Special Character: Killbloater

While Frostclaw has long led the armies of the Skaven of Spikehole on the front lines, backed up (and manipulated) by Skarskrit, the Greay Seer, there is another rat man of greater stature and more devilish cunning than either of them who is yet to show his face.

Killbloater... Lord of Spikhole and leader of all the Skaven within the Border Princes.

Using pure warpstone juices as a daily elixir, Killbloater has grown to enormous girth and muscle mass, easily lording his power over the lesser creatures around him. But as the Warpstone has multiplied his strength, so too has it sharpened his mind.

Killbloater has unsurpassed cunning for a Skaven, and worse, he holds in his belly the throbbing power of a mystical artifact of unimaginable power, crafted by the Old Ones themselves.

He holds in his belly one of the lost Eyes of Nippon, passed down from clutching claw to clutching claw over a thousand generations.

With no conception of how to use it to its fullest potential, Killbloater simply swallowed the jewel and now pulses with preturnatural prowess and longevity on the battlefield; a force of unbridled lethality.

Upon the frame on his back, Killbloater carries what appears at a glance to be the dismembered corpse of a woman, the bones from its arms removed; the empty skin used as rope to tie it in place.

But listen very carefully and you will hear the dry lips of this poor creature begging for mercy as the fowl sorcery of the Skaven and the proximity to the Lost Eye of Providence keep her alive beyond all reasoning.

The identity of this woman is unknown. No clothes adorn her naked mutilated flesh to help iodentify her, but she is clearly of noble birth.

And surely she is missed.

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Killbloater	5	6	4	5	4	3	7	4	7

Points: 190 

EQUIPMENT
2 Hand Weapons
Heavy Armour

The Lost Eye of Providence (Enchanted Item)

Grants +1 Strength (included above), a 4+ Ward Save & Regeneration (6+)

Killbloater is a model I bought from BaneLords (via my good friend Neil, who felt he was far too big to represent his Mordheim commander)

The Spike Hole Horror!

With the success of the Hell Pit Abominations  spreading through the under-empire of the Skaven, the bar was raised to produce some new killing fiend of even greater power.

But it wasn't Throt the Unclean and Clan Moulder who perfected this new beast. It was the warlock engineers of Spike Hole.

Bear witness to the Spike Hole Monstrosity!

The creature is every bit as deadly as the Hell Pit Abomination only moreso.

Far bigger and bulkier than the  Clan Moulder creation, this gargantuan monstrosity is capable of swallowing a man whole without even slowing.

Worse; it has another great gaping maw at the other end! Never before has such a disgusting horror been seen! Never before are something so deadly slithered and crawled from the festering depths of Spikehole.

The real horror however is how the fiendish creatures are produced. It is a lengthy and esoteric process prone to frequent failure as well as lethally powerful success that begins, hard though it is to believe, with the purest of substances.

For the beast you see here was once a human woman, a beautiful young lady no more than twenty years of age, spirited screaming into the night from the town of Malko by cackling Night Runners. 

At the beginning of the process, the human's head - the woman in this case - is detached, still alive and screaming, and affixed through surgery to the shoulders of the giant rat like a malformed hump. Using foul sorcery and unclean science, the head is kept alive and conscious; unable to die or even to fall unconscious; unable to control the actions of the filthy pox-ridden rat that crawls amongst the carrion and through the damp tunnels searching for prey.

For weeks, this human head is left to "season," going very quickly insane as it screams hoarsely for release of any kind; lying amongst the other rats and watching as they feast on mouldering human corpses of the head's own family.

Eventually, after several months of this agonised mental torture, the head is removed; now a gibbering maniac consumed by loathing and hatred.

While the head has been seasoning, the body of the human has undergone gruelling transformation, its essence spliced with that of other Skaven monstrosities until it has bloated and mutated unrecognisably.

The insane head is grafted back into the interior of this new bloated, worm-like beast to provide a dark soul and motive power. The creature has no eyes; only a twisted sense of smell and the need for rancid flesh. It is ruled only by hatred and when fully complete, goaded into battle and controlled (after a fashion) by the warpstone gems built into its armour plating.

It is  truly a horror beyond imagining.

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Spikehole Horror	3d6	3	1	6	6	8	4	*	8

Points: 320 

SPECIAL RULES 

Impact Hits (D6)
Large Target
Terror
Regenerate
Stubborn
Hatred

+ from the Skaven Army Book:

Shambling Horror
Special Close Combat Attacks
Too Horrible to Die

Armour Save: 5+

This model is another toy from the McFarlane range: The Gemini. I've boosted the Toughness and Wounds a little and added an Armour Save and Hatred, then boosted the points to roughly match that.

Special Character: Spheric!

Of all the warriors in the world they say that none is greater than Spheric.

Once he was a humble pig farmer living in the town of Lower Falls, but after he was dragged away into the darkness one night he returned far later in another more powerful form, bearing the fiendishly potent enchanted sword that he called simply "Plague."

No one knows what happened to Spheric while he was away but he possesses superhuman strength and endurance as well as prestigious skill at arms.

For many years he was a force for goodness, defeating many Dark Lords and becoming the saviour many times over of Tempest Falls; consort of Rachel d'Astatic, the merchant queen.

Now though his heart has been twisted.

Now he leads the legions of the Undead Nation as their general, second only to the great Nagash in command as he towers over the shambling zombies that surround him.

Wielding Plague, Spheric strides into battle, swinging the deadly sword through is foes as though they were already ghosts.

He cannot be defeated or reasoned with and he leads the forces of the Vampire Counts to victory against the Border Princes and then the Empire! 

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Spheric	6	7	5	5	5	4	7	5	10

Points: 410

SPECIAL RULES 

Always Strikes First

Wizard Level 1 (Lore of Death) 

EQUIPMENT

Plague (Magic Weapon)

Plague grants the user +3 Strength 



The Crimson Armour (Magic Armour)

This armour grants a 2+ Save

The miniature used for Spheric is the Forgotten Warrior from Enigma Miniatures. 

His rules are almost perfectly legal based on the abilities and upgrades of a Vampire Lord.

The full story behind Spheric's background can be found within the great tale of Tempestria on the Bretonnians and Orcs page above. 

Spotlight on: Nagash!

When I first created this blog I put a picture up of this beautiful model that I use to represent that most notorious of arch necromancers Sauron Nagash!

I think it’s one of the nicest miniatures ever created and though I own the original GW Nagash and did my best to “save it” with the paint job, it still wasn’t quite good enough alongside modern miniatures for the high standards I aim for (even if I don’t always achieve them). 

Now I wish I could tell you what model this is and I’d certainly be grateful for anyone who can remind me. I bought it on eBay a couple of years ago and I just spent ages searching for it again just now.

Each year I hope GW will release a campaign book about the return of Nagash but still no word as yet. I always hope he’ll appear in one of the undead army books, but no luck so far.

Of course my entire campaign storyline is based on Nagash leading his undead armies north toward the Empire so having him appear in games is pretty vital. Sadly, so far he’s not had much luck in games. I used rules for him based on those on the excellent Nagashizar website. And I just found sort of rules for him in the Vampire Coast campaign book on the Tempus Fugitives website.

Bascially in the game, he’s such a vast sink of points that he struggles to earn the points back. I guess it’s just a case of reducing the points until they make better balance. For example, in one game, he was in combat with a huge unit of zombies alongside. The zombies got their asses kicked but good while Nagash killed loads of the enemy, but because of the overall combat being a loss, Nagash was killed through combat resolution. The annoying thing being that if he hadn’t had loads of zombies “helping him” he would have easily overrun the enemy unit and gone on to win the game.

It’s that kind of thing. 

But who cares in many ways. He’s a beautiful model with a fantastic history that is integral to my campaign storyline.  

To paint him I used turquoise over a very dark blue for the robes and bronze over Tin Bitz for the armour. I was aiming for a fairly subtle realistic look.The "skin" was a series of greys.

I decided to have the skulls as bronze accessories rather than real skulls - because the model is 54mm and they would have been way too big for normal skulls. 

The dust weathering was graveyard earth under bleached bone. 

He has a really nice aggressive stance, making him look like a martial general rather than just an evil wizard. I just really do love this guy!  

Special Character: Bull Rogue

Once, not so many years ago, there was a man whose heart knew only wickedness.

Bear witness to his visage now, for the filth within him now matches that without.

Jordan d'Astatic, brother of Rachel and son of Gregoire, was a petty bully who loved to revel in his father's riches and hold debauched parties. He was ungrateful and disdainful of the gifts and lifestyle he attained as the heir to the lordship of Tempest Falls and demanded, in his impatience, for a castle of his own.

Bequeathed the fortress of Gaping Jaw, far down the Old Silk Road, beyond Malko and close to the Dwarf hold of Karak Hirn, Jordan's dissolution became complete as he and his cronies did nothing but live lives of decadence, allowing the lands about to fall into corruption without his defence.

When Tempest Falls came under attack from Orcs, Jordan refused to provide aid, and this betrayal led to the deaths of hundreds, including Rachel's husband and child.

Seething with rage, Rachel sent out a curse to her brother, fuelled by the insidious power of the Chaos Vein, buried deep beneath the earth, and transformed him and all his cohorts into filthy greenskins. His men became Orcs; his women became Goblins, and he himself was transformed into a towering and animalistic troll, almost every trace of his humanity obliterated as this new form overcame him.

And now, Jordan D'Astatic, renamed as the monstrous Bull Rogue, leads his Orcs and Goblins on devastating raids from Gaping Jaw, seeking only one thing: vengeance against all civilisation; and most of all, against Tempest Falls, far to the east; and against his yet surviving sister, Rachel.

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Bull Rogue	6	7	2	6	5	5	3	6	9

Points: 200 

SPECIAL RULES 

Regenerate 

Magic Resistance (2) 

Scaly Skin

EQUIPMENT

Great Weapon

Light Armour

The miniature used for Bull Rogue is the Banelord model: Vortun, Troll Jarl. And isn't he just beautiful?! 


The colour scheme, using muted greens is actually much nicer, I now think, than the brighter greens of the Orcs following him. It makes me want to repaint them all to this grittier and more realistic level. 


Maybe one day... 

The full story behind Bull Rogue's background can be found with the great tale of Tempestria on the Bretonnians and Orcs page above. 

Special Character: Durak Grund, the Indomitable Hammer, King of Karak Hirn

Durak Grund, descendent of Morgrim, one of the greatest of all Dwarfen warriors, is king of Horn Hold, the Dwarfen fortress named Karak Hirn.

But his crown weighs heavily.

Always a Dwarf of words and diplomacy, he learned the cost of inaction when Barak Varr, the sea gate, fell to the Undead Nation sweeping north from the Land of the Dead. But he also learned the error of rash reaction when his own responsive war party was cut down by the spiteful Elves of Bloodroot Forest.

Now, wielding his rune-laden axe, Skrund, the hewer of rock, Durak Grun no longer fights a battle of rage. He fights a war of vengeance. It was his inaction that allowed Barak Varr to fall to the undead and it is through his action that it will once again be liberated.

Though a league infested with Orcs, Goblins and the Warriors of Chaos lies between him and the fallen hold, he and his stout forces will never stop or surrender until he has achieved his goal.

As Morgim, his forefather, leads the Dwarfs east for vengeance against the Elves, Durak Grund forges south.

To victory or death.

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Durak Grund	3	7	4	5	5	3	5	4	10

Points: 268 

MAGIC ITEMS

Skrund  (Magic Weapon)

This axe is inscribed with the Master Rune of Smiting, the Rune of Speed and the Rune of Cleaving, granting Durak +1 Strength and Initiative and causing d6 Wounds for each unsaved wound 


MUNDANE ITEMS


Gromril Armour 


Shield Bearers