Rumble in the Jungle: Padre's Battle Report/Story

Padre

Member
Rumble in the Jungle
Scenario from the 2013 Oldhammer ‘Bring Out Your Lead’ event at Foundry Miniatures, Nottingham

For background and scenario rules, see viewtopic.php?f=25&t=852

Note: I used a new camera for this, but should have practised with it first because it was taking ‘compressed’ photographs – I suppose I should call such pictures ‘photos’! This means the pictures are not as good as in my previous reports. The figures people brought were great, it’s just that you can’t see them very well. Now, pleading over …


It was quiet in the Lost Valley as the Dagyoto tribe and their monstrous servants awaited the invaders. As the walls both to the north and the south had shattered, they could not know from which direction trouble would come, so they divided their force to defend both approaches. The idea that their ancient home might be attacked by a multitude of foes never occurred to them.

The pygmy tribesmen had built their villages in the shadows of the three pyramids – a scattering of mud huts and fire pits – but it was not their homes they wanted to defend, instead it was the huge, stone, temple-homes of their gods. These three mighty edifices dominated the valley, two constructed from massive grey stones, the third built of a strange, brown rock that could not be found elsewhere in the valley. For hundreds of generations the pygmies had cared for the valley and worshipped before the temples. It was all they knew.

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To the south of the temples the Dagyoto had penned their hammer-tail lizards. Four warriors now guarded the gates, ready to open them as soon as an enemy approached. The lizards were trained to attack anything that did not live in the valley – gorilla or pygmy – and to shun the undead.

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One might wonder why the pygmies did not want their lizards to harm the undead. It was because their own shamans were necromancers, and the grave pits in which the last two invaders were buried were thus considered a source of fighters. From the most recently dug pit, guarded by a wattle and daub statue of a pygmy god, a small host of Zombies had been summoned. Like everyone else in the valley, they had been waiting for hours in the sun, but their uniquely foul corruption had attracted a swarm of giant flies which buzzed thick about their ranks and files.

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Hidden inside the statue was one of the tribe’s two shamans, resting after his spell of summoning, and preparing to cast it once more to further swell the zombies’ stinking ranks. (Note: You can just see a glimpse of him in the statue’s mouth. The players, however, never cottoned on to the fact that shamans were hidden inside the mud. It made all the drilling I did to create 23mm x 23mm holes underneath for the bases to sit in worthwhile.)

These were a shambling remnant of the army of pirates who had climbed the valley walls in search of loot only a couple of years ago. They had been heavily armed then, and were still so now, but their filth-clogged pistols and muskets could not fire, and their cutlass blades were besmeared with dirt. Their once colourful clothes hung ragged from their putrid frames, as did their rotting flesh from their bones.

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On the northern side of the valley, another shaman was similarly concealed, and he too had been busy. The warriors he raised from the dead, however, were quite different, for they had been buried beneath the earth for ages, their flesh long absent from their bones. These were the soldiers of a forgotten, ancient Empire – men who had trespassed upon the valley many centuries ago. Armed with rusty blades and bent, battered shields of bronze, they stood silent under a tattered banner.

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Formed up nearby was one of the Dagyoto’s two regiments of dwarf-boar riders. These were the best warriors the tribe had to offer, each one having climbed the valley sides, survived outside the valley for a turn of the placid moon, and then returned the way they left, with better resolve and better skill with a spear than the rest of their kin.

Between the three temples, upon the holiest ground in the valley, where the pygmies lived and worshipped, stood the bulk of the Dagyoto’s strength. There they had mustered their giant gorillas, their mighty howdah carrying triceratops, their flying lizards and riders, a large regiment of gorilla guard, and the main cohort of pygmy warriors under the leadership of the high chief (a rather ironic title for such a little man). Several companies of blowpipe carrying braves and scouts were scattered across the valley, slinking about while awaiting an opportunity to spit their deadly, poisonous darts at whosoever should think to desecrate the temples.

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Just before midday the first enemy marched boldly into the valley, and were not at all what the pygmies expected. They were tall, yes, as everyone seemed to be compared to pygmies, but they were all pale skinned, and all women! Three priestesses drove the fighting force on ahead of them, being a pack of panthers and three companies of wild, leather clad warriors.

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Then, moments later another force burst into the valley, clad in blue, with a smattering of white and yellow. If anything these were taller than the women warriors to the north, though it might have been their elongated helms or feathered plumes that gave that impression. Leading this strange force was a large band of mounted warriors wielding white spears, riding grey beasts with no scales or tusks, but long legs. The rest were on foot, but looked no less unusual for it. Two huge, feathered birds flew above them – larger than the pygmies’ flying lizards, in duller hues, but with an clearly evident viciousness about them.

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Then a third force arrived, from the eastern corner of the northern wall. This band had a huge, green, winged monster with them, with great snapping jaws at the end of a long, flexible neck. The vanguard was made up of savage looking men, cavorting as they moved, while behind them walked a band of metal men, their shiny exoskeletons glittering in the sunlight. Last of all strolled the tallest man of all, robed in red, who seemed reluctant to join his force, and instead lingered in the rear as if exhausted, or afraid. (Note: Spent all his magic points summoning the Jabberwocky before the battle)

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The Dagyoto warriors now leapt to action. At the northern end of the valley, the gorilla guard loped forwards, flint weapons in their right hands, wicker shields strapped to their left arms, while the flying lizards swooped overhead and the massive triceratops lumbered behind.

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The ancient, bony warriors advanced, their bones, and teeth, arms and armour combining to clatter loudly as they did so.

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While to the south the massive gorilla’s also advanced …

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… and the pygmy gate guards argued over when exactly they should loose their wards.

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Meanwhile, even more foes were spilling into the valley. Behind the warrior women a very large band of hairy men marched. Even the brutal, cannibalistic pygmies wondered what sort of men would send their women ahead to fight before them? These new foes sported horns upon their helmets, and had brought a pack of dogs with them (perhaps the dogs were chasing the cats?) They also had two giant men amongst them, taller than the giant gorillas, but thinner.

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The bright blue and white riders at the southern end of the valley eyed up the expanding horde of zombies. A certain concealed shaman had summoned even more from the charnel pit below to swell their numbers. Note: The level 2 shaman was using a level 3 spell, but it was as an NPC and part of the scenario, as the shaman had lived their whole lives preparing to raise the dead in the valley for its defence.)

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Apparently unperturbed by the stench or the clouds of flies, the riders levelled their heavy spears and charged. The fight was messy (how could it be otherwise?) but the bright warriors thrust and slashed with skill, and as they cut down the undead pirates, still more collapsed due to the ever weakening magic animating them. Once the last of the zombies had fled and been cut down to a corpse, the blue riders suddenly noticed just how close the giant gorillas were getting and chose to turn and flee back to their lines. There they galloped between the two bodies of foot soldiers and then rallied in the rear to see to the business of reforming their body.

While they did so, a strange thing happened. An ogre-sized man appeared, sporting cunningly crafted armour, a huge mace and a round shield bearing a golden star. He himself looked as surprised by his own manifestation as those around him. His surprise, and in fact his life, did not last very long however, because the blue warriors at the southern end of the valley loosed a silvered bolt from their wheeled, massive bow that pierced him right through, killing him instantly. (Note: The great machine deep underground was becoming more and more unstable, and was bringing things from other times and places to the valley. I feel quite sorry for the temple guardian plucked from more than three thousand years ago to live approximately half a minute in the future! It was also responsible for what is described next.)

Mysteriously, a great clap of thunder now roared across the valley, even though thee were no storm clouds gathered in the sky, and this caused some consternation amongst the dumb animals, including the triceratops. As soon as the three-horned beast’s rider had reassured it, however, the pygmies in the howdah now loosed a bolt of their own at the advancing panthers, skewering one from mouth to tail. Mee-OWW!

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To their north east the metal men manoeuvred to take a position between the two bodies of wild-men, the better to see the mayhem unfolding before them. (I think they were fascinated. Hey didn’t really move to get involved, but it had to be an interesting spectacle.)

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The fight had now really begun, as the gorillas smashed into the blue haired women, while the skeletons took on their green haired companions. The panthers proved somewhat more agile than the pygmies (no surprise there) and threw themselves at the braves splashing through the swamp.

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Perhaps needless to say, the pygmies were slaughtered by the panthers, who then leapt onwards to spend some time leaping and clawing at the triceratops. For a while it seemed they might even hurt the beast, but in the end they all perished – crushed by its sheer weight.

Off in the corner of the valley, quite removed from the main fight, the boar riders came rushing down the valley side to careen into the green, writhing monster, and began stabbing frantically with their stone-tipped spears at its slimy flesh.

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At the southern end of the valley (while a very large frog – about as high as a pygmy’s belly, appeared out of nowhere then hopped off to hide in the rocks at the side of the valley), the eagles had come round a full circle, having killed a few pygmies on their way, and now swooped down to claw at the backs of the other pack of boar riders, while the blue riders were cutting down the three hammer-tail lizards the gatekeepers had released to chase after them. (The gatekeepers had attempted to release only a brace of the creatures, but an extra one slipped out before they could shut the gate. Failed Int test) Ignoring the eagles’ attacks and the screams from the hammer-tails as razor sharp points cut between their scales, the boar riders squared up in front of the blue soldier’s with spears.

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At the very centre of the valley, the large cohort of pygmy warriors with the high chief first marched southwards, then, upon learning of the massive reinforcements arriving in the north, turned around and marched back again. (This was not to be the last time they turned around!)

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Some invaders were now closing on the temple. As a little band of hairy men sprinted towards the northernmost temple, above them the first of several priestesses employed magic to fly onto the middle steps of the same temple. One of the warriors looked up in surprise as the priestess flew over head – one can only guess what put that look of astonishment on his face!

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Off in the forgotten south-east corner of the valley, a little company of yellow and red garbed men with shiny, peaked helmets sneaked forwards, perhaps hoping that no-one would notice as they crept up to the nearest temple. Only the two pygmies guarding that side of the hammer-tail pen could see them, and of course they loosed the last of their beasts accordingly. This roared across the valley floor at speed, and came up the valley side to begin tearing chunks out of the unwelcome invaders.

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Up ahead of them their companion, mounted up a creature something like that ridden by the blue-garbed tall-helms, was laughing. It seemed he cared not what happened to the others, for he was now so close to the temple he could smell its holy treasures. Then, just as the two gate guards were daring each other to run at the fellow and stick a javelin into him, a monstrous spider flickered into existence right in front of the man …

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… which led to a long fight (and a good deal of argument over who would win from the two watching pygmies). In the end the footsoldiers where driven from the valley, leaving a long trail of dead behind them, and the laughing fool on the white mount finally made a mistake in his parries and had his head bitten off by the spider.

Elsewhere at the southern end of the valley things were not going well for the invaders. The boar riders splashed through the swamp to charge boldly into the tall helms …
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… and in the ensuing fight they pushed the invaders back, then back again, then finally chased them from the valley.

While they did so the blue riders slaughtered the last of the hammer-tails …

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… but their joy was short lived as they looked up and saw that nearly half of their number had been killed and driven off in the meantime.

At the northern end of the valley the fighting was turning into a furious melee. The pygmies’ flying lizards swooped over the foes, picking off this one and that one, until their path took them over yet another invader who had entered the valley unseen by those caught up in the fighting. It was a huge force of greenskinned warriors, several large bodies of them, carrying bows and blades.

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Meanwhile, entirely unaware of the ever increasing number of foes, the gorillas steadily hacked down the blue haired women, pushing them back until the leader of the hairy men was caught up in the fight, as well as one of their horn-helmed giant men.

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As the first of the flying lizards, the reddest amongst the pack, flew over the greenskins …

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… the blue haired women finally broke and fled, as did the hairy men’s lord and his enslaved giant. The gorillas grunted loudly as they hacked at the fleeing foes’ backs, then smashed headlong into the next band of women who had, until now, been stuck behind the bloody combat.

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As the last surviving giant gorilla, having watched his two companions fall to the blue warriors’ deadly accurate arrows, ran to hide behind the statue there to await his chance to reach the foe alive …

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.. at the northern end of the valley, the recently victorious skeletons now found themselves charged in the flank by some of the most recently arrived foes – a large body of greenskinned boar riders. But these beasts were much larger, much more ferocious than the boars the pygmies were accustomed too. The ensuing combat was swift, the skeletons succumbing to a drastic weakening of the magics binding them in this realm. And even though a newly raised regiment of skeletons came to their aid, hitting the greenskins in their own flank, they finally collapsed into a pile of bones. The greenskins, apparently entirely unnerved by fighting undead, simply turned to face the second body of skeletons, and began methodically tearing them to pieces too. (Note: The orc boar riders won the combat even though the skeletons were in their flank – and in doing so pushed the undead back. Pushing back allows a unit to lap round by two models each side, thus their two flank guys become a new front rank of 5.)

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At the northern temple, one of the priestesses had already wriggled through a crack and pulled out some treasure. A little panicked by the confusion around the base of the temple, she employed magic to fly off somewhat randomly towards the eastern temple, carrying her precious loot with her. Meanwhile, another priestess, also reaching into the temple from a different side, suddenly found herself targeted by a hail of magically moved stones summoned by a pygmy shaman elementalist.

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More than a little annoyed at this interference, the priestess summoned a spell of her own, windblast, and so sent her diminutive attacker flying off the temple in an arc and finally to hurtle down into the swamp below with a splash!

The third priestess had left the temple with loot of her own, and flew down to the rear of one of the regiments of her hairy men allies. There she took a moment to catch her breath …

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… then conjured up another flight spell and with one huge leap left the valley. She was the first to leave with ancient treasure, and those of her allies who saw her do so, cheered her on as she flew overhead. (Apart, that is, from those who were still running in terror from the field, of which there were in fact many.)

Behind her, the band of five men had also managed to loot the temple, but their loot was too heavy for one man to carry, so they were dragging it across the valley floor. When one of them died to a passing flying lizard’s claw, a nearby hero left off his own attempt at looting and joined them to help them drag their haul away.

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Although they had killed many a foe, and driven as many from the field, the gorillas’ luck now ran out. Not realising that it was merely one greenskin boar rider attacking them in the rear as they fought to the front, they panicked and ran off through the swamp, hardly noticing the little pygmy shaman getting back to his feet after his dramatic fall from the temple.

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Darkness was falling, yet the fighting raged on. The green, be-winged monster had finished off the boar riders, then simply turned around and left the valley (This was all to do with the rather esoteric jabberwocky rules which were, and remain, a mystery to me). The tall helms in the south were regrouping, dismayed to see that the flying lizards and the large cohort of pygmy warriors (who had yet to see a fight) were now heading their way, while the giant gorilla peeked out from behind the statue awaiting his chance to re-join his own forces in attacking the invaders.

At the northern end, things were getting chaotic, but in the midst of it all it was the fight for the temple treasures that really mattered. The greenskins saw that the priestess floundering in the middle of the field was carrying something of worth, and as they drove their other foes before them, they intercepted her and stole the treasure. In turn the giant eagles now saw something glint amongst the greenskins and so they began a swooping dive in a desperate attempt to snatch it. They never got close, for a greenskin shaman simply conjured a windblast and smashed them against the mountainous valley side. Their broken corpses slid and rolled down the slope.

Note: Here was the issue- The amazon/norse player, Harry, now had one piece of loot off the field, but the orc player, Hetz, had another which it was obvious he could easily remove the valley. The only other piece of loot was that being lugged by the five norsemen, but they had enemies galore (mainly greenskins) threatening them, and it was very doubtful they could escape with it. RL time was running out, and so the game was heading for a draw: one point apiece for Harry and Hetz. Somewhat anti-climactic.

BUT

Harry suddenly remembered there was a scenario rule for attempting to escape with loot over the mountain side. No-one else remembered this. If he had not remembered, the game would have ended differently. We weren’t keeping the rule from him, to thwart him, we had all simply forgotten it. So Harryy grabbed his D6 and rolled and ...


The norsemen carrying the heavy chest-like artefact now surveyed the field before them. With heavy hearts they could see they would not get through alive. So they turned and looked up at the mountainous valley sides, all jagged rocks, scree slopes and uncertain footholds. With desperation and greed to fuel them, they decided to take their chance.

Up they went. Up and up. Slipping here, sliding there, catching hold of each other and the loot there. And somehow (6 on a D6), though they themselves would be hard pressed to explain how they did it, they made it!

Game over.

Harry – 2 pts
Hetz – 1pt.
Everyone else – ‘nul points’

Victory to Harry. Huzzah!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks go to:

Citadel Collector for co-GMing the encounters/events caused by the weird machine. Please see his report on http://eldritchepistles.blogspot.co.uk/ ... -down.html for much clearer pictures.

Harry – who provided three forces and two temples.

Lenihan the High/Sea Elf player

Hetz the orc player

Norse the chaos player

Thantsants for providing some more bits of scenery.

And the staff at Foundry Miniatures – our hosts.
 

Harry

Moderator
Wonderful stuff.
The icing on the cake ... of what was already a wonderful, rich, multi-layed and delicious cake.
It was a great scenario well GM'ed and played in great humour.
Thanks again Padre for such a great game.
 

Hetz

Member
Yep, ace game. I had loads of fun, the game came down to that epic final dice roll, what better ending could there have been?

Cheers Padre - get the next one sorted :grin:
 

lenihan

Moderator
Just got back from my hols, now enjoying reading through these reports. Thanks to everyone for such a great game. A perfect reintroduction to Warhammer after so many years, and a great introduction to 3rd ed.
 

Thantsants

Member
Glad I was able to see the dying moments of this epic game although I would have loved to have joined in if I'd have been free.

Great write-up Padre 8-)

Consider yourselves all cordially invited to raid the Shrine of Rigg when its built and if you ever find yourselves in sunny Lustria again.
 
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