Shaar was no more.
Magnar had made it to the blustery peak just in time, the moons were aligning overhead and the vampire was being elevated by a dark sickly power. Loec and Shaar were already dire enemies, but the Wood Elf lord had decided to keep his distance from him in an attempt to stop a unity of men sweeping across the battlefield - the Vampire was the Dwarf Lord's for the taking. But the battle wouldn't be so easy...
Shaar could sense the presence of four different forces making their way across the battlefield to eachother and his blustery outpost but cared not, the Dark Gods had promised his survival. The Wood Elves and Dwarfs had put their differences aside and were fighting for the same causes much to Shaar's displeasure, he thought that enough blood had been spilt on both of their accounts for any truce to be unnegotiable. Celine and an alliance of men were also drawing arms on one side of the battlefield, surely the magical surge had roused their attention and they were intent on stopping the dark ceremony before it could begin - but there would be no blows held against Loec and Magnar's forces. Much to Shaar's delight the forces of order began to trade blows, "Fantastic, this will buy me time", Shaar hissed as he used all of his power to cast a handful of purple orbs of destruction into the fray.
Shaar had barely noticed the rabble of Beastmen that had appeared behind him, Gorgarron had roused his herd once more for a fate unknown. The herd couldn't be trusted, Shaar knew that the chaos gods favoured him, but their children may have not got the message, especially a leader so deranged as Gorgarron. To the flank of the Beastmen came the unlikely force of Orcs and Undead, who had struck an alliance in an attempt to kill Shaar and allow the Orcs to get their revenge against the other generals as they cared little for a lowly Vampire on a hill.
And so the conflict erupted, the allied force of men attempted to sweep through the Elves and Dwarfs right flank but the wily Asrai surged with a counter attack. And at this moment Shaar loosed a devastating Purple Sun which he was hoping would take care of both forces but only blasted through the knights of Bretonnia. In the meantime the Orcs pressed their offensive against the men of the Empire and began drawing a battleline against the Beastmen whilst dealing with a monstrous beast known as a Jabberslythe, Gorgarronn roared in fury as he saw Magnar making his way to the foot of the Blustery Peak.
And thus the moons aligned and geheimnisnacht begun...
Magnar could sense the magic swirling around the peak as the energies culminated into an almighty blast that headed skywards. Shaar was being wracked with powerful energies and even Magnar could hear the whispers of Tzeentch promising the Vampire glory. Shaar had a few moments to cast some pink fire into the ranks of men before the Dwarf Lord was upon him.
"This madness ends now", Magnar shouted as he grasped his axes and swung them round into defence, he knew the Vampire would be faster than he. Shaar turned, his eyes ablaze with the changing fire of Tzeentch and smiled, "I have been favoured by the Chaos Gods, I am a new creation a perfect fusion of two ideals - what chance do you think you have?"
Magnar could see the runes on his axes smouldering and setting alight, the magical power swirling around them was charging the runes to overload. "Better be quick," Magnar whispered to himself as Shaar drew his duelling blades, closed his eyes and whispered a dark prayer. "You will not defy me again Dwarf..."
With that Shaar raced into a dive bomb with blades piercing out, but the Dwarf side footed the blow and parried the Vampire to the floor but in a flurry Shaar was back on his feet and slicing against Magnar's breastplate. The Gromil held up against the onslaught as Magnar brought round an elbow smashing Shaar's abdomen and shunted him aside. Shaar reeled in shock, but the winds were changing and another was whispering in his ear, Slaanesh was gifting him now and the mood of the Vampire changed once more. "The Dark Prince wants you dead Dwarf, and his power is mine to execute you with..."
Magnar's eyes opened ablaze as Shaar sprouted two rending claws from his back, they were razor sharp and extended high above Shaar's head. "Dear Grungi, what is this evil?"
"This, dear Dwarf is my ascension", Magnar could barely brace himself for impact as Shaar ripped through him with a flurry of claws and blades. Magnar had barely recovered when a pale silver blade went straight through the back of his shoulder, Shaar stood behind blade extended grinning at his death blow. Magnar heaved painfully as he felt his arm and lung struggling to function but in a last heroic effort, grabbed the protruding blade and fell forwards - this was his chance. The Vampire fell off balance as the blade twisted in his hand, this Dwarf had such resilience to death... Shaar tried to steady himself so that he could unleash his other blade to decapitate Magnar but the Dwarf was already falling whilst swinging his axe in a powerful arc, Shaar saw this too late and the impact crumpled his chestplate and threw him many feet across the floor.
Magnar crumpled to the ground, his arm was paralyzed and he spluttered in pain as his body began to relate to the trauma it had been through. "Be gone Vampire, be gone", he stuttered as he looked across at the broken and frail body of Shaar - surely he'd done enough. At that moment the power surrounding the Blustery Peak began to elevate, and dark whispers of another enemy began to ring in Magnar's ears, he had been resurrected and the world would never be the same again.
Shaar's body had been broken, the Vampire tried to move but he could feel his conscious being torn between the Dark Gods and a new deity that he could only imagine was Nagash.
He had failed.
Shaar looked up and knew that his time was up, Magnar had made sure of that, the Dark Gods wouldn't favour him now and Nagash wouldn't look fondly on his actions to halt the resurrection. But as the power surrounding the blustery peak diminished a voice spoke into Shaar's ear, "You served me well, at the end, we were so close... The others have forsaken you, but I wish to elevate you."
"Leave this body now and join me and fight for us again!"
Shaar couldn't believe his luck, at least one of them had favoured his intentions and strife. And with that Shaar of undeath passed into the darkest of histories but his spirit was extracted as the magical power surrounding the peak was extinguished. Magnar hoisted himself off the floor holding the breach in his frame, he needed to make sure the Vampire was dead. Looking down he could see the shrivelled face of Shaar, his life force was gone, Magnar had done enough. The battle was still waging, he could see that most of the alliance of men had been either killed or routed and that the Beastmen were being overrun by the Orcs and Undead, this seemed like as good a time as any to make an exit, Magnar knew that he would need to keep as many warriors fighting fit for the coming months as war is coming and every warrior would be tested.
GOLD EARNED/SPENT
Melvin 12 / 9 (+3)
Ben 10 / 5 (+5)
Gareth 12 / 2 (+10)
Hendrik 12 / 12 (0)
Sam 6 / 7 (-1)
Jack 6 / 3 (+3)
Mark 3 / 6 (-3)
OVERALL STANDINGS
Melvin 46
Ben 41
Hendrik 35
Francis 38
Simon 29
Mark 26
Jack 26
Gareth 24
James 22
Will B 17
Henry 16
Will S 10
Sam 9
Fred 6
Hugh 6
THE FUTURE
Nagash has finally been resurrected and Shaar has been eliminated by Magnar's last minute assault, the lands are now teeming with Undeath and the world will never be the same again. From this point forth your Campaign Generals and regions will be tested by the night and the horrors that come with it, will they survive these harrowing times or will the darkness consume them and their followers like a swamp of black tar? The Chaos Gods have spoken their intent, and the Thirteen are clawing at the ground beneath your feet and what happens next is up to you...
CHANGES TO CAMPAIGN PLAY
For the future I'll be making some small amends to the way we play our weekly games, each of the Regions will be amended to showcase the darkening of the lands as well as some other additional pieces you'll have to choose for your force. There will also be a change to the way you earn Gold, instead of one player gaining the majority for a victory, each player will gain a certain amount of Gold depending on their Victory Points. This will reward players who attempt to get stuck in with the chance of earning more and offer your opponent more reward for attempting to do the same.
PRINTED COPIES
The final 3 Months End games will be detailed in paperback alongside the previous 3 scenarios and the generic rulespack for your reading pleasure. More details of this are to follow, so watch this space!
Also thank you to everyone who has taken part in the campaign so far, it's been a great deal of fun and I hope you've enjoyed it too. We'll be getting started again in the new year so will see you all then,
Cheers,
Mark
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