Heroes of the Goretide

Now, a blood cult of mighty warriors wouldn't really be complete without at least a few... mighty warriors, would it?

A barbarian horde wouldn't really be a compelte without adequate representation of the whole community. After all, history is full of badass warrior women, and as "Khorne cares not from where the blood flows", I'm sure theres no care given as to the gender of whomever shed it either. Unfortunately the range of Bloodbound warriors is a little short of female representation. 

Happily the Stormcast range is ripe for pilfering. Thanks to my local Warhammer store having a birthday, and the manager being a jolly decent chap, I managed to get my hands on just the right model... and heavily converted it to suit my purposes. 

meet Annie Kuhlsdaughter, Exalted Deathbringer of the Goretide

A mighty warrior maiden of the Tallowlands Goiretide, Annie such a ferocious and formiddable opponent that she is rumoured to be the daughter of the legendary hero Korghos Khul. This is a possibility, Korghos Khul was in the Tallowlands the season that Roralarach shared the sky with Lady Lisu turning the sky pink as The Lady's protection countered The Rage of Roralarach. On this rare occurrence it is possible for those who were under the thrall of the goretide to be subverted by Shala, the goddess of fertility, not for nothing is the rare event known as The moons of Lust. No one has been able to varify Annie's parentage, but the title has stuck and she seems to be doing a good job of living up to it.   
 

 modelling notes: Yet again I dug into the citadel skulls set for basing details, as you've no doubt noticed I've done with most of my heroes, after making a nice flat topped slate rock out of milliput. I then removed the cloak, loincloth, spaulders, and stomcast details from Larissa Shadowstalker, and replaced her spear tip with the most appropriate daemon blade from the fantastic selection in the wrathmonger/skullreaper set, and replaced her stormcast back symbol with a nice rack of skulls, again from the skullreaper set. All that was left was some greenstuff detailing on the armour plates to bring it into line with the other bloodbound heroes. 

I decided that painting her with a bare midriff, rather than a full torso sculpted breastpalte, would not only give her a badass set of abs that the most elite crossfitter would be jealous of, but, it'd be much more in keeping with the barbarian feel of the other semi-naked bloodbound heroes. 

Her Impaling Spear is magnetised at the wrist, because it'd have such a minimal chance of surviving a trip...anywhere... if that flimsy piece of plastic was glued at such a tangental angle to the rest of the model. it also means that it just pops off if it gets caught on anything, rather than breaking.   

The Goretide

The Red Moon Rises part 2

Hjorvard woke. At least he felt like he'd just woken, but it was still dark? No, his eyes weren't open. He tried to open them, they wouldn't open. "Gods! I'm blind!" he thought. No, there's just something keeping them shut, he moved his arm to rub his eyes, and winced at the pain, oh it was sore, the wince caused more pain to shoot through his body. Everything hurt! As he moved his skin pulled and tugged, hairs tore out as something coating it cracked and clung and came apart as he moved. 
As he took off his helm and rubbed off the sticky crustiness caking his eyes shut he began to take in his situation. 

He was slumped against the wall of a cliff with a big rocky overhang blotting out the sun overhead. The ground was cold earth, and he appeared to be covered in a crusty substance that he realized must be dried blood, absolutely caked in it! 
Everything hurt! He was sore from head to toe with fatigue and exertion. He'd only just woken, but had he ever felt this exhausted before? 
On the plus side, apart from a lot of bruising, a few shallow cuts, and extreme ache in all his muscles, he did seem to be intact. There was a dent full of rock dust in his new helm and the back of his head was a little tender, but the helm seemed to have done its job, and was otherwise intact and still wearable. 
Oh! his legs hurt, and they wouldn't move. there was something pinning them down, he reached down and used the arrows sticking out of it to move the heavy body of the big hairy beastman aside, the source of the blood caking him, and squeeked as the returning circulation caused a 'pins and needles' sharp tingling sensation up and down his legs.
As his eyes grew accustomed to the gloom he could make out more shapes in the dark area under the overhang. There were robed bodies everywhere. skinny gangly limbs poked out from under the robes, one was face up he looked into lifeless beady eyes, sharp teeth, pointy ears... goblins! 
a sudden cold sensation of fear of the unknown trickled down his spine, and he looked for a weapon. one of his knives was under the beastman's chest, the other was nowhere to be seen but there was a heavy, brutal looking, crude axe nearby, so he took that. Feeling more secure, and a lot braver now that he was armed, he got, painfully, to his feet and began to investigate. It was time to find out where the Goretide had left him.

Through the gloom he could make out more corpses...lots of grots and the occasional other, thankfully no one he recognized, it had been a massacre!
He vaguely remembered Father Torpal trying to drum home an important point about grot encampments in some of their navigation classes, but the dull throbbing from the blow to his head was making it difficult to recall any details.

The camp was inside some kind of hap-hazard fence he guessed was a crude goblin attempt at a palisade wall. the tents looked to be some kind of hide, as he closed on the nearest one he noticed the unusual texture and realized it was the skin from a huge mushroom, adorned with trinkets, presumably of value...
Treasure Goblins!!! Hjorvard almost shouted out in excitement as he remembered. That must be it, the point Father Torpal had been making, goblin camps were famous for Treasure Goblins, they were in all his favourite heroic legends of the Tallowlands. A magically enhanced goblin who carried all the tribe's wealth and plunder, and if you could find its horde, or catch the treasure goblin its self you were rich!! Rich! Treasure! Magic items! the fabled stuff of heroes, this was clearly his destiny unfolding. He began excitedly searching the tents and stalking shadows, looking for signs of movement and anything that looked like a stash of treasure. 

He was moving some grubby blankets aside to look behind them when something moved! it shrieked as he looked at it then raced out of the tent entrance. it was  quick! he gave chase and made a grab for it, it jinked left dodging his hand, but he still had the blanket in the other and flung it as he dove in the direction the creature was going. 
it was definitely under the blanket, he could see it wriggling for the top edge, and he moved his arm to trap it. when it realized it was trapped it stopped moving. he gathered himself. got ready, flung the blanket aside and grabbed the creature underneath. 
the little blighter bit him on the thumb. he recoiled then grabbed it tight. 
"A Ha!" he exclaimed. "now lets see your treasures!" 
it squeaked, gasped... he realized he was squeezing very tight, too tight. ashamed he relaxed his grip so it wasn't crushing but was still too secure for the creature to struggle free. it was a small green humanoid creature with big ears and a huge nose. It looked at him forlornly, sobbed, and he realized it had wet its self. its big eyes had weren't full of menace, it didn't look very bright at all. where was its treasure? come to think of it this wasn't much bigger than a cat, it couldn't carry much treasure. bits of lessons returned through the murk of his memories, "you're a snotling aren't you?" he said. there wasnt a glimmer of understanding from the creature, it just continued to look forlorn. "well, on your own you are hardly a threat." he set it down and released it, it stood quaking for a moment, then realized it wasn't going to be eaten, and scarpered.   

He continued to look through the camp for something useful, and possibly a treasure goblin.

All he found was a box of dangerous looking mushrooms and a small silver sickle.  
he sat down on a rock, his head was clearing, memories of the lesson were coming back...

...it was sunny, the class was outside under the old tree. 
"...and what do we know about the Tallowland Grot...?" said Father Torpal. 
" treasure goblins!" blurted Hjorvard. 
the class laughed, he felt his cheeks redden. 
"that's just a fairy tale for children Hjorvard," Father Torpal tutted, "I honestly thought you were past that!" he shook his head. the mocking laughter increased,
Hjorvard wished the ground would swallow him up, some of his classmates were half his age!
"...but every fairy tale has a grain of truth in it somewhere." Father Torpal winked 
"I'll try again, if you'll let me finish..." he glanced at Hjorvard who hung his head. 
"What do we know about the Tallowland Grots, in reference to post goretide navigation?"
"they Follow the moon?" said someeon Hjorvard didn't see
"good!" said Father Torpal "many grot tribes throughout the realms are moon clan's, their religions believe they gain their power from a big bad moon. so they follow the moon hoping it will lead them to power and glory."
"which Moon?" Tova asked
"care to elabortate?" invited father Torpal
"which moon," she repeated"we have so many in the Tallowlands, there's, the Lady Lisu, Rorolorach, the Wyrdmoon, the Emerald beacon, Naethe's torch..."
"...And here we have the problem." interrupted Father Torpal. "some realms have just one moon, so the positioning of a moon clan grot encampment can be a useful navigation tool, if you are familiar with your almanac and know which phase of which season  you are in. but unfortuantely, in the tallowlands we had so many moons and they follow such a variety of bizarre paths that it it nigh on impossible to know which one, if any, the particular grot clan you have encountered was following. Indeed, some of the most zealous, or possibly daftest, moon clans chase them all! night after night they race back and forth, zigging and zagging across the Tallowlands, and sometimes spiralling if there are several moons waxing in conjunction. 
So, what we know about the Tallowland Grots in reference to post Goretide navigation and attainment of bearings is... that they are utterly useless!"

As the memory of the lesson finished playing back in his mind Hjorvard sighed and slumped despondently, alone on his rock.  

  

   

The Red Moon

The Red Moon Rises: part 1

He deflected her attack and struck back. She turned it aside with her blade and shot past him...she smelt amazing...Pain erupted as Tova struck his elbow, ribs, and nape of neck with her "knives". She was quick!
"Point to me!" she smirked.
Hjorvard felt his face redden as they reset, he had to blot out the distractions! They were training, this was important, lose focus and it could cost you everything!
He longed to wield an axe, but more exotic weapons were scarce so you had to prove yourself as a warrior to earn the right to wield them. 
Training had been tough, but it felt good. Strength and skill had vastly improved since they'd started, but it was all coming together. Honing their fighting skills to instinctive reactions had taken a lot of work over years but they were almost there. 
The orange sky said the gentle gaze and protection of Lady Lisu was waning. They needed to be ready, the time was almost upon them. 

It was unusual sleeping in until mid morning, but tonight was going to be exhausting. Hjorvard still ached from yesterday's training, bruises were starting to show, but he did his morning stretches and went to help prepare the food.
As Father cut the meat he looked across the table. 
"When I came of age it was a time of mixed emotions." he announced "You know the words, you've seen the rites, you understand what is expected... get through the ritual. yes, its in front of everyone you know, but its just a ceremony. Its tonight you have to prove you are worthy. its tonight and every night the blood moon shines that we are all counting on you to do your part."
he went quiet and seemed to finish, then he caught his wife's gaze across the table.
"...but don't worry" he continued "your mother and I will be with you. now lets eat, then its off to the temple."

Father Torpal's sermon went on for quite a while. the theme was duty, loyalty, remembering your roots, and doing your part. It was just the two of them coming of age this season, and the eyes of the whole village were on them as they knelt at the altar, observed the rites, and the blessing was performed. It was nerve wracking, but the blessing was to give them strength for what lay ahead. 

Hjorvard stood outside the temple gazing at the horizon. No trace of Yellow, The Lady Lisu was gone from the sky, and it was clear. Was that a touch of red on the horizon? his stomach fluttered with nervous anticipation. 
The punch to his arm snapped him out of the daydream. "well, you didn't mess it up!" Tova said with a look of mock surprise. 
"you didn't either," he replied 'can't you think of something better to say?' he thought, he could have kicked himself! "Rorralarach will rise soon."he said
"it will" she nodded.
they gazed out at the hills on the horizon. She held his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. He froze and felt his face redden. The nervous butterflies in his stomach had turned into a bag of fighting ferrets...and one of them had escaped and was heading elsewhere!
"are you ready" he asked
"Almost" she replied
"what do you mean?" 
still holding his hand she stepped round to face him, gazed into his eyes for a moment, then kissed him. He paused, startled, then kissed back. he'd been imagining it for weeks, but it was better than that. Amazing! 
They parted. 
"what was that for?" he asked. 
she looked sheepish, then a little melancholic "just in case..."
The Bell rang.
They started, and looked towards the hills. a line of red had appeared on the horizon. 
"Its our first duty to make sure the children are safe in the temple vault." she said.       
he nodded "crazy to think we don't have to spend another night down there ever again!"

The vault was secure, The gate was barred and they stood with all the adults of the village by the wooden palisade that marked its edge. The sky was mauve above, fading through to magenta, and the red moon was visible above the horizon.              
"I can see them!" someone shouted
"steady yourself! his father flexed his brawny shoulders, "breathe and remember your training" he growled. 
"we'll see you in the morning, dear."  his mother said to reassure him. 
They could hear the noise of movement carried by the wind.
oh gods! he could see them! men, beastmen, other things? there were a LOT! and they looked crazed! He could feel the blood pumping in his veins, his heart thumping in his chest. he shuddered, he felt sick. fear? elation? nerves. His hand trembled so he gripped his knives tighter. They were almost here! He could see fifty..no a hundred... no, more! He lost count. Stopped trying to count. The terror, excitement, and anticipation mingled into one. 
They were two hundred yards away, and running. he glanced left, then right, seeing tensed warriors, steely determination, and set fighting stances. 
At a hundred and fifty yards, he felt his knee tremble and his stomach lurch. but he controlled it. 'remember your training' he growled at himself. 
a hundred yards. 
He could feel the ground pounding, and smell the approaching horde. Heart pounding, nerves singing, he tensed... then relaxed.           
he glanced above at the moon, so big, so red, a moment of calm. 
Then the Red orb of Rorralarach glared back, deep into his soul! he felt its power course through him. 
The last thing he remembered was roaring "Blood...!" as the frenzy took hold and he joined the harvest.