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IA: Gallows Lords (WIP)


Larkyn

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Gallows Lords: 45 Souls total

 

The Gibbet's Pit: 5 Souls

-Lord Sverre Hakon, “The Hangman”

-Master Executioner Golg Cajetan

-Apothecary Anzot Karhin

-Aspirant Avah

-Brother Enver

 

Noose Alpha: 8 Souls

-Executioner Lucius Makari

-Brother Konrad

-Brother Bahadur

-Brother Jareth

-Brother Akakios

-Brother Soren

-Brother Rhodri

-Brother Katsuro

 

Noose Beta: 8 Souls

-Executioner Dariow Amias

-Brother Zabulan

-Brother Reinor

-Brother Okkopir

-Brother Viktor

-Brother Greer

-Brother Daedalus

-Brother Hiraku

 

Noose Gamma: 7 Souls

-Executioner Klofhas Aodhan

-Brother Mattanyu

-Brother Kaveh

-Brother Atticus

-Brother Torgur

-Brother Hyperion

-Brother Baltair

 

Noose Delta: 6 Souls

-Executioner Orpas Wahyu

-Brother Ikraam

-Brother Behar

-Brother Hilliar

-Brother Kouki

-Brother Markhos

 

Noose Epsilon: 5 Souls

-Executioner Gakan Vasya

-Brother Mukul

-Brother Mabon

-Brother Kalevi

-Brother Calviuer

 

Noose Zeta: 6 Souls

-Executioner Telhab Sharar

-Brother Pek

-Brother Kasba

-Brother Vasant

-Brother Berauxes

-Brother Purujamacraft

 

The Gallows Lords are a true enigma. No one is sure where they came from, or how they got onto the agri-world of Gharen, or even if they follow the Chaos Gods. All that is known is that they are a terror weapon like no other. Every so often, they raid an outer settlement, leaving nothing but hanging corpses in their wake. Sometimes, in particularly daring raids, they'll attack a major town, harvesting what they want, and leaving their trademark gibbets and corpses.

Speculated to once have been of the Night Lords Legion, every single attempt to capture one of these elusive beings alive has failed. The arbites have time and again been called to the site of a raid, only to watch the Astartes basically disappear into thin air. As they have perfected the art of execution, so have they perfected the art of withdrawal.

Severely limited in numbers, the Gallows Lords rely entirely upon supplies looted from the Imperial settlements. Fortunately, their base camp, an underground bunker known as Tyburn, has a large stockpile of bolt ammunition from when the Lords first landed upon Gharen.

(Blah blah blah, more fluffyness, will get to soon)

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Sounds interesting.

 

The main problem is one of scale. A force of 45 Astartes is probably capable of conquering an entire world without too much trouble. What is so special about this agri-world that they've decided to stay and raid a few pitiful towns?

 

Furthermore, operating on a single world would mean that as soon as Imperial (specifically Inquisitorial) authorities heard about it, they'd immediately gather sufficient forces to crush the traitors; if necessary they'd probably just Exterminatus the world from orbit, as from their point of view killing a few million innocents to take out the much rarer enemy is not a bad trade.

 

Solution: Try swapping it to them having a ship/hidden-base-on-unknown-world/whatever (making it more reasonable that the Imperium hasn't been able to find and destroy them) and change the raiding from 'settlements of a single world' into 'cities/settlements/communities on multiple worlds within a sector'. Then you're giving it a much better feel in regard to the vast scale of the Imperium.

 

Other details sound pretty good though!

More traitorous pirates? SCL, your dark infection is spreading! Now you want them these Gallow Lords in space where it will be harder to crush them? Heretic! :tu:

 

That said, the chapter itself has a pretty interesting start. Definitely agree with SCL that they need to be space based. Looking forward to seeing more.

Yeah, it probably would make more sense to have them space-based. I had thought of that originally, but then ditched it because I couldn't think of a way to have 1-2 small ships and 45 astartes. It appears as if a Cobra can carry 5-10 maybe? Plus serfs. Not sure how much a Sword/Firestorm/Generic Frigate can carry, but I REALLY don't want to go into Cruisers. Cruisers are ships-of-the-line, not ideal pirate ships.

 

Glad you guys like the idea so far.

I think perhaps you're confusing how many Marines a normal escort would carry with how many it could carry if it had to. Check out this thread (link) for ship sizes.

 

Basically, a force of anything more than a squad or two of Marines will ideally necessitate the support of a Strike Cruiser (highlighting the value of the Marines themselves) but that doesn't mean they couldn't physically fit on an escort vessel if they had to. As you can see from the link, even the escort sized ships are typically around 1.5km long with space for approx. 20,000 crewmen!

 

@Shinzaren: :lol: Come on, what could possibly cooler than Space Marines that are also pirates?! ;)

 

edit: Although, looking back at it I'm not sure the OP is specifically aiming for a 'pirate-y' feel anyway, at least not any more than any warband operating without the support of a larger organization/Legion/whatever. TheWarmaster, would I be right in saying that the focus is more on the 'terror tactics' aspect?

@Shinzaren: :lol: Come on, what could possibly cooler than Space Marines that are also pirates?! ;)

Space Marine Pirate Ninja Zombie Robots? Other than that... I just don't know anymore man... ;)

 

I think a fleet composed on smaller vessels makes sense, but I don't think you necessarily give up any thoughts of a Strike Cruiser. The heart of the fleet, the command ship, could easily be bigger. Especially if it is being used as a status symbol by the Commander, Captain, Admiral or whathaveyou. Every good pirate worth his salt commands a flotilla, and he always takes the biggest and the baddest for himself. Besides, a Strike Cruiser, while large, is less focused on combat and more focused on delivering its highly dangerous payload (re: Space Marines) to the target. All in all, its the perfect pirate vessel: large and imposing, but designed for boarding and offloading its passengers right into the enemy's face. After all, a pirate wants to capture the ship and its booty, rather than blow it sky high every time.

Can't wait to see this fleshed out. Power-armoured piratey pillagers petrifying pastoral populations...in spaaaaaaaace. Sounds like a cool idea.

 

Only one thing's nagging at the back of my skull. Once they go through the pile of bolt rounds they're sitting on, I imagine they'll need to find a more militant, perhaps Space Marine-esque, type of target. I'm curious how you see this panning out. I guess I just always imagined that, even though Chaos/renegade warbands are poorly staffed and equipped, that they would have their own means of minor production for ammo and such things.

edit: Although, looking back at it I'm not sure the OP is specifically aiming for a 'pirate-y' feel anyway, at least not any more than any warband operating without the support of a larger organization/Legion/whatever. TheWarmaster, would I be right in saying that the focus is more on the 'terror tactics' aspect?

 

Kind of both. I wanted to get the terror tactics, but also eventually have to resort to flat out piracy to get what they need. Which would probably suit them just fine.

 

Yup, the stockpile of bolt rounds was one of the critical plotlines that I'd envisioned before starting this. We have doods, they has ammo, then doods use ammo, now they have none. What do doods do? Hang the Black Flag and start slitting throats!

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