The Return of the Dwarven Lords
Author: Commander Gawyn © 1998
The mountain air was cool. Diddle the dwarf swung his Dark Tusk banner restlessy in the air. It was going to be a day of battles. The Keeper of the Talon gate, Lord Icebeard, had returned from the great council, and his orders had been clear.
All Devout forces outside our gates shall be crushed! Outside the Great gates stood two large Devout forces. One was lead by one of Lokoths diciples, simply called the Reaper. He was in truth terrible to behold, riding his bony horse(undead pony in fact..) swinging his deadly Scythe. His forces was those of the risens and cursed, and ofcourse a dreadful Stalker to lead them. On the other side of the sparkling river came another Devout force. This one was well known among the Dwarves course it had had a few hard won victories against them, even here in their ancestral lands.
A few weeks ago it had with a small forces unsuspectectly occupied a Dwarf fort and easily ovetaken it´s defences. Although the Dwarf recauptured the fort with great efforts, it had been costly in both lives and efforts.
Diddle spat on the ground at the sight of the Devout Legions commander, Lord Gawyn.
Riding on his demon mount and accompanied by his two loyal dusk realm demons (Porky&Bacon). He commanded his troops with harsh words. He was not here to fight with the Dwarves, not that they cared he was going to bne attacked anyway, they where here to minimize Lokoths interest in the northen Dwarven region. Aleha wasn´t happy with her fellow prophets interest in the Dwarfs. And Gawyn was here to make an example. Then the great horn of Thorbadin was sounded and Icebeard commanded the clans to move.
Today would be a day of battles.....
This is actually one of the most exciting scenarios I´ve(Gawyn) played so far. We decided to build up a dwarf "Highland" country with a river crossing a small plain that ended up in a BIG mountain plateu which held a Dwarven fort. Since we all had had bad experience and gameplay with a 3 player free for all scenario(ends up in 2 against one every time..) we decided to go for missions instead. My own mission was to have my Devouts kill "Reapers" necromancer. Reaper had orders to caupture the dwarven fort at all costs. And the Dwarf, well thet wanted the head of my warped lord on a spike so to say..
My Devouts (Gawyn):
4 Greatswords +leader banner * 2
4 Cursed
4 Followers
2 Dusk realm demons (Porky&Bacon)
1 Warped Lord (Possession, Vortex, Dark ones fury, Summon D.K)
Reapers Devouts:
4 Cursed
8 Dwarf skeletons
4 Dark eyes
4 Dwarf skeletons(wrong warband structure but we didn´t care...)
1 Harbringer o´ Darkwings
1 Stalker (Vortex, Possession, Dark ones fury)
1 Necromancer (Quicken dead, Summon U.K, Corrission)( Reaper man...)
Icemans Dwarfs
4 Shadow axe warriors
4 Dark Tusk swordsmen +, 2 leaders, 2 bannerman (wrong warband structure but allowed to make the game even)
4 Blood bone scouts
4 Blood bone axemen
2 Dark Tusk Heroes
1 Horned Ones Keeper(Lord Icebeard)
1 Totem (Horned Ones)
The Clans charged down the hills. Two Dark Tusk heroes led a warband of Dark tusks against Gawyns forces, while a warband of blood bone axemens and Shadow axes went against the Reaper. Commander Iceman went for the moto: Attack is the best defence...
Down on the plains Cmd. Gawyn had massed moste of his followers and cursed in a mass collumn to march over the bridge and attack Reaper man. On the other side of the bridge a whole warband of Dark eyes and Risens awaited. To deflect the Dwarven assullt Cmd. Gawyn depatched a warband of Greatswords and his two loyal Demons. Supported by the Warped Lord they should have little problems with keeping the Dwarfs at bay.
First blood was drawn at the main block of Reaper mans troops advancing on the dwarf. In a few seconds the Devout lost 8 risens and a harbringer to just 2 small warbands of dwarves. And when the Cursed charged in to save the day lady luck turned her back on Reaper man. (I mean 7 dice throws with just 18-20 is sort of a record isn´t it?) While Gawyns attention was diverted at the Dark Tusks, Reapers Dark eyes had better luck against the first two ranks of followers, who were quickly sliced to pieces.
The dwarven threat had risen on Gawyns flank dramatically. Although he had managed to kill a whole warband of Dark tusks and sent some blood bone scouts in panic with his banner. The Dark Tusk heroes had killed both porky and bacon(my two demons...) and killed half of hís Greatswords before they finally bit the grass. Then the Totem came charging down the hill, which proved fatal to the Greatswords and the Demon knight which had been sent there to help them.
On the other side of the river the two Devout forces had systematically taken care of each other.
Only one of Gawyns Greatswords remained (In a state of panic ofcourse...) and Reaper had only his summoned Undead Knights (2 if I remember correctly).
The Dwarfs now went all against Gawyns Warped Lord (around 3½ warbands..) while Reaper sneakily sent his two Undead knights against the Dwarven fort.
It was a race against time. Reapers Undead knights reached the fort before the slow running dwarf reached the flee footed Warped Lord.
But there before the gates of the fort stod Lord Icebeard, weaving his spear and bastard sword. He stood like a stone wall and with a "NONE SHALL PASS!" he easily slayed the wimpy undead knights. Although he took a wound he wasn´t seriously hurt.
At this point Cmd. Gawyn had grown tired of running(the fact was that I was cornered...) and decided to try his luck with the possession spell. -Whoooa! suddenly the dreadful Totem began to eat dwarfs. After eating one dwarf the lazy furball fumbles on the next charge, and his tusks hit a rock or something(could be a log, hard to tell when a 3 ton furrball covers it ;).
A sneaky dwarf then seared the warped lords head from his unholy body.
At this point it wasn´t much else to do then declare Iceman as a winner. (Although me and Reaper hates to admit it...)
Afterwords:
Gawyn: Not much to say, but that I need to rearrange my army list untill next time I run across the dwarfs. I had planned to mostly face the devout and only to "slow" down the slow moving dwarfs. But Icemans Dark Tusk heroes proved to be almost unstoppable. Next time I´ll bring in a full warband of cursed against them(atleast...I might add 2-3 full warbands of Greatswords just to be on the safe side...)
Iceman: nuff said yet(He hasn´t had time to read this yet..)
Reaper: more to come...(same as iceman...)
By Commander Gawyn 7/9 98
Comments
First version from 24.03.2008. Last Version from 24.03.2008.
