Saturday 28 September 2013

Warp Fiends CSM - Havoc squad (mk 2)


The little havoc squad I'd built as the first unit in a slaaneshi warband were, in retrospect, pretty piss poor. As far as test beds for a colour scheme went, they were ok, and I had fun making them; but as a unit they were rather ineffectual with a mix of weapon types that suited no particular role, and were quickly and badly painted and converted.

I managed to pick up some really cheap CSM reinforcements from eBay, including a set of the old metal Havoc parts consisting of an Autocannon, heavy Bolter, Lascannon and missile launcher. Now the aim is to have two havoc squads, each six strong (slaaneshe's holy number) one kitted out for anti tank with triple Lascannon and a missile launcher, and this one built for anti personnel.

An aspiring champion with a plasma pistol, a plasma gun, two heavy bolters and an Autocannon mean they should be reasonably effective against light to medium infantry with the plasma weapons enabling them to have a fighting chance against heavier stuff and light vehicles.

the aspiring champion was built from my old multimelta havoc, which was a particularly crude conversion, even by my standards, not to mention a illegal weapon choice. Instead he recieved an ornate plasma pistol from the SM commander sprue and a loyalist chainsword. The regular Bolter havoc remains pretty much unchanged, apart from a bit of extra detail and paint touch ups. The back banner is there so I can chose to run the squad with or without an icon bearer.

Plasma and Autocannon Havocs, whilst the Autocannon havoc was built stock, the plasma havoc had some minor conversion work, I had had the old plasma gun / cannon knocking around in my bits box for years waiting for a suitable recipient, I've no idea what's it's from (it's lead) but I'm quite pleased with the end result. Some very crude green stuffed tentacles and a skull helmet make him look quite menacing IMHO.


Lastly are the two heavy Bolter Havocs, one is just a standard heavy Bolter mini, whilst the second (seen in earlier post) has some necromunda orlock bit thrown into the mix.
Throughout the squad I've tried to mix in some regular space marine parts, arms backpacks etc to try and add a variety and make the chaos dudes look less uniform in appearance.

The second squad is now half finished, so more updates soon....

Heavy Support - Havoc squad.
x6 Havocs (88)
Mark of Slaanesh (12)
Plasma pistol (15)
x2 Heavy Bolters (20)
Autocannon (10)
Plasma gun (15)
Icon of excess (30)
Total - 190pts

Saturday 7 September 2013

The Inquisition - Ordo Malleus Inquisitor



Here is the inquisitor for my small warband of daemon hunting ordo malleus. To be honest I didn't have a great deal of enthusiasm for the task and I think this is quite evident in the paint job.
It's always dangerous ground when I feel I'm painting (finishing) because I should, rather than because I want to.

I haven't had a lot of inspiration for painting the last couple of months, but I'm feeling the need to press on with the warp fiends CSM now my disappointment in the new codex and minis has subsided somewhat, so hopefully one way or the other I'll get enough done to post more than one shoddy character a month, which has been my total output for the past couple.

Saturday 3 August 2013

Badab war - Astral Claws Tyrants Legion Arch Centurion




Although ive already painted a centurion as the HQ choice for my tyrants legion forces, I fancied making a second, more ornate mini to act as my warlord. Regular reader might remember seeing the body for this on one of my WIP posts a while back.



He's a simple kitbash utilising a metal master of the watch body, with a backpack and auspex hand from the plastic devestator kit and a forgeworld mk4 maximus command head. I mounted him on a 40mm base to give him a bit of height and presence over his minions.



Unlike my first centurion, whos a 'get stuck in and split some wigs' kind of guy, I imagine this centurion as an aloof commander, watching from a vantage point and coordinating/directing the auxillia forces and artillery from afar.

Friday 19 July 2013

More Inq28 - Libricar goons.

I felt my little libricar posse could do with a couple of members who could be classified as disposable pawns.
After a bit of digging around in the bits box I came up with these two chaps
Barba Sog, licenced bounty killer, and a 'Macharian cult' vigilante martyr.

Barba Sog is basically just a kitbashed imperial guardsman, I added a few cables to his head and to the scopes to make it look like he has a direct feed from his longlas to his optic augmetics. The loincloth is from the space marine company champion. I think the throwing knives are a skaven bit, and the top hat tucked into his belt was recycled from the malifaux mercenary I used for Chastiner Jodel.


Next up is a fanatic archetype, armed with a sickle, several hand grenades, and a pair of saintly golden masks.
The body is a brettonnian peasant bowman, the head is a chimera drivers with part of an iron halo added, both masks were made from slicing the faces off a pair of unfortunate dark eldar. His sickle arm is from an old plastic lizarsman. I might go back and replace the hand holding a frag grenade as it looks far too small and vestigial in comparison.
I also chopped off the pointy peasant shoes and swapped them for a pair of guard issue boots, both to add a little height and change the general posing. I think the bovver boots also help grimdark him up a bit.


Both of these are pretty 'quick and dirty' kitbashes to pad out the warband, after all you cant send the boss out on every recce or whack-job.

Needless to say, Having heard the inquisimunda flavoured rumours popping up on faeit 212 the last couple of days, my breath is well and truly baited!

Sunday 23 June 2013

INQ28 Sanctioned Regulator Obediah Jodel painted.

Its been nearly a month since I last posted to the blog, moving house and redecorating have kept me far too busy of late, but I have found time to paint up Obediah Jodel, the sanctioned regulator for my Libricar radical warband, along with his little posse of familiars.



Here is the man himself.



His 'dog', Dhogg.



Servo skull with autopistol



Servo skull with web pistol



And lastly the hunter skull with bio scanner auspex.



Group shot of the libricar warband so far.



Monday 27 May 2013

Help Needed!

So for as long as I can remember ive been using a couple of pots of citadel black ink that ive had for what must be nearly a decade now.



Unfortunately after much use, inevitably time has taken its toll and my beloved black inks have separated into gloop and pigment.

No bother, off I went to buy a replacement, only to find out its no longer available.

A new (to me anyways) product - citadel shade 'nuln oil' was what I went home with.



Turns out I hate it, prehaps im rather stuck in my painting ways but I just cant get on with the stuff!
I had the same opinion about 'leadbelcher' vs the old boltgun metal and my pot of auric armour gold went in the bin a while back as is was such a thin runny separating mess.

Is it just me or are alot of these gw paints just not as good as they used to be?

So I thought id put out a little appeal out to the interweb....

What products (if any) are the closest thing to ye olde black ink?

Any help much appreciated!!!

Thursday 23 May 2013

WIP INQ28 Sanctioned Regulator.

A little build diary of my WIP sanctioned regulator. A wasteland / underhive style lawman.

I started off with an idea in my head after seeing the Wyrd miniatures Malifaux male desperate mercenary that I could make a cool conversion, here he is is standard form....



I had heard that malifaux wasnt generally compatable with 40k due to the heroic 32mm being too big, but I thought id give it a blind punt anyway.

I'll admit I was a little put off when the model arrived, here's a scale comparison with the frateris militiaman that I've half given up on.


After a little cutting and chopping and adding a couple of the key parts I was a bit happier that this could be made to work. The head and hand are both from a bretonnian peasent bowman. The lumpen snarling, half obscured face and come hither gesture really work for me considering how out of context the bits are.


I added a respirator fed from a backpack and some seals to tie him in a little with his master Kadarski, a theme I'll continue with his paint scheme.

His main weapon is his trusty autogun held in a nonchalant manner by the same bretonian peasant's Bow hand.

With all the main bits on hes starting to look like quite a mean mutha!

Next up a scale comparison with a pair of cadian guardsmen, I dont think it looks too bad... he'll just have to be a very tall bloke.... void born? Low gravity world? In 40k the options are so varied I dont think its a proportionaly unworkable proposition.

Here is his 'dog' (counts as a cyber-mastiff) out of the depths of my bits box and from a time when squigs had fur and mohicans!

Both based up and nearly ready for paint... Looking at these pictures I noticed the spent cartridge cases were far too long and needed trimming down quite a bit.

Next shot is before trimming.

Here is after... probably still a bit long, but a little more in keeping with the size of the autogun's magazine.


I also added a chunky winged skull belt buckle, just to give him another 'obvious' 40k Reference and added a greenstuff tail to the back of his nasal bandanda...




The lastest batch of black cat bases I had bought were absolutely covered in skulls, im all for the odd skull here and there but didnt really fancy them all with skulls on so it was the perfect opportunity to convert up a trio of servo skulls to accompany my Regulator. This chap has a bubble round one eye socket that gives it a bit of a cybernetic look so he'll be the first candidate.



Here he is almost finished, the malifaux mercenaries pistol, a boltgun and some cadian binoculars sacrificed themselves to make the autopistol and propulsion.


Next up is a servo skull with a web pistol, I used a couple of flamers, part of a chimeras multilaser and a space marine boltgun scope to cobble together the webber. The cabling is also from a cadian flamer.


Lastly is a hunter skull, just a skull with a camera from the side of an old IG stormtrooper backpack stuck on the side, not sure where the tendril is from, it was just floating around in my bits box.


So here they all are together and ready for undercoating.


Im really looking forward to getting some paint on this lot, as well as daydreaming up some background and I'll update with my progress...

Tuesday 21 May 2013

INQ28 Interrogator Larson Kadarski.

Here is the statistics and backstory for the leader of my Inq28 warband seen in my earlier post.
Apologies in advance for my poor spelling, punctuation and grammer, as well as my sloppy sentance structure!

All artwork is the property of games workshop /its respective owners and is used without permission.


Interrogator Larson Kadarski.

Ordo Hereticus.

Libricar.



Equipment

Gharuu'an lifeguard Gauntlet... Power fist with built in inferno pistol (cannot be reloaded in game / firing is a risky action)

rebreather that contains a microbead and an inbuilt inhaler with two doses of de-tox.

guard issue laspistol and one spare cell

set of knuckle dusters  (more for interrogations than combat)

mesh armour on torso.

migraine medicine (see below)

Statistics

Weapon Skill - 54
Ballistic Skill - 59
Strength - 39
Toughness - 47
Initiative - 56
Willpower - 72
Sagacity - 69
Nerve - 78
Leadership -80

Speed - 4

Right handed.

Age - 53 standard terran years.

Skills and handicaps

True Grit.

Leader.

Word of the Emperor.

Serious head injury = average bionic brain, should Kadarski suffer a brain glitch (crippling migraine) he has the option to spend an action taking a dose of his medicine, a nerve test is required, if the test is passed the glitch is removed and Kadarski gains d6 toughness (painkiller effect) and loses d10 sagecity and ballistic skill. If the nerve test is failed, Kadarski must roll on the hallucinogen table as the medicines powerful side effects take hold.

Character basics

Larson Kadarski is loose cannon on a mission of revenge against the murderers of his mentor.A former Military man with a stunchly amalathien mentor in the inquisition, Kadarski would under normal circumstances be considered a Puritan, but the events that have shaped his history have twisted and embittered him into (somewhat unwittingly) a proponent of the Radical Libricar faction. Reverent of the ancient and holy institutions of the imperium, but fuelled by disdain and hatred for the corrupt men that walk its hallowed halls.

Kadarski is driven, diciplined. All his investigations are defined by meticulous organisation, planning and inception, a benefit of his military experience,  but this can also make him inflexible and liable to be thrown by sudden reversals.

All throughout his life, Kadarski has been defined by both his loyalty and naivety.  Both were shattered by his experiences, and morally, he was cast adrift. His previously staunch amalathien  mindset has been thrown into upheaval by some dark home truths about the imperium,  the more he discovers, the less he likes, only now, wielding more power and influence than ever before, and with the prying eyes of his masters in the conclave far away. Is he beginning to understand everything he was taught and held dear from childhood is a lie.

Kadarski was once a fit fighting man. But numerous injuries he was lucky to survive have left their mark. He is in almost constant pain, supressed with a mixture of discipline, will and a potent cocktail of painkillers.
He suffers agonising headaches, struggles for breath when exerted or anxious, and walks with a pronounced limp.
Although he takes great pains to disguise the extent of his injuries, in game terms anything more than the most basic of running, jumping or climbing is beyond him.

Although Kadarski leaves the intelligence gathering to his minions, his Paranoia and Commissar background means he prefers to lead from the front whenever possible. In a confrontation his methods are brutal, ruthless and rarely subtle, a fact reflected in his main armament, the sole surving piece of a suit belonging to his former master.mainly used to intimidate, but capable of devastating effect at close range.

Interrogator Larson Kadarski backstory

Interrogator Larson Kadarsi is a former Commissar, raised as as orphan by the Schola Prognium as a zealous and hard line proponent of the imperial creed. In service to the Emperor he showed himself to be a dedicated, principled officer, with a talent for planning operations characterised by a meticulous attention to detail. although prehaps it could be said that he lacked some of the bombast and theatrical flamboyance possessed by the truly great political officers.

As Commissar, he helped guide the Vasilian 482nd to a series of impressive victories in their part in the Carrion worlds campaign against the naescent Tau empire that saw their regimental banner sent for display in the great Bastilica of the Blinded Martyr on Theunis Alpha-six.



All this was to change however when he was seriously wounded in a sep't pathfinder ambush on the jungle backwater of Krebus's Folly. Hit in the chest by a tau pulse round, Kadarski's life was only saved by the urgent administrations of the regiments corpsmen, medicae staff and surgical team. and the bonded carapace breastplate he wore.

Months of painfull therapy and rehabilitation treatments followed, and at the end of it, Kadarski was dismayed to find, no matter how dilligently he trained, his injuries prevented him from reaching the level of fitness required for a front line Commissar.

On release from convelecance, Kadarski found himself transferred to an administrative desk job on the staging post world of Lacrasanii. He took to his role with little enthusiam for his new campaign of files, ledgers and endless statistics, but his customary diligence and hard work remained undiminished.

It was this meticulous attention to detail that led him to uncover a cell of Chaos worshippers hidden within his superiors, the cultists were apprehended and a dozen heretics put to the pyre, but not before the only true friend Kadarski had made on his posting, Commissar Wynstan Coronis, died at their hands. Wynstans death weighed heavily on Kadarski's concience, for it was quite possible Coronis might have lived, had Kadarski not been so eager for the pair to confront the traitors themselves.

Worse was yet to come, Embarrassed by the discovery of heretic forces nestling at the very heart of the organisation created to combat traitors and recidivists in the emperors armies. Kadarskis superiors in the Commissarart general had him quietly sidelinded to a post as commissar of the PDF on the backwater colony World of Ursa.

Although kadarski took solace in the thought that at least he would be back in the field, with a real soldiers duties to attend to, and a part of him relished the challenge of whipping a rabble of feckless farmhands into a fighting force, there was no mistaking that this was a dead end posting with no chances of promotion or advancement for the ambitious and driven political officer.

Kadarskis faith in the Imperial machine had been shocked by his encounter with the traitors within. and his unshakable faith in the justness of authority had been shaken to the core by his realisation that not all those who acted in the emperors name acted in his best interests.

Kadarski threw himself into his new posting with almost fanatical devotion, determined that no matter his growing sense of unease at the true nature of imperial authority, he would carry out his duties at this blighted hardscrabble sinkhole to the best of his abilities. 

The sloppy, inefficient militia units were reorganised and retrained in Kadarskis usual well planned and executed manner. He was often heard to comment to the senior officers that if they were to be half as well equipped as they should be, that they should be at least twice as well trained.

Kadarskis newly reborn planetary defense force would be put to the test, and found wanting, when two years later the colony was subjected to a series of vicious raids by a cabel of the dark eldar. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands taken prisoner and the militia, lacking heavy weapons, artillery or armour, were butchered by the rapacious aliens as  they fought heroically to protect their fellow citizens.



Kadarski was again grieviously wounded leading a brave but futile defence of the central farming collectives main meeting hall and the civilians hiding within. bested in close combat and left for dead during a brutal melee on the steps, Kadarski suffered multiple lacerations, sliced tendons in both his legs and almost bled to death before being dragged to safety by a brave civilian survivor.

Their lust for captives and sport sated, the Xenos withdrew as quickly as they had arrived, and Commissar Kadarski was left to dwell on the bitter ashes of both the colony and his career from a hospital bed.Kadarski took the colony massacre badly, he felt he had been personally responsible for the safety of the colonists, and had failed in his duty to the god emperor. 

The largest proportion of the blame however, he apportioned to his superiors in sector command who had repeatedly refused his requests for the support weapons and anti aircraft munitons that might have saved them from their sacking at the hands of the xenos filth.

As he grew increasingly bitter and resentfull of authority, and the corruption  and inefficiency he percived within it,  a small delegation arrived in the ruins of Ursa's only starport in an unmarked lighter. its arrival going almost unnoticed in the miasma of melancoly and self pity.

It was around this time that Kadarski first encountered  Inquisitor Hadri Bhutros Van Lisarrd, a venerable and scholarly inquisitor of amalathien leanings, who's past exploits were matched only by the parlous state of his current condition.

It had been a long, hard life in pursuit of the heretic, mutant, alien and daemon that had taken a toll that would have killed lesser men many times over, and no amount of juve-Nat work, gene-transfusion therapy or sheer bloody mindedness could disguise the fact that after nearly three and a half centuries, Van Lisarrd's most powerful weapon, his mind, had succumbed to senility and dementia.

The matter had lurked unseen for many years, Van Lisarrds interrogator, Lupis, had great admiration for his elderly master and had contrived to hide the true state of affairs for as long as possible to preserve the great and storied reputation of his failing mentor.

A capable and experienced Ordos agent, Lupis and his explicitors were able to run his operation competently enough not to alert outside suspicion, and any internal dissent was mercilessly quashed by Van Lisarrd's charismatic right hand man.

Matters came to head however, five years before the Ursa raid, when Lupis was unmasked and executed unexpectedly in the midst of what had seemed like the routine infiltration of a smuggler base in the Zenbir asteroid belt.  Without his leadership and influence over Van Lisarrd, the operation disintegrated in an almost farcical manner and the team were routed with heavy casualties, barely escaping the criminals grasp.

In a fit of uncharacteristic rage at the death of His most favoured acolyte and heir apparent. van Lisarrd ordered the annihilation of the Zenbir stronghold with a thermonuclear torpedo.  Utterly destroying both the base, and any hope of the long term infiltration and associated benefits that the conclave lusted for.

Van Lisarrd and his surviving followers were immediately recalled under a cloud of disgrace to face investigation by the conclave, under the burning gaze of the council the reasons behind the disaster at Zenbir quickly became apparent, the remaining acolytes unable or unwilling to maintain the facade of Van Lisarrds competence.The situation left the council in quandary, liquidation was considered unseemly by all but the most radical amongst the council, and when called before them Van Lisarrd refused to contemplate the idea of retirement or a post at one of the Inquisitorial scholams.

It is said that he gave great account of himself in front of this jury of his peers, appearing to gather his remaining faculties in order to to cling on to his honour and position. 

He spoke at length of his long and previously impeccable career and service to the Ordos, imperium and god emperor.  When accusations of incompetence were brought against him by the fiery monodominant  Gurol, he responded with an eloquent denouncement of Gurol's methods, specifically his brutal pogroms in the Tugan secession and his hypocrisy in the suggestion Van Lisarrd had used excessive force.

To Lord Urqhart who spoke of the folly of hubris and pride , Van Lisarrd replied by reminding the ancient lord of his own longstanding feud with the daemonic entity Zilmaghorithh and the eight imperial guard regiments that had been lost to the most hellish fate in the ill-fated planetary invasion of Zil-Zilmaghorithh secondus.

After much discussion and heated argument a verdict was reached, Van Lisarrd would be formally reprimanded and relegated to trivial affairs that could not endanger any of the wider ambitions the conclave might have.Although Van Lisarrd was in denial about his condition, the Zenbir disaster, and the menial nature of his future role in the Ordos, he was an exceptionally intelligent man, and it is doubtless a small part of him understood and was secretly relieved the council had not had him quietly murdered for the priceless library of books and collection of artefacts he had acquired during his life in the inquisition.

Most of Van Lisarrds more capable operatives had given their lives to ensure his escape at Zenbir, and the dozen or so staff he employed to maintain his rarely visited private residence on Santana notwithstanding, his entourage was reduced to a mere handful of loyal hangers on, most notably his barbarian manservant cum bodyguard Umbril, the ancient and shrivelled scribe Estius, and the eccentric archeo-ologist and one time here-tek Quandus Eutherateus.

Several years of diverting but ultimately useless tasks followed. Van Lisarrds condition seemed to have stabilised somewhat through treatment, with no marked degeneration, but it seemed he had become resigned to his lot, now simply seeking to find solace in his library and memoirs.

He was assigned to debrief the key survivors of the Ursa massacre, and arrived alongside a small security detachment who's role it was to gather any xenos technology left upon the battlefield before it was traded away to unscrupulous rogue traders or destroyed by the shell shoked peasents in a fit of pious rage.

One of the survivors Van Lisarrd interviewed in detail was Commissar Kadarski, the Inquisitor had full access to kadarskis record, and the incident with the cultists on lacrasanii, and Kadarskis subsequent  banishment appalled The elderly inquisitors enfeebled and sentimental amalathien nature.To Van Lisarrd, Kadarski was a survivor who refused to give in, a brave, loyal servant of the throne who had been mistreated by lesser men and their inadequacies.

The bitter and agonisingly bedbound Kadarski was also appalled, but for different reasons, when he had been informed of his interrogation, Kadarski had qualed at the thought of the infamous inquisition getting its hand on him, but here was this foolish old man, arcane secrets and confidential information slipping out in unguarded anecdotes and rambling tales.

To The crippled Commissar Van Lisarrd was another example of everything that was wrong with the authoritarian system of the imperium, the immense power and responsibility of an inquisitor, and the huge capacity to do good for the emperor and his people had been invested in this senile and doddery old man, who should have been relieved of his duties long ago for the good of those he was meant to protect.

Kadarski saw an opportunity, he had nurtured a friendship of sorts with the strange and lonesome old inquisitor, who seemed to delight in recounting his past exploits to the bedridden young pup.The idea that was forming in Kadarski's mind, to join the inquisition, appealed greatly, Kadarski saw it as a means to redeem himself for his failures, and dissaffected by the buerocracy and corruption he saw all around, the apparent pure and holy nature of the Ordos work spoke to his heart.

A trained propagandist and political officer schooled to maniplulate the hearts and minds of soldiers, the canny commissar was easily able to plant the seed of recruitment in the ailing inquisitors brain.

Although on a personal level he liked the inquisitor, Kadarski still felt Van Lisarrd was unfit for duty, and with the prospect of him being relieved by his (to kadarskis mind) foolish and incompetent superiors apparently unlikely, the morally correct thing to do was to to manipulate the inquisitor into a power for good, here was Larson Kadarskis chance to grasp his destiny as a just and true servant of the throne, and to escape from the bitter ashes of defeat and betrayal by petty, jealous, lesser men.

Two days before the Inquisitorial delegation concluded their investigation. Official records state that Commissar Larson Kadarski died of cardiac arrest under sedation during a routine operation to reconstruct his lower left leg. He was cremated and his ashes interred in a Ursal oak reliquary in the capitals military shrine.

As acolyte, and later interrogator, Kadarski reinvigorated Van Lisarrd's operations with his drive, determination and attention to detail. A seemingly routine mission to screen the 15th Culwan armoured, recently returned from the carrion worlds campaigns, turned up a seditious web of conspirators and would be turncoats that stretched across an entire army group, thanks to Kadarski's expert knowledge of the tau and their insidious propaganda.

A seemingly trivial debrief of a swindled rogue trader led to A seven year undercover operation in hive Joh on Johus 5, which saw the group deep undercover as traders in contraband weaponry and led to the execution of the entire ruling line of clan Hhal.

Kadarski and Van Lisarrds final adventure together would be the series of linked investigation on the shrine world of Nathan's luck lasting another five standard years, which saw them dismantle a number of disparate slaaneshi cults that somehow had all sprung up separately yet simultainiously.

At the conclusion of the investigation, after the last cultists had been siezed by the arbites. the grand Vizaar of hive Gharuu feted inquisitor Van Lisarrd with a celebratory feast at which he was presented with with a Gharuian lifeguard suit as a symbol of his protection over the hive and they're debt of honour,The Grand Vizaars lifeguards were genetically augmented killers, each equipped with a armoured body suit of arcane construction very similar in type to the rigs worn by the infamous Orrus spire hunters of necromunda.For the ambitious interrogator and his mentor.

The only sour note amidst the celebration and adulation was the single thread that had linked the different bands of heretics, a name, and not just any name, Leopoldo Armatusea, a powerful and shadowy figure in the Ordo Hereticus. The bald fact was that Armatusea's name was important to each of the cults, but for reasons unknown and best left unspeculated.

Leaving Nathan's luck, Van Lisarrds team travelled to santanii, Van Lisarrd wishing to visit his personal library prior to being debriefed by the conclave for reasons he would not be drawn on.Van Lisarrds residence was an impressive five story townhouse on the grand avenue of imperial victory in lednester, the planetary and subsector capital, within ten square kilometres lay both the Grand Basilica and the Arbites hall of justice. Besides the governors palace, and the secret inquisition bastion on its third moon, the district was probably the most heavily monitored area in the subsector.

Less than six hours after arriving at the residence, as Van Lisarrd pored over his library and the rest of the team relaxed in unaccustomed luxury, the building came under assault by a platoon sized force of assailants armed with heavy weapons, encrypted cox systems, and military standard body armour who managed to both enter and again leave the area without being detected by any of the districts many security apparatus.In less than four minutes the unknown attackers had gained access, put most of the household staff to the sword and had executed Van Lisarrd in his library before torching it.

All this Kadarski found out from yet again a infirmary cot, he had suffered a critical head injury from an explosive blast, most likely a shoulder fired grenade used in the initial assault and had been in a coma for several weeks.

Increasingly paranoid, insular and suffering from crippling migraines as a result of his latest wound, Kadarski discharged himself from care to present himself before the conclave and passionately request he be advanced to full inquisitor and allowed to avenge his mentor, whilst at the same time withholding any mention of the Armatusea connection from his superiors out of mounting paranoia at the motives and hidden agendas of his superiors.

Thinking little of this arrogant upstart, who they were well aware had taken advantage to van Lisarrd to Insinuate himself within the Ordos, but outraged (or acting the part convincingly) at the death of their comrade in broad daylight, and besieged by demand for action and cooperative investigation from the subsector governors office, the council refused Kadarskis advancement, and instead issued him with an Inquisitorial mandate of detached duty and a special remit to take control of the tattered remains of Van Lisarrds group and investigate the assassination to its conclusion, with authorisation to use all of Van lisarrds accounts, connections and networks in this task. with the carrot of a promotion to full inquistor should he solve the case dangled before him.

They could also use him as a dumping ground for the constant attentions of the subsector governors office and their ridiculous insistence on being involved in any follow up so that they could look into matters Undisturbed by feckless noble born politiciations.

Gathering the shocked survivors of the manse assault, and accompanied by an investigative delegation from the subsector governors office, Kadarski was able to arrange passage for the group back to Nathan's luck with the same pilgrim ferrying system barge that had delivered them, still in orbit awaiting its next cargo of pious travellers. 

Kadarski felt he would receive much support and safe sanctuary from the Grand Vizaar of Hive Gharuu, who owed the survival of his title, hive and world to the interrogator and his former master. The trail of evidence had long gone cold during his time in a coma, and Kadarski was sure the assault was linked to the crushing of the heretics they had uncovered.

Kadarski also wished to attempt the recruitment of a contact he had cultivated during the previous operation, a hard bitten killer of a Sanctioned Regulator.

Secreted away in a nondescript warehouse in an industrial dome mid-hive, Kadarski began to go over every possible shred of evidence in his usual meticulous manner. His team spreading through the hives and the wastes beyond, investigating the smallest leads, gathering speculation and rumour, husbanding weapons and supplies.Sooner or later, Kadarski would find something.....  Anything.....