The first ever Warhammer Horror audio drama, and Alec Worley’s first audio drama for Black Library, Perdition’s Flame is the story of comms man Vossk, formerly of the 86th Vostroyan Firstborn, en route to a penal legion as punishment for desertion. Imprisoned alongside murderers and sadists and warded by stern Praetorian Guard, when the ship’s systems start to fail Vossk realises that the horrors he thought he’d left behind have followed him into the void. Something on the ship is causing the failures and spooking both crew and inmates, but Vossk is trapped in his cell while the darkness draws closer.
It opens with Vossk talking directly to the listener as though to a welcome rescuer – alone in a cave on an unnamed planet, he’s been waiting in the hope of salvation, and tells his story as though to unburden himself of a heavy load. It’s an atmospheric opening scene, setting the tone and cleverly justifying the use of a narrator (bearing in mind a lot of recent Black Library audios have been narration-free), voiced by a gravelly Andrew Wincott. There’s an instantly-engaging sense of closeness in that first scene, as though it’s a tale being whispered across a fire, and the audio medium works perfectly to bring that to vivid life. That’s very much a framing device, however, and as Vossk relates the events that led to him ending up in that cave the music and SFX are put to great use to conjure up the atmosphere on board the ship as events play out.
Away from the face-to-face closeness of the opening scene there’s plenty of the usual 40k action and bombast, in a plot featuring the Ordo Chronos, Vossk’s backstory fighting the ruinous powers on Soros, and a few surprises along the way. Worley keeps the focus tight, mostly concentrating on the slowly-evolving relationship between Vossk and the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the fiercely principled Captain Brandon, voiced with relish by Grace Andrews. Other characters appear briefly – the irascible ship’s captain and a fey, aloof inquisitor for example – and are captured beautifully by the rest of the small cast, but they only surface for short periods. Vossk and Brandon’s relationship is founded on necessity rather than trust, and listening along becomes a remarkably tense experience not just because of the dangers they’re facing but because these two characters spend most of the story fundamentally at odds with each other.
For the most part this is a relatively conventional Black Library story, albeit a cleverly written and powerfully performed one, and while it might have been fun to have seen the ‘man in a cave talking to the listener’ conceit played upon a little more, it works well to frame this particular story. At times it’s possible to forget that this isn’t a main-range Black Library title – the horror elements are there, but this is 40k and horror is pretty much built-in. While the audio medium is used brilliantly and adds texture and atmosphere to great effect, it’s arguably the way Worley explores fundamental 40k themes – faith, duty, honour, and the twisted way in which those can be interpreted – which justifies the Warhammer Horror label. Don’t expect jump scares or anything like that, for example, but do prepare for an atmospheric tale with an enjoyable mixture of tension and excitement.
See also: Alec Worley Talks Perdition’s Flame
