A short Warhammer 40,000 audio drama, CZ Dunn’s The Rage of Asmodai sees the Dark Angel Interrogator Chaplain join forces with a squad of Relictors, led by Captain Vidarna (remember him from Ben Counter’s Heart of Decay?), to hunt down a Chaos Space Marine who has led the local population in rebellion. Though their objectives differ, the two Chapters agree to work together and achieve both – Asmodai will get his prisoner, while Vidarna will get the ‘object’ the Relictors have come for.
Toby Longworth returns in typically fine form as Vidarna, and Jonathan Keeble delivers a brilliantly dry, gravelly Asmodai – especially with the SFX of his helmet vox-distortion – but the rest of the cast don’t get a lot to do besides John Banks’ narration. There’s quite a lot of that, the story largely told not shown, although there’s better use of the audio medium in places when Asmodai is away from the battlefield. Narratively it’s all a bit convenient, both the specifics of the plot and the inclusion of Vidarna, and feels a little hard to believe, even by 40k standards. Overall it’s still quite enjoyable, and suggests we might be seeing more of Asmodai, but not really essential listening.