Shadows of Commorragh - part 23

Casta Bás, Haemonculus of The Fallen Mask

Held aloft by powerful suspensor crystals, Casta Bás drifted through the viridian streets of Low Commorragh. His followers were out of sight but never far away and he prowled the darkened ruins without fear. Even other Drukhari secretly feared the Haemonculi, so there was nothing here to give him pause.

This was his home territory, his hunting ground.

And he was hunting this day, oh yes. Hunting for fresh subjects for his experiments. Fresh playthings. Fresh meat. When he found them his followers would appear from the shadows, slinking from the darkened corners, pouncing from above and below.

But not yet, not yet.

Until then they waited patiently out of sight.

~ 🝁 ~

This was a simple head-swap (using a Sylvaneth Spite-Revenant's head that isn't needed if you built Tree-Revenants) and a hand-swap (with a left over hand from the Tenebrael Shard I used to make Morghdrax).

He was mostly painted with Contrast Paints and a little drybrushing with Layer Paint for highlights.

Shadows of Commorragh - part 22, game 3

Venom and Spite; Revenge!

"Oh sweetling, do not fret. The tale is not over and there are darker deeds to come, never fear." said Lakbyrn with a lilting laugh and a gleam in his shining black eyes. "Let me tell of what befell the Bleaksouls next, when the Void Phoenixes and another warband, probably more of Drachon Daisan's hired swords, tried to take control of the Sorrowshards at the lower edge of Lady Anielyn's realm.

The shadowed sky looked down upon the Sorrowshards and laughed, a bitter laugh. The stolen sun's dim glimmer hidden behind a veil of smoke.

They came with blades and menace aplenty. They came with revenge in their cold hearts. They came in the hope of taking the Bleaksouls by surprise and overwhelming them through shock and skill at arms. But the Bleaksouls are not easily overborne. 

It is not so, nor was it ever so."

~ 🝁 ~

The mercenaries start to take things personally. Defying their masters’ orders, they mount a retaliatory strike. [Sweep and Clear, 3-player, up to 62 points each]

Dramatis Personae

The Bleaksouls

Morghdrax Bleaksoul, Hekatrix, Leader

Ravneth, Wych Fighter, Combat 2

Lakbyrn the Parched, Wych Fighter, Scout 2

Bahreneq, Wych Fighter, Hydra Gauntlets, Zealot

Jaenis, Wych

Yariaq, Wych

Combat Drug: Painbringer

The Shards of the Splintered Heart

Kaerathir, Hekatrix, Leader

Mazrayth, Kabilite Gunner, Sniper

Korlax, Wych, Veteran

Idarax, Wych Fighter, Shardnet, Comms

Karev, Scourge

Ynado've, Kabilite Warrior

Combat Drug: Splintermind

The Void Phoenixes

Excrucia Kharavyxis: Howling Banshee Exarch, Leader

Uless: Howling Banshee

Fachean: Storm Guardian with long hair

Dis’ar: right handed Dire Avenger

Barahir: left handed Dire Avenger

Thresyn Neverbreath: Storm Guardian Gunner with Flamer, Scout

~ 🝁 ~

"Morghdrax Bleaksoul gathered his darklings and wretches by the dusty wreck of a Raider. Rumours had reached them that a retribution was brewing. In the myrtle darkness something stirred. Something that craved vengeance for past hurts. Sharp of blade and spindle-limbed were they, and cunning.

With a shudder and a sound like sheering metal, far away, the air glimmered and the skiens of the webway parted as warbands of the Splintered Heart and the Void Phoenixes appeared through two different webway gates.

Void Phoenixes Thresyn and Fachean immediately took control of one of the tetrahedral markers (****) the laid out the edges of Lady Anielyn's domains.

Excrucia and Uless rushed forward under the watchful eyes of Dire Avengers Dis’ar and Barahir... who unexpectedly opened fire on a Kabalite from the Shards!

Ravneth and Yariaq watched this unfold. Unsure who's side the Shards were actually on!

Morghdrax and Bahreneq followed Jaenis through the ruins surrounding the Sorrowshards.

Mazrayth, Kabilite Sniper of the Shards, took up a position overlooking the floating crystal prisms of the Sorrowshards.

Idarax and Karev got ready to make their move.

Ravneth and Yariaq moved cautiously around the back of the Voidfall Tower, guarding against any attempt by the Shards to outflank the Bleaksouls.

Morghdrax, Bahreneq and Jaenis pushed forward, round the Sorrowshards and I, Lakbyrn, followed them, watching their backs carefully and taking guard over a rune-etched tetrahedral territory marker (*).

Morghdrax, Bahreneq and Jaenis faced off against Thresyn and Fachean over another tetrahedral marker (***).

Mazrayth took careful aim but the shifting air around the Sorrowshards disrupted his darklance shot.

Ynado've and Barahir exchanged fire across the plaza. Ynado've fared worse in the engagement.

Karev took to the air.

The Void Phoenixes and the Bleaksouls prepared to quarrel.

Karev landed lightly, atop the Voidfall Tower and keyed the crystal runes on the portal there.

But as she stepped through the webway portal she got lost in an unexpected twist of the skeins and stepped out from a distant portal, far from where she meant to go!

Screams and howls and the reports of weapon fire echoed across the darkened plaza.

Ravneth saw Idarax of the Shards was watching, waiting for them...

... and sprang at the webway portal on the Voidfall Tower. He stepped through it...

... to charge Ynado've by means of another webway portal on the far side of the plaza!

Yariaq employed the Voidfall webway portal too, and with it took another of the tetrahedra (*** ***), but only briefly, for it lay beneath the Void Phoenixes overwatching eyes.

Thresyn and Fachean charged Jaenis who leapt and swerved with poisoned blade. Uless charged Morghdrax with a Banshee-howl that stayed his hand when he tried to shoot her, but Bahreneq counter-charged the Banshee!

Karev took what little cover she could find!

Dis’ar and Barahir shot Yariaq down!

Lakbyrn blasted Excrucia off her feet...

... and pitched her down the steps at full pace!

Jaenis, was wounded and may have been overborne by her attacker had not a darklance beam, shot by the Shards, punched him from his feet!

Bahreneq crashed into Uless and her barbed gauntlets were spattered with gore in moments.

Ravneth made short work of Ynado've, who was not weary enough of the gateway at his back, so intent was he in the duel with the Dire Avengers across the way.

Morghdrax and Bahreneq played cruelly with the Banshee, not trying to kill her outright, but striking to injure and weaken her. They savoured her pain.

And I? I supped on the the soulstuff of the injured and dying. A feast of a reward for my own small, but not insignificant, part in the sorry scene.

The Beaksouls were triumphant again that day. It would not be the last time I watched them drink so deep onthe suffering of their foes. But do not think they should be forever unvanquished. My stories do not oft have happy conclusions. 

It is not so, nor was it ever so.

Go to sleep now sweetling. There will be more of my story, but that is for another time."

~ 🜾 ~

Victory Points (for this game):

Saul 6 (3 kills, 1 objective)

Viktor 1 (1 kill)
David 1 (1 kill)

Soul Points (for the campaign):

Saul 10

Viktor 3
David 1

We added our own twist to this game by using this table to determine what happened when a model moved into contact with a webway portal:

1 -- Lost: the fighter emerges in a distant region of Commorragh. It is treated as Out of Action.
2-3 -- Confused: the fighter emerges from any portal chosen by the opposing player (roll off in multiplayer games).
4-5 -- Short Journey: the fighter emerges from the portal closest to the one they entered.
6 -- Master of the Webway: the fighter emerges from any portal chosen by the controlling player.

A Command Point may be used for a re-roll on this table.

This was David's first game of the campaign - I think you'll agree that his warband, The Shards of the Splintered Heart, look amazing! He didn't pick a side and chose to take on both of us. He ended up helping me more than Viktor though in way, by gunning-down the Phoenix fighting Jaenis.

Viktor's version of this adventure is here.

Shadows of Commorragh - part 21, game 2

Cornered and Surrounded

"Come in, sweet one, come in!" said Lakbyrn, with a voice like honeyed cakes and a grin like silvered needles.

"I will continue my tale if I may?

When last we spoke I told of how the Void Phoenixes bested the Bleaksouls, driving them back and sabotaging the works of their mistress, did I not?

Well, the tail is not done, oh no! Not by half, nor even half of a half. The Bleaksouls were not so foolish or naive as the Void Phoenixes took them to be. There was no elixir secreted into the Voidfall Tower! It is not so, nor was it ever so. Not a drop. It was a ruse, a trick, and the Bleaksouls were fully aware of it, so they were. They were not used by their kind, and generous mistress Lady Anielyn, to lay a trap for Lord Daisan's puppets. It is not so, nor was it ever so.

When the Void Phoenixes discovered the deception, they fled the Faded Obelisk and made for a webway portal that would return them to Daisan's fortress. But the Bleaksouls knew their territory and stepped ahead of them using hidden pathways, and waited in their path in the ruins of the Shuddervault.

~ 🝁 ~

The light grew bruised, as though the stolen sun was suddenly curtained by an encroaching storm. But the colour was wrong, as was the quality of that glow, its texture, and the smell of air, damp earth and still water, menaced with its eldritch promise. In that strange, wild, drowning light, no one looked as they did before.

Two of the Void Phoenixes were separated from their kin, and the Bleaksouls closed the noose around them, in a clatter of laughter and a rattle of blades.

Jair and Torc found themselves hunted and outnumbered.

The shadows squirmed and the trap was sprung.

The Bleaksouls were all around them.

The two Void Phoenixes did their best to escape, but the net was cast around them.

They backed themselves into a corner.

Izurad pounced, his hektari blade slashed at Torc!

Morghdrax laughed as his followers closed in.

The Void Phoenixes fired at the nearest Bleaksouls.

Morghdrax was saved by luck and sheer spite.

Jair deftly climbed up a ruin to a webway portal, but it was cold and unresponsive.

Torc tried to fend off Izurad's attacks.

Lann of the Unyielding Fire and more Void Phoenixes arrived to try to rescue their cohorts.

The other Void Phoenixes arrived in the Shuddervault, behind the Bleaksouls.

Torc fell back from Izurad but the Wych chased her into Lakbyrn's waiting blade!

Morghdrax was about to fire on Torc and Jair...

When a warning shout from Ravneth alerted Morghdrax to the Void Phoenixes behind him!

Lann tried to extract his followers.

He raced into the fray to try to save Torc.

Ravneth was wounded!

Izurad finally defeated Torc and leapt toward Lann.

Blades clashed and sang!

Bahreneq caught Jair as she jumped down from the platform. The Wych made short, bloody work of her.

Ravneth and Morghdrax lunged at the newcomers.

Lakbyrn and Izurad fought Lann, and Inghfar the Ranger was ambushed by Yariaq who leapt out of the shadows.

Bahreneq gloated over her opponent's corpse.

The Ranger was stabbed in the back by Yariaq.

Morghdrax revelled in his victory!

Lann was the lone survivor of the Void Phoenixes!

Suddenly there was silence in the Shuddervault.

"Let him go!" Morghdrax Bleaksoul called across the ravaged street as he drew himself up to his full height, swept his sword vertical into a mocking salute and bowed with an ostentatious flourish.

"Let him flee back to his master and tell of what happened here. And let him pass along Lady Anielyn's kindest regards."

~ 🝁 ~

This ended up being such a brutal game! The mission was Surrounded, from Elites. Viktor was the defender and I was the attacker. To win the game I had to makes sure every one of his Kill Team were either Out of Action or Shaken, otherwise victory would be his. At the end of turn 2 that was looking unlikely but I had a cracking turn 3! I managed to successfully charge with every single model in my warband and (making full use of the Combat Drug I rolled and the Power Through Pain bonuses!) managed to successfully eviscerate 5 models one after another. That left Viktor with only his Leader and a very tough Nerve Check! Lucky for me, he rolled badly and Lann of the Unyielding Fire was Shaken!

But even if I hadn't won, it still would have been a great game. Viktor's side of the story is here.

Soul Points:

Viktor 2

Saul 7