Week 7: They look like us now | Necromunda: Moon of the Mad Magos

This is the seventh and final week of the Moon of the Mad Magos Necromunda campaign being run at Asgard Wargames.

Weekly event: They look like us now

The plan of the mad Magos is revealed. The finest fighters of Helicon have been replaced with gene-hanced replicas of themselves. Perfect Skitarii infiltrators with subdermal implants, lightning reactions, and the memories of all those who have died and been reclaimed by the moon. They can’t be reasoned with, they don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever… until you are dead.

All scenarios contain a Murder Cyborg hidden among the fighters. 

Additionally, the strange devices previously ransacked by gangs turned out to be atmospheric stabilisers. The Badzone effects from the previous week are still in effect. You may permanently eliminate these effects from your settlement by removing a Xenoculum, Archeotech Device or Malefic Artifact from your gang list.

The Murder Cyborg

The Murder Cyborg does not begin on the board – it is revealed part way through the game.

When any fighter suffers a wound, roll a D6. On a 5+, their flesh peels away to reveal they were a Skitarii infiltrator all along! Immediately roll a mission directive for the murder cyborg on the table below.

The Murder Cyborg has its own stats and special rules, but uses the weapons of the fighter it replaced. It is extremely difficult to kill, see Terminating the Cyborg.

For all game rules and effects, the original fighter never participated in the battle.

Mission Directives

1-2 Extermination: If Engaged, the cyborg must make the Fight (Basic) action. If a fighter is visible, it must target them with a ranged attack. If multiple targets are visible, it must divide its attacks as evenly as possible. If no fighters are visible, it must move towards the closest fighter.

3-4 Decapitation: As above, but the cyborg focuses on gang Leaders. It may only attack other targets if they are Engaged with the murder cyborg, or are between it and a gang Leader.

5-6 Self-preservation: Once revealed, the player with Priority picks a battlefield edge furthest from the cyborg as its extraction point. The cyborg must always make at least one Move (Simple) action towards the extraction point, and may use the other action to make a ranged attack at the controlling player’s discretion. If the cyborg ends its activation within 1” of the extraction point, it is removed from play.

Cyborg behaviour

The cyborg is controlled by the gang with Priority, taking an activation as if it were a friendly fighter. It is, however, anything but friendly. It must always follow its mission directives, and is never counted as a friendly fighter.

Terminating the Cyborg

The Murder Cyborg cannot be taken Out of Action by any usual methods – it always treats Out of Action results as Seriously Injured, and is immune to Coup de Grace.

The only way to take the cyborg Out of Action is to reduce it to zero wounds, then cause enough Flesh Wounds to reduce it to zero Toughness. It can then finally be finished off with a Coup de Gras. (This is the only exception to being immune to Coup de Grace)

Pitfalls, such as crevasses or open furnaces, are effective (and appropriate) ways of terminating the cyborg assassin.

Operating system

The cyborg assassin uses the weapons of the fighter it replaced, but has the following statline:

MWSBSSTWIALdClWilInt
4″3+2+4534+38+3+5+8+

Equipment

  • Subdermal implants (4+ armour save)
  • Displacer field (4+ field save, if successful, scatters distance equal to the attacking weapon’s Strength)
  • Photo Goggles (can see through smoke and targets within 12” while in Pitch Black)

Skills

  • Fast Shot: The cyborg treats the Shoot (Basic) action as Shoot (Simple)
  • Iron Jaw: The cyborg gets +2 Toughness when being hit by unarmed close combat attacks

Special rules

  • Cannot be Pinned.
  • Immune to Coup de Grace (unless taken to zero Flesh Wounds), and immune to Flash, Gas and Toxin traits.
  • If subject to Blaze, the cyborg takes the automatic hit as usual, but may otherwise act normally.
  • When rolling for Injury, treats any Out of Action result as Serious Injury.
  • If Seriously Injured it does not roll for Recovery in the end phase. Instead it checks Toughness, recovering and gaining a Flesh Wound if it passes.
  • Once on zero Toughness, the cyborg can no longer recover (but may still take the Crawl and Blind Fire actions) and is no longer immune to the Coup de Grace action.

To the victor, the spoils

Any fighter that inflicts a wound on the murder cyborg gains +1 XP.

The gang that performs the killing blow on the murder cyborg gains +D3 Rep and 3D6x10 credits.

The Mad Magos, illustrated by Annabelle Musketanna
The Mad Magos, illustrated by Annabelle Musketanna