The Daemon Prince Mechinon

“Daemonic fury, bound in a sarcophagus of ceramite and adamantium, festering with pustules, rotting flesh, and pus, a demigod of the grotesque, rot, atrocity, and horror. Oh, praise he that has joined our quest. Praise the daemon prince Mechinon.”—Death Guard sorcerer Necrosius

* * *

Post Battle Report
Veteran Sergeant Betran Goyon
For the Scrutiny of Captain Galba

It is my shameful duty to report that my mission to interrupt the heretical ritual of the Death Guard has failed. This failure is mine alone to bear.

Acting upon your orders, I took my squad of marines to the coordinates provided by the Ordo Hereticus. There, amidst the white-marbled ruins of an ancient temple, rose a heretical edifice that pulsated with Warp energy.

Briefed that the Death Guard were engaged in a ritual to open a portal into the Immaterium, my hastily assembled warriors—a mix of Initiates, Neophytes, and Veteran Marines—attacked immediately. They fought with ferocity and dedication, and many gave their lives in service of the Emperor.

The battle began with a two-prong attack on the ruins, an ancient religious site of ill repute, one that was left in rubble during Dozaria’s Penitent Wars of M33.

Although the ancient temple  was little more than rubble, the ruins had been cleared of the jungle’s overgrowth, and the heretical warp-tainted portal constructed at ruins’ edge. My warriors’ orders were to fight their way through the ruins and destroy the portal with krak grenades and melta fire.

With two Neophytes on the ground (lower left), an Astartes in Terminator armor throws a grenade at a band of cultists.

The site was defended by a small squad of traitor Death Guard and a sizable contingent of cultists and heretical priests. Although the rabble was relatively easy to deal with, the diseased-warped armor of the traitor Marines proved, as always, astonishingly resilient to our weapons fire.

The fighting was brief but intense. Gunfire was at point-blank range, and my Marines engaged repeatedly in hand-to-hand combat with the traitors.

There was no sign of the cursed sorcerer Voloh Gudag, whom we assumed was the source of this heretical summoning ritual, but the Death Guard sorcerer known as Necrosius was on the scene.

For a time, the sorcerer stymied our advance with sorcery. He summoned clouds of noxious fumes that, while our blessed power armor protected our Initiates, proved highly dangerous to our less-protected Neophytes. Several promising young warriors fell to this tainted witchcraft.

In the end, we manged to close with our enemy, and several traitors fell.  I, myself, engaged a Terminator-clad warrior and struck him down.

Necrocius was seriously injured during the fighting, but his witchcraft proved too much for us. The majority of my Neophytes fell, as did our Terminator-clad Brother Cardevac and Brother Chabot, and with the traitors pressing their advantage, I realized that my entire command was in danger of destruction.

Sergeant Betran Goyon charges a powerful Death Guard traitor. In the ensuing melee, Goyon struck down the foul warrior, but his victory was not enough to win the day. His losses mounting, Goyon was forced to order a retreat.

Thus, to my shame, but with absolute conviction of the righteousness of my decision, I ordered a retreat. Brothers Cardevac and Chabot were carried out, barely alive, but our Neophytes and their precious gene-seed were lost.

The Death Guard showed no interest in pursuing us. From the slopes of a nearby hill, we observed with horror as the wounded Necrocius conducted his heretical ritual.

The stench of the Warp began to assail us as its energies formed a colorful aura around the portal (one we could not bear to look directly upon), and all electronic communications failed. We were unable to call for an aerial attack of the site.

Finally, there was a crack of thunder, and the power of the Warp dissipated almost instantly. Able to look again upon the temple site, we were horrified to see—standing at the portal’s base—a monstrosity of towering height.

It appeared to be a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought, its surface marred by all manner of rotting flesh, pustules, tentacles, and other horrid signs of Warp taint. Even from 300 meters away, we could hear the surviving crowd of heretics screaming a name: Mechinon! Mechinon! Mechinon!

+ End Report +

TheGM: Oh, my! What a horrible reverse for the Imperial defenses of Dozaria.

The gamers who played this game fought well, but the Death Guard used their psychic powers well and stymied the advance of the Knights of Altair space marines. It was a close-run fight, but the Imperials just couldn’t manage it.

(Actually, the Knights of Altair commander simply rolled incredibly poorly for his Morale Check.)

As every Shorehammer game has an impact on our campaign’s narrative story, what does the arrival of Mechinon mean? Well, it’s pretty obvious: There is a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought available to the commander of our next battle involving the Death Guard.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.