The Storm
Four years ago the warp routes into the Sundered Reach closed. Not gradually. In the space of about eleven days, every route in or out became impassable, and Astropathic contact failed entirely.
Nobody knows why. Everybody has a theory, and every theory implies a different course of action — which is the actual engine of this campaign.
What the storm did
- No reinforcement. No Guard tithe arrives. No Ecclesiarchy ruling arrives. No Mechanicus resupply arrives. Whatever anyone has, that is what they have.
- No oversight. Nobody’s authority can be verified and nobody’s report can be filed. Rosettes, warrants and writs are all, functionally, bluffs that people are choosing to honour.
- No canonisation, no censure, no promotion. Every institution in the Reach is frozen at whatever rank and status it held four years ago.
- Attrition is permanent. A dead Knight, a lost ship, a spent shell — none of it is replaced.
The relics
There is a set of Great Crusade-era navigational apparatus scattered across the Reach — beacon components and pre-storm charts, most of it split up and archived centuries ago for reasons nobody recorded.
Assembled, it may be capable of opening a route through the storm. Or closing the storm. Or something else. House Sabaeus have an opinion on this and have not shared it publicly.
Everyone wants them. Nobody wants them for the same reason.
| What they want | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| House Crosius | The routes open | The dynasty dies in isolation |
| Inquisitor Thule | The relics recovered | Undisclosed |
| Faction — Aeldari | (Richard to write) | |
| The Red Knights of Oblivion | A way out — eventually | The killing here is finite, and Khorne’s appetite is not |
| The Discordant Duet | The silence kept, permanently | They believe the relics caused it, and intend to play them |
Worth noticing
If the relics can end the storm, then anyone who benefits from the isolation wants them destroyed, hidden, or in the wrong hands. The Reach cut off from the Imperium is a very safe place to be doing certain kinds of work.
Standing questions
Nobody in the Reach can answer these. They are what the campaign is about.
- What closed the routes, and was it done deliberately?
- Where are the remaining relic components?
- Would assembling them actually work — and would it be survivable?
- Who, other than the obvious, has been in the Reach the whole time?