While everyone is busy writing about CAINNNNN, one should not forget that Amberly Vail is now the HERO OF THE IMPERIUM and deserves her own fair share of misunderstandings amazing deeds!
Lorcus Phrecht ambled down the hallways of the Throne Eternal, a lone servitor carrying a large case behind him. It has been a while since he last met the Lady Inquisitor, and this was as good a time as any. He had managed to secure out-of-Sector reinforcements, after all, at the price of the Panacea Cabal transferring copies of the Panacea STC and large amounts of the substance over. It would not do to end this without a face-to-face meeting of Inquisitors and, besides, it would take some time to complete the transfer anyway.
Entering the room, he saw a large table, half of which were already laid out with sculpted and painted miniature terrain. As per their agreement, the half of the table facing him was blank, letting him set up his own. He gestured to his servitor to do so. "Good to meet you again. I must say, every time we meet always has one piece of good news, which is better than our other colleagues manage."
"Would that good news begin with the letter P?" Lady Inquisitor Amberley Vail riposted, the rising star unafraid to interact with her elders as a peer. Good, good. Too many new Inquisitors were either yes-mans to all or blatantly copying someone, which is why none of those have ended up in the same position as this unique gem. "Those things aside, I hope you don't mind the terrain. An associate of mine foisted them on me and they're good enough quality I haven't found a replacement yet."
Phrecht nods. Setting up the table and the objectives, he was pleased to see that Vail had the same idea as him for the meeting. His factory and hab-bunker, deployed as close to each other and the center of the table as was legal, representing the forge-world and hive-world that was the focus of the campaign. The keep in his deployment zone represented the fortress world that was taken by the traitor Space Marines early on. The set of barricades on the left flank would be the multi-planet system, and the large patch of forest on the right flank the feral world. And in the back of Vail's deployment zone, something even his inexperienced eyes could identify as an Aeldari symbol, one whose make would suggest dangerous things in the hands of any but a Inquisitor or Rogue Trader. Not that he would cast stones. He sees that she has brought a full Valhallan army. Perfect, to play against his Servants.
His own forces were weighted more heavily towards the traitors than lesser heretics, as reflects the disposition of the enemy forces, a mix of Khornate and regular. He aggressively advances his Terminators and Eightbound into the forge and hive world respectively, forcing her Guardsmen and Leman Russes to stand back and take perfunctory shots. A deployment of Jakhals on the right wing functioned as a sufficient speed bump for the Tempesta - ah, should he think of them as Grey Knights, as matches his actual force, instead? With the cultists coming up able to contest the objectives, he decides to push his elites into melee with the Guardsmen and leave his regular Space Marines to move the mechanised unit on the barricades.
"With that, my Guardsmen flee." Vail announces, ending his latest turn, and interestingly not using the attached Preacher's ability. "On the beginning of my turn, I roll to rally - with the aid of the Preacher, it succeeds! Now, they are within range of my Medicae, so I roll for Panacea - and I'm back to full strength. Shooting Phase. I'm going to risk a Basilisk on your Terminators - scatter, both Eightbound and Terminator are struck - twenty wounds. Your saves?" Ah, he'd forgotten about the Panacea. Yes, this was what he was here for, not just some social call, but to see with his own eyes what an experienced user of the Panacea would do in the conflict. Against the enemies of mankind, normally a fleeing force would have no chance of recovery, hence why retreat was so harshly punished. But the Panacea changed that, and his - and hopefully his enemy's - failure to understand that has led to the total loss of his elite forces.
Within two turns, the twin worlds were back in Imperium hands, and her forces spread out to remove his scorers on the flank objectives. The Tempesta make an end run into the keep, forcing his Helbrute to protect it, but they destroy the daemon engine with half their forces and their transport intact - and of course they would. Who else but the Grey Knights would be suited to cracking open a partially demonised fortress world? The final turn was a few perfunctory shots from his remaining forces, and Vail scoring almost every objective, overtaking his early point advantage. He notes that she had avoided the Aeldari world all game, despite how easy it would be to seize. A warning, then? "Good game," he said to Vail, shaking her hand. Truly, she has given him much to think about and discuss with his commanders.
The Workshop truly was a game for the greatest of intellectuals. It was a shame so few were permitted to play it, but an open mind is a fortress with it's gates unbarred. He itched to know where Van Yastobaal had sourced the game from - some hidden cabal of intellectuals, fearful of the closed minded peers he had, yet wanting their knowledge to serve the Emperor, no doubt.
Amberley gave a sigh of relief after Phrecht packed up his pieces and left. She'd horribly misplayed the Valhallan army she had to loan from Ruput, but no way was she going to let her Drukhari main be seen. Leirahaz had helpfully gifted her a few more... personalised sculpts after complaining about the inaccuracy in the models, and sending Vileheart to his death time and again was too much fun for her to not run the army, but it'd certainly raise questions on where she'd get the model on. She had even forgotten about the Aeldari shrine when setting up terrain, and subsequently had to butcher her gameplan to avoid drawing notice to it. Someohow, she had managed to pull a win, one that had pleased the elder Inquisitor before her.
She really, really did not want the Concilium Ravus to think she had more connections to Slawkenberg than she had. Or, frankly, exactly the amount she had. She had no idea what channels Van Yastobaal was using (and no interest in finding out), but surely her fellow Inquisitors had to be aware who was feeding The Workshop information, right? The extremely accurate, far more than any they had previously gotten, information on the Drukhari, except for an inflated Wych Cult, almost like it was written by a Succubus? The Genestealer emphasis, as though their Tyranid interest came from, say, Space Hulks? Near perfect replication of the forces of Chaos, conveniently missing Nurgle? Representing the Astra Militarum by Valhallans alone, except with Tempesta support and no Commissionar, exactly like the forces Chenkov had?
Ugh, this was the third time she had to play Workshop with visiting Inquisitors. Maybe she should ask Leirahaz for the old sculpts back, or just learn to get good with Valhallans...