Saturday night was the kick-off to our Deathwatch campaign we started. Geneguard and tau4eva have been seriously jonesing for some Deathwatch roleplaying, so I finally gave in and agreed to GM a campaign, since I had done it before, albeit very very little.
Instead of using the setting from the book (the Jericho Reach) I continued with the Reth setting we had used in our 40k spring campaign. During the campaign the Imperials had successfully beaten back the Tyranids and other Xenos that were attacking the planet. This campaign follows a Deathwatch team tasked with traveling to the planet and fulfilling four objectives:
Primary objective: kill Colonel Morton Douglas.
During the final moments of the battle of Reth, elements of Douglas' command were to hold the middle line against an entire tyranid strike force made up of shrikes and genestealers. It is thought that the rapid nature of the attack from the xenos creatures as well as the terror tactics employed caused the commander to go insane and rebel against the allied forces on Reth. The last vox transmission from his chief adjutant is as follows:
The tyranids... horrors you haven't seen. You have no right to call me a traitor!
Send in your best to kill me, but you have no right to judge me. It is impossible for us to describe what is necessary to those who do not know
what horror means. Horror... Horror has a true definition in these creatures... Exterminatus.
THAT IS THE ONLY ANSWER. BURN IT ALL. BURN IT ALL. BURN IT ALL.
Douglas' troopers and tanks opened up on the regiment on either flank and murdered hundreds of guardsmen, even destroying two stormravens inbound with Blood Angels on board. The high command immediately realized the traitorous actions of Douglas and moved to eradicate him and his entire force. By the time the assault marines had landed to remove the threat, Douglas was gone and his former position was now occupied by over 2,000 dead guardsmen, flayed, hung, disemboweled, crucified, and burned alive.
Secondary objectives:
- Find and kill Sorceror Cayanderus, a Death Guard psyker.
- Find and kill a group of rogue psykers who have broken out of the psyker containment facilities.
- Find and retrieve a data set recorded by Magos Biologos Dern.
The marines listened to their Captain and an Inquisitor tell them their missions, then made planetfall on Reth in a drop pod. Immediately they were besieged by renegade guardsmen. Brother Vulrath had the idea to grapple a guardsman and interview him. They found that they could follow the bodies of dead guardsmen hanging from trees to get to Douglas.
Soon they came upon a village that requested their aid. A silent stalker had been snatching children when they would go to a stream to get water or fish. The village mayor had requested their aid.
The marines hemmed and hawed - they were under no orders to help the local populace. In the end they decided to help the people and ended up fighting a Tyranid warrior and some termagants. The warrior got dangerously close but they were able to fend him off.
Some photos follow. We definitely had a tough time with the rules at first - they're pretty crunchy. We'll get better as we progress.
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