Rolling with the Iron Gorgon's Renegades, creating a Chaos Warbands' Narrative

In a somewhat related note to some of my last postings, I received a good bit of favourable feedback about the Titan post. Obviously people likes the miniature...well, I say “miniature” but that thing is nearly two feet tall! 

The other thing people commented on was the written piece introducing the post, the story of Lord Kharakhos and the Iron Gorgon's Renegades.

Chris mentioned to me that he was eager to see both Kharakhos and his sorceress, Eliphim, in miniature form which I hadn't planned on, they were just throw away characters in the scenario to set the scene for the daemonic titan being summoned to the battlefield. 

His comment about wanting to see the characters stuck with me however, and I decided to flesh out the renegades a little more.

This is purely a written exercise for amusement at the moment, but who knows, maybe it could lead into a small force of chaos renegades in the future.

So, I googled Chaos Warband Generator (I love me some random generator tables to roll on) and was greeted with the page of the Chaos Warband Tables from Fantasy Flight Games 40k RPG "Black Crusade", these are meant to flesh out the background of who you are fighting for and why they turned against the Emperor, but they just as easily filter over to 40k.

1: What is the Warbands' Structure? Renegade Chapter. 

I chose this as I had already mentioned a few things in the previous background piece.

2: Why did the Warband fall to Chaos?
(D100, I rolled an 83).

They were stationed in an area of space with a powerful warp presence, which corrupted their minds over time. 

This could be an interesting thing to work with.

3: Who was your progenitor?
Iron Hands. 

Again I chose this, mainly because of the name and how Ferrus Manus was called 'The Gorgon', so I could easily make the jump to them being Iron Hands Successors.

4: What are the Warbands' beliefs?
(D10, I rolled a 4). 

Neutral, They believe that Chaos is a tool to be used rather then worshipped. They serve the Dark Gods when it benefits them. 

As much as I like the zealous nature of the Word Bearers, the cold pragmatism fits better with the Iron Hands theme building. This roll was a "happy accident".

5: How do these beliefs take form in the Warband?
(D100, I rolled an 83). 

Accept and and All. Thieves, Whores, Traitors and Scum alike are welcome to join the Warband's forces. Mutants, Xenos, Beastmen and even former foes can be found in their numbers. 

Interesting, this throws up a great many options which is a great thing for a Chaos Warband to be honest. I'd already included mention of them throwing cultist hordes at the enemy in the previous fiction, so this opens up the chance to include Beastmen (always some of my favourite models) and even some Xenos races...not sure how to go about that just yet.

6: What battlefield doctrines does the Warband believe in?
(I had to choose this one, you'll understand why). 
Drown them with Bodies. The Warband believes in the doctrine of overwhelming strength. Any campaigns are complemented by legions of mortal servants (or slaves) who throw themselves at the enemies.
With the above result about welcoming any and all into their forces, I had to choose this doctrine straight away. All those mortals who think they are gaining power are just really cannon fodder whilst the Astartes do the real work and gain power themselves.

7: What is the Warband's Demeanour?
(D10, I rolled a 2).
Scorched Earth. They destroy anything they do not need so that the enemy cannot use it. Even valuable items such as Fortresses and Ships are expendable.
Not what I was expecting to be honest. I like the pragmatic "Deny the Enemy" outlook, but resources for a renegade Warband would be hard to come by and held onto jealously in my opinion. But let's roll with the dice...

8: Common Mutations and Defects?
(D10, I rolled a 3).
No Rest For The Wicked. The Warband's Catalepsean nodes have been sent into overdrive by the Empyrean. They no longer need to sleep, but tend to hallucinate or go berserk at inopportune moments. They must meditate to keep the symptoms at bay.
This is a fun twist as everything so far has been pretty "straight and narrow". I love the idea of them being relentless as they don't need sleep, but hallucinating at times would be interesting. Perhaps they induce a state of berserker at times when battles begin?

9: Does the Warband utilise any Special Equipment?
(D100, I rolled something).
Unique Daemon Engines. The War band's Warp smiths have created unique, unseen abominations of flesh, metal and daemonic fury.
This was an unexpected result and it threw me for a short while, then I hit upon one of the lesser seen units in the Chaos space Marine codex...Mutilators!
Granted their models aren't great and I don't think that their rules are either, but its something different and not commonly seen, I also think they'd make a great conversion project our of the two plastic Obliterators which came with the Shadowspear box set.

10: What is the strength of the Warband?
(I chose for them to be slightly understrength).
I figure that they have maybe been renegade for a couple of decades, not very long. When they turned I imagine that the chapter would have had to fight a short and brutal civil war, with the survivors siding with Kharakhos and turning renegade. Perhaps there are a few loyalist Iron Gorgon's left, seeking revenge?

11a: Where is their homeworld?
(D100, I rolled a 92).
An Asteroid Belt.
11b: What terrain does their homeworld have?
(I chose Airless as this made sense).
So they are based in an asteroid belt, this throws up several questions such as Is it inhabited? Are there mining rigs present and they get resources that way? is it the remnants of a planet or a actual belt like in our own solar system?
They only bit which this contradicts is the Scorched Earth policy brought up earlier. Perhaps they have everything rigged to blow up if an enemy captures it?

12: Who are our Allies?
(D100, I rolled a 31).
A Rogue Psyker Cult.
Brilliant, that's a perfect jumping in point for Eliphim. She could have been the leader of the cult and joined the Iron Gorgon's, or she could have murdered her way into power and joined or been forced to join Kharakhos at some point. There are too many possibilities to go into here at the moment.

(Two possible ideas for Eliphim).

13: Who are our Enemies?
(D100, I rolled a 96).
Sisters of Battle.
Narratives write themselves for this one. Could the Iron Gorgon's have sacked an Imperial Cathedral at some point? Perhaps they preyed upon pilgrims on one of the many routes of Imperial Saints and massacred the Battle Sisters sent to stop them?
One nice point about this is that I have three friends who have various Sisters of Battle forces which could be drawn into the Iron Gorgon's narrative very easily.

Now onto a major character for the Warband:
1: Who is a Champion of Legend?
(I chose the Warband Leader).
It had to be Kharakhos didn't it. He's probably the single most important person in the Warband other than Eliphim at this point, simply because both of those have been mentioned a little so far.

2: What was his Deed of Legend?
(D100, I rolled a 41).
The Leader killed a renowned and mighty Imperial Hero.
When this roll came up, I had that classic "Lightbulb" moment as an idea popped. I have had a Chaos Hellbrute from the 6th edition Dark Vengeance set sitting unpainted for years. What if this was actually the former Chapter Master, whom Kharakhos defeated when he turned the chapter renegade. Instead of killing him, he had him installed in a Hellbrute with some sort of control mechanism and leaves him to be tortured until they are in battle where he is released upon the enemy as a cathartic release type of situation?


These were just rolled with a "lets see what happens" attitude. Nothing was planned even though it feels like some were coincidental in nature, the Dice Gods obviously favoured these renegades!

This first post is just the set up and showing how easy it can be to come up with some narrative and ideas for a Warband, especially in the days of Crusade campaigns ahead. This is meant to be a "you can do it too" kind of post.
In one of my next posts, I'll post some fiction based upon these choices and see what warp spawned rabbit holes that takes us down, I look forward to casting a small section of the Imperium down...or not, as the gods see fit.

Incidentally, I googled "Iron Gorgon's" and this popped up in the image search as part of a homebrew loyalist chapter:

Maybe make the cog a chaos star or leave it as is?

It's a good starting point though.

Until next time...

- Lewis