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Traitor's Hate Fluff!!

The Thirteenth Black Crusade has been launched, and the bulk of the Chaos Forces drive at the Cadian Gate. Elsewhere, Abaddon has tasked offshoot Chaos Invasion Fleets. One such is in the Diamor System.

Lord Xorphus (a Black Legion Sorceror, hinted at being a former Thousand Son in the Legion days) leads this assault, made up of Black Legion, Crimson Slaughter and Word Bearer forces. The Chaos Fleet first strikes at Peridos, the system's Agri World, and draws out the Imperial Battlefleet in a series of cat-and-mouse engagements designed to tie up the more powerful Imperial fleet. This clears the way for the Chaos Ground Forces to strike at Ioline, a factory world. The combined Black Legion, Crimson Slaughter and Word Bearer forces take Ioline in short order, and Chaos Warpsmiths complete a ritual to create a Demon Engine factory to begin churning out reinforcements.

The main thrust of the Chaos Invasion happens on the world of Amethal. The Adeptus Mechanicus has set up shop, creating a number of dig sites looking for an ancient (as in pre-humanity) artefact that can cage Warp Creatures. It is described "to dwarf the Damnation Cache that had slipped through Abaddon's fingers on Pandorax". Abaddon has tasked Lord Xorphus with releasing this Cage and its contents.

The Crimson Slaughter are sent in as the first wave, dropping in to assault the various Mechanicus dig sites around Amenthal. Kranon the Relentless leads the assault at the dig site the Chaos forces have dubbed War Zone Carnage. The Mechanius forces (from Forge World Metalica, backed up by Knights of House Raven and the God-Engines of Legio Metalica) initially blunt the Crimson Slaughter assault, however the demonic voices echoing from the Cage are heard by the Crimson Slaughter which enables them to push through and break the Mechanicus Defenses. Gorath-Hel, a Word Bearer Dark Apostle, conducts a brief ritual to divine the exact location of the Cage. It's located at War Zone Carnage. The first step of Lord Xorphus' plan is complete.

An urgent call for Imperial reinforcements has been heard by the Blood Angels. The 5th Company drops out of the Warp... right into a trap set by Lord Xorphus (Just As Planned). Xorphus unleashes a massive Psychic Assault on the two Blood Angel Strike Cruisers, driving the entirety of the 5th Company into the Black Rage. Rather than completing the kill though, Xorphus' Battleship backs off as the Blood Angel 1st and 2nd Companies arrive. The 1st, 2nd and now Death Company move on Amenthal, which the Black Legion fleet has left undefended. The Blood Angels dropped onto Amenthal, linked up with the still strong surviving Mechanicus forces and routed the Crimson Slaughter assaults. Amenthal appeared to be retaken by Imperial Forces, however everything was going Just As Planned for Xorphus.... New contacts were detecting translating into the system. A fleet of Traitor Warships, all bearing the mark of Khorne. Khârn had come for the skulls of Sanguinius' Sons.

The Butcherhorde falls on Amenthal. Khârn cuts a bloody and devastating swathe through the Mechanicus and Blood Angel Death Company. Khârn gets angry and kills an Imperial Knight. Khârn duels a Death Company Chaplain, who taunts Khârn about how Sanguinius killed lots of traitors at the gates of Terra to which Khârn angrily responds "There's only one angel, and he is red!" (I thought that was pretty cool ) and proceeds to beat the out of the Chaplain. Then another Bezerker tries to intervene and claim the glory of killing both Khârn and the Death Company Chaplain. That only makes Khârn angry though, and he kills the Bezerker. But then a Reaver Titan walks past, totally ignoring Khârn. That, of course, makes Khârn very angry but then the Reaver steps on a building and buries Khârn. He pulls himself from the rubble, only to find the Reaver and the Death Company Chaplain gone. This makes Khârn very, very angry. By now most of the Mechanicum and Death Company forces have been spent, and the Butcherhorde is getting massacred by the Titans. So Khârn gets very, very, very angry and goes on a Titan murdering spree (takes out a Warhound and a Reaver). This forces the Legio Metalica to retreat, and Khârn leads the remnants of the Butcherhorde out to sweep through the routed Mechanicum forces.

Everything is going Just As Planned***, so Xorphus moves his fleets back to Amenthal in order to complete the third phase of the plan. The Imperials have made a sound choice in retreating in order to regroup, however it is a critical error in the larger scheme. The Black Legion is free to reinforce War Zone Carnage, in order to complete the ritual needed to break open the Cage. They bring down the Banshee Stone (Abaddon murder stole it from some Slaanesh Demon Prince), which begins to absorb all the blood shed across Amenthal and focus its dark energies at the wards on the Cage. The Imperial Forces regroup, and counter-attack. The Black Legion hold initially, supported by Orbital Bombardment from their fleet, but their ships are soon forced to break off to engage approaching Imperial Warships. The Mechanicus and Blood Angel forces begin to break through, but Khârn and his remaining Butcherhorde are drawn back by the fighting and begin to cause havoc in the Mechanicus backlines. Khârn kills the Magos in charge, and thus ends the hopes of the Imperials discovering the secrets of the Cage. The Blood Angels push the Black Legion back... but it is too late. Xorphus knows the ritual has done enough for the Banshee Stone to break the wards on the Cage past the point of no-return, so he orders the Black Legion to retreat. Xorphus teleports out just as Blood Angels are about to trap him, and the rest of the Black Legion retreat back to their Thunderhawks. Kranon the Relentless had survived, though he's down to 15 Crimson Slaughter marines and 1 Helbrute. They jack a Black Legion Thunderhawk and escape, none too pleased at their betrayal by the Black Legion. Abaddon has further plans for Khârn, so Xorphus teleports him up out of the battle. As to be expected, this makes Khârn very, very, very, very angry, much to the misfortune of the crew of the ship he was teleported onto (lol).

The Chaos Forces retreat from the system, all except Xorphus' Battleship which hides itself with sorcery in an Asteroid Belt to monitor the Cage. The Blood Angel's Librarians manage to destroy the Banshee Stone and they all pat themselves on the back. Victory for the Imperials! But Xorphus knows better; the Banshee Stone has done its job and its only a matter of time before the Cage breaks open. Why is this important? Because if it breaks, it will cut a new Warp Rift open laying out the Crimson Path from Cadia to Diomar and then to Terra itself. Abaddon scries this with satisfaction from his ship, the Planet Killer, as it travels deep - deeper than ever before - into the Eye of Terror to 'grasp the power to win the entire war'.

The very last bit of text is a bit of Mechancius transmission logs (which had book-ended the chapters throughout). The Blood Angels are calling for Grey Knight aid.

***Well mostly Just As Planned. Elements of the Blood Angels 1st Company, led by the Sanguinor, are able to destroy the Demon Engine factory on Ioldine which is worrying for Xorphus because he had not forseen it.

Very interesting, thanks.
Do we have any infos about the Blood Angels war against the tyranids ? Or they just have all their men again ?
What is the Mechanicus transmission ?

Hm, surprised nothing was mentioned of the Fenris War. I wonder if the Thousand Sons are working entirely apart from the Black Legion.

How the hell did Kharn take down Titans? Chop at them with his axe?

 godardc wrote:
Very interesting, thanks.
Do we have any infos about the Blood Angels war against the tyranids ? Or they just have all their men again ?
What is the Mechanicus transmission ?

Nothing mentioned about what the Blood Angels had been up to - perhaps their campaign book will detail that. The transmission at the end was the Blood Angels calling for Grey Knight aid. Presumably their Librarians have A Bad Feeling about this whole Demon Gate thing.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
How the hell did Kharn take down Titans? Chop at them with his axe?

Kharn is S5 with Furious Charge, always hits on a 2+ and has 7 Attacks on the charge. Gorechild is +1S with Armourbane. Get Angry.

(he lures the Warhound into the guns of 3 Lords of Skulls, and he jumps off a huge building onto the top of the Reaver and chops his way inside to murder the crew)

Sounds a very run by the numbers base story which didn't really get anywhere. If the gate opened cool. As it never I imagine it wont due to grey knights and thus everything will be back to normal

Thanks for posting this! What's the breakdown of the book for story and art vs. rules content? Would you say it's worth getting for the fluff/art only?

Love the ending.

The Grey Knights don't get called without reason.

Khârn is very boring as a character as his current emotional range is limited to just rage and his repertoire of social interactions is basically killing. Yes he is a personification of his god's ideals but that does not make him an interesting story character.

So nothing happens that hasn't happened how many times before?

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Imperials drive back Chaos.
Imperials claim win.
Chaos can scheme more now that they took sidestep towards goal of original scheme.

 Field_Mouse wrote:
So nothing happens that hasn't happened how many times before?

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Imperials drive back Chaos.
Imperials claim win.
Chaos can scheme more now that they took sidestep towards goal of original scheme.

Funny how art imitates life: GW does something and Internet complains. Nothing new...

What surprises me is after bringing out crimson slaughter book and pushing them as the face of chaos in one single engagement they have been reduced to Kranon, a helbrute and 15 marines. Lol I was fully expecting Kranon, 6 chosen, helbrute and 20 cultists. Considering how this is written its amazing they didn't go with that lol

Maybe they got the picture that alot of people were unhappy with the CS. But now they also have a plot line for rebuilding and getting vengeance against the Black Legion

So as much as I like something not ending in defeat for Chaos, I'm not hugely optimistic about this gate opening as planned. Seems like the GK will plot-device this scheme to shreds. What would be glorious is if the cage breaks before the GK arrive, and they find the BA locked in battle with a growing daemon host, and start to clean up only for the Black Crusades forces to burst through and lay waste.

Also, PLEASE let the next book include decurions for both GK and BA. They're two of 4/5 factions that don't have one yet.

There should be a list of all the ridiculous ways Titans get killed in the lore. Because it is getting pretty dumb.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
There should be a list of all the ridiculous ways Titans get killed in the lore. Because it is getting pretty dumb.

At this point, have Titans become the new Avatars? Instead of people raging about Calgar falcon-punching an Avatar, will people now froth with rage* about Kharn killing a Reaver Titan?



*rather apt, for Kharn

 TheCustomLime wrote:
There should be a list of all the ridiculous ways Titans get killed in the lore. Because it is getting pretty dumb.

Kharn follows rule of cool.

A Tau hero the tank commander one shot a Titan with a Hammerhead Railgun. Hahah. Shadowsun, Darkstrider, and Farsight all have Imperial assassin kill under their belt.

Now Kharn wrecks this much? I can't take titans or assassins seriously anymore.

Wazdakka Gutsmek was killing titans before it was cool.

It is quite hilarious that we now have a codex supplement for a faction which has an army consisting of 15 marines, a chapter master 1 Hellbrute and a Thunderhawk.

I mean, leading a warhound into the fire of 3 Lord of Skulls doesn't upset me at all, that's a reasonable kill.

Jumping onto a reaver and killing the crew after carving his way through the armor? That's a little more... would like to think there's a few skitarii with plasma weapons inside for this sort of thing.

 CT GAMER wrote:

 Field_Mouse wrote:
So nothing happens that hasn't happened how many times before?

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Imperials drive back Chaos.
Imperials claim win.
Chaos can scheme more now that they took sidestep towards goal of original scheme.

Funny how art imitates life: GW does something and Internet complains. Nothing new...

Not truly complaining. I am disappointed though because it feels like any fluff that deals with Chaos is given this formula to prevent it from actually advancing.

Legio Metallica sounds like a Noise Marine band or Kampfgruppe.

 Field_Mouse wrote:

 CT GAMER wrote:

 Field_Mouse wrote:
So nothing happens that hasn't happened how many times before?

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Imperials drive back Chaos.
Imperials claim win.
Chaos can scheme more now that they took sidestep towards goal of original scheme.

Funny how art imitates life: GW does something and Internet complains. Nothing new...

Not truly complaining. I am disappointed though because it feels like any fluff that deals with Chaos is given this formula to prevent it from actually advancing.

in fairness if chaos always got a clean win the IoM would proably be ya know.. dead?

BrianDavion wrote:

 Field_Mouse wrote:

 CT GAMER wrote:

 Field_Mouse wrote:
So nothing happens that hasn't happened how many times before?

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Imperials drive back Chaos.
Imperials claim win.
Chaos can scheme more now that they took sidestep towards goal of original scheme.

Funny how art imitates life: GW does something and Internet complains. Nothing new...

Not truly complaining. I am disappointed though because it feels like any fluff that deals with Chaos is given this formula to prevent it from actually advancing.

in fairness if chaos always got a clean win the IoM would proably be ya know.. dead?

The Imperium is vast enough that losses do not mean it collapses. The old Eye of Terror worldwide campaign in 2002 seemed to be taking the above story template but then the players pushed and altered it to:

Chaos schemes.
Chaos attacks.
Chaos wins first few engagements and sets about accomplishing schemes.
Imperials regroup with reinforcements.
Chaos keeps rolling forward slowly but steadily.

GW/Andy Chambers then declared it a Disorder minor victory, but then GW got cold feet at following through on the explicit promise given in a WD by Andy Chambers of the results advancing the timeline and determining the feel of the next edition of 40K. However for a little while in the next edition of 40K, GW did hint at the Imperium pulling back forces from its periphery to defend around the Eye, and then other threats taking advantage of the suddenly exposed border worlds, like the Tau launching their Third Sphere Expansion. Subsequently they jiggled the timeline and put the Third Sphere Expansion before the 13th Black Crusade rather than during/after it.

Really though, a Chaos victory in the Eye of Terror campaign would not have meant the end of the Imperium, just that Chaos had broken out of the Eye and established a significant foothold in realspace, instead of just being forced to raid then flee back to the Eye.

biggest problem I feel with the 13th black crusade being a win or a loss is suddenly then cadians are an endangerd species... who are the plastic IG? yeah... opps

GoonBandito wrote:(he lures the Warhound into the guns of 3 Lords of Skulls, and he jumps off a huge building onto the top of the Reaver and chops his way inside to murder the crew)

Thanks. Warhound thing is alright. Reaver thing reeks of the old "it's easy to preciseky predict where something will be as you get into position" trope but that happens in many things.

Sgt_Smudge wrote:At this point, have Titans become the new Avatars? Instead of people raging about Calgar falcon-punching an Avatar, will people now froth with rage* about Kharn killing a Reaver Titan?

At least it wasn't an Imperator this time.

 jifel wrote:
Jumping onto a reaver and killing the crew after carving his way through the armor? That's a little more... would like to think there's a few skitarii with plasma weapons inside for this sort of thing.

Is Kharn's axe possessed? Must be incredibly strong to cut through that armour.

BrianDavion wrote:
biggest problem I feel with the 13th black crusade being a win or a loss is suddenly then cadians are an endangerd species... who are the plastic IG? yeah... opps

Which, once again, demonstrates why an advancing timeline in a participatory setting is a terrible, awful, abysmal idea. You're never not going to be pissing one group of fans or another off, or undermining your own product range, or writing yourself into inescapable corners. And the moment you try and address those problems, you just piss off a different, mutually-opposed group of fans who'll either be angry at the way your Deus Ex Durpadurp cacks on their favourite bit to save someone else's, or that you're mitigating the result at all since they always wanted to see huge, drastic, sweeping changes.

I just don't get how GW can have this so back-asswards - you use the modern period as the set-stage, a static set of plot points that players can use as a tool to write their own stories with or as a backdrop for their battles, and you satisfy the segment of the fanbase that wants a constant stream of "official" story to follow along with using the vast, gaping, barely-defined 10,000 year history gap where you can go as nuts as you like providing that it's vaguely plausible that after all's said & done the modern setting could be a plausible outcome. Crikey they've gotten how many campaign books and models and novels out of the Heresy, and that's one short event, GW could pump out "historical" campaign books for 40K for a century and still have whole fictional millennia left over, it's baffling to me why they gamble with the existing setting for the sake of a couple of years' worth of Black Crusade 13 - No Really This Time It's Totes Personal Fo Reals releases.

BrianDavion wrote:
biggest problem I feel with the 13th black crusade being a win or a loss is suddenly then cadians are an endangerd species... who are the plastic IG? yeah... opps

Not in the least. Cadia was embattled in the original campaign results, with offworld Cadians elsewhere then being recalled to retake their homeworld. Even IF Cadia were to fall, there are so many Cadians out there they could easily have a "Nova Cadia" be founded in memory of the original Cadia, and with the dream of retaking Cadia. The Cadian equipment is also widespread and used by other worlds, not just Cadia, so the model line is not invalidated whatever happens.

Iracundus wrote:

Not in the least. Cadia was embattled in the original campaign results, with offworld Cadians elsewhere then being recalled to retake their homeworld. Even IF Cadia were to fall, there are so many Cadians out there they could easily have a "Nova Cadia" be founded in memory of the original Cadia, and with the dream of retaking Cadia. The Cadian equipment is also widespread and used by other worlds, not just Cadia, so the model line is not invalidated whatever happens.

There probably is already a Nova Cadia seeing as regiments sometimes settle worlds.

 Yodhrin wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
biggest problem I feel with the 13th black crusade being a win or a loss is suddenly then cadians are an endangerd species... who are the plastic IG? yeah... opps

Which, once again, demonstrates why an advancing timeline in a participatory setting is a terrible, awful, abysmal idea. You're never not going to be pissing one group of fans or another off, or undermining your own product range, or writing yourself into inescapable corners. And the moment you try and address those problems, you just piss off a different, mutually-opposed group of fans who'll either be angry at the way your Deus Ex Durpadurp cacks on their favourite bit to save someone else's, or that you're mitigating the result at all since they always wanted to see huge, drastic, sweeping changes.

I just don't get how GW can have this so back-asswards - you use the modern period as the set-stage, a static set of plot points that players can use as a tool to write their own stories with or as a backdrop for their battles, and you satisfy the segment of the fanbase that wants a constant stream of "official" story to follow along with using the vast, gaping, barely-defined 10,000 year history gap where you can go as nuts as you like providing that it's vaguely plausible that after all's said & done the modern setting could be a plausible outcome. Crikey they've gotten how many campaign books and models and novels out of the Heresy, and that's one short event, GW could pump out "historical" campaign books for 40K for a century and still have whole fictional millennia left over, it's baffling to me why they gamble with the existing setting for the sake of a couple of years' worth of Black Crusade 13 - No Really This Time It's Totes Personal Fo Reals releases.

Totally agree. I can't and won't ever understand this. They are just beggining a whole new books series about The Beast, so this proves they are aware of all the potential the 10 thousands years offers. But they still focus on the 13th Black Crusade they aren't really able to do correctly (read as: destroying the Cadian Gate, etc).