Tuesday, October 2, 2012

1st Company of the Muster of The Upper Hall 'Skull Poppers'

The Upper Hall lies nearest to the top of Thunder mountain, and the Dwarves who choose to live in these high halls are those most fond of the air and light of the above ground world.  There are many of windows and balconies cut high in the sheer stone cliffs which rise to the great heights of the summit of Thunder mountain, and look eastward, back over the purple hills of the border Princes toward the Old world and the rising sun..  Standing still and cold at the foot of these cliffs are deep clear lakes fed by the aquifers that underlie the roots of the mountains and by the spring snow melt.  In the summers, many of the Dwarves of the Upper Hall dwell in cabins above ground and graze their herds of goats and sheep on the grassy slopes of the mountains. In the winter, they retreat into the fire-lit shelter of their high, stone eyries.
 The Lord of the Upper Hall at this time is Thorirr Maull, a Dwarf renowned for his toughness, aggressiveness and no-nonsense manner. (And his flamboyant battle dress). The Dwarves of the upper hall are not as numerous as the Dwarves of the Great Hall, nor are they as wealthy, or as generally well equipped, but they field a number of famous battle-companies well known both to the friendly men of the Black River country, and to the Dwarves' dire enemies, the Orcs and Goblins of Big Blackie's Greenskin Horde.

  One of the best known are the 1st Company, the "Skull Poppers", named for the very distinctive sound a Goblin's head makes when giving way under a blow from one of their terrible Battle-hammers.


Despite his rather dramatic and intimidating appearance on the battlefield, Lord Thorirr Maull is actually an unassuming and Down-to-Earth Chieftain, and does not retain a bodyguard.  When he goes to battle, he usually personally leads the Clansmen of the First Company, lending his considerable animal magnetism and the terrifying power of his magical Thunder Hammer to the fight.
 Lord Thorirr Maull is depicted here in his full and fearsome battle kit, wearing his Mithril plate armor and carrying his terrible Thunder Hammer and Dragon Shield.  When going to battle, Thorirr often wears the pelt of a Beastman chieftain late of the horde of Buzzgobb Phesterlick. Thorirr is famously known to have dispatched this foul mutant in the Battle of Scorpion Point and to have worn the tattered remnant of the beast as a head warmer eve since.  A (mostly) friendly rivalry exists between Lord Thorirr and The King's General, Sveinn Donnerkind, whom Lord Thorirr sometimes playfully accuses of affecting his personal style.

                  "RAAAARRRGHHHHH!!!!  POP THEIR SKULLS!!  POP EM!  POP EM!!!!!!!"

"Cummere, Gobbo!  I got somethin' for ye..."




5 comments:

  1. Okay, my Dwarves are starting to get a little nervous...(but they're just not going to admit it).

    These guys are fantastic, Mouse. Are they mostly Old Glory? I really like how bright you have them painted. You'll see that mine are all dirty and mismatched rabble. I should post them before the game. Speaking of the game, did you have any preference either way of including/limiting magic items, magic users and hero levels?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your Dwarves need not be nervous...it's been a while since I've played...

      Glad you like the Skull Poppers. The drummer is indeed an Old Glory casting, and there are 2 Reaper and 1 Rafm figure in the ranks, but the other 16 are all metal magic figures available these days from Mega Miniatures. I have a lot of them, they're characterful, fun to paint, and very cheap, which is very important.

      We can put any limits on big, hard characters you like.

      The 2 house rules I've always followed on that score are no lvl 25 wizards because they just make things too crazy with their summoned Greater Demons and vortexes of chaos and what have you, and including a significant points penalty for mounting a character on any monster tougher than say, a unicorn or a Pegasus...big mean monsters and big mean characters are powerful enough on their own, but when you start stacking them on top of each other, they can really dominate a game to the point where it stops being interesting.

      Delete
    2. Hey Mouse,

      Yikes this week has gone by fast! I'll put my army up on my site later tonight/early this morning. And yes, no big monsters and no lvl 25 wizards. Although Lord Asgard will hopefully be a level 25 character, and I plan on having one level 10 wizard. I love Dwarf armies with wizards!

      How about the terrain set-up? Do have anything in particular that you would like? Or should we just keep it super basic, ie., a hill, some trees, some boulders/rocks etc.?

      And yes, I like those Metal Magic dwarves alot. I plan to get some soon. Cheap is good. That is one of the downsides I think of everyone jumping on the classic Warhammer wagon - competition is getting out of hand for inexpensive vintage citadel gold. Oh well, the plus side of seeing all the classic figs on other people's blogs and the excitement being generated for the older editions and figs more than outwieghs the bad. Anyway, I've got to go put together a list and take some pictures of Dwarves. Are we still on for tomorrow night after 11:00? Even if it just to set up the table, that's fine by me. Let's just take this casual and enjoy it.

      Delete
    3. I agree. I just have the 3 infantry regiments and the bolt thrower painted so that's pretty much going to be my army. I have a writing project I have to finish tomorrow, but we can at least set the stage tomorrow night, for sure. This coming week is going to be really busy for me, so our game might progress pretty slowly until the week after.

      Terrain: I'm thinking that since we can't see the board that the other guy is playing on, we should keep it sort of stupid-simple. 4'x4' flat battlefield using a 'mirror' set-up, maybe with some woods or something in the corners...maybe a ruined temple or a farmhouse or something near the middle of the board to make it interesting...but I wouldn't make it more complicated than that, I think...

      A good narrative is also important, I think...we should cook up a fun story to frame the game...

      Delete

  2. I just love your blog.Thanks for posting it.real estate lawyers
    i have something that someone comeback again….there is a lot of useful information a person can get from here…I must say,well done...i visited it daily,what a colourful blog it is....colours attracted me a lot....i visited it daily,what a colourful blog it is.... a very decent and nice blog...i like it so very much...

    ReplyDelete