The Castermere Look

By SJE, in Dark Heresy Gamemasters

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SJE said:

The Castermere Look

Session 1

The team – (Eisen Nihlus, a Psyker. Tech Priest Severus, Arbitrator Attalus, Battle Sister Innocenta, and the Assassin Vogen) are touring the Rutland province of the Agriworld Tephaine Minor and have reached the town of Windhaven. Their mission has been at the bottom of the Inquisitions priority list for a while but someone has to do it. Apparently the Adeptus Telepathicus of the Astropathic Choir had reported sensing a worrying psychic disturbance every now and again in this region. Potentially it could be a powerful latent about to tip over into becoming a Beta of Alpha and nobody wants another Burning Princess disaster on their hands. The Acolytes mission is to locate and identify the source of this psychic disturbance and deal with it appropriately.

To locate this psychic disturbance, they have a psychic (Eisen) and have been given a Psy-Tracker which the Tech Priest has been operating. (it looks like an old gramophone). They’ve been given 300 Thrones spending money and a white van and as much time as they need to visit every town in the province. Tephaine Minor is a breadbasket to the rest of the Tephaine system, its continents filled with arable agriculture and its technology level and appearance mostly resembles that of the 1950’s Corn-belt.

In Windhaven they get their first, faint bleep on the Psy-tracker. Triangulating in they find a nice normal family- Julia and Derren Smithson and their son Luc (playing on the swing set out back). The Psyker first makes a covert approach, pretending to be a wandering itinery missionary of St Bartholomew the Unlucky as he senses a minor psychic presence in the house- the boy is latent. Kind-hearted Julia presses a worn Throne into his hand, causing him to forget his supposed patron saint and bless her in the name of Saint Augustine before he bumbles away.

The Arbitrator then strides in, introducing himself as an Arbites conducting a census check for tithing purposes and demanding the family gathers. He then interviews them on past, history, family connections, whether they or their son have every experienced anything unusual. Oh no, nothing unusual about them, nor anyone in the town. Windhaven is apparently a good town with nice people, not like those strange, funny looking people in Castermere.

After interviews (including “ So do you know anyone who can do anything ‘unusual’?” , Luc- “Well there is my friend Barney- he can make more boogers than anyone- he once blew his nose for 2 hours!” Player- “That not right! He must be a mutant. I note down his name for purging!” GM- “He’s not a mutant. He’s eight!” ) The Arbites leaves and the team consult. Certainly under the tenets of Imperial Law, the latent psyker kid should be taken in. But they don’t want to expose themselves too early and call in the Capital city Arbites Psyker-capture squad instead.

So that night, they watch as 2 Arbites in full carapace and armed with shock mauls and stunners go round the back while 6 Arbites in full riot gear viciously break down the door, smack down the father with a shock maul to the temple, stun and drug the panicking kid (who finally manifests a Warp Howl) and drag him through the dirt to be thrown into their Black Maria. Meanwhile his mother is in tears and hysterics, begging them to leave her boy, no psykers here, not in Windhaven, all the psykers are over in Castermere, cant they just give her back her only child?

The boy is 8. The next Black ship is due in 25 years. It’ll probably take 8-10 years to reach Terra. He’s never going to see his parents again. He won’t have much human contact, if any, in prison designed to isolate, cow and contain psykers. The rest of his life is already over and by the age of 43 he’ll probably experience a painful and lingering death as he’s fed to the Emperors Golden Throne. But as a result the Emperor can stave off final death a few more seconds and the golden light of the Astronomicon will continue to shine that little longer.

So while the boy was a psychic blip, he was no where near powerful enough to count as a disturbance that could be detected across planetary distances by an Astropath. Having scoured Windhaven, they decide to move along to Castermere. Only to discover it isn’t on the map. The good Sister talks to the local priest of the Emperor the Farmer of Souls and discovers that Castermere is a mostly deserted old mining town with some very insular folks. The road has fallen into disrepair and the people of Castermere neither welcome their neighbours nor stray far from their sugar cane fields.

Interest piqued by this backwater, they attempt to drive there, along a bare earth track. 8 miles from Castermere, the track crosses a deep river canyon- a shoddy and slapdash wooden and metal sheet bridge creaking and groaning under their feet. Believing it wouldn’t take the weight of the van, they armour and arm up and walk the remaining fatiguing 8 miles to Castermere. (GM to power armoured Sister- “So you are taking WHAT? A bolt pistol, bolter with sarissa, a meltagun AND grenades!” Sister- “Far better to have a thing and not need it, than need a thing and not have it” . She barely made it across the weak bridge as a result)

Approaching, the Psyker detects a strange and diffuse faint psychic presence. It’s not localised, but it’s definitely about town, like whispers he just cant hear. He manifests White Noise to protect himself from detection and this mostly drowns out the faint psychic whispers. The town itself is run down and gone to seed- obviously once larger, many buildings are derelict and empty. Many more are tightly shuttered up and sealed. Dust and weeds clog the gutters and the wooden facades and sidewalks are broken and rotted. There is nearly no one on the street, but the party spot many a ground floor curtain twitching or shadow pass behind upper storey shutters and know their appearance and movements are being constantly watched. A curious and pervasive malaise and fear seems to blight this town.

Eisen and Attalus go visit Mayor Bestin in the dilapidated town hall. He too shares the Castermere look- big forehead, balding, small, beady eyes and bulky physique. They claim to be here from the Imperial Census and investigating possible tithe violations “Oh no masters, we exceed our tithe every year.”
“Then why is there no record of your town on the census”
“No idea sirs, we sent all the paperwork 2 years ago. Have you asked in the capitol?”
While obsequious and annoying he does keep challenging the agents story, for they don’t have the proper Census paperwork, and assuring them his is a quiet and poor town that causes no trouble and worships the Emperor.

And increasingly annoyed Arbitrator demands to see the town’s records. “How many people live here?” he demands “Not many, perhaps a hundred?” ventures the Mayor. “Perhaps? For so few, I’d expect you to know exactly!” shouts the Arbites who then supervises the Mayor retrieving a book of genealogy from the mildewed and dusty records office. Eisen in his cover of Census taker, idly leafs through the rotting book, absently noting that the last births were recorded about 40 years ago before getting bored with this scribework.

Vogen the Assassin is prowling round town and trying to avoid the omnipresent sensation of being watched. Near one house with its upper stories firmly shuttered up and boarded over he overhears frightened whispers from inside “Quick, hide” , movement upstairs and then the rhythmical sound of a hammer on wood. It seems the people of this town have gone all Anne Frank on the Inquisition.


Meanwhile Sister Innocenta and Severus investigate the local Templum- a Church of the God-Emperor Our Father, but its derelict and abandoned and its door broken. Despite her outrage, Sister Innocenta senses she is being watched from the house opposite. Marching across she offers a stern greeting of “Blessings be upon this house. Open up in the name of the Emperor” . Instead she hears through the door a nervous “uh… no… its fine. Everything’s fine here”. “Where is the priest?” demands the sister “er… if we tell you, will you go away” comes the quavering voice “Fine.” “Try the tavern” . A little discouraged by the Castermereans seeming fear of strangers and lack of willingness to open the door to a member of the clergy, Sister Innocenta

And indeed the town priest Brother Whymmes is in the (suddenly quiet tavern). A near empty bottle of rum in front of him, he is soon seized and frogmarched back to the abandoned church by the Sister and interrogated. The man is a drunk and babbles on about

“Sins of the father! Tis the sins of the Father made flesh”
“Suffer not the children!”
“Emperor forgive me, the things I have done!”
“Flee now, or burn Castermere to the ground, terrible, benighted Castermere”
“All monsters! We are all monsters! ….. My son….”

The good sister is a little confused. Her life is dedicated to spreading the Emperors Truth through bolter fire and meltagun. Yet this drunken priest cannot be solved merely by shooting him. She must be…. pastoral. Cheer him up. Chivvy him into confession. It doesn’t work- he just keeps moaning about the sins of the Father and asking for a drink. “DRINK! DRINK!”

So Sister Innocenta unleashes her righteousness. Haranguing him as a disappointment to the God-Emperor she admonishes “Strong drink is a mocker!” and that only righteous pain will clear his mind and soul. So she gives him her bless’d scourge (for she is a Flagellant and never leaves home without it) and is a little disappointed when he can only manage a few weak slaps with it. “No, this is how you do it!” she declares –whip-CRACK! “AAArghhhh!!” whip-CRACK! “AAAr!” as his cries of pain ring out across the church (and in RL our local club where everyone thinks we must be doing Guantanomo Bay: the LARP)

Purged of the daemons of alcohol, Brother Whymme finally tells the Sister “There is a corruption here. A terrible sin. The sin of deviance from the Holy Form of Mankind”

“Ah… Mutation!” realises the Sister. That explains the people in hiding “Where are these mutants?”

“Here, shuttered away. Though they sometimes go to the mines for their vile ceremonies. Their true priest is there –the Old Man in the Earth… and things from the darkness… Terrible things that come in the night and kill… Flee… flee now!” begs the distraught priest. But the Sister is not for fleeing and tells the other she suspects some in the town are harbouring muties and lost their faith in the Emperor.


Hearing over commbead that the temple is abandoned and Brother Whymmes is “Weak Sauce” in the opinion of the hard-line Battle Sister, Arbitrator Attalus confronts Mayor Westin on the moral decay of this town ( “ Your priest is a drunk!” “No, he retired”, “Then who is your new priest” “He hasn’t arrived. But we sent a letter to the Eccliasarchy, you know how they are for answering mail!” which them prompts 5 mins of musing about how there is nothing wrong in Castermere except that the Administratum moved offices and lost all the mail) and asks how the town can be faithful if they don’t go to Church? “Well we have prayer meetings….” offers the Mayor weakly. “Then you’ll have one tonight!” orders Attalus. “I want every single person in Castermere to come here in an hour for a prayer meeting. And a true member of the clergy will lead it!” says Attalus who then watches the Mayor rush off to knock on every door. The Arbitrator then patrols the streets, shouting in his loudest voice that everyone is summoned to the town hall for a Prayer Meeting. And he means EVERYONE!


In the town hall, Innocenta, Attalus and Eisen watch as the citizens file in through the single entrance. With the Mayor in the audience, the Sister launches into an impassioned call to faith, preaching that whether in his aspect of the Farmer of Souls, or the Father or the Emperor Victorious, they must praise him. “Praise the Emperor” shouts the sister, revival-style. “Praise the Great Father” comes the response. Innocenta half-pauses for a second at that and presses on with more rousing, hardcore Soriortas doctrine. Attalus and Eisen, pay more attention to the audience. Now with so many examples of people suffering from the Castermere Look before them- the large foreheads, baldness, small, black eyes and bulky clothing they begin to wonder if it is just a matter of cousins marrying. And the look on the Castermereans face – one of utter hatred and barely restrained violence against all of them…. Attalus tries to begin making his way to the door as the Sister preaches on…. For the psyker, the faint whispers he could here are far stronger now. Almost a din of unreconisable sounds.

Vogen has made his way back to the Shuttered House, taking advantage (as somewhat planned) of nearly everyone being in the Prayer Meeting. Easily breaking in, the downstairs is empty and a single, narrow staircase leads up to a locked door from behind which gentle singing can be heard. Peering through he sees a Castermerean woman in a dress holding a white-cloth bundle in her arms, looking down on it with a mothers love and singing a soothing melody to her babe. As she turns away, the assassin silently opens the door and enters. She reaches into a bag and takes out a dead rat which she dangles above her swaddled child. Instantly its seized and ripped apart in a shower of gore and bone- the babe a purple skinned thing all teeth and arms and claws ripping into the rat carcass, blood spraying up to the ceiling!

As the Sister pauses, the gathered congregation of Castermere stand as one, as if from some pre-arranged signal “Get the strangers- they cannot spread word!” shouts the Mayor! Only now do the party realise their true peril as the Castermereans throw off their bulky clothes, extra arms and terrible claws emerging, shotguns and stub pistols and sharp knives in every human hand. Their enemy is not some fearful village of victims, but a multi-armed, hive-minded Genestealer Cult. And the 3 Acolytes in the room they insisted was filled by the population of Castermere are now outnumbered 3 to 100! Most keep their grit, but Attalus gets the shakes at this sudden revelation… (-10 to tests)

Will they survive the doom of Castermere? That’s what Fate Points are for….


To Be Continued….

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My players were busy making Han Solo/ Star Wars jokes about this. "No everything's fine. Just a reactor leak. We OK here- we are all OK."


SJE

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The Castermere Look Part 2

In the Town Hall Prayer Meeting, all is confusion and terror as the 3rd and 4th generation Hybrids of Castermeres Genestealer Cult reveal themselves- extra arms and claws folding out from bulky clothing, human hands drawing mono-knives and stub revolvers.

Battle Sister Innocenta whips out her melta and vaporises the nearest hybrid, but even that isn’t enough to deter the mob. Arbitrator Attalus tries to make space by throwing a stun grenade, but its trajectory bounces off a head or two and it scatters to the back of the hall. The psyker Eisen Nihlus see’s the oncoming mob and reaches into the warp. Instead the Warp reaches for him, pulling him into the Immaterium momentarily and displacing him 5 meters outside the building. (burned a Fate Point) and then the mob is on the Sister and Arbites, shooting and cutting and clawing.

Heading towards the town comes a lost Imperial Guardsman. Part of an Imperial convoy, he was driving a Chimera and got lost in the hills. Really Lost (he was ex-Feral Worlder and has some difficulty with maps and reading. As in, he can’t.). After his Chimera ran out of Promethium, he’s spent the last day walking through the hills, trying to find his way to civilisation. His name is Vark and he is armed and armoured, because if there is one thing the Guard taught him, it’s to never leave your weapon behind.

Meanwhile in the shuttered attic room not too far away, the Assassin Vorgan silently draws his two mono-swords and cleaves at the Genestealer baby. Its devoted mother shields her monstrous child and the blades cut into her as she turns to protect it. Then the foot high purple Xenos leaps from its mothers dying arms and claws at Vorgan’s legs- genetic instincts responding with kill-rend-cut. Though Vorgan is supremely fast and armed with two blades, he is finding it difficult to parry and defend against 4 arms, each with a scything claw as sharp as his monosword. At last Vorgan sees an opening and cuts deep into the infant monstrosity’s carapace- a severe wound that draws ichor. Redoubling its fury, the Genestealer claws through Vorgans hardened bodyglove and opens a deep tear across his belly. Holding in his intestines as best as possible, Vorgan slips behind the attic door and quickly pulls it shut. Racing down the stairs he heads to kitchen, pausing only to treat his wound and barricade the kitchen door (which soon enough begins splintering and tearing as the baby Genestealer begins carving its own cat flap through it. Desperately knocking over the hot stove and spreading the burning coals around, Vorgan fires the house before fleeing.

The Tech-Priest Severus has been wandering through the empty town with the Psy-Tracker, looking for the psychic traces that he’d detected early. He gets a small blip from the direction of the hills at the back of town and heads that way. He finds a quarry and old spoil and an open mine entrance. The blips are definitely coming from within. Entering his mechandrite’s shine a light into the long disused mine tunnel and he heads that way. A little ways in, at a T-junction, he spots a small boy with the Castermere look- bald and with small black eyes, playing with some stones.

“Who are you, small child?” asks the artificial voice of the Tech-priest.

”My name is Roose” says the boy “you look strange. I’ve never seen someone made of machines before. We don’t have machines here. Who are you and what’s that?”

“I am Severus. I am here from the Imperium. This is my weapon- it burns enemies of the Imperium” responds the Tech Priest didactically.

(There is a <BLIP> from the psy tracker as the kid narrows his eyes).

“You should get out of here boy” instructs Severus. His mechanical eyes on the Psy tracker. As the boy moves around behind him, the blip on the Psy-tracker moves too. Knowing that he is all alone and no witnesses to tell, Severus goes straight for the extreme sanction option. He pivots and brings up his flamer- eyes narrowing as he aims it at the retreating kid. His finger tightens on the trigger….

‘Puuuht’. The pilot flame has gone out. The weapon, effectively jammed. (Weapon Jinx)

Severus’ mechandrites whip out and attempt to fire a las shot at the kid but <Blip> he accidentally overloads his main bio-electric neural circuitry and falls to the ground spasming and shaking. (Spasm)

Rebooting his systems, Severus gets to his feet and reaches for his bolt pistol when .. <Blip> …. His memory datacore resets at the last save point (Forget Me) and he sees this strange boy. Rationalising that he must have fallen and dropped his Flamer, he once more asks “Who are you, small boy”
“ I’m Roose and I’ve got to be going! ” says the kid and runs off back to the surface.
Shrugging, the Tech priest recovers his flamer and scans with the Psy Tracker again. He gets a receding blip behind him and a strange contact even further in. That’s when a great and bestial roar from the depths of the earth rises up the tunnel system, shaking loose the dust. Re-evaluating his risk-reward ratio’s Severus’ machine spirit advises discretion over valour and he heads back up to the surface.

In the Town Hall, all is chaos and battle. The Battle Sister at least has her back to the wall, so is only outnumbered 5 to one by the mob around her, but Arbitrator Attalus is fully surrounded. He valiantly tries to manoeuvre and shoot his way out, but for everyone of the mob he pushes out of the way or guns down, another takes his place. Desperately he tries to throw another stun grenade, but just at the point of release a hybrid knocks his arm and it rolls across the floor 2m away. It explodes in a concussive burst of sound and light, and while half of the hybrids around him drop to the floor, Attalus gets the full effect of his scattering grenade and drops too. Moments later, more of the mob trample across their brethren (and Mayor Westin who was in the blast) and tear apart the hated Arbites with claw and teeth- his blood spurting across the floor and making it slippery underfoot.

Outside, the Psyker Severus Floats up to the high narrow windows of the Town Hall, and drawing his bolter he starts sniping at the mob within. Vark has heard the shooting and explosions and comes running towards the town hall. While he spots the witch floating in the air, he also sees a 3-armed man reeling out of the Town hall doors. While he looks human, if there is one thing that the Commissars drilled into Varks primitive skull it’s that anything with more than 2 arms, legs or eyes and isn’t wearing a red robe is best shot first and thought about later. BLAM- BLAM- the combat shotgun takes out the cultist and then he hurls a few frags into the hall for good measure!

Inside the town hall, the press of cultists (now under fire from the window and door) continue to whale on the lone Battle Sister inside. Unable to use her long arms in the melee, Innocenta blasts away with her holy bolt pistol, dodging the many claw swipes as best she can. However the toll of numbers is beginning to tell, and despite her mighty power armour, she is bleeding from numerous wounds and perilously close to death. As she decapitates another foul xenos with an explosive bolt to the brain, a claw cuts into her right arm, causing her to drop her bolt pistol. Despite the pain, she instead wields here sarissa, fending off the crowd and putting her faith in the Emperor. More grenades and bolts wrack through the back of the crowd as Vark and Eisen blast away. Then disaster- parrying another claw blow with her arm, her armour gives way and the claw cuts deep into her biceps, numbing and nearly severing her right arm! Unable to use her mono-axe sarissa any more, she risks a quick duck to pick up her fallen bolt pistol and begins firing it into the xenos filth with her left hand! Wounded, crippled, hopelessly outnumbered (and out of Fate Points) the iron Sister Innocenta is still not for turning (refuses to burn a FP) and prepares to extract a high price on these foul xenos heretics.

The continuing fire from Vark and Eisen at last begins to really thin the herd- some desperate hybrids race across the floor to battle Vark (several slip and slide in Attalus blood and the ichor of their own crowd) but only two reach Vark to cut deep through his Guard breastplate and leave him gasping and stunned. Still, with typical Feral world ferocity he bludgeons and shoots them to pieces with his shotgun.

Eisen Nihlus too is attracting fire from the Hybrids armed with stub revolvers. But his confidence in the mastery of the Warp seems to be growing, as while he sustains his psychic levitation his defensive prescience seems to warn him of every shot so he can duck and move around them, Matrix style. Seeing the sister in mortal danger, he reasons he cant endanger her life any more, and begins firing into her melee, blasting apart hybrid after hybrid as they raise claw and blade at the embattled Sister but never quite hitting her.

At last the final bolt shell is fired and the last grenade thrown. Through the smoky, battered and shattered wreckage, Adepta Sororitas Innocenta limps out- the purity seals torn from her armour, right arm hanging off, blood drenching down her side. In her left hand she still holds the near empty bolt pistol in a death grip- pain and righteous fury writ across her face. Drenched in vile purple Xenos ichor she is barely alive, as is the Guardsman Vark whose sudden assault of grenades and shotgun blasts had so turned the tied of battle. The party regroup, with the equally severely wounded Assassin returning and the Tech Priest too, reporting the grim discoveries that each has made (and the Tech Priest suddenly remembering what Roose did to him).

Attalus is dead, ripped apart by the mob he’d summoned to chastise. Vark, Innocenta and Vorgan literally do not have a wound left between them. Only Eisen and Severus are mostly undamaged, but not unnerved. They debate whether they should head for the mine and try to defeat the great beast therein. Perhaps that will draw out the rest of the cult and purge the town forever. Or, since they are out of comm range, they could head through the sugar cane fields back to their van and try to reach the civilisation of Windhaven where they can alert planetary and Inquisitorial authorities to begin the orbital bombardment of their province and summon several regiments of the Guard to root out this genetic threat to the holy purity of mankind.

Deciding on the latter (since they cannot risk Tephaine Minor remaining unaware of this Genestealer infestation- it may spread) they head out of town, Severus flaming the decaying buildings that they pass as they go. Through the flames and smoke they spot swift, lithe shapes running and leaping from rooftop to rooftop. No bulky hybrids these, but the true-form, purestrain Genestealers- fast and hungry and oh, so vicious…

To Be Concluded Next Week.


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The Castermere Look- Pt. 3

Our bloodied and battered band of Acolytes set off down the beaten track back to the rickety bridge and human civilisation. The track is packed dirt, worn down by the feet and claws of the Castermerean famers. Either side of the track is hemmed in by 8-10’ tall sugar cane fields. Vorgen takes the front, Severus middle, Eisen the rearguard, while Sister Innocenta and Vark take the left and right flanks respectively.

With everyone straining every ear and eye for trouble, the psyker casts his life sense about him and the Tech Priest re-configures his Auspex to detect movement. Blip-blip- movement detected! Their vigilance is rewarded as 2 genestealers burst from the cane, speeding past and slashing out once at the flankers who just have time to move limbs out of harms way, as the genestealers vanish back into the cane. A lucky bolter shot from the sister creases the back of one of the genestealers.

Twice more the hit and run attacks of the Genestealers harry the party, though no severe wounds are done. They appear out of the cane in an instant, slash and flee, allowing each person to make a split second reaction as whether to attack or defend. Behind them they leave blazing fields of cane as Severus’ flamer fires out at suspected blips hidden in the cane. He’s down to his last can of Promethium.

Then it all goes quiet. The party hustle on, having made 4 of the 8 miles to the bridge, left alone by the Genestealers for over an hour. The Psyker is worried- he can vaguely sense the Genestealers nearby, but cannot pinpoint them…. Where are they…? The Tech priest looks at his auspex unable to make sense of the blips? The blips are right on top of them but no one can see them? Is it malfunctioning? Vark moves forward, convinced that the ‘Stealers have been frightened off by his martial prowess (or feral-world body odour?)

Vorgen the Assassin looks up. Nothing up there. He looks around. Nothing in the cane. Behind him the Tech Priest is screaming " They are right on top of us! !" He looks down…

Just as the two buried Genestealers launch themselves from their burrows under the dirt road and slash out at Vark and Vorgen. Both go reeling from wounds as they fight back, a deadly battle, soon joined by the Sister and Tech Priest. Eisen’s forehead knits up as he tries to Spasm one of the xenos, giving his companions the opening they need to slay it, but the alien synapses of the thing are too unnatural for his power to overload. Bolt pistols and monoswords blow and cut off some of the genestealers arms, but even reduced to 2 arms, one of them slashes and bites at Innocenta with a savagery that would surely have rendered her apart if the Emperor hadn’t smiled upon her (burned a fate point). Instead of ripping open her chestplate, she turns in time and the genestealer cuts off her already crippled right arm, slicing it to pieces. Time enough for Varks sword to gut it. The second stealer flees from Vorgen who shoots it in the back- it flees into the cane, dripping purple ichor behind it. Grenades and a flamer shot follow it into the vegetation and the Acolytes hear an alien shriek and the sound of something falling. None feel up to venturing into the burning cane to visually confirm the kill. Eisen however reclaims the sisters arm, convinced it might one day be a holy relic….

The group hustle on through the dark night, behind them they hear the savage cry of pursuers. A broken tractor allows Severus and his optical mechandrite sufficient height to look over the cane- behind them an orange glow from the direction of Castermere- the buildings and fields afire from liberal use of flamers and incendiaries, the sweet smell of burnt sugar in the air. A mile behind the group, there follows a savage and monstrous horde- all those 1st and 2nd Generation hybrids who’ve burst out of shuttered attic rooms and they are lead by a huge, bloated, ancient monster that can only be the Brood Lord and Patriarch of the Cult, its terrible animalistic roar reminding the Tech Priest of the beastial cry he heard deep within the earth…

The hopping, croaking, loping and bounding mass of Castermereans are only a mile behind and gaining with awful inhuman speed. Severus realises the only way to slow them down is with a hastily set demo charge booby trap. They speed on, and minutes later hear a satisfying explosion and howl of xenos outrage. Another booby trap of staggered grenades (incendiary and frag) uses up most of their grenade stocks, but gives the party sufficient time to leg it towards the bridge.

A quarter of a mile away from the rickety bridge, the racing Acolytes, hearts pounding out of their chest finally sight their objective. But the keen eyes of the Assassin also spots two purestrain Genestealers (including the baby Vorgen previously fought in the Shuttered House) dug down in the gully next to the bridge. Behind them, the Cults monstrous horde is perhaps a hundred yards behind now... they are caught in a terrible, monstrous trap.

Firing from the hip pings off the Genestealers cover as they race toward the bridge. Knowing that she’ll have to go last, Innocenta stops her headlong flight from the horde behind, draws her bolt pistol, carefully aims and squeezes off a bolt that rattles through the baby genestealers head exploding it in the shower of gore. But having stopped running, she is literally within arms reach of the leading hybrids of the pursuing horde and she must desperately duck and parry and flee as the hybrids cut into her already badly damaged power armour

Eisen uses a psychic power as he races to the bridge- he disappears momentarily and his image appears 10m ahead of him (Distort Vision), running past the remaining Genestealer which immediately leaps and pounces straight through the holographic image. Now its lured out into the open, the metal body of Tech Priest Severus bowls into it, his mighty manipulue mechandrites grappling it with mechanical strength. The 4 scything claws of the Genestealer are met at every turn by the Adeptus Mechanicus many mechandrites, grabbing and deflecting and parrying the vicious aliens strikes away from the remaining vulnerable biological systems of Severus. The two titans, one biological and one cybernetic fight their way across the middle of the bridge, wooden planks and metal sheeting falling away into the raging river 40m below, under their tremendous weight and epic struggle. Vorgen and Eisen take the opportunity to run past the Genestealer, the bridge creaking and breaking beneath their added weight

Vark instead stops to help Severus and puts his shotgun to the grappled Genestealers snout. BANG! The two race forward as the bridge collapses under their feet. Severus goes through the hole first, but Vark is quick enough to grab his optical mechandrite before Vark falls through after him. The strong guardsman’s foot catches in a wooden joint, and he hangs beneath the collapsing bridge with one leg and both hands holding onto the slippery mechandrite as Severus swings below him!

As Vorgen and Eisen give covering fire on the opposite bank, Sister Innocenta realises that her additional weight on the bridge while Severus and Vark hang from it will surely cause its final collapse. Mere metres from the pursuing horde, she terms, determined the vile Xenos corruption of Castermere, shall not pass!

The towering, bloated Broodlord is upon, its mighty claws ripping through her armour like paper. With nothing left to lose, she thumbs a krak grenade pin and invoking the Wrath of the Righteous (burning her 2nd Fate point of the session) she lobs it down the Broodlords slavering, open maw, causing it to explode spectacularly- alas the blast is so close that the badly injured, one-armed Sister is thrown backwards, off the ravine edge into the fast flowing river waters below!

Severus logically looks at the underside of the bridge and with his manipulator mechandrite, digs into the strongest remaining beam, Doc Ock-style. Them he swings free of Vark who with a mighty heave of his leg and a stomach crunch is able to pull himself up through the hole and together the two race off the collapsing bridge to the safety beyond! Mourning their fallen brethren for a moment (for surely the Sister could not have survived such a fall) they head to the nearby van and make all speed back to Windhaven, leaving the devastated and disorientated horde of monstrous hybrids trapped on the other side of the river gorge.

Back at Windhaven, Vark heads for the bar, whilst the Tech Priests picts and Eisens authoritative commands soon alerts the Tephaine Inquisition to the Genestealer infiltration of Castermere and the greater Rutland Province. Within hours the first Valkyries of Inquisitorial storm troops are landing, lead by an Interrogator Canaris. By the next day, a Regiment of Guard and 2 regiments of the PDF are arriving, Leman Russ tanks and Hellhounds crossing bridges swiftly thrown up by combat engineers to span the river. Flamer teams, led by the Acolytes burn their way through the remaining plantations of cane and the buildings of Castermere and then down into the depths of the mine, Imperial forces isolating and overwhelming the remaining hybrids with untold firepower.

Canaris questions the Acolytes and asks them how extensive the purge should be? A drunken Vark says to “ Nuke the continent, it’s the only way to be sure! ” but the rest of the Acolytes recommend that on balance, since the people of Castermere seem to have kept themselves isolated that the rest of the Rutland province (some 100,000 people) be interned in camps and examined by Adeptus Biologicus tech-priests for genetic infection and scanned by Adeptus Psykana for psychic ability (the boy-magus Roose was never found). Interrogator Canaris accepts these recommendations under advisement and the Purification of Rutland begins…

Consequences and Afterwords

Eisen Nihlus, amongst all the confusion of military activity, Arbites herding civilians into Internment camps locates Julia and Derren Smithson. Telling them to be proud, that their son helped the Imperium detect a dreadful alien threat that would have threatened the whole planet, he uses his Inquisitorial ID and status to get them out through the road blocks and takes them to the Tephaine Minor capital to start a new life.

Sister Innocenta is found, barely alive floating in a peaceful pool off the river tributary by Imperial Guard search teams. Fortuately her helmet and Sororitas power armour kept her breathing even after she blacked out from her fall. Her survival is hailed as a miracle, for truly the Emperor Protects! As a hero of the hour and her Order of the Ebon Chalice, she is fitted with a Good-quality Bionic right arm. Since the nerves in her shoulder are damaged, operation is through a direct artificial link at her request. (Player- “ Dammit- I want Headtubes!” )

For the rest, there is the patching up of their wounds both spiritual and physical as they are commended by their superiors for a job well done and clearly blessed by the Emperor (all gained a FP) for having survived the horrors of the Castermere Look!

Kill Count (as requested by Severus’s player)

Approx 100 3rd & 4th generation Hybrids and humans who’d been ovipostered with implanted ‘Stealer DNA.
4 Purestrain Genestealers (including 1 infant)
12 1st & 2nd Generation Hybrids killed by grenades and covering fire
1 Broodlord/Patriach

So Concludes The Castermere Look

Comments, thoughts, appreciation and criticism welcome.

SJE


Posted at

Awesome :o That sounds like a brilliant game to have been part of :D Also, what rank were your players when they did this, as I want to put it in my campaign, I want it to be challenging for the PC's, but not so much as to be impossible :/

Posted at

They started Silver Dawn on about 3,000 xp each, went into Castermere on close to 4,000xp (I ran both as 2 consecutive adventures of 3 sessions each). They probably had about 2000-3000 thrones each for equipment and such like and I tend to give out iconic equipment appropriately (so the Sister had her bolter and light power armour for free, the Arbites got his shock maul and carapace armour etc).

SJE