The three days following the Second Battle of the Xia Highlands was a bloody series of engagements known as the Night of Tooth and Claw. A forbidden arsenal of Xenoforms has been unleashed across the Huaxia region by unknown parties, and the brotherhood of the Order of Our Lady of Jade, the praetorial guard of the Ten Thousand Graces, and other parties have struggled to contain the outbreak while also trying to find out who had released the monsters upon the world of Xiandao.

Following the shattering of the forces of the Ten Thousand Graces by a cunning ambush laid by the Xenoforms, the creatures began their rampage towards the coastal cities of Xianyang and Daliang. Grandmaster Nikephor of the Order of Our Lady of Jade moved rapidly to intervene, stopping the Xenoforms in their tracks on the outskirts of an abandoned mining base in the Xia Highlands. Despite heavy casualties, the brotherhood crushed the horde beneath its armored boots, the Xenoforms withering under a torrent of flame and mass-reactive bolter fire.

Nikephor hoped that this would be the end of the infestation. It was not.

The next day the Xenoforms were spotted moving rapidly towards the opposite coast, rampaging through shepherd villages and destroying—and devouring—everything in their path. Their numbers seemed to have grown, although whether this was the same horde defeated by Grandmaster Nikephor, or another released from some other forbidden vault, none could say. As the horde approached the small, isolated city of Kai, the monastery brotherhoods of the Ordo Celestia and Most Precious Blood mustered out to try and stop it.

The Ordo Celestia engaged with the Xenoforms first, checking their onslaught with an indomitable wall of chanted litanies and bolter fire. The ravening hordes withered easily. Too easily. By the time the Ordo Celestia’s Confessor-Commander, Severus, realized the ruse, it was too late. Having seemingly grown in cunning and intelligence, the Xenoforms had tied up the static and inflexible warrior-monks with a head-on charge of expendable minions while the real force slipped past their lines via the river-valley opposite, closing in like a pincer upon the warrior monks of the Most Precious Blood.

Warrior-monks of the Ordo Celestia overwhelmed as hungry Xenoforms overrun their position.

Undaunted, the monks’ commander, Chalice-Keeper Basilius, ordered his mechanized infantry and elite Paramonai guards forward, taking the fight to the enemy.

The templars of the Most Precious Blood prepare to defend the village.

The two sides charged each other headlong as the battle played out across a now-abandoned village a day’s march from Kai. The stalwart brothers checked the advance of the horde despite the Xenoform’s greatly superior numbers. Yet for every one they killed, two more of the horrors surged forward to take their place.

Paramonai guards repulse wave after wave of the Xenoforms, attempting to control a key choke point in the village.

At last, Basilius’ right flank was turned by the sudden apparition of a massive Xenoform upon the battlefield, a giant arachnoid monstrosity whose presence brought shadow and darkness that filled the minds of the brothers with despair.

The Coming of Ungol.

The warrior-monks of the Most Precious Blood dubbed the creature “Ungol,” the name of an ancient demon from the legends of Terra, and the mechanized infantry shattered were broken and devoured.

Chalice-Keeper Basilius rallied what troops he could and, surging forward with the remainder of his reserves, attempted to slay the creature head-on. Although he and his Paramonai guards ripped into the creature with flamers, bone-saws, and powered fists crackling with energy, they were pulled down and devoured one by one.

The last stand of Chalice-Keeper Basilius.

Now, with the Ordo Celestia outmaneuvered and the Order of Our Lady of Jade still too far to lend aid, there is little to stop the hoard from overrunning the loyal city of Kai.

Forces: Space Marines Combat Patrol (Order of Our Lady of Jade & Ordo Celestia), Tyranid Combat Patrol (Xenform Arsenal), and Blood Angels Combat Patrol (Order of the Most Precious Blood).

Rules: WH40k 10^th Edition Combat Patrol rules