Screaming Vortex - Aetehk the Watcher: Legends of the infamous are currency on many worlds within the Screaming Vortex. It is often unnecessary to differentiate truth from fiction, as the heralds of the Dark Gods may weave reality from lies. Rare is one who would wish his name to be spoken in whispers, instead fealty is demanded in endless tales of conquest.The Necron Overlord known as Aetehk the Watcher desires no notoriety. His armies of glimmering living metal soldiers descend in silence to tear the matter from their victims. His name is spoken in fearful gasps by the downtrodden. No matter how cruel their masters among the mortal servants of the Ruinous Powers, the arrival of Aetehk is a fate worse than anything their own lords could conjure. It is said that those devoured by the pale green light of his agents are not simply disintegrated -- their souls are destroyed, shaved bit by bit from the whole.When the Necron forces of Aetehk descend upon a planet they leave few survivors, but through a few eyewitness accounts and the divination of Human seers, the signs of his arrival are the backbone of many myths. Only one man has reported to have seen Aetehk himself, and his name is said to have been dredged from the prophecies of the High Oracle of the Temple of Lies on Kymeris and pieced together via the diligent studies of Armat'Hek, Sorcerer Lord of the Thousand Sons Legion. However, this creature features heavily in prophetic visions and apocryphal legends of destruction and massacre.The first part of every story about the Watcher begins the same way. A band of Human soldiers stop to rest and, as they do, the sands around them erupt. Iron skeletons with long flensing blades for fingers slaughter the warriors. One soldier manages to escape, running on foot to the nearest town. He expires from fear after delivering his last dire warning. "Beware the Flayed Ones."The second act of the tale often involves a large city. As terrified refugees arrive from the outlying towns, the lords of the city begin to grow increasingly concerned with the attacks. As they prepare to defend themselves from an attack from the outlying territory, they are descended upon from above. Pyramids of living metal, Monoliths, float down from the sky. Glowing portals open within their surface and hundreds of undying robotic soldiers march forth from within, impossible numbers for the vessel's small hold. The city is lost, those few who survive describe their brethren torn apart by blasts of energy, every molecule pulled one by one from their bodies.The final part of the tale varies based on the location and the person telling the tale, though every version tells of insectile automatons moving amongst the ruins, hunting and gathering metals and other materials. The creatures described in the third act always vary in size, wildly switching from hordes of tiny scarab-like creatures that cover the ground in a skittering wave, to massive floating spiders with rending claws, to sinuous monsters able to move through solid matter.Only one version of the legends has anyone communicating with these spectres. In this version, the Chaos Lord Vorsk of the Dagger Tongues -- and cunning schemer -- fights the legions of living metal warriors to a standstill before encountering Aetehk himself. It was said Vorsk was able to reason with Aetehk, the two joining forces to purge the space hulk Last Damnation of its secrets and riches.The truth of the matter is possibly more and less sinister at the same time. Aetehk is indeed a Necron Overlord, a powerful and dangerous leader of his kind. Aetehk's motives are still unknown, as are the reasons he would operate within the Warp rift of the Screaming Vortex in the first place, as anything to do with the Immaterium is normally anathema to the Necrons, but he is simply harvesting resources for an unknown purpose. Many attempts to triangulate his armies' location have proven fruitless. The only warnings of where he will strike come from the Choir on the Mountain, a cadre of Warp-seers ensconced on Q'Sal.Their discordant voices silence for a moment, and then in toneless cadence they speak an indecipherable set of co-ordinates. They then return to their endless maelstrom of tones, but exactly five verses (roughly six solar months) later, Aetehk's forces decimate a location. If the coordinate system sung by the Choir on the Mountain could ever be unravelled, it is possible that Aetehk himself could be defeated...or even bargained with.