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Review of Bloodquest II: Into the Eye of Terror
Enter Bloodquest. Here the main character, Captain Leonatos, has lost the Blade Encarmine, a relic of the Blood Angels. He is banished and several of his men join him in the ‘Bloodquest’, a quest to find the blade. A perfect opportunity to model a role playing session after as this provides the GM freedom to get the players places that they might not normally be and sets limits as the characters don’t have ultimate freedom to do what they want due to lack of supplies.
In Bloodquest I, Leonatos discovered that his quest would take him into the Eye of Terror, a place that’s almost a separate realm onto itself. When he pilots his ship onto the Eye, it’s destroyed and he and his comrades awake on a mad world, Eidolon. Here, the four powers of Chaos battle one another day and night and Leonaos and his crew merely become another factor, a prize even, added to the stew.
The book is based on the serial episodes that run in Warhammer monthly and it shows here as the characters make their way from one to another area, each one controlled by a different power of Chaos. The serialization format makes it easy to jump from one to another like an old pulp fiction book.
In between chapters, two page spreads provide information on the different powers of Chaos. As the Blood Angels land in the middle of a battle field, the first power covered is Khorne, the Blood God whose followers chant “Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne.” Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch also get their own sections. The art in these two page spreads is the best in the book, mainly I suspect because its taken from the Tabletop game itself.
The comic ends when the Blood Angels move to the last realm of chaos on Eidolon, the lord Tzeentch. Here they discover that the champion of Tzeentch is weary and wishes to move on, but he can only do so after he finds a replacement. He feels that Captain Leonatos is that replacement and all that has happened to him thus far is merely in preparation for him to become a servant, a champion even, of Chaos.
The Captain feels a little differently.
The author throws a little bit of a spin on things here. People used to having the hero just win and walk away with complete victory may be in for a shock as the book finds a way to complete the Blood Quest, the retrieval of the sword Encarmine, without finishing the series.
SPOILER ALERT . . . . It seems that this Chaos Champion is partially successful because as in many cases, the only way to victory here is to use the Blade Encarmine to slay the Chaos Champion but the Lord of Change Tzeentch isn’t a fair Chaos God and summons reinforcements. To insure that the Quest is completed, Captain Leonatos passes the blade onto his men and stays behind to provide them cover.
The art by Colin MacNeil is top notch but does suffer in some places. Suffer is too harsh a word perhaps, but on some pages you can tell the effort and detail that went into it far outstrip other pages where it looks like he was in a hurry to finish the comic. The writing by Gordon Rennie is perfect for the serial format. My only wish is that the graphic novels added more information.
BloodQuest II doesn’t require you to have read the first book, but this will help the reader know what the characters are about. There is a brief recap that catches the reader up to speed for those more interested in the storyline or who can't find the first book.
This graphic novel is perfect for someone who wants to see how to model a campaign for a RPG based on Warhammer 40K, or for someone who just wants to see the Blood Angels engage the forces of Chaos on all fronts and come out wounded but winning.
