The Mitzy and Jimbo and Warboss Kurgan Show

Well, that was a lot of fun! I went on The Mitzy and Jimbo Show this week to talk about narrative gaming, the Harrowmark and my Rumour Engine tracker. I've never done anything like this before as it is waaaay outside my comfort zone, but it was really really enjoyable.

Update, September 2023:

You can't watch the show anymore: they seem to have deleted their channel :(

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 11

The Harrowmark in Shyish, has long been considered a cursed and backward region, it has gained an ill reputation for being both a refuge for sorcerers and necromancers, and where the dead do not rest long in their graves.

But it is not only the dead who terrify the locals. Most of the Harrowmark is virtually impenetrable forest: Seemingly endless miles of dark, tangled, twisted and corrupted forest. Things live in these forests: malignant, spiteful things. It is a brave soul that ventures under the dark bowers, brave or foolish, as few who attempt to navigate the winding pathways ever emerge again.

~ 🙐 ~

I have one Kurnoth Hunter to build and paint, and a handful of small Spites that I have individually based, and then everything I own for Sylvaneth in finished!

~ 🙐 ~

This is just an idea of how I might use these models in AoS Skirmish games in the Harrowmark:

Hemlock Bitterblade (100)
Arch-Revenant
- General
- Trait: Impetuous Crusader 
- Artefact: Armourbane (Skirmish Artefact)

9 x Tree-Revenants (144)
- 1 Champion or Upgrades - Waypiper (5)

Total: 249 / 250
Wounds: 14

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 10

I have finished painting 2 more Tree-Revenants: Brochdras and Wythreal.

This was my first tentative experiment with Contrast Paints, the blue parts and skulls of both and the wood parts of Wythreal were done with them. Brochdras' wooden parts were painted the same way I have done the other models in this warband (zenithal sprays, dry-brushing and washes). I couldn't quite bring myself to leave the contrast-only finish and added white highlights to the blue and Ushabti Bone to the skulls.

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 9

Fog had rolled through the forests for days and enveloped the Harrowmark in muffled silence. But the silence was broken as the fog lifted by haunting, susurrating voices which hissed threats in an unknowable tongue.

Something moved in the dark beneath the trees. Madness churned in their eyes and the very shadows twisted unnaturally. The things prowled forward slowly in staccato, jolting movements, without the graceful fluid motion of their kin.

As they charged from the tree line they screamed a nerve-tearing cacophony of terror and hate. Graveroot Spite-Revenants were a dark reflection of the other tree-folk, from Soul-Pods that grew in tainted, corrupted soil, found in the wild place of the Harrowmark that had been twisted by death and malice and hate. They were rightly feared for the cruel delight they took in granting their prey slow, lingering deaths.  

A small band of Tree-Revenants looked on from the shadows beneath the leafless branches, and worried that their bitterness and hate was contagious.

~ 🙐 ~

I have finished painting the 3 Spite-Revenants. I don't like them as much as the animal-skulled Tree-Revenants but I am still happy with them. I think they look suitably disturbing!

~ 🙐 ~

Solanix (the Shadestalker)

Feroxus

Dulcamara

~ 🙐 ~

I have also individually based a few of the spare Spites from the Kurnoth Hunters kit - I'm not sure what (if anything) I will do with them in rules terms, but I just liked the idea of having a few of them running around in the background, even if they have no in-game effect.

I've painted one as well, just to see how it looks.

~ 🙐 ~

The whole Graveroot Wargrove so far (with a couple of Endless Spells for atmosphere)...

The Wargrove grows...

I only have 5 Tree-Revenants and a Kurnoth Hunter left to build and my Sylvaneth Skirmish warband will be (for now at least) finished!

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 8

I have built 3 Spite-Revenants - more Harrowmark Sylvaneth. I wanted to make them darker, more twisted and disturbing than the Tree-Revenants. So I built them with several human skulls each, all from Citadel Skulls box as well but I chose the damaged and cracked skulls to match the Spite-Revenants' broken and tormented nature.

~ 🙐 ~

Where other sylvaneth were graceful and suffused with life magic, the Spite-Revenants were shrieking terrors from the depths of a nightmare. Light and shadow flickered weirdly around these ghastly creatures as they tore and bit at their victims, rending to bloody tatters any who do not simply fling down their weapons and flee.

Outcasts were terrifying Sylvaneth who could only perceive the war aspect of the Spirit Song of Alarielle. When the sylvaneth were mustered to war, the Spite-Revenants also answered the call and would fling themselves into battle with wanton abandon, madness churned in their eyes and their very shadows twisted unnaturally. As they went to war, Dryads sang their war songs, but the Spite-Revenants screamed a nerve tearing cacophony of terror and hate. They may have been a dark reflection of the other tree-folk or even tainted from Soul-Pods that grew in corrupted soil. They were found in any wild place that had been twisted by malice and hate, not a few tree-folk worried that their bitterness and hate was contagious.

They were surrounded by haunting, susurrating voices which hissed threats in an unknowable tongue, and they were rightly feared for the cruel delight they took in granting their prey slow, lingering deaths.

~ 🙐 ~

Solanix (the Shadestalker), Feroxus and Dulcamara:

The Graveroot Wargrove, Part 7

We sing the Spirit Song for the dead.

We stalk the Spirit Paths of the Harrowmark.

We reap the bitter harvest of tears and bones.

We hunt those who would despoil the forest.

We protect the ancient secret that lies hidden beneath it.

We are living vengeance in the land of the dead.

We are the blades that cut the night.

We are the watchers in the dark.

We are the eyes and the claws of the forest.

~ 🙐 ~

I finished three more models for the Graveroot over the weekend. Hemlock Bitterblade, Arch-Revenant, and two Tree-Revenants:

The details of the build of this model are in my previous post. The colour scheme is the same as I described here.

Hemlock Bitterblade will be the leader of the Graveroot Wargrove

Githago, Tree-Revenant Waypiper

Nemorosa, Tree-Revenant

I will add the two new Tree-Revenants to the Underworlds Revenants (I will ignore that one of them has a bow as currently the only way to play that is with the Underworlds warband Warscroll, which causes other problems in Skirmish games...) I will probably use the Thornwych as a Branchwych in Skirmish games as well:

The Graveroot Wargrove so far, along with a couple of the Harrowmark Endless Spells (that are the origin of their colour scheme!). More than enough to start using them in 250 point AoS Skirmish games! But I intend to continue building and painting the rest of the Looncurse Sylvaneth over the next few weeks, a few models at a time.