Prologue:
The Planet of Perpetual Shadows
Far from the Astronomican's light lies a lost world languishing in the gloom of the Eastern Fringe. Long has this isolated planet been shrouded from sight by raging warp storms that bathed its surface in perpetual night. What forgotten secrets does this shadowed world hold?
Millennia's past, during the rebellion of the Heresy, the dark honor of the Iron Warrior's traitor legion fell upon the planet. Seeking arcane secrets for advantage in their long war, the Iron Warriors conducted profane rituals and excavations deep below the surface. Deaf to the whispers of Chaos, they breached ancient seals in the lightless caverns that were set by unknown hands in ages past.
From that first crack spread many fractures, and the whispers of the Neverborn slithered forth into the world. The power unleashed from those sealed depths would not suffer such transgressors. On barcode-veined wings, the native spirits of the world rose up against the legionnaires. Their wrath was terrible to behold as empty helmets and armor smoldered beneath the pale light of their burning vengeance.
But the vengeance of the spirits was not sated. They hounded the traitor legion back to their ships, their infernal voices screeching curses into the void. In their fury, only death would satisfy - death for any who dared trespass on their lost domain.
Those who survived the departure of the legion faced a far darker fate. The former slaves, now abandoned, tried to cling to the ways of humanity - but the cold malice of the shadow spirits would not release its grasp. Over long and lonely generations, fear and darkness gnawed at their souls. Superstition replaced doctrine, and folk rituals sprang up to appease the writhing powers in the darkness.
In time, the nameless planet became wholly theirs, bound by dread and whispers. A world of death and primal terror where light brings no comfort and only ancient rituals keep the spirits at bay. For on this Planet of Perpetual Shadows, the spirits of Halloween eternally manifest to torment all living souls.
When night falls across the planet, and darkness spreads from the roots of twisted black trees, the spirits take their vengeance against any who dare walk beneath the stars. Grotesque shadows stalk lonely travelers, stealing them away to unseen fates. Across gloomy moors ring the insane giggles and shrieks of the manifestation known only as the Night Hag, whose claws find soft flesh to rend. In the depths of the ancient wood, misshapen creatures with pumpkin-orange eyes caper and cavort around impossible bonfires, waiting for those who stray too far.
Yet worse still are the ghosts that rise from old graves on the scorched earth. Some wail with the pain of their deaths, while others silently make their way back to the haunts of the living. To witness the shade of one lost to the spirits is an omen of certain doom. For they are jealous of any soul that still clings to its flesh. All will join their throng soon enough.
There is but one night of the year when the spirits retreat and give the living a chance to hide behind glyph-marked doors and make their offerings of oil and bone. The night called Halloween, when galaxies away ancient Terra celebrated similar traditions, before the coming of the Master of Mankind. On this night, the people wear frightful costumes to blend in amongst the spirits, tell stories of monsters and darkness, and keep fearful vigils waiting for the dawn.
Now, a vessel of the Ordo Malleus has pierced the veil of storms around the planet after tracing years-old astropathic messages. They know not what trick of the Warp cast the ominous world adrift near their sector again after so long away. But legends persist of ruination unleashed and unnatural secrets buried within the planet's haunted depths. Secrets that could be used to banish daemons and bring entire systems to heel. The call of power and knowledge compels them forward.
But such knowledge rarely comes without cost. All who tread the surface of the Planet of Perpetual Shadows eventually join its dead, or worst of all, become one with its twisted spirits. By the time the Inquisitors learn the true terror that awaits in the dark below, it will already be too late. The Night Hag will be tickled pink to welcome them into her fold, just as she welcomes all lost souls unto this damned world from which there is no escape. Nevermore shall they look upon the light or even dream of it.
So come, come if you dare to the Planet of Perpetual Shadows. The night embraces her own...eternally.