The story of Kill Team: Ashes of Faith follows a team of highly-trained Inquisitorial Agents as they investigate rumours of a Chaos Cult corrupting the planet Exhalus… but that all sounds a bit one-sided to us. It’s always ‘sedition’ this and ‘rebellion’ that with the Inquisition, and for once we’re going to let the other guys tell their side of the story.
In fact, Chaos is just a victim of bad PR – there’s no other membership plan that gives you such awe-inspiring results in so short a time. Becoming a Cultist is a sure-fire path to power and respect, and all it requires is dedication, sacrifice, and a tiny spot of mutation.
Each Chaos Cult kill team is led by a Cult Demagogue and their entourage, but we’re not here to learn about them – it’s the Cult Devotees we’re after. These ragtag hopefuls can punch way above their weight once their fragile forms have been sacrificed upon the altar of daemonic possession.
Sorry, did we say sacrificed? We meant upgraded. Get back to your rituals.
The myriad blessings of Chaos are hard to resist, and all it takes is a bit of time before Cultists start blossoming into wild-eyed Mutants and nightmarish Torments. As with all things warp-y, you can also kick-start the process with a bit of old-fashioned bloodshed and blasphemous prayer – because let’s face it, those Imperials aren’t going to martyr themselves.
Good news! Once the power of mutation takes hold, a selection of six Accursed Gifts are yours to choose from. Take to the skies as a leather-Winged cryptid, sprout fetching Barbed protuberances, or protect your newly twisted body with a layer of Chitinous armour – the skies are literally the limit, and we’re assured that there are absolutely no soul-damning drawbacks to the process.
The mutations you choose will be shared by the rest of your kill team, so you’ll never feel lonely in your new form. And if the thought of sprouting extra arms, horns, and blades gives you pause for thought, you can also use your mutation to heal a few wounds instead. You know, if you’re a coward.
As well as the wondrous gifts you receive, the new-and-improved you has an entirely different – and significantly more powerful – datacard to use. You might lose out on a pistol once the grip of Chaos takes hold, but do you really need it when your new claws rend armour like paper?
Don’t worry if you end up having second thoughts about your choice of Accursed Gift, as all mutated operatives revert to their original selves at the end of a campaign game – ready to begin the process anew and experiment with other choices. We can neither confirm nor deny whether this endless cycle of mutation has any long-term effects on the body or soul, but the other Devotees certainly look OK.
Leaders who’ve cultivated a suitably twisted batch of followers can drop powerful Ploys on those deemed worthy to carry their patrons’ blessings. Mutants and Torments can debilitate their foes with their sheer Sickening Aura alone, and tear into so-called loyalists with furious vigour after a little careful prompting to Unleash the Daemon.
What we’re saying is, the only bad time to offer up your soul to the Chaos Gods is never – why remain a humdrum bag of flesh and sadness when you can feel the raw energy of the empyrean running through your very bones? With godly power at your command, the dastardly Inquisitorial Agents who’re looking to shut down your little gathering won’t know what hit them.
Kill Team: Ashes of Faith is coming to shelves soon, so keep an eye on Warhammer Community for more rules and reveals as we get closer to release.