= The vile secrets of Vulcoth
:doctype: article
Seth Kenlon
2025-02-02

== Introduction

This is a short wargame adventure set in the Macharian Sector from the **Imperium Maledictum** RPG source book by Cubicle 7.
Although I use the Macharian Sector as the setting, these scenarios are meant for a wargame, not an RPG.

Between each scenario, your army can gather reinforcements and upgrades as defined in the https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/warhammer-40000[Crusade rules].
There may also be faction-specific boosts available in your army's codex.

The story of this campaign branches in two directions, and the choices of the Hero Army influences not only which scenario to play but also the enemies faced in the final scenario.

Terrain types and enemy factions are flexible.
Adapt everything here for what you and your friends own.
As a way of making each battlefield feel unique, I recommend adding environmental hazards and other surprises.
A Game Master is not necessary, but consider notes to the Game Master in this document when setting up your game.

Designate one army as the Hero Army.
This campaign is the story of the Hero Army, so it's the one army that's constant throughout every scenario.
The opposing army changes based on the scenario.
The Hero Army may not always win, but the campaign does not end until the final scenario.

If you don't own one of the suggested opponent armies, you can always substitute an army you do own.

== Scenario 000

You have arrived on Vulcoth, an official agri-world of the Imperium of Man.
Your motivation varies, depending on your faction.
Here are a few suggestions:

* *Imperium*: Investigate production disruptions that the planetary government is attempting to conceal.
* *Xenos*: Take over or halt production.
* *Chaos*: Sabotage one of the Macharian Sector's few agri-worlds.

You plan a covert approach, so you make planetfall just outside a forest.
You must cross through the forest to reach a nearby production facility undetected.
However, as soon as you enter the forest you become aware that you're not alone.
Can your forces make it through the forest before the fighting attracts unwanted attention?

* *Terrain*: Forest or Wilderness
* *Mission*: Get across the battlefield before the enemy can successfully trigger 2 beacons.
* *Opponent*: Any opposing faction
* *Success*: Reach the other side of the battlefield before the enemy is able to gain control of 2 Objectives.
* *Failure*: Security forces are alert to your presence.

=== Setup and rules

The Opposing Army may start the game with 1 unit in Reserve, but the unit may not enter the battlefield until after the first successful Beacon attempt.

Place an Objective marker on one end of the battlefield.
The Hero Army deploys on the opposite end.
The Opposing Army may deploy from the two remaining edges of the battlefield.

Designate 2 trees along the centre of the battlefield as primary Beacons.
When an Opposing unit controls a Beacon, roll 2d6.
If the result is less than the unit's Leadership, the Beacon location is a dangerous feral plant and attacks the unit, dealing 2 Mortal Wounds to all units within 3" (8 cm).
If the result equals or exceeds the unit's Leadership value, then a Beacon (such as a flare) alerts nearby authorities of suspicious activity.

If both primary Beacons have been tested and neither result in a successful Beacon, then any other terrain feature may be treated as a secondary Beacon location.

== Scenario 001

You approach Vulcoth's central production facitily.
Somewhere within this compound is the answer to the planet's decline in productivity.
Question the workers and management staff to determine who is responsible.

Depending on the success of the previous scenario, the facility is either unaware of your presence or it is on high alert.

* *Terrain*: Industrial or Farm
* *Mission*: Find someone to hold accountable for failing to produce food to fuel the Imperium's forces.
* *Opponent*: Astra Militarum or Traitor Guardsmen
* *Success*: Learn the identity of the traitor responsible for production failure.
* *Failure*: The traitor escapes, go directly to Scenario 004.

=== Battlefield setup

Designate one building as the office of Superintendent Ryoss, and another building as the office of Chief Ellisar.
These are the 2 Objectives for this scenario, but the Hero Army may only claim one.

Half of the Opposing Army are production line workers, the other half are security.
Use distinct miniatures to represent each group.

=== Hostility status

If you failed the previous scenario and the compound is on high alert, then the all miniatures within the Opposing Army are actively hostile.
When you cause an enemy miniature to reach 0 Wounds, you may spend a Free Action to Speak (see Special Rules) with it just before death.

If you succeeded in the previous scenario and the compound is unaware of your presence, then only the miniatures designated as security staff are actively hostile.
You may spend a Free Action to Speak (see Special Rules) with any non-hostile miniature.

Whether the compound is hostile or non-hostile, you may never speak to security staff.

NOTE: As long as the Opposing Army is in a non-hostile state, the Opposing Army miniatures are strangely unconcerned at the Hero Army's presence (even if the Hero Army's faction is Xenos or Chaos, for reasons that become apparent later).
Only if the Hero Army attacks first do non-hostile worker miniatures convert to hostile.

=== Special rules

When you Speak to an Opposing Miniature, roll 16:

1. "More visitors? Well, you're not as bad as the lot that turned up last month."
2. "A traitor, here on Valcoth? Come to think of it, I have seen Superintendent Ryoss using the encrypted voxcaster almost daily."
3. "I overheard Superintendent Ryoss talking to someone over comms yesterday about Chief Ellisar. He was saying something about heresy, and that's when I cleared out of the area. Fast."
4. "Chief Ellisar has received visitors at least once a month for the past year. Strange folk, robed so you can't make out who they are. I never felt right about it, but it's not my place to question our leader."
5. "Chief Ellisar has hired a Rogue Trader's retinue to follow Superintendent Ryoss. He says Ryoss is up to no good."
6. "I just work here. I don't want any trouble."

After speaking with a worker, place a token next to the miniature.
You cannot speak with a worker miniature with a token next to it.
Before you place a token by the last worker, clear all other tokens.

After each time you take the Speak Action, one security worker becomes hostile and attacks the nearest Hero Army miniature.
If you kill the security worker within 6" of another security worker, then that security worker becomes hostile.

Once you have decided whether to arrest Superintendent Ryoss or Chief Ellisar, proceed to the Objective marker for either Superintendent Ryoss or for Chief Ellisar.
You can never control both Objectives.

== Scenario 002

Play this scenario if you chose to arrest Superintendent Ryoss.

You enter a large warehouse, where you find the traitorous Superintendent Ryoss in a clandestine meeting with Xenos smugglers.
She appears to be trading food meant for the forces of the Imperium with the Xenos in exchange for what looks to be strange biotech, the likes of which you've never seen before.
You must stop the exchange from happening, and prevent the traitor from escaping.

* *Terrain*: Warehouse
* *Mission*: Disrupt the exchange.
* *Opponent*: Any Xenos army opposed to the Hero Army, and Astra Militarum or Traitor Guardsmen
* *Success*: Kill Superintendent Ryoss.
* *Failure*: Superintendent Ryoss escapes.

=== Setup and special rules

Set up a warehouse interiour.
The deployment zone of the Hero Army is also the exit through which Superintendent Ryoss must escape.

Superintendent Ryoss is guarded by soldiers loyal to her.
The Xenos are loyal only to themselves, but are only hostile to the Hero Army.
Ryoss is a Lone Operative, and cares nothing for her troops.
Her only goal is to escape.

Place at least 12 crates to the battlefield as scatter terrain.
Each one is considered a Cargo Servitor.
When a Hero Army unit controls a Cargo Servitor, it may roll 1d6 as a Free Action.
On a 5 or 6, the Hero Army gains 1 archeotech part (for the purposes of the Crusade rules).
Remove the Cargo Servitor from the battlefield immediately after it has been searched.

At the end of each round, move each Cargo Servitor 3" (8 cm) toward the opposite end of the battlefield.
When a Cargo Servitor reaches the edge of the battlefield, it has been loaded onto the Xenos ship and cannot be recovered.

== Scenario 003

Play this scenario if you chose to arrest Chief Ellisar.

You enter the facility offices.
There is disquiet in the air, a tension you've either heard about in tales or perhaps as a first-hand witness.
You can tell that Chief Ellisar must be performing a heretical ritual somewhere in this building.
He must be stopped at all costs.

* *Terrain*: Boarding Actions
* *Mission*: Find Chief Ellisar and stop the ritual.
* *Opponent*: Chaos Daemons (preferably Tzeentch) or Chaos space marines, and a Rogue Psyker
* *Success*: Kill Chief Ellisar.
* *Failure*: Chief Ellisar escapes.

=== Setup and special rules

Use Boarding Action terrain to construct 3 distinct rooms, but do not place anything in the rooms.
When the Hero Army opens a door to a room, roll 1d3 to reveal the contents of the room:

1. Enemy unit
2. Loot and optional Enemy unit
3. Loot and optional Enemy unit
4. Loot and optional Enemy unit
5. Loot and optional Enemy unit
6. Chief Ellisar and Enemy unit

Depending on the size of your game, you may use anywhere from 2 to 5 Enemy units.

Chief Ellisar is a Rogue Psyker.
When Chief Ellisar is discovered, all other Enemy units immediately reveal themselves and attack, if they have not already been discovered.

When a Hero Army unit controls a Loot marker, roll 1d6 and then remove the Loot marker.
On a 5 or 6, the Hero Army gains 1 archeotech part (for the purposes of the Crusade rules).

=== 

== Scenario 004

Depending on the success of previous scenarios, either Superintendent Ryoss or Chief Ellisar, or both, are on the run.

As you emerge from the building, you hear the sounds of fleeing rebels.
Those working against the Imperium of Man must not be allowed to escape punishment.
You give them chase, and find yourself back out in the woodlands.

To your horror, you see up ahead what can only be described as a monstrosity.
Perhaps it was summoned from the warp itself, or perhaps it's an experiment freed from its imprisonment in a laboratory repurposed for evil biomancy.
Whatever its source, it towers over the landscape and slaughters any living creature in sight.
Unfortunately, it has just turned its attention toward you.

* *Terrain*: Forest or Wilderness
* *Mission*: Apprehend any remainng traitors and destroy the products of their vile experimentation.
* *Opponent*: Daemon Prince or Gargant, Rogue Psyker and Chaos Daemons or Chaos Space Marines (if Chief Ellisar is alive), Xenos and Astra Militarum or Traitor Guardsmen (if Ryoss is alive)
* *Success*: Destroy all traitor leaders.
* *Failure*: Mayhem! Your campaign ends here.

=== Special rules

Even if the Hero Army successfully killed the chosen traitor in the previous scenario, the _other_ traitor is also in this scenario and must be killed to succeed.

For a Hero Army pursuing Chief Ellisar, the monstrosity is a Daemon Prince.

For a Hero Army pursuing Superintendent Ryoss, use the largest model you own, such as Old One Eye (Tyranids), Great Unclean One (Chaos Daemons), or even a Patriarch (Genestealer Cults).
Alternately, you can use a Gargant (from **Age of Sigmar**) with the **Visarch** profile from the Aeldari index (this requires a little re-theming, for instance its "sword" is a stone axe).

If the Hero Army failed to kill their chosen traitor in the previous scenario, then only their chosen traitor's monstrosity spawns.
Never use _both_ Ellisar's Daemon Prince and Ryoss's monster.

Depending on the wound count of the monstrosity, the Hero Army may have to run to survive.
At any time, the Hero Army may exit the battlefield to be extracted back to the safety of their ship.
The only requirement for victory is that no traitor leaders (Ellisar and Ryoss) remain alive at the end of the game.

Should the Hero Army manage to destroy the monstrosity, the unit that lands the killing blow find 3 archeotech parts attached to its body (formerly serving as biotech, but it can be used to build an archeotech device as described in the Crusade rules).

EOF