Night Lords

*"Cometh upon such a dread warrior in the darkness and ye shall find yourself finding fear itself.
So hide my children, hide and pray for the Witching Hour comes once more."*

## The History Of Fear Itself

The Night Lords are a Legion whose name inspire fear within even the deadliest warrior for amongst the Human Race, darkness holds a special terror within its gloom. It was within this nightmare that the Children of the Night found life, beneath skies of metal and ash that knew not the touch of the sun or the sigh of wind, only shadows and the giggling laughter that haunts such places

It was from these sunless depths that the warriors of the Night Lords were found and they brought their fear with them. Shrieking umbral warriors that left none alive in their wake and whose greatest strength was that which they felt deep inside themselves. Fear, terror, panic and fright, all weapons in their arsenal and weapons they used to great effect against the myriad foes of the Imperium, many of which were horrors themselves.

But the Night Lords care not, for they are fear incarnate.

And death is a welcome reprieve.

## The Art Of Terror

### Offensive Pattern (Cruor Diabolus)

Cohesion Cost: 2
Action: Half-Action
Sustained: No

The Night Lords erupt into violent movement, each action designed to maim or kill their enemy in as an extreme a way as possible, coating them with blood while howling laughter echoes throughout the battlefield. For the duration of the combat, Night Lords affected by the ability gain Fear (+1).

At Rank 5 the Night Lord becomes so adept at orchestrating the violence that it becomes a work of Daemonic art unto itself. The effect now becomes Fear (+2) for the duration of the combat.

### Defensive Pattern (The Nightmare)

Cohesion Cost: 3
Action: Free Action
Sustained: Yes

As lights flicker and shadows overwhelm the battle, the Night Lords break into brutal motion. Disappearing into the maelstrom of conflict, they create as much carnage as possible, hiding in the resulting madness as shots fly wide of their ever shifting forms and terror sets in deep. For as long as the ability is Sustained, the Night Lords gain a Field Rating of 30 against Ranged Attacks with no Overload Rating. The Night Lord must also make a Movement Action every turn or lose the effect of the Ability.

At Rank 4 the Night Lords become avatars of Chaos, standing still for no longer than a second as murder follows in their maddening wake. The Field Rating now also applies to Melee Attacks.

### Solo Ability (The Killer Unseen)

Action: Free Action

Melting into the shadows, the Night Lord becomes a muted hiss, blending with the darkness around even as he works his bloody murder, screams only further distracting from the stalking killer as death wanders through the battlefield invisible to all who would live another day. All Ranged Penalties for obscured vision have their modifiers increased by an additional 10. The Night Lord also gets the Darksight Trait (This is a passive ability).

At Rank 3 the Night Lord learns how to use the madness of daily life to hide his presence, blending in with the shadows of buildings and the din of machinery as he unleashes his inner nightmare. The Night Lord now gains a +10 Modifier for Concealment tests when working in the Shadow Lightning Condition.

At Rank 5 the Night Lord has mastered his art of discordant combat, seamlessly creating madness and chaos wherever he goes. The Modifiers for both the Ranged Penalty and the Concealment Bonus are increased to 20.

At Rank 7 the Night Lord has become a true creature of the umbral tides, feeling more at home in the unreal depths of the shadow than in the light and his very presence shrouds the sun. The Lighting around the Night Lord is always counted as Shadow (even if Vision is Mechanically Assisted).

## The Daemon Within

### Legion Demeanor (Terror Incarnate)

The Night Lords feed on fear, finding strength in the terror of their foes as they hurtle through combat with abandon. Whether it be through decorating their armour with the skulls of their enemies or haunting their enemies steps with frightful visions of carnage, the Night Lords revel in it, often going far beyond mere strategy in their desire to taste the delicate fear of a mortal mind. As such, Night Lords often amuse themselves by frightening the lesser men they fight beside, even going as far as to provoke the Astartes for no other reason than to see if they can. While this can be amusing to the Night Lords, it is often less so to their brothers who find their dark predilections disturbing at best, and down right sickening at worst.

### Primarchs Curse (The Hunter Within)

For all their humorous nature, dark as it may be, the Night Lords bear within their Gene-Seed a horrific curse, a torment more terrifying than can be imagined for they suffer the threat of fear itself. As the Night Lord descends further into his own madness, he will soon find himself running from the monster deep within his own soul, a creature that knows no end. Many within the Legion whisper of its existence in the darkest shadows, as though scared that its mention may bring it to the surface. Some call it Umbra or the Silent King but to their Father, it is known only as The Night Haunter. And his curse will one day drown them all.

#### Tier One (The Haunter)

As the Night Lord descends further into their Fathers madness, they soon found their ability to reason drowned out by the screams of the thousands that have died. Some dark, something truly terrible awakens within them as the adrenaline of conflict breaks the fragile control they have on their own minds. Their actions become berserk and they find themselves unable to control the sadistic urges within their own tortured minds. Once combat has ended, the Night Lord must make a Challenging Willpower Test (+0) or else proceed to slay any surviving enemies or civillians. If there are none in range then the Night Lord will proceed to mutilate and abuse the corpses in a sickening display of sadism.

#### Tier Two (The Fear)

Terror is a double-edged sword and those who live their life in its midst are unlikely to escape unscathed. As the Night Lord feeds the monster inside, the harmony of screams shatters and fragments itself inside his own soul, granting him a taste of the nightmare he inflicts upon his foes. The Night Lord now suffers a -20 Penalty to all Fear Tests he must make.

#### Tier Three (Dark Portents)

As the darkness clouds their heart and mind, the Night Lord will finally be granted the gift that shattered their father into a thousand pieces. His dreams will be tortured with prophecy of his own forthcoming death and his laughter will echo with forlorn misery of the condemned. This horror does bring with it its own fell gift however and those inflicted with these nightmares are capable of divining the future, dark as it may be. At the beginning of each Mission, the Night Lord must make a Difficult Willpower Test (-10) or be beset by seizure inducing visions that negate his ability to enter Squad Mode. The GM should feel free however to provide vague and tantalizing glimpses of what is to come however.

## The Trappings of Night

### The Wings of Shadow

The Night Lords go to war with a number of unique tools, many of them horrifying in nature and all of them lethal in design. None can mistake their enemy when the 8th Legion marches into battle and those rare survivors will forever dream of the unholy noise that accompanies them into conflict. Despite all this however, it is the simplest thing that sticks forever in memory, that haunts their dreams for the decades to come. The red pinions that adorn the helmets of all the Brothers of Night evoke feelings of ancient dread, their sight alone enough to unman those who can find no words to describe the fear they feel. Enemies suffer an additional -5 Penalty to their Willpower Tests made to Resist Fear.

### Prey-Sense

The Night Lords live in the shadows and thrive in the darkness where fear is bred. As such, they have developed special tools that go above and beyond the norm provided to their more honourable kin. With a little modification, the Night Lords adapted their Auto-Senses to operate more effectively in the 8th Legions chosen battleground. The Night Lords with this equipment gain the equivalent of Best Quality Prey-Sense Goggles built into their helmet in addition to the usual Auto-Sense Suite normally available.

## To Marshall A Nightmare Black

 The Crow Call
 Quicksilver
 Nightshroud
 The Shriek

### Phantasmagoria

Action: Full
Opposed: No
Range: 10 Meters x PR
Sustained: Yes

The Night Lord marshals the fear and terror of those around him, tuning it in a melancholic song that calls to the dead beyond the Aether. Shades of haunted dread erupt from the ground around him and tear into those who would banish the night and for each foe that falls, another is added to the shrieking chorus. All Enemies within the Radius suffer 1d10 x PR Energy Damage each turn with the Warp Weapon Quality as revenant beings tear from the earth to devour their foes. Furthermore, each enemy must make a Fear (4) Check or suffer the Penalties listed.

### The Crow Call

Action: Half
Opposed: No
Range: 10 Meters x PR
Sustained: No

By reading into the currents of the Warp surrounding his victim, the Night Lord is able to read the pain and agony of his target, supplying him with vital information on how close to death he is. By making a Challenging Focus Power Test (+0) the Night Lord learns how many Wounds his enemy has left and what Critical Effect he has so far suffered.

### Quicksilver

Action: Half
Opposed: No
Range: Self
Sustained: Yes

The Night Lord enters into a state of pure focus, listening to actions before they even occur and reacting with a speed that belies belief. While this Power is Sustained, the Night Lord gains another Action each turn that can be used to make another Attack, Movement Action or Reaction.

### Nightshroud

Action: Full
Opposed: No
Range: 10M x PR
Sustained: Yes

The Night Lord calls upon the shadows and cloaks himself and his allies in darkness. While this power is in effect, all allies gain +30 to their Concealment Tests and the area within the Radius counts as Shadow Lighting.

### The Shriek

Action: Full
Opposed: Yes
Range: 10M x PR
Sustained: No

The Night Lord summons up the grief and misery of the tortured souls around him and lets them loose in one harrowing scream that scars the souls of those who hear it. All those within the Radius must make an Opposed Willpower Test (+0) or roll on the Shock Table with a Modifier equal to the number of Degree's they failed the Test by.