Forge the narrative #4 - Disrupting the ritual. Sons of Ananta vs chaos

Squad Sariswati, inflitrating into the edges of the derelict mega city covering the noerthermost island on the Second planet of Anubis, caught traces of an energy source that the Hervara Tech priests had asked them to investigate, but before they could exfiltrate, they were discovered.  A raging cultist mob, led by a huge power armoured figure, pursued them. 

Trapped, they called for aid and Chief Sargeant Bardas led a rescue mission, a column of land speeders and scouts.  The unwieldy cultist mob proved no match for the high fire rate and blast weaponary the Marines could bring to bear, and sargeant Bardas himself cut down the enemy warlord with his bolt pistol before smashing the head of the only remaining leader the cultists possessed.  After this the marines mopped up the remaining cultists and retrieved their brothers.

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Drifting in the outer rims of then system are the devout cults that follow death himself, flotillas of ships that should probably be scrap litter the asteroid belts and hide behind moons. As the perimeter alarm is triggered one black cruiser glides out from the center planets to investigate the disturbance and the cults scramble amongst themselves get there first to prove thier worthiness and become one with the being who they hold in such high regard.

In this scenario the sons of Ananta scouts stumbled upon a ritual being carried out. And the hordes of cultists turned on them but we're destroyed.

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Senior Sargeant Bardas watched impassively the bright tracer rounds from the Land Speeder's assault cannon tear through the fleeing cultists and released the switch on his Maul, and it's crackle faded.

"Squad Bardas, analyse the engagement on a tactical level and provide a report to Sargeant Siriswati.  Initiates of squad Siriswati, report and justify breaking stealth protocol in this instance."

The eldest of the initiates of squad spoke first.  "Brother Sargeant Siriswati carried a broad range auspex.  If this had been recovered the enemy could have obtained some information of our positions.  With our main force still off planet they could have gained a tactical advantage.  Further, we have positional information on an energy signature that the Tech priests have asked us to investigate. The mission and the risk of exposure of our base justified your breaking cover and revealing our presence."

Bardas nodded, wiping the bloodied head of his power maul on the cloak of one of the cultist's corpses.  "Good answer. Sargeant Siriswati conducted himself exactly in line with the Ananta doctrine.  He attempted to evade and remain hidden, but also judged correctly when this path was no longer appropriate.  Ensure the body of brother initiate Lalkamej is cared for and treated with the appropriate rituals.  Eternity and rebirth, brothers."

"Ananta!"  The scouts straightened and crashed their fists on their Aquila.

The Sargeant turned and moved smoothly towards the Land Speeders.  "Bardas to base.  Alert the barge.  Request the main force moves into readiness. We have a target.  The tech priests will be delighted."

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There was an eerie blue glow to the observation deck abord the largest of the black cruisers that drifted around the center of the system.
A hulking form of a powered armour figure strode into the room. The blue glow from his eye pieces on his canine helm adding to the atmosphere of the chamber.
"Sorry to disturb master, but a proximity alarm in the system has been triggered. ......"
"I know" grumbled the figure in the throne.
"yessss master, and high priest Imhotep has taken his barge out to investigate. He said, and I quote 'screw that ancient's orders'"
A deep growl filled the room. The port view points seemed to threaten to smash and open the room to the elements. The growl subsided,
"He always was an individual, let him have his fun with what ever poor soul drifted too close to the system. Just inform him to be cautious my father's play things don't discovers our activities here."
And then suddenly the figure in the chair was standing. To the Lord it felt as though he had blinked but he had not; the figure moved with unnatural quickness. A huge pair of wings unfurled behind him and his gaze turned to the Lord. Towering over the Lord, the canine head meet his gaze.
"Someone has broken the circle! Send aide to Imhotep, and inform him. Ma'Ta will not be pleased."
"Yes master Anubis, till death joins us.
"Till death joins us all indeed"

Forge the narrative #3 - Setting the scene

During their time isolated by warp storms, adrift and cut off, The detachment that would become the Sons of Ananta collected much data on their cruiser's sensors. At the time this data remained un-analysed, but during their interrogation by the inquisition and the Star Dragons, this data was taken and assessed.  

The inquisition found traces of renegade marines operating in the Anubis system, and asked the blood Angels to scour the renegades from Anubis. They also despatched a large Deathwatch contingent, tasked with other objectives.

The Sons of Ananta shared this information with their new allies, who analysed and found intriguing traces of xenos and /ancient tech in the same system.  The Mechanicus of Hervara, asked the Sons to investigate and secure data and artefacts should they be present.
The Sons, eager to secure more backing from the firgeworld, set off.

The Blood Angels destroyed several satellites and probes.  These probes were of unknown provenance, but appeared to be of ancient human design.  Pre heresy patterns.  The Angels could not isolate their signal's destination, but their tech marines theorised these probes were a tripwire, meant to alert someone of an intrusion.  Who this signal would summon was, however, unknown.

Forge the narrative #2 - Alpha Legion

Aboard station, designation : Gamma 23201, Sheed walks into Matthau's room, and salutes, before standing more at ease.
"It seems our lost brothers in the Anubis system's long exile is at an end, we have reports coming in from agents inserted into the Blood angels, The Sons of Ananta, and the Deathwatch all confirming that they are en route to the system. It looks as though someone set off a beacon. A rare fight is about to be met."
Matthau eyed his old friend.
"This is good news, is it not? More discord among the loyalists keeps things as they should be."
"Yes, but there is a problem. Omegon himself left an artifact in the system a very long time ago. This is where he hid the seed."
He let these words sink in before continuing.
"I have already sent the code, it is on its way to Omegon now, but we cannot wait. We must mobilise what we have here. We need to retrieve the key fragments. I have opened the instructions left for this eventuality. I will be taking command now Matthau, for this operation"
"Of course, brother. I will assemble the others while you prepare yourself. Is Omegon coming?"
"Someone will be, we must be in the ascendancy for when they arrive. Hydra dominatus brother."
"Hydra dominatus"

Forge the narrative campaign #1

Me and my gaming group have undergone the start of an escalation campaign which will result in an apocalypse game in a couple of months.
The premise of this campaign is narrative driven, and will start with small point skirmishes and development natural as we unfold the story being told.
The players involved in this campaign are:
- Me with the sons of anubis (chaos space marines, deamons and dark mechanicus)
- alpha legion, a 30k force
- deathwatch, space marines
- blood angels
- sons of Ananta, custom space marine chapter
So for starters here is the set up:

An old factorum system that disappeared during old night is rumoured to have been spat out the eye of terror. This system believed to be desolate, and also containing many of the secrets of the technology from before the old night. These technologies are of the greatest importance to the imperium to retrieve and reverse engineer thier secrets.
But little do they know the forge world in the system is Acctually the forgeworld for the dark magos Ma'Ta (see http://dicerollingdad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/sons-of-anubis-dark-mechanicus.html?m=1)
And the system that reappeared was the home to the shattered remnants of the 2nd legion, 'the sons of anubis' (see http://dicerollingdad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-sons-of-anubis-backstory.html?m=1)

Sons of Ananta Marines:
 And during their sojourn in the warp on their ill fated mission, the Sons of Ananta, before they were the Sons, caught strange emanations.

2 factions emerged in the new chapter. One wished to gain favour with their mechanicus allies (recently gained from the campaign I'm having with Alex) and others wished to tell the inquisition to mitigate the suspicion caused by the new chapter protecting members of the Knights Amaranthine...


Alpha:
 Secrets. There are secrets here, and secrets are power. We know rumours of what is concealed here, so we go to claim it, to further the ultimate plan, for the emperor. Hydra dominatus. Amass the Harrowing.

Grey knights

What?! Not chaos!! Nope, here is some pictures of my grey knights that I sold recently.

Future projects

My to do shelf is ever growing. With a healthy amount of resin there too. Currently sat on my project shelf:
- dark mechanicus
- gal vorbak to turn into possessed
- a blight drone to covert into a Helldrake
- a blight drone
- a titan forge deamon to convert into anubis himself!
- some calth marines and more marines to bulk out my basic marines. Also so I can double my army as black shields/death guard for 30k
- 3 rhinos!
- some plaguebearers

So many things to get my teeth stuck into!!

Best painted award for the sons of anubis!

The 750 point tournament I went to a little while back was really enjoyable event in a friendly atmosphere. I also ended up coming away with the best painted unit award for my chosen squad in rhino, but I'm pretty sure the award went for the rhino really.