The Harrowmark Run - part 6

Triumph and Treachery: Artefact of Ultimate Power 

The most important part of the cargo was not on the shipwreck, rather it was flung not far away during the crash. Bruised and battered, the warbands rush to grab the fabled artefact.
(The winner's General can generate an additional Artefact/Spell)

The Ogresuns

Kaptain Salty Ogbad - Orruk Warboss, Gem of Seeing

Dredger Zug - Orruk Boss

Dubloon Dreg - Orruk

Fetch - Orruk

Blackspot - Orruk

Nastyface - Orruk

Bad Hook - Orruk
Fishgutz - Orruk
Capsize Naz - Orruk

Walker Plank - Grot

Stormy Trug - Grot
Dirty Morrgun - Grot

Mr Whalebelly - Ogor

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The cold light of an autumn dawn broke over the tangled forests that stretched on for ten thousand leagues in every direction. Wortbad stood under the path of the last voyage of the pirate skyship Rotmoon, and it was here that most of her cargo had been dumped as the ship careened out of control overhead, before it was wrecked a few miles away, somewhere beyond the next hill.

Kaptain Salty Ogbad chose to take the risk of harnessing the power of the Dreadfire Portal and ordered the rest of his crew to head for the chest that had been pushed off the deck of the crashing skyship.

From the top of the stair he surveyed the edge of the village.

Ogbad saw the Ordeshal Host's cavalry appear through the gates of the Rose & Scythe Inn.

And he cursed as the Whyte Lady materialised right next to the chest. She opened it and revealed The Helm of Authority! The Orruk Kaptain roared with frustration and raced back down the stone steps, he chased after his crew.

The Orruk Pirates continued towards the chest, but they were not undaunted: Several of the Ogresuns grumbled about old battle wounds playing up and urgent appointments elsewhere.

Dredger Zug was having none of it though and the pirates pressed on under his baleful gaze and hard words. The Kaptain was not far behind them too, which reinforced Zug's orders.

The Gilded Hand cavalry took on the ghost riders while the Whyte Lady and Kalyustar angaged in a magical duel! Arcane lightning flashed between the two wizards.

While the Gilded Hand cavalry were dealt-with by the Host the Whyte Lady turned her attention back to the Orruks.

Her Mask of Horror stopped three of the Ogresuns in their tracks; frozen in terror! The Vampire cut down two pirates then used the life force of the fallen orruks to heal the wounds Kalyustar had inflicted.

Noisey William arrived but he was entirely distracted by his disappointment that the inn was closed.

The Whyte Lady's power of Death Incarnate felled three orruks simultaneously.

Only Blackspot held kept his feet long enough for the Kaptain to get close.

Ogbad charged at the Vampress, kutlass flashing in the autumnal light.

The Orruk Kaptain's merciless assault saw off the undead queen,  his Ogor crewman only deigned to join him once the vampire was banished. The two of them gloated over the Helm of Authority and the riches it would bring them!

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Major Victory to the Ogresuns! (+6 Renown)
Triumph: Heroic Saga (+1 Renown)

Added 3 Orruks (Scupper Lug, Poxy Uzbad, Floggin Morr) and a Grot (Dread Pirate RogUrtz) to the warband for 7 Renown.

The Malfactus Rift Campaign - part 1

Godfather Viktor, Blessed Knight, Wailslake and I are about to start a WH40K 8th edition campaign. We have been discussing the setting and what kind of warbands we will be using. We were chatting about bands of adventurers exploring the dark side of the Cicatrix Maledictum in the "current" timeline of the 40K universe. It's still early days as far as planning is concerned but this is where we've got to so far...

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The Great Rift is a tear in reality that essentially divides the Imperium in half. Its emergence was a literal galaxy-shattering event, which threw the Imperium into chaos and ushered in new wars across nearly every world in the Imperium. So powerful and far was this storm that the very laws of physics fray at the edges as the inconsistencies of time fluctuations, once largely localised to larger storms such as the Eye of Terror, spread across the galaxy. Some worlds felt centuries go by in an instant while others were all but frozen in time, and still others have suffered constant temporal shifts. 

None fully understand the origins of the rift – though there are many theories: the breach of the Cadian Gate, the sorcery of a Daemon Primarch, catastrophe in the Webway, mass bloodshed and fire in the Damocles Gulf – all may have caused or contributed to it. The rift is variously known by the cultures of the galaxy as the Crimson Path, the Mouth of Ruin, the Warpscar, the Dathedian, Gork’s Grin and a thousand other names besides. To the Imperium it is the Cicatrix Maledictum, or just the Great Rift. To those on the Terran side, it is a tainted scar across the sky. To those unfortunates on the far side, it is far worse…

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Blessed Knight made up a name for a region: "Ghoul Star Rifts". I didn't realise he'd made it up and went looking for it on the new Dark Imperium map.... and found it! So that was settled - we would be exploring the far north-east of the galaxy, way beyond the reach of the Imperium now that the Astronomican is not "visible" for half the galaxy!

The Ghoul Stars and surrounding regions, as shown in the Dark Imperium map:



So I made a zoomed-in version of the map and added a sepia filter, as that's my preference for all maps. It's an area a few hundred light years across, so we are looking at a relatively small area but it still has a few interesting things going on - a huge Warp Rift in the middle for one! The Ork empire of Waaagh Bork around Desperation is off the map to the south east. So it won't feature but remains a looming threat. There are also 2 splinter hive fleets to the north east!



We will probably zoom in a bit more for the campaign's narrative but this gives some context of the regions around where the action will take place.

There are probably hundreds of unlisted start systems in the area - plenty of room for us to make stuff up! But the "headline" planets of the region:

• New Drekport
• Sistec Prime
• Malfactus (a warp rift)
• Quisto’Rol
• Lunaphage

This is the same area of the map as it appears in Codex Chaos Space Marines:



The Desolation of Dreth VI is listed a daemonic incursion.

The moved name label also shows Malfactus is one rift not two, as I had thought from the Dark Imperium galaxy map.

The map according to Codex Grey Knights:



The Carsayon Vortex is classed as chaos stronghold or daemon world.

I noticed the warp rift is shifted quite a lot north in the Grey Knight version, it probably changes over the years. Hard to map a shifting region like that - imagine trying to plot a safe course around it, without the aid of the Astronomicon!

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During our last game I said, outloud, that 40K Orks are not doing anything for me at the moment, so of course the first idea I have for this campaign is for an Ork warband: Ork Explorerz! (I think this article was nagging the back of my mind: Warhammer 40,000: Top 5 Explorers)

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is a terrifying place where even your own mind is no refuge against the myriad horrors of the galaxy. Despite this, it’s also packed with adventurers and glory seekers who willingly travel to the dark corners of space in search of treasure, fame, mysterious artefacts or simply inner peace.

While most Orks are totally content with a life of mindless violence as part of a larger clan, some strive for individuality (or just fancy a bigger share of the post-battle loot). These Orks become Freebooterz, roaming bands of pirates who hire their services to Orks across the galaxy. 

I was thinking about my recent (and WIP) 40k projects and all of them are centred on Mancunius Dome. I needed something new, and fairly quick, or it might feel a bit crow-barred in. I have loads of unbuilt Ork models, so zero spend required! Plus Freebooterz, while totally different to my "proper" Ork army, are easy to justify as a small add-on force.

My warband for the campaign is taking shape: Warboss Throttle and his Freebooters, The Dust Hogz. They will not look like the standard Ork Space Pirates based on the look of real C17th pirates (since I have a pirate Orruk army already). I'm sticking to the look of Boss Nob Woz (below): so a bit Mad Max. biker leathers, fur, feathers, "scrap" trophies, etc.

The Dust Hogz

• Warboss Throttle (Power 4)
• 5 Nobz - Mugwak, Smarg, Draktor, Arg and Boss Nob Nognox (Power 11)
• 10 Ork Boyz, including Boss Nob Woz (Power 5)
• Warphead - Ghizzud (Power 4)

Power Level 24

Exploring and charting the edges of the Malfactus Rift.  A small group of characterful and individual Freebooters: pirates, adventurers and scavengers, exploring the outer fringe of the Dark Imperium. Poking around in Space Hulks and on backwater planets, finding ancient alien gubbinz and getting into scrapes.

I painted this guy for our planned "Mad MorkX" game from 2015 (that never actually happened). I'm going to build my Exporerz around him in the same style.

There will be more to come over the next few weeks: The other's are also working on new warbands and we are going to come up with a few plot lines.

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 2

The children of the Everqueen take root in even the most barren soil; fallow fields sown with bones and watered with tears.

The wyldwoods of the Harrowmark are so cluttered with the remains of the unnumbered dead that the Sylvaneth that dwell within them have become amalgamations of wood, bones, burial goods and grave-shrouds. The often have skulls and bones tangled into their branches and limbs.

~ 🙐 ~

The 2nd and 3rd model in the Graveroot Wargrove, Sylvaneth from the Harrowmark, in the Realm of Death. Still WIP - greenstuff shrouds & crackle texture added.

Anomaly Protocol. Mutant Mechanicus - part 8

An update on the Sumpcrawler.

It's still very WIP - I'm planning on adding more purity seals and scrolls with greenstuff next. It will get a similar paint-job to my Kastelan Robots; lots of filth and rust.

Anomaly Protocol. Mutant Mechanicus - part 7

The Sumpwalker

Still very WIP but I plan to add lots of "scrap metal" armour plates and purity seals. Possibly a single "robot eye" in the middle of the hull, a skull or two, some baggage, vents or exhausts, and a lot of weathering! And I was thinking of adding the air breaks from the Ork Bomma to the back as random "flappy bits".

I want it to feel like it has been roughly patched up over the centuries with random metal plates.

The design is very much inspired by Ian McQue's walker sketches and Ashley Wood's "World War Robot" paintings.

Sky-Pirates of The Harrowmark: The Selachii - part 1

The Selachii are skyship pirates from The Harrowmark in Shyish, the Realm of Death. They are Freeguilders with wild hairstyles, fur-collared clothes and lots of skulls and other macabre trophies hung from their gear.

This warband is also intended as a small group of NPCs for The Harrowmark (alongside the Graveroot Wargrove and the Court of Spades). They may end up as a unit in the Ironfang Fleet, or occasionally oppose them.





Bodrin Bok, the leader of the Selachii





Marcyn, crewman





Darvon, Warrior Priest





Kase, Champion with greatsword







Rohar, musician





Anthor, crewman





Josian, crewman