Cultwar Shadow War Battle Report Part 2

So for game two of our Shadow War double bill we moved the setting to a more traditional Necromunda style industrial board. The scenery came from Wargame Tournaments (reviewed HERE) and did a decent job of doubling up for Necromunda Scenery, i must put some time into getting it all painted sometime.

This would be a straight up gang fight. no scenario, just fighting till one gang bottled. This would also be the last game of Shadow War. The game's limitations and flaws are becoming steadily apparent and without a decent progression system or campaign narrative its getting a bit stale. Hopefully Kill Team will be an improvement.

One last thing: We suck at remembering to take enough photos. Sorry about that.

On with the report!

Lee: Turn one.

Lee began the game by downing the Ochre Prince with Ulo, Oh. Not to be outdone Ulk shot down Larz removing the threat of my heavy stubber. Thankfully the cultist kept his footing and was saved from a painful fall.

Elsewhere the two Autogun boys Lek and Hesh were pinned. With the upgrades for inquistorial henchmen Lee's shooting was pinpoint, often hitting on 2+. He'd hit my gang hard, i'd struggle to deliver much of a response.

Al: Turn One:

First thing was to head forward with Karl, his flamer had done great things last game and here he delivered too, taking Ulo straight out of action. Seb, having sat out the last game, headed toward the Inquisitor and wounded the Imperial agent though his armour prevented him from real harm.

Cid managed to pin the Squat which was handy and the best part of the turn was saved for last as the Ochre Prince recovered to a flesh wound. He still had flesh to rend.....

Lee: Turn Two:

Lee started with more precision shots as Ulk downed my Leader Skarn, now that WAS a problem, not far off bottle tests already, good thing the Genestealer had recovered. His Deathwatch Marine threw a grenade but missed, bouncing the explosive off of a stanchion and into the path of the Inquisitor. Thankfully the Inquisitor wasn't harmed by the storm of shrapnel.

Al Turn Two:

The Genestealer charged the Crusader, even with a reduced weapon skill the Crusader should be toast, thinly shredded toast. Seb continued to make up for his absence in the last game by pinning Ulk, and Karl repeated the feat on the Inquisitor who was clearly fire retardant.

Lek pinned the Deathwatch marine with a lucky shot. Jaq opened up on the Inquisitor and managed to wound him, but with two wounds remaining he was going to be tough to get rid of. Somehow the Ochre Prince only managed to land a flesh wound on the crusader! Larz went out of action, ensuring that I would have to do with out my heavy stubber this game.

Lee: Turn Three:

Thankfully Lee's turn was mostly him standing his dudes up. Deaths Head did pin Brother Seb but not much else happened. Elsewhere the Ochre Prince was REALLY making a meal of the Crusader, only managing another Flesh Wound.

Al: Turn Three:

My turn was an array of missed shots, my guys arent as well trained as Lee's. I did land one important shot though as Lek repeated his shot on the Death Watch marine. This time though the impact was enough to knock the Space Marine off the ledge and plummeting to the ledge below. It's OK it wasn't that far only three inches, should be nothing to a mari....what's that? He's wounded? He's DOWN???

Oh dear....

Elsewhere the Genestealer failed to wound the Crusader, something was wrong, they are normally much more deadly than this....


Lee turn Four:

Lee started by passing his bottle test. He wasn't out of this yet. Ulk pinned Lek but he was running out of guys to impact the game. Things were made worse as I remembered that Genestealers have Rending Claws and the Ochre Prince's combat effectiveness improved significantly, the Crusader was promptly shredded.

Okay NOW Lee might be in trouble

Al turn Four

First things first.... Karl tried to toast Drakkensson but sadly his flamer ran out of fuel, the Squat ducked anyway and was Pinned. Karl was now pretty much holding a paperweight though. Need to get that boy a reload.

Cid and Jaq both shot the Inquisitor but missed. Seb, did better managing to hit and wound the inquisitor. He fell one story to the floor but suffered no further damage, he got up again with one wound remaining. He was dangerously close to the Ochre Prince though. Thankfully the Genestealer stuck around to get rid of the Crusader (yes we were still playing that rule wrong i know....)

Lee: Turn Five:

Lee wasn't running. He was very much running out of dudes though. Inquisitor missed the Genestealer, that might be fatal. Ulk pinned Seb and knocked him off the edge but he bounced well and suffered no further ill effects.

Al turn Five:

Time to put the knife in, Literally. Lek charged the fallen Deaths Head, looking to take him out of the game. Karl moved towards the Inquisitor and triumphantly squeezed the trigger on his Flamer only to have it spurt and spark. I'd completely forgotten he was out of ammo! Ooops.
A few of my guys stood up, Lek shivved the Marine and The Ochre Prince moved malevolently toward the Inquisitor.

Lee: Turn Six:

Do or die for Lee now. The inquisitor shot the Ochre Prince but failed to wound. We decided that a shotgun wasn't high impact enough to pin him though. Thankfully for Lee the Squat was hefting a boltgun though and this certainly was. The Ochre Prince pinned, Ulk pinned Lek from up high. Hitting his target wasn't a problem for Lee, putting them down was.

Al Turn Six

The Ochre Prince, recovered from being pinned easily (high initiative) and charged the Inquisitor. Karl joined in too, weilding his heavy but useless flamer. Hesh shot Ulk and lee failed his initiative check, plunging the Pug mutant off of the roof and falling a long way down. He didn't bounce and went Down.

Drakkensson was in heavy cover but Cid hit him anyway on a 6 and pinned the Squat.

Time for the Title Fight.

Ochre Prince vs Inquisitor (with Hatred)

The Genestealer has lots of attacks but the Inquisitor has a sword and can therefore Parry. Parry is a really powerful ability that has the potential to drastically change a combat roll. That is what happened here, but the Genestealer still got in one hit which stripped the last wound from the Inquisitor and put him down. Karl then bludgeoned him with the flamer putting him Out of Action.

Even better, Skarn, the GSC leader finally decided to recover to a Flesh Wound after being on the ground all game!

Unsurprisingly Lee gave up the ghost and finally conceded. The Brotherhood of the Yellow King had comprehensively defended their territory and repelled the invaders. But the inquisitor would be back, he had many resources to call upon....

End game action:

Bit pointless really becuase we weren't carrying on but we rolled anyway for shits and giggles.

The biggest upset was that Ulk DIED! He was the best performer of the game. It was probably a good thing we weren't carrying on, it was a crippling blow for Lee's warband.

Lee's Inquisitor hated Karl
The Crusader hated The Ochre Prince.

Larz, who had done nothing all game, being put down in the first turn had apparently learned a great deal (presumably about lying on the ground) and advanced gaining Marksman.

Drakkensson got to reroll Ammo tests and Lek, who took down Deaths Head yes? got an extra wound.

In total I won the campaign 7 promethium to 2. This would benefit me in some way in a future game.

This mini campaign highlighted for me the main problems inherent with the Shadow War Armageddon rule set. I'm gonna bullet point them.

• Despite using the original Necromunda Ruleset the very best part, the post game sequence, has been absolutely butchered. There is little sense of advancement, kills make no difference and this can heavily skew the progression of your warband. The equipment that you can take is very basic and SWA really feels like a hybrid game rather than having its own identity. Consecutive games throw in stark relief the fact that SWA was nothing more than a stop gap. A chance to sell some new scenery and keep people buying kits in the sales lull during the lead up to 8th edition.
• The lack of a 'gang rating' means that there can be no underdog system. This can often mean that one gang can get on a roll and the warband taking a beating can find it tough to recover. 
• Another problem with porting over the Necromunda rules is inherent to the rule set itself. Lee found himself pinned far too often, unable to respond. In Necromunda you would nearly always have at least 8 models some of which were juves so if a few got pinned it wasn't the end of the world. Lee had a much smaller group even with his Special Operative so, especially once he had taken a few casualties he could quite literally spend his entire turn standing his guys up just to get shot down again. Pinning is far too powerful. Given that some armies will by necessity have very few models the case can be exacerbated.

GW are also clearly unconvinced as ANOTHER version is coming out this year, Kill Team. With a completely unique ruleset (different polygonal dice for the first time in a long time) hopefully this time they will deliver a rule set that will do justice to the idea of an elite squad operating over the course of a campaign. 

Time will tell. 

Cult War: Month 4

Another month and another tale of wanting to get shizz done but quite managing it. Despite the lack of concrete results plenty of stuff has happened. Listen good reader as I tell you a tale…

 

So I have managed to paint something and it’s a vehicle which is a bigger than normal model so that’s something, yes? After ruminating over which style of red, black or red and black official colour schemes found in the Tempestus Scions codex, I went with blue, like the Volpone Blue Bloods from the Gaunt’s Ghost’s novels. This particular model is a Taurox Prime, it’s a transport for my ten men but also packs a punch with a variety of weapons. I’ve gone anti-infantry as the majority of Allen’s force is infantry but have magnetised the turret so I can swap between a Gatling cannon or a mini Battle Cannon.

Now, there is a lot to recommend the Taurox model visually, just not the tracks. I get that GW wants to standardise the Militarum’s vehicles as tracked tanks but the model looks ridiculous built straight out of the box. That is why I forked out for the replacement wheels from Victoria Miniatures. You can see the difference they make, much more attractive. I’ve just ordered another set for my second Taurox.

Also this month I’ve put together the full 50 power points Allen and I agreed on for our first game. It is a Guard army, including all the models for Start Collecting: Tempestus Scions plus my Inquisitor and a few of his retinue along with a Militarum force comprised of Squats. Yes, Squats! I received GW’s first official squat model in over 20 years this month too so I don’t want to hear any eye rolling.

I am not using all these models in my list, unfortunately I couldn’t fit the Ogryns in but it has three full squads of infantry to yell obscenities at Allen’s lines. The off road quads I am proxying as Sentinels and I have an order for some new Mantic models that I shall be proxying as other Squat scaled Militarum vehicles.

I also received the parts for my secret units for later down the line. I’ll be working on these at the same time as my regular units, this month’s being the Scions ten man squad and a Commissar. Now I have the colour scheme down the infantry should come along quickly.

In other hobby news I have purchased my first bar of hobby soap. It is amazing. I shall not be painting any more without it. My brushes are pretty grotty and the difference the soap has made is noticeable, some of them have regained their points! I have some new brushes as well and will be maintaining them properly from the start, I hope to see an improvement in the longevity.

Pictures have emerged of the Eldar Webway gate that is being released this month. Finally, plastic Eldar scenery! I’ll be having one of these to go along with my mdf Aeldari pieces. It does mean I have to buy the Harlequin codex on release so I have the full rules but having the ability to bring in any Eldar unit close to the enemy as I assume it does is worth it.

Also, Warhammer Fest. There were a number of interesting things announced but only one really matters, the Return of Adeptus Titanicus. It’s not far off now either, August.So expect to see my Cult progress be surrendered to my love of Titans and epic scale, new or old, in general.

**********************

Man April was a tough month. And it's had a significant effect on my output, no less than four trips to hospital and several other upheavals have meant that not much got accomplished.

I DID manage to get work started on the characters at least. After several months of solid batch painting and nothing but troops it was a pleasant change of pace. They aren't finished but they are on their way. After all what is a Brotherhood without it's Yellow King?

Speaking of yellow, the Broodlord/Patiarch is the yellowest thing I have painted so far and ergo probably the biggest challenge. I look forward to getting it finished.

Alas, pretty much all painting ceased as two things happened in swift sucession.

1: Forgebane was released. Hello Adeptus Mechanicus army!

2: The Dark Eldar finally actually got a decent and characterful codex! Hello Dark Eldar Army!

The Admech were new, Forgebane was the core and then I bought other units to go on top. Pretty much everything is assembled.

The Drukhari on the other hand I have had for YEARS, I got them when the range was revitalised by Jes Goodwin and they've sat there ever since  new on sprue waiting for a decent book. Sadly they had some wait and sat their for entire editions as they suffered garbage book after garbage book. A shame.

So, lots of assembly, not so much painting. It's still technically cults just machine cults and Wych cults  (i have over 70 Wyches.)

But other than that, the month has been a total bust and I cannot deny that progress has stalled. Oh well, Lee and I have a game scheduled soon and that should give me some impetus to get more done, i'm still way ahead. We are starting at 50 Power Points to keep things nice and simple.

Then it's a mission to get a decent Cultwar done by August, for the Titans are a-coming....

Brotherhood of the Yellow King: Chapter Six

Chapter VI: Discovery and Destruction

Carn nudged the mug of Recaff in front of him, it was still warm, though barely. He contemplated drinking the beverage but he had no taste for it and frankly he just wanted to leave Hyrk as soon as possible. He had been delayed quite enough already.

There had been questions, of course there had been questions. He had endured them, the endless repetition and mind numbing monotony of standard enquiries around poor Larkarsky's demise. Carn had informed them that he had no idea why Larkarsky had done what he had, and that he had no previous contact with the Adept apart from his previous, documented visit. The thing is, he was lying.

Of course he couldn't tell them the truth, they would have detained him even longer and he needed to journey to Endomaw as soon as possible as per Larkarsky's message. For one thing had become abundantly clear to Alistae Carn, over the last day. He might have feigned ignorance, pretended that he knew little to nothing about the events in question, that he was nothing more than a witness to the tragic aftermath of Larkarsky's untimely death, but he knew the reality that lay behind the veil he hid behind. Larkarsky had been a Psyker.

Not just any Psyker either, to send a message such as Larkarsky had done, (for Carn firmly believed this is what had happened) he must have had no small degree of power and control. However, something much more potent had been hunting him and he had finally been bought low. But not before managing to contact Carn through his subconsciousness. Carn had ruminated over the experience while nodding with a blank expression to the continued probing. Though he maintained his facade of ignorance his professional mind was racing and analysing all of the information at hand. To tell of Larkarsky's true nature would only complicate matters, especially here. Such revelations were not likely to be well received in such a place.

A weary Doctor Speltz appeared from a door on the left, fresh from her own interview, and sat down opposite Carn.

"Hell of a night" she offered.

Carn just grunted, he couldn't disagree, even if he was sticking to his policy of noncommittal ambivalent interaction.

You drinking that? Speltz asked. She indicated the full cup of recaff, with a hopeful expression. Carn pushed it toward her and she accepted it gratefully, draining it quickly and letting out a satisfied sigh while visibly sinking into the chair.

"I've seen some things" she confessed. "when you have been doing this as long as I have it's inevitable, but I tell you, tonight is beyond my experience. Words in blood, that smile, not in 40 years have I seen anything quite like it. I'll not forget this night in a hurry and Emperor preserve me, I hope I never have to again.

He was fine the last time I checked you know, only a couple of hours before" she continued when no response was forthcoming from across the table. "Sitting there as usual, muttering. What could have happened within such a short space of time to drive him to do what he did? Don't think it escaped my notice that you happened to turn up around the same time, with that charm. What is it? I heard that noise you know, that keening from it, I know i didn't imagine it." Her words were coming faster and faster now as the recaff hit her system and did it's work. Her eyes blazed.

"There is something you aren't telling me, something about this whole situation that you are keeping to yourself. I can feel it, you KNOW something." She slammed a fist into the table with as much force as her aged frame could muster. "Tell me you bastard! what are you hiding?" Her voice rose in pitch, becoming strained and shrill. The guards over at the door looked over suspiciously and Carn reached out and grabbed her arm in an effort to silence her. Their eyes met.

"Trust me Doctor, when I say you are better off not knowing." Carn reached out with his other hand and placed it on top of the one holding onto the Doctors arm, turning an aggressive and restricting gesture into a comforting one. "I mean it" he added earnestly, "I could easily just say it is classified but in actuality I am sparing you by not telling you. Suffice to say, it is my burden and mine alone, the reason for me coming here is now clearly null and void and it is time for me to leave. I shall say no more." He looked at her earnestly, "You may voice your suspicions if you so desire but time is of the essence and I have much to do. I swear in the Holy Emperor's name that my motivations and aims are pure. I would ask you not to cause me any further delay. I do the Emperor's work and have tarried long enough." He released the Doctor's arm and sat back, clearly indicating she was free to act. He saw indecision and suspicion war in her eyes for a moment before she made her choice.

"Fine", she snapped. "I dont care, like I said, i've seen enough shit. Go, walk away and get on with whatever you think it is you have to do". the chair slid back with a screech on the tiled floor as she got up and stalked off to speak to some orderlies clustered in a corner.

"Thank you" Carn breathed, though he wasn't sure who he was thanking. He thumbed the Aquila in his pocket, it felt warm, comforting. "Thank you."

*************************************************** 

Two hours later the transport lifted into the air. Carn sent another quick message to both Ralscon and Endomaw, there was no point in secrecy. He had little hope of infiltrating Endomaw in any case. He said nothing of the psychic message to Ralscon and nothing of Larkarsky at all to the contact at Endomaw, instead only informing them of a rough ETA and making a number of small requests for his arrival. Best to keep his cards close to his chest he thought. He would offer up as little information to them as possible whilst gleaning as much as he could in return. In any event he had seven hours till he reached Endomaw (it was pretty much on the other side of Worth) and a lot of  work and investigation to do. He pored over the dataslate, analysing all the text, replaying the vidlogs and trying to find a pattern in the data. He even refrained from drinking any Skee, (though he confessed to himself that that might have been a different matter had it not been the synthesised stuff) in order to keep a clear head. He accumulated a ream of papers writing down algorithms and potential codes and ciphers that might have been used to encrypt vital information but to no avail.

"Useless," he muttered, casting the papers down on top of the dataslate. He reconsidered his abstinence, frustrated beyond belief. No, he needed to stay focused. He cast his eyes to the ceiling of the transport and exhaled deeply. A prayer to the Emperor came to mind and he closed his eyes and recited it reverently. Upon completion of the benediction he opened his eyes, calmed and centred. He looked down at the dataslates and his jaw dropped. He rubbed his eyes, not quite able to believe what he was seeing. No, it was, it had to be, there was no other possibility.

Through chance or divine intervention the papers had fallen across the activated dataslate in a way that showed exactly the first digit from each entry, what had seemed a nonsensical series of numbers and letters was suddenly revealed to be a sequence and a word.

619519 - HEART

There was no chance this was a coincidence, this had to be what Larkarsky had been referring to, but what did it mean? He wracked his memory, he had to be missing something, something that he had seen but had not grasped the significance of, but what? Time was ticking down and he was only getting closer to Endomaw, it was important that he got to the truth before he landed, he could feel it. The analytical part of his mind worked overtime as he worked on the puzzle.

"619519 - HEART, 619519 - HEART" he repeated to himself, as if each repetition would bring him closer to the solution. "Dammit Larkarsky, why did you have to be so obtuse?" even as he said the words, he knew the answer. Larkarsky had been paranoid, and with good reason, he had been compelled to hide the information as deep as possible in order to keep it from the wrong hands. Now it was up to Carn to find the answer. 619519 HEART... what did it MEAN?

Before long, the strain of analysis overtook him and he fell into a restless slumber. Inevitably thoughts of Larkarsky infiltrated his dream. A kaleidoscopic array of images and sequences rushing through his subconsciousness too fast to decipher. Too much, too much, a tidal wave of information that he could  not hope to process.  The bombardment continued as his unconscious mind attempted to compartmentalise and filter the information. Then abruptly it ceased and Larkarsky's face appeared in the darkness...

Alistae....Alistae....he taunted, his voice ethereal and lilting. Carn struck out in his dream, thrashing through Larkarsky's face which dissipated like mist, fading into the darkness and leaving only his voice....

"I thought i might write a book about this one day...."

Carn snapped awake as if he had been shaken roughly. His mind was crystal clear. He checked his chronometer, 16 minutes till arrival at Endomaw. He must have slept through the pilot's announcements, he had little time left. 'I thought i might write a book about this one day,' could it really be that simple? He rummaged around in the satchel by his feet, pulling out the other dataslate, the one full of literature. Was it pure luck that he had bought it with him? Or something else? He put such ruminations from his mind and powered up the slate. He scrolled through the meticulously organised entries, his excitement growing as he noted the filing format matched the code hidden in the indexing on the other slate. After accessing various subfolders and files he found the match. 6.195.19. Heart of the Imperium by Maximillian Vos Brynd. He stopped a moment, heart pounding as anticipation filled him, and then thumbed the access key...

Suddenly the dataslate was wrenched out of his hand as the transport was violently hurled to one side with a deafening boom.  A second followed scant moments later and Carn was launched from his seat as the shuttle lurched crazily. An alarm began to blare and red lights flashed as yet another explosion rocked the craft. A sudden loss in altitude resulted in a moment of weightlessness and he saw the dataslate lift for a moment in front of him, the text tantalisingly illegible to his blurred eyes. Then the moment passed and he crashed to the floor painfully as the shuttle plummeted in an uncontrolled spiralling dive. He groggily crawled toward the comms panel on a nearby wall, calling up the pilot's recorded log. The pilot itself showed as uncontactable, so either it had been irreparably damaged or was fully devoted to the preservation of the shuttle. Slaved into the craft's systems it could quite easily be either. Carn scanned the entries, noting with gratitude the exceptional evasive maneuvers that the pilot had performed to escape certain death. And the cause of the pilots endeavours? A missile lock, from Endomaw. So that's how it was to be, he thought. He didn't have time to think much else, a shrill tone indicated that the altitude was bottoming out and he barely had time to grab both the dataslate and the Aquila in his pocket before the shuttle hit the ground and tore itself apart in a storm of twisted metal.

         **************************************************************

"An accident", Persi Ralscon repeated as the screen flashed off and his dulled reflection stared back at him expressionlessly. The Endomaw Chief Administrator Geriok had been abject in his contrition, explaining that a guidance malfunction on the defence system had resulted in Prefect Carn's shuttle being erroneously targeted and destroyed. There were no survivors. Throne's sake, this was the last thing he needed. The resulting administration alone would be a nightmare, to say nothing of sending additional investigators to follow up on Carn's vague suspicions. Frankly it was becoming more hassle than it it was worth. Larkarsky had gone out there, something had happened and he had gone crazy, big deal. Carn? No big loss there, the man was an insufferable drunken arse, he'd not be missed. Ralscon could comfortably draw a nice thick line of finality under the whole thing and not have to think about it again. Yeah he could investigate further but he had no desire to, no one was going to thank him for it anyway, and he didn't want any plaudits in any case. He had no aspirations, no ambitions and no interest than doing anything more than he had to,  his mid level bureaucratic existence would do him just fine.

"Screw it", he muttered and put all of Carn's materiel and reports into a file, a quick jab of a button and it would no longer be his problem. He prepared a cursory report and sent it off to his superiors on Celias IV. It was someone else's responsibility now, good riddance. As it was he had to fill Carn's position and he hadn't even got a replacement for Larkarsky yet. Shit, he should have added the personnel requisition request to his report, now he would have to send another. His mood soured even further, if there was one thing that he hated it was unnecessary work. Day ruined, and it was all Carn's fault. He was glad the bastard was dead.

Brotherhood of the Yellow King Chapter Five

Chapter V: Screams in the night

Once again, Carn found himself in front of the door of Larkarsky's cell in the labyrinthine Hyrk Asylum for the Demented and Insane. Wordlessly the same Doctor as before, Speltz! That was her name! unlocked the door and opened it, stepping back and fading ethereally into the darkness. Carn stepped forward into the Adept's chamber, pulling the Aquilla from his pocket and holding it in front of him. Even  though he could barely see the crouched muttering figure of the Adept ahead of him in the gloom the Aquila glinted and shone as if light were falling upon it. Carn also fancied that he heard a keening from the dangling charm but that was impossible.

Or prehaps not, for Larkarsky's head snapped up instantly. He stood, cocking his head like a bird and advanced on Carn, emerging from the gloom. Carn stepped back but the door had closed behind him. He wanted to turn but couldn't take his eyes off of Larkarsky, stepping jerkily toward him with his arm outstretched like some kind of undead horror. He backed up against the door holding the Aquila charm ahead of him like an offering whilst steeling himself to defend against any attack.

Instead, Larkarsky stopped just in front of Carn. His eyeless sockets glowed like burning embers, and he straightened, regarding the pinned Prefect. He reached for the dangling charm, still shining in Carn's grip but instead of taking it, pushed it back towards Carn's chest.

"Keep it Alistae, you will need it more than I" Larkarsy's voice resonated in Carn's skull, permeating his very mind and echoing through his brain. "Much work lies ahead of you, you must discover the truth, the truth of the Yellow King" He smiled beatifically, stepping back and dipping his head before raising it again. The embers blazed with new fury.

"They are coming, I can feel them, in my head, in my soul. They scratch and scream and writhe."  His mouth approximated sorrow. "I was too weak, Emperor forgive me. I was too weak at the time. Now I am more prepared. Yet, even now, my time grows short. I wish I could tell you more, but they are listening, they have been since the start. They are in my head you know, did I mention that?" He tapped his temple for emphasis

Carn, could do little more than nod dumbly, he gripped the chain tightly, his knuckles white as Larkarsky continued;

"I have faith in you Alistae, i know you will succeed. You are looking in the right place, the answer is there. I believe you will find the answer before you reach Endomaw, I was so close, too close. I have left clues in my logs, find them. Find them and save us all. You MUST uncover the truth about the Yellow King! I have faith in you" he repeated. "I know you will succeed, the Emperor Protects, Alistae. He protects us all."

Carn nodded again, he tried to say something but could not form the words. Why could he not speak? This all seemed so unreal.

Larkarsy turned his head abruptly, sensing something. "We are out of time Alistae, I knew it would not take long, but I had to take the risk, you understand?" Carn didn't but Larkarsky continued regardless; "It is up to you now, this task falls to you, and with that, I am free. Thank you Alistae, thank you for coming back for me, may the Emperor watch over you." The beatific smile returned and suddenly there was a knife in his hand. He drew it across his throat sharply. The light in his eye sockets went out.

Carn flinched, but instead of the gush of bright arterial blood there was nothing, just a yawning expanse as Larkarsky's head tilted back. He was still smiling. Carn stared in revulsion as yellow writhing tentacles emerged from the ruin of his neck, expanding and writhing and reaching. Now Carn found a voice, and that voice was a scream.

He was still screaming when he awoke. He was reclining in a comfortable chair on the shuttle. A glass rested on its side on the table from where he had upset it when he started. The remnants of its contents tricked onto the floor via Carn's leg. Carn ignored it, it was the cheap synthesised stuff anyway. The dreams were getting worse. There was no denying it. Always the yellow tentacles, not only in his dreams either. The nightmarish images were infiltrating his waking thoughts too. It was getting stronger the closer he got to Endowmaw. He pulled the compact Autopistol from his chest holster and checked that it was fully loaded. It was a high powered custom model, packing more stopping power than a standard issue Autopistol at the cost of a slower firing rate. In actuality, it was more like a mini bolt pistol than anything else, finished in a brushed dark gunmetal with crimson finials and etched grip. Like all good guns it had a name and this was etched along the casing 'Furore Imperatoris' Emperor's Fury. It was a good solid gun and it had been a long time since it had been fired.

Carn had retrieved it from his desk drawer upon his return to the administratum building. Deftly avoiding Ralscon, (though he had left a conciliatory message updating his earlier report) he had feverishly grabbed as many supplies as he could, casting furtive glances at the shadows. He had then booked a transport shuttle and left, charting a route via Hyrk to Endowmaw. Now he was no more than an hour from the Asylum and as the monotonous tones of the cybernetic pilot confirmed this fact he sat up and reached for the satchel at the side of his seat.

It had seemed so REAL, more so than any other dream. His head still swam and he was dizzy and disorientated. He also had a headache, a pounding pressure in his skull that made him wince. Worse, still, he could feel something trickling from his nose and wiping his hand across the liquid saw it was a deep crimson. That couldn't be good.  Shakily he withdrew the dataslates from the satchel. He'd already reviewed the final log. It had contained nothing of note, just more of Larkarsky's exhaustively detailed prose and further meetings with Ganvan Seris which had left the Adept even more unsettled than before. His final audio log had similarly suggested little more than a more defined unease, though he would not specify the source of it. He'd ended the vidlog with a comment that something was very wrong in Endowmaw and that he should write a book about it some day. A somewhat more sardonic comment than Carn had expected to be honest. He put this down to Larkarsky's state of mind. The man was clearly extremely disturbed and agitated, his anxiety was clear to see

Even so, there was no denying that there was something he was missing. Perhaps his dream was his subconscious telling him this, he had certainly been rattled of late. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. There was so much still to do, so many mysteries still to be solved. He went back over his notes and the latest few logs, both written and video. However, despite analysing each passage and even going over the videos frame by frame he still could discern or glean no further information. He  went as far as to watch one of them backwards in the hope of uncovering a hidden message even as he chided himself for being so naive. Nothing.

He sighed and abandoned his studying as he noticed the drone of the engines turn into a pitched whine, indicating that the shuttle was beginning its descent. Right on cue the pilot announced their imminent arrival at Hyrk. Carn hastily gathered up the dataslates, stuffing them back into the satchel before fastening it. He just about had time to tidy himself up a little before the shuttle landed and he swiftly chartered a ground transport to take him to the Asylum. He became lost in thought as the coach proceeded up the rickety darkened path the the asylum, recalling his bizarre dream and Larkarsky's words. He was suddenly jolted from his reverie as the coach ground to a halt at his destination. He hadn't noticed that it had started raining and he was quite soaked by the time he reached the large door. His approach had not gone unnoticed however and he was greeted before he had a chance to knock. He smiled to hide the unease he felt when he saw who was behind the door.

"Doctor Speltz, good evening" he nodded and was rewarded with a flash of a return smile as he was ushered in by the aged psychiatrist. The door eased to a close behind him and he stood in a small puddle as the rainwater dripped off of his overcoat onto the tiled floor. He removed it, grateful for the sudden reduction in weight, and hung it carefully on a nearby rack while grasping the satchel in his other hand. He ran his hand through his wet hair and gratefully accepted the towel that Speltz proffered. Drying himself he followed the Doctor as she headed for Larkarsky's cell with purpose and swift steps despite her hunched posture. Carn hurried to catch up, tossing the damp towel onto a nearby gurney. He left a trail of droplets as he walked, his boots squelching slightly in time with his hurried footsteps.

"So how goes your investigation Prefect?" she asked without looking back, "and what brings you back here? Surely you don't think you'll be able to get anything more from Mr Larkarsky?" Her voice echoed slightly, they were not yet deep enough into the asylum to hear anything of the inmates.

Carn waited till he had closed the distance to a couple of foot before answering, "Indeed no Doctor, I am actually here on a personal errand. A mission of conscience if you will. My visit will not last long  I assure you. I have urgent business in Endomaw that I cannot delay for long. As with regards to my investigation I am afraid that is classified. All I can say is it is proceeding. Endomaw is the next step. I can tell you no more." He paused as they negotiated a winding set of steps.  "How has Larkarsky been?"

"Calmer," she admitted, "I would hesitate to say improved, he is still mostly non responsive, withdrawn, but i have noticed a stillness about him that we have not observed before. I find it unlikely that he will ever leave. It is unfortunate but perhaps a mercy, the man inside is still very much lost." Her voice was drowned out by maniacal laughter, screams and wails, and nothing more was said until they got to Larkarsky's cell.

"What was it you wanted anyway?" Speltz asked as she fumbled through the heavy bundle of keys at the end of a chain attached to her waist, tutting as she sometimes missed a key in her search. Her hands shook slightly, making her task that much harder.

Carn opened the satchel and removed the Aquila charm, shaking it free of its chain and allowing it to dangle from his hand. "Just to return this" he admitted, "I felt that he should have it. I'm not sure why, it just seemed important. " He shrugged, "It's hardly going to help him, it just seemed the right thing to do" Speltz looked up as she finally located the right key, her face was sympathetic and sorrowful.

"You might be surprised", she said softly, just about audible over the backround soundtrack of the hopelessly insane. "I'm sure he will appreciate it, even if he cannot express it. As I said, he has been... " her words turned to a strangled gasp as she wrenched the door open and she crashed to her knees, bringing a trembling hand to her gaping mouth.

Wordlessly, Carn stepped past her. With careful footsteps he walked over to the body in the middle of the floor. Larkarsky was on his back, a beatific smile plastered across his features. His throat was raggedly cut, a sharp sliver of stone in his hand the obvious cause. Blood pooled around his body, sticky and deep crimson. Though sightless, his expression was one of utter contentment and peace. He actually looked happy. Suddenly the charm shone in Carn's hand,  glinting strongly despite the absence of a significant light source to cause such a reflection. In the increased illumination granted by the Aquila he could see that beyond the pool surrounding Larkarsy's body something was written, something red. He stooped and held the gleaming charm over the words. A chill ran across his body as he read the message in blood.

CARN FLAVO REX  VERUM

Carn, Yellow, King, Truth.

Below that was a crudely drawn Aquila, the bloody smears fading out at the wing tips. Carn stood up again and sadly regarded poor Larkarsky and his final message hastily scrawled in his own lifeblood. He fancied that he could hear a keening from the charm but as his shock faded and reality reasserted himself he realised that the noise was actually Speltz who apparently had remembered or discovered how to scream. Carn stood there reeling, as the Doctors despair and horror blended with the wails of the myriad patients. He recited a prayer for the dead Adept, and then turned and left the cell, passing the doctor without a glance. He leaned against a wall and stared intently at the suddenly quiescent charm as he was left with his own thoughts and screams in the night.