The Hunt For The Fallen Continues...

For the second session of the "Hunt For The Fallen", I decided to bring in Peter's Orks as a guest star.  I thought about the Fallen operating on Franke-7 and using the presence of the Orks as a shield against any enemies.

For this mission I created a set of alternate win conditions for each army.  These win conditions would allow them to claim a victory even if they lost the actual mission.

I wanted the win condition for the Dark Angels to be something related to intelligence gathering and I wanted the Orks to have one that seemed appropriate.  The Orks don't care about the Fallen at all, so their motivations were harder for me to explore.

Without further ado, here are the briefs.

Hunt for the Brothers of the Skull
  

Player Briefing for Dark Angels:

Inner Circle Eyes Only

-Intelligence gathered from captured Word Bearer Clabrus following actions against the Traitor Legion known as the Iron Warriors has led the Inner Circle to the contested Franke System.  There is now credible evidence that there are members of the Warrior Lodge known as “the Brothers of the Skull” present on Franke-7.  Pursuant to this, elements of the Ravenwing have been dispatched to monitor their presence.

Franke-7 has long been a contested world in Imperial space.  No longer rich in resources, the system itself offers little to the Imperium.  Orks have long infested the 7^th planet in the system.  It is unknown at this time why the Brothers of the Skull are present on the planet but The Fallen are never to be underestimated and no doubt are there for some nefarious purpose.

Other Space Marine Chapters have recently attempted to retake Franke-7.  Elements of both the Ultramarines and Crimson Fists chapters are still present on the surface.  The Inner Circle has decided to use this as cover for hunting down the Fallen on Franke-7.

Your task force will engage the Orks in the area where we know the Brothers of the Skull are currently located.  To the other chapters this will appear as nothing more than the efforts of the Unforgiven to engage the Orks so that our brother chapters may regroup and recover.

Your mission:
It’s not enough to capture the Brothers of the Skull in combat.  Even now the intelligence gathered from the Heretic Clabrus is almost useless.  The Unforgiven need immediate intelligence that can be acted on by the Ravenwing in order to finally hunt down Cypher and bring him to justice.  Field Interromancy is required and any information gleaned from any Fallen is to be immediately relayed to the Ravenwing elements on standby so that it can be acted on without delay.

Secret Win condition:
Successfully manifest “Mind Worm” on a Fallen.  If this is done, then you will be considered to have won this mission even if the actual mission is failed.  Remember that in Narrative Play you are allowed to attempt the same Psychic Power more than once per turn.  Note down secretly if this has successfully been accomplished.

Secret Loss condition:
Fail to kill at least two Fallen.  If you fail to kill at least two Fallen, then you will be considered to have lost this mission UNLESS you win as detailed above or you win the actual mission.  This is essentially a tie breaker in the case of a draw on the actual mission itself.

And here is the player brief for the Ork Player:

Kill Da Humies

Player briefing for the Orks

Oi, ‘ere is duh mishun!  SMASH DEM.  SMASH DEM ALL!

Dis place has been owned by Orks forever and we like it here cos’ dis is a place where young ‘uns can come and learn how to kill humies.  Even da pointy eared ones are afraid to come down ‘ere now!  But a while back some humies, Black boyz we calls ‘em, showed up.  We was ready to fight them, too, but dey wanted to kill humies, too and dey had gifts for da warbosses.  We didn’t like that, but da warbosses liked it so now we don’t pay ‘em no mind.  That lot mostly just digs around in the dirt an’ ruins of dis place.  When we find other humies and the Black boyz is nearby, they help us kill the humies.

Lately the humies sent some Blue boyz to help out the Red Fist Boyz that had tried to take what belongs now to the Orks.  Most of that lot was sent packing back to their ships, but some ‘ave held out and they is good fighting for sure, Space Marines always fight harder when they is losing.  Every lad ‘ere knows that on Franke-7 they is always losing.

If these Green boyz save the Blue Boyz and the Red Fist boyz, then there will be no more fighting for a while and then the lads will get really sad.  Can’t have that, can we?

Your Mission:
The warbosses in charge of Franke-7 tolerate the presence of the Brothers of the Skull but that doesn’t mean you have to like it.  But then they did give you some nice gifts and the humies really seem to get really excited when they’re around and that makes it more fun for fighting them.  You’re pretty sure that there’s good loot around here and there’s nothing like treasure hunting while fighting!  But you need lads to help dig up the loot. 

Secret Win condition:
If you control an objective with both a character and a mob of boyz during either player’s turn, note that down secretly.  At the end of the game roll a die, if your roll is less than the number of objectives you controlled this way you will be considered to have won, even if you lose the actual mission.  This roll is made after the game has concluded, so it cannot be re-rolled by Command Points.

Secret Loss condition:
If the Fallen haven’t killed at least one enemy model, you lose this mission UNLESS you win as detailed above or you win the actual mission.  This is essentially a tiebreaker in the case of a draw for the actual mission.

The Brothers of the Skull

Hearkening back to the original version of Warhammer 40,000 I've decided to write up some player briefs for the missions which will feature "guest star" armies.

The first of these missions will feature Orks under command of their devoted commander, Peter Franke.  The Brothers of the Skull often hide their more nefarious schemes behind the actions of larger Xenos forces and the Orks in this sector are particularly truculent. 

Each player will be given a brief which contains a secret set of conditions that they must meet in order to win immediately while also adhering to the mission at hand: the rescue of stranded Space Marine forces on Franke-7.

I've done this once before in 8th edition and it went pretty well.  I enjoyed the game mastering aspect of it quite a bit and I look forward to giving the players their sealed orders.

The Five Brotherhoods, pillars of The Fallen

Recent endeavors by the Dark Angels have resulted in the capture of Clabrus, Dark Apostle of Chaos.  Herein are the discoveries made through interrogation of this individual.


Name: Pulin Clabrus
Legion of Origin: Word Bearers
Known associations, pre-Heresy:
-Iron Warriors of the IV Legion
-Iron Hands of the X Legion
-Blood Angels of the XI Legion
-Sons of Horus of the XVI Legion
-Space Wolves of the VI Legion
-Dark Angels of the I Legion


Clabrus has traveled extensively within the Eye of Terror following the retreat of the Word Bearers.  He has allied himself with other Traitor Legions in the centuries following the Horus Heresy.  Initially it was believed that Clabrus was none other than Pensival Clavrus, known to the Inner Circle as one of The Fallen.  While this turned out to not be the case, Clabrus himself has had many dealings with The Fallen including Cypher himself.

Most recently Clabrus was joined to a warband of Iron Warriors conducting raids near the Franke System.  This system is within Imperial Space but is currently contested by several factions including Orks, who nominally control Franke-7; The Aeldari, who nominally control an ancient artificial satellite of Franke-6; as well as various servants of the Imperium.  In the past Space Marine chapters such as the Ultramarines and the Crimson Fists have attempted to sweep the Orks from Franke-7 but have failed at that task.  The Inner Circle must therefore take care as there are undoubtedly still elements of these chapters still in the system.

It is believed that during the Great Crusade Clabrus was part of forces deployed alongside loyalist legions and may have been placed there as a way to evaluate those legions for future corruption.  Clabrus, under torture both physical and psychic, admitted to first encountering The Fallen in the Eye of Terror while the Scouring was still being prosecuted.  He described shock at seeing those of the I Legion in the Eye of Terror but soon discovered their secrets.

Recent actions have shown a higher degree of organization among the remaining Fallen and Clabrus was able to confirm some of that.  He described having personal knowledge of several separate Warrior Lodges among The Fallen.  They are dedicated to protecting the remaining Fallen and operate mostly outside of the Eye of Terror. 

He gave names to five of these Warrior Lodges and disclosed that they refer to themselves as Brotherhoods.  He expired before revealing any other Brotherhoods but it can be assumed that there may be more.  He also gave coordinates where these Brotherhoods have been operating most recently.  The Inner Circle is advised to act on this intelligence quickly.

The five Brotherhoods:

The Brothers of the Skull

All of the five brotherhoods are known for openly wearing the Dark Angels Chapter Livery and Heraldry, but the Brothers of the Skull proudly bear a skull on their armor as well.

The Brotherhood of the Falling Blade

The Brotherhood of the Falling Blade take pleasure in slaying their opponents from afar, then fading away.

The Brotherhood of the White Shroud

The White Shroud are enigmatic even among the warrior lodges of The Fallen but appear to prefer close quarters engagements.

The Brothers of the Crimson Sky

Their symbol is the Dark Angels winged blade on a dark red sky.  It's whispered among some that their heraldry is a harbinger of what is to come for the Dark Angels.

The Circle of Iron

Little is known of the Circle of Iron other than their tally of victories.  Few have faced them and survived.