Animosity Weekender 2025 - Mutiny's End; Cursed Plunder

Extract from Kapitan daLeeva's logbook.

The Rotmoon. At sea, 117 leagues east of Mutiny’s End, The Mists, Karkino Sea. 25th day of Tempayne.

While we are been in these boiling waters since three month now, we have find ourselves lost for the first time. There has not a breathing of wind for days, and we're unable to make readings of sun nor star, for thick fog. Listen me: I never seeing alike before.

But they say, so, if there’s no bread, cakes will do. The crew busy with make-and-mend aboard ship, and I set down to write in my log of this cruise.

To begin, I say back to after we set out of harbour in Mutiny's End, on the last day of the month of Huntyng, and we make our first land for near a week.

++ I ++

5th day of Skwales

Skinflint's Hollow. Battled with a Flesh-Eater Court who believing themselves actors in a troupe of theatre (and so wore all manner of strange object as costume, set and prop), their speed and ferocity allowed they to escape with a larger portion of the loot than our. But we were not left with the empty hand.

We next to explore a cruise past Hullbreaker Harbour. We were unable to defeated the storm and high sea of the region; our sail and rigging being much mauled by them, so we set an easterly course, toward Skull Sands and Claw Point.

Ship's Manifest:

+3 Emberstone Treasures

Plundered Artefacts: 

The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva)

Opponent: Matt / the_thinking_gnu

Warband: Flesh-Eater Courts

Deployment: The Trap

Victory: Treasure Hunt

Twist: Dawn

Location: Skinflint's Hollow

A great start to the day - I hadn't played Matt since Warhammer Fest in 2023, so we were long over-due for a rematch. But, by Gork, the Royal Hunt is a terrifying ability now!

++ II ++

17th day of Skwales

Put into Blacktar Refuge briefly and had clash with a crew of Wildercorps Rangers there. After much mauling by dozen or more rabid dogs, I put down the Warden who lead them, and chase off the other dogs. But the rest of the Wildercorps has already made-off with more than half the Emberstone treasures here. Well, as they say; Raise crows, they will pick out your eyes.

Made-sail to look into the Hideout; found nought but sandbars and treacherous shallows blocking the roads.

Ship's Manifest:

+1 = 4 Emberstone Treasures

Plundered Artefacts: 

The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva) 

Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo)

Opponent: Ross / ruskins

Warband: Wildercorps Hunters

Deployment: Hold Out

Victory: Embers In The Dark

Twist: Warning Cry

Location: Blacktar Refuge

Ross and I had never managed to play a game, even though he's been to two meet-ups before. That's fixed now! Only three out of the potential five Objectives appeared, and we each had one the other couldn't reach. So the Objective in the middle of the battlefield became like a black hole, with its own gravity that drew in almost every fighter in both our warbands to their inescapable death. Once I'd dealt with the big crossbow, I nearly managed to take down the fighters on it, or Smash them off it, but he was able to squeeze just enough back on to stop me from taking it from him.

++ III ++

3rd day of Tempayne

The Rotmoon become grounded on a sandbar in the Razor Shallows. Took us near three day of backbreaker work in blistering heat, to haul the ship back to deep water. 

When we drop anchor at last in Groggy Head we find a great stash of Emberstone in the ruins. We load up and head back to the ship, but run into a band of rotten scoundrels. They make a shocking mess of poor Doktoro.

Took what small reward we could get away with, and so nearly got a sight more. Decided to head south instead, through the Mists.

Ship's Manifest:

+2 = 6 Emberstone Treasures

Plundered Artefacts: 

The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva) 

Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo) 

Shadow Compass (El Doktoro)

Opponent: Rictus / recalcitrant_daze

Warband: Nurgle Rotbringers

Deployment: Refused Flanks

Victory: Taking What’s Rightfully Ours

Twist: Crushing Ambushers

Location: Groggy Head

Another first game! Rictus came to an Animosity narrative event I ran last summer but this was our first game. I nearly managed to snatch a victory with a very long shot, in the last couple of activations of the game, but the dice did not go my way.

++ IV ++

19th day of Tempayne

In the Mists and how does it look like? It look like ambushed by hundred of Skinks. Listen me: we have killing a dozens, I know El Doktoro blasted several to smoke for certain, but more and more kept appear and they slippery gitz escape with a portion of our loot! But in bad times, good face: we once more didn't left with empty hand. 

But now we have not get out of the Mists since many days. The sleeping crab is carried by the current. We may be too, I hope.

Ship's Manifest:

+2 = 8 Emberstone Treasures

Plundered Artefacts: 

The Crab's Claw (Kapitan daLeeva) 

Stormclouds Ahead (Maximo) 

Shadow Compass (El Doktoro) 

Tradewinds (Bortagno)

Opponent: Leila / mura

Warband: Hunters of Huanchi

Deployment: Mismatched Opponents

Victory: Taking What’s Rightfully Ours

Twist: Mysterious Vapours

Location: The Mists

My goodness Hunters of Huanchi are so fast! Even with the movement penalty for carrying treasure, there was almost nothing I could do to catch them. It was a fantastic game - but playing against Leila always is.

+++

Animosity Weekender 2025 

On Saturday I ran another narrative Warcry event at Warhammer World. With it done, the Animosity Campaigns 2025 Weekender has ended. This global campaign opened with the AoS Grand Narrative at the Las Vegas Open, which was run by Naro and Alex from the Animosity team. There was an online component on the Animosity Discord server and the campaign closed, two weeks later, with the UK Discord meet-up at WHW.

I took 7 sets of my scenery and boards, and Rictus brought his Nurgle temple board. Each board was labelled and themed as a location on the campaign map.

Whisper Cove

(Rictus's amazing Nurgle temple with a disgusting looking pool, made with multiple pours of tinted resin.)

+++

Blacktar Refuge

An ill-fated name, for there is no refuge here. The souls of the damned haunt the ruined port and the waters around it.

+++

Port St. Marian

A Strongpoint built at the final destination of the ill-fated Dawnbringer Crusade of Saint Marian the Luminant. Infected and undermined by the madness of the Flesh-Eater Courts the citizens still believe themselves to be successful Dawnbringers. To their eyes the city is a gleaming example of Sigmar’s Plan achieved: White stone houses with terracotta-tiled roofs, gilded with gold decoration and adorned with celebratory murals and statues, depicting their triumphs and victories. Holy smoke wafts from censors and choirs raise their clear voices in worship. In reality their blood-daubed and rotting ruins lean haphazardly as they sink into the vile, stinking swampland. Gibbering cannibals howl at one-another through the smoke of charred flesh.

+++

Groggy Head

A ramshackle outpost built into the craggy cliffs overlooking the foggy sea, accessed via paths made of damp wooden planks that creak perilously underfoot. The place is seldom visited and the few residents have strangely large eyes and cold, pallid complexions.

+++

Skull Sands

Hundreds of tiny rocky islets, each with a small fort or stronghold clinging to it like a limpet. Most of them are simply the hull of a wrecked ship, braced with salvaged timbers and lashed with rigging, and the odd rusted metal plate riveted over joints. Some have lasted for decades (although many have been washed away). Each stronghold was once home to a paranoid pirate captain and their crew who built a stronghold to defend their loot from their greedy neighbours. Now they’re each home to a paranoid Wight Captain and their Deathrattle crew! There is a strong chance that they share the same names as their “predecessors”.

+++

Skinflint's Hollow

A small twisted bay that offers a little shelter from the perpetual storm known as The Maelstrom. The calmer waters are a welcome relief, despite the incessant rain, but many ships have been lost as they tried to leave the Hollow; swept into Hullbreaker Harbour by treacherous tides and dashed on the razor-sharp rocks there. On the wet sands of the Hollow there is an inn and gambling den called the Rusted Anchor - built decades ago by Sebastiano Skinflint, a retired pirate of some renown… in his day.

+++

The Mists

A rolling semi-sentient fog bank that moves unpredictably and unexpectedly. Sometimes it remains stationary for weeks at a time. Sometimes it expands to shroud a vast area of the sea and land. Other times it all but evaporates, receding to a small area centred on the three islands at its heart. Within this fog dwell unspeakable eldritch horrors; tentacled, toothed and clawed.

+++

Anchorage

A jagged, windswept enclave bordered by half-submerged shipwrecks. Stone ruins serve as the foundation for rickety wooden structures, their salt-stained exteriors leaning precariously against the persistent sea breeze. The distant, mournful calls of seabirds echo through the fog that clings to the settlement like a shroud.

+++

(There's an LED candle under the Emberstone crystals.)

+++

Nine people played 3 or 4 games each, earning Emberstone Treasures and "Cursed Plunder" (upgrade cards).

Each round everyone played a Battleplan with the same predetermined Victory condition but drew a Deployment and Twist card themselves, so everyone played slightly different games with the same rewards available.

The Emberstone and Plunder cards were my custom replacement for the standard Warcry narrative campaign system (which I love, but I'm very conscious that it takes far too long to use between games in a one-day event like this, and doesn't provide many changes over 3 or 4 games. It's far better suited to regular weekly games).

The Emberstone Treasures were orange acyclic crystals that were used as Treasure Tokens (in the 2st and 3rd round games) or Objectives (in the 2nd round games). Each game had between 1 and 5 Emberstone Treasures on the board.

I told everyone to keep hold of the Emberstone their warband controlled at the end of each game, (and distributed new crystals at the start of every subsequent game), as they were also our campaign victory points for the day.

I think this system worked pretty well, as there was still something to be gained from fighting a losing battle to the bitter end. Trying to turn a 5:0 loss into a 4:1, or even a 3:2 was always worthwile: Even if the battle was still lost, there was something to be gained.

The cards were a mix of upgrades to stats or abilities, and artefacts. They formed a very simple experience / progression system that was atmospheric, quick and easy to manage, and impossible to intentionally "powergame".

Before each game players drew a hand-made Plunder card from the deck. They had to assign the card to one fighter for the rest of the day, the special rule on the card could only be used by that fighter (with a couple of exceptions) and they couldn't give a fighter two cards.

After the first card, which was always beneficial, there was about a one-in-three chance of getting a "blood-spattered" Cursed Plunder card that had a negative effect.

By the end of the day everyone had a small handful of Emberstone Treasures, and 3 or 4 Plunder cards.

At the end of the day Kyle (redangel97) won individually with his Splintered Fang warband. He'd amassed a very impressive 14 Emberstone Treasures, the next highest total was 11 Emberstone Treasures, so it was pretty clear-cut.

When that had been decided, the players gave their Emberstone to support one of 3 factions (by placing them in one of 3 boxes marked with the Coalition flags):

The final Coalition totals were:

• 38 Emberstone Treasures for Stormdance Reavers
• 22 Emberstone Treasures for Umbral Dominion
• 9 Emberstone Treasures for Blackwing Corsairs

I hope everyone who came along had as much fun me. They all certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

I'm pleased with how the battleplans, cards and tokens worked - they meant I could join in playing Warcry without needing to "manage" the campaign narrative, or oversee aftermath sequences, and without any risk of tipping the scales in my favour, or making choices based on information no one else had. Plus I got to make some atmospheric game components / accessories!