This post is up to chronicle the events of the Volcrest War, a new campaign that recently begun in our local gamestore. The campaign advances in two-week Acts, which are divided into Map Conquest Acts and Narrative Quest Acts: the former type is for claiming regions on the campaign map, the latter for acquiring campaign bonuses for your faction.
The campaign is set in a lush valley just east of the Uzhag Plains in the Realm of Ghur. The area is nominally under the control of the Order-aligned Empire of Sclavinia, but since the discovery of an ancient Stormvault in the flying city of Volcrest, the capital of the Empire, forces from the other three Grand Alliances have begun to flock to the region. The aim of the campaign is for the participants to secure their Grand Alliance a region adjacent to the flying city of Volcrest, in order for them to find a way in and pillage the vault... which is easier said than done, since the despotic Emperor Ioann has sealed himself and his loyal followers into the city, preventing all means of entry.
This post will chronicle the events of the war as four Grand Alliances vie for chances to close in on the city and discover a way to get in.
Bloody conflict looms in the horizon as the warchiefs and generals of contending factions receive their orders. The forces of Chaos, Death and Destruction must try and get closer to the flying city itself, whereas the diffused self-governed fragments of the Sclavinian Empire must gather their forces and fight off multiple invasions on their homeland.
I'll let our campaign's Game Master fill you in on the details:
The valley is surrounded by high, protective mountain ranges to the east north and west. In south the valley ends in the sea beset by constant storms. The isolated nature of this region has kept it out of most major conflicts spanning the Realm of Ghur until now. Today this valley is controlled by the Empire of Clavinia. Clavinian citizens are mostly made up of myriad human clans and Moldir duardins. Other races like Sylvaneth can be found deep in the temperate forests of Dyatikovo and Basani regions. The North eastern passage to the Uzhag planes is blocked by Kirin’s Watch, a prehistoric wall keeping the larger Destruction warclans outside the valley. Like many warlords of Ghur the Clavinian Empire holds this wild region only nominally. Many rebellious clans and chaos worshiping tribes make the eastern mountains, especially Blackridge spires their home.
The Valley is littered with ancient ruins belonging to some lost civilization from the time before the Age of Chaos. Some of these ruins, especially Khas Ur, harbours the followers of Nagash. The most prominent of these ancient monuments is the flying city now named Volcrest, which is also the seat of the Clavinian Emperor Ioann. Volcrest is off-limits to all except the Emperor’s favoured, namely his loyal subjects and his household military. Even entry requests from Kharadron and Stormcast envoys have been refused. Ioann keeps an extremely isolationist reign, and lets his ministers direct the political landscape of his realm. This disinterest has fractured the Empire's clans. Dyatikovo Principality has become a tributary region with its own governance. Kassabarian Freeport has all but left the Empire, becoming a haven for mercenaries and pirates.
ACT I: Call to Arms
The Stormcast launched a massive offensive into the Tchernobog Forest to the north, following frantic reports of chaotic beasts, cultists and daemons gathering in the shadows. Victory followed victory as the Stormgod's warriors pushed ever deeper into the forest, assailed at every turn by Tzeentchian horrors and vile magic, but it soon turned out it was impossible to capitalize on any triumphs in the endless labyrinthine woods. With every ambush and running battle the Stormcast offensive slowed down, before eventually grinding to a halt altogether. The Tchernobog Forest remains under the influence of the Dark Gods.
In the Samonok Highlands the followers of Chaos incited rebellions amidst the mountain clans against the province's Order-aligned rulers, but the grim determination and advanced siege-craft of the recently arrived duardin reinforcements made sure that the uprisings were short-lived.
In the graveyards and ancient burial mounds of the Dyatikovo Principality the dead grew restless and rose up to overtake the living. Only the vigilance of the province's standing army of Freeguild soldiers prevented the destruction of several villages and outposts, their rapid and well-disciplined response seeing the undead returned to their graves with pike and shot. Alarmed by the event, the Principality officials have announced a general call-to-arms and several mustering camps have been erected throughout the region since.
On all fronts the forces of Order seemed to hold firm... until the news came from Kirink's Watch. The prehistorical wall that had kept the rampaging greenskin hordes of the Uzhag Plains in check for several millenia had fallen! A particularly cunning mob of Ironjaw orruks had bypassed the defences using nigh-impassable mountain routes, wreaking havoc amidst the farmer population of the province. As expected, the garrison stationed at Kirink's Watch sent several companies to deal with the threat to the populace, only for a tribe of Spiderfang Grots to sweep up north from the Serpentgorge Wilderness to overtake the gatehouse of the Great Wall. The remaining garrison was put to the sword in a manner of hours and the gates were swung open, allowing bellowing hordes of greenskins pass into the valley from the plains. The region is now lost, overrun by triumphant orruks, grots and worse.
Under the reddish illumination of the fires now consuming Kirink's Watch, thousands of refugees are making their way towards the safety of the duardin halls of High Moldir.
ACT II: Heart of Darkness
Thanks to a certain privateer captain from the Kassabarian Freeport by the name of Nulauc Felltaker, the Empire's forces received information about the ruins of some ancient culture located on a misty island just off the southern coast. The ruins are claimed to be of the same architectural origins as the flying ciry of Volcrest itself, and the higher echelon of the Imperial army took great interest in this bit of information. Could an exploration of the island provide some clues as to how one might enter the isolated capital?
Unfortunately, the greedy captain had also sold this information to every other willing faction in the valley with enough gold to sate his apetite. This led to a hasty rush for the island ruins, each faction sending a small, hand-picked expedition to retrieve any and all valuables from the misty jungles. Once reaching the ruins, the contending expeditions not only had teach other to fight, but the hidden guardians of the ruins as well: the Idoneth Deepkin. Only one expedition managed to pull through this ordeal, the others being lost to deadly environmental hazards, tropical diseases, sudden mystical storms and skirmishes with other explorers and the Idoneth: the courageous freeguilders of the Dyatikovo Principality.
These brave souls scoured the ruins, returning home with invaluable treasures: artefacts and trinkets from another age, as well as maps and construction plans detailing the landscape and structures all across the valley. These maps and artefacts would prove decisive in the challenging times to come. In addition, a portion of these treasures was sent to the Kassabarian Freeport in recognition of their aid, which lead to the independent home of privateers and other ne'er-do-wells joining the Empire of Sclavinia in the war effort!
ACT III: Towards Volcrest
Having secured the valuable information and a hoard of useful artefacts, the forces of the Sclavinian Empire redressed their ranks once more and prepared for the onslaught of invaders. Now they knew that the magic that held Volcrest aloft was fuelled by bloody sacrifices, a certain form of dreadful ritualistic blood magic. The researchers also discovered that a bluish crystal substance by the name of azulamber was a known, powerful conduit of this kind of ritualistic magic, and that the Worldpeak mountain on the western fringes of the valley was supposedly topped by this substance. Capturing the Worldpeak could allow the claimant access to this crystalline mineral, and could be used to amplify the sorceries that might bring down the wards of the Flying City, thus creating an entrance to Volcrest.
While these grand plans were being plotted in the marble halls of the nobles, the duardin of High Moldir were still trying to cope with the inflow of refugees from Kirink's Watch in the north. A host of plague daemons rampaged across their lands, killing and spreading Nurgle's virulous gifts, causing hundreds of small refugee encampments and minor duardin outposts to waste away due to sickness. The High Moldir Hold closed and barred its magnificent gates, saving those who had made it inside but leaving thousands more to succumb to the plague in their makeshift slums raised in the shadow of the Hold. Thus the city was saved from the epidemic, only for it to fall victim to the nefarious Skaven.
The infamous ratman warlord Thanquol led an invasion force into the city of High Moldir from below, overrunning the lower deeps and methodically making his way up towards the surface. The dawi picked up their az-un-klad, their axes and armour, and set into the lower levels of their beloved city in an attempt to halt the advance of the Skaven. Fierce fighting stretched out over days, with ratmen and duardin fighting for the control of the high halls and narrow streets of the lower habitation quarters, until at a decisive moment a single rocket from the duardin batteries brought low the enemy warlord. The morale of the ratmen crumbled as they saw their leader fall, causing a massed rout back to their tunnels. The defenders saw the enemy off with a High Moldir farewell: salvoes of handgun shot and sheets of alchemical flames. To make sure their capital would not fall under such danger again, the duardin collapsed the lower deeps entirely, burying the piles of dead of the recent battle.
The recently befriended Kassabarian Freeport sent a fleet of veteran mercenary forces to Dyatikovo, aiding the local freeguild soldiery in holding back the tide of the undead from Labikan to the east. The failed foray of the Stormcast Eternals into the Tchernobog Forest was called off and the forces directed to Greynovsk in an attempt to halt the advance of the greenskin warclans barging southwards from Kirink's Watch. Even the armies of the God-King could do little against the uncontrolled avalanche of metal, fur and green muscle, and the Stormcast had to give ground grudgingly over days of spread-out skirmishes and sweeping battles over the farmed land. The forces of Destruction forced their way down to the very shadow of the Flying City, setting up crude camps and waiting for more eager tribes to flow in and join their continued triumph. The Stormcast retreated to Dyatikovo, battered but determined to have a rematch with the unruly followers of Gorkamorka.
ACTS IV: Blood is Power
Alas, the filthy servants of Chaos, although banished from the mountaintop, managed to play one of their foul schemes before their eradication. Even at the climax of Order victory, a beastman shaman managed to sacrifice hundreds of its followers to fuel a ritual that awakened the inner beast of the Necropolis of Khas Ur, turning the entire province into a desolate wasteland through lava bursts and earthquakes.
Now the city of Volcrest had been derived of its impenetrable protection and the energy had been repurposed to shield Dyatikovo from further enemy assaults. Soon reports started dropping in from aerial scouts, confirming that physical entry to the Flying City was now possible, although magic was still badly disturbed by the remains of Volcrest's magical wards. Without delay the Sclavinian Empire sent several aerial fleets towardst he capital, hoping to reach the city before other alliances, who had surely noted the lack of Volcrest's defence already.
ACT V: Crystal Clear
Turned out that the Emperor had discovered a magical dagger in the broken stormvault under Volcrest, revealed during the Shyish Necroquake that shook the Realms. Victims sacrificed with this dagger became immortal, unageing and always in perfect physical health, a perfect source of fuel for the city's ancient wards. Yet there was a price to pay for this immortality: the victim lost his mind, descending into helpless madness and rage. When the Emperor's "experiments" with the artifact activated the city's ancient magical defences, the people had flocked to the streets to rejoice. The small fact that Ioann's political rivals began disappearing from their homes.
The Emperor even enacted the sacrifice upon himself, jealous of the victims' health and long age. His mind deteriorated, and when he decided to bestow this "gift" upon his daughter as well, his wife pleaded for outside help.
Noting the city's weakened defence, the forces of Chaos and the undead surged towards Volcrest. The horde of followers of the Dark Gods that invaded the Basani Lowlands was too enormous for the Empire's forces to beat back, so the Stormcast Eternals performed a valiant rearguard action to buy the civilians of the province enough time to evacuate. Eventually the Stormcast fell in battle and the region was overrun by mutants, daemons and gibbering maniacs. The ghastly King of Shrouds also led an invasion force of spirits and gheists from Dustruch Fort, but got ambushed in the mountain passes near Blackridge Spires by the followers of the Blight God, Nurgle. After a fierce battle the undead army was no more.
Thrilled by their earlier success and the conquest of Greynovsk, the greenskin warclans divided into smaller bands of roaming warriors, looting and burning as they went. This disarray was cleverly used by the armies of Order, who combined their efforts in an attempt to reclaim the lost province. The Duardin of High Moldir repelled the attacks of the grots on their sacred Hold and launched counter-attacks through hidden tunnels, separating and destroying roaming warbands one by one. Freeguild cavalry squadrons and Stormcast strike forces swept across Greynovsk as well, driving the greenskins out of the province once more.
Now only the armies of Order and Chaos have direct access to the Flying City, both preparing their aerial invasion forces to strike deep into Volcrest. The forces of Death and Destruction may have been beaten back from the ultimate prize, but they too are making preparations for an entry...
ACT VI: End of an Empire
As the battle raged on above, several strike-teams and shipwrecks from the aerial struggle landed amidst the battered houses and streets of the city proper. Everyone had only one goal in mind: to secure a landing zone, receive reinforcements and push on to the Imperial Palace where Ioann would be slain and further disaster avoided.
Orruks, gheists, barbarians, skeletons, men, aelves, duardin and daemons fought fiercely among the ruins of Volcrest, seeking to claim even a market square or a forum of sorts for themselves. Hundreds perished in the bloody skirmishes on the streets alone, not to mention a similar rate of casualties in the skies above. For a while the strike teams of Order made good headway towards the Palace, a chamber of Stormcast managing to get within three blocks of the location after blasting through a legion of ghosts and skeletal warriors.
But Order was not the alliance to carry the day. As the Stormcast finally got the Palace within sight, having teamed up with human and duardin survivors from other strike teams, all they saw was a green tide pouring into the marble halls. The orruks had beaten them to te prize, and the Sclavinian soldiers could only watch in horror as the gigantic orruk warlord carried Emperor Ioann's severed head out of the Palace, the cursed dagger of bone and sinew in the other gnarled hand.
Such and artefact in the possession of the green beasts could not bode well for the other alliances. The ability to turn one's followers immortal at no cost at all, as orruks are famously hollow in between the ears, was the ultimate weapon in the war to control the Valley. With heavy hearts the other alliances withdrew from Volcrest, returning to their respective strongholds to prepare a hasty retreat from the Sclavinian Valley altogether.
Destruction Victory!
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