So I've been planning this campaign since the legacy event at last years LGT. But just haven't had time due to getting married last summer.
So I seem to have a bit more time lately, so hopefully this can take place sometime in the new year.
Iconoclast Destroyer Poison Moon
Somewhere in interstallar space approximately 1/2 lightyear from Illythia
Isabella von Ravensburg sat in the throne like chair on the observation deck of the Iconoclast class destroyer Poison Moon brooding about the recent events that had taken place on Illythia. Nothing had gone according to plan, she had always known the opening of the portal was always going to be a long shot and one she wouldn't have risked if her plans had gone better, however the result had been far worse than she had thought possible thanks to that damned Saint. Now instead of throwing the sector even further into chaos all signs were that the accursed Imperials were going to end the civil war and restore order. The only slight silver lining was that the so called Saint had been forced to sacrifice herself to close the portal and so would no longer be able to interfere on behalf of the false God Emperor.
To make matters worse she had hardly come out of the affair unscathed. First she had been, well to put it bluntly, killed. Fortunately the phylactery she had prepared in which to store her soul just in case of such an event had worked, although as ever the price of using such sorcery was high. She was no longer as smart as she had once been, her thoughts which had once been quicksilver fast were now much more, well, mundane. She certainly wasn't stupid, but no longer did she possess the genius level intellect she had once had. That could prove to be a problem in the long run. On the other hand however she had become physically tougher and stronger than before the sorcerous restoration of her life, something which had never exactly been her strong point. Perhaps she would need to rely more on brute force rather than cunning in the future.
The changes to her body and intellect, not to mention the loss of her brother, were not the only consequences to her actions on Illythia. The extreme warp forces she had handled and manipulated while attempting to unleash hell on the planet had changed her, she could feel it, her body was mutating. Hopefully the knowledge from the Tome of Shadows would enable her to guide the changes to something useful. And that was another change, she no longer needed to open the book to use it, the information and spells within it's ancient pages was just there now, whenever she needed it. All she had to do was think about something and the relevant material would be there in her mind, it could be distracting but very useful and might compensate for her loss of intellect from the spells that had saved her life.
It had been worth it though, the feeling, the power she had held whilst in command of the portal was frankly exhilerating, she had felt like a Goddess, nothing had been impossible or so it had seemed. She would give anything to experience such power again... suddenly she stiffened her back arching in ecstasy as vast quantities of dark knowledge flooded through her brain; that might actually be possible...
Isabella came out of her trance as her daughter and disciple Katarina came onto the observation deck followed by the heretical Mechanicus Magos Tapharya.
"the activation of your brothers clone is proceeding according to schedule" said the Magos in her rasping, metallic voice. "and your disciple's mission to recover his equipment was successfully carried out."
Isabella looked at Katarina who nodded in agreement.
"we were able to recover his armour and sword from the Arbites storage vault without too much trouble." Said Katarina, "unfortunately there was no way to conceal our raid, they will almost certainly suspect our involvement and that you are still alive."
"very well." Replied Isabella as she rose from her seat, "that could not be helped. Now set course for the Dioskor system, we have many preparations to make..."
Without another word Isabella turned and strode purposefully from the chamber towards her private quarters, leaving Katarina to stare at her retreating form in amazement at the sudden change in the Sorceress from total despondency back to her former decisiveness.
Something caught the young disciple's eye, so Katarina stepped forward to the throne like chair and looked at the deck at the foot of the throne. A single word was somehow burned into the metal floor; ASCENSION.
We will need to decide on venue.
Couple of possibilities in the north of England. I could try and book a few tables at Element games or I could probably get the use of the Scout Hut where I'm a leader.
Otherwise we could use a London venue such as one of darksphere stores.
Ooooh... very nice. I look forward to event that I'm not running for a change!
As far as venue, I tried out Element Games this summer - I definitely mean to run something there myself at some point, but personal circumstances have delayed those plans.
They've got an excellent terrain selection, and the fact I could go back and swap stuff off the shelves was great for Inquisitor; it's one of the few venues that's given me the capacity to swap from a city market one game to a graveyard the next.
It's also reasonably accessible from the London area; Stockport station is a major hub where expresses stop on the way into Manchester, so I can actually make it there in about the same time as I would WHW.
I'll also speak well of Dark Sphere's Shepherd's Bush Megastore; their Lambeth store was okay, but the Shepherd's Bush store does have the benefit of better on-site food (avec un supermarché dans le centre commercial c'est dedans) and without the entire overground rail traffic of London Waterloo rumbling overhead.
(The fact that I can get a direct train connection from my home town to within two hundred metres of Dark Sphere, meaning I don't have to get up nearly so early... that factor is merely coincidental in my interest).
I'll also add that WHW seem to have, last I heard, started to accept table bookings again.
Ultimately though, I'd say it's going to be entirely about availability. It's possible that people like Heroka or RobSkib might be able to make it to Manchester, but then I know we've got a number of interested people in the London area who are hoping for something to be put on.
I can put it out on the Facebook page, if you would like. (Traffic on the forum is a little slow, so FB seems to be the most convenient way for most people to get notifications. I'm reluctant to send around e-mails, as I've not actually sorted the forum's GDPR policy yet...).
Location Location Location
Also dates and times, obviously.
I'm guessing I'll need to bring Samantha, given that she was involved in the events previous to this, so there's that (I won't need to prep any new minis, which is a blessing as I've already got one set of painting projects on the go as it is).
Obviously I'd prefer a more southern venue due to now living south of london, but WHW would be workable also - other spots are tentative, and dependant on expected start and end times for me to figure out how to correctly travel to and from the event. Plus whatever calendar events might or might not hop in the way.
London is looking like the best option in many respects.
WHW is better for me obviously as I don't need to make a weekend of it and is kind of central, although I would be concerned about how many of my main characters won't be GW stock. I know they've never bothered in the past, but it would be a concern (and one that is non-existent elsewhere).
To some extent it would depend on who is interested, although I would like Jomar and co. around to finish off their grudge match.
Date wise, I had originally aimed this for December, but time has seemed to fly past and we're already at the end of October. So I'm looking at dates in January or February (unless people really want an event before Christmas).
Stockport would be awesome for me as can get there with reasonable ease. London is just too far for me to get too really but understandable that could be there.
Love to be able to get playing again as still have all my teams.
Quote from: Xenoserum on October 21, 2019, 05:01:50 PM
Stockport would be awesome for me as can get there with reasonable ease. London is just too far for me to get too really but understandable that could be there.
Love to be able to get playing again as still have all my teams.
Whereabouts do you live?
Good point about WHW and possible issues with non-GW minis - which brings up my alteration to my warband from my non-GW fast assassin to my slightly slower GW Barbaretta based cop character. I think she's painted, so still a non-issue, thank goodness.
But with parents near WHW (within an hour's drive), I can easily borrow a bed if that side of things turns out to be a better shout.
I'd be happy with pretty much any of the above - given notice, I can get there.
Personally I also favour Dark Sphere though, because it's three or four hours closer to me and I pass there anyway.
Edite: Also, could someone refresh me on the events of The Saint?
Was that the LGT shenanigans?
Yes that was the LGT which was a follow on from an even older event.
Mcjomar has a good battle report tgat covers most of it: http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2826.0
Quote from: Cortez on October 21, 2019, 06:52:42 PM
Yes that was the LGT which was a follow on from an even older event.
The Saint was the older event (back in 2011); Legacy was the LGT.
~~~~~
The overall background is the Ilithyian war, an extended conflict that was a bulwark against the forces of Chaos from the fallen Alkyia sector.
"The Saint" was the first event based around this conflict, where characters were asked to judge the worthiness of a potential living Saint, Corporal Aderyn Aeslin, who had miraculously returned to life after single handedly defending a key flank in the battle.
She was being thought of as a possible end to the war, but the event ended with Aderyn apparently being killed by a sabotaged orbital weapons satellite, causing a short but bloody civil war between believers and non-believers.
We returned there with "Legacy". By this point, High Cardinal Tobias Keidrow had managed to craft a fragile peace, having officially declared Aderyn a martyr. The religious fervour was enough that the Ilithyian conflict was starting to sway heavily in the Imperium's favour, raising the question of whether it would be possible to launch a retaliatory crusade.
By the middle of the event, it was revealed that Aderyn was still alive; she survived the orbital strike, but certain Inquisitors had taken the choice to hide her amongst the Adepta Sororitas, fearing that revealing her to be alive could destabilise the peace.
However, as *someone* had killed the High Cardinal in a suicide attack, the Inquisition decided that she needed to return as a figurehead; they started the arrangements for that, but that quickly got derailed by the immediate threat of the forces of Chaos establishing a warp portal (which could have significantly bolstered the dwindling Chaos forces).
Aderyn was again (apparently) killed in the attempt to stop Isabella taking control of that portal. (Given that Isabella had got so painfully close to succeeding, I figured there needed to be some significant payoff from it!)
Aderyn's involvement was never particularly widely known, but thanks to it, the Imperium did eventually purge Ilithyia of all but token Chaos resistance, and are now building up their forces for a crusade.
Quote from: MarcoSkoll on October 21, 2019, 07:11:33 PM
However, as *someone* had killed the High Cardinal in a suicide attack...
Aderyn was again (apparently) killed in the attempt to stop Isabella taking control of that portal. (Given that Isabella had got so painfully close to succeeding, I figured there needed to be some significant payoff from it!)
Oops.
I do remember.
I have a handful of folks I can add to the 'band' from that day, who can easily do double service as hoity toity civilians or industrial scrubs.
So we're saying that Samantha is going to be entering a target rich environment?
What are peoples thoughts on using the revised edition rules? Or should we just stick with the standard rules?
Well, personally, I'd love to get to use IRE more, but the opinion of the main author isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
It is somewhat optional, of course; I endeavoured to keep IRE character sheets (mostly) back-compatible with 1st edition, in order that characters could be used in either without problems.
I'd be willing to try it, but it would be my first encounter with the updated rules.
Hello all,
I would like to get some dice out at some point, having been super busy with real life in 2019. Sometime in the new year aside from February 15th and 16th would be possible for me. My travel plans will always require time, distance and thought so wherever is fine with me!
Ruaridh
PS - feel like last time there weren't enough overtly heretical characters involved. I will rectify that with my warband choice.
Quote from: mcjomar on October 25, 2019, 08:14:46 AM
I'd be willing to try it, but it would be my first encounter with the updated rules.
So far, I've found that most people adapt to IRE quickly. Some things take a bit of time to master (when to save and use reactions, although there are some minor changes to the WIP V0.4 that should help address that*), but the basics aren't that unfamiliar.
*In V0.4, all characters are granted one free Reserved reaction per game; while I like how storing reactions leads to a dynamic where characters can be either slow and careful, or throw caution to the wind, the intention is to shift the balance a bit towards the latter. Some players do end up cautiously storing a lot of reactions when it's not entirely necessary, but letting them have that one free reaction to fall back on should help keep things moving.
The other thing is that this lets me remove the rule about characters getting one free reaction before their first turn, which was in there but was such an incredibly specific fix for a very niche (but nonetheless important) problem that I wasn't happy with it; IRE as a revision has mostly tried to remove edge and corner cases, and has built many of its new rules by generalising previously more specific rules.Actually, I'm honestly staggered how fast most people get a grasp on the new close combat system.
(That said, I'll admit that even I'm still sometimes thrown by IRE's "Price is Right" rolling, and often have to remind myself that a 02 isn't an excellent pass but a very marginal one... but while it is a bit counter-intuitive, it is massively faster to know that a pass on a 45 is a pass by 45, so it's stuck as a design decision).
So date wise Saturday the 18th/25th Jan or 1st Feb are looking good for me. Otherwise I think it would need to be the end of February.
I don't think I personally have issues with any of those dates as of yet.
Looking at Dark Sphere's calendar (if that's what we have in mind)...
- 18th Jan is a Magic Prerelease weekend; those tend to be very busy, but they're normally at their Waterloo store.
- 25th Jan has apparently got an Apocalypse event on at the Megastore. That might however still leave space.
They haven't yet got February up on their calendar, so I can't check that yet.
In either case, if you've got those in mind, I'd check early, as there may not be that much space available.
Is Isabella still ascending?
I've just lost February 1st to a Malifaux tournament, so that's out for me.
I thiiiink I can still do late January in London though - trains are a bit nightmareish out of Brighton in January, don't want to commit to somethign further afield and find I have to leave on Thursday to arrive for 09:30 on Sautrday.
But if anyone fancies some Malifaux on February 1st, pop down to the Brighton Breach (https://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/148283-brighton-breach-1st-feb/). Shop has a pizza oven that is dead good.
Yes Isabella is still planning to ascend but the portents and omens are currently unfavourable. Things might be bettter towards the end of February.
I was hoping the Vovid thing would have been over by now, but the govt still seems to be dithering and holding the lockdown button. However what are peoples thoughts on trying to get this campaign day in before Christmas?
Venue is going to be the biggest problem. I don't know where is open or what the rules and restrictions will be. One option is the scout hut where I'm a leader, the advantage of this is that we can basically set our own rules to some extent and there is no restriction on how long we run. Central Lancashire may not be the best option for some people though.
Let me know your thoughts on other possible venues and weekends when you are available.
It's difficult to say.
As much as I would love to be gaming again, I've lost friends to the pandemic - and with others in my normal social circles still suffering long term symptoms many months on (with no clear indication when or even if these symptoms will ever fully fade), I'm not of a mind to take the virus lightly, even when it comes to the small scope of our events.
If it does go ahead, for me it's going to be a question of what the risks are at the time (it's highly likely there'll be a second wave late in the year, so it may simply be a dangerous time, or entirely impossible depending on restrictions) and what measures we can have in place to minimise the risk.
(With this in mind, I really do need to write up my photogrammetry guides and see if I can organise a virtual game).