Thursday, November 17, 2016

Curse of the Alabaster: Finale

No One Deserves Happiness. 

Having covered the events of the first two Alabaster games, we practically had to show you what happened in the final game!  This one involved all of the factions from the other two games, as well as a host of NPC characters, including some from the luminary Thistle, as well as the talented Eli Parsons from the Dragons of Phaeton.  To play the game, the two boards from the first game were combined (thanks to the ingenious modular design that Shibboleth devised), making one massive board.  The complexity of the board and the sheer number of players and models involved, make it virtually impossible to detail everything that happened, but we will endeavor to cover the events as comprehensively as possible!



The game is set nearly a month after the events of the other games. Despite the best intentions of the Arbites and the Imperium as a whole, things have continued to spiral out of control. The ritual that the Mutant King completed in previous game only exacerbating things.  Even with the null generators in place, the taint of the Warp was still strong, with the wreck of the Alabaster eventually materializing into a different section of the hive, with a horde of mutants and other abominations, including a coterie of Chaos Space Marines, coming with it.  The forces of the Imperium are tasked with thwarting this tide of corruption, while the forces of Chaos (including the wayward Inquisitor of the Ordo Chronos) want to bring everyone under their dark gods’ influence.

Just a small portion of the massive Sump that was fought over in the final Alabaster game.

The calm before the storm.  The board is set up, ready for deployment.

Chaos Lord Gammadin, and three veterans of the Long War, the Heralds of Ruin, courtesy of Thistle.

The grotesque followers of Arg'gallak, ready to spill blood in the name of their dread god, courtesy of Eli Parsons.

And the dread Arg'gallak itself!


The Ordo Chronos deploy behind the wreck of the Alabaster, ready to sow confusion and chaos.

Navigator House Akuhm and the Adeptus Arbites deploy in the docks. Inquisitor Ivaard Locke advances with the aid of the Navigator that he retrieved in the cryotube from the Cursed Isle.

Ada Fortescue does not join her fellow Arbiters, but begins to ascend a derelict tower to get a good view of the surrounding area. 



The Space Wolf pack moves swiftly amongst the ruins of the Sump, while House Leviticus advances overhead on the walkways and catwalks.

The daemon-possessed remnants of Abbott Heggeres harnesses the fickle powers of the warp to materialize far above his unsuspecting adversaries.

With the tainted stench of traitor Astartes in his nostrils, the warrior from the iceworld of Fenris races though the derelict slums.

Navigator House Akuhm emerges from the polluted harbor, scanning the ruins for adversaries.

Arbiter Marion Helm covers the Navigators’ advance, gunning down a materializing daemon. 

Ada Fortescue reaches the top of a dilapidated tower, finding an ideal sniping stop, alongside Propagandist Prime Rah-Gon-12.

Navimancer Thanerrat Akuhm uses her psychic prowess to teleport the massive Pack Valet into the midst of the special weaponry detachment of the Ordo Chronos.

The Dark God bless the wretched Sump mutants with the arrival horrific Chaos steeds, and more troubling, some hulking traitor Astartes.

One of the Heralds of Ruin materializes from the Warp, butchering Skitarii Dar-Morr-17, before coming under heavy fire from his Mechanicum peers, and Ada Fortescue.

Lord Gammadin steps from the warp, using his fell powers to summon a score of Plaguebearers.

Realizing they did not stand a chance against a Traitor Astartes, the Arbites track a new path through the hive slums, intent on finding and destroying the warpgate that is flooding the mortal plain with daemons.

House Leviticus continues to snake its way across the highrises, intent on flanking the daemonic incursion.

Losing patience, Alexander Leviticus taps into his formidable psychic potential and teleports himself into the midst of a score of vile mutants. 

Having made a red ruin of anyone in his way, Gammadin meets his first worthy adversary, Sister Persephone. To her, there was no higher calling than being martyred in the Emperor’s name. Her sainthood was tested and not found wanting, as she fended off innumerable wounds that should have proven fatal.

The perverse followers of Arg'gallak emerge from the warp, ready to stretch skin and saw the meat from off the bones of followers of the False-Emperor.

A cryotank-bound Navigator from House Akuhm clambers into combat with the Ordo Chronos Inquisitor, its thick armor deflecting most of the Inquisitor's blows.  

In a loathsome twist of fate, Navimancer Thanerrat Akuhm slays Sister Persephone with a aetheric torrent intended for the mighty Chaos Lord, leaving him free continue to reap a bloody toll on the defenders of the Imperium. 

In a massive temporal hemorrhage, Dreadwhisper materializes and devours a warrior from Fenris.


Arg'gallak emerges from the Sump, an undulating mass of muscle and writhing flesh, ready to feast on the flesh of any unlucky mortal in its way.

The Arbites get ever closer to the twisted hull of the Alabaster, intent on closing the rift to the Empyrean. The Navigator’s Arch Custodian fending off the incorporeal Pyremaster, allowing them to reach the gate. 

Alexander Leviticus opens a gate through the Warp and appears atop the tortured carcass of the Alabaster.


The gibbering horror of Arg'gallak is met by a lone Sister of Silence.

Lord Gammadin begins to slaughter Inquisitor Ivaard Locke’s retinue, the Inquisitor nowhere to be found. 

Gunning down the last of the mutants on their approach to the flickering Warpgate, the Adeptus Arbites plant and detonate a melta bomb, turning the gate into a molten ruin. 

The God-Emperor was truly looking down on his servants, and guiding their hands, when a fusillade of plasma weakened Gammadin’s grip on the corporeal world, dragging him back into the shifting Warp.


Dreadwhisper tired of dueling with the Astartes of the Vlka Fenryka, and blinked up along the walkways, swallowing Lady Malice whole.

Having finally disabled the armored cryotank, the Ordo Chronos Inquisitor moves in to assist the incorporeal form of the Pyremaster, who is locked in combat with the Arch Custodian of House Akuhm.

In a chance act, another Warp gate opens on top of the ruins of the first gate. Already in position, the Arbites were quickly able to silence it with a series of null-generators.

Thanerrat Akuhm gazes over the destroyed hive, seeing the world psychically through a manifestation of emotions and sensations from her third eye.  The Imperium had prevailed, but at what cost?


So there you have it!  We hope you enjoyed our coverage of the Alabaster event as much as we did recounting!  Thanks again Shibboleth for hosting the event and inviting us to take part in it!


- Eric Wier

8 comments:

  1. This whole series of write ups was amazing. Fantastic game, models, and terrain. Thanks for sharing this!

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    1. Thanks for taking the time to read though them all, it was a lot of pictures! It was a great event, and I am happy we have been able to share it with everyone!

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  2. Wonderful to see how everything played out! You guys did a great job covering what I can only imagine was an utter nightmare of corresponding turns and actions all at the same time. Very well done as always. Highly enjoyed this little bit "The perverse followers of Arg'gallak emerge from the warp, ready to stretch skin and saw the meat from off the bones of followers of the False-Emperor." Over all I think it was a very successful first U.S. get together, can't wait to see what this leads to for our community!

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    1. I am happy to hear you have enjoyed the series of reports on the Alabaster games. It was difficult to convey all of the events that occurred, particularly in the final battle, but it was fun trying to show as much as we could. Arg'gallak was an excellent addition to the game, as well as his followers. Thanks for the inspiration for the caption too :D

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  3. What a great series - the linked stories were brilliant - Ave Imperator and glory to the Imperium of Man!

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    1. Yes! Glory to the Imperium of Man! Thanks for reading through the posts, I am glad we were able to capture the underlying storyline in the games.

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  4. I just found this blog.
    What a great event, I've spent a day going back through the posts on this event. Great narrative and great posts to explain the action and the games.

    I am looking forward to getting some time and exploring the posts/events going back.

    I do have a specific question about the crane. I cannot tell if it is scratchbuilt or heavily modified. It's great. Is it from a kit, or are the girders sourced from somewhere?

    Thanks for sharing all this stuff,
    Will

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    1. I am glad you were able to find the blog, and have been enjoying going through some of the posts, it has been a product 4 years for the blog! This year was particularly good, with the Curse of the Alabaster and Pilgrym events.

      As for the crane, I am not entirely sure how it was built. It was created by Shibboleth on the Ammobunker, along with all the other fantastic terrain. Here is a link to the Alabaster thread, that has some WIP images of it, however:
      http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/9000321/7/

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