A Score to Settle
"Parley!" Cargo's voice boomed outside Brakenthorn Tower. Orruk heads poked between the crenellation.
"You're lucky you've seen your fair share of seas and skies, ogor!" Krashhart's voice too boomed in reply. "You know I'd not accept a parley with any of your landlubber mates!". A chorus of guttural laughters accompanied the remark.
"But you're a pirate too, so I'll listen. What it is that you want?"
"It's one of your deckhands, Captain! Sinka be his name. He killed Skargat's favourite pet, a gnoblar by the name
Poka".
"Well, yes I did! And good fun it was!". More laughter sounded from the tower, though some seemed adressed at Sinka for his exceptional bravery and skill at arms in killing a gnoblar.
"Skargat wants him! Or we'll storm this tower of yours, Captain!" resumed Cargo.
"Ah! A score to settle, haven't we one?"
"Aye, captain!"
"Well, Meneater, your mate Hrothgur show very little sportmanship last time we met. What with hitting poor Hook on his wounds? So we want him, or we will storm your encampment! And don't forget I have this!" Krashhart waved the Gristle Grinder.
"A stalemate, captain. What about sorting it the old way?"
"A duel between the two of them?"
"Aye! But it wouldn't be fun if the rest of us couldn't intervene, don't you think?"
"Yaaaar! We'll meet at the edges of Blubberfen, then! Isn't it there you hide now, you bunch of maggot-eating scum?"
"That's good with the Ironforged! We'll meet there at sunset!"
Hrothgur and Sinka squared off. In the growing darkness, they could barely see each other across the stone arc that marked the edges of Blubberfen.
On either sides, their mates hollered and smashed their weapons together, eager for the fight to begin.
With surprising speed, Hrothgur advanced towards the centre of the battlefield while Marg and Growt rushed to his side. Basha the Menbiter stood in front of them, puffing his chest and trying to look menacing.
Drakmeff seemed bored about the fight and went for a stroll towards the other side of Blubberfen.
Barnacle Nog and Mainstay took position on the side of the stone arc, ready to leap at Hrothgur.
Sinka showed the coward he was as he stopped in the shadows of the rock arc with Battendown and Flotsum, shouting abuses at the Ironforged.
But Skargat had expected something like that, and stayed back to intervene. With a mighty bellow, he stomped towards Sinka.
Krashhart had had a similar idea and emerged at the back of Hrothgur's party with Mr Flea and Hook in tow.
Marg charged Krashhart's party. Mr Flea jumped to stop him, letting the others free to go after Hrothgur.
Hook struggled to advance as the quagmire sucked at his feet.
But Krashhart made it to Hrothgur and the two started to trade blows.
Flotsum and Battendown ganged up on Skargat so that Sinka could once again run away.
And yet, the Brute found his way barred by Growl. Only Mainstay's timely intervention prevented the glutton's blows to reach Sinka.
Barnacle Nog decided he could have some fun by kicking Basha in the teeth.
Drakmeff realised the fight was getting serious and started to make it back from his stroll in the fen.
But it was too late. Growl rounded around Mainstay and pummelled Sinka with an onslaught of axe blows. He stopped only when the Brute was well and truly dead.
As the orruk pirates saw their mate fall, they realised that was the time to follow the Code guidelines as if they were rules. They sheated their weapons and backtracked.
***
"You deserve some extra spiked eel stew, Marg!" Hrothgur scooped a full laddle onto the Glutton's bowl. "If it wasn't for you, Krashhart's mate would have sneaked up on me!"
"And for finding that flask of Aqua Ghyranis during your swim in the swamp! It will serve us well!" added Skargat.
Marg's prolonged, vibrating belch came as thank.
"It's double serving for you too, Hrothgur!" said Skargat slapping a whole leechdroth onto the Crusher's plate. "Standing up to Krashhart and giving him a couple of good slaps, that was good! Now it's time you prove yourself to the Gulping God!"
Hrothgur grinned.
"I will, chief! I'll take down Krashhart or any of its officers! I'm thinking we can use Watcha's latest finding to get them by surprise. The tunnels of that scorpid hive reach quite far..."
"Good thinking! But for now, prove yourself to the Gulping God with some more leechdroth!"
The Robbery
"Chief! Chief! Them Ironjawz! Carry much loot to Brackenthorn Tower! Head for them rocky hills!"
Watcha run frantically into Ironlarder Gorge from his round of exploration, stirring the Ironforged from their after lunch nap.
"The Swordfyshes again, eh?" chuckled Skargat. "They're after something, I can tell! What d'you think Hrothgur, should we remind them who's bigger and better?"
"Sure thing!" growled the Crusher "And there's some nice choke points on those rocky hills. They'll run stright into us!"
"Allright then! Toss some water at Cargo! He had one too many barrel of grog with his last meal. Me and him wait at the choke points, you stay back and deal with any greeny that slips past us".
Watcha was picking his nose with his telescope as rain clouds gathered above the waiting Ironforged.
As planned, Skargat and Cargo were blocking the easiest routes across the rocky hills, Poka and Loota at their sides.
The clouds burst into torrential rain, the almost solid wall of water keeping the Swordfyshes hidden until they were just a few feet away from the Ironforged.
Singing a loud and tuneless shanty, Cargo drunkenly staggered into the party led by Krashhart, his anchor swinging clumsly and missing the orruks.
Skargat, on the other hand, bodily slammed Mainstay, but the arboy was carrying nothing valuable.
The mates following behind him, Sinka and Barnacle Nog, split and took paths leading them as far as possible from the Tyrant.
With booming commands, Krashhart pressed his party lo leave the drunken Meneater behind, but Loota and Watcha were ready to trip and slow them down.
Cargo staggered towards Mr Flea flailing his weapons. Somehow, the drunken Meneater managed to hit the ardboy and golden coins splilled from the heavy bag he was carrying.
Krashhart and Hook leapt past the gnoblars and away from Cargo, only to find their way barred by Hrothgur, Skreecha and Basha.
Poka spotted Sinka slinking away and tried to stop him. Even though the gnoblar proved surprisingly good at countering the first blows of the brute, he was soon reduced to a pile of broken bones into the mud.
A third party of Swordfyshes came rushing in, with Battendown moving quickly to snatch the coins away from the stupified Cargo which fumbled all of his attacks.
Hrothgur realised Hook had a gut wound and aimed all of his blows there. With two heavy tuds, both the Brute and a heavy golden statue fell to the ground.
Skargat gave Sinka a touch of his own medicine, reminding him that might makes right does not mean squashing gnoblars. The Tyrant then sprinted to smash Drakmeff too.
The gnoblars skreeched frantically as they managed to slow down Flotsum and Krashhart.
Cargo finally sobered up, put down Battendown and leapt to stop Flotsum from recovering the golden statue.
Krashhart leapt past the gnoblars and legged it into the rain with the last bag of loot. Behind him, his boys were surrounded by the Ironforged. With booming laughters, the ogors opened up a path and let them follow their captain. For the day, they had covered themselves in glory. Six orruks and a single gnoblar laid on the forest ground and there was plenty of gold to pick up.
***
As the rain relented, Skargat sent Basha to retrieve and mark the path to the stranglegrove swamp discovered by Watcha a few days before. There, he was to start setting up the Ironforged's new camp. To the Menbiter's surprise, he spotted a fire burning and two of his kind serving fried jabbertoads to two well armoured gluttons.
"Hey you, little one!" shouted one "Go and tell Skargat and Hrothgur there's some fine stuff to be had here! And that Marg and Growt are waiting for them!"
Tor Megiddo: The Wanderer
They call themselves Wanderers. Tribeless Yaike Yaike, outcast Golden Spirers, rogue Flesh Barons. Dogs without a master. Drifting through Tor Megiddo ash wastes and blasted badlands, just like another meaningless grain of red sand. Scraping a living through the work of their blades and guns, through morcels of knowledge of man and machine bodies. Killing and fixing, as asked by those that toss them a bone. But that is good for them. They live, they fight, they have no master. For that is all that matters on the Red Sands of Tor Megiddo.
I normally don't join painting and modelling challenges or invitationals, for the simple reason that I can never really meet the deadlines. This year, however, I have some models built but laying unpainted on my hobby desk. When the Inqtober22 prompt list was released I saw they could fit in and that motivated me to paint them.
The first is this Mercenary Scum I built around the front body of a Chaos Warrior and that I will use for Tor Megiddo games, if we ever get back to that setting.
I trimmed away the fur and claws decorating the shoulders and then glued the back of a Space Marine vehicle gunner to complete the torso. The arms with bolter are from the Space Marine scouts while the head is from the Genestealer Cult accessory sprues. From the same sprue I took two daggers with grenades and used them to hide the sides of the gap between the Chaos Warrior legs and the Space Marine back. To hide the central part of that gap, I used the track links from an Imperial vehicle, worn as if additional armour plating.
Since he is not a Purebred but a tribeless mercenary, I totally avoided the red I used on them and kept the yellow only on the bandana and the black on the boots, gloves and fatigue arms.
The rest of the model is painted in worn and dusty metal, with some touches of green on the cables, granades and gogle lenses to further distinguish him from the Purebred.
