There's been some good fluff up on the forum from the players, which is good to see and keeps the whole thing moving along nicely. I've also produced a kind of summative 'news' for each week in the campaign so far, which I posted up on the DWC forum. Here it is for the first week:
Clutching his ragged robes tight about his emaciated frame, the necromancer grimaced at the scene playing out in the valley below. The near constant wind which coursed across this blighted island had a bite to it which could chill even his parched old bones. The mage did not care for it one bit. Nor did he care much for the dangers of his bondage.
Down there, in the valley below, his master fed. Vorguul, it was named. An ancient vampire of almost unfathomable knowledge and power. The creature had lain dormant for centuries before Radoslav had discovered him. Ah, but that was not strictly true, the necromancer corrected himself. The body had lain dormant, dry as a husk, but the mind had been awake; trapped with its body for a tomb across near a thousand years. Radoslav had been ecstatic when he'd found it. He'd thought to bring the vampire back to vitality with the blood of the living. Drop by drop, month by month, the necromancer's work bore fruit. Too late he discovered his own hubris. The vampire's sanity had gone - it'd devolved into strigoi. Little better than a beast, but with the power of a walking God. As its strength returned, Vorguul had turned on him - sparing the necromancer's life only to bind him to his will as a slave. Roles reversed, the necromancer now served the vampire, raising and maintaining the legions of corpses Vorguul set to his will.
Battle after battle - after months, perhaps even years on the road, that terrible will had drawn them here. It was a constant strain for Radoslav. Not unusually for his kind, Radoslav abhorred physical violence. Not so much violence inflicted upon others; from a safe distance Radoslav enjoyed a dismemberment as much as the next black hearted villain, but to be forced to stand in the front line was just... unspeakable. He shuddered again involuntarily at the thought of the great lizard crashing into the unit next to his own only hours before. The monstrosity was big enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the terrorgheist, hurling his hapless zombies like a hamfisted child throwing its toys from the cradle with each toss of its great horned head. Had the creature struck Radoslav's unit instead... The necromancer screwed his eyes shut to ward off the thought.
Regardless, the thing was dead, along with everything else in the valley - moving or not. The real monster was down there on the valley floor, hunkered over the prostate forms of the saurus warriors... feeding. Vorguul had killed ten of them himself; had Radoslav not witnessed it himself he would have doubted the tale. Ten of those gigantic brutes cut to ribbons in the time it takes a mortal to draw breath. Clearly Radoslav would have to re-think his schemes to throw off the strigoi's yoke. In the face of such power, he was going to have to be very, very careful indeed.
Vorguul's murderous fury aside, the battle had been all but won before he took a hand in the bloodletting. The battlefield had been torn with deathly screams along its length. Banshees, Terrorgheist, skabscrath - the maddening shrieks of the damned had long ago lost their lustre for Radoslav, but to mortals -even these cold blooded lizardmen - they wreaked carnage. The necromancer had watched fascinated as the huge brutish saurus warriors had dropped to the dirt at his feet. Some screamed themselves with that odd sibilant rasp of theirs, clutching at the sockets of ruptured eyeballs. Others simply keeled over dead, their brains rattled to jelly inside their skulls. Didn't take a keen eye like old Radoslav's to spot a dead 'un when they keeled over like that!
The first week of the Albion has Campaign has played out, seeing four warhosts make their landing on Albion's shores. No doubt more will follow in their wake, chasing along after rumours of treasures and pillage. As the factions establish their camps and haul supplies down from storm battered ships, two armies set out early to stake their claim to the land. The Red Banner's Vampire Counts under Derek defeated the White Banner's Lizardmen under Gary in a battleline (2000 pt) encounter. Other armies contented themselves with sending out tentative bands of scouts to feel out the threats and root for supplies. Mostly it was all quiet on the western front, but a handful of clashes saw Steven's High Elves under the White Banner defeat a scouting party from both Red Banner (Derek's Vampire Counts) whilst the Grey Banner's scouts kicked ass and chewed blackroot to see off both Steven's high Elves and Derek's Vampire Counts.
Over the next week, warhosts will be sending out patrols to test the opposition's mettle, and discover what secrets this land holds. In the meantime, the scores are as follows (contrary to the 'official page' on the forum, as there was a slight clerical error).
Red Banner: 8pts
White Banner:5pts
Grey Banner: 4 pts
Black Banner: 0 pts
This was how it played out across the second week, starting with the fluff about Tomb kings from Paul:
Amun, the patrol's Sergeant of Charioteers observed the fall of the squadron's flaming arrows as the landed among the Marauder horsemen of the enemy. Several of the humans fell from their mounts - but not nearly enough. They were sure to close with the the troop of undead horse archers who were also pouring bowfire into their ranks in the distance. The scouts had strayed to close to the Chaos horsemen, who were readying their flails for the inevitable charge...
Amun became aware of a concussive blast to his right, and turned to see Thoth - the Liche Priest and nominal 'commander' of their force - stagger from a cloud of dust, scratching his head in bewilderment.
'Bloody hell' thought Amun, ''that fud's gone and blown himself up again' In the the thousands of years he had known Thoth, his ability to miscast never seemd to diiminish. That was the problem with being undead - trapped in time, it was impossible to change or learn from past mistakes. And for every time Thoth blew himself to bits with a miscast, he invariably came back in the next raising - as dopey as ever...
A troop of Chaos Warhounds rounded the corner of a farmhouse in front of his squadron. Amon smiled (well grinned even more than he usually did. He's a skeleton remember). The one thing Prince Pharakh's expedition lacked was a mascot. This was perfect!
* * * * * * * * * * *
Radoslaw grimaced at the Liche Priest Thoth across the crowded battlefield. In the melee between them bony finger finger clutched at rotting gizzards as the dead plucked dumbly at the bodies of the dead. In all his travels across the length and breadth of the Old World under the beast Vorguul, the necromancer had never fought against the ancient dead. In all his years, he'd never seen the like of this!
The dead versus the dead. They'd fought each other to a standstill; each had countered every move, gone blow to blow without a winner. Powered by the magicks of the grave it quite literally could go on for the rest of the afterlife. No doubt the cunning linguists in the Reikland poetry guild could come up with some cutting and pithy limerick to describe the impasse.
Bastards. They'll find out how the pen truly compares to the sword once they dig themselves out of their own graves to chew on the flesh of the living. Wont be so funny then.
This was going nowhere. With a nod to his adversary, Solemnly raising his outstretched palm, Radoslaw gestured his legions to a halt. Mechanically, as one they turned and slowly began the march from the field. His eyeless gaze unbreaking, Thoth did the same, leaving the field to the wail of the wind and the dust of scattered bones.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Its been a busy week in Albion! Each of the banners have busied themselves exploring the coastline and feeling out the boundaries of their territory. Small patrol sized forces have ranged about at speed, all too predictably leading to bloody skirmishes on the floodplains.
The week saw the Black Banner - Ksher - cover itself in glory. Harky's WoC won one patrol over Derek's Vampire Counts. Angus' two patrols met with more mixed success, ripping apaprt Derek's rather squishy Vampire Counts, but being shown the back door by Martin's demigryphs, er, Empire. Angus' vanguard force also tasted defeat in a bloody clash with James' Ogres for the Grey Banner, Detholalle. Tam's WoC have emerged as the force to beat, taking victory in three patrols over Derek's VC (Red Banner), Paul's TK (Grey Banner) and Martin's Empire (White Banner). As well as claiming him a clutch of well earned points for his banner, this has earned Tam the right to throw down a 'warhost' challenge to a foe of his choosing. That's right, Tam is now entitled to challenge someone to one game of 3000 pts (or higher if both sides can manage it) when he chooses to! By taking three victories he is also now able to leave the Black Banner and strike out by setting up a new Banner of his own should if he want to... To round off, Derek's VC didn't take a total kicking this week, as I managed to play out my first draw in years vs Paul's TK.
So what are we playing for? The 'Landfall' phase will end with a four way game on Sunday 10th of November. This will be played between two players from the highest scoring banner on one side and two players from the second highest scoring banner on the opposing side. Points may be accrued by Banners until midnight on November 9th. Each player will field 1500pts for a 'dawn attack' scenario. The winning team will earn 20 pts for their banner; if its a draw then its 12 points apiece.
The highest scoring Banner will take the honours for the first 'Landfall' phase of the Albion campaign. From their knowledge of the land and by winning control of the best resources armies in the winning Banner will all gain +1 on the roll to go determine who goes first in every battle they fight in the second phase of the campaign.
Scores from phase one of the campaign will be logged and entered into a table on the website by Geoff. The Banners will then all be set to '0' for the start of phase two and the chase for new honours. If anyone is thinking of setting up a new banner, this would be a perfect opportunity! Banners can be set up by players taking their army out of an existing Banner to establish their own, or bringing in a second army that they want to play with.
Red Banner: 14 pts
White Banner: 14 pts
Grey Banner: 13 pts
Black Banner: 23 pts
I also set up a painting competition for November 17th. If we can keep a realistic number of entrants up, then it'll run each month. First competition is to paint a denizen of Albion - a barbarian warrior, fimir, giant or sidhe monster or some such. The winner takes 12 campaign points, which is fairly hefty. Hopefully the prize will motivate the lads to get their paint on!
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| I reckon this big guy looks rather like Conan's dad in the Momoa version. I've been painting another D&D adventurer type barbarian in a scale mail shirt, but compared this big lug he just looks girly. Not a great phot, but with a bit of work he could be my submission, or... |
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| ...this guy! An ancient Fimir model from Heroquest, hacked up into a simple conversion. The phot is poor again, but there's some nice freehand tattoos on his shoulders and the tones on the model came out pretty well. Plus, I feel he fits well into the campaign background and the first painting challenge. |
Tonight I've been mucking about with photoshop to produce some promo style banners for the campaign. The more I can do to keep it up there in people's minds and drawing their eye, the better!
I good fun working on these, and its brushed up my photoshop skills no end! Otherwise, its been a bit of a non-event week. Had a viewer for the flat, so we've spent most nights just scrubbing or doing DIY.
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