Embracing The Dark Gods

The taint of Chaos can be found throughout the depths of Necromunda’s hive cities, its remote ash waste settlements and even among the decadent nobles of its spires. None can count themselves safe from the influence of the Chaos gods, though some openly embrace the darkness in their thirst for power and violence.

The following section provides guidelines for creating a gang dedicated to the Dark Gods or running one that turns to the worship of Chaos during a campaign. Any of the six House gangs – Orlock, Delaque, Escher, Cawdor, Goliath and Van Saar – can turn to Chaos if their player chooses.

Making A Dark Pact

Turning a gang to Chaos can be done in one of two ways: either the gang can begin dedicated to the Dark Gods or they can turn during a campaign. During gang creation a player can decide if their gang is dedicated to the Dark Gods. If they do, they gain the benefits detailed that follow, but are also automatically an Outlaw gang (see page 6).

During a campaign a player can attempt to turn to Chaos by having their Leader make the Dark Ritual Post-battle action (see page 27). If this action successfully draws the favour of a Chaos god, or if one of the gang’s members is turned into a Chaos Spawn, the gang becomes both a Chaos Corrupted gang as well as an Outlaw gang.

Benefits Of Chaos

A Chaos Corrupted gang gains the following benefits:

• Lasting Injuries may become Mutations (see page 11).
• The ability to perform Dark Rituals as a post- battle action.
• Fighters in a Chaos Corrupted gang never become subject to the Insanity condition even if a scenario rule or special rule states that they would.
• The ability to include Chaos Spawn in their gangs (see page 28).
• The favour of a Chaos god (see page 27). Note that only Helot Chaos Cults gangs are permitted to seek the favour of different gods. For Chaos Corrupted gangs, once they have received the favour of a god, they cannot pray to any others when conducting a Dark Ritual.

Agents Of Misrule

In a Law and Misrule Campaign, any gang that is dedicated to the Dark Gods or that makes a Dark Pact automatically becomes aligned to Misrule. They cannot change their alignment further over the course of the campaign.

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Designer’s Note: Modelling Chaos Corrupted Gangs

Chaos Corrupted gangs provide a wealth of modelling opportunities for players. Blood-spattered Goliath gangs dedicated to Khorne, pale-skinned, filth-encrusted Cawdor bowing down to the Plague God and luridly-coloured Delaque in the service of Tzeentch are some of the obvious options, though players really are limited only by their own imagination (and perhaps the contents of their bits box!).

While there are no game requirements to model a Chaos Corrupted gang as different from their more ‘wholesome’ counterparts (after all Chaos does love hiding in plain sight), it is certainly encouraged. Also, in a campaign the Arbitrator might require Chaos Corrupted gangs to be distinct from their non-corrupted counterparts, so that their opponents know what kind of gang they are facing.

Blood God

Gangs dedicated to the Blood God thirst for murder and carnage. These savage fighters enjoy nothing more than the feel of arterial blood spraying across their screaming faces and bare arms as they hack apart their victims. The most notorious followers of the Blood God on Necromunda are the Corpse Grinders, though there are many others who pay homage to the Lord of Skulls, such as the Quinspire Deathcults, the Gore Warriors of Mynerva and there are even whispers of a renegade Goliath clan known as the Blood Forge.

Benefits

Helot Chaos Cults and Chaos Corrupted gangs who have earned the favour of the Blood God gain the following benefits in their next game:

• Once per round, a single failed Wound roll can be re-rolled.
• If a Chaos Spawn is part of the gang’s crew, it gains +1 to its Strength characteristic.
• The gang’s Leader adds +1 to their Attacks characteristic.

Plague Lord

Gangs dedicated to the Plague Lord have found ample places to thrive in the depths of the underhive. Amongst fungal wildernesses and zombie-choked ruins, muties offer up prayers to their foul deity for deliverance from their hellish existence. That the Plague God rewards them with pestilence does little to diminish their faith, and there are numerous cults scattered across Necromunda such as the Sons of the Weeping Sore, the Zombie Herders of Mortis or the debased ex-Cawdor fane dedicated to the Plague Emperor Ascendant.

Benefits

Helot Chaos Cults and Chaos Corrupted gangs who have earned the Favour of the Plague Lord gain the following benefits in their next game:

• Once per End phase, a single Recovery roll can be re-rolled.
• If a Chaos Spawn is part of the gang’s crew, it gains +1 to its Toughness characteristic.
• The gang’s Leader adds +1 to their Wounds characteristic.

Dark Prince

Gangs dedicated to the Dark Prince indulge in hedonism and excess in all its forms. Pain, terror and torment drive those pledged to this alluring tyrant, the god’s followers constantly pushing themselves for ever more extreme sensations. Necromunda’s spires and their decadent elite make fertile breeding grounds for such cults, though it is just as likely they will hide in the shadows of the underhive, such as the Gentlemen of Pain, disgraced noblemen from the peaks of the spires who exult in the most unspeakable pastimes, or the wandering torture-merchants known as the Screaming Brides.

Benefits

Helot Chaos Cults and Chaos Corrupted gangs who have earned the favour of the Dark Prince gain the following benefits in their next game:

• Once per round, during the Activation phase, two fighters that are Ready can be picked and activated one after the other, rather than the usual one.
• If a Chaos Spawn is part of the gang’s crew it rolls two D6 when determining its movement and chooses the highest result.
• The gang’s Leader adds +2 to their Movement characteristic.

Architect Of Fate

Gangs dedicated to the Architect of Fate are schemers and psykers; always seeking to create confusion and chaos among the hives. Tapping into the dark power of the Warp, these Chaos cults pose perhaps the greatest threat to Necromunda, as they twist the very stuff of reality to their will. Such cults can be found hiding throughout Necromunda, such as the Coven of Eyes dealing secrets in Hive City or the Wyrdborn gathering up psykers in the underhive. Some are even more ancient and pervasive still, like the rumoured Immortal Cult of Necromunda, with its millennia-long mission to bring about the psychic awakening of humanity, whatever the price…

Benefits

Helot Chaos Cults and Chaos Corrupted gangs who have earned the favour of the Architect of Fate gain the following benefits in their next game:

• Once per round, a single fighter may ignore all negative modifiers when making a Shoot (Basic) or Shoot (Double) action.
• If a Chaos Spawn is part of the gang’s crew, it gains a Save of 4+.
• The gang’s Leader gains a random wyrd power (see page 171 of the Necromunda Rulebook).

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The True Name Of Chaos

The true names of the Chaos gods are seldom ever spoken in the underhive, even by those in their service, and the overwhelming majority of Necromundans are entirely ignorant of the true nature of the gods at all. However, gangs and hivers alike know them, and their effects, by other names. For instance, Tzeentch is the Whisperer, the Watcher or the Dreamer; Slaanesh is the Pale One, Shadow Ruler or the Nightwild; Khorne is the Scratcher, the Red God or the Lord of Skin and Sinew, and Nurgle is the King in Rags and Tatters, the Lord of Shivers or Old Festus. For ease of use, the rules use the most well-known names for the four principal Chaos powers, though it can be imagined gangs refer to them using the titles above – if they dare speak their names at all!

Mutations

Open wounds are a gateway for more than just disease and rot. The Chaos gods exalt in torn flesh and severed muscle, bestowing their ‘blessings’ on those that spill gore in their sight. In addition to the ever-present risk of infection and death, gangers fighting beneath the gaze of the Ruinous Powers risk more unnatural dangers.

When a fighter in a Helot Chaos Cults, Corpse Grinder Cult or Chaos Corrupted gang gains a Lasting Injury (regardless of the cause), there is a chance it will become a mutation. If the result was Lesson Learned, Out Cold, Grievous Injury, Critical Injury or Memorable Death, apply the Lasting Injury as normal. Otherwise roll a D6 with the following modifiers:

• Add 1 if the Lasting Injury was inflicted by a fighter from a Chaos Corrupted gang, a Helot Chaos Cults gang or a Corpse Grinder gang.
• Add 1 if the Lasting Injury was sustained by a Daemon or daemonically possessed fighter.
• Add 1 if the fighter who suffered the Lasting Injury already has at least one other mutation.

If the result of the roll is a 6 or more then the Lasting Injury becomes a mutation. Do not apply the effects of the Lasting Injury to the fighter, instead make a note on their Fighter card of the corresponding mutation (see the Mutations table). The same mutation cannot be gained more than once. If a fighter would gain a duplicate mutation, the player may choose another mutation from the Mutations table instead.

The boons of the Dark Gods always come with a price, and no one suffers their blessings for long without succumbing to madness and corruption. As soon as a fighter gains a number of mutations equal to their Toughness characteristic, they are transformed into a Chaos Spawn (see page 28) and removed from the gang roster unless they are part of a Chaos Cult, Chaos Corrupted or Corpse Grinder Cult gang – in these cases, the Chaos Spawn is added to the gang roster immediately.

Mutations

Lasting Injury	Mutation
Humiliated	Hungering Pride: The fighter must activate before any other fighters in their crew. If there is more than one fighter in the crew with this mutation, the controlling player may choose which one to activate first. Fighters with this mutation gain 1 additional Experience point if they take an enemy Leader or Champion Out of Action.
Head Injury	Dark Madness: The fighter must make an Intelligence check when they activate. If the test is failed, roll a D6 to determine their first action for this activation: 1-2 Move action, 3-4 Shoot or Fight action, 5-6 No action.
Eye Injury	Bestial Senses: The fighter cannot be included as part of a group activation, nor can they initiate a group activation if they are a Leader or Champion. The fighter counts as always being equipped with a bio-scanner.
Hand Injury	Disturbing Appendage: The fighter always counts as being equipped with a fighting knife which cannot be disarmed or destroyed. When using weapons with the Unwieldy trait, the fighter suffers a -1 modifier to their Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill rolls.
Hobbled	Warped Limbs: Reduce the fighter’s Move characteristic by 1. When the fighter makes a Charge action roll three D3, instead of one, and choose the highest to determine the distance they move.
Spinal	Injury Crooked Body: Ranged attacks made against the fighter suffer a -1 modifier to hit while within the attacking weapon’s Long range. The fighter cannot wear armour of any kind – any armour they are currently equipped with may be returned to the gang’s Stash.
Enfeebled	Twisted Flesh: When the fighter activates, they may remove one Flesh Wound from their Fighter card. The fighter cannot benefit from bio-boosters, medicae kits or assistance fromother fighters when making Recovery tests.