Wheels within wheels...
To the ogors next to him, Vyzorak Lorehoarder appeared just like a young and unexperienced Glutton. More than once, the burly leader of the search party sent in by Wolfram Industries had slapped him behind the ears as the Thaumaturge lagged back to study the inscriptions on the weapons lining the walls of the Archive of Swords.
Vyzorak played along, growling in begrudging recognition of his place in the team hierachy, as it was expected. It was just a matter of time, and he would have returned the slaps ninefold. He only had to wait until he or any other member of the Coven of the Purple Flame spotted a worthy prize. Acolytes and Tzaangors had infiltrate most of the Wolfram Industries search parties. Their mission was simple: wait until the mercenaries had located exactly what they were looking for and snatch it from them.
Suddenly, warning cries went up from another wing of the Archive. Vyzorak clearly distinguished the insane babbling of the lesser daemons controlled by Thalamyr. With a whispered incantanion, he erased himself and the cries from the mind of the ogors and slipped away, rushing to join his followers.
"We're taking those" said Zirithinion pointing at the pile of finely chiselled daggers as his features morphed into his real self. The Freeguilders stared in shock for just a couple of seconds, then called out for their comrades. All the while, Thalamyr summoned forth a Blue Horror and another even lesser daemon and had it call for the rest of the Purple Flames.
Soon enough, both Freeguilders and Arcanites appeared at the back of the parties facing each other over the daggers.
Vyzorak barged forth, putting himself between the Freeguilders and the daggers and ordering Kleok to grab them. The Tzaangor loped forward and back, securing the weapons.
The Blue Horror lashed maliciously at the pikemen that had appeared behind the Coven, leaving Zirithinion and Thalamyr free to pour their sorcerous bolts onto the one that was about to strike at Vyzorak. Then Zyrtx leapt up the walkway and sank his beak into the man's back, finishing him.
From the corners of the vast chamber came more fighters, called in by the commotion. As the Freeguidlers advanced, they spotted a heavy leather-bound tome.
Ignoring the quarrels and blades piercing his skin, Vyzorak stepped to seize the book, his eyes gleaming with greed.
In a wet rip, the Blue Horror collapsed under the strikes of a pikeman, only for a pair of Brimstone Horrors to burst forth and impale themselves on the weapon of the other.
Already shocked by the daemonic onslaught, the pikemen were then engulfed in sorcerous fires unleashed by Inklineilis and Iridios.
With a bellow of bestial fury, Vyzorak charged back in, joining Zyrtx in the fight around the walkway.
Kleok squawked in triumph as he withdrew, the daggers held firmly in his grasp.
Even more fighters poured into the room, just as a pikeman recovered a gleaming jewel.
Quarrels flew towards Inklineilis and Iridios, which replied in kind with their incantations, killing the crossbowman and slowing down the fencers charging at them.
Thalamyr and Zirithinion sank their cursed blades deeply into the flesh of the last pikeman threathening the Coven's rear.
Ocladius and R'tecfar rushed to encircle the pikeman that had secured the jewel, but the man braced himself and didn't give ground.
The fencers closed on Iridios and Inklineilis, bogging them down in a vicious sword fight.
The last standing crossbowman fired steadily onto the Arcanites slaughtering his comrades, but it was now too late. They fell and with them Wolfram's hopes of securing that chamber.
The Coven of the Purple Flame gathered amidst the Freeguilders corpses. From other chambers they could hear the fighting still going on. But for now, they had achieved their goal. They had secured plenty of arcane lore and weapons. Whether or not these were actually the objects Wolfram Industries wanted for their coffers mattered little to Vyzorak. What mattered most was that Grakko wanted them destroyed. It would only take a small lie for Vyzorak to add them to his personal collection. Surely, he felt, he had pleased the Great Schemer that day.
***
This was a solo game and I have to admit that the behaviour table for adversaries (from the 2020 Tome of Champions) don't work very well with treasure token victory conditions. I think I'll have to mod them a bit, or at least use them with other types of victory conditions.
The Archive of Swords
A war-library turned fortress, where weaponised prophecy is catalogued like military blueprints. Each blade kept within is etched with tiny script and bound to a future act of violence. Abandoned by the Valeguard, it is now attracting the profiteers of Wolfram Industries and the wild creatures of the March of Thunder. Both want its content for the coming conflict and will stop at nothing to secure it.
After a long time, I was finally able to join this year Animosity campaign. The campaign just started and there's still time to join in, in case anyone is interested.
Anyway, some of the action in the first phase of the campaign revolves around a sort of Stormvault in the forgotten city of Eklysium, hidden away on mountains at the periphery of Azyr. This seemed the perfect excuse to finish painting the Stormvault terrain I had picked up at Warhmmer Fest back in 2023. So far, I had painted only the bridge piece, to use it as a backdrop for my model photos.
It was painted in the grey/green/blue scheme I had already used for my other Animosity terrains so I just continued with the theme, keeping the blue on all the flames, and the green and grey for the stonework.
I've also painted the broken statuary and collapsed columns, but as the campaign is set in Azyr in an as of yet unspoiled Sigmarite city, I won't use them in campaign games.
To add some scatter terrain, however, I'll use the Shattered Dominion Objectives which I painted for Animosity III. The chests, pile of weapons and Azyrite device in particular will be perfect!
And with this, I have another full Warcry board and got rid of a good chunk on my pile of shame.
The higher you fly...
"Captain, that's not the entrance to the Hall of Drowned Gold", Bosun Mudrin was reporting in his usual matter of fact tone. "By the dead bodies we found, smugglers were using it as a stash until the Kruleboyz had some fun with them".
"Did the damn orruks leave anything of value?" Gudrun's voice dripped with frustration.
"Not much", replied the bosun. "Some barrels of grog, an old atlas of the Karkino Sea and this sash".
Gudrun took the sash in his hands. It was made of the lightest fyresilk, arcaic sigils embroidered in golden thread along its hem.
"A fine piece, indeed" muttered Gudrun. "Allright, bosun. The grog goes to the crew and that atlas might be of use to Captain Draketooth. I'll keep this", and saying so he wrapped the sash around his waist.
"Ayes, sir! Are we getting back to the Grudgebreaker?"
"Aye! Get the crew moving".
Mudrin and the party carrying the atlas had taken just a few steps out of the cave when barbed harpoons started to fly around them. The Kruleboyz were back.
"Oi! Dat's me loot!" the orruk leader yelled at Gudrun from a rock in front of the entrance to the cave. "You'z not goin' nowhere!"
The orruk leapt forward, skewering Gudrun on his harpoon and knocking him off with his choppa.
Bosun Mudrin engaged another orruk, keeping him away from the atlas, but his grot pet slipped past and finished off a deck hand already peppered by Kruleboyz harpoons.
More orruks burst out of the undergrowth, throwing their harpoons.
At the cave, the crew ganged up on the orruk leader, stopping him from chopping the unconscious Gudrun to pieces.
Mudrin held off the orruk and the grot, but his duardin were falling like flies.
Then he too fell and the Kruleboy stepped forward.
With the captain and bosun down, the Grudgebreakers fired their flares and their mates still on board immediately opened up with the ship's guns. In the smoke of the barrage, the duardin grabbed the wounded and fled, leaving the atlas in the Kruleboyz' hands.
Gudrun was limping up and down the command deck. His wounds were healing slowly. Too sloowly in fact. Surely the working of some damn Kruleboy poison. He'd have dealt with it soon. But now Illyana's orders had come. He stopped and turned to the crew.
"All hands on deck! Full speed ahead for the Maelstrom. We're going to crack ourselves a big grab and take its gold!"
He tightened the knot of his fyresilk sash and grabbed the ship's wheel. As the Grudgebreaker gained speed, the sash flapped against his wounded leg, sending a jolt of pain up his spine. What Gudrun didn't notice was the faint ruddy glow emanating from the embroidered sigils.
***
This was the last game I've played during the Animosity weekender and I played it back to back with the previous one, really enjoying how the two narratively fed into each other smoothly.
Of monster hunters and treasures
The Grudgebreakers emerged in a clearing from where they could see the top of the rocky formation they were headed for. Orin had spotted it from the ruins, a massive opening just at its centre, big enough for Berejin's End to move through it. But it wasn't it that caught Gudrun's attention. Scattered around the clearing floor were the mangled remains of a massive jungle lizard, barbed spears stiking from its hide and crude, caked mud sigils smeared across its head.
"Watch out, lads!" the captain growled. "We entered the hunting grounds of some filthy Kruleboyz. Prep your guns and crossbows. We keep our heading, that cave must be the crab's lair. Stay sharp! We don't want to walk into their traps..."
The Grudgebreakers' scouts had already gained the top of the rocky formation, Bosun Mudrin barking orders at their back, when a foul smelling mist rised, many figures advancing under its cover.
The largest one parted the mist, a Rockgut Troggoth that lumbered forward to bar the entrance to the cave, Gutrippaz following close behind.
The Grudgebreakers immediately opened fire, wounding the foremost orruk. The others quickly drew back, looking for cover amidst the trees and mist.
Gudrun and the deckhands with him rushed forward to reinforce Mudrin's scouts.
The captain stoked his crew duardin-born greed and they laid such a withering hail of quarrels and shots that the Troggoth could not even regenerate the wounds. As the brute tumbled down the rocks, the orruk leader burst out of the mist.
Gudrun promised double share to the crew and the lean orruk disappeared again, this time in a cloud of gun smoke. Then, he was trumpled by the rushing duardin as they moved to secure the cave entrance.
For another hour, the orruk came at the Grudgebreakers. The few that survived the fire levelled at them were quickly finished with cutlasses and cudgels. The Grudgebreakers had the cave and nothing would have moved them from there until they had thoroughly searched it and secured their loot.
***
This was a proper game, played against a new friend I've recently met. As we drew the battleplan cards, I was reminded of the beauty of Warcry. It is simply amazing how, no matter what, the cards always end up fitting perfectly into your own narrative and even drive it forward.
