Crusade of Light & Dark
The Crusaders campaign saw factions and their Warlords coming to blows on Vordrast.
In this setting, the Fates have decided that they want to enter the Great Game, but in order to succeed they need a Champion.
They twisted Vox Comms, influenced Eldar Farsight's and manipulated fleets to ensure that Vordrast became the killing ground that would see a true Champion emerge.
Because the Fates can manipulate the threads of living beings, they were able to "reset" the lives of their participants so that the combatants could fight over and over again until a worthy victor was found.
In order for this to take place, once all the potential Champions had arrived, Vordrast was cut off from the rest of the material realm, but also not placed fully into the immaterium either, rather a halfway house unbound by time and hidden for the most part from the other Chaos Gods.
After being slain, each death was remembered and so the effect on some was profound, while on others it only served to motivate them.
“If I spin the thread of life of each warlord from my distaff onto a spindle, if I measure the thread of life allotted to each warlord with my measuring rod, if I cut the thread of life and decide the manner of each warlord’s death, then we will mould a champion worthy enough for us, the Three Fates, to enter the Pantheon’s Great Game. We will shroud a world until we require a stage for what we have woven to pass.”
During the Sabbat Crusade, Vordrast appeared to be swallowed by a warp storm and left no trace of its existence. Since then the planet has been thought lost, written off amongst the many planets of the Imperium. What was one planet and its inhabitants, amongst the countless billions of souls on the 1000’s of planets at the Imperiums disposal? They would not be missed.
“We will weave an emissary into our plan to rediscover the ‘lost’ planet and urge our champions to walk with the fates.”
No-one knows what happened to the planet during its absence but it somehow reappeared recently, as discovered by an independent trader passing through its sector. The trader took the time to pass close enough to take several scans to confirm the planet was truly real and sold the information to the highest bidder, and then the next several highest bidders too.
“We will kill all life on the planet by ending their linear existence with a single cut.”
Whatever inhabitants the world had when it disappeared apparently haven’t made the return with the planet, leaving several industrial and colonised areas eerily empty. The trader’s scans, if to be believed, show that the planet itself is rich in several minerals used throughout the Imperium and beyond, and several bands of lush vegetation give the entire surface an oxygen rich atmosphere and temperate climate. No pathogens were detected and no sentient life forms above indigenous animal level.
“We will allow each warlord to value their ignorance of what is to come, only we shall know their fate. It will be as if their burning desire to conquer the planet was their own when all along it was ours.”
Now war fleets of every creed are descending the upon the planet, each intent on seizing its resources but as the first landing parties make planet fall it becomes clear that the planets fate will either in the bright light of a prosperous future or descend into the depths of the deepest darkness.
“There can be only one worthy champion.”
If you'd like to run this campaign at your club or within your group then the mission pack and campaign rules are here: