Rumble in the JungleScenario from the 2013 Oldhammer ‘Bring Out Your Lead’ event at Foundry Miniatures, NottinghamFor background and scenario rules, see above.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
The ancient, bony warriors advanced, their bones, and teeth, arms and armour combining to clatter loudly as they did so.
While to the south the massive gorilla’s also advanced …
… and the pygmy gate guards argued over when exactly they should loose their wards.
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.
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.)
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!
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.)
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.
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.
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.