DG's WIP Chapter: The Impalers

[Ecritter]

I'll give this a shot ... no pun intended :lol:

 

Pre- founding geneseed specifications "raise eyebrows" amongst the Ad.Mech. Geneseed cultures have to be retrieved from a thrice- sealed vault. Big hassle for all involved.

 

Why? Yes you'll see that one a lot.

 

14th Founding chapter, originally told it had Raven Guard geneseed. Trained by Raven Guard veterans.

 

Why would the AdMech lie? If they're told they're RG they should be RG.

 

On the plus side, they did find a cache of pre- heresy arms and armor. Their techmarines had plenty of time (and no Ad.Mech staring over their shoulder) to combine the best aspects of Mk.III and Mk.VII armor into Mk.IIIc "Iron Plus" armor.

 

Techies are all trained (indoctrinated) by AdMech ... other then that I don't see a problem here.

 

Chapter suffers massive losses over time as attrition > recruitment. Verge of complete apostacy, a Librarian stops at an abandoned Shrine of the Emperor from the Great Crusade with his Honor Guard. Prays, then pulls out his Emperor's Tarot. Reading says, "Look to your right." Vision of the Emperor appears to all present, in black robes covering gold armor. Tells the Libby to remove some rubble; Libby finds a spear. Emperor tells the Libby of the corruption in the Chapter Master's heart, orders a purge of the bulk of the chapter. Emperor then gives a cryptic message about the Chapter's geneseed before vanishing.

 

Define 'massive losses'.

 

Better to have a Chaplain see the vision ... Librarians start seeing visions Chaplains would see only Chaos and kill them. Also, Chaplains are responsible for seeing "corruption" not Librarians.

 

Purge wipes out about 2/3 of the chapter's remaining strength. The impure who aren't immediately killed, are skewered in the chapel and left to die. Vision of the Emperor re- appears to the chapter, gives the surviving Chaplain the script for a rite of feasting "with him" on the flesh and blood of their vanquished foes, then reveals the Light of the Astronomicon to the Librarians. Chapter is able to make its way home now.

 

Remember those 'massive losses', now you have 1 in 3 marines surviving after that .... so basically the chapter is dead at this point.

 

Impalers arrive on Mars, try to clear up what the issue is with their geneseed. Impaler implants shown to be functioning at higher efficiency than their progenitor chapter's own current implants. Visit to the archives shows that bookworms got into the records and ate that chapter away, and the tech priests who oversaw the selection of the chapter's original geneseed culture were never committed into the Ad.Mech Other Memory. No closure on whether or not they really are a Raven Guard successor. "Fear- tasting" mutation discovered, declared "within tolerances" although Apothecaries told to watch closely for further mutation.

 

Still not clear what 'issue' there is with geneseed. Also, really don't think 'worm' and 'forgetfulness' will work as you're wanting it to.

 

Ad.Mech, with authorization from the Highlords, carves the chapter a fortress- monastery out of the largest available fragment of their homeworld. F-M fitted on par with a self- propelled Ramilles- class starfort. Chapter resupplied, but recruiting slow.

 

Building or rebuilding a FM is not the AdMech's job.

 

Ministorum has issues with chapter's victory feast of human/xenos flesh. One of the scouts' coming up to him and nearly licking him with the comment of, "Your fear tastes delicious" doesn't help. Ministorm threatens to cut off the chapter's rosarii; the scout in question is punished but the chapter doesn't stop its ritual cannibalism. If nothing else, it seems to encourage them to start doing impromptu feasts on the battlefield. Hom nom nom.

 

Still don't think they'd care.

 

Chapter's armor colors before the M.37 reorganization:

 

Is the scheme still the same?

[darth_giles]

I might just drop the geneseed issue at this point. It isn't adding anything. As for the Libby seeing the vision, it could go either way. Chaplains have such a small role in 40k (mostly because of their Power Mauls being AP 4) that I tend to ignore them over Libbies. And would a Chappy have an Emperor's Tarot?

 

They were down to about 70 Marines when they finally made it back to Mars. Maybe one or two dreads. Not much, but it only takes one plus an Apothecary to rebuild a chapter. And then there's the boast of the Silver Skulls' apothecary who claimed that if the entire chapter was completely wiped out, the geneseed stored in the stasis crypt would be enough to rebuild.

 

So if the Ad.Mech doesn't build spaceborne F-Ms, then who does? The Techmarines might have the skill, but it would take an army of them plus servitors. And who builds all those Ramilles- class starforts anyway?

 

Edit: My part about "lack of the Ad.Mech staring over their shoulder" was an attempt to reference the creation of the Predator Annihilator, which was "heretical" on the part of the SW Iron Priests, but ended up being adopted all over the place before the Ad.Mech finally got around to approving it.

 

Their original name was "The Crow Brothers."

[Ecritter]

I might just drop the geneseed issue at this point. It isn't adding anything. As for the Libby seeing the vision, it could go either way. Chaplains have such a small role in 40k (mostly because of their Power Mauls being AP 4) that I tend to ignore them over Libbies. And would a Chappy have an Emperor's Tarot?

 

I never said drop it, but you have to be able to answer why.

 

Chaplains do not have a small role in a Chapter ... not sure where you get that. They and they alone are responsible for spotting corruption and keeping the Chapter from going bad. Please don't try to mix up tabletop rules with this ... it'll never work.

 

The biggest problem is that you're using 1 figure to do the role of 2 that would never be in the same individual. Is it necessary for this to just be a 1 man job .... why not Chaplain and Libby?

 

They were down to about 70 Marines when they finally made it back to Mars. Maybe one or two dreads. Not much, but it only takes one plus an Apothecary to rebuild a chapter. And then there's the boast of the Silver Skulls' apothecary who claimed that if the entire chapter was completely wiped out, the geneseed stored in the stasis crypt would be enough to rebuild.

 

If they were down to 70 marines then they are dead. They'd never be allowed to rebuild. Its a waste of resources for the Imperium. Sorry.

 

So if the Ad.Mech doesn't build spaceborne F-Ms, then who does? The Techmarines might have the skill, but it would take an army of them plus servitors. And who builds all those Ramilles- class starforts anyway?

 

Again you're mixing two things up. A SF is a station/ship ... what you discribed was like the DAs Rock. C:AoD and C:DA both state that the DAs made the Rock was it is today after the fall of Caliban ... no mention of AdMech anywhere.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Edit:

 

Here's a fun read for you ... my cannibals, the Golden Dragons

[Ace Debonair]

They were down to about 70 Marines when they finally made it back to Mars. Maybe one or two dreads. Not much, but it only takes one plus an Apothecary to rebuild a chapter. And then there's the boast of the Silver Skulls' apothecary who claimed that if the entire chapter was completely wiped out, the geneseed stored in the stasis crypt would be enough to rebuild.

 

If they were down to 70 marines then they are dead. They'd never be allowed to rebuild. Its a waste of resources for the Imperium. Sorry.

To add to that, most folks will generally agree that the Crimson Fists coming back from a couple of companies was a perilous, edge-of-the-knife thing.

I'll cheerfully agree the stuff you mentioned does rather place that in doubt, though. 40K does love to contradict itself, for sure. :lol:

 

So essentially, it's not that you couldn't come back from near-extinction, just that you might not recieve any real support from Mars until your Chapter was re-grown past a certain number of marines.

 

Being taken down to a couple of companies is still a big deal for a chapter, as that's still the majority of your fighting capability down the drain, so if you did want a definite pledge of support from the AdMech, you could always increase the number of survivors without it really taking away from the story of your Chapter. :D

[darth_giles]

To add to that, most folks will generally agree that the Crimson Fists coming back from a couple of companies was a perilous, edge-of-the-knife thing.

I'll cheerfully agree the stuff you mentioned does rather place that in doubt, though. 40K does love to contradict itself, for sure. ^_^

 

So essentially, it's not that you couldn't come back from near-extinction, just that you might not recieve any real support from Mars until your Chapter was re-grown past a certain number of marines.

 

Being taken down to a couple of companies is still a big deal for a chapter, as that's still the majority of your fighting capability down the drain, so if you did want a definite pledge of support from the AdMech, you could always increase the number of survivors without it really taking away from the story of your Chapter. :)

I'll take that as an inclination that the chapter needed to be more self- sufficient, which would explain the prevalance of Mk.IIIc armor and overcharged vehicles- they aren't getting the official stuff from the Ad.Mech.

 

My reference to Libbies was more of their role in 40k as played, not as fluff. Chaplains took a hit when the Crozius was made AP 4. *shrug* Maybe it was a Chaplain who had that vision that fateful night.

 

Also, another sketch and some notes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/darth_giles/Blood%20Angels/Sketch_0002_zps05212f0e.jpg

[Olis]

After a full week, I'd just like to point out that I objected to the cannibalism in context. I know marines eat flesh to gain knowledge and I know certain chapters ritually eat human flesh. The problem I had was that it was portrayed almost in an antagonistic way that would certainly earn them censure, imho.

[darth_giles]

Back from the downtime. Enjoy it? I didn't. I did make a bit of progress, though.

 

My IA has been rewritten again. Hopefully for the better; I've taken everyone's input into account. Thus far, we're definitely a Raven Guard successor chapter, it was a Chaplain (who scored himself a Klingon promotion to Chapter Master) who saw the vision of the Emperor that day and found the ancient power lance, and they've got the support of a few individual tech-priests. I also fleshed out their now-destroyed homeworld, its sister planet, and updated their fortress- monastery a bit. Cannibalism is still in.

 

Also darkened the background a little bit more. While they were on crusade there was tension between a faction that wanted to go the way of the Relictors, and a faction that didn't and ultimately won out. The former Chapter Master turning into a Chaos Spawn helped justify (to them, at least) that the Ruinous Powers aren't something to be dealt with.

 

I made a bitz order: "medieval" heads and chain-glaives from Anvil. I'm thinking about using their "renaissance" heads for ICs and maybe Apothecaries, so I ordered in two of those as well. Pics will follow once they've arrived.

 

Unfortuately, its the last order I'm going to be placing this month. Money's a little tight until I start getting paid in early February.

[Messor]

Did you mean to post these changes, or are you just building the tension?

[darth_giles]

Did you mean to post these changes, or are you just building the tension?

I do, but I want to make sure the B&C is stable enough to last first. I don't want to accidentally crash the board or something like that.

 

Edit: I also want to see if the IA template will need much recoding to work with the new board.

 

Color scheme post M37:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/darth_giles/Blood%20Angels/Post_M37_zpse1026f76.jpg

 

IA will be up by the end of the weekend. The orange shown above isn't actually orange; its a yellow-orange process color I found in a WD from long ago and liked.

[darth_giles]

Origins

The Impalers were originally the Crow Brothers, a 14th- Founding successor chapter of the Raven Guard. They were a fairly average chapter for their time and founding, serving with distinction to be expected from any Space Marine chapter. They were trained by Raven Guard veterans, and given charge of a world in a sector of space known for incursions of minor Xenos races. One Space Marine chapter operating from Dulkis III, it was deemed, would be enough to keep the Hrud, Psy-Gore, Chuffians, K'nib, and other Xenos in check. They were at full strength by the middle of M.34, and fought numerous campaigns through M.35 and the early years of M.36.

 

Penitent Crusade

The Crow Brothers failed to realize the madness of the Age of Apostacy. While on a pilgrimage to Holy Terra, the then- Chapter Master committed some trifling offense or disrespect. Word of this offense traveled up and down the halls of the Administratum and Ministorum, with the offense increasing in magnitude with each retelling. The actual account of the story has been lost, and replaced with numerous redacted versions which make varying claims.

 

Crow Brothers found themselves evicted from Dulkis III and forced into a Penitent Crusade in the accursed Halo Zone, far beyond the Emperor's Light. While originally sentenced to a century- long crusade, newly- ascended Highlord Vandire wanted to make an example of the Crow Brothers and lengthened the sentence to a full three centuries. The entirety of the Chapter's forces were loaded into its fleet, and departed the Imperium.

 

The Crow Brothers lost all sign of the Astronomicon almost as soon as they had crossed into the Halo Zone. The chapter's Librarians discovered that the Ghost Stars they were to free were beyond the reach of the Emperor's Light, which raised suspicions that the disfunctional Adeptus Terra had planned the chapter's exile with the intention of making them permanently disappear. Nonetheless, the Crow Brothers fought valiantly to bring the Imperial Creed and Imperial Doctrine to every world inhabited by man. They took suitable candidates from the worlds they liberated, although attrition slowly exceeded recruitment. They performed deeds which would have earned them battle- honors had they been performed within the scope of the Imperium, but alas none are remembered save in the Impalers' Librarium.

 

One discovery of note was a cache of arms and armament from the Great Crusade, which had been abandoned when word of the Heresy reached the Halo Zone. The Crow Brothers found several working suits of Mk.III armor, two RH-1N0 transports with modifications allowing improved speed and handling, and a Predator tank with a Flamestorm turret in place of the traditional Autocannon found in most Heresy- era tanks. These items were examined by the chapter's Techmarines, who were faced with a quandary: modifications to equipment had to be approved by the Adeptus Mechancius, however they were too far beyond the Light of the Emperor to obtain the Machine Cult's blessing. It was necessity which ultimately drove them to begin assembling composite suits of power armor with what components of the Mk.III suits they could duplicate, and then filling the extra components with parts adapted from modern designs. They were able in due time to duplicate the enhanced Rhino and Predator engines and flamestorm turrets.

 

Other discoveries were far less desirable or useful. Every now and then, the Crow Brothers would come into direct conflict with forces enthralled by the ruinous powers. Champions of Chaos would assault them with massive axes whose blows would seek out the necks of their victims, flails with balls made of skulls wreathed in balefire, pitchers which would endlessly spout corrupt waters, and similar artifacts. There was much debate about how to handle these obviously tainted weapons; the old Chapter Master died of old age without being able to settle it, but had favored destroying them whenever possible. His successor was a much younger Space Marine who had never known the Emperor's Light, and favored putting these weapons to use against the chapter's enemies. A schism began to develop within the Crow Brothers between "traditionalists" who favored destroying what daemon-tainted artifacts they could and storing those they couldn't, and "apostates" who saw the artifacts as weapons to be used whenever necessary.

[darth_giles]

Ok, whole IA is up. I was hoping to get some commentary on each section individually so I don't have to worry about monster quote stacks, but I guess that won't be happening.

[Olis]

It's okay, I'll comment on one chunk for this post. I'll C&C 'Origins' and 'Penitence Crusade'. :)

 

Origins

The Impalers were originally the Crow Brothers, a 14th- Founding successor chapter of the Raven Guard. They were a fairly average chapter for their time and founding, serving with distinction to be expected from any Space Marine chapter. They were trained by Raven Guard veterans, and given charge of a world in a sector of space known for incursions of minor Xenos races. One Space Marine chapter operating from Dulkis III, it was deemed, would be enough to keep the Hrud, Psy-Gore, Chuffians, K'nib, and other Xenos in check. They were at full strength by the middle of M.34, and fought numerous campaigns through M.35 and the early years of M.36.

 

This seems alright to me, although the dates and the founding are slightly squiffy. If you want this chapter to be a 14th founding, they'll have been created pretty much in the middle of the 36th millennium.

 

 

Penitent Crusade

The Crow Brothers failed to realize the madness of the Age of Apostacy. While on a pilgrimage to Holy Terra, the then- Chapter Master committed some trifling offense or disrespect. Word of this offense traveled up and down the halls of the Administratum and Ministorum, with the offense increasing in magnitude with each retelling. One surviving account from the era records a claim that the Chapter Master drunkenly crashed a Land Speeder into Goge Vandire's office, while another claims that he unbolted the seat of his grieves (impossible given the construction of Astartes power armor) and performed a highly impolite movement in front of the Golden Throne.

 

Ditch the drunk thing - space marines don't get drunk - and the, ahem, 'flashing' as well unless you want this to be a humorous article. There's a time and a place for high jinks but this unfortunately isn't it. It'd probably be better to have the 'insult' stem from political or cultural differences between the people involved.

 

Whatever the case, the Crow Brothers found themselves evicted from Dulkis III and forced into a Penitent Crusade in the accursed Halo Zone, far beyond the Emperor's Light. The crusade was to only last three centuries, and while this was relatively long for such a pennance, it was considered extremely short given the magnitude of possible offices the Chapter Master could have incurred. The entirety of the Chapter's forces were loaded into its fleet, and departed the Imperium.

 

I think penitent crusades, traditionally, have been portrayed to last around a century long, if I'm not mistaken. You could always say that Vandire wanted to make an example of them and, because they had very little choice (for whatever reason), agreed to an overly long crusade of penitence. That way you can edge in a mistrust (or hatred) of the Ecclesiarchy over the issue.

 

The Crow Brothers lost all sign of the Astronomicon almost as soon as they had crossed into the Halo Zone.

 

You can expand this little bit a touch, maybe state something about the astropaths and the difficulties they're having, for the sake of the story.

 

The chapter leaders quickly discerned that this was perhaps intentional on the part of the dysfunctional Adeptus Terra. Nonetheless, the Crow Brothers fought valiantly to bring the Imperial Creed and Imperial Doctrine to every world inhabited by man. They took suitable candidates from the worlds they liberated, although attrition slowly exceeded recruitment. They performed deeds which would have earned them battle- honors had they been performed within the scope of the Imperium, but alas none are remembered save in the Impalers' Librarium.

 

The astronomicon malfunctioning (if that is what your saying in the first sentence) isn't that much of an issue in the Age of Apostasy, iirc. Suffice to say, you're in the Halo Zone, further away from Imperial authority than Marcharius when he came that way. No astronomicon will be par for the course. :)

 

One discovery of note was a cache of arms and armament from the Great Crusade, which had been abandoned when word of the Heresy reached the Halo Zone. The Crow Brothers found several working suits of Mk.III armor, two RH-1N0 transports with modifications allowing improved speed and handling, and a Predator tank with a Flamestorm turret in place of the traditional Autocannon found in most Heresy- era tanks. These items were examined by the chapter's Techmarines, who were faced with a quandary: modifications to equipment had to be approved by the Adeptus Mechancius, however they were too far beyond the Light of the Emperor to obtain the Machine Cult's blessing. And so it was that the Techmarines reverse- engineered the improvements to the Rhino and Predator tanks, and developed a composite pattern of power armor unofficially dubbed "Mk.IIIc" which combined the best aspects of Mk.III and Mk.VI armors.

 

You were doing so well until you got to this bit. I was half expecting you to say that the resident representative of the Cult Mechanicus (the Master of the Forge), in lieu of authority from Mars, declared the items suitable for duplication, rather than using the phrase 'reverse-engineering'. I think you need to drop the Mk.IIIc power armour idea - combined suits are fair enough but new variants that aren't STC based are frowned upon.

 

Other discoveries were far less desirable or useful. Every now and then, the Crow Brothers would come into direct conflict with forces enthralled by the ruinous powers. Champions of Chaos would assault them with massive axes whose blows would seek out the necks of their victims, flails with balls made of skulls wreathed in balefire, pitchers which would endlessly spout corrupt waters, and similar artifacts. Rather than leave them on the battlefield and face them again, the Crow Brothers secured these under hexagrammic wards on their main battle- barge.

 

I don't have any specific problem with this - it seems very much like the ground trodden with the Relictors. I would like to see what sort of thinking led to the chapter to keeping tainted artifacts, however. Did a particular member of the chapter feel it was necessary to know their foe in great detail? Was he opposed by anyone at the time?

[darth_giles]

Ok, thanks. I did some editing, shown in red.

 

The composite armor is a bit of a case of me wanting to be able to model archaic-styled armor and still use it in a 40k army instead of doing the whole 30k thing. I want something that will stand out on the table, and not just get passed up as "Oh, another pre-heresy army" or "oh, just another BA codex list."

[Olis]

Well, if that's the case, then you need to focus on the 'found a cache of suits' idea. Maybe the suits found were on a crashed heresy-era/crusade era transport? Or maybe a forgotten garrison/depot world was found by them? Either of those should amply supply the chapter with enough suits to have it give a decent showing. Does any of that sound usable to you?

[darth_giles]

Or maybe a forgotten garrison/depot world was found by them?

That could work, but I'm not a fan of them being completely unable to manufacture their armor since most other chapters are. Well, that and even a Great Company- sized cache would only last a millennium or two, so in M41 they'd be almost run out of parts and material. And that would also mean they couldn't rebuild their overcharged vehicles, which is closer to an IA-era Flesh Tearers army than what I'm trying for. What I'm trying to go for is that the Impalers have the industrial capacity equivalent to a much larger chapter, and the metaphoric limiting reagent is their ability to find suitable recruits.

 

I'd post more IA, but its on my desktop PC and I'm on the tablet.

 

One thing I'm considering is now that we have IG back on the B&C, having Guard as an allied contingent for larger games. Maybe Dulkis IV Hussars with motorcycle roughriders? Who knows.

[darth_giles]

Brink of Apostacy

 

Time and stress inevitably took their toll on the existing battle- brothers, and so it came in the eight hundred fiftieth year of their Penitent Crusade that the bulk of the Chapter's battle- brothers had never known the Imperium. Apothecary had trained Apothecary, Techmarine had initiated Techmarine, but without the sense of loyalty to the Emperor that a young Space Marine would learn through service to the Imperium. Attrition was also devouring the chapter: it now numbered less than three hundred, including Battle- Brothers and Scouts.

 

Furthermore, the split between traditionalists and apostates was becoming increasingly divisive. While the Librarium and Apothecarium sided with the traditionalists, the Reclusium was split evenly and the Veteran Company (now reduced to a mere three squads) sided almost completely with the apostates. The Armory was trying to avoid taking sides; the Techmaries refused to address the issue and would quote arcane passages from the scriptures of the machine god when pressed.

 

One particularly dark night on a nameless dead world, a newly- frocked Chaplain and his Retinue paused to pray at an abandoned and partially- collapsed shrine to the Emperor which had been erected in the last days of the Great Crusade. After spending many hours in tearful prayer begging for guidance and deliverance, he reached into his belt and withdrew an ancient Emperor's Tarot, from the five sets which had been given to the Crow Brothers upon their founding. He dealt the cards reverently, expecting nothing. The message was surprisingly blunt: "Look to your right."

 

As the young chaplain looked to his right, down the aisle and inside his honor guard's perimeter, he caught sight of a veiled figure in a black robe. It was taller than a Space Marine in full armor, with the bulge of a sheathed sword visible beneath his robe.

 

"Who are you?" the chaplain asked, as he reached for his Crozius.

 

"Who are you and whom do you serve?" the figure replied.

 

"Chaplain Ralle of the Crow Brothers, and I serve the Emperor of Mankind," the chaplain said.

 

"And what do you want?"

 

"Guidance. To restore my chapter to glory and settle the contention which threatens to destroy it."

 

"Clear the rubble from the shrine," the figure said.

 

The chaplain blinked, then issued the orders to his honor guard. Where broken blocks were too large, power axes and the chaplain's crozius broke them. When iron girders had to be cut into smaller pieces, the honor guard's techmarine brought his servo- arm to bear. The chaplain removed the last rock, revealing a power lance of ancient pattern which had lain beneath it for countless millennia.

 

"What is this?" the chaplain asked as he lifted the spear.

 

"Behold my salvation," the robed figure said, lowering its hood and revealing itself as a vision of the Emperor. "Be ye now my Impalers. Take those join you without hesitation, and purge your chapter of the taint of ruin. I shall return when this is done." With that, it faded from view.

 

The chaplain seized the spear and returned with his honor guard to his brothers aboard the chapter's one remaining strike cruiser, where they discussed the vision. The remaining Librarians and Chaplains, and three of the chapter's remaining Captains all re- swore their allegiance to the Emperor, proclaiming Ralle their new Chapter Master, as did the quarter of the chapter's strength which was aboard the strike cruiser.

 

Within an hour, the strike cruiser's alarms sounded. The battle barge, still held by apostate forces, was powering up weapons. There was little time to prepare; the chapter's dreadnoughts were activated and the loyal Impalers prepared for bloody combat in the vacuum of space. Thunderhawk gunships and boarding torpedoes flew to and fro, carrying forces from one side or the other. The strike cruiser fought valiantly, but had to be abandoned as apostate terminators used the larger craft's teleportarium to strike at the smaller's bridge and engines.

 

The fighting was bloody in the extreme. The Impalers who made it aboard found themselves caught amidships between the engines and the bridge, between an apostate hammer and anvil. As they fought, they were joined by more loyalist forces from the battle barge who turned on their apostate brothers. Though the apostates fought with daemon-forged bolters which could fire blasts of pure hate, they proved no match for the loyal Impalers who carved a path to the battle- barge's engine. Once they had secured it, they turned and begain the final push toward the bridge, where the apostate Chapter Master and an honor guard in Tactical Dreadnought Armor had holed up with a daemon- bladed axe.

 

When the Loyalists finally blew the bridge hatch, however, they were greeted by a surprising sight. The apostate terminators were backed up against the bridge walls. The apostate Chapter Master had been overcome by the power of his daemon- axe. In his place there was a gibbering mass of loathsome flesh: a chaos spawn of immense size and surprising resilience. The Impalers and the once- apostate terminators fought against the beast, which was finally brought down by a Librarian's force axe.

 

Following the battle, Ralle lead the Impalers in once again reaffirming their oaths of allegiance in the battle barge's chapel. Barely seventy- nine loyal battle- brothers and one venerable dreadnought had survived; the rest had been put to the spear or died in the glorious purge. As the final echoes of the renewed oath faded, the air was rent and the vision of the Emperor returned, this time wearing black armor chased with gold in a style he had favored during the Great Crusade.

 

"Your loyalty and fury are worthy, and such as I have not seen since ages past," the Emperor said, "Behold, I now reveal my light to your Librarians. They will guide your return to my domain, where you are to serve until I come again in fire and darkness to cleanse the universe of corruption."

 

As one, the Impalers' librarians reeled; they fell to their knees as the light of the Astronomicon blazed forth like a shining beacon. The vision of the Emperor gave the chapter's chaplains and apothecaries the details of a sacrament they were to perform after each victory, then departed as he had come, leaving his Impalers to return to the Imperium.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I like the new fluff, although given the Chapter's emulation of Vlad Dracula's practices, expected the Chapter symbol to include a dragon.

 

Minor quibble: Space Marines are immortal, and do not die of old age. Simply state the original Chapter Master died in battle- maybe a fierce battle that saw many Crow Brothers fall before the enemy's might, and afterwards, the Apostates claimed these loyalist Marines wouldn't have died if the Chapter Master had authorized the use of Chaos-tainted weapons.

[Olis]

Minor quibble: Space Marines are immortal, and do not die of old age.

 

They are not immortal - I would like to point to the fact that space marines actually get old as evidence. Theoretically they could die of old age but, as far as my understanding of the marine mindset goes, they would much rather have a glorious last mission and die in battle (see the first Bloodquest book).

[darth_giles]

I like the new fluff, although given the Chapter's emulation of Vlad Dracula's practices, expected the Chapter symbol to include a dragon.

That'd work if Vlad actually featured in the fluff. As it is, I figured an impaling spear would be a better choice, and a dragon pad could get someone thinking I was Alpha Legion or one of the Dragon-named chapters. Or the Sallies.

 

Minor quibble: Space Marines are immortal, and do not die of old age.

News to me. Old Dreadnought fluff stated that a battle-brother might end up one from old age as well as his wounds.

 

Edit: Now for something completely different. *gets bonked on the head by a giant plush muppet*

 

I'm considering doing lighted vehicles. I measured the light fixtures on the Rhino and LR, and they're all around 3mm. That's about the same as a "medium"- size LED from one of my sources. The main sizes being 5mm, 3mm, and 1.8mm. And then there's some small "chip" LEDs. All seem to be available in 3-volt, for use with large "coin cell" batteries that're about the size of a quarter.

 

I'll post sketches as I have them.

[darth_giles]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/darth_giles/Blood%20Angels/Sketch_0003_Bike_zps23c85168.png

 

This is the sketch for the bike. I'll think about the Stormraven later, after I've had a chance to figure out everything else. Since the bike is an attack bike, I might end up adding a second taillight for the sidecar. *shrug*

 

Edit: I just realized this would mean my bikes can't do wheelies or endos. But am I really that concerned?

[Wulfebane]

"Who are you?" the chaplain asked, as he reached for his Crozius.

 

"Who are you and whom do you serve?" the figure replied.

 

"Chaplain Ralle of the Crow Brothers, and I serve the Emperor of Mankind," the chaplain said.

 

"And what do you want?"

 

"Guidance. To restore my chapter to glory and settle the contention which threatens to destroy it."

 

"Clear the rubble from the shrine," the figure said.

 

Who are you?

 

+Who are you?

 

I asked first......?

...

Your chaplain let his guard down instantly. I found that to be rather unbelievable. And then started taking orders from some random dude. I'd work on that section.

[darth_giles]

 

Who are you?

 

+Who are you?

 

I asked first......?

...

Your chaplain let his guard down instantly. I found that to be rather unbelievable. And then started taking orders from some random dude. I'd work on that section.

To his credit, it was a shrine to the Emperor, and the Emperor's Tarot suggested he would find what he was looking for by looking to his right. Plus the shrine wasn't desecrated; more like just battle -damaged and abandoned, so I have trouble with the idea of a daemon appearing in one and being able to manipulate the Emperor's Tarot like that.

 

I was also trying to parallel the finding of one of the supposed Spears of Destiny where a ghost appeared to the crusaders in the ruins of the temple and said something to the effect of, "Dig here, you oafs!"

[darth_giles]

Rebuilding a Chapter

The first place the Impalers stopped was Nemesis Tessara, where they unloaded all the accursed artifacts, except the apostate Chapter Master's axe which had vanished when he had become a Chaos Spawn. The Ordo Malleus was both surprised and elated. Surprised that a forgotten Space Marine chapter had returned from the void, and elated that it was turning over warp- tainted artifacts to the proper authorities instead of trying to claim and abuse them.

 

The Ordo Xenos, however, had a very nasty surprise waiting for them. When their battle- barge broke warp above where Dulkis III had been, they found no planet to welcome them home. In the Crow Brothers' absence, their abandoned and empty fortress- monastery had been infiltrated by the Hrud and completely taken over. Instead of deploying the Deathwatch to clean out the infestation, the Ordo Xenos had instead used a series of precision orbital strikes on a weak spot in the planet's crust. Dulkis III had been blasted into an asteroid belt.

 

The bulk of the Impalers elected to remain in the Dulkis system. They enlisted the aid of a tech- adept and her servitor parish from Dulkis IV to aid them in locating the largest fragment of their shattered homeworld and the construction of a fortress- monastery, while Chapter Master Ralle and his retinue of Black Guard returned to Holy Terra.

 

In the cavernous depths beneath the Imperial palace, Ralle knelt before the Golden Throne, flanked by the Adeptus Custodes, where he received the Emperor's absolution on behalf of his chapter. Their Penetant Crusade had lasted seven centuries longer than had been intended, and during that time the Age of Apostacy had reached its bloody conclusion. Ralle wept as one of the High Lords of Terra placed a laurel wreath upon his head and pronounced the Impalers absolved of guilt.

 

Later Campaigns

By the beginning of the 41st Millennium, the Impalers were barely restored to half strength. The losses they had suffered during their Penitent Crusade were deemed too great and the chapter was denied the full support of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even the massive warp- engines powering their fortress- monastery had to be constructed using only local support and salvage. While their fortress- monastery was being built, the chapter's techmarines built manufactora on the nearby civilized world of Dulkis IV; it required little advancement to be able to produce functional suits of power armor and Rhino tanks, as well as Razorbacks and Predators. Their composite armor was unofficially dubbed "Mk.IIIc" due to its use of pieces of Mk.III armor which the techmarines were able to duplicate.

 

The Impalers have developed a clouded history since their return to the Imperium. Despite their affirmed and proven loyalty to the Imperium, their Penitent Crusade has left its mark upon them. Their battle tactics have been highly modified since their return because of a mutation in their neuroglottis, which is detailed later in this article. The function of this mutation has enabled them to smell pheremones, especially those produced by fear. The adaptation of their tactics to stimulate this mutation, combined with the cannibalistic sacrament they claim the Emperor taught them has made them unsavory allies at best.

 

During the Third Crucis Crusade, the Impalers' first company received censure for the disposal of a refugee camp which had been infiltrated with Tau-worshipping saboteurs. The Impalers' solution was to impale every single refugee in the camp- men, women, children, elderly, infirm, aid workers, everyone- first on ceramite-hafted spears and then upon anything spear- like they could find, and ultimately skewering them five and six high on sign poles and streetlights. Once impaled they were left to die. Most of them were wailing for intervention by the Greater Good, which unsurprisingly never came.

 

In another incident, the first and fifth companies were responsible for setting a firestorm that quickly engulfed a continent on the agri-world of Thanrax. While their original mission was simply to destroy the supplies feeding a rebellion on neighboring Forthall, the warmaster of the campaign quickly lost control of the Impalers and their flamers. While the rebellion on Thanrax and Forthall was crushed, billions of lives were lost.

 

All that having been said, the Impalers have not been without their victories. They fought back the feral orks of Waaagh! Grunta on the agri- world of New Cydnoia in early M.41 and drove them into remission. They secured Hive Primus on Forthall in less than half the time they had expected, and they served with distinction in other battles of the Third Crucis Crusade, leaving trails of impaled Tau and Kroot corpses in their wake. They crowned their victory on Skrilax VI at the end fo the Third Crucis Crusade by impaling the command battlesuit of commander Shas'o Ukos upon a specially-made ceramite spear. Both spear and battlesuit were sprayed with molten bronze and turned into a composite statue, which was then added to the chapter's collection of sacred standards and is still paraded to this day.

 

---

 

Editing has been done in red.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I'm curious WHY the refugee camp warranted such a "solution" to infiltration by xenos-worshipping saboteurs. The only reasons I can imagine, is if these "saboteurs" were Tyrannid hybrids or Enslaver hosts- conditions which are unlikely to result in censure, as the Inquisition knows how severe a threat they represent.

[darth_giles]

Updated. The refugee camp situation was just excessive force, because they could. Like the part about the skewered Crisis Suit? If I ever make any Sanguinary Black Guard, I'll probably make it their banner.