22 July, 2022

While hunting for new prey, the Cruentes discovered a cache of useful technology they could secure for bartering with the Dark Mechanicum. As they were securing the site, a Necron force led by Illuminor Szeras attacked their position.

Bardûl personally led this force, and was once more accompanied by Dreior and Gorm's two small Berzerker squads, as well as Xarian the Helbrute. The mission forced me to split my army in two parts, and forced me to deploy my whole army first, but gave me two objectives to defend. For my Agenda, I took the one that would give me Warfleet Glory, which gave me three extra objectives to grab and bring back to my deployment zone.

On my left, Xarian achieved nothing: he downed three Warriors, one of which promptly stood up, and the other two got back up over the game. In return, Xarian was one-shotted by a lucky blast from Szeras:

Bardûl and a squad of Berzerkers, meanwhile, made short work of a unit of Praetorians on my right:

However, this left the Berzerkers in my centre open to attack from Skorpekh Destroyers...who, in turn, were counterattacked by the Berzerkers on my right:

These Berzerkers then proceeded to claim one of my Agenda objectives and return it to my deployment zone.

While this was happening, Bardûl started his action on one of my Agenda objectives, but was rudely interrupted by Szeras. Szeras bounded around the outside of this storage tank, catching the veteran warrior by surprise and carving deep into his armour. In return, Bardûl severed a leg of his opponent before gripping Szeras's mechanical neck with his chainfist.

Szeras fought back, once more puncturing Bardûl's plate but not quite laying him low. Refusing to release his grip, Bardûl ripped his enemy's head clean from its shoulders. Armour broken and bleeding from several wounds, Bardûl faced down the Necron Warriors, who could not seem to hit his flesh with their Gauss rifles. In desperation, they charged the Chaos Lord, but just could not penetrate his defences. In return, Bardûl slew a total of five Warriors before the rest fell back.

Result: 55-5 victory for Khorne!

With the Necrons retreating, the Cruentes discovered what the xenos were after: under the battlefield was a vault of abhuman genetic experiments, which must've been of interest to the inquisitive Szeras. While the genetic material itself was useless to the World Eaters, the equipment within the vault was invaluable, and Bardûl dispatched it to the Eternal Warrior.

Bardûl's Personal Glory: 4 -> 3
Khorne's Dark God Glory: 5 -> 4
Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 4 -> 8

But now comes the real fun part. After this battle, Bardûl levelled up; in addition, the mission Victor Bonus allowed me to grant one unit a Battle Honour. Did I decide to throw in my lot with the Chaos Gods and make a grab for immortality with two Chaos Boons? You bet your heretical rear I did!

It went a little like this:

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Following their skirmish with the bloodless xenos, the World Eaters discovered the gene vault and laboratory under the battlefield, a bounty coveted by Illuminor Szeras. While the gene stocks there were horribly mutated and disfigured, the equipment was extremely valuable. With this equipment dispatched to his flagship, the Eternal Warrior, Bardûl beseeched his daemonic patron for reward, for he had now defeated two enemy champions in single combat and had secured a mighty prize for the forces of Khorne.

 

Pain wracked his body, and he began to swell in size. He felt his skin begin to meld to his Terminator war plate, and damage to the armour began to heal as if organic. 

 

“More,” he muttered. He was the Hand of Khorne, he had once led a mighty war host in the War God’s name. He had armies spread all over the galaxy, shedding blood and spreading violence - all sworn to him.

 

“More!” he yelled. He needed more. He deserved more. 

 

“MORE!”

 

His armour split and mutated flesh erupted from the rents. He dropped his bolter as horns and tentacles sprouted from his tortured corpus. He shed his Terminator plate as a Zoat might shed its skin, and soon his monstrous transformation was complete.

 

“Bleorgh fur th’ bleorgh goooooorrrr!”

 

The first roll was a 12 for +1 Wound, which was very suitable given that he refused to die in both of the games so far. Perfect!

Then the second roll...also a 12. Bardûl, in his arrogance, believed he was entitled to a greater reward than what was given to him and drank too greedily from the cup of immortality.

Time for me to start making a new Chaos Lord...