Sartosa 5: Scourge Of The Storm, A Flame On Mordheim / Warhammer Campaign

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The island of Sartosa is once more the centre of attention for more than just pirates and their victims. A massive Storm of Magic is brewing on the mainland and the unfortunate island is in the path of the maelstrom.

The Pirates Current has become destabilised and unpredictable, many great and terrible monsters have come ashore (and this time, not just the usual great and terrible sea monsters). The Cracked Bloodfane has started exhibiting alarming phenomena such as weeping blood and arcing red lightning.

To make matters worse The Tower of Nakh has materialised on Sartosa. All the wizards in the surrounding lands (and some from much further afield) have sensed its presence and are drawn to its power. Some have come with armies of their own; others are looking for an army to protect them whole on the island. The only problem is that the Tower of Nakh seems to be slightly detached from the material world. It has become "unstuck" by the Storm of Magic's influence on the powers within it and it occasionally "blinks" out of existence, then "blinks" back at a different location on the island. Many lesser wizards have started making a tidy profit selling predictions about where the tower will appear next!

Whenever the tower is located all the forces on the island converge on its location (the more powerful wizards often get their army to the correct location even before the tower appears; either through careful observation and measurement of Gellermetric pressure, reading the entrails of certain fish, pattern recognition torcs or any number of other occult means). Almost every time it materialises a battle must be fought between rival factions for control of the tower. It is rare that a single army will be on site when the Tower of Nakh shows up.

The Tower is always accompanied (if fact it is often preceded) by a halo of Arcane Fulcrums. Control of these Fulcrums is thought by those in the know to be the key to controlling the tower and its secrets. It has not yet been achieved but the senior prognosticators are convinced that if the web of Arcane Fulcrums can be controlled then the tower can be finally fixed in place and permanently controlled.

The time has come, once more, to muster your warbands and armies and take to the field in the hope of fortune and glory, or at very least avoiding ignoble defeat!

The Ogresuns - Weathering the Storm

Kommodore Deffgit awoke with a start from a terrible nightmare. He had dreamt of a dark future in which his beloved ship, the Ogresun, was taken over by a mutinous upstart. The cur had ruled the crew with a rod of iron, inflicted terrible punishments for the smallest of misdemeanors and neglected the ship’s paintwork shamefully.

He sat up, swung his legs out of his hammock, rubbed his one good eye and scratched his beard. He knew instinctively that something had to be done about the seditious dog. He also knew who the future mutineer would be: his name was Scurvy Mogg.

Deffgit blinked as he strolled out on deck into bright sunshine, as the Ogresun gentle rolled in the light swell of the South Tilean Sea in midsummer. He cast a cursory glance up at the sails and rigging, then around the deck. The Ogresuns were lounging around after having eaten breakfast but everything was as it should be – Dredger Zug and Barnacle Nog were excellent Mates and they knew their business when it came to the smooth running of the heavy ship.

Barnacle Nog ambled over to the Kommodore and knuckled his forehead in salute. Deffgit nodded back and Nog reported that, as expected, nothing was going on. Deffgit muttered something that Nog didn’t quite catch and wandered forward. The hands all acknowledged Deffgit as he walked past but none of them got up or even made any pretence at doing actual work, the Kommodore didn’t even notice.

He looked at a couple of knots at the prow, then pretended to examine one of the looted mortars in the forecastle the turned to Scurvy Mogg, as if he was picking a crew member at random.

“Whats y’name lad?” he asked.

“Um... They calls I Scurvy Mogg Boss, on account of my not liking lime juice in me grog.” said the decidedly shifty Mogg. Deffgit noted the shiftiness and it cemented his decision.

“What do y’suppose that is over there – that big swirly black cloud over Sartosa?” said the Kommodore, pointing towards the distant island.

“You mean the one with all the blue lightning an wot-not? I don’t rightly kn… urgh!” said Mog, but he was cut off mid sentence as Kommodore Deffgit pushed him overboard.

As the Kommodore watched the hammerhead sharks rip Scurvy Mogg to bloody shreds in the churning waters he briefly considered the unknowable repercussions that every decisions will have in the future, the interconnectedness of action and reaction. Then he thought about what to have for breakfast.

~ ~ ~

The Wrath of Forr

Looking forward to seeing some SOM battle reports mate! Set up is a gud un!

Da Kaptain

The Ogresuns - Weathering the Storm



The Cold North Wind
Kommodore Deffgit and the Ogresuns meet Forr Funder’amma's lieutenant Odin, and the Black Orcs of Norsca

The pirates came ashore in the Bay of Wrecks by making Mattius Caboteur cast a Celestial Shield on the prow of the Ogresun, the scintillating blue field protected the ship from the craggy rocks and submerged eponymous wreckage that littered the cove. All the way in Caboteur constantly complained about the raging headache that sustained effort gave him, but the pirate Orcs did their best to ignore him.

~ ~ ~







As they headed inland they had to use their cutlasses to hack a path through the dense jungle undergrowth along the bank of a small river. Gigantic buzzing, biting, insects plagued them the whole morning and strange creatures could be half-seen creeping through the plants on either side.

Suddenly the air turned cold; there was a metallic clinking noise and a distinct smell of snow on the breeze. Kommodore Deffgit held up a hand as a signal to stop (a couple of Orcs at the back of the line shouted questions about why they were stopping) and told Salty Ogbad to go ahead with a small party along the river. Deffgit and the rest of the crew pushed through the trees towards the strange noise.



Just through the trees there was a low cliff with a clearing on top. In the clearing there was a small group of heavily armoured Norscan Black Orcs in cold-weather gear. Deffgit couldn’t see what they were doing but with their furs and heavy cloaks they seemed oddly out of place in the tropical jungle.

The Ogresuns charged!





The crew of the Ogresun out-numbered them three to one but the Black Orcs formed up into a tight line at the edge of the clearing, between dense tangles of vegetation. Only five pirates could get at the Black Orcs and none of the sea-dogs seemed to be able to land a blow on them that wasn’t deflected by their substantial plate armour.





Salty Ogbad’s flanking party arrived a little too late but slammed into the side of the Norse Orcs. One of the smaller Norscans went down under a rain of cutlass slashes, punches and kicks but by then three or four of the Ogresuns had already fallen. Wyrdtoof Hogbreff, the Pirate Shaman, was knocked on the head and Kommodore Deffgit was shoved back down the cliff by the Black Orc Boss – apparently known to his warband as Odin.





The pirates called it a day and fell back into the jungle.

~ ~ ~

The Plague Covenant - The Storming Plague

Tales from Monte Castello

yes more pirate goodness:)

The Ogresuns - Weathering the Storm

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good…
The Ogresuns vs The Plague Covenant in a Wyrdstone Hunt near the Bay of Wrecks

“It’s here Kommodore” said Caboteur the Warlock “I can sense the presence of several pieces of Wyrdstone in this valley.” He looked pale and tired, dark shadows ringed his eyes and he was unshaven.



The Ogresuns had come to the brow of a hill and looked down into a jungle-covered valley. The pirates clustered under the wide leaves of a rubber plant and, even though they were already soaked to the skin, they tried to keep out of the rain as best they could. They soon fell to arguing about what sort of plant makes the best rain shelter: Some of them thought plants with a few big fat leaves would be better, while others thought that lots of small leave were more effective shelters.







Deffgit scratched his beard and adjusted his hat (but rain ran down his neck) while he observed the valley for a few minutes; it was an effort to ignore the pirates’ conversation while he tried to work out if the valley was free of any rival warbands.





Just as the Kommodore spotted the skittering forms of several Skaven rushing between the bushes, that dotted a clearing around an ancient Idol of Gork, two of the arguing pirates started fighting: Throg stuck his cutlass right through Fetch in a grisly manner.











The Skaven of The Plague Covenant rushed forward and grabbed the loot just before the pirates got to it. Several fights erupted as some of the Skaven tried to withdraw with the Wyrdstone while others ran forward to block the pirates’ way. Skabius, the bloated Skaven Plague Priest, charged into the fray with unusual aggression for his kind; with a powerful swing of his gnarled staff he smashed Fishgutz’ skull and the infamous Orc fell dead on the spot!











Caboteur cast his protective spell and moved closer to the Kommodore as he and the other officers rained crossbow bolts onto the advancing ratty horde. The Skaven who’d grabbed the Wyrdstone nearest to the pirates was hit and fell back off the rocky outcrop; a couple of others also went down beneath the pirates’ cutlasses. But for every Skaven that was killed an Orc pirate also fell, until Salty, Dredger and Deffgit all rushed into the fight; hoping t tip the balance in their favour and break through to the loot.







Deffgit’s boarding axe caught Skabius on the side of the head and sent him sprawling across the ground spewing blood and spitting teeth and Salty ran his cutlass through two ratmen in quick succession.

With their leader out of action the rest of the Skaven fled the valley – with the roaring pirates’ battlecries ringing in their ears, but the Wyrdstone shards safe in their paws.

Fetch joined the cheering crew just as the fight was over. When some of the others looked at him accusingly, in a “and where the hell were you?” kind of way, he just looked a bit sheepish, shrugged and pointed at Throg's cutlass that he was still impaled by!

~ ~ ~

The Plague Covenant - The Storming Plague

great!

Odin's saga

Odin's saga

The Plague Covenant - The Storming Plague

The Ogresuns - Weathering the Storm

Hail of Doom (…well, crossbow bolts actually!)
The Ogresuns shoot up the Black Orcs of Norsca

Deep in the jungles near the Volcanic Lake the pirate Orcs pushed their way into a rocky clearing. Ominous purple-tinted thunder clouds rumbled overhead and the air had an electric charge-feel to it.

A vicious-looking mermaid turned languidly in the waters inside a huge glass tank; she watched them for a few minutes but bared her teeth at them threateningly when they approached.

“Well, that weren’t there yesterday!” said the Kommodore. “She’s a rum looking beast.”

“You’ll see a lot odder over the next few weeks sir.” said Caboteur, “It’s what we call an Arcane Fulcrum…” He started to explain where they came from and how they formed but he quickly realised that the Kommodore wasn’t really listening. A few of the Ogresuns started discussing how many mermaids they had seen and where they were most common. When they began boasting about who had seen the most it started to become a little competitive and the argument became a more heated - several loud shouting matches started. Arguments among the pirates normally turned violent pretty quickly but for once they didn’t come to blows this time.

The Larboard Watch climbed up onto a leafy rock and took out their crossbows, readying them to cover the area should any threats appear; the Starboard Watch approached the tank and started collecting several of the small chunks of Wyrdstone crystal scattered over the ground around the glass tank – wild magic was condensing into its solid form much more readily since the Storm of Magic had come to Sartosa, especially in places like graveyards, around standing stones and near Arcane Fulcrums, such as this.

Before the Starboard Watch had managed to grab more than one of the larger pieces of Wyrdstone the Larboard Watch shouted a warning: “Look out Boss! Enemy ahoy!”

The hulking forms of four Norse Black Orcs appeared out of the bushes – clearly they were intent on collecting the same Wyrdstone shards of the Ogresuns.

“Odin’s lot again! Shoot’em!” shouted Deffgit.













Odin's saga