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| "I wish I could muster an army of Dwarves, fully armed and filthy" - Gimli, son of Gloin |
“Boom!
Boom! BOOM! BOOM! Boom! Boom! BOOM! BOOM!”
The rhythmic
sound of the goblin war drums carried up from the burning dwarven
settlement and reverberated among the crags above. The goblins were
too entranced by the dancing flames to look up, but even had they
bothered they would not have noticed anything amiss among the
boulders and outcroppings overlooking the settlement. A dwarf, tucked
partly behind a large gray rock, his stony features almost
indistinguishable from the granite beside him, looked down on the
victory celebration, gnashing his teeth and weeping in
frustration.
Skirfir, son of Nifir, and his small band of
dwarf warriors had been away from Khâr Zagâl at the time of the
attack, tracking a party of goblin marauders through the mountains
surrounding the dwarven town. After nearly three days of following
the raiders, they had caught them in a small pass. The fight was
vicious, but short, and soon all the goblins
but one lay dead. Skirfir's force had not escaped unscathed,
suffering three dead and two wounded in the skirmish. As his men
tended to their wounded comrades, Skirfir had interrogated the still
living goblin. And what he learned chilled him.
The goblin
raiding party, though wiped out, had achieved its purpose: to draw
the defending scouts away from Khâr Zagâl. At first, Skirfir just
stared at the goblin in stunned disbelief. Then the realization that
it was the truth hit him like a punch in the gut. During the pursuit,
he had wondered what the invaders had hoped to accomplish, raiding so
late into the fall. And at times he had felt that tracking the
marauders had been too simple, that they were not even making an
attempt at covering their tracks. But he had dismissed it, assuming
that the goblins had simply grown overconfident and careless, or even
plain stupid. In reality, it had been Skirfir himself that had been
guilty of overconfidence, and he had underestimated his foe.
As
soon as the truth had dawned on him, Skirfir had ordered his dwarves
to make ready to return to Khâr Zagâl. Fortunately, both of the
wounded were able to walk, although two other warriors were detailed
to keep to their slower pace. Skirfir and the remaining Dwarf, Lofar,
had made the best possible time back to the outpost. But they had
arrived too late to warn their brethren.
From the rocky ledge,
Skirfir could see the savages crawling over the structures below.
Occasional fights would break out among the goblins over a
particularly valuable piece of plunder, or even the remains of one of
Skirfir's folk. He could hear the goblins singing, and chanting to
the beat of the drumming, as they searched from building to building,
with the howls increasing in volume whenever they found a survivor of
the attack. Though the pain of helplessness burned deep within him,
Skirfir knew that he could do nothing to help his kin. Any rash
action would certainly lead only to his death, and the deaths of the
dwarves accompanying him, leaving no one to avenge the fallen.
But,
he vowed to himself, one day he would return at the head of a great
company of dwarves. He would hunt down the rakhâs, and
exterminate them. Aye, by Aulë, he would track down this marauding
band of goblins and slay every last one. Yes, there would be a day
for celebrating, and for singing remembrances to those slain this
day. But for that to happen, he and his companions needed to survive,
and grow wealthy and strong.
An idea began to form in
Skirfir's mind. Recently, tales had begun to be told of a dwarf
kingdom that had been retaken, first from a monstrous drake and then
from a goblin army. Travelers had spoken of the great war, describing
the victory of an alliance of dwarves, men and elves. In this newly
restored kingdom, a brave warrior could rise in rank and influence,
if he dared. And with that influence, he could draw strong fighters
to himself.
After what seemed like hours, Skirfir turned his
back on Khâr Zagâl for the last time. He climbed back down from the
edge of the cliff and faced the remaining members of his scouting
party. “Remember this day, my brothers,” he muttered grimly to
his barely visible companions, their grey cloaks pulled low over
their faces. “Remember it long, for one day we will have our
vengeance. One day the rakhâs will hear 'Baruk Khazâd!
Khazâd ai-mênu!' But that day will not be soon.”
Skirfir
began to walk, away from Khâr Zagâl, away from his former life,
into a breeze that dried the tears on his face. As one, his men
followed, turning their backs on the smoke rising from Khâr Zagâl
into the bright, clear sky.
They headed west. To Erebor.
______________________________________________________
Some of the players at the local game shop are getting together a group to play the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop, specifically Battle Companies (which requires only a handful of models to start).
As usual, I've decided to start a dwarf warband. Since the Games Workshop models are no longer available, we're allowing proxies to be used. I've chosen the wonderful new plastic dwarves from Northstar. The models are designed to be used with the forthcoming Oathmark rules, but are very Tolkien-esque in design and will fit in wherever dwarf models are needed.
Step one is cleaning up the torsos and putting them on bases.I decided to use the Frostgrave plastic bases. Even though the figures are plastic, I still pin them to the bases for security. I know it is probably overkill, but it's been a habit of mine for a long time.
I like my plastic figures to have a little weight to them, so I usually glue the bases onto a 1" washer.
The hole in the washer has the added benefit of being a perfect place to glue a rare earth magnet, as I keep most of my figures in plastic storage bins with metal sheet glued onto the bottom.
The Northstar figures are plastic,
and are easily customizable. And the parts are readily interchangeable
with the other plastic sets from Northstar. For example, the two-handed
axes for my dwarves are from the Frostgrave Soldiers set.
The models are easy to assemble, and paint up nicely. On these models I simply primed black, drybrushed chainmail on the armor, painted the base colors and gave them a wash before varnishing. That's it.
They won't win any prizes, but they are perfectly good for tabletop gaming. I'm looking forward to getting them on a table and smashing some Moria goblins!
'Til next time!
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