The White Forge (part 1)

Aye up Folks..

John Blanche - PDH - and myself recently played a 40k skirmish game at John's house.


PDH  narratively GM'ed the game  ( wonderfully as usual ) whilst John and Myself were the protagonists . Unfortunately due to  papa nurgles ruminations - our usual gaming bedfellow Tim ( Fulgrim from tears of isstvan couldn't join us .


I wish I could share the minutiae of the day with you all -I know there are a lot of fellow John Blanche art enthusiasts out there  that would appreciate a detailed rundown of John's lovely home/workspace  as much as I did - from the grim silver encrusted Tibetan skull to the antique weapons of war - or the tiny historical biblical parchment script and the original Miller / Boyd and Blanche paintings that decorate his Victorian bell jar miniature laden study.. let me just say most of you reading this would be as impressed as I was if you ever find yourself standing in that hallowed place..

but in its stead I will share some pictures that illustrate the narrative of the alfresco game we played  on John's wonderfully Gothic 42nd millennium board. Although the backdrop to the game was anything but grim , thanks to the talented green fingers of Mrs Blanche ( who also shared with us the finest chocolate cake Myself and PDH had ever tasted .)

The White Forge




Act 1

Blacksunsetting

Techresy / hardwar / architectonic of time / the uncountable machine / bioilogical / the literal device / The loving grace / the omnidatastar /  emotionengine / tethedrone / the haunted array / algorithmenne / the hybridking / fabricationrain / the untitled / generic machine / pavilion enth /




The argument ran counter to their logic - use the biological m a c h i n e  spirit to off-set the star degradation :  The white forge could run for another millennia if a suitable replacement  power source was found .  The Technocracy was divided - if the blacksun was to die it was the will of the omnissiah -
the radicals were vocodal in its defence -  the transonic flow  had a pneumata carbonic input : if a suitable carbon life form was harnessed in great enough numbers the data was clear - the blacksun would continue to power the white forge :

A data spike countered that the only carbonic life on the white forge was the servitorii - and although counted in the millions the ancient forgeworld needed such menials to continue to operate at capacity -
a new generation of vat grown dataslaves would take too long to breed :  

an anonymous  burst of lingua technis waved through the vox castors : what about the skaven ...

TechHeresy...techeresy ..

the tetherdrone crackled with static excitement :

 To catch a rat

A  myrmidon cohort trailing  a valvonic cathode chamber and its cult mechnanicus divinites descends to the unforged .

The cult mechnaicum flail censors and unguents of warding behind 

the ancient vacuum tube relic.

A lone corpuscarri is drawn to the baleful blue fire

 The mechanicum  servoskulls data sweep the ruined unforged area for carbonic life signs -  a flickering  Aether noise emitted from the balefire midden masks the auspex signal

crackling with aethoric vapour - 
cascading shadows are thrown from the bright  pyre,
dancing long the underforge , illuminating its spider dark corners.

 
the Augmented Secutor war priest
checks the target reticule of his shoulder mounted webber ,
overwatching the area for signs of the scavenging ratmen.

 

 Two lowly robed veneratti pursue the tesla coiled faraday bell, 
chanting litanies of protection code in archaic technis..

A Galvanic rifle toting  Skitarii ranger adjusts his bionic eyes to the balefire illumination.. 
His sensors picking up a change in the air pressure as distant monstrous forgefans drone to life.

Temporarily distracted 


The servo skulls  navigate broken conduits and venting pipes in the search for lifesigns.
Discovering  an ancient but seemingly sentient balefie gaurdian automata..
but failing to spot the burning remains of skaven  in the midst of the suttee..

 High Winds

The escalating turbines  whip up a ferrous gale,
toppling the ranger over the the low walled roof to the rusting ferrocrete floor
and scattering the Valvonic bell and its protectorate. 

The  automated archeotek  takes aim towards balefire -patiently watching and waiting..

 

The wind finally subsiding , the mechanicum cohort rallies , moving towards a central building 
where a serpentine servoskull is picking up carbonic life signs .

 

 Sensing  movement from the snooping servoskull, the spiderbot sentry
 fires a salvo of shells - peppering its target along with the ferrocrete  substructure.

upon hearing the Quadrupedal machine open fire  , the transcendent electro priest galvanises his dynamo into action.. saying a quick prayer of forgiveness he throws a powerful bolt of lighting towards the distant nemesis, which is wholly swallowed by the balefire !

 The fight escalating , the cult mechanicum move their precious life energy testing device away from stray bullets.Whilst the winded skitarii moves to assist his cohort.

Act 2

This area of the forge had proved difficult to navigate safely , the environmental dangers were ever present the howling turbine hot winds gave way to the acidic touch of fabrication rain..

the cohort pulled their antistatic robes close as the central building erupted with life.. 

Roused by the probing servo skull and then rudely awaken by a volley of
hot lead  and flying masonry from the balefire guardian A warp spawned flaying warparty
burst forth carrying the tools of their trade ,opening fire on the surprised adepta from the relative safety of a cloistered roof.

A vicious shoot out follows the discovery of the Khornate trophy collectors.
Harrowhound the leader proves his worthiness to the bloodgod by shrugging off shots that would kill a lesser man . the breaking wheel , balefire basket and cruciform man do their best with the rifles they took form the murdered skaven - but a lifetime of combat upclose has left them poor shots.

the compromised elevated view of the  mechnaicums would be attackers makes getting a clean shot on the warparty a chore.. even after several rounds of shooting and downing opponents neither side makes a kill.



 part 2 to follow