Into the Wilds
The wilds of Thyria do not welcome trespassers. Tangled rootways shift
without warning, spores cloud the air, and ancient stone markers lie
half-swallowed by thorn and mire. Scattered and disoriented, your warbands
must seize forgotten navigation landmarks to chart a path toward your true
destination.
Yet survival alone is not enough. As you advance,
each force must also shape the land to its cause - Remediators purging
corruption and restoring sacred ground; Contaminators spreading blight
through soil, stream, and vine. Every marker claimed and every patch of
earth transformed will guide not only your route, but the fate of the
battles still to come.
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Unfallen (Narrative) was a single day, narrative Warcry tournament
run by me and the
WorldCryUK team,
inspired by the Path to Glory Blighted Wilds narrative AoS campaign, at UK
Games Expo at the Birmingham NEC on Friday, 29th May 2026.
10 players were asked to choose their path as either Contaminators who
seeded creeping corruption, or Remediators sworn to burn out the rot
and restore balance.
We did not use the Core Book narrative campaign rules, as they're not designed
for a single-day, multi-game event.
Instead we used custom battleplans and a branching narrative structure. The
players actions on the battlefield decided the fate of Smuggler's Haven in the
unfolding story, through the push-and-pull of (often conflicting) choices
between a course that will help their coalition and one toward a personal
victory.
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The Battlefields
Each board was labelled with a hand-made and not-at-all-contaminated card,
that included a location-marked map, title and description.
Bilgehook Harbour
A ramshackle settlement built from shipwreck timbers and salvaged hulls,
atop stone ruins. Lashed together with sailcloth, rigging and chains.
---
The Shardgarden
Fragments of a shattered Stormvault, that kept its secrets buried and hidden
for centuries, now the arcane seals are broken open and the treasures looted.
The power fades but in places the green stone still glows with strange light.
---
The Amethyst Roots
A warren of narrow tunnels and large chambers, used for generations by a
long-gone city to lay their dead to rest. The narrow paths between broken
tombs are covered in purple-hued sand that drifts through the tunnels on
supernatural winds.
---
Leechwater
Home to smugglers and cutthroats, the muddy streets and rotting boardwalks of
this stinking port-town are lined with merchants willing to buy and sell
anything the local pirates gather from the seas.
---
Tangleroot Reach (South)
A large forest where yellow leaves blanket the ground. Broken statues and
mossy ruins hint at a long-forgotten temple complex among the trees.
---
Tangleroot Reach (North)
A large forest where yellow leaves blanket the ground. Broken statues and
mossy ruins hint at a long-forgotten temple complex among the trees.
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Chapter 1 - A Dense and Choking Maze
Thyria is one of the most wild and untamed regions of the Everspring Swathe.
Few truly pitched battles can be fought here; instead, warbands are likely to
become lost among the shifting trees and cloying undergrowth, forced to spend
precious time getting their bearings, and calculating their position.
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After one battle, The
Contaminators were ahead:
The landmarks have led your warbands deep into Thyria’s wounded interior,
where rare alchemical growths and volatile wild-essences flourish in the
shadow of corruption. Here, the Contaminators’ earlier work has already
begun to bear fruit: bloated fungi, venom-sap, corpse-blooms, and tainted
moss now thrive in abundance.
Both sides race to gather these precious ingredients first - one to
weaponise the spreading blight, the other to deny its use or salvage what
purity remains. Every moment spent harvesting risks ambush, and every prize
claimed may decide whether the wilds are pushed further into ruin.
(If the Remediators had been ahead, this version would have been used):
Guided by the reclaimed landmarks, your warbands arrive in a hidden stretch
of Thyria where life still fights to endure. Rare herbs, moon-petals, amber
resin, and sacred root-sap grow in fragile pockets protected by the
Remediators’ earlier successes. Yet such bounty cannot remain untouched.
Both sides now scramble to harvest these potent ingredients - one to restore
and fortify the wilds, the other to corrupt these natural treasures into
vectors of decay. The race is as much about speed as violence, for whoever
secures the greater haul will carry a vital advantage into the battles
ahead.
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Chapter 2 - Thyria's Bounty
The most skilled of mages in the infected reaches of Thyria will call upon the
power of the land itself; various mystical roots, fungi and tubers can be used
in arcane rituals. Several clusters of such resources have been located nearby
- but so too has a marauding enemy warband with the same covetous intent...
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After two battles, The
Contaminators were ahead:
The harvested ingredients have revealed a terrible truth: Thyria’s heart
cannot be claimed through conquest alone. To complete the rite of corruption,
blood must answer blood. Deep within the blighted heart, each warband comes to
the same dreadful conclusion - one of their own must be surrendered to the
wilds, and one foe dragged screaming to the altar as the final offering.
Yet no warrior knows whom the enemy has marked for death, and every fighter
now marches beneath a veil of suspicion. Victory is close enough to taste; one
final sacrifice may drown Thyria’s roots in irreversible ruin.
(If the Remediators had been ahead, this version would have been used):
The gathered ingredients and restored pathways uncover the final, sorrowful
rite needed to save Thyria. Renewal demands balance, and balance demands
sacrifice. At the last, each warband must offer one of their own to seal the
cleansing, while also claiming an enemy life to pay the wilds’ bitter due.
None can know which souls the foe has chosen, turning every advance into a
tense gamble and every clash into a desperate bid to protect the marked.
Salvation lies within reach - but only if you can endure the cost that
Ghyran itself now demands.
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Chapter 2 - The Call of Sacrifice
Even as two warbands come together for battle, there are strange whispers
on the wind. The nexus of jade power here demands that life be given in
tribute - and worthy life at that. The precise nature of the sacrifice,
however, will not be obvious until the moment arrives...
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After the final battle were over and the dust settled....
The Contaminators were Victorious!
The final sacrifice is made, and Thyria’s heart-root blackens with spreading
corruption. Rivers curdle, vines twist into grasping horrors, and the wilds howl
with newfound fury as the blight takes permanent hold.
The Contaminators depart triumphant, leaving only ruin and maddened growth in
their wake.
Those who survive whisper that the land itself now hunts the living, and that
somewhere beneath the poisoned canopy, something ancient has begun to awaken.
(If the Remediators had been ahead, this version would have been used):
Against all the odds, the cleansing ritual is completed. Corrupted growth
withers, poisoned waters run clear, and the choking wilds of Thyria breathe
once more.
Though the cost was steep and the fallen are mourned, the Remediators have
preserved a fragile hope within Ghyran’s wounded heart.
Yet the scars of the campaign remain, and beneath the roots, embers of
corruption still smoulder - waiting for another season of war.
The award winners!
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The double-sided custom Contamination / Remediation tokens. Conceived by me,
sculpted and 3D printed by Phylax, and painted by Jess.
The custom combat gauges and tokens - the gold versions were given to award
winners in addition to the larger medals and prizes, and all players were
given the black and colour-filled versions to use in the campaign and take
home afterwards.
There's also a gallery of Phylax's amazing photos of all the warbands that
took part on the
WorldCryUK site.
Such a great day! Everyone brought their A-game: From the beautifully painted
and thoughtfully chosen warbands, great sportsmanship even in hard-fought
battles, to the indispensable support from Phylax, Jess and Badger - the
WorldCryUK team - who are so professional and well organised, even when
wrangling uncooperative tech during a live event.
I can't wait to do it again next year!
