begins to look to the future. To the creation of a home, a great Fortress-Monastery and stronghold for his people.

But in the meantime there's much to attend to.

Previous voting rules apply. See updated action budget. Turns will take place over roughly a year's worth of time. Actions will have a difficulty rating. Write ins or modifications permitted. Ask me if unsure. Voting moratorium for 12 hours to encourage discussion, do not vote before this, make only draft plans before this.

Diplomacy (Choose 2)
While Corax, Master of Rites, retains his responsibilities in the Chapter, you've appointed Confessor Hermina of the Missionia Galaxia, a woman of great faith and grace, to manage the Imperium's external relations.

[ ] Further Xenos investigation
Building on the previous success, Corax suggests attempting to capture more of the Lizardmen for further experiments.

[ ] Bear Island
Conduct a rescue mission to retrieve the crew of the downed Rapah, then destroy the ship.

[ ] The City of Bronze
A large city lies almost hidden by sand dunes to the north. Hath-Horeb has suggested trying to speak to the humans closer to the psytek pyramid to better understand what it is, and to gather any folklore about it.

[ ] Vassals
There are cities on the coast nearby, command them in the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind to submit.

Martial (Choose 3)
Tuthmes Skytalon, Master of the Fleet, is now aided by a Master of Skitarii and Colonel Seleucus of the Macharia 45th and all three work together to ensure this small Imperium's safety.

[ ] Conquer the Coast
There are cities on the coast, small ones, mortal ones…

[ ] Fortify
Your newly enlarged perimeter needs protecting. Set up fortifications in your immediate surroundings, perhaps in preparation for some attack by the Lizardmen.

[ ] Acheron Crash Site
The Acheron, though relatively secure, has apparently been periodically attacked by Orks, take battle to them and show them the Emperor's Fury!

[ ] Scourge the Xenos
The Lizardmen attacked the Mordant's crash site and pockets of stranded survivors, defiling the corpses of the fallen, some of them even being eaten. This insult against the Chapter cannot stand.

[ ] Kill the Mutant!
There are two large congregations of mutants, firstly in the mountains to the northwest on the coast, secondly in the jungles over the larger mountain range to the south. Aerial reconnaissance has confirmed their disposition and numbers, and they will not stand against the Lions' claws. Likely they have been turned by the same influence which affected your serfs, but all the same they must be purged.

[ ] Train Auxiliaries (1 of 2)
Many of the Chapter-serfs are well trained, but they lack the military discipline and experience of long campaigns that the Imperial Guard do. Set the 45th Macharians to training a regiment up.

Stewardship (Choose 3)
Khotan, Master of the Forge, has taken on management of most of the organisation of the crash site.

[ ] Establish Basic Manufacturing
While you have sufficient supplies for the moment, Khotan has suggested getting some basic supply lines of ammunition and similar set up early. Must be established by turn 9 to prevent supply issues.

[ ] Establish Advanced Manufacturing (1 of 8)
The Magi Explorator have various equipment in their care which will allow the production of more advanced items like power armour and some tanks and aircraft. Establish these foundries. Can be moved after but will require further actions.

[ ] Establish Exotic Manufacturing (1 of 12)
The Magi Explorator have various equipment in their care which will allow the production of exotic items like plasma munitions and anti-grav technology, as well as spacecraft. Establish these foundries. Cannot be moved after construction.

[ ] Establish the Apothecarion (1 of 2)
Thalis describes how no further aspirants can be brought into the Chapter without setting up the more sensitive equipment he maintains. Find a place and set him to work. Must be completed by turn 7 to prevent disruption to reinforcements. Cannot be moved after construction.

[ ] Rites of Unity (Ships)
Khotan describes the 'Rites of Unity', essentially the cannibalisation of parts from destroyed ships to strengthen the remainder. Set him to repair the Serenkai using the materials from the smaller, more damaged ones. Will destroy the 'salvaged' pieces of materiel, preventing their possible repair. Specify what you want to concentrate on.

[ ] Rites of Unity (Vehicles)
Khotan describes the 'Rites of Unity', essentially the cannibalisation of parts from destroyed vehicles to strengthen the remainder. Set him to repair the vehicles using the materials from the more damaged ones. Will destroy the 'salvaged' pieces of materiel, preventing their possible repair. Specify what you want to concentrate on.

[ ] Rites of Unity (Equipment)
Khotan describes the 'Rites of Unity', essentially the cannibalisation of parts from destroyed equipment to strengthen the remainder. Set him to repairing any suits of Power Armour or weapons he can using the materials from the more damaged ones. Will destroy the 'salvaged' pieces of materiel, preventing their possible repair. Specify what you want to concentrate on.

[ ] Cut a Way
Accept Khotan's suggestion to cut a way through the Serenkai to the vehicle bay to give you access to the heavier equipment in the bowels of the ship.

[ ] Dig a Way (1 of 4)]
Though it'll take much longer, you could also dig your way through and create tunnels to the cargo bays of the ships.

[ ] Salvage the Demios
The Demios, a frigate, exploded on impact during landing. The wreckage is still scattered about the surroundings and it would be good to salvage some of the intact pieces, possibly even repairing the other ships?

[ ] Artillery
Khotan described how he might employ the downed ship's cannons as artillery, approve this project.

Intrigue
Vularakh, Master of Scouts, is skilled and able as an infiltrator and information gatherer.

[ ] Further Afield
Despatch Scouts and Thunderhawks to give broad surveys of the lands outside the continent you're currently on.

[ ] Observe the Xenos
Using all the guile and skill of the 10th Company, mount a mission to observe the Xenos city more closely.

[ ] The Desert.
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the northern desert.

[ ] The Coast
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the western coast.

[ ] The Mountains
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the eastern mountains.

[ ] The Black Pyramid
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the Xenotech pyramid in the centre of the northern desert.

[ ] Seeking a Home
You cannot stay at the crash site forever. Direct the Scouts to looking for possible sites to establish a Fortress Monastery.

Learning (Choose 2)
Hath-Horeb, the Chapter's Chief librarian, is certainly the most learned Astartes in the Chapter.

[ ] Scrying
The Librarians are able to perceive many mysterious things, walking in the Realm of Spirits using their abilities. Apparently the prognostication will be protracted, but potentially very useful in learning various things.

[ ] The Pyramid
Direct Hath-Horeb to investigate the Xenotech pyramid and its effects.

[ ] Warding
Hath-Horeb believes he can create a psychic ward that will protect the crash site from the green moon's baleful influence.

[ ] Unusual Warp Activity.
The Chief Librarian describes how the Warp seems to work strangely on this world, set him to studying it in more detail.

Personal (Choose 1)
You, Amra, are a veteran of a hundred wars, an able administrator, and more besides, and there is much to do after all…

[ ] Personal Attention
Select one action from another area to give your personal attention.

[ ] Reorganisation
The Chapter is severely wounded, two companies lack commanders, and all but one company is below 50% strength. It has been suggested that certain companies be amalgamated. See to this, filling specialist roles where necessary and distributing the Marines of understrength companies to form more cohesive and well-resourced units.

 

[FractiousDay]

Quest Tech Levels

When I gave the various options at the start I was aware of the interest in nation building, and as soon as you went for the battlefleet option I started thinking about the various aspects of uplifting and colonialisation.

While the Armoury and Techmarines of the Lions can produce most things, they can't produce in the scale you want for colonisation, they might take a year to produce a suit of power armour for example whereas if you set up a factory for it you could produce many more of them.

I've decided on 4 tech levels so far:

Basic - Production and refining of most raw materials, the capability to produce steel, concrete, promethium (gasoline), copper, gold, silver and so on. The ability to create fairly basic items such as ration tins, stubguns, heavy stubbers, ammunition for the aforementioned, flak armour and other relatively basic things.

Advanced - Refining of more complex ores and materials such as ceramite and plasteel. Production of larger items including artillery, basic tanks, atmospheric aircraft and similar. The production of more complex versions of previous items like las weapons, bolters with ammunition, Carapace Armour, advanced electronics like auspex devices or similar. The production of exotic material like plasma or nuclear material.

Exotic - Refining of even more complex materials like exotic alloys including adamantium. The creation of exotic items like plasma and melta guns, spacecraft, smaller voidships like frigates or destroyers, anti-grav technology, most Power Armour, or refractor and conversion fields. The creation of advanced power sources and equipment such as Exterminatus-class weaponry. Knight walkers and lesser titans.

Relic - The creation and production of arcane technology like warp engines, titans, battleships and other items.

I'm generally open to challenge on the assignment of any particular items to categories, but I'm basing my decisions on two factors:

Production Requirements - Does the item require exotic materials like refined plasma to function? Does the item require particularly specialised facilities or equipment to produce, or could it be made relatively easily by some menials in a metal shop? For example, a stubgun just needs steel, which is relatively easily to produce, and it can be made easily too. Comparably, a force sword would need advanced materials, skill, and facilities to make.

Design Availability - Is the design commonly held by many organisations in the Imperium or is it a unique STC from a particular Forge World? Is the design ancient technology which has only recently been distributed, and remains closely guarded by various parties, or has it spread to many places? Is the design specialised in some way that would prevent it being known about by others? Everyone has the design for basic things like ration packs or lasguns, but only Astartes would have the designs for lots of Power Armour, while only Magos Genator would have the designs for specialise drugs and medicines.

Variation in design will create variation in tier. Mark V Heresy Power Armour is explicitly designed crudely for various reasons, as is less effective than other versions of Power Armour, as such it could be manufactured at the Advanced tier, rather than the Exotic tier. Comparably, a basic Leman Russ would be at the Advanced tier, but a variant with an assault cannon instead of the normal armament would be pushed up the Exotic tier.

In the narrative, the Lions have bartered for various Admech equipment because they wanted to go rebuild their Chapter. Aboard the Thunderchild and Kingmaker are the tools to build the tools and the designs to inform that production. For example, they'd have the designs for the Land Crawler, a tractor, but they wouldn't have a load of them in the hold because there'd be no point in shipping such things about.

Once your Fortress-Monastary is established I'll give you various options to create particular facilities, from which you'll be able to produce various things. This might mean 6 turns to set up plasma refineries, or 10 turns to build a drydock for spacecraft. After that you could spent some turns producing plasma guns or producing spacecraft. You will also need resources to create items. Can you make a gromril spaceship or will you have to send risky missions up to mine Mannslieb's ores? I don't know, try it and find out. Generally speaking it will be up to you to decide what to produce. In some cases you'll be able to repair things, in others you can salvage from damaged material, which I've given a list of as previously mentioned.

Let me know any questions and I'll add to this post. This could include 'what tier would X be', or broader questions about the system.

 

[FractiousDay]

Rapah Interlude

The retrieval of the crew of the Rapah was at once simple and complex. 28 Scouts and over 5,000 crew were stranded in hostile territory half way around the world, and Amra was unwilling to risk the Chapter's entire fleet of transports in such unknown territory. As much as he was loathe to admit it, the Thunderhawks were more valuable than the stranded forces.

Discounting the possibility that the various cargo lighters or other transports might be used, Amra despatched a flight of 12 Thunderhawks, loaded lightly and escorted by starfighters. The force was clumsy in the air, more suited to the vector dance of void-combat than the rigours of atmospheric flight, but by loading the Thunderhawks with mortals, which by their nature were smaller than Astartes, it would take only a dozen trips between the savannah plain and the frigid wastes of the far continent.

A Codicier, one of the junior Librarians, went with each flight, using their psychic abilities to try and shield the convoy from any observation. Each week they went, and within two months the majority of the crew had safely been returned to the main crash site, distributed as their brethren had been previously.

But as time went on it became clear that neither the Imperium's presence, nor the flights of golden craft, had gone unnoticed.

Bear Island wasn't particularly large, and it's population had been decimated in woeful attacks against the Rapah's inhabitants, but clearly the locals, primitive tribespeople with frequent mutations and other marks of impurity, had rallied their folk. An army had been raised on the mainland's shore, swift ships constructed as well as larger barges. They were several thousand strong and were soon joined by another force bearing different livery, though clearly just as debased and evil given the reports of the Codiciers assigned to the missions.

Kaaram, a Librarian of only a few decades experience, made his report on the penultimate flight after his return, "The first group worship Chaos, that much is plain. I've felt numerous fairly minor daemonic incursions, but there's something in the north. The Warp feels so much closer there, it's as if there's a portal active!" the Librarian reported with excitement.

"You've never felt a Daemongate boy… But I too," remarked Hath-Horeb, "have felt this darkness to the north. It cannot be a Daemongate, the prescence of one would have consumed this world long ago, yet we've found evidence of settment by humans for thousands of years. There is no such thing as a 'stable' daemonic incursion, they rise up like dark weeds, then burn themselves out if they don't succeed."

"Nor have we encountered anything like the green moon." Amra reminded him in reply, "But enough of this. In the next flight destroy this gathering."

Kaaram bowed and retreated.

The following battle was not one of note in the annals of the Celestial Lions. Thousands of the enemy were destroyed, but to the Space Marines this was yet another purge.

To the Druchii, cruel and spiteful as they were, the battle also merited little attention. In her tower Morathi, Bride of Evil, brooded over her spellcraft, but did not pay particular attention to the lack of report from the force she'd ordered sent. To the Hagqueen the destruction of several thousand warriors and a few of her sorceresses was of little note, the politics of the Black Court of far greater interest.

But to the Northmen, tales of the battle would echo for generations…

The crossing itself was uncontested, and brave mauraders bellowed praises to the Great Beast, Mung tribesmen hooted their warcries and armoured Chosen beat axe against shield as they waited in the ships.

They set upon the great fortress with the wrath of their brutal pride, lithe forms of their temporary allies the Druchii beside them as they hacked ways inside the house of metal, surely the greatest construction many in the Horde had ever seen.

Alien runes and unknown tableaus greeted them, such wonders and mysteries that that the wisest shaman could barely comprehend.

The Mung and Dark Elves swarmed over the Rapah, secure in their victory, confused, but perhaps pleased at the lack of enemies, those golden warriors who'd so devastated the natives of the island. Little did they know their foes had departed in the early hours of the morning, the final flight of Thunderhawks covered by cloud.

The army milled around for an hour or so once they'd gained access to the ship, eventually convening in conference outside, neither party comfortable with the strange iconography, the metal fortress full of shrines to a great eagle with two heads.

And then they knew nothing.

The souls of the Druchii were divided between She-Who-Thirsts, Ereth Khial's winged beasts and Loec's tricks. The Mung too went to their gods.

While the force of raiders crawled over the Rapah a deadly seed matured within its bowels. Larger than a man, larger than a horse, a great coffin sat in the ship's Engineerium, a low beeping coming from inside.

Finally the seed matured. It burst through the seal, rent through the voidfarer, went up through the sky and out across the island.

The atom split.

Thirty kilometres around the crash site were annihilated in an instant. Hills and halls were levelled, trees uprooted or blasted down, bursting into flame and raging across the island. The forests of the Iron Mountains shuddered and the Eldar Spire cracked and toppled.

Weeks later when wary scouts plied the coasts to search for what had happened they found only empty space where Bear Island had been, only the bubblings of the ocean as it seemed to bubble with a fury.

In the Land of Chill, upon the fortress battlements of the Dark Elves, the blast came as an unusual herald, perhaps an omen, yet swiftly the warriors of Naggorond forgot the sound and went back to their duties.

The Iron Mountains sheltered them from what was to come.

But upon the glaciers and uplands on the borders of the Chaos Wastes a strange snow fell on the tribes of the Mung. It was invisible, undetectable, yet as it came down from the sky a sickness came over the nation. Strong men were stricken in their beds, children perished, the unguents and spells of the shaman powerless.

Where mortal arts failed, the Mung turned to their gods. Sacrifices were made to the Plaguefather and the Changer of Ways, offerings to stem their wrath and grant forgiveness for whatever trespass their faithful had committed.

One night a blind man came to the tent of Jarthur, King of the Mungs, wailing and raving of a flash of light that took his sight, of a great eagle arising in the west, it's wings of cloud and smoke, the ruler of storm and sky.

The King had the madman sacrificed, and this time he commanded his shaman to raise daemons and spirits, compelling psycopomps to tell him what he must do to save his people.

Even as Jarthur's own daughter lay, coughing blood onto her furs, the king listened to the daemons. They spoke of an Enemy, the greatest of enemies, the adversary of the gods. The daemons spoke of the Sons of the Eagle, beasts of the sky, warriors with golden armour and that if Jarthur was able to wound any of them, even the barest scratch, what wonders he'd receive.

The blind man had raved of these golden ones too… Of how they had slaughtered the folk of the western shore, calling down dragons and other powers against the fishermen and reavers both.

But they were gone, only their taint remained, and how could a king fight the air itself?

In the dark of the night as he lay, listening to his child dying the King of the Mungs thought of other things.

And in the morning he made a blood-eagle of his shaman, cracking open their backs in a mighty ritual, laying their lungs upon their shoulders and peeling back their ribs in mockery of wings.

Jarthur, King of the Mungs, knelt before this sacrilege and spoke aloud into the poisoned air: "O Great Eagle, O Master of the Skies, O Thunderfather, O Lord of the Golden Race! Accept this offering, the blood and souls of your enemies! I declare my allegiance to you, we will keep you above all others, I cast aside the weak gods of my ancestors, and raise my sword in your name! Forgive us for defaming your temple and grant me your mercy, spare me the swords of your sons, withdraw your terrible gaze, for its work is done!"

Thunder boomed in the sky all through the mountains as Jarthur spoke. The wind howled, but then, then the sun came forth again, shining clear and beautiful.

The next day Jarthur's daughter awoke and stood on her own two feet.

And the day after that, the King of the Mungs took up his sword and went to war.

 

[FractiousDay]

Long Term Plans

This is a threadmark to hold various long term plans. I tend to observe that people can forget longer term projects given the format of quests, so I'll post them here. It's up to you to bring them up. These aren't mandatory, but @ me if you want yours added. Please use something like the following format, the first example of which has been provided by (joke example)@16 characters

Title: Speedrun the End Times
Reasoning:

Speaking of early end times I bet this group of ours could speedrun getting these events to happen easily within another in-universe decade. I will vote for anything supporting such and if it happens I confess I will be highly amused and enjoying myself. I can just see it, we continue pestering all the slann, we get a bad roll with Nagashes stuff, the undead are everywhere. Who knows maybe we even steal some warpstone (the idea of warpstone bullets has already come up)and manage to reunite all the Skaven. Then our introductions to the empire go so badly that they start treating us as warriors off chaos which in turn gives those actual chaotic forces an in that Tzeench could barely even dream of... albeit I think Sigmar would actually be very disappointed with us.

Click to shrink...

Steps: Blow up Lustria, Blow up Ulthuan, Snort All the Warpstone, ???, Profit?

When providing examples of longer term plans, note what sort of steps, resources, personnel and similar would be needed. Please also make these fairly specific and strategic. This isn't for me, it's for you to have a post in which you can maintain an inventory and record of longer term stuff. For example 'Make Nehekara Great Green Again' would require the assistance of Ghyran wizards, the destruction of the Black Pyramid, the blocking of Nagash's and the Mortuary Cult's influence, that sort of thing.

Plan: Go Native, Save Mallus by @BelligerentGnu
The Imperium betrayed the Lions. Fuck the Imperium, this place may be primitive but at least they have honour.
Short-term: Take every available option to distance ourselves from Imperial culture, work on opening up our Marines' minds.
Medium term: Make allies with all the non-chaos factions, conquer and rule all chaos-aligned humans. Convert to the worship of a better god, probably Sigmar or Ulric.
Long term: Uplift all allied factions, assault and close the polar gates.


Plan We Must Be Saved From Ourselves @16 characters

A potentially very great threat comes in the form of the greater Imperium of Mans returning to mallus. I think we have committed at least three large heresies so far. Notably we are likely to be required to commit at least a few more in the name of survival. I also suspect players wanting to avoid a 'mallus pancake' as one of my fellow users so eloquently put it will be constantly tempted

Maybe things will be fine the first time they do come by on like turn 100 or something, but perhaps not the second or third times when they have their puritan ecclesiarchs and inquisitors sniffing around. Now the Imperium might not be very good at agriculture or diplomacy, or record keeping, but one thing they are pretty darn good at is murdering civilized human worlds when they want to for whichever reasons strike their motivations as right.
We need to try to prepare for such a scenario.

Some things we really want to have completed before then:
-Covering morrslieb with dust to block out it's light. Reasoning: given it's relatively small size I think we can harvest this material from the crust of mannsleib and the from the ocean floor of mallus. The ruination of some deep-sea ecosystems seems a small price to pay to keep that thing contained and to allow people, hopefully, many people eventually, to *'safely' do things in orbit. Related note:Satelites properly used could help the whole world and we also really will want as much data on the world later in case of infiltration.

-Neutralizing Morrsleib in some way: It does not have to be with dust specifically, we all already know this moon is kind of a threat to most life on the planet and our forces, if anyone has workable(as in not canon breaking, but they need not be easy) ideas for doing this feel free to suggest them

-Expanded dwarf holds into deeper underground bunkers complete with algae farms and the like, we can easily dress this up as a defense against xeno's invasion and for all we know it may indeed end up functioning as such.
- Colonizing Mansleib and digging deeply into it would give us more warning time than simply having systems sitting in orbit. Also who knows what resources are under there, even if it turns out to be weid and boringly reminiscent of Luna under the surface there is still bound to water and helium and other very useful resources under the surface which I think we should be stripping away anyhow.

-This goes into my next section a bit but some overlap was to expected: we need to be thinking up counters to some of the imperium's worst tricks if they once again decide we are worth not keeping alive.
For example: Perhaps if we had a high-level mage versed in the lore of fire and one versed in the lore of metalworking together they could extinguish phosphex by telling the nanomachines to just become solid lumps of gold and the fire that it really should be about 100 times less active.

*As safely as any space work above a warp-charged planet can be done.

Click to shrink...

PRESERVING THE MAGIC OF THE WORLD, AND THE WORLD ITSELF. @16 characters

Spoiler: old descr

Making The Colleges of Magics ( Maybe the Schola of Faith and Psyonichs?) With regicide tables and felinid pinups! Previously one of the very few things I had bemoaned about this wonderful quest was our lack of opportunity to work into the Colleges Of Magic.
Now that magic fulcrums have been mentioned as being A-Okay I think a good midterm goal for us would be trying to create such a system ourselves, but like more inclusive, y'know with Ice Mages, Damsels ,and even the more stable Arabyan magic users being allowed to teach there. Now I know this will take much more study of cultures and at least some shifting on the culture of our chapters part.
I still think it is liable to be completely doable in something like 20 turns.

Important notes on the process here.
We try to get teclis or his mentors involved in this. I can't say whether he would be more or less impressed with us than he was with magnus but if we framed it as a measure to protect the whole planet that could be a sufficient appeal. This should not be the first thing we try given our own chapter might require work first.
As I understand it faith-based/divine and arcane magic is essentially the same in all but source. The difference in divine stuff is pretty much the presence of a god to help the channeling along but power is still drawn from the Winds of Magic so us getting lots of priests together, so long as we can screen them to make sure they do not want to kill each other, would be a very viable way of beginning this project. Forgive me if I am misunderstanding this please, I am just doing my best from what I have read before.

Okay; I see why this needs restructuring so here is an extreme bit of restructuring for this.

-First things first we need to convince our marines that is at least worth trying to soulbind magic users here to presumably the emps, whatever they think they need to do to not be in constant danger of their heads being accidentally imploded.
-Then we need to ease them towards discovering that psychers work differently here so there rapid paranoia does not accidentally end the world by killing the wrong people.
-After such the long term work of creating an Institution to study and promulgate useful magics can begin, and hopefully we can eventually either have enough marines die or realize they are already heretics such that we can get the most actually useful mages involved in the project, I.e the Slann, High Elves and Tomb Kings

Click to shrink...

Greening Mallus

Getting our hands on stuff like Acorns of Ages or The Verdant Heart is liable to be very difficult and possibly not worth the expense given whole armies guarding them, but getting a hold of priests of Rhya and Taal(possibly other people in a similar role) and convincing them of our cause ...eventually... strikes me as more plausible but still hard, still if successful with even like two of them in the settlement I think there could be *very* worthwhile results.

Click to shrink...

Long-term Plan: Making the Mallusian Grave Sentinals.

Long-term Plan: Making the Mallusian Grave Sentinals.

1. Win over a bunch of Morr and Usarian cultists by promising to and sticking too actively battling the undead. (except maybe for numas, they have kept living humans alive so maybe they can be excused?)
2. Win over and soul bind as many Amythest wizards as we can this will be more of a pain without the college but I think it is doable.
3. Do what can be done to convince such groups not to kill each other
4 Hopefully we have carapace armor and camo cloaks by then, give the former to the knights and combat-capable death god priests and the cloaks to the wizards. Give at least both groups lasguns and access to our finest horses minimum.
5. Have them learn from our librarians, guardsmen and voidsmen in cycles. They are going to need to work with all our forces eventually so we should not delay such.
6. Make sure they can recruit more of their own numbers from that point onwards.
7. Bring them into Lustria and Sylvania and let them absolutely go to town, give them as much authority as needed to eliminate the second greatest threat to this world.
8. We have a unique regiment that can speak good things on behalf of and fight for their homeworld, everyone benefits.

Click to shrink...

 

[FractiousDay]

Turn 4 Results

It had been a frustrating year broadly speaking for the Chapter, but it had at least been a secure one. The Lions were in a better position than they had previously, their organisation stronger, their position better fortified, and many projects had been begun, even if they hadn't yet borne fruit. At the very least, the Chapter Master is pleased that all his forces are together rather than scattered dangerously across the world. While the others worked on various projected, Amra saw to the reorganisation of the Chapter's Companies after the losses they'd sustained in landing, subsequently actions and in particular the Battle of the Orbitals, which had slain more than half the Assault Marines of the 8th Company.

The 6th is broken up, Corax promoted to captain the 3rd instead at Acheron's crash site to the south, bringing with him 30 of his Devastators, his command staff to replace those lost in the Acheron's crash, as well as a few of their vehicles. The remaining 40 go to reinforce the 4th Company. The vehicles of the 6th are also divided, several transports going to the 10th while Corax takes some with him to build up the 3rd. While the Acheron was relatively secure previously, the Celestial Lions can now have confidence that the crash site is entirely secure, even from assaults by thousands of enemies.

The 8th is also disbanded, Amra reasoning that 3 almost full and well-rounded Companies is better than more specialised units. Natohk goes grudgingly, familiar with the rigours of the 8th and the firm but fiery guidance he'd provided the more junior Marines of the Assault Squads. The man is an able Chaplain and Captain both, but is unsuited to the position of Reclusiarch or Master of the Watch, an uncomfortable situation but one the Lions must bear all the same.

"Report." Amra ordered, once again having gathered his officers around the Strategium display of the Serenkai.

"The Missionia Galaxia are spread among the coastal cities. There are at least four separate polities there, including two cities which are colonies of more northern states. I've observed numerous opportunities there, they should fall within the year, though I may call on you for a show of force." Natohk announces, the Chaplain having been involved in the process to bring the cities to the west into vassalage.

"To that end," Corax continued, "I've brought several cargo holds of Greenskin paraphernalia. We faced a Feral Ork Waaagh! several thousand strong massing for an attack on the Acheron, it was destroyed, no losses. I thought you might display the weapons as trophies?"

"A worthy thought, I understand there's a particularly large spear among them?" Amra asked, his head tilting slightly in amusement as Corax gave a stiff nod.

The Master of Rites had gone to take command at the Acheron and conduct operations in the south against Feral Ork tribes which had been observed in that region. He'd repelled the attack with relative ease, the Greenskins rushing down at the Imperials in the usual manner before being decimated by bolters and autocannons, the new Assault Marines of the 3rd Company jetting forward to cut a swathe through the retreating elements till none remained. However, in the chaos of the brief melee Corax had apparently been surprised by two Feral Orks wielding an enormous spear. The creatures had managed to sneak up behind him and drive their ridiculous weapon into a gap in his Power Armour, skewering the Captain and lifting him bodily into the air before he'd drawn his plasma pistol and blown their heads off.

Corax had been only lightly wounded, but had been greatly embarrassed and the whole affair had caused amusement among the 3rd.

The Master of the Forge spoke next, "I've seen to the salvage of the Demios, though I managed to gain little but raw resources, it was a wreck. Other matters proceed, I've got several of the Serenkai's macrocannons working, some on the other vessels too. Each will need a Techmarine or Techpriest to fire though as much of the work has to be done by an expert manually rather than by Armsmen. The main weaponry will take longer to get working properly, there are numerous issues with reloading, transit of shells, power requirements and so on. However, I've also started bringing the point defence turrets online and slaving them to a central system. There's about a thousand Mega-Bolters across the fleet's hulls and even when accounting for losses a single one can destroy a regiment easily."

The Mega-Bolter was usually only deployed on Titans as the ultimate anti-personnel weapon, firing shells larger than a human head at incredible speed, the rotary cannons quickly able to annihilate larger vehicles as well as voidcraft in space when functioning there. Indeed, thought Amra, with them online there could be no fear of any ground force, even if the Lizardmen came in force.

"In any case, the fortification of the surroundings has gone well while I've been busy with the cannons." Khotan continues, "I've set the 45th Macharia to see to the labour and they've drafted in several thousand of the fleet's voidsmen as training. There's about 80km of trenches dug and various rockcrete emplacements. The Mechanicus have put in a sort of electric grid defence system which should also prove useful, as I understand it's common on Forge World Metallica."

Amra nodded, "I thought the Guardsmen were from Cadia?" he asked, distinctly remembering the Administratum's message on the subject when he'd put out the call for a regiment to join the Lions' fleet.

"Apparently it's a common mistake." Khotan replied, "There's two Macarias, on is a militarised Hive World in the Cadian System, the other is in the Segmentum Pacificus, the birthplace of the Lord Solar, a Shrine World."

"I've found the piety of Cadians to be lacking." remarked Natohk, "I trust these mortals will show the proper respect..."

They went onto other matters.

"Most of my Scouts can now speak the Lizardmen's language, and I've instituted a program to train the others once their Omophageas have been implanted." Vularakh says, "
I've been observing the Xenos more closely, taking troops counts and so on. They've stopped attacking the Mordant's crash site now we've salvaged it and vacated the area ourselves, and they've so far failed to carry off any of the structural materials we didn't gather at the time. I've yet to see any of these Slann Brother Hath-Horeb referred to in his previous report, but I've identified various support forces they use. Mostly its large reptiles, undoubtedly dangerous up close but nothing that won't fall to bolter fire. I've scans and pict-files of the enemy city in my report."

"Your recommendation?" Amra asked.

"Leave them there for now." Vularakh replied, "If nothing else they make good training for my Scouts. There's half a dozen ruins of their cities we might investigate if we wanted to know more of them, but for now they seem content to stay in their jungles. If they don't? Well, that's what Ordnance Extremis is for."

"Thalis?" Amra asked, thinking of the longer term projects he'd assigned to his officers, "Where do we stand on the Apothecarion?"

"Little progress has been made unfortunately, I've been dealing with a number of issues, and the matter of the schedule of implantation is pressing… We have perhaps 2 years before the supply issues become prominent, though the first have already begun affecting my staff."

"Have we anything to celebrate?"

As it turns out there is. 8 Scouts become Battle Brothers, completing their time as Neophytes, now possessing the full form, though not the experience of their more senior brethren, and they form an Assault Squad for the 3rd Company. Alas, Thalis also reports that fully double that succumb to the terrible rates of attrition inherent in the implantation process. In turn, 5 Veterans of the 1st Company are dispatched as trainers and squad leaders.

And for the last report Amra turns to his Chief Librarian.

Hath-Horeb's eyes shine with energy as he speaks, his voice soft, yet filling the chamber, the touch of the psyker upon their minds, "My solution to warding the crash site has failed utterly." he begins, "While further work might be effective, for the moment we must rely on my predictions of the moon's path and the measures we already have in place. The failure's cause has twin causes, firstly, my own ignorance, which I'll come onto momentarily. Secondly, the establishment of this site in the first place. Navigators in the Warp perceive a great sea, yet within the sea they perceive islands. Each one is a world, the weight of souls upon it pressing on the Immaterium, shaping it. To my Witchsight, this area appears bland and flat, whereas the cities of the coast shine dimly, and the city of the Lizardmen burns like a pyre. Simply put, this place doesn't have the weight of settlement and history that would be necessary for me to anchor the wards I had intended."

"So we must find some ancient fortress to establish ourselves in?" Vularakh asks.

The Librarian nods, "That brings me onto my second point, my ignorance. I have discovered much, yet I remain grasping at the works of ancient powers. I have at least determined a few things. Firstly, the Warp on this world, perhaps in this system, is unlike that which I've experienced before. I believe this to be the cause of the madness among our Astropaths and Navigators when the fleet was pulled out of the Warp. Chaos flows into this world through rifts great and small, the largest of which lie at either pole. Normally this would have torn the planet apart within moments, the damage would be greater than the greatest Warp Storm… But here we stand… Though some ancient art, Chaos is Ordered."

The room remained silent as Hath-Horeb spoke, each Space Marine instinctively uncomfortable at the discussion, yet enthralled all the same.

"The Immaterium flows through these rifts, and is divided somehow. I've identified eight separate strands so far, yet strands of what I do not know. They fall upon the earth and all the things in it, they are attracted to all things, with certain items holding this divided energy."

"You mean to say this whole planet is infected by Chaos?!" roared Khotan in alarm, the mechandrite rising above his shoulder spasming in rage and confusion.

Amra's fingers itched as he set his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Not Chaos." Hath-Horeb continued calmly. "If Chaos so affected this planet we would have landed on a Daemon World. No, reality itself maintains its image, the Materium remains Material. However, I cannot deny that something about the planet is unusual. There seems to be a sort of membrane between our existence and the Warp, it's difficult to break through but not impossible. The Immaterium feels, for want of a word, heavy. That, I suspect, is what allows these minor Daemonic incursions to manifest themselves, which ordinarily would require many sacrifices. I suspect whatever's caused these usual events is a result of some mechanism or creation, perhaps of the Eldar or a similar race. I'm no Inquisitor, nor a Magos Psykana, I use the Warp to destroy, I don't investigate it, but I've still observed interesting things. I've managed to combine the Warp-Strands into a single form, much like the Warp energy I would normally command, this time in a solid form."

Amra, for all his disgust at Daemon-work that was being explained, was fascinated. "How much have you made?"

"Oh only a few grams." the Librarian answered, "The substance appears to hold Warp energy like a Warp Engine does, but there's other unusual things too. Veteran Sergeant Arius has manifested psychic abilities for example."

While Amra did not necessarily know the name of every single Battle Brother, Arius was known to him, a veteran indeed, with centuries of experience. "But psychic abilities are genetic, they manifest in youth do they not?" he asked.

"Such is my understanding." Hath-Horeb replied, "But he now possesses prescient abilities which can have no other explanation. I've kept him sedated when not questioning him, but both my investigations and those of the Chaplains and Apothecaries have demonstrated no corruption. He appears as he did a decade ago, but now he's able to sense the future with surprising skill."

The discussion went on for a while, questions flying back and forth. To an Astartes, the existence of the Daemonic was at least known, even if it wasn't widely spoken of, but to the rest of the Imperium, witnessing a daemon would be grounds of immediate execution. Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus would even mind-wipe Chapters on occasion following battles against the forces of Chaos, for was it not truly said that an open mind was like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded? To even consider such devilry was to commit heresy, yet Amra felt he had no other choice.

"I am deeply uncomfortable with the situation." he remarked, "But we cannot remain in ignorance. Dedicate yourself to this study." the Chapter Master directed toward Hath-Horeb, "Take what resources you need, but we must understand how this affects us."

"As you command, my lord."


Demios salvaged, small amount of raw resources gained and subsequently used to construct fortifications around the crashed ships.

Voidsmen regiment half trained. Submit suggestions for its name.

Detailed information regarding Zlatlan gained.

Weird Warp stuff established.

Vassal action to be covered in a subsequent interlude.

Reorganisation complete, 3 Companies established rather than the 6 lesser ones you had.

Artillery, Apothecarion, Warding and Warp Activity actions all progressed, but will require further work.

 

[16 characters]

I'm sorry my brain was tired and addled when I started writing this.
I hate leaving things unfinished you see so after I awoke I continued it.

Introducing: Discount Endtimes formula for Down on your Luck Astartes.

Are you tired of toad tickling, mummy mobbing and skaven scooping?
Are your efforts to wipe mallus clean just not going anywhere, lizardmen too patient for you the dead too well-rested?

Well, I have the solution that guarantees no ablution for you!

It's a simple plan really my lad's aerial superiority makes these things a sinch, just take a nice easy going trip across the pond to visit our good chums in Albion. Now they have these lovely Ohgram Stones up there that just a cause a wee bit of trouble for our poor hapless mortally challenged allies, but I am sure with a combination of ennuf dakka and maybe a ship moving at sufficient velocity ought to nip those deamon wards in the bud!

Next on your vacation Itinerary will be a quick trip down to the Tower of the Sun in the lush kingdoms of Ind, it's ironic the thing really ought to be called the Tower Of The Moon BUT you can help with the renaming, just give it a nice shove and *kissing noise* voila now the green moon can enter the atmosphere, that'll be sure to get the ball rolling on those end times.
The final step in baking this apocalyptic cake, of course, is to sit back relax and watch Moonclaw grow infinitely more overpowered, if you are worried about his capabilities send him and Morghur a servo skull speaking on the Good News his reunion of the beastmen following his patron's moons ending might just be enough to finish off the rest of the sentient populace.

---

Disclaimer: This is a Farcically silly idea as well.
Don't do this. Do not do this or anything like it at all. Doing so would be less fun than the heretical minefield we are already in.
This is my method for actually trying to keep track of the less obvious world-ending threats on the planet while maintaining a good hopeful mood.

Moonclaw and Morghur are seriously some of the most stupidly OP corrupted beastmen I have ever heard of and one might be a half-demon alien thing in the shape of a beast more than anything. The other is unfortunately Morghur. The Shadowgave seems to just resurrect himself endlessly like some sort of video game boss nonsense.
Moonclaw is also very much unnaturally and to a ludicrous extent buffed by the moon we don't want him or things like him to become even more buffed under any circumstances.
Of course the Marines don't know this yet so we should not yet act on it however that neatly leads to the next subject.

The Tower Of The Sun and It's functions from the Everqueen seem like they are actually a really big deal and I hope our chapter can find out about them by further examining the moon. Surely there must be some arcane strand of energy that will be traceable between the moon and the tower though if it is exerting enough force to warp gravity.

The stones in Albion as far as I understand it are a more powerful than usual part of the Waystone Network for all we know they might even be controlling weather in the north given what they did to albion, having them remain would be a good thing for the entire planet. At the very least something that gains the forces of order more time.

I was thinking of including The Sleeper in this list of threats but honestly as long as the Dwarves are able to maintain Karak Hirn that gal should be no real threat to us.

See Also: End Times Timeline I am just finding out that the dude who wrote most of the end times books came up with a number of alternate scenarios which I do not think should be dismissed out of hand as lessons in preventing things from being at their worst. Keeping track of what the vampires are up to may actually be way more important than I thought.

Along the way of me research that it came to my attention that Josh's entire profile is now gone, I hope that that was voluntary and not spurred on by GW(after all they do want to reboot the Old World)but it sure makes validating anything in the end times timeline a headache for me.

---

*sighs* I really shouldn't have missed that last vote, it seems. Oh well.

It would appear the question of 'does Emps have power here's has been decisively answered.

Also, a long-term plan:

Plan: Go Native, Save Mallus

The Imperium betrayed the Lions. Fuck the Imperium, this place may be primitive but at least they have honour.

Short-term: Take every available option to distance ourselves from Imperial culture, work on opening up our Marines' minds.

Medium term: Make allies with all the non-chaos factions, conquer and rule all chaos-aligned humans. Convert to the worship of a better god, probably Sigmar or Ulric.

Long term: Uplift all allied factions, assault and close the polar gates.

Click to shrink...

This plan actually agrees with me quite well or at least the larger parts of it. I suggest that we do not dismiss Shallaya or Morr as gods worth worshipping. I also genuinely, am in favor of trying to restore Nehekara if we can manage it even if just to also spite Nagash and all he stood for.
I also don't think we should purge all imperial culture, high gothic is cool, stupid big architecture is good the rest though yeah no complaints about letting the rest of it go gradually.



Also since the OP asked for such: Voidsman Name Suggestion: The Malusian Marksmen 1rst company. Not a very serious suggestion, since I do not expect them all to be marksmen but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this. Maybe Plainskeepers or something given our colony began on what I think might be the second-largest grassland on the planet?

 

[FractiousDay]

Vassal Interlude

It was in the 28th year of my life that the world changed.

In those years the people of Araby lived in relative peace, at least, in comparison with the times that were to come.

I had recently taken the leadership of my house following the death of my father, the noble and well-renowned Kashimens, in battle in the previous years.

In these years there were many evils in the land, primarily due to the actions of Vuitiza the Accursed, as well as the assaults of the men of Norsca, and this caused much sorrow in the land.

Having previously lived in the ancient city of Kalabus, known as El-Kalabad to those of the north, I had recently decided to move with my family to the Imperial colony of Sudenburg so that I might be closer to the opportunities provided by the trade between the folk of Sudenburg and the tribes of the Plain of Tuskers.

I should say first that my family had often profited from relations with the desert peoples, indeed, my grandmother was a princess of that folk, and so this move was not an unusual one, though it was regarded as such by some at the time.

I established myself profitably, and traded much with the tribes of Zamesi and Athiopos for ivory, Magician's Bark, and other such items which were plentiful among their people. In turn I procured fine steel, especially swords, from the great city of Nuln far to the north, which was unknown among the aforementioned tribes.

In the year 750, which was known as 2103 in the Imperial Calendar, many lights were seen in the sky, and subsequently over the years more lights were seen. These were much remarked upon by the peoples of Medes, and some called them good omens, and marks of the Celestial Lord's favour, while others who were perhaps of greater wisdom, spoke of similar sights which were seen a century previously which had aroused the fury and black desires of the Debased, and were besides sent by the Celestial Lord to punish the sins of Man.

Having hailed from Kalabus, I subscribed to the preaching of Ginduris, the High Priest of that great city. Though wise and greatly learned in many lores, Ginduris had in that time been often at odds with the King of Medes, Aghiles. This stemmed greatly from the causes of Aghiles rise to power, which I shall not cover extensively here, but was largely due to his use of magicians and foreigners (the two being equally bad in the view of many), in his armies.

In these times it might be said that the wealthy and powerful had forgotten the ancient truths of the Gods, and had turned to commerce and their own aggrandisement instead. Indeed, in my youth I found myself among these folk, and busied myself with the acquisition of wealth, though after the death of my father this changed.

Following the visitations of comets and other celestial phenomena I began to hear tales of a great golden city which seemed to have risen up in the plains far from the coast. Initially I regarded these tales merely as the ravings of the sun-touched northerners, with the many adventurers and plunderers among them frequently proposing such wonders. However, when visiting the savage folk of Tayif I heard these tales again. While the Tayif have often been superstitious, never in my experience have they ever been prone to flights of fantasy, and so I set out myself with a company of Southlander warriors to see what might be seen.

The journey took several months, and in those times it was quite hazardous due to the many great beasts which walked the Plain of Tuskers. However, on this trip we were unmolested, and indeed the lack of creatures in that place was quite uncanny. My reader, perhaps having some understanding of the events which were to follow, will no doubt guess the cause of this absence, and later it was revealed to me that the aspirants of the Golden Race had hunted these beasts almost to extinction, doing for sport what all the strength of the tribes of the Southlands had failed to do over many centuries.

As I drew closer I perceived a golden light on the horizon, and many times I observed lights in the sky. I was much perturbed by this, but the honour of my name would not permit cowardice, and I pressed on, even abandoned by the Tayif warriors who'd escorted me.

I crested a rise and saw the City of the Gods before me.

There were golden palaces, many miles long, with spires which reached to the heavens. I was dazzled and amazed, and fell upon my face in wonder at the sight. I lay there for some time, but once I drew forth my strength I rose and looked again. The greatest fortress was of gold, and golden were its eaves and battlements. It rested upon the earth as if laid there by the Celestial Lord himself, and all about it were lesser palaces of many shapes and sizes, all amazing in aspect and appearance, yet alien in style.

From these structures issued the chariots of the Gods, and golden barques flew with wheels of fire across the sky to many places and beneath them thousands of people went about to and fro, inhabiting even more structures from stone houses created of a material unknown to me, to great temples of steel and silver.

While in the modern age of wonders these sights may not seem so unusual, for by the blessings of the Gods, their chariots are often seen in the heavens, in this time I hadn't seen anything like it.

I was later to learn that the population of the city before me was equal to all the cities of Medes, a kingdom known at the time as one of the most populous of the world.

I approached in a trance, and swiftly I was apprehended by the Gods' servants, soldiery of many nations and creeds bearing weapons and equipment as unknown as it was impressive.

At first I was brought before a priest. While I had witnessed the divine favour of Ginduris, the abilities displayed by the priest were entirely unusual. He wore red robes but his skin was as blue as a corpse's, and in his eyes there burned the power of lightening, which crackled too along a mighty staff. Though he wore a blindfold, this priest of the Celestial Lord could perceive me all the same, and ordered me taken further into the city.

So many sights greeted me! Too many to recount in even the lengthiest of tomes! Dead men walked among the living, men of iron and magic strode about and the Golden Race were seen in many places. Great beasts of steel and gold glided across the sands, strange creatures with long legs patrolled, the steeds of warrior-priests.

In my wonder I was dragged before a great throne, and I found myself before the Sons of Heaven. I remember their appearance to this day, and thank all the gods that I was able to witness them.

They were tall, the sons of the gods, and I reached only slightly above their belts. They wore armour of gold, the plates thicker than any I had ever seen, while their weapons were many and varied, all dealing death at their father's command. Upon their pauldrons they bore the sigil of Geheb, the Protector of Men, there shown proudly as a snarling lion.

Months I stayed in that blessed city. Months I lived among the Children of the Gods, and those months were glorious. I witnessed the holy fires of Ptra, the soaring hawkmen of Phakth with their beaked helms, and the subtle priests of Qu'aph who would come to question me, peeling back my memories and the layers of my mind to know what they would know. All about my were the Sons of Geheb, the mightiest men who have ever walked the earth, but worst of all were the priests of Usirian, Lord of the Underworld, who came only during the night, their black armour and skull-faces a terror in the darkness when they read the tally of all Mankind's dead that we might know the names of the heroes of ages past.

I told them all I could, and they revealed the error of my learning. Their priests came before me, chief of all the Lady Hermina, and I was instructed as to the true history of our race and the rightful place of Humanity among the stars. I was told of the Celestial Lord and his Creed, of the darkness which only his light drove back, and I wept. My tears flowed for the deaths of a million across the stars, for the suffering of the Celestial Lord as he held back the darkness, and of my own place as an aid to his mighty sons, which in his kindness and mercy, he had despatched to our blighted world.

I went among the tribes of the plains and spoke to them of what I'd seen, and in turn they too knew the truth. I offered Lady Hermina all my wealth and that of my family, and she and her Sisters-of-Blades held court in my hall for many months.

The swords of the infidels were raised against us, the servants of the Debased summoning forth many evils, yet the Sisters drove them back with word, and flaming sword.

Upon my request, learned Ginduris came forth and for three days he debated with the Lady Hermina, and when they returned from holy seclusion and prayer Ginduris wore the eagle of Ptra on his breast and proclaimed a great struggle against the heretics of Medes, speaking of how all men should turn from the evils of Aghiles and turn to the love of the Celestial Lord instead.

Ptra struck at the temples of the false gods, the Sons of Heaven flying down on wings of fire and all quailed before them. The faithful came forth in droves at these sights, and at the sorrows of their former masters, and all cheered upon the sight of Geheb's servants.

And in nought by a few months the twin-headed eagle of the Celestial Lord flew proudly above the cities of Medes, and the faithful were bathed in righteousness.

 

[FractiousDay]

Turn 5 (2109 IC)

Once again the great lords of the Celestial Lions stood in the Serenkai's strategium, only this time, mortals joined them.

"We can finally name this planet," Amra announced, "'Mallus'."

"May the Emperor's Light reign." Confessor Hermina prayed, and Colonel Seluceus of the 45th next to her made the sign of the Aquila.

Neither the Space Marines nor Explorator Magos Magna-Thal joined them, the cults of their organisations distinct from that of the Ecclesiarchy.

"We had assumed it was called 'Nagash'." Epistolary Anteas replied, "It's a name that echoes in the Warp in this place."

"Some remnant of an ancient psyker no doubt, it's not unknown as far as I'm aware?" Amra asked, and Anteas nodded. In return the Chapter Master waved for the Librarian to begin the discussion.

"The Chief Librarian maintains his efforts toward discerning the unusual Warp activity on this world. He's synthesised larger quantities of the Aethyric substance, and confirmed several of its properties, though further examination will be required. I myself have also managed to synthesise some, though I doubt any mortal mind would have the training or discipline to create the substance without disaster."

Confessor Hermina looked uncomfortable and Amra turned to her, "Speak." he ordered, knowing the mortal would have been unable to muster the courage to interrupt the demi-gods.

"My lords," Hermina begins, "Among the Arabyans there's a substance known as 'Abn-i-khat', the Burning Stone, which is in great demand among the psykers of Araby and elsewhere as it enhances their abilities, and is reputed to have many other powers. Occasionally powerful psykers are said to consume the substance."

Amra regarded her with a cool gaze, "Your learning does you credit." he said simply. The Missionia Galaxia were perhaps the most tolerant of the Ministorum's missions, and the Chapter Master didn't doubt that any other prelate would have difficulty even speaking of psykers and sorcerous items without frothing at the mouth with righteous rage.

A burst of binary came from Magos Magna-Thal, which coalesced into discernible speech, "I offer my expertise for this project."

Amra nodded and thanked him, then moved onto the next report, turning to Hermina again, "Tell us about the Medes."

Hermina bowed and began to speak, "The tribes of the desert around us are extremely superstitious, as is often the case with such groups, my deacons and priests are already among them and they have already offered up tribute to the Golden Race, as they call the mighty Astartes," she bowed again, "however in the more developed societies of Araby there are several distinct groups which must be negotiated. Firstly, a mercantile class which show many concerning signs of corruption and sin, secondly, a menial class, more spiritually developed, and adhering to the remnants of an ancient religion espoused by the builders of the great pyramids in the desert to the north. The ancient kingdom of Nehekara perished after some catastrophe involving psykers and only some of the culture of this kingdom remains, but has proved easy to manipulate to our ends. This menial class are already suspicious of the pskyers employed by the wealthier people of the cities, and many have fled along with the ruler of Medes, who's fled north, I suspect to rally the northern cities against us."

"I say we let him." Vularakh said, "Let him raise all our enemies in once place then remove them in a single stroke. I've often remarked to Scouts on the Codex Astartes' passages on timing, this is an excellent example."

"I will consider it." Amra replied, "Maintain a watch on the trade routes through the desert."

The Master of Scouts nodded, allowing Hermina to speak again, "The Gulf of Medes composes several Arabyan cities, the largest being El-Kalabad, which I've established the largest portion of our Mission. Standard Ministorum protocols have been deployed, including the identification of local gods with the saints of the Imperium, as well as the demonstration of various cultural similarities. While all the cities have acknowledged our authority in the region, the cities of Antoch and Sudenburg, two colonies of human polities further north, remain resistant, and I request the opportunity to bring their leaders, as well as some of the Arabyans, into the site here to observe the various sights, they'll be especially impressed with the Greenskin weapons."

"Regarding these northern powers," Vularakh says, "I propose a small mission north. Three Battle Brothers, perhaps a Librarian, could go north with a small party and establish themselves as errants. I've submitted a full proposal."

Amra had received it, it certainly had promise, but there had been several others from the requests from the Mechanicum to support a mission to investigate the deeper Data Vaults of the Kingmaker to Khotan's recommendations for facilities to construct to improve the Chapter's capabilities.

"Here is what we shall do…" the Chapter Master said.

Previous voting rules apply. See updated action budget. Turns will take place over roughly a year's worth of time. Actions will have a difficulty rating. Write ins or modifications permitted. Ask me if unsure. Voting moratorium for 24 hours to encourage discussion, do not vote before this, make only draft plans before this.

As a further directive for this and future turns, some actions are pretty vague. If you want to know a specific thing or want the relevant officer to concentrate on something, note this in your plan reasoning.

Diplomacy (Choose 2)
While Corax, Master of Rites, retains his responsibilities in the Chapter, you've appointed Confessor Hermina of the Missionia Galaxia, a woman of great faith and grace, to manage the Imperium's external relations.

[ ] Further Xenos investigation
Building on the previous success, Corax suggests attempting to capture more of the Lizardmen for further experiments.

[ ] The City of Bronze
A large city lies almost hidden by sand dunes to the north. Hath-Horeb has suggested trying to speak to the humans closer to the psytek pyramid to better understand what it is, and to gather any folklore about it.

[ ] Envoys from Afar
Confessor Hermina has requested you receive envoys from the cities of Medes, as well as the colonies of various foreign powers in that area who now chafe under the tithes of the Imperium.

[ ] Land of Assassins
The coastal region near the northwestern mountains of Araby has a poor reputation for evil and sorcery, and it's likely this area won't fall nearly as easily to the persuasion of the Ministorum as the cities of Medes did.

[ ] Coast of Araby
Aghiles, former King of Medes, the region now under your control, has fled north to the coast of Araby proper. It is likely he plans to rally the cities of Araby against you. While of course they would be destroyed easily, you'd better despatch diplomatic forces against the cities to counter his efforts.

Martial (Choose 3)
Tuthmes Skytalon, Master of the Fleet, is now aided by a Master of Skitarii and Colonel Seleucus of the Macharia 45th and all three work together to ensure this small Imperium's safety.

[ ] Further Fortification
Your newly enlarged perimeter needs better protection. Set up further fortifications in your immediate surroundings, perhaps in preparation for some attack by the Lizardmen.

[ ] Scourge the Xenos
The Lizardmen attacked the Mordant's crash site and pockets of stranded survivors, defiling the corpses of the fallen, some of them even being eaten. This insult against the Chapter cannot stand.

[ ] Kill the Mutant!
There are two large congregations of mutants, firstly in the mountains to the northwest on the coast, secondly in the jungles over the larger mountain range to the south. Aerial reconnaissance has confirmed their disposition and numbers, and they will not stand against the Lions' claws. Likely they have been turned by the same influence which affected your serfs, but all the same they must be purged.

[ ] Train Auxiliaries (2 of 2)
Finish the training of the first regiment of voidsmen.

[ ] Train More Auxiliaries (1 of 2)
Train another regiment from the former voidsmen of the fleet.

Stewardship (Choose 3)
Khotan, Master of the Forge, has taken on management of most of the organisation of the crash site.

[ ] Establish Basic Manufacturing
While you have sufficient supplies for the moment, Khotan has suggested getting some basic supply lines of ammunition and similar set up early. Must be established by turn 9 to prevent supply issues.

[ ] Establish Advanced Manufacturing (1 of 8)
The Magi Explorator have various equipment in their care which will allow the production of more advanced items like power armour and some tanks and aircraft. Establish these foundries. Can be moved after but will require further actions.

[ ] Establish Exotic Manufacturing (1 of 12)
The Magi Explorator have various equipment in their care which will allow the production of exotic items like plasma munitions and anti-grav technology, as well as spacecraft. Establish these foundries. Cannot be moved after construction.

[ ] Establish the Apothecarion (2 of 3)
Thalis describes how no further aspirants can be brought into the Chapter without setting up the more sensitive equipment he maintains. Find a place and set him to work. Must be completed by turn 7 to prevent disruption to reinforcements. Cannot be moved after construction.

[ ] Establish the Genetorium (1 of 8)
Direct the Mechanicum to establish their biological suites of equipment, allowing the deployment of more advanced medicines and drugs to your people, as well as the creation of various vat-grown creatures like Grox from the genetic samples held within the Mechanicus ships.

[ ] Rites of Unity
Khotan describes the 'Rites of Unity', essentially the cannibalisation of parts from destroyed ships, equipment or vehicles to strengthen the remainder. Set him to repair the Serenkai using the materials from the smaller, more damaged ones. Will destroy the 'salvaged' pieces of materiel, preventing their possible repair. Specify what you want to concentrate on.

[ ] Cut a Way
Accept Khotan's suggestion to cut a way through the Serenkai to the vehicle bay to give you access to the heavier equipment in the bowels of the ship.

[ ] Dig a Way (1 of 4)]
Though it'll take much longer, you could also dig your way through and create tunnels to the cargo bays of the ships.

[ ] Artillery (Point Defence)
Khotan described how he might employ the downed ship's weapons as artillery, approve this project. Direct the Master of the Forge toward the Mega-Bolter emplacements on the ships.

[ ] Artillery (Batteries)
Khotan described how he might employ the downed ship's weapons as artillery, approve this project. Direct the Master of the Forge toward the Macrocannon batteries on the ships.

[ ] Artillery (Bombardment Cannons)
Khotan described how he might employ the downed ship's weapons as artillery, approve this project. Direct the Master of the Forge toward the enormous Bombardment Cannons on the ships.

Intrigue (Choose 1)
Vularakh, Master of Scouts, is skilled and able as an infiltrator and information gatherer.

[ ] Further Afield
Despatch Scouts and Thunderhawks to give broad surveys of the lands outside the continent you're currently on.

[ ] The Desert.
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the northern desert.

[ ] The Coast
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the western coast.

[ ] The Mountains
Concentrate the Scouts' efforts on the eastern mountains.

[ ] Seeking a Home
You cannot stay at the crash site forever. Direct the Scouts to looking for possible sites to establish a Fortress Monastery.

[ ] Find the Witches, Burn the Witches!
The Arabyan priests have described the practices of their psykers, and Vularakh is concerned at the presence of so many daemonologists able to summon 'djinn', some sort of bound daemons. These maleficars must be found and destroyed.

Learning (Choose 1, -1 due to Hath-Horeb being busy.)
Hath-Horeb, the Chapter's Chief Librarian, is certainly the most learned Astartes in the Chapter, however, at present Amra has directed him toward investigation of the unusual Warp activity present on the planet, and Explorator Tertius Magna-Thal has taken on many of the Librarians projects temporarily.

[ ] Assist the Librarians
The Librarius are busy at present in numerous experiments and scyings related to the unusual Warp activity on the planet. Direct Explorator Tertius Magna-Thal to assist them with the resources of the Mechanicus.

[ ] Study Culture
Direct Magna-Thal to assist the Missionia Galactica forces in better understanding the culture and practices of the natives.

[ ] The Pyramid
Direct the Explorator Tertius to investigate the Xenotech pyramid and its effects.

[ ] The Data Vaults
Magna-Thal proposes an expedition into the depths of the Data Vaults of the Kingmaker. The libraries of such an ancient vessel may hold any number of interesting Standard Template Construct plans!

Personal (Choose 1)
You, Amra, are a veteran of a hundred wars, an able administrator, and more besides, and there is much to do after all…

[ ] Personal Attention
Select one action from another area to give your personal attention.

[ ] Strengthen the Vassals
While some Chapters maintain their worlds as Feudal or Feral Worlds, it's not completely necessary and you desire something different. Choose a way to strengthen your Vassals. Specify what you want to do.

[ ] Brothers Three
Vularakh has proposed a novel idea, to dispatch a small group to live among the men of the Empire, the greatest present human polity. Allow this expedition, it will allow for both information gathering, and a more gentle initial contact with the Imperium.

 

[FractiousDay]

So I decided I'd try and use the tabletop rules for both settings and combine them in case I wanted to do more of that in future. They don't match up massively well, especially for massed combat, but they might be alright for duels.

Profiles

Char	ws	bs	s	t	w	i	a	ld
Settra	7​	3​	6​	5​	4​	3​	5​	10​
CM	6​	5​	4​	4​	3​	5​	3​	10​
Tyrant	6​	4​	5​	5​	5​	4​	5​	9​
Modified CM	6​	5​	5​	5​	4​	5​	4​	10​

Settra is a bit better in combat than Amra (here a generic SM Chapter Master), and generally has the advantage in stuff other than imitative. Now Settra is a strong guy and has cool items, but I don't see him being stronger than a space marine in power armour. As such I've added the profile from an Ogre Tyrant there too, which Settra is still stronger than but not by so much.

I had some difficulty with this because Settra's feats are all over the place (as indeed are Astartes). Settra kills a daemonic steed with 1 hit and later a Shaggoth, but he also dies to some random norscan chump with a magic axe.

In any case, I've put some modified Chapter Master stats there, which I may use, but for now I'll use the base ones. IMO space marines should have at least strength 6 because that's what a giant has a SMs are definitely as strong as giants when they're wearing power armour.

So first, Settra rides up, Amra blows up his chariot or knocks him off it with a grenade or something.

Amra has Master Crafted Relic Weapon, acts as S6 power weapon, can reroll 1 failed roll to hit each turn. To wound rolls on 6 will cause instant death relic sword from special white scars rule.

Amra has Artificier armour and an Iron Halo, armour save +2, Invul +4. Also Feel No Pain, ignoring wounds on roles of 123 but accepting them on 456.

Settra has a +4 ward save, flaming attacks which don't do anything, and any wounds he inflicts on a model -1 to hit for remainder of the game. His other wargear is irrelevant.

d6s being used

Amra shoots a plasma pistol, needs +2 to hit, +2 to wound with a S7 pistol and 2AP. Explodes on a 1 though lol. Hits, wounds, Settra's wardsave saves it.

settra casts Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting, +1 attack that turn

Assault phase, Amra strikes first, 3 attacks, hitting on +4s, wounding on +3s

Settra hits on +3s, wounding on +2s, 5 attacks+1 for spell

Amra 1, Amra misses 2 attacks, rerolls to hit 1, wounds twice. Settra fails both ward saves.

Settra 1, 6 attacks, misses 3, wounds with 2. Amra's armour saves don't matter apparently, but his invul save does, so 1 wound dealt to Amra, meaning he has -1 to hit now. Amra's Feel No Pain probably doesn't actually apply because the Blessed Blade is AP?

Turn 2

Amra attacks first again, 3 attacks, hitting on +5s now, wounding on +3s, misses all, rerolls, misses again.

Settra's 5 attacks, hits twice, wounds on both. Amra's invul reduces to 1. Amra has 1 wound left.

Turn 3

Amra attacks, 3 attacks, hitting on +5s now, wounding on +3s, 1 attack hits, wounds. Settra fails the invul, and is not one 1 wounds too.

Settra, 5 attacks, hits on all 5, wounds on all, Amra's ward save nullifies 3 but the others hit, killing Amra.

So yea, unsurprisingly, the character with the higher stats won. The Blessed Blade was certainly effective, but I do think the stats were somewhat unequal.

FractiousDay threw 12 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 51

FractiousDay threw 12 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 36

FractiousDay threw 12 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 43

FractiousDay threw 6 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 19

FractiousDay threw 9 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 31

FractiousDay threw 10 6-faced dice. Reason: d6 Total: 39

 

[FractiousDay]

Fractious day, the fanciness of armor has nothing to do with it's stopping power surely the soldiers of this world know that, I know in our own world actually seeing chest peices say deflect bullets was not an uncommon way of demonstrating it's efficacy.

Click to shrink...

Not really relevant here. I'll make this into a longer post actually.

So to go through a couple of points, firstly, yes, well made armour can indeed stop black powder weapons, however by the time this sort of proofing starts to happen the various kings of Europe are buying up massive quantities of armour and armour is being produced differently. There's still places like Nuremburg producing exceptional armour in the old guild fashion, but eventually through the 15th and 16th centuries you get the development of basically early capitalist institutions, especially in Milan, where armour is produced in enormous amounts, in essentially a production line.

Then the Military Revolution happens and the power of knights and mounted warriors decreases, with infantry and increasingly gunpowder being important. Due to this there's less impetus to produce these magnificent sets which are made to measure for a knight, so the armour mills start producing what's call 'munition armour'. It's interchangeable, one size fits all, not really very well made but at least alright, they're producing so much sometimes they don't even both to polish it so you get these interesting black patinas developing.

The Dwarves discover gunpowder in -400IC or there abouts, they introduce it to the Empire in 2000IC. At this point in the quest the technology will have had about a century to spread, but gun remain very crude. This is for various reasons, including the relative newness of the tech but also the quality of the Empire's enemies. The wiki has a note on this actually: "Shortly after the development of the hand gonne and its profound failures against both Chaos' heavy cavalry and mere rival knights in service to rival Elector Counts, engineers in Nuln developed a firing mechanism"

The Empire's most frequent foes are Norscans, Vampires, Greenskins and Beastmen, with the occasional Chaos invasions. All of these foes would be generally impervious to early gunpowder weapons. The Norscans are mainly fighting the northern provinces, who are culturally disposed against gunpowder (Ulricans), Orks would shrug off such attacks and Beastmen wouldn't let themselves get caught out in the open because that's simply not how they fight. Vampires and their undead would also be immune given a zombie doesn't care if it's arm has been shot.

Say an Elector Count imports a regiment worth of early muskets at great cost, then goes into battle and they fail to really do anything because it rains or the Orks charge through the volley or something stupid like that, he's pretty unlikely to decide to buy more, nor do the Dwarves want to hand over their cool stuff (with good reason given the Skaven and Night Golbins would get it). As such the development of gunpowder is likely to be a lot slower. Also people would probably be suspicious that it's magic because of the general levels of superstition in the WFB setting etc.

Having established that gunpowder isn't really common, I firstly don't think anyone would be very impressed that your armour could stand up to rare gunpowder weapons that everyone (except the Dwarves) know aren't very good. While I'm perfectly happy for Flak Armour to be made of metals which are sufficiently excellent that they can stand up to any gunpowder weapon and almost any attack by a hand weapon, if you're looking for armour to give out to people who'll be getting into hand to hand combat, it would be better that it be made for that. While no doubt there are variants, the standard Flak Armour is a cuirass, pauldrons and a helmet. These are designed for the wearer to stand in a trench and shoot at enemies with their lasgun, not for getting in close, which is why Kasrkin wear carapace armour and so on.

There's also another factor to consider, I don't think Mallus has undergone the (or should I say 'a') Military Revolution yet. Taking the Empire we can see that they're still very cavalry heavy, reliant on knightly orders rather than standing armies, as well as various other factors like the feudal character of administration that point to such Revolutions not occurring yet. I mentioned fanciness for this reason. If you're shipping out quite dull armour which sure, could be modified to suit cavalry I'm sure, nobles probably won't want to buy it. Two examples present themselves here, firstly, in the 100 Years War the Duke of Burgundy orders 100 sets of gauntlets 'in the English fashion' because he recognises that they're effective, however he also has to institute a law which punishes by death any knight who doesn't dismount when he tells them to, because he's trying to adopt the English style of warfare rather than the French which was cavalry focused at the time. If indeed the human nations of Mallus are focused on cavalry warfare the people fighting are mostly nobles, and won't want to look poor or wear rubbish looking armour. This will impede the adoption of such armour and therefore the effectiveness of the human forces against their enemies.

This proposes a wider question: What is this action for? Why do you want to supply the humans with superior armour? A number of answers are obvious, from improving capacity, making them view the Imperium as a influential and powerful state to befriend, stamping an aquila on everything got make them worship the Emperor, all that stuff. I would separate these out though. It's not an inherently bad action, but depending on the motive there are other ways of doing it.

For example, you want to improve the human nations' capabilities against enemies though better armour, great, sure. A suit of armour weighs 50lb. An AK74 (proxying as a stubgun) weighs 7lb. A Browning Machine Gun (a heavy stubber) weighs 128lb. If you want to give people armour that's ok, but I would suggest using the steel you're putting into armour for guns would be a better choice. Yes someone in armour would be more able to stand up to Orks, but 7 people not in armour with automatic rifles would be much more able to do so. Better yet, say you wanted to equip a larger force. 1 ton of steel would produce 40 suits of armour, but if you used it for guns would produce 8 heavy machine guns and 140 automatic rifles. If you want more you could add light artillery and so on, all easy to produce using the Basic tech level. The IRA used to make mortars out of propane cylinders for example.

Comparably, you could also directly remove the cause of the enemies in the first place. Lets say the Dark Elves are raiding up and down the coast of the Old World, nuke Karond Kar, the Slaver's Gate. Of course this wouldn't necessarily stop the raids completely, but it would seriously disrupt he Druchii's ability to conduct them and given their economy runs on slaves would have various knock on effects. There are of course downsides to such things, but it is something you could do that would buy the Old World a good century of peace from the raids.

So consider that sort of thing. Given the action's intent, will the likely result be the appropriate one? I might also say that once guns became prominent it could cause great upheaval and conflict between the Elector Count who's got the guns and the Elector Count who hasn't. The Skaven would naturally procure some, so might the Chaos Dwarves, which is unlikely to go well, and therefore that would jeopardise the motive of improving diplomatic relations.

In any case, it's something to consider.