Neverborn vs Guild - Narrative

[Massaen]

Perdita eyed off the abandoned church warily. The rain coming down hurt visibility which only made things worse. She knew the neverborn would come, they always did when soulstone was around, and the dilapidated church before her had a large stash in the crypts below if the rumours were true. Stood beside Perdita was a figure of dread in Malifaux – Lady Justice. Perdita had requested her assistance to secure the stones from the site and the Lady had readily agreed. Perdita hid a smile. She knew that the Lady would come before she had been asked – the Resurrectionists would seek the stones as well and that made good bait for the Lady and her marshalls. Perdita motioned for her family to spread out. She watched Nino run towards an old guild guard tower and start to climb it with an almost insect like quality. Papa Loco trailed in Ninos wake, singing a song to himself. ‘Maybe this will be easy’ she thought to herself.

Then all hell broke loose.

She watched as Nino was bathed in an eerie purple light though he seemed unaware of the glow around him, so intent on finding his next hand hold on the difficult climb he had started. The light flashed around him and in that instant he was gone. Perdita blinked away the silhouettes on her vision and the true horror of the light became apparent. In Nino’s place, its dagger like claws sunk deeply into the wall where her cousin had been was a creature from the worst of human nightmares. The Nephilim was huge, at least 12 feet tall by Perditas reckoning. ‘NEVERBORN!’ yelled Perdita, drawing her peacemaker and advancing on the creature. Papa Loco seemed to come out of his daydream at the sound of his enemies name. Laughing manically he charged the monster with a stick of dynamite in each hand. He reached the bottom of the tower as the sticks went off. The tower rocked but stayed upright with the blast. Huge chunks of flesh were ripped from the Nephilim and the creature roared in pain. Papa Loco faired little better – he lay dazed and barely conscious. Perdita’s peace bringer spoke and more black blood poured from the fiendish monster. Badly wounded it took flight back across the high walls surrounding the church. Perdita cursed fearing the creature would come back with others of its kind. The tell tale rattle of Ninos rifle and the roar turned gurgle spoke of the creatures foul end. Perdita punched the air in triumph but her smile was lost at the blood curdling scream which was unmistakably Nino’s. The scream was cut short abruptly and Perditas blood turned cold.

The rain had eased now with nothing but a mist in the air. Perditas keen eyes caught movement in the gloom and a small child – a girl of 5 or 6 years old emerged. Behind her a dark green apparition hovered, its malice tangible in the magic rich area. The girl smiled a cruel grin at Perdita. “My friends are coming to kill you” she giggled. Horrified at the ancient evil before her, Perdita watched dumb founded as the child whispered a spell. As the words ended she watched papa loco sit up, still in a stupor. He held a lit stick of dynamite in his hands. He seemed mesmerised by the flickering fuse and a heart beat later the explosive went off. Shaprnel scoured Perdita, tearing at her clothes. Papa Loco had faired far worse – he lay in a spreading pool of his own blood. ‘BITCH!’ cried Perdita and her peace bringer spoke again, joined by Lady Justice and her Marshalls own fire arms. The mists and low light obscured the creatures demise but the tell tale black blood where the child had been spoke of her end.

Perdita reloaded her weapon, her heart racing. Fransico joined her in the gloom, flanked by the 3 marshalls. Fransico started to go to Papa but Perdita waved him back. She knew they had more pressing matters. Perdita watched Lady Justice – she seemed to sense something from the other side of the church. Lady Justice spun in the gloom, her great sword flashing from its scabbard. The huge weapon intercepted the carving knife aimed at her back. Again Perdita was amazed to see a child, this one no more then a year or so old. It held a large carving knife in one hand and a toy teddy bear hung under the wicked childs other arm. A faint trickle of blood dripped from the teddy bears eyes and the childs smile was enough to even give the death marshalls pause as they closed on their mistresses attacker.

The pause in their stride was all the neverborn needed.

While the guilds forces focused on the nightmare child, the Mistress of Monsters descended on them and the blood letting began.

Perdita saw her first. A vision of seductive beauty, Lilith strode out of the gloom. The mammoth great sword sitting on her shoulder seemed too large for her to even carry and the wicked sharp edge gleamed in the dim light. Before Perdita could draw a bead on the evil witch, Lilith swung her sword in a great arc. Perdita ducked, the huge weapon passing over her head by barely an inch. Lady Justice avoided the weapon as well, her incredible hearing obviously catching the sound of the great weapon cutting the mist around it. Fransico and the Death Marshalls were not as lucky. One Death Marshall avoided the blow but the others were almost cut clean in half. Blood sprayed from the hideous wounds, raining on the combatants like hell itself watched the carnage. The baby giggled with glee at the grizzly demise of the Marshalls. Perdita did not care one bit about them – but Fransisco was another matter. Her brother lay beside the Marshalls, his body still. It was hard to see if he too had suffered the same fate as those beside him but he would take no further part in the fight today.

Perditas fury knew no bounds. She lashed out the neverborn witch before her. Lilith moved with amazing speed, deflecting bullets with her blade or simply moving so fast that the bullet passed through air where she had once stood. Black blood dotted the ground and Perdita took hope – at least the bitch could bleed. Lady justice joined the fray, intend on taking down the neverborn in revenge for the loss of the marshalls. The last marshall joined the fray as well though Lilith seemed not to care. She laughed as they fought – a mocking laugh though Perdita could tell Lilith was pressed. More black blood flowed and a brief lull in the combat showed Lilith was sorely wounded.

Only now in the lull did Perdita see the real threat – Pandora. The young woman emerged from the gloom, a small box cradled in her arms – a faint purple glow radiating from it. She glanced at the last Death Marshall and Perdita watched horrified as he raised his peace bringer pistol to his temple and calmly pulled the trigger. The crack of the shot echoed and the Marshall slumped to the floor. The baby pounced at once onto the corpse, drinking the fresh red blood flowing from the vicious wound.

Lady Justice renewed her attack on Lilith, hoping to destroy the monster but it was no use. Lilith parried each blow in turn, finally stepping inside a missed attack and impaling the lady on the great sword. Perdita was alone. Surrounded and outnumbered, Perdita felt despair enter her. She knew it was that cursed box that Pandora held which caused these feelings but she could not break the spell. Perdita felt her hand move of its own will. She struggled to regain control as the hand holding her peace bringer moved towards her own temple. The gun was pressed against her temple now and Perdita screamed in frustration and the gun fired. The crack of the weapon was loud, so close to her ear it deafened her. Her vision blurred and she felt herself falling. Then blackness took her.

Perdita was amazed when she woke. She was sure the bullet should have killed her. Checking her head she found her hair matted with blood but the bullet had only grazed her temple, knocking her unconscious. Slowly, she staggered to her feet and recovered her weapon which lay a few feet away. Methodically she reloaded it, fearing the neverborn were still about and she felt better for having the weapon back on her hip. Checking the others she found Fransico alive but only barely. His chest wound would take a long time to heal but at least he would. Lady Justice also stirred nearby, the wound to her stomach still dripping blood. Perdita moved to where Papa Loco had fallen and was amazed that he too lived. He had almost no hair from the blast that had felled him and was covered in grazes and cuts from the shrapnel but otherwise looked like he was sleeping. He snorted silently in his unconscious stupor and Perdita breathed a sigh of relief. As Perdita moved to find Nino, her emerged from the church, his left arm hung at his side and blood covered his left side and face. He cracked a grin. ‘Looks like we got caught with our pants down this time eh!’ Perdita smiled to herself. The family would be ok.

She found Lady Justice in the old church. The crypts had been looted and no trace of any of the precious soul stones could be found. ‘You win some, you loose some I guess’ said Perdita ‘but at least we can walk away from this one.’ “I wish it were that simple” said the Lady, “but they got far more then just the stones…” It was only then that Perdita noticed that Lady Justice looked different. A length of hair had been taken from her head – from the scalp no less, no doubt while unconscious. ‘If the neverborn did that, why not just kill us?’ asked Perdita. Justice shook her head. “I don’t know for sure… but there are tales about the swamp witch and voodoo magic…”

Game wise it was as follows...

2 Masters – 30SS

Pandora, Lilith, Mature Nephilim, Kade, Candy, 2 Sorrows (9 cache)

Perdita, Lady J, 3 Death marshalls, Papa Loco, Fansico, Nino (6 cache)

Played on a 3x3 table

Guild – Claim Jump, Hold out (unannounced), guild only (announced)

Neverborn – Claim Jump, Bodyguard (Lilith), Kidnap (Lady J)

Turn 1

Mature Neph carries Lilith forward

Nino starts climbing tower

Lilith walks, swaps nino with nephilim then walks into B2B with nino

Papa loco uses take ya with me at nephilim – bam!

Perdita shots at Neph reducing it to 1 wound.

All other models begin moving towards centre building

Turn 2

Mature Neph flys back to within 2” of candy

Nino disenganges from Lilith and kills mature neph

Candy advances and uses self loathing on papa loco, killing him and wounding perdita

Perdita kills Candy

Pandora uses multiple WP attacks on nino to advance and causes 4 wounds in the process

Lilith charges nino, kils him and then walks up to beside Pandora

All other models advance – guild form up in a close formation

Turn 3

Lady J charges sorrow kills it

Kade charges lady J but does no damage

Death Marshalls charge kade but he lives!

Lilith walks once through a wall, uses whirlwind – kills 2 death marshals, fransico but perdita and Lady J are unharmed

Perdita attacks Lilith but does little damage

Pandora walks twice to climb a wall then uses pacify on Lady J, and self harm to seriously damage her with the help of the sorrow

Turn 4

Lilith kills lady j

Perdita reduces Lilith to 4 wounds

Pandora WP’s perdita down and uses free moves to get onto claim jump

Last marshal wounds kade

Kade wills marshal

Neverborn – 8Vps vs Guild – 1Vp

[Nathan Caroland]

Enjoyable read - thank you.

[Angus Khan]

Nice write up! Sounds like an intense game!

[Massaen]

It was great!

This was our first 2 master game and we kept the SS low as we are short on mini's. Its also the first game i have won in the last dozen or so!!!

Lilith is a beast and when i used whirlwind it was make or break.

I flipped an ace against perdita's 13, the black joker against lady J and my heart sank. Then i managed 2 x 13's and the red joker against fransisco... hell nasty.

I lost the nephilim in a stupid move - i should have done the transposition later in the first turn but got so excited about using lilith... live and learn.

The narrative was just a nice way of telling the story... next time i will have pics...

[Zee]

Great writeup! Good game, overall.

[Wendigo]

Really good write-up and a very entertaining read.

[Black_Mamba]

That was an enjoyable story of your battle. I like the way you supplemented it with the turn-by-turn account at the end, but the story made it!

[TheDiscoKing]

"Weeelllll, let meh tell youse a story.", croaked a heavily bandaged Som'er Teeth. The large gremlin, laying on a straw mattress in a leaky shack was wrapped head to toe in yellowed linen. His right arm was wrapped in a sling, his left was bare and wrapped around a large tankard of moonshine. All around him were young gremlins, their watery eyes locked on their great leader. Well, the few that weren't scratching their backsides or picking their noses.

"It all start'd lass week or so. Me an' ma boys were out scoutin' roun' the swamp area jus' outside them dere mines." He paused then, and took a long draw from the tankard and sighed. "We's heard that der be Soulstones in der mine, dat it wasn't dried up after all." Som'er coughed, then spat on the floor next to him a big bloody wad of phlegm.

"It was night, youse see, and I took meself two of our good ol' boy bayou gremlin folk, One of dem hog talkers, a few of deh baby swine, and one of dem trained warpigs. We had jus made it to deh mineyard, when we heard a noise."

Som'er paused then, for dramatic effect. "The noise was loud, and soundin; like metal scrapin on metal, and like a tea-pot explodin'!", he gasped.

"It was one of dem damned Peacekeeper contraptions! I called for one o' our boys to check 'er out. That's when we realized there was more den meet the eye!", Som'er wheezed.

"A sharp crack boomed, and ma l'il buddy fell dead, just 4 paces away. I ran forward, cocked me gun, and seen the shooter. It was none other den Samuel Hopkins!"

At the sound of the name Samuel Hopkins, all the gremlins spat in unison. (This proved to be very messy, because none of them had aimed towards the floor.)

"I pointed mah boomer at 'im, and shot at 'im! So powerful-like was mah gun, he was nearly blown up!",chuckled Som'er. "From 'hind deh mine came out thar rest of dose guilders. 'Twas Lady Justice and two of 'er marshalls! Mah boys ran forward, dere boomsticks a'shootin', even woundin' one of dem marshalls pretty good. The warpigs went a chargin', right in the midst of the gunfire, and the hog whisp'r led his swine into the fray, as the marshalls returned fire."

"I took mahself anudder shot at dat machine, puttin a big hole inits armor. It crawled forward and ran er clawhand across meh. She nearly ripped mah arm off.", he cried.

"Two of dem Marshals had shot mah last boys full o' holes, jus' before deh warpig and deh swinelingss gobbled one of dem up. Sammuel Hopkins den shot meh,", Som'er screamed, pointing to his stomach," bringin' me to mah knees." Dat pig whisp'r den poked him a mighty blow wit' his pigstickah, takin dat goody-good outta deh fight. Ha!"

Bit den things got worse for us. Peacekeeper let me lay, and den shot mah pig whisp'r with a big ol' speargun, pullin 'im to 'er clawes. Dah Peacekeeper made pigfood outta him. Dah pigs, includin dah warpig, all lost control, an ran about . Lady Justice and 'er Marshal chopped up the warpig as it charged dem. Piglings den chewed up dat ol' Marshal, and one even bit into Lady Justice. Dah Peacekeeper scurried into deh piglets, slashin' up one of dah two. Lady Justice den finished up deh other one with a well placed slash."

"Dat's how I get muhself in dis here wrapping, and dat's why you children get strong, to fight dem guild!"

~Som'er Teeth Jones

25 point scrap:

Strategy: Outcasts-Treasure Hunt, Guild: Slaughter

Schemes: Outxasts: Breakthrough, Guild:Raid!

Outcasts: Som'er Teeth Jones, Hog Whisperer, 2 Piglets, three Bayou Gremlins, Warpig

Guild: Lady Justice, Samuel Hopkins, Peacekeeper, 2 Death Marshals

Winner: The Guild