But hey, we have a Crusade supplement for the Nachmund Gauntlet, and I'm definitely down for Crusade. I love Crusade. The narrative aspect is my favorite part of the hobby. So I'll do my little tradition where I give spoilers about the Crusade books I buy. Maybe I'll be able to run a nice little Crusade campaign one day, if I ever find a group in Singapore willing to give it a go. Anyway, let's break down the events of Crusade: Nachmund Gauntlet.
Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
We open with our pal Haarken Worldclaimer in the aftermath of his victory over the Jestine system, having burned a path through the Nachmund Gauntlet with his immense armada. The fortress of Nonavore was also smashed. Yikes. Abaddon contacts Haarken and asks him about his progress, which seems to be good, with the latter just about to head to the Gorandahl sub-sector now. Abaddon, on the other hand, appears confident that Vigilus will be his. Soon. Then he gives Haarken the Planet Killer. Oh, boy. The Imperium is frakked.
The main setting is Sangua Terra, a fortress world in the Sanguis system. By the way, nearby is the Imperial Knight world of Okomeia and Felhart Domain, a Black Templars recruiting world. Cool! The systems of the Nachmund Gauntlet are often blighted by warp events such as gravitic fluctuations and palls of obscuring radiation, insanity and mutation, and the ever present threat of the Chaos Knights from Dharrovar. Along with Sanguis System's sister systems of Jaghaal, Coryxx and Lenoid, they make up the Gordandahl sub-sector and the form a cordon known as the Sanctus Wall.
The Sanguis Flare occurred when a warp flare engulfed the Sanguis System from the Great Rift, causing mutations and large parts of the planet to turn, uh, daemonic. To make matters worse, Sangua Terra's moon, Sigil, is turned into a daemon moon. No kidding.
Soon after that, the war on Vigilus happened, and I think I don't have to repeat what occurred. Abaddon was forced to retreat when Marneus Calgar deployed a Deathstrike missile to threaten the Vengeful Spirit, and Vigilus earned a reprieve. However, if you recall the Rift War campaign book back from 9th edition, battles continued to rage, Calgar is hailed as a Saint for some reason though he's not actually dead (but the Vigilus people don't know that), miracles manifest and they are able to throw the hosts of Chaos back by wrecking a Noctilith Crown.
Oh, and the Imperials attempted to assault Dharrovar, but the Chaos Knights of House Mandrakor defend their homeworld. Haarken shows up and shatters the Imperial forces between his armada and the Knights of House Mandrakor, forcing them to retreat. Yikes. There was a naval battle, led by Lord Admiral Prisca, who fought against the Chaos armada with brilliant strategies to buy the Imperial reinforcements time to reach the Sanguis System. However, the Chaos fleet is simply too large and it destroys Prisca's mismatched fleet.
Celestine apparently shows up on Vigilus as well, and after fighting three Daemon lords and killing two of them, she vanishes as the area burns. Only Inquisitor Cartavolnus, the dude responsible for wrecking the Noctolith Crowns, escapes with his forces, and he rushes to Sangua Terra. He is joined by Junith Eruita and a War of Faith, a long with lots of Adepta Sororitas. The Sanctus Wall then prepares for Haarken's assault.
Since I'm a Knight guy, I'll just lay this out. We have 4 lances from House Terryn, 2 lances from House Dorath, 5 lances from House Krast, 3 lances from House Minotos, 6 lances from House Taranis and 3 lances from Hosue Oko'norest, plus 14 Freedblades or so. That's like 23 lances. Against them stand 103 Chaos Knights divided into 8 dread lances, accompanied by 16 household brigades of Mandrakorian Bonds with armored support and 944 Idolators with servo-clades, logistical and aerial support. Interesting.
Though the Imperials placed patrols near the Mandeville points to intercept the emergence of Chaos ships and report back as soon as possible, Haarken was able to take them by surprise by using captured Loyalist vessels as decoys, then bam! A bunch of battleships and line ships smash past the poor captured vessels to wipe out the patrol fleets. A couple of them maanged to escape and report back, though.
With Prisca out of action, Rear Admiral Borqil - who escaped from the destruction of the command bastion of Nanovore - took command of the Imperial Navy, and he singled out a single heretic fleet group to destroy. Led by Captain Fulvian of the Sons of Medusa, a small battle group wiped them out before leaving when Haarken sent 57 heretic ships to reinforce them, forcing them to run. The rest of Haarken's armada closed in on poor Sangua Terra.
As an aside, the Daemon lord ruling over Sigil is Tchorr'kan. He seems to be Tzeentchian, I think? He likes mutated stuff, crystals and labyrinthine plans, so I assume he's Tzeentch. Anyway, once Haarken takes up orbit over Sangua Terra, he struck a deal with Tchorr'kan and in exchange for his daemonic aid, a bunch of lords under the Worldclaimer's command gained the dude's sigil. They are then sent to the most dangerous warzones in Sangua Terra. They are all the most capriciuous and divisive warlords, which made the other commanders under Haarken annoyed, but c'mon, you can't be that stupid, can you? Accepting a sigil from a Daemon definitely means there's a price to be paid. I bet it can't be good, even if they get some power in exchange for the short term.
The main battle focuses on the capital of Sangua Tera, the Urbanosprawl Alpha. Haarken Worldclaimer's Gloomtalons lead the assault, along with Szerhan Nethar's Fear Rakers and Torian Kommodar's dread lance of Chaos Knights. For f's sake, they all have edgy nicknames. Haarken is known as the Herald of the Apocalypse (pfft, really?!), Nethtar is the Chainflayer (Oh, so scary), and Torian Kommodar is Dharrovar's Talon. Who came up with these nicknames? Chuunibyou edgelords?
Anyway, Haarken's Gloomtalons target the Accrandor Spaceport, which fall in short order because he's the main villain, and there's really no significant characters there to protect it, then he heads for the Praefectus Bastion where Junith Eruita and her command staff plus Adepta Sororitas await. The Fear Rakers head for the Tower of Murmuration (an Astropath tower), which is defended by our good friend, Inquisitor Cartavolnus and his Black Iconoclasts, elite inquisitorial stormtroopers, along with requisitioned regiments of Imperial Guardsmen. The Knights of House Mandrakor target the guns of the Emperor's Voice Grand Battery, which is defended by Master Nahrdeth and his Guardians of the Covenant. Dark Angels successors. Oh, and the three Legio Tempestor Titans. Yay!
Unfortunately, the Night Lords (Fear Rakers) launch some dread missile that caused all the poor guardsmen protecting the Tower Murmuration to go insane with fear or something. Even Cartavolnus is wounded. Yikes. By the way, Cartavolnus has concluded that he needs to close the Nachmund Gauntlet, though how he intends to do so, I have no clue. We'll find out, and I suspect he'll succeed as some pyrrhic victory for the Imperium yet again. But that doesn't happen in this book, so let's move on.
Long story short, the Fear Rakers overrun the poor Guardsmen at the Tower of Murmuration, and Inquisitor Cartavolnus and his elite Black Iconoclasts are forced to retreat. The Guardians of Covenant put up a good fight, taking out a bunch of Chaos Knights, but they are unable to stop Kommodar and House Mandrakor from destroying the big guns of the Grand Battery. Legio Tempestor also obliterated a bunch of Knights with their big guns, but they got bogged down by daemons. Oh, and Baron Kommodar is accompanied by Countess Kaliganus, who is fifth in line to succeed the High Queen of Dharrovar. The high queen doesn't trust the ambitious baron, you see, because he wants to expand Dharrovar's territory and conquer the Imperial systems surrounding their system or something. However, being a distant heir, Kaliganus ends up listening to Kommodar's honeyed words.
Ahem. Anyway, Haarken moved toward the Praefectus Bastion, and Eruita musters her Adepta Sororitas and all her reserves to meet him in battle. The Imperials are overwhelmed, but Celestine shows up to save them! She's accompanied by lots of Seraphim and Zephyrim. Celestine slays lots of Raptors and Warp Talons, reaches Eruita, and then informs her, "Hey, girl, the Emperor wants you to live and fight another day, not die in Martyrdom for f-ing nothing." Eruita swallows her pride and listens, calling for dropship extraction.
Also having failed his mission to defend the Grand Battery, Nahdrdeth and the Guardians of the Covenant coordinate with Eruita to evacuate via dropships and Thunderhawks or gunships, but the poor Titans are left behind, overwhelmed by both Tchorr'Kan's endless hordes of daemons and the Knights of Hosue Mandrakor, who had both reaped a toll on the beleaguered Guardians of the Convenant and sustained heavy casualties of their own. A Bloodthirster leaps and starts hacking his way into the helm of the Warlord Titan, so Princeps Drentor detonates the Titan's core. Celestine serves as the rearguard and is the last to board the final dropship that takes the Imperial survivors away from the fallen Praefectus Bastion.
Haarken has his prize, the capital of Sangua Terra and the Officio Militarum fortress that was formerly Junith Eruita's command chamber. Oh, and he reveals that all the warlords who received the sigil from Tchorr'Kan are dead, having overextended with their ambition and going against the Warmaster's orders, and uses this as a warning to cow the other Chaos commanders. I doubt it'll work, but y'know. Grimdark. Meanwhile, as even more of a grimdark, it appears that Haarken has captured poor Prisca - the heroic Lord Admiral who tried to lead the naval battle against his overwhelming armada to buy time for Imperial reinforcements to arrive. She's melded into a machine in hideous fashion, and almost insane, but Haarken keeps her alive because he wants the knowledge inside her, such as cyphers, mnemo-codes, names, numbers and plans.
Truly grimdark. I don't know what to say. Sangua Terra is on the verge of falling, but it hasn't fallen just yet. The Imperial defenders have mostly survived and relocated to other non-capital parts of the planet to continue fighting. Just like Pariah Nexus, it sort of ends on a cliffhanger, with the status quo being maintained. For now. Hopefully, they move the narrative forward...soon, but I don't know when. We'll see.
Though I suspect our good friend Cartavolnus will do something extreme and close the Nachmund Gauntlet for a pyrrhic victory. This has that written all over it. But what do I know?
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