Blackstone Fortress
The Blackstone Fortresses are seven ancient space-based super weapons said to have been forged by the Eldar smith god Vaul (or perhaps the Old Ones) to destroy the Necron star gods, the C'tan. For this reason, they are sometimes called (especially by Eldar) the Talismans of Vaul. The C'tan were basically all-powerful in the material realm, but they were extremely vulnerable to the warp, so the Blackstone Fortresses were given a massive warp cannon as their primary weapon. During the Gothic War one Fortress scoured a planet; three of them combining their beams destabilized a star, causing it to go supernova a month later and destroy the system.
According to Eldar legend, Vaul was said to be equally skilled at creating both things of beauty and tools of war. He was able to forge the souls of the departed into his creations, and during the War in Heaven, he created the Talismans of Vaul controlled by the spirits of Eldar seers killed during the war against the Necrons. At the heart of each Talisman sat one of the Eyes of the Witch gifted to Vaul by Morai-heg, allowing the departed spirits to channel vast amounts of energy straight from the Immaterium.
It seems Vaul had a particular rival in the Void Dragon, a powerful C'Tan who possessed control over material machinery. The War between the armies of Vaul and the Void Dragon raged in the heavens, but in the end, the Void Dragons dream's of conquest were halted in their tracks. Seeing the possibility of defeat growing the Void Dragon would lead it's minions directly on the battlefield. None could stand before a fully manifested god, and to ensure its powers were at its zenith it began draining the energies of a binary star, taking the form of a cloud of dark light it surrounded the stellar body leaching its energy from it until it was sated. Vaul knew the stars as well as he did his forge, so with these weapons, Vaul went to confront the Dragon, and although the outcome is unrecorded, the Dragon still lives (although sealed away) so we can guess Vaul suffered epic failure. It is also possible that the combined fire of these fortresses made the Void Dragon weak enough to retreat to an ancient earth and start eating virgins. Even though the Void Dragon was not destroyed Vauls efforts seem to have been instrumental in the weakening of the Dragon to the point that it was able to be imprisoned beneath Mars. If the Void Dragon was shattered like the other c'tan then it is possible that the Blackstone's may have been, at least partially, responsible. Some of the newer lore sources open up the possibility that during the War in Heaven there may have been "alliances" formed between the Necrons and the ancient Eldar, which may have been formed in order to battle the warp-spawned terrors that had been unintentionally released upon the galaxy during this time, such as the enslavers. Vaul and the Blackstone's may have actually played a role in the silent kings plan to shatter the C'tan into shards; the Necron lords and the ancient Eldar may have in theory worked together to bring an end to the War in Heaven by aiding each other in freeing themselves from their "masters".
After the Fall of the Eldar, six of the Fortresses were left adrift in the Gothic sector, where they were found by the Imperial Navy. The Navy moved in and turned them into naval bastions for Battlefleet Gothic, despite being unable to activate most of its armament. However, Abaddon found some artefacts that allowed him to assume direct control of them and managed to swipe three of them, kicking off the twelfth Black Crusade, before the Navy and the Eldar stopped him. The Imperial and Eldar navies then chased after the fortresses and managed to take one back, but then Abaddon caused it and the three still in Imperial control to self-destruct.
Interestingly, the fortress SHATTERED like glasses instead of just create big explosion in space when it self-destruct. Guess Vaul did design it to have some safety precautions, huh.
The Blackstone Fortresses were mentioned during the 13th Black Crusade, one was damaged and retreated during the space battle over Cadia (It annihilated an Imperial Navy battlegroup as well as Eldar and Necron fleets and only retreated after reinforcements from Segmentum Solar rushed in) while the other was rumored to be destroyed in transit by the Necron fleet. However, this was retconned and now the current fate of the Blackstone Fortresses is unknown. The two unaccounted-for fortresses were not present when the other four self-destructed, so they might be lurking around still...
Fall of Cadia confirms one of them was still in Abby's control. Sick and tired of Creed's awesome bullshit and panicking after he sees an Archmagos activate the Necron anti-warp pylons that threaten to close the Cadian Gate forever, he rams the planet with his Fortress as a last ditch gambit to blow the pylons and kill the last Cadian garrison. Cadia is quickly overtaken by the Warp, but a substantial number of the Imperials manage to escape.
Rise of the Primarch reveals the whereabouts of the last Blackstone Fortress. Apparently Abaddon had gifted it to Huron Blackheart.
Forgebane and current developments reveal that the Blackstone fortresses are made of a material named.. Blackstone. This material, exactly the same used in several Necron structures like the anti-Warp Pylons of Cadia holds a curious but worrying property. You see, Blackstone interacts naturally with the warp and depending on the polarization it can shrink Warp Rifts and negate all Warp-related activity in the area, which is what the pylons does; or amplify the Warp itself, causing all kind of nasty effects like the beams shot by the Fortress or spontaneous Warp Rifts. The funny thing is that there is a lot of stuff made from this material and caches hidden everywhere, maybe even undiscovered Fortresses. The vast majority of it is located on Necron Tomb Worlds, however, and they absolutely refuse to share it since they use it extensively in their own technology.
Recently, a newly emerged seventh Blackstone Fortress that has appeared in the galactic west. Unlike the others, this one appears to be fully active, with a highly advanced defense system and an uncanny ability to act on what seems to be its own volition. It also has a habit of catching ships in its gravity field and "consuming" them. The implications of this are uncertain but unsettling (even more unsettling is the implication raised in the novel that this seventh Blackstone Fortress is not from the Milky Way galaxy at all). The numerous ships the Fortress has consumed has made it a prime spot for archaeotech, attracting all sorts of treasure hunters to it. These adventurers congregate in a space-station called Precipice, where humans, xenos, and mutants live in uneasy peace as the powerful lords of the place don't like the idea of everyone killing each other. This den of scum would've probably been wiped out by the Imperium were it not for the bureaucratic deadlock where its numerous branches cannot agree which one of them has the legal right to claim the fortress for itself. Rumor has it that Roboute Guilliman is soon to make a decision to resolve the matter and thus Precipice's days are numbered...
The Game
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Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress is a dungeon crawler board game along the lines of Silver Tower and Shadows Under Hammerhal, albeit in the 40k setting as opposed to Age of Sigmar. The players control a party of four adventurers (chosen out of the eight in the box) on an expedition into the depths of the Blackstone Fortress. In between expeditions they stop at Precipice to trade archaeotech and utilize the various services of their ship. The ultimate goal is to conquer four Strongholds and find your way to the Hidden Vault, in order to claim the ultimate prize, hidden in a special envelope that you're probably going to tear open as soon as you open the box because you're too impatient to play ten sessions in order to legitimately find out.
The Playable Characters
- Janus Draik: A Rogue Trader and the closest thing to the main character of the games.
- Taddeus the Purifier: A mad priest who came to the fortress due to a vision from the Emperor.
- Pious Vorne: A hive-ganger acolyte of Taddeus. Despite looking like she wears armor, she has terrible defense. She makes up for it with her heavy flamer, arguably the best weapon in the game.
- Espern Locarno: Imperial Navigator. Despite being rather poor in combat, he has a plethora of support abilities that make him incredibly useful, being able to save Destiny Dice, mind-control opponents, create psychic defense barriers, and owning a ship that is the only way to resurrect dead party members.
- UR-025: Imperial Robot working for the Adeptus Mechanicus, definitely not a Man of Iron, nope. Probably the most powerful character in the game, with his amazing defense and strong weapons. To compensate, he only gets three activation die as opposed to the four everyone else gets.
- Rein and Raus: Ratling twins who deserted from the Imperial Guard. Though individually weak, their gimmick lets them operate as two characters in one.
- Grekh: Kroot tracker, and probably the individual who knows the most about the Fortress due to absorbing the memories of those he eats (even finding out a way to do this with the Spindle Drones).
- Amallyn Shadowguide: Eldar Ranger from Biel-Tan, searching for archaeotech she believes might be able to rebuild her fractured Craftworld.