The Great Oubliette of Shyish, part 8

The orruk pirates' footsteps echoed on the stone stairs as they descended, deeper into the Great Oubliette. Mogrum muttered to himself and Lost Uzzog nervously fiddled with his aetheric compass.

Mausoleum stacked upon mausoleum, upon mausoleum towered either side of them, crumbling stonework carved into the grim motifs of death. Stunted dead trees clung to the walls and roadsides, forming silhouettes like twisted gnarled fingers. A gloomy green ghostlight cast deep shadows in the crypt doorways and tomb entrances. A thick mist swirled through the grave-markers and columns around them. It curled and drifted on an unfelt breeze.

The Cleavermaws were subdued - they re-checked the priming of their heavy pistols and loosened the swords at their belts. Strange noises echoed along the empty streets - the clank of chains, the wails of lost souls, the hiss of shifting dry leaves. Their lanterns hardly made any difference to the shadows. They could all feel that something was coming.

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I managed to get hold of a Temple of Skulls (thanks Joe!) and immediately set about covering the Chaos start with flagstones to make it look more at home in the Harrowmark or the Great Oubliette. Some plasti-card and texture paint and a very fast paint job later and it is ready!

I undercoated it Chaos Black spray, then zenithal base coated it with Mechanicus Standard Grey. I dry-brushed the entire thing with Ushabti Bone. Then blocked in the "earth" areas with Steel Legion Drab, stone areas got washed with Athonian Camoshade at the bottom and Nuln Oil over the rest. The following day the wash was dry and I drybrushed with Ushabti Bone again, concentrating on the Steel Legion Drab areas most. I picked out the skulls with Wraithbone and painted them with Skeleton Horde. I glued on patches of dead grass flock and some piles of dead leaves then varnished the whole thing.

It takes up a BIG chunk of a Warcry board!

The Great Oubliette of Shyish, part 7

Malkrohl The Half-Seen, Spirit Torment

The Spirit Torments are the lords of the Great Oubliette of Shyish, a continent-sized underworld of dank cells and ice-cold dungeons. Known as shacklegheists to the elders of the Shyish Innerlands, they were once a rare sight in the Mortal Realms.

They are entrusted with a duty Nagash considers vitally important – it is their role to capture the souls of transgressors, those who have escaped their due fate. A Spirit Torment draws its victim’s soul into its shacklegheist chains, heavy bonds forged of malefic iron and tempered by fell ritual. 

The masked creature known as Malkrohl The Half-Seen was a pitiless jailer in life. In death he seeks out those that Nagash deems his by right of rulership, bludgeoning them with his ensorcelled iron padlocks before locking away their souls.

The fate of most Torment-apprehended spirits depend upon the strength of the soul and the crimes that it committed in its mortal life. The majority are remade into lesser Nighthaunts, but those captured by Malkrohl are all trapped in a pocket of unreality linked to the Great Oubliette.

Malkrohl takes great pleasure in his dark work, though as much as he delights in ending lives and capturing souls, there is one aspect of their duties he enjoys above all others. The spiteful phantom often peers into his padlocked prisons, gazing over the bright soul-stuff captured within. Then, he draws a great breath with a discordant howl, a chilling inhalation that steals hope, robbing the imprisoned spirits of energy even as it subjects them to nightmarish angst and dread.

Filled with the energies of the incarcerated souls, Malkrohl exudes an aura of malevolence and despair. At times this malignant force can even be seen as pale, greenish wisps of spiritual radiance amongst which faces leer, taloned hands reach out to grasp, and agonised screams echo. To the living these emanations evoke purest terror, and are oppressive even to those who cannot see. To bask in such baleful phenomena is to be overcome with feelings of morbidity and gloom. To other Nighthaunts these harrowing energies are invigorating, driving the wraith-creatures on towards still greater acts of violence and spite.

Other Spirit Torments have earned their fell notoriety for the sheer number of souls they have returned to the great mausoleums of Nagash. Malkrohl has earned his for the single-minded way he deals out punishments.

Kaldrak the Pale, Guardian of Souls with Nightmare Lantern

A Guardian of Souls keeps vigil over the dead whilst driving those around them to the heights of malice. When one of these sorcerous spectres goes to war, hundreds of the living dead are drawn to their lantern’s flame from leagues around.

Kaldrak is a nexus of undead energy. Once, he was a lesser Necromancer who used amethyst magic to further his own cause, yet his arcane knowledge was not enough to keep him alive. Nagash eventually claimed his soul, shaping Kaldrak to better fit his needs. Now he uses his spells not for his own ends, but to summon more Nighthaunts or restore spirits damaged in battle.

In addition to a deadly chill blade, the Guardian bears a nightmare lantern: a ghostly beacon lit by the Flame of Nagashizzar. The mind-chilling black smoke it exudes does not rise up to the heavens, but instead drifts down, along the cracked flagstones of the Oubliette. Nearby Nighthaunts are invigorated by the wafting vapours, and the Guardian of Souls can channel the lantern so that the cold fingers of smoke snake through the earth, beckoning spirits to rise out of their graves and mausoleums. Or the smoke can entangle mortal foes, chilling them to death.

Viva La Revulushun! - part 15, more scenery

Once I realised that my Mekworld scenery additions, and my Freebooterz ork vehicles and infantry have all been painted using a similar colour palette to Ian McQue’s Mileships / Mortal Engines concept art without really realising it, the next logical step was to really lean into it and make a bits of scenery that intentionally echoed the style.

So I slapped a bit of Stompa armour plating onto the top of a small section of Ryza Ruins and added some bits-box spares around it.

Putting a bit of (Skaven?) plank on top of two barrels suddenly transformed it into a Mek's workshop tea-break area and the "random bit off terrain to test a colour scheme" gained a character and a story of it's own. I love it when stuff like that happens. Some bits of cut plasti-card tubing for mugs and some bottles sealed the deal.

So I also added a water-still with a tap from the Zone Mortalis range. It looks like it could be a hot water tank!

Someone spilled their tea...

The TINIEST mushroom bit in the world!

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I also finished this bit of scatter terrain that has been sat on my desk waiting for paint for months.

Viva La Revulushun! - part 14, more orks

I twigged a couple of days ago, that my Mekworld scenery additions, and my Freebooterz ork vehicles and infantry have all been painted using a similar colour palette to Ian McQue’s Mileships / Mortal Engines concept art without really realising it:

So for this batch of "background" orks I have tried to really lean-in to the colour scheme. I'm tempted to go back over the scenery and army and make it more obvious, as I really like the look: mostly grey, with brown, red, orange and yellow areas, and a splash of turquoise and cream here and there. All chipped and weathered and covered in liberal quantities of rust and grime.

I have painted the new orks with an eye on adding them to my Freebooterz army, even though I doubt I will ever play a "big" game of 9th edition 40k. Kill Team suits my available time and game-size tastes much better.

Ork citizens of Badlanding

Madfang's Mob, exploring a Space Hulk that dropped out of the Warp in the New Drekport System.

The group in my underhive / space hulk box.

Boss Nob Madfang - slugga & power klaw. Leader specialist.

Smokes - dust scarf, big roof, one eye missing. Veteran specialist.

Cyclops - scout with magnoculars, dust scarf, slugga and choppa

Feedback - comms pack, dust scarf.

Sky - dust scarf, flying helmet and goggles, chainsword and slugga

Update 18th November 2020.

Madfang's Mob got a little bigger. These are the new ladz:

The whole mob together.

Ash, the Heavy Specialist with a Big Shoota.

Beak.

Toad. Hook hand and striped trousers - because Freebooterz!

Marsh.

Trample, with a bag o'bones.

Madfang's Mob, exploring a Space Hulk.