In the centre of the stone circle a mound of bones had been built into a fire, and the hulking silhouttes drummed on their belly plates with a rhythmic clang. Smoke from the charred offerings wafted into the wide nostrils of the ogre troop’s Slaughtermaster. Gripping the bound feet of a captured hart, the ogre seer cut a slit from horn to hind and spilled its living entrails onto the stone slab. Peering at the still-pulsing guts, he selected a particularly auspicious organ and tossed it into his mouth – then turned skyward to consult the heavens for glimpses of the future. Odd, a comet blazed more brightly than before.
King Lwyd watched from the tree-line, outside the reach of the bonfire’s light. He turned to his steward Cadog, who as a faithful servant had been honourably buried with his king.
“……………………….”
Cadog lifted a scrimshawed sceptre and the shadows seemed to close in nearer to the standing stones.
“……………………”
Satisfied with this answer, Lwyd gestured at the henge’s stone portal, then tapped a finger bone to where his heart once beat.
An inscription in an ancient spiralling script was briefly illuminated on the lintel stone by a flicker of flame:
ᚌᚑᚄᚑᚇᚒᚔᚇ ᚔ ᚉᚓᚏᚏᚔᚌ ᚆᚔᚅ ᚌᚐᚅ ᚂᚒᚔᚇ ᚁᚏᚓᚅᚔᚅ ᚔ ᚒᚂᚐᚇ ᚆᚑᚅ
“Gosodwyd y cerrig hyn gan Lwyd brenin y wlad hon”
“These stones were laid by Lwyd, King of this land”
Both blood and bone are spilled in Albion as King Lwyd’s wights meet an unexpected foe. My scheduled opponent unavailable, I played instead against a new belligerent. To accomodate the situation, we added the campaign XP before the game, bringing the points up to 1,250. Good thing I brought some spare skeletons and there were more lying around, as I’d be needing those later.
After some quick adjustments, the list read as follows:
++ Standard (Vampire Counts) [1,249pts] ++ + Heroes + Cadog - Necromancer [140pts]: General, Hand Weapon . Magic Items: Forbidden Rod, Sceptre de Noirot . Wizard Level 2 . . Lore of Necromancy VC 2: 0. Invocation of Nehek, 1. Vanhel's Danse Macabre, 4. Raise Dead, The Curse of Undeath King Lwyd - Wight King [115pts]: Hand Weapon, Medium Armour . Magic Items: Sword of Kings, The Accursed Armour + Core + Skeleton Warriors [170pts]: Musician, Skeleton Champion, Standard Bearer . 29x Skeleton Warrior: 29x Hand Weapon, 29x Light Armour, 29x Shield Skeleton Warriors [150pts]: Musician, Skeleton Champion, Standard Bearer . 25x Skeleton Warrior: 25x Hand Weapon, 25x Light Armour, 25x Shield Zombies [60pts]: 20x Zombie + Special + The Black and Wight Order - Black Knights [222pts] . 7x Black Knight: 7x Heavy Armour, 7x Lance (Mounted), 7x Shield . . 7x Skeletal Steed: 7x Barding . Hell Knight . Musician . Standard Bearer . . Magic Standards: Standard of Hellish Vigour Barrow Barons - Grave Guard [312pts] . 19x Grave Guard: 19x Great Weapon, 19x Heavy Armour . Musician . Seneschal . Standard Bearer . . Magic Standards: Banner of the Barrows + Rare + Aoibheall - Tomb Banshee [80pts]: Hand Weapon
My references tend to creep towards the obscure, so an explanation – Aoibheall is an Irish spirit tied to the O’Brien family (plus is pronounced like ‘evil’) and the Black & Wight/white comes from the colours of Cornwall.
My best recollection of my opponent’s list:
++ Standard (Ogre Kingdoms) [1,247pts] ++ + Lords + Slaughtermaster [283pts]: Great Weapon . Magic Items: Cathayan Jet . Wizard Level 3 . . Lore of Heavens 3: 0. Iceshard Blizzard, Fate Manipulation + Heroes + Butcher [140pts]: Hand Weapon . Wizard Level 2 . . Lore of the Great Maw 2: 0. Spinemarrow, Bloodgruel + Core + Gnoblar Fighters [130pts]: Expendable, Standard Bearer . 40x Gnoblar Fighter: 40x Throwing Weapons, 40x Two/Additional Hand Weapons Regiments of Renown [254pts] . Golgfag's Mercenary Ogres . . Golgfag: Medium Armour, Two/Additional Hand Weapons . . Musician . . 3x Ogre: 3x Light Armour, 3x Two/Additional Hand Weapons . . Skaff: Light Armour, Two/Additional Hand Weapons + Special + Gorger [50pts] Leadbelcher [240pts] . 6x Leadbelcher: 6x Hand Weapon, 6x Leadbelcher Gun, 6x Light Armor + Rare + Slavegiant [150pts]: Hand Weapon
Turn 1:
Casting the bones in the sign of a constellation, the Slaughtermaster bestowed the Leadbelchers with Harmonic Convergence, who dusted off several Grave Guard from across the table.
Cadog’s dark crystal pulsed as he summoned his countrymen from their slumber and eighteen answered the call as the dead marched forward.
Turn 2:
Golgfag Maneater counted his wages again (paid in meal tokens) and, satisfied with the tally, urged his boys forward into the freshly raised dead, crashing right through them and carrying on all the way to the Grave Guard behind them with their momentum.
A combined volley from the Leadbelchers and the Gnoblar horde put ten Zombies back in the ground.
Their glowing eyes betraying their concealed position in the forest, the Black Knights caught the attention of the Slave Giant who took a runup and flying leap, landing on top of the Knights and crushing all of them flat.
In an attempt to slow the onslaught of the Giant, a unit of Skeletons was sent in as a distraction and wounded his shin as he flailed around at them.
Bolstered by success, Golgfag bellowed a challenge to the rusted revenants before him. His blows dented the Accursed Armour of Lwyd, causing two wounds but failing to finish the job. In retaliation his retinue cut down several Maneaters, who suddenly decided it wasn’t worth the pay and tried to reverse course but were hamstrung and dispatched by the grave glaives of their pursuers.
Popping out of a muddy warren, a Gorger crept up behind the undead ranks.
Turn 3:
In a clash of titans, Gnoblars leapt into action against the Zombies, knocking over six of them with well aimed gravel and cutting the rest down with their paraphernalia.
Further flailing by the Giant only dropped one skeleton but five more fell to his stomp and the unit’s resolve (and marrow) began to crumble. With a final attempt to jump up and down on the enemy, the Giant instead fell onto them, crushing the last five flat.
This did not phase Cadog, who merely summoned supplementary Skeletons behind the old ones.
Aoibheall the Banshee shrieked at the Gorger – its sensitive eardrums split and a spout of blood poured from its head.
Urged on across the board by the sound of spectral xylophones, King Lwyd charged in to solidify the fortunes fortold by the Ogre seer. The blows from the brass guns could not deter the Barrow Barons from reclaiming their turf and the Slaughtermaster was cut down. His unit fled the field too and the blood of all but the Butcher was spilled.
Turn 4:
The Butcher fled from the field and Lwyd turned back to rejoin the fight in the center.
Their leadership structure gone, the decision was made by the Ogres to concede as between the Giant and the Gnoblar horde, precious few brain cells remained. Cadog was spared the attempt to be stuffed into a sack.
Final score came out something like 1,092-613 so a Solid Victory for the Vampire Counts. With a fortunate campaign roll, King Lwyd earned himself a free magic item worth 40 points, and the ogres bestowed a 60 point banner on a regiment of renown.
***
Trampling on the embers, the Barrow Barrons extinguished the bonefire at altar. Cadog brought forth the king’s ancient signet ring, tarnished by the centuries, and placed it into the notch below the inscription. Ancient counterweights and pulleys screeched to life and the trilithons slid aside to reveal a cached treasure beneath the stones. King Lwyd cast aside his Accursed Armour – already a symbol of servitude and now dented by the Maneater’s blows – to don his own armour, kept intact by the magic of the stone circle. An aura of darkness emanated from the Armour of the Night and the last flickering coals from the fire died. Overhead, the comet winked out.