Stormvault campaign: Maggotkin vs Gloomspite Gitz, 2019.09.10

Introduction

'Let life bloom!' - cried Virulax, and spat. The phlegm arced across the land, landing amidst several arcane trinkets. The earth blackened and twisted, heaved and gave birth to a wonderful Feculent Gnarlmaw. The corrupted tree grew to an impressive size at once, fed by the latent energies of the structures. Virulax grinned, and gathered his phlegm once more... then swallowed it all in surprise. All around the tree, mushrooms popped into existence. By the Grandfather! several even grew on the Gnarlmaw itself. Of course, they withered away in seconds, but still, the offense was immeasurable. Virulax sputtered and reached for his blade. Alongside, the Bringer of the Pox stepped up.

'Great One, this seems... oddly familiar.'

The baleful light of the Bad Moon shone upon them, and squigs started howling in the distance.

Mission: horizontal deployment, 6 objectives

Each objective held is 1 point at the end of the active player's turn. Beginning with the second battle round, the player taking the second turn can remove one objective.

Battle round 1

'Haste on forward, children! Quickly now!' - bellowed Virulax, whirling his immense blade in the air. The Plaguebearers surged forward, occupying positions next to the arcane structures all across the battlefield. Nurglings erupted from the hidden places and Furies soared on tattered wings, forming the vanguard of the warband. Virulax grinned, but the counterattack was swift and ferocious.

Squigs bounded towards the enemy, prodded by their handlers. Snaggit, atop his monstrous Mangler Squig, crashed into Plaguebearers. A giant green hand picked up an entire mob of Boingrot Bounders, depositing them behind the Plague Drones. Cackling with glee, the cavalry crashed from behind into the Plaguebearers already pressed hard by the Mangler Squigs. The lesser daemons quickly collapsed into piles of goo.

Battle round 2

The left flank was in trouble. The Nurglings pulled back, and the Plaguebearers were not swift enough to reach the squigs. 

The center was doing alright: even though the trinket next to Virulax collapsed into dust, the regiment of Plaguebearers, commanded by the Bringer of the Pox himself, had reached the other construct across the field. The air cracked and rippled, as fresh Plaguebearers joined the fray. Obeying their orders, they threw themselves at the Loonking himself, bogging him down.

On the right, Virulax commanded a full scale assault. The Furies leaped into the air, protecting a construct from the encroaching enemies. The Plague Drones approached the Loonboss, but hesitated, seeing the snapping jaws of the Mangler Squigs. To Virulax' great disappointment, they engaged the remaining cavalrygits instead.

Once again, the balance swung heavily to Nurgle's favor.

Skragrott waved, annoyed, casting spells across the battlefield. Another green hand picked up the other mob of cavalry, depositing them across the field again.
'Not again...' - groaned Inzeth the Plagueflayer, barely recovered from the previous assault.

The gits pressed their attack all across the field.

Baggit, riding his giant cave squig, ran over the fleeing Nurglings; but his squigs could not take down the unmovable Plaguebearers. Not so the Furies, who were ripped apart in a frenzy of snapping jaws.

Impeded by Glorious Afflictions, the Mangler Squigs could not clear the Plague Drones in a single leap, falling upon them instead.

Battle round 3

'What are your orders, Great One?' - rasped the Bringer, but Virulax hesitated. He gambled, conceding the initiative to the gits. Another construct turned to dust, this time on the enemy's side of the field.

Despair gripped the greater demon, as both flanks collapsed. Inzeth was banished in a glorious cavalry charge; although the bold knights themselves scattered to the four winds afterwards, frightened by the martial display of the daemon prince.

Alas, not all was lost. The gits did not have to be all killed; Virulax already felt himself empowered by the leeched energies of the arcane constructs. He ordered his Plaguebearers to advance, taking all 3 points of interest.

The Great Unclean One himself had another mission. Spitting into his palm, he gripped his massive sword, and stepped towards Snaggit. He almost faltered, foot slipping on a freshly grown mushroom. Virulax bellowed, gathered himself, and crashed into the Loonboss! In a frenzied whirl of blade and chain, the Mangler Squigs were crushed.

Battle round 4

The gits advanced, throwing themselves at the Plaguebearers and Virulax. However, it was all for nought. The greater daemon was glowing with stolen power. The constructs crumbled one by one, leaving nothing for the hungry gits to plunder.

Aftermath (guest post written by Paul)

The daemon’s sword clashed with squig flesh as the massive bounding monster was cut in half by sheer strength. The second Mangler Squig lashed out at Virulax and however one chooses to perceive a daemon of that caliber as slow, the second chop of his sword made quick work of what was once Snaggit.

Irritated, Skragrott watched in awe as the daemon mirthful cackle resounded throughout the valleys surrounding the desolated Stormvault. He thought to himself “Well dat’s one outta da way I guess…” and as quick witted as he was, he realized that a disappearing act was in order and so he clasped at the greenmist puffshroom in his hand and ate it.

Shortly after, a thick green mist filled the valley and the gitz that still survived the aftermath of the Maggotkin attack had vanished altogether.

Pausing for a moment, Virulax gazed at the surroundings and was once more satisfied with the outcome he knew would manifest.

The daemon’s servant, a being of a considerably smaller stature, carried a book, a wonderful tome containing logs filled with disgusting chants of Father’s many blessings, effects of delicious, plague stricken ingredients and of course, the grater daemon’s chronicles into the Mortal Realms, material which would most certainly be of use to all children of Nurgle.

“Hmmm….”, Virulax paused before letting out a rancorous cough filled before spitting out a handful of Nurglings that dropped to the ground, cackling about for reasons they alone knew.

“Ahem….now….where was I?....ah yes! Bringer! Fetch me those harvested mushrooms!”, Virulax shouted.

The Bringer of Pox and the Plaguebearers under his command had harvested the mushrooms the little green folk had stashed in the garden they pilfered a couple of months ago. Virulax took a bag and swallowed it whole, hoping to gain new insight into the workings of this new, fascinating ingredient.

As the mushrooms worked their way into the rotting organs of the daemon, he felt an overwhelming need to burst out in laughter as the maddening juice coursed through his body, reaching his mind, twisting reality to no end and in that stupor, he had realized that the little green men were more than just ordinary greenskins. A kaleidoscope of perception had been opened and Virulax saw the truth, but not before belching a cloud of dark green smoke, crackling with motes of energy and strangely dissipating towards the earth below, not the skies above.

“Incredible…..Bringer! Taketh note!”, he growled as the Bringer of Pox had began to write down the daemon’s musings.

“The little green men we have encountered..they are not of this world, nor ours…they are part of this land, yet the lambent energies present the same potency unlike anything we have recorded in Our Father’s Garden.”

“The hypnotic stupor induced by many of these mushrooms is only perceived by the green men as visions of clarity. To one outside of their kin, these fungi are to be considered problematic… furthermore, in contact with our energy, ingesting this material results in erratic itches across the entire body….lesser beings would go mad and implode upon contact.”, Virulax paused to cough another green bile onto the ground before continuing.

“The fungi itself has eukaryotic organisms that defy the logic of the natural earth realm. The mycotoxin present in these mushrooms release a wave of magical energy which enhances the subject’s perception, strength…or intelligence, beyond any capacity I have witnessed. With that being said, any attempt to adapt daemonic energy would be in a antithesis as the fungi reacts in the way that fire reacts with nitroglycerin…..resulting in the impossibility of implementation. This strain of fungi the Moonclan greenskins ingest is particular to them and only them. Too much jitter in a mixture and this could cause us more trouble than we can afford, therefore…I will classify this provisioning survey…..unsuccessful, but not before I have taken a victory of battle once more.”

“Bringer….we have gathered all we needed! Onwards to more spoiled spoils!” and slowly the children of Nurgle walked the land to their next destination.