Inpediantur Magna Cohort

So, for those of you who can't read latin, that means 'Making a Cohort". And for those of you who can - sorry for the terrible grammar, amongst other things.

Anyway, as you may or may not be able to tell from that title, today's post will concern the creation of a chapter - a Roman Legion-inspired Chapter, so  obviously an Ultramarine Successor.

Anyway, it's something I've been planning on doing for a while, and I finally got round to buying the parts for my Captain, now seems as good a time as ever to finish up the fluff. So, without further ado - here I go!

So, starting off, I rolled on the Space Marine Chapter Generation Table (you can find it on 1d4chan, and I'd advise you have a look if you're ever bored) to get the basics of my chapter. I did a bit of nudging - I'd already decided on a roman-themed smurf descendent, and favour artillery (because, really, the Whirlwind is the ultimate artillery piece) - but otherwise I kept to the rolls... excepting my homeland - how on Terra are you meant to recruit from a Civilised World? Anyway, here's what I ended up with:

The Praetorian Cohort are a Chapter from the 24th Founding, somewhere around the 40th Millenium... lets settle that on 831.M40. Their homeworld is mostly desert - I'm gonna take that to mean rock-desert, rather than sand - and features a classical/medieval level of civilisation. So, lets say the world is in a constant cycle of one nation/state/city forming an empire, overextending, and collapsing... sometimes several across the planet at one time. This gives me an ample recruiting pool; both from civilised youths trained to work as a group, and barbaric warriors possessing impressive personal skills. Fluff out this a bit more, and...

The Praetorian Cohort recruit from the world Trusca; a desert world that is only truly habitable several days away from the equator.It is possessed of only one major body of water - an inland sea larger than the Pazivic Bowl on Terra. Into this drains hundreds upon thousands of rivers, the largest well over a mile wide before it splits into a delta. It is around these that civilisation is born, thrives, and dies - a constant cycle of imperialistic expansion, evermounting corruption and finally collapse under it's own weight. From this prime stock, the Cohort recruits its members.

So, that's that down, moving on... Colours shall we say? Now, this is pretty easy - I'm gonna base them off roman legions, and I think brown is a really underused colour from Astartes, so lets make them brown and silver, with red details... something like this:

Red cloth, crests, and possibly weapons... that oughta look really nice next to the dull base - I do enjoy contrast. So, that's the colours, what's next... Ah, Chapter Tactics.

Right, so I decided on their tactics whilst playing Total War: Rome 2. Basically, I realised you could win any fight by lining up legionaries and forming a testudo... then deploying a row of ballista behind to fire exploding shot (vases full of oil). Now, I recognised stright away that this would not work terrifically well in 40k, but that's never stopped me before, so there we have it. They bomb the enemy - just for added value, perhaps they start with an orbital bombardment, and follow it up with regular artillery. Then, they send in the infantry to clean up whatever is left... Actually, why not improve on this - Rhino rush the enemy at the end, to represent a Testudo... Yeah, we got it, lets get this down.

The Praetorian Cohort is famed for it's bombardment, in a fair opposition to the standard tactic of the Astartes. This is a three step process, beginning with an orbital bombardment of any zones that are deemed either too well entrenched to assault or unimportant to planetary infrastructure. Following this, they deploy Whirlwinds and Thunderfire Cannons to soften the enemy lines before they send forward a mass fo Rhino APCs to flush out any remaining enemy. Rebels may be taken as prisoners, for use in penal camps or legions.

Now, this gives me a thought actually. I've always wanted a third generation army - i.e. one made from a successor - so why not extrapolate on my tactics. I end most engagements with a rhino rush... so, the Aurora Chapter is well known for it's armoured spearhead, and are thought to have sired at least one chapter... I think we have my parent chapter. Works well too - I lay down heavy fire, they charge in headfirst. Lovely!

Now, what's next... ah, demeanor. Or, well, how my guys are... well, Ultramarines descendents, and Roman-inspired. So massive ego-maniacs presumably, but lets leave that for the moment...

Alright, what do we know about the Roman Empire. Proud, Militaristic, Utilitarian. Also, in spite of the whole 'we elect our emperors to be gods', they were quite secular - religion was more about promoting the idea of a united Roman Empire than it was worshipping the gods. Likewise, they're cultural racists - if you aren't one of them, you're wrong. If you are, they don't care where abouts you're from, your colour, or religion (well, provided you paid lip-service to the roman pantheon). So, lets take these traits and make something out of them.

The Praetorian Cohort are a proud chapter - hubristic some might say. Not for themselves as individuals, but rather for their Chapter, and their Legion as a whole - their father was, after all, the most important figure following the Horus Hersy. That being said, they possess little in the way of the spirituality of their brothers; they venerate both Gulliman and the Emperor, but beyond that their is little one could see of the theist in them.
To them, the only thing of import is the survival of the Imperium, and this shows in their approach to many things. They have virtually no cares with regards to civilian casualties, but will do whatever they can to maintain the vital industries of a world - indeed, they'd rather lose a company than cripple a vital world. That beind said, they have an immense respect for fellow warriors, even if it is more than a mite patronising to the Imperial Guard.
To them, a man is not an individual - he is a resource to be expended for the betterment of His most glorious Imperium; from the highest of Custodes, to the lowliest of factory workers, their only purpose is to power the machine that is the Emperor's realm as well as they can for as long as they can. A man can ask for no more than that, and the Galaxy demands no less.

So, that's their Colours, World, Tactics, Lineage, and Demeanor sorted... What's left? Well, a lot, but I think that's best looked at on a later date - when I've run outta stuff to write again. Well, thank you all for reading, and let me know what you think. Volodanti out.

What's up?

Hey, I know my posts are basically down to saturdays only, but that's for three entirely justifiable reason:

1. I'm pretty busy - got an essay to hand in a month yesterday, a 20 minute film to record and then edit, and a variety show soon to raise money for the performance in May... And, just interviewed for a job, so there may be more work coming.
2. I've not got much on, modelling wise. Haven't had a session of Iron Kingdoms in a while, only had a few tabletop games at all this month, and haven't ran my D&D in weeks... I'll try and finish that over holidays though.
3. I'm bone-idle. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Most of this month has been spent playing the new Thief, reading through Mogworld and the Low Town series, and more recently Brutal Legend and now Bioshock: Infinite. Which is probably not a great plan, given that I still haven't finished the former...

Anyway, this combination has meant I've nothing really to put up day-to-day. Plus, I've started writing a novel - and I use that term in the loosest possible way - so I'm using most of my writing finesse on that. But, that's hardly fair to you, my loyal fan(s), so I'm gonna motivate myself, however I can.

This brings me round to saturday's update - what will it be? Well, truth be told, I have no idea ; I've ordered in some parts to convert myself up a Roman-inspired Space Marine Captain. I would have thought it'd be here by today, but, it hasn't shown up. Which is annoying, cos I planned on making a post about painting him up. Not necessarily my best plan, given my lack of proffessional-level painting skills, but I thought it'd make a nice change.

So, on the off chance he doesn't turn up, I'll need something to fill the gap. Either a review of Thief, given that it's still vaguely topical, or... I dunno - bit of fluff? Seriously, I have no idea at this point.

Anyone of you got an opinion, say what you fancy and I'll try and do it.

IN SPACE!!!

So, something a bit different this time. I've caught up to my adventures in Immoren, and I'm not having another game til at least next week. Likewise, I've not really done any modelling, painting, or converting this week, so that's that gone. You know, I was really unsure as to what I should do this week until last night.

You see, today me and my mate are heading up to our attics, dusting off our ships, and having a game of Battlefleet Gothic. And you're getting a battle report.

Now, it's been a while since I last took to the heavens - people were still worried about the Mayan Long Count at the time - and even then, I only had half a dozen games, so to say I'm gonna be rusty is a bit of an understatement. This is just to explain away why I'll be making obviously horrendous decision come the fight.

So, where to begin? Well, army lists I suppose - I'm doing an Astartes list, cos that's all I've got. Back when we started, we all tried to buy a fleet to match our main army, so we could add naval battles to our campaigns. These will be going up against a Nid' list, something I've never fought before, so this oughta get interesting....

Fleet Registry

Space Marines

-Mallus; Master of the Fleet, with 2 Re-rolls and a Terminator Boarding Party.
-Squadron Alpha; 3 Strike Cruisers - Primogenitor, Pride of Rhianna, and The Hunt. Mallus is aboard the Primogenitor.
-Squadron Beta; 3 Strike Cruisers - Redemption of Ezrael, Contemtus Eternis, and Angel of the Void
-Squadron Gamma; 3 Hunter-Class Destroyers - The Lion's Pride (forgive the pun).

Tyranids

-Hive Ship with launch bays
-3 Cruisers - 1 with feeder tentacles and bio plasma, 1 with torpedo bays, 1 with pyro-acid battery
-6 Kraken
-3 Escorts
-3 Vanguard Drone Ships

Now, anyway, that's that done, lets get to it.

Set-up

Moments - or perhaps hours -
before battle is joined

We set the battle up with a planet in the south-east corner, and a wave of debris - either rings or just a nearby dust cloud - across the north-west (see photo). I won the roll off, and elected to go second, deploying on the side of the planet. That done, battle commenced.

The Battle

Turn 1

Mostly just manoeuvering here, though
you can just make out some torpedoes
next to the Kraken

The Tyranids rolled to ignore instinctive behaviour - the Kraken elected to go All Ahead Full, seeking to escape the debris in one turn. However, the next unit failed, dooming them to a combination of Burn Retros and All Ahead Full (but with only half the bonus). That, then, was the end of his turn.

My forces almost unanimously Burnt Retros, except the Lion's Pride, which failed to Lock On, instead launching their torpedoes after closing.

Turn 2

The Tyranids did much better this turn - the Hive Mind gaining control of all the unruly ships - except the Kraken. It seems, in their haste to re-establish control, they forgot about the one group that was listening. The Kraken promptly got hungry and charged towards the planet... through the ordnance. A Kraken was lost to the Astartes boarding manoeuvre. I was not left untouched though, and lost an escort to the advancing horde.


Meet THE WALL OF ORDNANCE!

In respons, my Cruisers Locked On to the Kraken, though poor movement left Squadron Beta out of range, so only one Kraken fell to my bombardment cannons. Lion's Pride failed to damage the torpedo cruiser, but I launched all of my ordnance, Thunderhawk assault taking down a Kraken. The remaining Torpedos then slammed into the Pyro-Cruiser, damaging the starboard and Thorax weapons.


Turn 3

All the Tyranids managed to concentrate, though it seemd this was immensely taxing, as the Hive Ship was forced to expend a re-roll to do so. The remaining Kraken initiated a Lock On, whilst the Pyro Came To A New Heading, butsadly the minimum move forced to Kraken into my barrier of Thunderhawks, silencing them. Clearly shaken, the now solo Kraken failed to cause any damage, even with a re-roll. The Hive Ship did much better, silencing the Lion's Pride permanently. To cap it off, the Pyro-Cruiser repaied it's Thorax damage.


"Something is appearing on scanners in the debris.
It... it's huge."

It was my turn, and I knew I had to hit hard. I went to Lock On with everything, and targeted the Pyro-Cruiser without remorse. Squadron Alpha managed to cause a critical hit, inflicting and extra d3 damage. They capped this off by killing two Escorts. Squadron Beta faired worse - the damnable automatic Bracing of Kraken's allowing it to survive a furious fusilade of firepower, though it was finally brought down by two waves of Thunderhawks. The Pyro-Cruiser was not so lucky, and even in spite of Bracing, lost it's prow armament. It was more a mercy killing by now, and my final wave of assault ships sent it into Death Throes.


Turn 4

To start the turn, the Pyro moved 18", dead into the centre of my formation. I could see my opponent's plan, but the Dice Gods, it seemed, could not, and it was reduced to a Drifting Carcass.
For the first time, everything goes swimmingly, and the Hive Mind has no problems controlling it's forces. The last Escort and the Hive Ship Lock On to my fleet, and though the Escort fails to damage, though so to does the Feeder-Cruiser. The Hive Ship, inspite of it's target lock, only manages to take the shield form The Hunt, while the Torpedo-Cruiser was out of range. I was quite happy til he launched the ordnance - 6 assault boats, and 8 boarding torpedoes... The Hunt suffered damage to the Prow and Port Batteries, and the engines were left incapable of enacting a turn.


Battle becomes closer than ever...
... Also, where is The Hunt going?

Oh, and it was on fire.
In response, I had Squadron Beta Lock On, bombardment cannons taking out the shields and inflicting a critcal hit on the Hive Ship; d3 more damage, and I rolled a 5. Sadly though, they failed to remove the fast approaching torpedoes... Squadron Alpha also chose to bombard the Hive Ship, inflicting 2 damage - though Bracing halved this. Then upsettlingly, the Contemtis Eternis was struck by no less than 5 torpedos. It lost starboard, port and prow armaments, additionally the engines and thrusters were damaged... and it's also on fire. Wonderful.
To cap off this turn, I initiated a a pair of teleport assaults on the Hive Ship, and sent in my one-use only terminators for good measure. We managed to take out the Spore Mines, and broadsides, and cripple the bugger. This left it virtually helpless, as there was nothing left in the front arc, and it was too slow to turn. But, with all sun must come some rain, and neither fire went out.

Turn 5

Begin Flanking - Flank for Dear Life!

Things were off to a good start, with almost everything passing their checks - though the Torpedo-Cruiser required the last re-roll to Reload. Vanguard managed to Lock On, while the Escort failed. Happily, the Hive Ship took 1 damage whilst moving throught the blast markers.
The Escort managed to take out the shield of the Contemtus, with the Feeder-Cruiser adding another damage to it. The Hive Ship alone did this to the Redemption. But, this was a dark hour, and 7 torpedoes struck the Contemtus, reducing it to a Drifting Hulk.
I struck back, but it was little more than shove to give me a moment's respite; between them, Alpha and Beta caused 2 damage to the Hive Ship. The Hunt remained aflame, and contributed nought to the battle, flying towards the cloud, unable to turn.

Turn 6

The Battle is ended - many lie dead,
and the war still rages.

The end was in sight, and after a troubling battle and massive damage to it's synapse, the Hive Ship failed the first command check that turn, so the army was forced onto instinctive behaviour. The Escorts boarded the Redemption, but were swiftly beaten back, and then destroyed for good measure. The Torpedo-Cruiser spat a gobbet of bio-plasma at The Angel, causing 1 damage, whilst the Hive Ship repaired it's spores, and the Tyanids were forced to end their turn.
My forces Reloaded Ordnance, though it took the first re-roll of the battle. The Hunt, knowing it would serve no more in this battle chose to disengage, enterring the warp in the hopes it could repair off beyond the range of the bio-ships of the Tyranid Scourge. I sent my forces around the hulking Hive Ship in order to better target it, but poor placing robbed me of line of sight for Squadron B, and I was only able to remove a single spore counter. Because of this, my Thunderhawks were unable to penetrate the spore cloud that surrounded the Hive Ship.

With this, the forces disengaged to lick their wounds, and prepare for the invasion that was sure to come.

Result

My ships follow in the wake of the leviathan
like Orcas do a Blue Whale.

Minor Imperial Victory; 338 Victory Points to 607, and a good day had by all. Next battle is set to be a Planetary Assault, and then either Planetstrike or a sneak attack by vanguard organisms, depending on the victor. In any case, the future seems less dark than usual for the Realm of Man.

Hope you've enjoyed this first battle report, and sorry it's a bit late. Catch you next week.









Iron Kingdoms - The Gauntlet

So, this adventure was somewhat... shorter than usual, but there were only actually 3 players there. The Hunter didn't turn up, so it ended up just Cara, Tiny and myself. Presumably the others were helping remodel the barracks after the whole zombie apocalypse thing.

Now, anyway, when last I wrote, the party was in the General's office in Southshield, and on the recieving end of some information that would have proved very useful the previous morning; namely that someone - Cara and I were convinced it was a Necrotech, but her player has a Cryxian army, and I'd just read the second Shaw/Rovissi novel - had released a plague of undeath upon the city... well, more swarm of undeath - the General explained that it was mostly under control, and they expected the city to be cleansed quickly swiftly.

Now, to understand the next part, you'll need to be filled in on some details. Namely, that we had a goal. Perhaps to strong of a word actually, but - we had a series of objectives that we want to complete. The first is to get a base. We weren't really too concerned what form this took - anything from an abandoned watchtower to an unwanted warehouse would do. Secondly, we wanted a ship. A longer term goal, perhaps, because none of us could learn to sail, only I could learn navigation, and we couldn't decide whether we wanted to be pirates, privateers or pirate hunters. Except that none of us fancied pirate hunters - you tend not to be too welcome in a lot of ports if that's the case.

The final goal, obiously, was to build a blimp and continue our career of bucaneering above the clouds. How we intended to do this - and what on Caen it had to do with my ongoing quest to free Llael - is a question best left unasked, as the honest answer is "I wish I knew"...

So, anyway, in the time since the last session, I'd decided that the barn I'd first found the Necromancer in would make a perfect place to set up shop. Now, the pros of it are that it has a functioning alchemist/mechanik's workshop, and a large compound wherein we could train. The cons were that it was in a state of disrepair, out of the way, and had a number of rotting corpses in the petunia bed. Plus, that we didn't own it.

This though, was swiftly resolved by the application of my - as in I, the player's - knowledge of typical legal process, canny wit, and natural charisma... Which failed when I rolled one under the target. So Cara repeated what I'd said and convinced the General to sell it to us for a meager 50 crowns. Tiny wasn't too bothered about it, so the pair of us halved the cost and became home owners. We then enquired as to whether there'd be any craftsmen willing to help spruce it up in the city - wow, five minutes in and we'd gone from vagabonds to home owners to property developers. The General looked at us like idiots, and pointed to the hollowed outside, explaining that there probably weren't presently. They might come back once the city is cleared, so  we asked what we could do to help.

Now, the General had more than enough men to clear out the city - a single Long Gunner could easily take on a shambling horror, and she had more than one - but she had heard that someone was using the cover of the attack to smuggle something out of the city; something linked to the books we'd recovered earlier. It seemed whoever it was that was financing the operation, they'd engineered a massive uprising of the dead to recover the tome and flee with it. We agreed to help, and set off toward the quays.

Now, this was really quite difficult - more so even that getting there at noon on market day. Every turn, d6 new hollowed spawned, and the three of us quickly became overwhelmet. Cara cast her electrical shielding upon Smiter, so that anyone who tried to hit him would be knocked back, and probably killed. He might not have killed too many with his fists, but the lightning bolts that emanated from him killed several a turn. He was eventually brought down, but given the sheer number he took with him, it was a good death. We're gonna retrofit him with a pair of shields and constantly upkeep that spell on him.
Tiny was loving it of course - his Fell Call was easily flooring anyone he looked at, and I dread to think what he'll be capable of when he gets an extra action every turn to yell more.
I, I'm pleased to say, was the unit's badass. Hardly a turn went by I didn't kill at least two enemies with my rifle, and most of them were because I had killed everything in range. The GM noticed this, and attempted to stop me by sending a pair to flank me, assuming my luck'd run out at the worst possible moment... Instead, I killed both without pause. Then, and I have to stress how cool this was, I pulled off a headshot against a Hollowed that was engaging Cara... the moment before it struck - boom, a hole tunnelling through it's brainpan, and me lowering my weapon, advancing off the table.

... I think it's only fair to say that Tiny did kill a lot more than me - Cara too, actually, if you count Smiter's kills towards her tally - but I just pulled it off with more style. Each shout would kill 3-4 enemies, but he usually had about 5 under the template, so it still took him a few goes to clear the area. Smiter smote several foes too, but a lot of that was the 'you hit me, I zap you' spell he had on him - during his turn, he was alright, but nothing special. I, meanwhile,  killed 98% of my foes with a single shot, and often in remarkably cinematic ways, even if the number was notably lower.

Anyway, after this, we emerged onto the docs, where we came upon the latest set of antagonists - the highest ranking agents in the area. Who were they then - Cryxians seeking to retain monopoly on necromantic warcasting? Khadorans more interested in imperialistic expansion than the human rights of it's citizens? Perhaps Gatormen seeking to apply their necromancy to the machines of the civilised lands? Well, no - it was a dwarf and a pirate. Who, obviously, refused to surrender - I suppose when you've been caught engineering a plague of undeath in order to steal a forbidden tome from a military base, trial wouldn't seem that appealing an option. So, instead the pirate fought, the dwarf ran.

I can't rightly remember who killed the pirate - I know I now have his cutlass, though I'm not sure why - but I do know what happened with the dwarf. She sprinted onto the ship, and while we were otherwise occupied, activated a pair of Rhulic light 'jacks. Which, proved troublesome for me, as I'd moved forward to open up a firing lane to her... Through immense good luck, the second jack hit me, and the GM rolled to damage - a 9 would kill me, but even an average hit'd likely leave me on the verge of defeat. He rolled the dice. A Four... we waited with baited breath as the second came to a halt. Six. I was dead. There was a moment of silence at the table as we took this in... then a moment of inspiration as I remembered the surplus of Fate Points I had stored up. I declared a Heroic Dodge, halfing the damage, which left me crippled, but alive. Which was all I needed, as Tiny finished her off in his round, which deactivated the 'jacks - turns out we'd just met our first Warcaster, junior as they may be.

So, this was us then - battered, missing our 'jack, and non-plussed as to why a dwarf wanted the secrets of soul-engines. But, we had the journal back, and we were alive.

Oh yeah - and we had a ship!


Note: To any who would like to point this out; I know that technically you have to use Heroic Dodge *before* damage is rolled, but the GM let me off because a) it had been a month or two since our last session, and we were a bit rusty on the rules, b) the roll was preposterously lucky - he'd rolled a 9 then a 10 on two dice and c) cos I'd put a lot of work into my character - fluff and model - for him to be killed off by a stray round from a light 'jack.

Slow Release Time

Hello everyone, I'm not dead. I'm just busy, but I'm gonna make some time to blog, cos it's been a while since I actually wrote anything - my saturday posts are usually written weeks in advance and just uploaded on the day. So, for this post, it's written on the day.

Anyway, so, for a while I've been planning on starting a new Marine army - not a proper one, just a small themed force, perhaps 1k at the very limit, probably more like 750. It's gonna be an Ultramarine-Successor with a heavy latin-leaning; companies are called Centuries, everyone has a helmet crest, and a gladius for all. Now, it's been put on hold for a while, cos... well, I totalled it up, and each unit was gonna cost somewhere in the region of £40 once you add in conversions and extra parts.

However, as I think I mentioned, I just turned 21, and I still have money left over from my birthday, so I decided to treat myself - to a single model anyway. I found someone on Ebay who was selling individual forgworld parts, and bought a pair of Mk II legs and a backpack. I'd considered arms, but they wouldn't have worked with the arms. In a few days, I'll buy the rest of the parts from an independent sculptor, and make my Centurion - armed with power gladius and storm scutum (shield). He's gonna look sweet.

Anyway, I'll let you know more about that when I get the parts - I might even put up a full "build and paint" post about him, so you have that to look forward to. And, as usual, another session of Iron Kingdoms on saturday, so, see you soon.

Update!

Legs and pack arrived yesterday. I definitely prefer the Mk. II backpack in person. Still prefer the Maximus, but damnit if I don't commit to a theme.

LEVEL UP!

Sorry it's so late in coming, I was at the Comic Con all day, so I've not had the chance til now... anyway, this was originally meant to be a short post to fit between sessions Three and Four, but part way through writing I realised how much I needed to put down, so it's the weekly update... If you read carefully, you'll probably notice where I change my mind.

Now, I've pumped out a few posts about my adventures in the lands of Immoren, but I've realised I've been entirely missing out on an important element of any RPG - experience and levelling. Now, from what I've seen, there are two broad schools of levelling in RPG's; the D&D approach, wherein you gain XP from killing monsters, solving puzzles, and completing quests, and once you reach a arbitrary value, you can improve stats, attributes and/or abilities. The other, which I'll refer to as the WoD approach (purely because it was the first system I played that used it) followed a different approach; after each session, you'd recieve a 1-5 points for fulfilling certain targets - surviving, fighting, completing objectives - which are directly spent to increase abilities.

Iron Kingdoms probably hews closer to the former, but certainly takes note of the latter. Basically, at the end of every session, you recieve up to 3 XP - one for surviving, one for killing, and one at GM's discretion. Then, for every 2 XP you earn, you gain a bonus; either 2 extra skill points, +1 to an attribute, or a choice between +1 military skill, a new archetype bonus, or an extra spell or ability. Every 30 XP, you can choose a new career - you don't get the starting skills, but it does open up a lot of new abilities for future usage.

Anyway, as of writing, I have the most experience - 9 as of session 4. Behind me is Cara, who has 8, then the Hunter on 6, and finally Tiny on 4... the Ogrun would have 2 had he shown up to more than a single session.

This is probably going to seem self-obsessed, but on the whole I can't remember what everyone chose as their upgrades, so my apologies if they become a footnote.

Alright, so Elyas; since starting, he's boosted hist sneak, climbing, and tracking to the max (sadly only level 2, but you don't get to go past that til you hit 100 XP), I then purchased Keen Eyed; an useful little power that given me a slight bonus to range... but all things told, I can now shoot a mark from up to 19" away - which is not only 2 turns of sprinting for most people, but also 114 feet in game... from a smoothbore musket, that's damned impressive... especially since that's just effective range, not maximum. And, yes, to finish off, I boosted my ARC up to 4, which lets me either put all my spells onto a single shot, or fire two shots with a pair of runes on each.

Now,admittedly, these choices were done purely on the basis of "what would be cool/useful", but writing it down here, I've realised it fits quite perfectly. In the first session, I infilitrated a complex in the middle of a forest; hence the bonus to stealth and climbing. I spent the third session tracking in the woods, and repeatedly firing my rifle, which works well with me perfecting my climbing and tracking, and then learning to aim better with my rifle... the magic, I imagine, just came from using my powers so frequently, and possibly from all the time I spent crafting magical bullets.

Wow, this really is turning out to be longer than I remembered... and since all I can remember is that Cara purchased an upkeep spell which electrocutes and knocks back enemies who attack her (which, incidentally, came in very handy in the next few sessions), I think we may as well leave it here. Cheers for reading.

Iron Kingdoms - This Time it's Personal

So, welcome back, and allow me a moment to recap.

In the last episode, James and I were reunited with Cara and the Hunter, agreed to take down a necromantic warcaster/jack marshall - we're not sure which - and everyone but I found evidence of necromancy or at least a serial killer in the city of Southshield. And I'm sure I'm missing something...

Oh, right - James died.

Well, maybe he didn't, but his player decided that he wanted a more combat oriented character anyway, so he's either in a coma or a grave. Likewise, a new member joined the group, who'll not be able to make every session, but ought to be stopping by occasionally, so here's an update to the party roster;

-James Mk. II; a Trollkin Fellcaller with a Caspian Battleblade... we've done 2 sessions since he joined us, and is yet to use that sword. Also yet to get a name, so I'll call him Tiny until further notice.
-And an Ogrun Man-at-Arms/Soldier with a harpoon gun... with which he has MAT 0. But, on the upside, he's big and angry, so we're happy.

Alright, so, the story of the session.

We started out the new game with Tiny already part of the group - I think he just happened upon us and decided we looked interesting, and when a Fellcaller offers to help take down a 'jack, you don't say no. So, anyway, we are about to set off on an extended walk, when Elyas brings forth his detailed knowledge of the Cygnaran army's inner workings, the connections between departments, and favoured tactics... to procure us a lift aboard a cargo ship. Say what you like, halved the travel time, and I got it for free, so I'm counting it as a win... anyway, we rowed ashored around to the fishing village about noon and set off inland;  as near as I can tell following the route I'd travelled two nights ago.

After a while - longer than I'd taken, but we are lugging a labourjack with us - we reach the compound, whereupon we are greeted by a heavily-armoured Ogrun. Turns out, he's a freelancer in the Third Army, and the general sent him to investigate the Necromancer. Since it makes more sense than competing for the prize - and mostly cos we're all a bit wary of this Talon we'll be facing - we agree to team up on this contract.

The hole it made when fleeing the mercenaries was in the eastern wall, so it wasn't that hard to guess which way it went... almost as easy as it is following a huge steel war machine through a soft-floored forest. Really, it was just too easy, so obviously we're attacked part way along by a giant moose. According the the lore file on it, they're meant to have been extinct for centuries... Well, there's now no proof to the contrary anymore - not after Tiny decided that what he really wanted was a skull collection.

So, moving on - now attempting to transporting a moose head the size of a baby elephant and a 'jack -we eventually near the outer edge of the forest. Looking east, we see a few scattered trees, a large hill, and atop it a stationary warjack... and by stationary, I just mean it isn't moving at the moment; we can see weirdly tinted smoke coming from it's exhausts. Next to it, is a robed body lying down - the necromancer from before, obviously.

So, I do what I consider the smart thing - knowing that the jack will be less effective without a marshall, I climb up a tree, set up my bipod, and fire on the reclined form, firstly shattering the body, then blasting the remains of it from the hilltop... which, it turns out, amounts only to alerting the 'jack to our presence.

Yes, it seems that the Necromancer's research was a tad more advanced than we'd thought... well, I'd thought anyway - Cara probably knew the truth - and he was quite firmly ensconced within the cortex of the beast. So, much to the consternation of Cara, we had to scrap it. With a chilling moan, the soulfires in it's boiler went out, and the Necromancer was banished... or so the GM told us.

Now when I said we had to scrap it, I meant that - last thing to give was the cortex, so it was literally a wreck... Probably worth more as scrap than as a warjack, but we had another jack capable of carrying it, and a mechanic who thought she could repair it, so no matter! Onwards we go - to collect the money we'll inevitably use to repair it.

So, it takes us a few hours to return to the village, and half a day after that to reach Southshield... from which we can see a column of fleeing refugees. Now, this is just a little strange - it's a well defended city far away from any border - barring the Scharde Isles, and they much prefer lightly defended hamlets. A bit wary now, we advance, leaving the ruined talon at the gates, into a horde of Hollowed.

For those of you unware, Hollowed are Zombies; a cross between standard and I Am Legend... They're people who have died of starvation and returned with an endless hunger for fresh meat. Normally, they shamble around aimlessly, occasionally moaning; but when they notice prey they become very crafty; they sneak up on them, or sometimes move past them and play dead further down the road, so that when the traveller begins to investigate, they can jump up and devour them... and, of course, if they kill you, you become one. So, wonderful.

Anyway, there are about a dozen of them between us and the barracks, so we elect to perform an impromptu flying V towards them. I personally added virtually nothing to it, due to poor rolls, but the others managed to shred the army going against us - Tiny's Fell Call alone floored several opponents per turn.

Eventually, we make it to the barracks, where the doors are (obviously) locked. Tiny and the Ogrun are in favour of smashing it down -well, actually everyone was... it was even my idea - but after a moment's though I just about convince them to let me try to talk our way in... which, went surprisingly well. The General either liked me, or just wanted back-up, and we swiftly found ourselves in her office once more.

Aparently, some of the bodies taken to the morgue from the altar room beneath the graveyard reanimated soon after we left, and had been running amok since... now, this turns out to have been a story hook we were too dense to pick up on, but given that I spent the whole time making bullets, James died before telling me about it, and Cara & the Hunter were busy escaping Khadorans, I think we deserve some slack... anyway, after that bit of exposition - and the blame-throwing that followed - we finished for the week.