The Southlands’ Jungle
More than 70 Leagues upriver
The Tabrizians set up camp upon a spur of land tucked inside a sharp crescent curve along the sluggishly flowing river. Thus the river provided a defence upon three sides and they needed to construct a palisade only on one side. Of course all knew they would never find the city of gold whilst lounging in a camp slowly succumbing to fever of the yellow, camp and malarial kind, and so as soon as the defences were functioning the main part of their force had marched out. During a fit of fever that loosened his tongue like no other circumstance had so far done, Webbe Nijman had indicated the city lay to the north through a particularly soggy swamp.
The boats had proved incapable of crossing the tangled morass, and so it was left to the pirates’ tired legs to make the journey. Admiral Bart ordered almost the same force as had assaulted the beach to assemble, and although this raised some arguments the council of captains were persuaded to agree. He had chosen the force previously for its ability to work on the land, while the men left behind were the best able to defend the ships. This time he reckoned the same applied, though now the defenders guarded only the boats and the camp. He did make some changes, however. Several artillery pieces had been mounted to guard the entrance to the camp, which meant he could not take as many with him as he had on the dunes. Yet there was no way he was marching without some artillery - many of the men in his army preferred a good artillery duel at sea rather than boarding, and he and they saw no reason to suppose it was any different on land. Besides, it was an artillery piece that had won the day during the Battle of the Dunes. Thus the force had two cannons and a mortar, dragged upon raft-like sledges. But admiral Bart wanted more than just these, and so this time ordered the four ogres in his own crew to carry four more artillery pieces (at least the barrels). He had seen this done during battles on the Badlands’ coast, and so reckoned his own Ogres could do the same for him.
Bart’s bosun Jan Mostert and first mate Lisbeth Boone took command of his own fighting crewmen, while Claudio Sagrada was once again given the artillery to command. Wilfred Mostert, half brother to Jan, commanded his own crew, the same men who had fled from Galdabash in the dunes, but Captain Bartolomeo del Portes, who had lost his duellists at the mouth of the river, now marched with the Norsemen, while their own chief Sven Ironson gave the orders. The force was composed of the four main regimented companies - Arabyan swordsmen, Norse spearmen and two Tabrizian bands. Several smaller companies of handgunners and crossbowmen added to the missile power of the artillery. As ever, due the Tabrizian distrust of wizards, there were no magic users amongst the force, or at least none that would admit to being such! With pirates, who knows?
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Upon the March
Herman was not at all happy with the state of his feet. They had scabbed in new and exotic ways, and now ached and itched in a novel manner that sometimes made him groan and other times laugh. Right now it was the latter effect he was feeling.
“What you giggling about, Herm?” asked Stefanus.
“Oh, don’t mind me - it’s my feet.”
Stefanus furrowed his brow in confusion, “But I do mind. Pray, tell, why do you find your feet so funny?”
Herman rolled his eyes. “Oh, I suppose your feet are all spick an’ span, then? I suppose you’ve got the pretty pieds of a sprite little lass whose soles have never touched the ground without being first clad in silken stockings and velvet slippers?”
“You know,” said Stefanus, “you’ve gotten to be a right difficult fellow to talk to of late?”
“Ha!” blurted Herman. “You’ve some right to speak. If you’d ever tried getting any sense out of you in the night then you’d know what ‘difficult’ is really like.”
“What do you mean getting sense out of myself?”
Herman stopped for the briefest moment, then continued splashing through the mire. “No, I meant have you ever been me trying to get sense out of you in the middle of the night.”
“Strangely enough, Herm, I’ve never been you either during the night or the day.”
“You’re not getting my meaning …”
Now it was Stefanus’ turn to laugh. “Ha! So says the man who’s claiming he doesn’t understand me! Let me get this right: if I understand you correctly, you’re saying that you don’t understand me and I don’t understand you. But it occurs to me that if this is true, then my lack of understanding means I must be wrong in my assumption, and thus in truth we do understand each other. Yet if that is or is not the case, then we’re both in the same boat either way.”
Herm rubbed his weather worn brow with both his callused hands. “A conversation with you, Stefanus, is like sailing close hauled to a strong wind, tacking sharp and losing so much leeway that hardly any progress is made at all.”
Both thought about this for a while, until Herm (his hands still obscuring his vision due to his efforts to massage his aching head) suddenly fell forward, his foot stuck in a sticky patch of slimy tendrils. After much splashing, tugging and pulling, finally Stefanus got him free, followed by Herm being required to free Stefanus from the puddle of sucking sand he landed arse-first into after freeing Herman. Eventually, with both men considerably muddier than they had been a few minutes earlier, they were back on their way.
Suddenly Herman spoke: “All I’m saying, if I am allowed to put it bluntly, is that you talk in your sleep, and in such a manner as presents even less sense than your daytime words.”
“What did I say in my sleep?” asked Stefanus tentatively, half remembering the shape of his nightmares of the previous night, while fully recalling the fear.
“You said that them who die today will kill them who die tomorrow, and that them who died yesterday will kill them who died today.”
“That makes sense,” countered Stefanus, “for it’s the dead we’re to face in battle. The same as we did on the beach. The dead will kill the living, and then - Manaan preserve me - those killed will join the dead to kill some more.”
“Aye, but then you said I need not worry, for I wouldn’t be doing any killing either way.”
“Why would I say that?” asked Stefanus.
Herm was at the end of his tether. “How should I know? It was you who said it!”
“But I wasn’t listening when I said it, was I? You said I was asleep.”
Rolling his eyes, Herm muttered, “I doubt you’re ever fully awake.” Then, much louder, he said, “Forget it, old friend. Just a nightmare, eh?”
“Aye,” said Stefanus. “Just a nightmare.”
Suddenly there was an awful wailing sound from up ahead, followed by the cacophonous, tuneless peeling of ancient ship’s bells. Both old sailors knew this sound - Galdabash’s army was approaching.
“I’d willingly take that nightmare again rather than the nightmare that’s about to begin.”
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The Field of Battle
The Forces.
The Tabrizian Pirates (
Empire, 2239 Pts)
LORD:
Admiral Bartholomeus ‘Bart’ Pasterkamp General; Pistol; Sword of Power; Jade Amulet HERO:
Captain Wilfred Mostert Pistol; Sword of Battle; Talisman of Protection HERO:
Captain Bartolomeo del Portes Hand Weapon; Sword of Striking; The White CloakHERO:
Engineer/Captain Claudio Sagrada Hand Weapon; Repeater PistolCORE: Pasterkamp's Crew - 25 Free Company, FC, Extra Hand Weapon
CORE: Mostert's Crew Crew - 25 Free Company, FC, Extra Hand Weapon
CORE: Zazarri Marwan's Regiment - 25 Swordsmen, FC + Det of 10 Crossbow
CORE: Sven Ironson’s Norsemen - 25 Spearmen, Shield
CORE: 10 Pasterkamp's Handgunners
CORE: 10 Mostert's Handgunners
CORE: 10 Bartolomeo's Handgunners
3 SPECIAL: Artillery - 2 Great Cannons & 1 Mortar
RARE: Thodrin's Slayers (
DoW Long Drong’s) - 21 Slayer Pirates + Thodrin
RARE: 4 Ogre Leadbelchers[/center]
Grand Admiral Galdabash’s Zombie Pirates
(
Luthor Harkon List from old White Dwarf, Total Points = 2252)
Grand Admiral Galdabash (as Luthor Harkon)
Vampire Fleet Captain (Brace of Pistols, Moonshine)
Vampire Fleet Captain (Brace of Pistols, Bloody Norah!)
Vampire Fleet Captain (Battle Standard, Dead Man’s Chest)
25
Zombie Pirates Deck Hands Mob (Musician)
25
Zombie Pirates Deck Hands Mob (Standard, Musician)
25
Zombie Pirates Deck Hands Mob (Standard, Musician)
10
Zombie Pirates Gunnery Mob2
Bloated Corpses 14
Scurvy Dogs (with Bad Dog)
5
Animated Hulks 2
Carronades 5 Bases of
Razortooth Rats 2
Rotting Leviathans---------------------------------------------
Before the Battle
Thodrin’s dwarfen pirates had loaded every pistol they possessed, a task that used nearly a full budge barrel of powder and a weight of shot that an elephant would struggle to carry. Nearly every pistol had not one but two or three balls rammed down it, and nearly every ball was nicked and grooved in the hope that it would shatter and tear the rotten flesh of the foe more effectively. If the four ogres, each shirtless in the heat, had known what a storm of lead could erupt from the body behind them in the line, then maybe they would have shivered. As it was they knew not, and cared not. They had their own burdens to haul, and they too could fire a cloud of bullets that would put to shame an Imperial Helblaster.
Admiral Bart stood with his own crew, his death’s head and cutlass standard fluttering above his head. Lisbeth Boone was also in the front rank, shouting curses at the foe (and occasionally at whichever man was not where he should be in the body) and waved her blade about in a display of dextrous sword skill that was visible proof she had not drunk a drop of rum that day. Bart’s bosun, Jan, was at the rear, his huge pistol propped on his hip as he eyed the men before them and left them with no doubt what would happen should any of them attempt to flee.
Battle to follow...Game Note: Uryens took command of the living and I the dead in this battle. His choice. I reckoned that the extra Leviathan, and the use of more up to date undead rules (no ‘braindead’ rule) might swing things in Galdabash’s favour.
What do you reckon?