Path to Glory: Nurgle vs Stormcast Eternals, 17.01.2019

Introduction

Time for a guest post!

Through the eyes of the Stormcast

The blade struck, shrieking with rage.

Lord Duskmantle could hear thousand voices talking, screaming, whispering, all resonating in unison, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Which of these were part of his family? Had he caused the deaths of his beloved wife and daughter during the soul scry ritual he had so carefully planned all those years back? Dared he dream that he had finally succeded? Could he have sacrificed himself so that his daughter could have a chance to live a normal life? How many years had he missed during that time?

The deaths he endured seemed to present further puzzles with no answers in sight, as each time his soul was adrift in the aether, he realized that this was no place for mortal men, yet it was the consciousness of mortality which always made him wonder why he had been brought back in a different mortal coil. Fractures of thoughts that occurred to him seemed to disappear within moments for today he was born and tomorrow he would probably die, only to wake up on the same, cold, golden table where a familiar, yet distant memory of a masked figure with no face would call out his name.

“WHAT IS MY PURPOSE?”, he asked out in despair.

Shortly thereafter, he came to his senses and upon awakening a golden ray of light pierced his eyes, he could notice the familiar large golden chamber within Sigmaron was in full view. Countless rows of tables, where the same voices he could clearly hear in the aether, had their bodies placed upon the same gold tables and among those bodies, he would notice one, two, even many more at a time waking up in the same manner as he did, where robed servants that donned masks with no faces would embrace them as long lost children.

Looking behind, he noticed that a large metal armoire was open, his belongings neatly packe, available to use, but instead Lord Duskmantle did not remember wielding them. He often wondered:

“This equipment belongs to me, I know this and yet, each time I arise, why do I have only one such artifact at my disposal? Am I being limited by some unseen puppeteer?” he wondered after which he shrugged off the thought.

As he stood up, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm and upper chest, and as he looked down upon his body, there was no cut of exposed flesh, no shattered bone, no blood and no scars, it was if as nothing happened and yet he definitely remembered how the screaming daemon struck the fatal blow only moments ago.

Determined, he still remembered that by honoring his duty to Sigmar, he had the opportunity to find the answers he sought.

Re-equipped for another chance at life, he exited the chamber. Shortly after, he was met and instructed by the Stormcast officer who greeted him upon his first moment of death, the one that called herself Lady Solbright.

He could sense a tone of disappointment in her voice as she spoke to him:

“Ah, Lord Duskmantle. Your continued, hopeful arrogance and unwillingness to understand the events that led you to Sigmar’s domain will always bring about your defeat. I had hoped you would learn this much…but for now, you have a new directive. Come, your men await.”

The mission was straightforward:

He would take a small company of Celestial Vindicators, investigate the Thrice Cursed Islands, searching for foul, daemonic corruption of the Plague God and if such evil was found, they would build a glorious monument to Sigmar, where the power of azyrite would prevent further encroachment of evil.

Battleplan: The Monolith

It wasn’t long before they arrived and Lord Duskmantle immediately realized what was happening:

“Eternals! We must not let these daemons interrupt our work! Prepare for battle! The Magisterium has spoken!”

Shortly after, a rising pillar of brown smoke was slowly gaining ground towards the Eternals and in the middle stood a foetid tree from which a daemon of such size Lord Duskmantle had faced before, but not like this one.

Appearing from the thick fog, the daemon giant bellowed a vibrating rumble, thundering with pure madness as the daemon was seemingly laughing uncontrollably, shouting:

“IT IS I! VIRULAHAHAHAX! GOOBLY-GOLLY, HAS DEAR FATHER SPAT LUCK UPON ME FOR IT IS A MOST DECOMPOSING DELIGHT TO BE AGAIN RID OF THEE!”

These Maggotkin of the Dark Lord of Pestilence were all pulling smiles behind their rotting visages, for they had won a major victory before and they seemed pretty confident that they would do so again.

Duskmantle was ready. He looked to his officer, Knight Incator Dakyon whom had ordered that the new Celestar Ballistae their company had received would be put to good use, for they would be deployed in the nearby woods, where they would fire bolts of lightning vengeance upon the daemon.

 Nurgle, Round 1, Turn 1

A wall of resilient daemons formed at the base of a rotting Gnarlmaw, near the outskirts of a small woodland area where Lord Duskmantle and his troops began preparations for the monolith construction. However, the construction would be halted for the time being.

Stormcast Eternals – Sacrosanct Chamber, Round 2, Turn 1

 “Hooold…..hoooold…..steady…..FIRE!” was the order Lord Duskmantle shouted as thunder boomed and lightning struck, visibly wounding the pestilential abomination.

“THE DAEMON LORD! HE WILL RETURN IF WE DO NOT BANISH HIM NOW! PRESS ONWARD!”

“Dakyon, take your men and meet the daemon head on. I will order my gryph to latch on the daemon’s spine and sever it! MOVE!” and with that, Lord Duskmantle took off in a flash of lightning.

Charging the vile thing, the combined power of the Stormcast had found an opening for Lord Duskmantle to take advantage of, where the Gryph Charger managed to claw at the daemon spine until the daemon fell on its back, unable to move, after which Lord Duskmantle used a spell to banish it in the dark aether from whence it came.

Aftermath

The deed was done, anything else to relate during the battle are details. Lord Duskmantle wasn’t too pleased with the outcome, the victory had been at best pyrrhic. The land was far too corrupted for the monument to cleanse and yet it was built, but it would take years upon years before any cleansing of corruption could be fully realized.

Notes

Yes, I received a thorough trashing. I moved up everything on the first turn, expecting the Stormcast to hunker down around their monolith, but instead they charged forward. The two Celestar Ballistas took 10 wounds off Virulax, and the Sequitors and Lord Arcanum finished him off. The Stormcast then got a double turn, and I barely had anything left. I dragged it out to turn 3, hoping to go around the melee or summon something on the monolith, but with the ballistas around, I had no chance of doing either. I conceded, giving the Stormcast a minor victory, as they had abandoned their monolith and could not construct it in time.