Knowledge and theft
Plotgibber had been true. The human wizard was accompanied just by two scores of militiamen. Vyzorak had observed them for three days, the wizard supervising the operation, some of the militia operating the air pumps provided by Wolfram Industries, the rest diving into the clear waters of the Vitrian Well. Seven of them never made it back. The others emerged encased in their metal suits, carrying four glowing orbs. Inside them, even from the distance, images could be seen forming in an endless repetition of what the divers saw.
The wizard was now studying them, surrounded by guards.
It was time to strike, before he could learn anything useful.
Two pickets of militia stood at the edges of the Wolfram camp.
Vyzorak split the Coven of the Purple Flame so that every militia group could be engaged at the same time.
Bellowing a challenge to the wizard, Vyzorak stampeded toward him, the militia quickly jumping to intercept his advance.
The rest of the Coven sprang forth too, rasing surprised shouts of alarm, warning squawks from the gryph-terriers and a few pistol shots.
While on the left flank the fight stalled, on the right, supervised by their captain, the Wolfram militia quickly recovered their with and got the upper hand.
In the centre, Vyzorak and Kleok opened a bloddy path for R'tecfar and Zirithinion to launch themselves upon the orbs, the wizard's arcane bolts washing over R'tecfar's armour.
Vyzorak was charged from the right and pinned in place, but many a militiamen fell under his staff and horns.
Inklineilis was brought down, marking the collapse of the Coven's left flank.
And yet, even if Kleok was mauled by a gryph-terrier, R'tecfar and Zirithinion ganged up on the wizard creating an opening for Iridios to come forward and grab another orb.
Bleeding from countless wounds, Vyzorak struggled not to give into a furious rage. He instead lowered his head and pushed trought the militia, headed for the last orb. As he grabbed it, the Coven run for the cover of the Snarl undergrowth.
Though this time all members of the Coven had survived, the number of seriously injured fighters was growing. Still, it had been a well worth effort. During their retreat, Zirithinion had fallen into an abandoned scorpid nest which the Coven could put to good use to move quickly around the Snarl. While crawling away from the battlefield, Kleok had been able to snatch an explosive devices carrying the Wolfram Industires mark. And Vyzorak could sense the mixture of arcane and technological power within the orbs as he studied the images contained within them.
Soon, that power would help him bring forth the Plotgibber into Azyr.
***
I continued to play the Rat Hunters campaign, this time using the Ironweld Armoury scenario. Again, it was a tense solo game with half of the Coven taken down and the rest badly wounded, so I've definitely found a better way to play solo games.
Xal'ar'ap Plotgibber
Vyzorak Lorehoarder sat crosslegged on the floor, at the centre of a complex network of symbols, his staff resting on his knees. A stream of arcane syllables flowed from his lips, the tattoos on his body glimmering faintly. The sick light intensified as the symbols on the floor ignited.
"Plotgibber! I summon thee, Xal'ar'ap of the Grand Cabal!" boomed the ogroid voice.
In front of him the air coalesced into a swirling vortex of impossible hues. It buckled and became translucent, a silver asp visible behind it. The snake moved, as if alive, testing the boundary between Realms. It suddenly retreated to reveal a malevolent pair of eyes and four hands tracing runes around them.
"Azyr is still shut to us, Lorehoarder!"
"Then grant me the means to break the veil for you!"
"Aaaah! Know, Thaumaturge, there is a human wizard in service to Wolfram. We fanned the flames of his paranoia and avarice, convincing him to work alone with a small escort of untrained militia. Right now, they are diving deep down the Vitrian Well, bringing him stolen images on arcane devices. In those devices, there is the knowledge the Thunderhide seeks and the power to break the veil..."
"They'll be mine and your services too, Plotgibber!"
"Indeed, Vyzorak, indeed..."
Among the few bits I brought with me from Manchester, there was a fully assembled Pink Horror picked up as a free Miniature of the Month. I've had the idea to convert it into a Changecaster and for that I had kept a pair of Battlemage arms and few other random bits, promising myself to actually convert it when the moment was right. It looks like now is the right time!
I carefully cut the three arms that were on the Pink Horror and then glued the Battlemage arms at the very back of the cut on the body. Finally, I placed two of the original arms back, slightly more foward and lower than they were.
For the staff top I used the asp, and for the hand the one holding a sacrificial dagger, both seeming the best fitting for a Tzeentchian daemon.
I could have used green stuff to join the two sides of the mantle, but the area was so small I was afraid I couldn't make the sculpted cloth look realistic. Instead, I glued two bird skulls there, as if they were clasps holding two stoles together.
The final touch was the Necromancer collar, slightly reduced in size and glued on top of the head like a frill.
The ambusher ambushed
Vyzorak had been right. A massive Gutlord was bullying over the gnoblars. Even worse, whatever they had pilfered from the Gilded Manor was nowhere to be seen. Now, the only course of action left was to force an entrance into the Manor. But to do that, they had to get rid of the Gutlord. They were approaching with the cover of darkness, preparing to spring an attack from multiple directions. And then, the damn gnoblars spotted the forward members of the Coven. As their screeches filled the night, the Thaumaturge felt an ominous stirring in the strands of fate...
The members of the Coven froze around the orrery marking the centre of the square leading to the Gilded Manor. In the pitch darkness of night, they could not see the gnoblars, but they could hear them approaching from both ahead and behind them.
Zyrtx quickly dispatched the first gnoblar that launched itself at the Arcanites, but as his fellow Acolytes were unable to target the approaching enemy with their arcane bolts, they drew back toward the street where reinforcement would come from. Behind the screaming gnoblars, they could hear the deep rumble of the Gutlord's voice taunting them.
Vyzorak and his party came up the road, the screaming more than the half-glimpsed figures telling them where to head.
Pinned against a wall by three gnoblars, Zyrtx flailed wildly with his blades, until the Gutlord stepped forward and lopped off the Tzaangor's head.
Enraged by the loss of one of his followers, Vyzorak lowered his head and charged forward, pushing gnoblars aside and slamming into the Gutlord.
Behind him, the rest of the Coven pressed forwards, but the sheer number of gnoblars prevented them from reaching the Gutlord.
Another party of gnoblars emerged from the darkness behind the Coven. Whispering its true name, Vyzorak ordered his bound Blue Horror to move and slow them down.
Inklineilis' party arrived on the scene, emerging on the square just behind the Gutlord.
The ogor hacked and slashed with his massive weapon, concentrating all of his blows on Vyzorak. The Ogroid fell and only R'tecfar's sudden rampage saved him, the Tzaangor's greatblade tracing deep burrows onto the ogor's armour and flesh.
Although still bogged down by the gnoblars, the rest of the Coven pressed forward, managing to land a couple more blows on the Gutlord.
In the press of bodies, Kleok and Zirithinion were hacked down before they could strike again.
But then, squawking words of arcane power, R'tecfar lunged forward, the incantation landing strength and precision to his greatblade.
As the Gutlord crashed to the ground, the remaining Acolytes raged pitilessly on him, sending the gnoblars in a horrified rout.
Vyzorak woke up inside the Gilded Manor. He could tell by Inklineilis' furrowed brow, as the Adept studied the tiny inscriptions covering every inch of the walls. A sudden fit of pain reminded the Thaumaturge of how they got there. He looked around, and saw Zirithinion breathing painfully, his chest wrapped in bandages. The rest of the Coven nursed only marginally lighter wounds. Entering the Manor had been a costly endeavour. He prayed to Tzeentch for it to be worthy as he approached Inklineilis and started to study the inscriptions.
***
This was another solo game, but rather than generating a battleplan as normal and using the rules for Adversaries from the Tome of Champion 2020 to control the gnoblars and ogor, I've decided to play The Northern Sewer Entrance battleplan from The Rat Hunters solo campaign from the Tome of Champions 2021. I simply swapped the Skaven for a faction better fitting the Animosity VII narrative.
I have to say, it was a really challenging and rewarding game. So I'll continue to use that campaign, as long as I can make the battleplans fit with the Animosity paths.
Underguts Gnoblars
Vyzorak listened carefully to his spy's report. The Acolyte had located an entrance to the Gilded Manor, but it was crawling with gnoblars piling all sorts of stones, scrolls, coins and other trinkets outside the building, next to a Boltbreaker Union's propaganda sign. The Ogroid pondered. Whatever they were collecting, it was better in his hands, so that any knowledge it may be gleaned from it could serve in the destruction of Eklysium. But if gnoblars were there, surely some ogors were overseeing them. It would have been better to attack in force...
As I collected bits for my Underguts, I also got half a box of gnoblars. They would have been more than enough for a Warcry roster, but since a whole unit of 20 would have made my Underguts a valid Age of Sigmar army, I looked for more.
Between those from the Gluttons, Leadbelchers and Ironguts sprues and those from the Ironblaster/Scraplauncha, I already had enough, but then I stumbled onto an old metal Gnoblar Trapper disguised as a dog. I just couldn't let it go!
Painting them in the same colours as the ogors was more than enough to show their allegiance, but since I had two pistols from the Long Drong Slayers metal set, I selected two gnoblars with open hands and checked if they looked right on them.
They did, so besides the paint scheme, I have another little nod to their belonging to an Underguts Warglutt.
They, and their masters, will soon see action in Eklysium as opponents of my Tzeentchian coven.
Stay tuned!
Underguts Warglutt
The Underguts are pale-fleshed bogeymen that blast their way up from the deep earth to raid and feast upon surface-dwellers. They are obsessed with firepower and explosives, and they love to explode their prey into chunks of cooked meat with an overwhelming bombardment from their heavy cannons.
Over the last winter and spring I've painted this bunch of ogors I had since I split up the content of the Feast of Bones box with David, all the way back in 2019. When it was released, as AoS had no requirements on unit sizes, the box contained 8 ogor Gluttons and one sprue of Leadbelcher add-ons, with the suggestion to assemble them as 6 Gluttons and 2 Leadblechers. To make them playable in later editions, I had collected various ogor and Empire/Freeguild bits to assemble 4 Ironguts and 4 Leadbelchers and do some conversions on both units.
Since I had used the body of the Ironblaster gunner and a few bits to convert Tulok Marrowbreath, an Undergut Butcher residing in the Lux Umbra of the Prime Dominion, this new batch of fat boys had to go with him in being Underguts, which obviously guided the choice of conversions and paintwork.
I gave the Thunderfist, the champion of the Leadbelchers, a right arm from the Mournfang Riders kit and used an Empire Great Cannon together with a Glutton left arm to represent him as holding the gun down while ordering his unit. Finally, I gave him the bag with cannonballs and the unhelmeted head from the Ironblaster Gunner.
The other converted Leadbelcher used another Empire Great Cannon, a carved out beartrap-holding hand from the Gluttons and regular Glutton arms to represent an ogor reloading his cannon with a ball-and-chain, coming from the Leadbelchers belt decorations. The other belt decoration, the powder horn was used as intended.
I had decided to use the Powder Gnoblars for the Tyrant (more in a moment) and in a unit of Gnoblars I'll paint very shortly. Because of that, I needed alternative tokens for the Powder Gnoblars ability. Luckily, I had some barrells, cannonballs and another powder horn, so I simply arranged them on 25mm bases and I was done.
The remaining two Leadbelchers were assembled right off the box with no conversions.
The Gutlord was made using the fully enclosed helmet from the Ironblaster Gunner, a Gargant Hacker from the Mournfang Cavalry and Gluttons arms. All I had to do was cutting the weapon pole between the hands so that I could rotate everything in the right position.
Another Irongut was converted in the same way. The icon bearer and musician were built off the box, except like the converted models, they got pistols from the Empire Pistolieers hanging from their belts. They're Underguts after all, and they love their gunpowder weapons!
The Tyrant is a really cool model and it already sported a rather big gun, so I decided not to convert him. However, in a nod to the 2nd and 3rd edition rules, when Underguts characters received a Gnoblar Blast Keg as an upgrade, I put the Powder Gnoblar carrying the barrel on its base.
Like Tulok Marrowbreath, they've been painted using Contrast paints over a 3-stage zenithal undercoat, followed by higlights mostly done with Dry paints. The metal areas are instead pianted in Leadbelcher, followed by washes of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade and an Ironbreaker highlight.
As they are, they make for a really characterful and flexible Warcry roster. But I still have the Ironblaster left and a bunch of Gnoblars I've collected from various sources. Once done, they'll bring my Underguts to a playable 1000 points AoS army.
