Faith and Bandits in the Lowlands - IG-2020

[Trokair]

So below is my attempt of a fiction piece for the last challenge of the Iron Gauntlet. My original plan had been to dramatize the battle report from the previous challenge from the point of view of my Sisters of Battle. But alas I never managed to get the battle report done due to the current world issues so instead what I have written is a precursor to the scenario my opponent and I had devised for that battle report. For reference it was going to be an ambush by Genestealer Cult of a Priest (and his supporting crusaders) who had to hold out for a few turns before being rescued by the Sisters. So the below is the reason why the priest was out in a place to be ambushed.
 
I am aware that the word count is too low to actually complete the challenge, but with a week to go this is what I have and padding it for the sake of a word limit would not do. If I can think of some further bit that is can add to improve it I will.
 
Edit: Added a second bit, the further set up the ambush for when the actual game gets played. Wrote it in a bit of the rush, but it should be just enough for the deadline is tomorrow.
 

 

 

 
 
Faith and Bandits in the Lowlands
 
--- 
 
For attention of: His Reverence Cardinal Bernardo Justo
Location: Hive Signus – St Kiodrus Cathedral – Cardinals Office.
Sender: Missionary Karand ost Merenif
4.373.891.M41
 
His Most Reverend Eminence
 
Forgive this humble servant for the breach in protocol in writing to you directly. However I see no other course of action open to me in my duties to him on Terra and his representative, His Eminence, here on Maruntie IV.
 
I am a Missionary who brings the faith to the scattered communities in the lowlands, traveling amongst them to see to their spiritual need. While they make up but a fraction of your flock and far from the Hive and Cathedral Ward I bid thee to hear my concerns.
 
I speak not just for myself but for those fellow priest that serve these far flung parishes, I have spoken to many of them and we all have found that in recent months our reports and requests have fallen on deaf ears or simply never arrived at the Pontifex and Decons offices charged with oversight of these remote parishes.
 
To be concise there are two points we wish to put to you, the first is for you to send a representative with the power to adjudge doctrinal integrity of a rising and spreading faith out here in the lowlands.
 
What little the local preachers and I, in my travels have learned, is that this new sect appears to be within the dictates of doctrine permissible, but I am no scholar of High Edicts but just a traveling priest. Furthermore both the consistency of this new creed amongst scattered communities, and that fact that I am yet to meet a prophet, priest or preacher, just local adherence leaves me with a sense of unease.
 
It is always a blessing when the common folk find faith beyond the everyday work and show such adamant venerance and zeal. However I have trodden the ways and paths between these scattered folk for near on a decade and the change over time speaks of a powerful and charismatic speaker, and yet no such person is in evidence.
 
The other request I have is for you to petition the nobel Governor and the Magistrate of the Adeptus Arbites to send forces to hunt down and deal with an increasing outlaw and bandit problem. There have been raids and ambushes that are more than just the normal bands of scavengers taking a target of opportunity.
 
Before my days here I served alongside several imperial guard regiments and the description of local survivors of these raids, plus one I lived through myself while in a supply convoy from the hive to one of the larger mining towns, speak to a degree of training and coordination that is more befitting a platoon than scavengers.  
 
I recently spoke to Mr Mordecai Drisso, chief overseer at one of the largest mining towns here in the lowlands, and he reported looses of both shipments sent back to the Hive for processing and equipment to these raiders. One of Mr Drisso staff, Nyska Thrace, later told me that they estimate a fourteen percent decrees in output from their mines due to the raiders, with another few percent lost due to low morale and difficulty in finding replacement workers for those killed in the raids.
 
Furthermore those mines operated by the Nobel Houses of Hive Signus have increased their onsite guards and their convoys have mercenary escorts these days. Mines, towns and other settlements without such patronage are still vulnerable however.
 
Whilst this second request is a civil issue at heart, and not within your spiritual purview, I besiege you to make it your concern. Out here in the lowlands life is hard and tough, and matters of the faith, despite our best attempts, a secondary concern. These raids and the burden they bring could lead our flocks astray. This brings me back to my first request, this new creed may prove to be a way to bind and reinforce the faithful out here, but as I have noted I have my reservations and pray that you will send a representative to asses.
 
Yours, forever faithful Karand ost Merenif
 
Though of the day: Vigilance is a blessing, do not squander that gift.

---

Mordecai passed the slate to his Magus, Nyska Thrace, and stared at the brothers in front of him. The two were part of one of the Jackal squad charged with patrolling their terroity and keep an eye out for any threats to the family. They had sped into town on their bikes and run up to his office in broad daylight, against orders, for the town was not completely theirs yet. However he had to concede that to them the intercepted letter would be alarming.

He vaguely remembered the priest of the dead god who had wondered into town some weeks ago. He had asked questions, and while he had been initially suspicious of the priest the more they talked the more his concern for the people seemed genuine. Needing to maintain the families cover they had gone along with his line of thought that raiders were to blame for any unrest.

Mordecai knew the actual raiders where dead, hunted to extension by the family, but as a cover they may yet be of use.

“Summon the Nexos.” He commanded the two and dismissed them.

“We should have killed him when he was here” Nyska commented, “ not spin more lies to hide the ores we took to sell on the black market. He was disturbingly close to the matter for an outsider, and if they had not intercept the message we would have been caught unaware.”

Moving to the cabinet the Primus poured a glass of Amasec for each of them before replying.

“Always so quick to kill Magus? Maybe you are right, but at the time he appeared no threat, and after the incident with the House inspector we could not risk it then. In fact, this may yet prove useful, a lure to draw the dead god’s followers out from their Hive fortress. Let us see what the Nexos and father say.”

Edited February 16, 2021 by Trokair