Friday 22 July 2022

Animosity IV - The Bleeding Wilds, part 11 - Starfall


The Cleavermaw sailed slowly over the Ferrus Wastes and once more approached the Bleed. The crew made all the preparations they could - they knew full well what needed to be done now, but bits often fell off at the best of times. But it was always a rough journey through the strange wall of magical energy that both divided and joined Silverside and Lahar.

"The thaumaturgic compass goes proper wild when we gets near it, doesn't it?" said Wrekka as he stood by the helm looking into the glass dome in Uzzog's hand.

Uzzog nodded and was about to answer when Rudder Azag, the helmsman, interrupted.

"It ain't no wonder though - there's a congregation of magic happening inside of it. It must be some kind of cascade effect like that what occurs in an Endless Spell, but on the bigger side." said Rudder Azag. He attention was not on his work and the ship drifted a few points to starboard off course.

Lost Uzzog opened his mouth to comment again, but he closed it a second time when Wrekka jumped in.

"Which that is only half of the story mate, there is more than a cascade here. This ain't a self sustaining effect, there must be a source for all of the energies being displaced here, and it ain't just the Ur-River. Even you know it ain't just the river, so don't be going there again." said Wrekka, warming to the subject.

Rudder Azag wasn't letting that go. He turned his full attention on Wrekka and the wheel span even further to starboard.

"Which I never said it was, I just said it was likely most of it!" he spat, furiously.

"Oh, you did and all!" yelled Wrekka.

They both froze, they clamped their mouths shut tight as they suddenly and simultaneously became aware of the Kaptain's shadow looming over them...

~ ⦽ ~

The dusty wind dried out eyes and mouths and whipped loose clothing around the pirates as they struggled over desert sands that were unpleasantly hot, even through heavy sea-boots. The orruks were getting annoyed with one-another in the heat and a fight was likely to break out at any moment.


In a chat with a shady character they met in a dive-bar in Three Sisters, Mogrum had been told about a "star" that fell in this region and the Cleavermaws were doing their best to look for it but conditions were horrible. They had managed to collect a number of interesting bits of amber crystal, which seemed to be magical at first examination, but they were not sure if they were connected to the fallen star or not.


As the pirates headed back to their ship they met another group of explorers: Skargat's Ironforged Ogors seemed to have collected a load of the crystals too.


The Glutton rushed straight at the Cleavermaws. Mogrum, wearing the Mantle of Xant, that he discovered at Thunderstone, stood back and blasted the nearest ogor with green lightning. Black-powder pistols blasted noisily on both sides. Lost Uzzog zapped an ogor with his short-ranged Waaagh! powers.


The stragglers from the Cleavermaw rushed to get into in the fight - they had a lot of ground to cover! One of the ogors went down, but so did Mr Sludga! Another ogor appeared - it was Skargat himself. 


Dogvane clashed cutlasses with Cargo the Maneater. 


Kaptain Mogrum raced over to the second wave of Cleavermaws and herded them into the brawl with bellowed orders. Cargo the Maneater moved to intercept the Kaptain. Wrekka fell to the Tyrant's axes.


The Baron was brought down by the thunderous charge of Skargat. Crowsnest went down, out cold, when a Glutton bashed him on the head. But Ropesend charged in and saved him from the greedy brute before the ogor could finish him off.

After a long fight the orruk pirates managed to grab the lion's share of the crystals and claim victory for the day!

~ ⦽ ~




Deployment: Clash of Blades
Victory: Feasting Pits (from the Thondia rules in WD473)
Twist: Blood in the Air (from the Thondia rules in WD473)

With the extra attacks against any model that was wounded (from the Twist card), and the objectives only appearing when a model was taken out of action (from the Victory card), this was inevitably going to be a very bloody battle!

I did my best to keep the victory conditions in mind throughout the game and made sure I spread out the first few attacks to try and trigger the extra attacks from the Twist as often as possible. I also (once more!) made use of the Bonesplitterz amazing movement ability to keep the action moving in my favour. It was a very satisfyingly challenging game though and the result was definitely up-in-the-air until the last couple of activations. A couple of tiny differences in the dice rolls could have taken the result either way very easily.

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