Thy Soul To Keep - part 15

The Traitors!

(Coalition of Death) The struggles around the Hurricane Bell has turned into a war of attrition, after so many sorties in the surrounding areas. One final push at the Hurricane Bell could see one coalition taking control of the Realmstone. Yet, the omens are even more dire than usual, as fresh treachery is brewing.
(Two new alliances will emerge from this battle)

The Rotmoons - 80 Renown (Portents: The Falling Star, Signs from Gorkamorka)

Kapitán Alunzo da Leeva - Orruk Warboss 

El Doctoro - Orruk Great Shaman

Bolet Ghosteater - Fungoid Cave Shaman

Dragante - Orruk Boss

6 Orruk Privateers

~ 🕱 ~

The Rotmoons approached the Hurricane Bell with trepidation. Their fragile alliance with the Heralds of Nagash was apparently still in place and An'sec had ordered them to take control of a nearby Realmstone cache. The Gilded Hand and the Raidho Othalas were forming up on the other side of the Bell, they appeared to have captured one cache of Realmstone each as well.

Bortagno dropped like a stone when he was hit by an amethyst Arcane Bolt from the battlements of Freebooters Tower.



Bold Rikk turned to ask Tambor a question and a crossbow bolt hit him on the shoulder; luckily it glaced off his only piece of armour.



Kalyustar watched the battle unfold, safe in the temporary stronghold of the Freebooters Tower. Something was amiss though - there were strange tides in the aether.



The pistoleers rode down the White Lady!



Gunfire from the Gilded Hand's pistoleers zipped past the orruks. Bolet fried a pistoleer with a seering green Arcane Bolt.



The Rotmoons and the Gilded Hand squared up opposite each other.



The horsemen managed to shoot or trample all the Deadwalkers that had been guarding a another cache of Realmstone.



The orruk privateers left their cache (unwisely!) and advanced into the corpse of trees between them and the Hurricane Bell.



The Kharadron revealed their treachery and turned on their erstwhile allies. The Rotmoons refused to be in an alliance with the duardin and joined the Gilded Hand in a hasty and somewhat shaky alliance! Furious, Kalyustar unleashed another amethyst Arcane Bolt - this time at the Kharadron!









Bolet and El Doctoro joyfully blasted the duardin with arcs of green energies of various shades.



Bolet was distracted for a minute or two when he found a particularly promising crop of Dozewart Redcaps!



~ 🕱 ~











Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled across the forests. A searing light made all the warbands shield their eyes for a moment and another warband was standing on the Hurricane Bell! They wore strange armour and carried brightly decorated shields.







Suddenly empowered by an unexpected tide of aetheric energy, Bolet and Eld Doctoro were able to unleash an unprecedented storm of magical energies, which ripped apart four of the Liberators in an explosion of magical-spores and arcs of green lightning, and infused the orruks near-by with Waaagh! energy.



Kapitán Alunzo da Leeva single handedly charged that remaining Hexwraiths and destroyed them.



But something was wrong. El Doctoro could feel it in the air. A glance at Bolet Ghosteater showed him that the Fungoid Cave Shaman could feel it too - he was fidgety and nervous, even though he had consumed at least five Dozewart Redcaps in the last half hour. There should not have been that much energy to tap into with so few orruks near by. El Doctoro was about to ask Juan Dee if he knew what was happening but before he realised Dee wasn't there the bow wave of the Necroquake hit them.

The forest seemed to explode in slow motion - everything around the shamans lifted from the ground and started flowing in the same direction. Leaves, stones, broken branches, abandoned barrels, orruk and grot were swirled and washed into the air. Bottles and of rum and barrels of beer were upended, smashed against trees and the contents poured horizontally. The two wizards were swept up in the cloud of debris, spun over and over, carried past the other (completely unaffected) orruks, then slammed into a tree.

As the bow wave passed they were dumped on the floor; bruised, dazed and confused. The other orruks looked at them, mouths hung open, with no idea what to make of the strange event.

~ 🕱 ~

Viktor's side of this tale is here.

We had a special guest for this game - Tammy, from the Tears of Envy blog, joined us with her Stormtonnians. She deployed them in the centre of the board and we randomised which side she would join. The Kharadron won her support and the Liberators attacked the Orruks, who then surprised everyone by utterly wiping out Sigmar's finest! It lovely to meet Tammy and however unlucky she was in the game we were all pleased with the convenient narrative resolution that neatly explained why the Stormcast would not be around for the next game!