Prologue
Gudrun the Young sat in his cabin, a map of the Karkino Sea and copies of the notes by his fellow captains spread on his desk. He thought with pride at how Sigurd Prow Dancer, Captain Kælador Heirn Dustral, Madiha al Sayaada and him had worked on Bloddy Bennet's Riddle. Surely some of the best salty dogs he'd ever met sailed under the Umbral Dominion's flag. But then, if he'd ever met a captain that would attract sharp and wicked fellows, that was definitely Illyana Draketooth.
His mind trailed off to the decision to join her during her daring attack on Iscarion. It'd been his first as captain, after inheriting the Grudgebreaker's command from his father, Gudrun the Elder. The old longbeard's pledge to defend the Seeds of Hope during the Season of War had brought them no renown nor riches. Now, thirty years or so after first sailing the Ur-River, the Grudgebreakers coffers were full... and sod 'em both his father's idealism and the bounties on their heads in every Realm!
Three long whistles from a steam bell and a deepening in the rumble of the Grudgebreaker's engine shook Gudrun from his memories. It was the signal they had sighted their destination, Blacktar Refuge. His Grudgebreaker's were to secure a beachhead there. Then, Sigurd could bind those spirits that proved too hostile. Once that would be accomplished, the Umbral Dominion would have had a perfect base of operations.
He grabbed his cutlass, pistol and spyglass and strode out onto the main deck.
"All right, lads!" he shouted "Gunnery crews, load your weapons and stay at the ready. I'll lead the landing parties!"
Gudrun surveyed the area through his spyglass. As expected, there was a welcome committee. One of the captains from Skull Sands, by the look of it. Skeletons shambled around an imperious looking Wight and two deadwalker ogors.
The Wight advanced with his escort, securing one of the clear paths across the sharp rocks dotting the shore line.
Gudrun led his boarding party to secure the other safe passage, the duardin peppering the skeletons with bullets and quarrels.
At the same time, Gunnery Sergeant Orun was directing the Grudgebreakers' covering fire to slow down the advancing Deathrattles, giving time to Bosun Mudrin's crew to hunker down behind a line of rocks seconds before one of the massive, rotting ogors was on them.
With a deep moan, the restless gheists of the Blacktar Refuge rose, attacking duardin and Deathrattle alike. Rusty weapons and well oiled cutlasses clashed and pistols barked. On both sides of the line of rocks, bodies slumped into the greasy waters.
As his crew held back the second ogor, Gudrun spotted the Wight captain leaving the safe passage he had secured and wading into the massed combat. Without a moment of hesitation, he fired the flare he had brought with him.
As the Grudgebreakers heard the distinctive whistle of the flare, they throw themselves down and away from the line of rocks they were defending. All, simultaneously, but Orun and Korin who instead dashed forward, phantasmal hands leaving deep wounds in their ankles but unable to stop them.
The very moment the two duardins reached the opening in the rocks, the Grudgebreaker's light cannons opened up, blasting away the rocks and the skeletons climbing over them. As the smoke and dust cleared, the Wight captain stood alone, a dozen or so pistols and crossbows leveled at him. Witchfire burning angrily in his eyes, he withdrew.
Gudrun paced along the shore, the chanting of Sigurd meshing with the murmur of the lapping waves.
If his father could see him now, brushing shoulders with a Darkoath dabbling in necromancy...
He couldn't follow the thought to the end as Bosun Mudrin approached, an iron chalice in his hands.
"Captain", he called. "Think I've found one of 'em Darkglimmer Chalices. Gave some grog out of it to the wounded and they were shipshape and ready to fight in no time!"
A greedy smile parted Gudrun's black beard.
"Excellent, me mate! Think what expects us once we find and crack the crab..."
***
That was a quick, but extremely bloddy, solo Warcry game. I had decided to set in on Blacktar Refuge because I imagined the water there would be greasy and dark, perfectly matching my Aqshyan water pools. I then searched through all the Twist cards I have from both the first and second edition and found 'Insidious Malignants' was absolutely perfect. Since it was from the first edition deck, I drew the rest of the cards from it. Here they are:
Kalyustar's Revenge
Kalyustar paced restlessly in his mausoleum chambers.
Ever since the night of the Sorowmœn, the Rotmoons had vanished, surely flown away on their patched up skyship. That the wood of the Twisted Oak had been wasted in such a way filled the Soulchemist with barely restrained rage.
'But it is just indignation at those orruks' meddling with your efforts that fuels your rage?'
The voice of the Shadeglass Skull came, as always slightly mocking and yet soothing.
"No, old friend. Something else has changed".
'Has it? And what is it?'
"I'm not sure... It is not just the energies of Shyish blewing weaker across the cosmos. Something has taken their place, something far more alive and feral."
'Ah, yes, Soulchemist! Look at those minions of yours that were closer to Ghur in life...'
"The Orruk, the Ogors, even the Gor and the Skaven... they could not stay still. They twitch and jerk, they beat their weapons and shield rhythmically...'
'And don't you hear that same pounding in the aether?'
"I do... and it is that that fuels my rage further".
'And is that not something you should look into?'
"Maybe... but where to start?"
'In Ghur. There is a place they call the Gnarlwood, hiding a great source of power. Could it be that perturbing the aether?'
"That's worth finding out, old friend. We leave the Harrowmark. We move at once for the Haunted Gate".
'Good Soulchemist, good! But remember, even in Ghur, you still serve the Master...'
***
As Kalyustar stepped through the shimmering light of the Haunted Gate a vista of half constructed structures welcomed him. He had heard of the Dawnbringer Crusades, and that seemed one of their outposts. The Orruk, which he had taken with him, immediately jerked forward, as if called by something. That was a clear enough sign that they were in Ghur.
In the distance, he heard a commotion. Human and duardin voices raised high in a quarrel over shares, obbligations and profits. He spotted them, a company of Freeguilders and a crew of Kharadron Overlords, splitting off and lining up on opposite sides of the outpost. They were clearly gearing up to solve their issues with weapons. The Soulchemist was considering to leave them to the futile businesses of the living, but then another sound called his attention.
It was an all too familiar shanty, sung in a tuneless and guttural voice. And though the orruks were far bigger than the Rotmoons and their crew markings unknown to him, Kalyustar knew they belonged to the Ironfang Fleet.
Their captain sprung forward, his Brutes shortly behind, clearly eager to gave a a good thumping to the Freeguilders.
The Freeguilder leader spurred his Demi-gryph, steering it towards the orruks, but his charge was intercepted by a flying Kharadron.
Unhindered, the orruk captain barrelled through a cloud of musket smoke, shouting loud and brash encouragements to his crew. Soon, they were smashing Freeguilders left and right.
Kalyustar saw an opportunity to have some revenge on the orruk pirates, even if that meant giving up his position. In quick succession, he hurled two necrotic bolts against the Kharadron's endrin-rig, sending the duardin spinning to the ground. As he shouted for the Freeguilder to deal with the orruks, a thunderous salvo erupted from the Kharadron lines and engulfed his skeletons.
The Demi-gryph pounded towards the orruk captain and his rider's spear slammed onto the brute's broad chest.
Kalyustar needed more time to see his plan coming to fruition, but the Kharadron were still pouring aether-shots towards him. So he sent Grond forward to soak up the incoming fire.
Finally, the orruk captain fell under the Demi-gryph's claws and beak. His crew immediately lost their will to fight and withdrew.
Kalyustar laughed manically, while the Kharadron kept firing on him. The Soulchemist ducked for cover, summoning his minions to his side and leaving humans and duardins to fight over the Dawnbringer outpost.
He had had what he wanted, and revenge never had tasted so sweet to him.
Return to Rainy Manchester
As I had said a couple of months ago, even though I had left Manchester, the plan to meet with Saul and Lee at Warhammer Fest had been in the making for far longer.
So, on a typically grey Mancunian morning on Saturday 29th April, we crossed each other as the queue to the event snaked back on itself. And then, we had a great three days of modelling, gaming and general geekyness.
Saul's already published about the event and now it's my turn to give a summary. Over the next few days I'll post narrative battle reports of the games we had.
Day 1: Hobby Challenge & Multiplayer Warcry
I had bought the ticket for the Hobby Challenge, so as soon as I was inside (about 8.30ish) I rushed for it and, once I had collected my Event Exclusive Darkoath Chieftain, I was among the first browsing the mountain of sprues available on the day.
I gasped when I saw tons of sprues from the Stormvault kit and grabbed as many as I could, instantly forgetting about the Darkoath Chieftain.
I started assembling madly, taking full advantage of the modularity of that kit. I was so enraptured that after about 4 hours, I had built enough to fill a Warcry board.
Since I was travelling only with a small backpack, I called it on the terrain building, confident that all the various pieces could have been easily stacked inside each other. so, I texted Saul and Lee to have a Warcry game.
Saul was basically already onto it, having hooked up with a friend from Discord and having arranged for a table and we all played There Can Be Only One, giving me a chance to play as Kalyustar and his Cursed Company once more.
Once the game was done, I went back to the Hobby Challenge area to polish some of the rough joints and mould lines on the models I had built. It was then I realised there were plenty of the Easy-to-Build Sequitors sprues and even of the Knight-Incantor from the Mortal Realms magazine, so I helped myself to some and a few extra bits to convert them and added all to the loot of the day.
Day 2: The Warcry Rumble
That was the day we had looked for the most. Seeing a line-up of 56 Warcry players (even if one dropped out just last minute) was pretty amazing. Everybody was clearly in love with the game, both veterans and novices alike, and most importantly with its spirit as an essentially narrative game. Everyone I played against had a story for their warband or had made some really nice conversions.
I wish I could have taken pictures of all 55 warbands, but alas it wasn't possible, but here are the ones I managed to take, even if in some cases I don't know who their owners are. Anyway, as we started playing, I wasn't expecting anything more but to have four nice games. I had that... and a lot more!
It turned out that Kalyustar's Cursed Company, since its inception a shambling horde of skeletons, is particularly good at the Warcry Rumble battleplans. Put it very simply, the weight of their numbers means that opponents often cannot take objectives away from them. It doesn't matter that the skeletons fall in droves and don't inflict as much casualties in return, there is always enough of them to keep controlling the objectives.
Still, the games were all tense, in no small part thanks to the fact that the Side Quests gave my opponents plenty of chances to score Victory Points without contesting objectives. Nonetheless, and to my surprise, I won all my first three games... and by turn four ended up playing on Table 1 with a chance at winning the whole tournament.
That was the tensest game of the day, and I was in the lead for the first two turns. Then, in turn 3 I got cocky, completely forgot about the Side Quest and gave a chance for my opponent to equalise the score. Turn 4 was a constant back and forth, but by the end of it I was a single Victory Point behind my opponent and finished the tournament in 6th position. Still... a lot higher than I had expected I would have finished!
But the most important thing, was that I had some truly great games, and I can't thank enough my opponents Eloi Garrido, Mathias Brusselaers, Lars Nordal Jensen and Michael Appleton!
Day 3: Casual Gaming and Goodbyes
On the Monday we were all rather tired and agreed to meet at 10ish. I had to be at the airport by 1.30ish, so that gave us time for one last game, which I played with Lee while Saul played another Rumbler we had met the day before.
It was good fun, but then, for the second time in a very short time, I had to say goodbye to a place and people that have meant so much for me and my hobbying.
Oh well! Let's look at the bright side and forward to painting a full Stormvault board for my future games!
The Night of the Sorowmœn
Kalyustar peered out of the stained glass window of the mausoleum he had come to call home.
The pale daylight of the Harrowmark was fading into night.
'Into a most auspicious night, don't you think, Soulchemist?'
"Yes, old friend. Soon the moon will raise, but tonight the Moon's Daughters are not with her".
'Did you ever wondered way it is so?'
"If we were to listen to the simpletons of the Harrowmark, the Daughters are the fragment of another moon that got shattered in some ancient cataclysm. It makes little difference to me".
'Then why are you interested in this night?'
"Because it was on a night like this that the Necroquake hit the Harrowmark. And if my studies are correct, tonight we'll hear an echo of that wave of necrotic energy. That is why on Sorowmœn the dead rest even less easily and the simpletons shut themselves in their miserable hovels".
'And so what, Soulchemist?'
'So, I'll be out there tonight, to capture and preserve that echo, so that I can use it to bolster my Company".
In the deep darkness of Sorowmœn, Kalyustar had followed the echo of the Necroquake to a pumpkin field. Leylines converged in its center and there he could hear the taumathurgic echo far better, although still faintly. The Soulchemist closed his eyes and started to recite the incantation that would have trapped that energy.
But guttural voices sounded in a mockery of a whisper. In fact being as loud as only orruk voices could be. The Rotmoons were coming, split in three groups. Kalyustar tried to use the energy he had harvested so far to summon reiforcement, but it was too little. No restless dead answered his call.
Crude arrows started to whistle by, some finding their mark into Kalyustar's body. The Soulchemist fell back to a point from where he could drew sorcerous energies from two leyline nexuses.
The Rotmoons closed onto the pumpkin field, cutting all but one escape route. But at that point Kalyustar finally managed to harness enough necromantic energy. Two Dreadwardens and a Seneschal rose from the pumpkin field.
With a might swipe of his graveblade, the Seneschal felled Awkwardo, but then three more orruks ganged up on him and brought him down.
The Dreadwardens swirled around DaLeeva and Francot, but one was soon banished by the Kaptain's cutlass.
Kalyustar felt a pulse of aetheric energies as a low moan seemed to came down from the moon and then the Dreadwarden reappeared behind Bortagno, its ghostly fingers clutching at the orruk's heart. Kalyustar poured all his spite into bolts of necrotic energy and finally the big orruk fell. But in the meantime, more arrows and El Doktoro's magic rained on Kalyustar.
Another Seneschal rose from the pumpkin field and was soon surrounded by orruks. Yet, it stood his ground.
Kalyustar realised there was no escape. Somehow, the echo of the Necroquake was far less powerful than he had expected. And now that the Rotmoons were disrupting the leylines there was little he could do. He tried to fleee, but Tambor and Parch caught up with him and pummelled him with batons and clubs.
***
'Wake up, Soulchemist!'
The Shadeglass Skull called Kalyustar back to consciousness.
'Fear not, Soulchemist! It was not your fault, and the Master knows it... Something has changed. At the hands of the pesky aelf deities, the Necroquake has been blunted'.
"It maybe so, but that doesn't change the fact that the Rotmoons have once again bested me. This has to stop! I just need a better plan!"
Epilogue
Kalyustar brooded in the deepest crypt of the mausoleum where the Cursed Company had retreated after conceiding the Twisted Oak to the Rotmoons.
'You did well in the eyes of the Master', the Shadeglass Skull's voice came, for once sooting and devoid of its usual mocking tones.
'He too is no stranger to meddlesome brutes and vermins tampering with His plans. But He and His servants have time as their ally. And what does he do with time, Soulchemist?'
"He gather strength and soldiers and plans His next move... Once again, you're right old friend. I should follow in the footsteps of the Master!"
Kalyustar rose from the chair he had been sitting and walked to the crypt altar. There, seething with the cold energies of Shyish, sat the skulls where the power of the Twisted Oak had been stored. It was less than he had wanted, but it would have been enough to try something that so far only the Vampire Lords of the Vyrkos dynasty had achieved.
The necromancer lifted the two skulls and smashed them together. Amethyst sparks flew around his hands as he started to intone a summoning incantation.
The amethyst sparks coalesced in a globe of necrotic energy, skulls appearing and fading across it, their jaws open wide in silent screams. Then the globe darted upwards, flewing straight through the shaft bringing the musty air of the Harrowmark down into the crypt.
"It is done, old friend. Now we wait".
It wasn't long before a deep, rumbling moan and heavy footsteps sounded outsyde the mausoleum doors.
Kalyustar opened them wide and there, next to the engraved lintels, they waited, awkwardly shuffling their feet, their arms hanging slack along their bodies, guts spilling out of deep wounds.
'Deadwalker Ogors. Good, Soulchemist, good!'
"Yes, my friend! If it is only brute force that DaLeeva and his crew understand, i'll give them some like they have never seen before".
This has been an amazingly entertaining campaign, even though it was on a COVID hiatus for two whole years and, towards the end of it, I couldn't post about it as regularly as I'd liked.
The games were all tense and fought to the very last, all the while giving plenty of opportunities to develop a good story.
One thing those game thought me is that you need a careful balance between numbers and muscles when playing Warcry. Not knowing what the battle conditions will be until the very last moment before starting to fight means that going for pure elite or horde warbands might find you at a disadvantage. Gamewise, this means that I had to add some elite fighters to the Cursed Company.
Narratively, however, Ididn't want to go for any vampire. Kalyustar is not likely to share power, and a necromancer will inevitably fell under the sway of even a lesser vampire like a Bloodknight. Luckly, the release of rules for the Kosargi Nightguard gave me the perfect choice: big, strong, mindless zombies, easy for Kalyustar to control.
I had two Mournfang Cavalry bodies in my bits box and all I had to do was repositioning the legs so that they stood rather than sit astride a saddle. This also allowed me to give the legs the typical unnatural angles of zombie legs.
Similarly, I had to glue the Glutton hands, arms and heads at unusual angles to keep the feeling of a shambling zombie. Then, I carved holes in the exposed flesh and eyes and filled the gutplate holes with rolls of greenstuff to represent spilling guts. Finally, I sculpted flaps of torn skin above the spilling guts and around some of rents I had carved.
The final touches before painting were the addition of weapons embedded into the zombies bodies, all taken from the Glutton sprue, and rebuilding the belts. For that, I glued the buckles from a gut plate on the right and then sculpted the end of the belt on the left.
Painting wise, I stuck with the dirty yellow and black uniforms and worn metals of the Cursed Company, going for a rotten green for the ogors flesh.
I painted the guts with Bugman's Glow, followed by washes of Carrobourg Crimson and Druchi Violet and finally a liberal coat of Blood for the Blood God, giving the feeling they are still wet, as if the belly bursted recently. For the wounds I instead wanted an old, scabby look, achieved by sparingly applying Blood for the Blood God over blotches of Typhus Corrosion.
