Another squad of cultists for the Bloodstorm. I used parts from DV cultists, skitarii rangers, electropriests, cadians, catachans, bloodreavers and empire flagellants.
This squad was well underway before today, but I finished the last two berserkers today.
This could be a boarding party, or it could be a vanguard unit that uses its shields to repel bolter fire.
Either way, I'm quite pleased with how unique this unit is!
The one with a hand missing will be holding a banner, which I'm painting separately before attaching to the model.
Some fluff to get your teeth into:
The Bloodstorm’s homeworld of Bohemus was once a peaceful industrial world, but the arrival of an unnamed group of cultists marked the start of the sewing of discord. Whispers of the falsehood of the God-Emperor’s claim to be ruler of mankind were the first notions of the most insidious and treacherous of infestations – the worship of Khorne. Soon , whole swathes of the population were conducting rituals to channel the power of the Blood God. Buildings, once mighty, gleaming spires of Imperial might, were now beginning to deform and twist into mutated horror-houses of the warp.
Barely a hundred years after the first mentions of the Blood God had started to befoul the minds of the inhabitants of Bohemus, a warband of chaos space marines, led by infamous warlord Krev Grazl arrived on the world. The inhabitants welcomed the marines at first, but soon grew distrustful of these newcomers, deserters from the Black Legion, who claimed to worship no particular God of the Warp. Spying an opportunity, the self-appointed leader of the Khorne cults on Bohemus, Zorka Nykl, attempted to build a bridge with the chaos space marines as they attempted to build a fortress on the world in the face of growing animosity. Nykl’s tales of fearsome warriors fuelled by the rage of the Blood God, tearing enemies apart with the minimal of weaponry, began to turn the heads of the marines.
Eventually, Nykl sensed that the marines had been sufficiently convinced of the allure of Khorne that he thought he should unveil his final convincer. He brought Krev Grazl and a group of his trusted veterans to The Great Shrine: a massive throne, built of the skulls of those who had refused to submit to Khorne in battles that ravaged Bohemus as the cult swept the world. Upon the seat of the throne lay the most magnificent weapon ever seen by the centuries-old eyes of Krev Grazl: an axe as long a human was tall, with a head of bone that seemed to writhe with some bound power. Nykl explained that a small meteorite had landed outside the capital city. The meteorite, red as blood and covered in the stony faces of denizens of the warp, split open upon impact to reveal the axe. The axe was much heavier than it should have been for its size and it took several men with servo-harnesses to lift it and bring it to the temple. Seeing the axe as a gift from Khorne, the devotees in the temple had mused and whispered about why Khorne would gift them such an unfeasibly heavy and large weapon. When Krev Grazl had arrived, the plans of Khorne became clear. Khorne had forseen that Krev Grazl would arrive and be able to wield the axe. And wield it he did. Nykl gestured for Grazl to approach the axe. As he drew near, the axe writhed, the surface shimmering with power. He held the axe aloft and swung it in a great arc. A distorted and high-pitched roar erupted from the weapon, causing human onlookers to cower in fear. Grazl recognised that this, like Abaddon’s Sword, Drach‘nyen, was a daemon weapon, and lifting it was not a matter of strength but of being a kindred spirit with the daemon. Krev Grazl, rewarded by Khorne for many victories over the centuries, has daemonic gifts and mutations that allow him to control the power of a daemon weapon. Few people could even touch a daemon weapon, let alone wield it in battle, and Grazl knew from that moment that he had been truly rewarded by the Blood God.
The warband swore their allegiance to Khorne, repainting their armour and war machines in colours to honour Him. The inhabitants of Bohemus swore allegiance to Krev Grazl, and the tales of his might began to outpace his actual deeds. Many viewed him as a descendant of Khorne, born in the warp and sent to realspace to claim the skulls of the mightiest of Khorne’s enemies.
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This is Xanakionahr, Bloodthirster of the Third Host.
The model is 'Greater wardaemon' from Ultraforge miniatures, with a Bloodthirster axe added.
it will have a proper base eventually, but I'm waiting for some to arrive.
Some highlights are still needed but I'm happy with the work I did in one evening!
edit:
Model with proper base!
Behold! Cultist squad Ekumus! When they are not slaughtering in the name
of the Blood God, they are helping Warpsmith Prostrednik create foul
and macabre daemon engines.
The human inhabitants of Bohemus form two distinct races: the giant,
ferocious Mamuti and the more typically-sized Číslo. The Mamuti make
excellent space marines due to their size and hardy nature. The Mamuti
have long been ruled by the strongest and fiercest warriors of their
race, and in more recent industrial times, the Číslo used to their
technology to subjugate them and put them to work in the factories.
Since the Bloodstorm arrived, they started to train Mamuti factory
workers in the martial skills of Khorne, and were soon impressed with
the results on the battlefield. Some of the Mamuti choose to fight many
battles in traditional dress rather than power armour, fighting up close
with mighty axes or swords.Only when fighting in extreme conditions or
against heavily armoured foes will they then choose to don suits of
power armour.
Here is one of the Mamuti, Bojovnik, tattooed with emblems of Khorne, but retaining the traditional look of the Mamuti people.
(I think the model is from the Black Sun range)
Here are the Bloodcrushers of Sepakalohr! The models are Bringers of
Fury from Titan Forge miniatures. I'm quite pleased with the OSL for their bellies. What do you think?
I started a game of Execution Force tonight, with members of the Bloodstorm in place of the box cultists.
Warpsmith Prostrednik, with the help of its acolyte, Opravář, is
planning to bind a daemon to a machine and create a new daemon engine. A
team of assassins plan to stop the ritual, but they must fight their
way past a horde of blood-crazed soldiers of Khorne. Who will succeed?
To be continued...
The battle was a tense one, with the assassins meeting fierce resistance
in the dark halls of the sanctum. Cultists and chaos space marines
emerged from every direction, relentless and bloodthirsty. Soon, The
fury of their rage was evident as they set up on the assassins. The
Calldius assassin pirouetted, flipped and sliced her way through cultist
after cultist, but her agility was no much for the brutality of the
cultists as one shot her arm with an autopistol, causing her to fall.
Another launched a wall of flame that incinerated her alive. The
Vindicare assassin, too far away to help, heard her screams and pushed
forward, dropping cultists with precise shots from his Exitus pistol. He
advanced steadily, searching for the transporter to the inner sanctum.
Eventually, climbing over the bodies of the fallen, he found it. In
triumph, he radioed the Culexus assassin the location. As he did so, he
felt a heated pain through his torso. Blood poured out from his chest as
the point of a jagged axe split his ribs. He fell to the ground,
praying to the emperor that his colleagues could finish the task of
locating the warpsmith.
The Culexus assassin, knowing the radio silence meant the death of his colleague, pushed on, sprinting through the halls, broadcasting the location of the transporter to the Eversor assassin. They reached the transporter at the same time, and were transferred in a burst of light to the inner sanctum. As their eyes adjusted, they saw that blood ran down the walls and across the bone floor. The twisted faces of daemons seemed to coalesce across the red gore that infested every surface. They cursed the daemons that would create such filth and made their way down the corridors. Eventually they reached a temple that defied description. Shifting facades of blood and glittering warp energy confused and disoriented them. They held onto their faith in the imperium. They would prevail.
A huge axe raked in front of the Culexus's face. he reacted, swatting it away and thrusting towards the assailant. A twisted looking space marine helmet, with horns sprouting where it's audio sensors should be, stared back into his eyes, He saw a flash of green light in those eyes, and noted the baroque red armour. A berzerker of Khorne. It was a twisted, ancient space marine, part daemon, part machine, with a huge bionic arm that held a bolt pistol. The two of them fought, assassin against marine. The assassin blasted bolts of psychic energy, but the runes of Khorne on the marines armour simply glowed and absorbed the blasts.
Meanwhile, the Eversor confronted the Warpsmith and a team of cultists. He fought with cultists, slicing their limbs off and adding to the blood. A voice boomed out.
"Their blood will only add to the power of this ritual, as will yours!"
The Eversor carried on, trying to ignore the voice as it clawed at his ears.
"You will never succeed! Your false emperor protects you not!"
The cultists kept coming. They swung at him with axes, blades and clubs. One shot his foot. It bled. As he looked at it, a blast of melta energy shot towards him. The warpsmith had fired from one his mechatendrils. The shot took off the Eversor's right hand. He leapt at the warpmsith, aiming for the head. A giant, daemonic hand clasped at his arm and stopped his attack. Another grabbed his right leg. He struggled. Prostrednik laughed.
"Blood! Blood for the Blood God!"
The mechanical arms pulsed and wrenched, and the assassin was torn in half. The warpsmith tossed the pieces of the dead assassin into the blood at his feet, and turned to finish the last assassin. He saw it was a good fighter. His more combat-fond brothers would surely appreciate the martial skill of this soldier. The warpsmith preferred the elegance of daemonic machinery. The ritual was far from complete, and he could not let this interloper stop him now. He fired with the meltagun and his bolt pistol, aiming for the hideous mask of the assassin. He missed, again and again. He roared in anger. The assassin danced and twisted, parrying the blows of the berzerker and avoiding the shots of the warpsmith. He jumped over the berzerker and stuck a knife in its neck. The berzerker roared and flung the assassin across the room with its bionic arm. It crouched to the floor, clutching at its neck. The warpsmith shot the berzerker in the head, killing it.
The warpsmith turned once more, to see the assassin climbing to his feet, drenched in blood. The assassin advanced. Mechatendrils erupted from the walls, clawing at the assassin. He was halted, mere feet from the warpsmith. He fired blasts of psychic energy, but they caused no harm to the warpsmith. Prostrednik aimed its bolt pistol at the assassin's head as the assassin strained against the mechatendrils.
"Khorne will not be sated with this offering, but I will enjoy it. Die, assassin."
The bolt pistol fired, tearing a hole through the mask and exploding the brain of the assassin. Blood erupted from the back of his head and sprayed across the room.
The last thing he saw as the light faded was a jet black void opening in the centre of the room, forcing blood to traverse the floor in waves...
So, in the middle of a taxing piece of work I have to do, I took a break to put together some bitz from my bitzbox.
The result is... a champion of Khorne! No story or name yet, but it looks kinda cool, no?
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