Infernal Master and Scarab Occult Terminators

I split the Hexfire box with a friend, and so I now have an Infernal Master and more Scarab Occult Terminators. I intend to sell the Tzaangors (already have someone interested in buying them off me) because I don't really like Tzaangors and don't plan to use them. I'm more old-school, so I'll run mostly Thousand Sons Sorcerers, Rubricae (including Scarab Occult Terminators) and Daemon Engines. My list in particular has a lot of Daemon Engines...well, if you've been following my blog, you already know that I have 3 Forgefiends and 2 Heldrakes. Can't wait to field them!

Funnily enough, I had a former Chaplain in the Sapphire Drakes join Ignatius's thrallband, so I'll make him the Infernal Master. Apparently Infernal Masters are like Chaplains (though they are more of Daemon summoners, really). Ignatius remains the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and the Magister of the band, though I'll have Makhat, the former Chief Librarian of the Sapphire Drakes, be one of the Scarab Occult Sorcerers and Chronos the Infernal Master. Acastus, a former Sergeant, is the Aspiring Sorcerer of one of the Rubric Marine squads. The Exalted Sorcerer is Epistolary Egnis. So yay. I can basically run a crusade army with them. In fact, I plan to do just that...

If possible, I wish to promote Ignatius to a Battle Psyker. For Matched Play games, he'll just be that, but he'll need to be blooded and get some experience before I can make him a Battle Psyker. Oh, well. That works for me.

Oh, right. The Hexfire box. I checked out the Crusade story there and it was kind of underwhelming. So basically what happened was that the Infernal Master, Xentep Korazon, desired Castellan Garran Crowe's Black Blade of Antwyr because he wants the daemon sealed inside the blade. Meanwhile, as a result of Magnus's failed ritual when the Dark Angels and Grey Knights launched an orbital strike, Sortiarius is in flux. Many of the Thousand Sons Legion's Sorcerers died when the ritual failed, while Magnus returned to his Tower of Cyclops to brood and plot vengeance against the Imperium (doubt he'll actually do anything about it, though). So the Thousand Sons Sorcerers who weren't involved in the Ritual returned to Sortiarius in order to return to Magnus's favor and rise to power once more, or regain their ranks and influence, or fulfil their ambitions. Usual Chaos schemes and stuff.

So Xentep Korazon, whose thrallband was exiled to Hexenfast in the Senvorth System, convinced his magister - an Exalted Sorcerer - to return to Sortiarius and help Magnus capture the Grey Knights and Dark Angels still on the planet, left behind by Kaldo Draigo and the rest when they desperately escaped. And then in a completely stupid and unnecessary move, he backstabbed his magister and killed him. For no freaking reason at all. Like...dude? Was that necessary? What even was the point of the betrayal? Anyway, he then teamed up with a Tzaangor Shaman named Razyrak the Pilgrim, who had his own herd of Tzaangors, and they captured a bunch of Grey Knights, brought them back to an abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus facility orbiting the gas giant Hexenfast, and lured Crowe and his band of Purifiers into a trap.

So Crowe led his Purifiers to fight against Scarab Occult Terminators and hordes of Tzaangors in a desperate attempt to free his captured brothers of the Third Brotherhood and a Knight of Flame from the Purifiers. You have two Crusade missions for that, and...yeah. Depending on how those missions play out, you have two outcomes.

If it's a Grey Knights victory, Crowe slays Korazon with the Black Blade of Antwyr, a Dreadknight obliterates poor Razyrak with his heavy psycannon and they wipe out both the Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, and succeeded in saving their brothers. Yay.

If it's a Thousand Sons victory, Crowe's Purifiers get wiped out by Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, the Dreadknight is destroyed by Razyrak's arcane machinations, and Korazon attempts to seize the Black Blade of Antwyr, only for the daemon within to laugh at him and claims that he will serve no mortal...and that Korazon will be the first of his loyal thralls. In an act of desperation, Korazon summons daemons, tears a rift open to the warp, which sucks both Crowe and Korazon in, and they kind of vanished, leaving an open ending. Of course Crowe will survive, he's a named character. But his Purifiers and Dreadknight got annihilated, while he's currently trapped in the warp. Well...I guess it sucks.

Either way, not very consequential to the Warhammer 40,000 lore. Not sure what to say, but I can't say I'm very impressed with it. At least we know the aftermath of the failed ritual. Thousand Sons are hunting the remnants of the Dark Angels and Grey Knights abandoned upon Sortiarius. Perhaps it's time for Ignatius to make a return to the Planet of Sorcerers and see what his genesire wants. If you recall, Ignatius travels around on the battle barge, Honor of Tizca, which makes him different from the Exalted Sorcerers and Magisters traveling around on Silver Towers. And his thrallband, the Sapphire Drakes, is mostly composed of former Adeptus Astartes who were loyal to the Emperor but turned renegades because the Inquisition, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence persecuted them.

Heh...that means it'll be very interesting for the Sapphire Drakes to return to Sortiarius, for this is an opportunity for revenge...well, they are more focused on revenge against the Ordo Hereticus, the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence, not the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus, but we shall see. It'll be fun.