Quest:The Long Night:Beginning
The Start[edit | edit source]
The quest starts ten years into your Governorship. The previous years are not described in too much detail, all we know is that ninety percent of the original one billion settlers were expected to die, but you managed to keep it at thirty percent. Yes, turns out you're actually quite good at military management.
Money is a bit of a problem, but you do manage to get the brightest idea how to get more. Advertise your world to tourists! Surely the Imperium has some guys who want to show they're real men and take a break from the boredom of their regular civilized worlds.
What do you know? It's crazy enough to work. Plenty of people are left satisfied with the hunting. A few of their wives are also happy, due to their cheating husbands never returning home.
One peculiar and unexpected problem pops up, however. The world appears to be heavily Warptouched. Just four years in (fourteen after the settling, that is), a Beta Psyker is found. Luckily, he's a very stable one... so stable that had there been a Grey Knight around, he would have snatched the boy up at once. As it is, one Gerald Xavier goes to train. For his stability, he sure has an affinity for burning things up.
A short time later, your first real test comes. A Chaos Warband is incoming. Well, time to test your troops.
You do, however, receive a surprise from your head of External Affairs, Lord Klovis-Ultan. Turns out he's the Inquisitor who started the settlement program. And he has his own Overlord ready to assist.
The fight in space doesn't go too badly, but the Chaos troops do manage to land. You manage to grind them down as they approach your capital, but the Chaos Astartes do get in. More whittling down... in short, it comes down to you versus the Chaos Lord, albeit a heavily wounded one. Doesn't look good, but then...
As he charges at you, a strange crown you've looted off a local chief of Trolls (half flesh, half rock humanoid Xenos) flares up, and the brute loses his CG-blessed aura. You do lose an arm and a leg, but your Power Knife takes the bastard out.
Yes, that's 40K to you.
Now, not only is the planet full of various Xeno races and species, but it turns out DaoT humanity used to have a colony there as well. There are still ruins all over the area you've settled. That's good. After all, on a world like Avernus, one doesn't want to rely on a puny Lasgun for survival, meaning some good tech might be hidden in there.
Is there?
Had the quest used the old pricelist of "Two worlds for an STC knife template", Rotbart would probably have owned the sector by the time that Chaos Lord invaded. As it is, you did buy a Baneblade squadron, a Defence Monitor and some industrial expansions from the nearby Forge World of Atlas.
A couple years later, you get another invasion, this time of Necrons. Thankfully, they are led by some really broken down moron, so not only does his fleet get damaged way beyond what's supposed to be the case, but his army is forced to flee before reaching your cities (Gerald, despite still being in training, personally melts down just over eight thousand). You do get a couple of shipwrecks left behind, which you trade to Atlas along with some other goodies.
In the aftermath of the two attacks, you notice something weird about the planet. First, the taint of the Chaos gear left groundside seems to be slowly burning away. Second, the local wildlife hates Necrons.
Around the same time, you lose Deacon Aurilian, the head of your planet's Ecclesiarchy. The guy was decent for his kind, but a bit obsessed with the “Burn the Witch” part of the regular motto (don't blame him too much; the guy lost his family and hometown to a rogue Delta). A few years into the quest, you saw it makes him a bit lacking in guiding the more loyal among the Emperor's subjects, so you've eventually convinced him to focus exclusively on the Witch Hunting, leaving the other matters to his deputy, Seamus Lin. Unfortunately, a couple years later, he faced a Chaos Gamma, lost all his Witch Hunters to it, and, realizing he stands alone, decided (and managed) to prevent further casualties by blowing up his flamer's promethium tank. Well, now you have a Deacon named Seamus Lin, and one less friend.
And then... you find a partial STC Template. This time, it seems to be one for a DaoT Railgun analogue. Such a weapon would be priceless for the Imperium. Except then your Magos Explorator, Tranth, takes a proper look at the blueprint... nope. It's not a Railgun blueprint.
It's a mix of three. Three weapons of Impaler Class; a Carbine, an Assault Rifle, and a Machine Gun. Instead of a puny Lasgun, the Guard can finally get some proper armaments with the power of Bolters and a fraction of the price.
Oh, you've also found the blueprints for a better Imperial Knight. Just a variant of the plain old Errant, but since the Subsector capital, Asgard, is a Knight-World, you decide some major brownie points can be earned by gifting it to them. They sing praises to you and make you a senior nobleman.
This time, the trade with Atlas gets you a shipyard, Forge Cities, ships, Baneblades... and a Ramilles Star Fort.
You do, however, finally get the note that you need to start sending troops to the Imperial Guard. Shouldn't be a problem. Some of them will probably like a break from Avernus.
In the meantime, you decide it would be good to create a Militia for Avernus. 85% of your population are to spend a few hours every week training in combat.
Of course, you also get some problems. Namely, a minor Tyranid splinter fleet is headed your way. Well, actually, it's headed for the nearby Agri-World of Alfheim. The Subsector gathers all the forces, you bring your army there, everything is prepared to mow down Tyranid hordes...
The Subsector fleet wipes them out in space. A bit of a letdown, but you are not complaining.
And finally, next year, the ruins yield the most valuable find of all. A new and better type of Juvenat.
Now some of you might wonder "How is that more valuable than giving every Guardsman an Astartes Killer"? Sure, it might not be as valuable to the Imperium, but the High Lords of Terra are certainly willing to pay handsomely for a few more centuries of life.
For this, you get all the blueprints Atlas is allowed to sell, shipyards, Titans... You even place a call to Mars, notifying them the locals might soon be incapable of properly compensating you for the finds.
Plus, your people's morale is excellent, despite all the Deathworld issues, there is good healthcare, education, orphanages, the militia trains thirty-two hours per week (what you call Cadia style), you've actually started giving the militia tanks...
You've even managed to stomp out the last cultists upon the planet.
Oh, BTW, remember that strange crown that saved you from the Chaos Lord? It seems to be part of a set, and you've found two more pieces by now. Well, more like looted from local fauna leaders. A necklace and a ring. And both from foes you've killed personally when they threatened your cities.
Everything looks fine, right?
Then why do the Emperor's Tarot keep predicting downfall?