Review: Escape Plan (Raja Uda, Butterworth)

Previously, I reviewed an Escape Room establishment called Break the Code in Jalan Burmah, Penang. This time, my friends invited me to try a new one called Escape Plan in Butterworth. The game is generally similar. You are locked in a room with puzzles inside, solve them in 1 hour to escape and win the game. Simple! Here is my review of Escape Plan.

My first impression I had when I entered the place was that it looked cheap. There was not much decoration, the entrance was a simple wooden door, the walls were painted bland white illuminated by bland fluorescent light. It felt like I stepped into an office lot. However, the staff were very friendly and eased us into starting our game.

We picked the hardest room called "The Abandoned" to play. Before the game starts, the staff tells us a tale of an aborted child who haunts the hospital. When the aborted child's parents returned to the same hospital to deliver their next child, they were trapped by the vengeful unborn spirit. We are to be trapped in the very same hospital and must figure out the clues left by the child ghost to escape. Scary! Then, we were sent into the room, and the clock starts.

Mom, Dad, why don't you love me? WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The room looks er.... cheap (I hate using the same adjective twice in a post but it is the best word to describe). The plain white walls which were occasionally splattered with red bloody message, the simple furniture, and the bland cement floor certainly did not add to the eeriness of the theme. I did not feel like I was in a hospital at all. However, it was enough for the puzzles to work.

The puzzles were on the plus side were very well done. For those of you who are not familiar with my critique of Escape Room puzzles in a previous post, puzzles that have no relation to the story and exist only because the designers wanted the players to solve a puzzle is bad. Although this room has a fair share them, some of the puzzles actually contributed to the room's story and it made the room feel real.

The creative usage of electronics in some of the puzzles was praiseworthy too and it's a breath of fresh air compared to the ole find the number and unlock the padlock puzzles.

The puzzles were good, I felt really satisfied finishing them all

Final Verdict: The game was fun. But at RM30 something per person for 1 hour, it might not be worthwhile for some. With better decorations, this place can be a really solid place to have fun. Fun rating, I'll give it a 3/5

Would I Recommend? If you never played Escape Rooms before, this one is decent and you should definitely go try it out. But I am not sure if it was good enough to warrant a second visit.

Dungeons and Dragons: Jade Regent (Part 1)

For an introduction of the characters and the adventure, check out this post.

This time. Ux and party is go magic island is for Akemi ta getz tha blessing spirits of ol ded emprahz. The island iz protekted wit good magikz so Ded Wun can't come. He sez he has allergiz or sumfing. To go island, Ux, Invisi-gurl, Kaboom Shoota, an Akemi ridez on Mista Gigoro's ship.

The island iz fulla stony slabz wit scribblez. We go into small house with evan bigga slabz. Akemi kneelz an sprikelz holi watar on the slabz. Then a ol lady appearz and sez she kno where find Emprah's tombz we follows but tha lady then dissapearz all sneaky-like. All hags are leik dis. Da evil ghosties then appearz an go into Invisi-gurl an Kaboom Shoota's body. Ux and Akemi saves them!

Now we is lost. Akemi playz magic plucky music to know fings. She then pointz da way. We see ghosty fings blocking da way. Ux wan smash them all but Invisi-gurl has sneaky plan!

 Problemz no more! (Chan Sing: To understand what is that gem, read my post for Tomb of Horrors. Not yet out)

Nex part is Ux's favoritz, there are big monstas for Ux to kill! But no get to smash much. Kaboom-shoota's splosive twanks killz them fast with flashy finish.

Ux sad....

Then we locatz da ol ded emprah's shrine. There we meets Akemi's ol ded kin. She very nice to Ux. Ux leik all fings that gives Ux da healz. She sez she will give her house blessing to Akemi if we kills her other evil kin. Ux acceptz mission, Ux liek kill fings for people that is nice to Ux.

Then we meetz da last emprah. The ex-emprah is all ghosty an transparant-ish. He sez he left da throne coz his advisa da jade regent trikz him into finking he iz gonna die coz people are tryin ta sneaky stab im. And he lost his 'ead for sum reason. He too will bless Akemi if we can recover his 'ead and his body. Ta gets the otha klanz blessings is arda coz sumfing evil is stoppin otha gud ex-emprah spirits from konnecting to island. We needs to kills da evil fings happening on da island. But the evil kin, missin ead, n the evil fings are all inside the ole of hell on this island.

We leave Akemi wit the ole emprah coz the hell ole is guarded by magik gate that stopz good fings frum going out. Invisi-gurl an Kaboom shoota are not good so there is no problemz. Ux is nuteral too koz Ux too dumb to understand gud n bad. We reachz da hell ole on magik horsies konjured by Invisi-gurl. We ride into da hole and have to fight slime demons! the smile deamons can tellyporta and their attackz clogs Ux's breathing oles! We escapes and found another ole emeprah. He says he is the first emprah of Waaa an the deamons that attack us are all his! Invisi-gurl done made that emprah more nica to us tho.

Invisi-gurl's boob sorcery did not works well on dis emprah

The ex-emprah sez he is willing to call off the deamons. Then Ded Wun appears! He sez the hell ole negates his allergiz. The ex-emprah says he has no the ead and the evil kin but he shows us the way coz he also wuns them ded. So we goes into that direksion an found the evil kin with tentacle magiks. (Ux heard tentacles iz all da craze in Waaa.) Ux almost gets Ux's oles violated but Ded Wun with his powah beating stik done right smash em all ded.

But before dyin, the evil kins sez "ito sent u right?" afta that she dies. Ux go back to first emprah an ask who is Ito. He sez it is a nekro-magikman called Ito Sojinawa. He lives in da deepa levelz of hell and very dangerous and likely da man who done all evil fings stoppin the good spirits konneckting to island. So we travels into deepa hell. 

Inside deepa hell, it is a cave lotsa watar wit beaches on the edge. We found a boat that stops on one of the beaches. So move until we see 2 fings. they says he will only gives us wot we want if we give bitz of our souls. Ux dunno wot soul is but Ux dun leik is tone so Ux began charging to poke them ded. But Ux got sucks into magik rock! But it only for short moment coz Ux explodes out of tha gem. (Chan Sing: The only reason Ux manages to escape out of the gem is because Ux is unwittingly carrying the spirit of an evil cleric. The gem overloads if it has to suck in more than 1 soul. More on that in my post on Mel. Not out yet.)

Now Ux is free, Ux done right poke one ded an Ded Wun smash anotha one ded. Then Ux go finds Ito, before that Ux gets to fight da Bony Champion and smash em ded. Then Ux blinks on top a giant bat an stabby the bat to death. Ux found the ex-emprah's missin ead n body. Ux rush to getz da head but then anotha dead-bony ghosty man appears outa now where. Talk is very short.

 

He sed it and its gud enuf for Ux

So ghosty bad man is ded... again... Ux sad coz no has magik treasure coz ghost got no items Ux can hold. So we found ead n body, kill evil kin, stop evil fings in hell. Time to go see Akemi. The ex-emprah was happy to getz body n ead back n ask if we kan kre-mat it.

 

Then da good ol emprah spirits can now come back to the islands. Akemi happy coz she gets the blessing of five royal clanz from the good spirits. Ux happy coz Ux gets experiance and money for arder eavy armour! So we left da island for next adventure.

Oh, we then go back a while to kill sneaky ol hag, then leave island for gud.

Why Do People Hate The Ultramarines

Before I go on, this is not a hate post where I rant about how Ultramarines suck. I am an Ultramarine player and I love my smurf army. However, over the course of time I got plenty of jeering and hate (playful in nature I must add) just because my army is blue and has a horse-shoe symbol. This post is more of an analysis based on my experience of why the Ultramarine hate.

Who are the Ultramarines?
They are one of the Space Marines chapters you can play as in Warhammer 40k. There is plenty of fluff surrounding this chapter. You can read more in this Lexicanum page. In summary, they are one of the original 20 Space Marine chapters founded by the God Emperor of Mankind. Their strength is their tactical expertise, leadership skills, and because they have an Empire within an Empire of their own, an unlimited supply of tactical marines to replace dead ones. Their greatest contribution the the Imiperium of Mankind is writing the Codex Astartes (debatable), securing the Imiperium after the Horus Heresy (debatable... kind of), and stopping an entire Tyranid Hive Fleet.

Hold the line! For everyone of us that falls, 10,000 of them must die!

Why do people hate the Ultramarines?

Well, for a few reasons really. Here is a list:

1) The fluff is bad (i.e. They have been Marty Stued)

I don't know how the fluff got bad. To me, everything started once Space Marine codex 5th edition came out, written by Matt Ward. This codex should really be called Codex: Ultramarines because so much of the pages was dedicated to detailing how awesome the Ultramarine is. In fact, if you wished to play other factions included in the codex (such as Salamanders, Imperial Fist and so on), you are forced to take a special character otherwise they had to play like Ultramarines because every Space Marines want to be like them. To understand why Matt Ward wrote the Ultramarines that way, well here is an interview with the man himself.

Even I puked a little when I read this

So there you have it. Ultramarines are the best of the best and others are inferior because the are not Ultramarines or do not follow the Codex Astartes. So as you probably figured out, no one likes it when their army is written to be "inferior" and begging to be more "superior" just because one man said so. And thus the hate towards Ultramarines began because they started to look like pompous fools. Although the fluff has been fixed in the 6th edition Codex: Space Marines saying that they are just "the oldest and most famous of them all", but the 7th edition rulebook still insist they are the "greatest of them all".

2) They are Games Workshop's favorites.

There is no denying it since Space Marines are clearly Games Workshops most marketed product.Think of any media outside tabletop games, you will definitely see a Space Marine. And when you see a Space Marine product (apart from Space Wolves, Dark Angels, and Blood Angels) the Ultramarines is always at the cover. So people might hate Ultramarines because either of the undeserved limelight or most beginners start with Ultramarines because it was the most marketed and people love bashing on newbies. Although things recently have changed because the 2 latest starter sets although still feature Space Marines, they feature Dark Angels and Space Wolves instead.

3) It is fashionable to hate the Ultramarines

This is especially true for junior players because they don't know why but the big boys do it so it must be cool. In fact, some deem Ultramarine hate a rite of passage. This fact even transcends to fluff writers too I heard. (Perhaps they are catering to the market?) Whatever the case, this does not bode well for my army.

So the fluff says they are "The Greatest", but are they "The Greatest" in-game?

No they are not, simple as that. Space Marines were designed to be the good guys, versatile, easy to play and forgiving when players make mistakes. In short, an ideal beginner's army. But there lies the problem, once you are starting to get familiar with the core rules, Space Marines have no particular strengths for you to exploit. Example, say you start with an Ork army, sure the stats are hard to remember and morale checks suck. But once you get the hang of it, figuring out a tactic for your Orks is easy, go into close combat fast. Say your opponent moves fast , then you can put your Orks on transports or bikes and go into close combat fast. Say your opponent has really powerful guns, then you can field more cheaper units in front, so your stronger Orks can go into close combat fast. If you are unsure what your opponent's strength is, go into close combat fast, you can hardly go wrong. However, if you are playing a versatile army, figuring out a tactic requires you to understand what is your opponent's strength and weakness so you can exploit their weakness and deny their strength. But, if you are like most casual players and do not have time to read every other faction's Codex, figuring a tactic for a versatile army can be hard. In short, they are not easy to win with if you are not skilled enough.

But if you want, you can just build your Space Marine army to be good in one thing, then you have a strength to exploit. Example say if you play Iron Hands, you could build your army with lots of tanks and techmarines so you can mow your opponent down from long range, or drop dreadnoughts into your enemy's line. To fully utilise Ultramarine's special rule, you need to make your already versatile army even more versatile with a good mix of tacticals, devastators, and assault marines. That makes them hard to play.

The Ultramarine special rule also requires you to know when to initiate the 3 doctrines. And for a beginner, knowing when to initiate is hard. Other Space Marine chapters have special rules that last throughout the game making them more beginner-friendly. In short, they are not even a particularly good beginner's army!

Then, why are people still playing Ultramarines?

I can only understand 4 types of people who will play Ultramarines.

1) Ultramarine Fan-boys

These people perhaps started 40k a long time ago with Ultramarines and have developed an attachment to it. So despite the hate, their sense of loyalty preserves them.

2) Trolls

The fluff says you are the greatest right? Well, just go to a game-club say you love Ultramarines and brag how your army are the greatest and purest of them all. Watch the others react in displeasure and delight because successful troll is successful.

3) Those who like a challenge

As I mentioned, Ultramarines are hard to win with. These people just like to make a supposedly weak army into a strong one because it is a glorious achivement to them.

4) Collectors

They'll play any army

Then why are you playing the Ultramarines?

I started playing Ultramarines during 5th edition because I liked the idea of Space Marines who are tactically inclined. I did not know there was so much hate going on at the time and when I do, I chose to ignore it. But once I joined a game club with plenty of older "fluff experts" I kept getting reminded of the bad fluff every time. Might as well troll them while I am playing Ultramarines I guess.

After all that being said, again all this is based on my experience so not all is accurate. And at the time this is written, 7th edition core rulebook just came out so circumstances might change in the future.

So, If you are playing an Ultramarine army, kudos to you because you clearly do not care what other people think. Just remember:

Dungeons and Dragons: Jade Regent (The story so far)

Ux now write ux's knowingz

Ux is orc dragonborn. When Ux is little my klan has been ded. Dragon found Ux and takes gud care of ux til Ux is bigga n stronga. Dragon teach ux killy magik and powar of Bahamut. Ux luv this Bahamut and will fight for my new boss. He callz Ux a Kruzada for Bahamut.

When Ux dragon daddy is ded. He tell ux go east. Ux will go east! Then Ux leave montain and Ux meet adventurers going east! Ux followz! Dis here adventures is going to Waaa to make preeti gurl Akemi to be new Emphres of Waa.

Ux also will helpz because.... er..... er..... Ux forgot, but theys takin Ux go places wit plenty of big fings ta kill n it makes ux happy.

This Ux's party now:

 Dis wun does Sneaky Magik and Bewb Sorsery

Dis wun shootz, lockpikz, healz Ux, and talks to herself

 Dis wun is Supa-Powahferl!!

We travellz a long way frum Faerun to Waaa. In Waa, a fox sprit toldz us ta go find Sohei who helpz Akemi be next Empheres. Sohei sez the throne now is taken care by Jed Regent since da last Emphra left it and go to sum island. Akemi iz da onlyz rightferl heir to da thronez. Da Jed Regent haz powerful deamon fingz that serves him. Ux like killing them deamon fings!

Then he sez we nids the Geishas, Ninja Clans, and da Daimyo (They kall bosses Daimyos in Waa). We talk to the ninjas and they sed the Jed Reagent's own ninja clan will send them most sneaky and killy assassin to kills us and they is will only join if we ripps the assassin's ead. So we did.

Then da Daimyo's amry willz only joins us if we kills the ole evil Daimyo and his brotha replaces him. Well no nid, he kills himself wen he found he served evil and iz dishonored or sumfing.

The Geishas will only joinz us if we rescued their missing Geisha gurl. Turns out, her father napp er to an island to take his wife's soul to...... er Ux forgot the rest. Too complex and it urtz Ux's head. But we killz ta bad guy and rescued da gurl.

So wez nowz has da Daimyo, Geishas an the Ninjaz clans (well, sum ninjaz clans) on our side and theys waiting to take call a Waaaaagh.... er Ux meanz waiting fer a revolushan ta start.

But first we is needz to go sneaky into da biggast City in Waa. Das where the Jed Regent lives! Akemi nids ta do sum blessy ritual fing and to mess wit da city so da Jed Regent is all surprised and unprepared.

Review: Treasure Hunt Penang 2014 (Organised by the Institute of Engineers Malaysia)

I have not been in much treasure hunt events. I was told that it is something like the Amazing race where you drive around looking for clues that will lead you to the next destination and so on. I don't see many of these kinds of events in Penang so naturally I was excited when I get to join one on June 2014. So here is my review of Treasure Hunt Penang organized by the Young Engineer's Section (YES), Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM).

The event began early 7:30am in Juru Autocity. We got our T-shirts and given stickers bearing the sponsor's logo and team number to stick onto my car. By 8am, a crowd is already forming. Think there were about 70-100 participants in this event. We got briefed on the instructions. Flag waved, and all of us rushed forward looking for our 1st clue. Here is how it went:

Part 1
We were given a piece of paper with all the questions on it. The answers were all in the 'Shop in d'Park' Autocity. It could be a shop's signboard, tiny lights, fans, or table scattered around. Spent about an hour looking answers. No one will tell us if our answer is correct. We were supposed to just submit all our answers at the end of the hunt after which they will only then tell us the correct answers and calculate the scores. After we are done we began to drive to Tayarmart and White Horse Ceramics, all around the mainland. More answers were hidden in the advertisement boards and signboards along the way.

Part 2
After handing in our answers. We were then given an IQ test to complete while we drove to the Dewan Sri Pinang. No hunting for answers, just simple IQ test which we were supposed to figure on our own. This took us 30 mins.

Part 3
After submitting our answers, we were given another set of questions. This time, we needed to look for the answers scattered along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. A stroll along the road yielded answers hidden in tourist information boards, signboards and so on. This took us 1 hour.

Then a lunch break in Times Square.

Part 4
After the lunch break, another set of questions with clues all hidden in the Times Square shopping mall complex. We looked for the answers, wrote them down on the questions list, then submitted our answers. This took us 1 hour. Game ends at 4pm.

 

Arggh! Why there be no gold doubloons in my treasure?!

The game although fun-ish, it had flaws. LOTS of flaws. The questions given to us during the treasure hunt was so poorly written we had trouble deciding if it was a bad poet's riddle or simply bad grammar. Because they tried to play with the questions' words but at the same time made many grammatical errors, whenever the questions did not make sense (which is most of the time) we can't tell if we should try to make sense of it  or dismiss it as bad English and that is frustrating.

The logic behind some of the answers to the questions was too abstract for my taste but you be the judge:

e.g. Ques: The youngest son can be found here.

       Ans: Mercury River

       Explanation: Son sounds like sun. Planets are related to sun. Smallest planet in our solar system is

                           mercury.

I guess I could understand the designers wanting to make the game challenging, but it should not be like this. For a puzzle to be good, the answer to the questions must make solid sense. A good puzzle is when after revealing the answer, the players thinks "Oh! I never thought of that!". A bad one is when they give you a confused look and say "What?".

My brain hurts trying to figure whether I am dumb or game is dumb.

The part were we had to look for the answers by the highway was dangerous. Because we cannot reverse in a highway to review any answers we might have missed, we had to stop by the highway and walk to retrace our steps. That felt dangerous. Even the police came and shooed us away.

Some of the questions were not fair. One requires you to know what a Random Access Memory is (which sucks if you do not know computers), and another requires you to translate "giving luck" into Hokkien (which sucks if you not Chinese or not from Penang).

We did not know any other people there, which puts us in a disadvantage to others who joined the hunt in a large group of friends so even if they are separated into multiple groups, they will help each other out. Although this happens often in many games, good games try to avoid this unfair advantage. Game time of 8am to 4pm seems unnecessarily long.

In short, the treasure hunt was bad. I understand that it is the IEM's 1st time organizing a treasure hunt and people who design this are not professionals. But if they want their future treasure hunts to be fun, changes will have to be made.

Final Verdict: It was bad but decent 1st try. Will have to do better next time. I'd give a 1/5

Would I Recommend?: No. But who knows if future hunts will be much better and thus worth joining.

Review: Break The Code Penang

I am a fan of puzzle games and one of my favorite is the "escape room" mini flash games you see often in the internet. It always begins with me being stuck in a room and to escape, I need to use the tools around the room to figure my way out. After plenty of head scratching, puzzle solving, and mindless clicking of every pixel on my computer screen, I would eventually escape and scream "Yes! I beat your game sucka!"

What if I use the match to melt the door?

But, people are taking this genre to another step by making it real life! You will actually be locked in a room and you have to figure your escape! This is the newest fad that is sweeping across Malaysia and one of the Gamerooms what delivers this is Break The Code. I went to the place in Belissa Row, Penang to check it out and played 2 of their rooms with my friends. Here is my review of Break The Code: Real Room Escape

NOTE: NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

So I picked the room "Crazy Lab: The Undead Zombie". Story is there is an epidemic and the entire human race is infected I must go into the lab to go find the antidote. The people who worked there were very nice and we got started with the game fairly quick. They led us into a room and told us that we had 1 hour to escape this room. There was a bell that we could ring twice only if we got stuck and they would come to provide us clues. Simple enough.

My Psycho-Kinetic Energy Reader is peaking!

Then he closed the door and the clock started to tick. First thing we did was frantically flip over everything that is in the room. One we had the pieces we tried to figure out how they will help us go to the next room. Since most of the obstacles are blocked by numbered padlocks, the puzzles all revolved around figuring the correct code. We eventually got to the last room but the time ran out. Guess we lost!

But throughout the game, although it was fun to work as a team to try and solve puzzles and in turn feel excited once we solved one. The number puzzles appearing over and over again felt stale after awhile. The atmosphere was uninspiring. It felt like they'd just filled up the room with stuff they bought from a Halloween shop. The posters for this room gave us the idea the rooms was scary but actually playing it? The rooms did not manage startle us any one bit. The theme "Crazy Lab" was immediately forgotten once we started solving the puzzles.

 But I thought there were gonna be zombies :(

A few of the puzzles themselves were problematic. We found a way to cheat around one of the puzzles. Think being able to break the puzzle is fun? It is not, trust me. It felt like the person created this was careless rather than me being smart. The puzzles don't fit the theme well and were pretty much just there because the designers wanted you to solve a puzzle and go to the next room. Perhaps if they had a puzzle that was, oh I don't know, created by the Lab's Professor and in it contains the formula for the antidote and only I can solve it because I am the only one he could trust? Then the whole game would have been much enjoyable.

The puzzles were of varying difficulty, but they did not tapper the difficulty accordingly. It felt weird that after we spent 15 minutes of mathematical mind breaking to solve one puzzle, the next one that followed took us only 1 minute.

When I left the Game-room, I was not thinking about how exciting it was or how smart the puzzles were. But instead I was thinking of whether all that was worth my RM 35.

Final Verdict: It was very average. Could have been done better. It was fun just because it was something new. Fun rating, I'd give it a 2/5.

Would I Recommend?: Only if you are with a group of friends and you want to do something different for fun. If you wanted to play puzzle games you might as well go play better escape rooms on the internet for free.

The Saga of the Exploding Wolf (Part 1)

A short but fascinating tale of a lone Wolf Scout assigned to the Deathwatch. A Deathwatch RPG adventure Narratus.

"....and thats is when Froyd lifted his lightning claw. With its blades sharp as the Fenrik's fangs, and blue energy crackeling like the roughest Fenrisian storm. He stabbed into the 4th Eldar Howling Banshee's chest, the blow so mighty it caused filthy alien blood to spray like a leaked promethium can from the Eldar's back and the blood covered the 5th Eldar's visor," recounts Brother Sorgen.

He pauses and extends his hand clad and grey power armour for a pint of frothy Fenrisian ale, and chugged it down sloppily. Huge ammout of ale spills from his mouth to the his unkempt grey beard and fur pelts slung around his chest armour.

Sorgen then stares into the eyes of the ten Space Wolf blood claws. "The last Eldar horrified what Froyd had done to his begotten brethren that he turned to run away in terror! Ha!" Sorgen continued. "No alien can best the fury of Space Wolves! They run, all run, like the cowards they are!" replies one of the blood claws. Then the table bursts into a laughter which covers the entire empty hall.

"Then Froyd goes to chase this coward down and delivered him the coward's punishment. No glory in that," says Sorgen
"Wait, tell us the Saga of the Exploding Wolf Brother Sorgen!" requests one of the blood claw.
"Aha! Tis A tale of extreme stupidity and extreme glory!"
"I heard it is a glorious sacrifice!"
"That it maybe, he is probably the stuff of nightmares in any traitor's mind!"

A large armor clad hand swings and smacks Sorgen in his bare skull, the blow knocks him down his seat. "We do not encourage foolishness to our young ones, brother," speaks the Space Wolf who delivered the blow. Sorgen looks up to see a black armored Space Wolf wearing a helm shaped like a wolf skull. He has apparently entered the hall unnoticed. "Sorry Wolf Priest, I thought it a tale to rouse a beating heart after a drink!" Sorgen replies.

The Wolf Priest turns to look at the blood claws. Then he sits down at the table and removes his helmet. He too takes a pint of ale and starts drinking. "Sorgen will tell you a tale of a wolf's heroic sacrifice. I will tell you a tale of a wolf who could not belong in a pack............
___________________________________________________________________________________
"I am sending you to the Deathwatch, Erikson," announced the Wolf Priest to Erikson alone in his the Wolf Priest's chambers. Erikson was stunned beyond belief. He thought a heroic feat was going to get him rewarded or at least a praise even if those that would mean very little to Erikson who rather wonder into the wilderness of Fenris alone.

"Was I not the one who hunted down a Squiggoth on Culis III? Was I not the one who killed of the biggest beast in the greenskin's ranks? I do not deserve to be sent off from Fenris!" retorts Erikson in a tone close to barking.
"You disobeyed an order!"
"I followed the instinct to hunt the biggest threat!"
"You were supposed to assist two packs of blood claws and a pack of grey hunters to hold the west flank, but you manage to sway the two packs of blood claws into abandoning the flank and join your little hunt! Do you know what happened to the grey hunters?"
"They should have followed me."
"They followed their orders, and if the blood claws did too, they would have survived!"
"The Squiggoth would have crushed us all in the end."
"Not if the Warboss is dead! and it would have been if we did not need to send reinforcements to drop pod into the west flank and hold the mechanicus forge."
"I do not care! I have hunted a great prey and the halls shall sing my name!"

Pushed to his limits, the Wolf Priest lifts his right arm and swings his unpowered Crozius into Erikson's chest. The swing knocks the wolf scout Erikson off his feet and he lands just a few feet away. "Lord Bjorn is not pleased with you. Because of the missing reinforcements to block the Warboss's escape, the Warboss is on on the loose again. Your little shenanigan caused Lord Bjorn a chance to end all major Waaaghs in the subsector," explains the Wolf Priest.

Still trying to regain his footing, Erikson stares up as the Wolf Priest moves closer to him. "If I keep you in Fenris, the other Space Wolves would only sing praises for every foolish bravado you commit. No, you will go to Jericho Reach, you will join the watch. Perhaps with a new pack made of placid Space Marines from other chapters, maybe you will learn the value of patience, and if I am lucky a little respect," explains the Wolf Priest. "Also the Deathwatch is charged with dealing with the worst of the Xenos threats. I'm sure you would not miss the chance to hunt the biggest aliens the universe has to throw at the Imperium now would you?"

Erikson paused and wonders at his predicament. Now it seems like less of a curse.

Wolf Scout Erikson