I listened to the Warhammer 40,000 audio drama Our Matyred Lady by Gav Thorpe while painting miniatures recently. It stars Catherine Tate, who Dr. Who fans will recognise as Donna, as Inquisitor Greyfax. This is my review of the show, with a bunch of spoilers so don't read it if you intend to listen to this yourself.
This is the second Greyfax audio drama I've heard, the first being Eye of Night. In this one, Inquisitor Greyfax teams up with Celestine, an actual living saint, to figure out why somebody is trying to kill a high ranking Ecclesiarch.
First of all, what a team. Greyfax is an Inquisitor, and I've yet to meet an Inquisitor who I'd accuse of being well adjusted, and Celestine is a living saint. It's pretty much the classic buddy cop formula, and it works here as well as everywhere else. They're starkly different from one another, and Greyfax of course trusts no one while Celestine holds on to her faith no matter the odds. Greyfax tends to subterfuge and scheming, and Celestine basically works miracles on demand. Together, they overcome mystery, the dangers of the Warp, conspiracy, duplicity, authority, and, for now at least, Chaos itself.
Greyfax and Celestine figure out the root of the problem pretty quickly. The Church's governing body, in 40k lore, was long ago prohibited from raising "a force of armed men", and that's why there's an all-female faction in the Warhammer 40,000 game called the Adepta Sororitas. But this Ecclesiarch is about lift the ban that prohibits the Church from maintaining an army of its own, and pretty much everybody is unhappy about it.
So Greyfax and Celestine embark on an adventure that takes them from Terra to Ophelia and farther. They're pursued by cultists and Warp daemons, they're up against internal Imperial disputes, they acquire a tagalong Adeptus Custodes, and in the end they discover corruption within the Adeptus Ministorum itself. The culprit is the "8 Turned God", which is really just a cover for Tzeentch.
The plot unfolds over 4 parts, each an hour in length. It's an exciting story, but I think the most exciting thing about it is its structure. It feels like adventure modules for a Wrath & Glory or Imperium Maledictum game, with a clearly defined quest stated flatly at the end of one adventure, and then resolved throughout the next. You go from point A to B to C, with no bothersome subplots or diversions to keep track of. It makes for a relatively short story, but it's a satisfying one that I could see myself reimplementing as a Games Master as an RPG and then again as a wargame campaign.
I enjoyed Our Martyred Lady and if you're a fan of Warhammer 40,000 or a super-fan of Dr. Who, then this is worth listening to. And if you play roleplaying games and wargames, it makes for great inspiration for your next game!
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.